"What are we having for dinner?" Emma asked as she sauntered into the kitchen fighting a yawn. "I hope it's something good—like your lasagna. Let me tell you, I am exhausted! I spent the whole day running around town catching stray animals." She supplied as she hooked her thumbs through her belt loops.
Her smile quickly faded when she got a good look at Regina. The mayor's jaw was clenched tightly and she was a disheveled, sweaty mess. "Are you okay?" Emma asked, hesitantly approaching the raven haired woman who immediately backed away and shook her head.
"Don't touch me." She growled shakily and the blonde's eyes widened momentarily as she took in the scene before her. There was a broken jar of spaghetti sauce just lying on the ground, a pot of boiling water on the stove, and cheese everywhere.
"Regina," Emma drawled, trying to sate the mayor's wild eyes with her soothing tone. It didn't work.
"There is a creature in our house." She breathed, her eyes darkening aggressively. Regina looked like she was ready to pounce on something. Emma furrowed her brow. The only reason she hadn't burst out laughing was because Regina looked genuinely shaken up.
"What kind of creature?" Emma asked gently and Regina swallowed and shook her head, brushing strands of sweaty hair off of her forehead. Unbeknown to her, there was cheese in her hair. Emma bit her lip to keep from laughing. What kind of hell had broken loose for Regina to manage getting cheese in her hair? She could only imagine the wild fit of rage—or maybe fear—that had caused the dairy product to become airborne. "Well, where is it now?"
"I don't know!" Regina snapped in frustration as the fire on the stove momentarily flared behind her. Emma nodded thoughtfully.
"Could it be a dog?" She asked and the brunette cocked her head as her eyes softened just slightly in relief. At least now they knew what the unknown evil was that had so ruthlessly terrified her badass girlfriend.
"Maybe. It did have a tail…and large pointed teeth." Emma's lip jutted out.
"Did it growl at you?" The blonde cooed. She suddenly found an empty box of pasta flying at her head. Emma found herself chuckling as Regina glared at her. The blonde approached and smiled warmly at the brunette who finally caved and slouched into Emma's embrace.
"Deal with it." Regina whimpered into Emma's shoulder. The blonde smiled as Regina nuzzled into her neck seeking much needed comfort after the violent attempt on her life.
"Consider it done. Something happened at the shelter and David called me in a panic saying that all of his dogs had disappeared. So I'm pretty much an expert dog wrangler now." Emma chuckled, rubbing Regina's back soothingly.
"We're having ice cream for dinner." Regina declared weakly into the blonde's shoulder—having completely given up on producing any semblance of a meal tonight after her brush with mortality—and Emma smiled as she pressed her lips to the top of Regina's head.
"Henry'll like that. I'll get him from the shelter once I collect our intruder." Emma took a breath and gently started plucking cheese from Regina's hair and popping it into her mouth. "Hmm, parmesan." Regina wacked Emma's arm as she pulled away and angrily tried brushing all of the dairy product out of her hair.
Ten minutes later Emma came in from the den with a mangy looking dog in her arms. Though he looked dirty and disheveled, he was in no way big enough to instill fear in anything. "This is the dog that scared the shit out of you? Regina, what the hell? He's like a fluffy little bunny!"
In response, the mayor curled her lip up and glared at Emma, pointing a stiff finger at her in warning. "If you so much as breathe about this incident I will tell everybody what happened last Halloween." That had the blonde out the door faster than the time Mary Margaret had asked Emma if she thought this rash she had was suspicious.