Regina had brought her laptop with her to the hospital and now sat in one of the break rooms to get some work done. They had taken her father away to do another chest x-ray and some other tests and her mother was presumably in her office. Cora had offered the use of her office to Regina but she turned her down saying she wanted to stay on the floor where her dad's room was at. The truth was, she wanted some privacy from her parents.
Her father had of course told her mother about the job in Savannah which had opened her up to another round of questions. She avoided the living arrangements questions by simply telling them she wanted to explore all options before she decided what to do with her stuff. Her parents interpreted this as her looking ahead to the next job and the next move.
It wasn't as if she wasn't aware that her life had become quite transient. She didn't consider it aimless wandering, which is how she figured her parents interpreted it based on comments they made. Each move had a purpose.
She liked being able to explore a new city and see what made it unique. She enjoyed walking along the sidewalks and finding hidden examples of an artist's work within the architecture. Unlike many of the buildings and houses of today, the older ones had unique histories and stories behind their creations. She craved the hunt of learning those stories in the libraries and historical societies of each city.
For her, Storybrooke had never been like that. If anything she found her hometown to be too much like any small town across the United States. It was like someone had decided to pull elements of every Maybury-like town and they mixed them to make Storybrooke.
To her, it all felt fake.
That was not something she could tell her parents when it appeared as if they and everyone in this town thought it was the greatest place to live on the planet.
Maybe she just had a restless soul.
Yet in Philly, that soul had come to find some peace. It wasn't the city itself – it still didn't feel like home, but something else seemed to pull at her. It used to be that she would follow that mythical pull from city to city – an unexplainable force that seemed to lead her to different places. She didn't feel like Savannah was pulling her. It was odd because she had been to Savannah a couple of times before this job came up. She had gone there because it was such a historic city and she wanted to see it with her own eyes.
When this job came up, however, she hadn't been excited about it like she should have been.
She felt like her life was a crossroads but she didn't know what was in either direction so therefore she couldn't choose the right path.
It's not the first time she had felt like this in her life.
"Michigan?" Emma said, sparing no disdain for the very idea of it. "Do you know how far away that is?"
They were outside of the Storybrooke High School on what was the first nice day of spring. They had been lying down on a blanket that Emma had pulled from her car and placed on the lawn that was a few yards from the parking lot. Once Regina had told Emma that she wanted to go to Michigan State University, Emma had abruptly sat up forcing Regina to do so as well.
Regina had been putting off telling Emma that she had made her choice for college and it wasn't going to be the local community college.
"I know how far away it is," Regina replied, thinking that was one of the reasons she chose it. She was suffocating in this town and she knew if she didn't leave to go to college she would never leave. She wanted to see the world, but unfortunately, her girlfriend was like everyone else in this town who saw no need to travel.
She had always felt like an outsider here, despite being the only daughter of what had to be the richest family in town. She had a good life but it never felt like enough.
"You can't be serious," Emma said getting to her feet. "I would never get to see you. Is this your way of breaking up with me?"
"No," Regina said getting to her feet and taking Emma by the hand. "I don't want to break up with you at all."
"Then why are you even considering going to Michigan?"
This was exactly why she had been putting this off. She had gotten her acceptance letter from MSU a month ago and while she was excited about it, she had immediately felt fearful of this moment.
"I am not considering it. I'm going," Regina said.
Emma pulled away from her, turning her back on her before whirling back around. "So that's it, you are going and there doesn't get to be any discussion about it? You're just going to leave me like … like I don't mean anything to you."
"Don't do that," Regina said. "You know that isn't true. I love you."
"Then how can you do this?"
"I haven't exactly made it a secret that I want to get out of this town," Regina said. "You know how I feel when everyone here knows who I am, knows who my parents are."
"Yeah, you have it so rough," Emma said, the sarcasm dripping off every word.
Regina knew that this was a useless conversation – at least for now.
"I got to get going to practice or I will be late," Emma said. She picked up her bag with her softball equipment in it and started to leave. Regina knew Emma had plenty of time to get to practice, but this was classic Emma – avoidance.
She loved a lot of things about Emma but this penchant for running from her problems was not one of them. It appeared she wasn't even going to get a kiss goodbye.
"You could come with me you know," Regina said.
This stopped Emma, who turned to look at her. "Leave Storybrooke?"
"Yes, leave Storybrooke," Regina replied. "If you applied to Michigan State I'm sure you would get in. They would probably even want you to play on their softball team. You certainly have the talent for it."
Emma opened her mouth as if to say something and then shut it. She then said, "I got to get going," before walking off.
Regina shook the memory from her mind. She didn't want to think about Emma Swan. Yet, thoughts of the other woman had been invading her psyche since she saw her the night before.
She had still been in her father's room when a delivery of get-well flowers had arrived for her father. Cora had read the card – the flowers being from Emma. Her mother didn't comment but her father expressed that it was nice of Emma to have done that. It had been nice of her, but Regina wasn't about to say so out loud.
Going back to concentrate on her work, Regina intensely studied her computer screen and the information on her latest job. She remained focused until her mother came to get her to say that her father was back in his room. Packing up her laptop she followed her mother to the room, but when they arrived there were already two people in there – one of whom Regina was surprised to see.
When her mother and she walked in, the two men turned from her father to them.
"What's going on here?" Cora said.
Regina was surprised that the tone was less than pleasant, although given that one of the men was Mr. Gold – someone her mother had never seemed to like – she shouldn't be totally surprised.
"We came to see how Henry was doing," Gold said.
"He'll be better once you leave him to rest."
"We don't mean to intrude," said the other man. This was the one Regina had been surprised to see. David Swan, Emma's father, was there with Mr. Gold. She could think of no reason for him to be there.
"We do have a matter of city business we need to take care of," Gold said.
"My husband is not up to dealing with city business," Cora said. "Now if you'll kindly leave."
"The fact he is not up to dealing with city business is why we are here," Gold said, ignoring Cora entirely and addressing Henry. "The charter is explicit that in times such as these when the mayor is unable to attend to his duties an interim mayor must be appointed. As members of the city council, David and I are here to deal with this matter."
Regina new Gold was on the council, he was council president actually – or at least he was when she was here last, but the fact that Mr. Swan was on the council was something she had not known. She didn't even know he had an interest in such things. The man was about as mild-mannered a person as you were likely to find. He worked at the animal shelter and if he hadn't been Emma's father Regina probably would have no idea who he was since he didn't seem to draw attention to himself much.
"I suppose it is the sensible thing to do," her father was saying.
"Let me guess," Cora said. "This interim mayor position, you are here to volunteer for the job?"
Gold laughed, "No. Even if I wanted such a position, the charter states it can't be a member of the council. I was thinking that it might be best to appoint Regina to the role."
"What?" Regina said at the same time as her mother.
Gold turned his attention to her. "I assume you are here through the duration of your father's recovery. You will have access to your father if you have questions, this way no one is bothering him while he recuperates. Your work allows you to collaborate with city officials all the time from what I understand. You are smart so I'm confident that you will be able to catch on quickly to things that need to be addressed. Plus reading your father's rather dreadful script is a bonus. Even his secretary has trouble deciphering his notes at times. It would be purely an interim thing until your father is ready to resume work."
Regina stood there stunned. She had no clue why anyone would think she should be mayor, even on an interim basis. Then there was the fact she hadn't intended to stick around. She had planned to wait until her father was released, make sure he was okay for a day or two, and then leave.
"I don't think that I'm qualified to do this," Regina said, hoping that this would be the end of it.
"Nonsense," Gold said. "Who better than you to take this task on?"
Regina wanted to say anyone but her. She didn't even live in this town.
"Regina," David said. "I know it would be asking a lot but if you would at least consider it, we would appreciate it."
"Of course she'll do it," Henry said, which made Regina whip her head around toward him. If there hadn't been others in the room she might have asked him what the hell he thought he was doing. "Won't you honey?"
She paused. She wanted no part of this.
"Please Regina, there is no one I trust more with this responsibility," her father said.
Feeling like she now officially had no choice, she said, "I'll do it. It's just interim after all."
Even as she said it, she had a bad feeling about it.
….
"Hi dad," Emma said as she entered the animal shelter. She was getting ready to go on shift in about another 30 minutes but her dad had asked her to stop by. She had taken a nap that afternoon following her visit to the flower store to make sure she was rested for the shift. "What's up?"
Her father was putting one of the puppies back in its kennel and once he finished, he turned his attention back to her.
"I wanted to see if you were free to have dinner with your mom and me on Sunday," he said.
"I have my last night shift on Saturday night so I plan on sleeping most of the day on Sunday. Is that all you wanted?"
"Emma," David said. "You can't keep this silent act up forever with your mother."
"Then tell her to apologize."
"Your mother has no desire to war with you," he said. "It's why I am asking you to come to dinner. Just hear her out please."
"Fine, but she needs to understand that my personal life is my own and it's personal which means she doesn't get a say in it," Emma said. "I got to get to work. See you Sunday."
She reached the door and began pushing it open. "Regina is back in town," he said. "I saw her today."
"Where did you see her?" she asked turning back toward him.
"At the hospital," he answered. "Mr. Gold and I had to see her father about some city business."
"He's in the hospital, couldn't city business wait?"
"I wish it could have but as usual Gold was insistent. He looked up some clause in the city charter that said we needed to appoint an interim mayor while the real mayor was incapacitated and unable to fulfill the duties of the office."
"An interim mayor? What's the point? It's not like there is much to running this town."
"There is more to it than you might think," David said.
"I guess," Emma said. "So who gets to rule the roost?"
"Regina."
"What?"
"Yeah, surprised me too when Gold suggested it, but she does have experience with dealing with municipal government, if not quite in this capacity."
"And she agreed to this?"
"I don't think she was very happy about it, but her father asked her to do it so she did."
"Does this mean she's staying in town?" Emma asked, unable to keep the elation out of her voice.
"For the time being she is, but Emma, this isn't a permanent thing. I just thought you should know before you see it in the paper tomorrow," David said.
….
Regina sat at her father's desk in city hall. About 45 minutes ago she had been sworn in as interim mayor and now she was trying to get her bearings. Her father had spent most of the afternoon going over things with her until Cora had finally insisted that he needed his rest. He was due for surgery in the morning so Regina wanted to get some of this work done tonight.
The city was about to embark on some sort of sewer project but her father had his heart attack before signing the contract. She was going over the contract now. As interim mayor, her signature would carry the same weight as her father's so she wanted to make sure she didn't mess anything up.
Her phone rang and she looked to see who it was before answering it.
"Is this Mayor Mills?"
She smiled. "No, it's just Regina."
"I couldn't resist," the voice on the other end of the phone said. "That is trippy though. You mayor."
"I know," she said. "It caught me off guard too and I wouldn't have agreed to it if my father hadn't spoken up. He said I was the only one he trusted to do the job."
"Well, that's kind of sweet."
"Yes, it's a nice sentiment but my father is no fool, he knew he was trapping me into this the moment he said it."
"Why do you think he did it then?"
"I don't know. Maybe he thinks I will like the job and decide to stay here."
There was a pause. "You wouldn't think of …"
"No," she said, cutting him off before he could say it. "I'm not staying here. This is just a temporary layover. I know my dad and I know he isn't going to want to sit still for long. I give it a week at the most before he is back to attending to his mayoral duties."
"Good," he said. "It's bad enough I am losing you to Savannah."
"You aren't losing me," she said. "Besides, you can come down to Georgia."
"We'll see. We can talk about it when you get home," he said. There was another pause. "Have you seen Emma?"
This time it was her turn to get quiet.
"I will take that as a yes," he said. "How did that go?"
"It was short," she said. "I made it clear that I didn't wish to speak to her and that was the end of that."
"I know you aren't going to want to hear this, but maybe you should talk to her. If nothing else it might help you get some closure."
"What happened between she and I is in the past. I don't need closure from it."
"Forgive me for saying it, but if you were over it, you wouldn't have a problem speaking to her now."
"She cheated on me. I have nothing I need to say to her, now or ever."