Chapter 21

"Did you mean it?" Regina asked as she shoved a cup of coffee in Emma's face and started poking at her to wake up.

"Huh? What?" Emma grunted, still half asleep. "Of course I meant it, I don't just go around telling people I love them for fun." She reached out and grabbed the coffee.

"No, did you mean you want to live here with me?"

"Geez you ask a lot of questions. Why are you already dressed? And why are you just standing by the bed glaring at me so early?"

"I'm up so early because I get up the same time everyday. I'm glaring at you because you haven't answered my question." Regina was getting impatient. She had some plans in place the hinged on Emma's answer and she needed it now.

"Yeah I meant it. But don't worry I'm not in a hurry or anything. I figure in a year or so we'll be ready for that kind of step." Emma stretched out and really took in the woman standing next to the bed. She was gorgeous. Even when she looked pissed, maybe even more so.

"A year or so?" Regina crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at the blonde. "Is that right?"

"We can wait longer if you're not ready. I'm not pushing for anything else Reg. No worries. This coffee is great by the way thank you." Emma just smiled up at her. "I love you."

"Mmmm I love you too." Regina leaned down and gave Emma a quick kiss. "I have to get going. I have a few things to get done before work this morning. I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, I'll stop by your office. Lunch?" She asked hopefully.

"That should work. Text me before you head over though in case something comes up." Regina said as she gave the blonde one more quick kiss.

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Regina's plans for the day included cornering Ruby and pumping her for information. There was no way she was going to wait a year for Emma to move in and she needed to figure out exactly how she was going to do it without scaring her off. After her talk with Katherine last week she already had a ring being specially designed for her, but now it seemed that she might have rushed into that after all. If all Emma wanted was to live together then she would settle for that for the time being, but she wasn't going down without a fight.

She took a second outside the diner to get her thoughts straight. She was going to have to be careful not to say too much to get the info she needed. If she didn't find out what she wanted her only other source was Snow and she really didn't want to go there.

Ruby looked up when she heard the bell chime above the door. She was surprised to see Regina coming in without Emma tailing behind her. "Hey Regina! Emma meeting you here?"

"Actually no. I'm here to talk to you. I'll have a coffee please." Regina said as she sat at the counter.

"Oh ok. What's up?" Ruby asked confused.

"Has Emma ever talked to you about marriage?" Regina said without any subtlety, so much for the kid gloves approach.

"Umm, she's not really the chatty type..." Ruby paused not really sure what Regina wanted her to say.

"Emma and I discussed her living with me in the future and she talked as though she wanted to wait for what seems like an abnormal amount of time considering we already have a son together. I just want to know what she's thinking." Regina said when she sensed Ruby's hesitance, hoping her openness would spur her on to answer.

"Wow, well I know that Emma loves you and she would never push you into anything you didn't want to do or move too fast and scare you off. She's been crazy happy just because you two are dating, I'm not sure what actually getting to live with you would do to her…Oh god has she even told you she loves you? Why am I telling you all this?" Ruby really didn't want to be having this conversation but she was too scared of Regina to stop.

"Push me into anything? She said that? And yes I am aware that she loves me."

"No, no she didn't actually say that-I just meant that since marriage was probably something you didn't want there's no way Emma would ask you and make you feel like you had to say yes out of guilt. Not that she's thought about asking. I mean I don't know…I really shouldn't be talking, don't listen to me. I've already said too much." Ruby knew she was in trouble. She was going to have to give Emma a heads up and it wasn't going to be pretty.

"I think you've said just enough Ms. Lucas. You've actually helped me tremendously. Put my coffee on Emma's tab please and when she comes to order me some lunch I think I'll have the chicken salad today." Regina said with a half smile. She knew exactly how she was going to get Emma to move in, Ruby had spilled just enough information to help her solidify her plan.

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Emma took her sweet time leaving Regina's house that morning. She couldn't wait to live there, she thought that by telling Regina she wanted to wait a year it would help the brunette feel more comfortable and she would be able to ease her into it. She took a long shower and sat at the island in the kitchen enjoying her coffee while she read the paper. She still couldn't quite believe her and Regina had come so far in just a few months.

She got up to rinse out her cup and put it in the dishwasher-realizing just how whipped she was as she did-she heard her phone buzz.

Meet me at diner.

She wondered what Snow could possibly need that she couldn't talk to her about over the phone. Not that it mattered, she really wanted a bear claw anyway so she had planned to head that way before she went to her office so she grabbed her coat and headed out.

When she walked into the diner and saw Snow sitting beside Ruby in her favorite booth her stomach dropped. She didn't have a good feeling about this, especially when she noticed the bear claw already waiting for her on the table.

"This doesn't feel like a set up at all. What's with the bribery?" Emma said as she sat and immediately took a bite of the pastry.

"Not bribery, just comfort food. Snow has to tell you something." Ruby answered.

"Me? You're the one that called me down here."

"Yeah, but you're thing is waaayyy weirder than mine."

"It wouldn't have been if you wouldn't have told me what happened this morning!"

"Hey! I hate to interrupt your lovers quarrel but what do you two want?" Emma snapped.

"Um..." Snow stalled.

"Regina is acting weird and we wanted to give you a heads up." Ruby manned up and blurted out.

"You two brought me down here to tell me that Regina is being weird? She's always a little bit weird. It's Regina! What the hell?"

"There's no reason to get upset honey. We just don't want you to get blindsided by anything." Snow said, trying to calm her daughter down.

"Can you explain what you mean by "weird"? Keep in mind you are talking about the woman I am in love with." Emma just sat and stared at the two woman across from her.

"Well, she kept making appointments with your father and I and then would cancel at the last minute."

"Ok. Ruby?"

"She came in this morning and was asking me questions about you. Then she actually told me you two talked about living together. That's weird! Regina doesn't talk about personal things."

"So the very busy Mayor cancelled a couple of appointments with you." Emma pointed at her mother, "and she told you something personal so you guys panicked and decided to call me down here." Emma couldn't believe the audacity of these two. She thought they were both supportive of her relationship, but now it was clear they harbored some doubt about it.

"Well when you just break it down like that it doesn't sound too bad, but its Regina and we've known her a lot longer, honey." Snow knew she wasn't handling this the best, she didn't really think about how Emma may take what they wanted to tell her. Her only thought had been to warn Emma that Regina might be up to something.

"You may have known the Evil Queen but you haven't known Regina longer. I expected better from you two. I'm done here." Emma stood to leave. "My Regina has treated both of you with respect, maybe you could learn a thing or two from her about a clean slate." Emma didn't look back when she started to walk out and shut the door of the diner a little harder than necessary when she left. Upset at her mom and her friend for ruining her good mood she couldn't wait for lunchtime and the comfort she knew she would find in Regina's presence.

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Across town Regina felt the anger bubble up inside her and knew it was Emma. She couldn't believe that they were already so connected and wondered if Emma had figured it out yet. Sharing feelings was going to be tricky to say the least. It would take practice on both of their parts to learn how to not let it affect them negatively. What she was about to do wasn't going to make the blonde's day any better either, she thought as she typed out a quick text.

How's your day going?

It didn't take long for a response to come through.

Ok, looking forward to seeing you at lunch.

About that, I'm going to have to take a rain check until tomorrow. I had a last minute meeting come up.

Regina felt terrible but the jeweler had called and she wanted to go pick up the ring she had made for Emma. She wanted it in her possession in case the right time popped up to ask for her hand, that and she was also just excited to see it. She went with a platinum band with a princess cut diamond in a tension set. It wasn't a traditional ring nor was it a simple band and she thought it suited Emma perfectly.

Oh, ok. Guess I'll just talk to you later maybe?

Regina felt terrible, she felt her stomach drop when Emma read her text, but she had to think about her plan and stick to it.

Hope so, could be a late night for me. I love you.

Love you too.

Regina frowned at the response and wavered at her decision to skip lunch. Thinking that maybe there was a possibility that she could do both she hurried and headed to the park where she was meeting the jeweler.

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Emma had decided to go wander around the park for her lunch time, knowing that she would be able to avoid talking to anyone there. She had defended Regina this morning at the diner, but when the brunette had canceled lunch she couldn't help but wonder if there wasn't something going on and it was bothering her. She wished she had decided to just head home instead of going for a walk though because now she was really suspicious. She had just watched her girlfriend take a package from a guy she met up with in the park. She was trying really hard not to jump to any conclusions but she definitely decided she was done for the day.

Old Emma would have probably ran out of the woods screaming and then head home to drink, new Emma was just going home to hide so she didn't do something stupid. She would wait until Regina explained herself before blowing a gasket.

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By ten o'clock that night Emma was tired of waiting, she had only heard from Regina once late in the afternoon and it was only to tell her she wouldn't be able to leave work anytime soon to meet up with her. She decided that there had to be a good reason for her odd behavior and she just wanted to talk to her girlfriend. The problem was she didn't want to just go up to the front door and ring the doorbell this late in the evening because she didn't want Henry getting the wrong idea. Instead she thought it would be a better idea to climb up the side of the house and sneak into Regina's bedroom. She'd done it before when she managed to sneak that picture of herself in the white button up shirt into her room so she figured it wouldn't be any harder doing it in the dark.

She was wrong. When she stretched out to grab the ledge she needed to pull herself up on to be right under Regina's window she missed by a hair and just felt herself grabbing at air. She felt herself falling backwards and then everything went black.

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Regina was in the bathroom going through her nightly routine when her stomach dropped and she got a shooting pain in the back of her head. She was doubled over the sink when Henry ran in.

"Mom I just heard something outside…Are you ok?" Henry said, looking at how pale his Mom looked.

"No, I think something's wrong with Emma." She answered through gritted teeth.

"Wow, you're like Lassie or something! Timmy fell down the well!" Henry exclaimed, forgetting for a moment his Mom really was in pain.

"What? Never mind I don't want to know. Where did you hear something?" She was able to block out some of the pain in her head to focus on Henry.

"Outside your window. Do you want me to go look?" Henry pushed his chest out and acted every bit the man of the house when he said it.

"No, go call the hospital and tell them I might be bringing in Emma. I have a feeling I know exactly what happened." Regina was very clearly being pulled towards her room and she had a feeling she was going to find Emma laying on the ground outside.

Rushing down the stairs and out the front door she quickly had her fears confirmed. She found Emma laying in a heap next to a broken piece of guttering. Not wasting anytime she grabbed the blonde in her arms and poofed them to the emergency room.