Underneath The Surface Chapter 12
Underneath The Surface Chapter 12
Plunge Into Honesty
Regina listened to the water beat a rhythm in the shower and smiled to herself. She knew their relationship had climbed a major hurdle, and yet something had clicked into place when Emma had moaned her name. It reminded her of one of Henry's games. For every level passed, the player unlocked some clue or reward. She felt very rewarded by the amount of trust Emma was placing in her. She knew just how far Emma had come since her atrocious yellow car had rolled into Storybrooke. Back then, she hadn't even planned on staying and every time things got tough, she looked ready to bolt back to Boston. Henry had been her anchor at first, and when Emma had stopped looking like a frightened deer, Regina had wondered what kept her then.
Now she knew. It had been her.
By that time, Regina herself was starting to feel something for Emma. A variety of things, actually. Irritation, grudging respect, understanding every now and then, and by the time Henry took that near-fatal bite of the turnover, she was terrifyingly attracted to her son's birth mother.
Regina shook her head in bemusement.
She still wasn't sure what made her spike those turnovers. Frustration? Impatience? Whatever it had been, it had nearly killed her son. And yet it had changed everything. By the time she had absorbed that spell at the wishing well, her life was careening between greed, power and lesser-shades of evil. It had all been a very strange dance.
But where was she headed now?
She knew for certain that she wanted a relationship with Emma, and trust was going to be a big part of that. Trust and honesty. She would have to be as authentic as she could remember how to be. In a twisted kind of way, she hoped they would have enough time here in Desperation Lake to build a solid footing before they had to go back and deal with the two idiots. Here they could be themselves, and who they wanted to be, without expectations, accusations and mistrust.
Here, she could love Emma as she should have been all along. Faithfully, without question and without reservation.
Under the hot spray, Emma leaned her head against the shower wall and tried to figure out how her day had gotten away from her. She hadn't planned on seducing Regina, but the woman had just looked too good...and then she had turned the tables on her. In the end, Regina put Emma first.
She stood under the water and let the pounding water-pressure beat against her. She wasn't used to being put first, not by family or by her lovers. The woman in the other room had begun to feel like both. That damned portal might have done Emma a favor, despite how much she missed Henry and her parents. Here at least, there was no expectation that she could save the world, no curses to break, no complicated relationships with blue fairies, nuns or town drunks that were actually dwarves.
Just a complex, thrilling, heady, intricate relationship that she and Regina were trying to forge. Emma shook her head, rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and turned the water off.
When she re-entered the room wrapped in a towel, she went and sat on the bed beside Regina, and tucked one pale leg under her.
The former Mayor arched a delicate dark eyebrow. "Looking to be ravished again with fewer obstructions?"
Emma smiled. "Sounds like a perfect afternoon, but maybe after we eat?" She smiled. "Actually, I wanted to thank you."
"For?"
"For earlier, for being patient with me since we got sucked through the portal, for giving me a chance, for...everything." Emma felt her eyes fill with tears and she turned her head.
Regina saw the rare show of emotion and turned Emma's head back to face her. "If we are going to forge any kind of a relationship, it will have to be built on honesty. I would like to think you have nothing to lose by showing me that the mighty Sheriff of Storybrooke is capable of crying." Regina wanted to say more, but instead she simply wrapped her arms around Emma and ran her fingers over her damp hair.
After a few minutes of resting like this, Emma sighed heavily. "I don't really want to move."
"If you want to eat at all for the rest of the day, my dear, you're going to have to." Regina kissed Emma's forehead. "We can come back here after lunch and talk if you'd like, or read."
"I guess I'd better get dressed then."
"Unless you want to show off to all of Desperation Lake, but then I might have to kill anyone who touched you." Regina quipped with a teasing smile.
"I'd like to avoid meeting the sheriff's department here for as long as I can. I'll get dressed." Emma sighed and hugged Regina one more time before getting off to the bed.
Soon enough they were crossing the road to the diner.
They slid into a booth on the left side of the diner and Regina looked around, mentally comparing The Sneezing Moose with Granny's. Only a few people openly studied them. It felt very different to able to come into a diner and not have animated discussions stop because the "Evil Queen" had arrived. Regina decided she rather liked it. A long counter sat on the opposite side of the room. She could see a pie waiting under a glass dome and wondered if it was apple. She could smell chili cooking, presumably in the back and heard the faint sounds of cutlery being put away. A typical diner.
Emma had sat across from her, facing her, and smiled as Charlie stepped over to their table.
"Emma! This must be..."
"Charlie, this is Regina. Regina, this is Charlie."
Regina smiled up at Charlie. "I've heard a bit about you already. Thank you for keeping Emma out of trouble this morning."
There was a snort from across the table.
Charlie smiled at both of them. "Lunch special today, or something else?"
"I'll have the special, thanks." Regina answered. "And water, please."
"Make that two, Charlie."
She nodded and left them alone.
"Regina, something happened earlier that I wanted to talk to you about, out back, when I was cutting wood." Emma said quietly.
Regina shook her head slightly and looked up. Charlie was only a couple of feet away from their table with two glasses of water in her hands.
"Emma, thanks for taking on that woodpile so soon."
"No problem. Would it be okay with you if I worked on it for a few hours every morning? Maybe after my run?"
Charlie put the glasses down and nodded. "Sure thing. That'll leave you free to spend the afternoons with your lady-love here." Charlie winked, smiled and went back to the kitchen.
Regina glanced quickly around the diner, but no one was paying attention, much less eavesdropping. "It seems that Desperation Lake is a little more open-minded than we expected.
Emma nodded and sipped at her water.
"We need to be careful what we talk about outside of our room." Regina murmured. At a conversational volume, she added, "So Patty and I were able to talk about her garden this morning. I think we're going to be putting in herb garden and a few edible beds as well. She wants to grow some vegetables. I think it would be good for her business as well as she and Callie."
Emma nodded and listened, content to let Regina carry the conversation.
By the time their lunch had arrived, Emma was quite sure that Regina was excited about the prospect of helping Patty. Her copper coloured eyes lit up in a way Emma hadn't seen before, she smiled easily and was more relaxed.
"You enjoy gardening, don't you?" Emma asked as she cut into her fish.
"I do. Plants don't make judgements. They don't care who you were, they don't question your motivations and they don't look for schemes." Regina said quietly. "I've always enjoyed a certain skill with plants. Mother could never understand why I enjoyed it. She said I needn't have concerned myself with it, we had help for that. But I didn't dare tell her that I enjoyed coaxing something fresh and alive from the dirt."
"I think I understand, knowing what I do of your mother."
They ate in silence for a little while. Regina finished first and put her cutlery down. "I know that you developed a certain skill-set that made you a good bounty hunter, but if you could have done anything, your upbringing and money being no concern, what do you think you might have done?"
Emma drank from her glass deep in thought. Finally she answered the question. "Honestly, I have no idea. I think about that sometimes. I used to play a mental game with myself when I was in a good place when I was a kid. I knew I didn't want to be a teacher, most kids drive me buggy. I have no idea how Snow taught for 28 years and enjoyed it."
Regina only shrugged slightly and gave her the ghost of a smile, and Emma knew that Regina was thinking about the curse and the lives she had given her subjects.
"Can I ask you a question? About the curse?" Emma almost whispered.
Regina nodded and pushed her empty plate aside.
"How did you give all of them the lives you did?"
Regina leaned forward and lowered her voice so only Emma could hear her. "It was a lot of planning. You already know that Rumple created the curse, but I wanted those people to have certain lives. I thought for a long time about revenge, what kind of lives they could lead that would bring me the most satisfaction. I'm not proud now of what I did, Emma, and I'm sorry that my actions brought you the kind of life you had."
"I don't see it that way." Emma had finished her meal and stacked her plate on top of Regina's. "The way I see it, you started something in motion that dictated your future, yeah. But my parents made the decision to put me in that wardrobe. Marco, I mean, Gepetto, played his part in the deception, and so did the Blue Fairy. You didn't make any of them deceive my parents. August abandoned me when he was supposed to be looking out for me. You didn't do that, it was his decision. My life was one series of screw-ups after another. Unless you specifically put a curse on me, none of those things are your fault."
Regina shook her head.
Emma reached across the table and took Regina's hand as she continued. "I've always believed in free will. I was dealt a crappy hand, but I made the best of it. I took on the world on my terms. When people tried to see me in a way that wasn't right, I made them see me for who I was. I took ownership for my own successes, my own happiness and my own decisions. I don't even blame my parents for abandoning me as much as I used to."
"You don't?"
"Not as much, no. I do still sometimes, yeah. I know they sent me away for reasons they thought were right, but after they were told that I would come back and break the curse, bottom line was, they sent me away so I could save them. They started all that Saviour crap for their own purposes. Can you imagine who I would be today if I had grown up without the curse?"
Regina snorted. "You would have grown up a coddled princess, wanting for nothing, spoiled."
Emma rolled her eyes. "Ugh. No thanks. I like me better this way, thanks."
"Indeed."
Charlie came back to the table just as they finished their quiet conversation. "Well, how was lunch, ladies?"
"It was very good, thank you!" Regina answered for them both as Emma nodded.
"Emma, don't feel obligated to start at sun-up. You come on over whenever you want."
"Thanks, Charlie."
Charlie smiled. "Remember, while you work for me, it's on the house. Go and enjoy the rest of your day." She winked at Regina and went back behind the counter.
Emma shook her head and smiled. "She's a little like Granny and Red all rolled into one, isn't she?"
Regina gave an eye roll of her own. "Frightening. Let's go back to our room and see if we can learn anything from the book we picked up."