"Em!" Neal cried, hurrying to shimmy around and reach out. Her hand was outstretched and he could feel the tips of her fingers, but he jerked his hand away at a gunshot, just in time as a bullet passed between them.
Emma wasn't so lucky. The blood from her hand and leg pooled in a mixture below her as she writhed on the dirt ground, curled inward to stop the pain surrounding her body.
No no no no!
His eyes were so focused on Emma he didn't notice the man standing over her body, his gun trained right between Neal's eyes.
"Down!" Cabrera yelled, and Neal listened. He ducked. A shot fired. Then another. Pain ripped through his right shoulder, fresh blood seeping from his right bicep. He made eye contact with Emma, a dead shooter lying inches from her head and more rushing toward her. The last thing he saw before everything went black was her kicking the door shut.
"I woke up in the infirmary two days later," Neal explained flatly. "The prisoner was safely relocated. The guys were okay. Cabrera said that they had surrounded her. He didn't have a choice. They went back to the site while I was knocked out." He shut his eyes and shuddered. "They couldn't find her body."
"W-what?" Regina croaked.
"There was blood, mine and hers. Bodies of the guys we took out. The car they came in wasn't even there, but they found it abandoned by a hill top a few days later."
Regina sat there as she processed his words, her mouth parted in bewilderment. If she hadn't have blinked Neal would have thought she was frozen in shock. He focused on the grooves of the hardwood beneath his feet, dark mahogany swirls etched into the rich chocolate wood, his fists pressed against his lips as if to keep his mouth shut because after recounting that tale, he didn't even have the strength to lift his head off his shoulders. He should have pulled her in. He should have done something. The pain in his shoulder from the two bullets hadn't gone away yet, and he massaged a palm over his shoulder to ease the tension. "Casualty," he began slowly in a low murmur, "doesn't always mean dead."
Still she was silent, so Neal reached down to a forgotten bag by his feet and pulled out the first thing stuffed in there. A toy dinosaur that he knew Emma slept with when she could, and for the first time he was close enough to the toy to see 'Henry Mills' inked on the tag. A soft gasp made him look up, and Regina was eyeing the dinosaur like it was Emma herself. He held it out to her, and Regina took it, clutching the plush to her chest. Silently he placed the bag in between them and emptied it reverently. Clothes, books, letters, pictures. All Emma's.
He let Regina study them, but aside from the dinosaur, Regina didn't move to touch them as if one touch would confirm that Emma indeed was not coming back.
"Where is it?" Regina whispered.
"What?"
"Where is it? Where's her dog tag?"
He scrunched up his face and sat up straight. "What—"
"You're supposed to bring it back!" Her voice was pitchy and her eyes were glassy all over again. "She's still out there! She's alone! You were supposed to bring it back!"
He held his hand out defensively. "We couldn't—"
"You left her!" Neal ducked as Regina grabbed a throw pillow and threw it right over his head. When he straightened again, he was met with a frantic, desperate woman, pacing the length of her study as she held herself. "She's okay. She's just missing. She'll come home soon."
"Regina—" Neal stopped himself when she glared at him. "Ms. Mills, she may be. For all we know—"
"You know nothing," Regina hissed, storming towards him so quickly that Neal almost took a step back. "You left her to die!"
August stepped into the room suddenly, already holding Regina by the arms again as she cried out. "You left her!" Regina screamed passed him.
A chill ran down Neal's spine as the woman sobbed into his former Sergeant's chest.
"You left her," Regina repeated devastated.
Neal shut his eyes, feeling Emma's fingertips so close to his own before the sound of a gun he'd never forget forced his eyes open. "I know."
Chapter 20
Chapter Notes
Disclaimer in Chapter One.
AN: Slightly quicker update to make up for the crappy episode that was last night. Thank you so much for your reviews, alerts, and favourites!
Kathryn opened her front door, hopeful to see a certain brunette Mayor but finding it was simply her husband, looking sheepish and apologetic. Her face dropped significantly in disappointment and she didn't bother trying to hide it.
"I'm sorry for intruding on girls' night," David explained, stepping through the threshold and grazing her forehead with his lips in greeting, "but I forgot my badge."
He greeted Tina and Ruby with a friendly wave before darting upstairs and returning half a minute later, stomping down the carpeted hardwood in his haste. "All right, got it. I'm out of your hair."
He was a step outside the door when Kathryn called him back. "David?" She pointed to the side table where his badge lay untouched. "Your badge?"
He pursed his lips into an uncomfortable smile before nodding. "Right." He grabbed his badge quickly and headed out the door.
Kathryn let the door slam shut as she turned back to her friends with a frown etched on her face.
"I don't get how him and MM can continue to keep this up," Ruby commented as the ladies retreated to the kitchen for appetizer prep. "I mean, I've talked to her, and she keeps denying it, but you can tell on her face she's conflicted."
"She's conflicted?" Tina scoffed. "David was the one who made the commitment, and it's not like she's some oblivious mistress. She knows who the Deputy is married to."
Kathryn held up her hands and scrunched up her face in displeasure. "Regardless. I don't care about him tonight. Has anyone talked to Regina?"
Tina shook her head, pulling from the freezer some frozen spinach puffs and tearing into the box. "We were supposed to meet after New Year's when I got back from New Zealand, but she hasn't returned my phone calls and she's not answering her door."
"She's alive," Ruby added, cutting into some avocados. "I see the lights on in the house when me and Red go for a run in the morning."
"She hasn't been in the office either," Kathryn thought aloud, recounting the times over the past month where her firm had been working a case in the courtroom in Town Hall and Regina had not been spotted anywhere. Just last week, Kathryn had tried to visit the office, but the door had been closed shut and Regina's secretary had said she had been working from home. Judging by the pile-high stacks of manila folders and files on her desk, Kathryn wondered how much work was actually getting done.
"The diner is buzzing though," Ruby informed, holding her chin on both fists as she leaned over the table top. "People notice when the Mayor stops showing up for work."
"Councilman James has been signing off on things Regina usually keeps for herself," Kathryn added. "Actually the entire council has been swamped with work."
"I'm hearing crazy theories," the waitress continued. "Some people have even said she might be pregnant if, you know, Emma wasn't a girl."
"There is such a thing as in vitro and insemination," Tina provided. "And I doubt she would hide away a pregnancy from us."
"I don't know." The older blonde poured them all a glass of wine and stared thoughtfully into the red liquid as it swirled gently at the bottom of the glass, ripples cascading out as the wine settled. Kathryn frowned. "She hasn't acted this way since. . ."
She trailed off, bit her lip, and furrowed her brow.
"Since when?" Both Tina and Ruby had paused their actions to stare inquisitively at their older friend.