So I finally wrote that sequel to Science Doesn't Have an Answer for This. And if you haven't read that, you probably should go read that first to get the full impact here. Since this is also my Big Bang Story, there's art that goes along with this story over at AO3. It's great, cashmerecandycane did a wonderful job and I'm still screaming happily about it a month later. So yeah, now story time.


Regina drew in a deep breath. It smelled just as she remembered. Almost everything was as she remembered. In a universe that tended toward chaos, always changing, always breaking down into minute pieces and reassembling into something completely different, Storybrooke always managed to resist that impulse. Storefronts had a new coat of paint on them, the people were older, there was a new group of young ones running around, and yet somehow it was still the same. It had to be a special property of small towns.

She smiled slightly, thinking of ridiculous experiments that could be run to prove such a hypothesis. They would have to be long running of course, nothing like what she was thinking of could be proved at a glance. There would need to be a control set up in a large city, and maybe something mid-sized as well to pin point just what it was that kept small towns as they were for seeming eons.

Though she supposed ten years was only an eon to those who had both felt trapped in this town when they were young and felt a slight longing for it once they left. Regina didn't think she'd really started to feel the longing until she couldn't go back. She had burned her one bridge to Storybrooke the second she had chosen to pursue her doctorate in physics instead of graduating and becoming a political analyst like her mother wanted. Nothing made you want to return to a place like the fact that you couldn't.

But her mother was dead now. She had stressed herself into a massive heart attack the year before. She had attended the funeral and had even felt sadness, but regret…she didn't think there would be any. She had no illusions that the world would be better with one less person like her mother. She felt free and only years of therapy had let her see that there was no guilt in that.

She kept walking, hearing the waves beating against the beach now, getting closer to the shoreline with every step. It was mild, summer having come finally to the north after a hard winter. Regina hadn't been around to witness it, but her father had told her it was one of the worst on record. She worried about him dealing with such winters now that he was getting older, but she knew that he wouldn't leave the area until he was dead. At least this fall she would be closer, if you could call Boston closer. It was closer than Pasadena, but it was still hours away. She supposed she would figure out something better when it was really necessary. For now her father was still working and leading an active lifestyle and if his smile was a little bigger in the last year, well she wasn't saying anything.

Her old high school came into view and her heart swelled. This was the place where her life had all started, the place that had set her on the path she was on now. She saw the banner across the gym declaring the 10th reunion of her class in large silver letters on a black background, glinting in the sun. The reunion wasn't the only reason she was in town, or really the reason at all, but she wasn't not going to go since she was here. She hadn't seen Ruby face to face for years and it had been a while for Kathryn too. They had all kept in touch miraculously. Daniel would have kept in touch, if he had made it past that first summer after high school. One riding accident and he was gone. They had felt his loss for a long time, but now it was only a dull ache.

She walked along the build and back to the parking lot. School was finished for the year so no one would be back there, but she felt as if she needed to see everything, the parking lot, the playing fields that extended off the back of the school stretching away to the sand dunes that separated everything from the cliffs and the seashore. She had been by before in her few summers at home during undergrad, but this felt more somehow.

Regina turned the corner expecting the peaceful empty scene she'd called up, but gasped. There was a bright yellow VW bug sitting alone in the parking lot. It couldn't be. And it wasn't exactly. The car in front of her wasn't that death trap of a bug she remember, but one of the new models, redesigned and sleeker than the older counterpart, but still that god awful shade of yellow. She felt her lips turning up at the corners despite herself.

Regina had lost contact with Miss Swan during the chaos of being disowned by her mother. That summer she had come home and told her mother she had accepted her offer from Caltech and the next morning she had been kicked out of her house with nothing but the clothes on her back. She had planned for it, really. She had a paid internship lined up in Boston, the lease on her apartment from the school year hadn't run out until August and her mother had paid up front for it, and there was enough nonperishable food there to last her until her first paycheck came through. But she hadn't planned for her mother to take her phone, laptop, and car in the process. By the time she had gotten another cell phone months later she'd already realized that her mother had deleted her iCloud account and with it all her contacts. She had wanted Regina to come crawling back to her.

She hadn't.

Her feet carried her forward. Six years. It had been six years since she had talked to Miss Swan and she had felt them dearly. Of course she had moved on in a way. She had started to at the end of her senior year. She had loved the other woman dearly, so very dearly, but she had realized that loving someone that much sometimes meant letting go of them, at least in the romantic sense. The stabbing intensity had departed for something more like a mild ache of something that could have been, but never was, and she was fine with that. She had gained a friend that supported her through everything, who had helped plan everything that she would need for when her mother disowned her, who cheered her through finals, and projects, and research problems.

And God, had she missed her. Her fingers touched the shiny yellow paint of the Bug and she sighed. It was disaster on the inside, she could see that through the windows. She had thought that Miss Swan would leave Storybrooke once she had gotten a few years under her belt, but she knew this was her car. Everything about it screamed of the other woman. She was still here.

Regina felt herself tear up just a bit at that. She could have that friend again. Her head lifted and she looked around. Miss Swan had to be around here somewhere if her car was here. The obvious answer was that she was inside the school, but Regina couldn't get in there so that answer didn't do much for her. She didn't want to just sit around waiting like some sort of freak. It would be better if it seemed as if she had just happened upon the other woman.

But yet she knew that she would wait if she had to, to see Miss Swan again. She walked around to the front of the car and leaned against the hood, feeling the light breeze against her face. Sitting like this it wasn't hard to imagine that the last ten years hadn't happened. Waiting for Miss Swan brought her back to the time before her post doc, before her Ph.D., before even undergrad. It was scary to feel so young again for that moment. Her experience in the world was what had kept her afloat all these years alone in the world. And yet she couldn't regret it.

She heard the sound of the automatic door clicking open and her eyes snapped open. There Miss Swan was after all these years, arms full of boxes and papers and a thousand other things. Regina was moving forward before she even knew what was happening. She met Miss Swan halfway, just as the other woman was about to drop something. She caught it and took some more of the load from the woman's arms.

"I see time hasn't changed much, has it? Is this all from your desk?" Regina asked, looking into clear green eyes. Somehow the woman in front of her had gotten more beautiful in the years she hadn't seen her.

"Regina," Miss Swan said, surprised.

"Hello, Miss Swan, long time no see."

Miss Swan dropped everything that was in her arms to the ground and pulled Regina into a crushing hug. "Oh my god, when I didn't hear from you I thought your mother had murdered you or something."

Regina's heart was beating hard, butterflies instantly in her stomach. She hadn't felt this way in years and one touch and she was fallen all over again. She wrapped her arms around Miss Swan and hugged her back hard, smelling that tinge of chemical laced cinnamon of the chemistry room and then there was that undertone of the metallic scent of rain and lilies that was Miss Swan. So many memories hit her at the same time she felt overloaded. Scent was the strongest sense tied to memory, she knew that, but oh god feeling it was another thing.

When they pulled apart Regina took a deep breath of fresh air to right herself. "Well, you aren't completely wrong. She took away my phone, laptop, and car then kicked me out and told me if she ever saw me again she'd destroy me. Ruby had to drive me to the bus station and buy a ticket to Boston for me. To add insult to injury she deleted all the accounts that were logged in on my computer so all my contacts were gone when I did manage to scrape together enough money for a phone months later. I tried to search you out on social media and google but I couldn't no matter how I tried. Mother had enough friends in the school to stone wall me every time I called here as well."

"My god." Miss Swan backed up and sat down on the curb. "I stopped looking after six months. I…well after a while I thought that you just didn't want to talk to me anymore." She shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "It happens, sometimes people just fade away like that, all of a sudden."

It had been years, and so Regina couldn't quite pinpoint what, but she knew something was wrong. She sat down beside Miss Swan and leaned against her. "Some people do, yes, but I didn't, at least not by choice. You were too important to me. You still are. I saw your car in the parking lot and the first thing I thought was it wasn't too late to see you again. Some people are just too important to fade."

Miss Swan took a shuddering breath and nodded. "Well then, we have a lot to catch up on then, don't we?" She looked over at Regina with a smile. "Why don't we start with why you're in town?"

A breeze blew and picked up some of the papers that Miss Swan had dropped. The older woman squawked and lunged after them. "Damn it I knew I should have put everything in folders!"

Regina laughed for a few seconds before getting up and helping Miss Swan gather up the wayward papers. This time the other woman walked over to her car and unlocked it before throwing everything in the back seat. Regina cocked an eyebrow at that action.

"Are you sure you're going to be able to find everything you throw back there when you get home?" she asked.

Miss Swan stuck her tongue out. "It's an organized mess. I know where everything is."

Regina snorted. "Like you did when I was in high school?"

"Hush, you know too much." She took the papers from Regina's hands and threw them down with the others and shut the door. "You didn't get a chance to answer my question, why are you here?"

"Visiting my father before I start my job, mostly. My apartment in LA's lease was up at the end of last month, and my apartment in Boston's lease doesn't start until the beginning of next, so I thought I'd spend my free time here. It definitely beats paying for short term storage and staying in a hotel."

"What about your mother?"

Regina looked over at the other woman. "How did you not hear? I was told it was a rather large to-do when she died last year. There was some ceremony for her celebrating how much she did for the community and everything."

Miss Swan shrugged. "I don't pay attention to town news much. The news I keep up with is more national and international in scope." She paused for just a moment. "I'm not sad that I missed that funeral, though."

Regina hummed. "I don't blame you, though if you had come perhaps we would have seen each other again a year sooner."

"You make a good point." Miss Swan leaned against her car. "But now that she's dead you can come home again, I assume since you're here."

"Yes, I can. I have been, but LA is far away and plane tickets are costly even for a postdoc."

"You did a postdoc?" Miss Swan perked up.

"I did. Caltech wanted me to continue my research after my graduation so they offered me a position. It was a wonderful experience. The professor I worked under for my Ph.D. and postdoc was so amazing. He had so much to teach and was perhaps the kindest person I've ever met." She looked away for just a second before meeting Miss Swan's eyes again. "I have only one regret about going to grad school there, and now that seems to be righted."

Miss Swan smiled slightly. "Yeah, so it appears." She scuffed her feet on the ground. "Do you want to get dinner? It's Friday and that Mexican place I took you to your senior year still has that tamale dish that's to die for only on Fridays. Since we have a lot to catch up on that's probably a good place to do it, don't you think?"

She felt like she did years ago when Miss Swan had invited her to dinner the first time. God, would all of this be just a flashback to when she was eighteen?

"Yes, I think that's a wonderful idea."

"Awesome. Um, just let me clean out the front seat so you have somewhere to sit."

Regina laughed until her sides hurt, leaning against the side of the Bug, sun surrounding her, and feeling more complete than she had in a long time. "Things really don't change, do they?" She asked when she finally got her breath back.

Miss Swan looked at her with a smile, opening her passenger door. "The important things don't."

"I'm not exactly sure your messiness is an important thing."

The other woman tilted her head, giving Regina that point. "I meant more who I am as a person and who you are hasn't changed. Messiness is a part of that, though you're right if I could ditch that I would be totally cool with it." She scooped some papers up out of the seat and tossed them in the back.

"Any reason your car looks like twice the mess as normal?"

"I'm cleaning out my classroom by degrees. Doing it all at once would be a disaster."

"You cleaning?"

"I think we have already established the fact that I don't do it often enough, Regina." She stuck out her tongue. "There's no need to harp on it." She stepped back a second later and nodded. "There, paper free seat. Milady." Miss Swan bowed cornily and gestured for Regina to sit down.

Regina snorted but slipped into the passenger seat as Miss Swan walked around and practically flop into the driver's side. She started the car and it actually sounded like a regular car starting unlike the Bug before it which always sounded like it was on the verge of death and destruction every time the key was turned. The interior was less cramped too she was glad to notice.

"No, but seriously, I'm moving school systems so I have to get everything that's mine out of my old classroom."

Regina looked over at Miss Swan. "Where are you moving too?" Her stomach fell through the bottom of the car and onto the ground and may have just kept plummeting. She had found the other woman just to lose her proximity again. She bit the inside of her lip hard. At least they would be able to exchange phone numbers again.

"Boston, well Brookline technically because I'll be teaching in Brookline Public Schools, but that's basically Boston if not in name."

A small smile bloomed on Regina's face. Brookline was close to where she would be, very close. She wouldn't be losing the other woman at all, quite the opposite. They could even have coffee together on their days off if they wanted to, and oh how Regina wanted to.

"Oh, I'll be in Cambridge. We'll be close then."

"Yeah, I guess we will." Miss Swan smiled over at her before shifting into gear and driving out of the parking lot. "So obviously I'm teaching there, what are you doing? Working with your alma mater?"

Regina shook her head. "I have an associate professorship at MIT."

Miss Swan whistled. "Jesus, Regina, that's amazing. I would hug you again but I don't think we want to crash."

"No, I don't think that would be a good idea," she said deadpan. "But thank you." She looked out the window for a few seconds, watching the town she once knew like the back of her hand whip by. "You're the one who inspired me to want to teach." Her words were quiet, but she felt the weight of them in the air. It was funny how infinitesimally small things could affect things so much, but that was why she was a particle physicist, wasn't it. She loved investigating such effects. However, those effects usually weren't so important to her. She wanted to see how her words would land.

"Wow," Miss Swan finally said. "Hearing that from you, the smartest person I think I've met, and most definitely the best student I've had, that means…honestly there aren't any words for it." Her hand reached out for Regina and found it resting on Regina's lap. She squeezed it once firmly before resting her arm back on the center consol. "Did I ever tell you why I got into teaching?"

"No, I don't think you did."

They pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant and into a parking space. Miss Swan turned fully to Regina and made no move to go into the Mexican place just yet. "You know I was a foster kid, and one that didn't have a great time in the system."

Regina nodded. Of course she did, that was one of the reasons why Miss Swan had had such good advice on how to deal with her mother. They had spoken about various situations that the older woman had ended up in, some good but most were not. She couldn't forget about that.

"There's one and only one reason why I'm sitting here today. In high school there was this English teacher, her name was Miss Blanchard." She smiled fondly. "The woman was in her mid-twenties when I met her but she dressed like an old lady with pastel cardigans and all. I was a sophomore and fifteen and thought I knew it all because I had a bad home life and what more could there be out there for someone no one wanted?"

"But Miss Blanchard wasn't really having any of that. She was very into helping everyone, sometimes to the point of it blowing up worse than before, but she had a good heart. She basically just kept after me and after me and made me come in for tutoring and tracked me down during her free period when I skipped school and then dragged me back in, and honestly she became the mom I never had, you know? And from sophomore year on it was like that. It still is like that, really. I go over to her house for holidays and was a bridesmaid in her wedding and I watch their kids on occasion, the whole nine yards. And the reason I wanted to be a teacher was so that I could be someone like that to the kids I taught. Super idealistic, I'm well aware, but it doesn't have to be all the kids that come through my door, it only has to be a few, maybe only one, but as long as I help someone, it will all be worth it to me."

Regina took a deep breath. She reached out for Miss Swan's hand and took it, not letting go. "You helped me, more than you will ever realize, you helped me. You're here because of Miss Blanchard but I'm here because of you."

Miss Swan interlaced the fingers of their hands. "Thank you." Their moment stretched for a long few seconds, words flowing between them without being spoken, body language and eye movements doing the work that a thousand words could. There was something there that hadn't been years ago. Regina couldn't place it, but it was certainly there.

"Well, I'm definitely not a surrogate mother to you, but friend, good friends mean just as much, sometimes more." Miss Swan's words broke the moment, but the smile on her face softened the blow of having their small bubble popped.

"Yes, they do." Regina squeezed Miss Swan's hand before pulling away. "What do you say we go get those tamales before your stomach start growling?"

Miss Swan blushed. "Of course you remember that."

She slid from the car. "Miss Swan, you'll find I remember just about everything about you." She shut the door and waited patiently for the other woman to join her.

Regina didn't have to wait long before Miss Swan was popping out of the car and walking around the car to her.

"You can't remember everything."

They started to walk towards the entrance of the restaurant at last.

"No, statistically that is impossible, but as I said, just about everything, not everything. There is a distinction in there."

"So I see that Caltech refined your sarcastic tendencies."

Regina laughed. "You have to do something to keep sane when pursuing a Ph.D. in physics."

"Uh huh, sure."

The hostess, a girl of about high school age, bustled from the back of the restaurant and smiled at them. "Hey Miss Swan, here for the Friday special again? And this time you roped a friend into it."

"Yeah, Maria, I am. What can I say, your Mom's cooking is to die for and I have to spread the love."

"She'll be glad to hear it, just like she is every week. Mama never gets tired of your compliments, nor anyone else's." She grinned and led them both to a table in the back. It wasn't the same table from years ago, but it was in the same section. Regina looked over at that table with a wistful smile. She remembered feeling so much hope back then, untempered by reality. Oh, she still had hope now, but it was different, smaller, it reached for things mostly attainable, but still present and still strong.

She looked across the table to Miss Swan. Her hope was strong enough to ignite all that long ago yearning. Regina couldn't quite begrudge that.

"Student?" Regina asked

Miss Swan nodded. "Yup, from last year's bunch. She's a bright kid and a hard worker."

Regina nodded. A comfortable silence fell between the two of them. She had always heard about the people you could fall in with after years and years and be as comfortable as you were before the separation, but she had never actually experienced it. It was a bit of a relief now to have that be the case with Miss Swan. She didn't know what she would have done if things had been awkward between them. It would have popped one of the few idealistic bubbles she had left with, she was sure. In the long run it wouldn't have hurt much, but at first it would have stung a great deal.

Their waiter showed up a minute later and took their drink orders. Regina spent a few seconds looking over the menu before deciding quickly and glancing back at Miss Swan.

"So why Boston now?" she asked.

Miss Swan shrugged. "I felt it was time for a change. Storybrooke is nice and I enjoy it, but it was never meant to be a stopping point for me, you know?"

"You did tell me that you were only here because there was a job here."

"Yeah, I planned on putting in five years here to get a leg up on all the new teachers coming out of school for the good jobs, but then I decided to stay another year after the pay raise five years brought and save up the extra money for a nicer apartment. The next year I decided right around the same time that you were applying to grad school that I wanted a masters and that would really give me a leg up. I finished up last year then applied to jobs all of this year. I applied all over to whatever big city caught my eye and I had a couple interviews, one skype interview for a school in LA, a couple in New York City, and three in Boston. I took the school in Brookline obviously, it's a gorgeous place and a great school, and honestly I wanted something with a little more diversity than Storybrooke."

Regina played with the straw the waiter had left absently. "Storybrooke is very, very white bread. I don't think I realized how much until I went off to college."

Miss Swan snickered. "Yeah, I remembered the culture shellshock you went through, but you did well."

Now Regina felt herself blushing just a bit. "I like to think so, but there's still so many problematic thought processes I have to work around."

"Everyone has those, as long as you keep working on it, that's all anyone can ask."

The waiter came back with their drinks and took their order before disappearing into the wings again.

"So, obviously grad school went well if you have a position at MIT waiting after the summer ends, and you said you worked with an awesome professor, but what else? Did you meet anyone special, go skydiving, rocky mountain climbing?"

"Yes, all of the above, I also went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu." She shook her head. "Has Storybrooke really gotten to you that much that you know country music lyrics now?"

"Hey! You're the one who completed them, pot calling the kettle black here."

Regina cocked an eyebrow. "Miss Swan, I grew up here, some things you just learn by osmosis and can't unlearn."

"And yet I remember you being the one to give me a lecture about learning by osmosis not really being a thing."

"I was sixteen, give me a break."

"I suppose I will." Miss Swan's eyes were tickling in the dim light of the restaurant and Regina's breath caught. How was it that they could have such a similar dinner here ten years a part? How was it that this woman was so fucking beautiful that it left her reduced to profanity and utterly breathless. She felt her hands clench into fists, trying to distract herself from the sight in front of her, but the trick that had worked for her before did not now.

"And call me Emma. You've been out of school for ten years now, it's a little odd for you to still call me Miss Swan since you've been my friend longer than you ever were my student."

Oh and if Regina was having problems before, she was having utter catastrophes going on inside her now. Miss Swan had asked her to call her Emma. They were going to be on a first name basis. It was all she ever wanted when she was younger. It was still.

"And there are like five years between us, someone is going to think it's some weird sex thing eventually." Miss Sw—Emma laughed again with that same glint in her eyes.

Regina couldn't help but laugh along too. "Something tells me that that is not one of your kinks."

Emma shivered. "God no, could you imagine how awkward work would be if it was? They are completely different situations of course, but like, I feel like one inevitable day the wires would just get crossed and the completely wrong thing would come tumbling out of someone's mouth and Jesus would I not want to risk that. I have my kinks, don't get me wrong, but I keep them very, very far away from the school environment."

Regina's face was flaming red now, she could tell, but not for the obvious reason. Oh no, she wasn't embarrassed, or well, it wasn't all that, but she was turned on as well. Images were flashing behind her eyelids of every possible kink the woman in front of her could have and scenarios where the two of them played them out together. She had thought that the years would calm this down, but maybe she had lost her immunity in the years they'd been apart.

"But your smartassery never answered my question, how was grad school? Stories of significant other mishaps, experiments going horribly wrong, idiot undergrads that you were TAing, I'll listen to whatever you want to tell me." She sat forward, eager.

"Well…" Regina trailed off, eyes looking up to the left, trying to remember something truly noteworthy that she wanted to tell. "Third and fourth year I had a girlfriend. We'd met taking an advanced quantum mechanics course second year and had become friends studying for the exams. My god, those exams, I thought that I was going to die studying for that class. They were bad. But they brought this girl, Mal, and I together. She was a physical chemistry major working on energy materials for solar cells, so we knew a lot about what the other was talking about without actually both being physics majors. People dating the same major never works well."

"No, god, it does not." Emma frowned for a few seconds and Regina made a note to ask about that later.

"Exactly, but it went really well for a while. We sort of kindled each other's interests in our subjects again and kept each other going towards our goals and it was nice. But as is the way of things, it fell apart fourth year. We were both busy and Mal was an absolute dragon of a woman when overstressed and after a while we both just sort of agreed that it was better if we went back to being friends. It worked out for the both of us and we did manage to stay friends. She got a job right out of her Ph.D. at a solar energy company and last she told me she's now in a relationship with two other women named Ursula and Cruella."

"Well that's a new one, I've never had an ex go on to have a polyamrous relationship but stranger things have happened. Were their parents Disney fanatics by any chance?"

"Ursula's parents were actually more into Hans Christian Anderson's original tale…and Cruella's parents were just odd."

Emma nodded. "Yeah I feel, after this year with five Chadrick's and seven variations of Lindi…which I was instructed to spell with an 'i' but it's always spelled with an 'i', I feel."

"You don't have much room for complaint, you're not the one who worked in California, I've on occasion encountered people with names like Purple Sapphire and Crystal Haze. Not often but they're experiences you don't soon forget."

Emma slapped her hand on the table. "There can't possibly be purple sapphires, their chemical composition makes them absorb red light while it reflects blue, there's no two ways about it."

"I am well aware, the general populous, however, is not."

Emma sighed and shook her head.

Regina sat in silence as she contemplated asking her next question. Struggled with it, really. But she soon acknowledged that she might as well take the chance, science would be nothing without exploration, dangerous as it often was.

Steeling herself with a sip of her drink and a deep breath she asked, "So, what about you. Has there been anyone special in your life?" Oh god, but Regina was conflicted. How could a person want someone to be single, and married, and recently out of a relationship with a woman all at the same time. At least she knew that, overall, what she truly wanted was Emma's happiness.

"You mean besides you?" Emma asked with an easy smile.

Regina's heart did a painful thud in her chest, but she cocked an eyebrow and pursued, "Considering I haven't been a part of your life for the past six years, yes."

"The year after you left for grad school I got into a pretty serious relationship. But uhh...it ended two years ago, pretty badly, and since then it's just been casual dates."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Regina murmured.

"Don't be, Lily was a raging bitch, I should have broken it off with her way sooner than I did, but that's life I guess." Emma shrugged.

Regina barely registered much of what Emma said past 'her'. All of Regina's high school fantasies sprang to life before her in a montage of sexual frustration, only in her most wild of dreams had Emma held any interest in women. And that turning out to be a reality shook the very foundations of what Regina thought she knew about where her relationship with Miss Swan could go. Emma.

Her thoughts were halted by the blessed arrival of their waiter with their steaming plates of food. Regina took the few moments of interruption to more clearly gather her thoughts so the next words out of her mouth weren't some pathetic declaration of her high school ambitions.

"It's better now that I'm single anyway, it's a hell of a lot easier to move," Emma said as she began cutting into her food with her fork. "Besides, that just leaves us free to party it up in Boston, huh?" She grinned and gave Regina a quick wink that caused the raven haired woman to choke on her drink.

Surely Emma hadn't meant that the way Regina's mind was thinking of it, no those images of late nights with her former teacher were most likely a far cry from Emma's ideas.

"Whoa there, you okay Regina?" Emma asked, reaching out across the table to place a hand lightly over Regina's.

This, however, only caused Regina to choke harder, her eyes growing wet as she gasped for breath.

Emma shot up from her seat and was around the table in an instant, crouching down beside Regina's chair. The older woman began rubbing circles on Regina's back as she soothed, "Shh, hey you're okay, you're okay," until her former student finished catching her breath. Emma reached with her free hand, the other still rubbing Regina's back, and picked up the glass of water that started it all in offering.

Their fingers brushed when Regina took the glass, but thankfully the static rush that caused her fingers to almost tingle with the sensation didn't cause her to choke again as she carefully sipped at her water. She sniffed as she took up her napkin and dabbed at her eyes and wished she had a mirror so she could check and make sure she didn't look a sight.

"All good now?" Emma asked, her hand growing still on Regina's back.

"Yes, I am. Thank you," Regina said, regretting her words once the warmth of Emma's hand was gone and she'd returned to her seat, but exaggerating the matter would have made her seem petulant.

They returned to eating quietly for a few minutes, and Regina thought idly about how right Emma was about this place, both back in high school, and now, the food was nothing short of delicious.

"So, one of my now former students almost burnt down the school," Emma said, casually resuming their conversation.

Regina put down the bite of food that was about to reach her lips and looked at the older woman. "Excuse me?"

"I shit you not, this kid almost fried the entire school with everyone in it," Emma insisted.

"How on earth did they manage that?" Regina asked.

"I had my kids using Bunsen burners, matches were involved. One of them tossed his match in the trash can, a trash can full of paper towels and god knows what else, without making sure it was out. So I'm talking them through the next set of instructions when WOOSH!" Emma exclaimed, with theatrical hand motions to boot, "the trash was on fire and everyone lost their minds, all the kids start screaming, I'm standing there staring at the fire like an idiot. Long story short, we know the sprinklers work and I had to replace my laptop."

"Was everyone okay?" Regina asked, a pang of worry writhing in her chest. Emma was alive and well before her, but it might just kill her if Emma had been seriously injured once upon a time.

"Oh yeah, it was fine. I mean, I'm not gonna lie, I got really wet and the principal reamed my ass over it, but nothing major," Emma assured her.

Regina's face felt blazing hot and she prayed she didn't look like a total baboon and that her face had settled for a light tinge of red and not an outlandish shade of purple. The idea of Emma wet and being reamed in the way Regina's mind ran with those thoughts was almost too much for the poor woman to bare. She forgot how to breathe for a few seconds, which felt like minutes and made her wonder how long she'd been sitting there looking like an ignoramus.

Clearing her throat, Regina offered a crazy story of her own. "Well, I can top that. Have you met a Caltech engineering major before? I was TAing this one class where a student was a hundred percent certain that he could make a death ray out of his computer's keyboard. He practically raved about it, we almost had to have him removed from the class while he was building it because he got so riled up."

"So what happened?" Emma asked around a gulp of tamale.

"He was expelled shortly after his creation was complete, not quite a death ray but he did manage to build himself a taser and there's a strict no weapons policy."

"Jesus Christ, I'll take pyromaniac chemistry students over death ray doofus any day," Emma snorted lightly before shoveling another bite of tamale into her mouth.

"They're too brilliant for their own good sometimes," Regina said with a slight shrug.

"I'll give you that," Emma conceded with a nod. "I bet you have a lot of stories like that."

"I do," Regina admitted, "but that was by far the most memorable. It's not everyday someone tries to build an actual death ray." She paused as Emma chortled a bit. Then Regina asked, "So, when are you moving to Boston?"

"Next month, I've really only sort of started packing," the blonde woman confessed.

Regina shook her head. "Why is it I don't find that wholly surprising?"

"Oh shut up," Emma snapped playfully, a hand reaching across the table to lightly swat at Regina's arm.

"Now, but if I did that I couldn't offer to help you pack, could I?" Regina asked.

"No no no no no, seriously Regina," Emma insisted, "you by no means have to help me pack, I think it's safe to say you've helped me enough for a lifetime with all the late night grading and lab cleanup."

"Nonsense, I'm perfectly happy to help, and besides, it'll be just like old times."

"Hmm, old times were pretty good weren't they?" Emma asked with that silly grin of hers. And then, "You're sure you don't mind?"

"I wouldn't have offered otherwise," Regina promised. She would help Emma build a staircase to the moon if the older woman took it into her head to do so.

"I would offer to help you pack, but I know you've probably been packed and ready for take off for weeks now haven't you?"

"While I'll admit to holding some organizational prowess, I am not, nor will I ever be a space cadet."

That quip earned her a snort from Emma who finally set her fork down as their food was now completely devoured.

"Besides, most of it was packed up from LA, and I haven't unpacked much since coming to Storybrooke," Regina said.

"Ooof course it is," Emma said with a nod, "since you are back in town, you planning on going to your classes ten year reunion?"

Regina sighed, "I may as well since I'm here."

Thoughts of the reunion brought up more of her old daydreams, dreams in which she and Emma could possibly be together, where they had been for years, and she went alongside Regina to this class reunion, proud to be with one another.

"So, are you going stag or are you taking someone?" Emma asked.

"No," Regina said, "the person I would like to go with probably cannot make it."

Emma smiled just a little bit bigger, a mischievous glint returning to her eyes, "Ah," she said.

"Ah?"

"Well, I figured if you didn't have anyone special to take, you'd at least go with one of your old high school friends," Emma elaborated.

"Katheryn married Fredrick shortly after college graduation, so they're going together, and Ruby isn't going, Granny is sick."and then before she could think to stop herself, "aside from them, the only friend from high school I have is you."

"Well that's a bit unfair isn't it? The prettiest girl at the dance won't have a date, not even a friend date."

Regina took another sip of her nearly empty drink to pause. "From my recollection, Aurora Baker was the prettiest girl in my class."

"No, no I can promise you she wasn't," Emma said, "She was pretty, not drop dead gorgeous."

Regina's mind raced, her last bit of sanity straining as she tried to process Emma's more recent statement. She began shredding her napkin as she wondered how it was that Emma Swan knew exactly what to say to rile her up.

Regina was saved from her thoughts as the bill arrived and she snatched it up just as Emma went reached for it.

"Regina!"

"I've got it," Regina said, whipping out her card and handing it and the bill back to the waiter before further argument could stop her. "Payback, for ten years ago."

"I paid for your dinner because you saved my ass, it doesn't need paying back," Emma said.

"Well, it's not like you haven't helped me over the past ten years now is it?"

"Point taken," Emma agreed reluctantly, her expression still a bit bitter.

The waiter returned with Regina's card and the women rose from their seats and walked outside.

"Can I at least give you a ride home?" Emma asked.

Regina nodded. "If you don't mind," she said looking towards the darkened sky.

"I wouldn't have offered otherwise," Emma quipped, throwing Regina's earlier words back at her as they headed for her Bug. "You still live at the same address?"

Regina nodded, and Emma asked no further questions, the blonde woman drove Regina home without asking her for directions.

Which meant she remembered, which impressed Regina, that Emma cared that much.

Emma shut off her Bug and they sat silent as the Bug cooled down.

The two women looked at each other for a moment, neither speaking.

And the. Regina blurted out, "Would you, perhaps, want to go with me to the reunion?"

Emma stared at her for a moment and Regina of course began babbling.

"It's just that…it could be like…you're last hurrah! You know before you leave, getting to see the the first class you taught, and you know umm…then the prettiest girl wouldn't have to go alone. And you don't have to or anything, I just, I just thought that maybe it would be a good idea."

Emma nodded slowly. "Yeah, yeah I think that's a good idea too."

Regina bit her lip before asking, "Really?"

Regina's heart sped up that same frightening way it had all those years ago when she first met Miss Swan. All those dreams felt like opportunities stretched out before her. God, this was something different from going to dinner with Emma, class reunions were where you showed up and brought your life's accomplishments with you, you talked about what kind of job you have, what kind of house, what kind of car, where you live, and you bring your significant others. The person you're sharing your life with. Emma was accepting a request to go as friends, but it could be seen as so much more and she had to know that, had to expect that people may see them as more than just friends.

And maybe, just maybe, they could be.

"Yeah really, I think we'll have fun, you and I," Emma said, reaching out and grasping Regina's hand, interlocking their fingers before bringing the younger woman's hand to her lips, and planting a kiss.

Her lips were so much softer than Regina could have ever imagined. She didn't want this kiss to stop no matter that it was just on her hand. She wanted those lips to press themselves against her skin over and over again. She sat there, incapable of speech, barely capable of thought.

Emma's kiss did end, and their hands lay separated on the console.

"So, I guess I'll pick you up at 8, day after tomorrow. Sound good?"

Regina nodded slowly, murmuring a, "Sounds good." And then she somehow managed to climb out of Emma's car. The Bug roared to life, and Regina watched as Emma pulled away.