To Watch Trees Smoulder and Burn
When you wake up it's just passed dawn, the early morning rays filtering in to the bedroom. Regina is still soundly asleep beside you and you want nothing more than to reach out to her and pull her close. You don't though because the more alert you become you realise you still smell liquor and most likely sex.
Getting out of bed as quietly as you can you tip toe your way to the wardrobe and grab a pair if jeans and t-shirt as usual. You grab clean underwear too as you make your way to the bathroom, hoping to shower before Regina wakes up. You close the door behind you gently and drop your clothes on the little stone vanity Regina has in her bathroom.
Turning on the shower you strip out of your pyjamas and wait for the water to heat up perfectly for you. It doesn't take long and once you've stepped under the hot spray, you begin to wash away your sins. You close your eyes as you scrub away at your skin, hoping to clean away the lingering smell of sex and alcohol.
You're in there longer than you expect and when you're convinced you are completely clean you step out of the shower. You dress quickly, hoping to get downstairs and start the coffee before Regina wakes up. You know lately that Regina's been getting fed up with your late nights and overall lack of presence within their family. You need to make it up to Regina, and Henry whose smile at you isn't the same anymore.
Unfortunately for you however as you bound downstairs you can already hear both Henry and Regina bustling around. You head straight for the kitchen knowing that's where Regina will be. You see her standing, coffee cup in hand, glaring intensely out the kitchen window and in hopes of starting the morning off happily you bound to her.
Dropping your hands to her waist you lean in and peck her cheek before talking, "Morning babe," you say chirpily.
She freezes for a moment and then speaks, "Morning," she says as she places her coffee cup in the sink and pulls away from you. She heads out of the kitchen with not so much as a backwards glance to you and you get a niggling feeling in your stomach. You stare after her for moment trying to decipher her mood for the morning. Some thing is not right and you worry for a moment that she knows what you did but there is no way she could have; is there?
Either way you grab a piece of toast, make a coffee and try to act like everything is normal even though you can feel it is not. Henry pops in to the kitchen, dropping his bowl into the sink and you can't help the words that fall out of your mouth.
"Do you want me to drop you off to school today kid?" you ask and despite knowing that, that is Regina's job you hope he says yes because you do want to spend time with him.
"Sure," he says without his usual enthusiasm. It worries you that he's started to show such indifference towards you now, whereas before he'd always been overly excited to see you let alone spend time with you. It squeezes you heart to know that you are mostly likely the cause of his indifference, that the simple fact of you hardly ever being home makes him feel this way.
By the time you finish your coffee Henry is ready for school and as you head out to your car you realise you haven't seen Regina all morning. You ask the kid where his other mother went off too and much to your dismay he tells you she left more than 15 minutes earlier. Regina hadn't even bothered to say goodbye to you and it leaves you with a bad feeling in your stomach.
You drop Henry off to school without any fuss and spend most of the day patrolling or doing paperwork and trying to take your mind off Regina's unusual behaviour this morning. You decide it's best if you go home early this afternoon and try to make up for all the lost time with your family. At three you leave the station and head off to pick Henry up from school, hoping you can spend some quality time with your son cooking a special dinner for Regina.
At half passed six Regina finally gets home and you can't wait for her to see the dinner you've made. It isn't anything especially fancy, just spaghetti and meatballs but your cooking experience is limited to such simplistic foods. Henry is upstairs doing homework when you go to greet her by the door, hoping she'll relax for the night and let you lead.
"Hey babe, how was work?" you ask cheerily as she walks through the door.
"It was fine," she replies as she goes to hang her coat on the coat rack.
"I made dinner," you tell her, not liking the way she stiffens and frowns at your words.
"I uh…ate already," she tells you and you know immediately it's a lie. "Where's Henry?" she asks and you can tell she's trying to change the subject.
"He's upstairs doing his homework."
"Good," she says, heading towards her home office, "I've got some work to finish off, you and Henry can eat without me Miss Swan."
You flinch unexpectedly as she calls you Miss Swan. She hasn't called you that since you both professed your love for one another. She seems not even to have noticed the slip and you try not to stare at her in horror. Something is wrong, you know it for certain now because not even when you two have your most vicious fights has she called you Miss Swan (except in teasing) while you were together.
AN: Finally, here is chapter 4. It's a bit of a filler chapter and I'm sorry for that. It's also hard for me to write in Emma's POV most of the time, so this took a lot of work. Worry not though, I know my endgame and I know where I want this story to go, it's just getting there that seems to be hard.
Also, if anyone reads my other fic, Control, I re-wrote the 6th chapter so head on over there and check it out maybe. :)
Hopefully in the next chapter things will start to pick up with the storyline. I hope you enjoyed and please review! :) LT.
