Because I met you

19

"What happened?" Mary asked when Emma had calmed down. Emma told her everything that had happened that afternoon. "Oh honey, I'm sorry," Mary said when Emma was finished. "Wait what was the name of that girl again?" "Kaylee," Emma said. Mary thought for a moment. "Wait a second. Kaylee is Regina's ex," she said. "Kaylee dumped her. Regina was devastated, but after that she had no intention to get back to her." "What?" Emma asked, confused as to why Mary was telling her this. "Kaylee was toxic, didn't approve of anything Regina did. She was a very jealous person and made sure Regina only had contact with her family, but no friends. Kaylee had cheated on her and dumped her, but that was when Regina finally saw how toxic she was." "How do you know all of that?" Emma asked. "Before Kaylee, Regina and I were best friends. When Kaylee came around, Regina tried to keep contact with me, but Kaylee wouldn't let her. After she left, Regina came to me and we talked it out. She told me everything. Now, we're just friends but that is alright too," Mary said. Emma nodded in understanding. "Wait," she said suddenly, "does that mean that...?" "That you were too quick to judge? Yes, you were," Mary said gently. "Shit," Emma said. She slapped her hand on her forehead and started pacing around. "I've screwed this all up and she won't want me back and I don't know what to do and she'll hate me and the family will hate me so I won't have contact with her anymore and she'll move on and I'll try but I love her too much and-" "Honey, stop. Stop pacing, listen to me for a second," Mary said. Emma stood still and looked at her. "If Regina really loves you, she'll want you back. I won't say it won't take time, because it probably will. You screwed up, I'm sorry. But she will want you back and you will be fine if it is meant to be." "But what if it's not meant to be?" Emma asked. "Then you'll have had an amazing time with her," Mary said. "But not long enough," Emma replied. "So go get your girl and apologize to her, explain what you were thinking, feeling and let her explain too," Mary said. Emma nodded. "Okay, okay I'll do that. Should I text her or should I go to her house?" "I don't know," Mary answered. "But you have to make a decision right now." "Okay. Okay. Um..." Emma said. She thought for a moment, then took her phone and sent a text to Regina.

"She sent a text!" "What does it say what does it say??" Zelena asked. "It says: 'Can we talk?'" Regina answered. "What should I say?" "Well, what do you want? Do you want to talk? Or perhaps you need some time?" Cora asked. "I need some time right now because it hurt," Regina said. "So text her that you need time," Henry said gently. And so Regina did.

A few days had passed, Emma and Regina missed each other. A lot. Emma barely slept, she was worried Regina wouldn't want her back and she had screwed up completely. Regina's birthday was yesterday. She still had a gift for her and wanted to give it whenever they were going to talk. Staring at the wall in front of her, Emma suddenly heard her phone go off. Quickly, she took it and read the message she had received. "Talk tomorrow?" Regina had sent. "Yes," she immediately sent back. After they agreed on a time, Emma started mentally preparing everything she could possibly say. 'I'm sorry. I shouldn't have run so fast. I should have given you the chance to explain. I should have trusted you.' "Emma, dinner is ready!" David called from downstairs suddenly. Emma glanced at the clock. It was later than she thought. Time had flown by. When they had finished eating dinner, Emma could not stop thinking about Regina and their talk. David and Mary noticed it and tried to distract her, but it was of very little use. Around eleven thirty, they went to bed. Emma went too, but couldn't sleep once again. She tossed and turned, thinking about Regina. 'Gosh, I really hope I haven't screwed this up.'

~

Emma breathed in and out slowly before knocking on Regina's door. Zelena opened it moments after. "Get in. You better have a very good explanation, or I'll have to beat your ass for hurting my sister," she said, squinting her eyes at her. Emma nodded timidly. Once inside, she walked into the living room. Regina was sitting on the couch with her legs up, Cora next to her. "Um, hey," Emma said quietly. "I'll leave you two alone," Cora said softly and left the room. "Sit down," Regina said. Emma did as she was told and sat down on a chair in front of the couch. It was silent for a few moments. Emma had forgotten everything she had prepared. "So," Regina said. "So," Emma repeated. "I'm sorry," she suddenly said after another few moments of silence. "I should have give you the chance to explain." "Yeah, you should have," Regina agreed. "I have no idea why Kaylee texted me, but I did not cheat on you with her. Or with anyone, for that matter. You should have let me explain and you should have trusted me. You really hurt me with that." As she spoke, she got up from the couch to stand in front of Emma and look down at her angrily. "You didn't even let me try to explain! You just ran upstairs to get your stuff and you left. You gave it all up so quickly. That really hurt. Did I really mean that little to you?" Emma shook her head furiously. "No! You mean so much to me! I left because I wasn't ready to hear a badly formed lie - I know now that you are not lying and that you didn't cheat." "I would never lie to you," Regina said with a hard voice. "I know, I know," Emma reassured her, "I was just in a state where my mind did tell me lies." Regina sat back down on the couch. "Will you let me explain now?" Emma nodded. Regina briefly told her about the relationship she'd had with Kaylee and how she had blocked Kaylee on everything and deleted her number after she'd gotten the messages. When she was done explaining, neither knew what to say. "You can explain now," Regina said quietly. "Okay," Emma said softly. "When I saw the messages, I didn't want to believe it. Somewhere in me, I knew you would never do something like that, but that feeling only reached the surface after I'd left. I didn't want to believe what I thought behind those messages, but I am me and she was... well, I saw her profile picture and she is prettier than I am. Those kind of thoughts got the best of me. Also, I sort of am used to getting replaced. The time we had was already way too good to be true. So I believed it. I believed that I wasn't good enough and that you had found someone else. Had Kaylee texted something else, like 'long time no see' or something, I would've been less suspicious and probably would have let you explain. I'm sorry." They were, once again, quiet for a while. Regina suddenly cleared her throat. "I accept your apology," she said. "I understand why you reacted they way you did. In all honesty, I probably would have reacted in some sort of way similar to yours." Emma breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, for understanding me." Regina nodded. "What will happen?" Emma asked. She didn't need to say any other words for Regina to understand she was talking about them. "You really hurt me with not trusting me and giving up so quickly. It will take time, but I don't want to lose you either," Regina said. "Start over?" Emma asked. Regina nodded. "Thank you for giving me another chance," Emma said softly. Regina hummed. "You should probably go now, your parents will be waiting for you." Emma nodded and got up. She bit her lip for a moment as she didn't know what was better: give the present now or later? "What?" Regina asked, seeing Emma looking at her. 'The way she bites her lip...' she thought, 'no, stop. She has broken your heart, we've only just decided that we're starting over.' "Um..." Emma said. "I, uh... your birthday was two days ago and I still have a present... You can open it whenever you'd like." She handed the gift over to Regina and silently left the room after saying goodbye. When she closed the door to the living room and stepped into the hall, she was met with Zelena, who was leaning against the stairs with her arms crossed. "It is no secret that I eavesdropped," she said, "but I think your reasons were... acceptable. I'm glad you guys are starting over." Emma let a small smile show on her face. "Me too."

~

"How did it go?" David asked as soon as Emma had taken off her shoes and jacket and sat down on the couch. "It went well, we talked it out and we're starting over." "That's great!" Mary said. Emma nodded and smiled. "It really is. I honestly can't really believe it yet." She couldn't understand why Regina would give someone like her, someone who doesn't even give their love a chance of explaining and doesn't trust them, a second chance. She was really glad with it though.

"So, how did it go?" Zelena asked Regina. Regina looked at her unamusedly. "Don't pretend like you didn't hear everything." Zelena sighed. "I know, sorry sis. Do you feel like this second chance is a good idea?" Regina nodded. "I do. Now that I know how she feels, I understand her better. She is definitely worth keeping as well. I love her." Zelena smiled. "I'm glad." It was quiet for some time. "So, what is it?" Zelena asked. "What is what?" "The present she gave you." Regina shrugged. "I don't know." Zelena looked at her confusedly. "What do you mean you don't know?" "I haven't opened it yet." "So go open it!" Sighing, Regina took the gift. "Fine." Secretly, she was dying to know what it was. She gently ripped the wrapping paper from the present. There was a small box which she opened. Inside the box was a necklace with a sunflower. There was also a little card that read: "Happy birthday my Gina. I love you so so much. You deserve the world, but I can't give you that, so I'm giving you a reminder of us. Open the sunflower and you'll see what I'm talking about." "That's really sweet," Zelena said. Regina nodded, smiling. "It is." She carefully opened the sunflower, not knowing if she would accidentally break it if she used much force, and saw a picture of Emma and her. It was the picture Mary had taken of them, the one where Emma was hugging Regina and Regina was kissing her head. Regina smiled softly. "This is so cute." "Absolutely," Zelena agreed. They were quiet for a moment, staring at the photo. "Pizza?" Zelena suddenly suggested. Regina smiled. "Sure."

That night, Emma slept amazingly for the first time after she'd left. Nearly all the worry concerning Regina was gone. She just had to figure out how to get Regina back. She had a few ideas already. They could go over to their houses, watch a movie together, bake something, make lunch... She just had to give Regina some time before asking to hang out.