Oh my goodness! So this is it! The last chapter of Act One! I hope you guys like it so much and thank you for taking the time to read it. You guys have been so amazing! Please feel free to PM me with any questions or comments you might have or leave a review I love reading them! I expect Act 2 to be here no later than Friday, just on the safe side! I have big plot lines/scenes headed your way so please enjoy and follow! Love you guys,
Chapter 8: The Jealousy cure
It was the day of Thanksgiving, and Regina was so excited. She had already taken her shower, brushed her teeth, applied her make up, and gotten dressed in anticipation of how great her day was going to be. She reached for her phone, checking the time, when she realized she had 3 missed calls from Emma. She took a deep breath, and called her back, fully expecting to be stood up on Thanksgiving.
"Hey"
"Hey, did you need something?"
"So, I totally blanked and forgot I don't have a stove or fridge here, is there anyway we can do Thanksgiving at your house?"
Regina laughed at the blonde, it had become a natural reaction to Emma's forgetfulness and Emma loved hearing the sound of it, especially when she was the cause of it.
"Sure thing, what time would you like to come over to start cooking?"
"I can be there at 9, sound good?"
"Can't wait," Regina smiled into the phone, "I'll see you then Emma."
"Goodbye Gina"
As the girls hung up, Regina immediately started cleaning around her house, not that it was messy, but she just wanted today to be absolutely perfect.
"Well, it's nice to know you still remember me," Emma said as she tried walking past the woman to get out of there.
"Emma wait!"
"I did, 20 years, you never called."
"Look," Regina grabbed the blonde's arm and stopped her, "I know you're angry."
"You're damn right I'm angry," Emma spit back as she turned around, "I waited for you, did you know that? All this time I sat back and I waited. The call never came, and I thought something had happened or you left and for some God forsaken reason couldn't reach me, and all this time, you were here."
"Emma I couldn't call you okay, not when I knew you were living your life."
"It could've been our life Regina and you chose him."
"I did NOT choose him Miss Swan."
"Don't you DARE Miss Swan me, we've been through too much."
Emma was furious and that surprised her. She thought she had left all this anger and bitterness in her past. She had no idea she had just suppressed these emotions this much. She honestly didn't know what she expected to happen when she saw Regina again, but didn't know it was going to hurt this much. Regina hadn't changed at all, she was as stunning as ever. Emma knew if she pretended she wasn't as hurt as she was, it would be any moment until she was back in Regina's arms again, and she knew she wasn't strong enough to lose her again. This is how things would have to be.
Emma was walking out of the store, aware that she was running late to Regina's, and took her phone out to check the time. 8:44 damn it! She hurried up and tried to shoot Regina a text while trying to multitask and put the ingredients she needed for the meals she was going to be cooking in the trunk. She sent the text, closed the trunk, when she heard someone calling out her name.
"Emma? Emma Swan is that you?"
Emma turned to look where the voice was coming from. When she found the source of it, all she could do was run towards the girl and lift her up into a hug.
"Lily! Oh my God where have you been? I can't believe this! What are you doing here?"
Lily was Emma's first friend, the first girl she had ever trusted while in the foster system. They had met and became instant friends and they couldn't stay away from each other. Lily was Emma's first ally, in a world that was cold as stone. She never knew what became of Lily after she got adopted, she had never seen her since then, but she was thrilled to see she was doing okay.
Lily was a few years older than Emma, usually lacking the maturity to prove it, but she was. Emma was usually always the sensible one in the friendship, while Lily wanted to run away nonstop, Emma convinced her otherwise, and if she hadn't of, Lily would've never gotten adopted.
Lily leaned back from the hug and put her hands on Emma's shoulders, trying to grasp if this was real or not.
"I'm here visiting my foster parents from college, what are you doing here?"
"I live here now, I go to StoryBrooke prep, just got a new apartment!"
"Oh my god, how can you afford that? I mean I'm assuming you have a job, but did your parents help you? Did you finally get adopted?"
"I did, but they're terrible Lils, I couldn't stay there, a friend gave me the money and told me to get out and live my life basically."
"Whoa, that was so super sweet of them! I'm surprised you actually took it though!"
"Yeah well, she didn't leave much room for argumentation."
"Oh, her huh? Do we have a female friend Emma?" Lily asked teasing Emma. She had known of Emma's sexual orientation for a while now, it never bothered her, she just wanted Emma happy, and of course being her friend gave her teasing rights.
"Ugh Lil, don't make things weird, she's just a friend."
"Uh huh, sure."
"Hop in my car, I'm sure she'd love to meet you!"
"I have to be somewhere in a few, mind if I just follow behind you?"
"Okay sure! I can't wait!"
"Emma, don't you think I wanted to call you? Don't you think I thought about what I did every day? I know I hurt you, there's no doubt in my mind, but you have to realize you were not the only one hurt in this situation."
"NO you don't get to play that card. I had no one after you left me. I was alone, I was an orphan that you blinded into love and then decided to throw it away so you could be with your boyfriend."
"He is not my boyfriend…"
"Fine, husband better?"
"EX he's my EX husband, and he has nothing to do with this!"
"So it's true then, you left him?"
"Yes, I swear it's done, we're done."
Emma just nodded her head and huffed a breath and just started walking away again, trotting in a circle, with Regina following close behind her.
Regina heard the noise of coming from her front door, Emma and another female voice she didn't recognize. When Emma came in, with another girl both holding groceries, Regina looked confused and then said, "Uh, Hi?"
"Regina, this is Lily"
"Hi," Lily replied sheepishly, not really knowing what to say.
"Lily?" Regina asked.
"Oh yeah, we met in the foster system, we became like best friend when some slut decided to get adopted and leave me," Emma teased her friend.
The two started babbling about their history, looking at each other like two teenagers in love. They told her about all the things they used to do together and all bad girl Emma moments they could think of. During one story, they literally just couldn't stop laughing and hugged right in front of her.
"Anywho, we just met up the store and Emma told me what a wonderful thing you've done for her, thank you for taking care of her seriously, it means a lot." Lily said.
"Oh well, it's my pleasure, please both of you come in."
"No thanks I have to run, but it was nice meeting you, bye Em!"
The two hugged one more time before Lily made her exit.
Thanksgiving was a lot quieter that evening, Emma noticed. Regina was just nodding her head and sipping on her wine, not really seeming to enjoy anything. Emma figured it was because of Robin and what their usual traditions are. She didn't know how to fix this, she wanted to kiss her senselessly to get her mind off of the ass hat but she didn't want to be insensitive or inappropriate. She wanted Regina to want this as much as she did.
The excruciating dinner was over with, and Regina had taken both of their plates and began to wash them. Scrubbing them as hard as she could, Emma noticed a little tension. She came up behind her and started massaging her shoulders. Regina slowed down to almost a stop.
"I know this wasn't an easy Thanksgiving for you, but you can tell me anything. I'm sorry if I wasn't a good friend to you and if you really wanted to be alone tonight. I'm sorry if I drug you into this. I was just trying to make you happy, you've been so upset about Robin and the baby, I just I didn't know how to fix it."
Regina instantly turned around, eying the blonde and began to speak.
"What? What's wrong now?"
"The fact that you ended it AFTER I was gone. After you blew a chance on what could've been amazing."
"That's not how I meant it. He was going to hurt us Emma, do you honestly think that I could let him hurt you, I had to do what I did to protect you."
"I didn't need protection I needed you to be honest with me."
Regina rubbed her hands through her hair and breathed out the most frustrating sigh before taking a seat in one of her student desks. Her heart was racing; mind doing tumbles as she questioned what she was doing or if this was even real. She knew Emma was going to be mad, she knew she was going to confront her, what she didn't know was how breath taking she would look while doing so.
"Robin found out. I don't know how or when or for how long, but he knew. He gave me an ultimatum, I could take him back and no one would realize what either of us had done, or I could expose him, and he could do the same to us...I couldn't do that to you. I couldn't let you be punished just because you made the mistake of loving me. I know I hurt you, but never once did I lie about how I felt about you. I did love you with all my heart, and that's why I had to let you go."
"The fact that you even think that…breaks my heart. You could've come to me Regina at any time, broken us up, just like you did; only it would've been pretend and we could've figured this out together, only you chose not to."
"It wasn't that simple Emma," Regina stood back up and started walking towards her, "You have to believe me, I had to do what I did in order to give you a future."
"One without you in it?"
"Emma it's not about me, I don't care what happened to me; I just wanted to see you be everything you wanted to be."
"Robin? You think this is about Robin? I can't believe this whole time you thought I was upset about Robin…for the first time today, just hearing his name made me realize I have absolutely no feelings for…Do you like that girl?"
"Wait…do I what now?"
"Lily. Do you like her? I mean… she seemed to like you. With all the hugging, and inside jokes, and the eyes…you made eyes!"
"I don't make eyes, Lily is just a friend, she was my first friend. I've known her forever Gina."
"Yeah but you have had to miss her all this time right and why did you never mention her? And I'm not jealous," Emma began to nod her head while smirking as Regina continued, "I'm really not, I just…why can't I be like with you? Why can't I just live in the moment and have jokes with you, why can't I just be comfortable around you. I hate that I'm so confused and so scare-," Regina was cut off when a pair of familiar lips landed upon hers.
Emma kissed her fiercely, like her life depended on it. Emma hands were around Regina's face and moved them back so they were in her hair. Regina, when she finally was aware of what was happening; placed her hands on Emma's waist, pulling her closer so they couldn't move.
Emma broke the kiss only to place them on Regina's neck, lightly kissing a trail that leaded to the pulse point and right back up to her mouth. Regina moaning into it as the kiss slowed down and they broke apart, breathing heavily.
"That was….Wow" Emma said
"Yeah.."
After a moment of silence and just staring at each other, not knowing where to go from here, Emma touched Regina's chin and asked, "How do I become something you miss Regina? How do I become the one person you can't live without?" Emma asked grabbing Regina's hand and placing it over Emma's heart.
"When will my heartbeat be the only sound you want to hear when you fall asleep at night?" Emma then put both of her hands on Regina's face, "When will my lips be the ones you wanted to taste forever?"
And when she asked that, Regina kissed her again. Pulling the collar of her jacket closer to her. This kiss was deeper, more passionate than before and had both of them needing more. The agony of waiting this long to do what they both had wanted for so long breathed in their kiss as tongues flew out, exploring each other's mouths.
Regina's hands flew to the younger woman's face, as Emma's slowly made their way to Regina's ass, lingering there just a moment before moving to behind her legs to raise her off the floor and onto the counter.
"Did it not occur to you maybe that I was happy? I was with who I wanted to be with, and genuinely happy. I had a shitty childhood, and believe me, I was fine being bitter and passive aggressive and angry, but you came along. You came and you broke down my walls and opened my heart to the idea of love; that someone could love me and I could be myself and then you took that away. You broke my heart. You can't tell people who they should love and why. You can't just make decisions affecting other people's lives and claim that something else should be their happiness!"
"But I would walk through a tornado for you!"
"And I would die if I lost you."
Regina couldn't hold the tears in any longer. The impact of the 20 years without her was weighing on her and suddenly she couldn't breathe. She had known somewhere deep inside her that seeing the blonde again was going to hurt more than losing her. She knew she didn't stand a chance at forgiveness or to be even remotely in her life again. She understood that. If the shoe was on the other foot, she'd probably be the same way.
"Em, I hope you know deep inside, I pushed you away for us. I didn't know what he was capable of, and when I finally left him, I just wanted to call you and tell you to come home, but I couldn't. We hadn't talked in so long and I couldn't interrupt your life again. But you have to believe me; I never wanted to hurt you."
Once again, Emma broke the kiss, this time taking a step back from Regina.
"Regina, you've just made this my best Thanksgiving ever."
Smiling, Regina just sat in silence, wondering what the blonde had to say
"I promise you, I'm going to make you so happy."
"Oh I have absolutely no doubt about that."
"Good, and I'm going to give you everything you've dreamed of, okay, so that means, I'm going to leave and go sleep in my own bed tonight."
Confused, Regina said, "What? I uh, I did not dream that…"
Laughing, Emma replied, "Babe, I don't want you to have any regrets about us, and I don't want to rush this, I want to do this right, I never want you to doubt anything about us, okay?"
Understanding, Regina sighed and got off the table, straightening her clothes out.
Emma gave one more kiss upon her forehead before slowly turning and walking towards the door.
"Emma?" Emma turned around to face her, "Mm?"
"You just made this my best Thanksgiving, too."
They both smiled at each other, Emma instantly biting her lip, and walking out the door.
"But you did. And that doesn't change the fact," Emma continued, "that you knew about this the whole time and didn't tell me. That you knew what it could mean for us when you left him, and it didn't occur to you to include me; or worse, it did occur to you, and you chose not to. What does that say about us? Not much if you ask me."
Emma turned from her one last time and headed for the door, this time Regina giving her the space she needed, "Emma…"
"I can't be here now…I can't do this now."
Regina stood there for what seemed like hours. Just staring at her door where the blonde had exited just moments before and beating herself up for letting her get away again. She didn't know what it would take for her to get her back, or if she even could at all. But she was sure of one thing, she was still hopelessly in love with Emma Swan, and she had to get her back.
