Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or its characters.
Her phone buzzed on the kitchen counter and Regina turned her head. She turned off the stove, not wanting her dinner to be burnt. Before she picked it up, she read the name on the screen and a smile formed in her lips. "Miss Swan."
"Hey Regina. I…I know it's kinda late but I wanted to…," Emma seemed to struggle with her words, and the Mayor could picture her furrowing her brows.
"To what?" she asked curiously.
"To check on you."
Regina sighed and turned the stove back on, "I'm not drinking nor thinking about it, Sheriff. Unless you count wine for dinner, of course."
"No, no. I mean like, today with Henry and everything. I'm glad you're not drinking, though."
Regina smiled at the events of the afternoon, "Well, it was…good. It was great. How's Henry?"
"He is still deep into the project actually. He's really excited about it."
The Mayor felt proud for the perseverance and hard work of Henry, glad she had raised him well. She smiled for a moment before a frown crossed her features, "And has he said anything about…well, me?"
"It's confusing for him. I think he's so focused on his homework because he doesn't want to think too much about it. I guess he got that from you." Regina blushed at the fact that Emma seemed to know her so well.
"I understand," she said, feeling a hint of sadness about her son not wanting to think about her.
"He will get to it. It's just too much for him," Emma tried to reassure.
"Too much for him? What do you mean too much for him?"
Emma seemed to struggle with her words as she spoke, "I mean with the evil stuff you know. You still cursed everyone and he—"
Regina pursed her lips, "Again with the curse? I get that, I did evil things, but you see I'm not the only one. What about Rumple, huh? He's done way more than that and yet I don't see anyone looking at him with contempt."
"Regina, I didn't mean—"
"I know very well what you meant, Miss Swan. Thank you for today but I don't think your perspective is accurate here."
Regina hung up and slammed her phone on the counter. She thought Emma was different, that she thought different of her, at least that's what she had proved the past days, but it seemed she was wrong. It probably just was an act to get closer to her and being able to watch her so she didn't do anything evil. The Mayor sneered at the word evil and decided some cider wouldn't be bad. At least that would ease the pain for a while.
This time it was around 2 am when Emma had gotten the desk. The alarm of the Mayor's office was off again and she sighed before rushing to the City Town Hall. Once she got there, the light was off and there was some rumbling inside Regina's office, so she decided to pull out her gun just in case this time it was a real robbery.
But when she opened the door, she found Regina on the floor next to the cabinets, with lots of files surrounding her and the room made a mess. As Emma entered the room putting her weapon back oh its holster, Regina was going through the files inside the cabinets.
"Regina?" she called out, making the woman on the floor jump, startled.
The Mayor looked up at her and acted as if she wasn't on the floor frantically looking for a file, "Sheriff."
"What are you doing here? And why is it so dark?"
Regina stared at her for a moment and then resumed to her task, "I couldn't find the light switch."
Emma rolled her eyes and walked to Regina, putting a hand to her shoulder, but the Mayor shrugged it away. "What are you doing?" she asked anyways.
"It isn't related to some evil plan, so you can keep walking Sheriff," she answered still looking though the files.
Emma shifted her weight to the other leg, "If this is for the phone call earlier—"
"The world doesn't revolve around you, as much as you would like to think so, Savior."
"Regina, I'm really trying here, ok? Give me a break," Emma busted out at the mention of her title.
The Mayor looked up at her for a moment, both of them staring into each other's eyes, and the Regina lowered her gaze at the cabinet. "I'm looking for a picture of Henry. I'm sure it must be around here but I can't find it."
"Okay then, I can help you with that." And without a word, Emma turned on the light and started to look in the office with Regina, who stared at the Sheriff for a while before returning to her task.
They looked for the picture in silence, and it was 10 minutes later Emma found in the drawer of the desk a picture of little Henry smiling at the camera, raising his little hands towards what it seemed to be the photographer. Emma smiled at the picture.
"Regina?" When she raised her head, Emma raised the picture, "Is this the photo?"
The Mayor stood up and rushed to the desk. She took the photo and smiled fondly at it. Emma saw her features soften and her eyes tearing up a little. "I really don't think you're evil, Regina," she whispered. "You can have happiness, you know?"
Regina looked up at her but didn't say a word, so Emma went on, taking a step ahead to place her hand on her arm. "I am the Savior," she said frowning at that word, still not comfortable with it. "I came here to bring back the happy endings, and that includes yours. I didn't mean you are evil, I mean Henry is just a kid and he was convinced you were evil. He's still learning to forgive and I promise you, he'll do it. He's getting there."
A single tear ran down Regina's cheek but she nodded, straightening her posture. She raised the picture, "Yeah, this is the photo."
Emma smiled, recognizing the answer to the question she had asked a few minutes before and nodded at Regina's stubbornness. Still, she knew she had gotten her message, since she was more relaxed on Emma's presence. The Sheriff looked around, "Well, this is a mess."
Regina nodded, "I'll leave my secretary to do the job of picking up tomorrow." Emma raised an eyebrow and Regina rolled her eyes, "I'm just kidding, I'll do it tomorrow. She deserves a little punishment though."
"Leave it to Karma," Emma said exiting the office.
Regina stopped and frowned, "To whom?"
Emma laughed, "Nothing. C'mon, I'll get you home."
Once in the car, Regina looked at the picture of Henry and Emma saw her by the corner of her eye, "Henry really is the most important thing to you, isn't he?"
"I don't see why everyone seems to believe he isn't. I raised him; I was with him when he was sick or afraid, when he needed help with his homework, when he was sad. I love him, and I mean it."
"I believe you."
Regina looked at Emma, "Thanks."
"Actually I was thinking about coming over to your house with him tomorrow evening. He could pick up some of his stuff and maybe I can't talk to him about having dinner? If you're okay with it, of course."
"That…would be wonderful, yes."
"Cool," Emma smiled and Regina mirrored her.
The Sheriff drove in silence a few more blocks until she stopped the car in front of Regina's mansion. "It's getting a habit dropping you at your house late at night, "she said and saw the Mayor blush under the moon's dim light. "I hope next time it's for a different reason."
Regina just looked at her, not trusting her drunk self to talk, so Emma smiled, "See you tomorrow then. And try to not to drink too much, okay?"
The Mayor nodded and smiled in goodbye before stepping out of the car. She felt Emma's gaze on her until she closed the door. It was then when she let out her breath and closed her eyes.
Regina woke up before the alarm went off, already nervous about that evening. Emma would bring Henry and maybe, hopefully, they would stay for dinner. It had been long since Henry had been home, so she made sure everything was perfect.
After a long day at the Mayor's office, including tidying up her office, she got home and called the town's glass maker to come over and put a glass on the broken window. He quickly came and did his work, although Regina had to ignore all the snarky comments he had slipped.
She was going through her favourite recipe book when her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and her heart raced, "Emma."
"Hey Regina, am I interrupting something important?"
"No, I was just looking for recipes. I know Henry's favourite is the lasagne but I'm looking for something else because maybe he would like something new."
Emma cleared her throat and made Regina stop her rambling. "Is something wrong?"
"Actually, Henry got invited to a friend's house to finish the project they will present tomorrow at the Pet Shelter's party and he's going to stay over at his friend's tonight."
Regina stopped turning the pages of her book and swallowed. Emma felt the change of mood through the phone and quickly reassured, "He was okay with it though, maybe we can still do it some other day?"
"Yeah, sure," Regina managed to say. She clung to the idea he was okay with it and tried not to think the plan wouldn't go on that day.
"Okay uhm, I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault Emma," she said closing the book.
"I know but I'm sorry anyway. I know you were looking forward it." Regina didn't answer and Emma took it as her exit cue, "See you tomorrow at the party though?"
"Of course."
"Great, see you then."
Regina hung up without saying goodbye and stared at the book. It took her a while to start moving again, picking up a bowl and some ingredients. She wouldn't have dinner with Emma and Henry, but that didn't stop her from having a good meal.
A/N: i'm not really happy with how this turned out but there's more to come, just hang in there and don't forget to tell me what you think!