Hot in the City

Two thugs tied Emma down in a chair both hands tightly on the arms of the chair and both legs on the legs of the chairs with black zip ties. The thugs stood by Malena's sides as she began to question. "Let's start with an easy one. What's your real name?"

"Carmichael" Emma insisted," Emily Carmichael." Malena walked slowly to a table holding some instruments and picked up a knife. From where she stood she threw the knife toward Emma cutting through her dress and embedding itself into the chair's wood. "Emma Swan."

Malena smiled. "That wasn't so hard."She said coming over and picking up the knife. " Now... before you answer my next question, I want you to think long and hard about my options here." She got really close and placed a knee in between Emma's legs. "There's the old favorite- yank out a tooth." She ran the knife down Emma's cheek. "Too noisy." she leaned close enough to kiss the blonde, "cut off a toe? That's too messy."

Emma nodded in agreement. "Far too messy."

She shrugged. "Or we can Chuck you off the balcony... Emma. Probably land face first… Teeth go through the back of your head." She tisked "not a good way to go." Malena stands back and her thugs move closer to Emma. "So... here's my question: Who do you work for?"

"No one," Emma answered. And the thugs picked up the chair to bring it to the balcony. Emma panicked and tried. "No, no, stop, stop! I fix computers for a living! I swear to god! I snuck into the party under a fake name to impress a girl! Except it didn't work because the first chance she got she was flirting with some guy. Please, please, down... put the chair down!" She ended her rant with a bit of begging.

"Goodbye, Emma," Malena said walking around Emma back into the room.

"No, no, no, it's a setup!" Emma screamed as she could feel the cool night air on her skin.

The thugs stopped, as Malena asked. "What is?" she narrowed her eyes."The painting?"

"The painting. The painting," She started thinking about how much of the truth to tell. "I think. I think the painting might be fake or something. "

"Why?" The terrorist asked.

"If you put me down I'll tell you," Emma stated. The two men put her down and she breathed out relief. "I saw a photo of the painting in the L.A. Times, okay? But it had a different frame." Emma said trying to make herself understood. "So I'm assuming somebody maybe swapped it out, I don't know. But if I were you, I would not buy that painting."

"A fake painting. And you had no intention of bidding on it?" She asked moving back to the table of instruments and picking up her gun.

"Me? Bid on…" Emma smiled and followed Malena's movements. Her smile faltered when she saw the gun. "No, not unless they were selling it for 25 bucks. I mean, that's about what I have in my decorating budget."

Malena cocked the gun and pointed it at Emma. "Okay, tell me how to fix a computer, Emma."

Emma's eyes widened and she began to talk about anything Mac-related she could spew out. "My first inclination is that your bus speed is not up to snuff with your video card. I'm assuming we're talking about a pc here, right? Is your memory dedicated?" She asked.

"That's enough, Mr. Swan. I believe you." She said but pointed the Gun at Abuelo "the problem is since you've seen me, now I have to kill you."

"Have... have to, have to?" Emma asked. "No, no, no, I disagree, I disagree... vehemently, vehemently. No, no, no, I won't say anything, I swear to god. You don't know the things I know about people."

"Don't worry, it'll be fast." She said placing a silencer on her gun "Good-bye, Miss Swan. I enjoyed our tango.

Then all of a sudden Blaise and Regina burst into the room. Gunfire rang out. Regina screamed out. Get down, Emma.

Regina, Oh my god! It's okay" Regina said, And only Chuck. Are you okay?

"Okay? Okay? Two more seconds and I'd have been dead. They were going to throw me off the balcony."

"Did you tell them you work for us? Mal asked.

"Of course not. Where the hell were you guys? "

"You're still alive. I'd consider myself lucky. " Mal continued

Needless to say, La Ciudad got away. After they briefed the general, Emma walked into her apartment as quietly as she could. Her sister was on the couch asleep. She must have been waiting up to talk to her. She just couldn't. And it was killing Emma not to talk about it.

She draped a blanket over Kathryn, and this woke the older blonde up.

"Hey," Kathryn whispered. "How was the big date?"

"It was good, great, fine. I'm going to go to bed. I love you.' Emma said heading for her room.

"What?" Kathryn quickly sat up. " No, no, no, no. Is that all I get? Come on, sit down. I want to know, you know, do you like this girl?"

Emma nodded. "It's... you know, it's complicated"

"Well, explain it to me slowly, I'll catch up."

"She's a very beautiful girl."

" Good. Go on. "

"And she's very agile."

"I'm not sure how that applies, but continue." Kathryn frowned.

"And I think she's too exhausting for me."

"Well, what happened?" Kathryn prompted "Did you guys tango?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah. We tangoed. In fact, we tangoed quite a bit."

This was when Fred decided to come out to the living room. Emma sighed and stood to go to her room. "And on that note…'

"no, no, no, no, no." Kathryn said pulling Emma back down to the couch. "You're not getting off that easy. Why won't you talk to me?"

Emma frowned and shook her head. "It's... it's complicated, okay? Just let it go."

"Fine. You don't want to talk to me," Kathryn stated with hurt feelings and turned away. "I suggest you find someone to talk to like maybe your idiot friend. She's called about 75 times. She locked herself in a storage cage. Whatever that means."

Emma's eyes widened. "Shit,"

Emma went into the store to find Ruby locked in the storage cage in the back offices. Emma let her out and finished fixing the hard drives of the computers. Mission Accomplished

That afternoon. Mal walked up to Emma. "Good work last night."

Emma rolled her eyes "Okay, you know what? I'm, I'm working on an all-nighter here, "And I realize that you're probably armed. And so I'm gonna ask you very nicely, would you please ease up on the sarcasm."

"I wasn't being facetious," Mal said with a shrug. "You helped us find la ciudad."

"But she got away."

"Yeah, we got a photo from hotel security," Mal said. "We got a blood sample from a broken window. Our intel tells us she's heading down to central America. We have people waiting there." The older blonde looked the younger blonde over, "You're lookin' sharp."

Emma smiled, "Yeah, thanks."

"That was facetious," Mal said walking away from Emma. "Idiot."

Later that afternoon as she was finishing up an Appointment, La Ciudad's thugs strolled into the store. The young blonde ducked behind the genius bar. And began to crawl toward the back room cursing the openness of the apple store.

Noticing how the Younger woman had disappeared behind the desk, Mal spotted the thugs and made to follow behind them.

Emma made it to the back room and leaned against the wall taking deep breaths. Clark walked up to her with a sneer. "Emma, hiding from work again?"

"I, uh," Emma said looking at Clark and wishing he would move away from the threshold. "I-I think I need a break. I'm overwhelmed… Go away, Clark!"

"Oh, you wish I would. I'm not going anywhere, Emma." Clark sneered again. "When you go to sleep at night, all you're gonna see is Clark in your face.

Just then, A large man stands in front of Chlark. Emma can tell because Clark leans back to look at his face."Excuse me, please. Where can I find Emma Swan."

Clark narrowed his eyes. He may not like Emma, but he wasn't just going to hand her over. "Why, what's she done?"

"Because I need to speak to her."

"Okay, well, if he's in any kind of trouble, let me know," Clark said then turned to the room. But Emma was long gone. "Emma, you have a visitor." Clark sighed "Well, uh, maybe I can help you, sir."

Then the man was gone. Clark shrugged and went to the front of the house where he was needed.

Mal walked closer to Emma and spoke into her watch. "I think we have some company."

"I'm on it," Regina stated on the other end, and Mal Caught Emma's eye.

Emma then got an idea. "Emma you're needed at the repair center." She said really loud and ran back to the Storage cage that had Locked Ruby in all night.

Just as she expected the man went to the back. Of course, he didn't belong but who was going to stop him? Emma hid so that he wouldn't see her the man walked into the cage looking around, and Emma jumped out closing the gate behind him.

Except the lock had been fixed earlier in the day, and the thug was able to come out.

"oh, no! You big 'ol guy... you think... that was so broken this morning." Emma said dodging a punch.

Just then Mal found them sparring ad dropped a mac on his head. The impact knocked him out cold. "Now that's what I call moving some merchandise,"

Regina came in with back up and the two guards were taken. She had also caught La ciudad. She wanted to finish Emma off herself. And the Case was closed.

Later that night Emma comes home to a still sullen Kathryn. The younger sister sighed and headed to her room to change. She supposed Kathryn wasn't used to Emma keeping secrets from, her. She was going to have to give her an explanation without giving up her Spy status.

After she had showered and changed, she headed out to the kitchen where Kathryn was cooking dinner. Emma followed her. "I'm really sorry, sis. I-I know that I've been kind of evasive. It's just that I... I didn't want to lie to you and I chose not to say anything as being the lesser of two evils."

"Why would you have to lie to me?" Kathryn asked with furrowed brows.

"Kath, I just need you to trust me and know it has nothing to do with you."

"But you want me to butt out. I get it. It's none of my business." Emma could tell Kathryn was hurt.

"No! No, no, no, no, I'm not saying that!" Emma amended, "I'm not saying that. I-I... I just don't want to create a false sense of excitement for a relationship that seems doomed."

"Why is it doomed?" Kathryn asked again her brows furrowed in confusion . her little sister was not making any sense.

"Because she's not into me."

"Uh, trust me." Kathryn disagrees. "I have seen the way that that girl looks at you and she is into you."

Emma's lips form an awkward smile."Really?"

"It's none of my business." The older blonde shook her head.

"Okay, no." Emma said, "Okay, fine. What the hell? What do you want to ask me about Regina?"

"Really?" Kathryn lights up.

"You better hurry up. This offer will not last." Emma warned

"Okay." The older sister paused thoughtfully. "Do you like her?"

"Yeah," Emma responded. Kathryn began to get excited but Emma put a stop to it. "Da-da-da- no, no, unnecessary excitements."

"Sorry. Sorry."

"What else?" Emma asked

"That's it."

"That's it?"

"Yeah," Kathryn emphasized. "Emma, that's it. I don't need to know the intimate details, okay? As long as you're happy, that's enough for me. And I don't, I don't want to nag you about your future and your job. I don't want to be the sister that pesters you into oblivion."

"No, no, no, no, you're, you're not always a pest," Emma said with a small smirk

"I just know what an incredible girl Emma Swan is and... and sometimes I'm not so sure that she knows it".

"How do you feel about a sisterly hug situation right now?" Emma asked.

"I'm open to it." Her big sister answered without hesitation.

"Okay," he said and gave her the hug. Just then the doorbell rang. "oh, I'll get it"

Emma padded over to the door and opened it revealing. Both Regina and Ruby. Emma stared at both brunettes in confusion.

"Sorry. I thought we had plans tonight, you know?" Ruby said eying Regina. "What is she doing here? "

"Ruby, What, uh, what gave you that impression?" Emma asked

"Uh, when you were leaving earlier and you were, like, see you later, dude. Took you at your word. It's cool if you don't want me to be here; that's fine. Gotta stop giving me mixed signals."

Emma smirked and opened the door wider. "Come on in."

Emma and Regina spent a nice evening with Ruby and Kathryn and Fred. Just chatting and laughing. Then the two of them slipped off to get Regina to her car.

"Congratulations On your first mission," Regina said a soft smile playing on her lips. "You did really good, Emma."

Emma rolled her eyes, "Stop it." She said. "I'm not really a spy. Your computer ended up in the head of a girl who only knows how to fix 'em, nothing else. "

Regina stopped walking and looked at the younger woman. "You survived a near-death experience under the threat of torture and apprehended one of the world's most elusive killers." She turned and resumed her leisurely walk toward her car. "I'm not sure what you think spies do exactly, but most of us would consider that a pretty good day."

Emma nodded. "Okay, sure, so today I helped take down a major international arms dealer, but tomorrow, tomorrow I still gotta go clock into the Apple Store." The blonde shrugged. "I mean, what's the good of being a hero if nobody knows about it?"

"You know." Regina interrupted. " And so do I."

They stopped Next to Regina's car and Emma looked down at her feet awkwardly. "You know, if we were really dating, this would be the part where I'd be forced to kiss good night."

Regina quirked a brow. "Forced?" She looked at Her asset's beautiful green eyes. "Would it be so bad?"

Emma smirked. "I'm sure I could suffer through it."

"Me, too," Regina answered as they inched a bit closer to each other.

"Man, Your sister can cook," Ruby said walking past them interrupting that kiss.

"Yeah, Really." Regina agreed going toward her driver-side door. "Thank her for me again."

"Yeah will do," Emma said with an awkward wave toward Regina. Emma watched until Regina was gone. "Nice block Rubes…"

Ruby giggled. "You act as if you haven't been sleeping with her." Emma turned to face her friend. "Oh my god, you haven't!"

"We're taking it slow. okay?" Emma protested.

"Slow!" Ruby said incredulously. "A snail goes at a faster pace."

"Just drop it, Ruby," Emma said heading back home.

"Alright… Good night Dude."

"Yeah, Yeah."