Monday: Fake Relationship

To Emma, it seemed like Regina had everything in life. A good house, a good job, parents who actually seemed to care about her existence and wellbeing and a car that didn't break down when it got a chilly outside. Emma had none of those things, which was why she accepted Regina's offer after a few days of thinking about it. Regina offered her a house, well a room to stay in for the time being, a large down payment and an even greater payment at the end of their contract, and a car to travel in. Regina couldn't really help in the parents department, but the rest was nice. And all Emma had to do was have Regina's child.

Well, not Regina's child, but the child of the sperm donor she picked out. Regina, unfortunately for her but fortunately for Emma, couldn't have children. Not that she had the partner to do so, but the more months Emma spent with Regina the more she knew Regina would make an excellent mother, partner or no partner.

Regina took Emma into her house the moment she agreed to bear her child, and she would remain there as long as the child needed milk and then longer still until Emma was able to find a new place. Until then, Regina had agreed to support her, giving her a weekly allowance along with the two large payments before and after pregnancy. It would set Emma up for quite a while, especially since she was still able to work at Granny's until her belly was simply too big to move around a kitchen with. Once she got to that point it turned out that Regina loathed leaving her alone. So Emma had maids and chefs and any number of other hired help on hand though out her days in Regina's mansion to sate her every need. Which mainly boiled down to reaching things that were a tad too high and getting her the weird combinations of food she had been craving since early in the pregnancy. Regina was convinced she just ate weird food all the time and always had and nothing Emma could say would convince her otherwise.

It was nice, in a way, to be coddled by Regina. It wasn't something Emma was used to, and it was only temporary, so she'd accept it. But when Regina blatantly refused to let her go back to her home town for Christmas, Emma had just about thrown Regina out of the third story window. She had yelled at Regina that night and spent the next day either avoiding her or giving her the silent treatment. At the end of those two days Regina had two plane tickets to Maine.

/-/-/-/

Regina sniffed disdainfully the moment that she drove the rental car past the old sign welcoming them to Storybrooke.

"I didn't realise quite how small town you were, dear."

"You haven't even seen the town!"

"I saw the sign, and it's falling over. The town's budget must be nearly non-existent!"

Emma wanted to argue, to defend her home town but there really was next to no money in the budget. Anyway, Emma had a good reason to leave Storybrooke in the first place that left her with few positive memories.

It was two days before Christmas, and the first thing Emma did when they drove into Storybrooke was tell Regina to pull up outside Granny's Bed and Breakfast. It was still early enough that Granny would be manning the front counter while Ruby was in the Diner next door.

Eugenia Lucas grinned at Emma when she walked in and engulfed her in a loose hug, careful not to press down on Emma's abdomen.

"Well, look at you! Your mother didn't mention that you had one on the way."

"Um… that's because she doesn't know."

Regina just rolled her eyes. It didn't surprise her in the least, and she certainly would have told her mother if she was in the same position, but it was Emma's choice after all. It wasn't like Emma's mother could do anything about it, anyway. Granny just gave Emma a stern look.

"We need two rooms, preferably adjoining."

Granny snatched two keys off the hooks and held them out. "Adjoining, huh?"

Emma shrugged. "I'm pregnant with her child, and she tends to get antsy when she can't check on me."

"I still don't see the point of adjoining rooms. It's not like she can get you any more pregnant. Even if she tried. We don't have the facilities in Storybrooke."

"I only want the one, anyway." Regina interrupted. "And hopefully he or she will inherit better manners than those Emma tends to display."

Granny laughed at Emma's painfully red blush.

"Granny, this is Regina. Regina this is Eugenia Lucas, but everyone calls her Granny. She owns the Bed and Breakfast and the Diner."

"It's lovely to meet you, Ms Lucas."

"Please, call me Granny. Emma is telling the truth, everyone does and I prefer it that way."

Regina nodded. "As you wish. Granny. How much for the rooms?"

Regina paid and led Emma upstairs and investigated both rooms before deciding on which was more comfortable. She ushered Emma inside the more comfortable one and started unpacking for her.

"You don't need to unpack. We'll only be here for a few days."

Regina ignored her and continued to unpack. By the time she had finished Emma had collapsed on the bed and was fast asleep.

/-/-/-/

Emma woke to a gentle nudging of her shoulder. The room was seeped in shadows and Regina hovered over her.

"Up you get, Emma. It's time for dinner. I didn't have time to try and find whatever constitutes as a supermarket around here, so we'll have to eat at the Diner. Unless there is another place you'd prefer?"

Emma yawned loudly. "No, the Diner is good. It'll let me catch up with Ruby."

Emma forced herself up with Regina's help and sat on the edge of the bed. Her shoes were on the floor next to her and Emma knew she hadn't been the one to take them off.

"Emma, please stop me if I'm being too forward, but Granny mentioned your mother."

Emma rubbed her face; she knew exactly where this was going.

"But I always said I grew up in the system?"

Regina nodded.

"When I turned eighteen I was kicked out of the system with my birth parent's names and addresses. I didn't look them up for another five years and now that I have they sort of want to play happy families all the time. They're not bad people; I just can't handle them much more than Christmas."

"And they live here? In the same town you grew up in?"

"Yeah. It's fucked up isn't it? Mary-Margaret Blanchard got pregnant from her boyfriend when she was sixteen and then their kid grew up in the same town as them, and not once did anyone in this whole shitty town say anything. I think over half the town has fostered me at some point. I stayed with Granny the longest, but she couldn't look after both Ruby and I after her heart attack when we were ten. I don't blame her, and she was always welcoming, and I kept a key to the house just in case I needed it, but I did have a few homes after her. When I say it took me five years to look them up, I mean I skipped out of town as soon as I could and didn't come back until I was ready."

"We don't have to stay, Emma."

"We kind of do, actually. Can you imagine Granny's reaction if we skipped out now? Before she got the full story about this baby?"

"It's not much of a story, dear. I paid someone to put a baby in you because you can have children and I cannot."

"About that…"

/-/-/-/

Regina spent all of dinner seething. Not that anyone but Emma realised, of course, especially when Regina played up to the role of loving girlfriend. Emma was pretty sure she would have been obliterated if she weren't carrying Regina's child. But she was and that came with the small perk of pretty much complete protection from all of Regina's anger and annoyance. Not that any of it was really more than a bluff. Most of the time, anyway. Regina really did have that waiter's job when he ignored Emma's chilli allergy and didn't inform the kitchen. Things could have gone badly if Regina hadn't been suspicious and tried Emma's food before she let her eat it.

Emma just shrugged off the glares and silent treatment because at the end of the day Regina did like her, even if she wouldn't admit it. At the very least, Emma was giving her the one thing Regina never thought she'd have and Regina had never made a secret of how grateful she was for the chance to be a mother. Even if it wasn't a full on friendship (except it totally was, Regina just wouldn't admit it) it was comfortable and nice. With Regina you knew where you stood.

"So," Emma said slowly. "Dinner with the in-laws tomorrow?"

"They are not my in-laws."

"Come on Regina. You have to play the part convincingly."

Regina glared at her and Emma just grinned.

"I can 'play the part' fine. But I won't play it for a moment longer than I need to. Besides," Regina said with a haughty sniff, "they wouldn't be my in-laws. In this little fantasy of yours we're dating, not married."

/-/-/-/

The Diner had been agreed upon as neutral ground, even after Regina had pointed out to Emma that it wasn't in fact neutral. One thing she had learnt about Granny over the past day was that she would always be on Emma's side. Emma had shushed her and told her it was a secret. Christmas Eve, it seemed, was a big deal at Granny's and they weren't the only ones having a family dinner out, in fact all of the tables were full and pretty much had been since lunch. Granny gave out the odd frozen meal to those who lived alone so that they could have a proper Christmas lunch or dinner the next day when the Diner was closed. Emma laughed when Ruby was sent running after one man to give him his.

"Granny used to make Ruby and I pack the dinners for almost a whole week while she was in the Diner working. We'd be in this small corner of the kitchen so she could keep an eye on us. I think it was mainly to make sure Ruby didn't eat all of the food. One year Ruby and I grew so sick of turkey that Granny had to make roast ham instead. She was not impressed because she'd been saving up this huge turkey and had even started preparing it before we complained. Ruby and I had to carry it to the orphanage ourselves. We almost dropped it twice."

"I can imagine you two were quite the pair growing up."

"We were. I don't think anyone but Granny could have handled both of us."

Their conversation lulled and Emma started to turn her glass of water slowly. It wasn't the most seemly habit, but Regina found it rather endearing and extremely telling.

She sighed. "Out with it, dear. You're just going to work yourself up otherwise."

"I want to be in the baby's life Regina. Even if it's just you sending me Christmas cards of him or her and keeping my number in case they need a bone marrow transfusion or something. I mean, this kid is inside of me and I want to know they're safe. I know they will be, cause you'll be an awesome mother, but … well you know what I mean. And keeping that I mind it'd be best if we were friends or something, right? So could we go out this weekend or something?"

"You can use the baby as an excuse for a lot of things, Emma, but getting a date is not one of them. I suggest you try again."

Emma straightened in her chair. "Regina Mills, would you let me take you out on a date this weekend once we are back in New York?"

"What brought this on?"

"No one's ever really put me first before, and if it's just because of the baby, that's fine. But I do like you Regina and look at everything you've done for me. None of this affects the kid, but here you are pretending to be my girlfriend because I asked you."

"Asked?" Regina said with a raised eyebrow.

Emma rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."

"Yes, I do. And the answer is yes, I will go on a date with you. You'd better amaze me Emma. I am a hard woman to please."

"I will, I promise!"

Emma's happy demeanour changed the moment a short haired woman walked in, grinning at them. Emma didn't get up to greet her; possibly because they weren't that close, but Regina suspected it was because she didn't want to draw attention to her belly. Word must have made it's rounds by the way Mary Margaret constantly glanced down at Emma's round stomach, but at least she had enough social graces not to bring it up.

It was a few tense minutes after introductions that David and his wife Kathryn strolled in. David hugged Emma while she sat in her seat and Kathryn took her hand and congratulated Emma softly while David and Mary Margaret awkwardly nodded at each other.

Conversation over dinner was led mostly by Regina and Kathryn and it certainly shed some light onto why Emma had never mentioned her birth parents before. Perhaps the five years it took her to come back to Storybrooke hadn't been enough.

Hugs after dinner was over were, if it was at all possible, even more awkward between Mary Margaret and Emma than introductions had been.

Emma ran a hand through her hair as Mary Margaret stared at her stomach.

"Can't you just be happy for me? Pretend like you think I could actually raise a child or something?"

"No dear, I am happy for you! I just wonder if perhaps more thought should have gone into this. You're not even married…" Mary Margaret trailed off.

"Well, it's not like I got her knocked up by mistake." Regina said sweetly. "It took quite a few tries, and quite a lot of money. Besides, you've already proven that marriage isn't needed for a child, dear. The choice not to get married was mine, not that it is any of your concern."

Mary Margaret opened and closed her mouth and David just stared down at the ground. Kathryn threw an amused glance their way and turned back to Regina.

"Why not get married, if you don't mind me asking, Regina?"

"I was married once before, and it was not a happy marriage. I would rather not marry again, all things considered."

"Isn't Emma different?" Mary Margaret snapped.

Regina glanced shyly at Emma. "I can quite honestly say I've never had a relationship with someone quite like the one I share with Emma. But I still don't see marriage happening anytime soon. Not that it's any of your business."

"I'm her mother!"

"But you're not mine, so it's still done of your business. Now, if you don't mind I am tired and would like to retire for the evening."

Regina held an arm out for Emma.

"Shall we, dear?"