Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any recognizable characters.
AN: This is written for Chanteuse who was the 1400th reviewer of Incoming Messages. Prompt: Regina watches Emma interact with Neal and eventually ends up saving his life. This is set well after their return from Neverland. Everyone lives in relative peace, and have no fear, this is not a SwanThief fic. Emma and Neal are just friends, and Emma and Regina are toeing that I-think-we-should-date-but-I-don't-want-to-make-th e-first-move line. I hope you guys enjoy!
"You should come with us, Mom," Henry said as he scrunched up his face, waiting impatiently for Regina to cease in her mission of lathering every inch of her son's body in sunscreen and bug repellent.
"A weekend in the woods with your mother and father? I don't think so," she answered tightly.
"Hey," Emma said exiting the mayoral mansion with Henry's sleeping bag and duffel. "What's wrong with camping with me?"
Regina straightened and gave Emma a pointed look. "You snore."
"I do not," Emma attested. She glared down at Henry when he laughed. "I don't!"
"You once fell asleep on my couch, and I woke up suddenly fearful that there was a bear in my home." Regina smirked at the memory and at Emma's aggravated embarrassment. She remembered the night fondly when Emma had been invited over for dinner and had ended up staying late just talking with Regina. When she had noticed the blonde's eyes start to droop and her head loll to the side of the couch, she smiled affectionately before straightening Emma out and laying a blanket over her. She had briefly contemplated waking the woman and insisting she sleep in a guest room, but a part of her didn't want Emma to wake in case she decided to leave, so she let her be only to be woken up two hours later by a thunderous snore coming from the petite blonde downstairs.
"It wasn't that loud," Emma defended grumpily, tossing Henry's stuff into the trunk. She shut it closed then checked it with her hip for good measure.
Regina smirked then crouched down to give Henry a hug and a kiss. "Please behave yourself and don't go wandering off by yourself." Regina squinted her eyes then added as an afterthought. "Or with your father."
Henry grinned making no promises before waiting by the passenger side of the car.
"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Emma asked making her way over to Regina.
The brunette stood on her spot until only less than a foot was left between them, her head swaying from side to side in conflicted contemplation.
"Come on," Emma pleaded with a squeeze of Regina's arm. "It won't be the same without you."
Regina couldn't help but notice how Emma's hand remained on her arm. She made it a point not to stare too long at it and had to force her gaze back onto pleading jade eyes.
"Perhaps I-"
A horn honked loudly as Neal's SUV pulled up in front of Regina's mansion behind the beetle.
"Dad!" Henry called out running to meet him as he stepped out of the car.
Neal flicked off his aviators before tucking them into his shirt just in time to catch Henry and swing him over his shoulder. "Hey kid. Geez you gaining muscle or something?"
He put him down and felt Henry's arm. "Lay off the juice."
Henry grinned as Neal started play fighting with him, ducking every swat and getting in a few of his own.
Emma laughed at father and son, grinning when Neal exaggerated the effect of Henry's hits. "Come on, kid. You can do better than that."
Regina ground her teeth. "Do not condone violence as his behaviour."
"They're just playing, Regina," Emma offered.
A loud yelp caught their attention. Neal was clutching his jaw, his back to Henry whose eyes were wide and apologetic.
"I'm sorry, Dad. I thought you were gonna move," Henry apologized profusely, tugging on Neal's arm to see the damage.
Regina didn't bother to hide her satisfied smirk at Neal's pain and made no rush to check on him. Emma, however, rushed towards him checking on his jaw which was forming a good sized bruise before laughing right in his face.
"You got beat up by your kid," Emma laughed giving him a slug on his arm.
"Hey!" Neal yelled clutching his arm. "Already in pain here!"
Regina rolled her eyes at the interaction as she wrapped her arms around Henry's shoulder from behind giving him an appreciative pat even if it was for her own benefit. For his part, the twelve-year old still looked worried.
Emma just shook her head before stuffing her hands into her pockets and motioned for Henry to get into the car with her head. He obliged with a final hug to Regina leaving the adults alone.
"We better get going," Neal said finally acknowledging Regina's presence. His voice lowered to a mutter. "Your majesty."
"Baelfire," she responded flatly.
He scoffed at the name before tugging on Emma's arm to get her attention. "Come on. Family bonding."
Regina bit her tongue to keep from ripping the man's head off at his implication. He was lucky she was so resolved on joining the 'good' team.
Emma nodded to him as he slipped into his car before looking to Regina. "I'll see you Sunday night."
"Bring my son back in one piece," Regina said sternly.
"I make no promises," Emma joked. The glare she received had her shrugging her hands out. "Come on, you're not concerned about my well-being either?"
Regina began to turn back towards her mansion before calling over her shoulder. "Be safe too."
It was tough for Regina, this infatuation she had for Emma. As her care for the blonde grew, her disdain for Neal Cassidy increased likewise. As the months passed, she noticed Neal was planning more and more excursions that Regina refused to attend ranging from camping weekends to learning how to shoot. That particular one made Regina livid, forbidding Henry from learning such a dangerous skill, but Emma argued that if he was having sword fight lessons with David, learning how to shoot was Storybrooke's equivalent.
As Neal made his plans, Regina made her own with Emma and Henry. After reopening the stables, she had taken them up for horse riding lessons. Like most things the brunette organized, they could have very well been shared with Neal in company, but she always made it a point to leave the man out. She knew Emma and Henry were aware of her motives, but there was only so much they could do to sway one who was once the Evil Queen.
Despite knowingly being in the middle of two feuding parents, Henry having done it once already with Emma and Regina, but Emma going through it as her first round, it was starting to get difficult managing their time. That lesson, Emma learned, would be the moment that pushed them forward.
She was helping Regina with dishes one night after a family dinner with herself, Regina, and Henry when she let it slip that she and Henry would be driving down to the city for a ball game with Neal the following weekend.
Regina froze hearing the news and turned her head slowly to Emma. "Next weekend?"
"Yeah," Emma answered. "Is that a problem?"
Regina simply tightened her lips and shook her head pushing Emma out the door instead of inviting her for their usual glass of wine and extended conversation.
She didn't know how much it baffled the blonde, but at that point she didn't care. She simply waited all week acting as normal as possible though the slight jabs she threw Emma's way had her confronted by the blonde herself once or twice until the weekend came and went with Henry returning clad in a red Boston Red Sox jersey and blue hat complete with a foam finger.
For the week approaching and the weekend during the event, Regina was hurt and angry, a dangerous combination. She couldn't believe Emma had forgotten that they had scheduled in a day at the stables that weekend. Granted, the blonde was terrified of horses, but that wasn't the point.
She had forgotten about her.
A small part of her hoped Emma would remember, but as the days passed and Henry was sound asleep in his bed still in his jersey, Regina felt the heaviness of her heart settle in at the familiar feeling of being abandoned and betrayed.
She had no idea why she felt that way. Well, she had some idea. She cared for Emma and had for quite some time. The awful realization that she missed the blonde while she was in the Enchanted Forest made itself known during the first night Emma fell through the portal, and Regina realized just how alone she was. At first she was loathed to admit that she sought Emma's approval, evident the first time it broke her when Emma thought she had killed Archie, but after they had set their differences aside in order to save Henry, Regina realized that it was much more than Emma's approval she wanted.
She wanted Emma's love.
A part of her wanted to push aside these frivolous feelings, but most nights when it was just her and Emma sitting in her study with a glass of wine or cider, she could swear Emma wanted her too. She had noticed that over the months they had moved from sitting on opposite ends of the couch to sitting side by side, and more than once their gazes would lock, and Regina was sure that this would be the time when they would finally kiss, but like Emma never mentioning about her forgotten plans, it never happened and remained a fantasy in Regina's mind.
Perhaps that was all the progress she and Emma could make. Judging from her close relationship with Neal, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary if they rekindled the old flame.
The thought made Regina sick.
She knew Emma and Neal would go to the Rabbit Hole together and have lunch with each other even without Henry's presence there, so the probability that Emma only saw Regina as a friend and Neal as a lover was higher than Regina would ever care to admit. Still, she didn't have to like the man. In all technicality, it was his disappearance to this world that caused the chain reaction of events leading to Regina's corruption. Added in with the fact that he was Henry's father, whom he took to just as quickly as he took to Emma, and he had Emma's affection at least once upon a time made Regina hate him.
She rubbed her temples just thinking about him and forced herself to look back to her paperwork. She ground her teeth when she read the name on the lease application.
It seemed as if Baelfire was looking to open a new business. Well, it would be rather unfortunate if he wasn't able to get the space. All too happily she stamped 'Reject' onto his application with a self-satisfied grin.
"Regina!" Emma had suddenly burst into her office out of breath and panicking.
"What is it?" Regina asked confused, sitting up halfway from her chair. "Henry-"
"We were supposed to go riding!"
Regina lifted an eyebrow, stock still in her position before slowly descending back in her chair and turning back to her paperwork. "Oh is that all?"
"I am so sorry." Emma rushed up to her desk, her hands extended pleading for forgiveness.
"It's fine," Regina answered dryly.
"Why didn't you remind me?"
"Oh, so now it's my fault?" She snapped her head up. "You were already set on your little ball game with Neal."
She spat out his name with venom.
"That was for Henry. Me and you still could have gone," Emma explained.
Regina narrowed her eyes in confusion and snapped her jaw shut.
"I mean if you were okay with that," the blonde stammered, running a nervous hand through her curls.
There it was again. A moment where she was sure Emma may have been hinting at something more, but Regina just couldn't decide on the right answer. Instead, she softened her features and looked down toward her desk under the ruse of concocting a suitable punishment when in reality she needed a moment to comprehend what Emma had offered.
"It wouldn't be totally preposterous if it was an event involving only you and I," Regina finally managed to get out.
She looked up in time to catch Emma's relieved smile. "I'll make it up to you. You and me. Wherever you want."
"You really want to be seen alone with me?" The brunette clarified.
"Of course, Regina. You're my friend now," Emma said obviously.
Regina gulped tightly and nodded. Friend. This is what Sidney must feel like, Regina mused bitterly. She almost felt sorry for the man if he wasn't so insufferable, however she moreso felt like a fool for thinking she and Emma could be anything more.
"Right. Well then, lunch then?"
Emma nodded happily. "Yeah. Lunch."
Stumbling backwards, Emma left the office and Regina to her own inner thoughts. The brunette sighed heavily and stalked over to the side table and poured herself a healthy dose of cider. God, what was she reduced to now? A pity friend?
She swallowed the cider down and released the tension in her body when she remembered just how frazzled Emma looked coming into her office. No, it wasn't a pity friendship. Emma clearly cared about her, and if that's all she was going to be, then the least she could do was reciprocate.
Emma made it too damn hard to only think of her as a friend. Their lunch meeting, as Regina had insisted on calling it, at least in her head, was wildly successful when they were ushered out of Granny's to make time for the dinner rush. Neither had noticed the time, and even still, Emma had convinced Regina to just skip the rest of the day since it was already over.
So for the first time in her life, Regina skipped a day of work to sit by the pier with Emma Swan. Her mind couldn't help but scream at her that it was like a date and had all the makings of a date, but when Emma walked her back to Town Hall so Regina could retrieve her car, she yelled at her inner self and reminded it that there was no kiss and that this was no date.
What made it difficult for Regina was how Emma continued to show up every week mumbling some excuse of being in her office before finally asking if Regina wanted to grab lunch. The brunette tried desperately not to look too deeply into the gesture, but it was so hard whenever Emma flashed a relieved smile when Regina would accept the offer.
They talked about nearly everything on their lunches together, some of Emma's antics as a child ranging from petty theft to harmless pranking, Regina's youth and how she used to purposely leave her study books in her chambers whenever her mother called her so that Regina had an excuse to leave early.
Regina shared stories of Henry's younger years with his mishaps on the potty and how she succumbed to the chicken pox because of their son. Unfortunately for Regina, some of the stories Emma would share involved Neal and how they were always causing trouble together. Like a true friend, Regina listened attentively and asked the appropriate questions, but neither of them noticed or pointed out the way Regina would always clench her fist tightly in her lap whenever Neal got brought up.
She tried hard to be indifferent to the man's presence, but she found he was like a leech and a cockroach combined. Instead she focused on Emma as they sat on the patio of Regina's backyard since they had gone to the mansion for lunch. The blonde had furiously dug into her club sandwich and was getting crumbs all over her clothes.
Rolling her eyes affectionately, Regina brushed the crumbs off Emma's shirt and hair. "Honestly, do you need a bib?"
Emma glared taking another deliberate bite as if proving a point.
Her cell phone rang, and she swallowed the large bite in her mouth before scrambling to answer her phone.
Regina watched amused as Emma fumbled.
"Hey," Emma spoke into the phone. "Yeah I'm gonna be there. Me too. I'll see you at 8."
Regina raised her eyebrows, her jealous and possessive nature simmering just below the surface of her perfected mask. "Hot date?"
Emma scoffed taking another bite of her sandwich. "It's Neal. We're going to have dinner at Sebastian's later on tonight."
Regina made a mental note that Emma hadn't answered her date question, but she made a secondary mental note reminding herself she wasn't supposed to care. "I have Henry tonight."
"Yeah," Emma nodded.
"So it will just be you and Mr. Cassidy." Her tone was more statement than question.
"Yeah," Emma nodded again.
"That's quite the intimate setting for a simple dinner," Regina noted and stood, taking their plates with Emma's half eaten sandwich on it. No doubt the blonde wasn't finished, but if Regina couldn't cast a spell turning Rumpelstiltskin's offspring into a mutt then she was damn well going to send that sandwich down the garbage disposal.
Emma stood up and followed, saving her meal just as Regina turned the shoot on. After swallowing her bite, she shrugged. "When we were younger Neal always promised he'd be rich enough one day to take me out to a fancy dinner, so he's making good on that promise."
"Mm," Regina acknowledged as she scrubbed the dishes clean. "Charming."
Emma shrugged again, and the action infuriated Regina simply due to Emma's nonchalance. It clearly wasn't a big deal to Emma, but what did Emma know? She slept with the man for Christ's sake.
Regina let out a breath when Emma sidled up beside her and grabbed the wet dish from her hand, their fingers touching briefly. To Regina, the electric sparks shot through her body almost instantly upon contact, but she knew Emma must not have felt the same for she continued with her drying and only looked up when Regina had stared too long with softened eyes.
"Are you okay?" Emma asked drying her hand and putting the back of her palm on Regina's forehead.
Regina let it rest there for a moment before nodding and smirking. "I just never thought I would see you so domesticated."
Emma rolled her eyes until her beeping phone claimed her attention. She smirked at her phone as she read her message before replying and looking back up. "I've got to head out. Neal's at the station."
"Is he in jail?" Regina mused dryly as she followed Emma to the door.
"He's not that bad," Emma defended weakly.
Regina raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow not speaking the obvious.
"I mean yeah there was that whole putting me in jail while pregnant thing, and the Tamara thing, and the Neverland thing, but really. He's a good father," Emma nodded confidently.
"If you say so," the brunette replied with a tilt of her head.
"He is," Emma insisted squeezing Regina's arm in reassurance. "Just give him a chance."
Regina sighed making no promises and held the door open with an air of indifference. "Enjoy your dinner with Mr. Cassidy."
Regina groaned as she slammed the phone down after having a heated discussion with the one and only Neal Cassidy. The man was furious she had rejected his application and demanded a reason why. Truthfully, she had no rhyme or reason; she just didn't like him. But now she had to meet up with him at the location so he could prove that his business space would be suitable to use. Seeing him was the last thing she wanted to do, but she had recalled Emma's words from a few days ago to give him a chance.
If Emma cared for him, and if she cared for Emma and Henry, then she suppose she could make his life in Storybrooke bearable with as little problems as possible. At the very least she would think more heavily on it.
So Regina found herself in front of an old building in a dilapidated part of town. Looking upon the small building, its windows knocked out and boarded up, the concrete crumbling from the sides and wildlife growing haphazardly around the area, she ground her fists into a tight ball knowing this was a complete and utter waste of time. She had been right in rejecting his application. Now she had a reason to back her claim.
Looking down at her watch, she sighed annoyed that Mr. Cassidy was ten minutes late as he pulled up beside her. She turned authoritatively, her foot tapping against the gravel.
"Can we get started now, Mr. Cassidy, or would you like to further waste my time?"
He laughed once. "Emma said you'd be stubborn."
Regina tensed, not appreciating that Emma was giving Neal tips on how to deal with her. He brushed past her and unlocked the door. Regina shuddered when the rust from the metal frame screeched.
"It looks a lot worse than it is," Neal promised as he stepped in, holding the door open for the Mayor.
Inside was a step up from the outside, but not by much. It was a fairly large open space, but it was dark and humid. The boarded up windows prevented light from seeping in, and it only did due to Neal wedging a brick in between the door. Dust covered every inch of surface and cobwebs hung all over the ceiling. As she stepped, the tiles below her Louboutins creaked threateningly. Regina quickly tried to recall why a place like this would be added in her sleepy town, but like most things about the curse, they came with no explanation.
"What do you plan on doing with this space exactly?" Regina questioned unbuttoning her jacket from the heat while simultaneously looking bored.
"A youth centre, like the ones me and Emma used to go as kids," Neal answered excitedly.
Regina pursed her lips, not at the idea because quite frankly she was a little miffed she didn't think of it first, but because it was something that was clearly close to home for both Emma and Neal and something they shared.
"I'm gonna clean it up obviously," Neal explained standing in the middle of the room and stretching his arms out, his vision of the place filling his head. "But over here will be a lounge area for the older kids and teens. Have some books and maybe a TV." He motioned over to the opposite area. "Here's for the younger kids. Kind of like a daycare. I'll paint it up, get some toys and stuff in. I was even thinking providing some after school programs or homework help. Just something to keep them busy, you know?"
Neal finally turned to gauge Regina's reaction who remained neutral as she stood just behind him, trying hard not to touch anything.
"So?"
Regina took a breath as she turned her head to examine the room. "It's ambitious, Mr. Cassidy."
"But?"
She motioned to the room and answered matter-of-fact. "This place is a dump. I wouldn't be surprised if it collapsed as you cleaned it."
"No, no, no," Neal rushed and moved toward Regina to lead her to the basement. "I checked it out. I just gotta get new heaters, and furnaces and stuff, and this place will run great."
He was halfway down the stairs when he noticed the brunette wasn't following. Turning on a mini flashlight from his keychain, he shined it up at her. "It's not that bad."
She eyed the aging wood of the stairs hesitantly before taking a careful step. The step creaked and whined, and she could swear she felt it bend to her weight.
"Come on," Neal encouraged with an outstretched hand.
Biting her tongue she accepted his hand as he led her to the basement. All she had learned from Henry's comics told her that this basement was the prime location for a murder to take place or a body to be found, and she did not like it one bit. It was hotter down here than it was upstairs. A thin sweat formed on her forehead, and she used the back of her palm to wipe it clear. He led her to the furnace, oblivious to the heat, as he explained how he would get a new one. She didn't like how the red dial on the meter moved sporadically back and forth, but he assured her it just needed some fine tuning.
After his careful explanation on how he would fix the foundation, getting in new floorboards for the rotting ceiling and revamping the place entirely, he looked hopeful to her once again. "So?"
"Mr. Cassidy-" she began.
She didn't get to finish when a pipe from the furnace bust open, the metal shooting directly for an already weakened support beam. Both Neal and Regina watched as the support beam teetered, the wood cracking like lightning.
"Oh shit," he muttered as the beam cracked entirely, the wooden beams of the ceiling splintering at the loss of support.
Regina barely had time to lock gazes with Neal when he rushed over to her and covered her head into his chest. The last she felt was the ceiling coming down on them.
A sharp pain shot up Regina's leg, and dust infiltrated her lungs. It was dark all around her and she felt a heavy weight on top of her. She could hear the hissing of the furnace as gas leaked into the air. She tried to move, but the pain in her leg prevented her from moving even an inch.
Coughing violently, she pushed through the pain to break through the wood that had fallen on top of her. "Mr. Cassidy?"
She coughed again and hissed at the pain, finally catching sight of her leg. The blood that soaked her right leg had her gasping at the shock. No doubt the wood coming down roughed her up, but judging by the intense pain, her leg was broken. "Mr. Cassidy!"
Panic shot through her when she didn't get a response and struggled to look around for any sign of the man. Just beside her under a pile of wood, debris and tile, she found him lying face down, blood seeping from his temple and the back of his head. "Neal!"
She hissed when she attempted to crawl, crying out loudly in pain. Her upper body strength would have to do as she forced herself to slide the minimal distance towards him. She summoned the strength to pull the wood off him and quickly shed her jacket, placing his head under the softness. To her relief, she found a pulse and thanked the gods that no other surface wounds were visible.
She had to get them out of here, but she didn't know how. All magic had been bound since returning from Neverland, and even as she tried to tap into it, the pain in her leg and her ever present fear left no room to concentrate.
"Wake up, Neal!" She yelled, pushing on his back as if it could wake him.
The basement was a mess as Regina looked around. Gas permeated the air, and little flecks of light were visible from the cracks in the ceiling. The lower half of the staircase had been taken down with the collapse, but it was nothing too hazardous given an able bodied person were to venture through it. Between Regina and Neal, the former with a broken leg and the latter with, at the very least, a concussion and head abrasions, neither of them were able bodied at this point.
She fought the tears that threatened to fall from the pain and the fear that she could very well die here. She refused to think as much as she continued to shake the unconscious man. "Get up, you miserable oaf!"
His groan was the most relieving thing she had heard all day. Her moment of joy was quickly erased when the ceiling creaked and the little flecks of light now became small balls.
The ceiling was going to cave again and they had no way out.
"'Gina," he muttered, his mouth muffled into her jacket.
"Can you stand?" She asked hurriedly, checking his eyes to see them dilate, but the lack of light proved a useless task.
He pushed himself up on his arms but remained on all fours as he took a moment to clear his head. Regina took the opportunity to use her jacket to press against the back of his head wound, but couldn't find the strength to put much pressure on it. He took the sound of her hiss as a hint that she was hurt just as bad as he was and took over pressing the jacket to him.
"I'm fine," he groaned with a violent cough. "Just, don't say I told you so."
"I hardly think now is the time for such things." She looked up towards the ceiling as it gave another threatening crack.
"Shit," he muttered as he glanced up, his face paling at the realization, and crouched finally able to stand.
"We gotta get out of here," he said tossing her coat to the side and limping over to her.
She let him hold her under her arms, but as he pulled, the pain in her leg tripled, and she cried out, her voice ringing in the chaos. "Stop! Stop!"
When he relented they both examined her broken leg, Neal longer than Regina. At her first glance, Regina could have sworn she saw white that may or may not have been a bone, but right now she didn't want to confirm that. Instead, she put on a brave face and looked sternly towards the man. "You need to go upstairs and call an ambulance right now, Mr. Cassidy."
"You're crazy if you think I'm leaving you down here," Neal dismissed easily.
"Well my phone is in my car. Where is yours?"
Neal made a face signalling that his cell phone was in a similar location. He shook his head and looked through the debris. "I'm gonna make a splint and carry you outta here."
The ceiling cracked again and this time, debris fell just missing them.
"There's no time," Regina hissed, using all her strength to get further away from the fallen debris, letting out a growl of pain. "Go get help."
"Regina, I am not going to leave you here." He crouched by her leg and lifted it into his lap.
She yelled out furiously, biting into her fist.
"I'm sorry," he cringed trying to find something to splint it with as the ceiling cracked again.
"Neal," Regina's voice softened. "Please. Go up and call someone."
"Regina the ceiling is caving in!"
"And would you rather Henry lose his father along with his mother in the process?" She yelled back. "He needs you." She set her jaw as her eyes watered, and this time she knew it wasn't from the pain. "Emma needs you too."
Neal looked conflicted, but Regina could see the large cracks in the ceiling meaning that the floor above them was just about ruined.
"Neal," she pleaded again.
He pointed at her determinedly. "I'm gonna just go call someone and then I'll be right back."
"Just go!" She yelled.
He lingered for another long moment but his legs started moving again, and he managed to climb his way through the broken down stairs. He turned in the light of the doorway at the top of the staircase and peered down. "I'm coming back, Regina. Okay?" He promised.
She didn't have time to answer for the rightmost ceiling had fully collapsed on top of her.
The sound of sniffling was the first thing Regina heard as her consciousness finally returned to her. The last thing she remembered was being trapped in a basement Neal insisted was safe for children as the ceiling creaked over them. After that, she couldn't remember much, but feeling her elevated leg gave her hope that she was at least alive.
The sniffling grew louder, and Regina turned her head, wincing at a crick in her neck at the movement as she tried to look towards the noise.
"Regina?" A hoarse whisper croaked beside her.
Regina slowly opened her eyes, the bright lights making her vision hazy at first until a mane of wild blonde hair focused into view.
"Regina!" Emma gasped moving from her chair to the edge of the bed, mindful of the brunette's leg, as she cradled Regina's face, black and blue from bruises and cuts. "You're finally awake."
She tried sitting up, grateful when Emma fluffed the pillow behind her to help her sit upright.
"What do you mean finally?" Regina croaked.
She could see that Emma's eyes were red-rimmed matching the redness of her nose. Her hair was pulled back messily, and her clothes were rumpled and wrinkled.
"You've been out for a couple of days," the blonde explained. "The collapse, you had already lost a lot of blood and your leg was broken in three places and then you had a concussion and there was gas flooding the basement and they didn't think they could get you out and I thought I lost you." Her voice rose higher and higher as she talked until it came out in a desperate squeak.
Regina parted her lips in shock and confusion. Surely the drugs she was inevitably on was impacting her hearing.
"Why?" She whispered.
This time there was no doubt about what she saw in Emma's eyes - the fear of losing a loved one, the relief of having them home and safe. Without answering, Emma wrapped her arms tightly around Regina's neck, shocking the brunette into momentary paralysis.
She felt every ounce of emotion coming off Emma as she was engulfed in the hug. Relief. Hope. Love. As the blonde tightened her grip, Regina felt the care Emma had for her, and something much more, something along the lines of regret for wasted time and relief for another chance. She swallowed hard, praying to any god who would listen that she was right and hugged Emma back just as fiercely.
Her neck had dampened from Emma's tears as they flowed happily down her cheeks, nuzzling her face into Regina's neck. "Don't scare me like that again."
Regina could only nod, her own relief flooding her senses as she mimicked Emma's actions and buried her face into blonde locks. Eventually they pulled away, but, as Regina was pleased to note, Emma kept her hands on Regina's cheeks, smiling a watery smile at her just thankful she was alive.
Regina stood in front of the podium of the new Storybrooke Youth Centre located downtown and far away from any collapsible buildings. Her leg was healed though only she noticed the slight limp she had now, and after many deliberations with Neal, they had made an agreement on how to handle the centre and the press from the unfortunate incident six months prior. She smiled for the cameras as the ribbon-cutting ceremony commenced.
"We have been through a lot as a community, and we will continue to grow and pass on our values to our children. It is our children who will pass on our traditions, uphold our legacy, and remember our history. Our children now have a space for themselves for a chance to feel safe, secure, and well taken care of. They now have a space to come to with friends, new and old," Regina paused her speech as lights flashed. "Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Neal Cassidy, I proudly present Storybrooke's first Youth Centre."
Regina moved to the side as Neal stepped up giving her an appreciative squeeze on the arm and a polite hug for the cameras. He wielded the giant scissors as he snipped the red ribbon, the cheer of the crowd echoing.
He turned to the podium with a grin. "All right, kids. Come check it out."
Regina waited by the entrance as she greeted people entering the facility. She was halfway through nodding at the Tillmans when she felt a hand slip into hers. She turned and her face automatically brightened.
Emma gave her a wink and a smile before leaning over and kissing her cheek, making her way inside leaving Regina feeling dazed, light, and utterly and ridiculously happy.