Title: The following days
Author: mikipau
Rating: T
Fandom: Once Upon A Time
Pairing: Regina/Emma
Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time or the characters there within. I'm just borrowing them from time to time with a promise to return them unharmed and hopefully a little bit happier.
Summary: Sequel to "All in a day". Regina, Emma, Henry, Mary Margaret and Ruby try to find some stability in the world they now find themselves in. AU. Regina/Emma
A/N: Some of you wanted a sequel and who am I to refuse? This turned out differently from what I had originally thought. It also took forever to write since life (or lack thereof) has a way of getting in the way or being generally uninspiring. I feel this might not be up to par, but it's as good as it's going to get right now. As with "All in a day" the POV alternates between Emma and Regina per chapter.
And I promise - no cliff-hanger ending this time.
(Is it weird that I think of this as my "Zombiebrooke" series?)
Chapter 1
The car was quiet, but their minds were not. They should have known better. Emma should have known better. She berated herself as she looked out at the burning city before them. It was stupid, stupid, stupid and naive to believe that going to a large city would save them. It rarely worked in the movies, so why should it in real life?
Of course a large city would mean more people and more people equalled more zombies, which combined resulted in even more danger. There were no military, no well defended convoy or mighty saviour to protect them from the undead and the frightening world they now found themselves in. Come to think of it, wasn't she supposed to be a saviour? At least according to Henry.
Emma wished she could be just that, Henry's hero - but looking at her son she knew she had failed. He sat completely still on Regina's lap, breath leaving his half-open mouth in small gusts, his frightened eyes riveted to the terrifying view on the other side of the windscreen. Emma felt a knot in her belly, felt it grow heavy and hard as despair clawed at her. She should have been better - for her son.
She felt tears spring forth and turned her head sharply, not wanting the others to see, only to realise that it was too late to hide; Regina's hand reached out for her cheek, wiping the tears away. Their eyes met - Regina's were knowing, comforting and filled with a steely resolve of getting them safely through this. 24 hours earlier Emma would have been met with reproach, followed by harsh words blaming her for a bad plan and for endangering them all. So much had happened and changed, yet some things stayed exactly the same - her own insecurity of not being good enough squeezed her heart, suffocating in its intensity.
"Breathe." The single whispered word made its way from Regina's lips to Emma's ears. Feeling her shoulders relax as she let out a shaky breath, Emma steeled herself, forcing her mind back on track and away from the self-incrimination. Smiling weakly she nodded her head, focusing on breathing slowly, steadily, calmly. Henry was looking at his mothers, a curious little frown on his face as his eyes went back and forth between them. He reached a hand out to pat Emma's shoulder awkwardly, obviously made insecure by her tears.
"So what do we do now?" Ruby asked from the back of the car. Her voice wasn't remotely close to its usual cheerful cadence, but at least she posed the question out loud - the question each of their minds had feverishly tried to find answers to since Emma had stopped the car.
"I don't know Rubes. I really don't." Emma sighed. "I guess... I guess we should find someplace to hide - a base of sorts. It's either that or keep moving."
Regina tilted her head to the side, Emma could tell she was thinking, running possible solutions through her head - her brown eyes narrowed and her tongue wet her lips before she drew breath to speak.
"We should go someplace small, easy to defend. Remote, yet close enough for us to make it to a town to get supplies if we need to."
"Storybrooke." Mary Margaret proposed. "I know it sounds crazy, since we just ran from there, but we know the area, the terrain and the possible dangers."
"There's an old cabin in the forest. It's situated high, making it possible for us to see anyone approaching." Ruby suggested. "It's quite out of the way. Granny used to rent it out as a summerhouse, but it's been disused for years."
"Does it have a well?"
The others turned questioning gazes on Regina, who rolled her eyes at their confusion. "We need water, who knows how long the water treatment plant will be up and running, not to mention the power plant."
Ruby nodded. "It has its own well, a wooden fired stove and if I remember correctly there's a generator out there as well - gas-powered. Don't know if it works though."
"Everyone okay with this?" Emma looked at her friends. They all nodded their consent.
"Okay, I guess we have a plan - back to Storybrooke. We'll need gas, we're pretty much running on empty here." Emma rubbed her forehead, she felt like she was running on empty as well. A headache was making itself known and she knew she needed something to eat and some much needed sleep.
Mary Margaret reached out, touching Emma's stiff neck with firm hands. "Emma, let me drive - you need some rest. In fact I think we all need to stretch our legs for a minute and eat something. I doubt we can risk cooking anything, but a quick snack should do the trick. Then we can turn around and go back."
They left the relative safety of the car. Emma held her hand on her gun as she ate a granola bar and gulped down half a bottle of water before handing it to Regina. Henry had found an orange in one of the bags and was focused on peeling it in one spiralling piece. The sight amused Emma and she felt a smile tug at her lips.
"I showed him how to do that when he was four." Regina's voice was as warm as the hand she pressed into Emma's lower back. Their eyes met, sharing the love they had for the boy who'd brought them together.
Henry showed his spiralling orange peel to Ruby who was suitably impressed, before he offered her a piece of his fruit. He then gave another piece to Mary Margaret, one to his mother and one to Emma, who gratefully popped it into her mouth. He was good at sharing, she thought - surprisingly so for a single-child. She didn't know if it was because of a combination of innate kindness and Regina raising him well or if it came from never wanting for anything, never having a fear of going hungry or a secret wish for something all one's own - feelings well known from her own childhood.
She watched Henry wolf down the rest of the orange before reaching for the crackers Mary Margaret held out for him to take. Emma remembered how she herself had never dared to ask for more than what was put on her plate, even if it left her hungry. Old habits were hard to break and she knew she rarely asked for more, even today. It was one of the reasons why all her relationships failed, if that label could even be used to describe the brief connections she'd shared with a few others during the years.
Mary Margaret had once accused her of having her walls up. They were walls that protected her, but also kept anyone from getting to know her - the real her. Emma knew this to be true, she also knew she didn't want to live her life like that, not anymore. The happy grin on Henry's face as Ruby gave him a packet of raisins solidified Emma's longing to be something else, something more - someone braver.
"What are you thinking?" Regina's eyes were searching Emma's face.
"I just... You raised him well."
Regina's gaze immediately turned to Henry and she smiled, the hand she had pressed against Emma's back moving slightly, squeezing her waist. "Thank you".
A few minutes later they were all back in the car - Mary Margaret behind the wheel, Ruby next to her and Henry sitting between his mothers in the backseat. The car had barely been turned around before Emma was asleep, completely exhausted and finally getting the chance to let her guard down and relax, at least for a little while.