Reset

Archie nodded his understanding and watched as Regina stalked from his office.

Chapter 23

A week later and Regina was attempting to soothe a disgruntled Grace back to sleep by walking her around the house when she noticed the Sheriff’s patrol vehicle pass by her house. She glanced at the clock on the wall to see it was just past one in the morning and she rolled her eyes in irritation. She gently rocked Grace in her arms as she shushed the little girl who was crying, “shh, I know little one, those Charming’s are useless, aren’t they? I did tell you they were idiots.”

Soon after her meeting with Archie regarding Emma’s mental health she had bitten the bullet and spoken to Snow directly about her concerns, she hadn’t wanted to get directly involved but she knew that waiting for the idiots to notice that something would take forever. Snow had completely destroyed Regina’s life and left the older woman blood thirsty for her vengeance and the ridiculous woman had never even noticed until Regina had murdered Leopold.

Snow had promised Regina faithfully that she had noticed that something was wrong with Emma and that she was taking steps. The idea of Snow’s softly-softly approach had hardly warmed Regina, the sappy young woman was pathetic and Emma, even in this depressive state, would easily outwit her. And true enough when Regina had approached Snow again that very morning she was attempting to convince Regina that everything was fine, that Emma was simply tired and working hard on specific projects.

Grace stopped crying but still fidgeted wildly in Regina’s arms and she smiled at the baby, “we’ll have to deal with this ourselves, won’t we?”

Regina picked up her phone and called the Sheriff’s office number and after a few moments she was patched through to Emma’s mobile.

“Sheriff Swan,” Emma answered officially.

“It’s Regina, I’m not sure but I think I just saw someone in my garden,” Regina said with an air of boredom, “if you’re not busy could you come and have a look?”

“Stay in the house and lock the doors,” Emma commanded quickly, “I’ll be there in less than a minute.”

Regina hung up and gave Grace a kiss on the forehead, “simple,” she whispered to Grace who was tiredly looking up at her. Regina walked down stairs and opened the front door at the very moment Emma was running up the pathway towards the front door.

“Regina?” Emma questioned in near panic.

“Emma, I’m so sorry,” Regina looked apologetically, “it appears it was a cat, a shadow house made it appear larger, it appears I’ve wasted your time.”

Emma slowly started to stand down and nodded, “that’s okay, as long as everything is okay..”

“It is,” Regina assured, “I’m sorry, it must be the lack of sleep, I was just about to have some tea. Perhaps you could join me?”

Emma seemed to wrestle with the idea and Regina smiled as she pressed, “I could do with the company..”

Emma nodded and Regina walked into the hallway with the expectation that Emma would join her which the blonde did, closing the front door behind her. Regina walked into the living room and directed Emma to a seat on the sofa and indicated the sleeping baby in her hands, “would you mind taking her?”

Emma’s eyes flitted to the baby seat by the sofa and Regina spoke again, “she only just went off, she needs to be held if she is to fall into a deeper sleep.”

“I.. I’m no good with babies,” Emma said cautiously as Regina delicately transferred the sleeping baby from her arms to Emma’s.

“You’ll be fine,” Regina replied softly, “I’ll be back in a moment.”

Emma sat on the sofa with her large winter Sheriff’s office coat on and a woollen hat while she held the baby uncomfortably, her eyes continuously darting to where Regina had exited the room. She looked down at the baby and noticed with dread and fear that Grace was no longer asleep and was instead looking up at her with piercing blue eyes and an open mouthed smile as her pacifier fell to the floor.

“H-hello,” Emma stuttered, “I’m Emma.. and your Mommy is going to be right back.”

Grace gurgled happily and reached a hand up to pull on a lock of Emma’s hair that fell across the blonde’s chest. Grace laughed a cute baby giggle as she pulled and twisted the lock gently through her tiny fingers.

Emma balanced the baby in the crook of her arm and with her free arm removed her woollen hat and placed it on the table in front of her. She then shifted gently to free herself from her winter coat before shifting Grace again into her other arm and completely shrugging off the coat, all the while Grace looked up at her with fascination and continued to play with Emma’s hair.

“Are you going to have long hair when you’re a big girl?” Emma whispered to the baby and stroked the girl’s fine blonde hair, “I wonder if you’ll keep this blonde hair..”

Grace let out a large yawn and Emma laughed at the sight, “you nearly swallowed the room whole there, Grace.. maybe you should get some sleep?”