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Chapter Two

Rewritten: 13/08/2020
Updated: 16/03/2021

The next morning Emma woke up with a pounding headache and two questions: what the hell happened last night, and where the hell was she? She rolled over onto her back, regretting it instantly when the room started to spin; the urge to hurl was becoming more imminent as each second passed. As she stared at the ceiling, she tried to make sense of what had happened last night; she knew she had left her parents apartment because of Neal as she did most nights, and she had spent some of the night driving around the quiet town before sitting outside–

"Regina's?" she groaned to herself. Everything suddenly fell into place, and the memories of last night came flooding back. "No, no, no," she whispered to herself as she threw the covers back. "I can't be here."

Emma gathered her clothes and began to put them on, she hoped she could sneak out of the mansion before anyone else woke up, but the sudden knocking at the door caught her off guard, and she fell to the floor with a thump.

"Ms Swan?" Regina said, "Are you okay?"

"Shit," Emma whispered, getting up faster than she had fallen. "Yeah, all good."

Regina opened the door cautiously; she was confused to see Emma fully dressed at this hour of the morning. "Can I get you any painkillers? Or coffee?"

Emma stared at Regina for a moment. She guessed it was sometime early in the morning because Regina still had her pyjamas on, and her hair was ruffled as if she had just woken up; Emma hated the fact that all she could think at that moment was how beautiful she was.

"Emma?"

Emma shook her head to get rid of her thoughts, "What time is it?"

"Just after six-thirty, why?"

"In the morning?" Emma said to clarify. When Regina nodded, Emma groaned; if there was one thing she hated more than having a hangover, it was having a hangover and being up at the crack of dawn. "Such a great start to the day."

Regina motioned towards the stairs, "Come on, I'll make you some coffee to help with that hangover I'm guessing you have."

Emma sullenly followed Regina down to the kitchen, and she sat at the breakfast table in silence while Regina made the coffee. She had no idea what to say, Regina had taken her in in the middle of the night, and she had no idea how to thank her.

Regina slid the coffee over to the blonde, "There you go, Ms Swan."

"Emma," the blonde replied, "Ms Swan makes me feel like a teacher."

Regina laughed, "Okay, Emma. What can I get you to eat?"

Emma sipped on her coffee, "The thought of eating right now makes me want to hurl, so I think I'll pass."

Regina took a seat next to Emma; she wanted nothing more than to take away the pain the blonde was feeling; to some extent, she still felt responsible for everything that had happened to her, but Regina knew she couldn't change the past. All she could do now was try to help her when she needed it.

"How did you sleep?" Regina asked.

Emma looked to Regina with a blank stare; she had no idea how to explain that she had slept peacefully but woken up with all the energy drained from her. "Yeah, fine," she drank the last of her coffee despite it still being scalding hot. "Thanks, by the way, you know, for taking me in. You didn't have to."

"Well we all know how I feel about that death trap of a car you own, so I couldn't let you freeze during the night."

Emma slid off the chair, grabbing her jacket off the kitchen side. "I'm gonna head off now, thanks for the coffee."

"You're welcome here any time, Emma," Regina assured.

Emma smiled weakly before heading out the door and to her car. She knew she shouldn't have been driving because she was definitely over the limit, but the drive back to her parents was short; she was also the sheriff, so it wasn't like she would drive herself to the jail cells in the station.

As she got to the front door of her parent's apartment, she braced herself for the questions on where she had been and her baby brother fussing and screaming, but when she opened the door, it was deadly quiet; she couldn't believe it.

It was just after seven AM, so she knew it was unusual for everyone to be out at this time. She decided that she needed another cup of coffee to make herself feel saner, and when she got to the coffee pot, there was a note for her:

Gone to Granny's – Mom & Dad

She guessed they had been up most of the night, so she was glad that she was able to get out of the house when she did. She poured herself a cup of coffee and headed into the bathroom. Emma decided a hot shower was needed to wash the smell of alcohol of herself, the scent of rum was making Emma more nauseous than she wanted to be.

Emma felt refreshed after her much-needed shower, her head was still pounding, but at least the smell of rum was gone from her body. She headed to her room to change and thought about taking a nap before heading back out again, but her plan was thwarted when she heard her parents return.

"Emma?" Snow chirped.

Emma walked down the stairs, "Yeah?"

The woman turned to face her daughter, shoving a takeout box in her direction. "We bought you some takeout from Granny's."

Emma took the takeout box, knowing that whatever was in there, she wouldn't be able to stomach, but she didn't want to seem ungrateful. She sat down at the kitchen table, staring at the box. She could tell her mother was pissed at her, but she always waited until Emma brought it up unless it regarded Regina.

"Get it over with," Emma mumbled.

Snow looked puzzled; she could see her daughter was defeated, but she had no idea how to approach her. She had seen the slow decline of the blonde over the past few weeks, and she had tried her best to help her, but in true Emma Swan fashion, the blonde had just ignored everything she had tried.

"Where were you last night?" Snow asked, "I saw you leave when Neal woke up, and you never came back."

Emma looked up, "I had to leave," she said bluntly.

Snow sat across from Emma, "Why? Is it that awful living here?"

Emma scoffed and ran her fingers through her wet hair, "Yeah, it is. I never sleep. I never get a second to myself. At least at Regina's–"

Snow's eyes went wide, "You were at Regina's last night?"

Emma hadn't wanted to tell Snow where she had been. She knew that she would blow up about it, and she really couldn't handle that right now, or ever if she was honest.

"You have a problem with that?"

"Yeah," Snow said bluntly, "She's the Evil Queen."

Emma rolled her eyes; she hated that she was one of few people that had seen how Regina had changed over the past few months; she was further from the Evil Queen than she had ever been.

"You don't get to talk about her that way," Emma stood up, slamming the chair against the table. "You don't get to talk about her like that, not any more," she grabbed her red jacket and moved towards the door.

"If you like her that much, why aren't you living there?"

"You know what, that's not such a bad fucking idea," Emma said through gritted teeth. As she left the apartment, she slammed the door closed behind her.

David walked out of the bathroom, Neal in his arm, "What was all that about?"

Snow looked up to him, "So I might have just thrown Emma out the apartment and told her to live at Regina's."