A/N: I will ask that you're gentle with me for this chapter. I had some huge issues writing this, and I'm still not 100% sure on the end result. It includes a lot of things I really wanted to add in and that I feel are important issues to be addressed- especially on Emma's behalf- but I hope it doesn't drag too much. At first, reading it back when I got to about the 1K word mark, I kind of wished I'd skipped this altogether as I think some of the next chapters will be fairly heavy also, but, now that it's completed, I am glad I found somewhere to slot these bits and pieces in. If you disagree; constructive feedback is always greatly appreciated, but, not to sound like a little bitch, please please please don't review with simply 'this is boring' etc... At least let me know what didn't work for you, as I really do put a lot of time into this fic. Thanks... :)
When Gold enters the dowdy breakfast hall offered up by the motel, he is unsurprised to find that the two women have already taken up a table at the far side of the room, close to a rather murky window. It is much later than he would ordinarily have breakfast- not to mention a strong cup of coffee- but he hadn't expected the others to be quite so eager. That Regina is an early riser, he has no doubt, but he has a strong suspicion that Emma might be less inclined to greet the day with the rising of the sun, and so had simply remained lying on his back and staring at the ceiling for a while to accommodate this.
Not that he imagines either woman will have woken up alone.
It is a peculiar thought to him still, but not one he deems appropriate to muse on too deeply. He may be a man of many flaws, but he is far from uncouth, and while the resultant bond between the two women that currently sit in quiet conversation is of great interest to him, the carnal aspect to their relationship is something he deems private and none of his concern.
Making his way over, he slips into the empty seat beside the brunette, despite it being a little more awkward to get to than the chair next to the Sheriff.
"Good morning."
A low reciprocal mutter from the Queen and a polite nod from the blonde.
A waitress comes hurrying over to take his order, and he asks for coffee; the steaming heap of cooked breakfast foods that sits before the Sheriff making his stomach churn. It would appear Regina is of a similar opinion as she nurses a simple plate of toast.
"Tell me, dearie, is there anything you won't eat?"
The old pawnbroker inquires silkily of the blonde as she swipes her finger through a smear of alarmingly neon yolk with a curious display of well-practiced grace. Despite her distaste for the little imp, Regina raises an eyebrow in mild amusement; catching the younger woman's eye and offering her a small smirk as the latter rolls her eyes and addresses Gold icily.
"Several things, but as there's no way in hell I'm ever going to be eating anything you cook for me, I don't see why it matters."
The little man balks slightly at the Sheriff's response; Emma hardly the friendliest of people, but the young woman has for the most part always been more or less cordial towards him. For her to snap at him as irritably as she does seems less of a surprise to the brunette however, and the darker woman offers up a hard glance at the blonde.
She's nervous. Otherwise that plate would be empty by now and she'd have answered you with sarcasm rather than spite.
You're making her nervous...
Her sharp look is reciprocated, before Emma sighs and leans back in her chair to regard Gold cooly.
"Look, can we just talk about the task at hand? It's too damn early for small talk."
He nods and negates to offer up a snide comment that nine thirty is hardly all that early for a woman supposedly working a full time job. He supposes, in fairness to the Sheriff, she is rarely forced to converse with anybody but her housemate- mother- or the waitress until about noon, at which point he has visited the Station enough times to know that the one cup of coffee and the lack of sugar in the breakfast feast before her are a mediocre replacement for extra large mochas and cavity-inducing sweet pastries.
"Very well."
"So, what's the deal here? We're in New York like you wanted... What now? Because I know you think I have this whole tracking thing down, but as I told you before, I literally don't know your kid from Adam. Unless he's walking around screaming 'magic', dressed in wizard's robes and still going by the name of Baelfire, we have a problem... And even if he is doing all those things, this is New York! He'd be lucky to achieve more than a funny look."
"In my room, I have something of Bae's. A shawl. I have ways of tracking the owner, Miss Swan, but once that has been accomplished, I lack the prowess of putting knowledge into action in this particular scenario. Finding people is what you do, you just need to be told where to look."
"Right, so when we find this guy that you let fall through a porthole into another world-"
"-Emma..."
Glancing up at the brunette, the Sheriff thinks momentarily that Regina scolds her for her snide words, but the darker woman simply looks around them pointedly and the blonde understands, carrying on in little more than an irritable whisper.
"-When we find him, what, you think he's gonna come running to you with open arms? You don't think he's going to be pissed? What makes you think he's going to want to talk to you- look at you- at all!?"
"That's where you come in, dearie..."
"Me?"
"I'm not going to approach him, Sheriff. You are."
"You're planning to use her as bait?"
Dangerously low, but for all the warning that drips from the Queen's lips, it is Emma that leans forwards and hisses with true venom.
"And what the hell makes you think he'll listen to me?"
Looking from the blonde to the Mayor, Gold sighs; knowing there is no possible way he can word what he is fairly certain both women already know without incurring their wrath.
Regina's anger he can deal with.
He taught her, and there is a limit to what she can do to him here.
Emma, he just doesn't want riled up in case she fucks this up.
Unfortunately, such a thing seems inevitable.
"Because when you try, you can be quite charming... And you will try, Miss Swan."
"You had better fucking explain what you mean by that..."
Tempestuous anger alights equally stormy green eyes, and Gold lets out a low sigh, having known the younger woman would rise to the bait before waiting for an explanation. It is a tendency that intrigues him in this case; having looked into what the Sheriff's previous job role had entailed. It would seem she is aware of her own appeal well enough to understand it can get her what she wants, and yet, to have this same notion expressed by another is something she is venomously unwilling to hear.
Brutally defensive without cause.
"All I'm asking of you is that you keep him talking long enough to ascertain that it is truly Bae."
"Oh good, because that's how I start all my conversations; 'so, is your father an evil sorcerer perchance? How coincidental! I happen to-"
"-Enough!"
The pawnbroker shouts, and the reaction of the brunette is instantaneous; grabbing at the man's arm as he leans forward to berate the blonde with the flats of his hands crashing down on the table.
"Don't you dare talk to her like that!"
"I am talking to her as though she were a child as that is the way she seems intent on being treated!"
"Gold, you-"
"-Shut up. Both of you. You're making a scene."
Emma hisses through gritted teeth, and the other two take a calming breath as they note several curious eyes upon them.
"Let's just go up to your room and you can do whatever the hell it is you need to do with the kid's shawl and we can get this whole fucking business over with."
She pushes herself from the table as she speaks, and Gold throws a look to Regina who purses her lips and stalks off after the Sheriff. He hangs back a bit as the darker woman taps a sharp beat down the linoleum tiled hallway; aware of where he stands in their current scene.
"Emma..."
"Yeah!?"
"...It's going to be fine, I told you already, I-"
"-Will you just stop fucking fighting my battles for me already? I'm not your child!"
"No... I know... But I came here to-"
"-To what?!"
"Don't. Don't you start having a go at me just because you're feeling nervous!"
"Then quit springing to my defence the whole damn time!"
"... You don't want me to take your side?"
"I don't want you acting like I'm made of fucking glass."
"Fine. I apologise... I had little clue that having someone wishing to defend you would be so upsetting."
The brunette sniffs haughtily, and the Sheriff rolls her eyes before looking swiftly away. At first the Mayor mistakes this gesture as one of annoyance, but the soft sound the younger woman makes is one she recognises easily; however foreign it might still seem coming from Emma.
"Ok, stop, come here. Go on. In."
Taking a firm hold of the blonde's upper arm, Regina steers her briskly towards the door at the end of the hallway on which the small black 'ladies' symbol has been personalised with a pair of white-out breasts without sparing Gold a second glance.
He can wait. He's waited a good many years, and he can wait a couple of hours more.
Realising the room is divided up into cubicles; the brunette simply locks the main door in her own way, before stalking into the nearest partition and grabbing several sheets of toilet paper. Holding them out to the Sheriff who stands with her arms crossed defensively over her chest and her head bowed, she simply shrugs when the younger woman refuses to take them from her and places them neatly on the counter behind them.
"What on earth has gotten into you?"
Her tone is neutral, bordering on irritable, but it is not due to a remainder of ill feelings towards Emma's stroppy behaviour in the hallway, but rather one of knowing that the absolute worst way to deal with this peculiar scenario would be to coo with concern.
She is awarded with nothing.
Flicking sharply at the pale flesh of the Sheriff's forearm, she tries again.
"Hey... Princess... I'm talking to you...?"
This finally garners her some response, as she makes out a begrudged snort of laughter from beneath the long hair that covers the younger woman's face.
"Shut up, Your Majesty..."
A miserable sniff and the blonde reaches behind her for one of the tissues; cleaning herself up with irritable ruthlessness, and Regina relaxes somewhat as she begins to recognise Emma beneath this new, curious woman.
"Not until you talk to me."
"I'm fine."
"Yes, I can see that by the rosy pink glow to your eyes and the healthy tremble to your lip."
"Regina-"
"-Tell me what's going on..."
"...I'm... Well... I'm a b-itch!"
Fresh tears spill out onto pale cheeks as she chokes out the last word, and the Queen can't help but laugh while she wipes them away swiftly with her thumbs.
"I'm sorry, dear, I shouldn't laugh, it's just forgive me but that is not something about which I would have thought you'd be all that concerned... Not that I'm saying I agree, mind, but... A little ray of sunshine you are not!"
"I know... I just... I've spent all this time worrying about Gold, and about whether this guy was going to pose a problem, and I kept feeling so weird about it all and it just didn't properly click why! But... Don't you see? This is wrong! What Gold wants from us is wrong! And I kept getting so pissed because I was just sitting there thinking, like, 'how dare you presume your kid's just going to want you back in his life!'... But, back then I was just angry...
I wasn't thinking about what we're doing to Bae, or whatever.
He left that world- your world- because he couldn't fucking stand magic and what it was doing to his father... And now what?... We're just going to go shove his face right back into it!? Forgive me, and maybe this is a completely selfish way to look at it, but... Yes! You want me to say it!? I hate magic! I love you, and I love Mary Margaret, and I'm so... S-so happy I've found my parents... But magic kind of puts a dampener on that! Because it's also the reason that everything went to shit for me!
And this kid... I had no choice, I was a baby! And now the reality of magic has just been thrust at me and I have to deal if I want any part in either my parents', or my gi-... Your life... But this kid; he actively sought to get away from it all! He gave up everything he knew because magic had made his life that fucking terrible! And now I'm endeavouring to push him right back into the thick of it! I... I just... I'm not the nicest person, you're absolutely right, and I'm not self-sacrificing, or even particularly empathetic... Hell, I don't even particularly like most people...But...And I will say this just once more, because I don't like any of this gut spilling bullshit: what happened to me, and what I had to deal with... It hurt! It fucking sucked!... And I can't be the person to do that to someone else!"
"...You have to..."
The brunette whispers, tears prickling threateningly in her own eyes.
"You...You made a deal, sweetheart... And I'm so, so sorry that you didn't know at the time what that meant... What it meant to make a deal with that man...And I will only say this the once, as I know full well you're awful at this stuff... But I will say it now as I know that I risk probable punishment- and not the desirable kind- should I bring this up some other time:... I do know, Emma... I do know that this is all... That this is unfairly difficult for you... And I wish... Oh, Emma, I truly wish I could tell you what you want to hear. I wish I could tell you that there was some way out of this mess, but I can't! If there was, I wouldn't have come along to help, but I would have persuaded you not to come here at all-"
"-But you did try to!"
"... I know... And hindsight is a wonderful thing. I was scared. Everything happened terribly fast, and I was scared of losing you again and you getting yourself hurt... But that was foolish of me... There is legend that the Dark One can be defeated, but at what cost? I myself know I have too much to lose to find out... I wish I could give you any other explanation than that you have to of this because the man with whom you dealt is called Rumplestiltskin and that makes it so... Something that you could find your own peace with.. But I can't. I tried to stop you from going, but in hindsight, I believe that what you did... That in you seeking the hateful imp out after everything that happened... You carry a certain amount of grace where Gold is concerned... Indeed, he has treated you in a way far better than I had expected him to, particularly as he has now already persuaded you to come with him thus far... Make no mistake, I despise the wretched man, but he is a far better ally than enemy... It bodes well for you that you seem to stand in his favour... But, he will make you do this... You have no choice."
"I-"
"-But Emma... You are a wonderful person... An obnoxious pain in the backside, most certainly... But a wonderful person nonetheless. This is going to be okay... Is it ideal? No... But it's not the end of the world. You have no way of knowing how Baelfire feels about Gold all these years later. I am sure he feels anger, abandonment, maybe even hate... But there could be good that comes of this, too... Whatever happens, it's not your fault- this whole insane business was orchestrated before you were even born for christ's sake- and it doesn't make you a bitch. Yes, you may make things difficult for another person for a while, but you will also finally be free of... Of what he created you for.
You deserve that."
"Thank you..."
Slim arms envelope the Sheriff's slender frame warmly, and there is no sexuality to the gesture, but simply friendship, and the Queen smiles as the younger woman hugs her back firmly.
Pulling away, Regina offers a small smile; pushing back long tangles to inspect the blonde's rather peaky face and rubbing away the last of the tear tracks that glisten at her jaw.
"Come on... Let's get this over and done with."