Outside her office building, Emma bounces on her toes. Gen walks patiently next to her. "I have to do this, don't I?" Emma asks.
"In the end, the choice is yours; however, I would advise you to follow through."
"That sounds like a yes." Emma turns to her. "No wonder Regina hired you. You're a lot like her." Emma raises her eyebrow when she sees Gen's lip quirk into a smile, but it's gone in an instant.
Gen opens the door. "Shall we?"
Emma sighs and slumps her shoulders as she passes through the doorway. She nearly rubs her jeans thin under her palms during the elevator ride. The door slides open and Emma freezes.
Gen gently pulls her from the elevator. "If you choose to go back down, that's fine." With a short nod, Emma steps into the office.
As they round the corner near the cubicles, Braden looks up. "Hey, Em."
Emma spins around to him. "Emma, Braden. It's Emma."
He leans away from her. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize it bothered you."
"Yeah, cause you don't give a damn about anyone other than yourself." She holds a glare on him.
"Come along, Ms. Swan," Gen says, gently tapping Emma's arm. "No need to start trouble."
Emma narrows her eyes at him one last time before following Gen.
"I'm surprised to see you, Emma."
Emma stops dead in her tracks. She slowly turns around to see her supervisor standing behind her.
"Don't you know by now not to bring your girlfriends to work?" She asks with her arms crossed, staring intensely at Emma.
Gen steps up to Emma's side. "Genevieve Roland. And you are?"
"I'm sure you already know. Emma, you've got something on your neck." She runs her fingers across her neck where Regina's hickeys are visible.
"Thank you for making this so easy," Gen says, taking Emma's arm and leading her to the HR office.
They step through the office. Gen walks up to the desks and sets her briefcase down. "Bold choice allowing my client's supervisor to work today. Is there anything else you would like to hand to me on a silver platter for this lawsuit?"
They all gawk at her, Emma included.
Hours later, Gen and Emma sit down to eat lunch at a café near Emma's office.
Emma picks at her fries while Gen eats a salad. "You even eat like her."
"Actually, I'm a vegetarian while she simply has a healthy diet."
"Why do you know that?"
Gen leans back in her chair and crosses her legs. "We have spoken on occasion."
"Recently?"
She fights a smirk. "Only about your case."
Emma leans back and studies her. "Are you a lawyer in Atlanta?"
"New York."
"Why are you here?"
"I was hired."
Emma raises an eyebrow. "You seem more like the kind of lawyer that jobs come to versus you going to jobs."
"Special request," Gen says, slowly sipping her water.
"How special?"
Gen sits up and lays her hands on the table. "Perhaps this is a conversation best suited for you and Regina." She sets cash on the table. "We will talk in the morning. Have a good day, Ms. Swan."
Emma watches her leave with her arms crossed. Once she is out of sight, Emma drops her head. "Great, now I'm the jealous one." She fumbles in her pocket for her phone.
She tries Regina twice before it goes to voicemail. "Well this just isn't working out, is it? I'm sure you're bogged down in work from the last week. Hopefully the town hasn't burnt down or something. Um, we met with HR and that awful woman was there. They freaking let her work. And then they actually brought her into the office while we were talking so they could talk to both of us, and I thought your little friend Gen was going to start throwing confetti. Girl had dollar signs in her eyes the whole time. Speaking of her… there's a story there for you to tell, babe. Please give me a call as soon as you can. I miss you, and I love you. It would be really nice to talk about the meeting with you. Alright, well, I hope to talk to you soon. Bye."
Emma ends the call and stares at her phone. "What the hell, Regina? You could at least send a damn text."
In the hospital, Mary Margaret and David stare at Regina's phone when another voicemail from Emma comes through.
Mary Margaret shakes her head. "This isn't okay, David."
David sighs. "Let's just give it time, okay?"
"No. One of us needs to talk to her."
"Then call her about the meeting at work. But don't tell her about Regina." He kisses her forehead. "Not yet."
"She's going to ask about her."
David shrugs. "Then lie."
"David, no. I can't do that." Mary Margaret pushes back from him. "I can't believe you would ask me to do that."
"Then I'll call, okay?"
Mary Margaret nods.
David pulls out his phone and stares at it. He calls Emma and closes his eyes.
"Hey, Dad."
"Emma, hi. How are you?"
"Um, alright, I guess. Do you need something?"
"I was just calling to check on you. You know, see how things went today."
"Oh, well thanks. You got lucky catching me at lunch time. Though I guess I'm not going back today anyways."
David takes a seat in the hospital room. "How did it go?"
"It was weird. My lawyer is fantastic at her job and has some strange connection to Regina that I'm going to beat out of one of them."
David laughs lightly. "I'm sure Regina will tell you."
"Yeah, have you seen her today?"
David focuses on Mary Margaret. "No, I haven't."
"Was she okay last night?"
"She was pretty worn out. She went to sleep right away."
"Can you check on her please? She hasn't answered my calls or texts, and I know she's probably busy combined with not feeling well, but I still would have thought she'd want to talk to me today."
David clenches his eyes shut at the pain in Emma's voice. "Emma, I'm sure she wants nothing more than to talk to you. She was out of the office for nearly a week. There may just be too much going on."
"I guess. Can you just talk to her and ask her to call me, please?"
"Yes, Emma. I'll talk to her. I've got to get back to work. How about I call you later?"
"Okay, that's fine. Thanks for calling, Dad. I love you."
"I love you too, Emma. Bye." David ends the call and slams the phone down in his lap.