Regina jerks awake, a terrible nightmare waking her unceremoniously. She scanned her room for a second before calming her heart. Glancing at the clock on her bedside table, she noticed it read 10:27am. Not too late to sleep in, but still not as early as she would of liked to have gotten up. Yawning, she gathers herself out of bed and trudges downstairs, clearing the sleep out of her eyes. She's about to get a bowl out of the cupboard when she hears the voice of another woman.
"Morning." Emma Swan presents herself across the counter top opposite Regina.
"Good morning Miss Swan, I do hope my spare room was comfortable enough for you." Regina spins around, catching Emma's eye.
"Enough with the 'Miss Swan', we're past that. And yes, it was comfortable enough."
"Fine, Emma. Sit. I'll make breakfast and you'll get to explaining." Regina didn't want to wait, she needed to know why Emma left, why she hadn't heard from her in 2 years, she needed to know why she left her.
"Ah right yeah, okay, here goes."
And so as Regina pottered around the kitchen, Emma told her everything, from beginning to end.
It all kind of started when I was with Hook, things between me and him had been fine, really they had, but one day I had woken up and the spark wasn't there anymore. I didn't know why, I mean I was sure the night before I had still felt it all. About a week after missing it, I had found out he got drunk with a couple of guys down at the Rabbit hole and he had cheated on me. I was distraught, usually people would die or like some cases, turn into flying monkeys, but never did I imagine this happening. I instantly left him, and that's when I found that I didn't know where to go, I couldn't come crash here because well you had Robin and all that and it would of just been intrusive if I had crashed here for a long time. And then there's my parents, with their son, and I just knew I wouldn't be able to stay there without the negative feeling of them with another child. So I did what I do best, I ran away, I went back to the city, the place I knew well. The city felt just like home, you know? I'd lived them for as long as I could remember, once I was on my own of course. I got a cute lil apartment, cheap because I honestly didn't know how long I was gonna stay. A week ended up a month and a month ended up being half the year, by then I had my self a little job and I was finally feeling happy. That's when I panicked, I had run away from people who cared about me and I honestly didn't know what to tell them, How was I gonna explain to my parents I needed time when they're so caring and how the hell was I meant to tell you I was running away because I got hurt? I knew for sure you'd call me an idiot and send me home. So I stayed, I stayed because of fear, regret and stupidity. And then one day it hit me, why I lost the spark and so I had to come back.
Regina sat there, after an hour of an explanation, with her hand over her mouth to keep her from laughing.
"You left because you lost a spark with guyliner and he cheated on you? What did you expect, he's a pirate for god sake!"
"Oh don't start with me Regina, I mean I've been here all night and I haven't seen Robin Hood once! What happened to that bullshit true love shit with him?"
"No, we are not here to talk about my life! We're here to talk about you disappearing for 2 years! Do you know how much Henry missed you, or your parents? They thought I got rid of you for good!"
After a breathe of silence, Emma backed down.
"I'm sorry."
Regina stared, waiting.
"I didn't intend to disappear for so long, but I was hurt and I wasn't understanding my feelings and I didn't want other people mixing with that."
A pause, a breathe.
"I'm still scared you know, I'm scared to see Henry and have him hate me, I'm scared to see my parents and deal with them and I'm scared to deal with these new feelings I have."
Regina kept her eyes on the woman in front of her, took a deep breath and sighed.
"God save us all."
