Alright guys! :) to avoid any confusion for those of you who have not seen this movie yet, Emma and Regina are two years apart, each living in the different years. They will exchange letters throughout this story, Regina's will be in regular font, while Emma's will be in bold. I really hope you enjoy this one as much as my 1st fic, give it a chance! Feedbacks are welcomed. Happy reading! :)
There's an old saying that says: All good things come to an end. At least that's what Dr. Regina Mills was feeling in that moment, in the middle of her lake house. She loved that house, but her job required her to move into downtown Chicago.
She was taking one last look around the now empty house, as she walked out, but not before leaving a letter to it's next tenant; an architect by the name of Emma Swan.
Even her dog was sad to leave, as it just sat out in the front lawn staring up at her while she walked away from the house.
Regina looked down at her canine who whined in response.
"Are you coming or not?" she asked it as the dog only whined again.
The brunette walked up to the mailbox, leaving a letter to whoever this Emma Swan was. She wanted to properly welcome her to this house she knew Ms. Swan would grow to love just as she did.
She took one last look at the house before she walked up to her black Mercedes, her canine companion jumping in before her as she drove off to head for the city.
Emma was driving up the same road, which was now covered in snow. She couldn't wait to see that lake house. As she pulled her yellow and white colored ford truck, fairly old but Emma loved that truck. It was perfect for her job. She made her way up towards the house, glancing at it with her hands in her jacket pocket's.
Regina was making her way out of the elevator of the hospital as she walked up to the receptionist on that floor.
"Hi, excuse me." she said to the woman.
"Yeah, just a minute, okay?" the woman told her as she was shuffling through some papers.
Everyone in that floor seemed super busy at the moment.
The woman grabbed a hold of some forms for Regina to fill out, thinking she was just another family member coming to see a sick patient.
"Fill these out for me and wait over there." she told her.
Regina shook her head, "No, I'm Dr. Mills. I was told to report here." she informed her as she handed back the forms.
Shortly after, Regina was in her white lab coat, walking down the hallway of that very same floor; ready to work.
"You'll be covering twenty two patients on rounds today, on this floor and the next." a blonde Dr. known as Kathryn Nolan informed Regina as she walked down the hallway with her, putting her up to speed on her work shifts.
"Twenty two?" Regina said with surprise in her voice at how busy the morning was.
"Quiet morning." replied Dr. Nolan as she continued, "If you get into trouble, beep me, but don't make it a habit. The med students will help you out with scutwork." she quickly stopped a nurse as she saw a patient in a gurney out in the hallway, "What's he doing here? I ordered an MRI, stat."
"Transport said about four hours." the nurse replied.
"He could be dead in four hours." the blonde scoffed, "Never mind. Dr. Mills, MRI. You take a right, two lefts, elevator to two." she instructed Regina.
"Okay." Regina nodded.
"Follow the signs, hustle back here for rounds." the woman lastly said as she rushed off.
Regina had never felt so lost in her life, but she wasn't about to show it either. She began to roll out the patient on the gurney to wherever MRI was located.
"Are you taking me somewhere?" the older man asked on the gurney.
"I certainly hope so, sir. How are you feeling today?" the brunette asked the man as they rolled out.
"Am I gonna make it?" the man asked with a worried tone in his voice.
"Ah, yes. Absolutely." Regina assured him as she continued to walk past a hallway full of doctors.
Emma was out in a construction site, looking everything over and going over her plans with others, when a slim brunette with a red ribbon in her hair arrived and shouted right at her.
"Hey, Em! I made my famous spinach pie! The trailer's nice and toasty." the brunette told her, inviting.
"I can't." Emma yelled back.
The girl was about to walk away, but she gave it one more try, "Look, it's really cold out here. Don't get sick on me or anything." she began running beside Emma, a few distances apart due to construction.
Emma walking along to another part of the area, looked over to the girl, "I never get sick."
"So, I heard you bought a house, and apparently I'm the last one to know." the girl shouted.
"I thought I mentioned that." Emma told her as she began walking away from that area.
The girl quickly began walking past all the dirt, trying to catch up to the blonde, "Wait. Where?"
"Outside of town. Up the shore a little bit." replied Emma.
"Up the shore? There's no houses- oh, God. You don't mean that thing with the stilts and the-?" it's not easy walking in heels and dirt at the same time. That was proven when the brunette lost her balance and almost fell.
This made Emma smile a bit, "You alright?"
"Yeah. Are you crazy?" the woman asked the blonde as she continued, "Why would you buy that house? It's made of glass. There's no privacy, Emma."
"Ruby?" Emma shouted as she saw the girl was still struggling to stay standing, "Get yourself some boots." was the last thing the blonde told her friend as she headed back to work.
Regina grunted in frustration as she stood outside a hallway, completely lost.
Another doctor came out of a room as he noticed how lost Regina was.
"Are you lost?" the dr asked her.
Regina chuckled, "Yeah."
"It takes a while to get used to." the man extended his hand, "I'm Whale."
"Regina Mills. Hi." the woman said as she shook the man's hand.
Doctor Whale soon took her to her correct floor she was supposed to be in. So far, so good. Regina didn't expect to know everything on her first day. The very last hospital she resident in was in the small town of Storybrook, Maine.
It was night time by the time Emma went to her new home. She made her way up the house with a box in hand of supplies, as she stopped once she noticed the flag on the mailbox was lifted straight up. With all her rushing this morning, she missed to see she already had mail.
As she took the letter into her hands, she began to read it as soon as she was inside the house, sitting in her favorite chair, with cardboard boxes still surrounding her.
Dear new tenant,
Welcome to your new home. As the previous tenant, let me say I hope you like living here as much as I did. I filed the change of address with the post office but you know what a crapshoot that can be. So if anything slips through, would you please do me a favor and forward my mail? I'd appreciate it. My new address is below. Thanks in advance.
P.S. Sorry about the pawprints by the front door. They were there when I moved in. Same with the box in the attic."
Emma didn't recall seeing any pawprints by the door out front. Still her curiosity got the best of her as she headed outside with the letter still in hand to look for said pawprints; not finding a single one in sight.
"Pawprints? What the hell is she talking about?" Emma asked herself as her brows furrowed in confusion.
The blonde felt even more confused as to what this crazy woman was talking about in her letter, when she went up to her attic in search of that box she spoke of, only find the attic was empty.
Regina was greeted at her front door of her new apartment by a happy Dalmatian. She petted him as he jumped up for attention from his human.
"Hi, boy. Hey." Regina voiced in a whisper as she flicked the lights on in her kitchen, which quickly began to flicker on and off.
"Fix the lights." she told herself, "Buy dog food, huh?" she said as she looked down at Pongo. "Buy human food." she reminded herself as she opened the fridge and saw it was empty.
She missed that lake house. She'd give anything to back there, instead of this apartment.
The next day, Emma found herself painting the rails on the dock by her new house, she had chosen a dark brown color.
What she didn't realize was that Pongo was sitting in front of the house, staring right at Emma as she was kneeled on the floor. As the dog hurried over, stepping over the paint platter, hurrying past Emma, leaving paw prints marked on the wooden floor.
The blonde turned towards the dog as she saw him running inside the house, immediately chasing after him.
"Hey. Come here." the blonde said as she chased after the dog. Then it hit her. Those were the paw prints she was talking about in her letter.
Regina found herself sitting by a statue at a plaza with her mother for the day. It had been a while since she last saw her.
They discussed the weather some, as Cora was enjoying a late lunch. Regina glanced down at her mother's bag only to see it filled with books.
"What's that?" she asked her.
"They were your father's. Even now as he's passed away, carrying them makes me feel like he's still with me. Knowing he read the same pages."
It was a cool quiet morning, until a loud horn from a bus sounded off across the street running over a blonde woman and crashing into another car.
Regina quickly dialed for help, as she ran up to the horrific scene.
"We need an ambulance at Daley Plaza a woman has been struck by a bus. Get an EMT crew here." Regina informed the operator as she hung up and knelt down to where the lifeless blonde girl's body laid on the street.
There was a touch of snow on the ground that day for the construction site, but Emma loved her job, she was always there, rain or shine. Or snow.
"I'd like to get the foundation on number 17 dug today." she informed a construction worker.
The man chuckled at her request, "Look, I know you're kind of new around here. I can't get to seventeen until at least next week."
Emma wasn't having it.
"Come on, that's bullshit and you know it. Take Leroy and Doc off of roofing, one of the other guys can run the backhoe they're not using on fourteen and grab four or five of those other guys who are sitting around doing nothing on seven and ten. Let's go." she finished as she smacked the guy's arm playfully and walked away.
While Emma was loving every minute of her job, Regina was having a hard time coping with the death of the woman that had been runned over earlier that day.
Kathryn found her in an empty room. They quickly became good friends, so she sat down next to Regina.
"Hey." Kathryn murmured. "I heard about Daley Plaza. EMT says you fought hard for the girl."
Regina nodded, obviously thinking she could have done better. I mean she was a doctor for Christ sake.
"Yeah, really knocked myself out." she replied with a hint of sarcasm.
"Regina, I'm going to tell you what I tell every doctor. Hopefully you'll be the first to listen. On your day off get as far away from this place as you can. Go somewhere where you feel most like yourself." Kathryn advised.
And that is exactly what she did. She got in her car along with Pongo and drove off to that one place she missed terribly, to the one place she always felt at peace with herself.
As she arrived and walked up to the place, she stared up at the lake house feeling a sense of calmness.
There was no car in sight, nobody seemed to be around, so she figure the new tenant wouldn't mind if she stayed outside for a little bit.
If there even was a new tenant yet - as there was no sign of change in the house either.
As Regina walked up to the mailbox she noticed the flag was up, so letting her curiosity get the best of her, she opened the mailbox up and found a letter addressed to her.
So she quickly opened that one letter and began to read it.
Dear Ms. Mills,
I got your note and I'm afraid there must be some kind of misunderstanding. As far as I know, the lake house has been empty for several years. Maybe your note was intended for the Sandburg house down the shore - since no one has lived in this house for years. But, I'm curious about the paw prints."
As Regina finished reading the letter in her car, she grew just as curious as to why this Emma Swan was talking crazy.
Crazy, because she was living in this house since before Emma moved here. So if there was any mistake being made, it wasn't from her.
Regina quickly grabbed a paper and pen from her car and began to write a corresponding letter.
Dear Ms. Swan,
I'm very familiar with the Sandburg cottage and I can guarantee I never lived there. I'm old fashioned but I don't think a cottage should be over six thousand square feet. So let me try again. I used to live at the lake house, then I moved. Now I live in 1620 North Racine in Chicago. I'd appreciate it if you'd forward my mail if you get any. Oh, by the way it's 2018. Has been all year, ask anyone.
Emma read Regina's letter as soon as she got home that night, which only confused the blonde woman more given that when Emma bought this place and asked about the previous tenant, it was said it had been about two years since anyone lived in her house.
And the year? Emma was even more confused by the year she gave in her letter, due to the fact that it wasn't 2018, but 2016 - at least where Emma was.
"2018? What does she mean?" the blonde spoke to herself as she tried fixing her kitchen sink, failing miserably as the pipe detached, making the blonde drench in dirty yellow water.