I have not written anything at all for months, so this may not be the greatest thing, but hopefully it's not too terrible.
Also, I have decided to give the Blue Fairy a name since she doesn't actually have one in the show other than "Blue" or "Mother Superior", simply because I think Cora deserves some friends, and I have chosen Anita (Ruby's mother) and the Blue Fairy. So, for my purposes, Blue will be known as "Lisa".
It was late the same day when Cora finally pulled her black Mercedes into the driveway of 108 Mifflin. With nothing left to distract her, she'd finally managed to get some actual work done and had worked well into the night. And if the reason behind that was partly because she didn't want to go home to face her husband, well that was just her own little secret. Most of the lights in the mansion were out, but to the mayor's dismay, both the living room and the master bedroom's lights were shining brightly.
Taking a deep breath to soothe her nerves, she got out of the car and walked up to her front door, briefcase in her hand. She took her time finding her house key and unlocking the door before entering, tossing her keys into the bowl in the foyer. Moving as quietly as possible, she headed towards the kitchen. Her plan was to grab the quickest, quietest thing in the room to make as a late dinner and then sequester herself in her home office until Henry gave up and went to bed. However, the flaw in her plan was revealed when she heard the unmistakeable sound of little Henry's laughter followed by the laughter of her daughters.
It was a wonder how she hadn't noticed their cars parked out front. With a small sigh of resignation, Cora walked to the living room, leaning against the door frame to observe her family. Henry was sitting on the couch, looking far older than his actual age of fifty four. Each of the girls were sitting on either side of their father, watching as his namesake sat on the floor, enraptured by whatever mindless cartoon that was undoubtedly dominating the television screen. Finally, her eyes landed on baby Hazel, sound asleep in the baby swing that stayed at her grandparents' house.
"Nana!" It was her darling grandson that first noticed her presence, jumping up to run to her as he so often did.
"Hello dear. How was work?" her husband asked once their grandson had been appeased by her returned greeting.
"Fine. Boring." Cora answered as Henry stood and crossed the room to kiss her. It took all of her strength and a very well timed picture of Rumple in her head to keep from recoiling.
She had learned to love her husband over the years, truly, she had. But she had never been able to force or trick herself into falling in love with him. He was a wonderful friend, and she knew that he loved her, at least to some degree. But she also knew that she would never be able to be the wife she pretended to be.
"Mom, do you think you can watch Hazel tomorrow? I have a job interview." Zelena's voice broke through the moment, and Cora thanked her internally.
"Of course darling." she nodded, her eyes straying over to her peacefully sleeping granddaughter.
"I wanna stay with nana too!" little Henry exclaimed, tearing his attention away from the television.
"Sweetie, you can't. You have to get fitted for your tuxedo for Ms. Blanchard's wedding on Saturday, remember?" Regina reminded the little boy. Cora nearly groaned at the reminder of the wedding she'd almost forgotten about.
Leopold and Eva Blanchard's only daughter Mary Margaret was set to marry Ruth Nolan's only son David that Saturday. The entire town had been invited, yet Mary Margaret had begged Regina to let Henry be the ring bearer for the event. The boy had been absolutely overjoyed at being included, therefore Regina had agreed. Given her own dislike of the Blanchards, Cora was absolutely dreading having to attend and put on a show of being nice. But, she assumed Mary Margaret, being the sickeningly sweet girl that she was, had invited Rumple and Belle once she'd heard they were in town, so at least she could look forward to seeing him there.
It took another few minutes and promises of seeing his grandmother after his fitting to convince Henry to leave the Mills home without pitching a fit. Once he was appeased, he, Regina, and Zelena were able to leave quickly, and as soon as they were gone, Cora immediately took Hazel from her baby swing and put her in her crib upstairs. After that she went to get dressed for bed herself, if only to avoid her husband for a little while longer.
And that alone made her feel horrible. He didn't truly deserve to be ignored by her, nor did he deserve her being unfaithful. But she didn't know what else to do anymore. She hadn't been thrilled to marry him in the first place. Her unhappiness had only been on a downward spiral since then, and she believed now was the point that it was truly hitting its peak. She couldn't do anything with him without feeling as though all the life were being sucked out of the air around her, and she knew that it wasn't his fault, but it was difficult not to blame him when she felt so trapped and miserable.
"Cora?" his voice made her jump, and she realized, as she was shaking off her thoughts, that she'd been standing in the closet in only her bra and underwear for the last few minutes.
"Yes?" she asked with forced calm as she quickly pulled her satin nightgown on.
"Dear, are you alright? You hardly spoke a word to the girls tonight." Henry said. The sincerity in his words only served to upset her further.
"I'm fine." she answered. "Just tired." She walked over to her nightstand, picking up her bottle of sleeping pills and taking two of them.
"I do wish you wouldn't use those so much." her husband commented, shaking his head. "They're not healthy for you."
"They're natural sleep aids." she countered, already tired of having this conversation again. "They're perfectly healthy." Without giving him a chance to reply, she pulled back the blankets on her side of the bed and turned out the lamp on her nightstand. She heard him sigh quietly before getting dressed himself and getting into bed.
And as she opened her eyes to stare at the bedroom wall, Cora Mills had a feeling that her life was going to get a lot more complicated very soon.
Sorry for the long wait and short, probably really bad, chapter, but I have had some serious writer's block/lack of will to write anything for a while now, and I'm trying to get back into it. And as a result of my absence, I lost sight of where I was going with this story, so I'm also trying to regain that a little. If you have any suggestions, please leave a review letting me know, and I will see you next chapter.