Long story short, this is probably my least favorite chapter. (Now also the longest, almost 4K). But, I hope you can make it through. I will be posting Chapter 7 in like two days. I'm halfway done with it already!

Chapter 6 - The Talk

Regina's morning starts out like any Sunday morning would. Her internal alarm clock wakes her up at 6:00am on the dot, she gets up and makes herself a coffee, and sits on her chaise lounge while reading a book. But instead of instantly diving into the new book she had purchased, Regina finds herself checking her phone.

It was almost routine for her now, glancing at her phone screen to see if Emma had texted her. Since the dinner party, the pair hadn't gone a day without talking to each other, and like all things routine, there's a message from Emma sitting in her notifications.

Regina unlocks her phone and opens the message, wondering why Emma had sent her a photo attachment. Her eyes lock in on the picture that Emma had attached in a message from last night.

Emma: so I know you don't like your picture being taken, but I thought you might want to see this one.
Emma: [image]

Regina opens the photo so it's larger and her breath hitches. It's a picture of her, watching the sunset with Emma's jacket around her shoulders. Her hair blowing back from the ocean breeze and a thoughtful expression seen from the side of her face. She notes how light brown her eyes look in the remaining sunlight and her lips naturally purse when deep in thought. She looked beautiful.

And Regina never thought that about herself when she sees photos. She always thinks she looks awkward with a forced smile on her face, but this photo has her thinking otherwise. And while she was completely unaware that it was taken, it was one of the best photos of her. She looked comfortable.

Regina lets out a breath as she zooms in on the picture, the complexion of her skin glowing while the colors of the sky compliment it. Emma definitely had a good eye and Regina can't believe that the photographer made her feel so damn pretty with just one photograph.

"Holy shit." She breathes out as she exits the photo, her fingers hovering over the keyboard.

Thoughts were swimming through her mind as she looks up from her phone and spots Emma's jacket draped over her office chair. She had completely forgotten that she accidentally taken it home with her, so instead of replying to Emma's text, she gets up off of the chaise lounge and grabs the jacket. The smell of Emma still lingered on the inside, the scent of the ocean sticking on the leather. Regina inhales it before shaking her head. She walks out of the office and grabs her keys, heading out through the garage. She gets in her car and lays the jacket delicately on the passenger seat before heading to Emma's condo.

She arrives 30 minutes later, looking at the building as she sits in the parking lot. It was only 7:30 in the morning and Regina's wondering if she should have waited until later in the day to return the jacket. She didn't want to be that person who woke someone up over something as trivial as returning an accidentally confiscated article of clothing. She bites on her lower lip before ultimately deciding she should just return the jacket later when her phone buzzes.

She lifts it out of the cup holder and sees a text from Emma sitting on her lock screen.

Emma: are you just going to sit outside of my condo all day? I didn't peg you for the stalkerish type ;P

Regina chuckles, shaking her head as she glances out the window to see Emma standing in the window on the 3rd floor. She smiles widely as she gets out of the car, watching Emma wave slightly as she grabs the jacket from her passenger seat.

Emma makes hand gestures, telling Regina which condo number was hers and Regina nods, walking into the building. She inhales sharply as she reaches Emma's door, realizing this would be the first time she's ever seen the inside of her place.

She lifts her fist to knock, but the door swings open and Emma's staring at her with a goofy smile.

"Finally. I was thinking you'd be sitting outside all day." Emma jokes causing Regina to lowly chuckle.

"I was about to leave actually. I realized 7:30 is an ungodly hour to just show up to someone's house." Regina admits, holding out Emma's jacket.

"Thank you." Emma says as she grabs the jacket and throws it over her shoulder. Regina nods and starts scanning the inside of Emma's condo from the doorway. It was full of photos that Regina assumed either Emma or Ruby took. There were a bunch of nature shots, plus a giant portrait of Ruby and Emma, cameras dangling from their necks as they pose in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. Regina smiles as she turns her attention back to Emma.

"I like your place." Regina says absentmindedly as she stares Emma up and down. The blonde was in a red hoodie and grey sweatpants. Regina's eyes travel down towards Emma's waist and she notices a vague outline of something. What, she's not sure, but there was definitely something in Emma's pants. She shakes the thought, figuring it must be her phone in her pocket, and looks back up and Emma who has her lips pressed together.

"Yeah, Ruby wanted to display our work everywhere, so we just hung a bunch of prints." Emma shrugs as she opens the door wider. "Did you want to come in?"

"Actually, I should probably get going. My sister wants to spend the day together and San Diego is a couple hours away. I should probably head her way. She's a little crazy when it comes to me being on time." Regina admits, instantly feeling bad that she didn't take up Emma's offer to come in. But if there's one thing she knows about Zelena, it was to not keep her waiting.

"I understand. My mom is the same way."

"Oh, I know. She is always watching the clock when I'm supposed to come in and calls me if I'm a minute late." Regina laughs.

"That's my mom for you." Emma replies. "But, anyways! Have a fun time with your sister."

"Oh, I'll try. She'll probably just pry into my non-existent love life the entire time." Regina shrugs, biting on her lower lip as she continues staring at Emma. She doesn't know what it is about the blonde that draws her in, but she steps forward and once again, presses a kiss to a pale cheek. "I may text you complaining about needing saving."

"I'll be there for you." Emma smiles as she gently hugs the brunette. "You better get going. I wouldn't want you to get your head ripped off by your sister before our second date."

"So, yesterday was a date?" Regina asks, her heart fluttering at the blonde's comment.

"Oh, uh... I'm sorry. I didn't want to assume, but I thought..." Emma stutters out and Regina thinks it's the most adorable thing she's ever seen.

Regina just grabs a hold of Emma's hand and squeezes it. "I'll try not to get my head ripped off before our second date."

She was fifteen minutes late. And to her lack of surprise, Zelena had counted every minute from the time she originally told her sister she'd be arriving. It's not that Regina wasn't punctual, she was mostly always early. But traffic on the 405 can get a little ridiculous, especially in the early morning.

When she arrives, she's instantly met with a hug and around ten questions about her date with Emma, to which she just played it off as no big deal. Zelena was not having it at all, and Regina just wanted her to shut up for a god damn minute so she could breathe. She loved her sister, she really did, but sometimes she was too much.

Zelena definitely took after Cora, their mother. She was overbearing and pushy, but Regina knows she had good intentions. She was just looking out for her baby sister.

"So, can I see what she looks like?" Zelena asks as they sit in the living room, talking over a cup of tea.

"I would say yes, but I don't have any photos of her. We've only been on one semi-date." Regina admits, but Zelena just shakes her head.

"Don't you both still have that dating app? Can't we just see her pictures on her profile?"

"Uh, no." Regina draws out. "We both deleted our accounts after we exchanged numbers."

"So it's serious then? I mean, no one would do that unless they had found someone worth talking to." Zelena takes a sip of her tea, eyeing Regina.

"No, I- I don't know. Kathryn made my profile and it was ridiculous and a huge joke to me. Emma's best friend did the same thing so... there was no point in us having them." Regina replies, trying not to think too much into it. She deleted her profile because she was never going to use it beyond talking to Emma. But Emma hadn't exactly told her why she deleted her own. She figured it was the same reason she got rid of hers, seeing as both of their best friends had made the damn things.

Zelena sets the cup down and leans forward, hand perched under her chin. "Do you like her?"

"I think I do. A lot, actually." Regina admits out loud and she's actually surprised with herself. She hadn't even told Kathryn that she felt something, however minuscule, for the blonde. "She's just- she's sincere and real. She took this picture of me yesterday when I wasn't looking and made me feel so... beautiful and free."

Zelena gasps, hand covering her mouth as she scoots closer to her sister. "You must show me!"

Regina rolls her eyes, pulling out her phone and opening the message thread between her and Emma. She clicks on the photo and hands the phone to Zelena who once again gasps and then somehow manages to release a horrible high pitched squeal.

"Oh my god! This is absolutely breathtaking, Reggie!" Zelena exclaims excitedly. "You know what they say about pictures like this? The most beautiful pictures are taken in someone's natural state. You look gorgeous! And I bet Emma thinks that, too, or she wouldn't have sent this to you."

"So, she thinks I'm pretty. It's not a big deal, it's her job to have an eye for that kind of thing." Regina shrugs it off as nothing.

"It's completely unedited. I can tell because everything contrasts perfectly, and I can see enough of your skin complexion to know she didn't smooth any of this out. This is a 100% raw photo of you. She shared this with you because this is exactly how she sees you!" Zelena practically squeals. "Photographers are almost always iffy about their work before editing. And she gave you this photo without touching it. Gina, she likes you, too!"

"You're jumping to conclusions, Z. I hardly know her still." Regina groans, wishing her sister would just butt out.

"So get to know her! I get that you're skeptical about opening up, but take a chance! You only live once and I would prefer to see my baby sister happy."

"I- I don't know, Zelena. She's nice and super sweet. What if I fuck it up like I did with... her?" Regina shudders at the thought of Mal.

"Regina, not everyone is your ex." Zelena assures. "Just... give the damn girl a chance!"

"Okay, okay. Fine!" Regina caves. "Sometimes, I hate when you're right."

"Oh, darling, I'm always right."

Emma paces the kitchen at her parents' house as she slightly freaks out. Once she had retrieved her jacket from Regina, the blonde had headed back into the condo, Ruby making a blunt comment that she could see the outline of Emma's dick in her grey sweatpants. And it caused Emma to have a total meltdown.

Not that she meant to get overly anxious over something like that, she usually doesn't, especially with Ruby. But she still hadn't told Regina and now the brunette probably saw what she'd been trying so desperately to hide and is refusing to talk to her.

"Emma, you need to stop walking back and forth." David says calmly as he sits at the kitchen table. "It's like watching a frantic tennis match."

"I just don't know what to do!" Emma whines, causing David to roll his eyes at his daughter. "I actually like her and if she saw what Ruby pointed out, she probably thinks I'm a freak!"

"You are NOT a freak." David replies sternly, standing up and walking over to his daughter. "You're different and special, but Emma, you are not some freak of nature."

Emma stops pacing and shrugs her shoulders. She knew her dad was right, he always is. It's not like she meant to freak out, but she didn't want Regina to find out before she was ready and decide she wasn't into that.

"Em, listen to me. You need to tell her. You can't let things progress without her knowing." David suggests. "It's not fair to her and it's not fair to you. You can't string her along under false pretenses."

And David is right, once again. She understood where he was coming from. It wasn't fair to Regina that Emma kept the biggest part of her a secret. And Emma knew that if she wanted things to grow with the brunette, she'd have to let her in and tell Regina.

And she hated it. Absolutely hated it. Because Regina was someone Emma could actually see herself with. They balanced each other out, they never let a moment between them grow dull. And Emma, regardless of how many times she argued that meeting someone online was ridiculous, found Regina to be completely different and genuine. She only wished that Regina would be accepting of her condition.

"Okay..." Emma breathes out, her nerves running rampant through her. "I'll tell her."

Regina's day had been long. She and Zelena had gone around San Diego, shopping and gossiping (as Zelena was best at). She had just made it back to LA when Mary-Margaret called her asking her if she could drop by Emma and Ruby's place to get something for her since she was still held up in the office.

She felt nervous as she knocked on the door to the condo. She hadn't spoken to Emma all day due to Zelena's random "no phones" rule and she refused to text while driving. She only hoped that the blonde was home.

Ruby answers the door, smiling widely as she sees Regina. "Hey! Whatcha doing here?"

"Uhm, Mary-Margaret said that Emma had photos of a house before it was renovated. The buyers want before and after pictures, but we don't have the before photos. They were taken about a year and a half ago. MM says Emma keeps everything though."

"She does! Come in, they're probably somewhere in my closet." Ruby opens the door wider for Regina before leading her into her bedroom. "This used to be Emma's office before I moved in and there were a couple of boxes of photographs left behind in here. I bet they're in there."

Regina nods and waits as Ruby disappears into the closet before emerging with two boxes in her arms labeled "Emma 2015". Ruby huffs out as she sets them on the ground, moving the top box in front of Regina.

"What was the street the house was on?" Ruby asks as she starts looking through the mass amounts of pictures in the box, thankful Emma wrote on the back of them.

"Driftwood Cove." Regina replies as she opens the box Ruby set in front of her.

She gently places any pictures that are not of houses on the ground, trying her best not to spend too much time admiring Emma's work. She picks up the next stack, noticing a piece of paper slipping out from between the pictures. She pulls it out and goes to set it on the ground, but gasps when she notices that the paper had blood droplets all over it.

"Ruby, what is this?"

Ruby stops looking through her box and grabs the paper Regina is holding out. She quickly examines it before sighing loudly. "It's a letter from Emma's ex. This must have been from the day that she just upped and left her for someone else. She didn't even break up with her in person."

"That's terrible." Regina says sympathetically. "Why is there blood all over it?"

"Ariel told me that when she came over to check on Emma after everyone had heard about the news, the office was completely torn apart and wrecked. She said that there was a picture that Emma had punched and she broke the glass. Must have cut herself and bled all over it." Ruby shrugs as she sets the note on the ground. "It was a really bad break up."

Regina glances at it again, reading a sentence that she could make out from behind the blood stains.

'I knew what I was getting into when I first met you three years ago, and I was perfectly okay with that and your condition. But now, I can't be with you.'

Regina shakes her head, wondering what Emma's condition possibly was and why someone could have left the blonde over it. She puts her thoughts to the side, remembering why she came here in the first place.

She continues shuffling through the photos, coming up with nothing. She goes to grab the next stack, but feels something coarse brush against the top of her knuckle. She quickly pulls the pictures up to see what it was when she sees a shattered picture frame at the bottom of the box.

She picks it up and her heart stops. The girl in the photo, she knew her. Questions were swimming through her head, and Ruby notices the silence that had fallen over them. She looks up at Regina who had her mouth wide open as her hands shakily hold the picture frame.

"Regina, are you okay?"

"I know her." Regina breathes out. "She dated my sister... Her name was Lily, right?"

"Uh..." Ruby draws out. "Yeah."

Regina drops the picture frame back into the box, and slowly backs away from it. She had no idea what to make of the situation now. Regina remembers when Zelena had told her the story of what had happened between her and Lily. She remembers Zelena being so blinded by love that she ultimately helped Lily break up with her girlfriend, delivering the note that sat in front of her.

And then her heart breaks at the memory of Zelena telling her how distraught Emma had gotten when she found out. She wonders how someone could seemingly leave a person like Emma. As far as Regina was concerned, Emma was the sweetest, most genuine soul she had ever met. Guarded, most definitely, but she doesn't let it keep her down.

But this small fact changed a lot of things that Regina had thought about Emma. She had questions, naturally. Did Emma have some sort of medical condition that was fatal and that's why someone couldn't deal with it? Was Emma dying? Or was it something absolutely ridiculous and Lily was just a bitch about it? Either way, Regina wanted to know.

Her phone vibrating in her pocket pulls her out of her thoughts momentarily. She grabs it and looks at the screen, seeing a text from Emma appear.

Emma: uh... hey. I need to talk to you about something. Can you meet me at my place?

Emma swallows the lump in her throat as she pushes the door open to her condo. She was nervous, hoping that the news she was about to tell Regina wasn't going to end with Regina leaving. After she had texted the brunette saying they needed to talk, she received a response that said 'I need to talk to you, too'.

She walks into the living room to see Regina on her couch, a broken picture frame and blood stained note sitting on the coffee table. She gulps loudly. She hasn't seen those two objects in almost two years, not after Ariel had come to clean up her place for her. She had merely assumed that the redhead had thrown them away.

"You dated Lily?" Regina's soft voice asks and Emma stands in front of the table, hands her in pockets.

She nods, sighing loudly. "I did. She broke up with me a year and a half ago..."

"I know... Uhm, my sister is the one who gave you this." Regina points to the note.

"So your sister is Zelena..." Emma breathes out. "Regina, look... whatever you know about me, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it sooner."

"Know? What could I possibly know?" Regina asks, confused.

Emma's eyes widen and she opens her mouth before shutting it promptly. "She didn't tell you? Zelena, she didn't tell you the reason why Lily left me?"

"She doesn't know that you're the same Emma... I haven't told her." Regina shakes her head before turning her attention to the letter. "But I assume it has something to do with a condition you have?"

"Uh, yeah." Emma says nervously.

Regina grabs a hold of Emma's hand, leading her to sit next to her on the couch. "What is it, Emma? You can tell me."

Emma looks down at the ground, soaking in the feeling of Regina's thumb brushing over her knuckles. She breathes in deep, feeling Regina's eyes on her. Her stomach was in knots as she tries to muster up the courage to tell Regina what she deserved to know.

"I- I'm different." Emma stutters out. "Like- I-"

Emma feels an arm wrap around her shoulder, pulling her closer until her body is flush against Regina's in a comforting side huge. "It's okay, Emma. I promise."

"Don't make promises you can't keep." Emma says defensively and she instantly takes it back when Regina looks at her, offended. "No- I'm- I'm sorry. I just... I didn't- it's a defense mechanism. This thing, I- it changed a lot for me. And I- you deserve to know what's wrong with me."

Emma breathes out a nervous, shaky laugh as she tries to not sound like a bumbling idiot. She closes her eyes tightly, hoping that when the next sentence comes out of her mouth, Regina would still be there.

"Regina, I'm not like every other girl... I mean, I am but I- my anatomy is different and I'm-." Emma gulps loudly before squeezing her eyes as tightly shut as they could go. She lets out a deep breath, wondering what kind of expression was on Regina's face, but she couldn't open her eyes. She was too scared.

"Emma, I don't quite understand what you mean... Are you- are you okay?" Regina says softly, her hand gently stroking Emma's cheek.

"I was born with a penis."

Okay, so I rewrote this chapter like five times and I just couldn't get it to where I absolutely loved it. Regina finding out about Lily and Emma is so important to the story, though, and this is the best way I could show that.

I hope you forgive me. The next chapter will be better, I promise.