Emma awakens to the strong smell of coffee and bacon. She smiles as she slowly rises from her queen sized bed and makes her way down to the kitchen. Her mother is finishing breakfast and humming as she flips a pancake. Emma sneaks up behind her and wraps her arms around the former queen's waist; causing the brunette to jump in surprise.
"Morning." Emma grins. Regina smiles and turns so she can hug Emma properly.
"Morning, my darling." Regina grins, giving Emma a kiss on the forehead. "Breakfast is almost done."
"So I was thinking." Emma begins as she sits at the counter, watching Regina finish their meal. "You're like...my grandmother." Regina shoots her daughter a look. The teen laughs in a teasing manner.
"I'm not THAT old, Em. In fact, I'm only eight years older than...Snow." Regina replies with her infamous raised eyebrow.
"But...on our family tree you'd be my step grandmother." Emma continues to tease. Regina laughs, knowing her daughter is only trying to make light of the situation. "But that's okay, I love you even if you are old enough to be my grandmother." Regina gasps and playfully swats Emma with the kitchen towel. Emma laughs gleefully as the doorbell rings.
"I'm watching you." Regina warns in a joking manner as she moves to answer the door. Mary Margaret and David are on the other side and she sighs as she realizes that she and Emma are running late. "Sorry, Em slept in. I didn't realize it was already 9:00." David rolls his eyes in annoyance.
"It's alright, I'm glad Emma got her sleep." Mary Margaret offers with a small smile. She wanted the fighting to end for her daughter's sake, knowing if they didn't get along with Regina Emma would reject them even more.
"Uhm, why don't you come in, Em is finishing breakfast." Regina says opening the door fully and allowing the Charmings to follow her into the kitchen.
"Hey mom, can we have lasagna for dinner?" Emma asks as Regina steps in.
"Sure, but for now you better hurry up with your pancakes, we're behind schedule as usual." Regina replies. Emma sighs, she wasn't exactly looking forward to spending the day with her biological parents, but she promised Regina she'd try this. It was the only way they could stay together, at least for now.
"That's okay, we aren't in a rush." Snow replies, taking a seat beside her daughter. "What do you want to do today, Emma?"
"Well...I usually have lunch with my mom and Thursdays but since that's out of the question, it's really up to you." Emma answers shortly. For not being blood related to Regina she sure had gotten her sarcasm and sass from the woman.
"We could go riding." Snow suggests. Emma looks at Regina, that was something she did with her mother, NOT Snow.
"It's okay." Regina tells Emma softly.
"Or we could see a movie." Snow says, seeing that Emma wasn't for riding, at least not with them. "Do you like movies." Emma nods.
"That sounds fun." Regina smiles. Emma's stomach turns, she wishes for the billionth time that this was some dream. Why couldn't Regina be her birth mother? As if reading her daughter's thoughts Regina adds; "And I'll pick you up around 5, you can help me with dinner."
"Okay." Emma whispers. "What about you? Who are you going to each lunch with?" Regina's heart melts a little at Emma's concern. "Is everyone still angry?"
"Em, baby, don't worry about me. I'll have so much paper work I'll probably skip lunch and just save room for lasagna." Regina replies crouching down so she's eye level with her sitting teenager. "You have fun with David and Mary Margret."
"5 O'clock right?" Emma asks innocently. Regina nods.
"5 O'clock." Regina confrims. "Now, go get dressed. I don't think you want to go to the theater in your PJs." Emma laughs a little bit as she rises and hugs her mother tightly. "I love you, Emma."
"I love you too, momma." Emma answers before dashing up the steps to get changed. When Emma is gone Regina turns to the prince and princess. She clears her throat, knowing that they wanted nothing more than to get their daughter away from her. Regina hate that she had to suck up to them.
"Nothing scary." Regina informs them. "Emma hates horror movies, she always has. And not too much sugar, it gives her headaches, also make sure she eats lunch before she eats junk food or she'll get sick. She's pretty crabby if she's hungry so I'd suggest getting lunch around 1."
"I think we can handle OUR daughter for a few hours." Charming snaps.
"David." Mary Margaret warns, they'd agreed to be civil to Regina. "We'll remember." Before Regina or David can speak Emma comes back down the steps, ready to go. She says goodbye to her mother with one last hug before following Snow and David to David's truck.
Emma sits silently on the sofa in Mary Margaret and David's loft. Mary Margaret comes in with cups of hot chocolate for the three of them. Emma smirks when she sees the cinnamon, apparently it ran in the family. She takes the warm ceramic mug with a thank you.
"So, Emma, do you and Regina go to the movies a lot?" Mary Margaret asks in an attempt to make conversation.
"On some occasions, but Mom doesn't like me watching too much TV. Usually we go riding or something like that." Emma replies. "But if we do we always see one of the cheesy romance movies."
"Regina goes to see romance movies?" David scoffs. Emma glares at him. She tried to understand what he was going through, even she knew he had reasons to hate Regina. But she wished he was better at hiding it around her like Mary Margaret was.
"She'd do anything to make me happy." Emma shoots back. David looks at his daughter and is terrified to see Regina in her.
"Well….we should go if we want to get lunch first." Snow says. She could tell that she would be serving as a referee between the two for a while. Emma was a teenager and David was stubborn, they were clearly going to butt heads often.
Granny's diner was full of people getting lunch to take back to work. Emma had hoped she's see her mother but she knew that was highly unlikely. Everyone seems to look at Emma when she enters the diner with Snow and David. Grumpy grins.
"You got her back!" He exclaims.
"The witch gave her up!" Dr. Whale adds happily. "NOW can we burn her at the stake."
"NO!" Emma exclaims. "Leave my mother alone." The diner goes silent. David and Snow exchange an awkward glance. They should have known better than to take Emma here.
"Emma is going to be spending time with us, but she still live with Regina." Snow explains as she steps forward and takes a seat in one of the booths. David and Emma follow her.
"Why?" Grumpy asks. "She's your daughter."
"She's Regina's daughter too." Snow says, despite how much it hurt to say.
"Right now we're still getting to know each other." David adds. "And we'd appreciate it if you didn't give the mayor death threats in front of Emma." The teen looks at him in surprise.
"Thank you." She says quietly. David smiles at his daughter. He still hated Regina, and he hate it even more that he had to share Emma with her, but Regina had done an amazing job raising Emma. He couldn't deny that. Regina being killed by the townspeople would hurt Emma, and David promised himself that he wasn't going to let anyone hurt her ever again.
When 5:00 rolled around Regina arrived at the Charming's loft. She knocks once before Emma opens the door and hugs her tightly. Mary Margaret and David come around the corner to tell Emma goodbye.
"We had a nice day with you." Mary Margaret says softly. Emma offers her a smile.
"I actually had fun too." She admits. Strangely, this made Regina happy. She didn't want Emma to suffer when she had to visit her biological parents.
"We'll see you tomorrow." David smiles. Emma nods.
"Can we go make dinner now, mom." Emma pleads. Regina laughs.
"Sure." She answers putting an arm around Emma. "Let's go make your favorite food."
"Can we have apple turnovers for dessert?" Emma asks as they walk out the door.
"We'll see, Em." Regina smiles. "Bye, Snow, David." The couple wave as their daughter once again leaves with her mother. Both of them wondered if Emma would ever look that happy when she was with them.
A/N So there's the second chapter! Sorry it took so long I just got back from vacation and have been crazy busy! For those reading Operation Claire I'll update in the next day or two! -Kaila