Chapter 7 – The one with a secret boyfriend (apparently.)

They share a fair amount about their lives and learn about each other as all friends do. Henry, however, is one subject Emma does not share, especially not now that he's always teasing her about her being attracted to her employer. She always makes her bi-weekly calls to him after Regina has gone to bed or on days where she can slip out of the studio for a privacy break, and generally it's been easy keeping her two lives separate. Ruby and Mary Margaret have noticed her from a distance on her phone on rare occasions and she always brushes it off as business calls, not wanting to involve anyone in her personal life.

It's not that she doesn't want to share, but she's been around celebrities enough to know that once this season is over and she leaves the show, she'll be nothing but a vague memory to them. They'll continue on, making new friends, mingling with more famous people, and she'll fade away as a once-upon-a-time coworker. It's how the industry works, how celebrity life is a constant cycle of meeting people and forgetting people, and she takes no offense to that knowledge. It's just easier to not get too involved when she knows this won't last. One day she'll move on to guarding her next principal and only ever seeing Regina and the others on a television screen. The thought is sobering.

"Who was that?" Regina asks one day, appearing from around the corner to find Emma hiding in one of the sets, and Emma jumps slightly and shoves her cellphone away.

"Just Jecob checking in," Emma shrugs, hopping up to head back to the greenroom. Regina walks by her side, squinting her eyes suspiciously at her.

"He checks in on you a lot lately."

Emma shrugs again without a verbal reply, and Regina is determined to find out what it is her bodyguard and co-star is clearly hiding.


She finds out later that week.

They've been moved into a trendy townhouse for the next half a year of filming, and with their bedrooms side by side, it's a simple matter of pressing her ear to the wall to eavesdrop on her elusive housemate. Now that she actually pays attention, she notices that Emma always waits for her to go to bed first. After a half hour of quiet, she can hear the soft murmur of Emma's low voice on the phone. She's so quiet that Regina can't make out most of what she's saying, just the occasional word or two. Emma seems to listen a lot, responding with a soft hum or affirmation, punctuated by a chuckle every so often. Finally, Regina can hear a three syllable "I miss you," (or was it "I love you?") before everything goes quiet.

She shouldn't feel... bitter. Or jealous. But somehow she is, unhappy that Emma feels the need to hide this supposed man in her life from her. They're friends, or at least Regina thought so, and she doesn't like being kept out of the loop.

She asks Emma if she's seeing anyone the next morning. Emma's reply is to choke on her coffee and splutter out something nonsensical on her way out of the kitchen, nearly running face-first into the wall as she does so.

Regina doesn't ask again and Emma pretends it never happened.


Filming is hard work. Emma is used to being on sets for anywhere from ten to sixteen hours a day when she's working for actors, but throw makeup and costumes and memorizing lines into the mix and now she's also mentally and emotionally exhausted, feeling more worn down as time goes by. They have a short one week break in the middle of the season in which Regina flies home to LA and Emma returns to Boston, and then they're back in Vancouver and suffering the new grey, rainy weather as autumn comes in full strength.

"This is ridiculous," Regina complains as she steps out of her trailer one day, ducking under the umbrella Tina holds up for her as they make their way through circus to stage seven. Emma shuffles closely next to her to remain dry as well, if only because Neal will give her grief if she gets her costume wet again, and they have to stare at the ground as they walk to avoid the massive puddles scattered all across the concrete lot.

"It's just a little rain," Emma chuckles, nodding her thanks to Tina once they step safely through the bay door and into the warmth of the building. Tina rushes off with the umbrella to escort the next cast, and Emma and Regina drop down into their chairs in the greenroom.

"It's cold," Regina laments, pulling out her folded sides and flattening it out to go over her lines again. "And depressing. Everything is grey and dull and wet."

"But it's warm and pretty when the sun comes out, and I know how much you love hiking in Whistler," Emma presses, grinning, and Regina can only roll her eyes at that truth. Despite her misgivings about Emma keeping things from her, she does care about the other woman (that's what friends are for, right?) and she's decided that the jealousy festering in her gut is just because she doesn't like the idea of their budding friendship taking a backseat to whatever relationship it is that Emma's hiding. It's the only likely explanation.

Tina appears a while later with Ruby in tow, as bright and cheerful as always. "First team, please!"

They step onto set, taking the place of their stand-ins and settling into their roles. Belle can be incredibly convincing and she's pushed for scenes with her writing team that just skirt the line of what may or may not upset Gold. Today, Emma and Regina are in each other's personal spaces (again, as is becoming the norm,) and Emma wonders if it's possible to melt from the ferocity of someone's gaze, because Regina's face transforms from her usual look of blank disinterest to the heated rage of Queen Reina and she can feel her knees wobbling.

"Roll sound," Neal says over the radio, and a hush falls over everyone as Belle leans towards the monitors with a grin, eyes gleaming at the palpable sizzle between her leading actresses.

"Action!"


They get two weeks off for Christmas, and Emma heads straight for Brooklyn to spend the holidays with Henry once Regina has left for LA. Henry stays with the only family she's ever known, Mal—the older blonde something of a mother figure to her, especially back when she'd been young and alone with a child—and Lily, her long-time friend and confidante.

Both women are overjoyed when she shows up on their doorstep as a surprise, and even Henry flings himself into her arms without hesitation, apparently not yet old enough to be too cool for his mother.

"Ma!" he shouts, squeezing her as tightly as he can. He's tiny for his age, though, a late bloomer in terms of growth spurts, and Emma just chuckles and ruffles at his hair, easily fighting him off when he tries to tackle her. Later, he asks about the unfamiliar red scarf wound around his mother's neck, and Emma gently fingers at the soft and expensive cashmere with a pink tinge to her cheeks.

"It was a Christmas gift from... Regina." She still remembers the moment Regina had presented it to her with a rushed explanation, trying to pass it off as a casual gift. Emma had sniffed and clutched it to her chest, murmuring that she rarely got Christmas gifts as a foster kid and that it meant a lot to her, and Regina had just smiled at her with warm eyes and a gentle smile, giving Emma's arm a parting squeeze.

"Regina Mills?" Lily clarifies, still not quite able to believe that her rough and tumble friend is now apparently an actress on a TV show with a bunch of other celebrities. "That's insane."

"I know," Emma puffs out, blushing further when a shit-eating grin spreads across her son's face. "Don't say it, kid."

"Say what?" he asks, innocent, then, "What'd you get her in exchange?"

"I..." Emma looks guilty. "I hadn't gotten her anything. She gave this to me right before she left for the airport, and..."

"Ma! You have to get her something for Christmas!"

"Yeah, you can't just leave her hanging," Lily agrees.

"Ooh! We could go shopping for her gift here!" Mal suggests, eyes gleaming as she smirks. "There's this beautiful diamond boutique that opened up in the shopping district earlier this year, there's bound to be something fit for a beautiful actress there."

"Guys," Emma protests weakly.

Two days later, her family drags her on a shopping trip and despite her protests, she ends up spending way too much money on a solid gold crown pendant on a thin chain, the crown encrusted with small, glittering diamonds.

When they're back in Vancouver after the Christmas break, Regina is pleased to see the red cashmere scarf still wound around Emma's neck, and when Emma shyly presents the delicate crown pendant to her, both pretend not to notice the shine in Regina's eyes as she puts the necklace on and is never again seen without it.


Twitter is all aflutter when Regina Mills posts the rare selfie of herself in her full Queen Reina costume, dripping with jewels, her eyes ringed with smokey black eyeshadow and her lips a sinful shade of red. There's a crown of winding gold and diamonds perched atop her head, and she captions the photo with, "Are you ready for your Queen?"

Suffice to say, her fanbase is screaming at the Kingdom Come teaser, eager and ready to see the upcoming show.

The next tweeted photo is of herself after a day of filming, soft and casual in an off-shoulder sweater, her hand held up in a playful wave to her audiences with the caption, "What an amazing day on set. I can't wait for you guys to see #KingdomCome."

Someone points out the little crown necklace resting against her collarbone in the photo, and soon everyone is tweeting and asking about the beautiful bit of jewelry that's been glimpsed in nearly all her new photos now.

ReginaMills: It's a gift from my wonderful co-star EmmaSwan76! (smiley emoji)


Emma makes sure to hit 'like' on the comment, as well as adding her own smiley face and thumbs up emojis in response. The fans fawn over this bit of celebrity interaction, and Regina's smile for her is extra soft that day, adding more butterflies to the emporium of butterflies already living in Emma's stomach.