Double trouble
A/N: Thanks for the follows and reviews! You guys have such interesting ideas :)... but it seems everyone wants more of Em and Ri!
I've also started a new story Baby Fever, which is the sequel to Flu Love's Kiss, so you might like that too. Enjoy!
"No man is rich enough to buy back his past."
― Oscar Wilde
Chapter 5 'Allies'
"This is the worst family breakfast ever," said Mary Margaret to herself, looking around the table forlornly.
The beds had disappeared and the furniture that was stuck to the ceiling had been put back to it's normal arrangement. The seven of them were crammed around the tiny dining table scrabbling over the breakfast things and either chatting or lapsing into tense silences: Mary Margaret, David, Emma, Henry, Regina, Em, and Ri.
To their surprise Em had recovered from all the yelling she'd been doing a few hours earlier... but since there was food available, a roof over her head and no immediate plans for sending her back (not to mention Ri's hand to hold under the table), she was happy. She mostly ignored Mary Margaret and David, giving them the silent treatment whenever she chose to. Or not.
"Actually the worst breakfast ever is a mouldy bagel under the rail bridge in the rain," said Em hoity-toitily.
"Yes, your life is the suckiest of all. You win, Em," said Emma dryly. "Cry me a river."
Em ignored her and chatted away happily to Ri. "Hey Ri, if we're gonna be here for a little while, I've got so much to show you in this world! We can go to the mall and I can get you anything you want: clothes, jewelery, a fridge... ok maybe not a fridge - that one's a two-man job and I doubt Sheriff Skinnyjeans over there is up for it, even though she knows she co-ould." (Em sang the last part obnoxiously.)
Emma merely took a sip of her orange juice and ignored the teen.
"What's a fridge?" said Ri curiously.
"That cold white box over there with Emma's heart in it," said Em, squinting at her before turning back to Ri.
"Hey! Guess what, there's this new movie that just come out. I've snuck in to see it like five times cos the main girl's really cute. I fell asleep in the theatre last time and the stupid security guard walked right past me and didn't even see me-"
"That's cos of your magic, idiot," Emma muttered.
"-but I would totally see it again. You wanna go? It's called Bring it On."
"That movie's so old!" said Henry, laughing. "Emma's got it on DVD."
"That movie is stupid," sniffed Emma.
"No-one asked you, Little Miss Boring Grown-up," said Em, wobbling her head.
"This is the best family breakfast ever," murmured Regina, hiding her smirk behind her coffee mug and thrilled to be witnessing this.
Mary Margaret noticed Em's empty plate. "Em, do you want me to make you some more toast?"
"Yes. Stuff something in her mouth and shut her up," said Emma.
Em reached over to Mary Margaret's plate and casually grabbed her mother's toast instead of waiting for her own. She put the slices on her plate, as though she was provoking them all to see who would tell her off for it. But nobody did. Her parents suspected that she was just testing the fences for weaknesses and that any show of parental discipline would only fan the flames of her anger against them.
"I'm starving!" said Em. "I could eat forever and still be hungry. I've got hollow bones."
"It's hollow legs." Emma rolled her eyes and got up to make her mother some more toast.
Regina took an egg from the serving bowl and put it onto Em's plate. "Eat this, it'll fill you up better than toast."
"Thanks, Regina. You're awesome," said Em sweetly. "I like you the best. I mean, after Ri of course."
"Why are you sucking up to her?" said Henry, confused.
Em started drumming her fingers on the table and put on a deep cinema announcer's voice. "This breakfast is rated Em. For Mature audiences only!"
David snorted, trying not to laugh, wondering how much Ritalin it would take to bring Em back down to the level of a normal person. His daughter used to be quite the character.
After breakfast, everyone got dressed normally in their own clothes except for Em who was still wearing her jeans and jacket from last night, Regina who conjured her day clothes with magic and Ri who was given a pretty white skirt and blouse of Mary Margaret's to wear.
Ri was rather taken by her new clothes ("...but this corset is strange. I don't like it.") and she was wowed by Regina's smart-looking black pencil skirt and wine-coloured satin blouse. She sat next to her older self on the couch and then reached out to play with Regina's shorter haircut. Emma was amazed that Regina tolerated it since she hadn't yet shown any patience at all for her timid younger self and usually ignored her when possible.
"Why'd you cut it?" asked Ri, running her fingers through the shorter dark locks.
"I ... like it this length," said Regina uncertainly. Her hair had been that way since the curse and it hadn't occurred to her to grow it back.
"It looks nice. But Mother says short hair is for boys. What did she say when she saw it?"
"Nothing."
Regina kept her tone even, not wanting to tread into dangerous territory by explaining what had happened with Cora. Obviously it hadn't occurred to her younger self to ask why her mother wasn't in this world anymore. She knew she'd probably panic without there being an iron fist to be ruled under. She wouldn't know what to do with herself. For Regina, it was painful enough to have her mother mentioned every five seconds.
"I like your outfit. Did Mother choose it for you?"
"No."
Emma came over holding a coffee mug and sat on the lounge opposite the two Regina's. She smirked at the older one for the topic of the conversation.
"The girl loves clothes huh, Regina?" said Emma. "I bet the first thing you did after you cast the curse was go shopping."
"That was the second thing actually," snarked Regina.
Em wandered over and plopped on the lounge, slouching next to her own counterpart. She nodded at Regina's shoes. "Those are Prada. I know cos I sell the fakes on ebay."
Ri tilted her head shyly at Regina, getting up the courage to ask what she was dying to ask. "Can you tell me one thing?"
"I can't tell you that," said Regina firmly with a shake of her head.
Ri quickly glanced at the Emma's and pleaded with Regina. "Please tell me?"
"Yes. And no," Regina answered stiffly.
"Oh," said Ri sadly, but she was confused by the answer.
The others were completely lost by the cryptic conversation. Emma narrowed her eyes at Regina, wondering if she'd let slip any secrets that could affect the future. Well, any more secrets than were already out.
"This world is really strange," said Ri, seemingly randomly.
"You haven't even seen much of it yet," said Emma wryly.
Ri's first day in the real world had only involved the woods, the Sheriff's station, and the apartment. Neither had Regina herself seen much of the world really, Emma realised, since she'd never been out of Storybrooke.
"I can show you!" said Em.
She jumped up, grabbed Ri's hand and took her to the window where she drew the curtain back with a 'ta-da!' flourish. The two teens stood side by side at the window, Em happily pointed things out to Ri who was taking it all in with wonder.
Emma raised her eyebrows at Regina and cringed as if to say "you fell for that corny line?"
Henry wandered over to peer out the window with them. "What are you guys looking at?"
"The futuurrre!" Em announced pointing and looking at the ceiling like she intended to blast off in a rocketship.
"You're kinda weird," said Henry, wrinkling his nose.
"Hey, watch it, kid," said Em, taking offense. "I'm not gonna be a streetkid for the rest of my life, you know. I'm taking computer classes at the community college. I already know more than the teachers. Those idiots haven't even realised that I enrolled with a fake credit card and a train station as my address."
"Again, that's cos of your magic, idiot," called Emma from her place on the couch.
"Whatever, Crankypants," said Em, going on to brag to Henry. "If you think I can get in and out of buildings to steal stuff easily you wait till you see me with a computer system. I can hack into anything and they don't even know I've been there. I'm like Houdini."
Henry scrunched his face at his mother. "Your catch cry is really kinda annoying, Emma."
"I'm great with computers," said Em again. "I can find anything. Hey Henry, can I borrow your laptop?"
"No," said Emma firmly, knowing what she was getting at. "You are not looking up lottery numbers, stock prices, or World Series results. You becoming a millionaire will destroy the world."
Henry frowned and then snuck a glance at Emma before running off to the bedroom. "Be right back. I just have to check something!"
Em smirked knowingly. "He's gone to delete his internet history hasn't he?"
Emma nodded. "I've already looked through it."
"Ha, nice." Em laughed once and then froze her expression. "I mean, you suck."
Later that morning Em and Ri were sitting at the table playing a boardgame that they'd found in Mary Margaret's cupboard and Henry was bugging them to let him play too.
"Buzz off, kid. I'm trying to be with my girlfriend," said Em, swatting his hands away from the plastic square tiles.
Henry pouted pathetically. "Please. Why can't I play?"
"Because that would violate the rules. Scrabble is only for two."
"It is not!" said Henry indignantly.
Emma and Regina were in the kitchen nursing coffees while they waited for Mary Margaret and David to return. They'd gone out to try to find if there anyone else knew anything about the magical mess they were now in. Tired of the kids' squabbling, Emma called out to them to knock it off and ordered her younger self to be a bit nicer to Henry.
"For god's sake, Em, let him play with you! It won't kill you."
"Stay out of it, Cranky," sang Em. "Scrabble is serious business."
"You're going to lose anyway cos you dropped out of school and you've got the vocab of a ten-year-old," muttered Emma.
Ri moved over to make space for Henry. "Why don't you come be on my team, Henry? I don't know how to play this game."
"This is gonna be fun," said Henry, smiling at his new buddy happily.
But Emma was right - by the end of the game Em had gotten a trouncing, not even taking Henry's contribution into account. Em was amazed by how smart Ri was and pestered her about her education following which Ri admitted bashfully that she hadn't been to a proper school as she wasn't allowed off the estate.
Em's jaw dropped. "You NEVER went to school? Lucky!"
"How come you know lots of big words, Ri?" said Henry.
"I have four hours tutoring every afternoon," said Ri with a slight grimace. "Mother says I need to be able to present well at court and be clever enough to know when the nobles are conspiring against me."
In the kitchen, Emma gave Regina a look. "Or was it clever enough to concoct evil conspiracies of your own?"
Regina didn't bother to answer.
Emma rubbed a hand over her face. "Argh. Do you think we've already screwed up the future?"
"What do you mean," said Regina carefully.
"If the girls go back to the past and remember everything that happened here won't it change things? I mean, Younger Me knows all about her parents and magic ... and Younger You knows that her life is about to suck royally when she gets married - no pun intended - what if they decide to do things differently? What if we've changed too much already?"
"Maybe we haven't changed enough."
Emma frowned at her. "What? No. If they are us from the past then they need to go back so that they can grow up and become us. If things don't happen the way they did the first time then... I dunno, stuff could start randomly disappearing or something. Like Storybrooke. Or Henry!"
"That won't happen."
"Oh, saying so makes it a royal edict does it, Your Majesty? They have to go back to the past. Em has to get pregnant and go to jail so that Henry will be born. Ri has to meet Daniel and marry the King so she casts the dark curse. That's how it went."
"Yes, thank you for reminding me. I'd quite forgotten," said Regina quietly.
"Look," Emma said uncomfortably. "I don't like it either and I get it - your life sucked. So did mine. But the past is in the past and this is how it has to be. We got through it ok."
"I didn't." Regina's eyes flashed. "And I don't think you did either."
Emma clenched her jaw tightly. "That doesn't mean we can go back and edit our lives to remove all the crap parts."
"What else do I have?" said Regina flatly. "Nobody believes that I want to change my present. I may as well try to change my past."
Emma's face dropped in shock. "You want the girls to be together?"
"So what if I do?"
"Why?" Emma persisted in disbelief. "They're from different worlds. Different times. They're not even really us - they're figments of the past."
Regina got up from the stool, keeping her eyes downcast. "If she has to go back to her life... I just want her to have some happiness first."
Emma was surprised by Regina's compassion... but which girl had she been talking about?