Is It Too Late? - Swan Queen AU

Chapter 3

"Emma, there's something I should tell you. You know how you told me to be sure to have people write you?" Ruby spoke, handing Emma a cup of hot cocoa before taking her seat outside the Nolan's house around a small fire. The fire pit sat between the three, David and his wife sat on a small outdoor couch, and Emma and Ruby in their own cushioned wicker chairs. The warm fire fought off the slight chill of the night as they joked around the campfire, reminiscing of high school days and Emma's military career.

The blonde dipped her finger into the whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon, licking it off before nodding. "Yes, why..?" she inspects the brunette's facial features, curious at what changed the woman's demeanor so dramatically.

"Well, I promised Regina I would mail her letters, because her mom wouldn't allow her to mail them hers-" The waitress spoke quickly, trying to get it all out before Emma inevitably hated her.

"I never received a damn thing from her." Emma's voice was filled with anger and hurt, her jaw clenched. Mary Margaret raised her eyebrows, unaware of this herself, however the man next to her had his eyes set on the fire, mug in hand gripped tightly.

"That's because I never sent them..." Ruby whispered, barely audible as the crickets chirped in the night. "She probably wrote a thousand letters in the first year you were gone, but when she realized you weren't writing back... they slowed down, and then stopped completely. I-I didn't want you to run home and get heart broken again, I knew how serious you were when you left. How you didn't want distractions, I-i'm sorry, Em." Tears broke Ruby's voice as she spoke, the weight of keeping the secret too much to hold any longer in the intimate setting.

A gasp was heard from the married woman across the fire as she looked at David. "Oh my god, David, you knew?" Emma could see the man nod in her peripheral.

Emma felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes. She knew the break up had been bad for the both of them, but when Emma left the only thing she wanted was something from the woman she loved. The pain of spending nights silently crying herself to sleep, thinking the woman didn't give a damn about her, sent the blonde down dark paths through her military career. "Where are they?" She muttered weakly, her gaze shooting up to the tearfully eyes woman. When there was no response, Emma tightened her voice. "Where are the letters?" Louder and louder she repeated herself as her body rose from the chair.

"I have them." A broken male voice announced, David's eyes meeting Emma's. "I'm sorry, sis. I thought it was for the best." He shook his head. "I couldn't just send them all after I realized how much you needed them, I didn't want you to resent Ruby or me... it was selfish. I'm sorry."

Mary Margaret shook her head violently. "That box, in the hall closet, that's full of envelopes those weren't old once from Emma. You lied, David, you lied!"

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Slowly, shaking fingers pulled the box open, revealing over three-hundred letters stacked in rubber bands. 'At least they had the decency to sort them.' Emma rolled her eyes, taking the first stack in her hands, checking the date. Two days after she left. Two days after Emma said her goodbyes to her hometown, Regina reached out to her. She probably thought she was a cold hearted bitch.

—

Emma, my love,

Who would have known that just a few months into our sophomore year of high school you would have stolen my heart? The time I looked into your eyes, it was like the wind was knocked from my lungs. I resented it terribly so, but I knew that you were going to be the death of me. Months later, you became my first love, first girlfriend, first everything. We became inseparable, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.