A/N: This is a little shorter than usual, but originally I was going to jump ahead quite a bit (like, nearly a year), but I realized there were some stories I wanted to tell in individual chapters, instead of casually mentioning it as something that happened during the massive time jump. As a result, there will be a few chapters on the shorter side in the near future that take place during my original time jump period. (That was a very confusing sentence.). Anyway, here you go :)
Friday, January 18th, 9:05p.m.
"God, every time you perform you take my breath away," Regina smiled as she quickly stole a kiss from Emma. They were standing in the hotel's large ballroom, which was rapidly becoming more crowded as important patrons trickled over from the adjacent theater.
"Yeah?" Emma asked shyly as she flagged a passing waiter and grabbed two small plates of bruschetta, handing one to Regina as she bit into her own.
"Mhmm," Regina nodded. "But you already know that. You know I'm your biggest fan."
Regina was right. Emma did know how much the brunette liked watching her dance, but even after a year and a half together, she still sometimes couldn't believe that Regina Mills genuinely enjoyed her work.
"Well, thank you," Emma smiled.
"You're welcome, dear," Regina said as she looked around the room. "Wow, there are a lot of people coming in. Lily must be thrilled."
At the beginning of the season, Lily had been promoted from Assistant Director to Artistic Director of the dance company, after the former director had to unexpectedly resign due to her husband's illness. The company's board immediately approved the selection, so Lily now worked closely with the administrative staff and leadership to help fundraise for the company. They had just finished their opening night performance for the season, and Lily and the staff had decided to host a formal opening night gala in the swanky hotel across the street. For an additional $75 over the performance ticket price, guests could mingle with the dancers, eat and drink, and bid on silent auction items. Emma had signed an old pair of her pointe shoes from her time with the prestigious ballet company in New York, Robin and some other local restauranteurs had donated gift certificates for dinner packages, and Regina had donated a signed DVD from the first season of Frozen Mirror, as well as signed sides from her final episode and a few other show-related tchotchkes. The evening also provided opportunities for non-auction donations, and Lily hoped to raise enough money to underwrite a North American tour for the company.
Regina had offered to make a sizeable donation, enough to cover the travel costs for the dancers, but both Emma and Lily refused to accept it. Lily wanted to build a network of donors who would contribute annually so she wouldn't need to rely on the generosity of one person, and Emma was worried that her girlfriend's substantial financial support of the company may look like a conflict of interest, or like Regina was buying Emma's spot in the company. Regina had rolled her eyes but understood their points. Instead, she had negotiated and got them to accept a smaller donation, after she argued that if she didn't donate anything, it might look like she didn't have faith in the company.
"Well, we'll see how many of them actually donate, versus who's just here for the food and open bar," Emma commented.
"Hi, guys," Lily said as she approached.
"Hi, Lily. I was just telling Emma how impressed I am by this turnout. Hopefully you'll raise a lot of money," Regina said.
"Let's hope so," she said, nervously glancing around the room.
"Well, speaking of, I'm going to go get the silent donation party started. I'll be right back," she smiled, stalking off to a table by the entrance where a blank donation sheet was posted. For individuals who didn't want to bid on an item, or couldn't afford the winning price, there was a simple no-minimum donation station set up. They opted to have it be a displayed list, knowing that a lot of the wealthy donors liked to flaunt their donations. Lily had thought that if everyone could see the donation amounts, some of the competitive businessmen and notable community members may be more inclined to donate more, in an effort to one-up one another. Regina was the first to add her name to the list, which wasn't surprising given that the gala had just started. She listed the amount Lily and Emma had agreed to — a healthy $5000 — and initialed the form. Hopefully, it would not be the largest amount donated that evening, as there were some big names in attendance who would certainly want to look more generous than the celebrity girlfriend of one of the dancers, but it would get the ball rolling.
She detoured on her way back to Emma, glancing at the silent auction items to see if there was anything else that caught her eye. She would have loved to take the trip to Napa, but that wasn't feasible given her pregnancy. A one-week stay in wine country while pregnant wouldn't be a good use of their time or money, and she imagined they wouldn't have time take the trip after the baby arrived. Unfortunately, the other trips up for auction didn't appeal to her.
"Regina? Regina Mills?" a tentative voice asked from behind her.
She sighed and turned around, seeing a young, blonde woman standing before her, along with two other young women. "Yes?"
"Oh my God, it is you," she gasped. "My name is Tilly. And these are my friends, Izzie and Stasia. We're all big fans of yours."
Regina internally rolled her eyes, but maintained her professional mask. "Thank you, Tilly. That's very nice of you to say And it's nice to meet you all."
"Um, would it be too much trouble to ask you to sign something?" As she asked the question, the girl had already started reaching into her bag and pulling out a Funko Pop of Regina's Frozen Mirror character.
"Oh," Regina said. "Ordinarily I would, but I autographed some items for the auction, and I wouldn't feel right about signing things here and taking money away from the fundraiser."
"Right," Tilly sighed, deflated.
Regina felt guilty for turning down the girl's request, and she felt obligated not to disappoint the girl. Even though she was no longer on the show, she didn't want to risk disgruntled fans. She quickly offered an alternative. "How about a quick selfie instead?"
That perked the girl up. "Really?"
"Sure," Regina forced a smile, letting the girl snap a picture with her group of friends, and then turning to head back to the safety of the people she knew.
"Hey," Emma said as Regina approached. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah," Regina replied, quickly relaying the story.
"I can't say I'm surprised she brought show-related memorabilia with her, though," Emma said. "They probably expected you to be here."
"Yeah…but at least that's three more gala tickets you guys sold," she offered. "Imagine how many more you would have sold if you didn't make it an 18 and older event."
Lily chuckled. "Yeah, but then the place would be overrun with your fans, and I'm not sure the big donors would appreciate a bunch of teenagers and kids running around. Not to mention we wouldn't be able to have an open bar. We need to get these people drunk so they are more generous with their checkbooks."
"Plus, that would have sucked for you," Emma said. "Hopefully there won't be too many more people approaching you tonight."
Regina shrugged. "It's not terrible. It hasn't been as crazy since I left the show, and they were respectful, so it's fine. But, it is nice to just be able to go out and have a good time sometimes without being accosted."
"Did someone mention a good time?" Killian asked as he approached. "The party can start, now that I'm here."
"What took you so long?" Emma asked, slapping his arm with the back of her hand. "The show ended almost an hour ago."
"Ah, yes," Killian said, straightening his tie. "Well, I met a lovely young woman on my way over, so we stopped by the hotel lobby bar for a quick drink."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Typical."
Emma and Regina exchanged a look, knowing that Lily and Killian had hooked up on more than one occasion over the past year. And although it was a "no strings attached" situation, Lily did have a pretty serious crush on the guy.
"But, I'm here now," he grinned, kissing Lily's cheek before repeating the gesture with Emma and Regina. "And Emma, you were stunning on stage, as always."
"Thank you, Killian," she smiled. "I'm glad you could make it up for this."
"I'm not going to miss my best friend's performance if I can help it," he said. "Besides, Montréal is growing on me. I can almost speak a full sentence in French now."
"Excusez-moi," a waiter said as he approached the foursome with a tray of flutes. "Would anyone care for some champagne?"
"Oh, yes please," Killian said, picking up a glass. "Or should I said 'oui, s'il vous plaît.'" He turned to the women and winked. "See? Je parle français."
Lily rolled her eyes as she accepted a glass, and Emma took one as well.
"Mademoiselle?" The waiter asked, turning toward Regina.
"No, thank you. I'm fine for now," she replied, her lips tightening into a smile.
"Really?" Lily looked at her suspiciously. "You're usually the first to suggest getting a drink."
Regina shrugged. "Not tonight. We brought our car and since it's Emma's special night, I want her to have a good time. I'm the DD for the evening."
Killian gave her a knowing look as he sipped his champagne. Emma and Regina had told him that the IVF had worked, since he had provided half of the donation. But, Regina was still in her first trimester, only a little over 10 weeks along, so they hadn't told anyone else yet. Not even Robin or the boys knew. She wanted to wait until she passed that critical milestone before she told others the good news.
"Does this mean I have your permission to get totally wasted to help sell your designated driver story?" Emma whispered in Regina's ear when Lily and Killian were engrossed in their own side conversation.
Regina held back an eye roll. "Fine. But if you puke in my Benz, you're walking home."
*.*.*
It had been ten minutes since Regina had excused herself to take a phone call from Robin, and Emma was starting to worry. She knew he knew about the gala, as he had made an in-kind donation himself, so he would only be calling if there was something urgent. She tried not to let it preoccupy her mind as she chatted with a patron, whose general demeanor screamed "old money", but it was hard. She hoped something hadn't happened with Roland or Henry.
When the conversation with the potential donor reached a natural ending point, Emma politely excused herself and walked along the far wall until she, too, could slip out the back door of the ballroom into a back hallway. She looked around for a clue as to where her girlfriend had run of to, and saw a side exit leading to a service entrance. She ventured a guess and walked toward the door, noticing it had been propped open with a brick. She pushed on it and saw Regina leaning against the side of the building, her phone still at her ear as she wrapped her free arm around her small body.
The brunette looked up and saw Emma watching her from her place in the doorway, the blonde silently mouthing "everything okay?", to which Regina nodded.
"Thanks, Robin. I have to go. I'll call you in the morning. Thanks again for calling me." She disconnected the phone and slid it back into her purse.
Emma verbally repeated her question. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah," Regina said, shaking her head to clear her thoughts as she walked back toward the door. "Shit, it's freezing out there," she commented when she was safely back inside. She was wearing a long-sleeved sweater dress, tights, and knee-high boots, but it was in the middle of January in Quebec and she hadn't stopped by the coat check before going outside. She had been so caught up in her phone call that she hadn't noticed until that moment just how cold it was.
"Regina…"
The brunette turned around to face Emma and grinned. "That was Robin."
"I gathered."
"He was calling because he heard from the Canadian Cooking Network. They want to air our show."
"Oh my God," Emma smiled. "That's amazing news!" She pulled Regina into a hug, nearly picking her up off the ground.
"Yeah," Regina exhaled when Emma released her. "We didn't expect to hear anything for another two or three weeks, but they loved it as soon as they watched the pilot. I guess they don't care what other pilots were submitted and don't need to watch the rest before making their final decisions. They definitely want ours, regardless. Robin got the call tonight and he wanted to tell me right away. We still are waiting back to hear from a few of the streaming services, but CCN is huge, so we'd be crazy to pass up their offer if it ends up looking good on paper."
"I'm so happy for you guys, Regina."
"Thanks."
"So, is it a done deal, then? It's official?"
"Almost. They will need to run everything by our lawyers to make sure everything looks good and that our terms are met…I want to make sure that they aren't going to try to make any drastic changes, particularly the clause about me being able to direct a few episodes, but if everything looks good, then yeah."
"And when will all this happen?" Emma asked, glancing down at Regina's still-flat abdomen.
"Robin said they would want this ready for summer. They want it to be an early summer kick-off series. They're sending over the contract offers first thing on Monday morning so that we can hopefully have the ink dry on the deal by the end of the week. They want us to start filming the six-week challenge portion in February and then the semi-finals and finals at the end of March to wrap up. We'd do promos in late April and into May, and then the show would premiere the first week of June."
Emma couldn't help but lean in and softly kiss Regina's lips. "I'm so proud of you, Regina," she said, causing the brunette to blush.
"Thank you," she smiled. "Shall we return to the party?"
"Yes, let's. And then let's get out of here so we can celebrate properly."
A/N: The next chapter will jump forward a bit too and will be less fluffy. It's outlined but not written yet, though I'm still hoping to have it up next Friday per usual. Have a great weekend!