That night Regina and David stayed at a really nice and expensive hotel close to the gala. What nobody knew they booked a suite with 2 separate bedrooms one for each of them. Even if she felt like a princess with the perfect dress, the perfect shoes, the perfect hair and what seems the perfect life for everyone outside – she was very unhappy. She hoped that this fake relationship would help but it didn't. She felt worse than ever. Being alone sucked - but being alone and making the world believe their Disney Queen finally found her prince is the worst. Now nobody would try to get her attention. Sometimes it helped a lot to see how people try to woo you even if you know for sure you would never allow them close to you.
That same night Regina cried herself to sleep – it didn't help when she heard Augusts' voice in the living room of their suite, when he slipped in to see David.
The next morning came and Regina was already awake. August left the suite early and David grinded happy. He asked her if she wanted to go get breakfast together. She wanted to scream at him and tell him that this deal was over – but she couldn't. Media was cutthroat lately it was only a matter of time for them to find out her secret and her career would be over. She was not ready for that. She lost much in her life already she couldn't risk it. Therefore she slipped into her role and played the lovely girlfriend.
When they arrived for breakfast, all eyes were on them. It took only 5 minutes when they saw the reason for the attention. They looked in the small kiosk and saw their faces everywhere. Mostly Regina and the stunning dress she wore with headlines how the mayoral candidate David Swan got so lucky to get a movie star as a girlfriend.
After a quick breakfast they went back to their suite and packed to leave the hotel. Regina was lucky she "borrowed" a pair of leggings and a boyfriend flannel from Emma – that was everything she could grab without intruding the girl's privacy because it was the only stuff already in the dryer back at the mansion. At the front door were a lot of paparazzi, they screamed her name and ask her questions about last night. They asked about the stunning dress and when they would get married. The thought of a marriage made her stomach turned around. David led her through the crowd and they got a taxi at the other side of the street.
When they got in the car Regina eases up, this was more than she thought it would be. She just wanted a partner to be photographed together with at events to give the media something. To show them she was off the market. She never expected THIS! But she also knew it was her fault and where ever she goes the media would go crazy over news.
At the same time Emma woke up in her bedroom, she was happy when she went downstairs and was still alone. Last night she caught up with Ruby, it ended in a lot of cocktails and talking about the crazy turn in her live. She was happy when she found some Pop Tarts in the cupboard and ate her favorites. As every morning, she took her laptop and opened up her favorite gossip website. She swallowed only a moment later. To say she was shocked when she opened her newsfeed was an understatement, because she saw her dress everywhere – that was her dress and nobody other than Regina freaking Mills – in her dress.
Goose bumps started to rise all over her body, to see Regina in HER dress – the dress she had worked on for over 3 months. It was everything she expected it to be – even more. She had no idea what was happening and why it happened. Tears started to fall down her cheeks, this was her dress on the woman she loved – waits stop get yourself together – she is your stepmom – kind of.
She hears her phone and looks at the screen to see Ruby calling her. Her eyes still glued on the screen she reaches for her phone and tries to catch it after slipping from her hands. She was too weak in this moment so it slipped out of her hand and landed on the floor. The sound stopped and Emma stood up to get it. When she finally grabbed it she pressed the callback button and within seconds Ruby was at the other side of the line.
"HOLY FUCK EMMA DID YOU SEE IT ALREADY?" she screamed "Regina, your dress, what happened, how did you do it and why haven't you told me last night when we met - this is brilliant you are a star. Everyone is going crazy to find out who designed it. "Wait, we planned to give it to Regina in Paris and you were so nervous – you didn't give it to her right? You would have told me. Why? How? Tell me everything!"
"Ruby I have no idea how this happened. All I know is I was excited yesterday when she opened the door. I didn't talk to her much. We met and afterward I got drunk, I opened my eyes and look at the news feed and saw my dress is all over the internet. Ruby I'm screwed! I need to think let's talk later please."
When she ended the call with Ruby she opened her mailbox and was overwhelmed – her little blog she created for her fashion brand, she got 138 Emails during the last 12 hours. They asked for interviews for fashion blogs, fashion YouTube channels, even some newspaper and television interviews requests. But one mail caught Emma's eye – it was a mail from "Happy Endings" designer Manuel Rodriquez - her idol. He was the guy who created the best, craziest and most amazing dresses for the Evil Queen – and now he wrote her - Emma Swan.
Her hands were shaking, the hangover made her dizzy, but this was crazy her world started to spin and Emma knew she couldn't take it right now. After closing her eyes she tried to sleep again – this must be a dream – this can't be real.
A few hours later Emma woke up to voices downstairs, she wasn't ready to face her family. She looked again at her laptop – this wasn't a dream - this was real. The number of emails nearly doubled and now she realized that her dress was in nearly every newspaper, not only in Storybrooke but the whole USA. The media was flooded with pictures of Regina, her dad, and HER Dress. The reviews were absolutely amazing from 'dress of the year" to "most amazing outfit Mills ever wore " and "looks like it was just made for R. Mills".
If they only knew. This was crazy; the name she used for her label as soon as she finished her studies - "Swan Queen" - was now one of the most tweeted in the world. She knew Regina's fandom was huge but she hadn't expected it to be this big.
Just in this moment she didn't know if she should be happy about it or frustrated. Because sure it is amazing that the world loved her dress – but it was her dress it contains all her unfulfilled longings for her favorite actress - and now future stepmother Regina Mills. To see that dress she made with all her heart for the woman she had feelings for, on said woman was a dream come true but also really sad.
Her dreams about the adventurous trip to Paris to visited Ruby and go to the convention to finally meet her after so many years of being a fangirl where gone. It's not that Emma is not happy to see her wearing her dress – no. But how can she fangirl about someone that will be family soon, it just lost its appeal. And she never expected to see her dress on the woman, just to know she has it was enough for Emma before.
Another important fact she started to think about was that the dress was supposed to be her final dress for university; she couldn't take a dress that's already all over tabloids as her graduation piece. It was supposed to be her masterpiece. Panic started to creep up on her – she worked on it more than 4 months now. Every seam was hand-stitched, every application was created by Emma herself, every zipper and button was specially made for that dress – and now she was screwed. She has 6 weeks to come up with something. Emma felt very sick in this moment of realization. Right now her mind was blank. Her inspiration was gone because her muse was now her stepmom and yikes she doesn't even want to go down that part and think about what that means …
There was a knock on Emma's door and David didn't wait for her to answer – he just stepped in and greeted Emma "Morning sleepy head, I'm glad that I finally get to see you. I'm so sorry I wasn't there yesterday to welcome you but I had an important meeting to attend to. Regina told me you left soon after you arrived."
Emma wasn't sure how to react; he acted like nothing happened – like he didn't show off her masterpiece 6 weeks too early to the world. Her jaw dropped and she realized that he probably had no idea what he had done. She would love to scream at him, kick him and throw him in Tartarus, but that wouldn't help her situation.
"Dad what have you done, my dress is all over media every newspaper printed Regina in it – what were you thinking?" Emma breathed.
"Emma, I'm sorry you already left and Regina had nothing to wear, her baggage got lost on her flight here. Since the shops are closed and Zelena has just crazy gothic outfits I thought I could find something in here. I didn't know you would be so mad about sharing your clothes with someone. You and Ruby do it all the time and I swear Regina was really cautious with it. I can bring it to the drycleaners first thing Monday – I never expected you to wear something like that. Which reminds me, Regina asked me about the label. She wanted to know if you would like to go with her to the shop on Monday and see if she can get something there as well."
"The Shop dad? This dress was hand stitched – BY ME! Swan Queen is my label. I worked on that dress for months. It was supposed to be by graduation work. I just took it with me to finish some applications" she didn't notice that she was to yell at him.
He probably didn't know that she studied design. "Dad, you didn't know, right? Mom never told you what I do?" During the silence, Emma could hear steps on the staircase and David who opened and closed his mouth at least 4 times without anything coming out.
"Why, Dad? I mean usually I´m totally fine sharing and if Regina needs something to wear just ask me. But you went in my room without asking, you invaded my privacy and gave my dress to your girlfriend to look nice for you at this event and get more votes? You could have called me. There are so many other nice dresses in my bag or inside the wardrobe. You could have used any of them…I don't care, they were pieces from my last competitions. Regina was the muse for every one of them. She would have looked hot in any dress inside that stupid bag. Just this dress was special…and now … I don't know …I …need some air…" and with that Emma opened the door and saw a fearful Regina. Emma didn't pay attention to her and ran down the stairs. She needed to take a walk and think.
David stood there – alone in Emma's room when he saw Regina open the door a and looked at him she whispered "I'm Sorry" David looked her in the eyes "it's not your fault I picked the dress; I didn't know what my daughter does for living. I'm the worst father in the world. Even if she didn't want to talk to me the last few years, I should have caught up with Mary more often to know more about my daughter. I need to figure out how to help her right now"
With that, David left to make a few calls to find out what he could do to support his daughter.