I changed the spelling of Regina's dad name in this to Henri to make it less confusing with Emma's son Henry.
"Regina dear," Regina spun her head in the room of unfamiliar faces at the voice of her dad. She saw him smiling, standing next to her mum who, though was smiling, looked a lot less genuine. She had forgotten that her mother would be here.
"Daddy," She replied, smiling, striding over to him. He flung her arms around her and she returned the hug, putting her head on her father's shoulder.
"Henri, restrain yourself," Cora told him, looking Regina over. "Come, you look like you've just spent the last week living on the street. We can't have anyone see you like this."
"Cora – let her be. She's been through a lot," Henri told her as he broke off from the hug. "Surely we ca-"
"We have a reputation to uphold," Cora reminded the two of them, before leading them out. As she went, she turned and saw Emma, Henri and David talking to another woman, presumably David's wife and Emma's mum. Her mother's droning voice pulled her eyes away from Emma and ahead instead.
"Mother can we stop off somewhere to get some food?" Regina asked as they got into the car and their chauffeur began driving.
"Don't be ridiculous," Cora laughed coldly. "We cannot be seen with you like-" She gestured to Regina's bedraggled appearance.
"Cora, she's hungry," Henri argued. "Surely-"
"No," Cora snapped. "Stay out of this Henri. This is between Regina and I. Regina dear, you know that I have my reputation to uphold, and I can't do that if you're going around looking like you live on the streets. I will have the cook prepare a meal for you when we return home. Tomorrow morning you will have a television interview about the whole thing."
"But I don't wa-" Regina argued. She just wanted this whole thing to be over. She hadn't been planning on doing any interviews or anything. The only thing she ever wanted to do with that plane crash was meet up with Emma. When they had been on the boat back they had managed to find a pen and Emma had scribbled down her email address and phone number for Regina. After she had had a large meal and a hot bath, she wanted to message Emma. Things would be crazy in the coming days, with the press conference, insurance claims and the like. She didn't want their relationship to be forgotten.
"It's not important what you do and don't want," Cora told her, her voice going scarily quiet. "You will do the interview because it will reflect badly on me Regina. You wouldn't want to hurt my reputation would you now?"
"No mother," Regina closed her eyes, sighing. She should've known that her mother would be like this. It was just easier to do what she said.
"You should rest," Cora told Regina, walking into her bedroom later that evening.
"I was just going to send this email and then sleep," Regina told her, gesturing to the laptop at her desk.
"Who could you possibly need to email at this time?" Cora snapped, walking over to Regina. "Get some rest now."
"It's nothing," Regina said quickly, knowing what her mother would think of Emma. If for no other reason that she was a woman. Emma was a single mum that wasn't economically well off. Her mother would never accept her. "It'll wait until morning."
"Remember I expect you up at 5 for that interview, you need to be looking your best," Cora reminded her. "The elections are coming up and if we play our cards right, then this whole plane crash could work in our favour."
"Yes mother," Regina nodded. All her mother cared about was politics. Everything had to reflect on the family well or it could affect how well Cora did in the elections. She waited until her mother left the room and then grabbed her laptop. She sighed as it took a while to load. Her normal laptop had been destroyed along with her plane in the crash. This one was ancient and only temporary until her insurance company paid up so she could get a replacement.
Hi Emma,
It's Regina. Just wanted to email you before everything got crazy in the coming days. I think it'll be best if we only message each other until things die down a bit. How did everything go with meeting your mum? I know that you were nervous about meeting her. Let Henry know that I emailed, I miss his constant chattering already. Maybe I could take you two out for coffee or something when there's time.
Regina. XXX
Regina read it through, wondering if the kisses at the end was too much or not. Before she could think too much about it, she hit send.
"Only a few days ago we were reporting that there was little hope for any of the passengers of flight 843, but for the passengers of flight 843 a miracle has occurred," The news person said. The camera focusing in on his face so as not show the guest in the studio. "When the plane crashed, the remains fell on a small island. We can confirm that out of the 305 people on the flight, 56 died. We have one of the survivors in the studio with us though: Regina Mills" The camera panned out to show Regina sitting next to the news reporter. "What was your reaction when the plane initially crashed?"
"I... it was fear," Regina began. "And then relief when I realised that I was fine. Then it was fear again when I realised what was going on around me. The cries... the panic. It didn't really hit me initially. It was once we had all got out of danger, that was when it really hit me. "
"And after that initial panic what was going on?" The news person asked.
"We were trying to find the radio," Regina replied. "We thought that everyone would know where we were so we wanted it to make sure people knew that we were okay. Then the night came and we hadn't got it working and there wasn't much food to eat. I think that night was the worst. We were all just hungry and we had no idea if there was any food source on the island."