Chapter Text
Chapter 3
“Oh my god, you’re alive!”
Emma groaned, trying not to allow her face to fall forward into her locker.
If only she could trap her head in there until the hallway cleared, she was confident that she could get through the day.
Frankly, she would have preferred to have the next nine months locked away in her bedroom, but her parents were already suspicious. The third time her mom asked her to see a doctor, Emma had to claim to be better, which meant going to school.
After a week of radio silence, she did get a few curious looks from people she considered to be low-level friends.
There were only two people in the building who would be bold enough to talk to her about her odd disappearance.
The first of that pair knew exactly why she’d been avoiding these buzzing hallways.
As it was, Killian was one of two people in the entire town who knew why she had been so scarce.
It was for this reason that she pulled her head out of her locker and played with the straps of her backpack.
Killian cringed when she finally faced him for the first time since she had to cancel her date.
“You look terrible,” he said, somewhere between joking and genuine concern.
Emma sighed as she closed her locker so that she could lean against it and bang the back of her head against it.
Her resignation only increased as Killian’s eyes naturally flicked down to her stomach which was unnecessarily covered in a baggy hoodie.
During her isolation, she’d spent a lot of time looking in the mirror for signs that it was obvious, but from all of her Incognito Googling, she’d gauged that she was weeks away from clothing choices being a problem.
It created quite the deadline for her.
Running her hand over her face, she replied, “I couldn’t sleep last night.”
“Because of school?” Killian asked, sliding up beside his friend to block the view of a group of cheerleaders who were staring and whispering.
“Because of who’s at school,” Emma replied, “Is there any chance that she isn’t here?”
“You think that Regina Mills would sully her perfect attendance record?”
“I guess not,” Emma huffed.
“You can’t avoid your girlfriend forever, Swan. You should just tell her. You have no idea how worried she has been,” Killian said quietly.
“She’s going to break up with me,” Emma replied, staring down at her feet.
She’d played through many scenarios in her mind and they all ended the same way and she couldn’t fathom a way that Regina wouldn’t be justified in that reaction.
Even without the pregnancy, she had lied about where she’d been that night. Regina was so apologetic the next day that she couldn’t let it slip that she had been to the party without her after their ridiculous argument.
Why hadn’t she just stayed with Regina instead of going to drink everything in sight to end up with an equally drunk Neal Cassidy?
To be fair to him, she could be in this situation with a worse person. As abjectly terrified as he also was, she’d received multiple messages and calls to discuss the future to remind her over and over that he would be there no matter what she decided.
He even stayed in contact after she told him that she was pretty sure that she wanted to keep the baby.
No matter how she looked at it, she couldn’t see herself going with any other option, though it would probably help if she had talked to an actual adult about all of this instead of relying on the internet for all of the pros and cons that were almost always swirling around her head.
Regardless of what she ultimately decided, however, nothing would change the fact that there were three people who still needed to know the truth.
A hand on her shoulder had her look at her friend, there was sympathy shining from him but he didn’t bother lying to her.
“She deserves to know the truth, Em,” he replied.
As he spoke, Emma’s attention was stolen by the approaching object of the majority of her thoughts when she wasn’t spiralling on the internet.
In all of her searches, she struggled to find any cases of the wronged party not breaking up instantly. There were a few but none that she imagined would have been written by a person remotely similar to her girlfriend.
The teen held her breath as the deep brown eyes met her own and she very nearly ran away from the girl she loved so much.
How was she supposed to resign herself to ending what they had?
“Tell her,” Killian urged, with Regina halfway to them.
Emma ran her tongue over her lips and said, “After school, I want to have a girlfriend for a few more hours.”
Killian couldn’t retort before Regina got to them.
The mayor’s daughter frowned at him but her face softened upon at last looking at her girlfriend.
She stepped into her personal space and asked, “Emma, are you sure that you feel better, you look…”
Emma took both of her hands, ignoring Killian rolling his eyes as she attached her lips to Regina’s for what she was sure would be the last time.
This was why it lingered longer than any of their other public kisses, so much so that Regina looked intensely confused when she pulled back.
The kiss was all the reinforcement that she needed to put off serious discussions until much later on.
“I’m okay,” she reassured, “I’m just tired…and I really missed you.”
This admission had a small smile tug at Regina’s lips which she used to take another kiss.
“Are you sure?” Regina asked, glancing at Killian no doubt searching for signs that they were conspiring after not seeing Emma for what felt like an eternity, for Emma at least.
“I’m sure,” Emma replied, feeling terrible for lying. This was exactly why she’d avoided her for as long as she had.
Regina tilted her head, but the bell ringing stopped any of her follow-up questions.
Emma tightened her grip on her girlfriend’s hand and began heading toward their homeroom.
S
Time was up.
School was perfectly normal, other than the sword hanging over Emma’s head.
With every touch, smile and normal conversation that she had with Regina Mills, her guilt rose exponentially.
It wasn’t fair that she had been hiding something so monumental while Regina was worried for her wellbeing.
Naturally, her girlfriend invited her over to the mayoral mansion after school to ‘catch up’.
Considering that she believed that Emma had been held up in her bed for days on end struggling to stay awake, she could guess what Regina was trying to insinuate with that phrasing.
As eager as she was to once again have the opportunity to make out with Regina Mills, she couldn’t do that under false pretences.
This led her to sit at Regina’s desk, chewing at the tassel of her hoodie.
It wasn’t enough to be rid of her nervous energy, nothing would be until this was over. Not until she found out which of the many scenarios this was going to end with.
She bit hard as the door opened to Regina asking, “Are you sure that you just want water? We have that soda you like.”
Unable to blurt out that she was pretty sure that caffeine was bad for the foetus, Emma shrugged and replied, “Trying to cut down.”
Regina frowned but something seemed to overtake her drink-related queries, “Why are you all the way over there?” she asked, going over to the bed, placing down two cups at the table at her side.
Emma shifted so that the chair creaked and she crossed her legs as if this would somehow give her more balance.
“I have to tell you something, Gina, and I don’t think you’ll want me sitting next to you when you hear this.”
Any sense of relieved mirth that Regina displayed periodically throughout the day disappeared so Emma was certain she must have at least suspected that something was going on, that fact almost stopped Emma in her tracks.
She had at least a couple of weeks before the truth had to come out, so why not enjoy them?
Today may have been difficult, but she could bear it to give herself a little more time with the girl that she loved so deeply.
Why should a little mistake rob her of that love?
Some invisible barrier kept her away from the bed, however.
She knew that all of those rationalisations were wrong. Regina deserved so much more than this, so much more than her.
Reluctantly, Regina said, “There’s nothing that would do that, Emma. I have missed you so much…”
“I’m pregnant,” Emma cut her off.
This effectively shut Regina up and she made no attempt to stand to be closer to the other teen.
Regina continued to stare at her blankly so Emma had to go into the third version of the explanation that she had prepared for this occasion.
“It happened at the party…you know when we were broken up…”
“Who?” Regina asked.
Emma’s stomach jumped. The word was neutral on the surface but there was fury simmering under it.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does, who?”
“Neal Cassidy…but we weren’t together, I didn’t mean…” Emma scrambled, finding no justification.
Regina delivered a stabbing blow to Emma’s heart, asking lowly, “Did you find out when we were broken up?”
Sliding off the bed as if to more easily raise her voice, Regina replied, “Then you lied to me, Emma! Did you not think that I deserved to know that my girlfriend ran to some footballer after a disagreement?!”
“A disagreement?! You broke up with me, Regina!”
“And I apologised twelve hours later! While I was crying you were apparently having the time of your life!”
The chair squeaked as Emma jumped out of her chair, her anger making it impossible to remain seated.
This was the first reaction she’d pictured, but the fact that it was actually happening than the moment that the damn stick gave her the fateful results.
“That’s not…I didn’t mean to…I was drunk!” Emma retorted.
“And I thought that you were not as cliche as the rest of this town, Emma!” Regina shouted back and Emma had to shrink back as the other girl’s voice cracked.
More softly, she said, “Regina, I’m sorry, but can we talk about this?”
Regina looked to the carpet in a failed attempt to obscure her tears.
“Get out,” she said in a hushed tone.
“Regina, please…” Emma said, making to go over to her but Regina’s visibly tensed so she fell back.
“Get out!” Regina shouted this time.
Emma stayed rooted, unwilling to give up just yet, “Regina, I love you…”
Regina sucked in a sharp breath, no doubt for more shouting, but a knock at the door prevented the onslaught.
After the solid five seconds, it would usually take for the couple to part. Right now, they couldn’t be further apart.
Cora didn’t notice this as she entered the room though, asking, “Sorry to interrupt, but will Miss Swan be staying for dinner?”
She halted upon registering their positions and Regina stared straight at her ex-girlfriend as she said, “No, she has to go.”
“Is there something wrong?” Cora asked, instinctively narrowing her eyes at Emma.
Emma wet her lips and swiped her bag up before going to the door.
She didn’t look at Cora as she went but the matriarch clearly saw the glistening on her cheeks as she passed.
The mayor was much more concerned with the teen that remained though so she turned to Regina and asked again, “What happened, Regina?”
Regina stared downward like silence would get her mother to leave.
“Regina?” Cora prompted.
This was enough to break the younger Mills, with tears flowing freely, she crossed the room and crashed into Cora.
With her face on her mother’s shoulder, Regina cried.
Despite not understanding the situation, Cora hugged her daughter and whispered reassurances to her.