Chapter Thirteen

The movie wasn't particularly great but it did mean that Regina didn't have to come up with anything to say to her unexpected date. Belle French was a perfectly nice girl but she knew nothing about her other than the fact that she had once been left alone during a game of spin-the-bottle.

The advantage of the movie theatre didn't apply after the credits rolled and she felt obligated to offer to walk the other girl home.

Initially, the pair walked silently down the street while Regina berated herself for making the offer. It was objectively the right thing to do but the awkwardness pressing down upon them made her second guess this.

Plus, she didn't want to give false hope, did she? If there was any chance that Belle had mistook the last two hours as romantic, which would be quite the leap considering they just sat side by side and watched a movie on a huge screen, then Regina would have to shut that down gently.

As much as her friends were convinced that she should move on, her overwhelming disappointment when Emma had left the movie theatre was now undeniable.

Belle broke the silence, forcing Regina to look up from the sidewalk, "The movie was great."

"It was," Regina agreed tightly.

Belle smiled weakly but kept walking, seemingly having come to an end of things to say.

Regina held in a breath, lamenting how she would usually get to hear Emma unleash her nerdy side after a superhero movie. This would be where she would learn about all of the comic inaccuracies, especially cool moments and then what was scheduled to come out next.

Of course, it would be unlikely that Emma would have much time recently to keep up with her comic book hobby.

Most of all, Regina felt the palm of her hand itch, missing her girlfriend's hand to hold as they walked.

Eventually, Regina couldn't stand the quiet or the guilt anymore, so she let out a heavy sigh and said, unevenly, "Belle...I just wanted to apologise for the party again. I shouldn't have left you alone like that…"

"It's really okay," Belle waved off, "It's not like spin-the-bottle is a legally binding contract. Where did you go so quick though?"

"I…" Regina swallowed. It would be easy to lie that she didn't feel well or maybe that she felt overwhelmed and she went home to deal with it. Lying to Belle felt wrong, though, so she admitted, "I went to see Emma." Belle nodded and Regina frowned at her, "You don't seem surprised?"

Belle shrugged, "The whole school is so interested in what is happening between you two. I've heard about it all."

Narrowing her eyes, Regina was close to demanding, but managed to keep the edge out of her voice, "What have you heard?"

"That you're jealous," Belle said, nonchalantly.

"Of what?" Regina scoffed, screeching to a stop.

Belle stopped a step ahead of her and turned to look at the other girl with a raised eyebrow, "Neal," she replied.

Regina crossed her arms as she shook her head, "That's ridiculous, Emma is gay."

Belle frowned, "But you see why the rumour mill might doubt that a little, right?"

Regina clenched her jaw but ultimately had to nod, "I guess I can…" before she added defensively, "But Emma and I are friends now."

Belle's eyebrows rose further, exuding disbelief, "You looked disappointed when she left the movie theatre. I know it wasn't me you wanted there with you."

All of the indignation that arose whenever Regina was reminded that all of her peers were so incessantly interested in her personal life just because her ex-girlfriend was pregnant melted and she tried, "I didn't mean to insult you, Belle…"

"You didn't," Belle promised, not a hint of jealousy in her voice, "I did have fun but I don't think we can be more than friends."

Despite thinking the same about the prospect of a romantic relationship between the two of them, Regina felt the need to defend, "Emma is going to be a mother soon…it's too complicated to even think about going there again."

"I get that," Belle said sympathetically, "You shouldn't be thinking about moving on when you're not ready."

"Mai and Daniel would disagree with you," Regina replied resignedly, "They've been trying to force it since the breakup."

"They obviously care about you, but you should probably tell them to stop?" Belle suggested.

"Historically, that has not been very effective," Regina sighed, especially now that she had reason to suspect that Killian Jones had some involvement in their devious schemes. Smiling kindly at the frustrated girl, Belle said nothing until Regina let out another sigh and added, "Thank you, Belle, it's good to actually talk about it."

Belle nodded understandably, before she began to slowly walk away, "I'm not too far from here, I'll see you at school."

If she hadn't spent the last few minutes discussing her ex-girlfriend, Regina may have objected that she couldn't let her walk alone, as it was, it wasn't hard to guess that she probably didn't want to prolong their shared awkwardness.

At least she had achieved one thing that night, she had at last confirmed that dating would not be an option for her right now.

S

Emma regretted leaving the movie theatre the moment that she crossed the threshold. As nervous as she had been about spending time with her ex-girlfriend, the group had been the perfect opportunity to see Regina outside of schoolwork.

Plus, there was the benefit that it was one of the first times that her back had not hurt in days.

The moment she discovered that Regina's friends had stood her up too, it became clear what was happening and she decided that she couldn't put Regina through that.

No matter what, their relationship could never be the simple high school romance that they had before everything, no matter what their friends believed was meant to be.

The following morning, she had yet to bring this up with her best friend, instead choosing to utilise her time to type furiously at her laptop on her desk to optimise her hour before her shift at the diner in order to finish yet another essay.

Despite coming over to 'help', Killian's greatest contribution thus far had been to provide her with lunch (or perhaps it was more aptly called 'brunch' at this time in the morning?).

Other than that, he had every little respect for her packed to-do list, lounging on her bed behind her, he asked, "What about Killian Jr?"

Emma had so far managed to ignore his incessant suggestions for baby names, apparently he didn't register her response that this was a discussion that she would need to have with Neal. At this suggestion, Emma felt compelled to turn around so that he could see the full force of her scowl as she replied, "You realise he isn't your son, right?"

"A kid can be named after their cool uncle," Killian defended, "Besides, it's better than Neal Jr."

Emma rolled her eyes, "Neal hasn't done anything wrong," she shot back and Killian sat up to look pointedly at her stomach that she didn't bother to hide in her own bedroom, "We both have responsibility for this and he has been great. I think he'll be a good dad."

"You'll be good at it too, Em," Killian replied softly, obviously more comfortable complimenting her than the boy who he perceived to have broken up his favourite couple.

Laughing nervously, Emma challenged, "Based on what?"

Killian shrugged, "You seem to have it all together."

"I'm glad it at least looks that way," Emma huffed but didn't quite get to turn around before Killian asked the question that he had presumably waiting to ask:

"So how were the movies?"

Killian looked down at the textbook that he had yet to open, going for casual but he kept glancing up at her as if trying to gauge her reaction. He winced upon finding that she was scowling at him, somehow the ire was more potent since the hormones had taken over.

"You mean your ploy to get me alone with my ex-girlfriend?" Emma replied.

Sitting up straight against the headboard, he held his hands over his head and started, "What? I would never…"

He didn't get far as she waved her hand to halt his words followed by an interjection, "Killian, you're obviously scheming, I assume with Daniel?"

Killian looked like he was about to deny but he eventually deflated and defended, rather sheepishly, "You both were happy back then, is it a crime to want our friends to be happy again?"

"Things are not as simple as they were," Emma retorted, "I wish they could be but we are friends so things are better at least."

Killian hung his head back resignedly, "Is this your way of telling me the movie didn't go well?"

Emma unconsciously touched her bump as she recalled Regina's look of terror upon realising that they were alone together, clearing her throat, she admitted, "It didn't go at all, I left Regina with Belle."

The other teen blanched way too dramatically than was warranted, "Why would you do that, Emma?!"

Emma sniffed, trying not to allow emotion to overwhelm her, not when she had been so proud of the maturity with which she had handled the situation. After a second to centre herself, she explained, "Because, it was already pretty awkward when we were going as a group. You didn't see her face when we realised everyone had cancelled, she was terrified, Killian."

"But you two are alone together all of the time," Killian argued, passionately.

"For school," Emma crossed her arms before adding in a mumble, "And it's still pretty awkward."

Sobered significantly by the vulnerability with which Emma spoke, Killian asked softly, "Don't you want to get back together?"

This time when Emma touched her stomach, she was fully conscious of it, something that her son made sure of by opting to kick at this moment.

Shifting to get into the closest thing to a comfortable position available to her while her womb was inhabited by a presence that she had no control over. It wasn't like she could stop talking to her best friend about his plans to interfere with the ruins of her relationship to offer her son some Nutella as a peace offering.

"I don't think it really matters what I want anymore," she said as he kept kicking her palm.

"Emma…" Killian sighed.

"Just promise me no more scheming please?" Emma cut him off, not wanting to get into all of the ways that her future had changed, "I like being friends with her and the pressure might scare her away."

"Not even a little scheming?" Killian negotiated.

"Killian," Emma warned.

"Okay fine," he hastened to reply, holding his hands up in surrender, "No scheming, I swear."

Emma nodded, about to turn around satisfied with the outcome but a loophole occurred to her and she pointed accusatorially, "This includes your co-conspirators too."

Killian blew out a long breath but inclined his head as he lamented, "Maybe you should consider becoming a lawyer like Regina?"

"I would need to ask Granny for a raise," Emma shook her head as she tapped the spacebar in order to wake up her laptop, the abysmal word count screaming at her from the corner of the screen.

"And I would not want to be there when you do that," Killian chuckled, placing his hands behind his head, all of his school things remaining untouched.

"Can you help with this?" Emma huffed, indicating the document that she had hoped would be more filled up by this point in her busy morning.

Not moving from his relaxed position, Killian yawned, "Which class is it?"

"History."

"Then no," he replied, "I can be moral support though."

"Do your homework, Killian," Emma admonished, at last starting to type again.

"Told you that you have the mom thing down," Killian huffed, flopping down to stubbornly open his book.

Not fully aware of the words she was typing about the Civil War, Emma found herself grinning. Somehow the grumpy teenage remark was just the kind of confidence boost that she needed.