Different Beliefs

Chapter 32

Regina immediately looked up. "What?" Her tone sounded almost harsh. "You told me we didn't have to tell my parents."

Emma flinched slightly and bit her lower lip, before she inhaled deeply.

She knew that this came out of nowhere to Regina. And frankly, to herself as well, because she did think they didn't have to tell Regina's parents about their relationship. At first.

"Look, Regina, you and I both know that our parents will find out that something's been going on between us either way. Don't you think it's better they hear it from you than from Robin?"

"No," Regina replied and shoved her chair slightly back.

Emma sighed softly. She could clearly see Regina was frustrated and she honestly blamed herself. She shouldn't have suggested not telling Cora and Henry in the first place, but there was no changing what she'd said in the past.

She herself was almost as conflicted as Regina. Her thoughts and opinions about the entire situation changed continuously, but there was one thing she was certain about.

Regina.

"How about.." Emma sighed again softly and shrugged. "How about we just go to Storybrooke now. Say hello to Ruby and Henry, if he's not asleep yet, and decide what we're going to do, tomorrow morning."

Regina nodded slowly and stood up from her chair as she grabbed her plate and cutlery. "That sounds doable."

Emma smiled slightly and followed Regina's example in putting the dirty dishes in the sink. They washed the dishes in silence and Emma started packing some stuff for their trip to Storybrooke, meanwhile Regina got dressed and before they left the room, Emma quickly dressed into some clothes as well.

They got in Emma's car as they started talking about their lives after the other had been taken away from it, ten years ago.

Regina told how everyone at school suddenly pretended to know Emma, to gain some sort of sympathy from Regina.

They all wanted to be there for Regina as the rumor of them together went all around school. It hadn't helped her parents with forgiving her for what had happened between her and Emma.

Especially, when people at church too, heard about Regina's "sin". Everyone at church had been giving her glances that either showed pity or disgust.

She continued talking about her friends, who, even though she'd tried so hard to push everyone away, didn't give up on her.

Eventually, they had all moved on. Ivy was working somewhere in New York, Ashley was busy with owning the daycare of Storybrooke and Regina had lost contact with Kathryn and Mal a long time ago, as they'd both moved far away to focus on a career outside of Storybrooke.

Emma listened intently to all Regina's stories and didn't know what to respond. Regina seemed to have had a hard life once she'd left and she couldn't imagine what it was like for Regina.

"I'm sorry, Gina." Regina shrugged and looked out of the window.

Thinking of the past never made her happy. In fact, it did quite the opposite. It made her feel miserable and she hated doing so.

But the present wasn't that much better. The only thing that made life bearable at the moment was having Emma by her side.

Regina tried to organize her thoughts. She tried to put everything that had happened in the past weeks in chronological order in her mind. All the events that had happened recently were one big blur and just having talked about the past didn't help, at all.

First, Emma had come to Storybrooke after not seeing her for ten years. That had been quite the shock. Especially since Emma "pretended" to not wanting to see her at all.