A/N: Alright, I know I promised you all these two updates since last night, but unexpected things happened. Finally, here they are! Two of my favorite chapters in this third installment that I hope you all highly enjoy! :) I of course, changed a few things, but it is still good, I promise. Happy reading my lovely readers. Thank you for being so patient. Tomorrow more updates will be posted.
This is a surprise. Not that being born in Boston was a bad thing, but Regina just wasn't expecting that.
"I thought you were born here in New York," she murmurs. Still, even if Emma was born in Boston. What did all of this have to do with Robin? Her mind was racing.
Emma gazes up at her wife, shaking her head. "No. Ruby and I were both adopted in Boston. We moved here shortly after my adoption. Mary Margaret wanted to be away in a different city. Start over with us. She got a job at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. I have very little memory of that time."
"And Robin is from Boston?"
"Yes."
"How do you know this?"
"I ran a background check when you went to work for him."
Of course you did. "Do you have a manila file on him, too?" Regina smirks.
The corners of Emma's lips twist into a smirk. "Actually, I think it's pale blue." Her fingers continue to run through Regina's hair.
"What does it say in his file?"
Emma blinks. Reaching down she strokes her wife's cheek. "Do you really want to know?"
Do I? "Is it bad?"
She shrugs. "I've known worse," she whispers.
Suddenly at her wife's words, Regina can see a blonde haired, dirty, hungry little girl, scared and alone. She wraps her arms tighter around Emma, pulling the red sheet over their bodies. Her head lying on her chest.
"What is it?" Emma asks, puzzled by her reaction.
"Nothing," Regina murmurs.
"No, no. This works both ways, Gina. What's wrong?"
Regina looks up into puzzled green eyes before resting her cheek against her chest again. "Sometimes I picture you as a child… before you came to live with your parents."
Emma stiffens. "That part of my life is done. Gone. I don't want your pity, Regina."
"It's not pity," Regina whispers, appalled. "It's sympathy and sorrow- sorrow that anyone could do that to a child." Her eyes sting with tears, her stomach tied up in knots. "That part of your life is not done, Emma. You live every day with your past. You told me yourself- shades of gray, remember?"
Emma snorts and runs her free hand through her own hair, though she remains silent and tense beneath her wife.
"I know it's why you feel the need to control me. Keep me safe."
"And yet you choose to defy me," the blonde murmurs, baffled, her hand stilling in brunette hair.
What did she expect her to do? She was her wife, not her submissive. She wasn't her prostitute mother who neglected her. How could she react to this? Suddenly, good 'ol Dr. Hopper's words come to her mind: 'Just keep doing what you're doing. Emma is head over heels… It's a delight to see.'
And that's exactly what she has been doing. Isn't that something Emma admitted to finding attractive once, too?
"Dr. Hopper said I should give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps it's my way of bringing you into the here and now- away from your past," Regina whispers. "I don't know. I just can't seem to get a handle on how far you'll overreact."
Emma is silent for a moment. "Fucking Hopper," she mutters to herself.
"He said I should continue to behave the way I've always behaved with you."
"Did he now?" Emma says dryly.
Regina remains quiet for a moment, until… "Emma, I know you loved your mother, and you couldn't save her. It wasn't your job to do that. But I'm not her."
Emma freezes again. "Don't," she whispers.
"No, listen. Please." The brunette raises her head to stare into wide, green eyes that are paralyzed with fear. Emma's holding her breath. The painful look in her wife's eyes aches her heart. "I'm not her. I'm much stronger than she was. I have you, and you're so much stronger now, and I know you love me. I love you, too," she whispers.
Emma's brow creases as if her wife's words are not what she expected. "Do you still love me?" She asks.
"Of course I do. Emma, I will always love you. No matter what you do." Regina wonders if this is the reassurance Emma wanted to hear all along.
Emma exhales, her eyes close and she holds her wife closer.
"Don't hide from me." Reaching up, Regina grasps Emma's hand, her fingers caressing her wife's. "You've spent your life hiding. Please don't, not from me."
She looks at Regina with incredulity and frowns. "Hiding?"
"Yes."
Emma shifts suddenly, rolling over onto her side and moving Regina so that she is lying beside her on the couch. She reaches up, smooths her hair off of her face, and tucks it behind her ear.
"Can I ask you something?" Asks Regina.
"Anything. You know that."
"Were you going to let me come?" Regina's voice is barely a whisper.
"No," Emma says eventually.
"That's… harsh."
Emma's thumb brushed along the brunette's bottom lip, the corners of her lips tugging in a smile. "I'm glad you used your safe word. I realize I got carried away, I'm sorry." She leans in and kisses her. "Lost in the moment." She kisses her again. "It happens a lot with you."
And for some bizarre reason the thought pleases Regina. So much… she grins. Even more so once Emma grins, too.
"I don't know why you're grinning, Mrs. Swan."
"Me either."
Emma finds herself tangling around her wife's naked body, her head lying against the woman's chest. And once she feels Regina's fingers and nails softly rake across her scalp, she relaxes. Sighing with content.
"It means I can trust you to stop me. I never want to hurt you," she murmurs. "I need-" She halts.
"You need what?" Regina asks.
"I need control, Gina. Like I need you. It's the only way I can function. I can't let go of it. I can't. I've tried… And yet, with you…" Emma shakes her head in exasperation.
This is the heart of their dilemma- Emma needing control, needing Regina.
"I need you, too," Regina whispers, hugging her wife even tighter. "I'll try, Emma. I'll try to be more considerate."
"I want you to need me," Emma murmurs.
"I do!" The brunette's voice is impassioned. Because she does need her. So much. She loves her so much.
"I want to look after you."
"You do. All the time. I missed you so much while you were away."
"You did?" Emma sounds so surprised.
"Yes, of course. I hate you going away."
Emma smiles. "You could have come with me."
"Emma, please. Let's not rehash that argument. I want to work."
The blonde sighs, loving the feel of Regina's fingers running through her hair. "I love you, Gina."
"I love you, too, Emma. I will always love you."
Both remained silent, holding each other, their eyes slowly closing and drifting off into a deep sleep. Regina's naked body pressed up against Emma's denim jeans and cotton tank top.
A little blonde haired girl is kneeling on the hardwood, dirty floor. A woman lies beside her, face down and motionless. Her skin is pale and cold. Tears are streaming down her eyes as she turns to look up at Emma. Her green eyes wide with fear of the realization that she was staring back at her small figured self.
She was sad, and dirty, and hungry, and in need of her mother.
She cried and cried, her tiny hands shaking the cold body beside her, begging her to wake up- only to be disappointed time and time again.
The room was cold and dark, small and dirty. Very dirty. And there was no one to help this small, helpless child. Or her…
As Emma nears the dead body on the floor, next to her frightened, small self, she realizes that it is no longer her mother. That face that she would see time and time again in every repeating nightmare. With its eyes closed and pale blue lips. No. It was no longer her. But- Regina. Her wife.
She looks toward the direction of the little girl, and she's gone. It's only her old self in the small confinement of the apartment and her now dead wife. "No!" Emma launches to the floor, dropping on her knees beside Regina, her hands shaking her- begging for her to wake. "Regina, no, no, please! Please, wake up! Wake up!"
"No," she groans. "No."
Regina wakes up startled, disoriented by the dim lights of the playroom. They had moved toward the bed sometime in the middle of the night, and had drifted off into a quick deep sleep again. She can hear Emma moaning in her sleep, slowly moving, her head swings from side to side, burying itself deep into its pillow. There's a small crease formed on her forehead, a look of anguish to her features.
Nightmare. She hadn't had one of those in a while.
"No!" Emma cries out again, a little louder this time.
"Emma, wake up." Regina struggles to sit up, she kicks off the sheet. Kneeling beside her wife, she grabs onto Emma's shoulders and shakes her. "Emma, please. Wake up!"
Green eyes spring open, wild and wide, her pupils enlarged with fear. Emma stares vacantly up at her wife.
"Emma, you're having a nightmare. You're home. You're safe."
She blinks, looks around frantically, and frowns as she takes in their surroundings. Then her eyes are back on Regina. "Gina," she breathes, and with no preamble whatsoever she grabs her face with both hands, pulls her down onto her chest, and kisses her. Hard. Her tongue invades her wife's mouth, and Regina can taste desperation and need. Barely giving the brunette a chance to breathe, Emma rolls over, her lips locked to plump ones so that she's pressing her into the hard mattress of the bed below them. One of Emma's hands clasps her wife's jaw, the other spreads out on top of her head, keeping her still as her knee parts her legs and she nestles, still clothed in her jeans, between her thighs.
"Gina," Emma gasps, as if she can't believe her wife is there with her. She gazes down at the brunette for a split second, allowing her a moment to breathe. Then Emma's lips are on hers again, plundering her mouth, taking all she has to give. Emma groans loudly, flexing her hips into her. The very noticeable bulge of their favorite toy sheltered in denim pushes into her soft flesh. Into both of them.
Regina moans, and all the pent-up sexual tension of earlier erupts, resurfacing with a vengeance, flushing her system with desire and need.
Driven by her demons, Emma urgently kisses her wife's face, her eyes, her cheeks, a trail along her jaw.
"I'm here," Regina hears herself whispering, trying to calm her, their heated, panting breath mingling. She wraps her arms around Emma's shoulders as she grinds her pelvis against the blonde's in welcome.
"Oh, Gina," Emma pants, her voice rough and low. "I need you."
"I need you, too, Emma," Regina whispers urgently, her body desperate for her wife's touch. She wants her. She wants her now. She wants to heal her. Her nightmares. Anything that torments her in her sleep. She wants to heal herself… she needs this. They both do.
Emma's hand reaches down and tugs on the button of her fly, fumbling momentarily, then freeing the dildo attached to the harness strapped around her. Like an erection of her own.
Is this really happening? After they were both sleeping just a minute ago.
Emma shifts, staring down at her wife for a split second, suspended above her.
And Regina knows, she awaits her approval.
"Please," she breathes, nodding, her voice hoarse and needy.
And in one swift move Emma buries herself inside of her.
"Ah!" Regina cries out, not from any pain, but from surprise.
"Mmm!" Emma groans, and her hips find Regina's again as she pushes right into her, over and over, her tongue possessing her wife's mouth again. She moves frantically, compelled by her fear, her lust, her desire, her love. And Regina is meeting her thrust for thrust, welcoming her further and further.
"Gina," she growls almost inarticulately, and she comes powerfully, pouring herself into the brunette, her face strained, her body rigid, before she collapses with her full weight onto her, panting, and she leaves her hanging… again.
Not this time, Swan. Regina holds onto her wife, drawing in a lungful of air and practically writhing with need beneath the blonde.
Emma eases out of her wife and holds her for minutes… many minutes. Finally, she shakes her head and leans up on her elbows, taking some of her weight. She gazes down at Regina as if she is seeing her for the first time. "Oh, Gina. Sweet Jesus." She bends and kisses her tenderly.
"Are you okay?" Regina breathes, caressing her lovely face.
Emma nods, but she looks shaken and most definitely stirred. And Regina can see that long lost little girl, crying for help again. Emma frowns and stares intently into brown eyes as if finally registering where she is. "Are you?" She asks, concern lingering in her voice.
"Am I okay?" Regina chuckles, wiggling beneath her wife, and after a moment Emma smiles, a slow carnal smile.
"Mrs. Swan, you have needs," the blonde murmurs. She kisses Regina swiftly, then scoots off the bed. "Sit up," she murmurs.
Regina struggles into a sitting position. She watches Emma's green eyes carefully watching her, observing.
Emma gently pushes her wife's legs apart as far as they'll go. Regina leans back on her hands, knowing full well what she's going to do.
"You are so fucking beautiful, Gina," she breathes, and Regina watches as her wife's head dips and plants a trail of kisses up her right thigh, heading North.
Regina groans, her entire body clenching in anticipation. Her head tilted back and eyes closed.
Emma glances up at her, her eyes darkening through long lashes. "Watch," she demands, then her mouth is on her again.
Oh… Regina cries out as the world is concentrated at the apex of her thighs, and it's so erotic- watching her. Watching her tongue against what feels like the most sensitive point of her body. And Emma shows no mercy, teasing and taunting, worshiping her. Regina's body tenses and her arms start to tremble from the strain of staying upright.
"Ah!" Regina moans, feeling a single digit easing inside of her, and she can't bear it no more, collapsing back onto the bed, relishing her wife's mouth and fingers on and inside of her. And that's it- she's gone. She explodes around the blonde's mouth, crying out an incoherent rendition of her name as her intense orgasm arches her back off the bed. So intense, Regina is sure she can see the stars. As she feels Emma's lips make trails of sweet kisses up her belly, her hand collapses down against her wife's blonde hair, her fingers caressing its softness.
"I'm not finished with you yet," Emma murmurs. And before Regina has come back, planting down to planet Earth, right back to New York, Emma's reaching for her again, grasping her hips, and pulling her off the bed to where she's kneeling, into her waiting lap and onto their favorite toy in the world.
"Ah!" Regina gasps as she's being filled once again. Fuck…
"Oh, baby," Emma breathes as she wraps her arms around her beautiful wife and stills, cradling her head and kissing her face. She flexes her hips, and pleasure spikes hot and hard from deep within them both. Emma reaches for the brunette's behind and lifts her, rocking her hips upward.
"Ah," Regina moans, feeling Emma's thin lips on hers again as the blonde slowly, oh so slowly, lifts and rocks… lifts and rocks. Regina throws her arms around her neck, surrendering to her gentle, love making rhythm and to wherever she'll take her. The brunette flexes her thighs, riding her… and oh, does she feel so good this way. Leaning backward, she tilts her head back, her mouth open wide in a silent expression of her pleasure, reveling in Emma's sweet love making.
"Gina," she breathes, and leans down, kissing her throat. Holding her tight, slowly easing in and out, pushing her… higher and higher… so exquisitely timed- a fluid carnal force. Blissful pleasure radiates outward from deep, deep inside of her as she holds her wife so intimately. "I love you, Gina," she whispers closer to her wife's ear, her voice low and harsh, and she lifts her again- up, down, up, down.
Regina's fingers curl back again against her wife's neck, into her hair. "I love you, too, Emma." Opening her eyes, she finds green ones gazing lovingly at her, and all she sees is her wife's love, shining bright and bold in the soft glow of the playroom light, her nightmare seemingly forgotten. And as she feels her body build toward her release, she realizes this is what she wanted- this connection between them, this demonstration of their love.
And with those words muttered in a whisper to each other, both women come loudly, undoing, wrapped up in a skyrocketing climax. Regina's fingers twist and bury themselves within blonde, golden air, while Emma's arms wrap together around her wife's form, her lips whispering her name as she, too, finds her release.
Something is wrong once Regina wakes up again. Emma's gone. She is left alone, only this time she is no longer in the playroom, surrounded by its dim lighting and blood red walls. She is in their bedroom, in the comfort of their own bed. Where is Emma? Then she hears the soothing melodies of the piano.
Quickly slipping out of bed, Regina grabs her robe and runs down the hallway to the great room. The tune she's playing is so sad- a mournful lament that she's heard her play before. She pauses in the doorway and watches her beautiful, tormented wife play in a pool of light while the achingly sorrowful music fills the room. She finishes, then starts the piece again. Why such plaintive tune? Regina wraps her arms around herself and listens spellbound as Emma plays. Her heart aches. Why was Emma so sad? She can't help but wonder for a moment, if she was maybe the cause of her wife's sadness. Once she finishes, only to start a third time, Regina can't bear to listen to the sad tune any longer. As beautiful as it was.
Emma doesn't look up as she nears the piano, but shifts to one side so she may sit beside her on the piano bench. She continues to play, and Regina places her head against her shoulder. Emma kisses her hair but doesn't stop playing until she has finished the piece. Regina finally peeks up at her, finding green eyes staring back at her.
"Did I wake you?" Emma asks.
"Only because you were gone. What's that piece called?"
"It's Chopin. It's one of his preludes in E minor." Emma pauses. "It's called Suffocation…"
Reaching over, Regina takes her wife's hand. "You're really shaken by all this, aren't you?"
Emma snorts. "A deranged asshole gets into my apartment to kidnap my wife. She won't do as she's told. She drives me crazy." Her eyes close briefly, and when she opens them again, they are stark and raw. "Yeah, I'm pretty shaken up."
Regina squeezes her hand. "I'm sorry."
The blonde presses her forehead against her wife's. "I dreamed you were dead," she whispers.
What? Regina's eyes find her wife's again.
"Lying on the floor- so cold- and you wouldn't wake up."
Oh, Emma. Reaching up, Regina clasps the blonde's head in her hands. "Hey- it was just a bad dream." Green eyes burn into her very own brown eyes, and the anguish in them is very sobering. "I'm here and I'm cold without you in bed. Come back to bed, please." She takes her hand and stands, waiting to see if Emma will follow her.
Finally, she stands, too. She's wearing her pajama bottoms, and her tank top, and even in that she looks irresistible to Regina. The brunette then leads her back into the comfort of their bedroom for the remainder of the night.
Emma is curled up around her wife's body, sleeping peacefully once Regina wakes the following morning. She takes in their body heat as they are pressed together, skin against skin. She lies perfectly still, not wanting to disturb her.
What an evening. Regina takes a good look at her wife's sleeping features, lying beside her. Hard to believe that Emma could look so serene and young in her sleep, yet last night she was so tortured by her nightmare. Then it dawns on her that she has always thought of Emma as a strong and dominating woman- yet the reality was that she is so fragile. In many ways, her wife was still that lost little blonde girl, crying and hungry, needing her mother's attention that she never had. And the irony is, Emma looked upon Regina as the fragile one- which Regina doesn't think she is. Compared to Emma, Regina is strong.
The real question was: Was Regina strong enough for the both of them? Strong enough to do what she's told and give Emma some peace of mind? She lies in bed with her wife cuddled up to her, wrapped around her like a vine, thinking what they possibly resolved last night other than both trying harder on their part. Bottom line was, Regina loved Emma. She loved her as if there was no tomorrow. And she needed to chart out a course for both of them. One that would allow her to keep her integrity and independence but still be more for Emma. She was her more, and Emma was hers and only hers.
Emma stirs and lifts her head off of her wife's chest, looking deeply into her brown eyes.
"Good morning, Mrs. Swan." Regina smiles.
"Good morning, Mrs. Swan. Did you sleep well?" Emma stretches out beside her.
"Once my wife stopped making that terrible racket on the piano, yes I did."
Emma smiles her shy smile, and it makes Regina melt. "Terrible racket? I'll be sure to email Miss Keaton and let her know."
"Miss Keaton?" Regina's brow raises.
"My piano teacher."
Regina laughs.
"That's a lovely sound," says Emma. "Shall we have a better day today?"
"Agreed," replies Regina. "What do you want to do?"
"After I have made love to my beautiful wife, and she's cooked a fabulous breakfast, I'd like to take her to Aspen."
Regina blinks. "Aspen?"
Emma nods.
"Aspen, Colorado?"
"The very same. Unless they've moved it. After all, you did pay twenty-four thousand dollars for the experience."
A grin stretches out on the brunette's lips. "That was your money."
"Our money."
"It was your money when I made the bid." Regina rolls her eyes.
"Oh, Mrs. Swan, you and your eye rolling," she whispers as she runs her hand up wife's soft thigh.
"Won't it take hours to get to Colorado?" Regina asks, mainly to distract her wife.
"Not by jet," she says silkily as her hand reaches her wife's perfectly rounded behind. Her hand continues to ride up, lifting up the hem of her nightgown, and soon Regina forgets everything.
Gold drives them into the runway of the hangar where the jet to Swan Enterprises Inc. is waiting. Emma seems to be in a much better mood. She's definitely excited about something- lit up like Christmas and twitching like a little girl with a big secret. That look on her wife's face always makes Regina wonder just what scheme she's come up with on this fine morning. Glancing over at her wife, Regina takes in her dreamy look. Her hair was picked up in her favorite messy ponytail, with a few golden strands caressing her face as she walked. Black jeans, her converse, white shirt, and her ever favorite red leather jacket. Not at all the CEO Emma.
She takes Regina's hand as Gold pulls the vehicle near by the jet's steps. "I have a surprise for you," she murmurs and places a kiss against her wife's knuckles.
"A good surprise?" Regina can't help but grin. Because she did love Emma's surprises.
"I hope so." Emma smiles warmly.
Jones leaps out from the front passenger side and opens Regina's door. Gold opens Emma's, then retrieves their cases from the trunk. The pilot is waiting at the top of the stairs as they enter the aircraft. Him and Emma shake hands.
"Good morning, ma'am." The pilot smiles.
"Thanks for doing this on such short notice." Emma grins back at him. "Our guests here?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Guests? Who else was coming along? Regina gasps in surprise. Belle, Ruby, Ivy, and even Ella are all smiling and sitting in the cream-colored leather seats. Regina can't help but turn and grin at her wife.
"Surprise!" She says with a warm smile. "You said you didn't see enough of your friends."
After saying hi to everyone on board, and being pulled into a big bear-like hug by them all. Regina sat in one of the seats next to her wife, feeling Emma's hand find hers.
"Good surprise?" She whispered.
"Oh, Emma, this is a fantastic surprise." Regina provides the blonde's hand with a gentle squeeze. "When did you organize all this?" She asks.
"Last night, when I couldn't sleep. I emailed Ruby and Ivy, and here they are."
"It's very thoughtful. Thank you. I'm sure we'll have a wonderful time."
"I hope so. I also thought it would be nice to get away after everything and all the press hanging around us every damn minute of the day."
The press. She was right. After the whole Robin incident, the paparazzi was still hounding them daily, mainly Regina and she knew Emma hated the thought of people even breathing the same air as her sometimes. Both could surely use a nice, relaxing vacation.
They all remain seated as shortly after it was reported by the head pilot that they would soon be preparing for take off. Natalia, Regina remembers her name to be, strolls out of the galley offering coffee cups before take off.
"Good morning Mrs. & Mrs. Swan," she says with a purr that Regina can't stand for whatever reason.
I mean, really. Why did this woman always make her feel so uncomfortable? Maybe it was because of the fact that she was a brunette and she knows that by Emma's own admission, she doesn't employ brunettes because she finds them attractive. Did that mean that maybe Emma found her attractive? Regina shakes her head at this thought, because that would be ridiculous. Why would Emma want some other woman when she was married to her? She was the one with the ring on her finger and sharing the woman's last name. Yes. Regina decides to busy herself, as she and Emma sit straight across from Ruby and Belle, by conversing with them, feeling Emma's hand give her knee a reassuring squeeze. And Emma seems pretty relaxed and happy- not controlling at all.
"Hope you packed your hiking boots," says the blonde, her voice warm.
"We're not going skiing?"
"That would be a challenge, in August," she says, amused.
"Do you ski, Gina?" Ruby interrupts them.
"No."
Emma moves her hand that is placed on the brunette's knee toward her hand.
"I'm sure Em here can teach you." Ruby winks at Regina as she says this. "She's pretty fast on the slopes, too."
Regina glances up at Emma, who is throwing an impassive glare in Ruby's direction. It still surprised her how Ruby was the only one allowed to call her by her wife's nickname that she gave her. Though, she knew- judging by Emma's glare- that she wasn't very fond of it.
Shortly, the plane begins sliding forward until it is up on the ground. Natalia is running through the safety procedures of the flight, while looking very attractive in her light gray pencil skirt and tucked in short sleeved, white-crisp shirt. Regina could see the appeal to the woman. Just for reassurance however, she can't help but glance at Emma to make sure she wasn't being checked out by her. Thankfully, she was not, given that Emma's eyes were on her the entire time.
"Are you okay, Gina?" Belle asks her friend. "I mean, following the Locksley incident."
Regina nods. She really doesn't want to talk or even think about Robin, especially now, however Belle seems to have other plans.
"So why did he go postal?" She asks, cutting to the heart of the matter in her very Belle-way.
Eyeing her coolly, Emma shrugs. "I fired his ass," she says bluntly.
"Oh? Why?" Belle tilts her head to one side, and Regina knows she's in full Nancy Drew mode.
"He made a pass at me," Regina murmurs, wanting badly to kick her underneath the table so her twenty question trial could stop.
Belle gasps. "You never told me he made a pass at you!" She pauses. "Well, it can't just be a grudge about that, surely. I mean his reaction is way too extreme." She continues, but now directs her questions toward Emma. "Is he mentally unstable? What about all the information he has on you and your family?"
"We think there's a connection with Boston," Emma says mildly. Too mildly.
Regina can see Ruby's hand clasp Belle's, encouraging her to give Emma's a reassuring squeeze.
"So Locksley's from Boston, too?" She asks.
Emma nods.
"What do we know about him?" Ruby asks, and Belle leans in to listen attentively. Both oblivious to Emma's exasperation.
"This is off the record," Emma says directly to Belle. Belle's mouth presses into a thin line, and Regina is observing them both in silence. "We know a little about him," Emma continues. "His father died in a brawl in a bar. His mother drank herself into oblivion. He was in and out of foster homes as a kid… in and out of trouble, too. Mainly boosting cars. Spent time in juvie. His mother got back on track through some outreach program, and Locksley turned himself around. Won a scholarship to Princeton."
"Princeton?" Belle's curiosity is piqued.
"Yeah. He's a bright guy." Emma shrugs.
"Not that bright. He got caught," Ruby muttered.
"But surely he can't have pulled this stunt alone?" Belle asks.
Emma stiffens beside Regina. "We don't know yet." Her voice is very quiet.
What if there could be someone working with Robin? That thought alone did cross Regina's mind as the jet flew smoothly into the air. She gave Emma's hand another reassuring squeeze, and turned to face her.
"How old is he?" She asks Emma, leaning close so only she can hear her.
"Thirty-two. Why?"
"Curious, that's all."
Emma's jaw tightens. "Don't be curious about Locksley. I'm just glad the fucker's locked up." Her tone is almost too demanding, but Regina chooses to ignore her wife's tone.
"Do you think he's working with someone?" The thought alone makes Regina sick to her stomach. Because if there was someone out there helping him, it would mean that this nightmare wasn't nearly over yet.
"I don't know," Emma answers, and her jaw tightens once more.
"Maybe someone who has a grudge against you?" The brunette suggests. Oh, God, what if it's the Dragon Lady? "Like Mal?" She whispers. She glances over at Belle, just to make sure that this conversation is strictly between them. She is glad to see that Belle is in deep conversation with Ruby, who looks mad at her. Hm. Why would Ruby be mad at Belle? Were they having problems?
"You do like to demonize her, don't you?" Emma rolls her eyes and shakes her head in disgust. "She may hold a grudge, but she wouldn't do this kind of thing." She pins Regina with a steady dark gaze. "Let's not discuss her. I know she's not your favorite topic of conversation."
"Have you confronted her?" Regina whispers, not sure if she really wants to know that answer.
"Gina, I haven't spoken to her since my birthday party. Please, drop it. I don't want to talk about her." She raises her wife's hand and brushes her knuckles against her lips. Her eyes burn into brown ones, and Regina knows to stop her questioning about Mal. It upsets Emma, and Emma was right- talking about Mal upset her too. And the last thing she wanted was to ruin their vacation that started so grand.
"Get a room," Ruby teases. "In fact, there's one in the back, I'm sure you two won't need it for long."
Emma glances up and pins Ruby with a cool glare. "Fuck off, Ruby," she says without malice.
"Just telling it like it is." Ruby's eyes light up with mirth.
"Like you'd know," Emma murmurs sardonically, raising an eyebrow.
Ruby grins, enjoying the banter. "You married your first girlfriend." She gestures to Regina.
"Well, some of us like to get it right the first time, sis." Emma glares, her features filled with good humor. "Besides, can you blame me?"
"No." Ruby laughs and shakes her head.
Belle then slaps Ruby's thigh. "Stop being an ass," she scolds her.
"Listen to your girlfriend," Emma says to Ruby, grinning, and her earlier concern seems to have disappeared.
Regina takes notice of Belle scolding Ruby once again, and their quiet exchange of words. Hmm. Something was definitely up between them.
The thought of being Emma's first girlfriend always brought a smile to Regina's face. Because it was true. She was technically Emma's first serious girlfriend. Sure, there was her stalker ex submissive, and Mal the Dragon Lady, but they didn't count. And of course, Emma's family never knew about the other submissives. And after all those years, Regina was the only one to come into her life to change it completely around.