Chapter One: Lasting Impressions
"Beautiful!" Emma exclaimed, referring to the brunette that stood in front of her on the fire escape.
"Thank you! Now can you hurry up? I do have a business to run." The woman jested, flipping her hair dramatically over one shoulder.
"Damn it Ruby! Your hair was perfect. Can you please sit still for five minutes?" Emma scolded her friend lightly.
"We have been out here for an hour!" The tall woman whined, throwing herself back against the iron bars.
"And we will be out here for another one if you don't hold still." The blonde looked pointedly into blue eyes.
"You know that there are models who do this sort of thing for a living. I'm sure they would love to set still for hours for you."
Emma sighed. She held her camera down to her side and looked up at the sky. It was a dark grey that twisted her soul into remembering things that she had spent too long trying to forget, which is what made it the perfect day to do this shoot. She didn't have time to waste on getting a model. She needed to do it as soon as possible, she had to get it out of her system or it would drive her crazy. After the dream she had woken from that morning it was the only thing she could think about doing. She had to capture the picture, the perfect picture that showed what she was feeling: what she was remembering. It had become her addiction, it had saved her life really. Her photography had taken the place of alcohol and emotionless sex in way of an outlet; an outlet for the legion of emotions that took over her mind and body every time she thought about her.
"I had to do this today." She murmured, positioning the camera back in front of her face.
Ruby gave a pout and leaned her head against the side of the building, the cast iron was cool against her back.
"It's her again isn't it?" She asked quietly.
She knew the answer, she knew it was the woman that had haunted Emma's dreams and memories for longer than she had known the photographer: she was the reason they were on Emma's fire escape at seven o'clock on a Saturday morning. Most of the city was still asleep, recovering from the night before, but Ruby didn't have that luxury because her best friend was a crazy photographer whose heartache and obsession led her to call the brunette for an impromptu photoshoot.
"Hold still, the lighting is perfect right now." The avoidance of the mystery woman wasn't subtle, it was out there, plainly telling Ruby to drop it without Emma actually having to say the words.
A few more snaps of her camera and Emma was powering down and throwing the strap over her shoulder. "Thank you for doing this Ruby. I know I get annoying, calling at all hours asking you to come over. I just, I don't know how to explain it, it's just the only way I can get her out of my head for more than a few minutes.
"It's no problem Emma really. I just hope that someday you will at least tell me about this woman. I mean she must be something pretty spectacular to have captured the heart of the illustrious Emma Swan: queen of one night stands." She teased, pushing the blonde playfully.
"She was more than spectacular, and she was before all that." Emma grinned.
"I know. Well listen I'll talk to you later, I do really have a business to run ya know." She smiled.
"Okay, I might stop by later. Thanks again for doing this." She called after her friend, who was already halfway out the door.
"No problem!" The lanky brunette called back right before the door slammed shut.
Emma fell onto her bed before checking her watch. She didn't have to be anywhere for a couple of hours so she could either go through the pictures she had just taken of Ruby or she could go back to sleep and take the chance of having another dream of her.
She looked at the photograph she kept on her bedside table, her heart still gave a flutter when she looked at the carmel eyes and raven hair of the woman captured in the 8x10 shot. It had been fifteen years, she should be well over her by now and moving on with her life. After all, she had only known her for three months. Three months, that was all it took for her to embed herself in every part of Emma's mind, body, and soul. Her heart clenched at the thought of that summer. She didn't want to think of it in that moment, there were more important things to do; like seeing if Ruby had held still long enough for her to get a decent photo.
Regina Mills let out a dreadful sound as she walked into her office that morning, whether it was a sigh or a groan she wasn't sure. All she knew was that she was tired of being there and she had only just walked in.
Five years was not enough time for her to become absolutely sick of her job, yet she had. It hadn't even truly been five years since she had began her work with Gold and Associates, but she was sick of it; sick of the people, sick of the building, sick of work that was the same boring thing day in a day out, she needed something more. She longed to give life to the dreams she had long since given up: dreams of creating something more than divorce agreements, something that could change someone's life for the better instead of tearing it apart at the seams.
"Good morning sunshine!" A soft voice sing-songed from the doorway to her office.
She smiled, no matter how badly she hated her job, it had given her her best friend and she couldn't forget that. "Good morning Kat," she said, turning to meet the blue eyed woman's stare.
"You're gonna want to sit down for the story I'm about to unload on you" Regina grinned, Kathryn Midas, forever full of gossip.
"Kat I really don't have time today, I have to finish getting Mrs. Weston's agreement drawn up for this afternoon meeting."
"I thought you finished that last week." The blonde interrogated with a raised brow.
Regina sighed as she sat down in her chair, the old leather creaked under her weight. "I had, it seems though that she now wants nothing to do with those offshore bank accounts that I fought so hard to get for her." The lawyer rolled her eyes, and logged into her computer.
"Oooh something suspicious with the bank accounts?"
Regina gave her a pointed look before shaking her head. "Most likely, but it's not my job to deal with such things, so I'm trying not to think about it."
Kathryn let out a laugh, "So, are you really sure you don't have time for the latest news on Robert Gold himself?" she asked, and the brunette looked at the clock on the far side of her office.
"I suppose I have time, if you make it quick." She replied, knowing that her best friend didn't know the meaning of the word.
She heard the other woman as she began her tale, but as her eyes drifted to the left of the clock and caught the picture beside it, her mind wandered to another blonde.
She let a small, sad smile cross her face before glancing out the window to her right. Had it really been fifteen years? She knew it had, she had counted everyday for years before they blurred together and became one eternal heartache. She never gave any hope to the idea that the long lost blonde had spent years thinking about her as well, until one morning a few years ago. It was when she first discovered the photo that hung on her office wall. The scene depicted in the shot stood out to her immediately as one she had experienced herself at the oh so young age of seventeen.
"Regina, are you even listening to me?" Kathryn snapped.
The brunette grimaced, she hadn't been listening, she hadn't even been pretending to listen. "I'm sorry Kat, my mind was, elsewhere." She gave the lame explanation, allowing her eyes to drift once more to the art on the wall.
Kat followed the gaze and sighed when she realized, that like most times, Regina's mind was in the past. "I don't see why you don't just look her up," she confronted. "Social media is a magnificent thing really, allows you access to people you thought you lost, oh I don't know, fifteen years ago or so." Regina narrowed her eyes at her, but blue eyes simply narrowed in return.
"I can't do that. As far as I know she is living a wonderful life, married, with children, and a dog. I won't disrupt that." She argued, she had thought about doing that only a million or so times. Typing her name in the search bar and reconnecting; it was as simple as that, but she didn't know if she could handle the heartbreak of learning that she had moved on.
"Yes, but you could be wrong. I mean come on Regina, she based a picture around her memories of you. That has to count for something. At the very least you could be friends." The woman encouraged.
"You don't know her, I am not wrong. There is no way that she hasn't found someone, that someone else hasn't fallen for her just like I did." She seemed to always be reminding her heart that they were young when they had met, that it didn't work for a reason, and that even though she couldn't get the enchanting blonde out of her head after fifteen years and a loveless marriage, didn't mean that the young woman she had met so long ago had the same problem. Still there was the picture, a beam of hope that maybe she did still feel the same, maybe she hadn't found happiness elsewhere.
"Maybe, but maybe she thinks the same thing about you." Kathryn let out a breathy chuckle, "wouldn't that be something, both of you, hopelessly in love with the other after a decade and a half, but both too afraid to do anything about it."
"That would not be funny at all Kat!" Regina gasped.
"I bet she's out there thinking of you every second of her day, just like you think of her." Blue eyes glazed over and she rested her head in her hand. "I can only dream that one day you will grow a pair and find her." She deadpanned, standing up and blowing a kiss over her shoulder as she left the office, her heels clacking a few steps towards her own office.
Regina looked back towards the picture, her heart gave a tug. She wished she was brave enough to do it, to find her, but one heartbreak from the girl of her dreams was enough to last her a hundred lifetimes. She wasn't about to risk it again.