The kitchen smelled faintly of the cinnamon and honey Regina had used earlier in their tea. It added to the pleasant afterglow Emma enjoyed. Regina's hands kneaded sore muscles on Emma's back, her breath gently warmed the crown of Emma's head.
She was still resting in Regina's arms when the first town siren went off.
"Shit!" Craning her neck in the direction of the front door, Emma pushed herself up and off of the woman beneath her.
"Stupid sirens." Regina muttered. She clenched her thighs together around Emma's waist before letting her go again. "Stupid town alarm system. What on earth do they think they're doing?" Frustration of many varieties was written all over Regina's face. Her cheeks and chest were flushed and her eyes were glazed.
"Well whatever it is, it worked, because I'm going to go see what the hell is up." Emma yanked on Regina's hand. "Relax, I'll reciprocate later." She leaned in for a kiss and willed Regina to snap out of it.
"Your gun darling. Not as though you'll be needing it." Regina rolled her eyes and gestured to the upstairs guestroom that held the safe that held Emma's firearm when she visited. She laughed at Emma's retreating back. Guns really weren't all that useful in Storybrooke any longer.
Half an hour later, Regina ate her words.
There were fifty locals with shotguns, at least twenty with handguns, and more than a few with long swords. Everyone stood at the woods edge, no more than a mile from where Rumpelstiltskin was held captive.
"What did Rumpel do this time?" Regina hurled balls of fire to lay waste to fifteen ghoulish looking creatures that continually poured from the path that would have brought them to their captive's little cabin. The creatures were identical, all with blue-grey skin, greasy white hair, long sharp teeth, and long nails. They created utter chaos, scratching and biting their way through the crowd.
James joined Regina and Emma and the three alternated fire, bullets, and hand-to-hand combat, getting more than covered by the ash and blood that emanated from the destroyed creatures.
Glancing beside her, Emma saw that three of the creatures were trying to sneak up on Regina. She grasped Regina's hand and pulled her closer.
The moment their fingers touched, a cage of silver light surrounded the townspeople, and aimed its outer reaches at the attacking creatures. The fight was over. The ghouls were electrocuted, melted, and turned quickly to ash.
"Should have tried that sooner." Emma decided with a frown. "But I thought we tapped down that magic?" She adjusted her dress and gazed at the fatigued townspeople around them.
Regina shrugged. "Something happened to bring it back. Fear, stress." Her thumb absently brushed against Emma's palm. Their hands squeezed together, then released. Later, Regina would recall a strange feeling, as if their magic had been magnetically pulled towards the demons.
Moving quickly through the crowd, Regina healed wounds wherever she could. In the end, only three of Storybrooke's residents were lost.
Of course it still called for a wake and celebratory party. Which meant drunken and sad orations about each of the fallen. It also meant that they were all even more distracted from Rumpelstiltskin's real motives to instigating the attack.
It would take a day or two to piece it together. From the moment Emma arrived at Granny's, her mind was taken over by a drunken sort of haze. There were drinks and a strange little woman with green eyes who sort of looked like Rumpel's long-lost aunt if he had such a thing…
…then, there were two such women, singing in Emma's ears and telling her what a hero she was.
Emma remembered nothing from the night past the point when she arrived at Granny's. Just one drink and then a blurry image of Regina walking away.
When Emma emerged from her blackout, she was naked, in bed, with two women she didn't know. The bed was familiar. Emma searched for clues even as she clutched her head. The green eyed women were much less attractive in the light of early morning than they had been the night before.
A knock on the door came seconds too late for Emma to cover herself.
"Get going. Now!" It was Red. With all of Emma's clothes, which she tossed onto her friend without flinching at the sight of her.
"What the hell happened?" Emma hissed, trying—oddly—not to wake the two women.
"You're a giant ho, that's what happened." Red grinned but her eyes were annoyed. "And you made Regina cry. Really, like…cry." She looked surprised for a second. "Well…one tear. She had one perfect tear flowing down her face when I saw her." Red tapped her chin with a curious expression. "Odd. Now get moving you big ho."
"Stop calling me a ho!" Emma leaned over against the onslaught of aggressive tapping that accompanied the end of Red's tirade. "Ow! And I didn't mean to upset Regina." Emma felt like a petulant teenager as she stumbled into her jeans and shout-whispered at Red. "Why are we calling each other stupid names anyway?" She furiously buttoned up her shirt which confused her momentarily. "Where did these clothes come from? I was wearing a dress."
"Regina brought them by." That was the kicker. Red's voice was so sad, and just that information was enough to make Emma slump over in defeat.
It was a cloudy, shitty day, and it began to rain just as Emma stumbled out of Granny's. She let the drops sting her face as her feet dragged her all the way to Regina's house.
It all was so confusing. Emma really didn't want anybody but Regina. And why hadn't Regina stopped her from going off? Her boots were soaked and her favourite brown leather jacket was sopping wet by the time Emma knocked on Regina's door.
Nobody answered but the door wasn't locked. It took ages to get out of her boots and in the end, Emma had to take off her socks and roll up her jeans just to walk into the house without leaving footprints. She found Regina quickly enough.
"It's ok." Were the first words out of Regina's mouth. She didn't sound like she meant it and she was wearing a really wrinkled looking shirt and some jeans Emma had never seen before. Sitting sedately at her kitchen table, sipping tea, Regina stared forlornly past Emma.
It took Emma a full minute to realize that the blue shirt was her own.
"How can it possibly be ok?" The backs of Emma's eyelids stung with tears. She swiped her hand across her nose. Then she sneezed.
Slapping a hand on the table, Regina got to her feet. "I refuse," She said, "to take care of you just because you're obviously frozen and likely going to get sick." Emma sneezed again and stared shamefully at her bare feet. Her toes looked really pale, almost bluish. Regina threw up her hands, defeated, and walked quickly upstairs.
Twenty minutes later, Emma was in a tub of hot water while Regina pretended not to look at her. Though she was obviously distracted by Emma's attempts at flirtation, Regina seemed to be deep in thought.
Then Emma blurted out, "I'm pretty sure I didn't have sex with them." The bottom of the tub squeaked against Emma's knees as she turned onto her side and stared up at Regina. "I didn't feel as though I had had actual sex." She added. Their relationship was beginning to feel like a stumbling, fumbling grab at any shred of stability. All of the months spent trying to get inside that shell Regina kept around her; all those weeks spent exchanging energies on the deepest levels. There had to be more than just hurting one another.
"None of my business. I'm the one who told you to…" Regina stared at her hands now.
"Play the field. Ugh. I never actually agreed with your oh-so-paternalistic instruction." The water sloshed around Emma. She couldn't get warm and she couldn't get comfortable. "I swear. I don't know what happened. I'm really sorry though. I mean really, really, really sorry."
The words were hesitant, the tone nearly "You hurt my feelings." Regina surprised them both by saying. "I shouldn't have been so…jealous, I suppose…"
"Well no kidding!" Covering her face with a warm cloth, Emma fought the urge to slap herself silly. "Wait a second…" the cloth came off. "You were jealous…that's new. Isn't it?"
Throwing Emma a towel, Regina got to her feet. "Let's not harp on it. We'll discuss it later. You probably need to rest." She was smiling a little now, which Emma noted with a jolt of warmth all over.
Resting, on the verge of a cold it seemed, just led to more restlessness and worrying. Emma could hear Regina puttering around the kitchen while she warmed up in bed.
Finally, Emma got up, threw on a pair of yoga pants and a tank top, and padded downstairs to find Regina cranking the heat on the house yet again. "I'm better now." Emma hugged her bare arms and smiled sadly at the woman she really wanted to hug.
"Well there's soup on the stove." Still wearing the blue shirt and jeans, Regina had followed the cuffs up and was barefoot. "I started a fire." She added needlessly. The fire was obvious, roaring in the living room. When Emma returned with a bowl of chicken and lentil soup, Regina sat close to her on the couch, so Emma ate fast.
Regina turned when Emma finished scarfing down her food, and held out her arms. Emma was relieved at having not actually set them back quite as far she had thought. She reached and circled Regina waist. Regina came willingly, settling against Emma's side. "Play the field, huh?" Emma snickered, nuzzling the wisps of hair above Regina's temple.
"Hush…spoiling the moment." Regina cupped her face and planted a brief but lovely kiss at the corner of Emma's mouth. "We should talk. I should explain some things."
"Later…" Emma pressed her lips warmly to Regina's neck. Then…
Before they could kiss and makeup any further, the phone interrupted.
"It's Rumpelstiltskin," were the first words out of Snow's mouth. Regina had put the phone on speaker mode and set it carefully on the couch between them. "He stole your magic. He sent two fairies to seduce you," Snow coughed at that part but then she said, "which didn't work because you apparently kept moaning about how much you loved Regina and how you wanted to do things…ummmm…to her, and anyhow, he still managed to bottle what you two have…"
Emma felt her face burn. She'd said 'love'. She'd said that she loved Regina and now everyone had heard it except for Regina herself—until now, from Snow White's lips no less.
"He'll use what he stole to escape." Feeling fairy confused, Emma tried to imagine what else might come of the exchange.
"Well obviously." Regina cleared her throat, looking dazed. "But then what? And what do we do about it, if anything?"
"He wants a meeting, on his own terms. I suppose this is his way of forcing us." Snow could be heard shuffling papers as she spoke.
"Are you at work? Go home, Snow." Some things never changed, though Regina's bossiness was now rooted in actual caring. Snow had been tied to the Mayor's desk for days. Her squeaking protest was interrupted by Emma next.
"We're not meeting that psychopath. And listen to Regina. Go home. Get some rest. We'll talk tomorrow, ok?" Emma earned another kiss, this time on her ear, which tickled and made her snicker.
"You two! What are you doing?" Snow gasped. "I'm hanging up! I'm hanging up! Now!"
"Go home!" Emma repeated. "Zombie attacks are a total excuse to take a day off work." But Snow had hung up.
An awesome make-out session on the couch would have followed, had both women not been made uneasy by Rumpel's latest bout of stupidity.
"I'm going to check the doors." Emma decided, just as Regina started lifting her shirt.
Hands frozen mid-way, Regina sighed and nodded, then pulled Emma's shirt back down. "You do that." She thought it over. "I'll phone a few people, see if I can keep tabs on our escaped lunatic."
The day was a write-off, after Regina failed to track Rumpel down, and they both decided to stay in and wait for news. They spent an hour locking and reinforcing all doors and windows. Regina called Henry and instructed James and Snow on securing their own home with the boy in it. Then, really stupidly, they watched the scariest ghost movie they could find, and ended up huddling together and giggling in bed when they should have been paying attention to their surroundings. Emma felt uneasy when they finally settled in and decided to sleep. She chalked her unease up to their previous problems and resolved to discuss their relationship in the morning.
In the meantime…
…the creature that Rumpel had sent after them, was most grateful that neither woman had thought to check inside any of the closets.