Emma was buzzing with excitement when she woke up the following morning, she was itching to talk to Regina about her last text but as luck would have it, she thought with a sigh it was one of those rare days where she and Regina didn't start out working together and so they wouldn't see each other until late morning.
Those first few hours of the day seemed to drag by it was as though the clock had just stopped ticking and that wasn't just because Emma was so eager to talk about LA, She also just missed Regina, she missed having to play across from her, she always felt that she did her best work when she was working with Regina though nobody ever told her or indicated in any way that her performance quality was any less when she worked on scenes by herself or across from other actors.
Emma had developed quite the flair now, she rarely missed a mark and always knew her lines, gone were the days where Gold would berate her for making rookie mistakes now it seemed that he was filled with glowing praise for her and had even told her that she had the potential go on from this show and become a big star, this should have been a relief to Emma, she should have been able to shed all of her earlier anxiety's and fully relax into her role and in some ways she had but In others the high praise seemed to have only added more pressure, raised the bar and given her a higher standard that she now needed to meet continually and she was doing it, relishing in the challenge even, but it always felt so much easier when she was working with Regina.
When it was finally time to meet up with her favourite brunette co-star, Emma eagerly walked onto the set where she found Regina already waiting for her, but the second that she lay eyes on her Emma's heart plummeted, all thoughts of LA momentarily vanishing from her head replaced by concern for her friend who was sitting alone her brow creased into an irritated frown, something was definitely wrong,
"What's happened?" she asked as she approached Regina,
"Just that arsehole pap" Regina sighed handing Emma the magazine that she had been looking at, "he's done It again, only now it's both of us across several central pages and we seem to be dating"
"What!" Emma exclaimed flicking through the pages, there they were in full glossy colour across the centre spread, starting with pictures of them eating breakfast taken from inside grannies,
"How in the hell did he get those, he's banned from grannies, and he certainly wasn't in there when we were or we would have seen him, wouldn't we?" she asked, desperately going over that morning in her head and still drawing a blank,
"Of course, we would have" Regina assured her "I can only imagine that he paid someone to get them for him" she sighed, and Emma continued to flick through the images anxiety rising, pictures in the street before they went into the police station were next, followed unbelievably by pictures from inside the library, then them looking in through the window of then entering and exiting Marco's together, Regina cradled her precious music box in the latter pictures and there was a paragraph creating speculation regarding the meaning of the swan on top in connection with Emma's name underneath those, in fact there were small paragraphs under each group of pictures insinuating things that just weren't true though part of Emma wished that they were.
Next, they were outside grannies with Ruby and there were even pictures of their picnic in the park to follow, for everywhere they went there seemed to be a picture. Emma's palms began to sweat as she got nearer to the end of Saturday her heart hammered painfully against her rib cage sending blood rushing to her head where it pounded in her ears, she swallowed and turned another page praying that Saturday was where they ended and that she wouldn't turn a page to find herself looking at her special place splashed across a magazine for the world to see.
"Don't worry there are none from Sunday" Regina whispered seeing Emma's panic rising and seeming to read her mind,
"Well that's something at least" Emma sighed with relief, some part of her had been certain that no one could have followed them without her knowing, not to the cave and definitely not into it, but they hadn't known that they had been being tailed all day on Saturday either and that had paved the way to uncertainty in her mind "but seriously the audacity of this guy" she said as she read all about how she was Regina's new love interest and saw more pictures of their Saturday afternoon, then their evening heading into and back out of the loft, in the rabbit hole and even Emma saw her heart racing the fleeting kiss that Regina had given her when she was messing with Ruby and Dorothy, the pictures ended outside with Emma supporting a very tipsy Regina into grannies,
"The creep literally stalked us all day" Emma fumed handing the magazine back to Regina "but because he stayed out of sight its legal, well hurrah for the freedom of the fucking press" she cursed,
"Calm down Emma" Regina giggled suddenly seeing the funny side of all of this,
"This isn't funny Regina" Emma retorted
"It, kind of is, just a little bit" Regina grinned as Emma continued to glare,
"Oh, come on my darling" Regina jested "see the funny side of this idiocy with me" she implored her grin suddenly becoming very seductive, in a look that was almost enough to make Emma's knees go weak, "Hey maybe he's watching us now" she murmured moving suggestively closer to Emma a wicked grin on her face "Maybe we should give him a show, what do ya say princess" she said adding a twang to her last few words that finally made Emma crack
"Fine" she laughed "But the guy is still a complete douche bag"
"Agreed" Regina nodded, "But let's not let him spoil our day, not this one or" she tapped one of the pictures from Saturday "this one, let's forget all this" she tossed the magazine into a nearby trashcan and turned back to face Emma "and start afresh, what do you say?" she asked smiling earnestly,
"Sounds good to me" Emma returned the smile thoughts of LA already filtering back into the forefront of her mind,
"So, tell me Emma, how was your morning?" Regina smiled,
"It was okay, but I've been almost too excited to focus properly" Emma grinned
"Oh" Regina frowned gently eyebrows knitting together in thought "Whys that?" she finally asked when she drew a blank,
"LA" Emma breathed eyes growing wide and starry "you said that you're taking me to LA" she beamed,
"Oh that" Regina chuckled
"Wait we are actually going next weekend off, right?" Emma asked face dropping as she suddenly became unsure and feared that she was making a fool of herself.
"Of course, we are" Regina smiled reassuringly "I can't wait to show you around"
"How will we get there, where will we stay, what will do?" Emma rattled off excitedly unable to contain her questions any longer,
"We'll be flying, I'll be booking our flights later and we'll stay at my place, as for what we'll do I haven't thought much beyond showing you a night out Hollywood style in LA, but I guess that there will probably be some shopping involved at some point to"
"Y your place" Emma stammered unable to believe her ears, the Regina Mills was inviting her Emma Swan to stay at her place in LA, it was times like this that Emma was reminded of just how star struck she still was by Regina,
"Yeah, why not its plenty big enough, is that okay with you?" Regina asked peering at Emma waiting for her response,
"Yeah, no problem I just assumed that I'd be staying in a hotel or something" Emma shrugged
"Do you want to stay in hotel?" Regina enquired "because that can always be arranged if you would prefer"
"Regina I'm more than happy to stay at your place" Emma laughed "thank-you for the invite"
Regina nodded in response looking past Emma at something that had just caught her attention,
"Looks like we're wanted" she said, Emma looked around following her line of sight to Gold who was purposefully making his way towards them,
"No rest for the wicked eh" she smiled moving to Regina's side so that they could head towards the limping man ready to start working together.
Nothing much happened over the next few weeks aside from Ruby repeatedly reminiscing over the fact that Emma was going to LA, and she wasn't. The rest of it was just more of the same, a pleasant blend of work, grannies and word running evenings in the trailers.
Then suddenly the week leading up to their next weekend off had arrived, with each painfully slow passing day Emma found it increasingly difficult to pull her thoughts away from LA and focus so she wasn't surprised when she was called into Golds office early on the Thursday morning, honestly she was more surprised that she hadn't been called up earlier in the week, she must she figured before she had received the summoning that morning have been masking her distraction much better than she realised.
But now as she headed towards Gold's office filled with dread, she realised that she hadn't been fooling anybody, Gold had noticed the dreamy look she kept getting in her eyes whenever thoughts of her pending trip to LA wafted to the forefront of her mind, how she kept zoning out and almost missing her mark, and now she was in for bollocking, at least she reasoned as she made her way to his office she only had one more day of work after today before her weekend in LA would begin and by the time she returned to work on Monday morning LA and the distraction that came with it would already be behind her.
Swallowing she approached the office door with Gold's name emblazoned across it on an aptly gold plaque she took a deep breath prepared for whatever berating she was abouts to receive safe in the knowledge that she would be able to move on from it without being fired, raised her hand, and knocked twice waiting to be invited in before she pushed the door open,
"Come in" Gold voice answered immediately, indicating that he was sat waiting for her to arrive, she didn't know whether that should make her feel more nervous or less, yes she was not surprised to have been called there at all she was however very surprised when she opened the door to reveal Regina sitting across the desk from Gold sipping from a polystyrene cup of coffee both of them waiting for her to arrive.
Confused and more than a little nervous Emma closed the door behind her and walked to sit in the chair next to Regina's, on the desk in front of her sat a polystyrene cup the same as the one that Regina was holding but with Emma's name scrawled across it in black ink, she immediately reached for it, picking it up and taking a sip with a grateful smile, more to have something to do with her hands than because she actually wanted the coffee itself which churned in her stomach the second that it had settled there making her feel a little queasy.
"There's nothing to be nervous about dearie" Gold smiled across at her from the other side of his desk, "I just wanted to talk to you both about the direction that filming will be taking from next week" he paused while Emma and Regina nodded their acknowledgement the knot that had formed in the pit of Emma stomach beginning to loosen a little,
"As you may both be aware by now after a number of unforeseen delays the train sets are now complete" he continued, Emma and Regina both nodded again the excitement now building in Emma, she had been itching to film the train scenes for a while now and had been frustrated by the consistent delays in those sets being completed since filming had begun, now she dared to hope that those scenes might finally be next on the list,
"Well we plan on filming those very soon" Gold smiled leaning forwards on his elbows with his fingers resting lightly together, "But first we want to film the external train scenes and some scenes in Toronto so I ask that you both come to work prepared to leave for a few weeks away filming as soon as filming is finished for the day, our flights are booked for late Monday night and we're putting you up in a hotel for the duration of filming In Toronto" he smiled eyes trailing over to Emma who could barely contain her excitement "And I trust that you'll be a little less distracted after your weekend excursion with Miss Mills than you have during this week leading up to it Miss Swan" he added,
"Of course, Mr Gold" Emma blushed "I'm sorry Mr Gold"
"Don't be sorry, just find me that focus" Gold replied "That's it, you two may go now, and please do try to remember that you still have until the end of tomorrow before your weekend begins" he concluded eyes resting on Emma again who nodded sheepishly as he dismissed the women.
"Well, that's exciting" Emma beamed as she and Regina walked to the set together,
"I know" Regina replied "But as much as I'm looking forward to a few weeks in Toronto with you, I just know I'll be counting down the days until we get back again, I've been dying to get on those beautiful train sets" she smiled
"Me too" Emma enthused her own smile expanding.
Emma took Golds words seriously and for the rest of that day and the next she pulled her head out of LA and kept her focus where it needed to be at least while she was on set, off set she was free to indulge in all the daydreams that she wanted to.
As soon as a wrap was called on Friday's final scene Emma raced back to her trailer and was just throwing the last items in her bag when a knock on the door announced Regina's arrival,
"Shit" she cussed leaving her open bag to race across her trailer and let Regina in,
"Time to go Emma" Regina grinned waving two plane tickets for her to see as she stepped through the open door,
"Just give me a sec to zip up my bag and I'll be right with you" Emma called back over her shoulder racing back to her bed to do just that, coming back into Regina's view dragging her case behind her seconds later.
"And we're off" Regina declared with a huge dazzling smile that made Emma's heart skip a beat when their car pulled out of the complex a few minutes later.
They arrived at the airport with plenty of time, check in was swift and then they were led to a VIP lounge to wait for their flight, the airport was fairly quiet, but the lounge was quieter still, only three other people occupied it and none of them paid much attention to Emma and Regina as they got a drink each from the free bar then settled at a nearby table together,
"Wow this is nice" Emma smiled sipping her cocktail,
"One of the perks of travelling first class" Regina shrugged
"What!" Emma exclaimed "you didn't say anything about them being first class or I would have been more insistent about paying you back, they must have cost a fortune"
"Don't worry about it Emma between my job and my inheritance from my father I'm not exactly short of a few bob, I can afford it" she assured with casual shrug,
"I still think you should let me pay you back" Emma sighed
"Emma stop it right now or I'll call for the car and arrange for to be taken straight back to Storybrooke" Regina spoke with such finality that Emma looked surprised as though she believed her,
"Your face" Regina giggled, and Emma sighed with relief,
"Fine you win" Emma retorted poked her tongue out at Regina then went to take another sip of her drink,
"Ah, ah," Regina said wagging her finger from side to side then she took Emma's drink sliding it towards herself "Children aren't allowed alcoholic beverages" she teased
"But Gina" Emma whined reaching for the glass while Regina laughed and held it just out of her reach,
"My, my poking out tongues and whining we really are a little swan today aren't" she jested
Feeling it pointless to argue Emma slouched back in her chair, crossed her arms across her chest and pouted, Regina watched all of this and roared with laughter,
"Here" she giggled pushing the glass back towards Emma and poking her own tongue out setting Emma off giggling too, they were laughing so hard that they almost missed their plane call but luckily, they did hear it and quickly regaining their composure, they knocked back the rest of their drinks and hurriedly exited the VIP lounge boarding the plane slightly ahead of those travelling economy giving them time to settle in before the safety demonisations began.
"Wow" Emma breathed as she watched Vancouver get smaller and smaller when the plane took off,
"First time flying" Regina smiled warmly
"it's that obvious huh?" Emma smiled excitedly back
"Eh just a little bit" Regina laughed happy to be a part of this first for Emma,
"Can I offer either of you any refreshments" a voice cut in pulling Emma's attention away from the window, she, and Regina both accepted a drink and Emma returned her gaze to the view from her window.
The flight was mostly smooth with a very small amount of turbulence and Emma enjoyed every minute of it in the luxury that was first class so much so that she was disappointed when the plane began to descend again this time over LA.