Chapter 21
"Regina…" Emma calls out softly as she tries to backtrack and console the woman whose feelings she has obviously hurt.
"No it's fine." Regina whispers dejectedly. "I know who I am. I know what I've done. I'm good at making a mess of things no matter what world I'm in. It's all I've ever done and I know I have a long… long way to go before I can even begin to make amends." She suggests as she stops walking for a moment and shuts her eyes tightly.
Emma pulls her eyebrows together in the most quizzical of expressions. "What are you doing?" She asks in a juvenile whine, her shoulders slumping as she throws her head back. It was something Henry might do after being dragged off unwillingly to some sort of clothes shopping trip. It was the early warnings of a tantrum waiting to be thrown.
Regina's own brows knit together as she isn't sure where this suddenly childish behavior is coming from. She opens her mouth and attempts to question the blonde but doesn't get the chance to.
"You're not going to stand here and throw a pity party for yourself now are you?" Emma finally comes out and asks as she roughly places her hands on her own hips glaring at the woman.
If Regina weren't so confused by what she is seeing she might have indulged herself in a bit of laughter. "I'm… not…" She starts to say hesitantly in defense while slowly shaking her head in the negative.
"I'm not my mother. I don't do sensitive emotional chats. If you wanna air out some dirty laundry that's fine but don't… don't do this. Don't… go feeling sorry for yourself." Emma spits out in a rush as she sees how Regina's mouth gapes open in shock. "Look… Regina…" She starts to say then for lack of something better to do with her hands she throws one out in front of her and gestures to a random spot on the ground between them. "You've… you have nothing to feel sorry for yourself about." She says very adamantly. "You endured a childhood with a lunatic woman for a mother. You had a father who I'm sure loved you but just had a horrible way of nurturing you if he let your mother run your life the way she did. You watched your mother kill the love of your life. You were obviously manipulated by some freak off his leash that got you hooked on magic sending you on a path of destruction. You… you sought out revenge on my mother hoping it would ease the pain of all the loss you suffered and when that didn't work you cursed everyone to a town where the person who probably suffered the most was you and you're still here to tell the tale." Emma says finally taking a breath eyeing the woman before her.
Regina is looking directly at her now with some very misplaced anger. She's angry at being called out on all of this so suddenly, but she's also angry with herself for allowing it to continue not to mention the fact that Emma loves to call upon her mother at times like this. It was like she never missed out on a chance to insult Cora but Regina was too worn out to keep defending her at this point. She swallows hard and tries not to let any angry tears spill from her eyes. She breathes deeply and finally manages to break eye contact.
"Regina I know you." Emma says simply which gets those dark eyes focused on her once more. "I mean I don't know everything about you but there's a part of you I am quite familiar with and guess what? That part of you is a survivor." She says and when Regina averts her eyes and frowns Emma presses on. "You've been to hell and back. You nearly died Regina! You've lost a lot but you're still here pushing on and that… that has to count for something no matter what your messy past was like." Regina manages to smile and though it's a rather faint one it lets Emma know she's getting through to her. "So you ready to suck it up and get your head back in the game here?" She says with a huge grin on her face.
Regina lets out a strangled laugh and still with that small smile on her lips manages to say in a voice that is nearly breaking, "Is this the sort of pep talk you keep giving your mother?"
"Yeah… well… sort of." Emma offers with a shrug of one shoulder and a now awkward chuckle. "Honestly Regina, you're getting soft on me here. I'd rather have you back to your old habit of manipulating me in to an argument than…" She gestures vertically at Regina, "Whatever sad excuse for a former Queen this is right now." She finishes, trying to lighten the mood with some banter.
"Well… you've got one thing right." Regina says with a sniffle as she starts to lead them on in their journey.
"What's that?" Emma asks in confusion.
"You are definitely not your mother." She suggests as the smile on her face grows a bit more. Emma soon falls into step behind her.
They spend the rest of this leg of the boot print trail in a more comfortable silence while Regina takes the time to think on her last statement to the blonde, Emma was not Snow.
Perhaps if she had managed to engage in a true argument with Snow the way she always seemed to with the daughter of Snow things would have turned out differently between them. At the very least the level of respect they give each other might have changed.
Again she thinks on how their manner of arguing differs. Where Snow lacked bite in her words, Emma throws in words to backup up the ferocity expressed in her actions. Where it took a lot of coaxing to get Snow to break, Emma was always quite quick to put in her two cents. The only reason Snow ever got riled up was that her patience had finally worn thin and that simply took far too much effort for Regina's tastes, but Emma seemed to have no reservations. Snow did her best to avoid confrontation while Emma met it head on but then again maybe that was the thing. It was easier to argue with someone who had more in common with you, who fought just as hard as you and understood the depth of it. The truth was she had more in common with Snow White's daughter than she did with Snow White herself. Regina chuckles to herself at coming to this ridiculous conclusion.
"What's so funny?" Emma asks walking in step beside the woman now.
"Nothing." Regina shrugs off.
"Mhmm… I see you've picked up my habit of finding the humor in light of things seeming bleak. At least it's better than being completely optimistic like my mother." Emma suggests smiling all the while.
"Yes you're right. I suppose it could be worse." Regina offers nonchalantly.
Emma looks over at the woman as she trudges on, "Is it because I called you my Evil Step Grandmother earlier? Is that where this sudden lack of fight is coming from?" Then she smiles wickedly at bringing that up again.
"Emma… do not ever call me that again." Regina says looking over and meeting eyes with the blonde.
Emma simply laughs despite the growl in the woman's words she knows there is no real threat to her now.
Soon they come to the end of another leg of the boot print trail which is up on a hillside still thick with trees. There looks to be a makeshift cabin built right in to the small hump of this hill, the ratty wooden door is slightly ajar. Emma is so focused on the door she is not paying attention to the fact that the boot trail ends well before the cabin. It was as if they suddenly disappear.
Regina however does notice this. She examines the once illuminated boot prints, notices the lack of more, then almost immediately looks to where Emma is stepping and before she can warn her a trap is set in motion and Emma goes up in a net rigged to hang up in the trees. "You really… really need to think before you leap Dear." Regina suggests from below her. Emma growls in complete embarrassment. "It's alright. I'll get you down." She says with a smile and then with a flick of her wrist the net opens from underneath Emma and she falls to the ground with a good solid thud.
"Regina!" Emma grumbles at the woman as she gets to her feet to dust herself. "Did you have to drop me?"
Regina only shoots her a menacing grin. "It was too easy." She suggests with a shrug but before Emma can come up with something more to retort they both get a sense of something.
Nothing is visibly disturbed but it's something in the air. It was a sudden charge in the form of "Magic," Emma says in a whisper and before the women have a chance to react to it the same blinding flash from earlier stuns them now. The scene that played out before simply recurs here, a resounding boom and a fog of dirt kicks up in the air. The only difference between this time and that is Regina's firm grip on the blonde's arm which keeps them grounded in place. Now it's only a matter of clearing the fog to reveal the initiator of this sudden attack.