After one month of daily visits to the doctor and not being able of taking a proper shower, I am finally off the hook!

Thank you for the support, you can't imagine what it means to me :)

Hugs,

M.


"So, who is this Neal guy?" Regina asked casually when they were done playing. They had played for almost three hours, and soon the clock on the wall would mark 11 p.m.

Apparently, Emma had forgotten about Neal dropping by the next day. And apparently, being reminded about it had upset her.

"He's a friend of a friend who's like a brother to me," she replied to keep it simply.

"Why do you dislike him so much?"

"Because he is so pushy," Emma replied. She was annoyed, not at Regina but at Neal, for simply existing "He has invited me at least 10 to go out with him,"

'So,' Regina thought 'This guy likes Emma'. It bothered her more than it was socially acceptable, and that made her feel uncomfortable in her own skin. And, what was that feeling that was almost breaking her heart? Jealousy, really? When had she grown to care so much about Emma? Probably, somewhere between emptying a cooler-box filled with freezing water over her and taking care of her while she was injured.

"Why don't you just go out with him?" Regina managed to ask without showing her true colors.

"My gut tells me not to do it,"

"Oh," Regina commented with a smirk "I didn't know your gut had superpowers,"

Emma nodded "And he's always right," the blonde proudly added, tapping her belly.

"He?" Regina asked confused.

The blonde, once again, nodded, "I was twelve and really bored when I got my appendix removed, everyone was at school and I had to stay home. So I named some parts of my body, and talked to them," she explained, trying to not sound crazy "so, when my head hurts I say 'Now, now Sofia, you are giving me a headache,'," the blonde pointed to her head, as if she was scolding her head.

"You must be the weirdest person I know," Regina pointed out.

Emma smiled "My stomach name is Henry," she added, now grinning at her stomach. "He's takes care of me, feeding me and all that shit,"

Regina stared at the blonde, who was still looking at her almost non-existent belly. It made Regina imagine how would Emma look if she got pregnant, it was quite an endearing picture, to be honest. "What about your heart?" she asked out of the blue.

"It doesn't have a name yet," Emma replied nonchalantly "I decided I would name it after the person that would manage to own it, and so far, no one has been able to claim it," Regina felt Emma's eyes looking right into her soul and brain, so she had to look away. She was starting to believe that soon the blonde would be able to read her mind.

"We should wash your hair," the brunette commented standing up, "It looks disgusting and we don't want Neal thinking that you lack hygiene," she added smirking.

"Is that your best excuse to see me topless and ran your fingers through my hair?" Emma teased her back. "You could have just asked, you know," the blonde added standing up and following Regina into the bathroom that she had destroyed a while ago.

Emma had not washed her hair since the accident, it made her feel quite disgusting. She had talked with Regina last night, and the brunette had agreed on helping her. They had already made a plan, Emma would sit in a small chair next to the bathtub, and Regina would wash her hair just like they did on the hair-saloons.

The blonde took her shirt off, she didn't want it to get wet. She was used to walk on nothing but her bra around Ruby because they pretty much grew up together. But as soon as she saw Regina blushing, Emma regretted her action. How could she be so stupid? just because she was comfortable didn't mean that Regina was.

"I can put it on again, if it makes you feel less uncomfortable,"

"Nonsense," Regina replied taking her blazer off and rolling up her shirt's sleeves. "It'll get wet,"

Emma didn't argue with her neighbour and caretaker, she simply sat on the chair and laid a little bit backwards to make it easier for Regina to wash her hair. The blonde closed her eyes as soon as she felt Regina's fingers rubbing her head, trying to remember every second of the moment.

"This is so good," she thought out-loud, "I mean, having my hair washed," she added, trying to fix it. Regina didn't say anything, she just raised an eyebrow and smirked at the blonde before she continued washing Emma's hair.

The blonde didn't say anything else while Regina washed her hair, neither did Regina. When Emma's hair was clean, she dried it on her own, changed into her pyjamas and went to bed. She couldn't fall asleep, though; she kept on remembering Regina's hands massaging her head, how cute and concentrated the brunette looked, how hard Emma had resisted the urge to reach out and cup Regina's cheek with her hand.

'Pull yourself together, Swan,' Emma told herself 'You don't like Regina.'


She had been grumpy since her alarm when off, last night she couldn't get any sleep and she had Regina to thank for. It was as if the Brunette had put a spell on her while she washed her head and now Emma could only think about her. Then, as if her day couldn't get worse, the door bell rang while Emma was having breakfast, Regina had cooked something for her and now she was taking a shower; so Emma had to get the door, and talk to Neal.

"Seriously?" Emma muttered half asleep "It's 7 am, he's definitely not normal," she grabbed her apartment keys that laid on the door and walked towards the door.

The blonde opened the door to find a smiling Neal, who was carrying a Starbuck to-go paper cup. With out thinking about it twice, Emma grabbed the cup and placed the keys on Neal's hand.

"August's keys are right next to the door, in the key hanger," she explained after sipping a bit of coffee, "It's the one with the Pinocchio key chain,"

Neal raised an eyebrow, probably thinking that they key chain was a joke, but it wasn't. Emma had gifted it to August when they were kids and, surprisingly, he had kept it all these years.

"Look, I got a second degree burn and can't climb the stairs," Emma said when she saw that Neal had no intentions of moving "So, go, get the keys and bring me back my house keys,"

The guy just nod and ran upstairs, Emma stayed laying on the door frame. There was no point on walking back to the kitchen if she would have to open the door once Neal returned. Then again, she could just leave it open and tell Neal to close it behind him. Yes, that was a good idea. Besides, the doctor had told her not to be too long on standing position.

With Neal's coffee still on her hands, she walked back to the kitchen and sat on a chair. She was eating the second pancake that Regina had made for her when Neal called her name from the door.

"Yes, just leave the keys on the table and close the - ," she shut up when she saw Neal in Regina's apartment. "What are you doing here?" Emma knew that the brunette would be so angry if she would see him in her apartment. She would probably have him arrested, Emma didn't really mind that outcome, though. Maybe Neal would think that Emma is a crazy person with crazy friends and would just leave her alone.

"I just wanted to make sure that you are alright," he said resting his hands on Regina's table.

"I'm fine, thank you," Emma tried to sound as polite as possible, "You can leave now,"

"Are you sure there's nothing you need from me?" Neal insisted, placing his hand over hers.

Emma was about to reply when a voice interrupted their conversation "She said she was fine," both turned to see Regina walking towards them. She was fully dressed but her hair was still damped, she looked somehow angry. Emma had never seen Regina sexier. "Now, I'll kindly ask you to leave my apartment or I'll have to call the sheriff,"

Emma suppressed a grin. Leave it to Regina and her city-hall-y superpowers to save the day. Neal didn't say anything, he didn't have to, he just placed Emma's keys on the kitchen table and walked out of the apartment, closing the door behind him. Regina followed him with her eyes.

"You can stop smiling now," Regina said turning on her heels to face Emma.

"As you wish, my knight in shining armour," Emma said in a fake english accent.

"You were right, he's so pushy,"

"And you were so jealous," the blonde added winking at her neighbour.

"I was not!" Regina tried to defend herself, afraid that her body would betray her.

"Sure," Emma shrugged "Keep telling that to yourself,"

"Why would I be jealous of that guy?"

"Because you like me," the blonde said, unable to hide a grin, "You like-like me,"

"Shut up and finish your breakfast already," the brunette changed topics.

"Now, Regina, you can't be both my knight in shining armour and my mother!" Emma rolled her eyes and kept eating her breakfast. She was not stupid, she knew what she had seen, and Regina was definitely angry at Neal. Whether is was due to a motherly instinct or a lover jealousness, Emma couldn't be sure. But she would find it out. She just needed to think of a plan.