You and Tequila

Chapter Twenty-Five

Sheer panic electrocutes every cell in Regina's body as she watches Emma's wide eyes travel away from hers and land directly on the bottle. Her chest heaves as she struggles for a single breath of air, knowing the disappointment she has just caused at three o'clock in the morning.

Emma cautiously steals a step forward and softly closes the door behind herself, conscious not to create a sound. "Have you been drinking this entire time you've been away?" She interrogates in a stern tone, yet there's still compassion lingering behind her words to help persuade Regina into revealing the truth.

"No, no," Regina rushes out, vehemently shaking her head in defiance. "I'll admit, I was going to tonight, but then you showed up this afternoon...and I would never do that with Henry around," she sincerely professes and already her throat is straining to justify her actions because she's on the verge of tears from being caught with her stupidity.

"I would hope not," Emma whispers and timidly crosses the bedroom that also serves purpose as a music room. "Why were you going to drink before we showed up?" She gently inquires, cautiously lowering herself onto the bench beside Regina.

"I-I'm struggling. I cannot finish this album and I need some kind of inspiration to push me through it."

"Alright...are you having a hard time with just the lyrics?"

"Yes." Regina runs her quivering fingers through her wild hair and closes her eyes for a moment of peace away from this demanding world. "I need depth, power, soul, if I'm ever going to create number one hits on the billboard."

While Regina has her eyes firmly shut, Emma reaches for an acoustic guitar resting in its stand against the wall. She smiles from ear to ear once she feels the familiar weight in her hands again and she crisscrosses her legs on the bench. The sudden movement awakens Regina from her trance and snaps her brown eyes back to life. Emma rests the guitar between her lap and takes a moment to prepare herself.

"Not all number one hits have phenomenal lyrics with depth and power," Emma acknowledges as her fingers effortlessly drag across the thick chords to produce an upbeat tempo. "He was a skater boy, she said see ya later boy," she sings enthusiastically and slams her palm against the strings to kill the familiar top charter.

Green eyes lock onto blown-wide brown and Emma has to twist her lips to suppress the laugh pleading to spill out. Amusement, along with utterly baffled and maybe even a little pride, flashes across Regina's face.

"You-you can play guitar? You can sing?" She squawks like a pigeon begging for food.

Emma shrugs her shoulder noncommittally as her eyes fall back down to the beautiful guitar resting in her lap. She's never had the opportunity to hold an instrument so valuable, but in the end it's the music she creates that warms her heart.

"Neal taught me how," she lightly strums her fingertips down the cool chords and smiles inwardly. "He always said I was a quick study."

"Quick study? Emma, you're very talented. Like you had said before, that's not something you can teach so easily, I can see it's a part of you. It's in your blood. You're really good," Regina gushes, still in awe from this secret talent Emma has securely kept hidden from her.

Music could have been another detail they could have bonded over.

Emma chuckles softly and shakes out her long mane. "I'm karaoke in a dive bar good, not fame and Grammy's good."

"Emma-"

"So, what lyric is ruffling your feathers?" Emma lightly teases and glances at the notebook propped up with Regina's heavy eraser marks and pencil scribbles.