A/N: happy Sunday one and all!
The night was restless. Henry struggled to get comfortable and whimpered whenever the duvet touched his knees, even though the wounds had been covered after Ursula had finished cleaning them. Eventually Regina had put two pairs of socks on his feet to stop him getting cold and wrapped the blanket around his midriff. But he slept fitfully. Which meant Regina did too.
The following morning, she yawned and ran her hand through tousled hair as she waited for her coffee to brew and Henry's bread to toast. Shuffling back to their room with a loaded tray, Regina found her son sitting up in bed, tapping on his iPad.
"Hi my little prince. Are you hungry?" she asked. The boy had been barely awake when she left to prepare their breakfast.
"Can I have chocolate?"
"Not for breakfast, no," Regina replied, placing the tray on the bedside table and off-loading the glass of orange juice and plate of toast, now slathered in peanut butter.
Henry pouted but accepted the verdict. In reality, he knew chocolate for breakfast was never going to be sanctioned, especially after the copious amount of ice cream he had eaten the night before. But, to be fair, his hands and knees really did hurt and the ice cream definitely helped.
He picked up a piece of toast, crumbs spraying all over the duvet at the first bite. Regina winced, realising she was going to have to do a load of laundry that day. Well, it wasn't like she had anything else to do. The CV sat unfinished on the shelter's laptop. After initially being so forward-thinking about getting a job and her own place, her motivation had waned somewhat. A voice at the back of Regina's head told her why. Emma. If she and Henry left the shelter, when would she see Emma? The blonde was so busy and spent so much of her time at work. Regina wasn't sure how she and her son would fit into the woman's life.
Realising that the blonde may appear at any moment and that she looked rather dishevelled, Regina took a gulp of her coffee and told Henry she was going to take a shower and would be back as soon as possible. The boy nodded his understanding, eyes already locked back on the iPad where he appeared to be playing a game which involved shooting colourful alien-like creatures.
The shelter's bathrooms were communal and it had taken Regina a while to get used to them. She liked her privacy. There was something about the setup which reminded her of prison, well, according to the television shows she had watched. But the shower cubicles were large and fully enclosed, clearly designed to be used by families.
She washed quickly, running a razor over her legs and under her arms. She wasn't sure who she was shaving for; herself, perhaps. Habit? Leo insisted Regina was always smooth. She cursed herself for thinking of him, for allowing thoughts of her husband to arrive so early in the morning. But having lathered up with her favourite apple scented shower gel, she was feeling much happier, more awake and ready for the day. Towelling off as best she could while surrounded by steam, hanging low in the air, she got dressed and exited the cubicle.
"Hey, how's Henry?" Marian asked, catching sight of her friend in the bathroom mirror.
"Ok, I think. He's still in bed," Regina replied. "Did you tell the school office that he'd be off for a few days?"
Marian nodded, turning around as she placed her toothbrush in her washbag. "Yes, they had assumed. Someone saw him go flying yesterday, so they knew he probably wouldn't be around. They said it's all ok but if he's going to be out for more than a week, he'll need to do some catch up work."
"He'll be fine by Monday, I think," Regina replied. "Are you working today?"
Marian nodded. "Yes, I start at ten. I'm going to have to finish early though to pick Roland up."
"I can do that," Regina offered.
"But you won't be going up to the school yourself," Marian frowned.
"It's no problem. Happy to help out. You'll repay the favour some time anyway."
Marian cocked her head to one side. "You're a great friend, you know that? I bet there are a few people back in Maine who really miss you."
Regina, who had been leaning against the wall, stiffened and stood up. The change in posture wasn't lost on Marian who immediately realised her words had touched a nerve. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."
"I've got to go," Regina replied. "I'll pick Roland up and give him a snack or whatever he needs until you get back this evening."
"Regina, I'm sorry," Marian called after the brunette who strode out of the bathroom without another word.
She didn't slow down her pace as she entered the corridor, Marian's words echoing in her head. She wasn't sure exactly what it was that had triggered the swooping sense of dread in her stomach. She was confident no one back in Maine missed her, per se. She had no friends. At least, no friends who weren't closer to Leo than herself. The only person who would be directly feeling her absence was her husband. And that emotion wasn't going to be the fact that he missed Regina rather that his wife, cleaner, cook and personal punching bag had disappeared without his consent.
Yes, Leo wouldn't be missing his wife. He'd be angry; irate even. Not for the first time, Regina wondered what had happened when Leo first came to the conclusion that his wife and son had left and weren't coming back. What had he done? Who had he called? Was he looking for them?
Regina was lost in her own thoughts as she pushed open the door to her room and it took her a moment to register that her son was talking to someone. She blinked as she took in the blonde woman sat on her bed who was smiling gently at her.
"Mom, Emma came to see me!" Henry announced, peanut butter smeared over his face, with a tiny amount even perched on the tip of his nose.
"I can see that," Regina said, draping her wet towel on the back of the chair and placing her washbag and folded pyjamas on a small side table. "Um, hi."
"Hi," Emma replied. "Henry was just telling me what happened yesterday. It sounds like he was very brave."
"I didn't cry at all," Henry announced proudly.
Regina decided now wasn't the time to call out her son for lying and instead reached for a wet wipe and proceeded to remove the food from around his mouth. "Did you have any juice?" she asked, noting that the glass appeared untouched.
"I can't pick up the cup," Henry said, holding up his hands as if presenting evidence.
"Ok, would you like some juice?" When Henry nodded, Regina picked up the glass and tipped it carefully to her son's lips. He took several gulps and then began to pull away. Regina righted the glass just before the liquid spilled onto the bedsheets which, in her absence, had accumulated even more crumbs.
"Do you need anything else?" Regina asked.
Henry shook his head and reached for the iPad he appeared to have discarded when Emma arrived. At least he has manners, Regina mused, as she picked up the dregs of her now lukewarm coffee and crossed to sit on her bed beside Emma.
"Hey," she said, looking at the blonde once she was confident Henry was absorbed in his game.
"Hi, sorry, I didn't mean to barge in but I wanted to see you both. Are you ok? You looked angry when you walked in."
Regina nodded. "I'm fine. Thank you for coming. Yesterday was hard. As a mother, you do everything in your power to try and protect your children but sometimes they get hurt anyway. It was just awful to see him falling like that. It felt like the world slowed down and I was powerless to stop the inevitable. But he did do really well. Ursula was great, by the way. I couldn't have cleaned his knees myself and I wasn't in a position to go to hospital, so she was really helpful."
"The shelter can cover some medical costs," Emma said. "For future reference. Although I hope neither of you need it."
"Thanks, Marian said as much. But I don't think we needed to go. Once the wounds were clean, we just bandaged them. Now it's a case of waiting for them to heal."
"Is that why you were angry? Because of Henry's knees?"
Regina shook her head. "No, I was just … thinking."
"Thinking made you angry?"
"My thoughts made me angry," Regina said.
"What were you thinking about?" Emma asked.
Regina glanced over to her son. He might be staring at his iPad but she had no way of telling how much he was listening to and absorbing. It wasn't appropriate for them to have this conversation within earshot. Cool fingers gently covered her own, pulling Regina's gaze back to the woman beside her.
"Another time," she said quietly. "When we don't have an audience."
"Ok," Emma said, withdrawing her fingers in case Regina didn't want to risk her son seeing the contact between them.
"How's Ruby?"
"Sad," Emma replied. "Really sad. I don't know how to make her happy again."
"You can't do anything to make her happy right now. She's grieving. Time will help but for now, all you can do is be there for her."
"She's barely moved from the couch. She wouldn't eat last night. Should I be worried?"
Emma had tried to suggest to Ruby that she sleep in her own bed. She'd received a single shake of the head. She then suggested that they order take out. That too was rejected. As was Emma's offer to cook. She had given up eventually and made herself a sandwich which she ate sitting at the far end of the couch, in the small space which wasn't taken up by Ruby's mound of blankets. Her attention was only half on the television but Ruby wasn't focused at all. For most of the evening, she had stared at the ceiling. Tears occasionally rolled down her cheeks. When Emma had gone to bed, Ruby had said she'd stay up a bit longer but when she emerged the following morning, the redhead hadn't moved.
"It's normal," Regina assured. "I don't think I ate for a week after my parents died. You just have to be patient, let her know you're there for her, whatever she needs. It's still all very new; she'll start to come to terms with it soon and then she'll deal with her sadness and start to get back to her old self."
"Is that what happened to you?"
"Sort of," Regina nodded. Now wasn't the time to tell Emma that in the wake of her parents' death she was not only grieving their lives but also the changing behaviour of her husband and an escalation of the abuse.
"I don't want to leave you but I've got to get some work done," Emma said. "Do you need anything? Do you want me to take a look at Henry's knees? I'm first aid trained."
"Maybe later? He seems pretty content right now and I don't want to remind him or aggravate the healing process. But thank you for the offer. And thank you for coming."
"You're welcome," Emma smiled. "I'm sorry for coming in before you got back but Henry invited me to wait. He even told he I could sit on your bed. Is that weird? I mean, this is the first time we've sat on a bed together and it's not how I pictured this happening."
Despite everything which had happened in the past twenty-four hours, Regina's eyes darkened. "Oh really? And how did you picture us when we first sat on a bed together?"
Eyebrows rose. "Well, I imagined that we'd be in my bedroom in my apartment. Ruby would be out, of course. And Henry would be … somewhere else. And we'd start out kissing and -"
"Oh my God, stop," Regina interrupted, shooting a panicked look at her son who seemed to have not been paying them the slightest bit of attention.
Emma frowned. "But you asked me how I imagined it."
"I was flirting," Regina sighed, chuckling with exasperation. "I didn't expect you to actually describe the scene."
"Oh, sorry." Good work, Emma, the counsellor thought to herself. Now she's laughing at you.
Realising the blonde was a little hurt, Regina reached out and squeezed the woman's knee. "But I liked what I heard. Maybe some time, when we're not within earshot of my son, I can hear the rest of this imagining of yours. I'm intrigued to know where it leads."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah," Regina said, eyes darting down to rest on Emma's lips for a moment. "Very intrigued."
This was more flirting, Emma's brain supplied. Emma had never been very good at flirting. Double entendres were confusing for her and logic and practical thinking were definitely non-sexy. But perhaps Regina would like a teaser as to how her imagined scene unfolded. That was the logical way in which television shows trailed next week's episodes, right?
"Well, I'll leave you with this," Emma said, leaning in a little further. "It involves the two of us … and no clothes."
Regina had to do everything in her power not to close the ever smaller gap between their mouths as she heard those words. She subconsciously squeezed her thighs together and took a shaking breath. "Emma," she whispered.
"Too much?" the blonde asked, wondering whether her flirting had been good or bad.
"Not enough," Regina admitted. "Go, please, before I can't control myself and we scar my son for life."
Emma grinned. The way Regina spoke made her confident that she'd performed admirably in the flirting department. She stood up, said goodbye to Henry and made her way to the door. Before passing through it, she turned and discretely blew a kiss to Regina. On the bed, as she watched the tall blonde pout in her direction, Regina felt her heart melt a little. Was that the moment, she wondered years later? Was that the moment she realised how she truly felt about Emma Swan?
Whenever work allowed that day, Emma checked in on Regina and Henry. She made far more cups of tea than she usually did and even had a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack, just to cover as an excuse to make her way from the reception to the kitchen, via Regina's room. Except, the excuse wasn't really working.
"Hey, Emma, can I ask you something?" Ursula asked as Emma reappeared just before the end of their shift, carrying a cookie.
"Sure, do you need help with that exit paperwork?" One of the women for whom Ursula was assigned as their primary contact had secured an apartment and was moving out the following morning. After almost two months at Swan's Shelter, Ursula had to make sure the woman's documents were all in order before she left.
"No, that's all done. It's on your desk for approval. Um, this is about Regina Mills."
Emma looked at her employee for a moment before sinking into the vacant chair. "What about her?"
"I was just wondering, I mean, I know you're her case worker and everything but she was really insistent I call you about Henry's fall yesterday. Is she ok? Did I do the right thing in agreeing to call you?"
It was only a matter of time, Emma supposed, before her staff started suspecting something. The problem was, she didn't know what to tell them. In fact, it was something she had considered speaking with Belle about. The psychologist was the only member of her team who knew about she and Regina, so she wanted to get her take on their relationship as well as how she should go about telling the rest of the shelter staff. But in that moment, she still didn't yet want people to know exactly what was going on.
"She's fine, Ursula, thanks for asking. And yes, you did the right thing in calling me. Regina just needed someone to talk to about Henry. She's not from New York so she doesn't have friends nearby."
"She has Marian and Kathryn," Ursula pointed out. "Marian was by her side the whole evening. And I was right there if she wanted to talk."
"I know, but I'm her case worker. We've spent quite a bit of time together over the past few weeks."
"I've noticed," Ursula muttered under her breath.
Emma was about to chastise her staff member for such a comment but decided to let it slide. Instead, she settled on a truthful fact, although one which didn't necessarily apply to Regina. "Some of the women who come here need more support than others. Myself and Belle have been meeting regularly with Regina to help her come to terms with the decision she has made. A decision which affected both her and her son, by the way. I think Henry's accident reminded Regina of the fact that it's just the two of them now. She has to provide for this child all alone and perhaps yesterday there was a moment of self-doubt. She needed some reassurance from me; I gave it to her. So yes, you did the right thing in calling me, thank you."
"Ok, well, I guess that makes sense. It's just, you know, unusual."
"Every woman is different," Emma said, getting to her feet. "There is no usual in this line of work. We treat every person as an individual and tailor our services to suit their needs. Anyway, it's almost five. You can leave early if you want. I'll wait for Ella to come on shift and do the handover. Do you have notes for her?"
Ursula, understanding that she was being dismissed, shook her head and set about packing up her desk and handbag. A couple of minutes later, she stuck her head around Emma's office door, where the woman had started the task of checking over the exit paperwork, and said goodbye.
Once she had gone, Emma put her pen down and sighed. She was too distracted to work. All this sneaking around was hard. She didn't want to hide what she had with Regina. But at the same time, she didn't want all of the other women in the shelter knowing they were now involved. True, she and Regina had history but she still feared it was a bad impression. No, their relationship had to remain a secret until Regina moved out. When would that be? Emma made a mental note to discuss finishing Regina's CV so the woman could apply for jobs once Henry was on the mend.
Every time she had gone to see him that day, the boy had been watching something on the iPad or listening to Regina read him a story. Regina had been in the room all day too. Remembering that she had promised to check on Henry's knees, Emma was relieved when Ella appeared to start the night shift and she was able to hand over before make an excuse to slip into the back of the shelter once more.
Unlocking Belle's office, she located the first aid kit which was kept inside and proceeded down the corridor. She knocked lightly on Regina's door, in case Henry was asleep. He wasn't as she saw when Regina opened the door.
"Hey, kid, how are you doing?"
"I'm bored," Henry announced. "All of the games and movies on my iPad and stupid and Mom won't let me download new ones."
Regina raised her eyebrows at Emma before asking the blonde how her day was.
"It was good thanks. I just came here to see if you wanted me to check Henry's wounds."
"Oh, yeah, I guess that would be sensible. Henry, do you mind if Emma takes a look at your knees?"
Henry pouted. "But my knees hurt. I don't want Emma to hurt my knees by touching them."
"I'll be really gentle," Emma assured him. "But your mom and I need to make sure Ursula cleaned them up really well yesterday because if there's any dirt in there, it could make you sick."
The boy frowned but eventually nodded his agreement. The blanket was still wrapped around just his upper body, so his legs stuck out in plain view already. After a nod from Regina, Emma sat on the edge of the bed and began to carefully peel off the tape which held the gauze over Henry's knees. The boy winced and pulled away just as Emma came to the part where she needed to lift the white covering. Regina quickly moved to sit beside the boy, cooing softly and assuring him that it would be ok.
With the gauze carefully removed, Emma peered into the raw, oozing wound. Regina grimaced and hugged Henry tighter. Somehow the injury looked worse the day after. Henry, however, leaned forwards. "Ew, that's gross! Can I touch it?"
"No," Emma replied. "Poking this would hurt a lot. But it looks nice and clean. No infection, it's already starting to heal."
"Am I gonna have scars?" Henry asked, eyes lit up with excitement at the prospect.
"Yep," Emma nodded, fishing out a new piece of gauze and quickly but carefully recovering the open wound. "Two big scars on your knees. You'll look like a war hero."
"But I didn't fight a war," Henry frowned. "I was running and I fell over … a big rock."
Clearly even at the age of six, Henry understood there was some level of embarrassment which came with tripping over his own feet. Neither Emma nor Regina pulled him up on his lie, however, and instead Regina started telling Henry about how she had been thrown from a horse when she was younger and broken her arm. She pulled up the sleeve of her top and pointed out the thin jagged line which ran up her inner forearm where a metal plate had been inserted to strengthen the shattered bone. Emma listened as she worked, all the while fighting the urge to ask a question she had long since wanted to know the answer to. What happened to Regina's lip?
Emma could remember when Regina came into school, her arm in a sling, after the horse riding accident. She had paraded around the school as if she had fallen after winning the Kentucky Derby. But the scar which crossed her upper lip was new. Or, at least, new within the last fourteen years. Emma had a theory. She had been working with victims of domestic abuse for too long not to assume the damage was caused by an enraged spouse. And judging by the bruised ribs Regina was suffering from when she first arrived, she suspected Leo was indeed the perpetrator.
"Emma?"
"What?" she looked up, realising she had drifted off and now had two identical sets of brown eyes gazing at her. "Sorry, I didn't hear you."
"Henry asked if you wanted to have lasagne with us tomorrow night. I've promised to cook it for him to say well done for being so brave."
"Oh, yes, I'd love that. Thank you for the invite, Henry."
"You're welcome. Can you bring ice cream for dessert?"
Emma glanced at Regina who was smiling and nodded slightly at her. "Yes, Henry, I think I can bring some ice cream."
"Thanks!" Henry exclaimed before reaching for his 'boring' iPad and at once being absorbed by the screen.
Emma got up from the bed, as did Regina. She gathered up the old gauzes and tape, placed them in a bag for medical waste and tidied up the rest of the box. "So, I guess I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yes," Regina nodded. "Thank you for doing that. Say thank you to Emma please, Henry."
The thank you came without the boy's eye shifting from the screen. Regina sighed but Emma laughed. "It's fine. I don't mind. I'll be looking forward to that lasagne all day."
"I wish we could spend some time together away from this place," Regina confessed in a quieter voice, moving towards the door. "In fact, I asked Marian if she would watch Henry one night so the two of us could, you know, have a normal date, I suppose."
"Yeah? I'd like that."
"When? I mean, what days work for you?"
"I always work both Saturday and Sunday nights so, Friday?" Emma suggested. "I can cook, if you would like that."
"At your apartment? Won't Ruby be there?"
"No, she wants to come back to work and she usually works Friday night. She called me earlier and said she wants to start back tomorrow. Said she needs the distraction because she's too 'in her head' if she's at home. Do you think it's too soon? I do. I told her to take at least a week."
Regina shrugged. "If she wants to get back to normal and have some sort of routine, maybe it will do her some good."
"I suppose. I'll keep a close eye on her."
"You're a good friend."
"Maybe. I mean, I hope I am."
"I think you are. And you're a great girlfriend, just for the record."
The term warmed Emma's heart. She glanced past Regina and saw that Henry was still engrossed in the screen. She shifted slightly to the left, ensuring that she was blocked from the boy's view by his mother. With a glint in her eye, she leaned forwards and placed a short, soft kiss to Regina's lips. "So, are we on for Friday?"
"If Marian isn't working, yes."
"I can't wait," Emma replied, stealing one final, quick kiss before she left the room.
A/N: Next chapter is date night. And the chapter after that will mean a change of rating …