A/N- Ok, here you go, Kathryn's story. Also, this chapter is pretty dang long so enjoy!
Kathryn had been working for the professors for just under two years, she was in the final stretch of her junior year of college and spending more time than usual at the Swan- Mills residence as Emma was away at a conference and now she was helping pick up the slack. Kathryn had put Henry to bed a couple of hours ago and was waiting for Regina to return from the meeting she had gotten sucked into.
She was wandering around the main floor, collecting toys that had gotten scattered around during Henry's impromptu game of 'Tornado' when she heard the lock click and the front door swing open. Before she even saw Regina cross the threshold of the house, she could smell the distinct grease and salt of Chinese takeout.
It was unsurprising at this point, despite Dean Mills' intimidating demeanor, she had a serious weak spot for fried rice and egg rolls. Kathryn grabbed her bag, slinging it over her shoulder and heading out into the entryway, prepared to make her exit. She found her suspicions confirmed as she saw Regina drop her keys into the bowl on the sideboard, the brunette held a brown paper bag in one hand with the grease already soaking through the corners.
"Kathryn." Regina greeted with a warm smile, "How was Henry today?"
"Great as always." Though she had been working for the family for nearly two years, she still never called Dean Mills 'Regina', "He did some coloring and left you a couple of drawings on your desk."
By now, Regina and Emma were paying Kathryn a steady salary so they didn't have to deal with the awkward fumbling for cash at the end of each night. Kathryn donned her coat, and was just in the process of wrapping her scarf around her neck when the doorbell rang.
"Who could it be at this hour?" Regina wondered aloud, going around Kathryn to open the door.
When she did, Kathryn saw Regina instantly stiffen.
"What are you doing here?"
A cold voice replied. Kathryn couldn't see the person on the other side of the door, but the voice alone was enough to give the blonde pause, "Good evening to you as well, it's good to know all the time spent teaching you proper manners was a worthwhile investment. You're not going to invite me in? "
"No."
"Mommy?" Both Kathryn and Regina whirled around to see a sleepy Henry carefully making his way down the stairs. The doorbell must have woken him.
"Baby." Regina was torn, clearly wanting to go to her son, but not leave the woman in the doorway, "Kathryn, will you go put him to bed again?"
"Of course." Kathryn was heading up the stairs in seconds. She didn't miss the way Regina body blocked the woman in the doorway, apparently reluctant to even let the stranger lay eyes on Henry.
She didn't miss the conversation which ensued behind her either.
"Kathryn? I thought you were married to a woman named Ella. Or have you gotten over that one already? At least she was age appropriate for you." The woman sneered.
"Emma. My wife's name is Emma, and we're still married."
"Right. Your son seems passable. Then again, he isn't really your son after all, is he?"
Kathryn knew that was a massive mistake, nobody questions a tiger mother. She cringed at the top of the stairs, waiting for the verbal bitch slap that Regina was sure to deliver. Instead, she just heard the dean heave an exhausted sigh before replying coldly, "What do you want, Mother?"
Mother. The single word bounced around Kathryn's head as she picked up Henry and carried him back to bed. So that's what Regina's mother, the formidable Mrs. Mills was like. Kathryn had heard rumors from the university and from the women she grew up around, but the reality was even more intimidating. Henry was asleep before they even made it back to his room, but all the same Kathryn waited upstairs, sitting in the hallway outside his room until she heard the front door shut again.
When she finally did find the confidence to go back down, she found Regina with her forearm braced against the closed front door, her head was on her arm and her shoulders were slumped in clear exhaustion.
Kathryn just cleared her throat a bit, and waited to be acknowledged. When she was, it wasn't with the words she was expecting, "Do you have dinner plans?" The brunette asked, pushing off the door and straightening her shoulders.
"I couldn't impose."
"You're not." Regina ensured her, finally turning from the door. She had a lip between her teeth, it was a show of vulnerability that Kathryn had never seen before from her, "Don't make me drink alone at this hour." Regina insisted with a small laugh.
Unable to turn down such an invitation, and reluctant to leave Regina alone after such a rattling encounter, Kathryn found herself seated at the kitchen island across from the one and only Regina Mills, popping an eggroll into her mouth. This was the night that Kathryn discovered that the box of red wine in the fridge belonged to Regina.
They didn't talk much to begin with, Regina just checking that Kathryn was of the legal drinking age, and some idle chatter about Henry.
But a couple of glasses into that very box of wine, seemed to be all it took to get Regina to bypass her normal social considerations and ask the question which had been burning at the back of her mind since she hired Kathryn. Not that she was just going to jump right into it. That wasn't her style, it would take some tiptoeing around to finally get there.
There was a brief silence and Kathryn sipped her wine, barely containing the pinching of her face from the gritty taste.
"I know, it's not quite a top quality Merlot, but for some reason, I love it."
The babysitter just smiled, slightly embarrassed at being caught in her grimace, "It's not that bad."
"I know. It's horrible." Now or never, Regina thought, "It's certainly not what we're accustomed to at any rate."
It certainly didn't go unnoticed by Kathryn, "We?"
"We." Regina nodded, entirely unfazed, "Let me guess, you had 'manners classes' sometime in grade school, and as soon as you were old enough to know to paste a smile on, you were shipped off to boarding school." Kathryn's eyes grew wide as Regin seamlessly narrated her formative years, "Don't be so surprised, dear. Even without knowing your father, I could practically smell the privilege wafting off of you. I don't understand one thing though. There's only two types of girls who grow up around money; the kind who gets cut off, and the kind who doesn't."
Wordlessly, Kathryn nodded (feeling strangely exposed and not at all offended by Regina's assessment) prompting the dean to continue. Not that she needed any prompting.
"While you may be the kind who got cut off, I can't figure out why. I mean when I got cut off, it was just a matter of time. Between my carelessness and my psychotic mother, it was inevitable." Regina smiled humorlessly, "Tell me, Kathryn, what made you be the kind to get cut off?"
Kathryn swirled the remainder of her wine around the bottom of her glass, trying to think of a kind way to phrase 'I dated the gardener, my father found out, and tried to force me to break up with him, and when I didn't, he kicked me out on my ass.' She settled eventually on, "It was a difference of ideals."
Regina cocked her eyebrow, she wasn't taking that vague response. Not tonight, "Ideals?"
The blonde babysitter sighed in resignation, "Yeah, ideals in uhm- in my romantic choices."
"Oh god, Emma was right." The dean pressed a hand to her temple and rubbed harsh circles, "She's never going to let me hear the end of this."
"She was right about what?"
"You're gay."
"No, no!" Kathryn just short of choked on her noodles as she denied what Regina said, "It was the gardener. My dad walked in on me and the gardener and tried to make me break it off with him."
"Oh." Regina felt adequately shamed as she dropped her gaze to her fried rice.
"Yeah." Though Regina was the one who made the mistake, Kathryn felt the need to continue justifying herself, "Father felt that Jack was below me and even though I did end up breaking up with him, I've never been able to see the world and the people in it quite the way my father would have me see it."
"But what about your mother?" Regina asked, her own basket case mother aside, most women of the upper class had nothing to do but host teas, attend book clubs, pretend to raise their kids, and decorate their large homes. They weren't conventional, but they did love their kids. Especially those without demanding careers, since Regina had never heard of the blonde's mother, she assumed that she fell into this category.
"She died."
"Oh." Regina knew better than to say 'I'm sorry.' She knew that wasn't what Kathryn needed.
"Yeah, it wasn't too bad. She died when I was pretty young and since then it's just been Dad, Carol, and I."
"Carol?"
"My baby sister." Kathryn smiled sadly, "She's a sophomore in high school now. She's the only person back home I really talk to anymore." She didn't say anything for a moment, just remembered the last time she saw her sister nearly a year ago when she visited her family for Thanksgiving.
The Dean nodded, one question kept her curious though, "So why must you work Thursday evenings at the Rabbit Hole?"
That made Kathryn smile widely, "As August says, 'I appeal to the demographic.'" Regina raised a questioning eyebrow prompting Kathryn to explain, "The men love my mixing skills, and the women love to hit on me."
Regina laughed, downing the rest of her wine and standing to refill it. She asked if Kathryn wanted another glass as well, but she declined, saying she had to get going soon.
Eventually, the dean walked her to the door where Kathryn paused a moment. She figured so long as Regina had asked the her the tough questions, Kathryn had a right to do the same. But still, it was hard to feel entitled to interrogate the head of the Political Science Department.
"The woman tonight, she was your mother?"
Regina heaved a loaded sigh, "The one and only Cora Mills."
"And you sent her away?"
"I know this may be hard for you to understand, Kathryn, but I was merely returning the gesture. When I came out to my mother, she turned me out with nothing. People don't change, and now that I've made a life for myself here with Emma and Henry, I refuse to let her taint that."
The babysitter nodded, though she couldn't quite grasp resenting one's mother, she understood where Regina was coming from. She was about to leave before a final question occurred to her.
"Why does Professor Swan pretend to be married to a man?"
Kathryn was standing on the stoop just outside the door and she saw Regina visibly sag against the door frame, the babysitter regretted her question as she watched a sadness come into the dean's eyes.
"When she got hired, Emma and I had been together for a few years and she just barely proposed to me. We knew we wanted to have kids, and we knew that she would be the one to carry them. We were ecstatic, but the only thing worse than a gay professor here is a single, unmarried mother."
Regina scuffed her toe against the doorframe as she kept going, "It was always easier for Emma to play the pronoun game."
"The pronoun game?"
"Swap out 'she and her' for 'he and him'." Regina laughed humorlessly, "The rules are simple and there is no winner. I've never been able to do the same."
"Why?" Kathryn blurted before she could stop herself. The questioning stare from Regina prompted her to clarify, "Why haven't you been able to do that too?"
For a moment the dean just exhaled, and more so than ever, Kathryn could see her age in the hard lines of the brunette's jaw and the steely resolve in her eyes, "I spent so long hiding who I was, first with my friends, then my parents, and now with the university. I can suffer in silence, but I can't lie outright, not anymore."
The blonde nodded, understanding the mix of anger and regret in Regina's voice. She took a step back down towards where her car was parked on the road, feeling as though she had intruded enough for one evening. Kathryn hardly made it two steps when she heard Regina say one more thing, so quiet she wasn't sure if she imagined it.
"I love her so much. I just wish it was enough."
Kathryn wasn't sure if she was referring to her deep, emotional love for Emma which Kathryn had witnessed time and time again, or if she was referring to the inexplicable love a child has for their parent despite being given every reason not to feel that way.
Either way, Kathryn figured it didn't matter. What mattered was that it wasn't enough.
A/N- I didn't originally like the whole Kathryn storyline to begin with, but now after all of your demands for hearing about her, I couldn't help but fall for it as well and now I can't get enough.
Thank you so much for your following this story, reading, and reviewing.
- Love, Ms. Informed