So Does This Make Us Both The Other Woman?

10. Hands And Heart (Chained As Ever Before)

"Regina! Regina!" She hears the breathless squealing before she sees Roland, running unsteadily down the sidewalk toward Henry and her. "Help!" Her heart stops when he steps onto the grass, too close to the street, and she's running to him and scooping him up as he hides his face in her neck.

"What's– " She stops, determining at last that the gasping sound from the boy is laughter, not tears, and recognizes the familiar voice around the corner.

"You can't run forever! I'm gonna get you!" Emma speeds into view, nearly crashing into them both, and Roland howls with glee again. She grins at them. "Oh, so you think you can hide behind a witch? I've got magic too!" She grabs him with long fingers and immediately starts tickling Roland as he clings to Regina, the boy falling back and forth between them with every giggle.

"This is familiar," Henry observes wryly, watching the way Roland is snatched by Emma and then Regina and then Emma again.

Regina gives him a dark look and he shrugs, smirking. That year with Emma. It's always that year with Emma that turned him into a teenager.

"Hey, you go back to your dad, okay, kid?" Emma sets Roland down and rubs her palms against her jeans as he stumbles back around the corner, still laughing. "He's pretty cute. I can see why you put up with his father."

"Emma." But she's feeling unaccountably shy again, the same anxiety she's had around Emma for days now.

Emma had walked her to her office from Granny's every morning since they'd had that night out together- more, in fact, than they usually do in a week, as though they're both aggressively attempting to pretend that nothing has changed. Nothing is different, really. The elephant in the room had been addressed but it's all for nought and now Regina doesn't know what to do with her hands when Emma's around.

She settles for twisting her fingers together as Henry watches them both with sharp eyes. "I thought you only spent time with Robin when there was alcohol involved."

"You think there's always alcohol involved with me," Emma retorts, rolling her eyes. "Maybe I was just hanging out with your boyfriend. Being nice. Polite. Whatever."

"He's not her boyfriend," Henry mutters, and they are not talking about that and not to Emma.

"Huh?"

She steps on Henry's foot and curls her lip. "I'm not sixteen and choosing a prom date, Miss Swan. I don't use terms like that."

"You call Hook that all the time!"

"Hook is a sixteen-year-old trawling for a prom date." She scowls and Emma stares brazenly at her in response. There's a long pause, green eyes swimming with frustration and defiance and it doesn't have to be this way and Regina looks away, straight into an identical gaze- with a dash of irritation at what he doesn't know- in Henry's eyes.

Emma coughs uncomfortably and hooks her thumbs into her waistband. "Anyway. I was talking to Robin about the Lost Boys. Between them and the Merry Men, there's been a rash of petty crimes to deal with lately and a whole lot of people camping in the woods, and I was thinking about some kind of mentorship program to keep them all out of trouble. Once they're government-funded, we can try to take care of everyone."

She frowns. She doesn't know if the hurt and the trepidation at Emma consulting with Robin before her is justified but it overwhelms her all the same, and it's a struggle to keep her face blank. "That sounds like something you should be discussing with the mayor first."

Emma sees it anyway, and how can the blonde possibly believe that her lie detector doesn't work on Regina when she seems to know her so well? "I was going to go to you next, of course." A hand reaches for her arm with a timid touch and Emma is managing a small smile and Regina burns at both, touch and look setting her chest aflame. "I just wanted to check with Robin first to make sure I wasn't wasting anyone's time."