Have your weekly update and as always read and enjoy.
It took her two more days to actually work up the courage to sit down next to Regina at breakfast with the right words on her tongue, ready to spill out at a moment's notice. She had thought long and hard about what she was going to say. It had to be perfect and it had to be framed in a way that still wouldn't give away the proposal. It also had to explain just how much of a jackass she was and how most days it wasn't Regina who wasn't worthy of Emma it was the other way around. Regina wouldn't have pulled this shit over on her. Emma knew that with more certainty than she had in the fact that she wanted to wake up in Regina's arms for the rest of her life.
God, she really had a fucking lot to make up for. Hopefully this apology would be a good start and the proposal would finish up strong. Jesus, did she hope.
She reached across the table and grabbed Regina's hand. The other woman had been rather quiet this morning, but that was ok. It worked in Emma's favor really. She opened her mouth just as Regina slipped her hand out of Emma's. Emma scowled down at her empty hand. Regina never did that after such a short time. She valued the casually intimate touches they shared.
Emma looked at Regina's hand now resting primly in her lap. Regina went on eating her breakfast like nothing was wrong. Emma bit the inside of her cheek. Maybe Regina was just tired and cranky? It definitely wasn't unheard of for her to reject physical contact then, but that was only when she was really far gone. Emma surveyed her lovers face but found none of the signs of the bone deep exhaustion that would be at the root of that particular problem.
Emma laid her fork down. The clink of metal against china had Regina looking up from her breakfast and to Emma. A fake smile lit her face.
"Something wrong dear? She asked in a saccharinely sweet voice.
"Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing," Emma said pitching her voice so it wouldn't be viewed as something hostile.
"Why would anything be wrong with me?" Regina cocked an eyebrow.
"You're acting weird."
"I don't see anything abnormal about my behavior, Miss Swan."
"You won't let me hold your hand." Emma gestured at the hand resting in Regina's lap.
"And how is that abnormal?" Regina went back to meticulously cutting up her breakfast.
"You always let me hold your hand until you need it. You like when I hold your hand. The only time you don't is when you've been up for so long you're seeing double and blowing up half the town seems like a good idea to you again."
Regina looked up at her sharply. "I fail to see your point, Miss Swan."
"Well, obviously you aren't that tired so there has to be something else wrong. Are you mad at me Regina? I can't fix whatever made you mad unless I know about it."
"Nothing is wrong, Miss Swan. Perhaps you're reading too much into things."
"There's never such a thing as reading too much into something with you, Regina."
Regina's fork scraped loudly against her plate. Emma winced at the noise. She had definitely just stuck her foot in her mouth spectacularly.
"What does that mean, Miss Swan?"
"Nothing, Regina, just that you're a complicated woman who's been taught to hide her feelings for most of her life. Every gesture has a meaning with you. So why don't you tell me what's wrong. Whatever it is I didn't mean to upset you."
There was no way that Emma was going to spill about her job at Bubba's until whatever had Regina on edge right now was cleared up. She didn't need to add fuel to what looked to be an already raging fire. Emma wasn't suicidal.
"It's nothing, Miss Swan. Nothing is wrong. Drop it."
"But the thing is, Regina, you haven't called me anything but Miss Swan all morning. I mean usually you slip in a few Emma's in there somewhere if you're just communicating your displeasure at a really bad pun or something stupid like that."
Regina visibly swallowed. "Emma, I assure you, nothing is wrong. I am just tired."
"Regina—"
Regina stood up quickly, chair almost flipping over behind her. "Enough, sheriff! Now, if you'll excuse me I must get to work."
Regina stalked out of the room quickly, the front door closing loudly behind her. Emma sat at the table, staring at her plate distantly for a few seconds. Well, that hadn't gone anywhere near to plan.
She looked out the window, catching the tail end of Regina's Mercedes disappear. That hadn't gone anywhere near to plan and it looked like she was in deep shit for something. God, she would do anything to make whatever she did up to Regina…if only she actually knew what the hell she'd done wrong. It wasn't like Regina knew about the job at Bubba's yet. She couldn't know. Emma was sure that she wouldn't have recognized Regina following her around.
But other than that Emma had no clue what she could have done. She hadn't been around enough to say something really stupid to Regina. She hadn't taken Henry on any impromptu trips without permission anymore. She hadn't come home piss drunk from a girl's night with Ruby in ages. Hell, she hadn't even put herself in some stupid harebrained situation that put her in some sort of danger since Gothel had been detained the year before. She literally hadn't done anything that normally pissed off Regina.
Emma swallowed hard. She was in some deep shit. She sighed heavily and started to clear away the breakfast dishes. As she scraped the remains of Regina's omelet into the trash she had an idea.
Henry. Maybe he would know what was wrong with his mother. He'd at least been around more than Emma had. Maybe he had heard Regina muttering about something that could at least point Emma in the right way. Anything at this point would be a blessing.
She looked at the clock. Only eight hours until she got some answers. She scrunched her eyes shut and rubbed at her temples. Today was going to be a long day. She grabbed her leather jacket and headed out the door.
Exactly at three o'clock the doors to Henry's school burst open and a stream of kids came pouring out. Emma wasn't sure if there was a more annoying sound than pre-teen chatter. There was a limit on the amount of times she could hear the word penis screamed at the top of some 14 year old boy's lungs before Emma lost her sense of humor. She wasn't sure how she survived middle school without murdering a few people.
Henry finally emerged from the school towards the back of the crowd. He spotted Emma's bug immediately and rushed over to it. Sometimes it was nice having such a recognizable car.
"Emma!" Henry shouted practically ripping the door off its hinges.
"Hey kid." She smiled warmly at him.
"It feels like I haven't seen you in forever." He threw his bag in the back seat and turned to her once again.
"Yeah, sorry. Everything has been crazy lately with the two jobs." She reached over and mussed his hair.
Henry scowled and patted his hair back in place quickly. "Why aren't you at work now, though?"
Emma held up her cell phone. "I rerouted all of the station's calls to my cell phone so I could spend some time with you." She sighed and looked at her phone before throwing it in the bug's cup holder. "Also I might need your help."
Henry titled his head. "I thought you had everything planned? I told you everything sounded good."
Emma shook her head. "Not about the proposal, kid. I managed to piss off your Mom royally, but I have no idea what I did wrong. You're the only one who would have any idea about what I did."
Emma shifted the bug into gear and turned towards Granny's. She might as well treat the kid while she had the time. She really did hate that she hadn't have any time with her family recently. Five weeks to go until she could be with them like normal again.
Henry looked at her levelly. "Well, she really doesn't like you being gone so much."
"I'm not a big fan of it either, but she understands why I'm gone. I've been training the new volunteer deputies so they can take over the night shift from David to keep up the cover and everything."
"Yeah. But Mom isn't stupid, Ma."
"What do you mean?"
Henry sighed and looked out the window. "Did you ever think that you not spending any time with us would make Mom worry that you didn't want us—her anymore?"
"Why would she worry about that? That's the complete opposite of what I want."
"Yeah, well, actions speak louder than words, Ma. Mom believes that more than the average person because of all the manipulative bastards she's known."
"Henry, language."
Henry rolled his eyes. "What, it's true. It's not exactly like Mr. Gold is a great guy."
Emma snorted. "True, but still."
Henry turned to look at her again as she threw the bug into park in front of Granny's. "Think about it, Ma. Even if Mom knows exactly where you are and exactly what you're doing and why she's still going to worry that it's something she's done. She's going to worry she's driving you away, that you don't really love her." His eyes hardened. "You're hurting her and you don't even realize it."
"Henry, I—"
Henry just shot her another glare that shut her up.
"You haven't exactly been around to make her think differently. You're so busy trying to cover up the fact that you're working two jobs that you aren't acting like you normally would. Ma, what would you be doing if you really were working Gramps shift instead of yours?"
"Well, I—"
Henry didn't let her finish. "You'd be there practically every day with lunch. And then you'd probably accidently fall asleep on her couch. Mom would let you sleep there until it was time for you to go home and get ready for your shift. There'd be flowers on her desk at least once a week or chocolate or something to show just how sorry you were about having to work nights. On the weekends you wouldn't ever leave her side no matter what happened. Have you done any of that?"
She just stared at Henry.
"Yeah, that's what I thought, Ma." Henry crossed his arms.
Emma chuckled weakly. "I guess this is the pay back for reaming your ass three years ago about your Mom being the Evil Queen, isn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess it is," he said shortly. Henry popped open the door and walked into Granny's.
Emma followed after a second of sitting in the bug looking after him. She found him in the booth farthest in the back, arms crossed on the table, chin resting on top of them lightly, brow furrowed. Emma slid in on the other side, red leather squeaking slightly underneath her. She sat quietly, staring at Henry. She sensed the kid wasn't quite done yet.
A few minutes later after Ruby had set down two hot chocolates in front of them he spoke up again. "This is supposed to be our happy ending. It doesn't feel like it at all. You're gone all the time. You have no idea what's going on anymore. God, I'm starting to miss you teasing me about Paige. You don't know that I got her to agree to go to the Spring Fling with me. You just aren't here. I don't feel like I have a second mom anymore. I feel like I have some dead beat Dad or something that's always promising it's going to get better but it never does. So yeah, I get why Mom is mad at you. Maybe if you got your head out of your ass you'd see it too."
"Henry," Emma pleaded. "I really didn't know that you felt like this. I'm sorry I made you feel like I was never around, like I didn't care about what's going on. I do. I really, really do. And if there was any other way to get the money I needed for your Mom's ring I'd do it. It's almost over. Just a little over a month and everything will be good again. But I'll try harder in the meantime to be around, ok? God, I really don't want to win the shitty parent and girlfriend of the year award, you know? I can only try and fix the things I know about and I didn't know you felt this way, I swear. I'm only human Henry."
Henry huffed, looking down into his hot chocolate. "Yeah, well, you know now. So fix it."
"I really will try." Emma reached across the table and squeezed Henry's shoulder. "So. While we're here why don't you update me about this whole dance situation? How in the world did you get her to go with you? Did you use the smooth moves you inherited from me?"
Henry snorted, trying to keep the edges of his mouth from curling up, but failing. "Alright, Ma, but trust me any moves I inherited were from Mom."
"You wound me." Emma clutched her chest overdramatically.
Henry rolled his eyes. "Let's face it, Ma. You're corny. Mom's the smooth talker in the family."
"I can't really disagree there, can I?"
"No, now shut up so I can tell you."
Emma threw her napkin at Henry but stayed quiet anyway.
Henry launched into his tail about asking Paige out. Emma smiled and laughed at all the right places, finally feeling a little more like normal after everything that had happened today. They stayed talking at the diner until Emma had to get ready to leave for Bubba's. She grabbed her to-go order and carted the kid back to the house.
As the bug pulled up to the mansion Emma took out her cell phone and unlocked it. She handed it to Henry. He looked at her curiously before reading it.
"So tell me, kid, how fucked am I with your Mom?" she asked as he started to scroll up to view more of the conversation she'd had earlier when she told Regina she was going to pick Henry up.
Henry glanced up at her, handing back her cell. "Fucked up a creek without a paddle, or even a boat for that matter."
She shot him a look for the language, but couldn't really negate what he'd said. She looked down at the last text message Regina had sent: Whatever suits your needs sheriff. She sighed heavily and put her phone away again.
"Gonna take more than a hot chocolate and talking isn't it?"
"You're gonna be groveling for a while."
Well fuck. "Thanks kid, I'll see what I can do in the groveling department."
Henry laughed once and then launched himself out of the car. "See you later, Ma."
"Bye kid," she shouted after him as he shot up the walk.
She put the bug into gear again and rumbled off towards Bubba's once more.