Remember Who You Are
Disclaimer: Blah. Blah. Not mine or yours, I think they're ABC's.
Warnings: This fanfic depicts romantic notions between two adult women. If you don't like that, well, I'm sorry for you.
Note: Hahaha! It's so funny reading the reviews for the last chapter. I don't know who I wanna smack more too between Henry and Mary Margaret. Don't worry though, I see Henry coming around. He's just a stubborn, spoiled brat. Emma will set him straight. Mary Margaret, however, seems steadfast in her resolve to continue to run 'clitorference' on Emma. Thanks for all the reviews~
I'll apologize in advance if the text messaging/flashbacks/notes in this chapter are difficult to follow... I can only do so much with 's lack of formatting options.
And as always, thank you Haku2009 for proof reading!
~~~ Chapter 8 ~~~
If any of Storybrooke's residents were to take a morning stroll pass the sheriff's station, they would noticed their deputy sitting inside her yellow VW beetle, her head bent over her cell phone with a silly grin on her face.
Emma had just pulled into her parking stall when Regina's text came through her phone. Receiving the message from the mayor was surprising enough; add to that Emma was being asked if she would like to have dinner with Henry again.
Not one to refuse the generous offer to spend time with her son, Emma's fingers flew over the keys typing out her reply.
8:43am - Sure! I'd love to take him out again tonight!
Within seconds, her phone pinged again with a message from Regina.
8:44am - Pick him up from school and bring him back BEFORE his bedtime.
Before Emma could reply, another message from the mayor was received.
8:44am - And make sure he eats his vegetables.
Emma chuckled as she imagines the glower Regina must have directed at the phone while she typed that message out.
8:46am - I'll do my best.
8:48am - Trying isn't going to cut it, Miss Swan. Henry is a growing boy and he needs healthy foods. None of that junk you fed him last night.
8:50am – Ya know, technically I can argue that pizza do in fact contain all four food groups.
8:51am – Miss Swan, are you going to require adult supervision for this simple task?
Emma rolled her eyes and grinned. Even in text, Regina could make her taunting tone of voice evident.
8:50am - Are you offering, Madam Mayor?
Smiling at the phone, Emma wondered if Regina would play along with the implied invitation to have dinner together. Just the 3 of them. Henry, Regina and herself.
Five minutes passed by and her phone remained silent without a reply from the Mayor. Emma tapped her fingers on the steering wheel impatiently staring at the phone willing it to ping with an incoming text. By the ten minutes lapse, Emma was wearing a frown on her face.
'Did I offended her or something?'
9:01am - Hey, sorry. That was just a joke. Haha. Don't worry about me being unsupervised. I'm sure Mary Margaret will keep a close eye on me. So relax, Henry will be in good hands.
Emma let out a big sigh, rereading her last text once more before stuffing the phone into her back pocket. She got out of her car and quickly trotted up to the sheriff station to start her shift that she was already late for.
Regina put her phone face down on her desk, her message only half composed, when the door to her office openly abruptly and Mr. Gold boldly waltzed in.
"I'm sorry, Mayor Mills. I tried to tell Mr. Gold here he needs an appointment before he can see you," Regina's assistant, Patty, stammered nervously behind the pawnbroker.
Regina waved her blabbing assistant off while narrowing her eyes at her uninvited guest. He casually took a seat at her desk as if he owned the place. "It's alright, Patty. I can spare a few minutes for Mr. Gold here."
Patty meekly nodded and retreated out of the office, closing the door on her way out.
Regina looked at the man sitting across from her, barely containing the annoyance she felt for the arrogant bastard. "I'd appreciate it if you follow protocol and don't give my staff a difficult time."
Mr. Gold feigned a hurt expression. "Protocol? But Madam Mayor after all we've been through, I thought I'd at least rate as a friend. And friends don't need protocol to see each other."
"Let's not pretend, Mr. Gold. We are far from friends," Regina replied dryly.
"Fine." He casually shrugged.
"What do you want this early in the day?"
"I was just going about town, running some errands and thought I would drop by to say hi." His smile didn't quite reach his eyes. "And I heard that council passed the motion you raised to pave over that old mine site."
"It's the most logical thing to do. That place is dangerous."
"Maybe so. But an old site like that must hold a lot of history. I just think it's a shame to just cover it all up with concrete," he said in a knowing tone.
"Your opinion holds no significance to the matter. The council has decided and the construction crew will being work tomorrow." Regina opened a Manila folder and began perusing it, hoping Mr. Gold would take the hint and leave. "Don't bother trying to disrupt the plan. There's nothing you can gain from stopping it."
"Ah! I would love to argue that, but I know it's a lost cause. It's quite all right. If it's meant to be whatever that should be made known will surface on its own time." Mr. Gold grinned evilly.
Regina refrained from the urge to reach across the desk and throttle the man. He must have noticed her restraint on her anger. Satisfied that he had riled the Mayor up as planned, Mr. Gold decided to take his leave.
He was halfway to the door before spinning around again. "Oh, and I was quite disappointed that you didn't return to resume our discussion on ridding a certain deputy in town."
Regina seethed at the mention of the last encounter they had at his shop. "That's because there is nothing else to discuss. I'm not inclined to make any deals with you."
"Or from what I gathered, it's not really the prospect of making a deal with me that's the problem. You seemed to have a change of opinion about Miss Swan. I saw your boy with the deputy last night at the diner. How generous of you to let little Henry spend some quality time with his real mother."
Regina gripped the arms of her chair to keep herself from launching out of her seat. He was good, knowing all the right spots to needle her at.
"Oh don't be angry, dearie. I have no intention to upset you," Mr. Gold soothed, enjoying himself entirely too much. "In fact, I'm worried for you."
The Mayor scoffed at his unconvincing concern.
Mr. Gold chuckled. "Come on now, I just don't like seeing an old friend being taken advantage of. Especially after seeing the picture perfect family scene between Miss Swan, Henry and Miss Blanchard, it's pretty clear to me what Miss Swan's motives are to make such great effort to get on your good side." Mr. Gold shot the Mayor a knowing look.
"What the hell are you talking about?" no longer hiding her impatience, Regina snarled at the pawnbroker.
Mr. Gold gave the infuriated mayor an amused look. "23 address changes in the 12 years after she got out of the foster system. Her longest fixed address was during the 3 years she was in jail. No asset other than that scrap of metal she calls a car. She has no friends. Maybe acquaintances at best. She's never been in a relationship... Shall I go on? You're no fool, Madam Mayor. I hate to point out the obvious."
"I know what you are implying, Mr. Gold. But your concern is neither wanted nor needed." His words sent an unsettling feeling to the pit of her stomach.
"Very well, then. If you shall ever change your mind and require my assistance on the matter, you know where to find me." He hobbled over to the door. Reaching the door handle, he paused and turned to the Mayor one last time. "Just a few words of advice. Take caution when it comes to dear Miss Swan."
Finally alone in her office, she let out a long breath and released some of the tension that had built up from simply being in the slimy pawnbroker's presence. She picked up her phone, eager to finish the message she was in the midst of composing when Mr. Gold barged in. There was a new message from Emma. Scanning it quickly, her breath caught. Reading the message again nearly caused her to throw the phone across the room.
'A joke?' She seethed. 'It was JUST a joke?! What the hell is she trying to play at?'
Her knuckles were stark white as she clenched the phone in her hand, threatening to crush it. The Mayor was trying to contain her rage, wanting stay level headed so she can somehow rationalize why Emma was setting her up for humiliation. However, it was proving to be difficult with Mr. Gold's cautionary words rattling in her head.
Emma stopped on her tracks abruptly when she walked into the station, staring at the empty holding cells.
"Where the hell is Leroy?" she demanded.
Graham came out of his office with a coffee mug in his hand. "Mr. Gold came in early this morning and posted his bail."
That got both of Emma's eyebrows raised. "The bail amount was ten grand. Mr. Gold just paid it?" she asked.
"Yup." Graham nodded.
"And you don't think that's weird? I mean, they weren't friends or anything, were they?"
"Not to my knowledge." Graham shrugged. "And a lot of things Mr. Gold does are weird. His favorite reasoning for the things he does is that he's 'invested in people's futures'. Whatever that means."
Emma scoffed. "I wonder what kind of 'future' he sees in Leory." She walked over to the kitchenette to pour herself a coffee. "That bastard better show up for court. Otherwise I'm gonna hunt him down like a dog."
Graham watched with a smile on his face as Emma stomped over to the counter to grab a coffee. He had been meaning to talk to her alone, but it was difficult having a prisoner sitting mere feet from them at the office. Now they finally had the station to themselves again.
"How's Henry recovering?" he asked, perched on the edge of the counter top.
"He's fine. Back in school already."
"That's good. I would have gone over to see how he was doing sooner. But I just thought it's kinda awkward for me to be at the house."
"Why's that?" She peered at him
"Well, I ended things with Regina."
"You did?" Emma replied entirely too eagerly. She quickly schooled her tone of voice, "I mean, oh, okay."
Graham felt exceptionally optimistic with Emma's obvious joy at the end of his affair with Regina. "Yeah, I told her I couldn't carry on sleeping with her when all I could think about was someone else."
Emma gave him a sideway glance while she spooned sugar into her coffee but didn't say anything. She had a bad feeling about where this conversation was heading.
Graham continued, "It's weird, you know, that I couldn't remember the last time I was this attracted to someone. I've only known her for a short time, but I just couldn't stop thinking about her. She's beautiful. She's fiery. She makes my heart race every time I see her. It's like I have been waiting for her all my life. You know what I'm talking about?"
"Uh huh," she agreed. It was exactly how she felt towards Regina.
Graham shifted closer to Emma. "You know I'm talking about you, right?"
'And I'm thinking of Regina.' Emma sighed.
She put her coffee down and turned to the sheriff, hoping he wouldn't take her words too hard. "Graham, I don't-"
Her words were abruptly cut off as Graham, without warning, surged towards her and kissed her on the lips. Repulsed, Emma roughly shoved him away from her.
"What the hell, Graham?" she quipped, wiping her lips with the back of her hand. When the sheriff failed to answer her, instead he just stood dumbfounded, Emma let out an exacerbated groan. "Argh! I can't work like this with you."
Graham vaguely registered Emma grabbing her jacket and storming out of the station. He didn't know what's going on. He was in no capacity stop her as he was bombarded with snippets of what looked like a different lifetime in his head. His breathing began to labor, gripping the counter he steadied himself.
'Oh God, I think I'm gonna be sick,' he thought as he slid to the ground.
By late afternoon it was pretty clear Emma wasn't going to receive a text back from Regina, leaving the deputy sulking over the fact while sitting her car waiting for Henry to get off school. She had half the mind to simply march over to the Mayor's office personally and ask her what the problem was this time, but she was certain a confrontation like that would no doubt set back the little (but hard earned) success she had in pursuing the stubborn woman.
For the record, Emma had never been this determined to chase after anyone before and the idea of having a relationship should terrify her. She didn't know why she wanted one so desperately with Regina but that it just felt utterly right. Echoing Graham's earlier words, it was like she had been waiting for this all her life.
Emma picked up her phone again, glaring at it as it continued to mock her with its silence. So focused she was trying to will the device to give her any kind of response she nearly jumped out of her seat when someone suddenly tapped on her window.
"Gah!" She started, then fumbled to regain her grip on the floundering phone. Turning she found Henry's face pressed up against the glass, grinning broadly. "Henry!" she breathed out in relief and motioned him to come around to the passenger side.
"Hey, Emma!" Henry climbed into the car with a smile beaming on his young face. It was a pleasant surprise to find the deputy outside his school. He hadn't expected to see her so soon. "What are you doing here?"
"Your mom said I could have dinner with you again," Emma said off-handedly.
"Two nights in a row?" Henry asked with skepticism. "That's weird."
Emma let out a sigh. She was hoping the boy wouldn't make a big deal out his mother's generous gesture. But it seemed like her patience was going to be tested again today. "Kid, there is nothing weird about a mother being nice to her child. Trust me, there are worst things one could complain about their mothers," She told him, resentment from some of the horrible treatments she received while in foster care surfaced. "You don't know how lu-"
"-lucky I am. Yeah, yeah." Henry rolled his eyes.
"Whoa!" Emma was stunned by his crassness. "Seriously, Henry, you ought to show some gratitude for the life Regina had provided for you."
"My life sucks!" he grounded out between his teeth.
"Yeah? And what part of that privileged life you have sucks?" she retorted, starting to get really annoyed at the boy's preposterous mindset. "Do you mean the part where you have to live in a nice big house? Or that you never had to worry if you'd be tossed out and thrust into another strange family the next day? Or how about the part where you have a mother that made damn sure you want for nothing?"
"No!" Henry slammed his hand down on the car's dashboard, his face reddened with anger and tears started to well up in his eyes. "What sucks is that I never had any friends because they always stay the same age while I keep growing up! That my mom put me in therapy so that everyone thinks I'm crazy when I tried to tell them about it. And she kept lying to me about my adoption even when I found out the truth! I saw the papers in her desk drawer. I'm not stupid and I'm not crazy! You keep saying she loves me, but she doesn't! Why would you lie to someone you love?"
Finally getting a glimpse of what drove Henry's need to escape to and believe in the fantastical ideas of fairy tales and curses, Emma's previous annoyance quickly dissipated and her heart went out to the boy. It was painfully obvious how lonely Henry was. She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, wondering how she ended up having to do the sensitive talk again.
"Henry," she spoke, keeping her tone gentle. "Making friends isn't always easy. Believe me, I know." She gave him a wry look, then raised eyebrow knowingly as she remembered bits of her own lonely childhood. "But you do have friends. You got Ava, Nicolas and Paige. Things are getting better, aren't they?"
He nodded, but the disgruntled expression on his face remained. "Only since you got here to break the curse."
Emma opted out to arguing the business of her being the prophet curse breaker, choosing instead to continue rationalizing Regina's actions that were causing Henry so much grief. "I can't speak for your mom as to why she sends you to Dr. Hopper. My guess would be to just have someone you can talk to. And I know you're really upset over finding out about your adoption and Regina not being forthright with you didn't make things better. But her lying about it doesn't mean she doesn't love you." She paused when he shot her a skeptical look. "Sometimes people lie to the ones they love thinking will save them from being hurt. I think that was what your mom was doing."
"That's stupid," Henry groused.
Emma shrugged. "Yeah, maybe it was a stupid thing to do. People do stupid things when they are scared." She chuckled at the look Henry gave her. "I know. It's hard to imagine your mom being scared of anything. But she's terrified of losing you, Henry."
Henry's thoughts drifted back to the night before when Regina told him he was all she's got, her voice sad and pensive. He remembered how he quickly became alarmed when he felt that tightness in his chest. And now with what Emma had just said…
"Henry, look at me," Emma's voice was firm but gentle. "Can you look me straight in the eyes and tell me if your mom was ever evil to you?"
Henry's brows furrowed in thought, chewing on his bottom lip as he tried to recall any incident to answer Emma's challenge. Much to his dismay, he found he couldn't.
He looked over at Emma and another concern creep up in his mind. If he doesn't need to be protected from the Evil Queen, does that mean Emma no longer have reasons to stay in his life? He couldn't have that. "Even if she hadn't acted evil towards me, I still need you."
Emma smiled, touched by his deep desire to have her in his life. "Don't worry, kid. I'm not that easy to get rid of," she snickered. "Just ask your mom."
Even Henry had to laugh at that. It was true that he had never seen anyone that could stand up to his mom like Emma does.
Seeing that the mood had lightened, she ruffled his hair affectionately and started the car. "Alright, let's get to the market before it gets any later. I gotta pick up a few items since I'm cooking tonight."
Henry's face scrunched up, looking at her skeptically. "You can cook?"
"Of course, I can cook," Emma retorted, slighted by his doubt in her culinary skills. "Sheesh, I had to feed myself somehow living on my own."
"Alrighty then, Master Chef Emma," Henry said teasingly. "What are you making me for dinner?
Blue eyes sparkled with excitement. "Oh, you're gonna love it. It's one of my favorite meals of all time." She grinned at him and pulled the car away from the curb.
Not wanting to cut it too close to Henry's curfew and risk Regina's wrath, Emma returned Henry home at 8:30pm sharp. Each step she took as she walked Henry up to the house was with anticipation, expecting the Mayor to open the door and meet them halfway up the path like she usually does. But by the time Henry was opening the front door with his own set of keys and still no sight of the brunette, Emma's heart was heavy with disappointment.
'How do I miss her only after a day of not seeing her?' she wondered.
"G'night, Emma," Henry said from the doorway after stepping inside. He smiled at the blonde ruefully, a little sad that he had to say goodbye again but did after all had another fun evening with her.
She smiled back at him. "Night, kid. See you later." Waiting until he closed the door and heard the click of the lock, she then turned and headed back to get car.
From one of the darkened rooms on the second floor and well hidden within the shadows, Regina watched Emma made her way down the short concrete path. The blonde kept glancing backwards towards the house, eyes fleeting from window to window, making Regina wondered if she was looking for her.
The Mayor pressed a hand over her chest trying to squelch the ache growing in her heart. She really wished she didn't feel this strong longing for the woman. She felt like one of those dimwitted moths that kept flying back towards the flame. Emma's joke this morning, along with Mr. Gold's seemingly words of caution, had flooded her with innate doubts and insecurities. Once again she was reduced to the broken woman believing she's forever deemed undeserving of love and unworthy of real affection, that Emma's motivation was only to gain access to Henry through her.
"Mom!" Henry called from downstairs and broke through her thoughts. With one last glance at the blonde who was just about to get into her car, Regina tore herself away from the window to go find her son.
He called out again when she reached the bottom of the stairs. She found him in the kitchen pouring himself a glass of water.
"Henry?"
"Hi, Mom." He took a long swig of the water and then gestures towards the kitchen island. "That's for you."
Following the direction where he was pointing to, Regina's eyes landed on the paper bag seating on top of the granite counter top. She walked over to it, eyeing it suspiciously. Carefully she opened the bag and pulled out a Tupperware container. Regina looked up at Henry questioningly.
"Emma made dinner tonight," he explained. "I told her it's not something you would eat, but she insisted I bring some home. It's the thought that counts, she said."
He watched his mother turn the container over in her hands, examining it pensively. Henry was really excited when Emma revealed she would be making Mac 'n Cheese tonight. It was one of his favorites too. But as it turned out, Emma's culinary skills were disappointedly limited to cooking with ingredients that come out of a box.
"What is it?" Regina asked while observing the unnaturally orange mass of lumpy goo sluggishly roll around within the plastic container.
"Kraft dinner," Henry supplied.
Regina narrowed her eyes at the reply, clearly unimpressed by the deputy's choice of food for Henry's dinner. She had specifically instructed Emma to feed him something healthy.
Seeing the expression on his mom's face and not wanting to get Emma into trouble he quickly added, "She made me eat a plate of vegetables too." The blonde was unusually strict about it too, he recalled. Even his puppy dog eyes couldn't get her to budge.
"Your mom's order. No argument about it." She had said.
And he groused and asked if his mom had put a spell on her for taking her side again. Emma laughed at the idea.
"What for?" She scoffed. "Just to get you to eat your vegetables?"
"Don't be ridiculous." Henry scowled at her. "The spell is to get you on her side so you would convince me there is no curse because I would be more likely to listen to you. And she's making you say nice things about her so I'd stop thinking she's the Evil Queen. It's all part of her plan to make us believe she loves me. But it's really just to distract us from breaking the curse and saving everyone!"
Emma's eyebrows hitched together slightly, a little concerned with how absurd Henry's logic was. "That's an awfully stupid and convoluted plan," she pointed out, "when she could have instead easily put a spell on me to make me disappear and a spell on you to make you love her. Boom! No savior to break her curse. No son wanting to break the curse." She held up a hand to forestall further arguments from him. "Henry, don't take things too far just because you want to prove a point. You're really hurting her. Regina may have her flaws, but she's a good mother."
"She's rotten to the core!"
Emma rolled her eyes at him. "Don't you think that's a bit extreme, kid? And you're only saying that because you know I'm right," she responded smugly and took her victory as Henry glowered at her without another comeback
'Damn stubborn kid.'
Reaching across the table, Emma took Henry's hand in hers. "Just… just try being a little bit nicer to your mom. Do it for me." She played her trump card and effectively cut off his protest. "She's been pretty nice to me lately, letting me spend time with you and stuff. Don't you think she deserve a bit of a break?"
From his perch on the kitchen stool, Henry watched his mom's expression soften having heard Emma had indeed heeded her direction. It really was strange, he thought, that the usually strict Mayor had been letting Emma get away with things so easily.
"Good," Regina acknowledged curtly with a nod. Her eyes returned to the plastic container resting on the counter, as if deciding what to do with it.
Henry continued to watch her, his conversation with Emma replaying in his head. It really wasn't like him to stick around after speaking out of necessity with his mom. "The Mac 'n Cheese really isn't that bad." He gestured towards the Tupperware. "It doesn't compare to the one you make from scratch though. I told Emma that."
"You did?" Regina looked over at him with surprise, amazed that he was still sitting in the kitchen with her, let alone talking to her.
"Uh huh." He nodded, then scrunched up his face comically. "Then she called me a snob."
Regina let loose a soft chuckle, gazing at her son with genuine affection.
Seeing the way his mom was looking at him, Henry squirmed in his seat uncomfortably. This unusual easiness that settled over them suddenly felt extremely awkward. Henry put down his empty glass and slid off the stool.
"Going to bed," he announced quickly before running out of the kitchen, a barely audible "night, Mom" trailed behind him.
Regina took a few quiet minutes to relish the brief warmhearted moment she shared with Henry. Her heart nearly melted when, for a few minutes there, he looked at her without hatred and disgust. She didn't want to consider it, but she knew Emma was in part responsible for the slight change in Henry's attitude. Picking up the Mac 'n Cheese leftover and thinking what a silly gesture it was, Regina was about to put the container back into the paper bag when something inside caught her eyes.
It was a note. And from the badly handwritten scrawl, Regina knew it was from Emma.
Hey, so my Mac n' Cheese was met with less than stellar review from the critic. He said yours is way better. I'm not surprised :) Since you weren't able to join us for dinner, I've sent some of my humble creation back with the kid. So you too can experience my subpar cooking abilities. Seriously tho, the kid is just spoiled. I told him I grew up on Kraft dinner.
And thanks for letting spend time with him again.
- Em.
A smile pulled at Regina's lips as she set the note down, once again easily charmed by the deputy. She cradled Tupperware in her hand and uttered a short chant under her breath. Blue sparks flashed and almost instantaneously the content of the plastic container was warmed up. Stirring it around before she scooped some of the macaroni with her fork and took her first bite. She immediately scowled at the taste of it.
'This is so awfully artificial.' But despite the thought, Regina ate another forkful. Then another. And another.
Definitely a moth flying towards the flame.