A/N: So I want you to know I am just going to stick with focusing on Regina and Emma and not get into all the junk that was going on in the town. I will mention it on occasion. Hope that is okay with everyone. :P I just want to focus on our ladies, with the random Storybrooke residents coming in on occasion when necessary. ;) Hope you enjoy this chapter. Had a blast collaborating with skyecrystal87 on the last scene of this chapter as she did the part of Snow. So big round of applause for her. ;) And go check her stories out. They're awesome! Okay enough rambling... onto the story! Enjoy and... reviews are much appreciated. *mwah*
Regina remained silent through it all as they simply regarded each other. She saw the fear of loss in the other woman's eyes, a fear she herself knew all too intimately. She carefully reached out to touch the blonde's cheek, catching the lone tear upon her thumb before it fell upon Emma's cheek. "Don't go."
xxxxxxxxxx
Emma let out a small, choked laugh of relief and turned her head slightly to kiss the brunette's palm. She then closed her eyes as she brushed her cheek against the touch. "That wasn't really asking me, you know." She dared speak as she sniffled a little and gave a soft smile upon opening her eyes to the woman in front of her.
Regina let out a soft huff of laughter of her own. "I guess it wasn't." She paused as she regarded the vulnerable blonde and realized in that moment, Emma had just as much to lose as she did. "Will you please stay?"
The blonde shifted so she could cup Regina's face in her hands, searching the woman's eyes. "Like you could really get rid of me that easily." She stated, starting to get a little more confidence back. "We know what happens when you try." She rested their foreheads together and brushed their noses against each others.
"Irrevocably hard headed." Regina whispered, repeating Emma's own words back before finding the blonde's lips to kiss tenderly. "Thank you."
Emma pulled back so that she could look at the brunette, cocking her head slightly in puzzlement of the thanks. "For what?"
Regina looked down and fiddled with her napkin in her lap as she thought of the proper words. "For fighting for me." She slowly brought her gaze up and fixated upon gentle hazel eyes. "For believing in me."
A small smile formed on the blonde's face. "Isn't that what a white knight is supposed to do?" Emma asked, giving a wink.
Regina quirked her brow at the title the other woman had chosen for herself. "Thinking awfully high of yourself, aren't you?"
"Well it's either that or Princess Charming." Emma stated causing Regina to make a disgusted face at the alternative. "White knight it is." The blonde affirmed and shifted her balance to get on one knee and bow her head. "My Queen." She lifted her gaze and gave a playful smile.
The brunette rolled her eyes and scoffed. "I was trying to be sincere. Quit being ridiculous."
Emma brought her head up and became serious as she regarded her. "And so was I." She stood up and placed her finger under Regina's chin to tilt it gently and make sure she was looking at her. "You're worth fighting for, Regina. Don't let anyone ever tell you differently." They stared at each other a moment longer before Emma stepped back and turned to start collecting the dishes from the table as Regina watched her in quiet thought.
"Do you want me to put these in the sink to wash or dishwasher?" Emma asked while walking out of the room toward the kitchen. When she didn't hear a response she popped her head back in and looked over at the brunette woman still sitting there. "Earth to Regina?"
"Hmm?" The older woman snapped out of her daze and glanced in the direction of the blonde.
"I asked if you wanted me to hand wash these or throw them in the dishwasher."
"There will be no throwing of dishes." Regina quirked her brow at the other woman. "But you can place them neatly in the dishwasher. That would be fine."
Emma rolled her eyes at the comment. "You knew what I meant." She stated as she continued walking into the kitchen.
xxxxxxxxxx
While Emma insisted on cleaning the kitchen, since Regina had done all of the work to cook them breakfast, the brunette took the opportunity to go check Henry's room for any dirty clothes and make sure the teen had made his bed.
As Regina made her way back downstairs, laundry basket in hand, she stopped when she noticed the blonde sitting on the couch in the living room. "What are you doing?" She asked as she walked in and set the basket down in the chair next to the couch then turned to regard the other woman.
Emma lowered the newspaper to peer over it. "Well you see, there are these lines of words on this paper and I'm reading them. Not enough pictures though if you ask me." She smirked.
Regina rolled her eyes at the smart-ass response. "I meant what are you still doing here? While I may no longer be mayor, I'm fairly certain the sheriff's job still requires said sheriff to actually work."
"Truuue..." Emma drew the word out as she closed the newspaper and set it down. "But a certain beautiful woman asked me to stay and well, I felt it my duty to honor the request." She finished, giving a cheeky smile and reaching out to take Regina's hand, coaxing her to sit down with her.
Regina narrowed her eyes, trying to seem cross but was failing miserably as a faint smile sneaked its way upon her lips. "I guess I did, didn't I?"
"Mmhmm." Emma looped her hand through the brunette's arm and rested her head on her shoulder, closing her eyes.
They sat like that a while, in the silence, neither truly wishing to let reality and the outside world back in in that moment. It seemed whenever they did, it went terribly wrong. But Regina knew they had to. "You need to talk to that mother of yours before she decides to come storming over here, if it is indeed us that she is wishing to have that talk with you about."
Emma rolled her head off of the brunette's shoulder to rest it back against the couch as she groaned. "I know, I know. It's just…"
"Would it help if I went with you?" Regina asked, reaching out to touch the other woman's fair hair, playing with it.
Emma's head shot up and turned to look over at her. "Wha? No! Eh… I mean." She coughed and tried to regain her composure, maneuvering to sit up straighter and turn her body towards the couch's other occupant. "Look, don't get me wrong. I would want nothing more than you to be by my side but, I'd like this town to stay in one piece. Or well, as close to one piece as it is right now."
"This coming from the one that blew out a wall of the sheriff's station." Regina chuckled as she returned to running her fingers through the blonde's hair. "Maybe I should actually be concerned for Mary Margaret's safety." She smirked.
Emma gave a small amused smile at the light jab before leaning in and placing a soft kiss upon her lips. "I love to hear and see you laugh." She stated quietly as she pulled back just a touch. "And it's nice to know that I'm the reason to bring that out in you." The blonde gazed into rich, chocolate satin eyes. "You're breathtaking when you smile."
Regina moved in to close the space once again and captured Emma's lips in another kiss, her hand moving into the blonde's hair more, eliciting a soft moan from her. Emma, feeling bolder, carefully shifted and straddled the brunette woman's lap as she gradually deepened the kiss. However, before things got too heated, Regina began to ease away from the kiss, gently pushing Emma back. The blonde regarded her with a slight frown which only made her laugh. "I'm sorry, dear, but you're not getting out of speaking with your mother."
Emma whined and rolled her eyes as she brought her forehead to rest on Regina's shoulder. "You're mean."
"Some even say I'm… evil." Regina commented, one of her signature evil queen smirks adorning her face as the blonde sat back to look at her.
Emma let out a soft laugh and placed her hands on each side of the woman's face. "You may be able to fool everyone else, but I don't buy it for a minute." She leaned in and brushed her lips against Regina's in a tender touch. "Besides, they're idiots. Remember?" The blonde smiled as she pulled back just a tad, her warm breath whispering against the brunette's skin as the woman let out a small chuckle, wrapping her arms around Emma's lower back as she kissed her again.
Regina made Emma promise her that she would go straight to Mary Margaret's before going into work, and here she was. Why the older woman was so adamant about her doing so was beyond her. Emma walked up to the door and lightly rapped on it. Actually, no, she wasn't confused about it after all, as she stood there waiting for the door to open. She knew if she didn't speak with her mother, then she would continue to harp on it and that would in turn drive Regina crazy. So really it was just selfishness on Regina's part, not even thinking of Emma's turmoil. The blonde grumbled to herself childishly and was beginning to get fidgety when there still was no answer from the other side of the door. She took a deep breath and reached up to knock again, a bit more forcefully. Realizing how loud that had to have been, misjudging her own strength, she quickly pulled her hand away. Let's just get this over with. She stood there waiting as nervousness crept upon her.
Mary Margaret had been in her bedroom, taking care of some left over laundry from the day before when the sound of a knock reverberated from the main entrance. Setting down one of David's shirts and giving it a loving pat, the pixie haired woman rose to answer the door. As she reached the foyer, the knock came again, louder this time, and she picked up her pace to reach the door sooner. Turning the knob, Mary Margaret opened the door and came face to face with her daughter. "Emma." She greeted, her tone neutral. After her conversation with Killian that morning, she wasn't 100% sure how to treat the blonde.
Emma stared at Mary Margaret a few moments, not finding the ability to move her feet. While her mind had been so caught up and reeling with what the other woman had to say to her on the matter of her personal life, she hadn't thought of what she herself would say when she saw her. "Mary Margaret." She managed to get out and stepped inside. She took a few more steps then whirled around not being able to hold it in. "Don't you think it's a little late for parental advice?" She snapped.
"I'm sorry?" Mary Margaret asked, seemingly confused as she closed the door and regarded her daughter with a pinched brow and soft green eyes, hoping her innocent expression would calm her daughter. When Killian had called her that morning in a drunken stupor, rambling on about Emma ending their relationship in favor of one with her former stepmother, the princess hadn't known whether or not to believe him. But, true to her nature, she couldn't leave well enough alone and had texted the blonde in her rush to understand what was going on in her daughter's life. If a relationship had developed between the two powerful women, she had no doubt her opinion on the matter would be null and void, but she still needed to know.
Emma gave a sigh and rolled her eyes at her mother's attempt to go all innocent; she was starting to see why Regina seemed to always get annoyed with her. "Drop the innocent act. That's what I'm here about, right? Killian told you about Regina." She stared the woman down before turning her back and beginning to pace a few steps away as she mumbled. "Ugh, I'm going to kill him."
Green eyes widened momentarily at the offensive attitude coming from the younger woman but did not let the blonde's harsh reaction cause her to waiver as she stepped further back into the apartment, following Emma. "He called me this morning - drunk, I might add." she then paused, gauging the sheriff's reaction before continuing. "Is it true?"
Emma cringed at the mention of the pirate being drunk. He seemed to have taken the news well enough she thought… well she didn't think it hit him that hard. "Sorry, I didn't know he'd…" She relaxed her shoulders and took a moment before turning around. "Yeah, it's true. It kind of just… hit me." She thought back of everything that had happened in the last 48 hours, her jealousy over seeing that scene once again down in the vault rattling her, but the sound of something shaking caught her attention. She noticed a figurine vibrating on the table and she quickly closed her eyes to regain her emotional state as Regina taught her.
Seeing her daughter relax, the pixie-haired woman softened her features, waiting for Emma to calm her magic. "How long has this been going on?" She asked, moving to take a seat at the table and gesturing her daughter to do the same. "I thought Regina was still pining over Robin Hood."
"Uh… how long has what been going on?" The blonde asked reaching up to rub the back of her neck out of nervousness. "My feelings for her? Or the whole us thing?" She shoved her hands in her back pockets, shifting her weight from one foot to the other until her mother made a motion for her to have a seat. Emma plopped down in the offered chair and rested her hands on the table, looking down at them as she rubbed at an invisible spot on its surface. "And Regina wasn't pining after Robin, just the idea of maybe finding her happy ending finally."
The blonde took a deep breath and raised her head up with a determined look burning in her eyes. "She deserves better than some forest boy who she only gave a second glance to because of some stupid fairy dust manipulation." She waved her hand about irritatedly. "And I may… or may not have been looking for her to help with my magic and ended up finding her with that oaf and… punched him." She said the last bit in a mumble as she dropped her gaze again and started fixating on that invisible spot again.
The royal felt her eyebrows disappear into her hairline as she listened to her daughter admit to there being a relationship between her and Regina. Mary Margaret had secretly been hoping the pirate had been lying - not because she didn't want her daughter to be happy - but because the implications of such a relationship in Storybrooke. Not that the Enchanted Forest hadn't seen its share of those who preferred the same sex - that wasn't it at all. Well, not entirely. The Enchanted Forest had never known a Royal to admit to such behavior, let alone get involved with another royal publicly. She herself had even fallen for a certain blue-eyed brunette for a brief time while running away from the very person her daughter was telling her she was involved with. Her time with Red had been irreplaceable, and if she had not fallen for Charming she was sure the two women would still be... affectionately close. Smiling warmly at her daughter's apparent nervousness, she watched with careful eyes as the blonde sat down and admitted to her violent reaction to catching Regina with the woodsman, stifling a chuckle at her daughter's childish defense of her love interest.
With the blonde now fixated on the spot on her kitchen table, she took the silence as a cue to speak. "Well... both I suppose. I am not angry with you Emma, I am merely curious. Same-sex relationships weren't uncommon in the Enchanted Forest... even I have, dabbled with the fairer sex in the past. There is something absolutely enchanting about taking a woman as your lover, but to do such when you have such a high profile status... I am just worried for you, that's all. Mother's prerogative." She chuckled, trying to lighten the mood as she took her daughter's hand. "If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have too. But I want you to know that I don't have any ill feelings towards you dating another woman."
Emma's head shot up at her mother's admission of having 'dabbled', as the pixie haired woman called it, with another woman. Or was it women? Ugh. No, no. She really didn't want to know. Hearing her continue to speak of taking a woman as a lover was making the color in Emma's face drain to a remarkably pale state. "I... really didn't need to know that about your love life. Or your love life in general, thank you." She managed to get out without becoming more nauseous as she put her head down on the table and groaned.
Knowing that Mary Margaret wasn't going to force the talk about her and Regina did help, because honestly, part of her really didn't want to talk. But the other part of her knew she might as well get it over with or else she was sure, even though her mother said it was pretty much up to her, she'd find ways of bugging her none the less. Feeling her mother take her hand as the woman continued to speak, Emma slowly rose back up to look at her. "I honestly hadn't even thought about your reaction or feelings of me dating women, just dating this particular woman." The blonde admitted.
"Because it's Regina?" Mary Margaret questioned. At her daughter's nod she smiled, squeezing the blonde's hand. "Look, I know that things haven't always been... what did Regina once say to me?" She thought a moment before remembering, "Ah, yes. 'Rainbow kisses and unicorn stickers' when it comes to our relationship, but I'm not blind. I know she's not the same woman she used to be. And honestly, I've seen the way you look at each other." She added with a pointed look and a suggestive wink.
"And don't worry, if I told you the details of my time with Ruby, you'd never look at me the same way again. You may not have much of your childhood innocence left, but I'll spare you THAT story."
If Emma thought she had no more color left that could drain from her complexion, she was entirely wrong. Mary Margaret and Ruby? What? She brought her hands up and flailed them in front of her. "No, no. I didn't even need to know who! Oh my god." She abruptly got up to walk around and try to get some air. "I mean… it kind of makes sense, you're so close and all but... Gah. No!" She waved her hand again as though trying to get the thought out of her head. "Seriously, why would you even tell me that?" Emma asked as she came back to sit down. "Does David even know about this? No wait, on second thought, I don't want to know that either. Nope." Holding up her hand to stop the answer before it even started.
Mary Margaret was laughing hysterically by the time her daughter was finished, tears leaking out of her eyes as she hunched over her chair, her elbows propped on the table being the only thing holding her up as her body rocked with laughter. "Oh, this was... way more gratifying than the time... you caught David and I in bed together!" She squeaked out as she tried to catch her breath. Finally able to breathe again, she chanced a look at Emma, and immediately doubled over in laughter again. "Oh my God! Your FACE! You should really see your face right now!" Another round of laughing claimed her then, and without the ability to talk she just continued to let the laughter ring around the otherwise empty apartment.
Emma just watched her mother laughing to the point of tears at her expense. She folded her arms and huffed. "This isn't funny! You have seriously scarred me for the remainder of my existence." She tried to say with a straight face but she was beginning to crack herself as the other woman continued her bout of laughter. "And thank God Henry and I didn't get home any sooner that day or we'd both be needing daily visits with Dr Hopper." She shook her head. "Although I think after this lovely admission of yours, I may need to make an appointment now myself." She mumbled.
"Oh come on Emma, it wasn't that bad." The pixie haired woman chastised lightly, her laughter dying as she eyed the petulant looking blonde. "Just think of how I feel knowing my stepmother and my daughter have been... bonding." At that, she let her face scrunch in displeasure, hoping to level the playing field.
Well the color was definitely returning to the blonde's face as a shade of pink sported across her cheeks. "We haven't…" Her voice cracked and she coughed as she tried to find her words again. "I mean, it's…" Was her face on fire? She definitely felt that her face was on fire. "We haven't 'bonded'. We've just kissed, a lot." She blurted out then quickly averted her eyes away from her mother. Did she really have to bring that up? And use the word stepmother? She groaned inwardly. The conversation was becoming awkward to a whole new level. Why was she feeling like a teenager all of a sudden? Emma cleared her throat and reached up to rub the back of her neck. "So um, yeah…"
Mary Margaret could barely contain a giggle at her daughter's clearly flustered expression. Raising an expectant eyebrow, as if to say 'oh', she let silence fall between them She really did enjoy messing with her daughter so... especially when she made it so easy. "Well, if you need any advice..." she said girlishly with a light smirk on her face, "I am sure Ruby could help you."
"Oh no, I don't think so. We'll be fine." Emma shook her head at the offer. She didn't need to be talking to her mother's ex-lover, who happened to be her own best friend… She outwardly cringed in the middle of her thought. ...About her own love life with her mother's stepmother. Oh my God, I would be a psychiatrist's dream patient. She brought her hands up to her temples to massage them as she closed her eyes. "You know what, I think we're good here. I think that's enough talking." She dropped her hands and opened her eyes as she went to stand. "We're good right? You said we needed to talk, we talked. Yeah, um… yeah I think we're good here." She rambled as she pushed her chair in and got ready to leave.
Mary Margaret stifled a snicker as Emma rose from her chair, thinking the conversation had gone way better than she had thought it might. "Yes, we're good." She agreed, smiling pleasantly as she walked her daughter to the door. "Thank you for coming over to chat, and I am sorry if I set you on edge with that text this morning."
"It's okay." The blonde accepted the apology and gave her mother a quick hug goodbye. "Thanks for not going all, um… just… thanks for being okay with Regina and me." Emma stated and gave the other woman a shrug of a smile before turning to walk out.
"No problem sweetie. Would you like to tell your father, or would you like me to?" The school teacher asked as she opened the door for the blonde sheriff.
"Would you mind telling him? I think I've had enough talking for today." Emma went to take another step and turned again "And actually… let him know I'm taking another day?" Emma asked of her mother. While she had intended to go to the station, after this conversation what she needed now was a stiff drink, or two.
"Of course." Mary Margaret agreed easily, smiling reassuringly at the blonde, effectively answering both questions with a single answer. She waited until Emma was a few steps into the hallway before calling her name. When the curious gaze of her daughter reached her, Mary Margaret smiled sweetly. "And don't worry about being intimate with Regina, I am sure she isn't as good as she's rumored to be."
Emma's jaw fell open at the pixie haired woman's last words. She swore if she was a cartoon her jaw probably would be through the floor. "Wha… I..." What the hell was she supposed to say to that? Wha… She whirled around with her back to the other woman and stood there a moment, eyes wide, not even sure she was able to find her motor skills to move her feet. Daring a step to test, she slowly took another step before bolting out of there and to her car. Make that three, or four STRONG drinks.