Poison & Wine
Chapter 38
8 MONTHS LATER
It had been eight months since the wedding and Mary Margaret was about ready to pop her baby out. Much to everyone's surprise Regina had been rather helpful. She offered up old baby clothes of Henry's and if she hadn't of donated his old crib to Ashley when she was pregnant then she would have given that to them too.
Henry turned twelve three months ago and despite the still absent Neal from his life, things were going good for him. Emma and him were on a weekend training schedule that consisted of an early morning run with the dogs and an hour work out at home. The boy had gained ten pounds of muscle and sprouted three inches. His voice was starting to change as well, making him into every bit the little man.
Yeah, things were looking good for everyone in Storybrooke, especially so with the Mayor and Sheriff. Emma and Regina were exactly one month away from celebrating their one-year anniversary and most everyone in the town was surprised they'd made it this long.
They had more than one rough patch throughout the last eight months, probably due to the fact that the two were women were strikingly different in nearly every aspect of their lives. Where Regina was neat, Emma was messy. The blonde had an unusual pet peeve when the toilet paper was put on the roll backwards and the former queen absolutely loathed when Emma turned the air down to seventy-two from seventy-four. The list of differences and petty arguments went on and on and the couple had plenty of fights about them.
One argument that stuck out to Emma was when she bought a large home safe to stash her various guns in.
"You're the one who always gets pissed at me for leaving my gun around the house! This way all of my guns will be locked up!" She had her duty glock 42, her browning shotgun, and Smith and Wesson revolver. She also had a Taser she planned to put in there.
Regina rolled her eyes. "Please. Any juvenile magic being could break through this petty lock! I told you to get rid of them all and leave your gun at the station!"
The savior scoffed. "And I told you that wasn't going to happen!" She yelled, raising her hands in the air. "We need a gun in this house! Like hell I'm going to let some mother fucker break in and not be armed."
"If they have magic, your gun will be useless! We have two wolves running around here for God's sake. Is that not protection enough?" The brunette asked.
"No, it's not!" Emma argued. "And your magic argument is moot because you and Gold are the only people with magic to worry about. Who are you worried will break in and still my weapons? The nun fairies?"
The older woman huffed. "Who are you worried will break in at all? Hansel and Gretel?"
"Uh, one of the lost boys!" The blonde pointed out. "Those little mobsters would break in anywhere."
"I don't want the guns in the house." Regina stated firmly, as if her words would end the argument.
Emma raised a blonde eyebrow. "You might be the boss at work, baby, but here we're on equal footing. The safe stays. The guns stay."
The argument lasted three days in total with Regina threatening to make Emma sleep on the couch, but the savior refused and so the couple slept next to each other while angry. Eventually, the blonde decided to compromise and offered to get rid of the safe if her girlfriend could teach her how to do a blood magic spell to shield her closet altogether. That seemed to appease the brunette and the hot make-up sex was totally worth the horrible three days they had.
Both women had their fair share of compromises in the last several months, but they had always gotten over the hurdles thrown at them. Which was what brought Emma to where she was- in a jewelry store just outside of Castine in For George.
The plan was to pick out an engagement ring for her girlfriend. She didn't know when she'd propose, and she wasn't sure if it was too cliché to do it on their anniversary or if it was even too soon to propose in general, but she wanted to get a ring.
Of course she needed an alibi for leaving Storybrooke so she brought Hook, claiming she needed to be there for his fictional court date in Castine.
The brunette was currently talking her ear off about his current relationship problem with Tinkerbelle. "I'd like us to move in together, but she's being completely unreasonable, Swan."
Green eyes rolled as she browsed the engagement rings. "She doesn't sound so unreasonable to me." Emma shrugged.
Killian scoffed. "My ship is my life!" The man reminded her. "No woman has been there for me like my ship, love."
"Good afternoon!" The overly gay jeweler greeted them with a beaming smile. "I see you've taken an eye to our engagement selection."
Hook leaned against the glass counter and smiled back at the man as Emma pointed to an oval cut diamond ring. "Can I check out this one?"
The man's eyes glinted with joy as he opened the glass casing. "Excellent selection." He noted and grabbed the thin banned ring. "This is our French Cut Halo Oval Diamond."
Emma put it on her left hand and imagined it was Regina's. The ring was beautiful and sparkled. "How many carats is it?"
"The center stone is 2.01 and the halo and band inlays combined are .21." He told the pair and smiled at them. "You two make a lovely couple."
Killian busted out laughing at the man behind the counter and Emma joined him. "We're not together." He assured him. "She's buying this for the pain in her ass mother of her child."
"Oh." The jewelry flushed in embarrassment. "I just assumed it."
The blonde waved it off. "No, it's okay." She grinned and took the ring off. "What's the damage?" She questioned, referring to the ring.
"Eleven thousand seven hundred."
Green eyes widened comically as did Hook's. "Holy shit." Emma muttered, casting a glance down at the ring.
"That's quite the price tag, Swan." The brunette man noted.
The sheriff looked at the jeweler. "I'll give you ten for it." She offered.
Hook looked at her like she was insane. "Swan, you said you only wanted to spend seven." He reminded her. "And that was pushing it."
Emma rolled her eyes and ignored him. "I can give you seven thousand today and make monthly payments on the rest if you include the wedding band and box." She had saved up a great bundle of cash for the last ten years or so. Twelve thousand currently sat in her savings account. Realistically she could use all of the money for the ring now if she wanted to, but she'd have to transfer the money to her checking account and she was looking to leave the store that day with the purchased ring.
"Eleven thousand even and I'll throw in the wedding band."
"Swan, there are other jewelry stores." Killian assured her.
The blonde looked at the man behind the counter before she turned back to her friend and nodded. "You're right." She told him and handed the ring to jeweler. "I'm sorry, I can't afford it."
Her and Hook went to walk away until they heard the gay man call after them. "Wait a moment! Miss?" Emma turned around to look at him. "Ten thousand five hundred." He offered.
"Include the wedding band and box and you've got a deal."
"So you're really going to do it, huh?" Hook asked as he sat at his desk, looking at the large diamond ring in its box.
Emma nodded and plucked the darts from the board. "Yep." She said simply.
Killian shook his head with a disbelieving smile. "You do know that this will tie you to the Evil Queen for life."
The sheriff laughed softly. "I'm already tied her for life. This will just make it legally difficult for her to leave me." She joked.
"Has that been threatened?" He asked and when Emma rolled her eyes he chuckled and changed the subject. "Do you have a plan?"
Blonde eyebrows furrowed as she threw a dart. "Plan?"
The pirate nodded. "On how you're going to ask her." He clarified.
"Oh." Emma realized. "No. I haven't really thought it through."
Killian scoffed. "Don't have a plan and you yet bought the worlds most expensive ring?"
The savior threw another dart. "I bought the ring because I want to marry her one day. I'll figure the rest out."
Hook closed the ring box and cleared his throat. "So back to my problem."
Green eyes rolled as she snagged the ring and put it in her jacket pocket. "Please. Your girlfriend wants you to move out of your boat-ship." She corrected when she saw the glare her friend was sending her way. "What's the big deal? Her apartment is much nicer than the Jolly Roger."
"It's not about how nice her place is, Swan." The brunette informed her. "This is about her trying to change who I am!"
Emma scoffed. "Get over yourself, dude. She's not asking you to get rid of it. She just wants to live in a place that doesn't make her seasick when there's a storm."
Killian shook his head. "I can't move out of my ship. That would be like you asking Regina to move out of her house."
"It's nothing like that. The mansion is the nicest house in town. Your ship is barely livable." The blonde argued. She threw a dart and turned to him. "Look, do you love her?"
The pirate nodded. "Yes."
"Do you want to live with her?" She asked.
Another nod. "Yeah."
"Then learn to compromise." Emma advised. "I have to compromise with Regina on things all the time. It's called being in a grown-up relationship, Hook." She teased and threw another dart.
Killian laughed. "It's called being whipped, Swan. And just because you like when the Evil Queen straps it on does kinky things to you doesn't mean I want Tinkerbelle to screw me like that."
Clicking heels could be heard and the blonde made sure to take off her leather jacket and toss it on her father's empty desk in case her girlfriend decided to get handsy.
"Just to clarify, pirate. She's actually the one who 'straps it on' and I think we all know you're already whipped." Regina spoke as she stepped close to her girlfriend and planted a tender kiss on her lips. "Hi dear."
Emma grinned and tangled their fingers together by her waist. "Hey baby."
Hook was smirking as he watched them. "So Swan wears that nifty little device, huh?" He wiggled his eyebrows. "I've been wondering. She's been rather shut mouth about that aspect of your love making."
A dark eyebrow raised as the mayor looked at her true love. "Are you not quite about all aspects of our love making?"
The blonde rolled her eyes. "I don't tell him anything." She assured the older woman.
"Except that you're a shameless little harlot in the sack." Killian revealed.
Emma cleared her throat and changed the subject. "So what's up?" She asked the woman. "Are you here as my boss or my girlfriend?"
The former queen wiped at the slight lipstick stain on the younger woman's mouth. "I'm very much here as your boss."
"That kiss really made it clear there, your Majesty." The pirate teased.
Regina glared at the man. "Don't you have a phone to answer a cat to save from a tree somewhere?"
Hook grinned. "I'm afraid it's a rather slow day, Madam Mayor."
The sheriff dragged her lover into her office and shut both of the doors. "You have business for me?"
"Yes." Regina nodded. "I was looking over the departments paperwork and I'd like to propose something to you."
"Office sex?" The savior smirked.
Brown eyes rolled playfully. "Not while your one-handed wonder can see us through the glass. Need a remind you how your mother walked in on us when you were two knuckles deep inside of me?"
Emma's smirk grew at the memory. "Oh yeah. Please remind me. How many knuckles deep was I again?"
The mayor shook her head and waved in the air. "You're distracting me." She accused. "Anyways. You've been called out of bed three times in the last couple of weeks for various stupid reasons and I think it would be wise if instead of you and David working the same time, if you took the day shift and he took the night shift."
"I can't do that to him." The blonde stated. "The baby is due in a couple weeks."
Regina licked her lips. "I know, but your mother will be on maternity leave when that happens. You said yourself that it would be easier on you to have someone on patrol at night."
The savior nodded. "Yeah, it would make my life easier but that's not a reason to burden my dad with having to change his sleeping schedule. It will be fucked up enough once the kid gets here."
"I'm not suggesting he work until sunrise." The older woman informed her lover. "I'm suggesting he comes into work at 7pm and leaves around 3am."
"Which is basically sunrise." Emma huffed.
"6 to 2?" The mayor offered.
The sheriff rubbed her face. "I'll talk to David about it and see what he thinks. But don't think I don't know why you're really offering this up."
Regina raised an eyebrow. "And whatever would that be?"
"You just don't want me getting called into work when we're in the middle of having sex." Emma smirked.
The mayor shrugged. "Well, that would definitely be an upside." She admitted and perched herself on the blonde's desk with a smirk. "I said no office sex, but an office make-out session is very much allowed."
Emma didn't need to be told twice.
"I feel like such a cow." Mary Margaret complained as she sat on the park bench that Saturday.
Regina sat down next to her with a to-go cup of coffee as they watched Emma, Henry, and David playing fetch with the dogs, who had grown quite a bit. Both weighed in around seventy pounds now and were extremely protective of the mayor, much to Emma's delight.
"Please." She waved off the schoolteacher. "You're glowing." The two former enemies had been inching closer to friendship since the Charming wedding. Monthly family dinners helped the cause greatly, as did the little fights Regina and Emma had in the early stages of living together. The mayor never once thought she'd ever confide in Snow White of all people, but she had.
It was four weeks after the wedding and Regina had stormed out of the mansion in a fit of anger when she came to find her house in slight disarray. Emma had a late day at the station and her muddy boots tracked dirt up the stairs. She was in the shower when Regina went in there and started yelling about the mess that was downstairs. The older woman didn't even let the sheriff get a word in as she screamed about her stupidity and sloppiness. Eventually when she was tired of yelling, she stomped out and headed towards Granny's.
She had a bad day at work that was only fueled by the minor untidy behavior of her girlfriend. She said things she didn't mean before she left and as she took a seat on at the diner bar, she put her head in her hands.
"Regina?" Snow's voice rang in her ears.
Brown eyes looked to her side as she lifted her head. She let out a deep grumble. "I don't want to hear it." She snapped, assuming the savior had called her parents and told them of the cruel words she spoke to her true love.
Ignoring her, Mary Margaret took a seat on the barstool next to her and quietly asked, "Are you okay?" When she didn't get a reply, she tried again. "Was it a fight with Emma?"
The mayor scoffed. "Please. Don't act like she didn't tell you all about it."
Snow furrowed her eyebrows. "She hasn't told me anything." She assured her former enemy. "What happened?"
"Nothing." Regina muttered.
The two women sat in silence for several moments before the pixie haired woman cleared her throat. "David and I got into a fight the other day."
"Good for you." The mayor hissed.
"He was in a cranky mood when he arrived home and I was in the middle of washing the laundry when he asked where this pair of jeans were. I had washed them, which turned out to be a big mistake because he left this number he needed in there and the ink was ruined after they were washed and dried." The schoolteacher explained. "It lasted for nearly an hour. I argued that he shouldn't have been so forgetful and he argued that I should check the pockets before washing anything. I told him I wasn't his mother and things escalated from there."
It sounded like a ridiculous fight that was much like the one Regina had with her own true love. "Who won?" She asked curiously.
Mary Margaret laughed. "Neither of us. He eventually apologized to me for hurting my feelings and taking his anger out on the wrong person. I forgave him."
"Sounds like you won." The mayor noted.
"There's really no winning or losing." Snow revealed. "There's just making up. As insane as he makes me sometimes, I love him."
Regina felt the same way about Emma. "Here I thought love was supposed to be easy."
The former bandit smiled at the former queen. "If it was easy, everybody would be in love."
Another few beats of silence past by them until Regina decided to open up, "I had an awful day work and when I got home Emma's muddy boot prints were trailing up the staircase."
"Sounds unsanitary." Snow noted.
The mayor cracked a smile. "It was. I just started yelling at her when I saw her." She left out the part about the shower because that would be slightly awkward to talk about with her girlfriend's mother. "She didn't even get a word in before I stormed out and came here."
"I thought storming off was Emma's thing." Mary Margaret joked.
Regina huffed a laugh. "She must be rubbing off on me."
The schoolteacher offered a solid piece of advice to her daughter's true love. "You should go home, Regina. Petty little fights like this have a way of working themselves out."
Since that night, the two women had gained a mutual respect for one another. They weren't best friends or anything, but they were by any sense of the word, family.
Mary Margaret rubbed her swollen belly. "I'm ready for him to come out already."
Brown eyes widened. "It's a boy?" She asked.
The pixie haired woman flushed and shrugged. "Oh. We don't know. We still plan to wait until the baby is born to find out."
"I don't know how you and David are doing that. I'll be dying to know and I know Miss Swan won't contain her curiosity about it." Regina mused, completely unaware that she was insinuating that her and Emma would have children one day.
While it went unknown to the mayor, Snow White heard it loud and clear. She gazed at her daughter playing with the large dogs and she smiled. "Emma has tried to get it out of Dr. Whale for weeks now. There's no way she'll be able to wait when it's her own baby."
Regina grinned at the thought of the blonde being ecstatic about their future children. She felt butterflies in her stomach as she imagined the look on the savior's face when they had another child.
Not wanting to get too caught up in her fantasy, she cleared her throat. "So do you have any names picked out for either way?"
"Well David likes the name Joey for a boy and Courtney for a girl, but I'm not big on those." Snow confessed.
"Do you have any names you like?" The mayor questioned.
Mary Margaret shrugged slightly. "I mean, I really like the name Elijah for a boy and the name Emily for a girl, but David isn't a fan."
"You're big on the E names I see." Regina laughed. "So you're at square one."
"Basically, yeah." The schoolteacher smiled. "We'll pick the right one when the time comes though."
A question entered the former queen's mind. "How'd you come up with Emma?"
"I just liked it." Snow revealed. "I wish there was a some great backstory to it, but no. I just think it's a pretty name."
Regina nodded. "It definitely fits her." She observed, looking at her true love playing keep away with their son.
A frantic Belle came running towards Regina, yelling for her. It caught the attention of the sheriff and deputy, who jogged over just as the former maid reached the mayor.
"Regina. I need your help. I've been looking for you everywhere!"
The older woman stood up and nodded. "With what?"
Emma was out of breath when she reached the commotion. "What's going on Belle?"
Belle bit her lip and showed Regina the dark one's dagger. "It's Gold. I can't find him."
"So summon him." The former queen suggested in a 'duh' tone.
The librarian rolled her blue eyes. "I tried that, but it didn't work."
Regina took it from the woman's hand and that's when she felt it. "It's a forgery." She stated in disbelief, grazing her fingers softly over the dagger's blade. This was not the all-powerful dark blade.
Emma furrowed her eyebrows. "It's fake?"
Brown eyes rolled. "That's what forgery means, dear." She pointed out and looked to Belle. "Gold gave you this?"
The auburn brunette woman nodded frantically. "Yes. After Neverland he put it in my possession because I wouldn't misuse its power."
Regina pondered for a moment. "Well either he gave you fake one or-"
"Or someone made a fake one and switched them." Emma finished for her.
The mayor nodded. "But who would do that?"
"And why?" The couple locked eyes in confusion.
So the investigation will begin in the next chapter! How'd you all like the time jump? To those of you who might worry it's too soon for Emma to propose, freight not. They'll have to deal with a wicked force before such fluffy stuff can be dealt with!
Neal has been gone a while, but he will be brought back. I know he dies in season 3 in the show. I'm going to be honest & say I don't know which way I'll take that story. Obviously if I decide to kill him off it'll have to be done differently then it was in the show, but I haven't decided anything yet. Which brings me to say that if I decide to keep him alive, Snow & Charming's baby will have to have a different name. If you want to shoot ideas out that would be cool, but depending on how I deal with Neal's possible death I might not even need one.
We'll see. I'm a go in the direction my fingers take me type of writer. Lol. If you can't tell by the twists & turns I've taken this story through.
I'm rambling. I'll stop. Just, review & tell me what you think!
& yes I am taking a poll on what to do with Neal. You can suggest where you want that to go & who knows? I might listen to you.
Next post is going to be Thursday! Love you all! :*