The Divorce

Chapter 13

They sat next to each other on the couch. Both a little tense and with a cup of tea in their hands. Emma had spread a blanket over her body. She looked patiently at Regina and cleared her throat.

It had taken both of them quite some time to prepare themselves mentally for this conversation and it had been over an hour since their lunch.

"Shall I start?" she offered and Regina nodded as she looked at her ex-wife. "I feel like everything that's bothered me has come up in a conversation once before, but I'm going to say it anyway."

Regina inhaled deeply, mentally preparing herself for what was to come. She really hoped this would work and help improve their relationship.

"I don't like it when you comment on the way I raise the children." Emma saw that Regina wanted to say something, but she flashed her a stern glare and the brunette quickly closed her mouth. "That is mainly because I'm having an incredibly hard time being a single, divorced mom. I'm trying my best to make sure the children are safe and healthy, while still getting over our divorce. It just makes it all so much harder when you come barging in, saying I'm doing it all wrong."

Emma swallowed thickly and tried her best to fight off the tears. She hadn't expected herself to get so worked up about it, but she already felt the emotions flying through her body.

She looked at Regina, but couldn't quite put a finger on the woman's expression. She couldn't really see what Regina was thinking.

"I understand that," Regina said. "I already told you this in the car, but I'm going to try my best to not say anything about it. You're doing great with the children and you make them happier than I ever could," she said with a weak smile.

Emma wanted to comment on Regina's last statement, because she knew that wasn't true. Though Regina was stricter than Emma, Emma knew that the children loved them equally. She'd already opened her mouth, but Regina continued talking.

"Can I say one thing that's bothered me over the past four months?" Regina softly inquired and Emma nodded curtly. "Okay, it actually follows up quite well with what we just discussed, I think. I wanted to say that I don't like the way we communicated."

Emma looked questioningly at Regina, not understanding what exactly Regina meant. "We didn't listen to each other. Before this week, we wouldn't have been able to have a conversation like this, simply because we refused to listen and think rationally. I feel like we were, and maybe are, both fueled by anger and jealousy."

She looked at Emma, waiting for her to respond and sipped her tea. Emma kept quiet for a moment and thought about what Regina had just said. She knew it was true, but she didn't know how they'd change that.

"So, we should try to listen more?" Emma carefully asked and Regina shrugged with a nod.

"I think if we try that, the situation would get so much better. If we try to not yell and repeat whatever it was that made us angry and listen to what the other has to say, we'd come so much further."

Emma nodded. "That sounds like something good to try."

The room stayed quiet for a moment. Emma was going through her memories to pick one thing that had bothered her in the past four months, but frankly, they all came down to bad communication, anger and jealousy. Three things that Regina had named.

"I guess the main thing that bothered me was myself," Emma confessed and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She avoided Regina's gaze and moved her cup in her hands, to make small waves in the tea.

"How do you mean that?" Regina asked confused and to Emma, she even sounded a tad concerned.

Emma tensed her shoulders and accidentally spilled some tea on her lap. She looked at the spot, but didn't move to clean it up. She looked up and met with Regina's brown eyes.