A/N: Hi all! I hope you enjoy this chapter! The girls are taking a break from all the drama, for sure! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed last chapter! Happy reading! xx
The quiet hum of CNN and the bathroom sink running wakes me early Saturday morning. Regina's soft, warm body is vacant and the spot she was previously possessing is cold.
"Regina," I murmur. She must have heard me because the sink turns off and her head pops out. She's washing her face, suds covering every inch.
"Good morning, my beautiful girl. I would come over and kiss you but that wouldn't be good for anyone." I laugh with her and she disappears back into the bathroom to finish her task. I sit up and glance at the clock. It's 7:15. I groan and flop back down.
"Come on, my love, I want you to look nice today," she cooes as she enters the bedroom, her face looking bright and alert, her hair pulled back in a ponytail.
Today is the Sociology department's Annual Symposium, where students from the department present research they've been working on under their professor's guidance. Regina is, of course, speaking at the event, and has several students presenting research. Though I have no research to present, Regina roped me into volunteering so I could also see what kinds of things I could be doing later in my academic career.
"But it's seven in the morning," I whine as I hide my face under the blanket. The bed moves as she gets in, pulling up the covers to slide in underneath. I face her under our comforter fortress and she smiles at me as she kisses my nose. She just looks so beautiful.
"You're going to have a lot of fun, I promise."
Eventually I get up and wander downstairs to get coffee and have some fruit for breakfast. As I'm scarfing down my banana, Regina comes into the kitchen.
"Wow," I murmur as she comes into full view. She looks gorgeous, and incredibly sexy, in tight black skinny jeans, a sheer pink tank top, fitted blazer, and dark-rimmed, square glasses.
"You like it?" I nod my head and remember to breathe.
"You're going to steal the show, you know?" I watch as she blushes.
"Hardly," she murmurs.
"No, you seriously look incredible." I stand from my seat and move closer to her, wrapping my arms around her waist.
"I still need to do my make up."
"It doesn't matter; you look stunning." I kiss her lips gently, pulling her closer to me. "I can't believe I get to arrive with the most beautiful woman in the room. And the world," I wink at her. She blushes again.
"You need to start getting ready, Ms. Swan. We have to leave in less than forty-five minutes." With a huff, I grab my coffee and head back upstairs.
As I dress, I watch Regina apply her makeup carefully. She traces her eyes with a dark pencil, tweezers her eyebrows, and applies blush.
"Come here, Emma," she murmurs. In only my underwear and blouse, I walk over. She smiles and kisses me, her hand wrapping around the back of my neck tightly. I smile into the kiss as she pulls away.
"What was that for?"
"I'm putting my lipstick on now so no more kissing until after symposium," she winks before letting out a giggle. I roll my eyes and continue trying to get dressed.
When we arrive at the Social Sciences building, Regina and I sign in and receive our name tags. "Emma Swan. Ask me" it reads.
"Ask you what?" Regina chuckles as she slaps hers on. I smile at her very official looking "Dr. Regina Mills" tag, feeling proud of her for really no reason at all.
"Ms. Swan, could you help with the tables?" I nod and wave at Regina.
"I'll see you later," I say with a smile. She nods and winks at me before sauntering off to one of the presentation rooms.
I don't see Regina for several hours. She attended and spoke at a different lecture than the one I attended, where I knew several people from the higher level classes. At the end of the lecture, an older man approaches me. He's a little scruffy, but seems nice enough. I glance at his name tag and realize he's a professor here, one I'll be taking class with next semester.
"Emma Swan, right?" he says as he glances at my name tag.
"Yes sir," I say with an anxious smile.
"I'm Robin Locksley," he says as he extends his hand. "Regina told me to look for you." I smile, silently thanking her in my head. I've been wanting to meet him for weeks since I made my schedule.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," I say as I shake my hand. "I've heard so much about you!" He laughs, I'm not sure why, and releases my hand.
"So you're a Sociology major?" I nod.
"Yes, yes sir. I just declared a few months ago. I'm a sophomore."
"That's fantastic. Maybe next year you'll be presenting." I immediately blush.
"I can only hope so. So far all the presentations have been amazing!" I see Regina exit a classroom out of the corner of my eye. I know she sees me, and we both smile at each other and return to our conversations.
"I think it's a great experience. I love doing it."
"I saw you mentored a lot of the students today." He nods.
"I did. Hey, stop by my office next week if you have time, and we can get to know each other." My heart starts to slam in my chest.
"Thank you, that would be great!"
"It was a delight to meet you, Emma. Regina speaks very highly of you and it's wonderful to put a name to a face."
As our conversation ends, I move over to the table with the refreshments to help the other two volunteers make sure everything is set up nicely. I glance over at Regina and we make eye contact.
Sometimes she gives me these very disarming forlorn looks, where her eyes shine and she smiles just a little. It's as if she looks at nobody but me like that, and it makes my very soul itself warm with joy.
She gives me one of these looks and I melt into the ground where I'm standing. I watch as she excuses herself from her conversation and moves towards me.
"I saw you talking to Dr. Locksley," she says with a smile.
I smirk at her. "Yes, he mentioned you talking me up quite a bit." She rolls her eyes.
"Well, I knew you wouldn't talk to him yourself if I didn't encourage it." We both laugh.
Aurora approaches us with a wide smile on her face. "I was wondering when I would run into you," she says to Regina with a smile before engulfing her in a hug. I sizzle with jealousy.
"You're presenting in the next session! I'm so excited!" Aurora beams.
"I can't wait! Emma," she says as she turns to me, "you're not presenting are you?" I scoff and shake my head.
"One day!" Regina exclaims as she wraps an arm around my shoulders. Surprised, I slowly lower my arm around her waist and subtly pull her closer. I can't believe she's making such intimate contact with me at a school event, but I soak it all in as quickly as I can. The way she fits into my side, the weight of her arm on my shoulder, and the light, floral fragrance of her shampoo. She's so soft and so comforting.
Aurora arches an eyebrow and smiles at both of us. I know this doesn't make her jealous, but God does it make me feel good. Eventually, they both leave and head toward the presenting room to get ready. I head over to the volunteer table to see if I'm needed.
"Okay Emma," the woman in charge of the volunteers says to me, "you'll be in charge of letting the presenters know how many minutes they have left. The 'ten minutes left', 'five minutes left', and 'one minute left' cards will be on the desk in the front row of the classroom. Which one would you like to go to?" I glance at the schedule and request Regina's room.
She sends me off in that direction and I meander into the room.
"Emma!" Regina exclaims in excitement. I smile at her enthusiasm.
"Hey. I'm doing the time card thing."
"Great!" She says as she points me in the direction of the bright orange sheets of paper at the front of the room. I smile as I watch her set everything up and then grab an empty desk and drag it off to my left side.
"What're you doing?"
"I'm taking notes and I'll be getting up and down so I don't want to be in the middle of everything." I laugh and shake my head as she anxiously moves about the room, greeting students and parents.
At 12:45 on the dot, exactly on time, Regina begins by greeting everyone and introducing the first presenter, who happens to be Aurora. I clap and start the stopwatch on my phone as she begins her presentation.
She talks about attitudes towards poverty, splitting it among education, age, gender, and experience with poverty. She speaks eloquently and I find myself only slightly envious. I see Regina nod along with several things she says. It surprises me that Regina wasn't her mentor.
After Aurora's presentation, several more groups present. I watch Regina more often than I should. She's scribbling in her notebook, crossing things out, writing in margins, and drawing arrows. I try to squint and see what she's writing, but I can't make it out. I'll have to look in the car on the way home.
At the end of all of the presentations, Regina stands again.
"Majoring in Sociology is a wonderful life choice, after all. One of the biggest pieces of feedback we receive time and time again, is that when it comes to our methodological programing and our course selections, we are extremely rigorous in terms of the sharing and teaching of sociological methods. We have four professors in this room who participate in this curriculum, who have crafted this curriculum, who are passionate about this curriculum, and I think today really speaks to how effectively this curriculum comes down and students themselves embrace it."
"Hopefully the students and families in this room can see that the curriculum that you've learned here will help you be a better teacher in one way, shape, or form. It will help you become a better Master's degree student seeking a degree, it will help you become a better researcher, or whatever it happens to be that your dreams will lead you to; you just need to learn how to convey it, convey everything that we've taught you, because we really do have a deep, methodologically rich program and now the challenge is how to communicate that to people who are, frankly, skeptical of what we do here in Sociology."
She smiles at me for a brief moment, as my heart swells with pride, before she continues.
"But we have greater evidence today that we listen to people's stories; we listen to people's stories whether it's in terms of expressing their self-reported health. And we might have this reaction that's like, like some of our presenters mentioned earlier, what does it mean to have an entire health survey built on self-reported health? Like, who really cares if you think your child is healthy? All that matters at the end of the day is whether your child is actually healthy. But it turns out that in terms of self-reported health, that's actually a pretty good proxy for your actual health."
"So we're interested in how people feel about their health, we're interested in how they feel about their gender identity and expression, we care about social problems, and lo and behold we also acquire the tools to analyze the origins of those social issues. And maybe, as some of our presenters talked about, some applications for those social issues, some ways to intervene in those social issues. We kind of do it all here, I like to think that we do an excellent job here."
Regina is interrupted by a burst of applause by a few of us that love and support this program far too much, myself include. She giggles and dips her head, pushing her glasses adorably up her nose.
"I don't have that many synthetic comments to bring everyone together," she says as she begins gesturing her hands oddly. "Hand gestures," she says as everyone begins to chuckle. I love how awkward and sweet she is.
"I really wanted to focus my comments mainly on the students coming up and moving through this program who are in other classes right now. It's good to see you all here too." She looks at me again, giving me a brief wink.
"I want to say that we are all, as faculty members, kind of exceptional. But I want to give a special shout out to Dr. Locksley today. I think he has been a game changer to our program, like an intensely positive game changer." There's a chuckle floating around the room as people turn to Dr. Locksley.
"I wasn't sure where you were going with that!" he says with a goodhearted laugh. Regina laughs as well, blushing slightly.
"I had the privilege of observing his class where a number of you are enrolled in, and just the rigor and the love. And that's what I think is the hallmark of what we do here in our Sociology program is we combine rigor and love in ways that other programs don't necessarily do, and that's our brand. That's our very special brand." She says it finitely, like it's the end of what she really wanted to say, and I once again feel my heart bursting with pride.
"I want to turn it over to the audience to see if you have any questions for our wonderful presenters, if you would like to query them a little bit about what they found," she says, and there are several questions. I hear basically none of them, consumed in how proud I am of the woman in front of me who is so clearly in her element.
At the closing ceremony, where all the presenters receive certificates and take pictures with their mentors, I beam with pride and take pictures of Regina. She looks so proud of her students, and her students look proud of themselves. It's an amazing experience to watch, and I can't believe I get to be a part of it, and a part of Regina's life at all.
After the ceremony, we begin to break down tables and clean up food. Regina mingles with students and their parents, introducing herself to those she didn't meet earlier during the reception. Regina plants her butt on an empty table and I laugh as several of the volunteers glance around anxiously, needing to move the table and put it back in it's intended room.
"Babe," I murmur as I approach her and place my hand on the small on her back, pushing slightly.
"Oh!" she giggles, blushing and standing from the table as she notices all the tables being moved.
"Thank you, dear," I wink at her.
I return several trays of almost finished food and several unopened bottles of water to the room they were to be stored in. I snag an extra water bottle and walk over to Regina again. She's packing up her purse. She looks exhausted but amazing, still glowing from being so completely immersed in this day.
"Here baby," I whisper as I slip the bottle in her hand. "You haven't had a thing to drink since we left the house." She smiles at me and I watch her hand twitch, clearly moving to reach out and touch me. She hesitates and her fingers relax.
"I wish I could kiss you," she whispers back as she glances around us. The hall has nearly emptied out.
"I'm almost ready. Please sit, drink, and rest, okay? I don't want you overheating." I notice the faint flush in her cheeks and I hope it's just from excitement and adrenaline, not overheating.
"Okay, I'll be right here I promise." I laugh and rest my hand on her shoulder. "Oh wait! Take this." She peels off her name tag and hands it to me. "Can you throw it out? Obviously I don't need it now." I shake my head and slap it on my thigh. It barely sticks to my pants having been worn all day long, but it works.
"Now everyone will know I belong to you," I whisper in her ear. I notice her eyes darken slightly as I saunter away, smirking to myself.
When we finally finish everything and I thank the coordinator for allowing me to help and attend the presentations, I come back to Regina who is waiting quietly right where I left her. She looks even more tired, and the water bottle is empty.
"Hey, you okay?" I ask as I get closer.
"Yes, just tired." She stands from her seat and I take her bag for her. When she doesn't protest, I know she really must be exhausted.
"You were amazing today, babe," I say when we get in the car. "I mean seriously amazing. That speech you gave… Did you practice that?"
She laughs and shakes her head. "No, I was thinking a little about what I wanted to convey when I got up there, but other than that I kind of hoped it would all come together. Hence that really awkward hand gestures thing." I laugh at the memory.
"Well, it was completely amazing. You had everyone's attention babe. I told you that you were going to steal the show."
"I don't think I stole the show," she laughs, shaking her head.
"Right out from all the presenter's feet, my love. Between that killer outfit and your eloquence and charm, you were just amazing on so many levels."
"You did really well too, Emma. I saw you talking to Dr. Locksley, which is amazing. And it was great to see you talking with and congratulating all your friends. You're really starting to expand in this department. Before you know it, you're going to be, what's the phrase? Balls deep?" I snort out a laugh and smack her leg.
"Where the hell did you learn that?"
"One of my students said it on Thursday in my office!" I snort again, louder this time, as tears form in my eyes from laughter.
"That is completely ridiculous, don't say that ever again, please." She rolls her eyes and focuses on the road again. I reach over and grab her hand, interlacing our fingers.
When we get home, Regina immediately kicks off her heels and heads for the living room.
"Babe, I'm going to lay on the couch for a little while. Join me? I'm so exhausted." I can never turn down an opportunity to cuddle with Regina, so I shed my coat and hang ours up in the closet before taking my own shoes off and joining her.
I sit with my back against the armrest so she can lean against me between my legs. I rub her shoulders and kiss her neck gently as she channel surfs.
"Hey! Parks and Rec is on! Let's watch that." Regina laughs and switches it on at my request.
The silence that we settle into is comforting and calming, and before I know it, Regina is knocked out in my arms, snoring softly. I kiss her forehead and brush her hair out of her eyes, combing it softly with my fingers.
It occurs to me that she'll probably still be in Colorado when I, hopefully, present my research. It occurs to me simultaneously that I'll have to do my research without her, and that makes me even sadder. I have no doubt that we'll maintain our relationship and that she'll stay as engaged as she possibly can, but it's not the same.
I feel tears in my eyes as I continue to run my fingers through her hair. Her eyebrows twitch and I hold my breath, hoping I didn't wake her. She turns a little in my arms and resumes her quiet sleep.
"I'm going to miss you so much, Regina," I whisper. "You were right, love and rigor is the hallmark of our department, but it just won't be the same without you, baby."