Regina waits for the Sheriff to slip from view before she pulls the door open apprehensively and regards her visitor warily.
"Can I... Can I come in?"
Snow's enquiry is rife with awkwardness, and she pulls her white, moleskin coat tightly to her wholesome frame. The brunette raises an eyebrow but says nothing, simply hesitating for what seems to the schoolteacher to be a cruelly long amount of time before stepping aside so that she can move past her.
The Queen opens her mouth to bark at the raven headed woman to remove her shoes, but the small flinch this action alone garners her has her shrugging irritably and stalking back towards the kitchen with a toss of her pretty, dark tresses.
Mary Margaret follows behind nervously, green eyes flickering about feverishly in search of the blonde. In search of comfort. They fall upon the half eaten bowl of cereal left abandoned opposite the seat the Mayor now reclaims and she feels an odd wave of discomfort deep down in her stomach.
There is just something so bizarre in the notion of her girl and the Queen sharing a domestic breakfast.
"Where's Emma?"
"Don't worry, I haven't done anything to her..."
Regina's tone is spiteful, but laced with a bitterness the schoolteacher doesn't miss. Sighing, Snow takes her daughter's recently vacated seat and plays her spoon through sodden Cheerios pensively.
"I know that, Regina..."
Glancing back up, she frowns as the brunette shrugs with an air of arrogance as though she couldn't care less either way when the younger woman knows that not to be true. She feels a small twinge of sadness within herself when faced with the fact that the blonde is clearly more comfortable here, with the Queen, then back home, and while she is understanding of the fact... It still hurts.
"... I know that."
"Then why are you here? What do you want?"
"What do I want? Regina... I have my daughter back! I finally have my little girl back, and instead of being able to enjoy it, to be able to hold her the way I should finally get to do, she's... Sh-she's in another woman's arms! What I want is a chance to speak to Emma about all this! About the curse... About... Have you even told her?! Does she even know what you did?!"
"Yes... I told her everything..."
"... Then... But she's... She's-"
"-She's still here?"
Snow doesn't answer, but she doesn't need to. Regina glares at her poisonously, before telling herself that this is a situation in which she has an opportunity to either help or hinder things between herself and the Sheriff. It is not instinctual- in fact, it goes against her very grain- but she sighs as she leans back in her chair and regards the younger woman solemnly.
"On the day of the storm, I found your daughter walking around like a complete idiot in the rain; soaking wet, and with plans to cut through about three miles of woodland without a clue where she was going. I invited her in... I despised her, and not only that, I knew exactly who she was, you understand? It would have been all too easy to let her continue wandering around the way she was, but I didn't want the girl to come to such a hatefully pathetic end. For no greater reason at the time then... Miss Swan was better than that. It was just too easy an end after all the clashing of horns between herself and I.
Unfortunately for me... Emma can be rather intoxicating when she puts her mind to it, or rather, thinks before she speaks."
The Mayor catches the black look that crosses the schoolteacher's face upon her choice of the word 'intoxicating' and she tries to decide whether the blonde would find her mother's reaction amusing or embarrassing. Sighing, she gives a regally dismissive flick of her hand.
"She intrigued me... She can really be quite lovely, despite hiding it remarkably well..."
Snow catches the small smirk that tugs at the brunette's lips at this statement and finds that she follows suit despite herself.
"She can..."
Nodding, the Mayor sighs as she decides to drop her tone of mere pleasantries; all too aware that despite the nervousness that had crossed the Sheriff's face upon recognizing her mother's voice, Emma will only remain absent from their company for so long. Her voice low, and playing with her knife awkwardly to match Mary Margaret's continual stirring of the spoon, she continues in a voice that causes the younger woman to look up at her with a frown.
"... I didn't know if she would come back... And I didn't call her here under false pretence either, just so you know... I was fairly certain she would come in response to my call... But her staying here with me is as much a surprise to me as it is to you... You have a girl you should be proud of, Snow... To a point where it concerns me..."
"I... I don't... How do you mean?"
"She wishes to track down Rumplestiltskin."
"As do I! After what he-"
"-She thinks she can help him. She thinks that if she offers to take up her part of a deal they made- she is lovely, but she can be alarmingly stupid in the process- that he will... That he will leave her, us, everyone alone."
"What?!"
"Don't be so surprised... She is your blood after all."
"She... Well yes, she is, but, I mean... You can't let her actually do it! She doesn't understand what he's capable of doing! She-"
"-She understands well enough."
"No! Regina, you and I both know what happens to those who deal with Gol- Rumplestiltskin! He kidnapped her, true, but she doesn't know how bad things could have gone for her with that beast-"
"-When I walked into that apartment, I found the Hatter, not Emma. He was going to kill me, and then he was going to murder your daughter. He told me so. He told me all this so very casually due to the fact that the Dark One was sprawled out on the floor suffering a sure concussion after your little ray of sunshine incapacitated him. The Hatter drew his shot and I hit the floor... I hit the floor because Emma came running in and sent us both crashing down to avoid the bullet before penetrating Jefferson with one of her own. She came running from the bathroom, where she had been hiding... And she'd had reason to hide. She shot the Hatter because she understood perfectly what happens to those who cross the Dark One; she just called him by a different name. The girl was... W-was smeared with her own blood, filthy, shaking, half naked and seriously injured... She understands just fine."
"...Oh, Emma..."
"Yeah?"
The schoolteacher glances up, startled, to find the blonde making her way into the kitchen. The Sheriff sniffs and tosses her hair arrogantly, clearly trying to pretend she's totally at ease with her present company. The action lets both older women know that the blonde has heard none of their previous conversation, and Regina shoots the schoolteacher a warning glance, but Snow addresses her daughter incredulously.
"She says you want to help Gold?!"
Emma looks from the irate paler woman to the Queen and throws her hands up in the air childishly as she leans against the kitchen counter.
"You came over here to yell at me?!"
"No, I came over here to talk to you... Now I'm here to yell at you!"
Green eyes roll moodily, and the brunette can't help but smirk at the peculiar family dynamic taking place. Clearing her throat, she regards Emma pensively.
"As you can see, your mother is about as keen on the idea as I am..."
"Why the hell did you tell her?!"
"She told me because I care about you! I know this is all a lot to take in, Emma, but you're my daughter, and I love you!"
"You can't just say stuff like that because you know who I am now..."
Her words are spiteful, but her expression reads mostly of nervous discomfort, and she crosses her arms over her chest defensively. Mary Margaret frowns, looking quickly to the Mayor who raises an eyebrow but remains silent, before turning back to the blonde.
"I loved you before the curse broke too, Emma... It wasn't just Regina looking for you..."
Emma sighs, staring down at her feet awkwardly.
"I know... I love you too. Both of you... Damn it."
She lets out a low chuckle, and the brunette rolls her eyes while the schoolteacher pushes herself from the table and pulls the younger woman into a tight embrace. Dark eyes find the blonde's as the latter regards her wordlessly from over Mary Margaret's shoulder and the Queen offers the Sheriff a small smile.
Wrapping her arms around the raven headed woman, Emma closes her eyes for a brief second, before muttering loudly.
"So where do you guys think we should start our search?"
Snow sighs, pushing the blonde away to regard her at arm's length before letting out a frustrated huff and turning to the brunette.
"I don't think we're going to be able to talk her out of it..."
"I doubt it. I've been trying to talk Miss Swan out of things since she got here to no avail..."
Emma grins triumphantly, and Regina has a sneaking suspicion that, had her mother not been present, she would have had quite the fountain of innuendos to bring to that last statement.
She smirks.
"Go home, get changed, spend some time with your mother and meet me here at noon... And send Henry back home..."
There is a brief moment's hesitation, but for Regina it feels as though her heart will burst in that short space of time. Finally, the blonde offers her a small nod and a brilliant smile.
"Alright."