A/N: Those of you requesting longer chapters should be pleased, as this one ended up being significantly longer than the rest! Reviews are the only way I know if people are still interested in or enjoying the story, so please take a moment to leave some thoughts! I haven't finished writing chapter 10 yet, so if you want it posted on time I could really use the motivation!
Henry took the news about Neal quite a bit better than his mother. Regardless of what had happened in real life, in Emma and Henry's minds the kid had always known the truth about his father. Apparently, Emma would later be informed, Regina had concocted that particular memory for them quite intentionally. Henry hated liars.
He had of course been spared the gruesome details that no child really needed to hear. Still, he knew the man was a criminal. He knew that the reason Neal had never been a part of his life was because Emma had been sent to prison at his father's hand. When Emma told Henry that Neal wanted to see him, the conflict was clear in his eyes. She knew knowing the truth had never stopped him from being curious about his biological roots, and she knew he felt guilty for it. It was written all over his face – how could he want to know the man who'd treated his beloved mother so badly? But he never even had to utter the words, Emma instinctually promising him he had every right to want to meet his father. After all, she'd never really stopped wanting to know the parents she believed to have left her alone on the side of the road, either.
Neal's unexpected visit had left its fingerprints on Emma's relationship with Regina as well. She wasn't even sure she was angry anymore. What Emma felt was something more along the lines of disappointment, and she wondered if maybe she'd been holding Regina to an impossibly high standard. Either way, things had been tense around the house ever since. Following the encounter, Emma had kept her distance the rest of the afternoon. The next day had been like going through the motions. It was obvious that her chilly demeanor was hurting Regina, and that the woman was filled with regret. Emma didn't trust easily, though, and had just been slapped with a scruffy-faced reminder of just why that was.
She knew in her heart that Regina was nothing like Neal. Sure, trust could be gained and lost in many different ways. But an omission of truth was a far cry from a frame job. Wasn't it?
Regardless, it wasn't even like Emma had the urge to run, which was perhaps the most unexpected thing in this whole scenario. She wasn't one to stick around when things got messy. Yet, Emma found she still wanted to be here, to be with Regina. She just needed some space.
On the third day, Regina wandered aimlessly into the living room just as Emma was ending a call.
"Fine," Emma muttered grumpily into the receiver. "We'll see you then."
"What was that about?" Regina asked, leaning against the doorway with arms folded protectively across her chest.
Emma tossed the phone aside and flopped back against the couch. "Neal," she replied, sighing and rolling her eyes dramatically. "He wants to see Henry tonight."
"And you're going to let him," Regina stated, clearly unimpressed.
"He's his father," Emma retorted defensively, frowning. "And Henry wants to see him, too."
"Well," Regina smiled caustically, bitterness dripping off her words. "I suppose it was only a matter of time before the three of you began playing happy family together, now wasn't it?" She pushed herself up off the wall with a snarl and made to leave.
"Oh, no," Emma countered, leaping to her feet before Regina could make her exit. "There is no 'happy family' happening here. Henry is spending time with his father. Just Henry," she reiterated strongly, inching closer until she was practically nose to nose with Regina. "Now, I don't know what things were like between Neal and I in Storybrooke before, and I don't care. I don't trust him. And certainly not with my kid. So I will be spending my night keeping an eye on them, and you will be keeping me company!"
She'd intended to make dragging Regina along for the ride to be a sort of punishment, but instead Emma noticed something more like relief pass over the woman's face. The anticipated resistance never came either, Regina simply nodding her consent. "Very well," she said, much more gently, bowing her head as she took her leave. Emma felt her heart soften. She wouldn't be able stay upset with the woman much longer.
Neal arrived to pick up Henry after supper, just in time for dessert, and just after dark. Just as Emma had planned. It was a lot easier to spy on someone under the cover of night.
The two women stood in the foyer, both tight lipped and bitter as their son followed his father down the front steps. They smiled stiffly when the boy turned around at the door with a bright grin, and returned his enthusiastic wave. The door shut and their expressions dropped.
"Get your coat," Emma ordered gruffly, marching away without waiting for a response.
The pair hurriedly made their way out the door, Regina following Emma's lead. Pulling out the keys to her yellow Bug, the jingling of metal seemed to act as a warning bell, and Emma did not miss the other woman's sudden halting skepticism.
"Are you sure this is the best plan?" Regina asked cautiously.
Emma scowled at the inquiry. "You're welcome to stay home if you don't like it," she shot back tersely, kicking herself the moment she said it. While it had seemed an immensely satisfying remark as it was coming out of her mouth, the thought that Regina could actually take her up on the offer had failed to occur. Emma didn't want Regina to stay home at all. No matter how pissed she was, Emma really needed the woman with her tonight. Neal's presence put her on edge, letting him take Henry made her nervous, and everything about this town still made her question her sanity. Everything except Regina, and right now Emma desperately needed that anchor.
"I meant the car," Regina replied calmly, with the restraint of a woman speaking to a petulant child. "It's quite... Distinctive."
Emma sighed in relief, careful not to let it show now that she and her big mouth were in the clear. She was still trying to be angry, after all. "I know what I'm doing," she said curtly, yanking the door open and indignantly plopping herself down into the driver's seat.
Regina rolled her eyes at the theatrics, but still rounded the vehicle to the passenger side. "And to think," she mused sarcastically as she opened the door, "I'd nearly forgotten how maddeningly stubborn you are."
Neither woman spoke as they drove, and it was as if all the silence of the last few days had accumulated and settled in the air around them. It felt louder than any sound Emma had ever heard, and she wasn't sure she could take it. She didn't want to be angry at Regina anymore.
If she were truly honest with herself, Regina wasn't even the object of her anger now. Put simply, Emma was angry about being angry. It had been a childish illusion to think that there could be anyone, in this realm or any other, with whom one would never be at odds in anyway. And it would be awfully dull, Emma mused, to get along and agree with someone absolutely all the time. Regina was simply as flawed as any other human being – or perhaps slightly more so, if the accounts of others were anything to go by. Though, it occurred to Emma that neither the harsh words of others, nor her own experience had managed dampen the ever-growing feelings she was developing for the woman beside her.
They parked outside Granny's diner, watching Henry and Neal through the window as they ordered ice cream cones at the counter. Father and son took their dessert to-go, enjoying the treats as they walked outside, discussing god only knows what. The Bug crept along behind them at a distance, headlights off, and Emma knew she was being a bit ridiculous, but she felt better being safe than sorry. The boys' destination seemed to be the pier, which was quite brightly lit, forcing Emma to park further away in the shadows. While her eyes remained fixed on Henry, her mind continually wandered back to Regina.
This had gone on long enough. Emma couldn't take the animosity between them anymore. Peering discreetly at Regina from the corner of her eye, Emma felt confident that she was not the only one on the verge of cracking.
"Look, I don't want to fight with you," Emma blurted out quickly, before she could lose her nerve. Reconciliation was not one of her strong suits. "But, from now on, there can't be any secrets between us. I know we agreed to leave our past in the past, but there are some things I have a right to know."
"Yes, of course," Regina replied, with eager relief and sincere repentance.
"Why didn't you just tell me?" Emma inquired, knowing it wasn't quite fair to ask after already calling a cease fire, but needing to hear the answer. "Why did you lie about Neal being in Storybrooke?"
Regina was quiet for a long moment, though it was a pensive silence, and so Emma waited patiently for the woman to speak.
"I – I suppose I was jealous," Regina finally admitted reluctantly. "I was... afraid. Afraid that if you knew he was here, you and Henry would choose him. And you would all leave me."
"How could you think that?" Emma asked, heart aching at the honesty behind the confounding reply.
"Emma, you don't even know me," Regina said morosely.
"Of course I do," Emma replied with an indignant puff.
"Hardly, dear," Regina scoffed self-deprecatingly. "There's so much more that you haven't seen, so much that you don't recall. But him... Him, you have a tangible connection to. Him, you remember."
"But I trust you," Emma insisted. "Can't you see that?"
Regina looked up, an expression of grateful adoration on her face. A moment of holding the earnest stare was all that Emma could stand, turning away under the guise of checking on Henry.
"Do you still have feelings him?" Regina asked diffidently, her gaze unwavering in the corner of Emma's eye.
"Neal? No," Emma replied firmly, with a bit of extra bluster to cover the way Regina's interest in the matter stirred her inside. Don't read into it, Emma chastised herself. It was just an innocent question.
"Are you certain of that?" Regina pressed, apparently sensing the false bravado, though not what it concealed.
Emma sighed. Putting on a front wasn't going to accomplish anything. "I guess you never really forget your first love, you know?" Having just declared a mandate of honesty between them, Emma figured if she expected to receive she had better be willing to give. "I can't hate him, because that would be hating half of my kid. So, I have to focus on his good qualities. For Henry."
A sharp chortle from beside her briefly made Emma worry that Regina found her sentiments foolish, though the woman's thoughtful smile was genuine.
"What's funny?" Emma asked apprehensively.
"Nothing is funny, dear," Regina replied reassuringly. "It's simply that I understand that notion quite completely. Though, you made yourself rather impossible to hate in other ways as well."
Emma smiled secretly at Regina's playful and – she dared to speculate – flirtatious tone. But something was still nagging at the back of her mind. It was none of her business, not really, yet it felt like everything was riding on this one question. She figured Regina had already opened the door, now it was Emma's turn to walk through it. Now or never.
"What about you and Robin?" Emma asked hesitantly. "What kind of 'friend' is he?"'
"Not the kind you're thinking, dear," Regina chuckled, correctly reading Emma's thoughts and making her blush. "He is… Like a sponsor, of sorts."
"So there's really nothing romantic there?" Emma inquired, trying – and probably failing – to hide her enthusiasm.
"Emma, you've been staying in my home for the better part of a week," Regina explained carefully. "Don't you think you would have known by now if there was?"
Emma peered downward, trying to bury her giddy gaze in her lap, as well as the sudden, foolish urge to giggle. "Good point," she said as seriously as she could, feeling utterly ridiculous for the juvenile glee bubbling inside her. Not even her teenage romance with Neal had ever left her feeling so uncharacteristically jovial.
A silence fell over them then, and while it wasn't a particularly uncomfortable one, Emma found herself desperately seeking more interaction from the woman beside her. Like a small puppy, in dire need of Regina's attentive affection.
"So," Emma mummered, tucking her hair behind her ear and grinning cheekily when she finally thought of something to say. "You really made up all of our memories? Mine and Henry's?"
"I did," Regina confirmed.
"Well," Emma teased, "I suppose that would explain why I suddenly went off women for a decade after Henry was born. Always felt like it should have been the other way around, considering it was a man that screwed me over."
Bold laughter sounded from the seat beside her, and Emma shyly joined in on the merriment, pleased by the success of her quip. She loved it when Regina laughed, and not just because she was fairly certain it was a rather rare commodity. Emma could swear the glorious sound seeped right down into her own soul, making her shine.
"I do apologize for being so presumptuous," Regina said sincerely. Emma just shrugged, smile unwavering. It wasn't like Regina was the first person to make such an assumption about her, and the woman had only been doing her best to give them their happiness.
It wasn't until the laughter had ceased completely that Emma realized they were still staring into each other's eyes. She couldn't look away, and she couldn't stop smiling. She would have felt foolish, had Regina's lips not remained pursed and curled upwards as well. It filled Emma with a nervous sort of excitement, the kind that made her choke down on gratuitous laughter again.
Emma's eyes slowly fell to Regina's mouth, as though it were a magnet for her gaze. It was in watching those succulent lips, in comparing them to the most juicy, tender fruit in her mind and imagining their sticky sweet taste, that she found herself alarmingly overwhelmed by the desire to kiss Regina Mills.
The realization caused Emma's heart to thunder against her chest. It wasn't as if she'd never entertained the idea before, but Emma was sure she had never needed a kiss like this. She craved Regina's lips like nicotine, or at least how she imagined the addiction might feel. Emma knew there was something that made it near impossible resist the urge, and she was sure Regina's lips were the closest she had ever come to understanding that need. Just a puff, just a taste.
The way Regina was looking at her still, Emma was almost sure she could get away with it. She was almost sure Regina would allow it, maybe even welcome it. She was almost sure, though she wasn't certain, and so she hesitated. But what was the worst that could happen? Well, plenty, a voice in her head replied. She pushed the worrisome thought away, intent on doing this. She had to do it, she had to know.
Taking a deep breath, Emma leaned in just a little closer – until a loud tapping startled her to a halt. Both women's eyes flicked quickly to the driver's side, where they discovered a smug looking father and son duo. Emma scowled deeply as she rolled down the car window.
"Not exactly the most inconspicuous choice of stakeout vehicle," Neal admonished teasingly, ruining whatever had remained of the moment.
Right then, Emma could absolutely swear she was going to kill him.
