Bluest of Grey Skies

Chapter Eleven

Regina wanted to pass it off as ramblings from a man who was clearly intoxicated beyond being able to stand upright, but a nagging feeling in her gut told her otherwise. She stared at the man, his hair balding at the top, his beard scraggly and grey in patchy spots. Of all the times she had to deal with him in the span of the month she'd been in Storybrooke, intoxicated or not, he'd always spoke of nothing but the truth.

"You know what he said to me, sister?" Leroy continued and he swallowed hard before a loud belch escaped past his lips. "Said he was sent as a distraction to get the pretty little blonde dispatcher alone. Bobby's back in town and let me tell ya, sister, he ain't happy."

Panic and bile rose in her throat and she yanked open the cruiser door and all but shoved Leroy down into the back seat before she took off running for the back door. With her gun in her hand as she entered the station, she could just faintly hear the sound of Bobby Gold's voice and just the sound of it angered her beyond belief. She turned the corner of the back hallway and into the open main area of the station just in time to not only hear the degrading name Bobby called Emma, but to see him strike her hard enough to knock her out.

"Let her go, Bobby," Regina said with her gun raised and pointed straight at his head. "Now."

His laughter was maniacally terrifying as he turned to look at her. With a slow shake of his head, he moved to grab at Emma's breast while holding her upright and Regina made the split-second decision all police officers make at one point in their career and she lowered the gun and aimed for his right thigh furthest away from Emma and took the shot.

It all happened in slow motion, or at least it felt that way. Regina's hands felt numb in the seconds after she'd fired the gun and she rushed forward as Bobby let go of Emma and fell to the floor, screaming in agony as he grabbed at his right thigh as blood poured from the wound quickly. She only just caught Emma before her head hit the floor and she cradled her for a moment before making the reach for the radio on the dispatcher's desk.

"I need an ambulance at the station," Regina called it in, releasing the button and turning her full attention to the unconscious blonde whose head she had in her lap. "Emma?" She tried as she carefully threaded her fingers through her hair while feeling over the spot she'd seen Bobby hit her. "Emma? Wake up."

"Gina?"

"You fucking bitch!" Bobby roared as he writhed on the floor a few feet away. Regina gathered Emma into her arms and pulled her to a safe distance away from the man currently bleeding out from the bullet hole in his thigh. "You fucking shot me! You're dead, you hear me? You are fucking dead, stupid cunt!"

"Emma?" Regina focused her sole attention on the blonde she held in her arms and over her lap as she knelt on the hard linoleum floor. "Are you all right, darling?"

"I am now," she murmured, her voice thick as it was some mornings when Regina showed up for coffee and breakfast. "Saved the day, Sheriff."

"Did I?"

"Yep," Emma smiled groggily. "Did I hear a gun go off?"

"I shot him," she replied and blinked rapidly. "In the leg."

"Oh."

Regina coaxed her fingers lightly over the small bump that formed just over her left temple, far more worried about her than the insane man bleeding half to death now six feet away. The faintest sound of sirens off in the distance grew nearer and yet her full focus was on Emma. She hadn't know this would happen and despite her intentions to keep her near, to keep her safe, she felt as if she had failed because despite all of that, Bobby Gold had still gotten to her and she couldn't even stomach the thought of what would have happened if she hadn't gotten there in the very moment that she had.