"There you go, sweetheart," Regina smiled as she handed a wrapped present to what was possibly the cutest little girl she'd ever laid eyes on.
"Thank you," she answered shyly before quickly making her way back to her parents.
"Hang on, sweetie," Ruby Lucas stopped her to take a picture. As the group began to filter out, the young woman came over, the bells at the end of her curly shoes jangling.
"I have to keep reminding the parents to leave an email address or phone number of they want their kids' pictures," she muttered.
"Yeah, well, count yourself lucky that's your big problem, sister," Leroy grumbled from his seat on Santa's throne, "I've been dealing with tiny, sticky hands all evening!"
"Humph!" Mrs. Lucas scoffed from behind the chair, "From what I've seen of you these past years in my diner you know all about small, dirty hands."
Leroy glared at her over his fake beard, "If you were my actual wife I'd have some things to say about that implication!"
"Yeah, like you'd have the guts!" Mrs. Lucas shot back.
Leroy glared again, but didn't dispute that accusation. Mrs. Lucas smirked in her victory while her granddaughter blushed brighter even than her elf makeup.
Regina sighed heavily. She knew that putting Leroy and Lucas together in this event was a mistake, but they had volunteered, and, Granny Lucas's glasses and silver bouffant made her the perfect Mrs. Claus.
"This is the last group, can we please just professional?" she hissed.
The sound of children's voices approached as the nuns from the local church, and its childrens' home, lead the youngsters in their care up the street toward the 'Santa's Village' set. Regina was thankful to not that the delighted cries of a group of homeless children were enough to silence even Storybrooke's two loudest residents.
Plastering a smile on her face she moved down the red carpet to invite the children to line up to receive a Christmas present.
* 0 * 0 * 0 * 0 * 0 * 0 *
Two hours later Regina stormed through the polished entryway of City Hall of her office, her annoyance brewing into a pounding headache behind her eyes.
Just as she turned toward her office the hell of her stiletto heel caught a puddle of water from melted snow, causing her leg to slide at a very unnatural angle and nearly send her crashing to the floor.
Cursing she caught herself with her mitten covered hands, and attempted the nearly impossible task of righting herself in a somewhat dignified manner.
"Whoa!" a voice yelled from behind her, as shoes echoed across the marble, and a pair of hands helped pull her upright again, "Regina, are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine!" she snapped, "No thanks to the cleaning crew! Is City Hall suffering a mop shortage?"
"I'm sorry," her assistant, Lily, answered, "The crew made their final sweep about 15 minutes ago, but with the storm...I'll have them go over the floors again before they leave for the holiday."
"No, no," Regina shook her head, guilt niggling her mind, "Just...make sure they put up caution signs. We don't want anyone getting hurt."
"Of course," Lily answered, glancing pensively at Regina's shoes, "This storm is supposed to get a lot worse tonight, though. Tell me you at least brought your snow boots."
"Of course I did!" Regina answered in annoyance as she hung up her hat and coat.
"Okay," the younger woman held up her hands defensively, "So how was Santa's Village?"
She shrugged, "We managed to hold it together in the end, though not without Granny Lucas and Leroy fighting half the time. Is it too much to ask for people to just act decent at Christmas?"
Lily chuckled, "Well, on that subject, Mom wanted me to ask you again if you'd like to join in her Christmas bash tomorrow?"
Regina sighed once again as she sat down at her desk. She knew that Mal meant well, but she was being overly persistent and really making a big deal out of something that wasn't. This month, actually this entire year, had been insane, and she was looking forward to being able to lock herself away in the peace and privacy of her own home for 24 hours.
"I already told your mother, I'm not planning to attend any holiday parties or anything like that. I'm spending Christmas by myself this year."
Lily raised a skeptical eyebrow, "You know for years I was the black sheep of my family, and this whole town, but even I think that sounds lonely."
Regina glared at her.
"But, hey, I try not to judge," she instantly changed her tone, "Of course, Mom…"
"I appreciate Mal's…concern," she chose her words very carefully, "But we've had this conversation before, your mother's holiday dinner is just going to turn into an excuse for her and her friends to re-live their college days, and, while I'm not judging them either, I just don't have the energy for it."
"Yeah, well, can't say I blame you there," Lily commented ruefully, "Cruella's even coming this year. Apparently she just split with her fifth husband. If they don't burn the place down, I'll count it as a win."
Regina actually quirked a smile for the first time that night, "Well I wish you luck with that."
"Thanks," Lily answered, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in her tone, "Did you need anything else tonight-"
Regina waved her off, "Go!"
"Oh," she answered, "Okay, well, Merry Christmas"
"You as well," Regina answered absently as she pulled up her email browser on her computer. There was still a depressing amount of work yet to be done. It always seemed like she could never get caught up before more came, but tonight she was determined. The government was closed between Christmas and New Year's Day, barring any emergency, and she was determined to get everything done before leaving tonight, so that she could spend what little was left of this year catching her breath.
Overall, it took nearly two hours of diligent work, but she finally signed the last from requiring her signature and set it in the outgoing mail box, and hit 'send' on the last email required.
With that, Regina leaned back in her desk chair and stretched. By then the headache that started earlier at Santa's Village had not gone away, instead her neck and back had decided to join in.
Laughing to herself about the joys of getting older, Regina powered down her computer, and began bundling up in her winter clothes. Lily had been right about the storm getting worse, she could see heavy snow falling outside her windows.
With her boots were tied, her stilettos safely stored in her handbag, and her mittens on Regina flipped off the lights, and made her way through the foyer.
The wind outside nearly ripped the door of it's hinges, forcing her to push hard to close it.
Pushing her scarf up to cover her mouth from the biting ice crystals hitting her lips, Regina glanced at her car in the parking lot. It was nearly completely covered with snow, and she could see that the nearby roads had not been plowed. She from an earlier conversation with the Department of Transportation that the main roads, at least, would tomorrow morning...that is after she'd agreed to sign off on holiday pay for the divers.
Snuggling more deeply into her coat, she took a deep breath and began trekking through the quickly deepening snow toward her home.
The walk, which would normally take 20 minutes max, took her nearly an hour. By the time she got there her nylons were soaked completely through, and she was shivering.
After quickly shedding her winter gear, and putting it away in the coat closet she made a detour up to her bedroom to change into dry clothes.
As she made her way down the stairs, Regina stopped in the livingroom to take a breath.
Finally! Solitude.
Glancing around she noted that the rooms were very dark and cold...lonely.
No! This was what she'd wanted. She finally had a moment to herself, and dark and cold could easily be remedied!
Unconsciously wrapping her arms around herself, she made her way over to the fireplace to switch on the gas and get a fire going. She also stopped to plug in the lights. She'd forgone a Christmas tree this year, since she wasn't in much of a celebrating mood, but hadn't been able to resist a string of fairy lights across the mantle.
As the twinkling dots and flames filled the room with soft light, she took a satisfied breath. That was better. This was what she'd wanted...respite from the craziness of this year.
* 0 * 0 * 0 * 0 * 0 * 0 *
February
Regina frowned as she scrubbed her hands in the sink of her private washroom, and told herself that she was just washing her hands. She wasn't checking her appearance. She was doing nothing of the sort...and even if she was it was just because she was the mayor. It was important that she look put together, and professional.
Yes, that was it.
That was also why she'd opted for her favorite red dress today. It was her favorite for a reason; because it was a nice dress. Stylish yet understated. Very professional...yes, professional.
Huffing in annoyance, she shut off the tap and shook the excess water from her hands. Glancing back at the mirror she shook her head at herself. She was being ridiculous. Honestly, this wasn't even her first date since Daniel died.
Not that this was for officially date.
She was just having lunch with someone she met by accident who seemed like a nice person. Heck, he'd probably even bring along the friend he'd mentioned he was going to be visiting today.
Definitely no reason to assume he thought it was a date. It wasn't as if it was Valentine's Day or anything...that was a week away.
A knock on the door startled her.
"Regina?" Lily called through the polished wood.
Taking a deep breath against her racing heart, Regina called back, "What?!"
"Dr. Whale is calling. He says he needs to speak with you."
She grabbed a paper towel and dried her hands, "Tell him I'll call him back."
The last thing she needed right now was to deal with the pompous Chief of Medicine.
"He says it's an emergency."
Sighing heavily she tossed the crumpled up paper towel in the trashcan, and opened the door.
Storming over to her desk she lifted the receiver off its cradle and pressed the button to connect, "Whale, what can I do for you?"
"Regina, yeah, listen I had few cases the last few weeks of what appeared to be West Nile Virus…"
"West Nile Virus?" she demanded, "At this time of year? It's barely February, Whale, when is the last time you saw a mosquito?"
"I agree," Whale answered, "However, all the signs were there so I sent samples off for testing. Well they came back positive, and now I have someone from the Health Department on the phone informing me that a team of investigators is on their way, and they want to speak to someone in charge about logistics."
"So speak to them," she ordered, "You're Storybrooke's public health official, Whale."
"I have an entire hospital to run! I don't have time to coordinate with the feds."
Regina rolled her eyes. Just like Whale to try to pass along responsibility whenever he could, and it isn't as if she had entire town to run.
"Alright, fine," she grumbled, "Tell them to call me and we can-"
"They want to speak with someone now."
She gritted her teeth and answered, "Fine, put them through to my office phone."
"Thank you, Madam Mayor," Whale answered, "Hold on just a second, I'll have my secretary transfer them through."
As she waited for the call to come through she glanced at her watch. She was supposed to leave in 10 minutes.
Well...at least she didn't have to worry about whether or not this was a date anymore.
TBC...