Roni

Chapter Thirty Five

Tomorrow will mark one whole week without a single call or text being answered by Regina. Ella was upfront with her mother and confessed how she broke into Regina's house to apologize. Mother and daughter both assumed that would help ease the tension, but Regina is still refusing to speak with Emma. And the sheriff, well she's losing her freaking mind.

Even now, the Savior is standing outside of her daughter's school, waiting for her to come out and the sheriff is inspecting all around her surroundings like a lunatic for Regina. She knows the mayor would never be there, it's not like she has any children that attend the school, but that doesn't stop Emma's head from whipping back and forth like some mad person who just escaped the looney bin.

"Hey!" A cheerful voice calls out just behind Emma's shoulder, provoking her nervous body to jump almost out of her boots.

She clenches her chest, pleading with her erratic heart beat to slow down as she observes Cinderella approaching.

"Jeez J, you scared me!" She admits, heat from embarrassment slowly painting her cheeks.

"Sorry," she timidly replies, cringing from shame. Emma quickly waves her off and continues her pathetic scanning. "So, about the whole, calling me "J" thing..." she stretches out her sentence demanding Emma's attention. "...my name isn't really Jacinda. It's Cinderella, well technically it's Ella. My terrible stepmother added the Cinder part..." Emma stares at the woman blankly, so she continues. "So, can you not call me J or Jacinda anymore?"

"Oh, okay...uh what do you want me to call you? We kind of already have an Ella here in Storybrooke." She motions with her head toward her daughter strolling toward them. "And if I'm being honest, it's going to take me some time. I've only ever known you as Jacinda."

"You know what? Jacinda is fine. J is cool," the woman claims as she shrugs her shoulders and nervously shoves her hands into her pockets.

"Are you sure? Or are you just trying not to piss off your mother in law?" The sheriff teases while watching the younger woman's face drain from all its color. Cinderella doesn't answer and Emma is pretty confident with herself it's because she is right. "You know...I'm not really the mother in law that you have to walk on eggshells in front of."

Jacinda audibly gulps and busies herself by searching the crowd of children for Lucy. Emma can't help but laugh at how uncomfortable this woman looks, so she nudges her daughter in law's arm. "I'm just teasing."

Jacinda laughs awkwardly like she doesn't really believe Emma and avoids all eye contact  until Lucy and Ella saunter up together.

"Anything?" Lucy asks with her big brown eyes full of hope peering up at her grandmother.

"No," Emma sighs and shakes her head, even though she thinks it's really cute how Lucy is rooting for her and Regina to work out. "Hot Cocoa at Granny's?" She suggests through a fake smile, hoping to distract both girls from her obvious pain and heartbreak.

Pain, that she can't seem to shake. She's never felt so heartbroken in her life. Not even when Neal left her behind to rot in jail. Now, the sheriff cries herself to sleep every night, but during the day, she forces her laughter because she refuses to allow her daughter to see the heartbreak.

"Yes! You should definitely come to Granny's!" Lucy professes as she jumps in the air, but Emma's eyes wander to Jacinda, who is giving her daughter a pointed look and shaking her head in rejection.

"What?" Emma skeptically questions, knowing all too well that something is up.

"Nothing," the mother-daughter duo chirp in unison.