Double Trouble 25
Chapter 25 'Thankyou'
Granny Lucas peered through the kitchen window to where her granddaughter and Mary Margaret were gossiping earnestly in the diner. That girl! Slacking off again and the dinner rush was beginning soon too. Granny shook her head out of long-suffering annoyance and headed over to the whispering pair.
"-in bed together," said Mary Margaret, wide-eyed.
"Are you shitting me?" said Ruby, leaning in closer. "I knew it! Caught her checking her out in the diner once. I bet they are so hot together."
"You can't tell anyone else, please Ruby. I don't know how to-"
"Hey, I just realised. Emma once told me she-"
"Ruby! Customers," hinted Granny, interrupting the gossipy tete-a-tete.
Ruby jumped defensively. "What? I was just taking Mary Margaret's order."
"For fifteen minutes?" said Granny pointedly, with a chastising look at the pixie-haired brunette for distracting her waitress friend.
"Um, I - I was just deciding," stuttered Mary Margaret, "what to get - um, for dinner."
"Sure you were." Granny rolled her eyes. She was neither convinced nor amused. Just like when they were girls, trying to pull the wool over her eyes. A foolish thing to attempt with a former werewolf.
The door to the diner swung open and David came in. He slid onto the stool next to Mary Margaret and shucked off his jacket.
"Did she ask you yet?" David said to Granny.
"Ask me what?" said Granny suspiciously, flinging a tea towel over her shoulder like it was the strap of her crossbow.
"Mar?"
Mary Margaret said exasperatedly. "I was just going to."
David raised his eyebrows at Granny and Ruby. "Mary Margaret has the crazy idea that we should ask Regina to be Mayor again."
"It isn't crazy," muttered Mary Margaret.
"She wants to give the Evil Queen the keys to the city."
"No, not really!" said Mary Margaret earnestly. "Well, maybe just the garage door opener."
Ruby snorted. "Mary, is this like the time you said we should adopt a wolf cub to see if it would treat me as its mother? Cos that was not a good idea. Or how bout the time when we-"
"Ruby!" hissed Mary Margaret.
"What has this insanity got to do with me," said Granny dryly.
Mary Margaret explained her idea and repeated, "We need you to ask Regina."
David frowned and crossed his arms. "You still haven't told me why Regina is going to be convinced by Granny of all people. Why not get Henry to ask her? Or Emma maybe."
"Regina's ruled by her emotions," said Mary Margaret in a strained voice, looking down at the counter. She traced a circle in some spilled salt before raising haunted eyes. "She's like Ri. Haven't you noticed that she'll follow suggestions from someone she thinks has power over her?"
"You mean-"
"People in authority over her or people she cares about. Cora, Mr Gold, Henry, Emma... " Mary Margaret nodded somberly. "Even me."
"If that's true and even if it works..." David sighed and looked at the ceiling. "Mar, she's gonna be pissed that you manipulated her. Even if your intentions are good."
"Even if all I want is to help her get her life back?" A life that now included her daughter apparently. Mary Margaret posed the question but none of the others had a satisfactory answer.
After a while she spoke again quietly. "You're right. I can't do that to her again. I'll just ask her and hope she doesn't kill me."
Ruby glanced from her friend to her grandmother. "Wait. Why would Regina think Granny has any authority over her?"
"I was her nurse," answered Granny, surprised that none of the others except Mary Margaret knew about it.
David's jaw dropped. "You're kidding?"
Granny looked fondly at Ruby over her spectacles. "It was when your mother was about seventeen and just starting to change. I commissioned Cora to make the red riding cloak. I couldn't pay her so she took me on at the estate for a few years to repay the debt. This was before you were born of course."
Ruby was incredulous. "You told me you used to be a nurse. You looked after Baby Regina?"
Granny smiled, pleased at having the rapt attention of the young ones. "Yes, I certainly did. Princess Regina was a fretful baby, she cried constantly and never wanted to be left alone. I think I held her for three months straight. Cora didn't want much to do with the poor little thing... except to dictate her schedule down to the very minute that is."
"What happened," asked Mary Margaret, having never heard the complete story before.
Granny's eyes unfocused, as she thought far back into the past. "Regina was about three when Prince Henry was stripped of his royal title. None of us in the servants hall could figure out how a harsh woman like Cora could have given birth to such a sweet little girl. One day, the child told me something and Cora overheard. She flew into a rage and dismissed me and half of the servants from the estate that very day. The next time I heard anything of Regina her marriage to the King was being announced."
"What did Baby Regina tell you," asked Ruby.
Granny took the tea towel and swiped it across the counter absent-mindedly. "One way or another, Cora wanted complete control of that child - both her mind and her heart. Regina was only a little girl then. I doubt she even remembers me now."
"Emma, don't think I've forgotten your proclivity for stealing my shirts!" Regina called from the bathroom.
Emma pulled her blood-stained shirt over her head. She scrunched it in a ball and dropped it at her feet. She was weary from the long walk back to the car and then having to drive all the way back into town. Regina had insisted on replacing her dirt-smeared clothes the second they'd arrived back at the mansion and she was still changing in the bathroom. Probably also fussing over whether her face was starting to bruise.
"That wasn't me! It was Henry." Emma called back.
"I blame you for encouraging that behaviour."
"Oh, that's so not fair!" Emma scoffed. She sloped over to the bathroom door that connected to Regina's bedroom and called through the solid wood. "Hey, can I borrow something to -"
The door swung open to reveal Regina, freshly dressed.
"-wear." Emma adopted an innocent poker face since she was standing there in nothing but her black bra and dark skinnyjeans, revealing an expanse of fair skin and toned midriff.
Regina determinedly kept her gaze at eye level with impressive control but this time she had no basket of apples to obscure her view. "Do you make it a habit of standing in doorways half-naked? Or is just me."
"It's just you." Emma hid a grin.
"Yes, you may borrow something to put on. Besides that smirk of course."
Emma didn't blink or break their staring contest. "Sure you want me to cover up? You haven't snuck a peek yet."
Regina arched an eyebrow, meeting the challenge.
"Or perhaps you just want something of yours wrapped around my chest?" Emma teased. "You still curious about the nipple ring?"
The brunette's gaze faltered before she could stop it and her eyes darted downward for a mere fraction of a second. She hooked her index fingers in the belt loops of Emma's jeans and pulled her in so she could capture her lips in a slow kiss.
Emma smiled when she pulled away. "I like it when you kiss me first. Less chance of -"
"Do you really have one?" Regina kissed her again quickly.
"Maybe you'll find out," teased Emma.
"I expect I will."
Regina lowered her head and grazed the knuckles of her hand under Emma's bellybutton and let her palm rest flat on the warm skin. A soft smile broke over her face.
"What?" said Emma, wondering what was so fascinating.
"Henry."
Emma looked down at her now-flat stomach as well and chuckled, almost like she was embarrassed. "Oh, right. Yeah."
Regina's voice was barely audible. "What was it like."
"Well, uh, I was pretty young. Scared out of my mind. Didn't know what to do," Emma shrugged and recounted it tonelessly. "I was in jail. I couldn't stand to be near the kitchen cos the smells used to make me throw up - meat, chicken, coffee, the warden's perfume. All I wanted to eat was greens, nothing but greens. Towards the end the kid's feet were stuck right up under my ribs and it hurt like hell. I used to put ice-cubes near his feet so he'd shift a bit. Last few weeks were really uncomfortable. I don't really remember the birth pain all that much, I forgot everything once he was out."
Emma wrapped her hands around Regina's wrists where they now rested on either side of her denim-clad hips and ran them up her forearms. She could see the brunette's dark eyes were begging her for more details.
"I had him with me for two weeks. His eyes were still blue and he had lighter hair. I used to call him 'kid' cos," Emma's voice hitched raggedly. "Because I didn't want to get too attached and I - "
Regina brushed her fingers back across Emma's waist out of concern and brought her closer.
"I was afraid I'd change my mind. I wanted him to have a better life than me. When he turned up in Boston last year, I had a panic attack in the bathroom. But now... I can't imagine my life without him." Emma finished the last part with a teary laugh.
Regina cupped her face under her chin and kissed her lovingly, hoping that Emma could feel all of her past regrets and future desires. She'd taken the chance for a good childhood away from Emma, it was only fitting that she'd given one to Emma's son. The woman in her arms had brought a child into the world and entrusted him to her.
"I'm sorry," Regina breathed. She explained when Emma looked at her questioningly. "I didn't spare a thought for you the day I got him. One minute I was alone, the next minute I was a mother and all I could think of was my baby. It felt like he was mine from the moment I held him in my arms."
Emma nodded slowly with the beginnings of a smile. "I don't regret it anymore. It tore my heart apart to give him up but I'm glad he got you. When Henry brought me here I couldn't believe how lucky I'd gotten. That my kid ended up with everything I never had. When I used to disappear for a whole day nobody even noticed. And here was my kid - healthy, smart, beautiful - with a strict hardass of a Mom who missed him after only a few hours and cared enough to worry about candy and tv and homework."
"Hardass?" Regina arched an eyebrow.
"Yep. Also, great legs." Emma slid her arms around Regina's waist.
"We each did it alone. Now I think it'd be even better if we did it together. Thankyou. For making me a mother."
Oh, that was so... sweet. She wasn't always demonstrative but Regina felt things deeply and when she did show it it was amazing. Emma pulled her into a hug, meeting no resistance for once.
"Anytime," Emma joked. "And by that I mean 'never again'. Kid had a big head."
"Hi Ri!" Henry shouted happily as he alighted from the schoolbus. He ran over to the teens who were waiting in Main street where the bus dropped the schoolchildren off.
"Henry," cried Ri, as he launched himself around her middle in a hug. "Did you have a good day? What did you do at school?"
Henry shrugged and hiked his backpack over his shoulder. "Nothing."
"I'm sure you did something," teased Ri, stroking the boy's hair back off his forehead.
"Ok, do you wanna see? Let's go to the diner and get hot chocolate."
Ri and Henry went to go and paused to look back at Em, who hadn't followed and was yet to say anything. The blonde teen was avoiding eye contact and had her hands shoved in her hoodie pocket again.
"Aren't you coming, Em," asked Ri quietly.
"No uh - you guys go." Em scraped one of her Cons in an arc on the concrete. "You two should um, spend some time together."
"Yes, but-" Ri smiled hesitantly. "It'd be lovely if the three of us were together."
"Pleeeease, Em, come with us?" said Henry hopefully, in that unignorable way that children have when asking for what they want and getting it.
Em sighed. "Alright. Just for a little while."
In the short walk to the diner, Henry managed to pull everything out of his backpack to show Ri. He explained what he was learning in his subjects at school, showed her his finished birdhouse, presented a certificate he'd been awarded that day, and shoved a bunch of comics under her nose excitedly telling her his favourite parts in a rather jumbled way.
Em trailed the pair wordlessly, listening to the bittersweet tones of mother and son sharing their day together. Ri was delighted by every stupid little thing that Henry said and she hung on his every word like he was the most precious person in the world to her.
She'll make a great Mom one day...
"- can you help me, Em?" Ri's voice snapped her out of it.
"Huh?"
Ri held out a handful of bills. "Mary Margaret gave me these bartering notes but they all look the same to me. I have to exchange these for Henry's drink, is that right?"
"You won't need more than this." Em pulled a ten from the stack and at the same time surreptitiously palmed another of the notes up her sleeve.
"Lucky you're here. What would I do without you?" said Ri.
The bell rang as the trio entered the diner, attracting the attention of Mary Margaret and David who waved them over to the booth where they sat.
"Hey, you three," greeted Mary Margaret. "I thought we could have an early dinner out tonight."
David reached out to ruffle Henry's hair as he slid into the booth. "How was school, buddy?"
Henry started chattering to David about swordfighting and Ri was asking Mary Margaret if she remembered hearing about a particular Royal scandal that was hushed up many years ago. After a while one of the waitresses came to hand out menus and then disappeared.
Ri looked her menu over and pouted. "I don't know what to choose. How do you decide when there's so many things?"
"It's ok, honey," Mary Margaret said fondly. "We'll order for you, something that Regina would get."
"Extra fries. Apple pie for dessert," said Henry.
Mary Margaret raised her eyebrows at him. "You know full well she wouldn't order that."
David agreed. "I doubt Regina would ever willingly eat apples that didn't come from her own tree."
It was Henry's turn to be smug as he informed them. "She gets the extra fries for me and Granny's apple pie IS made from her apples. She always takes a whole basket of them to the Bed & Breakfast every month."
Ri nodded enthusiastically. "My apples are the best. I'd never want any other kind. I know Regina still has my tree."
"Where did you get it, Ri?" asked Henry, since his mother would never tell him.
Ri smiled. "I've had it since I was a little girl. One of the servants at the estate gave it to me and it wasn't even as tall as I was then."
"Which servant." Mary Margaret tilted her head, getting in on Henry's fishing expedition.
"One of my nurses. I had so many. Mother was too busy with estate matters and I wasn't an easy baby to take care of," said Ri sheepishly, as if it were her fault. "Mother said they were all incompetent. She sent them away one at a time until I was too old to need one."
Em muttered. "I hate it when people call babies 'good' because they don't cry much. Crying doesn't make them bad."
Ri bit her lips, wondering if she'd said the wrong thing. She joked weakly, "Mother says I became a bit of a terror when I turned three. Must've grown out of it."
"What does your father say," said Em pointedly.
"Um, nothing like that," said Ri, like she hadn't realised before. "He calls me Daddy's Little Girl. He doesn't ride anymore himself but he likes to come with me when I practice jumps with Rocinante. He told me he's looking for someone my age to go riding with me, so that I have someone to talk to. But I'm not lonely, not really! I'm so lucky to have Mother and Father... I just wish I could see them more."
Em gave her a small smile. "That's what lonely means, Ri."
Thankfully the conversation turned to much lighter topics after that. But before the meals even arrived, Em got up almost unnoticed by the others and headed for the bathroom. She had her hand on the door handle of the back exit when a voice stopped her.
"Are you ok, Em?" called Mary Margaret from behind her.
"Yeah," Em kept her eyes down. "I just need to get away."
Mary Margaret hid a sigh and started rummaging in her handbag. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered to pulled out her phone, apartment key, and some money and placed the bundle in Em's hands.
Em frowned in shock. "What are you doing?"
The pixie-haired brunette smiled sadly at her daughter. "Come back to us when you're ready."
"You're not gonna stop me?" said Em incredulously.
"I know it wouldn't do any good. I just want you to be safe. Please call if you need help. I mean it, Em. We love you."
Mary Margaret watched Em hesitate before leaving and disappointment sunk into her stomach. She had hoped that her gesture would give the teen a reason to stay. There was clearly something upsetting Em and it pained her that her daughter still didn't think to talk to her or ask for help. It seemed like Em and Ri were talking again instead of ignoring each other, but there was still something holding them back from making up properly. She was not looking forward to explaining Em's absence to any of the others.
Em didn't come home that night and Mary Margaret didn't sleep a wink for worrying over it.