Double Trouble 30
Chapter 30 'Knowledge'
"So all of this started when your younger selves appeared in Storybrooke?" Archie tilted his head and tapped a finger on his chin as he studied Emma like she was one of his patients. "Hm, and how has that been working out for everyone?"
"Uh they're teenage girls so they're," Emma rolled her eyes, "insanely dramatic. All of us are living in the one tiny apartment so it's been kinda crowded."
Archie nodded slowly. "What about interacting with your younger self... has it offered you some perspective on your past or on the choices that led to you being where you are now, the person you have become?"
"I... guess so?" Emma shrugged. "Em's annoying."
"Is it just you? Or does she annoy the others as well."
"No, she gets along fine with Regina. Both of them."
"Why do you think that is?" said Archie, his tone suggesting that she ought to be able to figure the answer out for herself.
"Um-"
"Haven't we got enough shrinking to be dealing with, Dr Hopper," interrupted Regina impatiently. "Instead of trying to psychoanalyse Emma and her not-so-inner child?"
"Hey, Archie." Wide-eyed Ruby came over to grab his sleeve. "You totally gotta see the girls. They're like mini versions of Emma and Regina. It's hilarious!"
Mary Margaret giggled. "They're not physically smaller, Ruby, just younger in age."
"They are so CUTE together. Oh my god it's the sweetest little teen romance you've ever seen."
Archie raised his eyebrows interestedly, eyes darting to Emma first and then Regina. "Oh. The girls are in a romantic relationship?"
"Only since the first second they met," said Ruby flirtatiously. "Apparently it was love at first sight."
"Do they know about Henry?" Archie asked shrewdly.
"Not at first," said Emma. "But they do now."
"They got into a fight about who Henry belonged to but they've made up now that they both know he's their son," said Mary Margaret.
"That's interesting," mused Archie.
"Why is it interesting," said Regina flatly, piercing the psychiatrist with her stare.
Emma could hear the crickets chirping in the awkward silence again. "Okayyy, maybe we should um get some food-"
Regina disappeared out of the office, obviously having had enough of the scrutiny, and Emma ducked out after her. She was halfway down the hallway, heels clicking on the cheap lino, when Emma called out.
"Regina, wait!"
Regina stopped and faced her with a disconcertingly blank expression when Emma caught up to her. "They know about us."
Emma tried to keep her reaction neutral. "Okay. Maybe they do. Is that going to be a problem?"
"What are you asking me for. Do you think we have a problem here?"
"Regina. I know, ok? I get it. It isn't easy. I know you're freaking out but just... don't freak out ok? It's gonna be fine."
"I destroyed a realm to get my happy ending, Emma. I don't care if there are rumours about us among the rabble. But this could affect Henry, not to mention my chances of re-election."
Emma spoke softly. "We haven't been together very long. It's new. We'll explain it to Henry. We don't have to tell anyone else right away. But we can't keep it a secret forever, people are gonna find out eventually and they're gonna... react. You haven't had a relationship with a woman before have you."
"I haven't had a relationship at all," Regina said defensively. "I never got to be with - to be with - him. We had to sneak around in secret just to see each other."
Emma felt a wave of sympathy rush over her at that. The last time Regina had been in love it was the people finding out about it aspect of it that'd led to Daniel's death and her heartbreak. She'd never even gotten to experience fully being with him and then she'd spent years in a loveless marriage lived in the public eye. No wonder she was wary about their relationship becoming common knowledge.
"Why haven't we had sex yet," Regina demanded suddenly.
Emma felt like the question physically knocked her backwards. "Woah. Where did that come from?"
"Why are you holding back? Are you having regrets already, because if you are- "
"No," Emma broke in. "The reason I'm holding back is because I don't want us to regret it. Em and Ri got into trouble by going there too soon. I don't want that to happen to us. I'm holding back because of you."
Regina's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Excuse me."
"No. No. Wait," Emma sighed nervously, wishing she could explain herself properly. "Ugh, it's like my brain stops working when I'm around you. Please let me explain. Don't start thinking it's because I don't want you... cos I do. Trust me, I really really do. But last year, we were fighting all the time and you freaked out when all we did was kiss. I don't want you to regret this. I want this to be good for you. I want this to be it. For both of us."
"Oh."
Emma raised an eyebrow. "That's what you're going with? You'd better give me more than that to go on when we're in bed together. Since I'm basically going to be running the show myself."
"What do you mean by that? I'm hardly a virgin. I know more than you apparently think I do."
"Reeeeally, so you've been doing some research have you?" Emma's face turned into shock. "Oh my god, it was YOU wasn't it? I found that stuff in Henry's internet history ages ago. I thought his friends might've been sending him dodgy links."
"That wasn't me," Regina denied quickly.
"Oh you are LYING." Emma laughed at the delicious secret she'd unearthed. "You covered your tracks fairly well, I admit. Henry wouldn't have found it but you can't hide from me. I can find anything."
"I know things the internet doesn't. I'm going to destroy you."
"Oh we are so blowing off the rest of this meeting to investigate that statement."
"I'd happily comply but you were the one who called this meeting, Emma. Think of it as payback for all of the whining you've done about having to sit through my meetings."
"I don't even know why you kept dragging me to those! They were boring as hell and nothing to do with the Sheriff's office anyway."
"I know," said Regina haughtily. "Perhaps I just wanted something pretty to look at. Office art."
"You had me turn up so that you could ogle me? Why do I not believe you. Please continue to objectify me though."
"You don't believe me? What about the time I dropped my fountain pen under the table hm?" Regina whispered, playing with the collar of Emma's shirt.
"You ah- you brushed your hand down my calf. It was totally an accident right?" Emma closed her eyes. "You drove me crazy you know. You acted like it never happened and I thought I just imagined it."
"Do you think you're imagining this?" Regina leaned in to press her lips to the curve where Emma's neck met her shoulder.
"Fuck I hope not. Or I'll cry."
"Emma," chided Regina in a low voice. "Are you going to kiss me with that dirty mouth?"
She'd barely gotten the words out before Emma's mouth descended on hers to claim a possessive kiss and for a few minutes they entirely forgot where they were.
"Ahem, girls?"
A stern voice came from down the hall caused them to break apart reluctantly.
"We're starting up again," said David, regarding them stonily. "Are you coming?"
The Council meeting was continuing to discuss the threats and fate of Storybrooke over dinner, although the conversations were wandering all over the place mostly off-topic. Emma was thankful that she didn't have to take the leading role anymore, so she was sitting off to the side with Regina while they ate from takeaway containers.
"Emma, do your parents know?" murmured Regina.
"David does now," Emma said grimly. Given his reaction to seeing them wrapped up in each other, she was not looking forward to that conversation. "Mary Margaret's known I had feelings for you for a while. I know she's probably the last person you'd want to find out about us, but I had no-one else to talk to. She saw us at the station the other day when she came to offer you the job, so I'd say she definitely knows we're together now."
"Excellent."
Emma was shocked. "Huh? You're not mad that they know?"
Regina grinned evilly. "On the contrary, I hope it tortures them to imagine all of the things I'm going to do to their daughter."
"It's certainly torturing me to only imagine them," grumbled Emma.
Regina leaned in to whisper a few ideas in her ear, but when she noticed Archie heading towards them she sat back with a glare.
"Hey Archie," said Emma politely.
Archie dragged a chair over near them. "Hi, you two. Sorry to interrupt."
"We're used to it," said Regina in a fake bright voice.
"Living in an apartment with five other people, I'm sure you are." Archie chuckled and then lowered his voice seriously. "Listen, I wanted to reassure the both of you that you can count on me for discretion. I understand that your situation may be sensitive. You can trust me."
"Thanks," Emma exhaled. "We don't want everyone to know yet, not before we tell Henry at least."
"Of course," Archie nodded with a smile. "May I say how wonderful it is to see you both happy. Especially you, Regina."
Regina immediately prickled defensively. "Why is that. Do you think I'm less likely to kill you in this state?"
The psychiatrist simply shook his head. "No. I take an interest in my former patients and their families. Henry is a favourite of mine. I'm particularly sorry about what happened to you this year, that you were under suspicion for my apparent 'death' and it damaged your personal progress. In a way, I feel responsible for not being able to help you more. My condolences for your mother."
When Regina lowered her eyes, Emma snaked her hand under the table to thread their hands together as an unspoken apology for not trusting her back then. She was all too conscious that her actions - or rather, the lack of them - had encouraged a cornered and vulnerable Regina back into her Mother's controlling arms. She vowed to never let her down in that way again. Emma remembered holding Regina, sobbing and distraught, in her arms mere weeks ago and realised that Archie was probably the only one who had bothered to say 'sorry for your loss' to her. No matter what Cora had done, Regina still loved her mother and grieved her loss.
"Dr Hopper, I'd appreciate it if you would continue seeing Henry," Regina was saying. "Not necessarily for therapy, but he has few friends. You're important to him."
"I'd like that very much."
Emma smiled happily at Regina. "Yeah, he's a good kid isn't he. Apart from being a truant and a credit card thief."
"I never encouraged that behaviour. Those unfortunate traits must be genetic," said Regina.
"You and your son may not be genetically related, Regina, but he's very like you." Archie caught the brunette's frown and nodded. "Yes, he is. As evil or damaged as you ever were, or think yourself to still be, you raised him to be good. You couldn't have done that if there were no goodness within you."
"Wait till you meet Ri, Archie," said Emma wryly. "She's so sweet she'll rot your teeth."
"Archie! If you want some food you better get over here," Ruby called him from across the office, gesturing at him to join her.
"Just a second, Ruby," Archie called back. "One more thing, Regina. This may be an unpopular opinion but from a purely selfish standpoint I for one am glad you cast the curse."
"What?" said Regina, obviously taken aback.
"I'm a conscience. My life's work is to help people find their way. But my parents were cruel and conniving, I couldn't escape their control until I made a wish that changed my life. But the price of that magic was living in the form of a cricket. Here," Archie raised his eyebrows. "I get to do what I love and be myself. So thankyou for that. You have more supporters than you know."
"I in no way intended that," said Regina stubbornly. "If the curse has brought anyone happiness it was an unwanted side effect."
Archie merely shrugged in a 'there you have it' kind of way and got up to join Ruby at the food table.
"I'm so glad that's over," groaned Emma, rolling her head to release the tension in her neck.
The others had already left the station after the War Council meeting/social event finally wound down. Emma was waiting with Regina and her parents to do a quick tidyup before they could head home. She and Mary Margaret pushed all of the desks back into their original positions in the office with Regina 'supervising' the manual labour from her perch on the Sheriff's desk.
"Ready to go, David?" said Mary Margaret, seeing her husband return from taking out the trashbags.
"Yeah, you guys go ahead for a minute. I want to talk to Regina," said David. "Alone."
Emma jumped in quickly. "No way."
"I want to know what this thing is between you two."
"Oh no, David, don't," moaned Mary Margaret.
"I understand that you're just worried about me-" said Emma, trying to derail where this disaster train was heading.
"No, dear. It's fine," said Regina with a saccharine smile. "Let your father air his grievances against me."
"I hardly need to list them, Regina," drawled David. "We could be here all night."
"Indeed. Then let's none of us waste our breath by having this conversation."
"Interesting choice of words. Considering I was on my last one when the curse came. You know what's the last thing I remember, Regina? Fighting your guards with my daughter in my arms. She was minutes old. Yet she wouldn't have even been in danger if not for you and your threats against her mother."
Regina rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Yes, let's all take a moment to appreciate the precious irony of this love story."
"Love? Is that what this is?"
"I am not going to justify myself to you."
David's voice rose. "And I am not going to let you hurt my daughter again! You were prepared to cast a spell on your own son to make him love you, how do I know this is real?"
"Because your wife is still alive," Regina pointed out with a sneer. "That spell requires the heart of the one I hate most. She seems in good health to me."
"Stop!" cried Emma, grabbing her father's sleeve to pull him back preemptively. "Just stop, please. We're getting nowhere with this, we're circling the drain fighting about who's most to blame for the past. This isn't helpful. We are stuck in this crappy situation but arguing isn't going to stop the border shrinking and it isn't going to bring people's memories back. Yes, we're only here because of the Evil Queen...
"A-and I love her, ok? I didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd react like this."
David flinched at Emma's confession but he let her go on uninterrupted.
"If there's one thing we all should've learned from having Em and Ri around is that both of them had a crappy childhood and some of that is what made us who we are now. Who knows why Regina ended up Evil and I ended up Good? Those roles were assigned to us before we were even born by Rumpelstiltzskin. What if it had've been the other way around? Would you still love me if I'd been the Evil Princess instead?-"
"Of course we would," said David fiercely.
"-Why does anyone turn out bad? Do they start off vulnerable or do they have bad things happen to them along the way? Maybe some people are stronger than others and maybe some people get less help than they need. Not a single person ever helped me in my entire life... but I never had an evil genius mastermind whispering in my ear, twisting the fuck out of my mind, either.
"So," Emma paused for her first breath. "What I want is for my son to grow up in a better world than I did, to have a better chance than either of his mothers had. We can't give him that if his family is fighting all the time. I trust Regina... and that has to be good enough for you."
David nodded slowly, shooting glances at Regina while he considered his daughter's words and her staunch defense of the woman she obviously loved.
"It is enough. That's all I wanted to know." David turned to Regina. "I hope for all our sakes that you really have changed. You have two good reasons to make it work now. Take care of my daughter."
"Or else I'll be burned at the stake? Yes, thank you, Charming, I understand your meaning perfectly," said Regina, with a glare.
"No, actually you don't. It wasn't a threat, Regina. All I'm asking is that you to take care of her."
David turned back to Emma and raised his eyebrows sternly and pointed at her in that characteristic parental manner. "The same goes for you, young lady."
"Huh what?" said Emma, confused by how this had been turned around on her.
It was Mary Margaret's turn to fold her arms and pin a look on her daughter. "Emma, have you even taken her on a date yet?"
Emma gaped open-mouthed. "Ah I - "
David surreptitiously sent his wife a wink and started to lecture his daughter. "Open doors for her, buy her flowers, turn up on time - don't look at me like that, Emma, I know you - ask her questions, compliment her dress, and don't forget-"
"Chivalry is not dead," finished Mary Margaret primly. "Make sure you treat her like royalty."
Emma blinked and saw that Regina was also struck dumb by whatever joke was being played on them. "Ohhh... wow. Dating advice from the Dark Ages. Thanks parents, that's actually really really annoying of you."
David reached over to pat Emma's head. "Anytime. It's your mother's fault. She never told me we were having a girl so I had the boy's speech all planned out. I didn't want it to go to waste. Guess it came in handy anyway."
"Oh god, kill me," groaned Emma, peeking out between her hands. "My parents are so embarrassing!"
"Don't look at me," said Regina in a dry tone. "I tried to get rid of them for you."
Mary Margaret watched the two of them interact with a gleam of mischief in her eye. "Actually, Regina, David and I have you to thank for our love story. We met by chance in the woods and I wouldn't have even been there if you hadn't banished me from the kingdom. No matter how hard you tried to destroy our True Love, we only found each other because of you."
"Oh. my. god. Would you just stop!" Emma said in slow horror. "Are you trying to get yourselves killed? She looks like she's gonna vomit."
Regina merely stared complacently at the Charmings, looking indeed as though she had a bad taste in her mouth. "I suppose I'll just have to exact my revenge through your first born child."
Emma's eyes widened at the depth of Regina's sultry voice, especially since it was laced with pure lust and the thought of just what that revenge would be sent a shiver racing up her spine. Regina pursed her lips for a second. Then quick as a flash she grabbed Emma's face from the side, flicked out her tongue and licked up the pale skin from chin to cheekbone.
Oh god oh god oh god. Emma froze in shock. She was left feeling flushed all over. That was... oh, hell yes... but what was Regina thinking doing that in front of her parents! Are all families this insane or is it just mine? she wondered.
"Very funny, Regina," groused David.
"GO. Get out of here, you two," Mary Margaret said in wry amusement.
Regina's glorious smile declared her victory and she slid her hand into Emma's. "Come, dear. We're leaving."