Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story. I do, however, claim ownership of my mistakes. If you find any, please treat them with care and return them to me.

A/N: Not too many annotations at the end this time. It's all pretty straightforward. Granny's being Granny, and a bit more plot shows up ...


Chapter 11: I See Two Lovers

Regina slowly drifted towards consciousness on the wave of arousal that was spreading through her body. For a second she wondered if she was dreaming but then she registered the firm, warm body pressed against her own, and the hands and mouth touching her.

She opened her eyes with a low, languid moan as her hands shot into the blond hair tumbling over her torso without any conscious thought. She pulled Emma closer, needing an anchor, and felt the other woman grinning around the nipple she was currently nibbling on.

Emma let go of Regina's breast and crawled up a little to meet her eyes. "Good morning," she whispered, unable to contain the brilliant smile on her face.

"Good morning to you, too." Regina's smile was equally bright, but after a second she winced at the sound of her own voice, raspy and scratchy and hoarse, and the sore feeling in her throat.

Emma winced in sympathy. "That sounds like it hurts," she muttered, her own voice also a little raspy, "although it does sound sexy as hell."

Regina laughed lightly at the sheepish grin on Emma's face. "Well, I guess I won't be singing any time soon," she replied in a mere whisper. "Not that I have a club to sing in."

"You have no idea how bent I am that Killian burned down your house," Emma growled.

"You are?"

"Of course I am," Emma confirmed. "He could have killed you!" She leaned and pressed a kiss against Regina's throat. "He took away your cover … and he could have ruined your voice forever."

"Yes, that would have been the real crime here." Regina chuckled. "I'm going to be fine, dear," she said reassuringly, cupping Emma's face in her hands. "As far as David and I could tell last night, Killian didn't get his hands on any of the files he was after, and David is going to talk to our boss this morning to bring him up to date on everything. I think it's time to end this, once and for all."

There was a look of determination on Regina's face that Emma found both extremely alluring and distracting. She leaned in again, equally determined to feel those beautiful lips against her own again. It had been too long since she had tasted Regina's lips.

The kiss was soft and unhurried, and once Regina got over her slight surprise of being kissed like that in the middle of a conversation she kissed Emma back with the kind of languid joy that only comes from kissing someone you're intimately familiar with. They kissed for several long minutes, trading nips and licks and soft pecks with long, deep kisses that set their bodies aflame, but never so much that they couldn't dial the intensity down again.

When they parted after long, luxurious minutes, they were both smiling brightly. "Well, I guess that answers one question," Regina murmured softly, her lips almost touching Emma's who could feel the words as much as she could hear them.

"Yeah?" was all she could get out in response.

"I was wondering if you had any regrets," Regina admitted. "It seems—"

Emma swallowed the rest of Regina's words, pulling them into herself with deep strokes of her tongue. "Just to make it clear," Emma said when she pulled back a little. "The only regret I have is that it happened under less than ideal circumstances. But being with you was damn near perfect."

This time it was Regina who pulled her in for a kiss, mostly to hide how ridiculously happy those words made her as evidenced by the film of tears covering her eyes all of a sudden. She hadn't felt this cherished in many, many years, and in the split-second before Emma's mouth made her forget everything, she wondered if she should tell her lover about Daniel.

Their kisses were interrupted a few minutes later by a knock on the door. Emma growled in disappointment, which Regina found extremely endearing. "Who is it?" Regina asked as loudly as she could with her sore throat.

"Who do you think?" came Granny's muffled reply.

Emma immediately began to move away, but Regina simply tightened her hold with a smile. "Do you really want to deny Granny the satisfaction of seeing that her meddling succeeded?"

Emma shook her head, slightly dumbstruck. She had never met anyone like Regina, someone who could surprise her at every turn. She had just enough time to make sure they were both covered and to move a little to the side, leaning on one elbow, before Regina called out again. "Come in."

Granny poked her head into the room first, then disappeared, only to reappear a moment later, pushing the door open with her backside, a small tray with two cups of coffee in her hands. "Good morning, girls," she greeted them as she put the tray down on the bedside table.

"Since when do you offer room service?" Regina asked as she moved to sit a little more upright against the headboard, the need for caffeine superseding her wish to stay cuddled up to Emma. Somehow she managed to move away from Emma, sit up, and still keep them both covered. Emma was impressed, and from the grin on Granny's face, so was she.

Emma sat up next to Regina, unable to help the luminous smile on her face. Granny studied them both with a raised eyebrow. "Well, well," she said to Emma after a moment, "you sure look like the cat that ate the canary. Oh wait, I guess you probably did ..." Her eyes twinkled when Regina snorted and Emma laughed out loud.

"Granny!" Regina warned teasingly, even as she had a hard time stopping her laughter at the innuendo. She was instantly pacified by the coffee pressed into her hand. "Thank you," she said after the first heavenly sip. "You do make the best coffee in town." Emma nodded in agreement, still grinning widely at Granny.

"I reckoned you might need a good, strong cup of joe this morning," Granny replied with a shrug. "Especially when you didn't show up for breakfast downstairs at a reasonable time."

Regina winced slightly when she thought about how late it had to be for Granny to come wake them up. "Did the boys come down already?" she asked casually, picking an invisible piece of lint off Emma's forearm.

Granny nodded. "David left very early this morning," she explained. "He said something about going back to the mansion to check on things there. He said to tell you he'd be back around noon." She sat down on the bed next to Regina. "Then the darndest thing happened ... Killian tried to sneak out the back door but I guess he wasn't very successful since Leroy followed him not two seconds later, making sure not to be seen." There was more than a hint of curiosity in Granny's tone.

Regina let out a soft sigh of relief, glad that Leroy was indeed keeping an eye on Killian, and also that David apparently had taken the time to get some sleep before heading back to the house.

"Are you going to tell me what really went down at the mansion last night?" Granny asked when she saw the expression on Regina's face. Her eyes fell on the gun and badge on the dresser but she didn't comment on them apart from raising an eyebrow and nodding as if something just made sense to her.

"You know I have your back, right?" Granny repeated her words from the night before in the club. "Whatever is going on. Especially if our illustrious mayor is somehow involved. Ruby and I will do whatever we can to help. He has hurt the people in this town enough."

Regina reached out and put her hand on Granny's arm. "I do know that," she said, "and I will tell you what I can … especially since we'll be staying here for a while, I guess, and that might put you and Ruby in danger as well."

Granny smiled. "Where else would you go, child? Family always help each other in tough times. And make no mistake, Regina, you are family, even if we've only known each other a year." She looked at Emma with a wicked grin. "Well, I guess this," she added, pointing vaguely between Emma and Regina, "makes you family, too."

Emma saw that Regina was rendered speechless by Granny's easy acceptance of her, and wondered how often that happened. She gave the older woman a grateful smile for including her without making her want to run. Family was still a touchy subject for her, but for some reason these women made it sound good. "We'll be right down," she promised. "And you can talk then."

With a nod, Granny patted Regina's hand and stood to leave the two women alone. "Oh, one more thing," she said and walked out the door. She returned a moment later with an armful of clothes. "I brought you some stuff I think you might be able to use. Some pants, shirts ... most of them are a little worn, but they're whole and they're clean, and better than running around like you just popped out of one of those newfangled toasters Ruby got me."

o o o

Emma and Regina went down to breakfast after taking their time dressing each other in some of the clothes Granny had brought. When Emma had wondered aloud where they had come from, and Regina had explained that Granny kept some clothes on hand to give them to hobos who might be in need. In these times, the number of men who roamed the country in search of work and food, relying on the kindness of strangers, grew bigger every day. So every time someone forgot something at the inn, Granny kept it, cleaned it, and mended it, so she could give it away.

Regina told Emma that Granny figured that everybody who could do something to help, should. Gold, however, had decided to prevent hobos from entering Storybrooke once he had taken over the town by drafting a town ordinance against vagrancy. Regina had fumed when she had told that story, and Emma's respect for Granny had risen even more.

Downstairs, Granny greeted them with a wave from behind the counter as they sat at the same back corner table that Emma had used during her first visit. Ruby came over with a cheeky grin, wink, and waggling of eyebrows, which Regina thought made her look ridiculous but somehow not in a bad way. They ordered quickly, enduring Ruby's questioning looks, unaware that their continued smiles for each other told Ruby all that she wanted to know.

Before Ruby could return with their order, the bell over the door announced another customer. Regina, whose back was to the entrance, tried to ignore it but the scowl on Emma's face allowed her a good guess as to who had just entered. "Gold?" she murmured quietly.

Emma nodded, focusing on Regina again. From the corner of her eyes she saw Gold limping over to his usual table, while his only company, a brutish guy, scrambled ahead to pull a chair out for him. Gold impatiently waved Ruby over to take his order, and the young waitress looked ready to drop what she was doing to do his bidding. Surprisingly, Granny shook her head and motioned for Ruby to serve Emma and Regina first. Ruby's eyes widened a little but she did as she was told.

"Granny is being defiant again today, I see," Regina commented mildly.

Ruby let her breath flow out in a long sigh. "Yeah, she really doesn't like the mayor."

"And you do?" Emma asked.

Ruby looked incredibly offended. "God, no," she hissed. "You have no idea what he's done to this town since he's arrived here a few years ago. What he's done to people who defied him ... what he's done to Belle."

Emma saw the sadness in Ruby's gaze. "Who's Belle?"

"Gold's girlfriend," Ruby replied sadly. "We went to high school together. When he came to town he courted her but she wasn't all that interested. Then he bought her with promises of a new library for her and even that only worked after ..." She stopped herself and looked around furtively and saw Gold watching them.

"After what?" Emma asked, curiosity piqued.

Ruby waved to a now very impatient Gold before turning around to Emma again. "I have to go, sorry." She almost ran to the mayor's table, and Emma could hear him clicking his tongue in disapproval even from their table in the corner.

"Guy gives me the creeps," Emma told Regina as they started to eat. "Reminds me of someone ..." She looked at Regina who watched her curiously. "So what did Gold do that convinced that girl that he might be the right guy for her?"

"Nothing we can prove unfortunately, unlike the library scam," Regina replied softly, ever mindful of the many ears in Storybrooke that could be anywhere. "But Belle's father had a very unfortunate car accident one day soon after Belle refused him the first time, and when that didn't work immediately, their flower shop was vandalized."

"No witnesses to either event, of course," Emma muttered sardonically.

"Of course."

"Wait, is Belle the girl that was with Gold last night? The one you almost gave my kiss to?"

Regina nodded with a smile, amused by the sudden show of possessiveness. "Your kiss, huh?" she asked, eyebrow raised in challenge.

Emma returned the look confidently. "Damn, right," she said with a smile. "I gotta say, lady, you have huge balls of steel to mess with him like that."

Regina looked down her own body, then back up at Emma, a smirk playing around her lips. "I thought I gave you ample evidence last night that I have nothing of the sort," she teased. "All woman ... my ovaries, however, may be made of brass."

Regina laughed at the look on Emma's face which seemed caught between exasperation at being teased and the desire to run upstairs and do another extensive check of Regina's anatomy. Emma settled for wadding up her napkin and throwing it at her lover who laughed and threw it right back.

"It's good to see that last night's tragic event hasn't dampened your spirits much, Miss Mills," a deceptively mild and overly compassionate voice suddenly came from next to their table. Neither of them had heard Mayor Gold come over to them. Their smiles froze but before either could say anything, Gold continued. "I was devastated to hear about the fire at the club this morning. Whatever could have happened, I wonder? Was it a matter of sudden carelessness?"

He managed to look genuinely interested but his voice had hardened, and Emma felt a wave of coldness run down her spine. There was no doubt in her mind that this man was evil, and close up he reminded her again of ... no, she shook it off. It was impossible.

Regina found a polite smile somewhere and put it on before she turned in her seat to face him. "I knew I should have had the wiring checked more thoroughly when I rented the old house. I'm quite convinced it will turn out to have been an electrical fire caused by faulty wiring."

Emma's eyebrow went up at hearing the usual cover story for arson jobs, and from the look on Gold's face he got the underlying message as well.

He smiled coldly. "Yes, we should all take much more care of the things that belong to us, I think." His voice was the perfect blend of casual and deadly. "Focus on people and things closer to home to prevent … unfortunate accidents such as this. It is when our focus drifts to things that are none of our business … when our attention slips that these things happen," he mused, sounding philosophical.

"I see my order is ready," he continued as Ruby carried a large plate to his table. "If there is anything I can do for you, Miss Mills, be sure to let me know. I'm sure my employees and I can always be of assistance to, say, help you move out of my town and back to where you came from. It is most unfortunate that your … livelihood is in … ruins, shall we say."

"It's not as if I had much to pack should I think about leaving," Regina remarked evenly, trying to keep her calm in the face of the many levels of conversation Gold as having with her. "So I'm sure I won't be requiring your assistance."

"There are always things one would like to keep safe," he said, fake concern dripping from his lips, as his gaze wandered to Emma for an interminable moment, then over to Granny and Ruby. "It would be such a shame if you lost even more … things, wouldn't it?" With that he turned fully and walked back to his table.

"That's not going to happen," Regina growled low in her throat. "You're not going to touch the people I love. Not again." She tightened her jaw to prevent herself from saying more; this was neither the time nor the place. These memories belonged in the past where nobody could touch them.

Emma looked up sharply. Was this why this whole mission was personal to Regina? Had he killed someone she loved? Was this revenge? Emma could certainly understand the need for that, and wanted to know more, wanted to reassure Regina who looked like she was withdrawing behind some wall right before her eyes.

The door of the diner opened once more before Emma could say anything though and she looked up in reaction. Regina remained unmoved, so Emma filled her in on the newcomer. "It's Gold's blond friend from the club last night," she explained in a soft voice. "The one who couldn't keep his hands off of you."

That renewed show of possessiveness managed to pull Regina from her dark thoughts. "The German … yeah, he was a bit of a greaseball," she conceded, "but it was just business, dear. I decide who actually gets to touch me for real." She blew Emma a small kiss, knowing she couldn't be seen from the door or Gold's table.

Emma tried to let her smile not get too wide at that but it was damn near impossible. "I know," she whined. "But last night—" She stopped when the door opened again and her eyes automatically wandered over to the man who had entered the diner. "Oh my God," she gasped, her face suddenly white as chalk. "Oh no … this isn't happening."

Regina saw Emma lose all color and turned around to see who or what had caused this reaction. All she could see was a man who looked only vaguely familiar, almost as if she had seen him in some old photo but never in person. Probably one of Gold's button men, she figured. Must be new here.

Regina focused back on Emma and grabbed the hands that were twisting and winding around each other on the table between them. For some reason that man had seriously spooked Emma. "What is it, dear?" she asked softly, not wanting to draw attention. Granny had noticed and looked over with concern but Regina could only shrug in response. "Emma?" she tried again. "Darling, what happened?"

Emma shook her head. "I'm ... I can't ... I ... I have to get out … I think I'm going to ... " She wrenched her hands from Regina's and pressed one firmly against her mouth, jumping up from her seat at the same time. Without a glance back she ran through the door right behind their booth and up the stairs to where the rooms were, leaving behind an extremely worried and concerned Regina.


Annotations:
bent — angry, mad
cat — someone who likes jazz
canary — female singer
greaseball — unpopular person
button man — professional killer

I See Two Lovers is a song written by Mort Dixon and Allie Wrubel and published in 1934.

The first automatic pop-up toasters arrived in U.S. households in 1925 in the form of the 1-A-1 Toastmaster by the Waters Genter Company. Machine-sliced (and machine-wrapped) bread, by the way, followed in 1928. It was such a success that the expression "the best thing since sliced bread" was coined.