Hey guys! Remember when I said this story started from a dream? Well, I realized the dream ended with the last chapter lol. So, sorry this took me forever to update but I couldn't figure out what to do with it. Hope it turned out okay.
If not, let me know and it can get fixed at some point ((:
I didn't proof read this. All mistakes are mine.
Regina sat on her desk holding her head in her hands purposely avoiding all the work she had to do.
Her morning had gone from bad to worse.
She hadn't expected for Emma to show up in the office earlier, hell, she hadn't expected for Robin to send her a bouquet of hideous pink roses. Everyone knew she hated pink roses. Guess he didn't get the memo.
And of course, she much less than expected for Emma to see the bouquet of hideous pink roses that Robin had sent her.
What she was expecting, though, was not to run into the blonde until she figured out a way to explain the reason of her actions. It's not like she owed the blonde an explanation, right? It's not like they were anything other than friends and coworkers, right? She tried lying to herself, but whom was she kidding. They were more that, way more than that.
She had never planned on things to turn out the way they did, but every single plan she had ever made for her life had gone out the window last Friday's evening.
64 hours ago
Regina was absentmindedly nursing a glass of wine, looking out the window in the living room of her penthouse as she waited for Robin to pick her up when her phone rang.
She contemplated not answering, but what if it was important? She knew her phone would stop working the minute they got to the cabin.
She sighed and set her wine on the glass table that was in the middle of the living room and went to grab her phone from inside her purse, a small smile adorning her face when she saw the caller ID.
"Hello, daddy."
"Hi, darling, how are you doing?"
"I am well, long day, but well. How are you? How is mom?"
"Everything is good over here, listen darling, there's something I need to discuss with you but I haven't much time. Robin is on his way to pick you up and-"
Regina frowned. "Wait-" She interrupted. "How could you possibly know that?"
"He was just here but that's not important, what's important is his reason for coming. Darling, he came to ask for your hand in marriage." The brunette's heart stopped and stood silent in shock. "Darling, are you there?"
"I-excuse me?"
"Yes, and I assume Mister Locksley is going to ask you to marry him this upcoming weekend. But that's not why I'm calling. I need you to say yes, Regina. I cannot have my business falling apart because the spoiled brat didn't get his way."
"What? No- no I will not-" She ran a hand through her head growing agitated by the second.
"I was not asking."
"Father, I will not marry the man. One thing was to accept to be in a meaningless relationship that could end any minute, but make a commitment this big with someone I do not love just to keep things amicable is complete madness."
The man sighed somewhat tiredly. "Regina, you will do as I say or I will have no other choice than to take your half of the law firm and give it to your sister."
"You can't do that." She half whispered into the phone.
"As a matter of fact, yes I can. If you recall, I never signed a contract like Leopold did when we stepped down. I still can't believe he gave away his life project just like that to that child. The loss of his daughter really did a number on him." He added the latter as an afterthought.
"Dad, I have been the head of the company alongside Emma for over a decade. We've made it one of the biggest and most successful firms in the country on our own. How could you even consider taking that away from me?"
"I know you have. That's how I also know that you'll do anything to keep it that way. It's your decision in the end, darling. I'm sure you'll make the right one." There was a pause, as Regina didn't know what to say. "I'll leave you be, dinner is about to be served. Think about it, darling." And with that, Henry disconnected the call.
The brunette clutched the phone in her hand wondering what the hell had just happened. She took a deep breath, grabbed her glass from the table and downed its contents in one gulp, after a second of looking at the empty glass in her hand she threw it against the nearest wall, watching as the pieces flew in every direction.
She definitely shouldn't have answered the phone.
She was pulled away from her thoughts when her office landline started ringing. She sighed and pressed the answer button. "What is it, Miss Adams?"
"I'm sorry for bothering you, Miss Mills, but Judge Hendrix is on the line and requests to speak to you." Claire announced.
Her brow furrowed. This is the Judge that Emma should be in the middle of a hearing with. "Very well." She took a breath and when the call was through she was in business mode. "Your Honor, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Regina, for the umpteenth time, it's Malory. We've known each other since forever."
The women had met when the brunette was still studying; in addition to being a judge, Malory was a professor at Harvard and had been her tutor for a whole year as well as Emma's, and after they graduated they all became friends and it was pure coincidence that she was the primary Judge at the courthouse the usually worked at.
Regina presumed the other woman was shaking her head and she rolled her eyes. "Aren't you supposed to be in a hearing with Miss Swan and what's-his-name about the custody case?" She kept forgetting the other counselor's name. Not that she cared, anyway.
"That's precisely why I'm calling, dear. I was both concerned and disappointed when Emma called a while ago almost begging to postpone it. She is lucky she is a damn good lawyer because otherwise the client would have fired her. They have been waiting weeks for this hearing, but she sounded so off that I really had no choice."
"Did-" She cleared her throat. "Did she say anything else?"
"No, I asked if everything was okay and she just said that something came up but didn't elaborate. I was going to tell her to get her ass down here but really, she sounded lost or something, this is so unlike her, I knew that she would have never done something like that unless something was wrong. Though I made her swear that she would call her client straight away and set another day ASAP."
They usually kept their personal lives completely separate from their work ones, fact that said a lot about the blonde's situation if it managed to pull the older woman from her professional persona.
The brunette ran the hand that wasn't holding the phone through her hair and tugged lightly before releasing it.
This was all her fault and she had no idea of what to do without someone getting hurt or facing some kind of consequence.
"Regina? Are you still with me?"
"Yes, Mal. Listen, I have to go-"
"Did you two-?" She didn't finish her sentence. She didn't need to; she had seen them work together, drink together, move together. Even if they never said anything, she knew there was something between the two.
"I wouldn't even know where to start. I'll call you later."
"I'll take your word on that."
The brunette hung up the phone and looked around the office and gathered her things before going out. "Miss Adams?" She said startling Claire at the front desk. "Clear my schedule for today and reschedule my meetings, I have urgent matters I need to attend to."
"Right away, Miss Mills." The redhead typed something on her computer and as her boss walked towards the elevator she called the valet for them to have her car ready.
Inside the elevator the lawyer considered hiring a new assistant, her last one had presented her resignation two weeks in the job because she was scared shitless of her and she knew it wasn't fair for Claire to do both the secretary and assistant's job.
She admired her for lasting so long and she also knew that it was mostly because Emma was a fun boss to have. It wasn't that she was horrible or that she hated everyone but the blonde and her had a good cop, bad cop, dynamic since they started working together that functioned greatly for them and the company so they kept it up in every aspect.
In front of the building the valet gave her they keys of her two door, white, S-Class Mercedes-Benz and she drove straight to the blonde's house where she presumed Emma would be. It was too early for her to go to a bar, she obviously wasn't at the office and her grandfather's place wasn't an option.
Her assumptions, however, were confirmed when she spotted the younger woman's blue, hybrid sports car on the driveway.
Before exiting the car she took a deep breath, eyes closed and head against the headrest. She had no idea of what to expect. For years the blonde always said what was on her mind, they'd argue, yell at each other, talk it out and make up. The fact that the younger woman had left the office this morning with no more than a sentence was a very clear indication that this wasn't like any other of the issues they had faced before, and if she was being honest with herself, she didn't know if there was a way to fix this.
She grabbed her purse from the passenger's seat and as she walked towards the front door she fished out the keys that Emma had given her years ago since she was the last one leaving the office and she 'got tired of having to get out of the tub and open the door for her, naked.'
The one story house was quiet, unusually so. It was a large house, with huge spaces making it very open and bright. It was a very secluded neighborhood and each house was far enough from the next that you could build another two houses in the middle. It had more windows than walls, very modern, and pristine looking.
The brunette left her purse in the living room next to the kitchen before venturing inside the house looking for her partner, every room was empty, she wasn't going to call out for her because she knew that it would only result in Emma building her walls back up, and for the conversation she knew they were about to have they needed to be down.
When she entered the blonde's bedroom she noticed that the glass side door that led to the garden was open and decided that it was her best bet to find the other woman there.
Emma was standing with her back to the door, arms folded, wearing the same long sleeve, tight, black dress that the brunette had seen her in earlier, still wearing her black and red Louis Vuitton heels and she noticed that she was also holding a glass on scotch in one of her hands.
"There you are." No answer. "Mal called." Still nothing. She sighed. "I was worried about you." She said in a softer tone but there was still no answer. After a few moments of more silence she took a step forward. "Can you please say something?"
The blonde downed the contents of her glass before turning around to face the older woman, she wasn't crying but her eyes were red rimmed. "I think I might get a dog." She said calmly and turned back around to stare at the large backyard that ended in a lake.
"Em-" Regina said almost pleadingly and took another step forward.
"I don't like small dogs though. Maybe a medium one." She pondered aloud.
"Emma-" The brunette tried to gain Emma's attention to no avail.
"I have the space for a big one, but I don't know. That would be a bigger mess."
"Could you please stop talking about dogs?" The tan woman said exasperated.
After another pause, the blonde looked at her briefly but intently before looking away again. "I thought you wanted me to say something."
The brunette exhaled. "But not about dogs. I think we need to talk."
"There's nothing to talk about."
"Yes there is, Emma. We need to talk about us."
"Us?" The blonde scoffed and entered the house going to the kitchen for a refill, knowing the brunette was hot on her heels. "There is no us, Regina. There is definitely not an us when you take life altering decisions on your own." She said coldly and poured herself another drink from the bottle that was already open on the counter ready to use.
"Em, that's not fair-"
"Not fair?!" She turned around abruptly letting out a humorless laugh. "Want to know what's not fair?! This. Whatever this thing between us is, was." She drank half the drink she just poured in one gulp and set the glass down harshly next to the bottle. "I've been pining after you like a lovesick puppy for years. Agreeing to all of your conditions and absurd rules. I did everything you wanted, how you wanted and when you wanted. And it was all for what?" Her voice cracked and tears started running down her cheeks. "For you to come one day and be all "Hi, yes. I'm getting married to someone else? You are right. It's not fucking fair."
"I didn't have a choice-" The brunette managed to get out feeling distressed.
"Yes, you did!" She wiped the unwanted tears off her face and her eyes grew severe. "You had the choice of not saying it back! When I told you I was in love with you I asked you not to say it back unless you were certain that you wouldn't break my heart." She tried to stop her lower lip from trembling. "You had a choice." She whispered.
"Do you think I wanted this?!" The brunette's chocolate eyes were sorrowful. "I never wanted any of this. I never wanted a relationship in the first place; and now my father threatened to take away my half of the company if I don't agree to this marriage." She exhaled trying to keep her own tears at bay. "You more than anyone know how much that company means to me. After everything we've been through, we've made it grow; we've put everything we have into it. It's our baby, Emma. Ours. And I can't watch him take it away just like that." She stepped closer to her partner. "I am very much in love in you. This is just business, you know I feel nothing for him."
The younger woman looked defeated as she ran a hand down her blonde locks. "I understand, I really do, but I can't be your mistress, Regina. I won't." She smiled sadly at the brunette and wiped her tears lovingly. "I love you, so much. And I want it all with you; the dog, the house, the Christmases, new years, summers and winters." She retracted her hand and crossed her arms. "But I deserve better than to be the other woman. I deserve to be happy and have all that without worrying that the other person belongs in someone else's bed at night."
Regina wiped the tears that kept falling down her face. "Yes, you do."
They stood in silence avoiding the other's eyes until the older woman's phone started ringing inside her purse. "You should probably get that." Said the blonde before turning to down the contents of her glass, again. She walked to where Regina was standing typing something on her phone.
Chocolate eyes met green. "It was Robin, he wants to have dinner with my family. I-" She trailed off as she stared into dull eyes that were not long ago filled with joy and mischief.
The taller woman nodded. "I think it's best of you go." She said softly.
Regina tried to swallow the lump that took residence in her throat. She really didn't want to leave but there wasn't much she could do right now and it was obvious that the other woman needed her space. She grabbed her things and cleared her throat. "Will- will I see you tomorrow? At the office?" She asked hopefully.
The blonde sighed and shook her head. "No, I'm taking the rest of the week off. I rescheduled the hearing for next Monday and I need time. That little girl deserves for me to give my best and that's not something I can do right now."
Regina bit the inside of her cheek and nodded; with her hand on the door handle she hesitated but looked up at the other woman. "Emma, I-" She couldn't finish the sentence without falling apart, but she didn't have to.
"I know." The blonde watched as the brunette opened the door and left, wondering if maybe this would be the last time she came by.
She stepped out of her heels and grabbed the bottle that was still on the counter before sliding down the wall onto the floor and breaking down.
She cried for every second spent together, for the secret glances, the hushed words of adoration, the late night conversations. She cried for the stolen elevator kisses, for the inside jokes and loving touches.
But most of all, she cried for the broken dream of the spending the rest of her days with the only person that managed to take her breath away and fill her with life at the same time. She cried for the impossible future with the woman that was capable of breaking her and building her back up with just a smile.
Emma Swan cried for that one thing that she could never truly have, the love of her life.
Reminder that this story IS SwanQueen, we just have some major issues to deal with before their happy ending.
My twitter handler is the same as my username here, if anyone is interested ((: