Author's Note: Takes place after the great Swan Queen Reunion ("Queen of Hearts") of season 2 but before Rumple demands Emma accompany him out of Storybrooke.
Posted on 7/19 as part of #swanqueenweek "Body Swap" theme day.
Summary: Magic is different here. One night as Regina curls up alone in her bed, across town Emma lays down with Henry after a heart-to-heart. Regina is struggling with her redemption and her mother who revealed a surprising detail about Emma: the Queen of Hearts could not take the Savior's heart. Emma is thinking just as hard about Regina, sure to her bones that Regina needs help to fight off her mother...
A Mile In Her Shoes
by LZClotho
Dawn breaks, and Regina blinks into the sunlight, surprised it would be coming into her room so brightly from her west-facing windows. Then she realizes she's not wrapped around a pillow as she had been when falling asleep, but rather a body. Henry's body. She studies the peaceful repose of her son's face for a long moment. What is he doing in bed with her? On the heels of that thought is fear. If he stays with her Cora almost certainly will use him to force Regina to do her bidding. But, if Henry is here is Emma also close by?
It's only then that Regina realizes she is not, in fact, in her bedroom at all. She sees Emma Swan's red jacket hanging on the back of a chair which Regina knows does not exist in her room. Further examination reveals more unfamiliar things and Regina understands she must be in the apartment Emma and Henry share with the two idiots. How on earth did I get here?
With reluctance, Regina separates from Henry and rises from the bed. A shiver makes her look down at her body to see the lower half of a familiar white tank top, and red boy shorts. Below that is a pair of bare muscular legs that end in broad feet with black painted toenails. Regina inhales sharply.
She's not just in Emma Swan's apartment. Somehow, she is in Emma Swan. She only just manages to stifle the urge to scream, slapping a hand over her mouth, before it can come bubbling out. A whine, in Emma's grating tones, squeezes past anyway.
"Emma?" Henry's sleepy voice sounded behind her.
Regina's heart clenches as she turns. Smiling lightly, she takes in the sweet sight of Henry rubbing at his eyes, dark hair mussed, pajamas haphazardly twisted on his body. He blinks and beams up at her. There is none of the hesitation and none of the suspicion to which Regina has become accustomed. It reminds her of Henry in kindergarten, the summer he spent without his front teeth, and yet everything new that happened excited and pleased him and he was eager to share it all with her.
Tears fill her eyes and she brushes at them with the back of her right hand.
"Emma? What's wrong?"
She shakes her head and murmurs, "Nothing." She swallows and pushes a smile onto her lips. "Ready for breakfast?"
Henry scrunches up his nose. "Can we...?" He trails off.
"I'll make your favorite omelet," she suggests.
"How do you know...?"
Regina shakes herself. "Well, what would you like?"
"I'll just have cereal." He sounds like that was the least desirable option, his tone solemn.
"You don't want me to cook for you?" She sounds, in Emma's voice, rather pathetic.
"It's OK," Henry replies. "You've got other things to do. You were right last night. You should probably get to the station."
That piques Regina's curiosity. "About what?"
"To figure out a way to get my mom away from her mother."
"Em - I mean, you think I should do that?"
"You told me you met Cora. You didn't think there was a whole lot my mom could do about what happened to her."
Emma thought that? Really? Regina recalls Emma's words to her at the Wishing Well. "Your mom... She's a real piece of work, y'know?" They had not spoken further about Cora, but on some level Emma apparently thought differently about Regina as a result. Regina is not sure she likes Miss Swan thinking she knows her so well.
Henry breaks into Regina's thoughts. "So, you go. If we're going to stop whatever Cora is really after, it's going to have to be soon."
"Are you certain you can get yourself ready for school and get to the bus stop on time?"
Henry rolls his eyes as he rolls out of bed. "I went all the way to Boston on my own."
Regina nods. "Yes, you did. All right. I'll go to the Sheriff's office."
Henry launches himself across the room toward her, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Good luck! I know you can do it!" In the next instant, like a whirling dervish, he has blown from the room, the stillness as rattling as the chaos only moments before.
Regina finds herself staring at her reflection - or rather Emma's reflection - in the small bathroom mirror. "So you've been thinking I need saving?" Skepticism shines back at her through the shadows in green eyes and the curve of her shoulders. She straightens herself. It strikes her then, as Emma's body takes on Regina's posture and looks rather absurd doing so, that Regina hasn't heard a peep from Emma's spirit. So, if she isn't actually sharing this body with the other woman, where did she go?
She worries at her bottom lip at the prospect that Emma wasn't anywhere. As much blood as Regina has on her hands from a lifetime of vengeance, she truly doesn't want Emma's. They might fight, two cats hissing over the same prize, but Henry would be devastated. When Regina realized that, Emma became safe from her.
That didn't mean the blonde was safe from everyone. She wonders if Rumple, or Cora, had caused this. How could Regina find out what had happened? She didn't even know yet how the transfer had taken place. She needs the book of magic locked in her safe at the mansion. Her only save, she realizes, is Cora has no idea it is there. They had only come up from Regina's safe room under the mausoleum the day before.
It would look strange for Emma Swan to just let herself into Regina's home, even with the Sheriff's shady past. Then Regina thought about it again. It wouldn't be unusual for the Sheriff to demand entry to the mansion. Under the guise of an investigation. And, at least according to Henry, she had already expressed the desire to seek out Regina.
Her course of action seemed clear. Regina turns to the next order of business: dressing. She steps up to an armoire standing in the corner and pulls open the doors. Faced with a paltry selection of clothes, certainly ones she would never choose for herself, Regina selects one of the three pairs of jeans, a blue cotton button-down shirt, and starts stripping.
A careless glance around for a likely place the blonde would store undergarments, however, and Regina's gaze is caught in a long mirror. This time she wasn't lost in the green gaze, but the embarrassing amount of milk-cream colored skin on display.
She squeezes her eyes shut and turns away. Opening her eyes once again, she spies a small dresser. Please let it have underwear! she thinks and lunges at it, her heart unaccountably racing. She finds a black bra - who thought the rough-n-tumble former bondswoman owned anything that lacy - and more of the skimpy, snug boy-style panties in her choice of red, black, or powder blue. Determined to at least meet some of her own sensibilities, Regina grabs the black boy shorts. She puts everything on with her eyes closed, senses heightened by the snap of elastic, and the feel of the roughened pads of fingers across her abdomen. It's unnerving, as if someone else - Emma - is undressing her. Once she is covered, with the aid of the mirror, she tucks in the shirt and goes to button the cuffs, only to realized the sleeves are too long. Then she remembers Emma wears several of her shirts with rolled sleeves. She sighs and rolls them to just below her elbows.
Examining the effect critically in the mirror, Regina is finally left with the matter of Miss Swan's hair. The long blonde locks are a mass of riotous curls. She tries to recall Emma's style, only to recall she'd worn it any number of ways, from ponytail to single and double hair clips, to nothing at all. So she finger-combs it, finding the strands surprisingly silk-soft. Who'd have thought the woman took such close care of her hair? Her fingers linger after the task of finally securing a ponytail. Regina has a flash image of stroking a sleeping Emma's hair. Would she have done that had it been Emma who ate the poisoned apple instead of Henry? Shaking off the unsettling thought, Regina tackles Emma's boots. She refuses, however, to touch the red jacket.
Her stomach flutters. Pressing her hand to it, she glances at the door, then back at the reflection of Emma in the mirror. She prays this works.
"Henry!" she calls. "If you're ready, I can take you to school." There is no response.
Heading down the steps into the apartment's kitchen, Regina finds an abandoned cereal bowl and spoon in the sink, and no sign of Henry.
She spots a small bowl on a table by the door and grabs the keys laid within. She tests them in the front door locks and finds the one to lock the apartment. She can only hope one of the others starts Emma's car.
Halfway down the steps when the thought struck, Regina freezes in place and groans. She is going to have to drive that yellow death-trap, isn't she? She closes her eyes, inhales and exhales, and then finally frowns. Damn, she hopes she can fix this mess soon.
.
Author's Note: Next up, where's Emma?