A/N- I know what you're thinking 'This bitch is crazy, two updates in one day!?'. And I'm here to say, yes, this bitch be trippin, but I'm just really pumped about this chapter, so here you go. Hope you enjoy this chapter, and thanks for reading!
So this is Emma's background in a nutshell, and next chapter is Kathryn so stick around :).
Kathryn was nearing her sixth month of working for the Swan- Mills family as she was cleaning up the latest 'science experiment' her and Henry had done. It was winter break for the university and Kathryn had stayed on campus working as Henry's nanny and also doing an internship in the admission office. The boy was running off some energy by grabbing his favorite toys from his room when the front door opened.
The blonde checked the stove clock, there was still about a half an hour until she expected either woman to be home.
Grabbing the nearest, largest knife she could find in the knife block, Kathryn rounded the kitchen island. She cursed herself for leaving her cell phone in the front room in case she needed to call the cops and just hoped that Henry would be able to make a good run for it.
She snuck to stand against the door frame controlling her breathing, she listened to the shuffle of footsteps down the hall until they paused just outside the kitchen.
Now or never. Kathryn thought, she jumped from her hiding spot with the knife raised high and threatening as she gave one warning yell.
Her yell, however, was drown out by the much larger scream of whoever it was she pounced on. All Kathryn saw was a blur of blonde hair, and red before she heard the distinct 'oof' of someone hitting the floor.
"If you wanted a raise, all you had to do was ask." Emma joked as she pushed her hair back from her face and straightened her red leather jacket, still sitting on the floor where she had landed after being scared to death by the babysitter.
Kathryn blushed deep red, "I thought you were a burglar."
"And you were going to stop me with a kitchen knife?"
"I left my pepper spray at home." She smirked, extending her non- knife weilding hand to help Emma back on her feet.
Once the professor dusted herself off, she reached down and retrieved the boquet of yellow roses she had dropped in her scare.
"Anniversary?" Kathryn asked, eyeing the flowers.
"No, Regina likes orchids on our anniversary. Yellow roses are, 'I'm sorry' flowers."
"Oh?" The babysitter wasn't sure if she was intruding too much, but Emma always was quite open and talkative with her.
"Yeah. Specifically, 'I'm sorry that my parents have insisted on spending Christmas out here with us and I avoided telling you until the day before they arrived so you couldn't come up with some excuse for them to not be able to stay here.'" Emma smiled a bit sheepishly, "The flower store said that they couldn't fit that all on the card."
"Too bad." Kathryn laughed.
"Yeah."
Emma followed as Kathryn went back to the kitchen to finish cleaning up her and Henry's mess. The professor kept on talking through her predicament.
"I mean, I would have told Gina earlier, but she's so particular with the whole parent thing. Whenever my parents come and stay with us she obsesses for like a whole week before trying to make sure the house is spotless."
Emma shakes her head at the memory of her wife's antics in attempting to exude perfection.
"She's always so concerned with trying to make a good impression on them, she just refuses to realize how much they already love her. Parental love has always been something alien for Gina."
Professor Swan trailed off as she found her cuticles suddenly very exciting.
Kathryn could sense that Emma was afraid she had overshared and before she could stop it, she was trying to reassure the older woman, "I can understand that."
Emma's eyes jumped up to meet hers, and it was with such sad reverence that Kathryn could swear the professor could see right through her.
The sound of the door opening and keys hitting the sideboard broke their intense eye contact and Kathryn forced a smile, "Well I had better get going, good luck with your flowers."
Emma smiled back in thanks.
In the hall, the blonde greeted Doctor Mills who was just finishing hanging her coat in the closet and as Kathryn pulled the door shut behind her, she could hear the scene already unfolding in the kitchen.
"Emma, why is there a dozen 'I'm sorry' flowers?"
"My parents are coming for Christmas."
"They're what?"
"They get here tomorrow. I'm sorry!"
"Emma!"
"Baby, please just-"
"Don't you 'baby' me right now Ms. Swan!"
Kathryn smirked, locking the door behind her.
As Kathryn walked up the snow covered front path, the front door of the brownstone opened, and a small brunette whirlwind came running out and threw itself at her. The impact knocked Kathryn off balance and she stumbled briefly on the ice and fell flat into a snow drift.
The small whirlwind rolled off her and giggled excitedly, "Are we making snow angels, Kathryn?"
"Yeah, sure kid." Kathryn pulled herself up out of the snow and shot a look at the front door to see (to her surprise) that nobody had followed. There was no Regina chasing him with a coat, or Emma trying to start a snowball war, the doorway was totally empty.
"Hey, Hen, where's your parents?"
The boy jumped up, brushing some snow off his sweater, "Mommy and Gramma are fighting and Momma's tryin to stop them."
"Oh boy." Kathryn exhaled between her teeth. She had met Emma's parents breifly the night before once Emma had picked them up from the airport, and the conflict between the two women seemed immenint. What with Mary Margaret's bubbly personality (from the moment she met Kathryn, she insisted the babysitter call her by her first name, and not 'Mrs. Swan'), and Regina's general serious front.
"Let's get you inside and see how bad it is."
Henry raised his arms, waiting to be picked up and Kathryn was helpless to comply. Though he was nearly six now, he was still so small and scrawny so the blonde lifted him easily onto her hip and carried him carefully the rest of the way up the walk and into the house.
She dropped her purse in the entryway and it didn't take long to figure out where the action was taking place. Voices echoed out from the kitchen, bouncing down the hall. With a deep breath, Kathryn bounced Henry higher on her hip and braved her way down towards the argument, hoping that Henry would do his usual magic and dispell the fighting.
"I'm not saying that he's not a great kid, I'm just saying that you baby him." Mary Margaret was saying from her position with David at the table.
"That's rich, considering how invested you are in Emma's life." Regina laughed back. She was leaning against the island while Emma was standing between the women with her hands on her hips.
Everyone was dressed up for the dinner that the adults were supposed to be going to (which is why Kathryn showed up in the first place) but nobody was making a move to leave.
"I'm not overly invested. Look, you've got everyone waiting on him hand and foot." Mary Margaret gestured towards Kathryn walking into the kitchen with Henry.
The baby sitter felt instantly chastised, and put Henry down onto the island so she could make him some cocoa. Thankfully, the boy was so excited for the hot cocoa that Kathryn had promised that he didn't realize he was the subject of the argument.
"That's ridiculous." Regina scoffed.
"How about we continue this conversation over dinner?" Emma interjected, trying to usher everyone out of the house.
Her father stood to help, "Come on MM." He offered his hand to his wife.
Soon enough, Kathryn was left in the kitchen with Emma while Henry went to say goodbye to his grandparents for the evening.
"Oh my god." Emma sighed, rubbing her temple roughly.
"I thought you said your parents loved Regina." Kathryn asked, stirring the chocolate into the milk.
"They do. This is how their visits always go." Emma laughed shortly, "Her and my mom find something silly to fight about for the first two days, then they make up, turn on me and dad for the next day, then by day four they're the best of friends and spoiling Henry rotten."
"Oh, that's um interesting."
"Yeah." Emma ran a hand through her hair, "This time Mom fixated on Henry little 'Mommy's boy' period. Gina may baby him a bit, but don't let her hear me say that."
"Emma, are you coming?" David called from the front hall.
"Yeah." The blonde grabbed her jacket off of the back of one of the kitchen chairs, "Have fun with Henry."
"Good luck with the family."
A/N- So a couple of questions that were brought up recently; yes I messed up my math so for clarification Emma and Regina have been together for 17 years, married for 12.
Thank you for your reviews and general support. You all keep raising such great questions I have to explore and inspiring new chapters!