Third chapter for today! Let's hope I can keep this up. It's so hot where I live right now and there is no air so I cannot sleep. Doubt I'll get another chapter up tonight after this though.

I read through this before I posted it and I know it is a little ridiculous but go with it. It was written in an hour so. This makes three. Can we do four?


April 3rd 2017

It had been a restless sleep at 108 Mifflin, both inside and outside of the house. Regina had watched Emma walk back down her driveway towards the bug, and had closed the curtains as a solitary tear escaped. She'd invited Emma to join them, but when she'd walked away from her for the second time in 48 hours, Regina's heart had broken a little.

She joined her son on the sofa again, only half paying attention as he tried to talk to her about what was going on, but after receiving one syllable answers did he give up, starting on his pizza. The older brunette nibbled on one slice of her pizza, checking her phone to see if there was anything from her likely soon-to-be-ex. The duo soon called it a night, and the oldest of the pair tossed and turned for hours until she fell into a restless sleep.

The blonde had stayed on the doorstep, with it having a cover from the rain, and was still there when the door opened the next morning. It wasn't the first time she had slept outside, having been homeless a few times growing up, but knowing that her family was one wall away had kept the blonde awake until way after 3am. Her phone battery had died a little after midnight and so she was glad she had remembered to put on the watch she had been gifted the previous Christmas by her parents, so she could keep an eye on the number of hours before Regina would be leaving for work.

She startled awake when the door opened and stared, bleary eyed at the person standing in front of her.

"Seriously Emma?" The blonde frowned at her son's use of her first name, and sat up, wiping the sleep from her eyes. "Didn't she make it clear last night that you were not welcome here?"

"Hold on kid, I am still your mother, you can't speak to me like that!" The look of disdain he shot her made the blonde's stomach roll, and she realised then how Regina must have felt every time Henry looked at her when she first came to town.

"Any person who makes my mother cry herself to sleep cannot tell me what to do. You are not wanted here. Leave her alone."

If it wasn't directed at her, Emma would have been proud at how protective the teen was of his mother, but as it was, the conversation made her feel sick to her stomach. The young brunette rolled his eyes as he pushed past his younger mother, starting down the drive. Emma stood to go after him, cringing at her aching joints.

"Excuse me Henry, I raised you better than that, you do not speak to people like that, you respect your elders!" Both Emma and Henry turned, seeing Regina stood in the doorway, looking her usual mayoral self in one of Emma's favourite pantsuits.

"But Mom…."

"No Gina, he's right…" They both spoke at once, Henry glowering at the blonde for getting him in trouble. The mayor simply looked at Henry until his shoulders slumped and he shot a quick apology to his mothers' before starting back down the driveway.

They both watched him, and when he disappeared from sight, they turned to face the other.

"Gina, please don't shut the door again… just let me explain…" The mayor shook her head, looking down at the blanket on the floor, the red leather jacket in a pile as a makeshift pillow.

"Did you sleep out here all night?" Regina looked incredulously up at Emma who shrugged.

"Well, I didn't quite sleep but I did stay here. I told you I wasn't leaving, and I meant it."

The older woman bent forward to pick up the items on her doorstep, stepping back to allow the blonde to enter the home they technically shared.

As Regina reached past the younger woman to shut the door, her fingers brushed against her bare arm and she jumped. "Jeez Emma, you're freezing! What the hell were you thinking?" She dropped the blanket and jacket onto the table in the foyer and moved into the house further to get a clean blanket. She handed it, and one of her own cardigans to the woman who only then noticed how cold she was.

"It's nothing. Not the first time I've slept outside." Regina ignored her and wrapped her arm around the shivering sheriff, pushing her toward the kitchen.

"You are going to have a hot cocoa, take a hot shower and then go upstairs and get some sleep. We will talk when I get back from work. I'll come home at lunch so we can talk before Henry gets home." The blonde simply nodded, sitting at the counter while Regina moved about the kitchen making the drink.

"Gina, I really am sorry… you have to know that I didn't leave because of you..." Regina opened her mouth to speak but Emma shook her head. "No just let me say it… marriage is not something to rush in to, and as much as I picture my future with you in it, I couldn't give you an answer right then. I couldn't say no to your proposal, because I don't want to say no, but I couldn't say yes either…" She paused only to take a sip of the drink she had been handed, frowning as Regina touched her forehead.

"You are freezing, and sleep deprived. We are not having this conversation now. In fact, if you are still cold when I get home later, we are going to visit Whale." The blonde shook her head quickly but stopped when she saw Regina's glare. "You will not behave like a petulant child, you will do what I say Emma, for your own sake."

Once Emma had nodded her assent, the brunette turned, grabbing her purse from where it was sat on the counter and walked toward the door.

"I love you…" Emma called out when she heard the door open, and strained to hear if there was any response from the older woman.

"I love you too you idiot." Regina had replied under her breath so the blonde could not hear her, but she knew as she walked away from the woman that by the evening, they would be almost back to normal. Knowing the other mother of her son wanted to marry her had already caused the tightness in her chest to loosen, and she knew that things were almost back to normal.

Or so she hoped.