Regina Loxley sat at her desk, the picture of patience as she waited rather irritably for the agent she was scheduled to have a meeting with. Really, meetings on a Saturday, whose idea was that? And where was this woman? Fifteen minutes late, it's utterly ridiculous. The door burst open and a tall, thin woman with a mess of blonde curls and sharp green eyes entered looking slightly harassed.
"Miss Swan, I presume?" Regina asked, eyeing the blonde with distaste.
"Let's just get this started, alright?" Emma huffed, plopping down in the chair across from Regina. "Neither of us wants to be here, so…"
"Of course. If you had been on time, perhaps we might have been halfway done by now," Regina answered, smiling smugly when Emma glared up at her from beneath her lashes. "The Pan scam… Walk me through the arrest if you will."
"You have the case file, don't you?" Emma snapped irritably.
"Yes, Miss Swan, but some of the details of the arrest seem a little suspect, so I would like you to go through it and clarify some aspects for me," Regina hissed through gritted teeth, her temper rising dangerously.
Emma sighed heavily before answering. "We got an anonymous tip about our suspects' location, a little kid who had called in and said that there was a scary man living in his building, and we thought it might be our guy."
"Based on the description of 'scary'?" Regina questioned, her eyebrows arching in disbelief.
"We have to start somewhere," Emma grimaced. "We had some leads that indicated they might be holing up in that part of London, but otherwise we had nothing to go on, so when we got the call, we figured it was as good a jump on things as any."
"And who was leading the operation at this point?" Regina interrupted, making notes on a legal pad as Emma talked.
"I was," she answered sullenly. "Look, we got the call and headed over to the apartment building, and we busted through the apartment door and the suspects were there, so we arrested them."
"And did you have a warrant to, er, bust into the apartment?" Regina inquired.
"No, but we were investigating a dangerous situation," Emma argued, clenching her fists.
"You're claiming that the child was in danger?" Regina clarified. "Based on the phone call?"
"Once we were inside," Emma continued, ignoring her, "we found pictures of the kidnapped kids being held somewhere, so we went ahead and arrested the suspects."
"Okay, so after entering the premises unlawfully, you went ahead and arrested both suspects on circumstantial evidence?" Regina pressed, feeling thoroughly exasperated by this case, and the woman in charge of it. "Exactly how did you become an agent, Miss Swan? You seem completely incompetent."
As Emma opened her mouth to retaliate, the phone on Regina's desk began to light up, and she glanced at the number on the display, letting out a long sigh.
"Please excuse me one moment," Regina said to Emma, picking up the phone and lowering her voice to answer. "Hello?"
"Hey, 'Gina," a distinctly masculine voice said on the other end. "Look, I need you to come pick up Roland."
"I can't right now, David, I'm in a meeting," Regina hissed. "You promised you would take care of him for me."
"I know I did, but stuff came up," David answered, and Regina scowled at the black and white wallpaper.
"What stuff?" she challenged, eyes squinting dangerously. If he were there, her expression would have made him very nervous indeed.
"Prime Minister stuff," he said defiantly. "Can you just come get your son? Or tell Robin to pick him up?"
"Robin's working today, and I told you I'm in a meeting right now."
"Well, if you're not here to get him in twenty minutes, he's going to be left on his own," David told her matter-of-factly.
Regina let out a low curse as she slammed the phone down on the base, pushing her chair back from the desk.
"Excuse me, Miss Swan, we will have to resume this meeting another time," she said curtly. "I would highly suggest, in the meantime, that you consider the deep shit that you and your team are currently in, and how you might remedy the situation."
"Isn't that your job," Emma retorted, crossing her arms as Regina stuffed her laptop into a polished leather briefcase.
"Miss Swan, I'll see you on Monday to deal with this mess. Good bye," she dismissed Emma bluntly, and the blonde left with a final snarky smile.
Slinging her bag over her shoulder, Regina made her way out of the office, locking the door behind her, and proceeded to hail a cab.
"Downing Street," she informed the driver, and she rolled her eyes when he gave her a skeptical look before shrugging and driving off anyway.
When he stopped outside the gate to Downing Street, she handed over a few bills and climbed out and presented her id to one of the guards, who waved her through. The door to number ten opened and a handsome man stood in front of her, holding a small boy by the hand.
"'Gina," David said warmly, leaning forward to kiss Regina on the cheek. "Thanks for coming to get him."
"You didn't leave me much choice," she said quietly in his ear. "Really, David, he's only four, you can't leave him alone."
"There's about a hundred people who work here, 'Gina, it's not like he would really have been on his own," David countered, and Regina took her son by his little hand.
"I cannot believe you," she scoffed in reply. "Roland, say goodbye to Uncle David."
The little boy wiggled his fingers at his uncle, who gave him a charming grin in return, and Regina swept him up into her arms.
"See you later, little brother," she said, turning on her heel and walking away with her son chattering happily on her hip.