Chapter 7
The worst thing about having a good brooding interrupted was the sense of disorientation and a lingering irritation. Emma was busy, very, very busy brooding on important things like… was Regina's lipstick still the same, because it was a subtly different shade but it still tasted the same. Had she changed her perfume? Why had she changed her perfume? It was still the same but there was note of something else underlying it. How had her body changed after Henry? Had it changed at all? So when Leroy stumbled down the street shouting help, help and doing a damn good impersonation of an ambulance siren, Emma could not help but be irritated as she looked up from the cup she had been staring into. The disorientation cost a few seconds to focus on her current job situation: she was what remained of the town's law enforcement.
"Well, Butthead, aren't you going to do something about whatever bee Grumpy has under his bonnet?" Ruby nudged her from the seat as she stood in the middle of the dinner staring pointedly at Emma.
"Oh… Yeah…"
"Regina is probably already there anyway…"
And that was one alarm sound Emma understood. She patted her back for her service weapon and walked to the door. "You should be a mom, Ruby." She tossed as she grabbed her jacket and palmed her car keys. "You already have the disapproving tone down pat."
She grabbed an out of breath Leroy to get from him the location of the emergency. Her heart had a painful jolt when he dwarf mentioned that the wooden castle on the waterfront and how it was like it was being sucked into the ground.
She let go of his arm and got into the bug thanking all her lucky stars that the little car chose that day to start at the first attempt.
… … …
When she finally got to the beach, Regina had one of her ankle breakers in her hand and was shaking off the sand from it and the old castle was a pile of sea worn timber on the sand. Regina didn't look up to see Emma approaching though the princess knew for a fact that Regina had heard her as the doors of the bug closed with all the subtlety of farm gates.
She took a moment to assess the damage: the castle was gone and Regina was sweaty and rumpled, pale and, generally looking like she was about to collapse. Emma's first thought was about Regina being ill. As were the second and third.
Cautiously, she approached.
Regina calmly set her shoe on the floor and wiped her foot with her hand before slipping it elegantly into the heeled work of art she was wearing and turn to face Emma.
"What are you doing here, Miss Swan?"
"My job." Emma offered with a lopsided smile.
"Alright. Then cordon off the area. New city ordinance." Regina stared at the pile of wood. "I'll get a crew to clean that up. Someone might just think it's a good spot for getting up to no good."
Emma took the jab with barely a flinch. "What happened here?"
"The same that happened by the bridge." Regina replied and it sounded to Emma as if there was more the Mayor wanted to say but she seemed to think the better of it. "How are your parents doing with the move?"
That had the effect to anger Emma, to obliterate that curiosity at Regina's tone, the exhaustion in it and the tiny speck of hope she had heard in it. Absolutely crushed it. "You know that I'm not just gonna take your city ordinances as gospel, right? I'm not sheep like Graham."
"No, you're not." Regina sneered demonstrating the assessment as painfully obvious. "But I still expect you to enforce what your Mayor is telling you, Deputy."
… … …
Emma did cordon off the area. If these freak events kept on happening, pretty soon Storybrooke would be nothing but a patchwork of cordoned off areas and nothing left for them to step on. It was frustrating. It was madness.
Emma returned to the station for the first time since the funeral. The box with the stale bear claw was still on her desk and the chairs still as they been hastily pushed out of the way when the paramedics had come in.
She took a moment to collect herself and pushed the furniture back and tossed the pastry box in the garbage can. The she opened the post – because she was not done brooding- and a very official looking copy of Graham's autopsy report slid out of a manila envelope. She scanned through it and mentally compared it to the file she had hacked into on the town mainframe. It was in no way different: a heart in his chest, no bits missing, just an abnormally large heart, some sort of congenital defect.
Could magic make it look like that?
Would Regina do it? The Regina that had taken her in when she was a troublemaker, the Regina that she had loved probably would. There was a fire that burned in her, an imperative to defend what she thought was hers. She was well aware of Regina's past. And the honesty – if misery – of it did nothing- had done nothing to make her less lovable. Even in the face of all the do gooders in town and their stories of horrors beyond her imagination. Emma had loved the tortured, lonely woman behind the title. She had loved the little parts of Regina that been protected by the existence of the Evil Queen. She had loved Regina knowing every single one of her sins and peccadilloes because she had never pretended to be any other than what she truly was.
She had loved Regina then and now, being back to the start, it was beginning to look - and feel- a lot like she still did. For her own many sins.
When she looked at Regina now, at the Regina that hugged her kid so fiercely, she just couldn't see it. She couldn't see this Regina killing Graham. No matter what was between them. Or precisely because of that.
There was something though. Something in the air that told her that she didn't know the full story, that someone was not telling her. Not a lie, no really, but not the full story, nonetheless.
She tossed the autopsy report on her desk and picked it up again.
This was so not part of the plan.
So not the life she had chosen and carved out for herself away from Storybrooke.
… … …
She procrastinated. That was one of her very best qualities. She procrastinated not only making a decision about she was doing with her life, she managed to procrastinate even thinking about it. She dragged herself through the days, avoiding Regina consciously and then seeking her out when the need was too great. She watched the house from the bug, at a safe distance. She watched her in her office. She passed by her car parked in its designated spot.
And refused to think about it.
Henry, for his part, sought her out. He dropped by the station after school and meeting her at Granny's and she couldn't help but wonder when Regina would finally snap at that new routine in the kid's life.
Emma saw her watching them, sitting in her car outside Granny's. Henry smiled at her and picked up his backpack. She had asked if he'd be in trouble but he had simply waved her a cheeky goodbye and gotten in the car with his mom. She had hugged him fiercely and checked him over and asked questions that Emma had not been able to discern and then drove away. Didn't seem like any trouble at all.
It just seemed like a family. Something very much like what she could have had if she had stayed.
… … …
The box with Graham's belongings was still there, on the spare desk, with the clothes he had been wearing, his boots, his service weapon, even the tic tacs. She hadn't had the heart to go through it. Didn't feel she had the right to, but Regina had claimed nothing of it and it all just looked as lonely as Graham had lived. She picked up the badge and turned it in her fingers, feeling the cool touch of the gold plating on it.
Graham had offered her a reason to stay, a living that did not revolve around her parents. In a way, he had opened up Storybrooke for her. And now, here she was, not even missing her life in Boston. She would never had said she was lonely there but now that she was back, now that there were so many people around her, it was difficult not to look back and see it, see the loneliness, an emptiness, even. It was even more difficult not to look at this life and see how much she liked it. How much she'd missed it, even if everything had stayed the same.
She closed the star in her palm and let it mark her skin. She wanted something in Storybrooke to make an impression on her the way nothing of the outside world had.
"Oh, that's not for you." Regina's voice surprised her. She hadn't heard the tell-tale clicking of the heels. She didn't put the badge down.
"It's been two weeks. Promotion is automatic." She said in a tired tone and taking in Regina's exhausted appearance.
"Unless the Mayor appoints someone within that period. Which I'm doing today."
Well, that was news. "So, who is it going to be?"
"After due reflection, Sidney Glass."
To Emma, Regina sounded defeated and tired but Sidney? Fuck-a-doodle-doo. "Your mirror? Regina... You have got to be kidding me."
"On the contrary."
"Yeah, I can see how that makes sense." It didn't. Regina didn't even like the guy all that much, the same way she disliked all other spineless cowards in town.
"It does. He's covered the Sheriff's office for as long as anyone can remember…"
"That and he's got his tongue so far up your ass that he can taste your lipstick. Shit Regina. Let me do this. I can be good at this."
There was a moment of pause when Regina let the exhaustion filter through her layers of careful makeup and perfection. "I didn't know you wanted to stay. I don't think you know if you want to stay either." She paused, maybe waiting for Emma to fill in the question she had not really uttered. "The town is not a hobby, Emma… It can't be."
"I…" They were so close and there was this force that kept on pulling them into each other and for a moment she saw it, she saw how they would kiss. She remembered that body without clothes, she remembered the taste of her, the smell of her, the feel of her. Whimpering would be so inappropriate.
But Regina took a step back and shook her head as if she'd been pushing away a bad thought. "Go away Emma. Go back to your life. Don't toy with… Storybrooke. Please."
And with that, she got the badge out of Emma's hand and walked away.
… … …
Emma slumped into her chair. How was she supposed to keep an eye on things if Regina had just as good as taken her job way? She would never be able to work under that snivelling sunovabitch Sidney, with his nose always up Regina's skirts. She very much doubted that he would keep her as a deputy anyway, given that it was in the Sheriff's purview to hire his own deputies. And Sidney did not much like her either. Not since she had broken into his office and amended his editorial to a long sequence of swear words which he had printed without further checking. She smiled at the memory. Yep, she'd had fun growing up in Storybrooke. So much fun.
The pisser was that she was actually good at this job. She'd make a good Sheriff. And she could keep her promise to Henry and she could keep an eye on Regina. Maybe the best thing was to cut her losses and go back home before Sidney, of all people, had the pleasure to sack her.
Mr Gold chose that particular moment to wobble into the station. She had always wondered how he moved without sound with that bum foot of his. He surprised her at her desk, wrapping and unwrapping one of Graham's shoe laces around her fingers.
"Princess." He greeted. He had one of those tones of voice that could insult you just by saying your name without even trying.
"It's Swan now, Mr Gold."
He seemed to consider, give it weight and then his face pinched into a couple of lines of what could- perhaps- be a smile. "Miss Swan. How appropriate…"
"What can I do for you, Mr Gold?"
"Believe it or not, Miss Swan, I believe I am about to do something for you."
Emma snorted. "Yeah, right. How much?"
"I do believe, Miss Swan, that was an attempt at an insult."
"Yeah, I'm clumsy that way."
"Think nothing of it, think nothing of it. I make no apologies for my ways. Now, I took time of my day to come here and assist you in your promise to young Master Henry."
"Why?"
"Well, because, believe it or not, I like you better than that genie out of the bottle. And because I enjoy seeing old Regina's panties in a twist. I do believe we share a hobby, Miss Swan. Now. Would you like to hear what I have to say or are you really hell bent on sulking your way through life?"
"Look, if this means hurting Regina in any way, count me out."
"Oooh… Young love… that explains why you have always been pulling at her pig tails... But no, Miss Swan. It's simple attention to detail."
"Go on. Spit it out."
… … …
It was simple, really. Nothing too dramatic. But trust Gold to actually read the town charter… The question was, was she really willing to upset Regina further and, more importantly, take on a permanent job in Storybrooke of all places.
Henry marched into the station and tossed his backpack on the desk in front of her.
"You know, right now my mom is the Town Hall appointing that Sidney Glass slime ball. Are you really going to let her?"
"Kid, I think your mom knows what she's doing."
"She's just out of options, Emma!" He shouted and crossed his arms in a way that was all Regina. "He can't help. He just wants the job so that he can be close to her and smell her all the time. He's a creep."
"Smell her? Henry…"
"Emma, I know I'm kid, but believe me, I know when someone is looking at my mom that way. And Sidney is." Emma nodded because she knew that. It had always been that way. Even when she had been a kid. "Besides: you promised, Emma. You promised you would keep an eye on things."
"Yeah… I know."
"Look… Can I be honest?"
"Sure."
"I like you. I need you to be here. I… I like that you are like me, you know, the kid who grows up… Please stay… Be the Sheriff. For me…"
Emma stared at the kid. She didn't understand how she couldn't say no, how she really wanted to stay. She put her hand forward and they shook on it, a silent understanding.
"Now run or it will be too late."
… … …
Emma would not be such a liar to say that it didn't give her some twisted little pleasure to interrupt Regina as she, in great fanfare, held out Graham's badge- her damned badge- to Sidney.
"Hang on a second!" She called out from the door. Why was Regina doing this with so many people around? She had never needed this kind of bullshit before, being a true oligarch. It was odd. And Emma disliked odd. She also enjoyed seeing Regina falter.
"Oh, Miss Swan, this is not appropriate timing!"
"The only thing that is not appropriate is this ceremony." And working the crowd may not have come as naturally to her as it did to Regina but she was damned well going to give it a good go. "She does not have the power to appoint him."
And yes, okay, she also lacked the presence and the command over the rabble, but she had gotten their attention. And Regina's. Ah!
"The town charter clearly states that the Mayor may appoint-"
"A candidate." Emma interrupted trying not to look cocky. "You may appoint a candidate. It calls for an election."
"The term candidate is applied loosely." And she could tell Regina was rattled. A small, disgusting part of herself shouted bingo!
"No, it's not. It requires an election. And guess what, Madam Mayor? I'm running!"
There was a moment of suspended animation. Regina said something that she didn't hear as the flashlights of the cameras started going off as fireworks and it was as if they were the only ones in that room.
God, she had missed Regina.
… … …
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Snow asked as she smoothed Emma's hair down her back. Emma plunged her hand inside the cookie jar and dunked the chocolate chip cookie into her glass of Jose Cuervo. Whatever else could be said about her father's tastes and breeding, at least he knew his liquor. She let the cookie melt in her mouth and spread the burning all the way down to her stomach.
"Nope. No clue. But here's the thing, Snow: you wanted me to stay, right? Well, I'm staying. So… you know… prepare yourself, 'cause I don't think Regina is okay with this."
"How do you know?"
"She told me to leave Storybrooke. That was a pretty good indication…" Emma shrugged and continued dunking the cookie.
"She threatened you?" Her mother's tone rose in pitch, but it was more surprise than anger.
"Worse."
"Worse? What could possibly be worse?"
"She looked sad and tired when she asked- asked- me to leave." Emma rubbed her palms on her jeans and stared at her mother.
"She asked you to leave?"
"Uh huh." Emma didn't know what she had expected her mother to say. Snow nodding calmly –and sadly- had not been one of those things. No, at all.
"So… how are you going to campaign?"
"Campaign? Snow, I'm doing the job. I'm going to do it the best I can, and I'll let actions speak louder than words."
"Emma, sweetie…" Snow used the same tone she used with her students. "If you want the job, if you really want to be the Sheriff, you must show Regina that you mean business."
"Regina has her candidate, mom…"
"Sidney Glass? Come on, Emma, you know she's settling- and not even for second best. You must prove it to her, how much you want it."
"Right… Do you have any more cookies?"
Snow got up and got a tin from the back of the cupboard. "I was saving these for a special occasion…" She opened the tin and the scent of maple and pecan cookies filled the room.
"Oh…"
"I'd say this is special enough… Now tell me… How are you going to campaign?"
"I have no idea. I never ran for anything. A ran away… That I'm good at. Running for… not so much."
"Well, you were always very good at running into trouble. Why don't you apply the same determination now?" Snow took a cookie for herself and bit into it.
Emma offered no other reply than to dunk her extra special cookie. And chase it with a swig of her extra special pal Jose.
