Chapter 1

"Damn!" Emma slammed the car door shut, took a look at her watch and started to run. "Damn, damn, damn! I'm in big trouble! Regina will be really mad!

They had agreed to meet at the vault at 7 p.m. Now she was twenty minutes late and she knew Regina had a thing for punctuality. Emma wasn't sure if she should hope that the other woman would be gone when she arrived or that she would still be waiting. Either way, she had to face a furious formerly evil queen. Not a nice expectation, but nevertheless Emma ran over the graveyard as fast as she could.

Panting she descended the stairs, turned around the corner – and there she was. All dressed in black, hands on her hips, with a reproachful look on her face. "Miss Swan."

Realizing the cold tone of the voice, Emma contritely hung her head. Damn.

"I assume the little speech about punctuality that I gave you the last time you were late didn't get stuck in your head, did it?"

Emma tried an apologetic smile.

"Listen Regina, I know your angry, and I really am sorry, but there was this emergency at the sheriff station and I had to-"

"I don't care for your excuses, Miss Swan, as heart touching they may be. If I sacrifice my rare time for teaching you magic, the least you could do is to be here on time. I don't know exactly how you spend your daytime, but be assured I had a really hard day at the office and the last thing I want to do is wasting my time sitting around waiting for you."

Starting to get annoyed too, Emma rolled her eyes. "Sure Regina, whatever you say. Of course your life is so hard."

Regina shot her an evil eye. "What was that supposed to mean? Do you believe your life is more stressful than mine? Enlighten me then, Miss Swan – which part of it do you mean?
Sitting around at the sheriff station, where nothing ever happens? Holding hands with you charming parents at home? Or running around town with Captain Guyliner?"

Emma snorted. "You should talk! What the hell is so much more exhausting about your life; sitting all day in your office, bossing people around and maybe planning one revenge or two on people who wronged you?"

"You know that's not true!" Regina angrily cut her short. "I worked too hard to get over being an evil queen!"

"Yeah right, then why do you behave like one right now?!" Emma banged her fist on the table she was standing next to.
"Every time I think were making progress to become sort of friends with each other, you have to start a fight with me over something completely insignificant!"

Regina sneered. "By insignificant you certainly mean the one time you destroyed my happiness by bringing back my true love's wife? Or do you mean the time you tried to take away Henry from me? Maybe you mean-"

"I told you that wasn't on purpose! I already apologized! And just for your information, you were the evil queen, should I have let my son stay with you?"

"Oh cut it off, will you?!"

The two of them were so absorbed in their argument, that none of them saw the vial that, hidden behind a few larger books, had tumbled over because of Emma's fist hitting the table and was now leaking a strange liquid, which started to turn into some kind of smoke.

Heavily breathing to two women had come to a stop.

"This doesn't lead to anything. I'll better be off." Emma stated, trying to be reasonable, before she turned her back on Regina.

"This could easily be the first sensible idea you had since we have met today." The brunette replied, likewise turning her back on the other woman. "So why are you still here?"

Emma rolled her eyes while ascending the stairs. "Don't worry I'm as good as gone." She mumbled, more to herself.