Tell-Tale Hearts. Swan Queen/OUaT fanfiction. ch. 19-20
Chapters 19-20.
Chapter 19.
Storybrooke Futures: Between Worlds.
Regina dreams again and again, that Rumpelstiltskin is telling a story by the fire, of erasing everybody in this new world, so that he can find those he needs to find. Regina tries to tell him that his selfishness will destroy him the way hers did to her world. He shouts at her and laughs at her and dances around like a fool
Regina tries to change the dream. She thinks about Henry-imagines that they are a family, that he could actually love her, and that she could give him what he needs to soar in this life…
She thinks about Emma and in her dream they lie side by side, talking, laughing…
There are more dreams. Dreams of Regina and Maleficent throwing the magic sand that Regina has stowed away from Oz-throwing the sand to counteract some terrible magic Rumpelstiltskin has thrown. The two women sing an eerie song and green things begin to sprout. Regina has a flashback to Oz, but this greenery is Maleficent's magic and it resembles grassy knolls and rolling hills. Regina spares a glance at her old friend and sees Maleficent's eyes shine with tears.
"I'm going home Regina." Maleficent says, though the words echo only in Regina's head.
"You can't." Regina thinks, again and again, trying to will her friend and enemy to stay, to play awhile longer. But beside her, the woman is growing tall and green. Not like a dragon this time, but like an enormous tree. The tree marks a fold in reality. This is their way back to Storybrooke, and Regina is certain that Maleficent has actually visited her to show the way back.
Regina wakes from this dream and turns to find Emma. Her hand finds Emma's jacket which serves as a pillow. They are sleeping on the ground in the middle of nowhere.
Beside Emma is Henry, splayed on his back and beside him is James and Snow.
Regina wonders for a second if they are all dead. She hears Emma snore briefly and it is the loveliest sound and floods her chest with relief and joy. Then Emma is awake and blinking at her.
Snow wakes up also and stares at Regina. "Nothing has changed, has it…"
Regina shrugs, nods, looks around confusedly. "We're still stuck in between worlds. I have no idea how to get us out of here."
James is awake now and checks his watch. Ever since the Curse was broken, James has kept religious track of time.
"7am in the real world." James says wryly. "Here? Who knows."
"Where to next?" Emma asks. She is on her elbows now, staring at Regina expectantly.
Regina remembers her dream. She wants to find Maleficent. "We walk." Regina decides. "I think I know where to go now."
They walk for exactly one hour before finding the tree line and the fold between Storybrooke and their old land. Regina rests her hands on the tree and tells it that she is sorry. Everyone averts their eyes.
James dives in the fold first and shouts from the other side. Snow is next and then Emma. Their hands reach for Henry and Regina is left alone.
It is silent. Eerily so. Regina wonders if she should just stay-avoid the mess of Storybrooke. She glances to her right and the massive tree is suddenly closer.
Sparkling on its branches are the gold and silver dustings that Regina remembers first using with Maleficent. They once practiced old love spells and spells to return the dead to life, just long enough to undo something awful. Regina begins to cry as the sparkles fall all over her.
She is still crying when Emma's hands reach, panicked and searching, and pull Regina back into Storybrooke.
Storybrooke Futures: Return to Storybrooke.
When James, Snow, Emma, Henry and Regina return to Storybrooke, they find out that they were all presumed dead.
"We thought that the poison beyond the dome had taken you." Granny explains, voice shaking as she shovels food onto their plates.
Red (who now happily goes by either of her names) refills their water glasses and gets coffee for Regina whose arm she keeps touching and whose gaze she lingers on. Emma notes this and raises an eyebrow at Red. Emma remembers again, the whole thing about parallel realities and how many lives they have all had together, and she knows, instantly, that she, Red and Regina used to be involved.
"Inappropriate you two…but whatever." Emma mutters to herself. When she realizes that she has spoken aloud, she tries to disguise the word with a cough. Regina's cheeks are pink as the two women bury themselves in their food. Granny and Red have, at the very least, forgiven Regina. Which is nice. Really nice. If Emma lets herself think about it too hard she'll get a bit weepy.
They go back to Regina's first, but end up having to spend the entire day cleaning.
"How long were we gone?" Regina whispers. There are cobwebs across the ceiling and thick dust everywhere.
"About six months," Granny replies. She and Red join the Charmings and Regina at the house for the day and bring all of the cleaning supplies. "Plus, well…there have been some incidents. This isn't just dust." She scowls at the cobwebs.
"What kinds of incidents?" Regina trails her finger along a web. "This isn't from a normal spider is it…I mean what the hell kind of gigantic creature did this?"
Granny and Red exchange concerned looks. Snow is the first to really register the problem.
"All of those things that were perfectly normal in our world, are now coming to this world…" Snow is now as pale as her name would entail.
Red tries to put on a happy smile. "Well, the good news is that we did defeat the giant spider."
"And the bad news?" Regina asks blandly. "Besides the fact that the magic from our old world will come to this one in bizarre forms previously unknown to us all?"
Red shrugs and nods. Then she talks really, really fast. "Well, yes. And…for starters, the followers of the Green Fairy have started a cult in the old town library, half a dozen of the former vampires who you, Regina, banished, have escaped and rumor has it that they are seeking converts…oh, and Granny and I have likely killed and converted two people, but we're not sure yet. It all happened last month and so…" Red trails off, utterly despondent. "Well, anyway, hopefully they weren't good guys."
Granny adds, just as rapidly, "And also the dragons have made their return, Archie made a pact with a demon to remain human after he temporarily transformed into his cricket self, and all of the royal families have started a blood feud. And everybody is using magic again." Her eyes widen, "I mean everybody." She looks at her granddaughter and they both shrug. "I think that that's all." Granny says.
Regina and Snow are the most thoughtful in reaction to the news.
"Absinthe we can handle." Snow says quietly. She frowns and for a moment, Emma realizes Snow White's true age. Then, the moment passes, and they are all young again.
"Snow, you'll lead the royals in a truce." Regina adds with an enigmatic smile. "As for the vampires, we may have our work cut out for us. And demons…" She looks overwhelmed and adds, "…also, don't underestimate the Green Fairy. She has tricks of her own up her sleeve."
Emma watches Snow's expression transform. There is sudden mistrust, just like before…
Snow says quietly, "You'll have to get more of your own magic back. The daily practices, not just the big spells. And your old coven…"
"I'll need a new coven, I sort of…killed most of my old coven…" Regina replies blandly. Emma's head snaps to stare at Regina. There is a shimmer of something in Regina's eyes-amusement, perhaps. Emma turns around and decides to ignore that strange, slight layer of insanity that she figures will always be a part of Regina.
"We have no choice." James says. "We're in this together. We'll take care of one another." He grins and swipes at a spider web with the back of his hand.
Emma stares at them all as though they might be crazy.
Henry gives a little cheer and rushes off to find cleaning supplies while the adults stare in dumbfounded silence at the webs around them.
Later that evening, Emma sits outside with Snow and with James and they talk and Emma decides to start calling them by their real first names. "I can't do much better than that." Emma frowns. "I mean, for now. I mean…"
"I'll take it." Snow interrupts. Her eyes are damp as she takes Emma's left hand while James slings an arm around them both.
"One more thing." Emma whispers gruffly. She shifts beneath James arm. Emma decides to just blurt it out, because really, she can't do much better than this either.
"I love her." Emma says. Louder this time.
"Well. Yes. Obviously." James takes the lead, after Snow shoots him a confused look. "You've been with her for years now. We had assumed that there was something pretty intense between you two if you had managed to work through all of your differences." He looks momentarily confused but shakes it off.
"Right. Well. She's an intense woman, that Regina is…" Emma sighs and relaxes, closing her eyes.
Later that day, Emma overhears Regina and Henry talking about their living arrangements.
"Are you happy?" Henry asks Regina, his voice eerily echoing through the doorway to his old room.
Emma doesn't hear the answer, but when she opens the door to announce her presence, Henry and Regina are hugging. It's just a little bit awkward, as though Regina isn't used to being allowed the luxury of this amount of affection. Emma backs slowly out of the room and closes the door.
Storybrooke Futures: The Final Countdown.
Regina urges Emma onto her stomach and begins to rub her back. Then she rubs lower and squeezes Emma's buttocks. Then she spreads them…
Emma yelps. "I don't do that." Emma says, craning her neck around. Regina's hands continue to knead her backside.
"Are you sure?" Regina's eyes are strangely lit, by the candles but also by what Emma can only interpret as arousal. Extreme arousal. "Do you trust me?" Regina asks sweetly.
"Huh? Uh…yeah. I think I do." Emma relaxes and faces forward again. "But um…."
"Trust me…" Regina orders this time.
"Oh. Ok." Emma bites the pillow at the first swipe of Regina's tongue against her lower back. When that tongue flits lower, Emma goes out of her mind.
Regina pulls away and says, with a wicked smile, "I have thoroughly debauched the daughter of Snow White."
Emma scowls and turns around. She glares at Regina.
Later, they lay side by side, trying to sleep despite a massive heat wave. Emma looks at Regina and grins at how disheveled the normally immaculate woman is. Regina is splayed on the bed, panting and grimacing.
"I want to stick my head in a refrigerator." Regina huffs.
Emma nods and grins and looks at the darkened ceiling and adds, "If we had electricity…"
The people of Storybrooke live in a bubble now. They are not sure if there is life beyond the dome that was created to protect them. Regina Mills and Maleficent's magic was strong enough to protect the townspeople, even when the townspeople wanted both Fairy and Evil Queen dead.
It's been years since Regina was the hated villain, the ex-Queen, the fake Mayor of this town and of the land before she enacted the Curse that brought them here.
As if one cue, Regina's phone rings…
…which shouldn't be strange.
Except that the phone lines no longer work either.
When Regina picks up, nothing but static greets her.
Emma stares in the darkness. "Who is that?" She asks slowly.
Regina has a feeling that now is the time to put all of this nonsense with Rumpelstiltskin to rest.
Chapter 20.
Storybrooke Mayhem.
Despite all that she has tried to do to redeem herself, Regina still has not earned the trust of very many. She may not still be under house arrest, may have saved the world even, but Regina doesn't bother leaving her home either way. Regina worries that attempts will be made on her life less than she worries about disdainful looks and poisoned words. It makes Regina feel lonelier than she thinks it should. After all, this has been the status quo for a very long time.
Regina thinks it ironic that the only people who now trust her used to be her sworn and absolute enemies. Even Snow White has forgiven the Evil Queen. Emma Swan, who Regina once tried to kill, trusts her most of all.
They say things like, 'you can't live in the past' or 'we have to let go of the past in order to make room for the future'. Mother and daughter have enough clichés between them to fill a self-help book.
Regina knows better. She knows, every morning when she reaches for her coffee in the silence of her kitchen, after Emma and the others have gone off to do their good deeds, that the past never really is past. The past is always just behind Regina, caressing her, threading itself around her. Regina walks with her past trailing behind in colorful waves. All others pretend that they cannot see the same of their own past deeds; others pretend that they can outrun the people they once were.
Regina hears Emma return from a day spent repairing shutters, fences and security systems throughout the town. She hears Emma discussing something with James and Snow who are staying at the house but who also spend most of their time away.
James says, "We trapped a Bolivian demi-god in lava and now we're trying to sort out what to do with her."
"Not Bolivian, love." Snow says, her voice going up and down in volume (Regina thinks that she must be rummaging through cupboards). "The demon, or god, or whatever she was, was Belgian. There is an enormous, incredible difference."
"How did it make its way here?" Emma asks, fatigue clearly evident in her voice.
James leaps in. "It sailed." James says. "Apparently a whole fleet of gods decided to come here for a visit. Regina says they might leave again, fairly soon. It isn't their island, after all."
Emma chuckles. "She's a smartass, that Regina. Asleep?" Regina feels a pleasant warmth blossom in her chest. Emma wants to see her. Emma did not find somebody else that day, nor did she find some excuse to stop loving Regina. Every day, Regina is absurdly grateful for these things. She is so grateful that it embarrasses her.
Snow chuckles. "She's waiting up for you. I heard the shower."
Regina rolls her eyes at that. She is still damp from what was a tepid stream of water. Her robe sticks to her skin and she cannot imagine allowing Emma to peal it away and begin her usual assertive seduction.
"Hey babe." And just like that, Emma has slipped into their room.
"Hello." Regina is surprised by her own formality. She smiles.
"Hmmm…" Emma climbs onto the bed and skims Regina's hip with her fingertips. "Have I done something? Why the cold reception?"
Regina shrugs, struggles not to grin like an idiot. Her insecurities often muddle with large parts of her day. When Emma comes home to her, the mess always clears.
"They're off to their room downstairs," Emma nods her head toward the door. She rolls on top of Regina and kisses her chin. "I thought about you today." Emma whispers. Another kiss follows, this time on the corner of Regina's mouth.
"What did you think about?" Regina asks, her tone inquisitive and polite.
Emma mutters against Regina's neck. "I thought about that time you bent me over in the shower…"
"Last week?" Regina squirms at the memory. "You went a little crazy for that." Regina thinks that Emma's ass is an absolute wonder and spent a long time communicating her perspective. She reaches down Emma's back and makes her worship obvious.
"I always go a little crazy for you." Emma reminds her, kissing the muscle of Regina's neck.
Emma's voice hums in Regina's ear and starts a resonance all through Regina's body. Emma lays out on the bed, atop Regina who shifts and sighs as the rough texture of Emma's jeans rub between her thighs.
Emma who used to throw Regina against walls and fuck her like they were getting paid by the hour to be somewhere else, tries very hard to make love to Regina now. Emma sits back on her heels and takes off her black work shirt. Her eyes stay glued to the span of skin between Regina's chin and the place where her robe hangs loosely together. Emma eases her fingers beneath the fabric and spreads it. She lowers her head and kisses exposed skin.
Regina begins to restlessly move her feet up and down on the bed. "I'm not sure I want…" She begins, but then Emma's mouth is warm and wet on her nipples, slowly moving between each one, and paying equal attention to both. Regina's eyelids flutter. Emma is kneading both of her breasts in sync and her tongue presses and circles deeper and deeper on each tip. Regina discovered long ago that she didn't like to have her nipples tweaked and pinched and rolled between fingers and teeth-not like Emma does. Regina longs for something deeper and Emma is happy to provide it. Regina's neck arches and Emma takes time away from her breasts to kiss her there again and again, finally leaving a mark when she sucks and bites.
Regina is breathing shakily when Emma parts the rest of her robe. Regina stretches and curves her back as Emma's tongue dips in her bellybutton and then lavishes attention on the grooves of her hip bones.
"Oh…oh…" Regina moans quietly. Their bedroom is far from everyone else's, but Regina still feels self conscious. "Oh… Emma please…please…"
"Please what?" Emma asks, reaching casually behind her own back to unclasp her bra. She leans back to look at Regina-naked and spread wide, heels digging into the bed already.
"Please…" Regina grits her teeth and wills her thighs to stop shaking. It still isn't easy, making herself this vulnerable to somebody. Regina tries. She tries her hardest, to just let go…
"Please…eat you? Lick you? Suck you off?" Emma mutters, grinning, her mouth hovering just over Regina's clit. Emma swears that Regina's sex twitches at her words.
"All of that. But gently." Regina whispers. "Eat me. Suck my…" she hesitates. "…ummm…pussy…"
Emma moans and Regina laces her fingers through long blond hair. Emma doesn't care that she is being directed, because at the first taste of Regina, she is close to coming herself. She licks her way lower, letting her tongue slide through the slick folds and smooth fullness of Regina's labia.
Regina spreads her thighs further, watches intently. She wants to raise her knees up but instead digs her ass into the bed. Regina imagines Emma turning around and says, "Touch yourself, or else turn around and let me eat you…"
Emma laughs, breathless, and pulls away to admire the results of her efforts. Regina is practically quivering, her clit is so hard against Emma's tongue and her thighs are wet. "I'm not doing that." Emma says, laughing again.
"You will and you are and give me what I want…" Regina kicks at the bed, petulant for just a second. Emma gets off the bed and slips out of her jeans. Then her panties are lost in the mix and she climbs back on the bed, socks and all. She turns around and Regina grabs at her hips and then just as she presses her face between Regina's thighs again, she feels a warm tongue and hot breath at her own entrance.
They do this for a long time, shifting energies back and forth, each woman focused first on the pleasure of the other and then on their own, in one confusing and messy and gorgeous synchronicity. Then Emma stops and turns, wanting Regina's mouth. They kiss and it is the messy and wet and their lips bruise a little.
Emma slides her hand down and plays with the trimmed hairs of Regina's sex. Then she buries her fingers in Regina and fucks her. Both of Regina's ankles go over Emma's shoulders. Emma can slap her hand slow or fast against Regina's clit like this, or corkscrew three fingers at once, or slide one finger in and out slowly, however she wants-Emma tries it all. Regina is delirious with want. Neither woman could come before, each one being too distracted by the other. Now, Emma is close and Regina is closer. It isn't long before Regina reaches between Emma's spread legs and strokes the length of her clit and Emma slams her hips against Regina's and they are both shaking and coming. Emma shouts something incoherent and grinds herself harder. She slips one more finger in and suddenly she is up to her knuckles with only her thumb to go.
They pause, both a little surprised, and stare at one another.
"I love you." Emma says, shaking and breathless. "I love you so much."
Regina reaches down and nods and her eyes well up. She pushes Emma's thumb against the rest of her hand and slips it inside of her. Emma looks terrified. Regina's hands grip Emma's shoulders and she whispers her love while Emma slowly moves her hand.
Regina can feel the faint drumming heartbeat in Emma's wrist. She watches the care and the wonderment that flashes over Emma's features when she leans down to look at what they're doing together.
Regina wails soundlessly when she comes. It burns and then there is coolness and a pulsating rhythm inside.
Later, when they fall asleep, they dream together. Images of fire and water churn together behind their eyes.
Storybrooke Happy Endings.
After Rumpelstiltskin figures out how to crank call everybody in town-without actual working phone lines-Regina and Emma drive to the town's edge to find him.
An eerie grey-blue cloud covers the ground and stretches to the sky. Regina suspects that James and Snow might be following her, but she can't yet be certain.
"What are we doing?" Emma says, but barely gets the words out before Regina storms outside.
Regina shouts. "Rumpelstiltskin, show yourself!" The sky is ominously purple, momentarily, and the sun is blotted out. When the light returns, Rumpelstiltskin sits on the hood of Regina's car.
It begins to rain, which makes Rumpelstiltskin smile.
Regina crosses her arms and looks him over. "Well?" She says briskly. "What now?"
The conversation that ensues is quick and to the point.
Rumpelstiltskin wants something, of course, in exchange for all of the favors they owe him.
"You owe me, dearies," He decides, rubbing his chin really rather more thoughtfully than usual. "You owe me for many, many bargains. I've upheld my end. Now its your turn. Both of you." He looks at the divide between Storybrooke and the rest of the world. "I'm tired of all of this. The curse I threw with the others…" He has never been clear about who these 'others' are and so pauses. It takes a full minute for him to continue. "…the curses we threw…killed my own son. I'm certain of that now." His face is suddenly human, for just a moment, but then it turns to ice again. What he adds next, Regina realizes she already guessed.
"Now give me Henry," Rumpelstiltskin growls, all semblance of the person he once was, now gone.
Emma and Regina both slump, as though the fight has finally dwindled. It is too much, all of this nonsense with this man-this creature-whatever he is.
"Why did you do it? Why did you help to destroy the world beyond Storybrooke?" Regina is oddly curious. Emma stares at her.
"For kicks. I told you." He replies. But his eyes do not meet Regina's.
Regina is quiet. Then she says, "It wasn't you, not entirely, you just said..."
Rumpelstiltskin shakes his head slowly. "There are more terrible things than just me in this land. Awful things; things I cannot even fathom myself. People who want to destroy everything. Even the moon. Even the sun. The land, yes, of course, they want to destroy this place-all places-as well. It's a culmination of terrible thoughts and terrifying magic. Total annihilation. No power for anybody, but in the meantime, all power to a scattered few." He pauses again. "Now give me Henry and perhaps I'll help you salvage what's left of the universe…"
Regina jumps into action then. She throws fire at him in an enormous, flaming tide that flows from her hands and her eyes. Rumpelstiltskin looks thoughtfully at the arc of flame and douses it with a wave of water taken from the air around them. "Interesting." He says, "We cancel one another out now, Regina."
"We're not giving you Henry." Regina shouts. "Absolutely not!"
Rumpelstiltskin pretends to be shocked. He laughs. "No?" He says. "No…what? No, you won't honor your bargains, or no, you don't want to live long enough to see the next sunset? What if I say please? Either way…" He stood higher and took from his back, a long dagger. "…you will do as I say, dear."
"Why? I mean really? What is it that you want?" Emma has moved closer to Regina and watches the dagger closely.
Rumpelstiltskin laughs and laughs and laughs and then stops and says,
"I want new start. A child. Henry will do. I want some purpose in this life besides mere destruction."
Emma has a small gun in an ankle holster, and she takes it out.
The gun goes off. Not once, but twice and then three times.
Regina runs to Emma, even as Rumpelstiltskin says his last words.
"Oh, well then…" The creature turns back into a man and he smiles as he dies.
Regina bursts into tears. Emma's face has already begun to change. Emma's eyes are yellow fire and she turns to Regina and asks,
"Regina? What…what am I? What's happening to me?"
Regina cries and shakes her head.
A car screeches behind them, stops in the dirt and idles as somebody gets out.
Snow White has run toward them and looks impossibly sad.
"I knew it. I knew you'd both be here." Snow fumes. She runs to her daughter and touches her arm. "Emma…Emma…My girl…"
Regina has already slumped to the ground, her shoulders shaking.
But Snow White just smiles.
Snow smiles and laughs and grabs Regina's shoulders and says,
"He did this on purpose, to the both of you!" Snow can't stop laughing, but her laughter is so joyous that Regina stops her crying instantly. "Everything, Regina, everything we've done has led to this! This very moment-so just kiss her! Because it had to be the two of you who would stop Rumpelstiltskin and he knew it better than anybody."
Regina realizes the truth of it-that every point of her struggle had been for some purpose. All of the people in this place were meant to help each other, in some way or another, even through the Curse. They were all meant to be together, in this place, at this time…
So Regina does what she knows is her only hope. She kisses Emma and pours every good thought, every good memory, every shred of love she has ever felt into that kiss. She feels the darkness grow, for just a moment, inside herself and then she feels it transform. She isn't pure, she isn't perfect, but with her lips pressed to Emma's, she is completely human.
Regina feels the terrible magic that once turned a good man into a destroyer coursing through Emma's body. The pulsating magic shatters inside of Regina. She knows then that only she and Emma could have been conduits for such strong and difficult energies.
Regina feels the dark magic leave through the crown of her head. She feels new magic enter her.
TBC