A/N: This was written for Swan Queen Week January 2016 (Seven Deadly Sins), Day 2: Gluttony.

A Glutton for Cheese

"Emma! Emma!"

Regina walked briskly and purposefully down the hall of Storybrooke Hospital's Emergency Ward. "You!" She pointed to a nurse's aide. "Where is Sheriff Emma Swan?"

The young girl opened her eyes wide and shuffled her feet. "Um… um…"

"Speak up! I haven't got all night!"

Seeming to remember hospital policy the young woman answered, "Are you family?"

"Am I… what?" Regina eyed the woman who looked like she was 19 or 20. Placing an intimidating smile on her face, Regina cooed, "You're new. I haven't seen you around the hospital before."

"I just started last week."

"I see. Well even as a new employee here, you must be aware of the Sheriff's and my…" Regina blanked for a second. "… connection".

"Oh, yeah." The young woman smiled and babbled. "Everyone knows that you two are hot for… I mean, Mayor, I know that you and the Sheriff… well that you haven't yet, but… I mean…" As the furrow in Regina's brow deepened bemusedly, the redhead composed herself and stated as if reading from a policy and procedures manual, "…the hospital only allows family in the ER." A quiet moment passed between them and as if suddenly remembering who Regina really was, the young girl widened her eyes and slowly, and subtly, moved to protectively cover her heart. Had the situation not been so dire, Regina would have laughed in amusement.

Before Regina could open her mouth a familiar voice called out, "Monica? Mayor? Is there a problem here?"

"Nurse Ratched." Regina was grateful to see the older nurse. "I am looking for Emma Swan. I was told that she came in to the ER."

"Yes," the nurse added calmly. "She is in ER room 5. You just head down the hall…"

"Yes, thank you."

Regina left both women and in a worried daze nearly broke out in a run. Having the older nurse confirm which room Emma was in made this nightmare real. She imagined the absolute worse. Emma lying in a pool of blood. Emma with her head wrapped in bandages. Emma in a body cast.

When she reached room number 5, her breath caught as she saw Emma lying lifeless on the bed. Oh no.

"Emma!" She raced over and looked down at the beautiful blonde, looking so peaceful and serene. Blonde tresses surrounding her face over her ears and shoulders. "Emma?"

No answer. Regina felt the pressure at the back of her eyes as tears threatened to fall. She reached out a hand to touch Emma but she pulled back and covered her mouth as fear gripped her. Had she fallen? Were her injuries under her clothes?

"Mom?"

Regina spun. "Henry! I got your txt. What happened to Emma? She was fine when I dropped you off at her apartment earlier. Did she fall?"

"What?" Henry walked in with two cans of soda and a puzzled expression. "No." He placed the drinks on the bed table off to the side.

"What happened?" Henry looked a little reluctant to say and that worried Regina. Was it uncomfortable for him to retell? He seemed calm enough, though a little nervous. Why was he nervous?

"Well, you see…"

"Henry! Why is Emma unconscious?"

"Unconscious?" Henry smiled but held his laugh in. "Ma's not unconscious."

"But I…" She had tried talking to Emma. She watched Henry reach over and hit his blonde mother's leg. Emma shot up then at an alarming rate and stared around shouting.

"Hmmm! Huh! What?!" She looked at them.

"Emma, you looked dead!" Regina eyes goggled under a scrunch of her forehead and her jaw hung open in surprise.

"What?" Emma bent her head closer as if she couldn't hear and then rolled her eyes at herself. She flicked her blond hair back over her shoulder revealing white ear buds blasting rock music. Taking them out, she spoke at a lower volume. "What?"

Regina blinked at her. "You had those in the entire time?"

"Huh?" Emma looked down at the headphones now draped over the neck of her hospital gown. "Oh, yeah. I hate hospitals they're so boring." She pulled at the robe. "I hate the clothes too. This is just a formality while they check me out. This thing does absolutely nothing for my figure."

Regina absently caught herself checking out the blonde's body, what she could see of it and when her eyes returned to Emma's, she saw Emma looking back at her with a suggestive grin. "Right? There is this long slit in the back and my butt is hanging out? Would you like to see that too, Regina?"

Henry burst out laughing not aware that Emma and Regina were tuning into a different mood entirely. Regina cleared her throat. "Um… so if you're not dying, why are you in the Emergency Room?"

Emma and Henry shared a look of apprehension and each stammered out at the same time.

"Well… it's a long story…" came from Emma.

"It's like this, mom," came from Henry, and Regina was suddenly very suspicious.

"Emma," Dr. Victor Whale said, breezing into the room clicking his pen and carrying a clipboard. "Oh, Regina. Always nice to see you." Though nothing could have sounded further from the truth.

"Victor," Regina sassed, eyeing his platinum spiked. "I see you kept the hair."

He just shook his head, offered an eye roll and a humorless spread of her lips. "Emma… you have nothing to worry about. It was just indigestion."

"Indigestion?" Regina's head jerked back eyeing Whale incredulously.

"See, Henry." Emma turned to their teenage son. "I told you there was nothing to worry about."

"You looked like you were having a heart attack, Ma."

Regina's attention turned to Emma and Henry, completely confused. "Again, will someone tell me what happened?" Emma and Henry's mouths worked silently and Regina crossed her arms. Why did she get the feeling she was not going to like the explanation?

Finally, Henry knowing his older mom best, knew that they might as well just come clean. "I bet all my house chores for a month that Ma couldn't eat four baskets of jalapeno poppers."

"Excuse me?" Regina asked after a beat, but she was interrupted by an amused crossed-armed Whale.

"Cheddar filled or cream cheese filled?"

"Both!" Emma cheered and she and Henry high-fived one another. Both flavors were good. Sometimes you were in the mood for cheddar, sometimes cream cheese, but always in the mood for cheese.

"Nice," Whale nodded.

"Are you all crazy?" Regina addressed them but aimed a pointed stare at her son and his other mother. She had been so frightened for Emma's life and all the woman needed was a bottle of Pepto-Bismol.

"On that note," Whale began and tucked the clipboard under his arm, "We're done here. I think we just need a signature from you."

"Okay, thanks," Emma called after him as he walked out the doorway waving in farewell as he left. Smiling her gaze met Regina's irritated one and she had the decency to wipe the grin off her face. "Well, looks like I can get dressed." She tried to throw Regina an encouraging grin but the brunette just glowered at her.

"How old are you?"

"Uh… well…" Emma twiddled her thumbs. "…In October, I'll be…"

"Ma, it was a rhetorical question." Henry whispered.

"I know," she whispered back. "But her staring at me makes me nervous."

Regina just rolled her eyes and shook her head at them and turned to a commotion just outside the doorway.

"Emma? Emma?"

The Charmings charged into the room and Mary Margaret swooped down on her daughter. "Emma, are you alright? We heard that you were taken to the hospital."

Emma stroked her mother's arms, escaping the concerned hug that she found herself enveloped in. "I'm fine, Mom. It was no big deal."

"I just, I just was so worried." Mary Margaret was on the verge of tears. "The last time you were in the hospital was after the whole Dark One thing and you almost died, Emma!" The young pixie haired mom was a mess and she clung to the first person near her which, she thought was her husband, but ended up being Regina, whose face over the distressed woman's shoulder was priceless. "Oh my God!" Mary Margaret clung to her and Regina closed her gaping mouth and rolled her bulging eyes while patting the woman's back begrudgingly.

David blew out a sigh of relief to see that his daughter was okay and then asked with a spread of his lips, "So what are you in for?"

Emma opened her mouth to reply but Regina threw over Mary Margaret's shoulder, "Sheer stupidity," and the hospital bed's occupant shook her head ridiculously at the woman's comment. Mary Margaret released Regina and shot her daughter a wary look.

"Emma, what did you do?"

"What's with the tone of distrust," Emma inquired crossing her arms and very much looking like a petulant teenager at the age of 30.

Henry beamed proudly, "Ma ate four baskets of jalapeno poppers."

David nodded impressively, "Cream cheese or cheddar flavored?"

Regina threw an absurd look at David when the woman's mother stepped closer and exploded.

"Are you crazy?!" Mary Margaret gaped at her daughter her face suddenly turning red and Regina lifted her hand in support.

"Thank you! Finally!"

Mary Margaret glanced briefly at Regina and pinned Emma with a reproachful glare. "Did it ever occur to you that you could have died?"

"What? From jalapenos and cheese?"

"Well maybe." Mary Margaret shrugged. "It could have been worse you know."

"Yeah, Mom. I know. I was the one lying here sick. I learned my lesson." She looked at her father and said, "And it was both, though I am leaning toward liking the cream cheese ones more."

Regina, chewing the inside of her cheek, tipped her head up and shook her head at the ceiling. Addressing the Charmings she complained, "And that is the fruit of your loins."

David chuckled, "Well, thank goodness everything is okay now. Do you have to stay?"

"No. I can get out of here soon. I'm just waiting to sign some papers."

"Okay, good." David touched his wife's elbow and she looked at him, nodding at the two women and they shared a knowing look.

"Oh. So Granny's watching Neal. We should go get him..." Looking in the direction of her grandson, she hinted, "… and maybe get a caramel sundae." Henry perked up at that and Mary Margaret was pleased with the bait she threw out.

"Ice cream?"

Regina snorted at her son's reaction. He gave her an adoring look and her heart melted and relented. "Fine, yes. Okay. Go."

He grinned widely and looked at Emma who nodded her permission.

After they said their goodbyes, with Mary Margaret saying she would call Emma tomorrow, the three took off, leaving Emma and Regina alone together.

Emma chuckled and said of Regina's allowing Henry to eat ice cream at 10:30 at night, "You're easy. Our son knows how to play you like a fiddle."

"Oh yeah? Who did he get to devour a reckless amount of greasy, gassy snack food?"

Emma's sheepish grin was so adorable, that Regina could not stay mad or sarcastic at her, so she returned the woman's smile and sat in the chair by the bed.

"So…" Emma bit her bottom lip and stared at her hands. "You were worried about me?"

Regina snorted. "As if."

"You looked like you were almost… crying before."

Regina opened her mouth to retort but when she did not have an answer, she just shrugged and saw the blonde's smile grow even wider.

"You were concerned. Admit it. You were crying because you know you would miss me if anything were to happen to me." Emma enjoyed the upturned corner of Regina's mouth and now it was the brunette's turn to sheepishly gaze at her own twiddling fingers.

"I would be devastated for Henry."

"Uh huh. You like being with me. Hanging out with me. You think I'm funny and smart…" At Regina's eye movement around the room followed by a raised eyebrow at her, Emma corrected with a head tilt from side to side, "When I'm not giving myself heartburn…"

Regina chuckled and the way she looked at Emma warmed her heart. "Admit it Regina. You like me."

"I love you," Regina said softly, so softly Emma misheard at first.

"See! I told you! Wait…" The twinkle in her eye dimmed just a little as they grew to widened orbs, "What?"

With a slow inhale, Regina used two fingers to bat the hair away from her face and repeated the secret she had been carrying around. "I love you, Emma."

When minutes passed and Regina was beginning to feel self-conscious under Emma's gawk, she quickly rose from the chair and pointed toward the door. "Well, I can see that I have left you speechless and probably a little shocked, so I'm just going to leave now."

Regina turned to leave wondering what had possessed her to divulge such a secret at this point in time with Emma in a hospital room, just out of the blue. She was just about to reach the door when it suddenly slammed shut and an orange glow shimmered around it before diminishing. She recognized the spell but she tried the door latch anyway.

"Don't bother. It's sealed," Emma said absently, still seeming a little astonished while staring at the wall straight ahead.

Regina slowly turned to face the music.

"You love me?"

"Yes."

Emma gave her a dubious glance. "Define love?"

A half suppressed laugh fell from the brunette's lips. "Love. I have a deep affection for you." Regina let out a deep breath awkwardly. She had never taken a leap of faith such as this with anyone before.

"Love me like a friend?"

Ambling toward the bed, Regina shot Emma a meaningful look. "No."

"Like a sister?"

She gave a chuckle and answered Emma with a salacious look. "Definitely not like a sister. It would be disgusting and creepy the way I feel about you if we were sisters."

The blonde thought that over and the twinkle returned to her eyes even brighter now, matching the smile on her lips. "What kind of disgusting and creepy things are we talking about here?"

Hands on her hips, Regina laughed at the ceiling. "Let's just say, that I don't entirely mind that we are locked in a room with a bed."

"Wow! There's no way to mistake that is there." Regina noticed that Emma did not look unfavorable or disagreeable to anything that she had said. As a matter of fact, the blonde was sending her coy glances and there was a flirty air between them suddenly.

They regarded each other in a new light and Emma patted her mattress invitingly. When Regina reached her, Emma scooted over a little to make room for her.

"You know, people will start talking if they can't get into the room, Emma."

"People have been talking about you and me since I first came in to town, Regina."

"Point taken." As soon as Regina sat down on the bed, Emma's hand moved to her hip and she sat up bringing her lips closer.

"Emma, what I said. I know I just dropped it on you. You don't have to…"

"Regina, shut up. I can't properly kiss you if you're talking."

"Okay."

Their lips met and moved tentatively at first and then passionately. Emma was not sure how it had happened but she had maneuvered Regina onto her back and was half lying on top of her. This was the beginning of something special and spectacular and Emma was very excited to let it begin.

A pounding on the door interrupted them. "Um, Sheriff Swan? There seems to be something wrong with your door? I'm here for your signature and then you are free to go. Sheriff?"

"Just a minute." Emma voiced her lips hovering over Regina's. Kissing Regina was Emma's new favorite thing to do and she was hoping she'd be able to do it again soon. "Well, Madame Mayor, could I interest you in dinner tomorrow night?"

"I think dinner sounds like a fine idea."

"Our first date."

"Indeed."

"Is there anything specific you would like for dinner?"

Regina giggled mischievously and caressed Emma's cheek and kidded, "Jalapeno poppers."

Emma made a face of disgust and a pretend vomit sound before they both erupted into laughter.

Glutton for Cheese juicecupswanqueen 8

Swan Queen Week Jan 2016, Day 2 Gluttony