This story was thought up and written (for the first three chapters) by a wonderful writer, JadedAngelisRising. She opened up the possibility of someone finishing it up for her, so everything from Chapter 3 will be my own writing. I will be sticking to her story-line as much as I can.
Chapters will be posted as close to weekly as I can get.
Regina Mills was exhausted, but that was nothing new, she had been for over a week now. Emma kept her up most nights, with her heartbroken sobs, and truth be told Regina felt like sobbing most nights too.
They still hadn't gotten over the loss of their daughter, she was beginning to believe they never would. Still, while she afforded Emma time off to grieve, considering she had been the one to experience the miscarriage, Regina refused to allow herself such time. She chose instead to break down at night, when Emma had locked herself away, to try and pull herself back together.
The woman only gave herself a few moments, just long enough to let go some of the anger that was slowly building at the world, because even if she deserved suffering like this for all she's done, someone as caring and kind as Emma Swan certainly did not.
'Swan-Mills' her mind whispered, as she slumped over onto her desk, letting her head fall against the wood with a resolute thud. She knew she needed to go home, but truthfully she didn't want to have to pretend to be okay for Emma or Henry, because she wasn't.
She wanted to lash out, and hurt someone, she wanted to scream and cry until nothing remained of her grief, until she didn't feel like she was drowning anymore. Because they needed her, her family needed her more than anything and she was failing so badly at protecting them. She wanted so desperately to bring them any sort of happiness, because she felt their pain so completely, anything to ease what they were feeling, even a little.
And that, is why Regina Mills ended up at the Storybrooke animal shelter at five-thirty at night, looking over the selection of puppies.
Though most of the time she loathed anything that could potentially ruin her home, and disrupt her life so much like the tiny fur ball would, she knew that Henry had been asking for a puppy for as long as he could talk, and that even Emma had insisted on getting one lately.
As she glanced into each cage, Regina couldn't help but feel sorry for the mutts. Whilst she knew they were well taken care of, much like she and Emma, none of them had been wanted either. So, as she came upon the last cage, containing a small black puppy with eyes oddly like Emma's, a beautiful shade of green, and she couldn't help but soften her expression.
Turning to the employee who had been hovering just behind her the whole time, she offered an overly exasperated sigh and pointed to it. "This one will do just fine," the teenage boy looked at her so confused as if she had just asked him what the square root of twelve was.
"That one? No one ever picks that one, they say it's an outcast."
Regina's anger flared, and she had to work hard to control it, to keep herself from unleashing every ounce of anger she was feeling on this boy. "I don't care what other people say, I want this one. Now do your job."
The boy quickly moved away from her to pull all the necessary forms and bring them back to her, while she took the puppy from the cage herself.
Signing everything with one hand, using the boy's back as a table of sorts she got everything sorted out quickly. She also bought the puppy a purple leash and matching collar, then everything else it would need.
As she was preparing to leave, the boy called out to her, "Oh… Madam Mayor, it needs a name before leaving." Regina brought herself up, just short of the doors, another long sigh escaping her, as she turned to look at the boy shrugging a bit and merely uttering one word, "Hope." Then she turned on her heel and left, before the insufferable teenager could see the tears beginning to gather in her eyes.
The drive home seemed simultaneously like the longest, and shortest drive of her life, far too much like the drive home from the hospital with Emma after they lost their daughter. Unlike that drive though, Regina was filled with something other than despair and that hollow pit of grief forming low in her stomach.
She felt, like for the first time in a week, she could breathe again as she pulled into the driveway and brought the things to the front door Regina wondered for a moment, what it was about her and 'collecting' societies so called outcasts.
Regina walked into the house quietly, unwilling to disturb the eerie quiet that had settled over the house. It hadn't been this quiet since the night they made the frantic drive to the hospital, it unnerved her now the way the house had fallen into an uncomfortable silence.
"Emma?" Regina was quiet too, aware that Emma could be in the middle of any of her recent activities, she just hoped she wouldn't find her curled up in their closet with the pink blanket they had gotten the baby.
That was when Regina knew it was really bad, because that meant Emma was close to another breakdown. Carefully, Regina set Hope down, and the clicking of the puppy's nails filled her with a slight sense of relief. Quickly, she made her way into the study, not at all surprised to hear the sniffling that meant Emma was in there.
She silently slid the door open, walking over to her wife quietly, and wrapping her in a tight hug as the puppy found her way into the room. Emma started quickly at the sight of the black bundle of fur, pulling away from Regina to get a better look at her, a slight angry cloud claiming her face, but she held it well just trying to cheer up because she knew it made Regina sad to see her so upset.
"Why now? Why, after everything that's happened, why… What's her name?" Regina frowned softly at the questions, sighing softly, "Because, we need happiness again… Hope can bring that." Emma visibly stiffened and frowned deeply at the puppy then, "Seriously Regina?" The woman nodded slowly, as tears filled both their eyes, Hope… Their precious daughter whom they had lost at thirty weeks into the pregnancy.
"A puppy… to fill the void of a baby?"
No, Regina's mind wanted to reject that idea, shut it down as quickly as possible because that's not what she wanted at all. "No, Emma, no one and nothing can ever fill the void that Hope created, she will always be a part of the family. However, maybe... The puppy can help us heal, and try to move past this."
Emma knew she would need time, but, she thought that maybe, just maybe this puppy could help their family see that this didn't have to be a permanent scar or trauma for them. "We'll have to tell Henry, you know. He'll be, really excited."
Of course Regina knew that, this was the whole point of the puppy, to try and help them come to terms with this.
However, as always, she had other ideas, and this when done at the right time could be a great thing for the family. Regina knew though, this wasn't the time for that, and so she tucked the new set of adoption papers further into her purse, there would be a time to discuss this, they had their whole lives ahead of them and all the time in the world to add to their family.
For now, the puppy would be enough. And that night, the silence reined over the house once more, and Regina silently thanked Hope, -their baby, and their new puppy- for giving them reasons to love, and grieve, and learn to move passed it and love again.
