Author's Note: To all SWEN, your continued support of my writing makes me grateful. Thank you to paradoxalpoised for looking this over and telling me it's good to go.

Chapter summary: Daniel's wife Regina receives an unexpected visit from the White princess Emma.

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Chapter 8

As the sun approached the apex of the sky, Regina wiped the sweat from her brow with the loose cloth she kept around her neck for that purpose. She straightened from scattering millet for the chicken and ducks, rubbing at the strain in her lower back. Mentally she ticked off this chore from her daily list.

She would have to wrap a hard cross bun and some salted pork strips before taking the waterskin to the section of fields allotted to her family for herbs and vegetables that were not already grown in the community gardens with the corn and wheat and fruit orchards. She maintained her apple tree with care separately, but also grew herbs around its base and needed to gather rosemary for the planned mutton stew with the season's newly harvested potatoes, carrots and leeks. The slaughtered communal bull had not yet been divvied up among the families. In any case, Daniel and Regina, as a childless couple, would receive the fattiest, last portions of the animal. The better parts of the animal were reserved for the larger, wealthier families in town.

The mutton chunks were the last of their stored meats from the last communal slaughter. They would be switching to chicken next, she realized, eyeing the fowl clucking and pecking around her feet. Already usurped by the youngling preening by the henhouse, the senior rooster pecked with leisure by her left foot.

"Looks like we all become useful again, even when we think our time has passed," she told him. She sighed, taking her hands from her hips to reach out and wring the thing's neck.

"Hey! At the homestead!"

Regina jerked up so fast the rooster startled and darted away, scattering nearby chickens into raucous flight, several flying at her face. She rebounded from that only to lose her balance and tumble into the dirt.

"Regina!"

Looking up, she attempted to right herself and her clothing - and discreetly rub the seat of her pride bruised in the fall. She found a tear as she was fixing the lie of her dress and sighed.

The figure rushing toward her was a blur of blonde and breeches. But she had heard enough. "Oh, no, no," she muttered.

It was the bloody White princess.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded.

The princess, a braid down the middle of her back signifying her unmarred, unmarried and enviously innocent state, tossed her saddlebags to the ground near Regina's feet, stirring up the chickens yet again. Regina bit her lip to contain her frustration. The woman was grinning rather stupidly proud of herself apparently. "I'm bringing you lunch!" the girl proclaimed.

Regina's mouth watered at the idea of the castle's likely richer fare, but she stubbornly swallowed. "I have to get to the field," she declined.

"Not today. Today you're with me. I know Daniel went off with Dad."

"To look at horses meant for your wedding gift, Princess," Regina informed her, barely restraining the emotion that the girl was particularly dense.

"And if I want to forget about all of that, it's my right, isn't it?"

Regina felt chastised even though Princess Emma continued to smile at her beatifically. She was beginning to feel that the girl was either slow-witted, or… well, slow-witted. She dropped her head and put her hands behind her skirts. "You may do as you wish, princess," she acquiesced.

"Aw, c'mon. You're just giving in? I figured you would lambast me for sitting on my privilege like that."

"You're trying to draw me into an argument?" Regina amended her earlier thought. The girl was clearly insane.

"I'm trying to connect with you." Emma's green gaze bore into hers.

Regina felt a lump form in her throat. In reaction to an emotion she couldn't even define she felt on the verge of tears. Defensive in her vulnerability, she lashed out, "Leave me alone!"

"Why aren't you happy?"

"I'm fine. It is you who are clearly unhinged," Regina retorted, but the earnestness in the princess' features was beginning to eat at her resolve to remain calm.

"I need to know." The princess stepped forward. Regina took a quick step back. Unfortunately a chicken did not move fast enough and she tripped over the feathered squawking fowl, falling back toward the ground.

Suddenly, the princess had grabbed her. The girl had not merely snatched for her hand, but Regina found herself wrapped up in surprisingly strong arms. Now she was being lifted from the ground and carried by quick, smooth strides toward the fence.

Regina gasped, at the sensation of leaving the ground, at the sensation of the princess's muscular arms against her back and under her legs, and at the thrumming heart that beat under the vest when she reached forward to stabilize herself. Her fingers drifted against a golden braid as they encircled the girl's throat. "Emma!"

"There!" The princess practically crowed at the use of her given name as Regina's rump hit the fence board. "I knew I could get to you somehow!"

Regina realized she hadn't released her hands from around Emma's neck and quickly did so. "Why are you so intent upon me?"

"I've told you. I want you happy. I want you to have your happy ending, Regina. You need it. It has to happen."

"I have my happy ending," she said, but even she heard the words emerge weakly. She loved Daniel, dearly. They had been able to make a life together.

"Then why does it just sound like an 'ending' when you say it?" Princess Emma dropped with a thump to her knees on the yard's hard packed dirt, grasping Regina's hands fisted on her skirts. "Please talk to me."

Her sight of the princess became blurred. Regina pulled her hands free and dislodged herself from the fencing. "You wouldn't understand."

"So there is something."

"You're young, and you have your whole life ahead of you. Why are you concerned about anything else?"

Emma seemed stymied by the question. She turned away briefly; it was absurd to want the girl to talk to her, but Regina found herself waiting, wanting exactly that. Emma finally turned around. "I won't be marrying," Emma said. "The person I want is… not available."

Regina frowned. "That must come as a shock to your parents. You have a responsibility."

"I have another job to do," Emma said.

"What could be more important than providing an heir for the kingdom?"

"Finding my true love. Like my parents did. Like you did." Emma lifted the saddle bags and withdrew a cloth-wrapped bundle. "Burrito?"

Taking it in her hands, Regina unfolded the cloth to reveal a thin bread wrapped around meat and cheese. "What is this?"

"Something I know you'll like."

Querulously Regina looked back up at Emma's features then down again to the strange meal. "You seem very sure of that."

"Well, I'm not the cook you are, but you liked my tacos. I couldn't make those, so…flat bread is the closest I could..." She trailed off and shrugged.

Regina puzzled through the strange statement that made her feel like she was missing memories, which was absurd. Though the princess seemed so sure. "Enclosed like this would make a good food for when one is riding."

That appeared to be an acceptable thought, since Emma smiled. So Regina lifted the end to her mouth and took a small bite. The flavors of meat and cheese and bread mixed in her mouth curiously. And peppers, she realized, tasting the mild heat and crunch. Chewing and swallowing politely, she nodded her head. "It is good."

Emma beamed. "So...can I stay?"

"Not for long," Regina warned. "I do have to get to the field."

But Emma shrugged and smiled as Regina took another bite of the burrito.

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Regina had led Emma to the cottage where they sat at Regina's tiny kitchen table. Emma ate one burrito, but let Regina have the remaining two. She shared a flask of royal wine, watching this Regina in her element, looking around at the modest home. It was well-kept, spotlessly swept and simply furnished, with two chairs at the table, a bench along the wall near the door. The fireplace served as both kitchen hearth and central gathering space. Two large rockers also faced the fire from the other side. A basket of sewing materials sat on the floor next to the one nearest the window.

A space had been cordoned off with curtains, though they stood open now, revealing the bed within. Emma looked quickly away from the evidence of Regina's married state.

"Is something wrong?"

Emma saw that Regina had finished the burritos and now sat back, sipping on a mug of the wine Emma had brought. "I...you have a lovely home."

"Thank you."

"Did you…How long has Daniel worked for the castle?"

"Shortly after Snow ascended to the throne, there was a war with King George. The prince's horse threw a shoe during a battle near our home. Daniel helped the horse, and the prince was impressed. He offered the role of stablemaster before the troops moved on to face King George's forces. Daniel went with them and the war was quickly won thereafter."

"Were you very afraid to have Daniel gone so soon? And to war no less?" Emma

"We had been married for several years," Regina said. She added nothing else. Emma worried at her bottom lip, trying to think of more to ask, to keep Regina talking, to learn more about this alternate reality to which she had apparently sent them with her magic. Or their magic. Or something. She glanced at Regina's hands wrapped around her mug. The simple tack ring glinted dully against the woman's olive skin, bronzed by the sun and weathered… Emma recalled the softness of Regina's hands, noble's hands, and the satin feel of their caress against her. She dropped her eyes and fidgeted with her fingers around her own mug.

"So, um, Daniel is friends with Da...my father? What of you and Snow?"

Emma didn't miss the fact that Regina stiffened briefly, but then the shoulders sagged. She shrugged, then answered Emma. "Your mother and I met briefly when she was a child, and of course all the kingdom witnessed her coronation."

Nodding, Emma remained silent. Maybe it was for the best that Snow and Regina knew so little of one another in this timeline. Her mother's effusiveness about having her true love, while Regina's apparently had not worked out as well was unlikely to be the best foundation for building a friendship.

She downed the last dregs of her wine.

"It seems your picnic has ended, princess." Regina stood, gathering the mugs they had used to drink and clearing the few crumbs from their food.

Emma stood quickly and followed Regina. "I'd like to go with you."

"Go where?"

"To the fields."

Regina looked at her over the basin she was filling with hot water from the fireplace. "The fields are hard work, princess."

"I'm not afraid of hard work."

"You aren't accustomed to it either."

"Try me," Emma challenged. "Besides," she thought quickly, "someone should look out for you when Daniel's not here." She wondered again at how Regina had fared when Daniel went off to war with the kingdom. Even if he had only been managing the horses, Regina had to have worried he might not come back at all.

Regina finished her cleaning chore and placed the mugs atop the hearth to dry. She reached for her cloak and a small wooden basket. Emma was on her heel as she reached the door. "All right, you may accompany me."

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Regina fretted with the hood of her cloak, hoping that the princess wouldn't notice she just couldn't stop glancing toward her. It was just to check she hadn't stumbled, Regina kept telling herself. It wouldn't do for the princess to get injured out on the town road with no one to blame. So they might just blame Regina, and then where would she and Daniel be?

Her mother had done that all the time. Blamed others for things that happened to her. Regina was determined, after escaping her mother's influence, to be nothing like the woman who bore her. Not even the least bit. She frowned. She hadn't thought about her mother since leaving the estate. She wondered why the memory would come upon her now. She glanced at Emma again, only to be caught by green eyes and then a quirked smile that had the power to pull at her own lips.

"It isn't much farther," Regina said into the silence between them.

The princess started to open her mouth and then the seemingly inevitable happened. She tripped. Regina had no idea what had caused the trip, but she was on the ground next to the princess even as the woman was pushing back to her feet. "Princess, are you all right?"

She grasped the woman's forearm and inhaled to catch her own breath, feeling what had to be anxiety and panic jolt through her chest.

The princess's head jerked up and their gazes intersected once again. Pretty pale lips parted and spoke. "I…I'm okay."

Regina tried to move back and return to her feet, but a warm hand slid over hers on Emma's forearm and squeezed. "Prin-?"

"Could you call me Emma? I feel…well, I feel like I don't want the barrier of titles between us."

"But you're the princess."

"Can't I have friends? You were born a lady, right? Can't you just...I don't know, just...it's two syllables. But it would...mean...a lot," the girl finished.

She looked so forlorn as she let go of Regina's hand that Regina reached out and grasped the girl's hand again. Another thick, warm feeling slid through her, from her hand up through the middle of her chest. "I..." She breathed in, then exhaled. Then she added, "All right. Emma."

"Thank you." Emma stood and started dusting off her breeches, then reached out for Regina's hand. In the spirit of their new friendship, Regina told herself. That's the only reason she accepted the woman's aid to stand. "How much farther to these fields of yours?"

"It's not far." Regina didn't really speak after that, leading the remaining distance in silence. Once at the field she bent to her gathering task, placing herbs and vegetables in her basket. The princess - Emma, Regina corrected in her mind - picked what she did. At first that meant Regina had twice as much as she needed in her basket, but then she simply picked less, so Emma's contribution made up the difference.

It wasn't until they were nearing the main part of the field, where Regina could collect from the community vegetables, that she began to fret at the looks people were giving her. She was used to being looked upon strangely, and even shunned, but these looks were judgmental, and aimed at the princess.

"Emma," Regina said under her breath as she quickly untied the fabric under her throat. "Would you please take my cloak? It's grown very hot." All she thought was if the girl's hands were filled, she wouldn't pick any more.

Except Emma was clever for a pampered princess. She took the cloak, Regina shivering a little as the warm weight left her shoulders, but then she looped the thing around her own neck, continuing to keep her hands free to help Regina.

"You have to stop," Regina hissed.

"Why? We done?"

"I'm not done. But you have to be. People are staring at you."

Emma shrugged. "Let them stare."

Regina sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine." She moved away from Emma. "I just need a few carrots." She walked to the section of the field where the root vegetables were planted and, after checking the green for health, plucked three of the dull orange vegetables from the ground.

Emma took the basket from Regina's hands once she had laid the carrots inside. "Looks good," she said, inspecting the many items. "What are you making for dinner?"

"Are you seriously inviting yourself into my home for a meal?"

"And if I was?"

"You know I can't refuse. You're the princess."

"How about this? I'll leave as soon as Daniel comes back."

Regina tried to take the basket back, to push Emma away physically without looking like that was exactly what she was doing. Emma's arms were clearly strong, as they hardly moved at all while Regina struggled mightily. She finally conceded, "As soon as Daniel returns."

"Unless he asks me to stay." Emma grinned; Regina felt the world's most colossal grumble rise in her throat, appalled at herself and appalled at Emma, because she knew...she knew… Daniel would invite the princess to stay.

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