You and Tequila

Chapter Thirty-Four

"And maybe I should surrender," Regina sings and immediately yanks out her earplug and runs her itchy fingers through her hair. "Stop! Stop!" She sighs heavily and places her microphone back in its stand. "The sound is off, doesn't it sound distorted?" She presses, glaring at Milah for some support.

Milah pulls out her own earbud and glances back at Killian warily before she nods. "Yeah, a little," she meekly agrees.

"Alright, well let's see if we can clean it up and take it back from the top," Robin easily recommends to the sound crew and readjusts the strap upon his shoulder.

The crew nods from behind their station while Regina watches intently as they move a few dials around until they offer a thumbs up. She places her earplug back in and nods toward Outlaw to begin again. The second Robin's fingers create the first note, Regina rips out her earplug again and sighs.

"How is this so difficult? Last night the sound quality was perfect, what the hell could have possibly happened from then until now?" She exasperates and storms off stage to fetch a bottle of water, leaving everyone else on stage to flounder under pressure.

"I'll talk to her," Robin breathes out and removes his bass guitar, handing it off to a backstage crew member.

Regina angrily twists off her cap from the bottle of water and hastily soothes her sore vocal cords with the chilled liquid. She closes her eyes for a brief moment and counts to ten, hoping to settle the unnerving energy prickling just below her skin that she's never quite experienced this intensely before.

"Hey, you alright?" Mal questions, curling her long fingers around Regina's bicep for comfort, but the brunette flinches from the unwanted touch and shrugs the woman off. "Jeez, what's gotten into you?" When Regina refuses to utter a word and resumes her consumption of hydration, Mal continues. "Regina, when was the last time you slept?" She softly investigates, full of genuine concern.

"I don't know," she mumbles under her breath, running her fingers through her hair once again. "Three...four days?"

"Girl, that is not okay. You need to chill."

"I don't have time to chill. I have a lot going on in my life right now. What I need is to keep moving forward and finish this damn album, so I can focus on...Robin..." Regina awkwardly finishes as she notices the man coming up behind Mal.

"Hey, you alright, babe?" He gently inquires, placing a delicate kiss to her cheek which only causes the blood in her veins to boil.

"I'm fine," she snaps, the lack of sleep finally dragging Regina to her brink of sanity and leaving her to teeter on the edge of a cliff. "I apologize," she quickly mutters, "I haven't been sleeping well and I'm just overtired is all."

And she swears if one more person asks her what's wrong or if she's been sleeping, she will take out this entire crew and leave them all for dead. Her brain feels fuzzy from the exhaustion and her limbs feel like she's carrying around an extra weight and she's fairly confident she's going to claw her skin right off from the anxiety slithering through her flesh.

"After this show you need to catch up on some z's," Mal earnestly says.

"I can't. Emma's son is in town."

"So?" Mal scoffs, glancing between the couple for further explanation, but senses she will be ignored so she continues. "He's just your employee's kid."

"She's not just my employee," Regina explodes and all too quickly she realizes the turmoil she's burying herself in. "She's not just my employee," she tries again in a calmer tone, "she's a very close friend of mine and I adore her son."