The sandwitch maker

"Look, I totally screwed up, okay?" Emma Said hiding behind the genius desk the next day with her iphone glued to her ear. "I'm more than comfortable blaming it on the alcohol, or global warming or my obscure allergy to neon…" a pair of khaki clad legs stop in front of her and she stands. "But, hey, hopefully, I'll-i'll talk to you soon. Okay. Thanks. Buh-bye." she sighs at Mal's smirking face. "Damn it. You made me give her a buh-bye."

"She won't talk to you?"Mal asked in amusement. "You want us to cut her power, smoke her out?"

"Wow. That's very romantic." Emma groused,"Why don't you just club her over the head and drag her out by her foot?" She sighed. "Look, I'll handle this one without the NSA, thank you."

Mal, being in a very good mood shrugged as if to say suit yourself. "You did a good job last night." she added. "We're going down to the docks a few hours to intercept the package."

"You need me to go?" Emma asked.

"Yeah, if the crap hits the fan, we could use you, Minnie Mouse." Mal said with a smile, and walked away

Ruby then rushed up to her friend, "Emma!Emma!" She moved her to the back room. "What did you hear about last night? And don't hold back."

Emma furrowed her brows. "I don't know what you're talking about.

"I made a move on Dorothy, and she shot me down, so, i…"

"What? What? Dorothy? Dorothy? Really?" Emma looked around at the brunette o the main floor. "I didn't know you liked Dorothy."

Ruby scoffed." What's like got to do with it? I figured you have a girl, I should have a girl, too."

Emma chuckled incredulously. "Uh, occasionally, on planet earth, Humans will consider their feelings for a person before jumping atop them."

She sighed, "You know, she's kind of cute in a freaky, little tigerish kind of way, you know?" She grabbed Emma's hand and pulled over to the door and signaled to Dorothy standing at the genius bar with the boys. "But that's not my problem, babes. Okay, what if she tells everyone? I was just starting to get some respect around here.?

"Dotty is very cool." Emma said, looking at the other woman. "I'm sure that your rep is very secure."

Ruby looks over at them. "No. They're talking about me. You see this? I'm-i'm ruined, babe." Dorothy Killian and Aladdin looked toward the two of them and then began to chuckle. Ruby had enough and said. "Okay, you got me! Fun time at my expense. Look, I tried to kiss Dorothy. She dissed me, all right?"

"Dissed?" Emma said looked at Ruby confused.

"I feel like a fool." Ruby continued, "Are you happy now?"

"Ruby," Dorothy interrupted. "We were laughing about Emma getting dumped by the deli girl after she dumped the Cheesecake girl." She giggled. "Kind of poetic?"

Aladdin looked between Dorothy and Ruby. "You tried to kiss Dorothy? Why?"

"Lucas, how could you?" Killian said to her. "I got dibs on Dorothy."

Indignant, Dorothy shouted at Killian. "I'm right here, you disgusting pig!" and stomped away.

Emma and Ruby looked at each other then stepped away from the Genius bar.

"I realize that this is dangerously close to bordering on stalker status, but, uh, look, i-i don't really care about that." Emma said calling Lou again pacing outside the store. "Look, maybe-maybe you're... Maybe you're calling me right now. I don't know. And just give you the chance to…" Then she noticed Regina coming up to her. "Okay, okay. Um, so, uh, you know, if you… If you get a sec, you can... You can call me back. Okay. Buh-bye." She hung up and sighed again with the buh-bye.

"Won't call you back?" Regina asked stopping in front of Emma.

"I, uh... Yeah, I think her voice-mail is broken." Emma said putting her phone away. "It's very, very common."

Regina smirked knowingly she hated to admit how happy she was that this young relationship was in peril, but she had to push through with what she had come to say. "I wanted to apologize for last night." She finally looked at the Blonde's eyes. "I suppose I jumped the gun a little, and I didn't mean to interfere with your date."

"Yeah, not sure it qualifies as a date when you're bugged with CIA microphones and infiltrating an arms importer, but, hey, I'm new at this." Emma shrugged and folded her arms across her chest.

Regina looked at Emma, trying to make her understand her position. "Well, it's hard to have a real relationship in this line of work.

"Apparently, it's hard to have a fake one, as well." The blonde rebutted. She was hurt, and Regina needed to understand that she had a depth of feeling there that was deeper than superficial.

"Well," Regina began contritely, "if it's any consolation, I never felt like our time together was work." She began to walk away and turned back to face Emma. "Oh, uh, Gerber daises. Lou's favorite."

Emma furrowed her brow. "How do you know that?"

"CIA." Regina answered opening her arms wide then dropping them at her sides. "I had them check flower deliveries to her addresses from the last five years."

Emma nodded with a smile at her friend. "Good tip."

Regina smiled back then walked away from the blonde. Emma still feeling the depths for Regina, but allowing Lou to be the one she turned to. She had some Daisy's to get.

At the end of her shift, Emma went to Lou's deli. It was packed. Lou was that good. She held on to the daisies and tried to get seen by the cute brunette. "Wait, wait. Lou, can I talk to you just one second? One second?"

"I'm busy." She said and she truly was. "Uh, who had the Parma prosciutto?" A man raised his yellow number ticket and she handed him his sandwich. "There you go. Twenty-seven!" She looked at the impatient blonde and she took pity on her. "You want to talk, get a number like everybody else."

Emma picked up a number. She had Number 44. With a sigh she sat to wait her turn.

Meanwhile at the docks, the rest of the team was about to intercept the cargo. They marched up to the cargo box weapons drawn.

"Federal agent! Down on the ground!" Mal said

" Don't move!" shouted Regina.

"Get the bomb squad in here!" Mall reiterated as the rest of the agents descended on the smuggling ring. "Let's go!"

"44!Who's holding 44? 44?" The man behind the counter with Lou shouted.

Emma jumped up. "I have 44. Yes, yes, yes, yes! Please, I'd like to speak to Lou, please."

The Man looked around at Lou and said, "Well, Lady, it looks like you're gonna have to take another number." He said to her then turned back to his job. "45, who's got 45?"

Emma sighed and took another number. This time its 96 and she sits and waits. Lou notices and smiles. Emma cant be that bad if she is willing to wait for her like this.

While these two things were happening. Emma waiting and the Government team trying to recover cargo. They find that someone had been alerted to their interference. The cargo was missing.

"What the hell…" Mal said cursing at the empty cargo box.

"Someone knew we were coming." Regina said and they were back to square one.

"96? Anybody got 96?" Lou shouted at last, and Emma perked up.

The blonde came up to the counter, "I just wanted to apologize about last night and explain…"

"I'm working. Do you want a sandwich?" Lou stated.

Irritated, Emma nodded. "Okay, Yeah. I'll take a sandwich."

"Great. What'll you have?"

"You guys carry wheat bread?" Emma asked and paused for an answer.

"We do."

"Why don't you grab a couple slices of that?" Emma said her irritation plain. Lou does as she is asked and brings it back to the prep table. "Now, toss 'em and grab the seedless rye. And while you're at it, grab some pastrami. End cut, none of that lean crap." Emma came around the counter and stood next to Lou behind it.

"Ooh…A woman with high cholesterol. Sexy." Lou said doing as she is told. "Is that it?"

"Oh, I'm just getting warmed up." Emma's voice gets a bit sultry as she gets closer to Lou. "Cole slaw."

"On the side?"

"On the top, slather it on."

Lou began to anticipate the sandwich. "Swiss?"

Emma is not at all predictable despite how mundane her life is. She moved Lou's hand out of the Swiss bin and into another cheese. "Muenster."

Lou's heart raced. Her breath coming in a bit shallow because Emma was now so close. "Is that it?" she murmured.

"Well, after you shut it down and grill it, this is a hot sandwich, sweetheart. In the Reuben family." Lou smiled and placed the sandwich on the grill. Emma reached for the flowers she had been carrying and presented her with them. "These are for you. They were alive at one point."

Lou took them and smiled. "Gerber daisies, they're my favorite."

"I'm really sorry if I acted like a jerk last night. I was really nervous…"

"Shut up, Emma." Lou whispered and kissed the blonde.

"She had me at "pastrami."" The man behind the counter with Lou said as the two women kissed.

Emma woke up the next morning deliciously sore and naked curled up against a warm body.

This was twice in one week, she could really get used to this. Lou woke shorty after and kissed Emma soundly. "Hey I got to go open up the shop, feel free to hang out if you're not doing anything."

Lou rolled out of her bed and Emma watched her slim figure walk into the bathroom. "Actually I have a shift, I' going to go so I can get ready."

Lou smiled and Emma crossed the room to kiss her. After a quick release in the shower, Emma ran out of Lou's apartment and headed straight to her own to finish getting ready.

"Hey, lover girl." Emma said as she brushed her teeth. She jumped and looked at the agents at the bathroom door. "Hasn't that mirror suffered enough already?"

"I am in the bathroom." Emma shouted "Okay, is there nothing sacred to you people?"

"Just the right to bear arms." Mal answered.

"You two look terrible." Emma said walking back to her bedroom.

"Well, we were up all night explaining to our bosses why we raided a cargo freighter filled with nothing but air and a surveillance camera." Mal stated following the blonde to her room.

"The tip you gave us was compromised." Regina said following them both. "Someone set us up."

"I think it was your sandwich maker." Mal stated.

Emma laughed. "Are you kidding me, Lou? Please. Come on." Emma shook her head. "You don't want me to date for "national security" reasons, fine, just say that. But I think this is a little pathetic. And quite frankly, beneath you, Regina."

Regina did not like the accusation, but at the very least she did have proof. "This was taken at the docks after your date." She showed her a picture of Lou and Stella talking to each other and Lou handing Stella some money.

Emma blinked. Please don't let this be another person I can't trust she thought as she said. "I'm sure she has a perfectly reasonable explanation for this."

Mal nodded. "Good. Can't wait to hear it."

Emma couldn't look at the picture anymore and tried to give it back. Regina stopped her and said. "Keep it. We have plenty more."

The two agents left the apartment and Emma was left there to wonder what Lou had been doing with Stella after she left her.

What are you playing at Lou?