Avoidance
In her haste to get out of Regina’s bedroom – Regina’s bedroom – Emma accidently poofed herself to the sheriff station before making it to the loft. The room was still shrouded in darkness, the only light being a thin strip reaching from the window across the floor. A breeze from the open window clawed at her sweaty skin, making her shiver. Despite herself, she wrapped Regina’s robe tight and crawled back into bed.
She was pretty sure that was the single more mortifying thing that had ever happened in her life, and that was an awfully long list. How had she poofed herself into Regina’s bedroom? Of all the people in Storybrooke, why the hell had her unconscious brain chosen Regina? Flawless, effortlessly confident, and absolutely savagely witty Regina.
Regina, who was undoubtably going to use this against her.
Emma could see it now. Maybe she’d be giving a presentation at town hall, or they’d be arguing over some parenting issue with Henry. Regina would get that look, that dominating, powerful look she wore so well, and she would announce to anyone within earshot how Emma couldn’t even sleep alone. That a bad dream sent her scrambling for comfort from the literal Evil Queen.
She buried her face in her hands, releasing a long groan. She could never live this down. It would be all she heard when making arrests, her authority truly usurped by an accidental blunder. Her parents would pity her. Her mother would be determined to help, saddling up with her saccharine smile, and a, “you know, you can always come to me,” or her usual, “we never got to do that,” the latter of which she hated more. When the rumour mill got back to Archie, he would casually-but-not-so-casually bump into her, offering to talk about whatever was on her mind.
God, she already couldn’t stand it. The pity. She hated pity.
The smell of Regina remained on the robe she was buried in, and though the admission couldn’t be waterboarded out of her, it was nice. Regina had this quality that made Emma feel safe, even if truthfully she hadn’t really earned it. The mayor was always the first to cut her down, had been demeaning her literally since she stepped foot in town.
Still, the loss of their relationship when she inadvertently brought Marion back had felt catastrophic. The hatred from Regina, the emptiness. They were connected in a way Emma didn’t fully understand. She had cited it as a similar history of rejection, but it went deeper than that. Despite everything, she made her feel seen in a way no one ever had before.
She couldn’t believe she had humiliated herself on front of her. This was worse than the stupid playground debacle before the curse broke.
Dumped on the dresser was the book Magical Side Effects and Consequences that Regina had made her take out of the library. She swallowed down her embarrassment. Perhaps it would do her good to read up on things. Besides, she wouldn’t be sleeping until she knew how to stop this idiocy. There wasn’t a chance she was risking poofing herself back into Regina’s bedroom. Regina had been shocked tonight. Next time, she’d probably record it to use as blackmail.
She tugged the book off the dresser and wrapped herself back in the blankets, mentally preparing herself to spend a long night with her nose in a book.
-
Perhaps it wasn’t the most mature thing to do, but Emma spent the day avoiding Regina. She took every call-out, patrolled as far outside Main Street as possible, and even ate her lunch in her car parked near the town line. Yes, it was ridiculous. She was a big enough person to admit that, but she couldn’t bear to see the condescension on Regina’s face. During her lunch, she continued to flip through the stupid book.
At the very least, it seemed that there was a purpose to this ridiculous situation. It was protecting her, sensing danger and pulling her out of it as best it could. It meant she was becoming more in tune with her magic. It was a nice thought, but it didn’t really help her today. Or tonight. If the book had a chapter on eliminating the occurrence, she hadn’t gotten there yet. So far, the only advice seemed to be to wait it out.
Which was ridiculous.
Instead of returning to the station, she parked up outside the library to peruse their collection of magical tomes. If there wasn’t something that could stop her unconscious from poofing her out at the first sign of trouble, perhaps there was a charm that could effectively chain her to her bedroom. She would even settle for something to keep her awake. Indefinitely, maybe. That would be nice.
Emma triple checked the street for Regina before getting out of the car, a careful eye out in case the woman just appeared. Even before the curse broke, she was awfully good at that.
Belle greeted the incomer with a smile, the expression morphing to poorly hidden confusion when she took in who it was. “Emma? Everything alright?”
It was fair, she wasn’t exactly a frequent visitor. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I was just…looking for a book.”
“Well, we’ve got plenty of those.” Belle gestured to the half-filled stacks. “Well…kind of. Anything in particular I can help you with?”
“Erm…yeah,” Emma scratched the back of her head, looking every bit like a nun in a brewery. “Have you heard of …sleepwalking but for magic?”
Belle’s brows knitted slightly. “I guess. It’s a pretty common side effect of using magic too frequently, or for a beginner. Is that happening to you?”
She really did not want to get into this, especially with Rumpelstiltskin’s partner, however lovely Belle was. “Yeah…maybe…a little. Do you know of anything that can keep me from…you know…disappearing?”
“Like a magical anchor?”
Emma’s heart soared. “Yeah!”
“No, sorry.” And it plummeted right back to earth. Belle hit her with the exact kind of pitying expression she was trying to avoid. “Aren’t you doing magic lessons with Regina? You could always –”
“No, thanks. I’m good.” The words practically clambered over one another in their haste to get out.
As Emma began to retreat, Belle added, “or Rumple could maybe –”
“No offence, but Gold isn’t exactly the most trustworthy guy. I think I’ll take my chances.”
Belle couldn’t argue with that. It was hard to defend a person who had screwed them all over so many times. “I’ll keep a look out for anything.”
Emma waved over her shoulder as she stepped out of the library, a half-hearted ‘thanks’ thrown back. Well, that had gotten her absolutely nowhere. Worse still, now there was someone else in town that knew about what was going on, even if only in the loosest of senses. This getting back to Gold was honestly worse than Regina being witness to her having a nightmare in the first place. Regina might humiliate her with it, but Gold would warp the situation to serve himself.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She fished it out, grumbling under her breath. The town couldn’t police itself for five freaking minutes while she was having a crisis? ‘Regina’ flashed across the screen, and Emma’s heart hammered in her ribcage as intensely as if the stone-faced woman had materialised on front of her. Panic seized her, and she practically threw the device into the road. A couple of people eyed her oddly as she tried to keep the ringing device from falling to its death. She stabbed her thumb on the ‘end call’ button, her face almost as beetroot as it had been that morning. She let out a long, shaky breath, returning the phone to her pocket.
Invisible eyes bore on her, and she couldn’t help but look around for the imaginary onlooker. Finding nothing, she pulled her jacket closer against the rising wind and returned to her car.