Chapter two
"What do you mean you're not coming to school, Swan?!" Killian hissed.
"What else could it mean?" the girl on the other side of the phone replied tiredly as Killian weaved his way through the morning trickle of students entering Storybrooke High School.
After a weekend of radio silence, he'd been counting on getting answers on Monday morning, but this phone call was dashing any hopes of that.
"How long are you going to tell your parents you're sick for?" he asked as he made it to his locker.
"Do you think they'll believe nine months?" Emma asked meekly.
Killian leaned against his locker, making sure that there was no one within ear-shot before he replied, "How did this happen, Em?"
There was a silence on the other side of the call during which he was certain that Emma was making sure that neither of her concerned parents was close enough to hear this conversation.
Finally, she replied, reluctantly, "Do you remember that fight I had with Regina a while ago?"
"You mean the one where you were both wrong but were too stubborn to apologise?"
After a heavy sigh, Emma said, "yeah, Killian, that one."
"Okay," he replied, "and?"
"Well…we technically were broken up for like…twelve hours…I know I should have stayed home, but I went to Robin's party without her…"
"Oh god, it's not Robin's…" Killian cringed.
"Ew no," Emma cut him off before he could make the insinuation.
"Then who…"
"Well…I go like really drunk…Neal was as well…" she replied and her friend cringed harder, "I didn't remember what happened until a week later…me and Regina were already back together…"
"So you didn't tell her?" Killian demanded, receiving a few curious glances from passersby.
As if she knew this by the sheer volume, Emma rushed out, "shh…"
"Killian didn't react to the questioning looks and ploughed ahead:
"How could you get back together without telling her? If you were broken up, she might have understood," he insisted.
"We were broken up for less than half a day, Killian," Emma whined regretfully, "I wouldn't expect her to understand. Even if it wasn't cheating I still betrayed her…how could I break her heart again?"
Killian released a huff.
He truly liked Regina, he even considered her a friend, but Emma Swan would always be his best friend.
Even if he firmly disagreed with her actions, he had to be on her side.
He knew her well enough to know that she had no intention of hurting anyone involved. That she probably longed to do the right thing but things had gotten too complicated.
"Em," he sighed, "you have to talk to your girlfriend, she's texted me twice already to ask what's going on."
"What did you tell her," Emma snapped, a shuffling carrying through the device as she sat up straight on her bed.
"Nothing," he reassured, "I didn't really because you need to talk to her!"
"What am I supposed to say?!" Emma demanded exasperatedly.
"I don't know!" he hissed, "but it won't be too long before she can figure it out for herself! You're forgetting how intelligent Regina Mills is!"
Another silence on the other side of the phone, during which Killian was waiting to be told that he was pushing too much.
It hadn't been his intention, but it had been boiling up all weekend.
It wasn't helped by the fact that it happened with someone that Emma had never been more than passing friends with.
"Don't you think I should tell Neal first? I mean…it affects his life more, right?" Emma asked, but swiftly switched course, "or maybe mom and dad deserve to know first? Or should it be Regina…"
"Emma!" Killian said, interrupting her rising panic, "calm down, take a breath!"
He waited, counting the deep breaths coming through his phone until he determined that it had evened out enough to continue their conversation.
"Just focusing on telling one person first, okay?" he said encouragingly.
"Telling one person what?"
Killian yelped and hung up his phone without so much as an attempt at explaining that Regina Mills had materialised before him.
Clutching the device hard in his hand, the row of lockers rang out behind him as he took in the teen standing before him with her arms crossed.
He already knew why she looked so pissed.
Under normal circumstances, he would have assumed she was overreacting, but knowing what was being hidden from her made it difficult to feel anything but sympathy for her.
"Good morning, Regina," he said brightly, trying to recover from his surprise, "You're looking well as always…"
"Shut up, Killian," the other teen snapped and he winced.
It was so out of character and yet so earned that he couldn't be at all insulted by the reaction. If he'd spent the weekend on tenterhooks with the insight that he had, he couldn't imagine how she must be feeling.
Based on what he'd witnessed, she didn't fully believe that her girlfriend was ill and he knew personally that Emma had been acting strangely for days already.
As much as he wished that he could tell her the truth, it simply wasn't his place, nor would it make her feel any better right now.
So he replied, "it's nice to see you too…"
Regina let out a huff that signified that she was aware that she was acting rudely.
"Were you just talking to Emma?" she asked.
Killian swallowed, considering lying, before he said, "yeah…she's still not feeling well…didn't she tell you?"
Regina drew her eyebrows together, confirming what he already knew to be true.
His best friend had been too afraid to send any follow-up texts to her girlfriend since their last interaction. That was out-of-character enough to justify her anxieties.
Since they got together, it had been disgusting how often they felt the need to communicate.
"What's wrong with her?"
Killian shrugged, "The flu, I guess? She didn't get too specific?"
Regina narrowed her eyes and Killian squirmed.
"What's going on, Killian?" she finally asked, tiredly.
Killian pressed his lips together, looking to the ceiling as he waited for an answer to save him from this. He got one in the form of the first bell ringing.
Deftly slipping away from his locker without placing anything inside it, he said, "gotta go…" but he paused after a few steps and added, "you should really talk to Emma, Regina."
Watching her girlfriend's best friend rushing away from her, Regina sighed and muttered, "That's what I've been trying to do."
S
After another day spent curled up in bed, the answer to Emma's earlier question came to her.
There was no way that she could gather everyone concerned and tell them at once, so she had to choose just one.
Following some rumination, the right person became clear to her.
Neal Cassidy.
She hadn't quite gotten to the stage of considering what her options were but had sort of accepted the reality.
She and Neal had done something incredibly stupid and misguided, something that she was convinced they had an unspoken agreement to ignore.
Whenever she saw him at school following the unfortunate party, he gave her only a moment of eye contact before going back to what he was doing.
Once she and Regina were back together, she found it easier to not look at him at all.
This strategy was no longer an option.
It was ultimately her choice how this ended, but it still affected him, right? He should at least be aware that there was a choice that she had to make.
Maybe saying it aloud to him would force her mind to start thinking past how she was going to tell Regina and her parents?
This decision was how she found herself in the Cassidy house; it turned out that dating the mayor's daughter led to very little suspicion from his parents.
She was sure that if they knew what she had just said, they would have been less comfortable with the fact that she was sitting on their son's bed with the door closed.
Said son was currently in the process of digging grooves into the rug, manoeuvring around the clutter typical for a sixteen-year-old boy.
On her part, Emma couldn't help but glance at the 'action figures' taking up more shelf room than any of his books. A few days ago, she would have found them kind of cool, but right now, she was just thinking that they didn't bode particularly well.
Not that her bedroom exactly looked like it belonged to an expectant mother, who was she to judge?
Finally, Neal stopped his pacing, his knuckles whitening under the pressure of his tightened fists as he said, feebly, "I need you to say that again…"
"Neal…" Emma sighed.
"Please?" he said pathetically.
Shifting in her seat, her nose wrinkling at the smell of aftershave (was it too soon for that to be from her newest condition?), she took a deep breath and said again, "I'm pregnant, Neal."
Clutching at his chin, the boy asked, "and you're sure that it's…that there isn't anybody else…"
Feeling as if she should be insulted by the suggestion, Emma just shook her head.
"You're not exactly my usual type. There's no way that it could be anybody else's…"
Neal's eyes widened, but for the wrong reason, "Oh my god, I'm going to be murdered by Regina Mills…"
"She doesn't know yet," Emma reassured, though she did run her hand over her face.
It wasn't so much her girlfriend that she was concerned about in the anger department.
The more she ran through the scenarios, she was pretty sure that Regina would be more hurt than angry, that she would cut things off on the spot and would never talk to her again.
Honestly, she would agree that she deserved that.
Cora Mills, on the other hand, was a different story. She had already been on thin ice with the mayor following their brief break-up, so she couldn't see how this could go over well.
Mayors didn't have the power to banish people anymore, right?
"You haven't told your girlfriend yet?" he squeaked.
"I figured that you should know first," Emma shrugged, not wanting to go into the fact that she wasn't quite ready for them to break up.
"And what am I supposed to…" Neal started, but abruptly stopped and dropped down to one knee. A course of action had occurred to him, "Emma Swan, will…"
Emma was off the bed before he could get her name out, pulling him back up into a standing position, gripping painfully at his arms.
"Don't be an idiot, Neal," she snapped, "that's not what I want!"
The footballer blew out a long breath of relief, though it was still tainted by nerves.
Nerves that were well deserved in Emma's opinion.
He nodded as she let go of him and said, "thank god…then what…"
"I don't know," Emma admitted, "I just thought you should know…"
"And what do you want to…"
"I don't know!" Emma snapped, much louder.
Neal glanced at the door before he returned his eyes to the girl, registering that she was on the verge of tears.
He deflated and crossed to bring her into a hug.
"Thank you for telling me, Emma," he said as she held onto him tightly, "Could you…tell me what you decide when you figure it out?"
"Okay," Emma replied, meekly.
A.N. Thank you for all the support on the first chapter, I'll try and finish this one as quickly as I can XD
Please let me know what you think, reviews are always super motivating :')