Disclaimer: My plan to take over OUAT didn't work out... But I'll just keep trying!
Regina was again at the family mausoleum, she couldn't make this Wednesday so she woke a little earlier on the Sunday and went to visit the place with flowers as usual. The former mayor also needed to think about her life. Lately everything was just a emotional confusion. For two months now she got her heart back but it seemed that the organ was just dysfunctional as every time she heard offensive words from some people -from the kids to be exact- it hurt like hell, not that before she was that soulless but now it was more intense. She couldn't forget of a little girl with eyes as blue as the sky, Julia was just three years old but she more than anyone taught the brunette what forgiveness truly is and she made it in the most simple actions that Regina would never measure how much meant.
And of all the things going on her mind and heart the matter of how more vulnerable she was getting to Emma Swan was the biggest of her concerns, she couldn't explain why every time she saw Emma her heart went wild in her chest and she felt a worm sensation she had only once experienced. She could only remember the time when the blonde got back her heart and her words, at the moment she didn't think about any of them but now it was like they had a more deep meaning.
*flashback*
2 months ago...
After she opened her eyes it became a blur. The pieces of broken glass of what once was a window. As she walked at the direction of where she could see the body lying on the floor. It didn't move, it didn't make any sound, it didn't live. When her mind finally worked on what had just happened, her knees went weak and her eyes covered in tears of desperation. In one second she was on her knees staring at her hands and other she was nothing but purple smoke.
Emma stood there looking at the scene. She knew what happened but she wasn't sure of how it did or who did it. It was all too fast, the only thing that her mind could process was not to let Cora near Regina's heart. The savior just wanted to protect it.
After many hours of search Regina was found by what once was her son's castle, a secret he shared with his biological mother and it became her secret place to go when she needed comfort after Henry moved out.
"I didn't thought I'd find you here." The voice came softly to her ears as she turned to face the woman she already knew to be Emma.
"I just needed sometime alone." Regina felt broken, the worse she had ever felt. It only took a moment to realize that the blonde carried the wooden box with the known content. "How did you find it?"
"The short story... We saw your mother entering the library carrying it. I never thought it was something of yours and surely not your heart." Emma stood the box so Regina would get it from her hands. They spent a moment both holding it before Emma removed her hands delivering Regina her heart in a box. "Will you put it back now?" The phrase was softly spoken and carried worry.
"I don't know."
"I'm glad you have it back. And I..." She didn't know how to make the words come out. It wasn't easy but she couldn't let the woman before her take all the fault for something she might not have done. "You shouldn't blame only yourself for it. We... We don't know what happened exactly. It could have been... Me and not you who did it..." Emma was facing the floor as she couldn't look Regina in the eyes.
"Just because you have magic doesn't mean that all the magic that happens when you're near is yours." The witch's words were firms.
"I... I don't know how... But maybe I lost control of it... The only things I remember are the thoughts to not let her near your heart." As she finished the sentence Emma raised her head and looked to the other woman for a moment before she left. Regina looked at the blonde for a while and then to the box between her hands, she didn't know what to think.
*end of flashback*
Present days...
She knew it wasn't Emma's doing, she felt the magic into her veins and when the blonde was there giving back her heart the words she used were said with such kindness that for once she wanted to believe that someone cared. She approached to the tomb where her mother was and deposited the flowers taking away the older ones. As every other time she said how much she missed Cora even if she was the one to make her into this human mess. This time her father was the one she stood longer to talk to.
"Hi, daddy… It's been a long time since we don't talk about it…" She touched the tomb with one of her hands as she spoke. "Actually I haven't even thought about it since Daniel… Since he came back." She stopped for a moment to think about her words. "He said I should love again but if she's the one I'm supposed to love… I just can't. I can't let it take place. She should hate me… I should hate them because they took everything I had away." Again she stopped but now to take a deep breath. "I don't want to love her, daddy. I don't want to suffer. I don't want to make her suffer."
She couldn't feel that, not for the daughter of Snow White… That would be a cruel joke of fate.
It was Sunday morning and David was up and making breakfast for his family. The day before he was planning to talk to Mary Margaret about his suspicions about Emma and her feelings for Regina but as his wife seemed in a terrible mood he preferred not to mention it.
As everyone sat at the breakfast table the air was charged with a heavy tension. Emma was playing with her food. Mary Margaret was looking at their daughter weirdly. Henry was with the same confuse expression as his grandfather. "Well... Are you excited for the big day?" He tried to break a bit of the tension.
"Yeah! I'm pretty excited." It was the replay from his daughter.
"I can see..." He turned to face Henry. "I hope this year Leroy doesn't get drunk and start to play with the mic singing depressive country music..."
The boy giggled remembering Leroy's moments. "That's the best part of it!"
"Sure..." Emma said. "A drunken guy pretending to sing while screaming some depressive lyrics… Kid, you need seriously to work on what is or isn't cool."
"Wait 'till you see it." Henry said and David agreed with a nod.
Henry and Emma were the first to go out, as the boy promised Regina to help her taking the baked stuff from her home to the festival stall.
David and Mary Margaret stayed for a while longer to do the dishes. She was too much silent since the night before. "Okay, enough! What is this about?" The woman looked at him for a moment before anything was said. David was getting anxious with the silence.
Mary Margaret slowly dropped the dishes before she turned to talk to him. "It's Emma… I'm worried about her."
Automatically he knew what the theme could be about but waited for her confirmation. "Why is that?"
"She's been having a… Love interest on someone we quite dislike." He stood silent for her to continue. "Regina…" Saying the name MM looked at David's face and she made a curious expression as he didn't seem not even a little surprised. "Oh my God! You knew it!"
Now David for sure would be in trouble. "No- I mean, yes- I mean, she didn't tell me but was there-"
"'WAS THERE'?" She screamed. "How the hell was there, David?" She was with her hand on her hips now waiting for an answer.
"Just calm down, Mary." At that moment she started to walk in his direction and him to walk back and his voice was trembling. "They have been closer… I-I-I-I-I just noticed, that's all." After a few steps he was pressed against the door trapped, with nowhere to run. "I was going to tell you-"
"You were going to tell me?" Her voice was too calm for his own good. "You know what? I have things to do so you're doing the dishes…" She grabbed her purse and went to open the door to leave but stopped looking for him one last time. "COUCH!" And the door was slammed.
Regina was already setting up things when the kids arrived with Mary Margaret. The boys were going to be presenting some numbers with their school mates so not all of them would be there the entire time, and they were having some free time to explore the event. Emma and Henry were there with the brunette too, and as soon as the blonde visualized little Julia she smiled opening her arms for a hug. The girl went on her direction but when she got close she passed through and hugged Regina. The sheriff stood a moment with her arms open and a fake hurt expression. "Okay…" She turned to face the former mayor and the girl. "I didn't want it anyway."
"Put yourself together, Emma. Please!" Regina said mocking her and kissing Julia's cheek. The little girl just giggled of the scene.
MM stood away observing them, and suddenly everything David said made sense. It was there all the time, how couldn't she have seen it? Regina might not want to show it but the expression on her face was one she only saw once… A long time ago… At a stable. "I… I'll be right back." With that she left.
"Is something wrong with her?" Henry asked.
Emma knew what was bothering her mother but chose not to talk about. "She's fine."
Everything was working as planed, Emma and David were now helping Ruby and Granny on the stall next to the one the orphans occupied. Henry left to explore with some of his friends and Regina was alone with the twins and Toodles as the other boys were presenting some magical tricks and MM went to see their presentation. All the quiet went to the hell when a man arrived making a fuss.
Regina was trying to be polite but that never seemed to work with her. "Sir, you have to get into the line!" She insisted for the millionth time.
"Come on! I'm already here can't you just hand me the damn pie already?" He said with rudeness throwing his money on her.
"Now you're being rude." Her voice was pure danger but he stood there. "And if you don't get into the damn line I won't be responding for my actions." The man was getting into her nerves.
"Well... For you to see... Casting curses on everyone is rude too but some evil bitch did it anyway!" And that was the end.
"What did you just call me?" By now she already had killed him several times on her head only to find a more painful way do it for real.
"Evil. Bitch. That's what I said." The guy said out loud. Everyone around stopped to look at the scene. When Regina was going to respond for her surprise a childish voice was heard.
"HEY! DON'T CALL HER THAT!" The twins screamed together. As everyone's attention was at them Toodles approached to the man without be seen and kicked his ankle.
"Ouch! Get away from me!" The man spoke angry but the little boy just kicked him again before Regina gently got him away from the man.
"And that was well earned." The former mayor said to the man raising an eyebrow as Toodle showed him his tongue. He was looking from her to the boy yet mad.
Mary Margaret arrived on point to see the whole thing happening. "Regina, you shouldn't be teaching the children to beat..." MM said and the woman turned to face her with a look that asked if she was mad.
"Oh, of course. I should be teaching them how to be lazy!" Regina said sarcastically. The whole crowd stood silently while Mary Margaret turned to face her with an angriest expression anyone had seen on her. Toodle slowly got off their way.
"Oh Gosh, hand me the popcorn! This will be good!" Ruby said low but Emma and David heard and looked at her direction astonished.
Next thing they knew both woman were screaming at each other like crazies. Emma tried to be fast and stop the fight but it was not working. "Stop it now!" She said but her words were smothered by the women's screams.
The sentence that made the fight stop was the same one that made everyone else even more silent. "IF EMMA AND HENRY DIDN'T LOVE LIKE THEY DO YOU I'D KILL YOU NOW!" Snow screamed in rage. Regina stopped screaming and looked from her to Emma. The blonde opened her mouth several times but no words came out. The former mayor left and Emma ran after her. David tried to calm his wife as she said their daughter was going to hate her and started crying. And Ruby after recovering from the events tried to make everyone go back the festival mood again.
"Regina, wait!" The blonde shouted but the older woman just kept running. When the sheriff managed to get to her, she grabbed her arm making the brunette stop and face her.
When Emma was starting to talk Regina raised one hand making her stop so she could talk. "It doesn't matter what you say. This… Us… Is just not a possibility, Miss Swan." Regina had to use all her self control to take the emotions away from her voice, she didn't know what she felt for this woman but love was just... Wrong. She didn't want the blonde to build expectations of something that she surely wouldn't let be.
Listen to Regina say her surname never hurt so much as it did now. She knew Regina was using it to make it even clearer that it didn't have any chance. "I can't walk away like it never happened… Like you don't know." Emma's voice was low, almost a whisper.
"I'm not asking you to do that. I'm saying for you not to insist on it." With that Regina walked away and the sheriff just stood with a lost look on her face.
After fixing the mess, Ruby saw Emma comeback to the main street where the celebrations were going on. As Regina never came with her she went search for her.
The former queen was walking from side to side, she seemed the most nervous the deputy had ever seen. "Are you trying to make a hole on the ground?"
The voice made her stop her walk and look at Ruby. "If you came to talk about it, just go back."
"Well… In deed I came to talk about it and I'm not leaving." Her voice was serious.
"Let's not waist our time, Miss Lucas. There's nothing to talk about."
"Of course there is, have you looked at yourself? For someone who claims not to care you're pretty much concerned."
"You don't know anything."
"No! I don't know everything but I do know some things. For a moment I really thought you deserved her, that she could make you happy because you made her happy but now I only see a selfish person who don't give a fucking damn. And it makes me sad because my best friend's gonna suffer like hell."
Once again the words were hurting more than they should. "You think that I don't care? That's exactly why I have to push her away… Because I care… I care more than I should and for once I don't want to hurt anyone." A tear fell without her even noticing. "I don't want to hurt her."
"Then stop pushing her away… Give yourself a chance to be happy… To make her happy." The words were softly spoken. Regina faced the ground as Ruby left.
With all the events occurring and the festival nobody saw a pirate ship sail in Storybrook. When everyone had the knowledge of it the known figure was already walking through the festival.
Emma was trying to keep her mind occupied and as Regina was not around she went to stay at Granny's stall helping the Lucas widow.
"Hello, love." The voice wasn't strange, in fact she knew the annoying accent very well for her misery. At the same moment Regina arrived but neither of them saw her there.
"Do not call me 'love'." She said turning to face the pirate.
"Why change an old traditions, love?" His voice was the most cynical one.
"We. Do. Not. Have. Any. Traditions. And do not call me love." She said slowly to make every word clear.
"Well I'm hurt, you know? I thought we had something special…" She faked to hurt by her words and completed his sentence. "Love."
"It won't be good for you if I have to ask again. Do not ever call me love." Emma was pissed and Regina was getting annoyed by the insistent man too.
"Look lo-"
"FOR GOD SAKES, STOP CALLING HER 'LOVE'!" Regina said furious and turned to leave.
Emma had silly smile, she thought Regina was out of the realm of possibilities but the annoyed attitude just proved otherwise. The sheriff had nothing left but to go and reach Regina. "Regina, please, wait!" Her voice was emotional. "You can't make someone almost cry and walkout like that, it is rude."
Regina abruptly stopped to face an Emma with a childish expression and arms crossed as if she had a point but nobody want to believe. "Why are you crying now, Emma?" Regina felt angry.
"I'm not crying, I almost did…" She said just to let it clear. "… And I don't know... Maybe the woman I love just defended me and I felt like almost crying 'cause it was beautiful?!" Emma took a few step closer to the older woman, and the brunette remained where she stood.
Regina closed her eyes as she released a heavy breath. "Look, Miss Swan it wasn't that much of a thing. Just don't build any hopes because it's not happening." The brunette said without the conviction she had earlier.
"First, don't 'Miss Swan' me. And I couldn't care less for how big you think it is. You did and I saw and it was perfect." Emma it took a moment but could get hold of her emotions. "If it's time you want, I can give you time... As much as you need. I'll be waiting for you when ready."
Regina didn't know what to think, the blonde really was getting into a place where no other had been before and this scared her and made her confused. "I have no idea of what I want… You're making me feel what I shouldn't."
"So you do feel something?" The blonde's voice was full of hope.
"I don't know… Maybe I need to figure things out."
"Okay, it doesn't matter. I'll wait as long as it take because you're worth it." They smiled at each other for a moment. If it wasn't for Henry saying he wanted to show them something they'd be there for ages.
