CHAPTER 4

Come the early hours of Wednesday morning, neither the young third year student or the Molecular Biology professor had gotten enough sleep for that day's lecture. You can be entirely sure that they both cursed the faculty and the university for the eight-thirty start time. As it happened, most science lectures were strategically scheduled early in the morning to make way for daily laboratory sessions and office hours. No, this still didn't make any sense to the paying approximately five thousand students and over hundred members of the faculty, but like they even had a choice. As students sluggishly crawled out of bed or angrily reached for their alarm clock to throw against the wall, the campus began to rise with the sun.

More like with loads of caffeine.

Dr. Swan couldn't have had a more impossible morning as she had managed to not only short fuse her coffee machine, but almost disarm her condo of all power. That being said, she wasn't all too surprised with her handy skills. She once did try to dissect her toaster whilst attempting to finish her thesis for her Master's. To this day, her colleague Ruby kept it in her office at the History department, sometimes showing her students the products of what happens when you rush to finish your final papers in a crunch.

"It's practically a historical artifact that represents procrastination." She explained ever-so-intently over a bottle of chardonnay. "It could be a relic of use to our next generation one day."

"That fucking machine-" Emma pointed at it as she saw it on display the day before, " – stole my multigrain!"

Although it wasn't very funny for Emma at the time of being a starving student with no chance or time to invest in another toaster, now the girls can laugh about it over one or more bottles of unoaked chardonnay.

Deciding to bypass her office to make a morning brew, coming to the conclusion that she should probably stay away from all machinery until at least 10 o'clock, she made the ultimate decision to head to the café and opt for a hot cocoa instead. Wednesday seemed like the perfect day to treat herself, as after all, it was hump day. Her old project supervisor used to always bring in hot chocolate every Wednesday and Emma quite enjoyed the tradition.

Maybe for these morning classes, she would add a shot or two of espresso to its sweet goodness. Deciding to sport a lavender blouse and khaki dress pants, Emma inspected her outfit for lint and hair for fly-aways in the mirror by her exit before locking up and officially starting her day. Avoiding breaking another appliance was practically age-appropriate, and she knew Tink would get a laugh about it at lunch break.

7:49

Regina woke up early that morning having not slept as much as she would have liked to. In fact, she woke up face-first in her Chapter 4: Translation notes, and a few telling dark blue pen marks staining her face with assorted words and formulas. She had managed to scrub off most of the obvious and literal handiwork, not being able to get rid "ribosomal RNA" inscribed into her left cheek fully.

Her roommate, and best audience it seems, was absolutely zero help in trying to get rid of the penmanship.

"Have you tried makeup remover?" Kat asked, giggling while she inspected it with no intentions of actually helping.

"No luck at all." Regina groaned. "It's not too noticeable, is it?"

"Not for anyone with your eyesight that's for sure."

Regina rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks Kat."

Pink-blonde hair flipped over the other girl's shoulder. "Anytime."

"Whatever." Regina exhaled, already tying her curls half up and leaving the rest down. Grabbing her lens case, she took the cloth and began to clean her glasses before shooting a glance back at her best friend. "I'm grabbing a coffee before class at the café, you want one?"

"I'm good, Rick's coming by for some pre-class kisses and I made him promise to bring me a pick-me-up."

Regina smirked. "Doesn't Frederick have enough energy to pretty much replace the solar energy plant in the physics department?"

"RIGHT?" Kathryn added with outright vindication. "This is why he needs to do so many sports. Apparently his fencing class is what he enjoys the most though."

"Ah, see? Chivalry will never be dead my dear." Regina remarked with a dramatic flair. Both young women laughed before the brunette grabbed her bag and headed out of their apartment. Slipping on her blue, comfy shoes, she quickly yanked her lab coat off one the their coat hangers in the closet.

"Don't forget!" Regina yelled for her roommate before she left. "We have the Genetics lab orientation today, and Dr. MacMillan wants us to wear our whites."

8:07

She wasn't too sure whether it was just her overall desire to perform and impress, or maybe the intrigue and intimidation Dr. Emma Swan exuded, but Regina Mills was certainly not going to be late for her second Molecular Biology lecture today. In fact, the reason she had woken up with the rather unfortunate way that morning was entirely due to the fact that she had spent the majority of the night studying the next four chapters for her class. Not only did she want to have a full grip on the material needed that today's lecture, she wanted to be able to answer every and any question Dr. Swan posed.

She had no shame in doing a little bit of digging when it came to their young, new and mysteriously cool professor. Some serious Google searching and archive maneuvering had flung Regina into the world of Emma Swan, PhD who was not only locally recognized in their school's faculty, but had a pretty wicked stack of publications. She was someone who interested Regina, and someone Regina could admire for tackling the sciences as not only a woman, but an incredibly brilliant woman.

Overall, it took a lot to impress young Regina Mills, but Dr. Swan had officially earned that right in spades.

In turn, Regina decided to do everything she could to show Professor Swan that she was not only a hard worker, but equipped for the class and could potentially be a very good student candidate for the research thesis in her upcoming last year. Every student wishing to do a thesis project required approval from a professor, and would need to do her project in pertaining to the research focused on by the professor. What Dr. Swan was working on in her lab really interested Regina, so now it was up to her to prove her worth in every paper and test.

And every class.

Even if it meant staying up 'til the wee hours of Wednesday morning and falling asleep on her own notes.

Totally worth it.

This early meant that the coffee line wouldn't be too bad, because with their program being arguably one of the most challenging, the engineering students didn't bother grabbing their hot brew until fifteen to even ten minutes before class. That gave the young biologist a chance to get her hot fix and make it to class earlier than last time. Regina hated being tardy, and she had no intention of reliving the embarrassment of her first day of third year once more. The brunette stood in line, intensely scanning over her notes on the translational period in DNA synthesis and waited for her turn. When the barista shouted, "White Hot Chocolate with double shot of espresso", Regina winced.

A drink that sugary this early? Someone must have quite the sweet tooth.

Her mother hadn't allowed her much sugar growing up, as Cora always feared it would affect her daughter's health and weight for the woman she had practically willed Regina to become. Her treat however was a hot cup of cider every fall at thanksgiving that she made with her grandfather.

She glanced up when she heard a familiar voice a couple people ahead of her.

"That's mine thanks."

It was none other than Dr. Swan who Regina watched grab the steaming hot cup of pure liquid caffeinated sugar. She smiled at the barista before heading towards the milks table and totally ignored them, instead grabbed a shaker and added a couple dashes of cinnamon on top of her hot cup.

If the woman wasn't fascinating before, now she was purely odd in a rather charming way.

She's a scientist and a professor, Regina remarked to herself with an internal smirk. How boring and predictable would she be without a couple of odd quirks?

"NEXT!"

She was so intently watching Dr. Swan that she hadn't even noticed it was her own turn to order. Shaken from her thoughts, she ordered an Americano. She did so quickly, and made her way quickly to class in order make sure she got her seat in the front row of BIO310.

A/N: It's been years, I know.

I am so sorry to the Swan Queen fandom. I heard what happened on the show, and I just have no words.

If anyone is still interested, I'm back at this it seems. My writing style (probably?) has altered a tad due to some maturity, but my plan is all the same and I cannot wait to keep writing the journey of these two women. I adore these characters, I adore the fandom, and hope some of you still want to join me for my AU story.