It wasn't the tearful goodbye at the town line when Emma and Henry drove off to New York with new memories and no recollection of Storybrooke or the family they left behind, but it wasn't a regular goodbye either. Gold was still in town and even if Regina had some kind of leverage over him, she wasn't sure Henry would be completely safe from whatever mishaps took place in her absence. For example, there was an upset dragon and a woman who—recently used as nothing more than a pawn—could control animals even if they were also partly human as long as she breathed on them, and a woman with eight extra limbs who'd very nearly lost someone she loved. The person at the center of all their problems was none other than Gold.
So Emma made sure to squeeze a little tighter than usual when she hugged Henry goodbye. She knew she'd probably return to him within the next day or two, no longer than forty-eight hours away from him, but maybe the hug wasn't as much for him as it was for her. She was still a little restrained after her last couple of failed attempts to impose violence on people she felt were a threat and a necessary evil to rid the world of and she was about to run off to New York with Regina to save a man she wasn't particularly fond of from Zelena. She was willing to help and tag along, even before she found out that her old friend Lily was also on the agenda while they were out of town, but she still didn't understand what Regina saw in the forest-lover. As far as Emma knew, Regina may have grown up in the Enchanted Forest, but she didn't strike Emma as the type to like long strolls through the dirt and heat or late night chill. She was royalty through and through and while Regina could have very well liked and appreciated nature, Emma was certain that woman would hate camping.
But it didn't matter. She was there to help, not to share her blunt and bold and out of line opinion. She also had a daughter to return, one whom she owed a favor and an apology. For all the lies Lily told and for all that it cost her, Emma understood what had been done to the girl thanks to her family was much worse than the fate she herself had suffered.
That was the number one reason why she refused to hug her parents. When she thought she'd suffocated Henry enough, especially since Regina didn't seem to have gotten the most out of her first hug with him and went back for a second, she gave a parting hug to Hook. For the first time, the feel of him pressed against her with his arms wrapped around her upper back felt strange and not quite right. It wasn't really a comfort. Not like Henry's hug had been, not like Regina's hand—though it had been gloved at the time—in hers had felt at the town line the previous year. It was just...off. She pushed those feelings and any potential doubts aside and smiled at him when she stepped back from the hug. Then her mother tried to swoop in for her own hug and Emma took another step back.
Her smile, as fake as it might have been to begin with, faded and while she didn't really glare at her mother, she certainly didn't give the other woman a reason to feel warm and fuzzy inside either. Thankfully, her father knew not to come near her. He had stayed rooted in his place behind Snow and his mouth formed a straight line, a neutral expression in her opinion, even though his eyes conveyed the sadness he was already resigned to when he realized she wasn't going to come to them for a proper goodbye.
She turned away from her parents before they could even say anything to her about her hurtful brushoff and flashed another smile at Henry on her way to the Bug. Regina walked alongside her for a moment before she crossed behind her to put herself on the passenger's side and the two of them slid into the car at almost the same rate as each other. They hadn't even left Storybrooke and they were already in sync, which was probably fortunate for them because Emma had a feeling they would need to be on the same page to survive whatever awaited them past the spray painted town line.
The doors rattled when they closed and seconds later, Emma turned the key in the ignition and the engine rumbled and roared to life. Her beat up, old Beetle was a clunker, but it had lasted her several years without too many issues. She'd driven it through state after state after state, hit the Storybrooke welcome sign when she'd skidded off the road on her way out of town, and the windshield had been busted while she'd floored it and abruptly slammed on the brakes to throw the Chernabog over the town line where it would cease to exist. That hadn't even included any of the time she'd driven it around with Neal both before and after she'd finally managed to figure out how to fluidly drive stick.
Inside the car, she hesitated only a moment as she took a deep breath and heavily sighed in exhale. She felt Regina's eyes on her a second later, but she didn't turn to meet the other woman's gaze. Instead, she pulled out her phone and looked up the information about Lily she'd done research on after she found out it was her old pal from her early days as a runaway.
"So, the last known address I could find for Lily is from five years ago in Lowell, Massachusetts. Which...actually, isn't too far from where I was staying five years ago."
Emma furrowed her brow and crinkled her nose as she thought about that for a moment. It seemed odd the date and place matched up almost perfectly even though five years ago she still hadn't seen Lily since she left her at that bus stop when they were younger.
"I told you, fate's a bitch and a power beyond our understanding," Regina reminded her.
Emma shook it off and set her phone aside before she shifted into gear and drove off.
For the first ten minutes, everything was fine. She was a little tense, her nails pressed into the worn material of the steering wheel and her knuckles were white, but the silence wasn't completely uncomfortable. Until they drove down the long stretch of road toward the world beyond Storybrooke. The "Now Leaving" sign was up ahead, still too far in the distance to read the words clearly, and Emma felt the shift in the air inside the Bug. Tension quickly filled the loud hunk of reliable metal and Emma immediately noted it didn't have anything to do with the impending loss of magic when they crossed the bright orange line on the pavement. Well, maybe not entirely because of the oncoming loss.
She glanced over at Regina to see stiff, raised shoulders, slightly wide, chocolate colored eyes, and a hand latched onto the car door for dear life. She wouldn't have said Regina looked terrified, but she would have definitely said the other woman felt unprepared and ready to bolt.
"Hey," Emma gently broke the silence as the distance between them and the town line closed even further. "You think Henry's gotten over the whole 'ick' phase when it comes to girls?"
She curled her lips into a smile just in time for Regina to turn and regard her before she even thought to answer the question.
"Was there ever an 'ick' phase?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, I think so. Most kids think the opposite sex has cooties and won't bother to even talk to them in case they catch them."
"Cooties," Regina scoffed. "No one here, even when they were cursed, has ever worried about cooties. That's something your world invented."
"So...what's holding Henry back from having a crush?"
"I don't know. Maybe he's working hard at school."
"He's twelve. What does he have to work hard for? Two times five equals ten?"
"I didn't raise him to be a playboy."
Emma laughed and loosened her grip on the wheel. Her trick to take Regina's mind off the town line and what crossing it meant for them and their magic had worked. For both of them. Emma wasn't worried about the loss of her magic. She wasn't worried about the world that awaited them on the other side of Storybrooke. She knew what it was like. She was used to that world and had survived it without magic before so she could certainly do it again. But she had, however, been too focused on Lily and Robin and how both situations would play out.
That was until her plan to distract Regina long enough to cross the town line without dread or fear had served as a distraction for her as well. She'd managed to focus on Regina instead of the potential problems ahead during their road trip and both women had passed over the line without even realizing it. Emma was the first to notice moments after it happened though, but she waited to bring it to the other woman's attention for at least another mile.
"You definitely raised a kid I'm proud of," Emma said with a smile and kept her eyes on the road.
There were a few seconds of silence before Regina softly and slowly, almost a little unsure by the sound of her voice, replied, "Thank you."
"Although, I have to wonder when we'll start having to worry about girlfriends," Emma continued. "I'm sure none of them will be good enough for Henry by your standards."
"I can't say whether or not they are until I meet them," Regina explained and seemed to pick at something near the hem of her black dress.
"Well, I'm just thinking no one could be good enough for the mayor's son, right," she teasingly asked.
"You seem to think I would push away all his girlfriends simply because I wouldn't like them. Do you also think I don't want to see him happy?"
"That's not what I'm saying at all. You're just...you."
"'Me'. And how exactly am I, Miss Swan?"
Emma sighed and rolled her eyes at the cold and professional title that wasn't used in the endearing way it had when she'd brought Regina kale salad and root beer for lunch.
"You're strong and beautiful and smart and that makes it hard for anyone to compete with," Emma confessed and wrung her hands on the steering wheel for a moment like a biker revving their engine.
Silence fell over them again and that time Emma felt Regina's eyes bore into her very soul. The other woman invaded her thoughts and feelings and all she had to do was look at her, even if Emma didn't have the opportunity, or inner strength, to meet her gaze.
Emma cleared her throat and figured it was as good a time as any to mention they were out of Storybrooke and still perfectly fine.
"So, congratulations are in order."
"Excuse me?"
"You survived the climate change from Storybrooke to the magic-less depths of plain, old Maine."
Regina's eyes shifted off her and looked around at the surrounding trees through the windshield and passenger window. At one point she even turned and looked through the rear window to see the long road behind them where the barrier between them and Storybrooke remained hidden in plain sight.
"We're out of Storybrooke," Regina mused out loud.
"Yep," Emma brightly smiled and quickly glanced at Regina whose eyes were on the road in front of them.
"Now that I take a moment, I can't feel my magic," Regina added.
"And the world didn't end," Emma said. "See? We're okay. Nothing to freak out about."
"I wasn't freaking out," Regina defensively argued, a little stiff and huffy.
Emma laughed and sarcastically replied, "Sure, you weren't."
She didn't see Regina roll her eyes, but she noticed her smooth out the bottom half of her dress out of the corner of her eye. She hesitated, considered what she wanted and was about to say, before she spoke up again.
"So, why are you wearing a dress?"
"I normally wear dresses," Regina answered.
"Lately, sure, but before? You didn't wear them as often. I still remember the hard ass Madam Mayor in all her pantsuits and on occasion you'd wear dresses and maybe a pencil skirt or two. But back then all those dresses were different."
"What are you talking about? A dress is a dress."
"No. No, they aren't," Emma shook her head. "There are dresses like that gray dress of yours and then there are the tight and bold colored, and some black, dresses you wear now. Actually, you've been wearing those kinds of dresses since Henry and I came back from New York."
Emma hadn't noticed the timing before, but when she took the time to think about it she realized Regina wore more dresses ever since the woman had returned from the Enchanted Forest. And Emma remembered that when she left with Henry, there was no Robin Hood in Storybrooke. When they came back, Robin and Roland were a couple of the newest townspeople swept up in the second—or was it third?—curse. Were the dresses for Robin? Had she really been trying to impress or attract him ever since they returned from their year in the Enchanted Forest?
Emma frowned at the thought.
"You remember my gray dress," Regina asked.
Emma jumped out of her head and came back to the conversation. She furrowed her brow, confused by Regina's question because—
"Of course I remember."
Regina looked over at her and she felt the woman's attention stay on her as if the brunette wouldn't look away until Emma expanded upon her answer.
"You wore it the night we met," Emma said after the silence stretched on a little too long.
"Why would you remember that?"
"Uh, because that was a significant night. In both of our lives. It was the night Henry changed everything for us. Forever."
"But…what did my dress have anything to do with that?"
Regina had a point. Emma had never thought of that before.
"I guess…because it was my first impression of the woman who'd raised my offspring? I'd hoped that when I gave him she'd find a good home unlike me and then I saw you and where you lived, all that you'd provided for him. It was a memorable night. Are you saying you don't remember any details like that from when we met?"
"Well, I remember you wore that loud, red jacket. But who could forget that? It was bright and leather. Cheap leather."
"Excuse me," Emma asked with a scoff, offended. "I'll have you know that jacket wasn't cheap. At all! But I guess you'd know more about leather than anyone, your Majesty."
"My attire as a queen was impeccable and very fitting for my station in life," Regina insisted with a pointed finger, her eyes on the road instead of Emma.
"It wasn't an insult," Emma said with a small smile. "I was stating a fact."
"I think you spend too much time thinking about what I wear."
"Look at your clothes. Can you blame me," Emma rhetorically asked before she could reconsider her words and choose to say something—anything—else.
She clamped her mouth shut and closed her eyes, tightened her grip on the steering wheel. She was definitely an idiot. She had basically admitted to checking Regina out.
"Apparently, you look at my clothes enough for the both of us," Regina teased with a smirk.
Emma had no response. She smiled a fake smile, forced and definitely strained, because she really did spend way too much time staring at Regina's wardrobe choices. And she had inadvertently let Regina in on that secret. She also didn't really like being made fun of, especially when one of her vulnerabilities was picked at like the center of someone else's joke.
Regina didn't seem to notice anything was amiss and both women chose to listen to the sound of the open road as it passed them by. It was a natural, comfortable silence and Emma didn't resent or hate or harbor any other ill feelings toward Regina for her teasing. Everything was fine between them. Nothing had changed between them and it was something Emma could count on. Their back and forth, their bickering and their playfulness, their heavy jabs and their friendly observations. There was no tension in the Bug because everything was right and well with the two of them.
For the next couple of hours, Regina relaxed in her seat until she seemed calm enough to fall asleep. Emma occasionally looked over and checked on the brunette. She had seen enough of Regina recently, even considering how long she'd been off the grid, to understand that Regina hadn't gotten much rest either. Emma wasn't the only one exhausted it seemed. So she let Regina curl up on the slightly tattered, definitely aged, leather seat and sleep. The longer they were on the road, the further Regina shifted into positions that made her look right at home in Emma's car. It was a completely different side of Regina. It was like seeing the other woman barefoot in her own home with a glass of wine, attention set on a storybook in search for its Author. It felt like years since Emma had forced her way into the mansion for research as part of Operation Mongoose.
Thoughts like that, memories of that night with Regina and Henry, led her to brush hair out of the other woman's face when she saw that several strands had fallen over Regina's closed eyes. In response, Regina scrunched up her nose and groaned as she tucked her head into her shoulder and chest. For that moment, that one small and simple moment, Emma didn't hear a million different voices in her head as they rushed to fuel the fire of her insecurities and concerns. For that moment, everything was even quieter than the hum of the car that filled the space between her and Regina.
She took a deep breath and sighed as she pulled her hand away from Regina. She grabbed the steering wheel again and continued to drive, her eyes mostly on the road except for the glances she chanced at the still sleeping brunette.
She was used to long road trips and prolonged stakeouts so she was also used to the lack of entertainment to help pass the time. She had music on her phone she could listen to if she really needed something to occupy her, but Regina had only been asleep for about half an hour. Regina had been hit a few times before and she figured even with the magical healing it probably took a lot out of the woman. Emma wanted to respect her and resisted any music or other disruptive ways to fill the conversational void.
They had another two hours to Lowell and Emma was surprised to see that Regina slept most of the way there. She was also surprised to see that every so often Regina twitched in her sleep. Sometimes the brunette grumbled and more than once she turned and squirmed in the passenger's seat. It was kind of adorable.
When there was only ten miles left to Lowell, Regina sucked in a deep breath through her nose and started to wake up. She moaned and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she sat up. Regina flicked her hands through her hair a few times and then cleared her throat.
The brunette took a quick glance around the car from the view out of the passenger's side window and the windshield and finally across from her at Emma behind the wheel. She looked slightly disoriented and Emma had to stifle a laugh at how amusing it was to see the other woman try to get her bearings.
"How long was I out," Regina asked.
"Pretty much the entire drive. We're almost there. Lily's place is maybe about five minutes away."
Regina ran a hand through her hair and sniffed, still groggy and in the process of coming back to the waking world.
Emma smiled a little as she turned and kept her eyes focused on the road for the next few miles and silence, once again, settled between them. Only a few more minutes, no more than ten, passed before Emma pulled up to a run down and dingy looking apartment complex. It didn't take long to find a parking space just outside the place—either because not many people were around during the day or because there weren't a lot of people living in the hovel of an apartment complex at all—and soon she and Regina were out of the car and on their way to the entrance.
She stopped outside the main door and looked at the call box for a couple of seconds before she pressed an entire row of buttons in the hopes that one of the residents would buzz her in. After about five or six, one of them did.
"Yeah? Who is it," a cranky woman's voice filtered through the call box.
"Hi, sorry to bother you. I left my key at a friend's place? Anyway, can you let me in?"
"Yeah, yeah," the woman grumbled before the door buzzed.
Emma didn't waste any time to yank open the door, sure that if she was a second too slow she'd miss her opportunity to get inside, and held the door open for Regina.
Regina was a little startled at the chivalry, but walked ahead of Emma and waited in the small room lined with mail boxes on either wall while Emma came in behind her.
Emma opened the second door to the complex and took the hint that Regina didn't feel comfortable to take the lead so she stepped in front and reached behind herself to hold the door until the other woman had a hand on it so it wouldn't swing closed in her face. She walked toward the stairs and heard the muted thumps of Regina's heels on the carpet close behind as she pulled out her phone and checked the address again. She needed the third floor and she doubted the building had a working elevator. Sad news for the brunette who refused to wear sensible shoes. Ever. But with Lily possibly so close, her focus shifted and narrowed on the woman she hadn't seen since that night at the bus stop.
She took a deep breath as she opened the door to the stairwell and only glanced over her shoulder at Regina to make sure the woman continued to keep up. Then she anxiously climbed the stairs, still only one at a time yet almost at a jog. She wasn't in a hurry, but her nerves insisted she act like shaving a minute off of her time to get to Lily's apartment would ensure the other woman was there. She wasn't sure why it mattered so much to her. She wanted to help Maleficent get her daughter back, especially since her parents-and partly her-were the reason Lily had been lost to her for so many years, but her urgency wasn't about Maleficent at all.
Emma had barely taken in the appearance of the first floor, but as soon as she stepped out of the stairwell and onto the third floor she slowed down. Her eyes shifted from wall to wall and she frowned with sadness and distaste at the atrocious state of the building. Even when Emma was at her lowest when living in various apartments, her buildings never looked as wrecked at the one she stood in at that moment.
The wallpaper was ripped, peeling, and yellowed from dirt and grime after years of abuse without cleaning. The blinds over the window at the end of the hall were bent if they weren't missing and the place smelled heavily of smoke and multiple litter boxes. There was at least one person on that floor that had the stove on and helped masked the putrid odor that was still detectable, but probably smelled worse when someone wasn't slaving over a hot meal. That didn't mean it mixed well with the lived in stench of the place, however. Emma fought every urge she had not to scrunch up her nose and cringe at the horrible living conditions before her. As disgusted as she was at what she saw, she was more upset with herself that Lily had grown up to live an even less appealing life than herself. It was worse when she thought about how much of her parents' fault that might have been and the fact that she hadn't stuck by her friend when the girl could have used some support.
Just as she and Regina cautiously rounded the corner toward another hallway, both women witnessed an older man with wild brown hair pass by the other end. He wore a sweat-stained tank top underneath an unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt and bit his nails while he appeared to be in deep concentration. The only other people Emma had ever seen look like that were homeless people that wandered the streets. They were the ones that never begged for money, but always talked to themselves and practically lived at bus stops in the seedier parts of major cities.
"Why did I go through the trouble of creating Storybrooke when I could have just cursed everyone to live here," Regina rhetorically asked, her voice deep after so recently waking up.
Emma ignored the question and looked around at the floor for a moment before her eyes scanned over one of the doors. She checked the number and confirmed it matched the one she had then raised a closed fist and knocked on the door.
"Yeah," the man that passed by them answered and walked toward them.
His brow was knit like he was either confused or not in the mood to deal with people and Emma took a step back from the door before she faced him with squared shoulders, her feet apart.
"We're just looking for Lilith Page? Is she around," Emma asked.
"No, she ain't around. Not for years," he answered as his expression changed, but just slightly, to convey more suspicion and confusion than anger.
"You know where she moved," Emma asked as she continued to look around the place, her eyes focused predominately on his open apartment nearby.
"Lady, she ain't moving nowhere. She's dead," he explained.
Slowly, Emma felt her heart sink and her blood run cold.
"What," she softly asked, afraid to hear anything more from him but desperate for some answers.
"Car wreck a few years ago," he replied. "Pretty sure she was drunk. Not that anyone missed her. She was a weird one."
Emma's pain and sadness faded as she narrowed her eyes at the man. She glared at him as he continued to speak about Lily like he was so much better than her. Lily had never been weird and that guy was the definition of the word.
"She kept to herself most of the time. 'Course she had one of those personalities you wanted to stay far away from," the man told her, his voice low and raspy. "A real loser."
Emma lost it. After so many years of being unloved, unwanted, and tossed aside, she understood more than anyone what it was like to be in Lily's shoes. No one ever understood people like her and Lily, the people that felt different and lost because they didn't fit in. She bared her teeth and nearly growled as she reached out and balled her fists into his tank top.
"She was my friend," Emma yelled in his face and aggressively shoved him up against the nearest wall.
Emma reeled her arm back and her fist still clenched and ready to punch his lights out, but next to her stood a voice of reason.
"Emma. Emma!"
Regina ran up beside her and reached out as if to physically stop her from throwing the punch, but Emma never felt the other woman's hands on her.
"Emma," Regina carefully and slowly started to speak. "It's not worth it."
Regina continued to remain close and yet keep her distance at the same time. Emma had a one track mind at that moment, but after a short while she let Regina's words sink in and decided to drop her arm to her side. She rolled her eyes and sighed as she released the man's tank top and silently agreed with Regina that he really wasn't worth the trouble. Once she was a little calmer, she also silently appreciated that Regina didn't touch her and Emma never had to explain to the woman—not once—that she didn't like to be touched when she was angry. Regina just knew.
Emma kept her fiery glare directed at the man for a long moment after she let him go. It took him only seconds to slip away from her and retreat into his apartment and she turned her head to track his movements the entire time, but only truly moved past the moment when he closed his door.
She swiftly spun on her heels and went back the way she came, frustrated and still keyed up by the aggravating man that knew absolutely nothing. She briskly jogged her way back down the stairs and didn't hear Regina's heels as closely behind her that time as she made her hasty exit.
She made it back to the Bug and slammed the door shut about a minute before she even witnessed Regina come out of the apartment building. By the time Regina slid into the passenger's seat and shot her a look of both concern and slight anger for the way Emma handled the situation, Emma already had the engine running. Her foot was on the break, ready to shift into gear and get the hell out of there.
Regina opened her mouth and sucked in a breath in an attempt to say something to her, but Emma didn't let her get a single syllable out before she gunned it out of the parking lot and hit the open road again. They still had to get to Robin Hood and she wasn't thrilled about Lily's apparent death any more so than she was interested in seeing the man that had both lit up and crushed Regina in recent weeks.
"Want to talk about what happened back there," Regina asked.
"Nope."
"You nearly put that guy through a wall."
"I know what you're thinking. That wasn't me back there turning dark. That was mourning a friend. Can you understand that?"
"Emma, you know you're not responsible for what happened to her."
"You sure? You heard what that guy said. Her life wasn't pretty. It was dark. That darkness was meant for me. Or it could have been or—"
"Emma!"
Suddenly, she looked out the windshield and spotted what Regina had: a gray wolf in the middle of the road, right in front of her car. She veered to the left and skidded into the dying grass on the side of the road. For a moment, she felt the car lift off two of its wheels. Thankfully, all four tires were back on the ground by the time the car stopped completely.
She puffed out a sigh and watched as the wolf ran away into the grass on the other side of the road, but not before it whimpered and lowered its head as its yellow eyes stared at her. It slipped between two small trees and then disappeared around a corner as she and Regina got out of the Bug.
"Are you okay," Regina asked.
"This has happened before. When I first tried to leave Storybrooke," Emma explained.
Her eyes were on where the wolf had run off to, but she heard a thump near where Regina stood.
"Stop overthinking. It's not fate. It's just a flat. You need a new tire."
Emma wasn't so quick to believe that. Too much had happened since she arrived in the magical little town hidden from the rest of the world.
"Unless fate wants you to go the Coffee Mug diner for help," Regina started to say, "chalk it up to 'accidents will happen.' I'll get a tire, you get some coffee."
She hunched over a little and tensed while Regina walked off in the direction of the gas station. She felt uneasy and her stomach flipped a few times with the sense of déjà vu, but after a moment she took a deep breath and relaxed enough to head over to the Coffee Mug as Regina suggested.
The gas station and diner were right next to each other so she caught up with Regina just before the two of them split up. Regina went to the left while she went to the right, into a small diner with yellow signage and a single waitress inside in a yellow T-shirt and an apron tied around her waist.
"Hey," she greeted the other woman, light brown hair that cascaded past the woman's shoulders and covered her chest.
"Hey," the waitress replied as Emma pulled out a chair and settled into a table.
"Two cups of coffee and a pack of Advil," Emma ordered and phrased it like a partial question while she kept her eyes worriedly fixated on the tabletop. "Make that two packs."
The waitress brought two tall travel cups to the table and set them down before she started to pour a full pot into the cups.
"Tough day," the waitress asked.
"You don't know the half of it," she answered and stared blankly ahead as she watched the coffee flow from the pot into the to-go cups.
"I'll leave the pot here then," the waitress said.
As the other woman finished pouring the second cup, Emma noticed the roll of her wrist and a familiar birthmark came into view. It was a star. She'd never once met anyone else with a star-shaped birthmark except for one girl she had a complicated history with.
She stared and stared at the mark as the waitress placed the pot behind the cups on the table and after a few long seconds, she looked up to stare at the woman. For the first time since she came into the place, she looked—really looked—at the waitress.
The hair was a little lighter, the woman was of course taller and older, lips a little fuller, but when she looked into those near onyx eyes she knew. The waitress' nametag said "Starla", but there was no denying that she was looking at Lily.
Faintly, she registered the jingle of the bell above the door as someone else entered, but her focus was on the waitress.
"I'll be right back with your Advil," the waitress said as headed back to the counter, Emma's eyes on her the entire way.
"Car's being towed in," Regina said as she walked around the table and took the seat across from her.
She turned and stared at Regina with wide eyes, so baffled by everything and still a little disbelieving to see the woman she was told had died.
"What's wrong," Regina asked. "See another wolf?"
"It's…it's her," she quietly said and leaned over the table.
"Who," Regina asked.
"Lily," she whispered. "The waitress. It's Lily."
Regina briefly furrowed her brow before she turned and looked at the woman behind the counter as she retrieved the Advil that Emma requested.
"That is Mal's daughter," Regina asked as she looked from Lily to Emma.
Emma nodded.
"Well, I'll admit, she has her mother's good looks," Regina said more to herself.
She narrowed her eyes and glared at the brunette.
"What? I'm not allowed to say that? It's true," Regina added.
Lily came back to their table and handed Emma the Advil.
"Thanks," Emma said and forced a small smile.
Lily responded with a flash of a smile as well before she went back to work.
"So…what do you want to do," Regina asked and picked up one of the coffee cups. "About her, I mean."
"I…I don't know. I thought…"
Regina gave her a sad, sympathetic smile and said, "I know."
"I'm gonna sound insane if I just tell her everything," she explained.
"Then don't tell her everything."
"I guess…maybe if I just tell her that I found her mom? She talked about her a couple of times when we were younger."
Regina hummed and gave a slight nod of encouragement.
"For now, I suggest you enjoy your coffee and calm down a little before we head back out," Regina told her.
She sighed and frowned as she grabbed a few sugar packets on the table to dump into her coffee. In response to that move, Regina groaned and scrunched up her face in disgust.
"Why must you ruin a good cup of coffee with all that sugar?"
"Why must you refuse to enjoy a little sweetness in your life? Black coffee is bitter, like most of the things you've said and done since I met you," she teased, though she wasn't wrong in her assessment.
Regina rolled her eyes and continued to sip at her coffee.
Underneath the table, Emma felt Regina cross her legs. The only reason she felt that was because Regina's foot ended up grazing one of her shins. She balled up her fists and sucked in a quick but deep breath when it happened. She kept her mouth shut about the contact made, however, because it seemed she was the only one to notice it happened. She figured that maybe Regina thought she'd hit the leg of the table so she wasn't going to make things awkward by correcting her about that.
She stirred her coffee and tried to keep it together when she felt Regina's foot brush against the side of her calf. She cleared her throat instinctively and looked up to see that Regina's attention wasn't on anything other than her coffee and their surroundings. The brunette was seemingly completely oblivious to whatever was going on under the table.
She wrapped both hands around her to-go cup and just kept the cup on the table as she tried to remain unaffected by Regina and her stupid foot on her own stupid leg. She stayed completely frozen from the waist down so her leg didn't move and alert Regina to the fact that her foot didn't actually rest against the table leg. With the way Regina gave no indication that she knew what she was doing, Emma worried that if Regina finally understood because of something she did then the other woman might be embarrassed. She wanted to avoid that. And if she liked how close she was to Regina in that moment, so be it.
"Are you hungry," Regina asked and snapped Emma out of her thoughts.
"Uh, I guess?"
"This might be the last stop we make for a while and your mood tells me you probably haven't eaten in a while."
"My mood? Are you calling me cranky?"
"That's your word, not mine," Regina noted with a raised brow and took another sip of coffee.
Emma released her coffee and instead drummed her fingers on the tabletop.
"You would know," she muttered, but in the small and nearly empty space Regina heard her with perfect clarity and pointedly stared at her.
She licked her lips and chose that moment to have her first sip of coffee. Her lips curled into a smile around the rim of the cup and she tried not to laugh at how much their conversation reminded her of the old times between them, back when hate was a strong word but they definitely didn't get along.
Regina waved Lily over who then casually approached the table.
"Do you have bearclaws here," Regina asked.
"Yeah. They aren't the greatest, but they're for sure bearclaws," Lily answered.
"Any muffins or bagels?"
"Got those, too. We only have regular bagels, but we've got blueberry, banana nut, and apple cinnamon muffins."
"Apple cinnamon," Emma asked.
"Yeah, kind of an odd flavor for a muffin, but that's what you get in a place like this. Odd."
"We'll take a blueberry muffin and a bearclaw please," Regina said.
Lily nodded and went to grab their food.
"Who said I wanted a bearclaw," Emma asked when Lily was out of earshot.
"Your taste in food, your growling stomach, and that glazed over look of pure joy in your eyes as soon as I asked her about them," Regina replied as she gathered up Emma's ripped up and emptied sugar packets.
She watched the brunette sweep the discarded mess off to the side of the table and then dust off the extra sugar that apparently transferred from the packets to her hands. A couple minutes later, Lily returned with their donut and muffin and Regina shifted in her seat. Emma then no longer felt the other woman's foot lightly pressed against her leg. She missed the feeling a bit, but she really didn't want to admit that. She had a boyfriend and Regina was only on the road trip to get to Robin Hood, her soulmate and assumed happy ending.
"Here you go," Lily said as she set two plates down in front of them.
"Thank you," Regina said before Lily left their table again.
When it was just the two of them, Regina pushed the plate with the bearclaw toward her before the woman even touched the muffin.
Emma had to wonder why Regina was being so nice and considerate. And helpful. It was strange but comforting.
"Thanks," she said as she grabbed her bearclaw.
"You're welcome," Regina replied with her gaze first directed at her food before she looked up at Emma and flashed another quick smile.
For a moment, even with Lily right there and a gut feeling that trouble was still ahead, Emma felt like everything would work out. Regina had a peculiar but welcome effect on her and she realized all at once that she was glad Regina had that effect and never wanted that to change.
AN: Not sure how many chapters are left in this story, but I don't expect this fic to last any more than 20 chapters so we're closing in on the ending. Thank you for continuing to follow this story and give me your feedback. It's been and continues to be much appreciated.