Chapter 13: Taste of freedom.
Henry like clockwork always woke up as soon as she fell asleep, the first week with the baby was as hard for her mind as it was for her exhausted body, she hadn't slept a second since she brought the baby to her hotel, not because Henry was particularly difficult, but because she felt like she needed to watch him 24/7 for him to remain alive, like he was suddenly going to stop breathing if she closed her eyes. So, she didn't allow herself to have a single second of rest, simply worried about ruining probably her last chance to have some happiness in her life, like she ultimately always did.
She was living out of espressos and Coke, it wasn't healthy in the least, but it wasn't like she was the epitome of a healthy diet before anyways, but despite the exhaustion, she felt in a constant state of euphoria, like she was high on some kind of baby love drug. However, Henry's peaceful face as he slept in his crib and the now constant calls Emma made to her phone to ask for the baby and try to keep the loneliness she felt in prison at bay, were the only reasons why she had made it through the first week, all on her own in that hotel room.
But the day was close, when she had to leave her perfectly crafted baby stalking nest, to be at the prison the next morning with Emma and since the blonde still didn't want Henry to come, she would have to leave him. Even though Regina didn't want to separate from the baby, she knew she had to be there for the blonde, so she prepared everything for the few hours she was going to be gone, she hired a nanny to babysit Henry and hired Roxanne to babysit the sitter, because there was no way she would leave him alone with a stranger, not after spending the whole week trying to blink at a minimum rate to keep an eye on him at all cost. No, if there was something she was sure of, was that she wouldn't let anyone ruin her perfect newfound family, especially not a bubblegum-chewing high school sitter.
Everything was set and when she threatened the babysitter for the tenth time that morning she left towards the prison.
Emma looked heartbroken when they met and she tried to comfort her the best she could, but she knew the only comfort Emma had at that moment was that she was leaving prison in just a couple more months.
Regina visited her as often as she used to before Henry was born, telling her everything about the baby, how he would always grip her thumb when she gave him the bottle and how he grew up so fast, that he was leaving all the clothes she had gotten for him behind, and she had to pay a weekly visit to the local baby store.
She would also send Emma handwritten letters during the week when the wait for the visitation felt particularly long, most of them with pictures of her and their precious baby boy.
Somehow the four months left of Emma's sentence came to an end sooner than she expected, she didn't know how to explain it but it seemed like it had just been yesterday Henry was delivered and now she was on her last ride to the prison to pick up her little Swan, although, maybe not so little anymore.
...
Leaving prison felt like a fresh breeze of air reaching her lungs for the first time in months, she felt like she could finally breathe after all this time, but it wasn't only the fact that she had finally regained her freedom, but that for once in her life she felt like she had something, someone to belong with.
Regina was like a vision waiting outside of the prison near the cab she came in, tight fitted white dress, black five-inch pumps, and a huge smile decorating her plump red lips. Emma felt the urge to run to her side as soon as their eyes collided, she lifted the brunette in the air and twirled on her spot a few times before she let the brunette down on her feet again. It wasn't until she took a glance at the perfect mix between fluster and shock in Regina's face that she noticed it, her hands still firmly grasping the brunette's ass, like two squashy stress cushions she had just grabbed possession of. Emma coughed, stepping away from the brunette and shoving her hands quickly into the depths of her jeans' pockets, waiting for the brunette to say anything, anything at all, but the brunette just looked at her in that shocked state and the freedom fresh air that she was breathing seconds ago suddenly became thick.
"So, this is the other mommy of your child", Ryan interrupted the awkward atmosphere creating between them, "she's damn hot, no wonder why you came out drooling from your visitations every single time".
"Oh my god! Ryan, shut up and get in the car", the brunette said, sending a murderous glare his way.
"Did she now?", Emma asked amused.
"No, I didn't!", Regina replied embarrassed and her flustered cheeks said otherwise.
"Yes, she did", Ryan said, winking at the blonde, right before he jumped on the driver's seat.
"You are so fired, Ryan", the brunette muttered as she opened the door for Emma to jump in the backseat before her.
Emma held her breath as Regina slid in the backseat beside her, her tight dress sliding up her legs in the slightest torturous way, and her hand rapidly cutting the distance between them to softly rest upon her denim-wrapped thigh.
"You are finally here," she said softly, squeezing Emma's thigh, almost as if she needed further proof that the blonde was indeed sitting by her side, the blonde simply bit her bottom lip and nodded in response.
She wasn't sure when it happened. When her fastening breath because of the mere presence of the brunette in the same room was no longer caused by her rage, but because of something else, something that increased her heart rate and sent crazy butterflies down to her lower belly, but here she was trembling like gelatin under the woman's soft touch and her unbearable proximity.
"Emma?", the brunette said and this time she grasped her hand to make her snap out of her thoughts.
"Ern, sorry?", she knew Regina had asked her something, but she had not the faintest idea of what it was.
"I asked you if you are ready to meet Henry?", Emma limited to nod in response, because suddenly she seemed to be unable to pronounce any eloquent sentence, she was merely conscious of her now sweaty hand being held by the brunette's one, "I'm so glad you are back by my side", the woman said resting her head on Emma's shoulder and slithering her free arm around her waist.
Honestly, Regina was unable to keep her hands to herself, the whole trip back to the hotel. All the months she spent deprived of expressing how she really felt through a caress or unable to comfort the blonde with a hug, because she was just not allowed to, suddenly collided in the form of the clingy life-sucking octopus she had become when she got the blonde all to herself in the intimacy of that taxi backseat.
The only trace of self-restraint she had left, she invested it into avoiding ruining things by doing the only thing she craved for at that moment, kissing the blonde, because she knew the moment she succumbed to that impulse she would probably lose her forever and she was not going to let that happen, so she settled for enjoying the moment as she buried her head in the unruly blonde mane of the girl she loved the most.
...
"Look who is here little prince, say hi to momma, yes, she is, momma is back with us", Regina was a completely different person around the baby, she gleamed, her smile grew impossibly brighter and her whole behavior switched into a big bubble of sweetness, that if poked with a needle, would probably explode into a million piled up gummy bears, each of them so fiercely protective as she and equally capable of destroying anyone who would dare to threaten her baby in less than a heartbeat, " do you want to hold him Emma?", the woman asked her, rocking the baby in her arms, while she approached the blonde that had been standing near the bedroom door since their arrival a couple of minutes ago.
"I don't know how to", Emma accepted doubtful when Regina made it to her side.
"Okay then, why don't you sit in the bed and I help you", Regina offered, pulling the blonde by her hand and dragging her to the queen-sized bed in the middle of the room. She made the blonde sit in the bed and she sat beside her, carefully placing the baby in her arms and accommodating them correctly so both Henry and the blonde were comfortable.
Henry reached out and grabbed a handful of Emma's blonde curls, he pulled the lock of hair towards himself like it was the tip of his favorite blanket and yawned, resting his little face against it as his eyes shut closed heavily.
"Is it weird that I suddenly want longer hair?", Regina let out, ruffling Henry's hair in a soft caress.
"I'm quite fond of your hair like this", Emma said in response like that was the decisive argument on the matter.
...
After expending the whole day with Regina and Henry, Emma concluded that this life was too good to be true. Henry was the most perfect baby and it was hard to believe that she had given life to that little being all by her own. And Regina, was that woman even real? She truthfully didn't know, maybe she was indeed from a fairytale world because there was no other explanation she could find to describe the flawless woman now walking Henry around the swimming pool in his baby rubber ring, her tiny bikini was only half covered by the water, not quite enough to prevent Emma's cheeks from blushing every time her eyes lingered longer than necessary on the brunette exposed perfect body.
"Like what you see?", Regina asked, breaking the silence with a lopsided smirk and snapping the blonde out of her thoughts.
Emma choked on her words, unable to pronounce any coherent sentence.
"Do you like the view?", The brunette tried once again, sticking her lips out to point at the view from the rooftop swimming pool.
"It's stunning", Emma finally said still doubtful of whether the brunette had chosen those words unintentionally or whether she had done it just to tease her, something in Regina's smirk told the blonde that this woman never misspoke unless she wanted to, unintentional or not the brunette succeeded in making her blush and the blonde felt the urge to submerge her flushed cheeks underwater so Regina wouldn't see them.
She remained like that with her face sunk in the water, her nose sticking out of the surface just enough to breathe and her dampened hair cascading around her face and floating in the water in front of her. She observed Regina cooing at Henry and walking him around the pool while she just watched from the distance. She thought for a moment of the possibility of simply walking to where the brunette was, taking that amazing and stunning woman in her arms, and kissing her like her heart deeply desired, but she restrained herself not wanting to risk scaring her off her life again. She could not afford to lose her now, nor did she want to ruin things for Henry as well, he already had the misfortune of having a messy mother, she wouldn't be the cause for him to lose the good one.
...
The first day of Emma's newfound freedom was as perfect as it could be, the first night on the other hand was a completely different story. It was all fun and games until she had to lie in bed beside the brunette in her hotel room, her heart was pounding so loud in her ears that she thought it impossible that Regina wasn't able to hear it. Watching her perfect body wrapped in only a tiny bikini from a safe distance in the swimming pool was one thing, but now laying so close to her body that she could feel the warmth emanating from her skin only inches apart from hers was completely different and felt much more like torture. She tried to concentrate on breathing slowly, but the constant and rapid moves her chest made up and down proved that she was doing a very lousy job at keeping her lungs in check.
Regina beside her was made of stone. Emma wasn't completely convinced the brunette was as fast asleep as she pretended to be but she was certainly more convincing than the blonde when it came to pretending to be unconscious. It was about two or three hours after they went to bed that the blonde thought the brunette's act felt convincing enough. Her breathing was slow and even and only then Emma allowed herself to open her eyes and take a peek at the brunette woman beside her.
Stunningly beautiful was an expression that came up short when it came to describing Regina Mills. The moonlight seeping through the blinds dimly illuminated the Brunette's features, her olive skin glimmered under the moonlight, and the relaxed expression she had was extremely rare to see on her face and made the blonde feel more privileged to witness it than the one of utter happiness she always wore when looking at Henry and sometimes even at the blonde, this could perfectly be her favorite expression she had ever seen on the brunette's face.
Regina moved slightly and the blonde automatically held her breath and shut her eyes closed, but the brunette's even and paused breathing continued and Emma knew instantly she was still asleep. She observed the sleeping woman for a long time, feeling a little like a stalker, but she didn't pay much attention to this feeling, after all, if anyone was going to be deemed a stalker that was going to be Regina, not her, that of course under the supposition that she fully believed in magic mirrors now. Emma's mind still pushed her to deny the undeniable fact that there were indeed magical mirrors in Regina's world, even though she had checked the lockets connection that same day when Regina insisted that one day she would have to believe in magic again, but the rational part of her brain was giving her a hard time to believe even in the possibility that all of the brunette's stories were true, after all, it was just ridiculous to believe in fairytales, she was no longer the five-year-old kid that believed in magical women coming out of mirrors to rescue her, even when Regina looked indeed like a magical apparition every single time she laid eyes on her.
The blonde had her mind so invested in the impossibility of magic existence that she didn't have time to even blink when the brunette moved again in her sleep, this time much less slightly than before and much more intimately. All of a sudden Emma was being pulled into Regina's embrace, one of her arms wrapped around her frame pulling her close to her chest and her hand firmly grasping one of her breasts. She was paralyzed in the embrace, her breath faltering and her heart pounding fast again.
"Emma", Regina whispered in her ear and for a moment she thought the brunette was awake, but she noticed she wasn't when the brunette started moaning for no apparent reason, remaining as still as a rock just holding her breast and moaning in her ear. She was well aware that her duty was to wake up the brunette or at least try to make her loosen up the tight grip she had on her breast, but she did none. She remained there, feeling how the moaning of the other woman was taking the best of her, she could feel her now wet underwear and rock-hard aroused nipples poking out through the thin fabric of her t-shirt, she was sure Regina would feel that if she by any chance would wake up, but there was not a single reason for the brunette to wake up not if it was in her hands to remain silent until the woman calmed down and turned around to keep sleeping. Of course, she was not counting on the fact that Regina's increasing moaning would wake up Henry in his crib and he would start crying automatically waking up the brunette.
Fire wouldn't burn a dry forest in summer as fierce as the blood burning under the skin of Emma's cheeks when the brunette sat up in bed looking down on her with her hand still cupping her clearly aroused breast.
AN/: I'm back bitches! So I know I disappeared for years, if it makes you feel better I constantly felt guilty for leaving but being honest I was not in a place to keep writing Swan Queen, but I am now so here I am trying to redeem myself, anyways if there is anyone out there still wanting to read this story, this is for you.