AN: Hello my lovelies! Sorry this took so long to update, but I was travelling and I needed this to be perfect! I'm definitely going to update the next chapter next week, Sunday night most likely as I'm going to a place without internet but should by back by then. Thank you all for the positive response! Remember that reviews are always welcome!

Chapter 2

Emma walks into her apartment at a six thirty in the afternoon, three months and twenty-two days later. Tired from a long day's work and a horridly long commute, she slips off her shoes and automatically starts to go through her afternoon routine. Eyes closed, she pinches the bridge of her nose and rubs her temples to try to get rid of the headache that has been plaguing her all afternoon.

"Honey!" Walsh's energetic voice snaps her out of her reverie and startles her, making her bump into the island in the kitchen.

"Walsh!" she says breathless, right hand clutching at her chest, left hand rubbing the spot on her hip that she bumped against the island. "You scared the crap out of me! What are you doing here?" She doesn't mean to sound accusatory but let's be honest; he hasn't been home before her in more than a year.

"Well, you know, I kind of live here." He says sarcastically.

Hardly, Emma thinks.

"No, I mean, what are you doing here so early?" She says rummaging through their kitchen for some ibuprofen.

"I got off work early. Plus, I wanted to take you out for dinner, we haven't done that in a while." He smiles brightly at her, but his smile falters when he sees her knit her eyebrows together and bite her lip. "What?" he asks.

"Nothing, I just kind of wanted an early night tonight."

"Hon, it's just dinner." He stares at her, hopeful. "C'mon Emma, l want to make it up to you."

"Make what up to me?" she asks, fully knowing what he's going to say.

"Emma, I'm not going to deny it. I've been working day in and day out. I know I've been a complete asshole. I've been MIA for months and I haven't been the husband you deserve. I want to take you out on a date, it's the least I can do for working so much. C'mon baby. I miss you."

"Alright, alright. Stop groveling and let me go change." she says, smiling despite herself.

They arrived at Ai Fiori just in time for they're seven thirty reservation. Emma had to handle it to Walsh, she did love this restaurant. She never went to it without him though, the salads started at $16 and the main entrees started above $30. Emma and her friends preferred Granny's to anything, but if Walsh was willing to pay for this decadent Italian restaurant (and he was), she wasn't about to say no.

"Get whatever you want, hon." He smiles widely at her.

Emma decides on the Astice, butter poached Nova Scotia lobster accompanied by glazed root vegetables, nebrodini mushrooms drizzled in a chateau chalon sauce. Emma didn't know, nor did she care, what nebrodini mushrooms were or what a chateau chalon sauce meant, but it was a forty-dollar lobster plate, and that to her was apology enough. Walsh settled on the pork loin with gnocchi and fennel a la grecque.

When they're halfway done with their meal, Walsh speaks up.

"I've got some exciting news!"

"Yeah? What is it?" Emma raises her eyebrows at him.

"I'm going to Washington this weekend, and you're coming with me." He starts and as he's about to continue Emma cuts him off.

"Walsh, Mary Margaret and David are getting married this weekend." He looks at her and cocks an eyebrow.

"No, that's next weekend." He says brushing her off.

"No. I've been helping her plan it for almost eight months now. It's this weekend." Emma replies forcefully.

"Well, you're just going to have to miss it because we have to go to D.C. tomorrow." Anger rapidly starts coursing through Emma's entire body.

"I am not missing my best friend's wedding! Especially not when I'm the maid of honor, Walsh. Why do we have to be in D.C.?" She hisses.

"Emma, the campaign starts on Monday. I need to be down there and start getting ready with my wife by my side. You're in PR, you should know this." He replies calmly, a stoic smile placed firmly in his face.

"First of all, I am in marketing and second of all, why are you campaigning when there's two years left till elections?" She's grabbing her fork and knife so tightly that her knuckles are turning white.

"Emma," he starts looking at her incredulously as if he couldn't believe she didn't know, "I'm running for senator in Congress."

Emma feels like the floor opened up under her. If he gets elected to Congress that means that she'll have to go with him and live in D.C. and while she has nothing against the capitol, she doesn't want to leave her life in New York.

"Is that what you've been doing all these months? Planning a campaign?" she asks furiously.

"Emma, don't make a scene." He replies quietly, but his voice is stern, reprimanding, and authoritative.

"Oh, is this why you chose to tell me in a public restaurant, so I wouldn't make a scene?" Emma asks hotly.

"No, Emma, I just wanted to make conversation. Big things are happening to me, to us. You're my wife, naturally I want to tell you where our lives are headed." He sighs.

"Well, as your wife, don't you think it's also natural to consider my opinion on your decision to run for Congress? I don't want to move to Washington, Walsh."

"Emma this isn't up for discussion. The wheels have been set in motion and the campaign starts on Monday. I cannot go back on this."

"Walsh, this is my life. Mary Margaret and David are my family and you want me to just walk out on them? You want me to walk out on my job, the job I got on my own and worked incredibly hard for? How is this fair of you to just spring it on me?" At this point Emma has been twirling her rings incredibly fast, anxiety seeping in through every pore.

"Emma, I think you're being incredibly selfish." Walsh says quietly.

"I'm being selfish?"

"Yes." He replies simply.

"You're telling me that you've been hiding an entire political campaign that you've been working on for more than six months from me. You want me to miss my best friends' wedding so you can take pictures and start a campaign for a job you might not even get. Also, if you get said job, you want me to move somewhere else, start over and leave the job I love so you can get the job of your dreams. And telling you that I don't want to do any of those things makes me selfish? This is ridiculous, I'm going home." Emma stands up and forcefully puts down her napkin on the table.

The muggy June air hits her as she stands outside of the restaurant. Drawing a deep breath she extends an arm to hail a taxi and makes her way home. Walsh has been texting her nonstop since the moment she got in the cab and she has been ignoring the messages pointedly. When she arrives at her apartment it's as if she's on autopilot, she goes straight to her closet and takes out a suitcase and starts packing for her trip tomorrow. Mary Margaret and David's wedding is up in Mary Margaret's parent's old summer estate in a sleepy town in Maine and Emma is scheduled to take the very first train out there.

Tears are blurring her vision, threatening to fall, as she keeps packing and getting all her belongings in order. She just couldn't believe anything that just happened. She doesn't even want to think about the possibility of leaving New York, of leaving Mary Margaret, David, and her work. These were all the things that made her Emma. They've defined her for at least a decade. Mary Margaret has been almost like a mother to her, she's been her family ever since she started college. She spent what she likes to call her "First Thanksgiving" with Mary Margaret's family up in Maine. She spent her summers there, relaxing by the New England Sea, working with Mary Margaret as counselors of a summer camp held in the state park. And David, if Mary Margaret was like a mother and a sister, David was definitely a father and a brother. Emma was always a bit of a tomboy, so she got along with David at first better than Mary Margaret. He was so protective over her. They both mean the world to Emma and now Walsh wants her to pack up her things and move, no questions asked?

Emma doesn't know when she falls asleep but it feels as if the second she closed her eyes her alarm went off. Lying in bed in the early hours of the morning, everything is foggy around her. She turns around and doesn't see Walsh next to her and for the first time she feels a wave of relief wash over her. She knows that's not a good feeling to have when it comes to your husband, but at this moment she's still too furious to care about her dwindling feelings for her husband.

She makes her way to Grand Central Station two coffees and an hour and a half later. She's early, so she sits in the bench in the station and opens up a newspaper. Emma is now on her third cup of coffee, resigned to the fact that nothing is waking her up today. Finally, the train arrives and she hops on, finding her seat near the window. Slipping in her earphones and pressing play on her phone's music player, her eyes close almost instantly, the hum of the wheels on the track willing her to sleep again. She's only half asleep and doesn't know how long she's been on the train by now. Her eyes are accustomed to the light flickering on her closed eyelids due to the scenery change outside of her window and Emma wishes she wasn't so terrible at being able to sleep while travelling. She decides to focus on steadying her breath, almost meditating, in order to fall asleep faster, but her mind is still running a mile a minute with the altercations with Walsh right now. She wishes she could just quiet her mind, stop time for two seconds, and sleep. A light tap on her shoulder interrupts her intentions, however. When green eyes open they meet a pair of piercing familiar blue ones, slowing time to a screeching halt.

"Swan."

AN: I feel so evil for leaving you hanging like that but I didn't want this chapter to ramble on. Thanks for reading though! New chapter will be up soon!