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It was just a little piece of red string. So simple. So insignificant seeming. Emma couldn’t help but play with it.
“Ms. Swan!” Regina barked. “I told you not to touch anything!”
Emma shrugged. “It’s just some string.”
“It’s my mother’s,” Regina said, stomping over and grabbing it to pull it from her hand. “It’s probably magical, and I don’t know what it does. So don’t touch it!”
Regina tried to pull it away, but Emma yelped as it pulled her hand. The string had wrapped around her wrist, and Regina’s action pulled it tight. When she had grabbed it Regina had allowed the thread to wrap around her own hand, and in that moment they were loosely tied together by the red string which began to glow with crimson light.
“What’s happening!” Emma shouted, trying to pull away to no avail.
Then with a white flash of light it was over. The string was gone, and Emma and Regina moved away from each other, blinking it clear their vision. “What did you do, Ms. Swan,” Regina growled angrily.
Emma held up her hands in a placating gesture. “I dunno. I didn’t mean for anything to happen. I...”
Emma trailed off, eyes wide as she looked at her fingers. Sitting on her hand was a simple gold band serving as a wedding ring. Looking across the room Emma saw that Regina had the same thing on her finger.
“Regina?” Emma asked quietly, showing her the ring.
Regina turned pale as she examined her own ring. She grabbed it and twisted, trying to remove it, but it wouldn’t come off. “What did you do?” Regina asked, this time fear instead of anger filling her voice.
“I don’t know,” Emma whispered. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry,” Regina spat. “Sorry doesn’t fix this. We need Rumpel.”
Regina waved her arm, attempting to teleport away, but nothing happened. She frowned and waved her arm again, before creating a fireball. When that worked she looked like she was contemplating throwing it at Emma, but finally let it fade with a sniff of disdain. “Let’s go,” she said, storming her way out of the crypt and toward their cars.
Emma walked slower at first, not wanting to be too close to the enraged former queen in case she changed her mind about her fireball plan. Regina pulled slowly ahead until they both stumbled. For Emma it felt like a hand shoved her in the back, and up ahead Emma could see that Regina looked like she had walked into a wall. Emma jogged to catch up, only to freeze at the angry look she received. “What happened?”
“We apparently can’t be too far apart,” Regina snarled. “That must be why my teleportation failed.”
After that Regina stormed off, refusing to even acknowledge Emma, who now trailed at the woman’s heels like a scolded puppy. Before long they reached their cars, and Emma cautiously climbed into Regina’s not willing to risk driving separately. Regina glared at her but said nothing, and before long they had reached Mr. Gold’s pawnshop.
“That’s a new ring, dearie,” Mr. Gold said when he saw Regina. “Are congratulations in order? Or are you looking to pawn it?”
“Just fix this,” Regina ordered, clenching her fists.
Rumpelstiltskin gave her a nasty smile. “No can do, dearie. You’re bound by the Red Thread of Fate. Nothing can keep you apart now. If I were you I would make peace with your new wife.”
The entire way home Emma babbled apologies which were ignored, and Regina just drove to her mansion. Once there she went straight for her liquor cabinet, and Emma trailed along nervously. After Regina drained three shots of whiskey in a row Emma spoke up. “Are you okay?”
“Am I okay?” Regina asked incredulously. “Am I okay? I’ve just been forcibly married to the second member of your family! How the hell could I be okay?”
“I am so, so sorry,” Emma said. “Can’t we get, like, a divorce?”
“No,” Regina said. “I’ve heard of this thing. It’s foreign magic, and very powerful. Nothing can undo it. We can’t even be apart, and the more we fight this, the more the magic will find ways of forcing the marriage to happen.”
“I’m sorry,” Emma said.
“You’ve said that!” Regina snapped. “But because of your idiocy I’m once more trapped in a marriage with someone who doesn’t care about me. You’re just like your mother.”
Emma swallowed hard and looked down. “I do care about you.”
Regina just scoffed and poured herself two more quick drinks, and while Emma desperately wanted to take the bottle away, both for the sake of Regina’s liver and to drink herself numb she didn’t want to take something else away from the other woman. “I love you,” she said finally.
Regina froze, her glass halfway to her lips. “What?”
“I know you hate me,” Emma said. “And if you didn’t completely hate me before, I’m sure you do now. But I love you. If we’re going to be forced to be together because of what I did, I thought you should know that much.”
“You can’t love me,” Regina said, sounding vulnerable for the first time since the crypt.
“Of course I can,” Emma said. “You’re easy to love, Regina. Your the mother of my child, and you love him so fiercely that anyone would want to be loved by you. Your smart, and funny when you aren’t trying to tear me down, and so regal. And beautiful and passionate. I’ve been in love with you for a long time.”
Regina just gaped at her for a moment. “You can’t. I’m the Evil Queen. No one could really love me.”
Emma stepped closer and started to reach out for her but thought better of it. “You were the Evil Queen. You aren’t her anymore. And it doesn’t matter if some book says that you’re evil incarnate or that I’m supposed to be some kind of savior. I love you.”
Regina stared at her before swallowing hard. “I... I have feelings for you that aren’t loathing.”
It wasn’t a declaration of love, but the vice in Emma’s heart loosened just a little at those words. Things weren’t okay, and they probably wouldn’t be for a long time. She had hurt Regina badly no matter her feelings by forcing her into another marriage, but for the first time since Mr. Gold had made his pronouncement, Emma felt stirrings of hope for the future.
Maybe, someday, she could have a chance at happiness.
“I’m sorry,” Emma said one last time. “I wish I hadn’t forced this on you.”
Regina just nodded, although she put away the whiskey.
“And hey, it’s not all bad,” Emma said. “You can tell my mom.”
A slow, wicked smile appeared on Regina’s face and Emma didn’t know if she should smile back or cower in front of it.