Writing Challenge: Breaking Point, Chapter Three (3/12)

Title: Breaking Point
Summary: Emma leaving town was out of the question, and that was perfectly fine with Regina. As a matter of fact, Emma absolutely must stay in Storybrooke for a long, long time. And she knew just how to accomplish that.
Spoilers: Up through 1x19, "The Return."
Characters: Mostly Emma, Regina, and Mary Margaret, with special appearances by Henry, August, Archie, David, and Dr. Whale along the way.
Rating/Warning: PG-13, mostly for language.
Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time and its characters were created by Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC. I'm just playing in someone else's sandbox. Please don't sue me! You won't get much.
Author's Note: This was another fun one but this time the fun came from trying to hit all the appropriate emotional notes. From Mary Margaret's confusion and fear to Emma's panic and anger, it was all kinds of enjoyable.

-----

By lunchtime, the gossip had hit Storybrooke Elementary. It was all any of the staff could talk about, how the sheriff had attacked the mayor at Granny’s. Mary Margaret Blanchard had lost track of how many versions of the story she’d heard.

All her time sitting in on games of Telephone had taught her that although the real story inevitably became warped and distorted the further out it spread, there was always some unchanging nugget of truth in all of the different versions. And with this story, the part that remained unchanged was Emma assaulting Regina for what appeared to be no reason at all.

How she managed to not only keep the rumors from reaching Henry but also make it through the rest of the day was anyone’s guess. As soon as the final bell rang, she packed up her things, ran out the door, and headed directly for the hospital.

She spotted August Booth by the vending machines. From the tense expression on his face and the force with which he shoved the machine when the bag of chips he purchased got stuck on the way down, she figured he was there for Emma. It was nice to see a friendly face; maybe he’d be able to shed a little light on the morning’s events.

Giving up on the damn bag of chips with a frustrated grunt, he looked up and caught Mary Margaret’s eye. “I’ve been trying to call you,” he said as he hurried over to her.

“I keep my phone turned off at work,” she explained. “What happened?”

“I don’t really know,” he admitted. “One minute, the two of them are talking and the next, Emma’s on her feet and trying to wrap her hands around Regina’s throat.”

What? That made no sense. The animosity between Emma and Regina wasn’t at all a secret, but she couldn’t imagine what would have made Emma react so violently. “Do you have any idea what they were talking about?”

He gave a helpless shrug. “I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but Regina did most of the talking and Emma got visibly upset towards the end of it, right before she …” He allowed the sentence to trail off, at a loss for words.

“So Regina provoked her.”

“I’d say so, yes, but Regina’s insisting she didn’t do anything and that Emma just snapped.”

“Of course she is,” Mary Margaret grumbled. “What does Emma say?”

When August cringed, Mary Margaret’s heart leaped into her throat. She was almost certainly not going to like what he had to say next. “Emma’s not saying much; they’re keeping her sedated. The paramedics had to knock her out at Granny’s and apparently when she came to earlier, she just kept repeating that Regina was evil and that she’d killed someone named Graham.”

Mary Margaret’s knees buckled and she felt an overwhelming desire to sit down. The desire became a need, and she sank into one of the waiting room chairs, placing her head in her hands.

What on earth had happened this morning? What could Regina have possibly done to provoke this kind of reaction from Emma? And for Emma to accuse Regina of murdering Graham? None of it made even the slightest bit of sense.

She wasn’t even aware that August had sat down next to her until he let out a heavy breath. “Mary Margaret, who is Graham and why would Emma think that Regina killed him?”

Her voice caught when she tried to answer. She cleared her throat, took a deep breath, and started again. “Graham was the sheriff here … before Emma. He got sick very suddenly and passed away. Heart attack, looked like. Emma was with him when it happened.”

August shut his eyes, equal parts sympathy for the loss and for Emma’s ordeal. When he opened them again, he looked directly at Mary Margaret. “Was Regina anywhere near them?”

“Not as far as I know,” she shrugged. “It was just the two of them. I haven’t the faintest idea why she would all of a sudden think that Regina killed him.” Or why she would try to strangle her even if she did think she’d killed him. She shook her head again, this time as if to clear it. The only one who could tell her what happened--what really happened--was Emma. “August, I need to talk to her.”

He glanced over his shoulder at the reception desk, a troubled expression knotting his brow, and turned back to Mary Margaret. “They won’t let me in to see her, but you’re her roommate. You might have better luck.”

She even hadn’t thought about the hospital not letting people back to be with Emma. They couldn’t play the family-only card; her only blood family was a ten-year-old boy. Mary Margaret was the closest thing to family Emma had, and damn it, that had to count for something.

“Oh, they’ll let me see her,” Mary Margaret said as she pushed herself to her feet. “If they don’t, I’ll make such a scene that they’ll have to sedate me, too.”

A grin formed on August’s lips as Mary Margaret marched up to the desk and demanded to be taken back to Emma. It was nice to see a mother stand up for her daughter, even if she had no idea that that was what she was doing.

-----

Emma Swan was angry. She was angry but she had no idea why. She just felt the burning, seething rage deep within her and she knew if she didn’t let it out, she’d explode.

But how to let it out? This was no ice-cubes-in-the-bathtub hissyfit. This was real, serious, do-some-damage fury.

The niggling question, though, was why? This level of anger didn’t just come from nowhere, and Emma knew from various kinds of anger.

Her thoughts were fuzzy. Why were her thoughts fuzzy? She tried to sit up only to find that her arms couldn’t move.

What the hell? She kicked her legs. They couldn’t move, either.

Panic rose in her throat. Her eyes snapped open but she didn’t recognize her surroundings. Leather straps were fastened around her wrists and ankles. She tried to holler only to have it come out as a groan.

The pillow under her head told her she was lying on a bed. She was lying on a bed in an unknown place with straps around her ankles and her wrists. Not good. Not good at all.

“Emma?”

At the sound of the uncertain voice, she stopped trying to work herself free from the straps. Her gaze traveled in the direction of the sound, and her panicked eyes finally focused on Mary Margaret.

Mary Margaret, who was standing next to an IV stand.

An IV stand, which meant they were in a hospital.

Why was Emma in the hospital? She glanced down at her wrists and ankles and finally realized that the bindings were restraints. Why the hell was she in restraints? “Mary Margaret?”

“You’re in the hospital, Emma,” her roommate began, her voice gentle.

“No, I know that. I just don’t …”

All at once, she remembered. Regina in the diner, confessing that she was the Evil Queen from Henry’s stories. That the curse was real. That she had killed Graham.

Poor Graham, whose only crime was getting involved with Regina in the first place.

Regina, who had Henry. Who was going to get away with it all.

Not if Emma could help it. She yanked on the restraints; she’d break the damn things if she had to in order to get free. The leather bit into her skin, which surprised her. Was this the first time she’d tried to free herself? Judging from the tenderness of the skin underneath the straps, it wasn’t, but she didn’t remember anything between the diner and now.

What had she been doing, struggling in her sleep?

It didn’t matter. She needed to get free, needed to get to Henry. Needed to get Henry out of that house.

“Emma, please. You have to calm down or they’re going to sedate you again.”

Mary Margaret. She’d almost forgotten that Mary Margaret was in the room with her.

The teacher had crept closer and was now standing next to the bed. She pressed the controls, raising the head so that Emma was sitting up a little bit more. She’d tried to put on a brave face, but Emma could see the fear and helplessness swimming in her eyes. She stopped struggling against the restraints, if only for Mary Margaret’s sake.

She blinked as something new hit her. If Regina was really the Evil Queen, then Mary Margaret was really Snow White. And if Mary Margaret was really Snow White, that meant … no. Yes? Was that really her mother standing there, trying so hard to keep tears at bay?

“Emma, what happened?”

“Regina’s evil,” she whispered before she could stop herself. Too much was tumbling through her head right now, too much to try to make sense of, too much that made no sense at all. She just knew that if it was true, she needed to keep her voice down. Who knew might be listening and would report back to Regina? “She’s evil, Mary Margaret, just like Henry said. She killed Graham.”

Mary Margaret hesitated before answering her. “Nobody killed Graham, Emma.” Emma winced at her cautious tone, the vocal equivalent of slowly backing away from a rattlesnake. “You were with him when he … got sick. You know that nobody killed him.”

Emma shook her head insistently. “She crushed his heart. She didn’t have to be near him to kill him because she crushed his heart.” The frightened look in Mary Margaret’s eyes made her cringe but she kept talking. She should probably stop because she sounded kind of crazy and she was scaring her friend--mother?--but she couldn’t seem to make herself shut up. “We have to get Henry out of that house. He’s not safe there.”

“Emma--”

“She’s a killer! He can’t stay with her. He can’t stay there another minute.”

Mary Margaret’s gaze darted above Emma’s head for the briefest of moments. Emma turned to see what she was looking at and saw Dr. Whale approaching the room. Crap on a stick, she was running out of time! “Please, Mary Margaret, tell me that you’ll get him out of that house,” she hissed.

Were the situation not so urgent, the stricken expression on Mary Margaret’s face would have been comical. “And how do you expect me to do that?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care, but you have to get him away from her. Promise me!”

Mary Margaret’s eyes widened as Dr. Whale opened the door. Emma caught the silent warning and finally managed to shut her mouth.

“I see you’re awake,” Dr. Whale said as he grabbed her chart from the rack at the foot of her bed. “How’re you feeling, Miss Swan?”

It took Emma a moment to find her congenial sheriff voice. “Much better, thank you. Mind letting me out of the restraints?”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that unless you can tell me why you attacked the mayor over breakfast.”

Oh, shit. What could she say? By the way, the mayor’s evil and she killed the sheriff before me because he betrayed her and because he was remembering his former life as a fairy-tale character? Yeah, that would go over really well. “That’s between us.”

Dr. Whale raised his eyebrows at her. “According to Mayor Mills, you lunged at her out of the clear blue sky.”

Emma rolled her eyes and groaned. “Of course she’d tell you that. Look, I apologize for going after her, and I promise I won’t do it again. Can you please let me out of the restraints?”

The doctor and Mary Margaret exchanged a glance, and he gave a slight shake of his head. The panic started churning in Emma’s stomach again. They knew something she didn’t, and she had a funny feeling she was not going to like it. To Emma, he said, “I’m sorry, Miss Swan, but you’re on a mandatory seventy-two-hour hold.”

Right then, with those words, the bottom dropped out of Emma’s world. “You have me on a psych hold?”

“You attacked the mayor with no provocation.” Emma opened her mouth to argue but Whale held up a hand, silencing her before she could even begin. “At least, no provocation that you’re willing to admit. So unless you want to tell me what happened …”

Emma’s head was spinning. And she’d thought that she was in trouble before.

How in the hell could she tell the doctor what Regina had said without sounding like she belonged on a goddamn psych hold? After seeing how Mary Margaret, who knew that Regina was the worst possible kind of bad news, reacted to what she was saying, she could only imagine what Dr. Whale would think. But if she kept silent, she would be pegged as uncooperative and she’d be stuck in these damn restraints for the next seventy-two-hours. Either way, she was screwed.

“Emma, please,” Mary Margaret urged. “Just tell him what happened.”

Tears welled in Emma’s eyes at the pleading tone of Mary Margaret’s voice. Unwilling to look either her or Dr. Whale in the eye, Emma stared straight ahead.

“Very well,” Dr. Whale sighed. “I’ll go see to your transfer.”

He left the room, and Emma and Mary Margaret sat in silence for a moment. Then Mary Margaret grabbed Emma’s hand in an effort to recapture her attention. “Why didn’t you tell him? What did she say to you?”

Emma all of a sudden felt like the world’s biggest disappointment. All Mary Margaret wanted was to know what happened, and she couldn’t even give her that much.

She looked down at the hand grasping hers, the hand that was inches away from the fastenings on her restraints. It would have been so easy to beg Mary Margaret to undo them and get her the hell out of here. So easy, but the look in Mary Margaret’s eyes told her that it wasn’t an option. The woman clearly was scared for her, but somewhere in there, maybe on a level she didn’t even realize, she was also the tiniest bit scared of her.

Emma had completely lost control. She’d lost control and given it to Regina.

She had to be careful. She couldn’t say or do anything that would make it worse. Begging to be sprung from a mandatory psych hold would make it worse. Telling Mary Margaret what Regina had said would make it worse. Mary Margaret wouldn’t believe her now. No one would. And really, why would they? Why should they?

“Emma? What did Regina say?”

“It doesn’t matter,” she muttered angrily. “She won.” She kicked her leg in frustration, which only grew when the strap around her ankle made the skin underneath feel like it was burning.