Dr. Whale handed over a prescription for Dawn's unpreventable aches and pains for the near future. Regina took it and halfway listened to what he was on about as she watched Ruby and Dawn head towards the door, leaving Emma behind. Regina saw how her shoulders were slumped and her head dropped to her right boot scuffing against the linoleum flooring. The brunette immediately furrowed her brow at the sight.
"Madame Mayor? If you're not listening-" Whale complained.
"No. Please continue Doctor," Regina drawled tearing away from the blonde.
"She has to take these medications every morning and every night starting tomorrow. I've scheduled a progression checkup in two weeks to make sure her lung is healing properly and by then maybe we can talk about removing the stitches in her right foot. Her left foot isn't quite there yet..."Whale flipped through her discharge papers and then looked to Regina in curiosity, "You're her legal guardian now?"
"Yes, I am." Regina replied flatly. It was obvious and he was very aware of it when she arrived to get her medical file informing him of her intentions with it.
"Does she know that?" Whale quipped with a raised eyebrow.
"She will but that's none of your business."
"Alright then," he said sensing the harshness in her tone. He flipped a paper and then placed it down on the counter, handing the mayor a pen. Regina took it and then signed the line Whale pointed to. As soon as the s was scripted onto the line Whale took the pen back almost too eager to get rid of her. "Her prescriptions should be ready by this evening at the pharmacy."
"Thank you, Dr. Whale."
"My pleasure, Madame Mayor," he said as she walked off to Emma still staring down at the floor.
"Waiting on me Sheriff? How nice..." Regina said shaking the blonde out of her thoughts. She looked up from the floor to the brunette.
"Yeah, sure. That's what I was doing."
"Oh, don't be upset. What child doesn't like spending time with werewolves?"
"Henry doesn't hang out with Ruby."
"Actually, he does go to the diner every afternoon for hot cocoa."
"Great," Emma said sarcastically.
"Are you alright, Emma?" Regina questioned hesitantly. She seemed to already know the answer herself though.
"Yes. Fine. Just thinking...not about being cool or anything. Just thinking."
"You really are a terrible liar, but continue. About what?" Emma shoved her hands in her pockets as they walked outside and it was a gesture Regina was becoming accustomed to seeing when it seemed the blonde was uneasy or nervous.
"I think she should start seeing Archie."
"Emma, she just got out of the hospital. She would never forgive me if I just threw her in the hands of a therapist-"
"No. Not now but if we're still trying to go ahead with Henry's operation...whatever-"
"Barracuda," Regina corrected. Emma frowned at her, shocked she even bothered to remember the name. She was starting to see more and more just how much it actually mattered to Regina.
"...Operation Barracuda then she has to get help. Whether you notice it or not, she has a lot more issues than a few physical injuries. She's hurt and broken and she'll run at the first sign of abandonment-"
"Emma," Regina interrupted grabbing the blonde's arm as it was helping stress the importance of what she was saying. "If you would like time to talk with her about mutual issues then just ask her. I'm sure she trusts the Sheriff to keep her out of harm's way."
"Me being the Sheriff is the problem," Emma grumbled. They stopped at Regina's Mercedes. As Emma began to the passenger's side she suddenly realized the she and the mayor had been holding hands. Stupidly, Emma thought nothing of it short of being strange and a simple mistake as Regina had grabbed her arm minutes before. She only looked down for a moment and then had her fingers ripped away from the mayor's. She glanced up to the brunette and back down to her own flexing fingers.
"Miss Swan, I do believe we have to catch up with Ms. Lucas for ice cream."
"Right," Emma said somehow immediately dismissing just as quickly as the brunette did but not before thinking about how tight Regina had been holding on to her hand. She got in the passenger's seat and closed the door behind her.
"It's not that you're sheriff, Emma," Regina explained purposely trying to stray the blonde's thought away from what just occurred. Emma frowned so she continued on, "I think all the analyzing you've been indiscreetly doing has her questioning your motives. She might need to know if you're a threat or not."
"Me?! I'm the one always wondering when she might snap and accidentally take my head off or something. I've been much more alert since she's been here."
"Okay so it's great that you're here now. Storybrooke has some really cool things going on during the year. The skating rink is open this year...well especially this year after the snow princess was here." Ruby was excited and happy beyond reason about the conversation. At the mention of that last part Regina rolled her eyes heavily with distaste for the subject. She'd been avoiding it all since everything went back to normal, quiet Storybrooke. Her avoidance hadn't worked all that well. It never stopped everyone else from talking about it like it was some fantastic occurrence in town. Obviously they had no idea what it had been like to be so close and so deep into the Snow Queen's plotting. They didn't know the feeling of being a casualty of the destruction.
Emma and Dawn noticed the sudden grimace come over Regina's face and Ruby quickly changed the subject, "So Dawn how about a tour of the town?"
"Sure. It should be quick, right?" The teen joked as took a glance at the sheriff across from her.
"Actually, it's bigger than it looks," Regina informed sounding proud of that fact.
"Yeah, we have a beach and there's the stables-"
"I don't do horses," Dawn said quickly. Regina caught the tension in her words and expression. For once both Regina and Emma saw the same thing in her eyes even as she tried to hide them away. Fear and uneasiness. And maybe it wasn't about horses as much as it was something else...or someone else that had her already prepared to bypass the stables and stay far away from it.
"Well, I can't say horses enjoy my company either."
"I might have to cut this short guys," Emma said in the short silence between them. She glanced down at her watch and tried to finish off her ice cream.
"Why?" Regina frowned.
"Henry," Emma said sharply. "Surprised you forgot him."
"I didn't forget him. I lost track of time," Regina spat. Emma rolled her eyes. "I do believe we have an arrangement going don't we Ms. Lucas?"
"Oh yeah. Lunch, I almost forgot," Ruby said.
"I guess I'll see you guys later then," Dawn said getting up from her seat. She was the first to finish the ice cream. Everyone was quick to get up after her. They all looked at each thinking about how they were going to work it out. Regina had planned on occupying Dawn's time until dinner before she announced that 108 Mifflin Street was her new home. Ruby had completely forgotten about their lunch and really wanted to give the tour of the town. Emma looked at the two brunettes and shook her head. It was quite simple actually, "Guys let me and Henry can take her on the tour. It's not a big deal."
"Really? You?" Regina asked. Dawn looked to Regina and Regina was looking at Emma, both unsure of that idea.
"Well, yeah. You know how much Henry has actually wanted to meet her." Emma gestured towards the teen. Then she looked her way, "He thinks you're like a superhero or something." Dawn smiled weakly scratching her head. A superhero? More like show and tell in her opinion. Regina put her hand in the middle of Dawn's back and another on her shoulder relieving her uneasiness.
"He'd be super upset if I didn't take the chance. We'll be fine. No horses."
"Dawn?"
"I..." Dawn started and then sighed. "Sure. Why not?"
"Great," Emma said flatly heading towards the door. Everyone filed out behind her. Once she got outside she abruptly stopped with Ruby running into her back and her nose colliding with the blonde's head. Emma grasped the back of her head and Ruby made a check to see if her nose was bleeding. It was a fairly gawky and graceless sight to Regina and she only rolled her eyes. Emma's eyes came across a jet black muscle car parked on the curb. She was positive it wasn't there before and was just as sure that she'd even seen it in town before. The four of them weren't the only ones standing and staring either. Which only meant its appearance had a little something to do with magic. It just appeared here. Out of nowhere. "Okay whose car is this?"
"I wish it was mine," Ruby awed over Emma's shoulder. Emma turned to Regina still with Dawn and possessively holding onto her with no resistance. Regina was thinking nothing of it like always and shook her head about the car. Dawn knew it wasn't hers. It only fit since she had no license, no possessions, and definitely no memory. She shrugged her shoulders and jammed her hands into her pockets with her innocent expression turning into a possibly guilty one. Deep in the right pocket of her jacket the cold metal of car keys stung her fingers. Her breath immediately got stuck in her throat. No memory and nothing really familiar but she had a feeling it was possible that vehicle was hers. She slowly gathered the keys in her palm and closed her fist around them as she jerked her hand out of her pocket, "Uh...well, that might be mine."
"You?" Emma asked. Dawn opened her hand with the key dangling from her fingers. The blonde moved over to her and took the key and went to open the door. She pushed the key into the lock and glanced back at the three brunettes waiting, "Here goes nothing." She turned the metal and the doors unlocked automatically. "Holy shit. It works. What else you got in your pockets, kid?" Dawn stuck her hands in all her pockets and came up with nothing else shown with her empty hands.
"I'm going to assume you may not have come to possess this car legally right?"
"Your guess is as good as mine, Sheriff," Dawn replied looking away from Emma. She took note of how Dawn sternly said the title like it was a curse slipping off her tongue with regret and it made Emma frown. Dawn then looked to Regina, "Did you-"
"No, I didn't dear. I was sure those pockets were empty before I sent them to you."
"Well, definitely magic then," Emma said. "Mind if I drive?"
"Be my guest," Dawn said waving towards the car. Emma went over to the driver's side and Dawn began to follow until Regina stopped her, "Dawn if anything happens you can just call me. Alright?" The teen nodded confidently and got inside with the sheriff.
Ruby drove in silence as she came upon the mayor's house. It had been almost an hour since they left the diner in unison with the sheriff from getting ice cream. The mayor had asked for an hour before their scheduled lunch was to be started. To Ruby it was an odd request as she was sure "lunch" was really going to just be alcohol. This secret they share in which they both thought Emma Swan had caught wind of would probably require several drinks. That's why a nice bottle of tequila sat in the passenger's seat as Ruby pulled up in the driveway behind Regina's Mercedes.
Without a hint of caution she got out of the car and confidently walked up to the bottle clutched tightly in her right hand. Before she even made it all the way up the pathway the door swung open with no one behind. She stopped in her tracks with a suspiciously raised eyebrow. Of course she had to remember who it was she was visiting. Ruby pressed forward up and through the door, closing it behind her. "Regina?"
No answer.
"I have liquor. Hard stuff. No fluff."
Regina appeared in the doorway of the dining room," Please. Do come in with that." Ruby grinned and walked towards the older woman, "Are you sure you can handle this? Last time it was rum I asked about and you woke up on your desk."
"Let's not relive that shall we? I still have a slight headache from that night," Regina groaned taking the bottle from her.
"You're really acting unlike you're usual self. No rigidness at all. Letting your hair hang down this afternoon, Madame Mayor?" Regina glared up at the younger brunette and rolled her eyes, "Follow me, Ms. Lucas."
They disappeared off to her study that was cleaned up from their uncivilized game of strip poker. Regina closed the door behind them and popped the top off the drink. Ruby, shockingly, turned around to Mayor Regina Mills drinking straight from the bottle and taking down nearly half of it in one go. Ruby took the bottle away in a swift motion and grabbed Regina's shoulder, "Jesus, Regina. Just slow down killer. What the hell?"
"I need alcohol. This isn't an easy topic to discuss."
"I know that's why I bought this...for both of us, but you drunk damn near all of it," Ruby said looking at the almost nonexistent clear liquid swimming close to the bottom. She went to go sit down and noticed a change in the mayor. Regina pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration and only then Ruby saw the clothes she was wearing. She had no idea how, with her senses, it slipped right by her. Never in her lifetime did she think she would see Regina Mills in a plain white Henley shirt and gray sweatpants. It wasn't even possible she owned such a thing.
"Um, are you okay?"
"I'm just peachy, dear," Regina dragged out and in contradiction to her words and her tone she slumped down onto the opposite side of the couch and then laid down with her head rested in Ruby's lap. Ruby didn't think to question it or it might get her kicked out so she just sat the tequila bottle on the coffee table and voluntarily relaxed into being Regina's pillow as she draped her arm over the woman.
"You are hammered as shit."
"Very eloquent, Ms. Lucas."
Ruby just rolled her eyes and repeated, "Hammered...Like a nail."
"I'm ruined," Regina confessed staring up at the ceiling. She was thinking nothing of how she was so naturally laying out over Ruby's legs. It strangely didn't bother her in the least bit. If anything she found it comforting to be like this. She glanced to the young woman's unjudging yet very curious eyes.
"Ruined?"
"That child is ruining me. I was completely put together before she arrived."
"Dawn? She's a sweetheart even though she doesn't talk much." Regina agreed but she didn't really know if she even meant what she said as a bad thing or not. Maybe it was a little bit of both. "Although that might be why she's a sweetheart."
"She's so..." Regina trailed into silence. She couldn't find the right word. No such word existed for summing up everything that Dawn was. Ruby cautiously took a guess. It was actually safe to say, it was after all the only word Regina normally used to describe people.
"Infuriating," Ruby finished.
"Precious," Regina lazily corrected. Ruby's eyebrows shot to her hairline at the word. This woman is so plastered, she thought.
"Um, okay...we can go with precious."
"Don't look at me like that, Ms. Lucas." Regina snapped even though it completely lacked all its usual bite.
"Well, sure maybe she looks precious if you forget about all the piercings that make it seem like she's lead guitarist in a rock band." Regina fumed up at her. "Disregard that. Go on."
"She's sad and scared. You may not notice that but I do."
"Of course I see it. Even if I've known her for only fifteen minutes, I see that her smile could light up a room but her eyes make you ache inside."
"Indeed they do. Emma doesn't think I can see it. I may not see those looks of being an orphan, but I see the pain. The sadness, the loneliness, the anger. I see all of it and it's fairly unnerving."
"Unnerving? She scares you?"
"Not scare, but it concerns me of her origins. She may not even be aware of it either. That sword she managed to conjure was crafted from very powerful, very dark magic. It was even too much for me to withstand for so long. The sheriff could barely hold onto it for a moment without becoming uncomfortable."
"You mean she's...y'know? Evil or something?"
"No, maybe not evil but extremely dark and not of her own free will I presume. Of course even that won't come without a price. When it becomes known where she came from and who she is, I'm afraid the backlash of the town would be devastating to her. Abandoned again but I won't let that happen."
"How do you plan on doing that?" Ruby questioned lightly as she listened intently stroking the older woman's hair.
"Most of you seemed to be giving me a second chance and as young and angry and abused as she is, Dawn deserves a chance more than I. She will get that even if my theories are incorrect; which I can only hope that my thoughts are irrational for the child. The outside world has wronged her horrendously and I'm going to try my best to fix that. No one would prefer to be in the care of the Evil Queen but-"
"Regina you're not the Evil Queen. I know you don't like it but you're the hero now. You've been her hero."
"Yes, well...Whatever I am to the town...to her, I'm helping her through this pain."
"You know what? You're an amazing person, Regina. I don't mean that lightly and if people don't believe you're a good person and a hero after all you've done so far then they're blind as bats."
"Flattery gets you nowhere, dear." Regina smiled lightly at the compliment.
"Maybe it does when you're drunk as shit and although I like that you've been willing to talk to me of all people about this, Dawn is not what we're talking about."
"To what should we be conversing about?" Regina asked in a whine as she, without hesitation or regret, buried her face in Ruby's toned stomach. Ruby chuckled and continued to stroke her hair and sighed, "Should have brought in the Bourbon instead."
"That sounds like an excellent idea," Regina agreed, muffled in Ruby's shirt.
"Oh, not for you since you drunk my tequila. The Bourbon is mine, but we're done with alcohol." Regina's only response was to grunt in refusal to the subject. She could dodge it but the conversation was inevitable now. Her secret was out in the open with Ruby and only Ruby in the entire house.
"Honey this is one hundred and ten percent unavoidable now..." Ruby paused and looked down at the mayor buried in her shirt and she just came out with it, "Are you gay Regina?"
"No." The brunette replied firmly.
"That night when we went to the bathroom at the bar says otherwise."
"I was drunk."
"You liked it very much drunk or not."
"I did not."
"Honestly, Regina being a gay mayor is the least of anyone's worries. Especially yours."
"I'm not gay, Ms. Lucas." It wasn't really working. Regina didn't have any bite to her words and it was hard to be convincing when she wasn't even meeting eyes with her.
"Regina, let's not act like servant girls in your castle didn't talk about how good you were in bed."
"How do you know about that? Those were discreet arrangements."
"Hey, obviously I'm not judging."
"I'm not-"
"Bisexuality is a very real thing, so I'll ask again: Do you like women?" Finally, Regina did take herself away from Ruby's stomach and she looked up at the woman. "Regina..."
Ruby was immediately silenced by the mayor's lips pressed to hers. She was in the middle of speaking therefore it shouldn't have been a surprise when she felt Regina's tongue slip into her mouth. The heat rushed to her cheeks really quickly and of course she almost didn't want it to stop. She had to remind herself not to kiss back because it had to stop. No reciprocating. None. But she did want it...and she also didn't, because yes, it was fucking hot but this was too far. And she felt she was completely paralyzed until...until hands, that were surely, 100% not her own, started to go for her pants and then she pulled away, grabbing the roaming hands. Ruby was completely out of breath and the only thought running through her head was, longest 10 seconds of my life. Slowly avoiding eye contact with Regina as she buttoned her pants again and racked her brain for what to say.
"Okay, I need that Bourbon now," was all she could muster.
"I apologize for that. I keep putting you in this position," Regina said softly looking at Ruby. "Twice during our night out and now. I've ruined your peace of mind about your relationship with Belle, haven't I?"
"Well, she knows about the first times...and yes, she was jealous I got to kiss you." Regina rolled her eyes and laid back down pushing her face into Ruby's stomach again. "Regina this is a little more serious than I originally thought. Your sexual tension is about explode onto the next person you can get into your study." Regina little out a small grunt, disregarding her. Ruby released a devilish smile, "So did that mean yes?"
"Yes, to what?"
"You bat for the other team and now that you've admitted it, you have to go get your woman."
"And who is that exactly, dear?"
"Emma." Regina snorted but she knew it wasn't a joke. "I'm serious, Regina. It's obvious. Don't deny it because it's blatantly obvious in the way you stare at her and, yeah, that whole Miss Swan thing turns you on. I can see, hear, and smell everything. So don't lie to me." Silently as Ruby spoke Regina caved right at the word "blatantly." Ruby poked her shoulder impatiently waiting for an answer. Her point was made and it was strong. Ruby was pretty proud about it too.
"If I were to admit to that, why does it even matter? She doesn't feel the same way."
"You guys are the real two idiots. How do you not see it?"
"Excuse me?" Regina grumbled.
"Emma is always staring down your shirt and you are always staring at her ass."
"I..."
"Look, you like women and you love Emma Swan. That's all there is to it."
"I don't love her. It is just a crush," she said for the first time out loud.
"Not yet but at least now I can stop being tortured by watching you two drool at each everywhere we go.."
"Mmm," Regina hummed. Ruby looked down at the former queen peacefully asleep in her lap. She sighed and threw her head back on the couch. She checked her watch and decided in a quick thought that she would surprise Regina and win her over. Only so that she could convince the brunette even more about pursuing her chemical romance with the sheriff. So she gently lifted the slumbering woman off her lap and held onto her as she stood up from the couch before she gently laid her back down. There was nothing like a drunk sleep. She didn't even stir. Ruby grinned about it and pulled the blanket laying on the back of the couch over her, leaving the mayor to rest easy. For now at least. That headache is going to be murderous.