A/N After last night's episode I guess I couldn't resist doing this.
Disclaimer: I don't own them (sadly but not quite since yesterday's episode was more a fanfic than anything else)
I want to say thank you
Emma tapped her fingers against the table of the dinner, eyeing nervously her cellphone as it remained silent. Her parents seemed to not be available that night and even if she had seen how the latest monster of Storybrooke had disappeared in a cloud of smoke and sulfuric odor she was still feeling uneasy, as if something wasn't quite right.
Maybe it was nothing she thought as Hook drank at her side, but she really hoped that her parents were right.
"Maybe they are busy" Said the pirate with a smirk and a wink, the blonde understanding the hidden meaning behind those words just a few seconds before Henry approached them with the book between his arms.
"Not now" Pleaded Emma with a low murmur as Henry made a face as if he had suspected what they were talking about.
"Later then?" Asked Hook with his eyes glinting hopefully but Emma was already listening to Henry, the boy pointing at some of the pictures that he had found and how some of them appeared to have some kind of mark hidden inside of them.
Emma let Henry babble for a couple of minutes, already thinking on the feeling of uneasiness that was growing inside of her slowly but steadily.
"Ei, kid" The blonde smiled warmly at the dark haired boy who was now pointing at what appeared to be her parent's wedding back on the enchanted forest. "Why I don't accompany you to your mother's house and you keep telling me what you have found in the book?"
Henry narrowed his eyes for a second but nodded after a few more of scrutinizing his blonde mother.
"I will go to grab my coat" Henry replied, already turning his back to both Emma and Hook, the second one looking at the blonde with a surprised look marrying his features.
"I thought that we were going to have dinner with your parents"
Emma shrugged, standing up and kissing the man's cheek for a second before walking towards the door, the bell jingling for a moment as she opened it and let Henry walk past her.
"I'm not feeling well and maybe you are right and my parents are… busy- she refused the idea of them having sex although she doubted that both of her parents were as lust-hungry as Hook- besides is getting dark and I promised Regina to be with Henry earlier this night." The blonde's words sounded weak even to her own ears but the ball at the pit of her stomach was starting to feel too heavy to ignore it anymore and she knew that she really couldn't start to explain something that looked magical to Hook.
Or maybe, she reasoned as she smiled at the pirate once again before approaching her son that was already talking about the book and the details on it, she really didn't know how to explain something to Hook.
The walk back to Regina's home was quiet apart from the incessant stream of words that Henry seemed to want to say before arriving to his mother's house.
"And then… Ma, are you ever listening to me?" Henry's deep and exasperated tone made Emma look at him, startled by the concerned look that she found in Henry's eyes "Ma, are you ok?"
Emma nodded and smiled at him but she still could see the glint of doubt on him so she tried to brush it off with one of her soft laughs.
"Yes, it's just that today was really draining with the demon and everything, I'm only tired" The blonde's words seemed to calm Henry's concerns although the boy halted at the entrance of the mayoral mansion.
"I'm happy that neither you nor mom were injured by it" Henry admitted, his right hand tugging the hem of his shirt in a way that Emma had usually see only in herself when she was nervous.
"Me too, I think that I'm going to say thanks to Regina again, she was… amazing out there"
At Henry's quick nod and bright smile Emma resumed her walk until she was facing the white door of the house where Henry opened the door with his new-given keys as she stood there, unconsciously playing with her shirt as she head the steady steps of Regina Mills.
"Henry?"
The teenager rolled his eyes but answered with a "Yes mom" just before the brunette's figure appeared at the door sporting a warm smile as her eyes landed on the dark haired boy who smiled at his mother as she greeted him, a concerned look marrying the older woman's features as she saw Emma right behind him.
"I'll be upstairs, there is a lot that I want to see about the book" Henry said hurriedly and both women find looking at each other for a second before Emma broke the intense look that she had been giving to Regina.
"Is everything ok?" Regina asked while motioning Emma to enter the house, her face relaxing when the blonde merely nodded.
"I wanted to talk with you I suppose" Emma finally said as she followed Regina to where the woman's study was, the plush armchairs welcoming her as she seated in the nearest one to Regina's favorite.
"About?" Regina said and for a second her voice was edged with doubt but as soon as her brown eyes found Emma's the suddenly rigid posture changed. "I'm sorry; I'm still a bit worried about Cruella's and Ursula's intentions"
Emma hummed and looked at her hands, the ball of uneasiness smaller now that she was in front of the brunette.
"I… wanted to say thanks, about what you have done this morning" The blonde finally managed to say in a low voice, voice that caught up on strength as Emma kept talking to Regina. "What you did was brave and…"
Regina raised her left hand and touched Emma's hands, the contact making Emma stop, her eyes focused on the older woman's touch as the ball seemed to grow for a second as it crawled up until it was resting at the back of her throat.
"Well, if the savior died on my watch I'm fairly sure that your parents would find a way to make me return from the death only for killing me again" Regina joked as her upper lip curled in what attempted to be a smile. However, when she saw how Emma kept looking at their joined hands she frowned, the emerald eyes of the blonde were stormier than ever and the younger woman's skin was paler than what it normally looked. "Emma?"
"You could have got yourself killed because of me" The blonde said, her words jumbled as the air inside her chest seemed to expel them forcefully "You… When I saw how you disappeared and reappeared in front of the car I saw it. You were ready to… that thing, if the trick I did with the car wouldn't have worked we don't know what that thing would have done to you"
Regina smiled as her left hand clenched tightly around pale digits.
"I knew that you weren't going to leave me die. But I couldn't make you die with me if that thing managed to enter in that thing that you call "car""
Emma looked briefly at Regina and smiled at the joke only to averte her eyes once again.
"I know, but what if..."
"Emma" Regina said; her voice soft but not admitting interruptions. "If anything would have happened to both of us Henry would have found himself without his mothers. I needed… He needs us, but if I wouldn't have made it I would have had the confirmation that he would be with someone I could trust."
The compliment left Emma speechless for a second before she returned her eyes to Regina's, the openness that she found in them making her swallow as the words that she had wanted to say mixed inside of her as the ball kept swirling at her throat.
"I… thank you, but… I'm not only talking about Henry" Emma stuttered, not sure if she had been really talking about Henry or what exactly had been her point when she had decided to accompany Henry.
"Then what are you talking about?" Regina asked, her voice soft, alluring even as the concerned look on her face grew when Emma simply shook her head and kept her eyes looking at anything but her.
"I would have cared if that thing would have killed you" Emma finally said, her chest constricting painfully as the ball seemed to travel south once again, resting inside of her heart and lungs. "I said it, I don't want… I wasn't going to feed that monster with you, and yet you almost got yourself killed"
"And what was the solution?" The brunette said, her words harsher now as Emma finally looked at her, her normally green eyes darker now, concern shining inside of them as well as rage, the same rage that the brunette was now feeling growing inside of her "Seeing how you got yourself killed because of me? You are much more than I am Emma, you…"
"Don't say that I'm the savior and that's the reason why I should live over you" Emma answered, standing up as she clenched her jaw, Regina mimicking her stance almost less than a second after.
"I was going to say that you deserved to live since the monster was trying to kill me, you said we were friends, that's what friends do"
Emma bit her lower lip until she tasted her blood, the coppery flavor making her grimace for a second as she raised her head, Regina doing the same as their chests heaved, their eyes flashing with something that wasn't quite anger, or wrath.
"Friends help each other" Emma finally said, her voice lower now, her eyes burning as embers as they locked with Regina's deep ones, the chocolate color of them changing to something that looked almost black as the blonde kept talking, the ball inside her growing and shrinking erratically as her words left her. "Friends are there and trust each other; they don't sacrifice themselves because of a monster. You know that I would have crossed the town line with you if that would have been what we have needed to do. But you poofed yourself just right in front of me. What if the brakes wouldn't have worked? What if the monster would have grabbed you?"
"Then we would have needed to work another plan" Regina answered, her voice trembling slightly but keeping her normal composure as Emma let her arms fall along her body, the strength that had been straightening her now gone.
"Thank you for what you did" The blonde whispered "But please…"
"Have you ever thought that what you did, driving me to the town line without anything else than a weak plan was the exact same thing that I did when I poofed myself outside your car?" Regina asked with a sad smile playing on her lips, her eyes holding Emma's "I'm grateful because you believed in me Emma, you kept trying to help me. And that monster could have killed you as much as it could have killed me. Yet you were there."
"That's what friends do" Emma answered, her eyes filling with something close to what the blonde believe was tears, a sudden exhaustion taking over her body.
"That's what you do, and not because you are the savior, but because you are you" Regina replied with a nod, her arms rising until they were touching Emma's shoulders. "Let me try to do the same, yes?"
"Just… don't die in the process ok?" Emma said, the tears visible enough now to make Regina move one of her hands until it were grazing her cheek, a gesture that made Emma blink quickly, trying to make them disappear.
"Ok" Regina replied, her whisper soft as it was her smile, her eyes also feeling with emotion as Emma finally moved forward, her arms embracing the older woman as a quiet tremble traveled through her body, making Regina embrace it back as strongly as she could.
"Next time I will be the one poofing around" Emma said after a few more minutes in which the tremble subsided until it was forgotten.
Regina nuzzled her nose at the younger woman's neck for a moment until she laughed and took a step back, the sudden loss of contact making Emma stare at her feet as her cheeks light up in embarrassment.
"If you do that, Miss Swan then I refuse to be the one driving that yellow monstrosity"
Emma laughed at that and when Regina followed her in what turned out to be an open and loud laugh she finally felt how the ball shrank into inexistence.
"We can always try to drive away from monsters in your car" Replied as she wiped a few tears that had finally escaped the brim of her eyes earlier.
"We can" Regina replied and in that moment, when she tilted her head and her eyes reflected the soft lights of the studio Emma could see something else swirling inside of them.
"I'm going to be there, whatever happens" Vowed and when Regina nodded silently at that the blonde knew that whichever the brunette wasn't saying was conveyed in that single nod.
