CHAPTER FOUR - Meeting at Granny's
Earlier that morning;
Granny had instructed Ruby to drive across town to pick up a few things from the grocery store before she turned up for work that morning. After the earthquake at 7am, Granny's 'intuition' told her that everyone would be fleeing to the diner at some point.
Ruby hated the idea of having to work on a Saturday, but after having her date being cancelled, she knew that she had nothing better to do with her entire day. Maybe it would take her mind away from thinking about the jackass that stood her up.
Her journey to the store was a lot shorter than she had anticipated. She had arrived within five minutes of setting off and had shopped in almost under three minutes, so she decided to dawdle for a little while to give herself some alone time before returning to spend almost twelve hours running around the little diner and seeing the same faces all day.
As she sat in her car outside of the store with her music playing quietly, Ruby had some time to think about the direction in which her life was going. She had no boyfriend, barely any friends (or at least barely any friends that wanted to hang out at the Rabbit Hole occasionally), her job was only secure because her grandmother was her boss, she had no real-world qualifications and no money. The thought of how bad her life had got made Ruby want to break-down out of frustration. That was until she saw him standing there.
Peter.
He stood directly in front of her car and stared at her. Not blinking, not moving and not even acknowledging what was going on around him.
"You can't be here." Ruby whispered to herself, hoping that Peter would hear and run towards her.
He continued to stare at her as she stepped out of her car and walked towards him. He was dressed the same way that he had been on the night she killed him. Except this time, there was no blood. He was completely clean of any injuries. He looked alive and completely perfect.
"How are you here?" She asked as she got closer to the only man she ever truly loved. She raised her hand to place it on his cheek, only for it to fall through his body as if he were a ghost. Ruby whimpered and gave in to the tears that were building in her eyes. "I am so sorry, Peter. I still love you."
The long pause of silence killed Ruby. She wanted nothing more than to fall onto the floor and cry, but that was when he touched her. Peter had reached his hand out and placed it on Ruby's cheek, the same way she had tried with him, but this time, she could feel him. She could feel the warmth in his touch and quivered under his hand.
"I love and forgive you, Red." He smiled at the sobbing brunette and stroked her face with his thumb. "But there is someone else out there for you that will trust you as much as I did. Find them."
Within moments of ending what he was saying, Peter disappeared into nothing. The weight and warmth from his hand faded fast and eventually felt like a slap to the side of Ruby's cheek.
*#*#*#*
Granny's diner was always busy, but with today's urgent town meeting, there was practically no room between any of the town's folk. With everyone so tightly packed together like sardines in a can, there was no question in whether or not the diner would be filled with agitated and rowdy people by the time the sheriff arrived. From the moment the seven dwarves trailed in together with the town's rather large nunnery, Granny instantly began regretting her decision to agree that the Charmings could have use of her rather small diner for an hour. What was wrong with the perfectly good Town Hall?
"The sheriff will be here soon people, would you please calm down?!" Granny shouted as her patrons began to protest about their wait and discomfort. "I swear to god, Leroy, if you don't get down from that table I'm going to remove the beer tap."
Leroy had been standing on a table at the back of the diner and shouting prompts at the people below him, almost causing a riot in the little tiny diner. But at the sound of the possibility that Granny could remove the only thing that made him happy in this world, made him dive onto the floor and under the table. The terrified look on his face made Granny grin with joy.
Ruby, on the other hand, was sat upon the bar and staring into a distant world, completely oblivious to the raucous around her. She couldn't help but think of what she had seen earlier that morning, and Dr. Hopper wasn't much help. All she wanted was for Emma to burst through the front door and explain what the hell was going on in their small town of Storybrooke. The last thing she needed was false sympathy from Dr. Whale, which was what she got.
"Hey, Ruby." He said as he pushed his way through the crowd. "How are you?" He placed his hand onto Ruby's exposed thigh, giving her a sympathetic look after giving her chest the same stare.
"Piss off, Whale." She rolled her eyes and brushed his hand off her thigh, feeling the sudden urge to hit him. "I don't need your false sympathy and so-called 'friendly advice'. And I really don't need you trying to get me into your bed, again."
The smug smile on his face fell and he knew that it was his call to leave her alone. To Whale, Ruby was easy to manipulate. He had never failed to woo her into both his arms and his bed, but this time, he knew that something was up with her, he just didn't know what. Before leaving her to her thoughts, he contemplated actually asking her what was going on, but decided against it when he spotted Leroy glaring at him from underneath the table.
It had taken Ruby such a long time to convince herself that Peter's death was not her fault, but on his return, her entire recovery crashed and burned in front of her eyes. She knew that she couldn't hide the fact that she was still madly in love with him, yet she couldn't re-grasp the concept that he was dead and he was never coming back, even if he did appear in front of her earlier in the morning.
Even whilst living for twenty-eight years as her cursed self, Ruby knew that her body and soul was looking for someone like Peter, even though she didn't know he existed. She merely prayed that Emma had the answer and possibly a way to bring him back for good, but not in the way that Daniel returned to Regina.
#*#*#*#
Back at Mary Margaret's apartment, Emma was attempting to explain to Henry what had happened at the town line and in the apartment before his arrival. His confusion only grew when she attempted to explain why she thought the previously departed were returning with little messages.
"But Emma, if they're still dead, how can they talk?" Henry would ask whenever Emma told him that these people had spoken to their loved ones, to which she would shrug her shoulders and shake her head.
Regina sat with Emma and Henry, constantly tuning in and out of their conversation and staring into a distant land. This entire morning had been too much for her to handle. In the short morning had she kissed Emma Swan three times, spoken to her long dead father, spoken to her long dead husband and broke down into tears in front of both Emma, Snow, and Charming. Twice in some cases. Her emotionally drowning sensations continued and became even worse every time she looked at Emma, yet she couldn't bring herself to look away from the blonde. Regina had never really looked at Emma in an appreciative way, until now. The blonde's golden curls framed her face and the way the light hit her cheeks really emphasised how beautiful she actually was. Even if she did have her mother's chin and her father's charming assets. Emma Swan was a picture of pure beauty.
Watching Emma in complete awe, Regina hadn't realised how obvious her stare had been until she felt her jaw drop a little when Emma smiled at their son. She hated to admit it, but Regina was rather rapidly falling in love with the daughter of the woman who ruined her life. But what she failed to realise was that she had already been in love with Emma long before their first kiss.
"Okay, we're going to be late." David said as he threw on his coat and ushered everyone towards the front door. "Granny is going to kill us. Everyone into my truck." David unlocked the truck as soon as they were outside and forced Henry, Emma and Regina into the back of the truck while he and Mary Margaret sat alongside each other in the front.
"I cannot believe you've made me do this, Miss Swan." Regina huffed as she felt Henry's elbow accidentally dig into her right side and felt Emma's entire side pushed against her own. "Henry, sweetie, you really need to move your elbow." Feeling only that discomfort coming from her son.
Henry chuckled with embarrassment and threw his arms out in front of him and squeezed them awkwardly in front of his chest. Regina gave him an appreciative smile in thanks before staring off into the distance out of the front window.
'What if everyone thinks I caused all of this?'Regina looked over at Emma with a nervous demeanour.
'Then I'm going to stand up to them and tell everyone that you didn't. I said trust me, didn't I?' Emma took Regina's hand in her own, giving it a light squeeze before letting go as fast as she could. Pissing Regina off would be the last thing she wanted to do in the damned truck.
To Emma's surprise, Regina followed her hand and took it in her own before wedging their intertwined fingers into the tiny gap between their legs to hide their affection from the rest of the passengers. Emma gave her a slight smile and held the dark haired woman's hand as tight as she could, never wanting to let go.
As they pulled up outside of Granny's diner, Regina's grip on Emma's hand became stronger, making Emma lose feeling in her fingers for a little while. Although the woman had a fiery expression written all over her face, Emma couldn't deny that Regina was terrified.
'Don't be so scared, Regina. You've done nothing wrong.' Emma attempted to reassure the woman holding her hand but to no avail.
'Miss Swan, I think we might have... I think we broke the curse.'
The look of utter shock struck Emma's face, leaving her completely speechless and staring at Regina. 'What do you mean?'
'I don't know. Forget I said it, Miss Swan.'
Emma rolled her eyes and swung open the door next to her as soon as the truck came to a halt. Once she had leapt from the truck, she returned and held out her hand to Regina to help her down, which was surprisingly taken without hesitation. Her eyes flashed with a small glimmer of gratitude before they returned into an emotionless state, along with her facial expression.
Emma led the group into heaving diner, barging through the crowd with Regina on her heels holding Henry's hand and the Charmings struggling to keep up behind them. As soon as Emma made it to the bar where Ruby was sat, she let out a sigh of relief, thankful that no one had attempted to attack Regina just yet.
"Hey Rubes," Emma gave a sad smile and placed her hand on Ruby's knee. "How're you holding up?"
"I'm not." Ruby replied bluntly in hope that the less Emma spoke to her, the sooner she would understand why she saw and spoke to Peter that morning. Not knowing why she saw him was eating her live.
Emma sighed in understanding and pulled out a chair from one of the tables that had been submerged in the crowd and placed it in front of the bar before standing on it and letting out a loud wolf whistle. The noise in the diner dropped to complete silence in seconds, causing everyone to turn and face Emma in anticipation.
"Okay, so, um," Emma stuttered as she looked around the diner to see every single pair of eyes in the room solidly on her. "I just wanted to thank you all for coming here on such short notice..."
"Get on with it, sister!" Leroy shouted, still sat underneath the table.
"Thanks for that, Leroy." Emma shot him a glare and gained a little confidence, knowing that people were actually here to listen to her.
"As you all know, Storybrooke experienced an earthquake this morning, but it wasn't an average earthquake. It was an earthquake that was caused by true love's kiss." Murmurs filled the diner and stares were directed towards David and Mary Margaret, who were looking at each other in disbelief. "It wasn't David and Mary Margaret, it was someone else. We don't know who, but that's not the problem. The problem is that when this kiss happened, it broke a curse. A curse that was cast by Mr. Gold. This curse was cast to prevent people from attempting to resurrect their loved ones after an attempt was made a little while ago."
'Get ready for it, sheriff.'
Emma shook off Regina's telepathic muttering and waited for a reaction. To her surprise, there was nothing. No one said a word. It was almost as if they were too afraid to stand up to Regina or even accuse her of something.
'I'm waiting, your majesty.'
"Now that the curse has been broken, there may be be a few side effects for at least a week. Some people have already witnessed these side effects. This is going to be an incredibly trying time for all of us, so we're going to need to work together through all of this." Emma attempted or reassure the crowd, but to her dismay, everyone merely stared at her in horror.
"What are the side effects, sheriff?" An elderly gentleman shouted from the back of the diner.
"Dead people." The deadpan tone of Emma's voice made her mother squeeze her eyes shut tight and rub her temples in circular motions in attempt to calm herself from her daughter's idiotic choice of words. "Sorry. The people that were killed in the Enchanted Forest - your friends, families, loved ones - there is a possibility that they will return. To my knowledge so far, there has already been three returns. So I need all of you to think, have you seen someone today that you know to be dead?" Emma glanced around to diner to find no one willing to share anything. "Okay, good. So, Mayor Mills and I have already seen two, to which we quickly learned that these reappearances cannot be ignored. You have to talk to these people, or at least be willing to talk to them. Otherwise they're going to stand there and do nothing and that's only going to make it worse for yourselves. It may hurt to see a departed loved one, but you're going to have to. At the moment, we know that they're only saying a few short sentences before disappearing again."
'Gold has just walked in. Don't tread on his toes, Miss Swan.'
Regina was right, Mr. Gold had entered the diner with Belle on his arm and a smug look on his face. It was a look that made Emma want to punch him every time she saw it plastered on his face. No one else seemed to notice his entrance, but it was something that made Emma worry. Having a huge fight break out in the middle of the diner was the last thing she wanted to deal with today.
"Does anyone have any questions?" She hoped that no one would. She wanted everyone to accept the fact that they would see some familiar faces of dead relatives for the next week.
"I do, dearie." Mr. Gold projected before anyone else had the chance to even think about anything they wanted to ask. "Who are the love birds that just so happened to break my little curse?"
"Sorry, Gold, but we don't know."
"Oh, I think you do." He grinned and raised an eyebrow at the blonde standing above everyone in the room. "I think you know exactly who broke the curse. I'm sure you've already told all of these... people that it wasn't your parents, have you not?"
"Well, yeah. That's because it wasn't, Gold." Emma muttered in a matter-of-fact tone. "Because only the first kiss between a couple of true love can break a curse, apart from a sleeping curse. Surely you know that one."
"Just take some time to think about what you just said, dearie, and then come find me." Gold said, looking between Emma and Regina with a large smile on his face. "I know for a fact that I will see you soon."
With a loud cackle, Mr. Gold spun on his heel and guided himself and Belle out of the diner, leaving an awkward presence among the entire town's folk, who simply looked back at Emma with raised eyebrows.
'We need to talk, Regina.'
"So, does anyone have any more questions?" The only thing Emma could do was distract the room from Gold's words. If they were confused, she knew they would immediately ask what in the hell he was talking about.
"When will this end?" Someone shouted.
"Mr. Gold says that he is going to rewrite the curse, but with a different twist so it won't break again. He thinks that it's going to take at least a week to get it completed. Anyone else?"
"What happened that caused Gold to cast the curse in the first place?" Another heckled.
"I don't have the right to discuss the matter, I'm afraid." Emma sighed and looked towards Regina, who was biting her lip and trying to remain as fierce as she had been before the question had been asked. "Does anyone have any more questions?" The diner remained silent, which pleased Emma to no end. "Okay, thanks for coming. Just remember that you can't ignore these people. If anyone has any trouble, please call either the station, myself, or my deputy and we'll help in any way we can. Dr. Hopper has extended his working hours just in case anyone needs any help through this. It's going to be tough, but like everything else, we can pull through."
Emma smiled at the crowd and watched them disperse a little before jumping off the chair and rejoining her family on the floor. Regina stood at her side, completely lost in thought. Seeing the blank facial expression on Regina's face made Emma's heart ache. She had been completely unaware of how much she was attracted to the Mayor until they returned from Neverland. However, she did admit to herself that she had a little girl crush on the woman a long while beforehand, but never really intended to act upon it.
"We really need to discuss your public speaking issues, dear." Mary Margaret said as soon as the five of them were alone.
Emma rolled her eyes at her mother like a disobedient child, making the corners of Regina's mouth curl. The sassiness that Emma had when it came to her mother was something Regina had always secretly loved, even if she did hate to admit it, because the thought of loving Emma Swan either for herself or her personality traits was ridiculous, wasn't it?
'I thought you did well under the given circumstances.'
"Hey, Regina, could I have a word with you out the back, please?" Emma asked, hoping that her parents would buy Henry a milkshake and distract him while the two of them talked in the diner's restroom.
Regina nodded and gestured for Emma to lead. The blonde guided them to the bathroom and locked the door to the ladies room behind them.
"Are you still thinking that we broke the curse, Regina?" Emma's whisper was barely understandable, but with the look of worry written all over her face it was obvious to Regina what she had asked, even if she had missed a couple of words.
"Unfortunately so, Miss Swan." Regina said, dropping her head a little, attempting to hide the growing attraction that she had for Emma Swan. "What do you propose we do?"
"I don't know." Emma shrugged. She could feel her cheeks blushing. She knew that there was no point in admitting to Regina that she had heard the woman confess to herself that she was falling in love with her.
"I can't believe I'm going to say this." Regina sighed and took a step away from Emma. "But I think I felt something between us - when we kissed, I mean. I have no idea what it was and I can't tell if its right, but I felt someth-"
Regina's rambling was cut off by the forceful kiss that Emma had sprung upon her lips. Feeling her lips grinding against Emma's once again made Regina's knees feel weak. Steadying herself, she took a handful of Emma's tight shirt and pulled her towards her body, wrapping her arms tightly around the blonde's neck and shoulders. Emma slid her tongue across Regina's bottom lip as if to request an entry, which was granted almost immediately. Their tongues swirled and fought inside their mouths, hands wandered and limbs became tangled.
Neither wanted to let the other go, feeling too afraid to lose them. When Regina began to feel breathless, she ran her finger down Emma's jaw until she reached her chin and slowly pulled her own lips away from the blonde's. As she emerged from the kiss, Regina couldn't help but smile at Emma who was showing no signs of wanting to let go of her waist. And honestly, the connection between the two of them was something Regina never wanted to let go of.
"So, what are we going to do?" Emma asked as she regretfully began moving her hands from Regina's waist down to the brunette's hips.
"We are not going to Gold, if that's what you're thinking." Regina pulled away from Emma's hold and ran her fingers through her hair in confusion. "Miss Swan, I don't think we can do this. It may feel right, but it is incredibly wrong."
The look of disappointment and abandonment hit Emma's face faster than the speed of light and it simply broke Regina's heart. She was falling for the idiotic blonde faster than she had fallen for anyone, and that scared her more than anything. Fighting away the nagging desires to cradle Emma in her arms, Regina folded them across her chest and wandered her eyes across the bathroom.
"So what do you suggest then, Madam Mayor?" Emma tried to hide how fast she had been hurt with such a deadpan question and leaned on one leg in impatience.
"We merely forget, I suppose." Regina shrugged and walked towards the bathroom door before stopping when Emma took hold of her wrist.
"Regina, wait," Emma sighed, "We can't just forget all of this."
"Watch me, Miss Swan."
Regina ripped her hand from Emma's grasp and stalked out of the bathroom faster than Emma could protest. She was absolutely terrified. All she wanted to do was to run back into the bathroom and hold Emma close. Within a matter of hours, Regina had felt Emma become her rock. She was keeping her safe and grounded in this series of events and Regina had never felt so comfortable.
It was like she was seeing Emma again for the first time and it was love at first sight.
As she returned to the front of the diner, she spotted Henry sitting in a booth and laughing with his grandparents. Just as much as she hated to break them up, Regina felt a terrible need to be as far away from Emma as she possibly could, and right now, that meant taking Henry with her. She needed to be far enough that she couldn't run straight to her.
"Henry, are you ready to go home?" She asked as she approached the table.
"Sure." Henry sighed and took one last slurp of the milkshake that his grandparents had bought for him. "Is Emma coming with us?"
"No, Henry." Regina said sternly, feeling the butterflies in her stomach at the sound of the blonde's name.
"Let me take you," Charming offered after looking at his wife for approval. "It looks as if it's about to rain and my truck is just outside. I insist."
"Thank you, David." Regina sighed in defeat, not willing to argue with him and left the diner to wait for her son to join her.
Inside the diner, Emma still hadn't left the bathroom. She stood in front of the mirror trying to battle her conflicting emotions. She was falling in love with Regina Mills a lot faster than she had been before Neverland, but she also felt betrayed as her hatred for the woman built as fast as her love. The thoughts and emotions running through her head made her dizzy and physically sick. This, she realised, was why she built her walls up.
"Hey, sweetie," Mary Margaret interrupted and closed the bathroom door behind herself. "Is everything okay?" She waited for Emma's reply, but to no avail. "When Regina left I expected you to come out too. Your father has taken her and Henry home."
Emma nodded and fought away her frustrated tears that were filling and burning her eyes.
"Oh, Emma, honey." Mary Margaret sighed and wrapped her arms around her daughter who broke down on contact and almost melted into their embrace. "What happened?"
With Mary Margaret's arms wrapped around her and her hand smoothing her hair, Emma felt at home. She felt loved. She felt wanted. It was the first time she had ever let herself break down in front of her mother, but in this position, she didn't want anyone else. This is what daughters did, right? Break down in front of their mothers.
"I'm just so confused and conflicted and... Ugh." Emma forced through her tears and sobs. "I just don't know what to do, mom."
The sound of Emma calling her 'mom' made Mary Margaret's heart skip a beat or two. She would never get used to hearing her daughter saying the word and every time she said it, she knew that she meant it even more than the first. She pulled herself away from Emma's grasp and held the blonde in front of her to cup her daughter's pale white cheeks.
"Emma, dear, you have to tell me what happened before I can help you." Mary Margaret smiled and wiped away one of Emma's tears with her thumb.
Emma nodded and closed her eyes to calm herself before opening her mouth. "I think I'm in love with Regina." She muttered quickly and got caught in her mother's icy glare. She knew she needed to explain, what she was trying to tell Mary Margaret, but no words were being formed in Emma's mouth. "Just don't look at me like that. It was completely unintentional."
"Emma..."
"No, let me just..." Emma cut her off, unsure why she wanted to spill her guts about someone she had fallen in love with. Especially to her mother when it was Regina who she had fallen for. "When I first met Regina I thought she was beautiful, I thought she would be one of those little 'girl crushes', you know? And during our first conversation, she may have been cold, but I knew that she understood me. I could see myself in her a lot. Somewhere in that black heart of hers knew what I was trying to tell her. Even when she got me arrested and did all of those things, I knew it was because of the wall she's built. She was trying to protect herself because of the whole 'love is weakness' crap that Cora drilled into her as a kid. I only ever wanted to be the woman's friend. I wanted to get to know her and Henry. It was never my intention to fall head over heels for her!"
Emma hadn't realised how much she had raised her voice, or how much more she was crying. She could feel Mary Margaret trying to catch each tear with her thumbs, but failed miserably and pulled Emma into another hug instead.
"I hadn't realised that I was properly in love with her until we were in Neverland. I even considered my love for her to be conditional. I thought I loved her because of Henry and the way she had raised him, but even when we're alone and talking about other things I feel completely smitten for her." Emma took another deep breath and waited until she felt right to continue. "I didn't come home last night because Regina and I fell asleep on her couch together. Nothing happened, but this morning she kissed me."
It took a little while for the words to sink in for Mary Margaret, but when they did she swiftly moved her hands from Emma's face and stared at her in utter confusion. "She kissed you?!" She shouted, not caring whether or not anyone else in the diner could hear her. "Emma, why did she kiss you?"
"We were flirting and I kind of asked her to." Emma had stopped crying now. Her fear built and regret filled her stomach. This was why she never wanted to tell anyone anything. "As soon as we pulled away, Henry ran in to tell us about the earthquake."
"Wait, what?" Mary Margaret's shout turned instantly into a whisper. "Emma, does she love you?"
"I think so." Emma's uncertainty nerved her mother even more. "She's kissed me again since this morning and Henry told me that she likes me. But if she loved me, she wouldn't have run away, would she?"
"I'm really going to hate myself for saying this, but I'm going to be completely honest with you." Mary Margaret stalled. She knew that she had to tell Emma, but it was something that she didn't want to hear coming from her own mouth, or anyone else's for that matter. "Emma, I think the two of you broke the curse. Your kiss, true loves kiss, it only happens between true loves...and...I think that you and Regina are true loves. It's the only thing that makes sense! True love is twisted and ridiculous, but it's true and destined."
The tears started to build in her own eyes this time. At the thought of her daughter being the true love of the Evil Queen made her stomach knot and the nausea kick in. It completely made sense in a sick and twisted poetic way - the child of something so pure had a true love that was practically the element of all things evil.
"I'm sorry." Emma sighed and pulled her mother back into a hug. It was their only safety net from falling into complete breakdowns. "Mom, what do I do?"
"Go see her." She tried to hide the tears streaming down her face in Emma's blonde ringlets and calmed herself and her daughter by drawing circles on Emma's back with her finger. "Go see her, Emma. If she loves you and you love her, you will always find each other and end up running back into each other's arms. I promise. Just don't lose her to her own self-hatred."
Emma smiled into her mother's neck and held on for a little longer, hoping that the tears would stop for both of them by the time she left to find Regina. "Thank you." Emma continued to smile. Her entire body felt warm, almost as if her mother's hug was like a protection shield from everything, even the cold. She felt safe for the first time in her life. "Mom, could you do me one thing?"
Mary Margaret nodded as they separated and wiped the tears from her eyes and cheeks. "Of course."
"I need you to promise that this will say between the two of us." Emma almost began to beg as she watched her mother contemplated the request. "Just until I know what's going on."
Mary Margaret gave a wry smile and watched her daughter leave the bathroom in a hurry. It broke her heart to see her this way, and it hurt even more to know that Regina Mills was her daughter's true love. There was nothing she could do to stop it and there was no way she would go to see Mr. Gold to deal with this situation, especially after what he gave to her to 'forget' Charming whilst in the Enchanted Forest. If she couldn't pry them apart herself, there would be nothing she could do. All she wanted was to see Emma living in happiness, but the hunch held over Mary Margaret fought to tell her that Regina could never give Emma such happiness. She prayed that Regina would break Emma's heart in two, so Emma would have no choice but to find someone else.
