A/N: Well... I'm relieved to have this chapter out the way, and, surprisingly, actually really liked writing most of the latter part! I'd worried about this, as, I know from reviews, some of the rest of you did, but I'm really hoping- after almost 100 chapters!- I've done a good enough job of allowing this relationship to progress enough for things to move on. I'd mentioned in a previous A/N- now removed in my editing, whoops- that I'd had some doubts on my chosen storyline for this fic, but, it is what it is, and I now think I like what I've done with it :) I know it might sometimes SEEEEM like I want to shove these ladies into ALL the drama, but, this has become a long fic, and it's something I think is necessary :) I really hope the way they deal with this from now on gathers me some agreement on that case :)
Also, on a side note, after reading some reviews, I just wanted to express that I find it interesting how many of you want to see more blood on Neal's part :p I'm going to try my absolute best to write this in a way that fits my fic so far, but just wanted to say that I actually really like Neal/Bae as a character in general, as I do with most of them. There's actually only one (possibly two) characters in the whole show I genuinely dislike, but I really try when writing to keep it fair, and I don't think I've touched on this or hopefully given away who, as that was never the point of writing this :) I'm rambling; I'll stop. Please enjoy, and please please please comment! :)
"You two know each other..."
Silence follows this simple statement, and Gold has been through enough altercations in his long life to know that this is usually not a positive sign. Looking from his son down to the blonde that kneels over the Mayor with her jaw visibly clenched, he allows his mind to start reeling off possibilities but comes up empty.
He has heard the saying 'it's a small world', and both Bae and Emma have played outsiders to the safe haven of Storybrooke... He supposes for the two of them to have crossed paths is not entirely implausible, but...
"You do?"
Regina speaks now, and she directs her words towards the Sheriff alone; brow furrowing as she strives to obtain some small measure of comprehension over the situation.
"No."
Is all the blonde has to offer, and Baelfire interrupts her with his own bemused frown
"What? Emma... Why-"
"-He must have heard you call me by my name. I don't know him."
But she doubts she's fooling anyone; her tone cold and placid, but the idiot with the bleeding nose commands a kinder audience simply due to the hurt expression her adamant refusal to acknowledge him garners.
Can't believe people must still fall for that...
Gold breaks the silence.
"Bae? Do you know her?"
"I..."
The brunet frowns at his father- wishing the little man wouldn't stand so close... Wishing he wasn't here at all!- before glancing back down at Emma uneasily.
He hurt her; this he knows.
As to the specifics, he remains unsure, but he knows the part that matters: he is responsible for the blonde's incarceration, and he let her take the fall for something she didn't do.
He'd had no choice, mind!
But, then, she wouldn't know this...
After all... He never even wrote her- couldn't write her- sufficing simply to give her the keys to the old crappy car in which they'd met- by now long since reduced to scrap metal, he is sure- and call it quits.
He'd had to.
Pinnoccio had said it was so.
All that aside... He had cared for her, and he is uncomfortable now going against her clear wish to feign lack of familiarity.
"I... Don't know..."
He finishes lamely; thus concluding what they all- by now- already know. Looking down at the blonde for guidance, he is met with no help as she continues to blank him; Emma pushing herself briskly to her feet before pulling up the well-dressed woman that had been sent sprawling onto the cobbles by the pawnbroker.
"I see... Well-"
But Gold is cut short as the Sheriff interrupts him sharply; already turning to leave.
"-Deal's done, Gold. You have your son... Come on, let's go..."
She offers towards the brunette, who in turn opens her mouth in confusion, looking from the pawnbroker to Emma uncertainly.
"Emma... What's going on?"
"Nothing."
"But-"
"-Nothing's going on, Regina. I'm going to go find somewhere that serves decent coffee and get the hell out out of this fucking frigid alleyway. If that counts as something 'going on', then fine, that's what's going on."
Casting a final glance towards the man whose upper lip now bares a drying crust of scarlet, the Mayor hurries after the younger woman with a pained wince at the sting from her grazed knee.
"Now hold on, dearie! You can't just-"
"-Yes! I can!"
The blonde turns round to shout at Gold, and Regina stops in her tracks in alarm at the ferocity that dances in the Sheriff's eyes. It is the anger she has been waiting for from Emma, but now that it's here, she is a little disconcerted; feeling she is missing a very large chunk of the puzzle, and not liking this predicament one little bit.
"Emma, please come back..."
The man speaks now, and the Mayor's dark tresses glisten as she whips her head around to look from one to the other.
"No!"
Wavering now, and Gold and Regina glance at each other with mutual wary confusion.
"Yes! We need to talk! I mean... You know my dad?! Why is he here with you? Where's Pinnoccio? You-"
"-Where's who?! Are you seriously fucking with me?!"
"No! I... Emma, don't walk off again! We need to talk! You need to hear me out!"
"No! I don't!"
"You owe me-"
"-I don't fucking owe you anything! You stood me up!"
"If you'll just let me explain-"
"-Explain what?! Why you led me on? Why you fucked me over?! You-"
"-Dearie, I understand that the fates have taken us all for fools and landed us with the situation of a lover's rift, but-"
"-You let them put me in jail! It should have been you, Neal! Not me!"
The Sheriff screams, paying Gold's interruption no mind, and then she's off; running once more, leaving the others standing in her wake open-mouthed.
"What did she just say?"
The Queen growls murderously as she turns back to face Bae.
"I... It's a long story... It's not how she made it sound..."
"...Oh? Because it sounds to me as though you were up to no good and coerced a young girl to take the fall for you..."
"You don't know what you're talking about..."
"No? Am I wrong?"
"Who are you?!"
"A friend of Miss Swan's."
Gold sighs at this, offering up weary insight he doubts will in any way better the situation.
"Bae, this is Regina. The Queen."
"The... It was you?!... You're the one that created the curse?... The curse that August warned me about-"
"-Who?"
"August... Pinnoccio..."
"Pin-... The man on the motorbike?! He's a part of all this?!... Oh, for heaven's sake... Of course he is... Why am I even surprised at this point?! Y-"
"-Well, if you are who you say you are... You're no friend of Emma's. Pinnoccio warned me that it was the Queen- the Evil Queen- who had brought upon Emma the fate of 'Saviour'... You're the reason she-"
"-Save it! If you think I'm about to stand here and allow judgement from a man taking advice from a talking tree, you are sorely mistaken... Gold... Did you know about... About this!?"
"I did not... Bae... What is your association with that woman?"
"Neal. It's Neal now... And I'm not saying another word to either of you until I speak to Emma."
The younger man growls; ducking away as the pawnbroker moves a hand up to rest on his shoulder.
Shaking her head, the brunette's tone is oddly childlike when she speaks.
"You hurt her... She won't want to speak to you."
"I didn't mean to hurt her. I meant to help her!"
"Oh? Just not enough to take the fall for whatever it is you did and keep her from going to jail..."
"I did that to help her! To help her fulfil whatever goddamn destiny she needed to fulfil!"
"You used her."
"I loved her!"
Pulling her coat tighter to her shivering frame, the brunette hisses angrily as a man holding a carton of milk- the majority of said beverage coating the wiry whiskers of his upper lip- stumbles into her and knocks her elbow.
"Watch it, lady!"
Dark eyes flash with a fury that does nothing to help the dull thud of her headache and the irritating sting of her knee. She is cold, on edge, and wandering the streets of this putrid, foreign city with her hair dishevelled and a large rip in the once pristine linen of her dress pants.
She is miserable...
...But she is on the search for the Sheriff.
To tell her or ask her what exactly, she doesn't know, but for now she will suffice simply to find her.
Care for the blonde comes before any displeasure she is sadly sure will be garnered in finding out more about just what the Dark One's son might have to do with the woman she loves.
Trying the younger woman's number once again, she presses her cell to her cheek and clenches her teeth as it goes straight to voicemail.
It is a common phenomena, she is discovering, that she ponders on her protectiveness towards the Sheriff- and just what the younger woman might have to offer in that ever dry and sarcastic way of hers on the matter- but the simple fact of the matter is; Emma had quite clearly been distraught, and had stormed off into the ether.
The bustling, hatefully loud ether.
After beating the crap out of the Dark One's son.
... These all seem to be the sorts of things that point towards one in need of being found before said 'one' does something characteristically reckless and stupid.
"Pain in my backside, Swan."
Regina mutters, glancing through the window of a seedy looking bar as she stalks past. It is a little early for such an establishment to receive much custom, but then, such is the perfect place for the confused and troubled, and besides, she doesn't imagine for a second that Emma is one to put social protocol before liquor.
Full lips form a thin smirk; inwardly aware that her mind continues to work off of the residue of her past dislike and turn it into bemused affection.
The bar is empty, save for a trio of old bearded men drowning themselves into an amber grave.
"Come on-"
-As if on cue, she jumps as her phone vibrates in her hand, and she is suddenly aware of just how tightly she has been gripping the device.
Glancing down at the screen and stepping to the side so as not to get bowled over by the hordes that pollute the streets, she opens up the text message it displays with a sigh.
Blonde Idiot: You rang?
Rolling her eyes and huffing audibly, her breath misting into wisped smoke with the cold, she taps back a reply with numb fingers.
Only about 12 times! We need to talk. I'm a block from the motel. Where are you?
Pressing send, she glares at the screen with baited breath, fretfully weighing up the chances that her response will be ignored, before her phone lights up with a new message
Blonde Idiot: There's a Starbucks at the end of the street... I did tell you I was going to get coffee... X
Rolling her eyes once more- another common phenomena when in any form of relationship with Emma Swan she decides- she stalks off towards and then past the motel; spying a luminescent sign in the distance.
Offering a belated, disinterested apology as she barges into a man in an ill-fitting suit exiting the establishment, Regina slips through the glass doors into the warmth of the cafe and scans the room briskly; spotting cascading gold in the corner and inwardly reprimanding herself for the soft warmth the sight brings.
Stalking towards the secluded booth, she stands with her hands on her hips, regarding the blonde irritably as Emma looks up at her moodily with a sigh. There is a wary pull to the Sheriff's mouth and an uneasy set to her otherwise determined frown, and the Mayor forgoes disdain for simple, detached small-talk.
"Should I be cutting you off?"
She sarks; pointing to the second paper cup that rests on the table beside the Sheriff's elevated boots.
"I ordered you one."
Emma replies with a shrug; causing the brunette to falter momentarily.
"You did?"
"Sure. If you don't want it, fine. Suit yourself. It's a cappuccino. Extra hot, wet, no chocolate."
"... Oh..."
The Queen murmurs, offering the younger woman a frown before falling into her seat while eying the proffered beverage.
"You're missing out. Mine has sprinkles... Try it if you want."
"I, uh... Okay... You... You ordered me a drink?"
Regina asks with her brow furrowed; deciding to start with the easiest of the questions milling around beneath dark tresses.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Well... I mean... How did you know I would... Well-"
"-How did I know you'd come find me?"
"I suppose...?"
"Simple."
"How's that?"
"You'll always find me."
"I... Right."
"Right... Now try my coffee; it's gingerbread flavour."
"... Uh-"
"-And come here. Sit down properly... No, not there... Sit next to me... If you'd like, that is."
"I... Of course I'd like... But Emma-"
"-Shut u-... Shush. Try my coffee and then drink yours... I... I need to tell you a story..."