A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, follows and favourites, even after three years. Please review this chapter and let me know what you'd like to happen as I'm stuck for ideas. Much Love. Xo
Chapter Fourteen
Regina awoke to the sound of her phone pinging, another message from Zelena had came through. "Babe, who keeps texting you at this time of night?" Emma asked, confused and half asleep after being woken up by Regina's phone; Regina wasn't at work so surely it wasn't work. She was just hoping it wasn't because something had happened to Henry, she already felt like his second mother, instantly she did, so as soon as she heard Regina's phone pinging, her motherly instincts set off.
"Oh, no one important, dear. Just, you know they circular messages that go around," Regina had no idea why she found herself lying, but before she even thought about it, she had already lied. She cringed at the thought of Emma finding out but hopefully she would never have to know she lied. 'What a great way to start a relationship,' she thought to herself.
"Okay, babe, as long as you're sure," Emma said half asleep. "Good night, I love you," Emma said, before kissing Regina's forehead and turning over to go back to sleep.
Regina was almost in shock at the three words that left Emma's mouth, she didn't know how to reply, if she should reply or what, he mind went into overdrive. Before Regina could even begin to answer she heard the faint sounds of Emma snoring, she was back asleep. Regina cuddled into Emma, in a spooning way, satin white bedsheets entwined between them, it was perfect, but why couldn't Regina say it back? Why didn't she? They were just some of the thoughts running around Regina's mind.
Regina didn't manage to get much sleep that night between Zelena texting her and Emma saying 'The Words" as Regina was referring to them in her head. It was basically chaos. Emma got up that morning and sneaked out she didn't want to wake Regina or face her after what she said last night, she wasn't up for talking about it. She sneaked out and left Regina a note, but Regina was awake the whole time, she was in two minds wither to speak to Emma or not but she choose not too. She would see her tonight after she had thought about it and thought long and hard about how she was going to reply.
Regina got up out of bed and found the note, she put her long silky dressing gown on and walked over to read it. "Hey, sorry babe, had to rush off this morning, slept in. Will see you after work, I hope. E x" It read. Regina's butterflies started dancing together, fluttering about, fast and making sure they were noticed. She did love Emma, but why couldn't she bring herself to say it?
She made her way through to the spacious open planned apartment, glass windows taller than Regina, she stood at the window looking out to the sea as the beautiful L.A sunset appeared. It was just beautiful and most definitely picture perfect, she watched eveyrone in L.A walking about doing their own daily jobs, with there own problems, she thought the majority had more problems than she did, I mean her biggest problem was telling her girlfriend, she loved her. She then realised in that moment how much of an idiot she had been.
Regina went on to get ready, wearing the most gorgeous royal blue dress, heels to match, hair coifed to perfection with winged-eyeliner that could kill, it was that sharp. She sat on the end of her perfectly made bed. She sighed and realised how bored she was from being off work already, Henry was at nursery for another couple of hours, so she didn't even have him to spend time with. Cora was off doing whatever Cora does. Kathryn was working and a part of Regina wished she was working too. All she wanted was the thrill of having someones beating heart on the table as she repaired it. To her that was magic.
She picked up her phone to call Kathryn for a chat then remembered she hadn't opened the text she received from during the night. "Hi, is there anyway we could meet up today?" The text read. Regina was confused, wrinkles forming on her forehead as she looked at the text, wondering what the hell she wanted. Regina and Zelena never seen eye-to-eye very often, even when she was about to become her sister-in-law, so Regina found this extra odd.
On the other side of town Emma was going about her business, she was walking down the busy streets in L.A, she was absolutely roasting. The sun was beating down, and with Emma having all her armour on, she had sweat coming from places she didn't even know sweat could come from. The place was so busy, there were people everywhere trying to soak up the sun. She was working with P.C Hook. They were walking along the beach front where Emma looked up and seen Regina's apartment block from a distance. She was sure it was that one anyway, because it had an American Flag on the roof. Hook seen her looking up to it and decided to question her. "So, who lives there huh?" He asked, as he nudged her arm with his, sporting the cheekiest grin ever.
"Oh, you know, just someone," Emma said not being able to control the smile that was currently forming on her face, her face was quickly lighting up.
Hook became amused and decided to tease Emma. "Oh my goodness, Swan is in love!" He said, loudly, quite frankly embarrassing the hell out of Emma. "Who's this lucky lady?" He went on to ask.
"Just someone I've been seeing casually and no, I'm not in love don't be daft!" Emma said, defensively, too defensively to be convincing, anyone could tell she was lying.
"Oh," Hook said before continuing, and jokingly said, "Does she not love you back?" the conversation suddenly took a change of mood, and by the look on Emma's face, he just wanted the ground to open up and swallow him. "Oh, you're not joking are you?" He said, now being more sympathetic. "Well, Swan, what have I told you about some women, they're just idiots! Cant see what they have right in front of them!"
"Oh, its not like that, she does really like me but I told her I loved her and she didn't reply." She said, cringing at the words that were coming out of her mouth. "I'm actually that embarrassed that I left this morning and left a fucking note!" She said, now nervously giggling.
"A note, Swan? I thought I taught you better than that! She won't be talking to you now!" He said, laughing along with Emma.
"Probably not," She replied before she felt a sudden, sharp, breathtaking pain in her side, blood was now pouring out fast and furiously, with the knife engraved in her side, she fell to the ground.
"Hi Zelena, what do you want?" Regina asked as she sat down at the opposite side of the table from Zelena, she hadn't seen the ginger haired brit in a long time. "Its been a while." She continued. They were at an upmarket kind of cafe, on the outskirts of L.A.
"Do you not know what day it is, Regina?" Zelena asked looking at Regina, rage filling her body. "How can you forget what day it is?" Zelena barked.
Regina stared blankly at Zelena. "Uh, no..." She said before trailing her sentence off. "Oh," she said quickly following it by a more flabbergasted "OH!"
"Exactly, how could you forget, oh yeah, heard you were all loved up?" Zelena asked. She knew, of course she knew.
"How do you know this? And have you just brought me here to bring me down? Because trust me Zelena I do enough of that myself, so you don't have too," Regina snapped, se didn't mean to snap but she just didn't have the patience for that woman. She didn't even know why she went and met her.
Zelena smiled, she got a reaction from Regina just like she wanted, she just liked to wind her up and Regina knew it as she silently scolded herself for giving her a reaction, she should have learned by now. "Oh no, I don't want to bring you down, I just wanted a catch up, this is the day my sister lost her life, and she loved you more than anything, you know that." Zelena said in her deep british accent. "But there is something you should know and I need to tell you." Zelena said, getting ready to add fuel to the fire, her adrenilan was through the roof she was desperate to tell Regina this and had been for the last two years.
"What do you have to tell me?" Regina said, she had enough of Zelena's pathetic games a long time ago, but her ears pricked up, and she wanted to know desperately what she had to say. But the thing was Regina wasn't sure if what left Zelena's mouth was true or not.
"My sister was cheating on you and didn't plan on marrying you," Zelena said, getting so much enjoyment out of winding Regina up, she currently felt betrayed that Regina had moved on and now introduced a new woman into Henry's life. Zelena seen them the day they went to the beach but didn't approach as she felt like this was something she had to do with Regina in private, destroy her world whilst she was on her own.
"I don't believe you," Regina simply replied, smirking in amusement, Regina had always had her suspicions but never thought they could ever be true. Regina worked far too much to make her relationship at the time work, she was far too career driven and hardly showed Sydney any attention for the best part of their relationship but Regina was convinced marriage was going to fix them, so that was her plan. To get a ring on her finger.
"I thought you'd say that," Zelena said as she reached into her bag, pulling out photographs and letters. "I have proof," Zelena continued.
"Oh, dear, you've got to be kidding me, right?" Regina scoffed, she didn't have time for this. "Go and play mind games with someone else, Zelena!" She snapped.
"Regina, you're going to want to see these." Zelena replied, "Take them with you and look at them, just look at them," Zelena said. "Oh and Regina? Good luck with your new relationship," Zelena smirked. Regina couldn't stand the woman, and definitely didn't want to be around her anymore. She was done.
Regina made her way back to her car, documents still in her hand, she was shaking with anger, she didn't know what to do, but her gut was telling her just to look at them. She attempted to phone Emma but her phone just went to voicemail, Emma was the only person Regina wanted to talk to. She was getting angrier and angrier at herself for lying to Emma, and mostly because she didn't tell her she loved her back. She was beating herself up more and more with every minute that went past. "Just look at them, and close the past, you daft idiot." Regina said to herself, she slowly opened the white envelope that apparently held all the 'evidence' of her ex-fiancees sordid affair.
Regina flicked through pictures and pictures of Sydney kissing a mystery blonde. Regina knew she had always had a thing for blondes, and Regina refused to ever change her hair colour, especially for someone else. There were pictures of them kissing, dining out together, going to Sydneys house together, going to Zelena's house together, pictures of them at the airport, Regina was baffled by the situation. She phoned Zelena.
'Hi, I'm guessing you've seen them?" The voice from the other side of the phone said.
"Yes, I have, what the hell are these when are they from?" Regina asked, clearly angry, anger was taking over every emotion Regina had.
"They're from the 6 months leading up to her death, they went to London together, when she told you she was working away? She was never working away, and I thought you deserved to know, you needed to know so you could move on, to start off with I was getting some enjoyment out of this, but now, I just want you to be able to move on," Zelena replied, her voice was full of sincerity, something which Regina had never heard coming from Zelena before.
"Thank you, Zelena, take care." Regina said before hanging up the phone, she had heard everything she needed to know, and as she put the documents back into the folder, Regina felt a massive sense of relief, like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She took a deep breath in and exhaled. She was overwhelmed at the fact she was convinced something was going on but was always convinced by her ex that she was just going crazy. She knew she wasn't and now she knows she isnt. She needed to see Emma, urgently.
Regina attempted to call Emma several times, every time it was going straight to voice mail, she found it weird and couldn't work out why, Emma's phone never went straight to voicemail when she was working as she always had her phone on her, incase of emergencies. Regina just left it and went on doing her day after she promised Emma that she wouldn't worry, she was instantly regretting telling her that, all she wanted to do was worry. Not today, she thought.
Regina went to Cora's that afternoon, she took Henry to the beach with Oddball and spent a lot of one-on-one time with him, time that she should have spent with him a long time ago. That was the first time that day she didn't want to be at work.
A few hours later, Kathryn's name popped up on Regina's phone as she lay in the bath. She was too busy listening to Ed Sheeran's new album, she didn't hear it ring. She lay there, bubbles surrounding her, candles lit, she found it nice to be able to spend this time she needed with herself. She hadn't been this relaxed in a long time. She forgot what it felt like not to be worried about working, she would normally have a quick shower and run straight back to the hospital, or even shower there. She was enjoying her alone time but she most definetly couldnt wait to see Emma.
Regina lay in that bath for just over an hour, the water had went cold so many times but she just refilled the bath. She didn't want to get out of it at all. Her fingers started gaining wrinkles so she knew it was time to get out and get ready to head to the apartment to meet Emma. She had it all planned that tonight was the night she was telling her she loved her.
There were 31 missed calls from Kathryn only stopping twenty minutes ago, she instantly panicked and tried to call back, she was pacing about the bathroom still in her towel, wrapped around her naked body. Her hands began shaking and thoughts started racing through her mind. She didn't know what Kathryn wanted but all she could think about was loosing Emma. She had a feeling after seeing all the missed calls.
There was no answer, it kept going to voicemail. So, after ten failed attempts Regina called the hospital. She called Kathryn's direct number to her office and no answer there, she called three times and the phone just rang out, now she was starting to panic, Regina wasn't sure if she was in surgery or with a paitent.
"Hello, can you transfer me to Dr Kathryn Nolan, please? Its Dr Regina Mills." She said in her professional work voice. It was one of her nurses who daren't question why Regina was calling so she just put her through immediately to O.R one.
"Hello, Regina!" Kathryn said, in a stressed out manner, she was dreading talking to Regina. "Get your arse down here now, Emma's on my table, I need to go!" She said, quickly before hanging up.
Regina didn't even get a chance to get a word in, she just stood staring blankly at a lit-up phone, she couldn't even begin to think, she was in shock. Her whole body started shaking, she didn't know what to do. Thoughts of Sydney dying started flashing her memory, she was beginning to feel every feeling she felt that day she did. Not again, not today. The 27th of June was the worst day ever. This was the reason she didn't say "The Words."