Chapter Text
Over the years, Regina had been imprisoned many times in many ways; first, she had been trapped by her mother’s control, followed by her marriage to the cloying king, and then, thirty years in the gilded cage of Storybrooke. However, this was the first time she was behind literal bars in this world, and she hated every moment. She paced her cell, occasionally shooting dark looks out at the well-built man guarding her.
David watched her every movement with hard, uncaring eyes. One hand rested on the badge hooked to his belt, where his sword should have been. She rolled her eyes at his stance. As if he could do anything to her. He could, her traitorous anxiety whispered, because she wouldn’t stop him, wouldn’t hurt him--wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize the fragile bond she was rebuilding with Henry.
Through the walls, she could hear some sort of mob parading around the street. She imagined they were whipping themselves into a frenzy, building up the nerve to come inside and kill her. The thought of such a measly attempt drew a smile onto her face, one that widened when she noticed David’s stern glare.
“What do you have to smile about?”
For a moment, she didn’t want to answer. She had no reason to talk to this shepherd prince, but she was never good at avoiding confrontation. “I’m imagining all the ways I’m going to defend myself when that mob breaks in.”
“They won’t get in.”
“I’m sure they won’t.” She clacked her nails on the bars and enjoyed the deep frown the noise brought to his face. “But when they do, it will be glorious.”
“Haven’t you done enough damage?”
“Your precious little Snow White is still alive. I haven’t done enough.” She bared her teeth at him.
He advanced on her but halted at the sound of the front door opening. Enraged shouts filtered back to the holding pen, fueling Regina’s smirk. but then the door closed again, and they could hear no more. Regina listened to the determined slap of someone’s shoes on the linoleum and took to lounging on the cell’s cot. Whoever--or whatever--was coming, she wanted to appear nonchalant.
Emma marched to her desk and dug the spare keys out from a drawer. When David asked what she was doing, she carefully side-stepped his attempt at a hug. He quickly shifted his arms behind his back as if he were just stretching out his muscles.
“We have to do something, David. Things are just getting worse outside.”
“Hello, Sheriff,” Regina called, tired of being talked around.
“We could just give her to them. That would stop everything.” David turned to glare at the nonplussed brunette, who raised her eyebrows at him. “And the blood wouldn’t even be on our hands.”
“No.” Emma wasn’t sure who was more surprised, David or Regina. “We won’t do that.”
“Oh-so concerned with being good, are we?”
Emma shot a harried look at Regina before continuing her private conversation with David in a slightly lower tone. “This wasn’t her fault. Not this time, anyway.”
“We let her go, and either they’ll kill her, or she’ll kill all of us.”
Regina enhanced her hearing, just enough to eavesdrop on the two goodie-two-shoes discussing her future. She did hope the next few minutes involved releasing her from that cell. Past that, she was open to suggestions.
“But we can’t punish her just because Mary Margaret was in a dangerous position, and Regina couldn’t save her in time. We should be thanking her. If she hadn’t…”
“We will not thank that…” David cut himself off, afraid that if he gave into his rage, he’d lose himself. “Regardless, she’s a threat to everyone.”
“She tried to be a hero, and we locked her up.”
“How do you know she didn’t cause the earthquake?”
“I just do. She says she didn’t, and I believe her.”
“So, what do you want to do?”
“Set her free. She can poof back to her mansion, or wherever the hell she needs to go to avoid the crowd outside. Give her another chance.”
“Another chance?” His voice shot up in volume, but a quick glance at Regina drew it back down. “How many more does she deserve?”
Emma’s face tightened. “As many as she needs.”
There was hesitation written on his face in the wrinkles of his frown and the crease of his forehead. Regina chose to look at Emma’s expression instead. The blonde was clearly stressed, and frustration practically rolled off her in waves. Despite the horrible circumstances, Regina thought that Emma finally looked alive. Emma liked to have a purpose, she deduced, something that made her valuable to others.
Before their argument could worsen, a light titter interrupted, Mr. Gold emerged from a dark corner and strolled into the light. “I think I can help you with your little problem.”
David’s hand flew towards his belt, forgetting that his sword was tucked away safely at the apartment. He knew this land was no place for the epic duels of the Enchanted Forest, but he felt oddly naked without it. “Gold. What do you want?”
“We don’t want your help, or the price it comes with,” Emma all but spat.
“Are you quite sure, dearie?” He approached her and drew too close. She refused to back away or show her discomfort. “I assure you, the price is none too steep.”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
David caught her arm. “We can hear him out.”
The giggle sounded again, and Gold appeared at David’s shoulder, causing the stocky man to flinch. “All I want from you, in exchange for my help, is protection. It shan’t be long before they turn on me.”
“How do you know that?” David asked. Emma was horrified that her father was actually considering working with the imp.
“Call it an educated guess. Do you accept?”
“What are you offering, exactly?”
“I will neuter the queen.”
Regina rushed the bars. “Get anywhere near me, and I’ll rip the arms from your body.”
“Metaphorically,” Gold amended. “I will remove her ability to use magic.”
David nodded thoughtfully. “Without magic, she won’t be a threat.”
Emma stared at David with open disdain. “You’re considering this? Really? We can’t trust him.”
“This may be the only way to let her go, Emma. To give her that chance you were talking about.”
“And don’t forget about Henry.” Gold turned his attention to Emma, a sly smirk curling the tips of his lips. “Think of how happy he’ll be when mother dearest has no magic. Just what he’s always wanted.”
Emma didn’t respond for a long moment. Then, she turned to the holding cell. “What do you want, Regina?”
It was David’s turn to stare at his family member with barely hidden distrust. “She clearly wants to get free to hurt us again.”
“Let the imp try.” Regina flipped her hand limply, indicating that she really didn’t care one way or another, but they were wasting her time.
Gold giggled again, and Emma wanted to remove his vocal chords, if only to stop that sound from ever occurring again. He waved his hand in the air, and a swirl of sparkling, golden smoke surrounded his arm. When it cleared, he held two bracelets. “One for you, Emma…”
“Why do I need one?”
“Your magic is the opposite of hers.” He slipped the bracelet onto her wrist, and it automatically re-sized itself. She tugged on it twice, but it wouldn’t come off. Gold then traipsed to the cell. “Come now, Regina – your turn.”
Regina thought to resist, but David started toward her, ready to force her into submission. She huffed and extended her wrist. She could deal with this problem until they trusted her, and sooner or later, she’d have her magic again. She’d gone twenty-eight years without magic, after all. Longer wouldn’t hurt.
“Very good.” Gold stepped back toward the darkness. “Now remember, no harm can come to me.”
“You can let me out now, Deputy.” Regina extended her arms away from her body to show off her new jewelry. Then, she laid her palms flat. “As you can see, I’ve been neutered.”
Although she expected nothing to happen, two small fireballs erupted from her palms. Strange. Perhaps Rumple had lost his touch. However, the moment the balls burst into existence, Emma shrieked and fell to the ground.
0-0-0
Emma blinked slowly and cleared the fog from her vision. She wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, but her head hurt, and she was on the ground. Someone was hovering over her. David, her mind supplied.
“I’m fine,” she managed to say, despite her tongue feeling about as thick as Mary-Margaret’s horrible attempts at oatmeal. He backed away as she forced herself into a sitting position.
“You did this.” David rounded on Regina.
“She did not,” Emma gritted out. Her mouth tasted like burning hair, which did nothing to improve her mood. “Stop blaming her.”
“You heard the princess. Stop blaming me.”
David rushed at the incarcerated royal despite Emma’s pleas, but Regina merely backed away from the bars and watched him with a vaguely pleased look on her face. Fighting the urge to vomit, Emma staggered over and fell on top of him. She didn’t have the motor skills in that moment to stop him, so she relied on her dead weight to bring him to his senses.
“David. This isn’t Regina. She can’t do magic now.”
“I saw her.” He snarled. “She lit up her hands, and you went down. That wasn’t by accident.”
Regina had to admit, he had a point. She held her right hand in front of her and extended her forefinger. “Sheriff, tell me if you begin to feel ill.”
Incrementally, she drew magic from her core out to her finger tip and urged a tiny point of light to flicker into existence. The moment it appeared, Emma nodded.
“It’s not as bad as before, but I feel it. It’s an ache, at the base of my skull.”
“I see.” The light vanished. “You may want to watch the deals you make with the imp in the future.”
“Why?” Emma wished she had the energy to make the question sound demanding and imperious, but truly, she was just tired. “What did he do?”
“It seems, my dear, that you are my new whipping girl. I do wrong, and you get punished.”
0-0-0
It was nearly an hour before Emma could talk Charming out of throttling both Regina and Gold. She felt guilty telling him that Snow would be ashamed of his hasty conduct, and what would she think of him getting into fights while she was hospitalized? He looked defeated at her words, his shoulders slouching and his face drawn.
“Go see her. I’ll watch our guest,” she urged.
He left at that with a sullen look at Regina, who filled his absence with a quip to resettle the balance in the room: “He certainly has all the charm of the sheep he used to raise.”
“Can you be quiet?” Emma begged. “For just a few minutes.”
“Does your head hurt?” Although Regina kept her tone bland, she was honestly curious and the tiniest bit regretful. She knew her powers had the tendency to hurt others but rarely this directly. When Emma slowly nodded, Regina sighed. “You may let me out, you know. Or have I done something against the law?”
Emma picked up the cell keys with shaking fingers. “No. It was mostly for your protection, in case they got in. And from the sounds of it, most of them have gone home.”
Regina eased out of the cell, careful to avoid contact with the blonde. “About time.”
“My apologies, your majesty.” From the terse sarcasm, Regina could tell two things. First, that Emma was still reeling from the magical punishment, and second, that she would eventually be perfectly fine. “I hope you enjoyed your stay.”
“Can I go home now?”
“No way.” Emma may have been in pain, but she wasn’t as stupid as the queen was hoping. “You’re coming with me.”
“I thought I wasn’t under arrest.”
“You’re not. But you’re under my protection. And my watch. So, come on.”
Thus, Regina found herself being dragged halfheartedly out of the station, through a small muttering gathering that hardly qualified as a mob anymore, and into Snow White’s charming apartment. And by charming, she meant quaint, and by quaint, she meant faintly repulsive. The only decent aspect of her current situation was the sight of Henry dozing on the stairs. Even though her first instinct was to run to him, she restrained herself, afraid of being rebuked.
“Make yourself at home.”
Feeling emotionally exposed, Regina defaulted to her tried and true defense mechanisms; she sneered at the comment and attempted to appear nonplussed. “I will do no such thing.”
“You’ll be staying here for at least a few days, so you might as well,” Emma countered. She went to Henry and roused him gently. “Come on, kid. Let’s get you to bed.”
“Is Snow okay?” He rubbed his eyes. On spotting Regina, who was standing uncomfortably by the kitchen counter, he jumped up. “Mom. What are you doing here?”
“She’s going to be staying here for a few days. For her protection. People aren’t very… happy right now.”
“I guess… I mean, you didn’t try very hard to save Snow White.”
Regina kept her face blank. “I didn’t let her die, did I?”
“You didn’t try very hard,” he repeated.
The disappointment in his voice caused a visceral reaction in her. “I did my best, Henry.”
“Kid, cut her a break, okay? She couldn’t have known what was going to happen. It was an emergency situation. Not everybody is a superhero, okay?”
“I don’t need you to fight my battles for me, Sheriff.”
Emma gave Henry a gentle push in the direction of the stairs. “Bed, Henry.”
As he disappeared, she crossed to the fridge and opened it to keep herself busy and her mind off of the headache still pounding behind her eyes. Regina stood there, all at once expecting some sort of direction and hating the necessity of Emma’s permission to do anything in the apartment.
“I’m going to bed, too. I’ll take Mary Margaret’s bed, so you can take mine. It’s just upstairs. The sheets are clean. And if they aren’t to your satisfaction, can we please deal with it tomorrow?”
Regina was silently glad Emma wasn’t going to make her sleep in the bed of her enemy. Instead of expressing gratitude, she stalked to the stairs.