Ahh Sorry Guys! Stuffs been a bit crazy. This chapter isn't really but I wanted to go ahead and post. Hopefully you like!


"You just had to get sick," grumbled Emma as she tucked Mary Margaret in bed. Mary Margaret just gave her a weak smile. Emma looked at her worriedly. Ever since a bad illness that had almost killed her as a child, Mary Margaret became completely incapacitated everytime she got sick. And it didn't look like this time would be any different. Still, she retained her sense of humor.

"Sorry my illness is inconvenient for you, Emma. Anyway, you definitely don't have to stay. I'm sure I'll be fine here."

"Are you kidding? I'm not leaving you alone with strangers! You're a fucking teacherfor crying out loud. You should know about stranger danger. They might try to kill you or something."

"Yes," deadpanned Mary Margaret. "That seems completely plausible."

"But seriously," said Emma. "There's no way I would leave you. I'm gonna be the one taking care of your sorry ass. Even if Kathryn and Regina give me hell." Mary Margaret gave another weak smile.

"I love you, Emma."

Emma smiled. "I love you too, sis."

Mary Margaret promptly fell asleep and Emma reluctantly left the room. She was very grateful that David had gallantly offered her his bedroom since it was the closest to Mary Margaret's. He in turn would sleep in one of the downstairs bedrooms (just how many bedrooms did this place have?!).

She headed downstairs, her stomach grumbling. She was definitely looking forward to this dinner that David had been going on and on about and now that she had freshened up and changed (she had luckily bought a change of clothes for after the yacht), she couldn't find any more reasons to delay joining the rest of the group.
She found everyone in the living room. With leather couches and a large fireplace, the decor was tasteful though somewhat impersonal, likely because David had simply not been living here long. The living room backed out into a large patio overlooking the beach with floor-to-ceiling windows.

"Hi," said Emma cheerfully, not one to be intimidated. Kathryn didn't even acknowledge her, but instead continued her loud and apparently one-sided conversation with Killian whose glassy eyes and slouched position on the couch showed just how interested he was. Graham, however, grinned at Emma and waved her over to him and Regina who were standing near the living room bar. She cautiously made her way over to them, mindful that Regina probably wanted to have nothing to do with her. Well, this should be fun.

"Emma, you finally made it! And looking beautiful as always," said Graham with a wink, his melodic Irish accent stronger than ever. Emma smiled back warily. He wasn't exactly her type and no matter how much she liked him, she didn't want to give him the wrong idea.

Regina for her part had a small smirk on her face, clearly sensing her discomfort. It was the annoying little smirk that prompted Emma to address her.

"So Regina, how does a big shot CEO like you have time to fuck around in Storybrooke, Maine?" Emma guessed correctly that Regina wouldn't appreciate her crassness.

"I don't," said Regina shortly. "But I am stuck in this godforsaken town for at least a week. The closest airport is Portland and I've been told that the roads will be too flooded to get there."

"What a hardship," replied Emma sarcastically. Yeah, Storybrooke wasn't exactly New York, but Regina's clear disdain for the place was a bit hard to take.

"Quite," said Regina, ignoring the sarcasm.

"Well, I'm sure you'll go back to New York and miss people actually being nice for a change instead of assholes. Plus, we have a beach. Beat that."

Regina gestured towards to the raging storm out the window. "Yes, we are getting so much enjoyment from that, Ms. Swan. Why would we ever want to leave?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "Who am I kidding? You're the walking embodiment of a New Yorker."

"You mean an asshole?" Regina sneered.

"You said it, not me." The truth was, Emma actually loved the city the few times she had visited. The anonymity it provided her. The palpable energy that surrounded her. But some of the actual residents of the city left a lot to be desired.

"Emma, how's your sister doing?" interrupted Graham clearly amused by their banter but feeling the need to intervene. Emma started, having almost forgotten he was there.

"She's pretty out of it," she said with a grimace. "The flu can hit her pretty hard. Hopefully it won't last as long as last time though. She didn't leave her bed for two weeks."

"Hmm, well its lucky my brother was in so generous a mood to allow both of you to stay here as she recovers," said Kathryn, clearly conveying how unlucky she thought it was.

"It was, wasn't it?" said Emma. "Really generous on both your parts." She smiled sweetly. Graham chuckled and even Regina looked like she was trying to hide a smile. Kathryn, detecting no sarcasm, merely responded, "I'm glad you realize that."

"Kathryn you really are too generous," said Regina, keeping a completely straight face. "And to offer to lend clothing to our guests. That was just going above and beyond."

"Excuse me?!" Kathryn sputtered.

"Well," said Regina with an entirely too innocent face. "When you invited them to stay until the elder Ms. Swan feels better, surely you realized that you were going to have to give them something to wear as well. Their clothes are soaked and I doubt either of them has more than one outfit to change into."

"What about you?!"

"I packed for a week as I was supposed to go back to New York in a couple of days, but it doesn't look like that will happen. I don't know if I have enough clothes to last just me let alone two others. You on the other hand packed 3 outfits a day for a month. I presume you have clothing to spare."

Kathryn, looking enraged but knowing when she was defeated, simply stalked away in search of her brother.

"You have way too much fun messing with her," drawled Graham, sipping his drink.

Regina smirked and turned to Emma. "Well, Ms. Swan, I may be an asshole, but thanks to me, you won't be wearing wet smelly clothes for however long you're staying here. I'd say you owe me."

With an arched glance and elegant shrug, Regina gracefully walked out of the room.


"Wow, David," said Emma as she chowed down. "I did not know you could cook." She had kind of expected that this crew was used to cooks and servants and would therefore either rely on delivery or starve to death without them. Instead, she was greeted with a 3 course meal with a gourmet salad, an orgasmic lasagna (probably the best she has ever had) and an apple pie with a wafting smell that had her drooling.

David laughed. "As much as I want to take credit, Regina made all this in the morning. All we had to do was heat it up."
Emma almost choked on her deliciously spicy lasagna. "You can cook?" she coughed out at Regina, who simply stared at her amused.

"Don't sound so surprised, Ms. Swan." she sipped her wine. "While you seem the type to rely on frozen dinners and Domino's, some of us have higher standards. I've known how to cook since I was a young girl."

"It's kind of why we keep her around," said Graham with a grin.

"Oh, is that so?" Regina sneered. "Then please enlighten me, why do I keep you around?"

"I guess because we're the only ones who can stand to be around you for too long," said Graham perfectly seriously. Killian and Emma laughed while David protested on behalf of his friend. Kathryn simply sighed in boredom.

Regina for her part smirked, though Emma thought she looked slightly offended.

"So, Emma," said David. "I feel as if I know very little about you. Is it just you and Mary Margaret?"

Emma hid a smile. David was so clearly pumping her for information. "Yeah, us and Archie. Our parents passed away when we were pretty young. Archie took us in. He's technically our foster parent."

"Sounds like a pretty great guy," said Graham sincerely.

Emma smiled and Regina somehow found herself involuntarily smiling too. Her bright green eyes seemed even brighter than before. "He is. He was there for us when no one else was."

"Well cheers to him," said David enthusiastically. He raised his glass and the guests followed suit.

"Regina, hows Henry?" asked Graham as he chewed on a large piece of lasagna. "I promised I'd teach him how to play the drums next time I saw him."

"In that case, you won't be seeing him for a while," scoffed Regina. "I do not need my days at Pemberley ruined by the two of you." Graham pouted playfully as Regina rolled her eyes.

"He's a lot younger than you, isn't he?" asked Emma curiously.

"14 years," said Regina shortly.

"Cora's miracle child," said Graham with a grin.

Of course, thought Emma. Cora Mills. The staunch Republican Representative who ran on a platform of anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion, anti immigration, anti-secularism and just about every other "anti" that Emma was firmly convinced would be eradicated in the next 50 years. She had somehow appealed to the upstate New York conservatives in her district and had been in power for 15 years. And she was Regina's mother. Go figure.

Emma was about to ask scathingly whether her mother's backward beliefs were genetic, but Kathryn spoke first. "Does Henry ever go up to Binghampton?That's where your mother's home is, no?"
Regina laughed, no mirth on her face. "I haven't been back there in more than a decade. Henry has...a similar aversion to the place. Though, I doubt its so much the place as the company. He stays with me in New York City even when my mother is in town."

Though she said no more on the subject, it was clear that her feelings about her mother were less than warm, and while Emma was still a long way from liking the woman, this did soften her feelings towards her just a little bit.


Everyone was exhausted after the day they had had, and Mary Margaret had already been asleep for a couple hours. So everyone went to bed straight after dinner, except for Regina who sat in the spacious library and continued to read more manuscripts. CEOs generally didn't bother doing so, but Regina believed in a more hands-on approach, something her father had not believed in. Indeed, her father had not bothered to do much leading at all and had instead spent lavishly and eventually lost himself in bourbon. That is perhaps why, Regina thought wryly, the company she had inherited three years ago was in shambles. Not that she didn't have a fondness for her dead father, but she certainly didn't respect him.

While the board had been skeptical of her youth and insisted that as owner she hand the reigns of the company to someone more experienced, she was determined to prove them all wrong. In three short years, she brought the company from near bankruptcy to one of the largest publishing megahouses in the country. The IPO had been ambitious but paid off tremendously for her and gave her the capital she needed to expand and grow. There was no telling what she could do.

But that was all for another day, she thought as she sipped her scotch and attempted to concentrate on the manuscript at hand. It wasn't bad at all for a newcomer to the scene. August Booth certainly had talent and a dramatic literary name to match. But Regina found her attention wandering. Of all things, her thoughts fixated on the woman upstairs.

Emma Swan was aggravating, uncouth, immature and tactless. In short, everything Regina despised in a person. Not to mention, her dislike for Regina was all too obvious (not that that was anything new). But Emma was also challenging and spoke her mind so readily. While others feared Regina, Emma stood up to her, clearly not afraid in the least. And the way her blue (or green?) eyes sparked when she became passionate was...striking. Regina shook her head, trying to erase these thoughts from her mind. She was far too busy to let her mind get caught up in the likes of someone like Emma Swan.

The storm was still going strong when Emma woke up in the morning. She looked at the clock and groaned. 6:43AM. This was way too early for normal humans to wake up. But clearly the howling wind outside and the rain pelting against her window weren't going away anytime soon, so Emma yawned and got out of bed. She had had a glimpse of the library last night but was looking forward to looking around a bit more. So she tiptoed downstairs and slipped into the big oak doors that housed the library.

"Damn," she muttered as she looked around. The library wasn't huge but still housed more books than Emma had ever seen in one house. The mahogany walls and cushy armchairs everywhere emphasized the homey feel of the place. But wait...

Emma grinned in spite of herself. Regina, still fully dressed was sprawled out on the couch, glasses dangling from her hand and sheets of paper resting on her stomach. A glass of scotch was on the ground. Her thick luscious lips were slightly open, and her face had an expression of peace that Emma had never seen on the uptight woman. Emma tiptoed over and looked at her face. God the woman was beautiful. Like unfairly beautiful. And when she slept, the slight frown or smirk that Emma was accustomed to seeing wasn't there. How did someone that bitchy have such perfect features? Well, not completely perfect. There was a small scar on her lip. Emma vaguely wondered how she had gotten that as she gently knelt down to wake her up.

"Regina," she said softly. "Hey Regina, you're going to be crazy sore today if you don't move to an actual bed." She gently shook her. Regina's eyes shot open and she grabbed Emma's arm.

"Woah, Regina, what the hell?" Emma yelled, yanking her arm away.
"Ms. Swan?" Her voice was an octave deeper than usual and the husky tone had Emma faltering a little bit.

"Um..well..you fell asleep," said Emma and mentally facepalmed. How stupid did she sound? "I thought that you might want to wake up and move to a bed. I didn't mean to scare you."

"You startled me, that is all." Regina sat up and rubbed her eyes. "What time is it?"
"Like 6:30 in the morning." Regina barely held back a groan. She still felt exhausted, but had quite a bit to do as she had to phone into a meeting at 8. She looked up to find Emma Swan examining the books on the wall.

"I have to admit, I'm impressed," said Emma as she pulled a book of the shelf. "David's a nice guy but I didn't exactly see him having such a great collection of literature. Or to be so organized about it." She walked past what was undoubtedly the theater section with the Greek Dramas and came across the entire works of Shakespeare.

Regina snorted. "I doubt David's read a book in years that wasn't written by John Grisham. I stocked his library and organized it."

"You?"

"I'm the CEO of one of the largest publishing companies in the country. Is it that surprising that I know a thing or two about literature?"

Emma shrugged. It made sense. She looked back as she came across the philosophy section, complete with Nietsche, Foucault, Kant and more.

"You're pretty thorough." Regina inclined her head, accepting the complement. "But I'm wondering what percentage of these books David will actually read."

"Fair point," said Regina. "Perhaps I did this for my benefit. I would hate having to come back to this place with nothing to entertain me."

Emma glared at her. "That's the second time you've insulted my town. Why are you even here if you hate it so much?"

"Because David begged me to," replied Regina simply.

Emma rolled her eyes, but didn't feel like getting in another stupid argument. So she changed the subject.

"Is that a manuscript someone sent you?" She asked, pointing at sheets of paper that Regina had fallen asleep reading. "Can't have been too good if it put you to sleep."

"On the contrary, its not bad," Regina slipped her glasses back on and began reading it again, hoping the blonde would take the hint and leave her in peace. But Emma was proving to be quite obtuse.

"What's it about?" Emma fell into the couch with a grace befitting an elephant in heels.

"It's not worth explaining," Regina replied shortly.

Emma rolled her eyes. "You don't have many friends, do you?" Regina looked up sharply at her. Emma held up her hands in mock fear, but her smirk was hard to ignore. "Just saying, you kind of suck at interacting like a human."

"Well, then by all means leave, Ms. Swan and find people who can interact like a human." Regina started typing on her laptop, biting her lower lip in concentration. Emma felt her eyes drawn to it against her will.

"Yeah, well unfortunately for both of us, since they're all still asleep and Mary Margaret is essentially hallucinating, you're my best bet for company right now."

"And you are of course incapable of enjoying solitude." Regina bit out as she continued to prep for her meeting. The woman was clearly going out of her way to be annoying. "So very much like Graham."

"How did you and Graham become friends?" Emma asked.

Regina sighed. "We knew each other as children."

"I knew that. I was wondering how you guys actually became friends. You guys seem very different."

"Because he knows how to interact like a human?" Regina scoffed.

"Something like that," Emma grinned.

Regina sighed. It looked like she wouldn't get anything done right now. "We hated each other at first. But I suppose when you spend enough summers together, you bond."

"Makes sense, I guess," said Emma. Jesus, having a conversation with this woman is like pulling teeth! Emma gave up and stood.

"I guess I'll go for a run on that treadmill I saw in the basement." She stretched, and Regina noted the sliver of toned abs when Emma's shirt rode up. The girl was obviously in shape. "Do you run?"

"I do," Regina allowed. She loved to run. When she had first taken over the family business, several overpriced therapists told her what she already knew; she was way too stressed. Running, among other things, helped.

"Well, there's a great path along the beach that leads to a cove. If the weather clears up, you should try it out. You can see the start of the trail a mile down the beach."

Regina nodded. "Thank you, Ms. Swan."

Emma stood there awkwardly for a minute before walking out without another word.

Regina sighed and got back to work, the library now almost too quiet.


The next few days were a monotonous blur for Emma. Mary Margaret was slowly getting better but was still bedridden. Even if she were feeling better, the storm had left the major roads from this side of town flooded and untravelable. So Emma spent her days running and reading and watching tv, while her evenings were spent in the company of the other guests. It didn't take too many of these evenings to learn the idiosyncrasies of her temporary housemates. Kathryn generally wakes up at 11AM and spends her days on her cell phone or watching trashy television. Killian woke up well into the afternoon and barely waited the requisite 2 hours necessary before pouring himself a drink. Graham and David were active guys and it was clear that being cooped up in the house was difficult for them. Still, they were able to amuse themselves in the basement with pool and air hockey tables until David received news that Mary Margaret was awake and would go spend the rest of the day with her in her bedroom. Emma would be worried they were up to other things in there if it weren't for the fact that this was Mary Margaret and David. Mary Margaret very decidedly did not sleep around (she had only ever had one one night stand and felt guilty for weeks after) and David seemed too afraid to touch her, let alone do anything else to her. Emma guessed they were probably just staring at each other during their closed door sessions.

Regina spent her days camped out in the library on her computer or on the phone with a host of people. Typical workaholic. Emma hadn't expected anything less. But it was rather aggravating because she often went in to the library to grab a book and read. There were numerous days that the two of them sat there without uttering a word to each other. Emma didn't like awkwardness and this was the height of awkward. Regina was clearly not aching to talk to her. Indeed, any conversation she tried to initiate got monosyllabic responses as Regina, so she stopped trying and stayed curled up in a chair reading, far from suspecting that she had become an object of interest to the other woman in the room.

Regina held back a sigh of frustration. While she had been able to complete the things she needed to, despite not being in New York, she kept gettting distracted the irritating blonde in the corner. Regina wasn't someone who let others get to her in any way. But while the blonde's manner of speaking to her was rude and brash, she began to notice other things about the girl that stuck in her mind. The way she bit her lower lip when she was thinking. The way her blonde curls framed her face so delicately. The way her blue (green?) eyes sparked every time she argued with Regina. Regina had to admit that the effect was altogether...charming.

But it would not do for the blonde to think she was paying her more attention than she should. Many a man and woman had tried to catch her interest while clearly just after the family fortune. She had over the years learned to be careful and indulged in meaningless flings and one-night-stands to avoid getting hurt. Her walls were always up and she wouldn't let a rude and unsophisticated blonde twenty three year old pull them down.


Regina stretched her back and sipped her coffee as stared at her computer screen. She had been trapped in the house for 5 days and the storm was finally starting to clear up. Mary Margaret had recovered somewhat and was finally leaving her room. Predictably, it was 15 minutes after the scheduled time before she got the incoming skype call.

"You know, dear," Regina said without preamble as Henry's face appeared on the screen. "I fire people who walk in 2 minutes late to my meetings."

Henry grinned at her, his long hair falling in her eyes. "Sorry, Reg. Nick found a 10 foot snake in the quad, and I lost track of time. It was so cool! Double the size of Sherlock!"

"I'm glad that a snake's more important than your big sister."

Henry's smile got wider. "I wouldn't say that. You're like equally as important."

"Haha." said Regina sarcastically. "Also what is going on with your hair? I'm surprised you can even see. When was the last time you got a haircut?"

Henry rolled his eyes. "It looks cool, Mom."

"You look homeless," said Regina flatly.

Henry chuckled. "Well, everyone here says it looks pretty good."

Regina scrunched her eyebrows. "Who's everyone?" Henry didn't answer and instead turned slightly red. "Wait a minute..."A devious smile appeared on Regina's face. "Are you talking about that Grace girl?"

"Regina!" Henry quickly put down the volume on his computer and looked around his dorm room to make sure no one was there.

Regina laughed. "What? I think its cute you have a little crush."

Henry groaned. "I can't believe I told you. And I don't have a crush. I just think she's nice, that's all."

"Sure," smiled Regina. "You should just tell her. She probably likes you too."

"What about you?" asked Henry, turning it around. "When was the last time you went on a date?"

"None of your business," said Regina smoothly.

"That means its been a while," said Henry with a smirk.

"You try running a multi-million dollar company and have functional dating life," Regina retorted with a scowl.

Henry laughed. "By the way, I spoke to that creep Tom Dixon. He visited last weekend since his little brother goes to school here."

"Dixon...As in Senator Dixon's son?" Regina wrinkled her nose in distaste. Her mother had essentially forced her to go on a date with the man a couple of years ago. She had ended up kneeing him in the groin when he drunkenly grabbed her ass and tried to kiss her.

"Yeah, he told me to tell you that you're a frigid bitch."

"Well thank you for passing along the message."

"He said a couple of other things, but he stopped talking after I kneed him in the balls."

Regina laughed. "Well, you will be the 2nd Mills to have done that."

"Seriously?!" Upon confirmation from Regina, Henry let out a bark of laughter. "Awesome!" Henry pumped his fist. Regina smiled fondly at him.

"So...Mom's visiting this weekend." This got Regina's attention. In the 3 years that Henry had been at Great Oaks boarding school, his mother had never once visited. Regina always took it upon herself to visit whenever there was a family day or parents weekend or just when she missed him.

"Why is she going? I'm surprised she remembers what school you go to at all."

Henry rolled his eyes. "I'm sure that her secretary can look it up for her. This weekend, apparently Grant Murphy's dad is going to be here too. He's some big oil lobbyist and she wants to schmooze."

Regina nodded, understanding now. Trust it to be about politics rather than actually wanting to see her son. Election year was coming up, and Cora would never be caught unprepared.

"I'm sorry Henry," she said genuinely. She knew just how painful it could be seeing Cora, and she wished she could be there to help him dodge her thinly veiled insults and suffocating, poisonous presence. As an adult, she could avoid seeing her mother unless it was absolutely necessary. Henry didn't have that luxury. "I would come down to keep her away from you, but I'm still stuck in this place for the rest of the week."

"Hey, no worries," he smiled though he was clearly dreading Cora's visit. "Just keep your phone on you, in case I need rescuing."

Regina laughed. "I promise I will. I'll get Sydney to keep the rescue helicopters on standby."

"Nice. Ok, sis, I gotta go. But I'll talk to you soon."

"Sounds good. Bye Henry. I love you."

Henry rolled his eyes but smiled. "I love you too." With that he signed off.

Regina stared at the screen with a smile on her lips, but was startled out of her reverie by a voice behind her.

"Was that your brother?" Regina whipped around to see Emma Swan, eating potato chips as she flopped on the couch and put her feet on the table. Regina's nose twitched, wanting so much to push them off.

"You always have to interrupt my moments of quiet. And not that its any of your business Ms. Swan, but yes. That was."

Emma nodded, just looking at the woman. She had heard quite a bit of their conversation.

"It sounds like you guys are pretty close." She shrugged and continued munching on her potato chips. Regina's eyes got infinitesimally softer.

"Yes, I suppose we are."