A/N: This is the last of these 'tying up loose ends' chapters, I promise! I'm excited to get to the pre-date/ date chapters and plan to write them over the course of this coming week, but I just wanted to add in this last little scene to draw a line under several previous interactions in the story and provide some small tokens of closure :) Reviews would be very much appreciated, and I'll try and get the next chapter out tomorrow or the next day :)
"Regina."
Gold greets as he sits down uninvited opposite the brunette and raises a hand to herald Granny's attention. The spinster nods distractedly in response with no more need to ask after Gold's order than she does the Mayor's. Their small town has changed immeasurably over the years, but some things, it seems, will always remain the same.
"Watch your language!"
She hisses in response to a case in point; Will Scarlet perched on one of the stools at the bar colluding with the pirate, and she offers both men a warning look that succeeds in forcing them to appropriate a lower tone with which to carry on with their discussion. If it becomes derogatory as it had yesterday morning, she'll ask them to leave, but she's confident Hook will temper the conversation himself as it isn't in his nature - not anymore - to refer to women and their seemingly inexplicable tendencies by the crass terms favoured by his companion. She's overheard enough to understand why he might find himself feeling bitter as it appears the Sheriff has decided to call an end to their relationship, and she hides a wry smile as she imagines the blonde's parents might be guiltily relishing a sense of relief that would be a lot more appropriate if their firstborn were still in her teens.
"Sorry."
Hook mutters on Will's behalf, and she nods as she places Gold's cup of breakfast tea onto a saucer as she knows he likes it.
"Go say something to her..."
Will hisses, pointing to the table in the corner, and Granny raises a brow as she notes that the Mayor glances over at them with an unreadable expression before lowering her attention back to her coffee.
"There's nothing to say."
The pirate growls, lapsing into moody silence as Will waits impatiently for Granny to make her rounds of the diner in order to express his true feelings on whatever the matter may be.
Scruffy bastard...
Granny muses to herself, although if she's honest, she finds Will rather amusing. Much more so now that Ruby isn't around and apt to get pulled into one of his schemes.
"Here you are."
She growls as she hands Gold his tea, and she waits obediently for him to take a sip and test its strength to save herself a trip in the unlikely event that it isn't perfect.
"It will do."
Gold nods, savouring the spinster's stern scowl at his lacklustre response, and he offers her a small smirk before turning his attention back to the brunette.
"Can I get you anything, dearie?"
He asks, and Regina shakes her head before changing her mind; imagining Rumple has sought her out for more than a mere exchange of pleasantries.
"I'll have another."
She concedes, handing Granny her near-empty mug, and the old woman nods approvingly and makes her way back to the counter.
"Thank you."
Regina offers in a clipped tone, all too aware of the way Gold studies her intently.
"You're welcome, Madame Mayor."
The little man assures, before cocking his head and adding in a lower tone
"Your Majesty..."
Raising a brow as she considers her long-ago tutor warily, the brunette lets out a sigh when he offers her a queerly genuine smile.
"Everything went to plan, then?"
He asks finally.
"More or less... I suppose a more accurate statement would be that everything's back to the way it was."
She muses, suffering just a hint of melancholy as she admits this unfavourable truth, but it stings less than it has done thus far, and she imagines, eventually, she'll be able to let it go.
Imagine...
"Not quite."
Gold interrupts her train of thought, savouring his tea.
"What do you mean?"
"Rumour has it the Saviour has broken things off with the pirate..."
He muses delicately.
"Yes. And Granny's added a new cranberry danish to the menu, but I was referring to things of importance rather than mere gossip."
Regina scoffs.
"So was I."
Rumple replies simply, bearing his teeth, and the brunette swallows, returning the pawnbroker's gaze silently for a moment before assuming a businesslike tone.
"I'm whole, and Hyde has been sent back where he belongs."
"Ah. Then, yes. In that sense, everything's back to the way it was."
"Mm."
Regina agrees, her expression guarded, but she appropriates a less hostile demeanour when one of Granny's girls comes over to hand her a fresh cappuccino.
"Thank you, dear."
She dismisses the waitress, before repeating the sentiment to her companion.
"Thank you."
"Of course."
Gold shrugs, and Regina runs her spoon through the froth topping her mug as she recalls a curious event that had taken place several years ago, sat right where she sits now. Back when everything was still tense, but not as toxic as it had been as the dust had begun to settle following the breaking of the Curse. The streamers welcoming Mary Margaret and Emma back home from the Enchanted Forest had still been tacked to the wall, but several of the letters had since succumbed to gravity; flopping over on themselves to make the overall sentiment almost illegible. She'd taken a seat in one of the empty booths following a brisk walk through the bracing wind, and had looked up, startled, when the bench across from her had been claimed without warning.
"Hey."
Emma had smiled, nothing in her tone suggesting she'd felt any of the discomfort yet to fade from the voice of the majority of the town. Without waiting for a response, the blonde had proceeded to ramble, and it had taken the Mayor a good couple of minutes to understand that the younger woman was merely being friendly rather than approaching her to demand something. To ask her for help. To remind her that she'd better behave herself or there would be trouble.
No, Emma had simply told her some inane story about the embarrassing escapades of living with mom and dad, using the relatively new, animated tone she'd denied her when the Curse had been in full force, and she'd found herself laughing along conspiringly and repaying in kind with a tale of Henry's recent attempt to do laundry.
That had been the first time they'd shared breakfast together, in spite of the fact that she'd retained her outward air of distaste for spending time with the Saviour and claiming any dinner invitations were purely for their son's benefit for several more months to come.
It had also been the first time since arriving in Storybrooke some thirty years before that anyone had offered to buy her something.
"Cappuccino, right?"
The Sheriff had asked before making her way up to the counter, seemingly unaware of the magnitude of the moment.
Much later, when collecting Henry from Emma's house where he'd been watching movies while she'd been out for dinner with Robin, she'd accepted the younger woman's offer of a drink so that the boy could finish his film and she'd reminisced on that first morning while sat in the blonde's kitchen; she in one her favourite dresses, the Sheriff in what she'd had sincerely hoped were pyjamas.
She's unsure what had prompted her confession, but she'd made it all the same. Musing lightly over the gesture made that morning and how it had been a first.
"Wait, seriously? In thirty years, no one even bought you a fucking drink?!"
"Seriously."
"What about Graham?"
"... That wasn't really part of our arrangement, dear."
"Yeah, but, still..."
Emma had frowned, and what had followed had been one of those moments they'd each later referred to when discussing their relationship in Daniel's cottage. One of those heavy, weighted moments when the blonde had appeared genuinely affronted by her admission and had waved away the Mayor's reminder that the Curse might have been partially to blame with a shake of her head and the assertion that it was still 'pretty messed up'.
The next day, Emma had stopped by with a take-out cup of coffee and a pointed smirk and Regina had rolled her eyes and assured her silkily that Robin was a gentleman and that such mocking gestures were no longer required seeing as she had more favourable options open to her now.
She'd pretended not to notice the wounded look Emma had offered her briefly before reapplying her grin.
Had felt touched.
Had felt guilty.
"Something that started happening more and more..."
She murmurs now as she takes a sip of her coffee.
"Hm?"
Rumple raises a brow, and she shrugs her shoulders; confiding cryptically
"Everything's back to normal, but my acceptance of certain facts has changed... Of course, by that, I mean that I need the Queen, and she needs me."
"So it would seem... It's not something everyone can appreciate, but it's a big decision, dearie: to be happy."
Gold replies just as ambiguously, and when the Mayor proceeds to narrow her eyes, he widens his smile in return.
"It is."
She agrees finally, and Rumple nods, before catching the uneasy glance the brunette chances towards the counter and he looks back over his shoulder to spy Hook.
"Ah, yes... I know how you feel."
He commiserates, and when Regina frowns, he offers her a pointed look and reminds her tersely
"I, too, have suffered a shared interest with the pirate."
Causing Regina to choke on her coffee. Gathering herself, she looks back up at Hook before pointing out silkily
"We've faired rather differently in the outcome, however."
"Ouch."
Rumple scowls, before chuckling lightly and leaning forward to confide in the Queen, suddenly struck by the fact that she is one of the people he holds most dear in spite of everything - and because of everything - that has befallen them.
"I won't lie and pretend I don't feel a small bout of glee knowing the pirate has had a taste of his own medicine... But I hope for your sake he doesn't follow in my footsteps in a bid to settle the score."
"He'd be a fool to."
The Mayor shrugs.
"Oh? And what does that make me?"
"A fool... But you were heartsick from losing not just your love, but your family. I don't condone what you did any more than I'm proud of some of my own actions, but I can understand your decisions in a way. You were sore and weak, and you decided that addressing the latter would solve the former. You went up against a man whose power lay solely in his ego. Hook was a worthy adversary until you took the dagger and stacked the deck entirely to your hand, and that imbalance ended up causing only death and further misery... I have a lot more than ego to offer as a reason not to cross me, but I believe Killian has accepted what you never could; that it's too late. Any grievance between us no longer matters because the decision impacting his relationship isn't fully mine to make. He has no child to bargain with and fret about, and his life hasn't crumbled to ruin leaving him to cling to the one good thing that's left. In truth, it's tempting to downplay the matter entirely, but I know that doing so makes a mockery of the Saviour as well as the pirate."
"So you won't."
"No."
Regina agrees, finishing her coffee and contemplating the mark left by her lipstick along the rim.
"... It will be awkward for some time to come, but life will go on, and it's not the same as it was for you. You had no one but Bae, whereas Storybooke has become a surprisingly open and caring community. It's really rather repulsive if I say so myself... Emma hopes that she and Hook might one day return to being friends, and, while I warned her she was likely being naive, I do wonder if it might be possible even so. After all, she's very good at that; forcing even the most unwilling of candidates to consider her a friend."
"Agreed."
Gold chuckles, before repeating
"Everything went to plan."
"I never planned for this..."
Regina disagrees woodenly, and Rumple shakes his head as he corrects simply
"You planned to take certain steps to secure your happiness. True, the dance changed from the one you'd choreographed originally, but the conclusion seems to have come about all the same."
"It's early days."
"Not at all. A relationship is built on more than just intimacy, and that's precisely what you and Miss Swan have had for many years now; a relationship."
"Well, don't tell her that..."
"I won't unless she gives me a reason, but I doubt it would matter, as I'm sure she's aware... Of course, the changes to what once existed between the two of you serve as a satisfying bonus."
"I suggest you leave that thought there..."
Regina hisses warningly, a little surprised that the imp might be so openly crass, but he surprises her by giggling appreciatively and elaborating on his point.
"Your mother would be absolutely aghast over your choice of partner, dearie."
Attempting to fix Gold with a scowl, the brunette fails to hide the smirk threatening to stretch across her lips and eventually submits to sharing in his amusement, before reminding him
"My mother was always wed to the idea of me ingratiating myself into royalty before I found a more twisted way of achieving the throne. I'm doing exactly as she once hoped."
"Mm. Your mother also met Emma."
"True."
Regina chuckles wickedly, her cheeks flushing as she recalls her forced submission; pinned with her legs spread on her mother's croquet court.
"Well, I'm glad things worked out, Your Majesty. In general, and with what the two of you set out to do this morning."
"Yes, well, on that front Miss Swan very nearly doomed all three of us."
"Oh?"
"We had a plan, we agreed on the plan, and she went and did her own thing anyway."
"To irk you?"
"... To aid me."
"And you adore her for it."
Rumple counters, causing the brunette to wince as she recalls using that same term to punish the blonde for her bold move out on the grass. A term that most would appreciate, but that she'd known would cut deep; had known would set off a series of alarm bells beneath messy curls as she'd offered up what was soon sure to be lost in a bid to be cruel. When she'd dared to suggest kindness after ripping away the Saviour's ability to accept such a thing from her, knowing exactly the damage she was causing in doing so.
"Indeed."
She replies simply, before repeating her previous warning with a smirk
"But don't tell her that, either."
"No, the Sheriff doesn't strike me as one to appreciate being told things she already knows."
Gold agrees, finishing his tea and pushing himself up with the help of his cane.
"I'm going to miss advising the two of you on how best to hinder the other, I must admit."
"You haven't done so for a while now."
"No, well... Your happiness matters to me, much as I'm sure many would find that hard to believe, and any effort I've put into manipulating Miss Swan of late has been in a bid to settle old scores with Master Jones. In that respect, she'll often see through it, so my fun has been rather limited. Had I tried to convince her to do anything to inconvenience yourself, I imagine her frequent threats of violence might have finally come to fruition. She's as fiercely protective of you as you are of her, dearie, and thus I've made my peace with leaving the two of you be... In all honesty, when you expressed your concern that the Saviour had started flirting with you, I was simply relieved one of you had finally made a move. The gods know, it seemed inevitable to one that reads others as I do and has come to know the ways of your heart and hers. Of course, I could never express my view on the matter for fear of starting a small war in our sleepy town, but, while I felt genuine joy for you when you discovered kindness and loyalty in Robin, I still wondered whenever I would observe the way you and Miss Swan looked at one another. In this case, vindication is sweet."
Rumple shrugs, raising his hand and taking his leave. Watching him slip out into the winter gloom, Regina lets out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding in before glancing back up to study the pirate. Swallowing when Hook suddenly looks up to meet her gaze, she freezes, before raising a brow when he offers her a stiff nod and reciprocating in kind.
"It's on the house if you want another. Archie changed his mind about his order so I have a cappuccino going spare."
Granny interrupts the tension, and Regina shakes her head, tearing her gaze away from Hook's and offering the old woman a smile.
"Thank you, dear, but I'll pass. I really should go and start getting ready."
"Oh? Anything fun planned?"
"Mm. I hope so."
Regina agrees, paying her check and pushing herself up from the booth.
"I have a date."
She elaborates with her hand on the door, heading out into the bitter chill before Granny can ask any follow-up questions; smirking to herself as she relishes the look of curious surprise on the spinster's face.