Shared Pain

Chapter 9

"Mom, are you alright with that woman coming?" Henry inquired and wanted to grab one of the cookies that Emma had put on the table for later when Regina came to visit, but she gave him an angry glare and he quickly retracted his hand.

"Yes, but why did you invite her?"

"I don't know, we all want to meet your friends," he said and gestured at his sisters, who both nodded.

The doorbell rang and Emma hurried to the hallway. Her kids followed her and before she opened the door she looked at the three of them.

"You better not call her that worried woman, her name is Regina," Emma said and moved her hand to the doorknob.

"That means queen," Eva stated and Lola looked amazed up at her sister when Emma opened the door.

Regina smiled in the doorway at the three children and waved briefly. Lola turned to Regina and her eyes widened in amazement.

She moved forward and held up her hand politely. Henry looked confused at his sister's movements, but the girl gestured that he should come closer.

"Eva said it's the Queen," she whispered and looked up at Regina, who kneeled down in front of her with a chuckle.

Regina chuckled softly and shook Lola's hand. "Perhaps she said that my name means queen. I'm not the Queen," she said with a sincere smile and looked up at Emma who awkwardly fumbled her fingers.

Somehow, she felt a bit uncomfortable having Regina around in her house. The only thought keeping her calm was that the children wanted it. For some reason, Emma felt like she had to prove herself to Regina.

So far, she'd always pretended to not notice Regina's pitiful looks every time Emma talked about her marriage. Even though things were going great with her and Killian now, she still wasn't sure for how long.

It felt a bit like a ticking time bomb.

"Why don't we all go to the living room," Emma suggested and everyone followed her to the living room and sat down on the couch.

Regina smoothed her dress and Emma looked at her every move. The brunette was wearing a simple, yet elegant black dress that hugged her every curve, but was not too provocative.

She smiled at Emma when she saw the woman looking and Emma quickly averted her eyes. She absolutely didn't want to be caught staring at her neighbor's body.

"How are you?" Emma asked as Lola crawled on her mother's lap. Emma ran her hand through Lola's brown curls and kissed the top of her head.

"I'm great, yeah. The new job's great, luckily I could get some time off to meet you three here," she said and smiled at Eva and Henry, who were sitting opposite her on a big chair together.

"And how are you doing? Eva, I heard you got to go to school again," Regina said and Emma looked confused up. She'd never told Regina anything about her daughter's concussion.

Regina chuckled when she noticed Eva and Emma's confused look. "Killian told me, yesterday."

Emma plastered a smile on her lips. Never in a million years had she figured Killian talked about their kids. She knew he loved them, but she never knew that he wanted to think about them outside of the house.

Eva cleared her throat. "I got to do my presentation today, that was fun. It was about different times of rocks and from what time period they are and how you could tell from what period they are due to the substance of the rocks," Eva explained and Regina looked astonished at the girl.

To hear such words coming from a seven year old was a big surprise to her. The kid was very educated, you could tell that immediately.

"How did everyone like it?" Regina inquired curiously.

Eva shrugged. "Everyone had this look on their face once I was finished," Eva said and changed her face to a look where confusion was evidently visible.

"Mom, I uh, I have my new book upstairs and I actually want to read it now, can I go?" Eva asked and her mother nodded.

Lola jumped off Emma's lap and followed her sister. "Eva hasn't seen my new racecar yet!" She exclaimed and left the room as well.

"Well, if everyone's going, I think I am going to finish my homework," Henry softly said and left the living room as well, leaving the two women alone.

Damn you kids. First inviting this woman over and then ditching me so that we're alone.

"Eva is.. incredibly smart," Regina said.

Emma nodded proudly. "Yeah, she is. She loves history a lot."

And the regular thick tension was back. Emma didn't know what it was, but every time she was around Regina, this tension always lingered in the air and she felt her hands becoming sweaty.

"But how are you?" Regina suddenly asked. "You seem happy." She offered Emma a sincere smile.

Emma was happy. She didn't know for how long, but she was genuinely happy at the moment and she didn't want to think about it ending sometime.

"I am, actually. Things are going great. Eva is healthy again, Killian has more time off work to spend with the family." She sighed contently.

Regina stiffened and swallowed thickly. And that didn't go unnoticed by Emma.

"What's wrong?"

A nervous chuckle erupted from the brunette's throat and she fiddled with her fingers. She didn't know how to tell Emma this, or if she should tell the woman at all.

"Nothing," she curtly replied.

"Are you sleeping with him?"

Regina's eyes widened at she quickly shook her head. "No, no, of course not! I would never do that. No."

"Then what is it?"

Regina inhaled deeply and cleared her throat. "The shop isn't going so well anymore. We keep losing customers. Killian says everything's okay, but I see that it bothers him. He just seems to push all those thoughts away and focus on the family, but if it continues like this, I'm genuinely afraid that he's going to lose the shop. Especially now with that new clothing store in town and Mr. Gold keeps raising rent."

Emma didn't reply and just stared emotionless at the wall. Apparently, Killian soon had to make the choice shop or family. If he chose family, that would mean he'd lose his store and would force her to work harder, but if he chose shop, the family would most definitely fall apart.

She felt a warm hand covering hers and Emma averted her eyes to Regina. "Everything will work out, Emma. I'm going to do my best to help the shop and your family."

"Everything's alright in our family, it's just the shop that I worry about," Emma said and tried to ignore the soft thumb stroking the back of her hand.

Regina knew there was no way she'd get Emma to confess everything that was bothering her in her marriage, so she just left it like that and retracted her hand.

Emma was never going to confess it, but she missed Regina's soothing touch. The woman did bring her comfort somehow and she liked that.

She looked at Regina and stared in those beautiful brown eyes. Eyes that sparkled every second of the day, but held so much sadness behind it.

Even though Regina now knew a lot about her, she knew nothing about the brunette and she wanted to know the woman.

Despite the fact that she'd hated the woman at first, she wanted to know Regina now.

Perhaps that would explain the way her heart beat every time she saw her, or the way her lips curled up into a smile every time she said her name, or the way her stomach fluttered every time the woman smiled.