"Hello, Emma Swan, right?" a tall brown haired man asked her as he opened the door to the laboratory.

"Yes." Emma's hands were sweating and she couldn't keep her leg still.

"My name is Neal Cassidy, I'll be responsible for your interview, come in, please." Emma stepped in the lab. It was a big place, filled with students, from graduate to post-doctorate, doing experiments and studying. "As you know, our laboratory focuses on the study of electrophysiology. We work with both neurons and cardiomyocytes, do you already know if you have any preference?"

"Oh, definitely cardiomyocytes. They beat." Emma said jokingly, trying to ease the tension. Neal smiled at the girl's comment. "First time I ever heard that argument. Have you ever seen one in a petri dish?" The girl shook her head "I can show you one before we leave, they are amazing. Anyway, we have two main professors here – Regina Mills and David Nolan. Professor Mills cannot take any more students at the moment, so this interview will be to fulfill a spot under David's orientation, is that ok?"

Oh well, that will have to do. "Yeah, sure" Emma put a fake smile on her face. At least I'll get to see her during lab's meetings.

"All right, come into my office then. Let's see your curriculum"


Emma was seated on a booth at the cafeteria, reading comics to spend some time while she waited for Ruby to have lunch, when a pixie haired girl approached her.

"Hey! It's Emma right?" A bright smile adorned the girl's face. Her skin was white as the snow, contrasting intensely with her black hair. Her face had the gentle features of a princess.

"Yes." Emma knew she had seen the girl before but she couldn't remember when. "Sorry, you are?"

"My name is Mary Margaret. We haven't been formally introduced yet. I saw you today at the laboratory when you went there for your interview; I do an internship there. Did you get the spot? Do you mind if I seat?"

"Yes, I actually did. And no, I don't mind."

"Yay you!" The girl said as she took her seat across from Emma. "Are you a David's or a Regina's?"

"Uh... David's?" Emma seemed a little confused by the question and Mary Margaret laughed at her.

"That's how we divide ourselves. Did you know that they actually hate each other? Anyway… David is great. He's a gentleman, very intelligent, very supportive. He's a prince." The girl's face lit when she talked about him, her eyes got bigger and the corners of her mouth were frozen angled up "I'm a Regina's" the moment she said that her face lost it's spark and her gaze dropped "She is great too… she is just…" now she looked into the blonde eyes again, her mouth twisted, trying to form a smile but failing to. Regina really seems to have a bad reputation Emma thought to herself.

"I'm taking a class with her. She is really good at teaching, I liked her."

"Oh she is. Don't get me wrong Regina is amazing. She is just… She is very private and not the best at having personal relationships. Or demonstrating feelings towards others."

"Emma! And…" Ruby arrived at the table and looked at the girl who was seating there "Hi, my name is Ruby" she said extending her hand to the pixie haired girl, who instantly shook her hand in return "Hi"

"Ruby, this is Mary Margaret, she works at the lab where I'll start my internship."

"Oh, so you chose the lab after all! Which one is it?"

"It's the electrophysiology one, in the biophysics building, right next to our dorm building"

"That's great Emma!" Ruby was truly happy for her "But wait, isn't that Regina's lab? Emma, are you stalking her?" Mary Margaret looked at Ruby confused. Emma instantly blushed and was starting to say something in order to hush up Ruby but before she could elaborate a word Ruby was already talking "She has a crush on her." The brunette explained to the pixie haired girl. Emma's face was now as red as a tomato and Mary Margaret had her eyebrows raised and her mouth opened in surprise.

"Fuck" Emma put her hand on her forehead and looked down. She was completely ashamed "Look, it's nothing… just old platonic student-teacher crush. And I'm not even under her orientation; I'm under Mr. Nolan's".

"Oh my God, and here I was saying that she is basically a wall without feelings. That must have been hard for you to hear. I'm sorry, I didn't know"

"No really it's ok. It's not like I would ever act on anything, she's probably married and straight and… I don't expect any feelings from her… look, I just chose her lab because I like being near her. Like, her vibe. She is intelligent and secure, I like that, and it's a good role model. That really is all." It was true. A little hope of one day having Regina to herself still lived inside of Emma's mind, but she knew that the odds were contrary to that ever happening. Nevertheless, she needed to be near her. It was like Regina was a big magnet and Emma a piece of iron, inert and incapable of resisting. Emma always had a weak spot for intelligence.

"Awn, that's sweet. But you know, she isn't married, so there is a chance" Mary said "and you are a catch" a smile popped on her face again.

"I like her" Ruby said to Emma, pointing to Mary. The three of them laughed. "Do you want to have lunch with us?"

"Sure, why not"


A month had gone by since their first encounter and Emma and Mary Margaret were now what one would call really good friends. They spent a lot of time together in the laboratory, helping on each other's projects. On every opportunity they had, Emma would call the girl to hang with her, Ruby and Belle; the four of them always had a great time together.

"Emma, they are gathering for the meeting about stem cells, aren't you coming?"

"Fuu- yes, I'll be there in just a second" Mary Margaret saved Emma's life repeatedly. She was always reminding the girl about articles she had to read and meetings they were having. She was like a mother to her, even though they had the same age. She was just so much more responsible. "I'm just finishing this experiment"

Emma wrapped up what she was doing and went to the meeting. When she got there it had already started. She found a free spot next to Mary Margaret and tried to get there without attracting too much attention to her and to the fact that she was late. However, on her way to her place she bumped into the desk and made a bunch of pencils fall from it, making an annoyingly loud noise when they hit the marble floor. She picked them up quickly and sat, but the disturbance was enough for everybody to stop what they were doing and revert their attention to her. When she looked up all she could see was Regina rolling her eyes with an annoyed expression. Fuck. Emma quickly diverted her gaze to no place in particular, just trying to get away from the stares. After 5 seconds that seemed like an hour, the meeting resumed. They talked about maturation of stem cells into cardiomyocytes and some of the results the lab was having on their experiments. They always made graduate students watch the meetings and stimulated that they participate so that they would have a more thoroughly scientific formation.

A student of Regina, Robin, was presenting his results when Regina suddenly stopped his presentation "There is something wrong about the way he analyzed his data. Can anyone tell me what it is?"

All the students starred at each other. Nobody spoke a thing.

"No one?"

"He should have used a two-way ANOVA" Emma said in a low tone. She had been tense throughout the whole meeting because of the pencil incident, but if there was one thing she was good at, that thing was math.

"Ah, someone who understands statistics. Looks like dropping pencils and disturbing the meeting isn't her only talent" Regina looked at the girl and smirked. Her gaze travelled through Emma's body. When their eyes met, Regina rapidly diverted her attention back to the crowd and continued on explaining what was wrong with the guy's analysis. Emma's heart was racing. What is it about her that makes me so nervous?

In another half hour the meeting was over and everyone resumed their activities. Emma kind of expected Regina to talk to her and congratulate her on her participation, but that wasn't like Regina, and it was silly of Emma to expect such thing. In fact, as soon as the meeting was over, Regina disappeared into her office, not even looking at Emma again. I just wanted some interaction to happen. Anything. Especially after that look.

"Statistics girl!" Mary Margaret interrupted her thoughts. "Do you want a cup of coffee?" She said already heading her the cup. She knew Emma all to well; she knew she wouldn't refuse it.

"Thank you" Emma took a sip of the coffee.

Mary Margaret sat next to her. "Are we talking about how Regina ate you with her eyes or are we just ignoring the event?" She didn't look at Emma, her tone was indifferent, like she was being sarcastic.

"I'm not imagining things, right?"

"Girl, she looked at you like she was doing land recognition." The sarcastic attitude went away and her voice was now full of excitement.

"Oh, don't let me create false hopes." They both laughed. "But you know, at the same time there was that commentary about me disturbing her meeting, I think she was pissed. She rolled her eyes when I dropped the pencils"

"She was definitely mad at you. At least at the beginning. But after it may have been just teasing? I don't know. You know that her emotions are a complete mystery to me."

"To you and me both, my friend"