Chapter Fifty-three
Emma slowly opened her eyes, and felt a strange contentedness when it registered that her arms were wrapped around someone's waist. Usually when she went to sleep she expected to wake up distressed and alone, but that wasn't the case this morning.
Regina's breath remained even and the blonde smiled at just how adorable the sleeping former queen was.
Last night was the first time that someone hadn't asked her if she needed something. Regina had just lay down next to her without any further talk and watched as her exhausted girlfriend was finally able to sleep.
Suddenly, however, Emma's grip on the smaller woman's waist weakened as she remembered the reason that she hadn't seen her in three days. Guilt began to creep upon her, and the images of her dreams began to creep upon her, the utter sorrow at what could have happened.
She began to try and remove her arm, before she realised that she literally couldn't run away and it wasn't like she knew how to covertly get into her wheelchair.
"Emma?" came a sleepy voice.
The blonde couldn't help but smile at the sound, and she was beginning to wonder why she would deprive herself the sound for three days, but she knew the exact reason was not something that she wished to ever tell Regina.
Emma turned and smiled at the mayor who seemed to be finally waking up.
Regina furrowed her brow and sat up, she grabbed her phone from the bedside table and sighed in relief as the alerts revealed that Cora had stayed the night at the mansion and was now getting ready to take Henry to school.
The pair sat in silence for a moment, before Emma couldn't resist any longer and launched forward to connect their lips together.
After a moment of shock, Regina began to move her lips slowly against her girlfriend's, and eventually the blonde pulled away, still keeping their faces close together.
"I missed you," Emma sighed.
Regina smiled instantly at the three words that made all of her self-doubt fall away, but she still was more than curious as to why the blonde had felt the need to isolate herself.
"You know you didn't have to," she laughed, and instantly Emma fell back against the pillow.
The blonde shrugged and sighed, Regina didn't seem to be angry at her at all, but then she was pretty sure that she didn't know why she should be.
"Trust me, I did," she sighed.
Regina's eyebrows shot up as she realised that the saviour was finally opening up to someone, but unlike Snow she knew that if she put too much pressure on the conversation, the blonde would shut down, so she just fell back down and lay next to her.
"There is nothing you could do that would make me wish to not to see you," Regina said after a moment of silence, "unless you cheated on me..." she laughed.
Emma smiled at the mayor's attempt to lighten the mood, and replied, "I would have to be a complete idiot to cheat on an all powerful sorceress."
Regina nodded, and continued to wait for Emma to decide if she was ready.
Minutes of silence past and eventually Emma couldn't take it anymore, she knew that she needed Regina in her life and she could no longer live with the thoughts that she might lose her, so she decided that now would have to be the moment of truth.
"I put Henry in danger," she mumbled.
Regina nodded, and sighed, "I know."
Emma's head snapped towards the woman, and just about managed to say, "how?" through her shock.
Regina brought her hand across and intertwined their fingers, in a somewhat twisted way; she was glad that this was the root issue, especially since she knew for a fact that Henry was currently completely safe.
"You seemed so intent on asking about Henry in that cabin, it dawned on me later that Greg must have gotten you to say something that put him in danger."
Emma nodded, and looked away from the chocolate brown orbs, "he...tortured me for hours, and I didn't say anything, and he got that stupid switchblade out and I admitted that he could find the trigger if he read Henry's storybook."
Regina brought the blonde's chin up with one of her fingers and smiled broadly, "you are a ridiculous human being, Miss Swan."
The serious look on the other woman's face instantly disappeared, to be replaced with utter confusion, and she said, "You're not mad at me?"
"I'm somewhat angry that you didn't feel able to share your feelings, I do not enjoy being ignored. But Emma, Henry is perfectly safe, and even if he were hurt, I can guarantee that while he recovered neither of us would harbour any ill feelings towards you."
Emma seemed to be thinking this through for a moment; she still couldn't help but feel like she had been completely and utterly weak. But now in this moment, she felt somehow stronger, and so she leaned forward and connected their lips again.
"I love you," she whispered.
"I love you too," Regina laughed in relief.
"Are you sure you want to date a cripple?" the blonde asked after a moment, and Regina instantly rolled her eyes when she saw the smile playing across her girlfriend's face.
"I'm very sure, and don't ever call yourself that again."
Snow furrowed her brow at the sound of frying bacon, and sat up in bed.
She and David had tried to both get some more sleep once they had discovered that their daughter had been able to get some herself, and she actually felt refreshed for the first time in days.
David sat up and they exchanged a curious look, before each making their way down the stairs.
The first thing that the woman noticed was her old bed completely empty, which had become a rare sight since her daughter hated the wheelchair.
Shaking her head, she turned to the kitchen and saw Regina standing behind the island, clearly making breakfast.
Snow looked at her for a moment, before the former queen pointed to the dining table, where Emma sat drinking hot cocoa.
David smiled broadly at the sight; for once the blonde wasn't grimacing at the wheelchair, and just seemed to be enjoying her drink.
"Good morning," Snow said brightly, she and her husband came sat next to their daughter to her right side, who offered each of them a tentative smile. She felt as though she owed her mother an apology for what she said the night before, and she imagined a thank you for calling Regina to come over, but then again the smile her mother gave in return made her feel as if none of that were necessary.
"Morning," Emma replied after she took a gulp of hot chocolate.
Regina came over and placed a bacon sandwich in front of her girlfriend, and smiled at her parents, "coffee?"
Snow and David both shook their head at the same time and Regina took a seat on Emma's right side, bringing the mug of coffee up to her lips as the saviour greedily bit into the bread.
Eventually Emma looked over at Snow and said, "It's hard to eat with you staring at me Snow."
Snow laughed and stood up to get herself something to eat, "I suppose it's a strange sight."
"You haven't been eating?" Regina asked with a furrowed brow.
Emma shrugged and after another mouthful of bacon she replied, "I wasn't hungry."
"You should have called me earlier, Snow, I had no idea that the issue was that bad," Regina called, and Emma adorned a look of faux outrage.
"I do not eat that much!" she pouted.
Regina leaned forward and wiped some ketchup off the side of her mouth, "Certainly more than your stature would indicate."
Snow laughed at the exchange, before she furrowed her brow, "Emma...your temple," she pointed. In her excitement she hadn't noticed that the bandages that once covered the woman's temple was gone, and that her skin looked completely healed, she imagined that it was more healed than the creams could have ever achieved.
Emma brought her hand up to the once burnt skin and smiled when she felt no pain meet her hand, "Regina healed it, apparently I moan too much."
"I did not say that," Regina retorted, "I said that I imagined you would moan too much."
Emma shrugged and said, "isn't that the same thing?"
As they continued talking, David came over to the kitchen to stand next to his wife.
"Looks like your theory was correct," he whispered with a smirk.
Snow inspected the affectionate expressions, and quickly turned away, "maybe we should give them some privacy," she whispered back.
A/N Hope you guys enjoyed all the SQ in this chapter XD
Reviews would be much appreciated, and I hope you guys are looking forward to the last Back to the Start week chapter tomorrow XD