Certainty
Either Emma had vanished from Storybrooke, or she was avoiding Regina’s calls, which would be more likely but incredibly childish. What if something had happened with Henry? They each needed to be contactable, regardless of the situation. She was aware of her own hypocrisy, of course, given the fact she had only recently started returning Emma’s calls. Still, this situation was entirely different. Emma had deserved the silent treatment after yet another hairbrained stunt.
This was exactly what she was trying to avoid. Like it or not, they relied on each other, and they couldn’t be doing this just to avoid a little awkwardness. There was probably more than awkwardness on Emma’s end. Being vulnerable on front of people wasn’t something either woman wore well, and there was nothing more vulnerable than one’s fears being exposed while unconscious. She hadn’t really handled it very well on either occasion.
It was going to happen again – she was sure of that – and facing the situation head on seemed like the most appropriate course of action. What was skirting around each other going to accomplish? After her afternoon meeting with Albert Spencer – a vile man she had little tolerance for – she spent her last hour in the office staring at her phone trying to craft a text. Every time she typed out a few letters, she backspaced so intensely the screen probably wanted to shatter.
This wasn’t a text-message-conversation. It wasn’t even an over-the-phone-conversation, but she wasn’t going to invade Emma’s privacy any further by effectively dropping herself in her lap. She’d promised Henry to invite Emma for dinner this week – their ‘family dinners’ had stopped abruptly following Marian and hadn’t resumed – and she typed out an invite before promptly deleting it. Emma would be insulted by the presumed pity.
Instead, she went with a reminder of the crime-stat report that was overdue and closed up for the night. She was relieved to get a response before she’d even left the building that it would be submitted tomorrow.
-
As it happened, Emma didn’t appear before Regina at all that night. Regina could only hope it was because she simply hadn’t needed to as opposed to doing something entirely irresponsible to prevent it. At the very least, she hoped the depth of her stupidity was too much coffee.
Maybe this whole situation had just been a one-off. If she hadn’t have performed the incantation the first night, Emma might not even have had a second nightmare at all. Perhaps it would have been more reasonable to simply send Emma back without intervention in the first place. Magic came with a price, and she was fairly certain she had just made the whole thing worse.
She made a lot of things worse, actually. “Mom?”
Regina forced herself back into the present. The lingering smell of the omelette she had made for breakfast had faded over the course of her thoughts, and though her plate remained untouched, Henry’s was long empty. Now, he sat staring at her with that concerned look he was much too young to have perfected, checking over his schoolbag.
“Yes, dear?”
“You…ok?” He zipped up his bag without averting his eyes.
“Of course, I was just…thinking.” The cold omelette was no longer particularly appealing. She stepped away from the table to collect the lunch she’d prepared him.
“Is it about Ma?”
She sighed to herself, cursing her son’s observation skills. “Why do you say that?”
When she turned back, lunch in hand, his lips were twitching like he wanted to say something but was holding back. A silent conversation loomed. She hooked a brow, waiting for her son to break. It happened faster in years gone by. Once, all it took was one pointed glare for him to start babbling every ‘secret’ a five-year-old could possibly dream up. He had so much more resolve now.
“Nothing, it doesn’t matter.” He took his lunch, giving her an awkward, teenage side-hug. “I gotta get the bus. Love you.”
She pressed a kiss to his crown, filing away what he may have wanted to say for now. “I love you too.”
As she got her bits and pieces together, she fired off another text to Emma regarding the report. It was the only communication Emma seemed to be willing to tolerate, and having any point of contact when she was already concerned was better than nothing. Besides, if Emma was feeling particularly brave, she might actually drop it off in person as she usually would.
She paused in the foyer, smiling to herself at the idea of Emma dropping into her office with the report in one hand and lunch in the other. When she decided to venture further than Granny’s, she was good at picking places to eat. Despite their tastes being so different, she never failed to choose something that Regina loved. She found herself looking forward to these impromptu lunches. It had been such a long time since they’d done one.
-
She wasn’t really expecting the report to be delivered with a side of lunch – that was a bit too much like wishful thinking – but it was disappointing, nonetheless. To be honest, she was lucky if Emma had even gotten to it yet. It was only four days overdue, and she usually liked to stretch it to a week. She wouldn’t tolerate the insubordination from anyone else, but Emma was…Emma, and it was nice to see some of the ease returning to their relationship.
Or it had been, before all of this.
She hadn’t long finished up her first after-lunch meeting when the telltale wisps of magic alerted her. Without even looking around, she sent a message to her PA to cancel her next appointment. She was going to do it properly this time, and she didn’t want someone knocking on the door and interrupting. With that thought in mind, she used magic to both lock the entrance and soundproof the room.
Emma was less animated this time, draped across the couch. The only evidence of a nightmare was the flinching expression, looking pained and scared all at once. She was fully dressed too, which was arguably a plus. At least Regina wouldn’t lose another item of clothing. She supposed she now knew why Emma hadn’t appeared during the night. The silly girl had stayed up. Add that to her lacklustre sleep the previous nights and it was no wonder she had seemingly fallen asleep at work.
She readied herself more intentionally now. If this was going to be a regular occurrence, they had to actually deal with it. However embarrassed Emma felt, they couldn’t go on like this. It was flattering almost. Emma’s unconscious brain could take her anywhere, but it chose Regina. It chose Regina because whether Emma was aware of it or not, she felt safe with her.
She had to find a way to live up to that.
Regina rounded the couch, surer of herself than she had before.