T/W: Mentions of abuse and homophobia.

AN: I told myself that I'd have at least one Regina/Emmett interaction in each chapter, but it just didn't seem to happen.

I held on to this chapter for a really long time because I hated it and I still don't like it all that much after editing it but I can't figure out how to fix it and you guys deserve something so...

I also attempted NaNoWriMo with an original idea last year so that got me distracted. Sorry, I know I'm already shit at updating.

Regina watches Daniel pace from her perch on the living room sofa. Her mother is out somewhere, probably on a 'date' with her secret boyfriend. Just the thought of it made her shudder.

"Were you going to kiss him?" Daniel punctuates the question by stopping and turning on her.

"No."

"Were you going to let him kiss you if he had tried?" He walks up to her, looming over her where she's sat.

"No," she lies.

"Damn it, Regina." He starts pacing again. "I don't believe you. What were you two talking about?"

Regina pauses. "I-"

"What were you talking about?" he shouts, stopping.

"Don't you dare raise your voice at me." She stands; she keeps her voice low, but with a threatening edge.

He takes a calming breath. "Then answer my question, please," he begs.

Regina sighs and sits back down. She knows her answer is just going to make the whole situation worse. So she dodges, kind of. "He was complimenting me." She's not lying.

"Complementing you? It looked like you'd been crying. Will you just be honest with me, please?"

"We were talking about my father." She sighed.

"What?" His face dropped. He looked heartbroken. "But… I've been trying to get you to talk about him since his death. You've known this guy, for what, 3 days? And you just blurt it out to him."

"I did not just blurt it out. You keep asking about how I feel about his death. You've never once asked about him; what he was like."

"Because I know what he was like. I knew him."

"No, you didn't." She was back on her feet, jabbing a finger at his chest, other hand clenched by her side. "You met him, yes, but you didn't know him. You keep going on and on about how I should talk to you about how I feel but you don't understand. I don't want to keep reliving his death, Emmett asked me about his life. I just wanted to share a part of him with someone who understands."

Daniel had never lost anyone close to him, and he was lucky for it, but it meant that he had no idea how to deal with what was happening. She shouldn't be holding it against him but she can't help it when he keeps pushing her.

"I don't understand? Regina, I've watched you go through this. I've been there every step of the way; holding you as you cried, trying to get you to open up."

"That's the problem."

"What? Trying to help you?" he spits the question.

"Being there. You're a reminder." Her eyes widen when she realises what she's said. She watches her words physically affect Daniel; he takes a step back, mouth opening and closing, trying to form a response.

"I'm a reminder?" he whispers.

She's tried to make this work. She'd been so happy to see Daniel when he'd first arrived; having someone close around that wasn't her mother was something she dearly needed. But he brought unwanted memories along with his, sometimes suffocating, protectiveness.

But she looks up at him and she sighs.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that." She tries to calm him down by rubbing his biceps. "I don't know what I'm saying." She can't break up with him. Not right now. She needs to think, really think. "I just need you to back off a little bit, please. You keep trying to get me to tell you things I don't want to share. You keep going on and on and I can't take it right now."

"What?"

"I love you, Daniel. But I need a break."

"No…"

"I'm sorry, Daniel. Please, don't-"

Daniel grits his teeth and swallows the lump in his throat. The door slams behind him as he leaves.

Regina just wants to slump down onto the sofa but she doesn't know when her mother will return; she can't bear another telling off for crying over someone who was below her. So she makes herself walk up the stairs, down the hallway, and finally through her door before closing it behind her. She falls onto her bed and curls around her knees brought up to her chest; her sobs silent from years of practice.

She feels selfish. Daniel can be an idiot at times, but he is a good man who truly cares for her when no one else does. But his care isn't what she needs. She doesn't know what she needs; she just knows it didn't quite feel right with him anymore. She had been so close to kissing Emmett. And everything with him had been easy, moments of freedom from memories but also a much-needed confrontation of some.

But she can't think of that now, the front door is opening and she knows her mother will call her down, soon.

Emmett taps on Belle's bedroom window. He's lucky she lives in a one-storey house. He'd gotten here as fast as he could with having a brief stop at the shops for some chocolate. Both Belle and Ruby like to snack when they're upset—Graham does, too, but he doesn't like admitting it.

The window opens and Emmett crawls in to see Belle climb back into bed. She sits with her back to the headboard and her knees drawn up to her chest. He joins her after toeing his shoes off and removing his jacket.

"You okay?"

She sniffs and doesn't look at him. "I don't know."

"What happened?" He dreads her answer.

"Ruby walked me home and kissed me goodbye… on the lips."

Finally. He'd become frustrated watching the two dance around each other and felt bad that Jefferson has had to watch it for years before he'd even shown up.

"Well, that's awesome." He attempts to add joy to his voice but he knows that isn't what has her in this state.

She nods her head. "My Dad saw."

"Oh, okay." He internally sighs. He has an idea where this is going.

"When I got inside he was angry." Her voice breaks and several tears fall down her checks. "He started yelling and calling me names. He grabbed my arms and wouldn't let go. He started shaking me, then he…"

"What'd he do, Belle?" he asks softly and tilts his head to try to get her to look at him.

She turns her head revealing an angry, red mark on her cheek. "He slapped me."

Emmett clenches his teeth and moves his hand to cup her jaw, avoiding touching anything that looks painful. He shifts her head to get better lighting before he hurries off the bed.

"Let's see how he likes getting hit by someone bigger than him," he harshly mumbles under his breath.

Belle grabs his shirt and pulls him back down before he could make it too far.

"No, please, Emmett. Please, just stay here."

Emmett clenches his fists. He takes several deep breaths before settling back down next to Belle.

"Have you told Ruby?"

"I didn't want her to blame herself."

"She'd want to know. Plus…I think it might bruise."

Belle sniffles. "I didn't think he'd have a problem with it. He'd never said anything against it before. He'd grumble about TV shows just adding 'them' for PC reasons, but he'd never…" She let out an angry huff.

"You can never fully know someone, Belle."

"He's my dad, I should have. I shouldn't have been so naïve."

"No one ever wants to think of their parents as something they don't like."

"Maybe it's just his generation."

"No. Okay, people are allowed to believe what they believe. He doesn't like gay people, it's stupid, but it's his right. What isn't fine is him treating you like less of a person because of it. He's your dad, Belle, dads are meant to protect you. No parent should ever hit their kid."

She nods her head and lets it fall onto his shoulder.

"What's in the bag?" she asks after a moment of contemplation.

"Oh," he says with a smile. He drops it into Belle's lap and settles further down onto the bed.

She pulls out the family sized chocolate bar and a wet chuckle follows. She tries to hold it in, but realise she's failing and buries her face in his chest, tears soaking his shirt.

"Why can't I be straight? You would have been a great boyfriend."

"Because you wouldn't be you and you know I'd be a shit boyfriend." He wraps his arms around her and lets her get it all out. When she starts to calm down he adds, "Also, I'm pretty sure Ruby would be upset."

"I really like her."

"I know. What do you want to do about your dad? We could go talk to David."

"No," Belle's head snaps up. "I…I don't want him to get in trouble, and I don't want to get taken away or anything. He's still my dad and I love him. I just want to forget about everything. I'll tell him I was just curious and it was a mistake and that I'll never see Ruby again…" Her voice slows at the reality of her ramblings and drops her head back down to his chest.

"That'll last 5 seconds."

She sighs. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Sure, uhm… The Nolans asked if they could adopt me."

"Oh, my god, that's great." Her head snaps up again, but she's grinning this time. "And don't be all grumpy or make a joke about it. It's a good thing."

"I know, it's just…" he trails off not quite knowing why it feels weird. He should be jumping at the opportunity. The words 'we want you' keep ringing in his head. There shouldn't be any doubt.

"Just what? They love you, Emmett. They want you. You don't need to be scared of this." But he was terrified, what if they decided he wasn't worth all the hassle but it was too late to get rid of him after the adoption. They'd end up resenting him.

"And then the baby comes along." More sleepless nights but an actual baby will be waking them up with its crying along with him, nearly a fully grown man. And, what if the baby didn't like him? What if he scared it with his screaming and shouting in the middle of the night?

"And they'll love you both equally."

"It doesn't work like that." He'd seen it too many times. David had done a great job reassuring him, but adding adoption into the mix knocked everything off kilter.

"It could. Please don't do anything stupid to get out of it," she begs. "You can't risk losing them; I don't want you to lose them. You said they asked if they could adopt you, so you can always say no, right?"

"Yeah, I guess." Emmett finds the hem of his shirt an interesting thing to play with.

"Do you want them to be your legal parents?"

"I… I think so."

"Emmett Nolan, huh?" She adds a playful tone to her voice, trying to lighten the moment.

"I don't know if I'll take their name."

"Well, both Swan and Nolan suit you, so you're good either way." She opens the bar of chocolate and breaks a bit off for him and herself.

"Belle-" The bedroom door opens and Moe French freezes when he spots Emmett in bed with his daughter. "What the hell is going on here?"

Emmett jumps out of bed and positions himself between Belle and her dad.

"This isn't what it looks like, daddy. Please, calm down."

Emmett watches several emotions flicker over Moe's face. Shock starts them and anger follows it, but relief seems to mix in.

He looks at his daughter and jabs a threatening finger in her direction. "Good. I don't ever want to see you anywhere near that red streaked skank again." He leaves the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Arsehole," Emmett bites out and flexes his hands at his sides as he tries to calm himself down, stopping himself from following and giving the idiot a well-deserved punch in the face.

"Emmett, please." Belle sniffles behind him. He turns and sees new tears falling, the tension in his shoulders releases.

"Belle." He drops onto the bed beside her and wraps his arms around her shoulders as her head falls into the crook of his neck.

"He's not who I thought he was," she whispers.

He nods against her head. "I know. I'm sorry."

They stay like that for a moment. Belle taking in Emmett's comfort and Emmett thinking of ways to help. She deserves so much better than this. Emmett had been so broken when he'd first shown up in here and Belle hadn't given him the time of day to begin with. He's not quite sure what had changed that. He'd hit on her every chance he had, then he saw Belle and Ruby interact and had given up.

After, he and Belle had had an actual conversation during class when they'd been paired up for an assignment, he didn't hit on her once (he may not have been able to stop all of his charms, though). He'd given her a genuine smile when she'd been surprised by his work and called him smart. She'd invited him to have lunch with her and the others and she started dragging him into the library after classes and making him study. She gave him someone to just be a normal person around. He'd never really had that before.

Around everyone, he felt the need to be someone else. To David and Mary Margaret, the son that they didn't need to worry themselves sick over. To girls, the charming guy that will break their heart before they break his. To guys, the person that'll steal their girl before they befriend him and eventually screw him over. To Archie, the kid that's doing all right even though nothing has felt right for a long time.

But with Belle, he can just relax.

"I can be your beard if you want," he says out of nowhere.

"What?" She furrows her brow as she looks up at him.

"Pretend you're dating me in front of your dad and date Ruby secretly."

"I don't think Ruby will-"

"She'll understand once we've explained it. That girl would do anything for." He's not sure if it's an exaggeration or not, if he'd said it about anyone else it probably would have been.

"I couldn't make you do that for me."

"You're not, I'm volunteering." He grins. "It was my idea." She still looks unconvinced. "Take the night to think about it. I'll drive you to school tomorrow, and you can decide then. Whatever you decide, you know me and Ruby will make sure you're safe and happy, right?"

She gives him a small smile and nods. "You should go home and sleep. I know you haven't slept properly lately."

He crawls over to the other side of the bed and settles down. "When we've finished the chocolate."

She grins and starts dividing the bar up between them.

AN: If anyone's mad about how I'm dealing with Belle and her dad (I don't like it either), things will change don't worry. But also check out Spectrum by Boyinaband ft. Cryaotic & Minx on YouTube. It's an awesome song about how sometimes you gotta put your safety above coming out and wait till you're somewhere safe with people who care about you.