A/N: Thanks for the poem love … but I'm still going to stick to fiction writing.
If Emma thought she was nervous the first time she was waiting to meet Regina, it was nothing compared to how she felt the following afternoon. Any questions which Ruby had presented went unanswered as the blonde stared, almost without blinking at the door. The five minutes they were alone in the room before Regina and August arrived felt like an eternity. But at last, the door handle turned.
"Regina," Emma said at once, getting to her feet and rushing towards the door, intending to gather the woman in her arms. At the sight of the brunette's pale face, however, she stopped dead. "Um, hi."
"Hi," Regina replied, her voice quiet and monotone.
"Let's sit down," August said after a moment, his hand in the small of Regina's back gently guiding her forwards. But the teenager didn't move. Instead, she fixed her gaze directly on Emma and asked the question which had been eating her alive since the previous morning.
"Is it true?"
"No," Emma gasped almost before the words were out of the brunette's mouth. "No, Regina. Not a word of it. God, you don't believe any of that article, do you?"
"I … I don't know," Regina admitted.
Emma stepped further forwards so less than two feet separated them. August glanced at Ruby who signalled to him that they should let the girls talk without interfering. It wasn't directly related to the RJP but without this conversation, nothing else could be discussed openly, perhaps ever again.
"Regina, I love you," Emma said, slow and sincere as August moved away from them and towards the table where Ruby still sat. "I've never felt like this about anyone before and it's big and scary but it's also exciting and makes me look forward to my future for the first time ever. That article was all lies. I said none of that stuff. I would never use you like that, never."
"Where did it come from? The article mentioned a source? Whoever it was knew about us, knew about the Christmas present I gave you." Regina's eyes dropped to Emma's wrist skinny where she could see the bracelet and charm in question.
Emma sighed. "We think it was my former bunkmate. She got released a couple of weeks ago. I talked to her about you but I never said anything like what she said to the press. I told her how much I loved you, a lot. She used to tease me with how in love I was. We'd talk about our relationship and our future in the evenings. She even read the poem I wrote you. She knew the truth about how I felt but I guess that wasn't what the press was willing to pay money for. Regina, please, you have to believe me. I love you, please tell me you believe that."
Wide brown eyes scanned Emma's pleading face. She could see the desperation there, mingled with fear that perhaps whatever was between them was about to disappear forever. At the thought of that, Regina's heart clenched. She didn't want to lose Emma. She didn't want to destroy what they had. "I know," she said eventually. "I believe you."
Emma let out a trembling breath. "Oh, thank God. Regina, thank you. I'm so sorry. For what MM said to the press, for everything you've been through, I'm so sorry."
She held out her arms and, after a moment, Regina collapsed into them, a fresh wave of tears, this time of relief, flooding down her cheeks. Emma cried too, as she felt the pain and anguish of the brunette coupled with her own fears.
"I love you so much," Emma whispered into Regina's ear. "I'm sorry this happened."
"I love you too," Regina replied. "And I'm sorry for doubting you, for doubting us."
"It's ok," Emma assured her. "I mean, that article was evil and crazy but I understand."
"No," Regina said, pulling away. "It's not ok, Emma. I'm sorry. I should never have believed a word of it. I was tired and stressed with school work and I just took what I read to be true without thinking. I should have known the truth. I know you, I feel what you feel when you're with me because it's what I feel when I'm with you. The truth is when we're together and I shouldn't have let myself believe anything else."
"You don't need to apologise," Emma soothed. "I do. It's all my fault. I trusted the wrong girl and, in doing so, you got hurt."
"You're not responsible for what your so-called friend did," Regina pointed out.
"I feel responsible," Emma growled. "I hate that she hurt you."
Regina reached up and cupped Emma's face, her thumbs stroking over the soft skin of her cheeks. "I'm ok," she promised. "We're ok. And do you want to know a good thing which came out of this?" Emma nodded. "It was my mom and dad who persuaded me to reschedule our meeting today after I cancelled it when I first read the article. They said they wanted me to be happy and that you make me happy. I think they're coming around."
"Really?" Emma asked, a grin cracking her face.
"Yes," Regina nodded. "And I'm sorry for cancelling in the first place. I was super tired and then when I read the article, the first thought was that I didn't want to see you, so I called August. Which is crazy because the first thought I have every morning is how much I do want to see you."
"Me too," Emma said. "Actually, it's my main thought for ninety percent of every day. You know you make studying really hard, right?"
Regina chuckled. "Yeah, you do too."
Unable to hold back any longer, Regina pressed her lips against Emma's. The blonde froze for a moment, as if she hadn't expected it but then she wrapped her slender arms around the shorter teen, pulling her closer and drawing their bodies flush together. Regina let Emma take control of the kiss, her tongue dominating as their lips parted. The familiar tastes and sensations alit the also familiar fire which sparked, deep in her belly whenever she touched the blonde.
Fingers drifted to Regina's hips, the tips sliding underneath her knitted sweater and resting lightly on her bare waist. The older girl's breath hitched at the feeling of warm fingertips against her skin. Emma moaned quietly as she registered the reaction but before anything more could happen, they were reminded that August and Ruby were in the room with an abrupt clearing of the man's throat.
The teens broke apart, wearing identical dopey expressions. "So, are we ok?" Emma asked, using the pad of her thumb to wipe a smudge of Regina's lipstick from the brunette's lip.
"We are," Regina replied, returning the favour and erasing the evidence of their kiss from Emma's mouth. "But I have one final thing to tell you about that article." Emma nodded and gestured for the two of them to sit down. Once Regina had taken her seat, she continued. "I guess I should have known the article was all bull when I read this but my sleep-deprived and emotionally traumatised brain didn't seem to register it. So, the article talked about your bracelet, right?"
"Yeah," Emma nodded, fingers on her right hand drifting to her left wrist to finger the charm.
"Well, I'm afraid they grossly overestimated the value of that swan," Regina admitted. "Pandora discontinued their swan charm ages ago and I did look into commissioning one but I decided that something so valuable in here and then in prison was a bad idea. So … I kinda got that off Gumtree for twenty bucks."
At the confession, the brunette's cheeks burned. It was the only item she had ever bought off a second hand and exchange website in her life. Emma gaped at her for a moment and then burst out laughing. "Are you serious?"
Affronted, Regina frowned. "I'll buy you a nicer one when you're out."
"What? No," Emma chucked. "Regina, that's not what I want. And that's not why I'm laughing. Seriously, you could have given me a gum ball machine plastic toy and I'd have loved it because it was from you."
"So why are you laughing?" Regina asked.
"Because you're so cute to be worried about me not liking something just because of where you bought it or how much it's worth. Honestly, the value of something isn't always linked to money, especially for me."
Regina paused, head cocked. "I suppose you're right. In fact, do you want to know what my favourite Christmas present was?"
"A new car?" Emma teased, remembering that that was the reason Regina had gone to the bank that fateful day.
"No," Regina chuckled. "My favourite present was your poem. It cost nothing to make but it means more to me than anything else I own."
Sobered at the sincerity, Emma drew in a breath before replying. "Are you serious?"
"Completely," Regina nodded. "I sleep with it under my pillow. I know every line to it. When my parents read it -"
"Your parents read it?" Emma interrupted.
"Yes, and it was what made them tell me to come here today, to talk with you. Those verses are filled with more meaning and more love than anything I own. And, in case you couldn't guess, I own a lot of stuff."
"It … it wasn't even that good. I had to use a dictionary and thesaurus to help me write it," Emma blushed.
"Emma, I don't care if it's going to win poetry competitions. All I care about is that when I read those words, I can hear you saying them to me. I believe them, I believe what you're saying. And I'm sorry I ever doubted you. After everything we've been through, you deserve my loyalty."
Reaching across the table, Emma tangled her fingers with Regina's. "We're good, right?"
"Yes," Regina nodded. "We're good."
There was a moment of silence, while both teens smiled at one another.
"Ok, great, I'm glad you two have worked that out," August said. "Shall we move onto the meeting now? Because no matter how supportive your parents are, we're still going to have to do our jobs and get you talking about the bank robbery as part of the program."
"Sure," Regina nodded. "Where do we start this month? The way Emma used me as a human shield to avoid police snipers?"
The bluntness led to a pause and then four guffaws of laughter, the ridiculousness of the situation remembered all over again.
And that was how the next few months unfolded. Regina and Emma met once a month as part of the Restorative Justice Program. In each meeting they would deal with another element of that fateful day. From the time Emma used Regina as a human shield in the alley to the journey in the car where Neal held a gun on Regina. To the time when Regina ran out of the jet where she was protected by cops and back to the car in an attempt to save Emma. And then how Emma ran out of the car towards gunfire, getting herself arrested but not caring because she knew Regina was safe.
It was dramatic and emotional and painful and scary but it was also necessary. As they dissected and analysed that day, both women began to come to terms with what had happened as well as facing the way in which they had changed since that day. Beyond finding one another and falling in love, both girls were different to the two teens who had walked into that bank on a late August afternoon.
Towards the end of each meeting, the conversation veered towards their relationship. Ruby and August rarely redirected it as long as the base stemmed from the events of the day they first met. In April Regina told Emma how she had been accepted into Yale and would be moving up to New Haven in the fall. In June Emma told Regina of her plan to become a counsellor. "But I think I flunked my exams," Emma had muttered, thinking back to the difficult tests she had sat a few weeks earlier.
But she didn't. While her SAT score wasn't high enough to get her admittance to an Ivy League College like Yale, Emma was pleasantly surprised when she opened her results in July. The celebration was dampened, however, when Ruby called her into her office the next day to announce where the blonde would be moving to the following week for the remainder of her sentence.
Since MM's betrayal, Storybrooke hadn't felt much like home and Emma hadn't tried to make any more friends. It wasn't worth it. At the end of the day, she couldn't trust anyone inside. But the idea of leaving and going somewhere new where adult offenders were incarcerated was still an unpleasant one.
"Queensboro Correction Facility is minimum security and has lots of great reintegration programs," Ruby had assured her. "It's specifically designed for people like you who only have a short amount of time left to serve."
"Yeah, two months," Emma huffed. "Can't I just stay here?"
"You're going to be eighteen in three days so no, you can't."
Emma pouted and slouched down in her chair, looking much more like a stroppy teen than someone who was about to become an adult.
"Do you want some good news?" Ruby asked.
"Is there any?"
"Regina will be able to visit you whenever she wants when you move there."
At that, as expected, the blonde perked up. "Really?"
"She can come every day if visiting hours allow for it."
Emma grinned but then her smile faltered, that niggling self-doubt she had struggled with so much rearing its head. "Reckon she'll drive all the way to Long Island for me?"
"Honey, that girl would drive to Timbuktu for you."
Making a mental note to look up where Timbuktu was and if it was even possible to drive there from New York, Emma pressed on. "Will you tell her where I'm going? Can you ask August to call her and give her the details or something?"
Ruby nodded, assuring Emma that she'd put all the paperwork together first and then make sure August passed on the message so Regina knew where to find Emma. The two of them had discussed the fact that Emma was moving in their last RJP meeting but it was only now hitting Emma that she was really leaving Storybrooke.
"Um, Ruby, if you have time, can we finish that application now?" Emma asked as the counsellor finished up the transport papers which would allow Emma to move from juvie to the adult prison facility.
"Sure," Ruby nodded. "Are you sure you don't want to tell Regina about this?"
Emma shook her head. "Not until I get in. I don't want to get her hopes up."
"You'll get in," Ruby smiled, shuffling her chair over and gesturing for Emma to wheel her own around the desk so the two of them could look at the computer screen at the same time.
"Maybe," Emma shrugged. "But I'm not getting my own hopes up either. It's not like life has gone well for me so far."
"And in my opinion, you deserve some good fortune," Ruby said. "Right, where did we get to?"
A/N: ok, who can guess what Emma's applying for/where Emma's applying? Anyone to get the right answer to both questions can submit a prompt for a one-shot (it's a long time since I've done one of these!)