Moving right alone, yes we are! Thank you for those of you who have commented! I'm so glad you like it. I apologize if I haven't thanked you personally! But just know I appreciate your support! Alright... let's see how civilized our ladies can be after Friday's incident shall we! :)

Enjoy!

Monday Morning

Regina woke up to a cold empty bed, and the silence of the house around her was almost overwhelming. Daniel's side of the bed had gone untouched through the night which meant either he slept on the couch or he never came home. No matter the case, the silence in the house made it clear that she was currently the only one in the house.

Her body felt heavy, and drug behind her as she tried to pull herself out of bed. If there was ever a day where she just wanted to lay there forever it was today, but she thought that might just make her feel worse and she really didn't want to be home if Daniel decided to show back up. His stuff was still in the bathroom and she checked the drawers and closet and found they were still full of his clothes. She knew he would have to come back at some point.

Her morning routine was slow, like she was wading through mud just to get anywhere or do anything. She probably stared at her closet for 20 minutes before pulling anything out to wear for the day. The coffee maker sounded like a leaf blower in her head and she burned her mouth on the first sip of the hot liquid. And to top off the wonderful morning, her car didn't feel like starting either.

"Only me." She sighed leaning her head over on her steering wheel. She didn't know how long she sat in her car, but she really didn't care. This day was not at all going like she planned and she didn't care at this point how it was going to continue. It wasn't even 7 in the morning and everything that could possibly go wrong was going wrong, and then some.

She nearly came out of her seat when she heard a tapping on her driver window. She squinted at the figure blocking the sunrise and then tensed up a little as she recognized him. She opened her door and greeted the man outside of her car.

"August, funny seeing you here." She stood awkwardly in front of him, her arms crossed in front of her for her own emotional protection.

"I was taking my morning jog and I saw you sitting in your car. I figured I would make sure you were alright."

"I'm fine." She shorted off, brushing a stray brunette strand from her face. She avoided his eye contact focusing down at the ground at their feet.

"Are you sure?" He raised an eyebrow noticing the tension rising between them. He could tell she looked like she was having a rough morning. She looked beautiful, there was no doubt, but there was something about her that was wrong. Like her normal glowing color had greyed out.

She sighed, her patience growing thin with the man in front of her.

"Why do you care?" She blurted out.

He flinched at her sudden harshness and took a step back from her hoping to give her some space.

"Well since this is my third time by your house and you still haven't left your driveway, I figured you might need some help." August snapped back, hoping to regain some of his pride.

"If you must know, my car won't start." She sighed motioning toward the car.

"I could take a look for you if you'd like?" His smile was contagious and Regina couldn't help herself.

"If you must." She hoped to keep her upper hand in the situation and she really didn't want to be around August any more than she had too. It wasn't him, just what he reminded her of.

She popped the hood and he pulled it up, the metal creaking under the stress.

"Whew. No wonder it's not starting. When's the last time you got this thing looked at?" He fidgeted with a few coils, loosening them up from the coating of grease and battery acid covering them.

"Well, Daniel…" She hesitated at the sound of his name. "Daniel was usually the one to do all of that. He was… is the handyman." She found herself stumbling over her words. Thankfully he didn't notice.

"Alright try it now."

She sat down in her car and after a few tough rounds it started right up. Relief swept over her as August slammed the hood back down. She watched him as he wiped his greasy hands on his sweater and she felt bad that she had put him through so much trouble. If she didn't know any better she would have thought he looked extremely handsome in his workout outfit and grease stains. But she did know better.

"Here." She reached for her purse as she exited the car. "I should pay your for your trouble."

"Absolutely not. No. I wouldn't think of it. I honestly didn't do that much. Just wiggled some wires and got a little dirty. Hardly worth that kind of payment. Just look at it as a nice gesture for a friend." His smile stretched across his face and his teeth where a beautiful clean white color, like they hadn't been touched by anything terrible. Maybe she didn't know better. If she could have had a do over in her life she would have no doubt chased after him the moment she met him. But as things turn out, her life was not meant to be that perfect.

"Thank you, August. I don't know where I would be without you this morning. Seems like it just hasn't been a good one for me." She admitted pulling her purse over her shoulder.

"I understand. It happens. I better get going, Henry is going to need someone to cook him breakfast. Emma had to go to work early this morning, something about a meeting."

"The meeting!" Regina completely forgot she was supposed to be meeting with Emma and Mr. Gold this morning to discuss the tutoring project. "I'm sorry, I'm running late. Thank you again!" She shoved her purse and herself in her car and sped off down her driveway. She gave a small wave to August before heading off down the street.

As if this morning, really this weekend, wasn't enough stress on her, she was going to have to sit with the two people she thought were single handedly trying to ruin her life. One on purpose and one possibly unknowingly causing her life to spiral out of control. No matter the circumstance, she knew this morning was going to get worse before it got better.

Emma's leg impatiently shook and she was sure she had bit all of her fingernails down to the quick. She was already not looking forward to this morning's meeting but now she was stuck waiting in the front office with none other than Mr. Gold, while Regina was apparently running very late for work. Of all the days Regina was never late for work, she had to pick this day to change up her rock solid schedule.

"Can I get you two anything?" Ruby stood up from her desk, obviously overwhelmed by the tension in the room. She slowly made her way out of the office, giving the two time to answer. Mr. Gold pleasantly ignored the question and Emma widened her eyes at the secretary as a warning, hoping to pull her back in. The last thing she wanted was to be left in this room alone with Mr. Gold. Ruby gave her an apologetic smile and then hurried out of the room.

"It seems there is a punctuality problem at this school. Wouldn't you agree Ms. Swan?" His voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard in her ears and she could feel him breathing down her neck from the other side of the room.

"This honestly never happens. Regina is usually the first one at school every morning. Maybe I should give her a call." Emma offered.

"Yes, maybe you should." He turned away from her and stood looking out the window into the parking lot. Emma grabbed for her phone in her back pocket only to find a sinking feeling in her chest and no phone. She sighed heavily remembering her idea to launch her phone across the room when she got home Friday, and she had been so busy over the weekend that she hadn't gone out and gotten a new one. She made her way to Ruby's desk and picked up her phone, but before she could dial Regina's number, the brunette came flying through the front door.

"Mr. Gold, I'm so sorry, I've had a… a quite eventful morning. Please, come back to my office so we can talk." Regina looked completely flustered, which was a side Emma had never really seen of her. Regina was always so put together and Emma had only seen her a mess like this when she had first met her all those years ago. She kept quiet through the ordeal in the front office and followed close behind Mr. Gold to Regina's office. Emma was a little worried about her, knowing this was not like her at all. But she quickly pushed the wondering thoughts away, remembering what had just happened between the two of them only a few short days ago.

"So glad you could join us Mrs. Mills." Mr. Gold was definitely in a mood today. First the initial meeting on Friday was cancelled because of Emma, and now this morning was put on a very long delay because of Regina. Whatever this meeting was about, Emma figured that Mr. Gold was probably going to start plotting the death of both of their careers.

"I had some car trouble this morning. But I'm here now, so let's get on with this meeting." Emma could tell she was lying. If Emma was ever good at anything, it was knowing when people were lying. There was something going on with Regina and she wanted to know about it. She hated that part of herself. No matter how Regina treated her, she always just wanted to know everything about her. She wanted to know what she was thinking, what she was feeling. Maybe that's why this whole separation thing has taken such a toll on her. If she wasn't around Regina then she couldn't know those things and it unknowingly drove her crazy.

"Glad we could accommodate your schedules. Now to make this meeting as short as possible, I'll get on with it. I'd like to announce that the two of you have been selected to be the testers for my new tutoring project. Hope you like working together, because you will be working very, very… closely together." Mr. Gold clicked his cane on the tile floor, as if to drive the nail all the way through the heart of their whole world.

Emma could feel the air in the room being sucked out faster than she could breath. She was suffocating. She was literally suffocating. She didn't dare look over toward Regina because she would probably spontaneously combust. The room was still for a few seconds, not a rustling paper or a clicking heel. Emma stared at the floor which blurred in her vision. When Regina stood up from her desk it startled Emma a bit, not really knowing how to take the information.

"Mr. Gold." Regina choked at her own voice. "Um…" She started but had lost the words. She nervously straightened out her pants suit. She forced a smile which he did not reciprocate. Emma couldn't take it anymore.

"Mr. Gold." Emma straightened up and earned herself an angry look from Regina who didn't like to be interrupted. But Emma didn't think Regina was going to be able to say what she really wanted to say without being fired.

"That's my name, dearie." He turned his attention to Emma. She rubbed her hands together and made her way over to the two of them.

"It seems that, maybe, we are not your best choice for this project. I mean we will be starting our standardize testing soon, and as I'm sure you know, and we aren't the most punctual people in the world. I bet we could find you a couple of teachers who just love tutoring and would whole heartedly be excited to work on this project." Emma personally felt like that was the worst excuse she had ever come up with, but she was a terrible liar, and she did not work well under pressure.

"Um, I think what Ms. Swan is trying to say is…" Regina interrupted her, hoping to keep this meeting and her day from completely falling apart. "If you would like, we could sit down with a few of our teachers and maybe we could work something out and find a teacher who may not be as busy as Ms. Swan."

The two women stood uncomfortably close to one another. Emma could feel the hair rising on the back of her neck. She could feel the warmth from Regina's body rush through her. God, even when she didn't want to like the woman her body seemed to be feeling otherwise. Emma looked up at Mr. Gold, his yellowish eyes moving between the two of them. He was most definitely plotting their downfall.

"No. I think you two would be perfect for the program. I'll be back in a couple of weeks to see how things are going." He waved them away and headed out of the door. The two women stood open mouthed at the realization that they would have to work together for at least the next few weeks, and possibly longer. Something that both Emma and Regina had mixed feelings about.

"Oh and Mrs. Mills, make sure you do well on this." He smiled like he had a hidden agenda and then disappeared down the hallway.

Emma crossed her hands in front of her self-consciously. "What the hell did that mean?"

"Ugh, this day couldn't get any more worse." Regina spit through her teeth as she stomped over to her desk.

"I'm sorry that working with me is the worse news you could get this morning." Emma smarted off sarcastically.

"No. You were just the cherry on top of this terrible morning."

"So you were late to work, big deal."

"I'm so glad you're an expert of my life. When I care to hear your opinion then I'll call you." Regina huffed and began working away on her computer.

"Oh I'm sorry princess. I wasn't the one who decided to fall off the face of the earth and ignore people who might actually care." It was too late for Emma to contain her anger. She didn't want to do this this morning, but Regina's attitude gave her no choice.

"Really? This is what you want to do this morning? What the hell is your problem?" Regina stood up and leaned her hands on her desk.

"My problem? I thought I made that very clear Friday evening."

Regina grabbed the bridge of her nose. "This is not happening." She shook her head annoyingly. "Look, I'm not in the mood to discuss this right now. I have too much on my mind as it is."

"What like Daniel?" Emma was letting her have it this morning, as if she hadn't already given her everything on Friday, it still seemed there was something inside of her that was ready to pop.

"How dare you!" Regina slammed her hand down on her desk. "You have no right to talk about Daniel."

"Why not, he is the one that stole you away from me."

"What?"

Emma couldn't hold it in. It was like word vomit, even worse than Friday.

"You… heard me." Emma stuttered, quickly losing her position in the conversation.

"Are you jealous?" Regina's question threw Emma off.

"What? No!" Emma defended.

Regina stepped around her desk studying Emma's movement. The blonde wasn't backing down, but Regina could tell Emma was nervous. This conversation had gone further than Emma had expected and Regina was going to take advantage of it.

"I'm not jealous." Emma protested again. Regina didn't say anything. She continued her slow agonizing advance on the blonde, and Emma finally had to step back. Emma could feel the burning around her again, but this time it wasn't Regina.

"If there is something you would like to say to me, then I suggest you say it." Regina lifted an eyebrow to the nervous blonde. She had almost backed her up to her bookshelf.

"I'm not scared of you." Emma blurted out. Her back hit the bookshelf behind her and she heard it rattle. The brunette was within a few inches of her. Emma's heart skipped a beat.

"Prove it."

Emma's lips parted and she noticed Regina's eyes dart toward them, then back up into her eyes. Did she just see that? She saw that right?

Regina quickly turned away from Emma and headed over to her desk. Emma got a wave of her apple cinnamon perfume and it made her mouth water. She shut her lips for fear of actually drooling. Her fingers tingled at the sensation of being so close to her.

"I believe you have a class to teach." Regina quickly sounded like her old self, obnoxious and demanding, but Emma didn't notice. She stood there for a moment, trying to plan out how to keep herself under control for the rest of the day.

"Good day, Ms. Swan." She heard Regina call out as the blonde forced herself out of the office.

The rest of the day, Emma couldn't think of anything else but what Regina had said to her. And not even what she said, but how she said it. The lingering smell of apple and cinnamon hung around her all day, and she wasn't too upset about it seeing as it was the perfume Emma bought for her on her birthday last year. The thought made her smile. She remembered the first time Regina wore it, Emma could hardly keep her hands off the brunette that night. She remembered it being dinner and a movie night, but they didn't quite make it to the movie.

"Ms. Swan?" The young voice shook her from her dream. "Um, here's my test."

Emma took the paper from the girl standing in front of her desk. "Oh, thanks. Are you the last one?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Okay, you can go. See you tomorrow."

The girl half sprinted out of the room. The end of the day was always Emma's favorite, but today it was something else. She didn't feel normal. She felt like she wanted to march into Regina's office and let her have it, but she wouldn't be able to control herself and she might end up doing something she would regret. She knew what she saw in that office this morning. She saw a woman interested. A woman who wanted more than she was showing the world. This was turning into a roller coaster of a ride.

Speaking of… she needed to go get a phone. She might need it soon.