THE EVIL REGAL BLOGS
By Scribes and Scrolls
Part 2 – Logout
Emma sat in her car outside the Mayor's office and flicked through the remaining pages. June had indeed been a revelation. The school boyish smirks had turned from derisive about the mayor to something quite different. There was an appreciation for Emma and a sense of longing for the changes they thought they were starting to see. Not just in Storybrooke, but especially in their mayor.
June 8
LooseLips: I saw regal smile today. A real one, genuine, not the 'I'll smite you where you stand look' either.
SnackTime: impossible! really?
LooseLips: And she wasn't even smiling at the sheriff.
SnackTime: hahaha. So who?
LooseLips: Gran.
SnackTime: She thanked me last week for something.
LooseLips: That's new.
HaleysComet: Regal came over for dinner. She was excellent company.
SnackTime: holy crap. Another first, HC.
LooseLips: It seems a certain blondie is having quite the effect on regal. But they still fight all the time.
HayleysComet: Shame. They would be good together
LooseLips: Kinda balance each othr
SnackTime: yeah
Save Henry: hi. What've I missed?
LooseLips: Regal and sheriff should b together.
Save Henry: Please, they fight 24/7.
SnackTime: Until they stop. Then, sparkage
HaleysComet: That would light up the sky.
Save Henry: You're forgetting blondie hates her.
HaleysComet: you can't know that. None of us really know
Save Henry: just can't see her wanting regal
HaleysComet: don't be so sure. Regal should make a move.
Save Henry: Would love 2 be a fly on the wall for that roadkill event.
. . . . . . . . .
Emma walked slowly to the mayor's office, thinking hard as she knocked on the door. Regina showed her in wordlessly and pointed to the chair opposite her imposing marble desk. There was something just out of reach in the sheriff's brain but she couldn't put her finger on it. Something not quite …
"Sheriff. You have news?" Regina looked at her coolly, sliding into the seat opposite.
"I have investigated, and I have spread the word for them to give it a rest," Emma replied, eyeing the mayor thoughtfully. Her brain still tickled around the June 8 blog.
"What?" Regina asked disdainfully. "That's it? Just 'Oh pretty please don't humiliate the office of the mayor for a while?'."
"Yep."
"Although as we've established you don't seem to think there's any denigration."
"Not really, no," Emma admitted with a shrug. "Politicians and public officials are always fair game."
"And what about you and me personally?"
"What do you mean?"
"You don't feel denigrated to be linked in the same realm as me... romantically?"
Emma looked at her and wondered how to answer that little bomb. Finally she opted for the truth. "No, I really don't."
Regina looked at her oddly and snorted. She rose to pour a drink. "Would you like one, Miss Swan? My best apple cider."
Emma shook her head. "On duty."
Regina said nothing and resumed her seat, the heavy-set cider glass poised at her lips.
"Clearly, Sheriff, you see no harm in any of this," Regina continued dryly. "But I suppose it would be too much to expect you to see this from a mother's point of view?" She tipped her head back and swallowed.
Emma watched the swan-like neck angled towards her and marvelled. Did Regina actually have a bad angle? She sucked in a breath and forced herself to think about the mayor's words.
"What do you mean?" she asked, frowning.
Regina slammed down the glass so hard the remaining liquid sloshed up the side. Any pretense at friendliness was now gone. "Some creature has the screen name 'Save Henry' – implying I am such an unfit mother that my own son deserves rescuing. From me! Or did that little detail escape you, too? If that's not defamation I don't know what is."
Emma blinked. One of the whirling pieces of puzzle that had been floating around in her head locked into place. Damn, she was right. It was nasty.
Regina leant over her desk, nose to nose, and husked: "Now I want you to go back out there and DO YOUR JOB – properly this time! You will get to the bottom of these vile lies at once."
Regina's eyes glittered dangerously. "Do I make myself clear, Sheriff Swan?"
"Crystal, Madame Mayor. And might I remind you of something?"
"What is it?" Regina spat back.
"Even you can't control everything."
"Get out!" Regina snarled.
"Oh I'm leaving," Emma said, scrambling to her feet. "Madame Mayor."
. . . . . . . . . . .
Emma sat on the couch at home, reading the printouts again, scowling mightily. She heard her flatmate making a hot drink in the kitchen.
"Want one Em?"
"No thanks. Got work."
Stirring and banging noises resumed.
"Still working on Storybrooke's infamous underground evil regal files?"
"Mmm. You know Regina made a fair point today - in between chewing me out. Save Henry. Who the hell is that?"
"No idea. We don't actually know who anyone else is, you know. I mean we have suspicions and all, but no real proof…"
"So any suspicions about Save Henry? I mean it sounds like someone who really hates Regina."
"Well… David and I did used to wonder if it was you. The name, and the fact it appeared around the time you first did."
"ME!"
"Well it was all circumstantial of course. But I didn't think it was you. It's kind of mean."
"Trust me Mary Margaret, I have no interest in hanging around a bunch of juvenile computer jockeys talking smack about other people. Um, sorry, no offence."
"None taken. It is my secret shame," Mary Margaret smiled wryly as she came over to the couch holding a tea.
"What if Save Henry is actually Henry?" Emma asked.
"It's not."
"How do you know? I mean the name fits. Although how he'd know about Regina and me and the um…"
"Desperate eye sex?" Mary Margaret asked, now highly amused, watching the telltale flush spreading up Emma's neck.
"Yeah. That. Allegedly."
"It's not Henry. Emma, I have been that beautiful little boy's teacher for several years now and he has many wonderful qualities. Unfortunately spelling and the correct use of apostrophes are not among them."
"OK scratch Henry. What about Sidney? He can spell well. He's a journalist for god's sake."
"But he has no motive. If April 15's hot gossip is anything to go by, he's also in love with Regina. He has no reason to plot against her."
"He's what?"
"Well so they say."
"They also say I should be with Regina."
"And you should be," Mary Margaret grinned.
"Et tu, Mary Margaret?" Emma exhaled heavily.
"I notice you're not arguing with me."
"What would be the point? It's unanimous," Emma snorted.
"You do have some say in this."
"Apparently not. And besides, even if I did entertain the idea," Emma began her eyes slowly sliding up to meet Mary Margaret's bemused ones, "Regina has made it very plain the idea is, and I quote 'repugnant'."
Mary Margaret pursed her lips. "You don't think she doth protest too much?"
"I think, Mary Margaret," Emma grinned, "You have been reading way too many fairytales."
"Ahh so you see you and Regina as your fairytale ending?" the teacher laughed.
"You are completely impossible," Emma snickered and then paused. Her expression turned serious. "But what if I did? What would you say then?"
For a moment a shadow passed over Emma's face and she realised the answer to the question meant a lot to her. Mary Margaret examined her friend closely, and took her hand, sensing the shift in mood.
"I would say," she said softly, "that you must follow your heart, wherever it takes you. Because you deserve that. And if that takes you to a certain highly strung mayor desperately in need of love, then that's where it takes you. And besides, I have seen the way she looks at you when she thinks no one else is looking, and it is most definitely not an expression of repugnance."
Emma stared at Mary Margaret, wanting to believe. "What is it a look of?" she asked, heart in her mouth.
"Desire. Followed by a look of disgust in herself. Followed by more desire."
Emma leaned back in astonishment and attempted to pull her hand away. Mary Margaret hung on to it. "I am being very serious now Emma. The mayor wants you – she just has no clue what to do with that. But there's a lot more than hate going on underneath all those uptight power suits."
"I…uh."
"I know," Mary Margaret patted her hand. "It's a lot to process. Regina Mills, well she's a lot to process too."
"That's the understatement of the year," Emma muttered.
Both women laughed.
. . . . . . .
Emma had a sleepless night – images of Regina danced in her head, morphing into Henry and then the print outs of the blog. She finally got to sleep and it felt like mere minutes when she woke up with a start. A shadowy face coalesced in her mind, slotting all the swirling pieces into place.
The blog, the printouts, the dates, the names. And she instantly knew. Holy hell!
She knew without question who Save Henry was.
Emma dressed faster than she ever had in her life. She looked at the clock. 6.12am
Fine. She didn't care if she had to haul the asshole out of bed for this, because she was over this crap for good.
. . . . . .
Emma thumped loudly on the door of "Save Henry's" house and knew the rage was radiating from her face. She had gotten well and truly worked up on the drive over.
The door opened after a lengthy wait and its occupant adopted a matching expression of annoyance. "Sheriff? Do you have any idea what time it is? Are you trying to wake the neighbourhood?"
Emma pushed past the glowering figure and stalked inside.
"Madame Mayor, or should I say 'Save Henry', it's time we talked."
Regina's face went through myriad expressions before she finally pointed to her study.
"Inside. Now."
"You're not even going to bother denying it?"
"I would like to know where you get this interesting notion from."
Emma put her hands on her hips, squared her jaw angrily and reeled off her proof: "You're the only person I have ever met to ever repeatedly use 'realm' in a sentence, and you're one of only three people in this town who thinks enough about Henry to bother putting him in a user name - me and Mary Margaret being the only other two.
"And the name is the most diametrically opposed to your own position to throw people off the scent - but it's so opposite that it is most likely yours, or else the user wants people to think it's me. Either way that level of game playing again makes it most likely to be yours."
Regina folded her in her arms and narrowed her eyes. "I suppose I should say well done."
"But that means you were the one to start the rumour about us in the first place," Emma raged. "Why put both of us through that ridiculous dance? And insist that I investigate?"
Regina regarded the enraged sheriff silently. Her mouth opened, paused, and then, finally, she spoke. "My dear, how else could I find out how … receptive you would be to ... me?"
"Receptive. You mean…? You and me?"
Regina just looked at her, a muscle in her jaw twitching.
"Honestly Regina - you could have just asked, you know, like normal people do, instead of inventing pseudonyms and storming around with printouts and Juilliard school dramatics."
"Well I could, but where would the fun be in that?" Regina attempted a condescending chortle. It was nothing like her usual bold sneers. She looked, unbelievably thought Emma, incredibly vulnerable.
Mary Margaret's words started to nudge around her head. The truth finally dawned, "Oh I see, you were afraid I might reject you and you'd look foolish had you just asked?"
Regina looked away. "My dear, I …" Suddenly she ground to a halt.
Regina Mills without words. Incredible.
Emma moved closer and took in the normally so well protected woman's torn expression. Suddenly her anger ebbed away and she could see the angst tearing Regina apart.
"You seem to have caught me off guard, so early in the morning," the mayor protested softly, unwilling to look up. She pulled her robe closer around her body.
"Regina…" Emma whispered. She slid a finger under her chin and lifted her face so they were at eye level. Brown eyes bored into blue. Fear and hope warred.
"Regina, I couldn't reject you if I tried. You are a force of nature. Hell, the whole town can clearly see we are meant to be together."
"I had noticed that," the mayor said with the slightest lift of her mouth.
"Well, I think we should not waste all your hard work and superb method acting," Emma suggested with a grin.
Regina offered a small relieved laugh and then stopped talking as Emma slid a hand up the back of her head and pulled her in for a crushing kiss. Warmth flooded Emma's body as the mayor's questing tongue sought out Emma's desperately. Holy hell. There was no doubt Regina could kiss. When they finally came up for air Emma lightly touched her face. "You are pretty crazy, you know that right?"
"And you, my dear, are as good a detective as I had hoped."
"You wanted me to figure it out?"
In answer Regina merely chuckled and leaned in to nuzzle Emma's neck, then kissed her way back over to her lips. Emma swallowed the mayor's delighted moan, adding one of her own.
Fingers drifted across bodies and Emma's intoxicated brain finally registered that Regina was still in her nightwear – a sheer blue satin dressing gown all that separated her from the mayor's seductive skin. Then she felt the mayor's own questing hands, covering her breasts. Emma sighed at the erotic sensations which made her already weak knees ready to buckle.
Emma slid her hands to the silky robe's knot, and with shaking hands began to undo it. Regina leaned into her neck as the sheriff's fingers worked and whispered urgently, "Emma, do hurry dear."
. . . . . . .
July 3
SnackTime: Well i saw them again, blondie coming out of regal's place just after dawn.
CharmOffensive: Now come on ST, we promised emma we'd stop doing this
HaleysComet: Besides what were YOU doing up at that time?
Snacktime: oh please, like blondie and regal care anymore. I am convinced they lurk here anyway.
Save Henry: I do not!
Buglover: Regina!
SnackTime: uh oh, gotta go
CharmOffensive: me too
HaleysComet: me three
CharmOffensive: oh, and Em, tell Regina we're happy for you both.
Buglover: will do
Save Henry: I'm right here you know
Buglover: regina they're just pleased for us
HaleysComet: we really are
Save Henry: Can you all see me rolling my eyes, people? You will not take liberties…
Buglover: Just log off madame mayor and come to bed. U can intimidate your constituents tomorrow.
Save Henry: Good night. And remember, I'm watching you all. Especially you Ruby.
SnackTime: eep
Buglover: She's kidding. Night everyone.
Save Henry: I was not.
Buglover: You so were.
THE END
Author's Note: This was just a bit of fluff and nonsense. Any feedback would be wonderful. Thanks for reading.