A/N- Ok here's the deal, friends. I wrote part 2 of the whole "Emma sick" chapter super fast for you all because I sort of owed it to you since I left you hanging, but this means the next chapter might take a bit longer to get to you so be patient.
But enjoy this, it's a little bit more feel-y than fluff-y, but I enjoyed writing it.
Also, keep those reviews coming. They definitely make the writing worth it :)
Regina ran her errands in record time, and was back at the mansion, arms overflowing with grocery bags and her briefcase, all in under forty minutes. She deposited the grocery bags in the kitchen, and her work in the study, taking just one of the many lemon-lime gatorades she had bought and began ascending the stairs, "Emma, dear? I bought that disgusting yellow thing you dare call a sports drink."
When there was no reply, she thought nothing of it, assuming the blonde must have fallen back to sleep so she continued on mostly to herself as she entered the bedroom, "If you can make it a whole two hours without vomiting I may let you resume what you started last night."
"Please excuse me while I go and vomit." Regina scowled as she saw it was Mary- Margaret seated on the edge of the bed with a hard expression on her face instead of her girlfriend, "You aren't exactly doing a lot to inspire confidence in your intentions with my daughter."
"My intentions are hardly of any concern to you. How did you get into my home?"
Mary- Margaret simply smiled at the apparent discomfort she was causing in the mayor, "Emma let me in."
"And where is Emma?"
"Bathroom."
Regina simply nodded, placing the gatorade on the dresser beside the door and assuming one of her favorite power stances- hand on one hip, knee bent out, shoulders thrown back, chin held high, and one eyebrow arched dangerously, she was ready for battle, "Why exactly are you here?"
"My daughter is sick." Mary- Margaret said as though it was the simplest explanation on earth.
"I am perfectly capable of taking care of my girlfriend. I've spent the past eleven years taking care of Henry."
"And you just took an entire week off of work, the town must be reeling in your absence. You can't abandon Storybrooke for Emma. I am more than willing to fill in during your absence." The sickly sweet smile on the younger woman's face made Regina's stomach churn.
"I'm perfectly able to multitask, shouldn't you be teaching munchkins or something?"
"I haven't missed a day of work in the eighteen years you've cursed us into this town. The children will be fine without me."
Regina scowled as Emma finally emerged from the bathroom. Spotting the expression on her girlfriend's face, Emma contemplated slowly backing into the en suite and hiding from the impending war. Regina had other ideas.
The brunette crossed her room quickly to stand in front of Emma, "How are you doing, dear?"
"I'm um, fine. Just a bit tired, the upside is I think I lost about twelve pounds in water weight."
Regina gave her girlfriend a stern look while running a gentle hand up and down her arm, "Not funny."
"Maybe you should lie down for a while." Mary- Margaret interjected.
"Yeah that sounds good." Emma agreed, Regina scowled at the teacher.
Mary- Margaret, however, smirked as she finally saw an opportunity to get the upper hand, "Are you sure you can stay, Regina? I would hate for you to be so over extended, you should really go in to work today."
"Ok, that's the last bit of advice I need from you, bird brain." Regina quickly rounded on the younger brunette, but her rant was cut off by Emma's gentle interjection.
"Maybe she's right, Gina. You were home all last week with Hen, and I would hate to get you sick too."
"I have an excellent immune system." Regina countered.
The blonde smiled at her girlfriend's insistence, "I refuse to be the cause of Storybrooke missing its mayor for any longer. I promise I'll be fine." Regina was unconvinced and she rose a questioning eyebrow at her girlfriend, "I promise."
"Fine." Regina finally conceded, and then turning to Mary- Margaret, "I still don't trust you."
"Likewise."
Regina left the office at four thirty on the dot to get home as quickly. She hardly got any work done all day as her mind was on Mary- Margaret at her mansion, with her girlfriend. It made her skin crawl. In addition to that, she could feel the beginnings of a sickness take root in her body. As much as she tried to deny it, Regina knew that Emma had passed on whatever was plaguing her and Regina's sleep deprived immune system wasn't equipped to handle it.
Towards the end of her time at the office, the mayor began to feel queasy and knew that when she returned home she would not be having a good night.
When she pushed open the door of her home later that day, the smell that greeted Regina made her stomach churn for a completely different reason. An instant cold sweat beaded on the back of her neck as memories rushed forth, blinding her to the present.
Flashes of a young girl whimpering in a large bed, a cold towel pressed against a flaming forehead, and a soft subdued song of reassurance.
"Regina?" The voice of her girlfriend snapped the mayor out of her little trance, "Is that you? We're in the kitchen."
The brunette stepped fully into her home and pulled the door shut behind her. Her lips curled slightly downward at the 'we' in her girlfriend's reply- Mary Margaret hadn't left yet. Pushing aside her memories, and the feeling of nausea rising in her stomach, Regina followed the voice into her kitchen.
Mary- Margaret was leaning on the central island where Emma was seated, both were nursing steaming mugs and there was a kettle on the stove- Regina's suspicions were confirmed. She ignored the rush of emotions threatening to overtake her, and instead crossed to stand beside her girlfriend, running her hand through the blonde's hair and dropping a light kiss on her forehead- pleased to note it was significantly cooler than it had been when she left for work that morning.
"How are you feeling?"
"Way better." Emma smiled, "I think it was just some twenty four hour bug or something."
"That's great, dear." Regina then looked at Mary- Margaret with hard eyes, "I suppose your services are no longer required."
When the younger brunette opened her mouth to retaliate, Emma beat her to it. Slipping an arm around Regina to tug her closer until she was standing between the blonde's knees, "She was actually really helpful today."
"Oh?" Regina felt hot and claustrophobic, she didn't know if it was from the illness Emma had passed on to her, or from the idea of Mary- Margaret being helpful in her own absence.
"Yeah, she made this magic tea thing, and I haven't thrown up since then."
A small involuntary smile tugged the corner of Regina's lips at Emma's excitement, even as she braced herself for what was to come, and set her teeth against the bile rising in her throat, "Magic tea thing huh?"
Now it was Mary- Margaret's turn to jump in, "Yes. It's not really magic though-"
"Obviously, the last time I checked, the only magic you have is true love's kiss and I would prefer if you wouldn't slobber all over the shepherd in my kitchen."
The younger brunette glared, but continued on as if she hadn't been interrupted, "It's peppermint tea with honey, lemon juice, and just a drop of vanilla. There's one more ingredient that should be in, but I can't seem to remember it." Regina's smirk became even more forced at the contents of the tea, nothing could have prepared her for what came next, "My mother used to make it for me when I was sick."
"Your mother?" The question was hardly more than a whisper.
Mary- Margaret's voice was cold when she replied, "Yes, maybe you remember her, Queen Eva."
That was the last straw, Regina pushed out of Emma's hold and sprinted in her high heels and work skirt out of the kitchen, down the hall, and to the downstairs bathroom. Mother and daughter exchanged questioning looks until a distinct retching sound drew their attention.
Emma was up in a second and moving down the hallway with Mary- Margaret hot on her tail. When Emma got to the bathroom, she dropped to her knees, rubbing soothing careful circles between the older woman's shoulder blades until Regina sat back on her heels, apparently finished. Mary- Margaret was quick with a cup of water and paper towel for the mayor to rinse and wipe.
Regina eyed the cup suspiciously and Mary- Margaret lifted an eyebrow- it was striking in that moment how much she resembled the older brunette, and that didn't slip by any of the three women.
"I'm not the one known to poison food." Was all the teacher said, and it seemed to be all Regina needed before taking a small sip, swirling it around her mouth and spitting it out into the toilet.
In that moment, she was wildly ungraceful, and not in the least regal- her hair was in an uncontrolled mane, and her blouse was half untucked. Regina tried to regain an air of control as she pushed her hair behind her ear, flushed the toilet, and allowed Emma to help her stand upright.
One look was all it took to get Mary- Margaret to back out of the bathroom leaving Regina and Emma alone. Once the door shut, Regina lost it.
A tear broke from the corner of her eye and Emma watched its progress down the plane of the face of the woman she loved, before she caught it at the brunette's chin, "Hey, Gina, honey. Talk to me, what's wrong?"
"Its nothing. My eyes tend to water when I violently empty the contents of my stomach."
Emma carefully cupped her girlfriend's cheek, forcing brown eyes to lock onto her own, "Don't do that. You can do that with my parents, you can do that with your parents, hell you can do that with the rest of the world if you want, but you can't put up your walls around me."
"Emma, I'm not-"
"I have a superpower." Emma interrupted, a small smile tugged the edges of Regina's lips as her girlfriend began one of her favorite lines, "My spidey-senses are tingling, and I know you're lying to me."
"Yes, Emma. Yes, I am lying to you. But, that's not going to change right now. Not on this, you know I wouldn't shut you out for no reason. Please, just trust that I'll tell you when I'm ready."
The conversation was deep, it was heavy, and it was suffocating Emma. She didn't do meaningful, when you're found on the side of a highway as a baby, it makes it a bit harder to form connections. So she agreed.
With a nod, she released Regina's cheek and pulled the older woman into a fierce hug, pressed a kiss to her temple.
"Alright."
Regina was the one to break apart from the hug. She smiled at her girlfriend before quickly turning and dropping to her knees and retching again.
Emma couldn't help but tease her girlfriend once she had finished and was leaning back against the adjacent wall, "So much for your extraordinarily strong immune system."
"My immune system is amazing."
"Says the woman who just lost her lunch."
"That wasn't a fault in my immune system."
"Oh?"
"It's a sympathy sick. You know, it's like when you're in pain, so am I. When you smile, so do I. When you get the stomach flu, so do I."
"Oh my goodness, are you having an emotion?" Emma laughed. Regina glared and smacked the blonde lightly on the arm, "Hey! What about that whole when I smile, you smile thing?"
They emerged from the bathroom a little while later, Mary- Margaret was in the kitchen cleaning up the mess from earlier in the day. A mug of the 'magic tea' was steaming on the counter.
Regina looked questioningly at the scene and the younger woman faltered in her scrubbing of a mug, "I just- I was um." She gestured with a soapy hand at the mug on the counter, "I made you some tea, it helped Emma so I figured…"
She trailed off before re-focusing her attention on the sink. It wasn't like Mary- Margaret to stumble over her words like this, and Regina appreciated the tea as a peace gesture so she subtly told Emma she would be fine handling Mary- Margaret, and she stepped into the kitchen alone.
Regina took up a seat at the island in the seat that Emma had occupied when she first arrived home. She needed a moment to gather her thoughts so instead of talking to Mary- Margaret, she picked up the mug, blew a little bit at the steaming top, and took a small sip.
The familiar taste burned across her tongue and slithered down her throat.
"Thank you for taking care of Emma today, Mary- Margaret."
Whether it was the gentle tone with which Regina addressed the woman, or if it was the use of Mary- Margaret's real name instead of a demeaning nickname, didn't matter- Mary- Margaret stopped her washing and turned around.
"It was my pleasure."
There was a brief silence during which Regina sipped the tea, and Mary- Margaret shifted uncomfortably by the sink.
"Thank you as well for the magic tea."
Mary- Margaret smiled in acknowledgement, "You're welcome. It's peppermint tea with lemon juice-"
"Honey, and a drop of vanilla." Regina finished for her, "I know."
The pair fell silent again, Mary- Margaret appraised the older woman questioningly while the mayor dropped her eyes to the contents of her mug.
The teacher was just about to turn back around and finish the cleaning when Regina spoke up again, "Sugar."
"Excuse me?" Regina's comment was so quiet, Mary- Margaret was sure she had misheard.
"The ingredient you're missing. It's sugar." The teacher crossed her arms in front of her chest and remained quiet, knowing better than to prompt the older woman.
Her patience was rewarded when Regina continued, "It was only ever just a pinch, and it doesn't actually do anything to help with sickness. You just always thought the tea wasn't sweet enough so I had to add the sugar to get you to drink it."
Everything fell into place in Mary- Margaret's mind, and her expression immediately fell, "Regina, I'm so sor-"
"Don't apologize." She waved a dismissive hand, "I know I wasn't a good stepmother to you. In fact, I'm still not a good stepmother, if I was, I would have let you keep thinking it was your mother's recipe for magic tea, not mine."
With surprising speed, Mary- Margaret crossed the kitchen until she was leaning on the opposite side of the island. Close enough to touch Regina's hands that were still wrapped around the mug, but she didn't.
"Regina, I-" She stopped herself, reorganizing her thoughts, "You did the best you could do."
"My best- it still wasn't very good."
The silence enveloped them again, Regina finished off her tea and stood, crossing to the sink to wash her mug.
When she was finished, she was surprised to see Mary- Margaret had closed the distance and enveloped her in a hug the moment she turned around. When she released the older woman, it took only a second for Regina to regain her composure.
"This doesn't change anything, bird talker."
The smallest smile hinted on Mary- Margaret's lips, "Of course it doesn't."
A/N- Also, I think the next chapter is going to earn a 'M' rating since y'all horny readers wanted Regina and Emma to get it on last chapter and the one previous, so hold tight. On that note, I've never written anything really explicit so if anyone would be cool with proof-reading it before I post it, let me know.
