Disclaimer: I hope to one day own something that someone has to put a disclaimer to when they write fan fiction about it, but for now, the characters aren't mine and neither is the show.
Right then, after fixing some mistakes and learning to re-read everything I type, I present a cleaner version of the previously updated chapter 3. (I also cleaned up the first two)
Chapter 3
After Emma had showered and snooped around, which mainly included looking into the Mayor's drawers and blushing at certain items, she decided to go to work.
As she entered the Sheriff's Station, the blonde was greeted by her father, who was waiting for her to arrive. Emma held her head high and put on her best smile.
"Hey David, is there somethin-"
"Emma." She looked away from him, her practiced smile dropping with her gaze towards the floor.
"I'm sorry," Charming paced around, he seemed nervous, "I'm sorry Dad."
He stopped and looked at her, the worry clearly evident on his every feature.
"Did you mean it?" Emma looked straight up at him, not understanding the question at first, "Regina, did you mean what you said about Regina?"
"Yes..." Charming didn't know what to do, this woman, his daughter, had grown completely without any influence from him or her mother- she was only theirs biologically. He deeply regretted this and knew he and Snow would have to learn to make space for Regina once again in their lives and to swallow all the pain and memories. But that wouldn't be possible just yet, this was far too much to handle.
"Have you told her?" Emma looked surprised by the question, realizing she hadn't even considered telling the Mayor about her feelings. It was like she didn't have to, from the way they interacted, somewhere in Emma's mind their behavior was normal. Until now that it was pointed out.
"I haven't, I don't know if I should- I mean, this is Regina we're talking about, I can't even begin to imagine the kind of reaction she'd have." Emma lied. She knew Regina wouldn't ever have any type of bad reaction, not after what happened the day before and the affection she received each day from the former Evil Queen. But she knew she had to reassure her parents that no action would be taken from these feelings. She wanted her parents and their trust, her lifelong dream was to be united with parents who loved her, who suddenly regretted leaving her and dropped everything to come be with her.
The sound of heels got both their heads to turn, and they spotted Regina making her way towards them. Emma looked to her Dad briefly, noticing his expression harden with contempt and the blonde felt a tug at her heart. She watched as Regina gave David her best politician's smile and then turned to her.
"Miss Swan I would appreciate you carried out your job, I received a call today from Moe French claiming someone had stolen his truck. I entrust you'll carry out your job accordingly. Also, I'm still waiting on that paperwork, from last week. I hope to see some progress."
Emma scoffed at the brunette's demanding tone of voice and made her way out, telling David she'd be by later. The Mayor followed her out and stood infront of the Sheriff's vehicle, in Emma's path.
"I hope he wasn't too hard on you." Her voice was firm but her eyes gave her away. The Sheriff smiled at Regina, "Excuse me Madame Mayor, I have a job to do."
Regina watched as Emma walked around her to open the door of her car, "and no he wasn't." Emma whispered and winked at the Mayor before sitting at the drivers seat.
After stopping by the florist and getting the information about his truck, Emma decided to stop by Regina's office and give her the paperwork that was missing from last week, which was in the car all along. Over the past few weeks Emma had been finding ways of making it so that she would have plenty of excuses to see the brunette, the gorgeous, breathtaking-
"Excuse me, can I help you?" Regina's secretary seemed annoyed at the blonde, who stood infront of her desk gaping.
"I um, am here to see the Mayor," the Sheriff showed the stack of paperwork in her hand and the secretary shook her head.
"I'm afraid the Mayor is in a meeting right now, would you like to leave those with me and..."
The woman trailed off as she watched Emma simply waltz into Regina's office, only to find the Mayor with her eyes closed and earphones in.
"That's some important meeting," Emma whispered to herself, grinning.
She placed the stack on Regina's desk and tiptoed over the other side of the desk where the Mayor sat.
Emma used a finger to gently prod the brunette's cheek, feeling the soft skin. The action frightened Regina as she quickly swiped her earphones out and glared up at the blonde. She took a deep sigh, thinking it was some other intolerable fool, not that Emma wasn't an intolerable fool. The Mayor thought to herself about how cute this fool was, with the way she was grinning down at her like Regina was her entire world. A smile slipped across her lips and they just looked at each other smiling until Emma pointed at the papers.
"Your wish is my command," the familiarity of the words made the Mayor cringe.
"What a poor choice of words..." Regina muttered to herself and Emma strained to hear it, but quickly retorted.
"What, did you have a bad run in with a genie or something?" And the blonde watched as the woman in front of her unraveled herself in complete laughter, like Emma had said the best joke in the world. Emma's confused face did nothing to help the Mayor calm her laughter, after all Emma couldn't possibly know about Sidney's past with the woman. Emma simply smiled, overwhelmed with happiness at the ability to make Regina laugh.
Emma sighed as she made her way up the steps to her mother's apartment. She had already made arrangements with the Mayor to stay at the mansion until she was able to find her own place. The Sheriff found this convenient, regardless of whether her and Snow had fought, the apartment was beginning to feel crowded with David. The two seemed to constantly need to be touching each other in some way or to be making some weird true love eye contact. Emma chuckled to herself, thinking about how if the topic of her feelings for Regina came up she could blame her parents for influencing her into finding love. Albeit not the love she or they expected, love regardless.
She knocked at the door and an embarrassed flush crossed her cheeks, as Snow opened the door, almost expecting to see her.
Snow quickly hugged Emma and tears inevitably started to form in her eyes.
"I'm so sorry," Snow hushed her daughter soothingly, letting her know she hadn't done anything wrong.
"I'm moving in with Regina," the words came out of her mouth before she could stop them, Emma had been so nervous this entire time, not knowing how to tell her mother. As always she made a mess of it and simply and straightforward told her mother the truth, knowing there would be consequences for not explaining the reasoning behind her actions.
"It's only until I find a place, I want you and Dad to be comfortable, and we all know how uncomfortable we feel in this environment. I'm almost thirty, I can't be living in a house with my newlywed parents."
"We're not newlywed, we've been married for over 28 years-" Snow realized what Emma meant and stopped her sentence half way, "well perhaps it's for the best, at least you'll get to be around Henry."
Snow tried to force a smile, but couldn't find it in her to do so. Regardless of the many uncomfortable times they'd shared over the last few weeks, Snow was going to miss her family together more than anything.
As if reading her thoughts, Emma reassured her, "hey, it's okay, I'll still come over all the time with Henry and..."
"and Regina?" Snow said more to herself than to her daughter but Emma cringed at the thought but she wouldn't want to leave Regina out, but she doubted Regina would ever want to come.
"It's okay Mom, I doubt she'd want to come," Emma showed her mother and big smile and hugged her again, making her way up the stairs to her bedroom to pack her two boxes, with the help of her mother.
Ruby looked at her best friend with a doubtful smirk, "Snow, you know as well as I do, if not better, that if love is meant to be it'll find a way. I mean just look at you guys."
Snow shook her head, she knew Ruby was right but she couldn't bear the thought, her hand squeezing Charming's for support against the reasoning Ruby offered.
"No... We can't just let this happen, they can't possibly be in love, besides they're..."
Ruby raised an eyebrow at this, "they're what? Women?" Charming nodded, clearly ashamed of his poor reason against the potential relationship.
"Look you said it yourself, Emma isn't going to tell Regina anything, at least not for now. Besides it's none of our business. They're grown women and I'm sure you both want what makes Emma happiest, and unfortunately the person providing that happiness is most likely our good old friend the Evil Queen." Ruby made a face as she wiped the surface her hands rested on with a cloth.