Chapter Sixteen
"Emma, what are still doing up?" Mary Margaret asked as she entered the loft after a decidedly unsuccessful date with Dr. Whale, surprised to see her new roommate still awake, sitting on the sofa, looking intensely focused on... something.
"Nothing. Just thinking," Emma sighed. "Hey, Mary Margaret... what do you know about Regina?"
"Mayor Mills? Not much, really. We don't run in the same circles. You seem quite... well, for lack of a better word... taken with her."
Emma smirked and shook her head. "It's that obvious? Can you keep a secret?"
"Of course," Mary Margaret insisted with a smile, coming to sit next to Emma.
"Well... once upon a time, when I was young and naive, before I even had Henry, I met Regina in a bar one night and we... kind of hooked up."
"Hooked up?" Mary Margaret repeated. "Like, sex?"
"Yes," Emma nodded, chewing on her bottom lip.
"Before you had Henry? Did you intend to give him to her, then?"
"Nope. Pure coincidence, at least that's how she sees it, anyway."
"Wow. How awkward that must be for you then. What are the odds that the woman you shared a one night stand with would adopt your child!"
"It uh, it wasn't just a one night stand," Emma confessed, looking at Mary Margaret a little sheepishly.
"But I thought you said you hooked up?"
"Yeah... more than once... over the course of two years... before and after I had Henry..."
"Oh. I see. And now what?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why are you here Emma? Why did you stay in Storybrooke? For Henry or for Regina?"
"I stayed for me," Emma said decisively, "and for Henry... and for Regina."
"Okay, so then what's your next move?"
It took nearly a week for Emma to decide her next move. She waited until Saturday, knowing that Henry was off at a sleepover and Regina would be home, alone.
For twenty minutes, she sat in her car, talking herself into having the courage to face Regina again. If Regina knew she was out there, she made no attempt to come out, or even text Emma and tell her to leave.
Emma knew, though, there was still a chance she knew she was out there, and would not answer the door when Emma knocked.
Emma guessed she might as well bite the bullet, and go find out.
Regina answered the door almost as soon as Emma knocked, and Emma guessed that meant she had known she was standing out there.
"Miss Swan," Regina said, making no move to invite Emma inside.
But Emma was not deterred. "We need to talk."
"I can assure you that we absolutely do not. We have nothing to discuss, dear," Regina said, crossing her arm and setting her jaw.
"I can assure you that we absolutely do, and I'm not leaving, so either you can invite me in or we can do this out here."
Regina sighed and stepped back to let Emma inside. "I don't remember you being so rude," Regina scoffed as she shut the door behind them.
"Yeah, well I don't remember you being such a bitch. I guess people change," Emma shrugged.
"Emma, whatever it is you want from me, I can assure you that flinging insults is not the way to get it," said Regina, as she crossed her arms again and made no attempt to allow Emma any further into her home than the entry way they were standing in.
"You know what I want from you."
To her surprise, Regina's lips curled up in a devious smirk, and Emma felt her heart flutter. Regina's smile was dark, and like nothing Emma had ever seen from her before.
"Oh, I think I know exactly what you want, Emma," Regina replied, and before Emma even had a chance to react, Regina was advancing on her, pushing her back hard against the door. Within seconds, Regina's lips were crashing angrily, forcefully against Emma's.
Emma squirmed her face away from Regina's, turning her head to the side as Regina moved her mouth to Emma's neck, kissing and sucking hard at the exposed flesh there.
"Regina, stop," Emma forced out, her voice a breathy whisper.
"Isn't this what you want, Emma?" Regina asked, between kisses on her clavical. "Isn't this why you keep hounding me? You miss this, don't you? Isn't this who you keep coming at me?"
Momentarily, Regina's words distracted Emma from what her hands were doing, and before she realized what was happening, Regina hand a hand inside the waistband of her jeans, making her descent inside Emma's panties, to her core.
"Isn't this what you want, Emma?" Regina hissed, her voice full of venom in an way that Emma had never heard it before. Who was this woman? Because this was certainly not the woman she'd met in Portland all those years ago.
"No," Emma breathed. Despite the fact that she had longed for Regina's touch so many times throughout the years, she knew that this, right now, was nothing more than an obvious attempt to derail her.
"No?" Regina repeated with a raised eyebrow, as she stopped her motions completely and withdrew her hand suddenly. "What do you want then, Emma, if it's not to be fucked? I have nothing else to offer you."
"You could start with an explanation," Emma suggested, trying to school her features and even out her breathing as much as possible.
"What exactly do you think I owe you an explanation for now?" Regina countered, rolling her eyes.
"Same thing as always. Tell me why you ended things, and I will stop hounding you about it," Emma said, with a shrug.
"I already have told you, you just refuse to accept it."
"Right," Emma replied, rolling her own eyes, "I was getting too attached, in your opinion. Though you've never told me what, exactly, brought you to that conclusion."
"You really want to know, Emma? Fine. I never called you again because the last time I did, you told me you loved me. Happy now?"
Emma couldn't even stop her jaw from dropping at the revelation. It took a moment for her to come back to her senses, and actually say something in response. "I… I never said I loved you."
"You did. On the phone, while you were falling asleep. I'm sure you don't remember, but trust me, I do. I told you it was just sex, Miss Swan, and that's all it was, for me. You, apparently, couldn't keep the lines from blurring, and that was an issue. Are we done now?"
"No, I… no we're not done. I… I obviously didn't mean it. I don't know what love is any better than you do."
Regina clenched her jaw at the implication that Emma was making. "I know what love is, Miss Swan. I've experienced it before, and what we… did… was not that."
"Well, it was something," Emma countered, "because if it wasn't, you wouldn't still be this worked up over it, nine years later.
"How else am I supposed to react when you insist on interjecting yourself into my life at every turn? Why can't you just go, and let me be happy? What is it with you and your…." Regina stopped herself before adding bloodline to that sentence. Normally, she could play the part of Mayor perfectly, with none of the Evil Queen slipping through, but Emma just had a way of getting under her skin, and affecting her in a way no one else could.
But that wasn't love.
No, Regina told herself it had to have something to do with being the Savior. And the Evil Queen wasn't supposed to love the Savior… after all, if Emma knew the truth, there was no way the Savior could possibly love the Evil Queen.
"Me and my what?" Emma asked, bringing Regina back out of her thoughts.
"Nothing! Get out of my house, I don't want you here, Emma. It's time for you to accept that," Regina snapped.
"We're not done here," Emma insisted, crossing her own arms defensively - and a little defiantly - holding her place against Regina's door. Truthfully, she she didn't know how she expected this stand off to end, but she knew she'd go home and drive herself crazy if she left it like this, now.
Regina threw her hands up in what looked like defeat, but Emma knew it was anything but. "What more do you want from me?"
"I want to help you," Emma confessed, and immediately realized that was probably the absolute wrong thing to say.
"I don't want your help."
"Maybe not, but you need it," Emma insisted.
"With what, pray tell?" Regina challenged, narrowing her eyes suspicously.
"Last week," Emma said, softening her voice as much as she good, so as to not set Regina off again, "when I grabbed your arm. I saw that look in your eyes, and I've seen it before."
"Whatever it is you think you saw, it's none of your business. Don't you get it, Emma? You don't mean anything to me. We're not friends, we're not anything, and we never will be. You shouldn't even want to be near me."
"Yeah? Why's that?"
"Why the hell do you think? I took advantage of you when you were seventeen! You were a child and I took your innocence!"
"I was anything but innocent," Emma countered.
"Doesn't matter. You should hate me for it anyway."
"You don't get to decide how I feel," Emma replied, studying Regina's eyes carefully. Suddenly, it was starting to click. "Who took advantage of you?"
Regina's eyes darkened again, and Emma knew she'd hit a nerve. "Get out of my house. Now. Or I will call Graham and have you arrested, again."
Emma hestitated a moment, but something in Regina's tone told her she wasn't getting any further with Regina tonight.
"Fine. But we're not done."
"Emma. Please, just leave this alone. Don't try to help me. Don't even try to know me, because I guarantee if you don't hate me now, you will."
Emma sighed, and turned around, opening the door without another word. She'd hit a nerve, that much was clear, and she was treading dangerously close to the truth of whatever had happened to Regina in her past, but Regina wasn't lying when she said Emma would hate her.
Still, Emma was sure that was inpossible.
Something horrible had happened to Regina, and how could Emma hate her for that?
Emma left feeling defeated, yet hopeful. Despite Regina's resistence, she was sure she'd made some headway. She hoped that maybe after she'd had a night to think on it, Regina would change her mind and accept some help from Emma.
Or maybe she'd double her efforts on getting Emma the hell out of Storybrooke.
She guessed she'd find out soon enough.
What do you think Regina will do now? Accept that maybe - just maybe - Emma is on her side? Or work even harder to push her away?
Find out next Wednesday ;)
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