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: Eeeek! Well… this update took forever. Thank you to everyone that haven't forgotten or given up on this little tale of mine. And thank you so much for all the reviews~
And as always, thank you Haku2009 for proof reading!
~~~ Chapter 9 ~~~
The first thing Emma noticed when she walked into the station was the flowers sitting on her desk. Approaching her workstation hesitantly, she eyed the mysterious bouquet wryly. 'What the hell?'
She picked it up, a quick study of them find that the flowers appeared to be personally picked by someone, tied together with a simple twine instead of the typical cellophane wrap found in floral shops. Emma had to admit they were really pretty. But how the heck did they get in here?
Emma looked around the empty station. The place was locked and secured when she came in moments before, having to use her keys at the front door. And the only other person that has keys to the station was…
'Graham!'
Blue eyes narrowed as the sheriff came to mind. She tossed the bouquet into the trash without a second thought, unimpressed by the poor attempt of an apology. And even less impressed that the coward didn't even bother showing up in person to do it. Graham had texted her earlier saying he was sick and won't be coming in today.
'Jerk!'
Emma nudged the trashcan a little further away from her desk with her booted foot before sitting down to start her work.
She was in the midst of her morning bear claw and coffee when the local hardware store owner called in a theft in progress. The stupid petty thief was still riffling in the back storage room of the local hardware store when Emma arrived at the scene. And if he weren't so greedy and determined to lug all five power drills down the alley he would've gotten away.
Emma easily apprehended him, taking him back to the station without incident. It wasn't until she released his cuffs before putting him into the cell that the perp tried to make a run for it.
He made it two strides before Emma tackled him from behind.
"Get off me! Get the fuck off! I can't breathe!" the man screamed. He bucked and tried to dislodge the deputy straddled on his back.
"If you can scream, you can breathe," Emma gritted between her teeth, pulling his flailing arms behind his back and finally slapping the cuffs over his wrists. "Stop fighting, you idiot."
"That was a close one, deputy."
Emma looked up at the voice. Her breath involuntarily hitched when she saw Regina sauntering into the station. It was ridiculous, Emma thought, how the woman could make a task as simple as walking sexy. The way the Mayor had her blazer casually draped over her shoulders, hips swaying, red lips suppressing a teasing smirk, and chocolate brown eyes twinkled with amusement made the blonde deputy suddenly dry in the throat.
Hoping she didn't look as dumbfounded as she felt, Emma cleared her throat and raised her eyebrows at the Mayor's comment, a look of "are you kidding me?" crossed her face, "Not even close, actually. I got it all under control, Madame Mayor."
Regina regarded the man laid prone and secured under the deputy. "I suppose you do," she admitted, her voice lilting.
Emma shot the Mayor a curious look. If she wasn't mistaken, Regina's tone sounded almost impressed she physically restrained a grown a man all on her own. She chuckled to herself. Boy, was she ever glad she'd shed her leather jacket earlier. Even knowing it was entirely childish, she couldn't help but puff out her chest a little and flex her arms a bit more than needed when she hauled the man to his feet. "C'mon, get up."
The silly display did not go unnoticed. Usually the no-nonsense Mayor would not put up with juvenile antics like this. But as with many other things, Emma again seemed to be the exception.
Regina rolled her eyes and tried to appear unamused, not wanting the blonde deputy's head to swell any larger than it already had. "Oh, don't be so smug. I'm pleased only because I won't have to read another indecipherable incident report from you. Your spelling is horrid. Maybe you should ask that best friend roommate of yours to help you with that."
"Har har," Emma chortled dryly. She shoved the petty thief into the cell and locked him in. Turning around she picked up a logbook preparing to itemize his personal effects as per protocol. He didn't have much, half a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, a raggedy wallet and a few loose change. Feeling eyes on her, Emma looked up and found Regina watching her mirthfully. "You're having a good day," she commented with a raise of an eyebrow.
Regina hummed affirmatively. A small smile surfaced as she recalls the morning she had with Henry. For the first time in a very long time, she walked her son to school. Whenever she tried before, he would either bolt ahead of her, or lag behind so far she loses the patience to wait. This morning, however, they walked side by side from home all the way to the school. They didn't talk, but that was quite all right with Regina.
She knew she had Emma to thank for the changes in Henry's behavior, but words of gratitude remained lodged in her throat. They are certainly not words Regina used often and to actually say them out loud makes her cringe. She wasn't being ungrateful but she had always believed giving thanks is a sign of weakness. And she really didn't want to show Emma more of that side of her. The deputy had already seen too much for Regina's comfort.
So instead she said, "Come over for dinner tonight."
Emma head shot up in surprise, her work momentarily forgotten. "Huh?" She blinked blankly back at the Mayor. "Are you inviting me to dinner at your place?"
"I'm simply trying to give Henry a break from the junk you keep feeding him." Regina shrugged, playing down the significance of the invitation.
But Emma paid no attention to the intended snub. All she could think about was the woman of her dreams was literally offering to cook her a meal. A grin stretched across her face.
'This is freakin' awesome!' she thought and mentally pumped her fist. Feeling like a cool cat, she started twirling the lighter she had in her hand between her fingers. She hoped she looked suave.
"Hey, be careful with that! That's my family heirloom," the man behind her squawked through the bars of the cell.
Emma gave him a droll look while holding up the lighter. "Seriously? Family heirloom? Dude, this is a Bic lighter."
"So? Who are you to say it wasn't past on for generations in my family?" he retorted and pressed his face up against the metal bars. "If you lose my stuff or damage them, I'm filing a complaint on you."
Blowing out a long-suffering sigh, Emma gathered the man's belongings and gave Regina an apologetic look before disappearing down the hall where the effects lockers are.
Having gotten his way, the man snickered as the deputy scampered off to meet his demand. His snickering was, however, short-lived when he turned his eyes over to the Mayor. Cold, humorless brown eyes bored into his, sending a shiver down his back.
Irked by his nerve to disrupt the amusing conversation she was having with Emma, Regina stared back the man steadily, watching, waiting, and…
'There it is.'
As expected, it didn't take long for him to drop his eyes and slowly slink away from the bars. He nervously backed himself towards the far corner of the cell until his legs hit the cot and sat down. This was the stark contrast between Emma and everyone else in town that Regina wasn't able to ignore. Emma had never once shown fear or cowered before her.
From the moment Emma step foot in town, the fearless defiance she brandished was absolutely galling, and Regina's failed attempts to wield any control over the reckless woman just add to enrage her even more. Emma was, no doubt, nothing if not persistent. No amount of intimidation or manipulation on Regina's part could rid her of the aggravating blonde. Never one to surrender first, she had prepared herself to take on every one of Emma's challenges to her authority. She thought would only be a matter of time before Emma learned her place in Regina's town. Everyone else did, eventually.
Except she never in a million years expected Emma to start being caring and nice to her. Her mind went back to the recent string of encounters with the woman who was supposedly her enemy... the attentiveness, the comforting touches, the sweet little gestures, and oh god, the kisses. Regina involuntarily drew in a shaky breath at the memory of Emma's lips on her own.
She tried so hard to fight it, these feelings Emma brought up inside of her. She really did try. But it proved impossible for Regina to remain unaffected by Emma's pursuit of her. It really was flattering to have someone desire her, to find her significant enough to care about her. The last person that made her feel anything like this was, she sighed, Daniel. Even after so many years, her heart still aches at the thought of him.
Regina knew she should be more alarmed at the realization that Emma was making her feel what she used to feel with Daniel. But she couldn't bring herself to care, not when this was the closest she'd come to the happiness she had sought all her life. She just hoped that Emma's intentions were true as she seemed to have implicated, and that Emma was worth risking her heart for.
Letting down her guard again made Regina nervous. It meant inviting Emma in pass her walls once more. It also meant for her to reach out to the blonde. Regina was good at many things, but she came to realize being well versed in the realm of romance was not one of them. So she hoped the flowers she delivered this morning wasn't too forward of a gesture. It was just that Emma had been surprisingly, incredibly patient, and Regina simply wanted to do something nice in return. Plus, it really wasn't that big of a deal, she had convinced herself. Sending flowers to her employees as a token of appreciation was something she regularly did. Just ask Charge Nurse Gretchen at the hospital.
Speaking of which, Regina's gaze swept lazily over the room looking for the bouquet of flowers, curious as to what Emma did with it. A scan of the deputy's desk showed an empty donut box, empty coffee cups, food wrappers, paper and documents scattered haphazardly, but no flowers.
'Where are-' then the sight of the trashcan caught her eyes.
Regina felt like someone punched her in the gut. She pulled the discarded bouquet out of the trash. Puzzled brown eyes raked over the blossoms, crumpled from being shoved into the small metal bin.
'Why are…?' She didn't understand. This wasn't where the flowers should be. As her mind tried to find a reason for Emma's hurtful treatment to her gift, Mr. Gold's words of warning sifted through her jumble of thoughts.
He was right. Emma had played her.
There was no need to consider any other possible explanations. Why bother when, after a lifetime of conditioning, it was only natural that her mind defaults to one conclusion.
Betrayal.
Emma had used her eagerness for any little bit of affection to get her defenses down, to get to Henry. And Regina had foolishly allowed it. Hurt and disappointment soon gave way to a familiar rage beginning to bubble up inside her. Seething as thoughts of Emma's deception fester in her brain, she tightened her grip on the flowers crushing their stems.
'This is the last time Emma will make a fool out of me!' She roughly shoved the broken bouquet back into the trash bin and stormed out of the station.
Emma came back from the rear storage section a few moments later. Her brows creased into a frown when Regina was nowhere to be found. She turned to the man lying on the cot in his cell.
"Where did the Mayor go?"
The man lifted his head from the pillow at the question and look back at the deputy. "How should I know?" he scoffed.
Emma went up to the bars of the cell. "What, so she just left without saying anything?"
He shrugged. "Yeah. Although, I did notice she was pretty pissed off when she stormed out of here."
Blue eyes narrowed at him. "What did you do?"
He sat up on the cot and snorted at the absurd implication. "Are you kidding? I don't have a death wish. The Mayor is the last person I would want to piss off. All I can tell you is, she took one look at the flowers in your trash bin and I could literally see steam coming out of her ears. Then she just stomped out of here."
Emma turned to the flowers she threw away this morning.
'What the hell? Why would the flowers piss her off?' she wondered if Regina knew they are from Graham, if that was the reason for her abrupt departure. To be honest, Emma had no idea why the flowers would bother Regina. She already threw them in the trash. Wasn't it obviously they meant nothing to her?
She was tempted to run after Regina to see if she can still catch her outside, but the brunette's unpredictable and volatile moods held her back. Maybe it was best to give the Mayor a bit of space to cool off, Emma decided. She moped around her desk and dropped onto her chair, might as well catch up on the paperwork she was behind on so she'd be free to spend the evening with Regina and Henry. She didn't fail to notice that despite knowing that she'll be seeing Regina again later tonight, it couldn't stop the elation she was filled with moments ago at the presence of the brunette from dwindling by the minute.
Regina never mentioned what time she should come over for dinner, but Emma figured 6:30 would be an appropriate time. And now she stood outside the mayoral mansion. Blue eyes scanned the windows for any signs of movements, anxiety setting in at the lack there of.
She had arrived about 15 minutes ago, first finding it strange that Regina's car wasn't in the driveway. Then her knocks on the front door went unanswered. She even ran to the back of the house but found it just as quiet and still.
Starting to worry if anything happened to keep the Mayor and their son from getting home, Emma pulled her cell phone out and dialed Regina's number.
No answer.
The image of Regina's black Mercedes wrapped around the lamp post suddenly flashed across Emma's mind. And even though she had seen the new tank of a car Regina bought after the accident (actually, the Mayor went way above and beyond making sure the vehicle was virtually indestructible, deciding on a custom made bullet proof SUV), Emma couldn't stop the fear that settle within her. She quickly redialed Regina's number.
"Hello?" Regina's smooth and steady voice filtered through the earpiece.
"Regina," Emma said with a sigh of relief. "Are you and Henry okay?"
"We are perfectly fine, Miss Swan."
"Oh, uh... that's great." Regina's impassive tone made Emma uneasy. "Uh, I think I may be a bit early for our dinner date. Are you guys on your way back?"
"What dinner date, Miss Swan? I'm already having dinner with Henry."
Emma pulled the phone away from her ear and did a double take at it, not quite sure if she heard what Regina said correctly. She brought the phone back up to her ear, needing clarification. "I'm sorry, I thought you said you are already eating dinner with Henry."
"That is correct."
Regina's matter-of-fact tone of voice was really grinding on Emma's nerves. "I'm standing outside your house right now, Regina. You invited me to dinner, remember?"
"Well, I suppose I'm rescinding that invitation." The Mayor didn't even attempt to sound apologetic.
"Seriously, Regina?" Emma couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Is this some kind of a joke? Cause this isn't funny."
"No one is laughing, Miss Swan," Regina's voice took on a darker edge. "I think I am more than reasonable to ask for a peaceful dinner with my son. You have, after all, monopolized his past few evenings having him all to yourself."
"C'mon, Regina. This is ridiculous." Emma pulled at her blonde hair as she paced around the stoop of the house. "What the hell is the prob-"
"Please, you are wasting my time," Regina cut her off. "I suggest you head on home, Miss Swan. I don't want to see you on my property when I return later tonight. Unless you want Henry to witness an exchange of the unpleasant kind between his two mothers."
Before Emma could utter another word, Regina promptly hung up and the line went dead. Emma stared at the phone incredulously, seriously contemplating the possibility of Regina having some kind of mood disorder.
"Argh!" Emma growled through gritted teeth and then glared at the phone in her hand. She wanted to smash it onto ground and stomp it into a million pieces, projecting her frustration and anger on the handheld device as it was the last thing Regina's voice came through from, dashing all her hopes for a wonderful evening.
But she stopped herself, realizing her own phone was not to be blamed for Regina's shameless manipulation of her emotions. Instead, Emma turned to the front door of the Mayoral Mansion and gave it a few good solid kicks before pounding her way back down the brick path to her car and driving off.
Mary Margaret was sitting at her desk working in her lesson plans when the door to the apartment swung wildly open, then slammed shut with just as much force. She watched her roommate stomped across the small apartment to the kitchen and pulled out a corkscrew out of the drawer. Frowning, her lips pulled grimly into a thin line as she eyed the bottle of wine Emma was roughly trying to uncork.
'Oh, Emma.' Mary Margaret's heart pulled sympathetically at the sight.
Her blonde friend had came home earlier buzzing with excitement, telling her enthusiastically about the Mayor's dinner invitation and proudly holding in her hands an expensive bottle of wine. Admittedly not knowing much about wine, Emma had apparently spent her entire lunch hour at the liquor store, asking the advice of the store owner and looking for the most worthwhile wine for Regina instead of eating her lunch. Now looking at the way Emma leaning against the kitchen counter and throwing her head back drinking straight from the bottle, Mary Margaret knew the evening was a far cry from what her friend had anticipated.
Emma watched from the corner of her eye as Mary Margaret got up from her desk and made her way over to the her, then slid onto one of the bar stools, waiting silently. Emma allowed herself another long pull from the wine bottle before meeting the gaze of the school teacher.
"Don't ask," she said tiredly.
Mary Margaret looked back at her knowingly. "I don't really need to." There was a slow burn of anger towards Regina, whom she held sole responsible for the state that her friend was in. But Mary Margaret decided she would contain her own feelings and opinions about the cruel woman for the moment and just be supportive to her blonde friend.
Emma sighed and put the bottle down on the counter. She knew she was putting on quite a pathetic display. Looking up she was thankful to find patient green eyes gazing back at her.
"I'm trying so hard here, Mary Margaret," she spoke softly, seemingly defeated. "Harder than I have ever tried in my life. Why couldn't she see that?"
Mary Margaret's heart broke for her friend. When she told the strong-willed blonde to stop keeping people at arm's length, she didn't mean for Emma to allow the heartless Mayor to do this to her, bringing her hopes up only to crush them under those hard stiletto heels.
"I know, I know." Emma waved off the question she knew was at the tip of the school teacher's tongue. "You're wondering why I keep setting myself up for crap like this. I've asked myself that same question a million times and," Emma sighed heavily and picked up the bottle again, "I still don't have a clue why I can't ignore this pull I have towards Regina."
"Emma…" Mary Margaret regarded the blonde with a curious tilt of her head, an unsettling thought beginning to take form in her head. "Are you… are you in love with her?"
Emma snorted around a mouthful of wine. Quickly swallowing before she chokes, she wiped her lips with the back of her hand before answering her friend's question. "Love? Ha, I don't think so." She chuckled nervously at the preposterous idea. "Seriously, me? Regina? You've got to be kidding. Yeah, I'm deathly attracted to her. But we... I..." Emma began stammering, losing track of her reasoning. "I mean, I... Oh! I don't know!" she exclaimed in frustration, holding her head in her hands.
"I have never been in love before," Emma whispered after a few minutes, her head still cradled in her hands. "I don't even what that's supposed to look like."
"Emma…" Mary Margaret reached across the counter and took Emma's hands in hers.
"Have you been in love, Mary Margaret?" Emma asked wistfully.
"Um," taken aback by having the question turned back to her, Mary Margaret needed a moment to gather her thoughts. And naturally, her thoughts went straight to David Nolan. She wondered if what she felt for him could be called love. Despite how happy he made her feel every time they meet in secrecy, the fact remains that he's still married to Kathryn. "No, Emma, I can't say I've been in love before too."
"Jeez, we are a sad pair," Emma muttered.
"Maybe it's a good thing you and the Mayor take a bit of time apart," Mary Margaret suggested, wondering if she should consider doing the same with David. "Just to take a step back and put things into perspective without all the confusing emotions."
"I guess you're right." Emma did feel emotionally drained and her brain hurt. A break from Regina was really the ideal option at the moment. Yes, she needed that. And she also needed a distraction.
"What are you doing?" Mary Margaret asked as Emma pulled her cellphone out of her back pocket and started dialing.
"Calling Ruby. We," Emma gestured between herself and her roommate with her free hand, "are going out tonight."
"Emma, it's a school night."
"Aw, don't be a party pooper!" The blonde pouted. "Fine, you stay home. Ruby will come with me." Then she brought the wine bottle back up to her lips and took another long pull from it while Mary Margaret looked on with concern.
"Okay, okay, I'll come," the brunette relented, only because she could sense Emma's intention to simply drink her frustration away and Ruby was hardly reliable to keep the blonde deputy from drinking out of control. "We can't stay too late."
"Yeah, of course!" Emma grinned, then turned her focus to her cellphone. "Ruby! Hey, girls' night out tonight! You game?"
Mary Margaret sighed. 'Who am I kidding? It's gonna be a loooong night.'