A/N: ***Trigger warning: this chapter contains violence***
Chapter 15
They were settling into their new life well. Hunting deer when they needed to, living off the animal blood they collected and traded for the deer carcass. Once a month, on the first night of the full moon, they were always visited by their Wolf friends, bearing gifts of their kills for them to share.
"Let's stay in bed a little longer tonight," Emma suggested when they woke up for the night, their naked bodies tangled in each other from another night of making love, their bodies still slightly sore. "And I checked the weather before we went to bed this morning. It should be a clear night, meaning it'll be a perfect night to do some stargazing." Emma ran her fingers through Regina's curly hair as she held her tightly in her arms. It was longer now that they had been living in the forest for a few months. She was really starting to like Regina's long hair.
"That sounds delightful." Regina smiled, kissing Emma deeply, unwilling to leave their love nest just yet.
A few hours later, after they had eaten, they found themselves on the roof once again, Regina in Emma's arms as they gazed up at the sky. It was a calm night, and the sounds of the Wolves of Storybrooke running around the forest could be heard from miles away. They smiled as they laid there in each other's arms, a sense of calm peace washing through them. Even though they were hiding, everything seemed so perfect.
"Call me crazy," Emma whispered as the sound of another howling Wolf could be heard in the distance. "But I think Omega might be pregnant."
"You think so?" Regina asked, lacing their fingers together as they gazed up at the stars.
"Yeah. Call it a hunch or something. She just seemed to be glowing last night when we saw her."
"We'll have to ask them about it and congratulate them next time we see them," Regina answered, tightening her hold on Emma.
"Did you ever want children?" Emma asked. "I mean, before you were a Vampire?"
"I guess I always thought if I met the right person, I would get married and have babies. That was what was expected of women back then. But I never met the right person…" Regina started to say, only to be interrupted by Emma.
"…that's because I wasn't born yet." Emma chuckled.
"Yes. That is true." Regina laughed. "By the time I was turned, it was unheard of for a woman my age to have a child. It was believed a woman shouldn't have a child after the age of thirty, so I had long since given up on the dream of being a mother. And considering the direction my life took, it's a blessing that I never had a child."
"Tell me about it," Emma said, understanding the impact of losing her mother at such a young age, only to find out years later she was a Vampire the entire time.
"It's better this way. I don't think I could possibly live after watching my child grow up and eventually grow old and die while I stay unchanged for eternity. Even watching them from a distance," Regina said. "What about you?"
"I…ummm….I actually had a child…when I was seventeen…" Emma said, her voice sounding ashamed.
"You never told me that," Regina said, shifting to look at Emma.
"It wasn't my most shining moment," Emma said sadly. "I was only a few months shy of my eighteenth birthday when I gave birth to my son. I gave him up for adoption at birth. I didn't even hold him for fear I would change my mind and want him back," Emma explained, a small red tear forming in her eye.
"What made you choose adoption?" Regina asked.
"I couldn't take care of a child. I was still a child myself. I wanted to give him his best chance. He was adopted by a great family, and we agreed upon an open adoption, with limited interaction. In the beginning, his family would send me pictures of him every few weeks, which slowly became once a month. Eventually, they would only send me a picture once a year right after his birthday. The last picture I got from them was two years ago, right after his tenth birthday. I understand why they stopped. I'm not his mother. I just gave birth to him," Emma said, sadly.
"What's his name?" Regina asked, reaching to wipe the tear from Emma's eye before it could run down her cheek.
"Henry…" Emma whispered.
"Once things die down, maybe we could reach out and ask them to continue sending you pictures," Regina suggested.
"No, it's okay. It's better this way. It's best if I don't have a connection with him. Because, like you said, eventually he's going to grow old and pass away while we stay exactly the same. I don't think I can handle that. In a way, I'm glad my father was my only family, beside my mother. Now I don't have to watch my family grow old around me," Emma said, falling back into silence as Regina settled against her chest once again, her fingers returning to Regina's long hair.
"I had a niece," Regina said after a few minutes, causing Emma to turn her attention back to her Mate. "When Vampires made themselves known in the 90s, my parents and older sister had already passed, but my niece, Robin, was still alive and in her early eighties. She was so young when I was turned and went missing, she barely remembered me. I reached out to her anyway, and she was so excited to be able to finally get to know her aunt. She said my sister would talk about me and tell her stories about me as she was growing up, and she always dreamed about meeting me." Thick red tears began to form in Regina's eyes.
"What happened to her?" Emma asked, knowing this story had an unhappy ending.
"She passed away ten years ago of a massive stroke. I was there with her, sitting by her side during her final moments. She told me that meeting me after all those years was the happiest moment of her life," Regina said, her voice full of sadness, tears now escaping from her eyes, staining Emma's shirt. "Her final words were her telling me she would tell my parents and sister I said 'Hi' when she meets them in Heaven. And that she would let them know that I was safe after all these years."
"Regina…I'm so sorry…" Emma said, holding her tighter.
"It's okay. We both knew our time together was limited. In the end, I was honored to have spent five years with her and was able to be there for her during her final moment," Regina said, her voice returning to normal as they once again fell into silence.
"Hey, Regina?" Emma said after another few minutes.
"Hmm…" Regina said, contentment in her voice.
"If things were different, I would absolutely want to have kids with you. A whole gaggle of little Swan-Mills babies running around," Emma said, causing Regina to giggle against her chest.
"A gaggle of Swan-Mills babies sounds nice," Regina said, shifting to kiss Emma sweetly before she returned to her position, placing her head against Emma's chest once again, the sound of their shared heartbeat pounding against her ear as they resumed gazing at the stars.
Until the sound of a loud gunshot very nearby startled them from their peaceful bubble. Their stomachs dropped when they thought of their Wolf friends in the forest, worried that a game hunter had wandered into their forest and began hunting the Wolves that ran tonight.
"SWAN! I KNOW YOU'RE UP THERE! COME DOWN HERE AND FACE ME!" a familiar voice shouted from the ground below. Emma peered over the edge of the roof, staring down at the figure.
"Cassidy?" she asked, her face staring at him with disbelief.
"Who's Cassidy?" Regina whispered, her hand moving directly to Emma's back in concern.
"He worked with me at The Agency. We were friends," Emma answered, moving toward the ladder at the back of the roof.
"Was he the one who sent the letter?" Regina asked, following Emma down the ladder.
"No. That was someone else. Cassidy and I were hunters together." Emma said once they reached the bottom of the ladder. She turned the corner and faced the man she once called a friend, shocked when she saw him point the very same gun at her head. "Cassidy? What the hell, man? I thought we were friends?" Emma said, her hands held high in the air.
"No offense, Swan, we used to be friends. Then you went and got yourself changed into one of those things after you betrayed The Agency. Now you're nothing but a filthy traitor," he screamed, firing the gun once more, the bullet grazing Emma's arm, thankfully just missing Regina who stood behind Emma. Emma didn't even flinch as the wound instantly started to heal.
"You really were a bad shot." Emma laughed slightly.
"No, I missed on purpose. I just wanted to confirm that you really were one of those animals." Cassidy smiled, tucking the gun back into the hoster. "Now I know which weapon I need to use." He laughed, pulling the crossbow off his back, loading a bolt into the top.
"Hey, listen, you don't have to do this. We can talk about this, Cassidy," Emma said nervously as she raised her hands above her head once more.
"No offense, Swan, there's a huge bounty on your head. You're nothing more than a paycheck to me now," Cassidy said, pointing the bolt directly at Emma's chest.
Everything happened so quickly, and yet time seemed to move in painfully slow motion.
In the same moment Cassidy pulled the trigger, releasing the wooden bolt from the crossbow, Emma saw a flash of black fur shoot out from inside the forest. Alpha's teeth clamped down on Cassidy's arm, causing him to scream out in pain as his body shifted, causing the bolt in the crossbow to miss its target: Emma's chest. However, Emma was no longer standing in the direct path of the bolt. Regina's body was suddenly in front of hers, shielding her from the attack.
Regina's body stiffened as the bolt entered her stomach, sticking half way out.
"REGINA!" Emma screamed, looking down at the piece of wood sticking out of Regina's abdomen.
"I'm okay. Take care of him before he hurts someone," Regina said, nodding toward Cassidy.
Emma rushed over just as Beta's teeth clamped down on Cassidy's other arm, pulling the man down to the ground. Anger rose in Emma's body, and the rage took over, rushing toward the man who had just tried to kill her, and in turn injured her Mate.
Alpha and Beta held him down as he tried to struggle free, while Emma grabbed his head, holding it tight.
"You're just like one of them," he spat, attempting to spit in Emma's face.
"All I wanted was to be left alone! To spend eternity in peace with the woman I love. Is that so much to ask?" Emma growled, red hot anger burning in her throat.
"You're disgusting," he spat once again, his spit landing on Emma's cheek.
"YOU'RE THE DISGUSTING ONE!" Emma screamed, her teeth instantly making contact with Cassidy's neck, her fangs puncturing his skin.
She drank from him as he continued to struggle, gulping his blood until his heart began to slow and his body went limp from blood loss.
"I could turn you right now, then what would you do?" Emma snarled, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. "In your last moments of life, answer me this. Who else knows where I am?" Cassidy remained silent. Emma ripped open her wrist with her teeth, showing him her bloody wrist. "Answer me now, or I'll turn you into a Vampire!" Emma screamed.
"No…one…knows where you are…I followed your car…and waited a few months to come back…to make sure your guard would be down…" Cassidy said, struggling against the extreme blood loss, his lips already turning blue. "Don't turn me, Swan…don't make me one of you…" Cassidy pleaded.
"I should punish you for what you tried to do," Emma said, grabbing Cassidy's head with both her hands. "But, we were friends once. And because of that, I will show you mercy." Emma snapped his neck suddenly, causing his body to go limp.
"Thank you so much for your help!" Emma said, kneeling in front of Alpha and Beta, scratching them both between their ears, Cassidy's blood dripping from their lips. It was Omega's whines that caught all their attention.
Emma turned around to see Regina kneeling on the ground, her hand over her stomach where the bolt had once been. The wooden rod was now discarded on the ground, the tip covered in a thick black substance.
"REGINA?!" Emma yelled. She rushed over and reached Regina just in time to catch her as the rest of her body fell to the ground.
"Emma…something…something is wrong…" Regina said, clutching the wound on her stomach, her body shaking slightly in Emma's arms. Emma slowly pulled up the bottom of Regina's tank top, revealing the black wound, dark veins already spreading away from the center.
"I think the bolt was dipped in something," Emma said, reaching to pick up the bolt, careful not to touch the black substance on the tip. Regina reached for it with shaking hands, the pain starting to intensify as her wound refused to heal. She inspected it slightly, her eyes filling with blood tears as she recognized the poison instantly.
"Dream shade," Regina whispered. "The only poison that affects Vampires."
"Okay. So now we know what it is, how do we stop it?" Emma asked frantically, fear and panic already in her voice as she supported Regina in her arms. The Wolves gathered around them, listening intently to Regina's explanation.
"There's nothing we can do. It's fatal. There…there…there is no cure…" Regina said, her tears running down her face and onto her chest.
"No…." Emma cried, her own blood tears falling down her face as a deep sorrow washed over her.
Emma pulled Regina close to her, holding her impossibly close as she pulled her in for a deep and loving kiss. Their tears mixed as they ran down their faces, the reality of the situation hitting them like a ton of bricks.
Regina was dying.
A/N: I'm sorry. Please don't hate me...