AN: Hello everyone! So, so, so sorry that it had taken me so long to get back to this! I've had so much going on lately and all. Any way, thank you for being patient with me, sadly this chapter is a bit shorter than some of the others have been, but I hope the content makes up for it. Thanks for sticking with me. Oh, and the song used is "If You Told Me To" by Hunter Hayes. I hope you like it! Xoxo!
Chapter 11
The next 8 hours were probably the longest of Emma's life. She had told Ruby that she was going home, but had refused to call Gold. "No way! He'll never let me go. I'm just going to do it and deal with the consequences later. Regina needs me," she'd told her friend.
She bought her tickets online and was at airport within an hour. There were no flights from L.A directly to Maine, so Emma had a short layover in Chicago before her flight that took her within 30 minutes of Storybrooke. The 4 and a half hour flight from L.A to Chicago seemed to drag on, so Emma spent her time working on a new song in the hopes that it would get her out of whatever trouble she would be in with Gold when she got back. It wasn't her usual style, but she was just writing what she felt and it felt right.
When her second flight landed she raced out, thankful that she didn't have to go to the baggage claim. She jumped in the first cab she saw and paid the guy extra to get her home as quickly as possible. During the ride she called Ruby and told her she'd made it there safely. After that she put the finishing touches on the song she'd written during her flights. It was just after 5A.M with the hours she lost during travel and she was running on nothing but coffee and pure determination to get to Regina.
Her emotions were all over the place. She was excited to see Regina, but she was confused about why she had been called and not Tink or Mel. She was also furious with Robin. How the hell could he do something like that to Regina, not to mention his wife and little Roland?! She was also worried about what Gold would do once he found out that she'd left. The guy was super weird and super strict. Working with him kind of felt like making a deal with the devil.
She let everything but Regina slip out of her mind as the cab pulled up to 108 Mifflin Street. She practically threw a wad of cash at the driver and raced to the door that swung open as soon as she reached it. Regina's face was red and tear streaked and her eyes were swollen. Emma dropped her bag on the floor and wrapped her arms around the woman. They stood there for who knows how long. Regina sobbed into Emma's neck and Emma held her as tightly as she could without hurting her.
After Regina's sobs slowed she raised her head to meet the blonde's green eyes. "Thank you for coming. You didn't have to. I don't know why I said that. It was stupid."
"Are you kidding?" the blonde grinned. "You needed me. You'd have done the same for me."
"You'll be lucky if Gold let's you live."
"Don't worry about that. C'mon. I'm going to make you some pancakes and cocoa and you can tell me everything."
Regina followed her friend to the kitchen where she set to rummaging through the cabinets to find everything she needed. She sat on a stool at the island and watched the woman work as they talked.
"Start talking," Emma instructed her as she was mixing the batter.
"Well, I've told you what happened. I don't want to rehash that."
"Okay, so tell me what's going on in that beautiful mind of yours. You're obviously thinking about this. What are you thinking?"
"Honestly? I'm not very upset about the break up itself. Sure, I liked Robin, but I didn't love him. I feel betrayed. The thought of being the other woman is the worst part. I feel so sorry for his wife. And Roland! Why did he let me meet the boy? I don't understand that at all."
"He's a dick," Emma responded as she flipped a pancake. "The kid should never have been brought into it."
"Kid… What am I supposed to tell Henry? I introduced my child to this creep, Emma."
"Hey… Henry will be fine. To be honest, Robin isn't his favorite person anyway," Emma replied as she finished putting the smiley face on Regina's pancakes and slid the plate over to, and then sat beside her to eat her own.
"Thank you," Regina told her before taking a bite of the pancakes.
"You're welcome. Now, let's eat and get some sleep. I don't know about you, but I have been awake for a long time."
They ate their breakfast in companionable silence. When they finished, Regina started to run water for the dished, but stopped when Emma touched her arm. "Leave them. I'm tired and I know you are."
Brown eyes met green for a moment, before Regina turned off the water with an almost inaudible, "Okay." She led Emma up the stairs.
The blonde made sure that Regina was in the bed and had no intention of moving before she said her good night and turned to go to the guest room. She had one foot out of the door before Regina's voice met her ears with a simple, "Stay?" She stopped without turning around. Regina must have noticed before she continued, "Please? I don't want to be alone."
"Okay," she sighed. She crawled into the bed beside Regina thinking about how completely wrong it was for her to do so when she knew she had feelings for her. She never would have done so if Regina hadn't asked. The sun peeking through the window was the last thing Emma remembered before falling asleep.
She woke some time later and the first thing she noticed was that her hands were holding something. She kept her eyes shut, but fear struck her. She ran her hands over what she held and mentally groaned as she felt slender fingers. Her eyes remained shut though she now realized that her front was pressed to Regina's back. This time she groaned aloud as she finally figured out that she was definitely spooning with her crush, who was in a post break-up state. What the hell was she doing? She began to try to untangle her fingers from Regina's but to her surprise Regina held on.
"Good morning, Emma. I was wondering when you would wake," the brunette whispered.
"Umm, hi. Hey. Good morning. How long exactly have you been awake?"
"About half an hour or so," she replied.
"Better question, how long have we been sleeping like this?"
"It's almost 3, so about 8 hours, why?"
"No, I mean like this? Why didn't you wake me and go, 'Hey Em, get back over there?'"
"Oh, that. Look Emma, don't worry. I had a nightmare earlier and I woke up crying. I don't think you actually woke, but you just grabbed me and held on. I think it was an instinct, but I don't think anything of it, so you don't have to worry. It was nice," she finished as she released the blonde's hands and allowed Emma to untangle herself.
She immediately pulled away and sat on the side of the bed. "No, I am worried Regina. I am very worried."
Regina looked up in confusion at that. "Why?"
"What the hell, I've got nothing to lose. You really wanna know?" she asked. When Regina nodded Emma launched into a speech that she didn't know she was capable of. "Okay, here's why I'm worried Regina. I care too much! I can't get you out of my head! It's so hard for me not to annoy you. I want to be near you or talking to you every minute of every day. I've never really been afraid of anything, but now my biggest fear is that one day you and Henry are just going to disappear. I hate how you are constantly on my mind. Everything I see or hear, it always comes back to you. You are my first thought every morning and my last thought every night. I dream about you, and it feels so real until I wake up and you're not there. Every fiber of my being aches to be close to you, to hold you, and to make you feel so much love that you'll be as consumed by it as I am. When our eyes meet, my heart goes haywire. I grin like a fool every time you call or text. I can't help it. You climbed my walls or something, because I have always, always been guarded, but I'm not with you and that's wonderful and terrifying all at once. You drive me insane, but in the best way possible. You make my heart race. You make me feel alive in ways that I didn't even know were possible. I want you, and I want Henry, and I want you more than I've ever wanted anything in my life and it scares the shit out of me, Regina."
Regina was wiping a few tears away when Emma gathered the nerve to look her in the eyes. She didn't quite know what to say, but she knew she couldn't just not respond so after a moment she said the first thing that came to her mind, "How long?"
"How long what?" Emma replied slowly. She hadn't expected a question, and she certainly hadn't expected Regina to be calm. She had expected yelling and accusations.
"How long have you known that you feel this way?"
"Um, a while. To be fair, in the beginning I thought it was just a crush and that I'd get over it ya know? But then Henry said something about how I look at you and I – "
Regina cut her off with a panicked expression, "Henry knows?"
"I swear I didn't tell him! He told me! I didn't even tell him I liked women. That day Daniel showed up here Henry said that Daniel looked like he wanted to date me, but that he knew I liked you!"
"My 10 year old could tell that I like you?"
"Ye- wait, what?! You like me?"
"What?"
"You just said that your 10 year old could tell that you like me."
"I meant that you like me, but oh well. Yes, Emma. I like you. But that doesn't meant that we are going to rush into anything here. That means that we are going to figure out what this means, slowly. I wouldn't want anyone to think that you are a rebound for me or anything." Regina smiled up at her from her place on the bed.
Emma still looked confused. "Regina… What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that we are going to take our time and see what happens."
"I didn't think you liked women?"
"I never have before," Regina shrugged. "There's something different about you though. My father believes that we are soul mates," she admitted.
"Oooookay, why does he think that?" she asked as she sat back down on the edge of the bed.
"It's about that dream we had. The one that was the same. There is a legend that says that if two people have the same dream, that they are soul mates."
"You told him about that?"
"I did. I couldn't remember the story. Would you like to hear it?"
"Sure," she replied.
So Regina told Emma the story that her father had told her. When they finished, the two sat for a moment thinking.
Then the blonde piped up, "That's, um, interesting… Soooo, I wrote a song on the way here. Can I play it for you?"
Regina beamed. "Of course."
Emma positively glowed when she smiled back and began to sing.
Well I've been searching for something true
My heart says it must be you
I'd love to fall and see it through
But only if you told me to
Well I'd run through the desert, I'd walk through the rain
Get you into trouble and take all the blame
I'd paint you a picture, write you a song
And I'd do it all over if I did it all wrong
I don't wanna steal you away
Or make you change the things that you believe
I just wanna drink from the words you say
And be everything you need
Yeah I could be so good at loving you
But only if you told me to
I've seen a lot of good love go to waste
And I don't wanna look back on these days
Knowing all the things you'd never know
If I never said a word and let you go
I don't wanna steal you away
Or make you change the things that you believe
I just wanna drink from the words you say
And be everything you need
Yeah I could be so good at loving you
But only if you told me to
I don't wanna steal you away
Or make you change the things that you believe
I just wanna drink from the words you say
And be everything you need
Yeah I could be so good at loving you
But only if you told me to
Maybe this is something I'll never be
But I'll be right here till you tell me
Regina wrapped her arms around Emma in a hug. The blonde smiled and hugged her back. Then she whispered, "Can I confess something to you?"
"Mhmm," Regina sounded.
"I wasn't going to leave this time without telling you how I feel. I didn't want to miss my chance again."
"Good," Regina took Emma's hand. "I want this to work, Emma. I honestly believe that you're the reason that I'm not that upset about Robin. We weren't right any way, but this," she squeezed Emma's hand in hers, "this feels right. But I don't want to hurt you. Be patient with me. I need to make sure that you're not just a rebound. I need to know that this feeling is still going to be here in a few months when I'm not angry anymore. Will you wait for me?"
"I'd wait for you forever."