Chapter 5
"You don't have to go to City Hall just because I'm going to work," it came from Emma as Regina came down the stairs a few hours later, dressed in her usual strict business outfit and striking makeup.
"I know, but if I stay here alone, I'll clearly have too much time to think," she countered, slipping into her high heels, which stood next to Emma's sneakers behind the door.
Emma shrugged her shoulders. "Just as you say. But don't be home too late or Henry will worry and he certainly doesn't like to be alone, especially right now," she indicated as she pulled on her boots and slipped into her winter jacket. It wasn't really that cold yet, but she didn't want to hear any accusations of catching a cold if she walked around dressed only in her leather jacket in this weather. "I'll see you tonight then?" she asked as Regina was also in her knee-length black coat and they parted ways at the end of the garden path.
Regina nodded and leaned over for a kiss. "See you tonight."
David was waiting for her when she arrived at the sheriff's office. "Did you get stuck in traffic or something?" he asked jokingly when she finally opened the door, bringing in a gush of cold air and a flurry of leaves.
"Something like that. Hi, Dad," she greeted him, giving him a quick hug before hanging her jacket over a chair.
"Hi, honey. How are you?"
"Fine...Why do you ask?" Had Henry given him any notice? Had she not been careful enough and given herself away in some way?
"You're my daughter and I want to know how you are?!" he suggested.
Unobtrusively, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Sure, sorry. Any news?"
"The phone thing may take a while, but another provider is using a line that was elsewhere, so that can be accessed for now."
"Yeah, I know that already."
Astonished, David looked at her.
"From Regina," she added explanatorily, which removed the questioning expression from her father's face.
"Is she well, too? I haven't seen her in a while," he mused aloud.
Emma nodded and booted up her computer. "Yes, she's fine. Except for planning the town fair, which she's not too keen on," she grinned wryly and logged in with her username and password.
"I'm glad you brought it up. You can tell her Snow would love to help out again this year."
"Let me guess: She'd like to be in charge of decorations?"
"Of course. Just don't make fun of it, as you know she takes it very seriously!" But even at his words he had to laugh himself and winked at her.
"I'll tell Regina, even if she won't care, with all the other problems."
"What other things?"
Emma could have slapped herself and was glad she was in the process of loading fresh paper into the printer and therefore didn't have to answer right away. "Well, the phones?" it came weakly from her then. "The complaints go directly to her as mayor, of course, although her hands are understandably tied there just as much. It's not as if she can single-handedly dig up the road and fix the cable herself."
"I guess that's true. I really don't want to do her job," he agreed, sliding another file to her side of the desk.
"What's this?" Interested, she flipped it open and was promptly stared at by Sydney Glass, who was in the pinned photo. "What's he been up to?"
"Didn't you even read the paper today? He wrote an article about Belle's father allegedly stealing the flowers he sells from people's front yards. Who, of course, then sued him for defamation of character."
Emma dropped her head into her hands and groaned. "Don't people actually have anything better to do? I mean, what kind of harebrained nonsense is that?" David seemed amused, but Emma could only shake her head at such stupidity. "You know, Regina was right: all this nonsense about the town fair is just a farce. Everyone just wants to get back at everyone here instead of them working together. And ironically, she's the only one who isn't getting in anyone's way, and that's been the fear of everyone here since they started remembering who's who again."
"Don't take it so seriously. I think Sydney just hasn't had an audience in too long, so a story like this comes in handy, true or not."
"I know, but..." She broke off, realizing there was no point in arguing further about the sense or nonsense of it all. "Anyway. Have you put the file on digitally yet?"
"That's actually where I was hoping you could take over," it came contritely from him.
"Sure, no problem," she nodded, "Now off home with you. Mom will be happy to have you come help her with Neal."
"If you have any questions about the case..."
"...I have your number," she nodded. "Have a good night!"
"Thanks, Emma. Would you like me to say hello to your mother for you?"
"Of course, as always," she nodded, grateful for the calm that fell when her father finally left her alone in the office.
The day had started crazy, had gone on crazy, and now she found herself with a stabbing headache. Inevitably, she saw cancer eating through her brain and quickly pushed the thought away. Before she began digitizing the file, she took a pain pill and washed it down with a glass of water.
When she finally turned to the keyboard afterward, the phone rang. "Sheriff's office, Emma Swan?"
"Hello."
Emma's brow smoothed as she heard Regina's deep, melodic voice. "Hi."
"Are you alone?"
Emma nodded to herself. "Yeah, my dad left a few minutes ago. What's up?"
"I just wanted to hear if you got in okay and you're doing well," she explained, and Emma could hear from her tone that she was telling the truth and there wasn't more to it.
"I have a headache. Other than that, I'm fine," she therefore returned just as honestly.
"You have my blessing not to have to work, you know that."
"Yes, I know that. It's just a headache, Regina. I've already taken a pill. Are you feeling better?"
There was a short pause before the answer came. "I felt better in your arms."
Emma took a deep breath. "It's only been a few hours. But call me again if it gets worse and you get scared again, okay?"
"Okay," she agreed, and Emma could hear the reluctance with which she forced the word past her lips.
"I'll see you tonight then."
"Yeah, see you tonight."
The steady honking on the line told Emma that Regina had hung up right after saying goodbye. Thoughtfully, she also hung up the phone and rubbed her forehead. What Regina had told her today was stuck in her mind. Snow's father, her own grandfather, had raped her partner. She didn't know how to deal with the thought. The very fact that she had been touched by a man against her will at all made her blood boil; the who only made it worse.
This experience today had shown Emma anew that she could not afford to show weakness or even die. Regina needed her to be as she was used to being: fierce and confident. Surely she underestimated her friend to some extent, too, but for all Emma knew, it would destroy Regina if she didn't recover. She couldn't let Henry then have to take care of his mother when it was supposed to be the other way around. On the other hand, maybe she was seeing it all too dramatically at the moment; after all, she had never seen Regina like this before, and the sight of her during the panic attack had left its mark on her.
"Emma?"
She winced so hard that in the process she yanked the computer mouse off the table, which hit the floor with a clatter, scattering its batteries in all directions. "Crap," Emma cursed, and started crawling under the desk on her hands and knees to collect the pieces. "Do you have to scare me like that?"
"I had knocked, but obviously you didn't hear me."
"Yes, obviously!" Not knowing herself why she was so angry, she took a deep breath as she finally dropped back into her desk chair and glared at Killian. "What are you doing here?"
"Trouble in paradise?" he asked instead with a grin that affected only one corner of his mouth and a raised eyebrow. It was no secret that he had had interest in Emma, but after she hadn't reciprocated, he had eventually come to terms with it and it had become possible for them to interact like normal adults.
"Not that it's any of your business, but no, it's all great," she replied, "so what's up?"
"Are you aware that Moe French and Sydney Glass are out there fighting?" He gestured over his shoulder with his thumb.
"What?!" Emma shot up from her chair and hurried to the window, where she watched the action for a few seconds before slipping into her sheriff's jacket. "Those idiots. Worse than children!" she raged and ran out into the street. By now a small crowd had formed, and Emma had to push through it to even get a view of the two brawlers. "Gentlemen, can one of you explain to me what this is all about, please?!" she asked in a loudly raised voice. When no one responded, she yelled, "Hey!" to which immediate silence fell.
Sydney straightened up and smoothed his gray suit. "He attacked me out of nothing!" he said, pointing his finger at Moe, who had remained sitting on the floor holding his bleeding nose.
Emma rolled her eyes and looked back and forth between the two of them in turn. "Are you two going to manage to go your separate ways now without killing each other first, or are you going to have to think about it in the cells overnight?" she asked.
"He ruined my business and my reputation! I'm ruined!" Moe said indignantly then.
"You've filed charges against him and we're taking care of it. But until we do, there will be no vigilante justice. Not while I'm sheriff here!" she clarified. "This is a small town, not the wilderness. No one gets beaten to a pulp on the open road here, do we understand each other?"
The two men exchanged another angry look before nodding and trudging off in different directions.
"There's nothing left to see here, you can leave now," Emma then snapped at the people, who were still standing around as if rooted to the spot. Obviously, however, they noticed that it was best not to tangle with her that day and therefore saw to it that they gained ground.
Behind her, Emma heard an impressed whistle through her teeth. "Not bad, Swan. You've got drive."
"Shut up, Killian," she groaned and returned to the office. When she noticed him following her back inside, she stopped and turned to face him with her hands on her hips. "Is there anything else?"
"I thought you might want to tell me what else is bothering you," he grinned at her. "Well, if it's not the mayor, something else must be bothering you."
"I think I've said before that it's none of your business, even if there was something bothering me. So if you don't want to report or confess to a crime, you know where the door is." Mercilessly, she held his gaze.
"Point taken. I'll see you around. Swan." He tapped his imaginary hat and walked out the door and onto the street.
"See you, Killian." Again, Emma dropped into the swivel chair behind her desk. Basically, she liked him; she just wasn't in the mood for that kind of conversation that day, or in general at the moment. She preferred to just have her peace and quiet or to be with Henry and Regina. She couldn't even stand the presence of her parents; she would have been too happy to comply with Regina's request to let them in, but she couldn't handle the pitying looks and their anxiety at the moment besides her own.
After a deep breath, Emma finally set about creating the electronic file on the case for which the street had just been thrown into turmoil. This activity took more time than she had expected, so it surprised her when she suddenly found herself face to face with Henry.
"Kid, what are you doing here? Shorter lessons again?" she asked.
Astonished, her son tilted his head. "It's almost four," he indicated, sitting down in David's chair.
"Oh, that's right, you're right. The time just flew by. How was school?" she absentmindedly wanted to know, sorting through some loose papers.
Henry watched her do it for a moment before answering, "Okay, same as always. How are you?"
"Don't know where my head is. Big cities might have more to do on a precinct, but I get the impression that small towns are all the weirder for it."
"What about Mom?" he then inquired, since she clearly didn't want to talk about how she was feeling physically.
"What about her?" she immediately asked in alarm, before remembering that Henry's last stand was Regina's disappearance the night before. "Oh, she's at City Hall, she's fine...I think. According to the circumstances. She spent the night with Zelena at the farm and came home with me this morning. I expanded my jog into a little search and there weren't that many places she could have been. It's possible she's back home by now, too; she just wanted to make a quick trip to City Hall and not leave you alone so long in the afternoon."
Henry nodded with relief and looked Emma in the eye. "What about you? How long do you have to work today?"
"My shift goes until 8 p.m., so..." She shrugged.
"Did you eat anything?"
"Your mom and I had a big breakfast."
Wordlessly, Henry placed a paper bag on her desk.
With a questioning look, Emma squinted inside. "A cheese toast from Granny's?" she guessed, "You're going to eat that one yourself, kid."
"I brought it for you," he declared vehemently.
Emma looked at him, pushing the bag toward him as she did so. "You sure aren't spending your savings on food for me," she said seriously. "And I don't need a babysitter, either."
Henry was silent, looking at her almost darkly.
"Henry...I know you're worried. But I'm fine, really. I have a slight headache, that's all. But if you and Regina are so worried about me, then again I'm worried about you guys! I don't want you to burden yourselves with my problems all the time."
"But that's what families are for!" he said quickly. "You worry about each other because you love one another!"
This statement silenced Emma. Of course, her clever son had once again hit the nail on the head. Without hesitating any longer, she pushed the slips of paper into a pile, stowed them back in the file, and shut down her computer.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm cleaning up and going home with you. You're right, Henry. We're a family and we need each other right now. No job in the world is worth sacrificing this precious time for." As she passed, she grabbed the toast and took a big bite of it. "Thanks for the meal, though, I'll pay you back."
Henry smiled and swung his backpack over one shoulder. "If you insist!"
"That's exactly what I'll do," she nodded, slipping into her jacket. Just in case there was an emergency after all, she diverted the office phone to her cell, then turned off the lights and locked the door behind them.
As they drove toward Mifflin Street, Emma felt like she'd been taken back a few years; when Henry had been younger, they'd had the wildest adventures in her car and he'd hidden in the footwell more than once. Now he was so tall that his head almost hit the roof of the small car, and he already towered over his mothers, too. Lately, after all, it had become increasingly rare for him to ride with her. He didn't need to be picked up from school anymore and so he usually went home with his friends or the times she worked just didn't fit with his schedule.
"Almost like old times," she noted as she turned into the driveway of the estate.
"No, better," Henry agreed, looking over at her. "You and Mom used to almost rip each other's throats out," he pointed out.
"That's true." Emma nodded thoughtfully and looked outside for a while through the front window at Regina's apple tree, its red-orange leaves swaying proudly in the light breeze. "Well then, let's go inside."
They got out and walked to the front door, where Emma cursed. "My key's still in the car."
"I have mine right here," Henry countered, but she shook her head.
"I still don't want to leave it in the car. Tomorrow I'll look for it, and what's more, Regina would lecture me about not leaving the house key in the car in case it got stolen. As if anyone would steal this old rust bucket! But you know..."
"Avoiding discussions, all right." He grinned.
Emma gave him a thumbs up and turned back to the driveway. "Go inside already, kid, it's cold!" Besides, Regina's Mercedes was also already on the lot, so she didn't want to keep her waiting any longer. When she heard Henry open and close the front door, she was just arriving at her yellow Beetle. Normally she always kept her key in the center console, but she couldn't find it there. Finally, she saw the metallic glint in the passenger footwell and rolled her eyes as she squeezed past the steering wheel and leaned down head first.
As she stood back up, holding the keys triumphantly in her hand, she realized she should have bothered to walk around the car. Black spots danced at the edge of her vision and, feeling her knees go weak, she reached for the car door, seeking a foothold, but only caught the empty nothingness and fell, staggering, into the nearest flower bed, which Regina had neatly covered with brushwood in preparation for winter.
