Chapter Ten
When Emma wakes up, the sun is streaming in the window, and she's lying in her side. Her eyes meet Regina's, instantly, and she smiles to herself. She might not remember actually being there, but she knows that Regina let her sleep in her bed again, and she hopes that means that she's really over all the awkwardness of the day before.
After all, she just let her sleep in her bed, knowing that she is really herself inside this baby body. Emma figures that's gotta be progress.
It only takes a few moments for Emma to notice the odd expression on Regina's face, and the curious way she's studying her.
Uh oh. What's going on?
Emma wants to ask "what?" but as soon as she tries, she remembers the pacifier in her mouth.
Ugh.
It had seemed comforting last night, but this morning, it's just plain embarrassing. She pulls it out and throws it away and Regina smirks. She smirks, but she's still got her eyes narrowed on Emma in a peculiar way and Emma wants to know what the hell is going on.
"Wha?" she asks.
Emma's proud of herself for nearly getting the word – well, most of it - out on the first try. She's getting better at this baby thing, she thinks.
Regina's smirk turns to a small, but more genuine, smile, and she shakes her head. "Nothing," she sighs, "I just had a very strange dream."
Emma wants to know what it was. "Wha?" she asks, again.
Regina raises an eyebrow. "I'm not telling you. It was personal. And… way too weird."
Emma's pretty sure that the way Regina's looking at her now, means that the dream was about her. She badly wants to know what it was, but she can't exactly force Regina to tell her. She pouts instead.
"Put that lip away, Miss Swan," Regina says, as she sits up and runs her hands through her hair. "I'm not giving in to that sad little face of yours anymore."
Yeah, we'll see about that.
"I fixed your phone, by the way," Regina says, grabbing Emma's iPhone from the nightstand. Emma assumes she must have used magic.
Of course she used magic. How else did she fix a phone? C'mon, Emma!
"Henry keeps texting me asking why you won't answer him, so I started texting him from your phone. Don't worry, I was sure to add in enough grammatical errors and an obscene amount of little smiley guys, so he's none the wiser," Regina smirks, again.
'Smiley guys'. I guess Henry never taught her the word emoji. Thank Heaven for small miracles.
Emma hears her phone chime. It's Henry's designated incoming message alert. Regina swipes the screen and smiles. "He sent you a selfie," she says, before holding up the phone for Emma to see.
Gah, Regina, stop using that word.
Emma scrambles up to a sitting position to look. Sure enough, there's Henry smiling in front of the Statue of Liberty. Emma feels a little pang in her heart, remembering the time she took him there, when they lived there.
"Would you like to send him one back?" Regina smirks. She's loving this a little too much for Emma's liking. And Emma really wants to know about this dream that made Regina so cheeky this morning. Maybe the absolute insanity that is their lives has finally gotten to her, and Regina's gone off the deep end.
"He didn't send me any pictures," Regina says, softly, and Emma wonders if that was directed at her, or just Regina thinking out loud. Either way, the mood is dampened, once again. Emma doesn't view Henry's love as a competition, but it's evident that Regina's keeping score.
Regina shakes it off, and sends Henry a quick text back, from 'Emma', and puts the phone back before finally standing. "When he gets home, we'll have to tell him everything," she says, "assuming you're back to normal by then. I don't like lying to him, but I don't want him to worry."
Emma just nods, and finds it interesting that Regina has apparently come to the conclusion in her own mind that once Emma's back to normal, she'll stay in Storybrooke and not go join her family for the rest of her vacation.
I mean, she's right, but how does she know?
"I'm going to get dressed," Regina says, "can I trust you to stay put and not fall off the bed?"
Emma nods again. The memory of the time she did fall off the bed is still rather fresh in her mind. She doesn't want to do that again.
She watches as Regina disappears into her walk-in closet, and returns a few minutes later dressed in a form-fitting black skirt and semi-sheer burgundy blouse, that Emma can see her black bra though when the light hits her just right. She pulls a black blazer over top as she exits the closet, and then heads over to dress Emma.
Emma gets the luxury of another pair of denim overalls, and a red and black striped shirt. She supposes it could be worse. She could be in a pink, frilly dress.
"I have to go into work today," Regina says, as she lifts Emma off the bed and sets her on the floor, before heading over to her vanity to put on her make-up. Emma thinks she's beautiful enough without it, but she follows her over to the vanity anyway, standing beside the bench to watch her work her magic.
"You're going to have to come with me," Regina continues as she sits down. She notices Emma watching in the mirror, and hesitates just for a moment, before lifting her up and sitting her on the bench beside her.
"I trust you can behave yourself?"
Emma nods intently as she watches Regina apply her make-up. She's beautiful without it but she's absolutely stunning with it on. Emma has to wonder how much of Regina's pristine look is for show, like if she looks impeccable, people might just be more willing to accept her, despite everything she's done.
Or maybe she just likes looking pretty.
When she's done with her make-up, she lifts Emma up onto her lap, and combs her hair into two little pigtails. "I dress you like a boy, the least I can do is give you pretty hair," Regina reasons.
Emma smiles, but really, she couldn't care less what her hair looks like at this point.
After a quick, and thankfully uneventful breakfast of juice and scrambled eggs, Regina poofs them to her office. Emma's not used to poofing so often, but she's starting to think she should start. Maybe she would have a better chance of being on time to things, she figures.
Regina carries her into her office. It's large on a normal day, but looks absolutely huge now, and imposing with its black and white décor and expensive… everything. Emma's head is racing with all the potential things she could ruin in this office. She's gonna have to try extra hard to behave this morning.
Regina sets her down on the carpet in front of the couch – the same couch she sat in years ago when Regina tricked her into calling Henry crazy while he was standing in the doorway – and Emma marvels at how far they've come since then. She sometimes lets herself forget how strained their relationship once was, but taking into account how much it's already grown, only gives Emma hope for more growth, in the future.
After handing her a box full of Henry's toys, produced magically from air, Regina heads over to her desk to get to work. Emma's determined to be quiet and well-behaved, as she reaches into the box.
It's that damn transformer again.
Not today, Megatron.
Emma tosses it to the side and it hits the hard floor next to the rug with a thud.
"Don't throw toys, Emma," Regina scolds. Emma can't see her from where she's sitting, but she can imagine her face: annoyance with a hint of bemused smirk. She's loving this.
Emma pulls out the next toy.
Ugh. Optimus Prime? Is there anything but Transformers in this box?
Optimus Prime meets the same fate as his nemesis, landing with a thud next to Megatron.
"Emma, what did I just say?"
Emma guesses Regina's face is more annoyance less bemused at this point. She stands up and grabs the corner of the box, tipping it over and spilling the contents onto the rug. She hears Regina sigh from behind her.
Seriously, woman, just stop watching me and get to work!
Emma surveys the toys in front of her. None of them look particularly interesting. She wonders what she actually played with at this age. She stacks some blocks up and knocks them over. It entertains her for about five seconds.
She's so bored.
She sits down in a little huff and builds her tower again. There's only about seven blocks. She knocks it over again.
Boring.
One of the blocks falls under the couch. She lies down on her tummy and scoots her way under there to retrieve it. She grabs it and tosses it back onto the rug, and continues travelling on her belly to the other side of the couch, and across the open floor.
"Where do you think you're going?"
Emma stops and looks up. Regina is looking at her with one eyebrow raised, while simultaneously holding two papers in her hand. Damn, the woman is good at multitasking. Emma is sure her descent across the room had been silent. She guesses Henry never got away with anything.
Emma stands back up and walks back to the rug. She doesn't have to look up to know Regina's eyes are on her the entire time. She wonders how long she's been here. It feels like hours but knowing her luck, it's barely been minutes.
Regina's on the phone now. Emma glances over her shoulder, and for once, Regina's not looking at her. Emma thinks she should climb up on the couch and have a nap. Time would pass faster that way, she thinks. She drags the empty, upside-down toy box over, and uses it as a step stool. She's on the couch in a flash. She glances over. Regina's busy writing something down, and still not looking.
Emma bounces a little on the cushion. It's springier than she would have thought. She bounces a little harder. This is actually fun. She stifles a giggle as she gets to her feet and starts jumping.
Why on earth do parents tell their kids not to do this? Jumping on the couch is awesome!
Emma thinks of the Ten Little Monkeys who jump on the bed. Why was it that the Mama called the doctor again?
Oh, right.
Emma bounces a little too hard, and without warning, she's practically airborne over the arm of the couch, about to land on the hard floor and break her head.
But she doesn't.
She lands in Regina's arms instead.
She's not hurt but she starts screaming anyway. Regina maneuvers her from the awkward position that she caught her in, and places her in that familiar position against her chest, and holds her tightly. She holds her so tight Emma can barely breathe, but she doesn't notice because she's still wailing.
Regina walks calmly over to her desk and picks up the phone receiver from where she dropped it in her haste to catch Emma, and tells the party on the other end she'll have to call them back. Then she starts to rub Emma's back and rock her.
"It's okay, Emma. You're okay. You're not hurt," she coos into her ear. "You just scared yourself. You're okay."
Emma slowly starts to calm down. Regina's right. She's not hurt. She didn't break her head. But there will be no more monkeys jumping on the bed.
And no more Emma jumping on the couch, for that matter.
Emma wraps her arms around Regina's neck and holds on tight. Without a word, once Emma stops crying, Regina carries her back behind the desk and sits down with her on her lap, to continue working.
This is better.
Emma cuddles up against Regina. She can't get hurt here. And it's not boring here, either. She thinks she'll just stay here all day.
And Emma stays there, through seemingly endless paper work and phone calls. A few people walk in, for various reasons, and question the baby on Regina's lap. She doesn't tell any of them who she is, just that she's a lost baby and Regina's watching her. Emma guesses she doesn't want the whole town to know that the former Evil Queen is literally coddling the Saviour. Emma's okay with that, too; the less people who know, the better, for the sake of her own future embarrassment.
A little before noon, Gold walks in, to discuss something about a small business something… Emma's not really paying attention to what he wants, she's just taking in the permanent smirk that seems glued to his face from the moment he sees Emma on Regina's lap.
"Not trying very hard to break this spell, are we?" he says, before he's about to leave. "Or could it be you like the travel-sized version of the Saviour?"
Emma swears she can hear Regina roll her eyes. "As a matter of fact, I did try. You could try being less vague on whose pictures I need to break this spell."
"Like I said, not very perceptive," Gold says, before turning to leave.
Emma can feel Regina stiffen, and she looks up to see Regina staring out the door after Gold, shaking her head almost unperceivable.
And Emma smiles.
She's pretty sure she knows what Regina's strange dream was about. She's pretty sure Regina is finally getting it.
Or so she hopes.