"David, what the hell are you doing here?" Emma squeaked out from her gelatinous confinement. Emma's worried eyes spotted the surprise etched on her father's face who was watching his five-inch daughter struggle in a yellow mould, in his mortal enemy's kitchen nonetheless. Days before when she had laid on Regina's hair fighting to not fall off the lady's head by clutching her earring, she had thought that was the most absurd position she had ever found herself in. Surely the big guy up there took it as a challenge.
David's initial shock wore off as rage took over, his wired mind landing to the only possible conclusion, "You witch, what did you do?" David's hands automatically reached his waist but he realised there was nothing there.
You don't need weapons to apologise, Archie had said. Damn Archie.
"David I need you to shut up for one second." Regina snapped at David before looking at his daughter, "Now Emma, explain."
"I- Regina", Emma's eyes frantically flitted from Regina to David, "my dad is standing right there Regina", Emma whispered, her eyes pleading.
Regina shook her head, she was in no mood to entertain the prince right now, "Did you eat it?"
"No, I-can you not see how it attacked me? Dammit, it's not my fault each and every time."
Regina huffed as she paced around in a small circle, "Why must everything be so difficult with you?" she stopped to look over her shoulder, "David make yourself useful and help clean the mess your daughter made."
"What the hell-" David's head swivelled between the two women helplessly, "-is happening?"
Emma looked nervously as Regina continued to pace around, "Dad, just go with it, I'll explain later."
"But Emma", David frantically grasped for words, "you're … you're… "
"Filthy", Regina sneered throwing a towel at her. She picked up another but just kept twisting it in her hand. Emma just hoped Regina was not picturing her head as the poor rag in her hands.
"I swear Regina, one bubble just kept on growing and growing till it exploded and next thing I knew I was covered in this and I couldn't even move."
Regina looked at the sorrowful expression on Emma as she struggled inside the restrictive liquid.
"Ok fine, I believe you." She said quietly as she wet the cloth in her hand, "This time, just eat it in front of me. You're such an idiot. What if that glass hadn't fallen? What if you'd suffocated on this liquid? What if-"
Emma finally caught on to Regina's train of thoughts and rolled her eyes, "Seriously Regina, don't you know by now that it's not that easy to get rid of me."
"Well yes, whoever would empty my fridge otherwise?" Regina exclaimed in exhaustion.
Emma guffawed as Regina shook her head. They both shared a small smile as Regina wringed the wet cloth over her making the sticky liquid wash off her body, freeing her tiny limbs. Regina was about to wet the cloth again when they both heard a crash. David had kicked a nearby stool in frustration and was pointing his finger at Regina.
"Now you both tell me what the hell is going on here? You, you are small. And you, you are… I don't know what you're doing but I demand to know what the hell you've done to my precious baby girl."
Regina smirked at Emma who smacked her head at the term, biting down the urge to whine for his dad to stop embarrassing him in front of her... friend.
"David, now calm down."
"Emma, tell me, are you alright?" David rushed to aid her daughter, his eyes soft with worry which quickly got replaced with hurt when Emma recoiled, ducking her head inside her soiled shirt.
"Holy shit David what the fuck are you wearing? What did you do, take a bath in cologne?"
Regina was looking over her now-clean floor as the glass shards were taken care of with a flick of hand. On hearing Emma she snapped into attention, "Oh, you wore cologne for me?" Regina said in a surprised voice.
Emma paled when David laughed awkwardly. Was this about yesterday? she wondered. Good God! She hissed in reprimand, "Regina."
"What, I'm just… flattered, that's all." Regina said innocently as she turned to salvage the mushroom missing David slowly turn red from his neck to his ears.
"Emma", he cleared his throat, "Emma, why don't you tell me what happened?" David decided to focus on his daughter, "From the beginning please."
"You might wanna pull up that chair."
Regina and David sat on opposite sides of the counter with Emma standing next to the plate on the counter where the two broken pieces of mushroom were placed. The two women, one of whom had to take a break to change clothes, looked at each other and then turned to David who was still processing everything Emma had said. While worried, after working with David on a few cases, Emma was more than used to his powers of deduction.
"So, all this time you've been-"
"Smaller than Jiminy Cricket? Yep."
"And she's been living-"
"With me? Yes."
"And Regina didn't try to-"
"Kill me? No."
"And you are actually trying to-"
"Turn her change her back? Shockingly, yes."
"And if she eats this mushroom, she'll be…." David stopped and leaned forward, hoping someone would jump in to complete his sentence. When they both just stared at him he motioned with his hands making both women pipe up, "Yes yes." "Normal."
"Ok, so how do we know this isn't poisoned?" David asked looking at the green mess with mild disgust.
Not letting Regina react, Emma chimed in first, "Seriously, there were so - so - so many times she could have poisoned me, but she didn't. So I'm guessing now is not the time she would decide to. Plus mushrooms aren't even her style." Emma smirked when she heard Regina scoff at the last comment.
David still eyed the mushroom with suspicion, "But it's just so green and looks like-"
"I know! I've heard it enough from your daughter. Gods, you two." Regina got up and fetched a knife, not leaving it to Emma to again disrupt the delicate fungus. She carefully cut a small bite size piece for her that had no dangerous volatile bubbles. "Now Emma, just eat the damn thing."
Emma looked at the mushroom and realised suddenly that this was it, she was going to have to say goodbye to her stunted lifestyle for good. It didn't sit well with her stomach and that had surprisingly less to do with the digesting of the vile mushroom in front of her.
"Ok, fine fine. I'll eat it, and then... I'll be normal size, and... out of your hair."
Regina nodded lamely, "Yes… yes."
David noticed the sudden change in their demeanours and wondered what else had transpired in this house the last two days. Suddenly helping each other out, smiling at one another, not a single 'He is my son' outburst since his arrival; if David was a stranger he could have mistaken the two women for... friends? Shaking his head he told himself he can think about this unprecedented change in their dynamic later, now he really just wished to have Emma normal again. And he really needed to stop looking at Regina when his daughter was about to eat something that a chimera might run away from. When both women continued to remain motionless, he cleared his throat to get their attention.
"Ok, here goes nothing."
Emma picked up the piece Regina had kept aside for her and opened her mouth wide. Even though a part of her was excited to be normal sized again her mind still screamed Please Don't Work as she bit into it.
A cloud of green covered Emma's body making David gasp as Regina dug her nails in her palm in anticipation. Fretful seconds seemed like hours as a state of hushed tension washed over the kitchen.
A fit of light coughing reached Regina's ears as she saw the cloud finally settling down. The last few wisps of the cloud were driven away by Emma's hands, who had a sour look on her face. Emma looked down her own body and then craned her neck up to Regina and David who collectively sighed at the lack of change in her size.
Emma nervously chuckled, "Well... fuck."
Regina shook her head, "Charming."
"Yes?" David looked at Regina expectantly.
"Not you", Regina shot him a look of disgust, "Heavens, why didn't this work, it was supposed to work."
Emma just shrugged before throwing the rest of the mushroom still left in her hand as far away as possible. David sighed but smiled reassuringly at Emma, hoping he could appear calmer than he actually felt. Emma smiled back, looking unperturbed by the turn of events. Out of the three people, Regina looked the most worried and soon exited the room mumbling something to herself, leaving the two Charmings alone in the kitchen.
David's eyes followed Regina till she disappeared, "So, she seems… less vengeful."
Emma chuckled, "You know when I first came to Storybrooke and met her, I just could not picture her as a mom. She was like a walking-talking bureaucratic file. But I get it, she's just nurturing by nature."
"Nurturing?" David raised his eyebrow at Emma who bobbed her head trying to find the right words to explain what she meant.
"Well, yea… she really looked after me. I don't know if it's her missing someone to take care of but at the end of the day I'm still alive." Emma sat down slowly, "It was really scary at first David and - and she made it less scary."
David pulled his chair closer, "So... she didn't hurt you?"
Emma pressed her lips together and shook her head, "Honestly, at first I was terrified she would, but she just... didn't. I think Cora's death took out a lot out of her even though she mostly stays quiet over it. She hardly eats or ever wants to go outside."
David lowered his eyes as he exhaled wearily, "Cora, what happened there…it was unfortunate."
"I don't know David, if she'd made me kill Snow, I just don't know if she'd be alive right now."
"Emma, Snow didn't mean to… it was just..."
"Unfortunate... I know. Believe me I do, but Regina, I mean when I see her laugh, it bugs me that she doesn't do it all the time."
David smiled as leaned on his elbow, "I know, when she smiles", David quickly checked over his shoulder, "she can be very... charming."
"And her eyes…"
David laughed, "Oh her eyes, the way they sparkle when she is happy-"
"- but you know what's worse, how much they give away when she's sad."
"I know, when she tries to look indifferent but we can see the storm in those big brown eyes, it makes me want to-"
"-make sure nothing hurts her ever."
Regina came in with her book in tow but stopped in her tracks when she saw the father daughter pair wearing solemn expressions.
"Am I intruding?"
Both of them jumped at the sound and Emma said, "Nah, we were just discussing…" Emma stopped and looked at David in horror, what the hell had they been discussing. A second later, David turned wide eyed to Emma when he'd caught on to their topic.
"Sheep." David shouted, then lowering his voice he tried again, "Sheep."
Regina actually took a double take but slowly and gracefully shrugged it off as their family mania. She kept the book in front of them and pointed to one particular page.
"See, this says the mushroom was supposed to be bulbous and tart and if it's not then that means the spell didn't work. And it was wasn't it?"
"Oh it so was, thanks by the way for leaving that piece of information out before."
"Oh hush, you wouldn't have let me make it otherwise. You and your food fetishes."
"Hey now", Emma sniggered, "you're responsible for half of them."
"So", David piqued up, confused at the two women sharing inside jokes on food which weren't even funny, "what went wrong then?"
Regina looked form David to Emma, "I- I don't know. This was supposed to work, I don't see any reason it wouldn't."
David scratched his chin, not really understanding the contents of the book lying open in front of him, "Well that's not English is it?"
Regina looked haplessly towards Emma who cringed, "Ok, now I see how annoying I can be when I ask such questions."
David oblivious to their private conversation continued, "Maybe we should go to Gold."
Emma sighed inwardly already knowing the gasket Regina was going to blow.
"No, you certainly, most certainly cannot trust that imp." Regina said flipping the pages more fervently, waiting for an answer to just jump out from one of them.
"Of course we can, he's family."
"I don't care if he's…" Regina's hands stilled, "What?"
Emma panicked but before she could open her mouth it was already out there.
"He is Henry's grandfather so obviously he wi..."
Regina stopped listening after that one word as her fingers curled around the pages, making them tear slightly from the binding, "Grandfather?"
"Yea, Neal's father."
Regina's eyes sought Emma's as that one word left her mouth, "Neal?"
"What about Henry?"
"Oh Neal takes him out for food."
"Who's Neal?"
"Uh, you know Neal; he used to be a mouse or something I guess."
Regina's eyes dimmed as she pieced it together, "Neal."
Emma swallowed the lump in her throat when she saw all hints of emotions leaving her face. For once she was not able to read the storm brewing in those big brown eyes.
Regina slammed the book close as she straightened up, "Well then, please, take her to Gold, I-" She swivelled to face David but kept her eyes down, "I - have things to do, so you can see yourself out."
"Regina-"
"Don't", Regina's vacant voice swam through the purple cloud that engulfed her leaving father-daughter alone in the kitchen again.
David, visibly confused, looked to Emma for an explanation but shuffled back when he saw Emma looking daggers at him. She shook her head and turned to the spot where Regina had been standing.
TBC
Next time: Regina and Emma… they talk… about things... and stuff.
...
A/N:
Good God, did I just publish ten chapters... I'll be right here high-fiving a million angels if you need me. Oh? Obviously I'm high-fiving you guys too, I thought that was pretty inclusive with the angels thing.
(Do not roll those eyes at me, you like me calling you an angel ok!)
xx