Okay, here it is guys, Michelle Part II.
Warning: Regina's having a dumb-ass moment. I didn't necessarily like writing her as a cheater, but we all know that when she feels insecure, she self-implodes. Not that this justifies lies and secrecy, but it serves as evidence of her emotional immaturity. This is her 3rd big relationship (I don't count Leopold as a relationship; it was a business deal). The first ended in death and she was only like 17 or 18 and pretty much a baby. The second lasted 2 weeks and only happened in the first place because the rebel fairy triple dog dared her to do it. And this one is the only one that could actually last and be something real and that scares the crap out of her and it moved very quickly in the beginning and some old demons came back to haunt her and she took the bait. Her mindset will be further explored in this chapter.
With that said, please the update :) Keep the reviews coming. I love the feedback and I try to take all opinions and suggestions to heart when I write the updates. Shouts to MagicMirrorSeesAll91 and LauratheChef, 2 very consistent followers. I appreciate you guys a lot.
'It's about a girl I've met. Her name is Michelle.'
Emma leans forward, giving herself enough space to turn and look back at the brunette. "Regina... I know you did not just get me all worked up here only to tell me about some 'girl you met.' That would be cruel, even for you. So before I start freaking out, tell me who the hell is Michelle?"
She chuckles and pulls Emma back into herself, "No, my love, Michelle is not a woman I met. She's a baby - well, a toddler. Do you remember when I told you how Gus and I were good friends?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, I'd been thinking about him a lot lately and feeling guilty because I haven't been a good friend to him."
"How do you mean?"
"He had a daughter."
"He had... what? When? With who?"
"Before the curse ended, shortly before he died, he told me that this woman he'd been seeing may have been pregnant. After the curse, they'd found out for sure. He was going to be a father."
"And then King George - "
"I found her. I found the mother. And Emma, she is God awful. The woman tried to extort money from me when she found out I was concerned about the baby's well-being."
"What did you do?"
The older woman states matter-of-factly, "What else? I threatened to fireball her to death."
"Oh, well, yeah..."
"She gave the baby up. It's a girl. She's the only child in the fairies' orphanage who hasn't found a home."
For a moment, Emma is stunned. She can already see where this is going but she hasn't quite taken it all in yet. "And the girl, her name is Michelle?"
"She doesn't have a name. Not legally, anyway. But he'd always loved that name." Her voice gets breathy as she gauges the blonde's reaction. "Emma, I want to keep her."
Without a word, Emma stands up and gets out of the tub. She reaches for the towel that rests on the bench next to them and offers a hand to Regina to help her out.
"Come on."
"Emma..."
"Before we talk about this any further, we need to fix some things, okay?"
Regina stands and allows Emma to wrap her up in the towel and dry her off.
They lie in bed facing each other in all their naked glory. 'Skin to skin contact is a cuddle-session must,' Emma had said.
She strokes Regina's hair and runs her fingers down the side of the woman's body. Down the smooth skin of her arm, to the curve of her waist, down to her hip bone -
'That's new...' How had she not noticed that earlier? There on the mayor's hip was what appeared to be a healing bruise or irritation of some sort. Emma runs her hand over the old-but-new-to-her mark defacing her girlfriend's body.
"Does that hurt?"
Realizing where the blonde's eyes had come to rest, "Oh, um, no. It' pretty much healed. Just an ugly mark left behind."
'Please don't ask anymore...' Regina desperately prayed, trying with all her might to conceal her rapidly rising heart rate.
"How did that happen?"
She nuzzles her face into Emma's shoulder, avoiding eye contact, "I was just clumsy. I walked into the edge of the kitchen island pretty hard."
'Lie.' God, she wanted to cry with how much she hated herself for lying right now. But there was no good way to say, 'That's the bruise Robin's belt buckle left after he slammed into me too hard that one time.' That sure as hell wasn't an option - at least not a viable one.
She thought back to that night. It was the last time she'd seen Robin, actually. They'd usually met up on Mondays and Wednesdays around 6 or so because that was when Marian and Roland attended "Mommy and Me Yoga" at the gym and he was free.
That was the night that bad turned to worse and things got out of hand quickly. One minute they were discussing the annoying habits of their respective spouses and the next, his lips were on hers and his hands were desperately unbuttoning her pants.
She'd tried lifting the fog that had come over her and talking herself out of what she was about to do; but the only voice coming in loud and clear, was that of an old self-hatred whispering things to her like, 'Look at you - nothing more than an empty shell of a woman,' and 'You don't deserve her; you were never meant for true love.' The more she listened to the voice, the more she actually started to believe it was telling her the truth. She'd been fooling herself into believing she was worthy of the love of The Savior. A woman like her should have never expected to be anything more than a trophy or torrid affair; and current circumstances only proved how much that was true.
She would have completely given herself over to that ugly, reliable voice, but just as she'd woefully decided to submit to the destructive temptation, the thief slammed his full weight into her, pinning her between himself and a wall, his belt buckle nearly breaking the skin of her right hip.
She gasped in pain and in that moment, it hit her like a ton of bricks that what she was about to do would have essentially led to her ruin. Hell, the sins she'd already committed up until this point could ruin her life if discovered. She'd pushed Robin off of her, fastened her clothing and ran out to her car.
The entire drive home, Regina had tried to justify her actions to herself. There had been no sex. She'd stopped. Technically, it wasn't cheating... right? She'd tried to ignore that little voice that screamed, 'Bullshit!'
She knew that at the very least, she'd allowed Robin to take care of an emotional need. And that was Emma's job. In that sense, she was a cheater. But it just seemed so much easier to maintain that because there was no sex, there had been no infidelity. She'd clung tightly to that reasoning.
But here - now - in Emma's arms, guilt ate away at her heart like a termite, chipping away little by little until the whole damn thing would just collapse. She wanted to be honest but knew that honesty would cause her love more pain. She was sorry. She was willing to atone for her sins any way she could until the day she died. And besides, what good would it do to cause Emma the hurt of knowing that when she was down, she'd turned to someone else for comfort? It was a "Catch 22."
In her heart, Regina knew she'd never again do anything like that to Emma; and she knew that she had a shit load of changes to make if she wanted this to work out. She felt a renewed sense of responsibility for the younger woman's happiness and internally vowed to always protect Emma's heart from this moment on. But this secret... Emma could never know.
"Next time, try to be more careful. Those damn kitchen islands are killer."
"Emma Bear," she gleams, "I love you. I really, really love you. And I'm so sorry." She kisses the other woman deeply and allows the blonde to claim possession with her tongue.
"Before we cuddle and talk," Emma breaks the kiss, "let me show you how much I love you." She brings her body to straddle Regina's then sits back to have a better view. She notices a single tear that falls slowly from brown eyes and as she wipes away the tear, whispers, "Beautiful."
They made love as if the world were going to end tomorrow. Each wave of ecstasy brought with it a different frequency on the spectrum of human emotion: love, grief, guilt, promise.
As the final wave of passion crashes over Regina's body, it brings her to tears. She tries to hide them, tries to cover up the sobs.
"Gina, baby, don't cry. I'm here. We're going to be okay, alright. We are," the blonde tries to hold back her own onslaught of tears at the sight of emotional lover. She buries her face in the woman's stomach and presses kisses to the sensitive skin. "I love your tummy so much," she nuzzles even more, if that's possible.
The energy in the room suddenly seems to have shifted. No, not shifted - exploded. Like the angst and grief and sadness that started this whole night have exploded into oblivion and all that remains is weightlessness and light. Uncertain why or how, the air just feels - fresh.
Laughter. Regina's soft sobs turn into gentle laughter. "Come up here," she reaches to Emma to bring her closer.
Emma lies back into a mound of pillows, allowing Regina to rest her head atop her chest.
"So now we cuddle?" the brunette asks, voice hoarse from the evening's activities.
"Yeah, babe. Now we cuddle."
They spend the next few minutes quiet - catching their breath and regrouping.
"I'd like to meet her," she looks down at Regina. "Michelle... I'd like to meet her. And maybe we should take the boy with us."
"I'll call Blue tomorrow and make arrangements."
"Can we do this? I mean, we have a lot of shit to work on and I don't think I could bring a child into this home unless we're prepared to give her a good life. And that goes for Henry also. Sometimes I worry we're screwing him up."
"Sometimes I worry about that also. But I believe in us. Yes, we have some serious work, but I believe we can make it."
"Hmm... Michelle Swan-Mills..." the sheriff muses.
"We'll discuss the last name later."
"What, it flows nicely! You have to admit. Okay, how about Michelle Charming-Mills?"
"Emma, you do realize 'Charming' is not your father's last name? It's Nolan. At least I think it's Nolan. But if you suddenly want to adopt the family name, Nolan would be it."
"Yeah, I know... Michelle Nolan-Mills..."
Simultaneously, "No."
Two Days Later
Technically, it's still Regina's week to do after school pick-ups, but since Emma had the day off, she'd volunteered to go get Henry from dance class.
When she arrives at the dance school, she can hear the rhythmic beat of the music from down the hall. She recognizes the song as the one Henry's been working on for a while. He managed somehow to get the lead in this number and he and Kiara had spent many hours practicing in the basement. Although Emma had never actually seen Henry dance for herself, she could imagine that her and Neal's genetic input certainly wouldn't allow for greatness. I mean, sure she could get by in a club setting and sure, she knew her way around a decent lap dance or strip tease, but like real dancing - sorry kid, tough luck. You don't have 'dancer' in your DNA.
Boy, was she ever wrong.
As Emma rounds a corner and comes to the room where Henry's class is held, she sees him through the window. He's fucking good. The kid's like a little Justin Timberlake. Who knew? He had rhythm. He had timing. He had passion in his movements. But the best part of all was watching how effortlessly he moved his body across the floor. Emma was officially a dance mom. Her kid was going pro. Hell, yes.
After the class wrapped up and all the kids bade each other farewell, Henry comes out into the hallway to find Emma grinning at him like maybe her face is stuck that way.
"Ma? You usually wait in the car. What are you doing in here?"
"I wanted to see how badly you sucked, but you're so good! Henry, I'm proud! We gotta move back to New York and get you into Juliard or something."
"Whatever," he tries to hide his embarrassment. "Where's Mom? I thought we were all going to meet Michelle?"
"We are. She had to help your grandma with the baby. We're going to meet her there now."
"Okay."
As they get in the car, she decides to take this opportunity of them being alone to talk to him.
"So tell me, how do you honestly feel about getting a new sister? And remember, you can be totally honest, okay? Safe zone."
"Well I've only had a day to think about it. And at first I was a little nervous. I don't want to suddenly be forgotten because there's a new kid around. And what if Mom like, loves her more?"
"What? Why would you think that? Your mom's crazy about you."
"Yeah, but this kid wouldn't have the - history with her that I do." He looks almost ashamed to admit it.
"You mean because you once didn't want her around and thought she was evil, she might not love you the same anymore?"
"I guess. And this would be a new kid who's never told her any of those horrible things and never ran away to find its 'real mom' or anything like that."
"You're right. This kid won't have the same relationship that you have with us. But that doesn't mean it will be better. We're both going to love her. But that does not at all take away from how much we love you. The relationship you have right now with your mom is one that was hard-earned. It's special because of all the things you went through. This isn't about replacing you or finding a second chance with a better kid. It's about being there for a little girl who needs a family. You think you could open up your heart and be family to her? Cuz I think you'd make an awesome big brother."
He thinks about it for a moment then smiles, "Yeah I guess I can do that."
The bug pulls up outside the nunnery and Emma reaches for her phone to call Regina.
"Hey we're here."
"I'm inside already. Come on in. Blue will meet you."
"Alright, kid, she's already in there. So let's go."
When they open the large wooden doors and enter the building, they're greeted by the blue fairy.
"Emma, Henry. Regina arrived early. She's asked me to bring you back."
"Okay, sure." They follow behind her.
They enter an area with several child-sized beds and cribs, but it's pretty quiet, save for the voice they recognize as Regina's. She's reading One Fish, Two Fish to an adorably attentive toddler.
The brunette looks up from the book and exclaims to the small girl, "Look who's here!"
Henry immediately crosses to sit beside his mom and shakes the girl's hand. Emma is a bit slower to move, but when she crouches down beside Regina, the baby looks in her eyes and smiles a smile full of warmth and recognition.
'Dead. I'm dead. One smile, and I'm a big puddle of goo for this little girl.'
"Why is she so cute, Regina?" Emma smiles back at the child.
"I think she likes you already."
"Did you see her smile at me? It's like she knew me." She hadn't expected for this meeting to go this way. She didn't expect such intensity. Whatever Emma had expected, this wasn't it. She wasn't prepared to immediately melt into the hands of her new baby girl. Her baby girl. This adoption was nowhere near official. In fact, it was but a notion. And yet, she'd planted the seed in her mind that this was her girl. And that girl's smile watered the seed.
This is her family. They look back and forth at each other in silent agreement before Henry speaks up. "So what now?"
"Now," Blue offers, "we process paperwork."
To Be Continued...