Emma bounced nervously on the balls of her feet, waiting. It was dark. The streets had been almost empty as she walked towards the diner. August had sleepily wished her luck when she left the tunnel and Emma knew she needed it. She tugged self consciously at her clothes. The shirt was the one she had borrowed from Ruby but the trousers, a pair of black slacks, had been acquired at a thrift shop the previous afternoon. She just hoped they would be acceptable until she had enough money to buy some more.
The sound of a key turning in the lock made Emma jump and she stood up a little straighter as the back door opened.
"Morning," Ruby said, rubbing her eyes as she peered into the alleyway and spotted Emma.
"Morning," Emma replied, stepping into the welcome warmth of the diner and closing the door against the early morning chill. "How are you?"
"Tired," Ruby replied. "And hungover."
Emma laughed and followed the brunette into the kitchen. The lights flickered into life and she glanced around the large, stainless steel room.
"So, this is it," Ruby said. "Dishwasher, sink, and then the usual kitchen stuff. You just need to make sure you keep on top of the plates as you clear and put everything back where it goes. The chef gets really pissy if he can't find his spatula."
"Is that a euphemism?" Emma asked with a chuckle but Ruby just yawned. "Wow, you're really not a morning person are you?"
"No," Ruby said. "But Granny said I needed to show you the ropes so here I am. As compensation I get this afternoon off."
"Speaking of which, what time do I finish?"
"Two thirty," Ruby said. "We work eight hour shifts here. You get two five minute breaks and a half hour one but because you're working over the lunch hour, we'd like you to take it before midday if possible." Emma nodded her understanding. "The lunch break is unpaid but we get a fifty per cent discount on food and we usually eat out here," Ruby continued, opening the door to a tiny staff room, littered with abandoned clothes, old chairs, and outdated magazines. A row of lockers on the far wall each held a faded sticker with an employee's name. "Questions?"
"Is there a uniform?" Emma asked. She didn't want to have to constantly borrow Ruby's clothes and she had seen the tiny Granny's emblem stitched onto Ruby's breast pocket.
"Oh yeah," Ruby said, reaching behind the door of the staff room and tugging several white shirt out. "Find a few that fit and take 'em with you."
Emma did so and stepped towards the lockers. Pausing when she realised she didn't know which ones were in use, she turned questioningly to Ruby.
"Take Jamie's," she said, pointing to one on the far right hand side.
Emma nodded and put two of her new shirts in the empty locker. She then unbuttoned the one of Ruby's she was wearing and slipped the third one on. Buttoning it up, she turned and smiled at the brunette who was still standing in the doorway.
"What happened?"
Shit. In all the excitement of actually having a job, of being about to start work, and listening to Ruby's instructions, she had completely forgotten. Even August didn't know about the scars on her back. A few of her former clients may have seen or touched the jagged, puckered skin, but none of them had commented. Emma looked away from Ruby's gaze, concern and disgust emanating in equal measure.
"Emma?" Ruby said, her voice softer as she watched the blonde slowly sinking into a chair.
"Bad foster family," she whispered. "Sorry, I didn't mean for you to see them."
"It's … it's ok," Ruby said. "I mean, it's not ok. It's clearly horrible that someone did … that to you. But it's ok. I … I don't think any differently of you or anything and -,"
She trailed off, knowing just by the blank expression on the blonde's face that she wasn't listening to the ramble spilling from her lips. Emma was staring at the wall, lost in past memories. Slowly, Ruby backed out of the staffroom and closed the door.
Henry squealed in delight as he raced around the couch, his tiny feet thundering across the carpet as his mother followed him. Regina was crouched over, hands outstretched towards the small boy and her face snarling and snapping.
"No! Mama, no!" Henry cried as tickling fingers landed on his sides and a mouth chomped near his ear.
"Yum, yum, yum!" Regina laughed as she pulled the squirming boy into her arms. "Henrys are my favourite food. And this one is extra delicious because he ate all of his peas at lunch time."
Henry giggled harder as Regina's tickling intensified, her face buried into the crook of his neck as she continued to pretend to eat him. Eventually, she stopped, lying on the floor of the living room and groaning as Henry climbed onto her chest and sat there, grinning down at her.
"Again!" he insisted.
"We can't," Regina said. "We're meeting Auntie Kathryn and Auntie Ruby, remember?"
"At Granny's?" Henry asked, bouncing up and down on Regina and causing the brunette to have to gasp for breath.
"Yes," she nodded, tapping her son's leg and indicating that he needed to get off her before she suffocated. "Auntie Ruby has the afternoon free so we're all going to go to Central Park."
"Can I have pie?"
Regina furrowed her brow and pretended to think deeply. Henry pouted his rosy lips and opened his hazel eyes as wide as they would go. Regina smirked.
"I suppose so, since you've been so good all morning and you did finish all of your lunch."
"Yay!" Henry cheered, racing out of the room.
Regina sat up and ran her fingers through her tousled hair. Glancing at her watch, she realised she needed to get ready and make herself presentable before meeting her friends. As she passed Henry's room on the way to her own, she saw him already tugging on an extra sweater, his boots and coat tugged from the cupboard and laid on the floor. She sometimes couldn't believe he was growing up so fast. Entering her own room, she pulled off her sweatpants, tossed her t-shirt onto the bed, and started to look for something nice yet warm to wear.
Half an hour later an impeccably dressed Regina and well wrapped up Henry walked through the door to Granny's, the bell tinkling in welcome.
"Auntie Ruby!" Henry called out, waving at the brunette who was stood behind the counter cutting a piece of pie.
"Hey, Henry," Ruby grinned, waving as Henry slid into his usual booth and Regina followed him. "Apple or blueberry?"
"Blueberry please," Henry replied.
Ruby saluted the small boy and placed a plate with slab of pie down in front of another customer. Regina helped Henry remove his coat and gloves before settling back against the bench and checking her cell.
"Auntie Kat is running late," Regina said. No surprises there, she thought as she slipped her iPhone back into her bag.
"Ok," Henry replied, kneeling up and shuffling over to the window where he pressed his nose to the glass and watched the workers who were shovelling snow away from their construction site. His breath fogged up the space through which he peered but he didn't seem to notice or care.
Ruby collapsed into his vacated seat seconds later, two plates landing heavily on the table. Regina raised an eyebrow at the slightly dishevelled appearance her best friend and couldn't help but smirk. Ruby's hangovers were always bad.
"Don't judge me," Ruby groaned. "It wasn't planned."
"It never is with you," Regina said, tugging her plate of apple pie towards her and pushing Henry's over to the end of the table where he was still leaning, despite the appearance of food. "What happened?"
"Dot's back," Ruby replied. "She arrived late last night from Kansas and came straight here. We … celebrated and then stayed up drinking."
Regina chuckled. She could see beneath the tired eyes and the slumped position, a doe-eyed look on Ruby's face which only her girlfriend could produce. Dorothy, or Dot for short, and Ruby had been together for almost two years and despite her job regularly taking her out of state for long periods of time Ruby was still head over heels in love.
"Mama," Henry said, the word muffled through a mouthful of pie after he had finally realised the treat had arrived. Regina looked disapprovingly at him and he dutifully swallowed before continuing. "Can we go to the zoo?"
"I thought you wanted to make another snow-monkey?" Regina frowned, tugging several napkins from the dispenser and sliding them down the table towards Henry, whose face was already covered in purple juice.
"I do," Henry nodded. "But I also want to see the lemurs. And maybe the penguins too. I bet they like it now it's snowing and cold."
Regina sighed. "Ok, if we have time."
"Not a fan of the zoo?" Ruby asked, noting Regina's lack of enthusiasm at the addition to the afternoon's itinerary.
"There are snakes in the same area as the lemurs," she said with a grimace. "Henry drags me there far too often for my liking but I still haven't conquered my fear. Pretty sure immersion therapy doesn't work for me."
Ruby laughed as Regina picked up her fork and began to eat her apple pie. Both plates had been cleared and Henry's berry-stained face wiped clean again before Kathryn Nolan finally swept into the diner, a flurry of snow landing on the tiled floor as she did so.
"Took you long enough," Regina mock scolded as the blonde woman slid into the booth beside her and reached for a sip of Regina's own coffee.
"I was working," Kathryn argued. "Unlike some people, I don't have the luxury of a weekend off. Hi Henry," she added, waving at the boy who was grinning widely at her. As far as Henry was concerned, they didn't spend enough time with his Auntie Kat.
"I was up until after midnight trying to work out a deal on this Carter and Sons case," Regina defended. "And then Henry woke up at half five and decided to play with his toys on my bed."
"You were the one who wanted kids," Kathryn pointed out. "I don't know why you don't just retire. You can afford to."
"I'm twenty-nine," Regina said. "If I retired now can you imagine how bored I would be by the time I was forty?"
"True," Kathryn grinned at her colleague. "You don't exactly do well with time on your hands do you?"
"Can we go now?" Henry asked, already bored by the conversation he didn't quite understand and itching to get outside into the powdery snow which he knew coated the acres of parkland just up the road.
"Sure, just let me get changed quickly and I'll be right with you guys," Ruby said, climbing stiffly from the booth and slumping into the back of the diner where the stairs to the apartment above was located.
Regina and Kathryn turned their attention to Henry who was already talking excitedly about just how big their snow-monkey was going to be. Neither woman noticed the nervous blonde approaching their table, thin pale hands reaching out for their empty plates.
"Shit!"
Regina jumped at the shout and scooted away as the dregs of her coffee trickled towards the edge of the table and her lap, the mug itself rocking noisily on its rim against the hard table top.
"Sorry!" came the gushed apology, a damp, stained rag appearing and mopping up the brown liquid before it could drip off the table and into the fabric of Regina's expensive coat.
"Be more careful in future," Regina snapped, picking up the coffee cup and placing it back on the table. "And watch your language. This is a family friendly diner."
"Yes, I'm so sorry. Please … please don't … I can't lose -,"
Regina gasped as she looked up at the stuttering woman. Green eyes, wide with worry, stared back at her, a thin lip pulled between chewing teeth. The young woman looked remarkably cleaner and warmer since the last time Regina had seen her but she was unmistakably the same person.
"You?" Regina said, her voice suddenly softer. "What are you doing here?"
"I … work here," Emma finished lamely. "At least, I hope I still do. I'm so sorry about the coffee. My hands were wet and it just slipped and I tried to catch it but …"
"It's ok," Regina said, stopping the ramble. "No harm was done."
"Mama, why's the beggar in here?"
Regina's cheeks flushed with embarrassment as her son's loud words echoed through the almost empty diner. Several customers looked around to see who the child could possibly be talking about. Kathryn's eyebrows rose but she said nothing. Emma's gaze dropped to the ground as she began to step away from table.
"Henry," Regina admonished. "That was rude."
"Why?" Henry frowned, not understanding how saying something that was true could possibly be bad.
"It just … is," Regina finished lamely. "I'm sorry," she said turning to Emma.
"It's fine," Emma replied. "Let me take those plates for you."
She leaned across the table and pulled the two pie plates towards her. Balancing the empty coffee mug on top, she turned around and walked straight into Ruby. All three items dropped to the floor, exploding in a shower of porcelain.
"Shit!" Emma said again, her hands coming to cover her face as she felt tears begin behind to prick her eyes. This was it. It was over. Her new job had lasted barely eight hours and she was going to be fired. She wondered how she was going to break the news to August. The two of them had already discussed how they would spend the forty dollars she was intending to earn that day and had even formulated a plan for saving money so they could find somewhere to live within a month.
"Hey, Emma," came Ruby's concerned voice. "Are you ok?"
Emma shook her head, her hands still firmly covering her face.
"What's going on?" came Granny's voice from behind the counter.
"My bad," Ruby called. "I wasn't looking where I was going and I walked straight into Emma. I'll get all of this cleaned up before I leave though."
There was a pause. Emma could tell Granny was appraising the scene before her.
"You'd better," the older woman said after a long pause. "Emma, your shift ends in fifteen minutes so make sure you finish up as much of the lunch rush washing as possible. You're on the same shift time tomorrow and your wages from today are in the staff room."
Emma slowly lowered her hands. She … she wasn't being fired? She tried to wipe the frown from her forehead and nodded at Granny to confirm she understood and then turned to Ruby who was still in front of her.
"You ok?" the brunette repeated again.
"Yeah," Emma muttered. "Thanks."
"No problem," Ruby said. "Believe me, I've dropped my fair share of plates and dishes in this place. Come on, I'll show you where we keep the brooms and cleaning supplies."
Without looking back at the table behind her, Emma followed Ruby, stepping over the shattered crockery and heading into the storage area.
"Do you know her?" Kathryn asked as she turned back to Regina who was already pulling Henry's warm coat and gloves out and getting ready to dress him.
"No," Regina replied as she stood up and beckoned Henry towards her. It was true. She didn't know the blonde, who apparently was called Emma. She thought the name rather suited the woman, strong yet feminine at the same time.
"Then why did Henry say she was a beggar?" Kathryn said. She had been working with Regina for too long to know recognise when the woman was lying.
"We … gave her some money about a week ago," Regina relented, tugging Henry's arm gently through his coat sleeve as she spoke. "She was sitting on Park Avenue and Henry asked if we could give her something. You know I'm not one for handing out money but she looked so cold and sad that I -,"
A quiet cough from behind Regina made her freeze. She slowly turned to look into the reddened face of Emma, holding a broom limply in her hand.
"I'm sorry," Regina offered. "I didn't mean -,"
"It's fine," Emma interrupted, her tone a little icy. "If you'd be so kind as to move aside, I'll start clearing up this mess I made."
Regina did so, pulling Henry out of the way as well, their shoes crunching a little on the shards of broken plates. Just as Regina was trying to work out what she could say to apologise, Ruby bounded up to the group.
"Ready?" she asked, jamming a bright red beanie with stitched in wolf-ears onto her head.
"I'm not going out with you dressed like that," Regina said, distracted at once from her guilt. "You look like a child."
"And what's wrong with that?" Ruby asked, bending down and helping Henry who was fiddling with some of the remaining toggles on his coat.
"You're almost thirty," Regina replied.
"Shhhhh," Ruby said, as if it was some big secret. "If we don't believe it, then it won't happen."
"Wishing time would stop doesn't make it so," Regina said. "Come on, let's go. But you have to walk at least three metres ahead of the adults here, ok?"
"Deal," Ruby grinned, holding out her hand to Henry who took it and the pair led the way out of the diner.
Emma didn't look up from her sweeping until the door shut again. As she watched, the little group passed the window of the diner and headed down the street towards Central Park. Ruby and Henry were already ahead, slipping slightly on the icy pavements. Regina and Kathryn had linked arms, grinning sideways at each other as they watched their mutual friend and Regina's son tottering down the sidewalk.
Emma sighed and returned to her work. She wondered how it would feel. To have friends. August was her friend, she supposed. But it wasn't the same. They were together because they needed one another to survive, thrust into each other's lives by the brutality and loneliness which plagued the streets. Ruby's friends however, they were simply sharing their carefree lives together, enjoying a Saturday afternoon in a snowy New York City, wrapped up in their expensive coats and gloves. Would that ever be Emma? Would she ever get to a place where she too could stroll down the street, arm in arm with a true friend and a child running along ahead.
Her stomach plummeted at the thought. She quickly turned her attention back to the broken crockery and started sweeping faster.