Okay, we're going to take a big time jump now. No more time markers from here on out though.
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Tasting Tension and Temptation
Three years later…
Tap-tap… tap-tap… tap-tap-tap…
Abigail huffed and threw a glare at her friend. "Regina," she growled softly.
Tap-tap… tap-tap-tap…
"Yes?" the sorceress replied without looking up from where her quill continued to make indecipherable marks on the parchment in front of her.
Tap-tap…
"Regina!"
"What?"
"The heel," Abigail explained. "You're doing it again. I'm beginning to think that I'd get more work done with the children in the room," she grumbled and placed her own quill non-too gently in its stand. "What has you so distracted? You normally devour these reports and have new plans all set out before I can even finish my tea."
The dark queen shook her head and insisted it was nothing, but her gaze fell to the window and the position of the sun, both of which brought a spark of understanding for the blonde queen.
"Ah… Emma's coming home today, isn't she?" Abigail teased and leaned back in her chair. "No wonder you can't concentrate. Why are you not on your way home too?"
Regina rolled her eyes and dragged her body into a more rigid position, looking every bit the business-like queen that she usually was. "That has nothing to do with my inability to work. If you must know, I was thinking about my father. His health is failing and we both know there's nothing I can do to stop the expected."
Henry's mobility and enthusiasm for life had deteriorated rapidly since the beginning of summer, so it was only natural that Regina was worried, but Abigail doubted that was the reason for her far away expression and anxious behaviour. "Mm-hmm," she made a noise that said 'I'm not buying it' but returned to her work.
Queen Abigail had been secretly delighted when she noticed the first stirrings of attraction between Regina and her young wife. Emma's forthright personality had not taken long to break out of its shell and the disagreements she had with Regina had to be seen to be believed. Most who witnessed the clashing wives, saw a marriage that would end in disaster, but Abigail knew her friend better than that. Regina enjoyed the challenge and at the end of every argument, she would gaze at Emma with a particular fire in her eyes.
So, when a year passed and then two, without any hint of the tension breaking, she knew that she had to do something. For this last year, she had prodded Regina every chance she got – hinted at the passion beneath the charged moments with Emma and suggested romantic retreats, but if anything, her efforts had only made her friend less open to discussing it. Every time Abigail thought she was getting somewhere, Regina would pull back, close herself off again, and they would go back to square one. She had decided not to push the dark queen any more. Queen Regina could stare down the toughest negotiators, stand up to charging ogres and relentlessly pursue her enemy to ends of the earth, but she flatly refused to fall in love again.
The answer to this dilemma however, was not in persuading the Evil Queen that she could love, but that she could be loved. In realising that, Abigail had a new target to pester and with winter approaching again, there was no time like the present. "I have business with your wife actually," she began, as if the kingdom's finances were the only thing on her mind. "I wonder, would you be willing to put me up for a couple of days?"
Regina shot her friend a suspicious look. "Of what could you have to talk to Emma about that I am not already aware?"
"About her mother's trade deals with me," the blonde answered readily. "I have had some complaints recently and since Emma is the one who set them up and is returning from Snow's, I thought she might be able to account for the discrepancies and shed some light on the situation."
With no apparent reason to refuse the request, Regina reluctantly agreed. "I suppose it wouldn't be too much of an imposition."
"Don't make me feel too welcome, Regina," Abigail responded, her tone laced heavily with sarcasm. "You might never get rid of me."
Not one to be easily cowed, the dark queen scoffed. "I already can't get rid of you!"
The blonde chuckled and set her quill down as she pushed her chair back from the table. "Well then, let's pack this up and head out. We wouldn't want to disappoint your queen when she returns."
Emma sighed with relief as the familiar path gave way to tall spikes and the clean, austere appearance that her wife was so fond of. They'd started out from Snow's before dawn and the sun was now past its zenith; the heat of the day was upon them, but a cool, early autumn breeze swept through the trees every now and then to offer respite from the baking sun.
Three years ago, she could not have anticipated a time when such a feeling of ease would exist, but here she was, eager to be once more in close proximity to the Evil Queen. As she thought about greeting Regina and hearing all that had passed in the time since she'd been away, a long, audible sigh tugged her frame and the many tense hours she'd spent with her parents seemed to fade into the background. "At last," she whispered.
"Your majesty?" the head of her personal guard inquired curiously.
"Just glad to be home, lieutenant," the young queen replied without taking her eyes off the vista. She urged her tired horse into a faster trot, eager to be back where she belonged. Bracken obeyed despite the long walk, as if she too could sense her cosy stall in the stable, and within a furlong, the castle gates were before them, welcoming them home.
Emma kissed her horse on the nose and handed her off to the stable boy almost as soon as her feet touched the ground. She gave rapid instructions on where to take the luggage she'd returned with, and then her feet were confidently and enthusiastically climbing the stairs to the castle entrance. Her heart raced for an entirely different reason from the first time she'd walked these halls. It was only as she began to recall those first, nervous steps that her pace slowed and reality settled on her.
"What am I doing?" she whispered to herself and came to a stop half way up a winding flight of stairs.
She was acting on autopilot, her body pulling her along on a mindless search for the one person who made her feel whole; who made her feel like there was more to life than just living. But the eagerness with which she'd returned home began to fade as she pictured Regina and remembered back to the day before her departure. The argument they'd had while working was not the sort that sprouted up because they'd simply had a difference of opinion – something related to their shared duties. Those arguments were par for the course and they both thrived on the challenge. Their last argument was much more personal and painful…
The dark queen was in a bad mood. Emma cringed at the forceful scratching of a quill on parchment as her wife signed another document and added it to the growing pile. She hated upsetting Regina. She wished that she could take the other woman with her on her trip, but the spell that had prevented the Evil Queen from passing onto Snow White's land twenty-one years ago was still in effect. Emma couldn't take her wife to visit her childhood home, even when she desperately wished to.
The reason Emma wanted to visit her parents so frequently was becoming an increasingly raw issue between them.
"Do you need any help with those?" the blonde queen asked politely as she tried to find something to break the uncomfortable silence.
"I can handle them," Regina spat without looking up. "I was doing this before you came here, I will manage without you."
The comment stung and Emma winced. There was so much going on between them lately. The comfortable routine that they had managed to establish in the first two years of their marriage was slowly falling apart, and it had nothing to do with the epic arguments that they sometimes liked to indulge in. While that gave them time to settle into a cooperative lifestyle and friendship, over the last ten months or so, a strange, addictive tension had begun to form between them; hyper awareness of each other's presence and almost literal sparks if they accidentally brushed skin on skin. But increasing pressure from Emma's parents was driving a wedge into the closing gap.
Frustration battled with guilt for a moment before it won out and the blonde huffed. "Why do you have to do this every time I go away? Why don't you just admit that you're going to miss me!?"
Indignant, dark eyes snapped up from a boundary dispute and zeroed in on the blonde. "Miss you? I will enjoy the chance to work without you around to distract me! Run off to your incompetent mother and abandon your duties. I will do all the work, as usual!"
Emma's hackles rose with the insult. "I work damn hard and you know it!"
"Fine!" Regina huffed, knowing that it was true and that it was also the reason for most of her ire. "But you cannot run your own kingdom and Snow's, Emma. You think it doesn't impact on me when you split your attentions between the two? How many hours do I have to spend correcting mistakes you've made because you can't remember whose trade deals and profit margins you're looking at!?"
"It wouldn't be so difficult if you would just help me!" the blonde cried as she felt shame gnawing at her insides, joining the party of conflicting emotions.
Now on her feet, her hands braced against the edge of the desk, Regina glared as her voice took on an all-too-familiar edge of quiet threat. "You want me to abandon the responsibilities I have to our own people, to help Snow White?"
The dangerous edge to the sorceress' tone gave Emma pause. She swallowed any hurtful or petulant remark that was half-formed in her mind. With difficulty, she tightened her hold on the guilt and pain which sat in her stomach. She was stuck between her sense of duty to the people she felt she'd abandoned on her mother's land, and the desire she had to be wholly involved in the responsibilities she shared with her wife.
Every time she got involved in helping her mother, she felt like she was disappointing Regina, and over the three years they'd been married, there was nothing she wanted more than to see the dark queen smile and feel her approval. She wasn't a fool; she knew what was happening to her and her heart leaped at the thought of finding love where she'd least expected it, but the tangled situation with Snow was creating a wall between them and with every new problem, another stone was laid.
Tears sprang to her eyes and she sniffed them back, all of the fight draining from her body. She was tired and worried and felt completely useless in that moment. "I'm sorry, Regina. I will do better," she promised as defeat made her body heavy. "I will prioritise our affairs before looking into any of my mother's issues. And I can take with me anything of ours that isn't urgent," she stated and began to separate her papers into better organised piles. She felt eyes watching her intently and eventually heard the release of an exasperated sigh.
"Emma, stop. You will do no such thing," Regina ordered softly, this time with genuine compassion. "You have every right to visit your parents. In any other circumstance, I would be joining you and the paperwork would wait. I can manage without you for a couple of weeks."
"I don't want to leave you with too much to do," the blonde muttered remorsefully.
Taking pity on her wife, the dark queen released her white-knuckled grip on the edge of the wood and reached across the joint desk for Emma's hand. "You are the one with too much to do," she told the blonde. "That's what frustrates me the most. I meant what I said, Emma; you cannot run two kingdoms and nor should you have to. You've done more than anyone should expect of you and the more everyone coddles your mother, the less she will learn." Knowing that her words were only likely to bring about another argument, the dark queen relaxed back into her seat and tried not to focus on Snow. "I respect your desire to help the people there. I just feel that, as long as the nobles there are allowed to continue their crimes unpunished, there is very little you can do. Sometimes, difficult decisions have to be made, and letting go might be one that you have to accept."
They had managed to end things on a tentative truce, but the wounds cut deep on both sides and there had been no time for apologies before Emma was riding from their home and looking back at the castle, searching every window to see if her wife was watching her go.
There was something wonderful and terrifying pulling them together, but also too many things pushing them apart. As much as she craved being close to Regina, she was afraid of being rejected, and with all the stress of dealing with her mother's awful management decisions, she didn't need yet another issue playing on her mind.
Even as her feet began moving again, these thoughts kept her pace slow, so by the time she reached the rooms that she and Regina employed to deal with the day to day running of the kingdom, she had her wayward emotions back under control. She pushed the door open, expecting to find her wife hunched over the desk, quill in hand, with an adorable frown pulling at her brow, but the room was empty. Confusion hit her for a moment – Regina was ridiculously anal about time management and spent these early afternoon hours in their office nine days out of ten. Perhaps she's not home, she thought in disappointment. Emma almost backed out of the room but at the last moment she heard voices from the adjoining room that they occasionally used for small meetings.
"Hello," she said with a pleased tone as she opened the door and found Queen Abigail having tea with her wife. "This is a nice surprise."
Regina's gaze was warm as it passed over Emma's body and the blonde felt a flush climb up to her ears in response. Her stomach flipped and it took all of her will not to rush across the room and… well, she wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to do first, but it involved skin and touching and was not something she could do in the presence of others. It was not even something that she could confidently say would be welcomed. She managed to smile back without ogling the brunette and moved to take the empty seat in the circle.
"You're home early," Regina commented as she sipped her tea and tried not to catch Abigail's eye.
After deciding to pack up and leave her friend's castle early, Regina had had to sit and watch as the other woman fussed over what to put in her valise for a night or two. It took far longer than she could stand and she was still convinced that Abigail delayed on purpose to tease her. Of course, the blonde queen couldn't leave her home for two days without checking in on her husband and children either and though Regina normally savoured the time spent with the young prince and princess, she couldn't quite enjoy it when she was anxious to be away. When everything was at last packed and ready, she did what she normally would have only done in an emergency, she used her magic to transport the two of them to the gates of her own home. The teasing had only increased since then but it was worth it to see the joyful surprise on Emma's face.
She was beginning to hate Snow all over again for messing with her happiness. If the insipid queen was not so incompetent, then she could leave her kingdom for a few days, trespass on Regina's hospitality, and Emma would not have to leave their home at all. These business trips, that took the blonde away for days and sometimes weeks, were the White queen's latest insult. Each time, when Emma came home, she would be exhausted and full of worry. This in turn made Regina angry. No amount of criticising Snow would help the young queen with her plight, but old habits die hard and unfortunately, Emma was feeling the brunt of wounds resurfacing.
Just how deep that potential happiness might stretch was something that Regina avoided studying too closely. No matter how much Abigail teased or how often Emma gazed at her with curious contemplation, the idea of opening her heart again was almost unthinkable. She might not have Emma in every sense of the word, but what she had was worth protecting, even from her own destructive desires.
"How was your journey?" Regina asked once they were all settled. Unlike the lead up to her wife's departure, where every part of her screamed at her to lock the blonde in her room and refuse to let her go, in this moment, when she returned and months stretched out ahead of them before the next trip, the ex-Evil Queen felt like she could relax.
"Fine," Emma answered as she leaned forward to load a plate with snacks from the table. She wasn't ready to tell Regina that she planned to make a return visit in a few weeks to see the harvest in. "I said my farewells last night and we set out before first light, so we made good time."
"Eager to get home?" Abigail asked, her face a mask of friendly curiosity.
Eager to avoid another argument with my mother, Emma thought, but instead said, "Of course. I missed the snark," she grinned and popped something round and sweet in her mouth as the other blonde chuckled.
"Snark isn't a word, dear," Regina replied, her eyes narrowed. "And don't eat too many of those; you'll spoil your appetite."
Slowly, while maintaining eye contact with the brunette, Emma slid a second morsel into her mouth. She'd barely finished chewing before her hand reached for another. She looked back at her wife as if to say 'what are you going to do about it?'. Because they had company, she chewed properly and swallowed before replying, "Well, it should be a word; you have so much of it." She could feel the heat of that gaze again and knew that she was pushing her luck as a third snack fell into her mouth. "And you should know that my appetite is bottomless."
"You won't be bottomless, Emma, if you keep doing that," the dark queen huffed and tried hard to focus her attention elsewhere in the room. Her wife's mouth caused a tightness in places that she didn't want to think about.
That got Emma's attention and she paused to think about the consequences, even turning slightly to glance at the body part in question. Eventually, she shrugged, answered, "More to love," and picked up another delicacy. "You should have a few; you look like you could use a sugar rush. Long day?"
"Some people do not know how to pack light and take far too long to be ready to travel," Regina shrugged elegantly. "I was bored of waiting; I transported us here without the entourage."
"And that winded you?" Emma teased.
Dark eyes narrowed with annoyance. "It takes a great deal of energy to carry more than myself over such a distance."
Abigail watched the back and forth with interest. How they had lasted for so long without taking their relationship to another level was unfathomable to her. Even as she enjoyed the entertaining exchange, there was something so intimate about it that part of her felt uncomfortable being in its presence. She needed to put a stop to this game before some innocent bystander got burned. "How was your visit with your parents, Emma? I'm here actually to discuss a deal we arranged with your mother."
The young queen's face fell, losing all of its playful defiance. She sighed. With anyone else, she would try to play it cool and pretend that she had everything under control, but with Midas' daughter, she didn't stand a chance of placating with stretched truths. "You've had complaints about the quality of the produce you're receiving, haven't you?"
Abigail nodded. "Shipments do sometime get spoiled. It happens from time to time and we all account for a small percentage of loss. The produce coming from Snow though…" She paused and looked to her friend with sympathy. "Most of it is not worth paying for. I have told my couriers not to accept the next load if the quality is not acceptable. I'm sorry, Emma."
Emma suddenly wished that she hadn't eaten anything – the anxiety, that she had worked so hard on the way home to let go of, crawled back into her belly. "You were good to accept the deal in the first place, Abigail. I apologise for wasting your time and money."
"The impact will not be greatly felt," the older blonde replied, waving off the concern. "How do you account for it though? I thought things were better."
"They were. So far as I can tell, it's not the farmers. They break their backs to make sure everything is good when it comes time to harvest; they know their lives depend on a good crop." Emma stared for a moment at the sky and the distant peak of a mountain through the window. "It has to be a problem somewhere between the harvest and the delivery, but I can't find the cause." She wanted to say more about her suspicions, but sat between one foreign ruler and one who detested the topic, she was reluctant to share.
Regina recognised the struggle and bit her tongue. She knew she'd been directing her anger at the wrong person when she criticised her wife for taking on so much responsibility, but since Snow was beyond her reach, it was a difficult impulse to kick. Those dark instincts needed to go somewhere. Seeing Emma's pain made her want to attempt to help somehow though.
"Abi knows about Snow's poor choices in advisors," she told her spouse after a few moments of thoughtful silence. Though she knew that tact and open compassion were not her strongest suits, the effort was there, so she was surprised by the irate glare from green eyes. Immediately, her tone became defensive but not apologetic. "She's my friend and I thought she had a right to know."
Emma bit her tongue and saved any reproaches for later, when they were alone. Turning back to Abigail, she wore her best diplomatic expression and hoped that she could explain. "I worked hard to bring them in line and my parents did follow through with their threats to strip them of titles if any were found to be involved in more deceptions," she explained and couldn't help a pointed look at the dark queen; her parents had managed that much at least. "Lord Starling lost his lands the spring after Regina and I were married. The two autumn harvests after that were good, which is why I came to you with a proposal. I trusted you to be honest with any issues at the point of delivery." She closed her eyes briefly, thinking back to some other sad truths that she'd uncovered. "Others have cheated us in the past – taking stock off the wagons and then complaining about light shipments."
"Snow made reparations without investigating?" Abigail guessed.
"Not quite that bad, but she didn't change the investigator or try to see it through herself when the problem didn't stop." It was a difficult reality to face, but the foreign queen's understanding and patience did put her at ease enough to admit to something that had bothered her for a while, "I sometimes think that my mother was born to be a princess but not a queen." Abigail smiled gently, her expression the picture of empathy, but a snort of derision from the other chair pulled another glare from Emma. Feeling tired all of a sudden, she stood and stepped around the table. "It's been a long, hard couple of weeks and the journey back was exhausting. If you don't mind, I'll see you both for supper," she said in a clipped tone and left.
With only the two of them remaining, Abigail picked up a cushion and threw it at her friend. Since Regina was still looking at the door with a confused frown on her face, she was caught unawares and took the full impact on the side of her head. The shock was enough to bring a glower to dark eyes.
"What!?"
"It's no wonder you two are still dancing around each other," the blonde cried with irritation, forgetting for a moment that she'd given up waving at Regina the obvious attraction she and Emma had for each other. "What was that? Are you still so hung up on revenge against Snow that you have to take it out on Emma?"
Regina threw her hands in the air. "Is it my fault that Snow cannot keep track of her own affairs?"
"No," Abigail conceded. "But neither is it Emma's and you're treating her like it is."
"I am not," the dark queen protested dismissively.
"You're her wife, Regina. Why are you not supporting her through this? I understand that you cannot accompany her on these trips, but are you not even offering her a shoulder to lean on, an ear to listen, or trying to give advice?" the blonde asked with incredulity.
"I have advised her," Regina countered, but at a disbelieving look in response, she was forced to admit, "I told her that she couldn't run both kingdoms alone."
"You gave her an ultimatum? Told her to choose between you and her parents."
Now Regina stood and began to wave her hands around as she moved around the room. "I have said no such thing."
"Not in so many words perhaps," Abigail replied, not the least bit put off by the dark queen's agitated demeanour. "Emma is noble. And I don't just mean that she was born wealthy. She will take on more than she can handle and she will shoulder that burden until it destroys her."
Regina sent her friend another dark look. She didn't need reminding of Emma's workload – it wasn't exactly easy to forget when it kept her up at night and dragged her from her comfortable little bubble when the blonde left for days. "Which is why she needs to let go."
"Which is why she needs your help," the blonde countered. "You may be too stubborn to acknowledge your own feelings, but I've seen the manner in which she looks at you. Do not make her choose, Regina, because neither choice is going to make her happy and if she chooses you, I fear she will only end up resenting you for it."
"Splitting our attention between our kingdom and Snow's can only be to the detriment of our people," the sorceress argued, using the same reasons that she'd tried on her wife. When her friend's eyes narrowed, she realised that Abigail's experience would see through the excuse.
"That's a lot of old twaddle, and you know it. Next to Fred and I, you have the wealthiest and most stable economy. If anyone can afford to loosen the reins a little and divert their attentions elsewhere, it's you, Regina." She watched the warring emotions behind dark eyes and sighed to herself. "If that's not enough to convince you, how about this: Emma is your wife and the sole heir to Snow's throne. You and I, we thought long and hard about how your marriage would unite the kingdom again – stop letting your petty revenge get in the way of what you know you need to do."
"Petty!?" the dark queen spat back. Her thoughts and feelings swirled like a maelstrom inside of her and the blonde's choice of words hit a sore spot. She felt an old fire writhe through her fingers and she itched to throw a fireball at something.
"Yes, petty." Abigail rose from her seat to stand toe-to-toe with the fuming witch. "You don't have the same tortured soul to use as an excuse to go off on a rampage any more, Regina. You won. But we both know that it wasn't enough to fill the void created by Daniel's passing. Your friends, your wife, your people, those things do. At this point, holding onto old grudges is only going to hurt you and Emma." Seeing the obstinate set to her friend's jaw, she decided to voice her own concerns over the state of affairs. "What if Snow's kingdom falls? I'm sure you will have a lovely time gloating. Perhaps even five whole minutes," she teased and watched a rueful smile tug at blood-red lips. "That sort of power vacuum is valuable to someone. Who? Who is behind these disruptions? Emma's right, her parents were doing a much better job after she exposed the biggest perpetrators. If something more sinister is at play behind this, it affects all of us."
"I hadn't considered that."
"I'm surprised, but perhaps I shouldn't be. You are more emotion than logic at the moment."
It galled her to admit it, but Regina knew her friend had a point. She was so set on drawing lines between her feeling for Emma and those against Snow that she was letting a potentially serious threat go unchallenged. Her antipathy towards the White queen had made it easy to believe that the only problem was the idiots' stupidity and misplaced, goody-two-shoes attitude.
"Damn," Regina muttered, losing most of the raging anger and replacing it with a sudden craving to dig deeper into Emma's investigation.
Satisfied with herself, Abigail smiled smugly and crossed her arms over her chest. "Well, that didn't hurt too much, did it?"
"Careful," the brunette grumbled. "It'll be impossible to wear a good hat if your head gets any larger."
"I'll start a new trend for overly large hats, or perhaps very tiny ones," she chuckled. A thoughtful silence passed before she became serious again. "You know you need to apologise to Emma, don't you?"
A frown descended onto Regina's face. "What for?"
"Back there, she was trying to be open about her conflicted feelings for her mother and you laughed at her."
"I did not! She was the one criticising Snow. I was simply sharing in the joke."
"It's not funny to Emma. It's sad."
"But she made the joke."
"Oh, sweetie… You need to learn to read between the lines." The blonde queen thought for a moment as she tried to find the words to help her friend understand. They had confided many things to each other over the years and it didn't take long before a thought occurred to her. "Your mother did terrible things to you."
Dark eyes twinkled dangerously. "What's your point?"
Abigail held her hands in supplication, appearing non-threatening. "You have every right to hate her, but sometimes, you still jump to her defence when we talk about her. How can you expect Emma to treat her mother as just another person when The Evil Queen can't even do that with her hateful and sadistic mother?"
Since Regina was not the type to be easily shamed by her words or actions, when she finally conceded the point, she simply rolled her eyes and huffed. "Fine. I will let her know that I'm sorry she thinks her parents are such idiots."
"You are impossible," Abigail replied as she stood up to leave. When the brunette was in one of these moods, she'd learned that nothing could move her. "I'm serious, Regina. If you cannot find the words to comfort Emma, then I suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself. Lest she lose any affection for you entirely."
"I don't need her to love me!" she yelled after her friend's retreating form.
"Yes, you do!" Abigail's distant voice called back.
Leaving Regina to fume and stew in her own thoughts, Queen Abigail trod a familiar path to Queen Emma's private rooms. She knocked lightly on the door and after a long pause heard a faint 'come in'. She entered the room to find that Emma had changed out of her travelling clothes into something more suited to wandering around her own home, and was lying propped up on the bed. A look of mixed hope and apprehension filled those green eyes, but when they recognised the visitor, disappointment quickly replaced it.
"You don't need to check up on me, Abigail," Emma told the other blonde, hiding her embarrassment well.
"Someone needs to, Emma. Since other people seem to be stuck with their heads in the sand at the moment, why can it not be me?" She moved to sit on the couch and waited for the younger queen to join her.
They both knew that Regina was a large part of those 'other people'. Abigail wanted to get stuck right into the main reason for her visit, but after what she'd heard, there were other more pressing matters to attend to first.
Abigail placed a comforting hand on her companion's knee. "How serious is it, Emma? I'm asking as a friend, not a trading partner."
Emma smiled gratefully. "Thank you. I don't blame Regina for not wanting to get involved. Most days, I wish I didn't have to be involved either."
"Hmm," the older blonde made a noise of acknowledgement, not wanting to openly agree with the first part at least. "I will help in whatever way I can. You should not have to be doing this alone."
"I can't give up," Emma replied, her voice cracking at the mere thought. Her wife's cautions about trying to do too much reverberated round her head.
Abigail squeezed the knee that was still beneath her grip. "I'm not asking you to. I hadn't appreciated the severity of the issue before, but now I want to get to the bottom of it as much as you do. Hopefully, after the conversation I just had with her, Regina will come around too."
Emma groaned. "What did you say to her?" If she tried hard enough, she could almost feel the barely-restrained rage through the castle walls from wherever the dark queen paced. "I don't want another fight. I hate it when we fight."
The older queen canted her head to one side and sat back in her seat. "From what I hear, you fight all the time. Seems to me as if you both rather enjoy it."
That observation brought a tentative and fond smile to pink lips. "That's not fighting. That's… spirited debate."
The smile dropped as she realised that it had been a while since they'd indulged their passions in that way. The last time had been particularly energetic and Emma was sure, when Regina leant close to her and the tension literally crackled between them, that they were going to kiss. But their council members had chosen that moment to arrive and Regina had composed herself so quickly that it made Emma's head spin. Since then, and since she'd chosen to get involved in her mother's business again, the dark queen had backed away from all their playful moments and laced most their disagreements with cruel sarcasm instead.
She considered Abigail's original question. No matter how friendly they were, she was reluctant to share personal details with the ruler of a neighbouring kingdom. She still remembered her tutors instilling in her the importance of professional distance with nobles from other houses. Not all would be scrupulous considering the ingrained pressure for every king and queen to keep their own lands prospering, and even those who could be trusted to deal fairly had to put their own kingdom's welfare first, but Emma had no one else to turn to and she was fast running out of options.
"It's serious," she began at last, and once the top was off the bottle, everything came pouring out. "The money and goods aren't getting through to where they're needed, and what is getting through is unfit for purpose. When I left three years ago, things were dire, but my parents were willing to do what was needed. Now…" she hesitated, a pained expression crossing her face. "Each visit seems to get worse. In the spring, when I told them about the difficult winter in the villages, they were interested – or, pretended to be at least – then when I went back at the beginning of summer, they hadn't done anything and denied knowing that there was a problem to begin with. This time, when I questioned them about progress… they told me I should stop interfering."
"That's… well, not easy to believe."
Emma nodded in agreement. "That's not them," she insisted. "I know they've been too lenient in the past and don't have the drive that you and my wife have, but despite what Regina thinks, they can lead. Something else is going on and I need to find out what."
"Yes. I quite agree."
The two blonde queens swapped theories for a while until Emma's stomach growled loudly and both decided that it was past time to eat. Regina didn't join them and the disappointment on Emma's face was more profound than ever. So much so that Abigail made a mental note to throw more cushions at her friend the next time she saw her. Cushions filled with rocks. When night drew in and the dark queen was still a no-show, they decided to call an end to their day and bid each other goodnight, but not before Abigail left the younger queen with something more to think about…
"Emma," she began softly as she held the guest-suite door. "Try not to take her bad moods to heart. You don't deserve to be the focus of her demons, but you scare her, and it's not a feeling that sits well in her mind."
Emma's mouth opened and closed for a few seconds without sound. "I scare her?" she managed at last. "How?"
Abigail smiled warmly, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "You are the best thing that has happened to her in a long time, Emma. Think about it."