AUTHORS NOTE:

Hello to any new readers, and thanks to those that are sticking with me! I meant it when I said it was a slow burn and while I also hope you're enjoying the other little snippets of our Once characters navigating prison life, I promise you those scenes are crucial to the SwanQueen story, and all will unravel in time.

So…speaking of SwanQueen – how on earth are we going to get them together when they're on different sides of the bars?! And what about Emma's sentence? Life imprisonment seems a little out of character doesn't it? …or does it? Suggestions on a postcard please! Only joking – a review would be fine ;)

Also a special shout out to my 'Anonymous' girls – you know who you are! (they probably make up over half my few followers but anyway!).

It was pouring down heavily when the truck carrying the new inmates pulled into the courtyard of Her Majesty's Prison: Storybrooke.

Aurora Stephens clutched her belongings to her chest as she shuffled out of the van, her grubby trainers splashing in a puddle as her feet landed on solid ground again, finally. Ingrid Fisher stepped down slowly behind her, completely disoriented; where the hell had they brought her? Her handbag was held tightly in one hand and the other idly attempted to smooth the creases from her shirt.

"Come on girls." An officer called from a doorway up a small flight of stairs. "Let's get you in here quick outa the rain and get a cuppa tea, yeah?"

He ushered Aurora, Ingrid and a few other women out of the rain into the waiting room and secured the door behind him. Officer Smith caught Ingrid's completely overwhelmed expression and smiled at her but she couldn't see through the cloud of confusion in her mind.

"Aw come on love, it's not that bad really; three meals a day, karaoke, no rent. Hell, sign me up!" he joked with grossly misplaced humour, but he meant well, really.

Aurora scoffed and slumped onto a hard, plastic chair. She scrunched up the sleeves of her hoody and pulled her shoulder length, light brown hair around her neck and mindlessly started to plait it roughly. She didn't exactly look comfortable in the room but the others could tell it wasn't her first time in a room where chairs were bolted to the floor and bars covered the windows.

Officer Booth joined Smith in the waiting room and took the manila files from him. She motioned towards Ingrid. "She hasn't got anything with her?" she asked, pretty much stating the obvious. All Ingrid had was the clothes she was wearing and her handbag, gripped so tightly in her hands as if it was her sole connection to the real world, and if she let go, she'd be lost forever. Smith shrugged in response to Booth, so she turned and addressed Ingrid softly, taking in her glazed over eyes.

"Is this all you have love?" Booth asked and Ingrid simply looked at her, not really seeing. "Well don't worry, we've got some clothes you can borrow until you get stuff sent in."

"What?" Ingrid managed to croak, and Booth smiled at her. "Well it's a lovely suit darlin', but you can't wear that for the next 5 years can ya?"

She was really starting to dread mealtimes, but she couldn't ignore the growling hunger from her stomach any longer, so there she was queuing up for punishment.

"Just veggies for you init Annabelle?" Zelena suggested sneering; not even scrunching her fiery mane into a bright, blue hair net managed to dull the fear her presence inspired in Annabelle's chest. Zelena didn't leave a beat for Annabelle to respond before she continued. "I've got you down as vegan on my sheet, that's right, isn't it." Her voice was hard and Anabelle was very clear that it wasn't a question at all, and she bowed her head in defeat.

"Oh fuck off Zelena, just serve her." Emma called from behind Annabelle in the queue, and Zelena's face snapped in her direction, taking a second to ponder if taking on Emma would be worth it. Maybe not today, not that she couldn't totally take down the blonde dyke, of course. Zelena turned and pulled a list off the wall behind her, and made a dramatic show of scanning her eyes down it intently.

"Oh look at me, getting my names all messed up ain't I?" she replied, her thick London accent dripping with sarcasm, eyes narrowing at Annabelle. She held her stare and scooped a huge spoonful of lasagne onto Annabelle's tray, taking care to add enough force make the pale red, mush splash back onto Annabelle's shirt. Annabelle shuffled off without a word and was followed by Emma.

"Look Annabelle, do yourself a favour and keep away from Gold." Emma whispered to her, and Annabelle looked up at her delivering a pathetic attempt at disguising her shock.

"I don't know what you mean." She argued weakly, but she really needn't have bothered.

"Whatever." Emma laughed softly. "Keep away from him and Zelena will leave you be. You know, Zelena's in here for life because of what she did to a girl she was jealous of." Emma informed Annabelle, raising her eyebrows. "Just be safe, yeah?" she added and moved on to find a table. Annabelle watched her leave and suddenly felt her appetite completely vanish. Shit.

"I've received an anonymous complaint about the drugs testing on this wing." Regina addressed two of her senior officers; Gold and Hershey, who sat uncomfortably in front of her. "It states that we are deliberately selecting women who we know will test negative to avoid paperwork and to look good to the Home Office."

"Excuse me…" Cora interrupted, "…but it should be us female officers who are complaining about urine tests. I don't want to watch women go to the toilet thank you very much." She stated, scoffing, and crossed her arms defiantly in front of her chest as if that was that sorted then. Regina stared at her in disbelief.

"What's the problem with keeping numbers down Regina?" Gold queried. Of course he would completely miss the point. "It's one anonymous letter."

Regina ran a hand through her short, dark hair and turned to pick up a stack of paperwork from her desk. "We have several of the same names cropping up for 'random' searches month after month." She stated flicking through list after list. "From now on, the only ones we 'target' for a hard time are the hard users. We need to be detecting it, not dodging it. Understand?" She finished, fixing them with a hard, passionate stare. She didn't want any doubt in her officers' minds that her wing was going to be taking this very seriously from now on.

"Don't kid yourself Regina, they're smarter than you think." Gold insisted, and at Regina's confused face, elaborated. "Drug free piss is a saleable item inside; how do we know they don't have a bottle tucked up inside them?" His eyebrows raised in her direction and Regina fought the visual images from her head. "We can't very well watch where it comes out of, can we?" he asked and Regina swore she saw a flicker of excitement in his eyes, as if he would very much like to watch. Regina turned away from him briefly to shut out even the idea of it from her head.

"So what Bobby? You just want to give up on them?" Regina asked tossing the words out and shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm just being honest. Prison's a shit place and the drugs make them feel good, help them get through it." Gold tossed right back at her. Regina studied his face and found only honesty, right enough.

"If we really want to stop it, it's simple." Cora chimed up from her seat by the door. "100% closed visits" she continued which earned a moan from Gold, as he got up from his seat and stretched his legs, walking towards the window. "You can moan Bobby, but that's how they get in."

Gold turned back to face Cora, "Why should the others suffers loss of visitation though?"

Cora shrugged and pursed her lips at him, "Suffer they must." She stated.

Regina had had enough. "Well suffer they're not going to, Cora. We need to show them that we're on their side." Regina assured, and she meant it. She was determined to get this prison into shape.

She dismissed her officers and smoothing her skirt beneath her, settled back into her desk chair. She moved her mouse across the desk to bring her PC to life and blinking her eyes wide to focus, got down to business.

"I was hoping you'd come by." Annabelle said softly when she caught sight of Gold entering her cell, and pushing the door gently behind him. It wasn't completely closed; that wasn't allowed during the day, but it was enough. She shuffled from her bed to greet him but he kept his distance and planted his back against the opposite wall.

"I can't stay." He said bluntly.

Annabelle tentatively moved closer to him, reaching out her hand, confused by his sudden change in behaviour towards her. "Why are you being different?" she asked, her voice betraying her vulnerability.

Gold tilted his head and met her eyes; "Because I feel bad. Because what happened was out of order." She shook her head lightly at him, her mousey brown hair stroking across her neck with the movement, but his back remained firmly against the wall. "I took advantage."

She planted both hands on his chest and pushed herself into his body, her jaw sweeping up to his ear and whispered. "I wanted it."

Surprisingly Gold grabbed both her wrists and eased her back from his chest, and stepped away from the wall, putting distance between them again. "No you didn't Belle, you just wanted someone to be nice to you." The shortened moniker worked and with emotions soaring to her chest Annabelle pushed herself towards him again. He let her hands circle his waist bringing her body against his again. "I'm not like this…" he muttered in her ear "…I never even so much as flirt with the women." His own hands found her shoulders and traced down her back, leaving tracks of heat through her tank top, stopping just short of her ass before he slid them around to her hips and gently pushed her away from him, again.

Annabelle's emotions were running through her like crazy. She wanted him. What was he talking about?

"I'm a married man, Belle." He chided pathetically, his breath panting just a little from the recent proximity of her body to his. "It can't happen again and you have to forget all about it," he stated; his voice suddenly surprisingly calm. He turned to leave her cell, but a hand landed on the door and stopped him from opening it.

"Please wait," she pleaded, reaching forward to kiss him but he side-stepped out of her reach. He's much stronger than she is and pulled the door open, despite her preventative efforts, with ease.

"I love you." she stammered in a last ditch attempt, and he smiled to himself before turning his head to face her sternly.

"No you don't." he said and left her cell.

No she didn't, not really, but emotions and feelings became very easily exaggerated and magnified, when they were trapped inside a six by 8 ft cell, when they should have had the world to roam.

Zelena jumped down the steps of the metal staircase to the ground floor of the wing. She spotted Officer Nolan sticking some posters, with the word 'drugs' plastered on them in a large font, to the wall and slid up beside him, draping herself against the wall, pouting, to catch his attention.

"Loving the new wall paper, Sir." She drawled seductively, twirling a strand of curly, red hair around her finger. Nolan laughed, he knew it was all a game to the women, but it still unnerved him just a little, and handed her one of the posters.

"It's a serious issue Zelena," he said, and Zelena took the flyer from him and scanned down it. They really wanted to start clamping down on drugs then.

"You're right Sir, them junkie girls can make our lives a misery." She said and pulled herself from the wall.

"We're establishing a Dedicated Search Team, DST for short. They'll be separate from us officers so everything will be completely confidential," he elaborated sincerely. "We'll be putting up the anonymous boxes near the office later-on today." Zelena just smiled in response, and he smiled back briefly before moving on to the next section of wall destined to be re-decorated. What an excellent idea Governor, she thought, a sinister smile tracing her lips and a fool-proof plan forming in her head. No one called Zelena out in public and got away with it.

Emma didn't care that the water was barely lukewarm; standing for even five minutes under flowing water allowed her to regain some peace from the confinement of the prison walls. Despite the crap water pressure, the showers were one of the few places you could wrangle some real alone time in prison. Well, she smirked to herself, unless you explicitly wanted the company, but that was more than frowned upon. It wouldn't do to be having any 'fun' in prison. She was facing life inside so finding somewhere where she could enjoy some solitude was vital to remaining just that little bit human; just enough to stop her from being lost completely.

Emma bent down and lifted her bottle of shampoo from her wash bag. It was cheap stuff from commissary and smelt like green apples; if green apples were chemicals produced in a factory. She squirted some onto her hand and dropped the bottle back into her bag. She scrunched the shampoo into her hair and felt it foam up around her fingers. She massaged a little longer than necessary to simply wash her hair, enjoying the feeling of her nerves coming alive again, before stepping back under the flow and letting the foam run down her naked body and into the shower drain. She raked her hands through her hair, rinsing the last bits of shampoo out, closed her eyes and tried to imagine she was anywhere but there; in a crappy prison shower cubicle with cracking grey tiles that tried to pretend they were once white. She grabbed her body wash from her bag and tried to scrub all traces of prison from her skin; pointless she knew, but the action made her feel a little better all the same.

Feeling confident that she had scrubbed as much grime off her skin as she was able with the less than desirable water quality, she turned off the shower and squeezed any excess water from her hair. She pulled her towel down from the cubicle door and dried her body, before shrugging her dressing gown and slippers on to make her way back to the wing. She paused just a moment longer before opening to door, revelling in the silence of the shower room. Mid-day showering might not offer the best water temperature but it sure was quieter. She sighed deeply and mentally prepared herself for joining the real world again. Well, her real world, prison; and the peace she regained during her shower started to fade as the years stretched out before her: endless.

"Emma!" Regina called down the hall, after seeing a mass of damp blonde hair slip out from the bathrooms. She faltered a little when Emma spun to face her clad in only a dressing gown, clutching her wash bag. What was it with her always catching Emma Swan less than fully dressed?

"I wanted to talk to you about Ashley." She called as she proceeded in Emma's direction, her heels echoing sharply on the hard floor.

Emma's face hardened at the mention of Ashley's name, and Regina felt a little betrayed by the look. So they still hadn't got past that. Maybe it was her own fault bringing Ashley up again but she wanted Emma to understand.

"Her being shipped out; Emma, it went over my head." Regina assured a silent Emma, whose eyes widened in mock surprise.

"And I bet it was to stop her suing us for negligence; just like you think." Regina added and hit the nail right on the head with Emma's views on the whole thing, but she sure as hell wasn't about to admit to Regina that she had got something right.

"Right," Emma replied, "Just makes it even more amazing to me that you can stick your job." she practically spits, before turning her back on Regina and continuing down the hallway back to the wing.

Why wasn't Emma letting her have even just an inch? They had joined forces only days before and here she was acting like Regina was still just like every other screw. Regina tried to brush it off; don't let her know

"You still don't think I can do any good then?" Regina called after her, and Emma stopped still and sighed. What the hell was she projecting to Mills that said; 'Emma Swan: feel better about yourself here'?

As Emma turned back to face her Wing Governor she spotted the drugs poster stuck to the wall behind Regina's head and smiled shaking her head.

"I think you make a good poster." Emma nodded her head towards the wall at Regina's perplexed expression. "Very eye catching," she said the sarcasm dripping from her voice as she gave Regina what she obviously wanted; acknowledgment for all the 'good' she was doing.

Regina raised her eyebrows questioningly, and crossed her arms in front of her chest defiantly. "So you think it's pointless protecting your civil liberties as non-drug users?" she quizzed seeing through Emma's bullshit comment. "You're the ones who have to put up with it because we don't tackle those inmates properly." Emma just laughed shortly at her and shook her head, as if Regina had missed some vital detail.

Shit. Was Emma a drug user?

"Oh tell me you don't take drugs, Emma." Regina almost pleaded, her eyes narrowing as she tucked a strand of dark brown hair behind her ear. Emma was one of her best hopes for improving her wing; she didn't want to lose her to the wrong side of the drugs fight.

Emma just smirked at her, her eyes squinted a little and her tongue nipping out briefly to lick her lips. She looked deep into Regina's dark, hopeful eyes, teasing her with the promise of a heartfelt response.

"I'm not telling you anything." Emma replied, and had fully intended to turn away bluntly to make her point, but she found herself caught in Regina's gaze. She managed to snap herself out of it after a few seconds, but it was still a few seconds longer than she'd planned, and she turned making her way back to wing.

Regina just stared after the blonde prisoner, shaking her head; getting through to Emma Swan was going to take some strength, but Regina was more than confident that she had it.