Underneath The Surface

Chap 3-Manipulated Pawns

**In which our two leading ladies settle in for the night and start to get to know each other better. No, not like that. Yet. Get your minds out of the gutters.**

While Regina scoured the nearby forest for vines, Emma looked around for two trees that were fairly straight, close to their fire, and had natural forks made by branches. Because she didn't want to go too far away, her choices were limited, but eventually she settled on two likely looking prospects. She nodded to herself, then set about finding a dead tree she could use as a transverse pole. As she searched, she made sure to keep Regina in sight as well. Their current situation was bad enough, they didn't need to get separated to make matters worse.

Emma finally found a downed tree that was the right thickness, all it needed was the bark removed. She dragged it back just as Regina came up with a handful of vines.

"How did you do?" Emma asked as she pulled bark off and set it to the side.

"These look like our morning glory vines, and they can be rather tough, so I thought they would suffice." Regina showed Emma what she had found.

Emma looked them over and nodded. "Perfect."

"What do we do now?"

"We need to take all the bark off this tree, break off the smaller branches. See these two trees behind me? We're going to take this tree and set it in those forks there," Emma pointed. "And create a cross-pole."

"Should we braid some of these vines together?"

Emma nodded and smiled. "You're getting it now."

With the fallen tree de-barked, they set to work braiding the vines together to make rope. Then they set the transverse pole in the forks.

"Now what?" Regina asked.

"We need to find trees or long branches that will stretch from this cross pole down to the ground. We may have to break some off trees if we can't find any deadfall. The more the better."

Regina nodded.

Emma shot her a look. "You're awfully quiet."

"I am ... concerned."

Emma went to where her companion was standing and put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll get through this, Regina, we'll be okay. We have no idea exactly where we are, but we'll figure it out. We won't starve, and we'll sleep out of the elements tonight. We take one day at a time, ok?"

Regina's brow was still furrowed, but she nodded.

Following impulse yet again, Emma leaned forward and hugged Regina, relieved when the other woman wrapped her arms around her as well.

They stayed that way for a minute, comfortable in each other's embrace. Emma was hesitant to speak, in case her words would somehow ruin the mood, but she knew it had to be said. "Eventually, we are going to have to talk about those kisses, you know."

She felt Regina nod. "I'm glad that if I have to go through this situation with anyone, it will be you."

Emma chuckled into Regina's shoulder. "I'm kinda the reason we're here, remember? It was my screw up."

The other woman pulled back a little, but kept her hands on Emma's shoulders. "Don't tell anyone this, but when I was still learning, I made my share of magical mistakes too. When we get home, remind me to tell you about the barn-rat. Mistakes are our way of learning, Dear. Always remember that." Regina studied Emma for a long minute, then brushed her thumb over a section of Emma's eyebrow. "I'm very glad, indeed. Shall we get back to it then?"

Emma cast a quick look overhead. "Yeah, we should. It's already afternoon."

While they cast about for deadfall that was the right size for their purposes, Regina asked, "I find it hard to believe that one family taught you all this in one weekend."

Emma gave a shrug. "They were the ones that started it all. A couple of homes later, there was another foster kid, a teenaged boy, that liked to spend time in the ravine the house backed on to. He taught me all kinds of stuff. How to build this shelter, how to catch fish, how to eat off the land..." Emma let out a chuckle. "And how to avoid being seen by foster parents and workers."

"You sound as if that's a fond memory." Regina observed.

"In a lot of ways, I felt safer with him than anyone else. I was the only one he told he secrets to, because I understood the code better than a lot of kids in the system."

"The code?"

"Kids that moved around a lot learn not to put down roots, we learn not to trust and not to betray other foster kids secrets, especially if it's going to hurt their chances of staying in a forever home."

"Hence your track record of not staying in one place too long." Regina commented as they dragged two fallen saplings back beside the fire.

"Exactly."

"We'll need two or three more like this, I think." Emma brushed her hands off and they moved back into the trees. "One day he was showing me how to get water when there was no river and I told him I felt safe with him but I didn't know why. He looked at me for a long time and asked if I could keep a secret. When I nodded, he told me why I felt so safe with him."

"You were too young for him?"

"No, he was gay."

"I see."

"I was so relieved, I couldn't have cared if he was attracted to a three-headed, purple giraffe."

"A what?" Regina gave her a curious look.

Emma laughed. "It doesn't matter. Anyway, I never revealed his secret to the foster family, and in return, he showed me how to live out in the woods. Which came in really handy a couple of months later." Her voice trailed off.

Regina spotted a likely looking tree that was leaning against a live one. "Here's one!" When Emma had reached her side, the brunette asked, "I thought you said he wasn't interested?"

"He wasn't, but the foster father was. I fought him off as best I could, but he just smacked me around and took what he wanted anyway. I went to Jerod, asked him for advice, he told me to talk to the foster mom. So I did."

"What did she do?"

"Told me that the old man wouldn't have smacked me around if I'd co-operated."

Regina dropped the end she was carrying and spun around. "She said THAT?"

"Ooof! Regina!" Emma was forced to drop the butt end of the tree.

"Sorry." Regina looked sheepish and picked up her end again.

Emma shrugged one shoulder and tucked the butt of the tree under one arm. "So I wrote a note to Jerod explaining why I was leaving, thanked him for all his help, swiped a bag, filled it and left."

They carried the tree back to lay beside the others, put it down and turned back to the woods.

"Wait." Regina reached out and took Emma's arm. "I owe you an apology for some of the horrible things I've said to you about not having roots or a life. I'm sorry, Emma, I had no idea. It's a miracle you don't hate me."

"I don't hate you, Regina. You couldn't have known. I've never even told Mary...Snow. Every time she looks at me she looks as though she's going to cry. If she knew about any of what happened to me..."

"Be that as it may, you can trust me." Regina stepped in front of her blonde companion. "I mean it, Emma. I may not have grown up in your world, with your rules and codes, but I do know what it's like to have secrets and be surrounded by people with their own agenda."

Emma stood and studied the other woman silently. "I know. I've always known there was something different about you, even when I didn't believe Henry about the curse and who he claimed you were."

"Who I was. I truly was an evil queen, my dear. You know that now."

"That's who you were partly because you were forced into it, but that's not all of who you were."

Regina's head cocked slightly. "What do you mean?"

"I've had a lot of time to think about it." Emma lifted her chin in the direction of another fallen tree, indicating they should sit. "There was one person at the core of a lot of hurt in Fairy Tale Land. Think about it, Rumple taught your mother how to spin straw into gold. He taught her magic, he taught her how to be cruel by teaching her how to rip out hearts, including her own. He taught her how to hurt people, including you. He manipulated events so you would need him, so he could teach you magic just as he had your mother. You told me once you taught yourself healing magic, not him. Rumple created the curse, and he wrote in clauses that covered his ass. He made deals with people for his own twisted gains and if someone got hurt in the process, all the better. He has been at the core of a butt-load of hurt. You were a pawn, just as I have been, just as a lot of people have been. Yes, you've ripped out hearts and killed people, but while I acknowledge that side of you, I also see the caring side more often. I see the woman who saved her enemy and her son's mother, just to prove to that son that she could be good." Emma rose off the log and faced Regina now. "I see the woman who has spent over a decade loving a little boy the best way she knew how. I see a woman that has proven time and again that she is capable of love. I see the good in you, Regina. Under that Evil Queen persona you wear, there is a warm woman who wants to be loved, but you have just as many walls as I do, Ms. Mills. You have had love in front of you for a long time now, I just don't think you knew how to love another adult after Daniel."

"I have, have I, Miss Swan?" Regina's eyes were bright with emotion.

"Yes, you have. And it's time we both learned how to lower our walls and let the other one in." Emma leaned forward, kissed Regina on the cheek and walked back into the forest.