"Regina we've been over this. Bear claws are a perfectly acceptable lunchtime alternative." Emma laughed warmly clutching a paper bag in one hand and a hot coffee in the other.
Regina walked beside her clutching Emma's elbow, shaking her head and trying to hold back a grin. This was a frequent argument in the Swan-Mills household and one that never failed to initiate a heated debate.
"It's perfectly acceptable, if you don't mind dying at 40 from a heart attack." Regina quipped back quickly.
Emma threw her head back laughing happily and slid her arms around Regina's waist stopping her from walking any further. Emma leaned down and whispered into her ear playfully,
"You're not getting rid of me that easily love."
She pressed a quick kiss against the older woman's cheek, shifted her coffee and pastry to the same hand and then entwined their fingers together and continued to walk. Regina continued to shake her head, a smirk playing on her lips and gave Emma's hand a loving squeeze.
They continued to walk in peaceful silence listening to the waves hitting the pier and the hungry seagulls squawking above their heads. They reached a bench that had been dubbed 'their bench' and sat down. Emma pulled Regina's disgustingly healthy salad out of the paper bag and placed it to Regina's eagerly waiting hands.
"How has the station been today?" Regina asked watching amusedly as Emma dug into the sweet pastry and let out a small moan that made Regina's eyes darken considerably. Emma noticed immediately as she turned to answer and just smirked knowingly.
"It's actually been surprisingly quiet to be honest. Dad's actually going to leave early to pick up Neal from school so he'll be thrilled about that. What about you? How's your day been?"
Regina huffed and rolled her eyes, picking at her salad.
"I'm surrounded by incompetent idiots. Alana has double booked me for the rest of the week and so now I have to negotiate with either the town council or the financial committee to move their Friday meeting" She replied with a huff.
"Don't be too hard on her, she seems like a sweet girl" Emma replied carefully.
"You only like her because she's always happy to tag along as one of your drinking buddies" Regina retorted narrowing her eyes.
Emma laughed unapologetically,
"Guilty as charged."
Regina rolled her eyes and though she would never admit it out loud Emma's lighthearted antics never failed to brighten her day. The pair sat quietly together enjoying a few peaceful moments out of the regular hustle and bustle of day to day life.
This bench had become an important part of the pairs daily routine and even more vital part of their marriage.
…
Ten years ago…
The morning was quiet as Emma and Regina lay entangled together, the quiet calm that came from this time of day was broken as Regina's morning alarm pierced the air. Emma groaned and tightened her arms that were wrapped around Regina's waist. She felt Regina start to stir as she reached over and turned off the alarm.
"Good morning" Regina said quietly as she turned in Emma's arms until they were face to face. Emma grunted in reply and burrowed her face further into the other woman's hair.
Regina started to pepper Emma's face with kisses and when she reached her lips they were already turned upwards in a reluctant grin.
"Five more minutes" she murmured against her lips.
"No deal" Regina replied smiling wickedly as she nuzzled further into the blonde woman's neck. Emma rolled over onto her stomach and groaned again into her pillow. Regina rolled with her so that she was partially lying over exposed back and laughed in her ear while softly stroking Emma's hair to the opposite side of her head so she could press her lips against the younger women's cheek.
"Besides," Regina husked in her ear "there's someone who is going to need your attention any moment now."
Emma perked up at this, rolling quickly again and grabbing a hold of Regina's waist to keep her partially on top of her.
"and who might that be?" Emma said seductively grinning at the brunette above her. Regina slowly leaned down and whispered
"Your daughter." With that statement, she pressed a final firm kiss upon Emma's lips and started to move off the bed.
"Oh, so she's my daughter, now is she?" Emma replied laughing. Regina just smirked and made her way into the adjoining bathroom. Emma rolled over into Regina's pillow and breathed in her comforting scent.
She couldn't keep a grin from taking over her face. Emma couldn't believe how perfect her life was in this moment. She had two amazing children and the most beautiful wife in the entire world. She was still grinning when Regina made her way back out of the bathroom and towards the door snapping
"Emma. Grace isn't going to get herself ready for daycare."
Still grinning, Emma laughed,
"I'm going, I'm going."
Regina continued to walk through the door, presumably to get Henry organized for school and most importantly make Emma her morning cup of coffee. Emma finally got out of bed and made her way down the hall to the nursery remarking quietly to herself how quiet Grace was being this morning. The door was shut as usual and Emma quietly pushed it open to reveal a completely dark room courtesy of the blackout blinds that had recently been installed in an attempt to combat the increasingly early sunrises as Summer drew closer.
Still, it was unusual that Grace had yet to wake as she was a notoriously early riser. Emma made her way routinely to the curtains and began to push them to their respective sides.
"Good morning sunshi-" Emma began to croon before stopping abruptly. The crib was empty. With a feeling of her heart rising through her throat Emma made her way closer to the crib to see the only item present to be Mopsy. Grace's beloved stuffed rabbit.
Emma felt the world spinning and she grabbed the wall to steady herself. She pushed off and quickly made her way down the hallway crying,
"Regina!"
She made her way through all the top floor rooms and ran down the stairs taking three stairs per step as she skidded towards the kitchen past Henry at the dining table leaning sleepily over a bowl of cereal and into the kitchen where Regina was flipping an omelet by the stovetop.
"Emma it's your turn to-" Regina began to say as she turned towards the blonde, but she stopped when she caught sight of the petrified look upon Emma's face and her empty arms.
"Emma. Where's Grace?" Regina said trying to remain calm.
Emma muttered two words in reply.
"She's gone."
…
Emma and Regina sat on their bench in relative silence enjoying a few moments of quiet before one of them was inevitably called off their lunchbreak and back to work. It was peaceful and relaxing but it was also a double-edged sword. Both women dealt with the tragedy of losing their young daughter differently and these differences had almost destroyed their marriage in the beginning.
It was the pure stubbornness and determination that had kept the couple's relationship afloat and once they got past the stages of guilt, denial and anger all that was left was each other. Henry left for his adventure shortly after Grace's abduction. He found it unbearable to stay in a house that was so torn apart by unrelenting sadness and grief.
Shortly after Henry left, Emma and Regina reluctantly agreed to see Archie Hopper. It had been a combination of Henry's absence, Snow's unrelenting pestering and pure desperation that had resulted in the couple's agreeance. Said sessions had turned out to be the saving grace of their marriage and without a safe space to express their feelings of turmoil neither were sure how their marriage may have turned out.
Emma and Regina still attended a monthly session for any small issues but after 10 years and a funeral their grief had evolved. It hadn't lessened. Not at all. But it had become more manageable, more controlled.
"What do you think she would look like now?" Emma asked faintly, the question erupting from her mouth before she could stop it.
There was no confusion as to who the 'she' being referred to was. Regina was quiet for a minute, so long Emma thought she wasn't going to answer the question.
"I don't know." She replied after a moment, "Her hair had started to darken when she-"She was cut off by a sob. Emma immediately reached for her, pulling her into a soft embrace. Emma entangled her hands into Regina's silky hair and held her tight.
"I'm sorry," Emma started but she was cut off by Regina.
"It's alright. You never have to be sorry for talking about her. I hope she would have had your blonde curls and eyes" She grinned wistfully. Emma laid her head on Regina's shoulder her mind running away from her with thoughts of what could have been. They had come such a long way since that day. Whilst they had threatened to be broken apart in the beginning in the end this horrific experience had brought them together in ways that they wish they had never had to have been brought together. In the end however no one on earth understood the pain and grief that had become a normal part of everyday life.
For Regina, the worst of the grief came in the dark, she could often lie in bed for hours staring at the ceiling. Her mind going a million miles an hour as Emma snoozed obliviously beside her. Emma's company helped immensely. Without her beside Regina at night she was sure she would never sleep. The choking gloomy shadows that came in the dead of night reminded Regina to much of her guilt. It was all encompassing, choking, unbearable. The what if's clouded her mind. Grace would have been turning 11 this year. The possibilities of what could have been were overwhelming. All the memories that were meant to be made. The hugs yet to be given and the thousands of smiles she had been meant to receive had disappeared in a single moment.
For Emma, the anguish reached its peak when her body stopped moving and her mind was left to its devices. In the ten years that had passed since that faithful morning where Emma had found an empty crib, Emma found that if her feet were moving her mind was quiet. This had led to Emma's fitness levels going through the roof. Emma went for a 6-mile run every morning and night. She never missed a day. It was moments like this were Emma was forced to be present and quiet that the thoughts infiltrated her mind.
It was the unknown that was the most torturous for the women. Dead or alive, they just wanted to know. Emma often wondered where Grace was? What she was doing? If she was happy? She knew that this outcome was unlikely but she had always been a dreamer and hope wasn't easy to quash.
Her musings were broken when she heard Regina's phone buzzing from her pocket for the 15th time in the space of 30 minutes she rolled her eyes in an exasperated manor and removed her phone from her pocket.
She rolled her eyes again, "Just as I expected, it's just Alana being incompetent as usual. I swear she can't even make a copy without needing divine instruction." She muttered exasperatedly. Emma hid her grin in her scarf because she knew it was true. Regina stood and stretched her arms above her head letting out a very un-Regina like groan. Emma started giggling and began to pack their lunch.
"I'm sorry is something amusing Miss Swan? I believe this is your fault. Never again will I listen when you say that cross fit is relaxing" she said crossing her arms and looking irritated. Emma let out a loud laugh that echoed across the empty dock and stepped forward to intertwine their fingers and bring Regina closer into a soft kiss. At first the other woman was relatively unresponsive but eventually Emma felt the beginnings of a grin on the older woman's lips. Their lips moved in tandem, the kiss getting more heated the longer time went by.
It was interrupted by Regina's phone buzzing for the 16thtime.
"For crying out loud!" Regina exclaimed breaking away and pulling the phone roughly out of her pocket. She answered the phone in an agitated fashion and hissed down the line,
"Miss Everett. If you can't handle my absence for one hour you are more incompetent than I originally thought. Deal with it." She finished the call aggressively and let her arms fall back around Emma's shoulders as she buried her face in her neck.
"I suppose real life can't wait today" Emma said regretfully, her arms coming wrapping around Regina's shoulders to return the hug.
"I suppose not." Regina replied shortly.
"Hey! It'll be okay! There's only a couple more hours till work will be done and when you get home I may have a surprise for you" Emma said grinning cheekily.
"Hmm," Regina said sultrily, "A surprise you say? What does this surprise involve?"
"I guess you'll have to get through the day without firing Alana to find out" Emma replied laughing lightheartedly as she dodged Regina's hands as they attempted to hit her arm. Regina shook her head and tried not to look amused. But it didn't work. She couldn't hide from Emma.
The pair began the walk back down the pier. It had quickly become their place mainly due to the secluded nature of its placement. It was located at the end of an abandoned fishery towards the end of town in between the mayor offices and the station.
The was an old bench that was in surprisingly good condition considering its seaside location. From the bench, you could see the ducks waddling in the shallow waters and hear the seagulls screaming overhead. There was no place better to clear a head than sitting by the ocean and being enveloped by its salty breeze and listening to the gentle waves crashing against the piers foundation below.
As they neared the end of the pier the pair spotted a familiar sheriff car and blonde head sprinting down the waterfront.
"Hey" Emma remarked, "is that my Dad?"
The couple observed David standing roughly 300 feet away. He looked unexpectedly ragged and anxious. His gaze flitting and head snapping in every direction, while his hands raked through his hair in agitation. He appeared to be looking for someone and finally his frantic gaze settled on the couple and he visibly sighed in relief. He jogged over to them and appeared out of breath.
Emma opened her mouth to make a joke about David turning into an old man but as she opened her mouth, he breathed out a sentence that made the couples blood run cold.
"It's Grace, she's back."
AN:
I aim to update weekly every Monday. Reviews help more than you know and help my procrastination and motivation levels haha, so please if you have a spare moment consider leaving a review. Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoy!