Chapter one
The hand on Emma Swan's shoulder was supposed to be reassuring, a fact she would usually have appreciated.
The plastic rectangle held between her fingers was making it difficult to be more than vaguely aware of her surroundings.
Her bedroom was just as cluttered, except for the shelf that proudly displayed her various soccer trophies, but none of that mattered anymore.
This could not be happening!
She'd only taken the test at Killian's joking insistence before moving on to the next possibilities for her 'symptoms'.
By the look on the teen's face as she turned her own tear-stained one up to him to provide him blurry eye contact, he had no idea what to do with the fact that he was right.
"Emma…" he began, but trailed off, there was nothing that he could say to make her feel better.
Emma shrugged away his touch and dropped down onto her mattress.
"What am I going to do?" she asked in a meek voice.
Killian shoved his hands into his pockets, unable to think of any way to offer comfort.
Thankfully, the door knocked and Emma tensed, tucking the plastic under her leg, though she did relax a little as it didn't immediately open.
"Emma?" Mary Marget called through the door, her voice rising a pitch at not getting the usual instant response from her daughter.
"Yeah, mom?" Emma replied, her dry throat causing an unbidden crack in her voice.
There was a pause on the other side of the door, "Regina is here, are you ready to go?"
Emma's eyes widened and she looked at Killian with an expression that said 'I completely forgot'.
Killian frowned at his best friend.
He couldn't think of a single instance of his friend forgetting plans with her girlfriend.
An assessment that Mary Margaret would certainly agree with which would lead to her not giving up until she found out what was going on with her daughter.
Emma's eyes bore into Killian pleadingly until he said, while pushing her down to the bed, "Emma isn't feeling well, Mrs Swan."
Emma just about managed to pull the blanket over herself as the doorknob twisted.
The brunette schoolteacher scanned the room until she honed in on her daughter swaddled in her bed, unaware that there was a piece of plastic that she was gripping for dear life.
She then turned her attention to Killian who was standing awkwardly by the bed.
If it were anyone but Killian Jones, she would have been suspicious.
The friends had been inseparable since kindergarten and there was also the fact that Emma and Regina Mills had been together for over a year now.
The only thing that gave her pause was that Emma hadn't called her girlfriend to inform her of her condition.
Emma offered her mom a weak smile, hoping that she would attribute the dried tears on her crimson cheeks to whatever illness she thought she had been struck down with.
"Can you tell Regina I don't feel well? And…that I'll text her later?" Emma asked, obscuring her face as best as she could.
Mary Margaret said unsurely, considering that she could invite Regina in (with an open door policy, of course) to lift Emma's spirits.
She decided against it, Emma would have asked if she wanted her girlfriend right now, "call me if you need anything, sweetheart?"
Emma nodded quickly and Mary Margaret glanced at Killian questioningly as if asking him if he would be staying or not.
It would be weird for Killian to stay after sending Regina away so he readily picked up his bag.
"Text me later when…you're feeling better?" Killian said, knowing that his best friend knew what he really wanted to talk about.
The bed-ridden teen nodded and Killian turned to follow her mother, already dreading having to talk to a very confused, and possibly hurt, Regina Mills.
Despite his worry, he still remembered to close the door behind him, knowing full well that Emma would be needing some privacy right now.
When the door clicked into place, Emma shot up into a sitting position and pulled the white plastic up so that she could stare blankly at the little green plus sign.
Emma muttered 'idiot' as she sank into her pillow holding the positive pregnancy test up high.
s
Regina Mills thought they'd gotten past the pettiness that led to their very short-lived breakup.
It was a misunderstanding born from school-related stress and they'd mutually apologised over a month ago, since then, her relationship with Emma Swan had been close to perfect.
She wasn't feeling that right now as she pushed her way through the door and into the mayoral mansion, wearing a deep frown with her phone balanced precariously on her palm.
She had one notification that she'd scrambled to open while pushing her key into the lock:
Emma- 'I'm fine, just tired. Call you later xx'
The text was not at all out of the ordinary but, on top of the date being cancelled at the last minute, she was suspicious.
Especially when she added in the refusal to allow her to go and quickly check on her.
Reluctantly chalking it up to a desire not to infect her girlfriend, Regina dutifully left, but Killian walking silently behind her stirred up a red flag.
Not for a moment did she think that there was anything untoward going on between the pair in the romantic sense, but there was definitely something there.
Why else would the other teen refuse her even the impression of eye contact?
She'd hoped that the text she sent to Emma the moment she was in her car would alleviate all of these unfounded worries, but the response was doing nothing for her building anxieties.
"Regina?"
The teen tore her gaze away from the screen that she must have been taking in for far too long to find concern on the face of the brunette woman at the bottom of the staircase.
Regina pushed her phone back into her pocket and said, "hi mom," as she straightened her jacket.
Cora quirked an eyebrow at her daughter and came down the final couple of steps so that she was standing close to her in the foyer.
"I was under the impression that you would be spending the night with Miss Swan?" the Mayor of Storybrooke asked with a tilted head.
After their temporary breakup, Cora had been more attentive to her daughter's expressions after returning from her time with Emma, making sure that she didn't get hurt again and the downtrodden aura was not helping with the lack of trust that Emma had yet to earn back from the Mills' matriarch.
Before deciding how she would destroy the girl this time, she waited for the explanation that could deter her.
"Emma's sick," Regina replied, desperately trying not to sound devastated.
She wasn't successful enough to convince her mother that there wasn't something more serious going on as the mayor continued to look at her critically.
"And she didn't tell you this before you left to meet her?"
Regina sighed and shook her head.
She wasn't really in the mood for what she and Zelena had labelled 'mama bear mode', she didn't have enough proof that it was deserved yet.
It wasn't like her girlfriend could be convicted for being too ill to remember to send a text message.
Getting a weird feeling from her and Killian all day at school was hard evidence that something was going on.
If only she had asked to go and see her before leaving then she would have had the chance to alleviate all of her suspicions!
As it was, she had to settle for calling her in a few hours to check in on her, there was no reason to think that she wouldn't answer and prove to her that she was being an idiot.
It was for this reason that she plastered something like a smile and defended her girlfriend, "I'm sure she just forgot because she's ill, mom, it's fine."
Cora hummed suspiciously, "if you're sure?"
"I am," Regina said, too quickly and defensively.
"Very well," the mayor replied, "Your father and I were just going to have dinner at Granny's if you would like to join us?"
Regina nodded, unable to think of a reason that her mother would accept.
One that would allow her to go to her room so that she could overthink her limited 'evidence'.
A/N It's been a long time since I've published a new SQ story but this has been on my mind for years so I figured I would finally publish the first chapter and just see if anyone is interested in it!
If you would like to read more, please drop a review to let me know, if not I can leave it as a one-shot :)