Emma sighed as she stood up from behind her dark wooden desk and turned her computer monitor off before grabbing her brown leather jacket from the tall coat rack and shrugging herself into it. She did the zipper up at the front and then hit the light switches on the wall behind her plunging the office and currently empty cells into darkness, the only light coming from the street lighting that was bleeding through the blinds across the large office windows.
It had been a long day for the Sheriff having starting her shift by chasing Pongo around the streets of Storybrooke for a full two hours before she had finally cornered him down at the docks, to be honest it has been a long couple of weeks. After the dog chase Emma had then had to attend a council meeting where Regina had refused to even acknowledge her presence in the room which had left the blonde feeling awkward and disheartened that there had been no progress between the two of them. Following the meeting the Sheriff had spent the rest of the time catching up on some of the week's paperwork, she didn't want to give Regina anymore of a reason to ignore or be angry with her. Now all she could think about was hitting The Rabbit Hole for a few drinks before heading back to the loft apartment and winding down for the evening before it all started again the following day.
The sheriff walked out of the station, locking the double glass doors behind her and heading up the road to the bar, her hands shoved deep into the pockets of her jacket and her head bowed slightly. Main Street was quiet with hardly anyone around, which made the journey a lot smoother for Emma as no one was stopping her to ask her how the Mayor was coping with the sudden end of her relationship with Robin. Also, with Emma walking with her head bowed, she wasn't allowing the few people who were about to catch her eye and stop her from reaching her destination.
Emma ran a hand through her long golden curls as even thinking of the whole messy situation that she had created by mistake with Regina, made her feel uncomfortable and extremely guilty. She knew her actions in the Enchanted Forest were to blame for the Mayors current state of mind and mood, and she hated to see Regina like that, but at the same time how could Emma ever be sorry that she had saved a life. It was just pure coincidence and bad luck that that person happened to be Robin's wife. The whole situation had her very confused and stressed and so drinking after work had become a daily thing.
Emma pushed the front door to the bar open and immediately her senses were over powered by the sights, sounds and smells of the bar. The place smelt of stale beer, sweat and some sort of sickly sweet fragrance which was more than likely a room spray to cover the other smells but was failing. She walked up to the long dark wooden bar and propped herself up onto one of the bar stools. She signaled to the bar tender for her usual, which always started with a shot and a beer. The bar keeper came back over once he had prepared her drinks and placed them in front of where she was sat.
"No change then Emma?" he said in a resigned tone knowing that if there had been any progress the Sheriff would probably not be at the bar. Emma didn't even bother replying, she just gave him a pointed look before she quickly downed the shot, relishing in the burning feeling that was running down her throat and radiating with a glowing warmth outwards and round the rest of her body. She the then picked up the bottle of beer and swiveled slightly on the stool so she could take in the rest of the bar and the people who were currently occupying it.
The bar was fairly quiet but then it was a weekday and so most people would be tucked away in their houses. The bar only ever really got busy on a weekend but it did have its regulars, like Leroy who was currently sat in one of the booths nursing a pint of something, probably beer knowing Leroy. There were a few others dotted around the place but not one person was currently occupying the bars small dance floor.
Emma quickly finished off her beer, drinking it so fast that the taste didn't even register on her tongue. Once again she signaled the bar tender for another round and he got straight to work on preparing her second order, which was always another beer and then a glass of whiskey on the rocks. The bar tender came over and placed these drinks in front of her and again in a very short amount of time she had finished these as well. For the next few hours this was the pattern that she fell into. She drank, watched the people in the bar, ordered another round and then occasionally hummed along to a song if she recognised it.
Somewhere around midnight Emma slid off her stool and on rather unsteady legs that were not cooperating with her in the way she wanted and made her way to the bathrooms situated at the back of the bar. When she exited her stall and came to stand in front of the sinks she realised that she was in fact rather drunk. Emma ran the cold tap and splashed some of the water onto her face and the back of her neck. Leaning over the sink on extended arms she surveyed her blurry self in the mirror and started to contemplate how she had managed to mess everything up so badly with Regina.
Before Emma had got whisked back to the Enchanted Forest for a second time, things between herself and Regina had been going really well. They had come up with a schedule that suited both them and Henry, and they had built their relationship into what Emma had thought was the beginning of a firm friendship, but now that seemed to have completely disappeared and Emma had no clue on how to fix it or even where to begin.
She had promised Regina that she was going to help her find her happy ending and she still meant every single word, but with the brunette avoiding her like the plague and not even acknowledging her she had no idea how she was going to manage to keep that promise. She let out a frustrated sigh and pushed herself back up into a standing position and headed back to the bar where she ordered one last shot before paying her tab and leaving.
Once outside in the cold fresh night air a whole new wave of drunkenness crashed over Emma and she felt extremely unsteady on her legs. This also meant that now the alcohol was affecting her choices and decision making skills and she no longer wanted to head home and sleep it off like she did every other night. She looked up at the inky blackness that stretched out above her, dotted with hundreds of stars and took a deep breath in and out again. Before she really knew what was happening, her subconscious took over and she started to make the walk over to Mifflin Street and the home of the one person who probably didn't even want to see her, let alone in the middle of the night.
Emma stopped in front of the little waist high, black metal gates of the mansion. She chuckled slightly to herself that she found them slightly amusing in her drunken state. To her, the twisted and swirling metal design on the top of the gates looked like two swans facing each other and she wondered why she had never noticed this before now. Shrugging to herself she pushed open the black gates and gazed up at the looming white structure which, to Emma, seemed to be swaying slightly as though caught in a bit of a breeze. She stumbled her way up the path but stopped short of stepping onto the porch. There were no lights on in the house and she was just coherent enough to know that she knew she didn't want to wake Henry.
So instead she turned to her right and headed to the gate by the driveway and garages that led round to the back garden. It took her a couple of attempts to get the gate open as her hand eye coordination was slightly impaired but she eventually managed to open it. She stepped inside and closed the gate behind her. Her first thought was that even in the darkness she could tell that the garden was in an immaculate condition. She turned again and quickly looked over the house and then around the rest of the corner of the garden she was in for a way up onto what she knew was Regina's bedroom balcony.
First of all she clumsily, but thankfully quietly, climbed onto the roof of the large garages with the help from a small storage shed and then walked to the edge where she could just about clamber onto a thick branch of a tree that was growing in close proximity, and then shuffled over to the balcony railing.
How she managed to do this in the drunken state she was currently in amazed her. She was also 100% positive that she was going to regret all of this in the morning, in fact she knew that she would but she had managed to make it this far and it would seem like a completely wasted opportunity if she decided to back out now.
As Emma landed on the floor of the balcony she stumbled only a little, gently knocking into the railing which she in turn used to support herself as she straighten back up and turned to face the balcony door. She tried to peer in through the window but it seemed as though Regina had thick dark curtains drawn over them, probably to stop the bright morning sun from streaming in and waking her. Emma raised one hand and curled it into a fist before tapping lightly on the glass, missing the first attempt as she was having trouble focusing on the distance, but there was no stirring from inside that Emma could make out.
She raised her fist again and this time knocked a little louder. However this was still fairly quiet as she didn't want to wake Henry from his sleep even though his room was down the hallway. The blonde waited again with an ear close to, but not touching, the door but still there was not a sound coming from within. So Emma once again raised her hand and this time knocked with a bit more force than she had intended.
The first wrap she did was on the wooden frame and so was the second, it was loud and clumsy sounding but the third knock was on one of the small pane of glass just to the side of the frame. The hit was hard and a small crack was heard, that in the quiet still of the night, sounded like a gun shot.
Suddenly the dark curtains flew back and Regina was stood on the other side of the door dressed in blue grey silk pajamas and holding a brightly glowing fire ball in her left hand. Despite the fact it was the middle of the night and Regina had clearly jumped out of bed at the noise, her hair was still as perfect as it was during the day and her complexion was soft and smooth in the glowing light. Emma stepped back as soon as the curtains had moved, her back bumped into the railing and her right foot slipped from underneath her, and she ended up in a twisted heap on the floor.
Regina used her other hand to sharply open the balcony door and stepped forward looking down at where Emma was now slumped. She still held the fireball out in front of her in a defensive manner not at all happy that she had firstly been woken from her sleep and secondly that she should find that the cause of the disturbance was Emma.
"And why should I not throw this fireball at you right now, Swan?" Regina sighed in an impatient manner as she watched Emma struggle to get up from the floor and then go back to leaning against the railing behind her. Emma didn't look up at her; she didn't dare see the look that she knew would be gracing the brunette's features. She shuffled her weight from foot to foot not knowing what to say now that she was face to face with Regina and she was actually speaking to her.
"Regina I…" Emma started but she got cut off before she could finish both saying and forming the thought.
"Save it, I don't want to hear it. Now please get off of my balcony and go home." Regina closed her fist to extinguish her fire ball then spun on her heel and stepped back into her bedroom "And you will be paying for the window repairs."
Regina closed the balcony door and drew the curtains back over again blocking Emma out of her life again. The only way back down was the way she had come up, but the fresh air was making her feel more drunk the longer she was out in it and she wasn't sure that she would make it back across the tree branch without falling to the ground below.
Emma ran a hand through her long honey coloured, slightly curly hair. Emma didn't really have a plan in mind when she had decided to pay Regina a visit, but this was far from what she had imagined and it couldn't really have gone worse if she had tried. Not only had she woken Regina from her sleep in the middle of the night, but Emma had also somehow managed to break the glass in Regina's balcony door. Things could definitely have gone better.
Looking over both sides of the balcony she now saw there was a trellis running up the side of the house right to Regina's balcony. She jumped up onto the railing and swung her legs over to the other side so she could reach out and step onto the trellis. She was making good progress down the side of the house but as she neared about the half way stage her foot slipped again and she didn't have a chance to grab onto the trellis again before she was free falling the rest of the way, letting out a small cry just before landing hard on the pathway below.
The wind got knocked from her lungs and pain radiated out from her right side. After a few minutes of not moving she let out a long groan as the world tilted slightly on its axis even from her horizontal position on the floor and a dull sense of pain registered somewhere in the back of her mind. She lay there for a couple of minutes letting her body and mind catch up with each other. She closed her eyes as the reality of what had just happened registered with her again. She had made such a mess of everything and she suspected that now Regina would be even less inclined to talk to her. Emma opened her eyes again, her sea green orbs looking up at the hundreds of twinkling stars that were suspended in the inky black void of the night sky.
Emma took a deep breath before she rolled over onto her side and pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. Her back protested at the movement but Emma managed to get herself onto her feet. She headed back out of the side gate and began the fairly slow walk back towards the apartment she still shared with Snow and David where, as soon as she got up to her room, she fell onto the bed and fell into an uneasy and restless sleep.