Everything Has Changed

Chapter 7 - Lessons Learned

Regina spent the night curled up next to their daughter. She didn't want to go back downstairs and face Leo. She didn't have the courage to go back and face the damage that she had caused. She knew that he was going to be furious with her that she had defied him in a way that she never had before.

When morning broke she awoke before Mary Margaret, and for that she was grateful. There were bruises on her body that she didn't need her stepdaughter to see. As she stood staring into the mirror in the downstairs bathroom she started to ask herself what she was doing. Before her thoughts could spiral out of control she moved away from her reflection and headed for the kitchen.

She didn't know what was going to happen this morning, she didn't know how they were going to recover from what had happened last night, but right now she was just going to take it one step at a time. She went about making breakfast, just like she would have on any other day. If nothing else, she was bound and determined not to break the promise she had made that little girl last night. They would not yell again if she could hear them.

Regina had fuzzy memories of her own parents fighting when she was a child. Memories of not knowing what was going on and blaming herself for all of the yelling, when in reality none of it was her fault at all. She shuddered to think that they were causing the same sort of pain in that precious child upstairs.

She heard him before she saw him that morning. She could tell from the heavy footfalls overhead that he was not any happier this morning than he had been when he threw her into the sink. She knew that the fight wasn't over; her not leaving Mary Margaret had simply postponed what they had started last night.

Without a word he stormed past her and out to his car. Headed off to that damn police station that was more like a family to him than she or his daughter was. She sighed before heading back up the stairs to get Mary Margaret. After missing the entire day with her little stunt yesterday, there was no way that she was going to even be running late today. She sat down easily on the edge of the bed and lightly shook the girl.

"Come on Little Bird, time to get up. You have to go to school."

"I don't want too."

Regina couldn't help but laugh at that. "After yesterday you have made that painfully obvious." She bit her tongue as soon as she said it, but Mary Margaret still shot right up from the pillow.

"Mom! I didn't even think about it!" She reached out and gingerly touched Regina's cheek, where even after the thick layer of makeup, a deep bruise was showing through. Her thumb grazed over the cut in her stepmother's lip before Regina drew her hand away softly.

"Don't worry about it Little Bird, it's just a bruise."

"I'm so sorry Mother,"

Regina's finger came to rest gently on Mary Margaret's lips, "Don't you apologize for any of this. The only thing you are responsible for is you, and all you did was skip school. None of the rest of any of this is your fault baby girl."

There were tears in the little girl's eyes, but she was doing her best to keep them in. "If I would have been good then you wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"It doesn't matter. You are safe and that is all that matters, but right now you need to get up and get moving." She stood up and headed for the door. "Get up and get ready to go, I'll have breakfast for you when you come down."

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you."