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“Is there a dwarf named Evil-y?” Regina cried, “No, it's after me!”
She pulled the curtains shut, blocking out the light from the street. As if the Chernabog was going to stop at the sight of the closed windows, of black flowers on white fabric.
Big believer in privacy, the Chernabog, Emma thought.
Of course, she didn't say so. Regina was frantic enough as it was.
She was right to be afraid, the creature was huge. A giant bat, hungry for Regina's heart.
“What if we get it across the town line?” Emma wondered out loud, “its magic would disappear, wouldn't it?”
Regina turned to her, one hand on her hip.
A moment later, they had a plan.
The two of them would drive to the town line, the Chernabog, attracted by Regina's darkness, would follow.
And hey, presto! the creature would be launched into a world where it couldn't survive.
Neither woman thought too hard on the in-between bits of the plan. How were they going to get it to the other side of the line?
Well, only one way to find out.
Emma clambered into her car, Regina a second behind her. The passenger side door slammed shut.
“Let's go,” Regina urged, the bat from hell shrieked somewhere above them.
Regina put on her seat belt.
They drove at breakneck speed. Beside them, the forest flashed by. It was a fifteen minute drive to the town line. Emma had every intention of making it in seven.
The bug swerved sideways as Emma rounded a corner. She held back a grin at how well she'd managed it.
Regina swayed to one side, gripping the handle above the door like it was going to save her life.
“What made you choose yellow?” she asked, in the voice of someone sitting in a cafe, drink in hand.
Emma's eyebrows furrowed, “what?”
“The bug, why yellow?”
Swerving to avoid the huge talons of the beast, Emma curled her fingers around the steering wheel.
“I don’t know,” she said, “I like yellow, and I stole it,” she shook her head, pressing her foot down harder on the accelerator, “is this really the time to question my taste?”
Regina shrugged, “Sorry, I’m just trying not to think about being some demon’s lunch.”
The Chernabog landed on the bug with an ear splitting crash. Instinctively Emma ducked, but the roof held and the creature roared.
The car veered dangerously as the bat attempted to pull it off the ground.
For being a creature made of magic, it was surprisingly solid.
Emma did her best to steady her trusty bug, managing to keep it on the road.
When the Chernabog broke through the front windshield, one giant talon curling towards them, Regina screamed. The creature, not managing to grab her, pulled its talon out.
“It’s too late,” Regina breathed, “I’m not going to let both of us die in this metal coffin on wheels,” she said.
Emma turned to her, a sinking feeling in her stomach.
“Thanks for trying, Miss. Swan,” Regina whispered.
Emma stared, “What?” the car was violently shaken by the creature on its hood.
A cloud of purple smoke invaded Emma’s field of vision, when it cleared, Regina was gone.
Emma’s heart hammered in her chest, panic biting at her insides. Her foot was practically glued to the floor.
A moment later, the neon orange line, spray painted on the dark asphalt, appeared ahead. Regina stood before it, her eyes glued on the Chernabog. The creature still holding on to the bug’s roof.
“Hey,” Regina screamed.
Emma’s fingers were going white, she was gripping the steering wheel so hard.
A second before it would’ve been too late, she pressed down on the brake. The car screeched to a halt, sending the demon bat flying through the air and into the magical shield hiding Storybrooke from the rest of the world. The creature dissipated in a swirl of black fog.
Emma swallowed hard, she rested her head on the steering wheel for a moment, her breathing uneven. One second too late and…she preferred not to think of it.
Getting out of the car, she met Regina’s gaze. She breathed out in relief.
“Never, ever do that again,” Emma growled as she walked to her.
Just behind Regina, Ursula and Cruella stood at the line, unaware of their presence.
Regina ignored Emma’s words, and she wasn’t given a chance to reiterate by the arrival of Snow and David.
After a short, tense conversation, it was decided they’d let the two villainous women in.
Emma stood back as the two drove in, Regina’s features set in her scariest Madame Mayor impression.
“Welcome to Storybrooke,” The Queen turned mayor said.
“Thank you,” Ursula said, “You won’t regret it.”
Regina clenched her jaw, “I better not.”
Watching her walk back to the car, Emma pushed her hands in her jacket pockets. That had been close. Too close.
She drove the two of them home, the cool October air whipping in from the broken windshield.
“Regina, did you hear me earlier?” Emma said, after a long moment of silence.
Outside, a slight fog had lifted off the wet asphalt.
“When?” Regina asked, “while we were trying not to become demon fodder?”
“No,” Emma clenched her jaw, “I said; never do that again, you are not sacrificable.”
There was no response for a long time. Emma wondered if there was ever going to be one.
When Regina spoke again, Emma had to stop. She parked the car on the side of the road, nothing but woods surrounding them.
“The Chernabog came after me, Emma,” Regina started, quietly, “there’s a reason for that, and you know it. My heart is as dark as they come, and it didn’t get that way by accident, I have done–”
“Terrible things,” Emma interrupted, “I know, Regina, but you’ve more than made up for them.”
“Have I? The author doesn’t seem to think so–”
“Who cares what he thinks?”
“He won’t give me a happy ending, not unless I truly become a hero.”
“Then you’ll take it,” Emma said, resolutely.
Regina turned, her eyes meeting Emma’s in the small space between them. There was something like surprise spelled out there.
“I’ll take it?” she asked, “that sounds an awful lot like what I used to say, about revenge.”
Emma blinked in surprise, she hadn't realized how that would sound. Only…it didn’t seem fair to her, that someone like Regina, wasn’t allowed a happy ending. Regina, who had worked so hard to be forgiven, who had repented and changed. All for what? For some man who’d disappeared with his dead wife and hadn’t even bothered to call?
Emma tried not to analyze why she was so annoyed at Robin Hood, but the truth was, she’d never liked the man. He’d never been enough. Not for her Regina.
Her Regina? Where had that come from?
“Maybe he’s right,” Regina continued, unaware of Emma’s inner turmoil, “maybe I don’t deserve a happy ending.”
“Stop it!” Emma interjected, “of course you deserve a happy ending, and you’ll get one.”
“Really? How? With Robin gone–”
“Maybe he’s not your happy ending,” Emma said, “ever thought about that?”
Regina blinked back tears, “I guess…”
“Your happy ending is not some guy, Regina.”
Emma had perhaps spoken too much. If Regina noticed anything amiss however, she didn’t say so.
Her palms were sweaty now, and she did her best to hide the way she dried them on her jeans. She felt fifteen again, talking to her crush in the school yard.
“He’s not some guy–”
“Yeah, yeah, he’s your soulmate. Whatever,” Emma slinked down into her seat. She sounded like a teenager, but she didn’t care. Regina deserved better than that guy.
Like maybe me. Her traitorous thoughts provided.
She swallowed. It wasn’t something she’d been consciously aware of. But having witnessed her son’s other mother throw herself into danger, to save her life nonetheless, had brought certain feelings to the surface.
Regina raised an eyebrow.
“Whatever, yes.”
Shaking her head, Emma looked away, “sorry, I didn’t mean it like that–”
“Then how did you mean it, Miss. Swan?” Regina’s voice had dropped to a low, sultry growl.
Oh. She knew. Oh.
Emma was fucked.
Regina reached out, her hand trailing along Emma’s jean clad thigh.
“Did you maybe mean that a certain pirate isn’t your happy ending, either?”
Emma met her eyes. Hunger assaulted her, desire springing low in her belly. Well, that was something she could work with.
She was no longer a confused teenager, in this realm, Emma knew exactly what she wanted.
Regina smirked at her.
That smirk that Emma had wanted to wipe off her face so often. She grinned back.
“I meant,” she said, leaning forward until she was in her space, “never gamble your life like that again, understood?”
Regina’s lips parted slightly in surprise, unused Emma ordering her around. Emma desperately wanted to find out if she liked it.
Well, it was now or never.
She closed the gap between them, her lips meeting Regina’s. The kiss was soft, but Emma’s hand, running up the other woman’s body, was not.
Grabbing Regina’s jaw with three fingers, she pulled away.
“Understood?”
Regina grinned.
“Understood, Sheriff Swan.”
Emma didn’t bother replying, her lips crashed back into Regina’s, savouring her taste. She let go of her jaw, letting her hand slip down to her waist. Then back up.
Yes.
Emma moaned softly as she cupped Regina’s breast through her shirt.
God, how hadn’t she realised how much she’d wanted this?
Regina sighed in response to her touch, leaning into it. Her fingers threaded through Emma’s hair, pulling her closer.
Emma wanted to make her forget all about Robin Hood.