Guilt

Chapter 18

Emma was doing the dishes. She, Regina and Hope had just had dinner, Ruby had left after saying her apologies, and Regina was grading tests at the table. Hope was in her bedroom, still avoiding her teacher.

Suddenly, the girl's bedroom door opened and she appeared with a somewhat confused look on her face. She walked up to the counter and looked at her mother.

Emma stopped doing the dishes and looked at her daughter. "Something wrong?" she asked.

"Nicholas just called me. He asked me if I wanted to come over. His parents aren't home and he wants to talk to me," Hope said. "I want to go, but I don't know if it's a good idea."

Emma's eyes widened and she exchanged a not-so-subtle look with Regina, one that Hope immediately noticed. "You really don't have to discuss this with my teacher," Hope said.

"I'm not," Emma replied. "I'm just thinking. First of all, you have school tomorrow and you have to get up early, so I don't want you to go to bed too late."

"I'll be sleeping over at his place, then. That's not a problem and certainly not what I'm worried about. He's ignored me for over a month, that's the part that confuses me."

"You want to sleep over at Nicholas's? The boy who got you pregnant?"

Hope rolled her eyes and her mother's tone. "Mom, oh my God. Don't overthink this. It's already awkward enough as it is with her in the same room," Hope said. "Nothing's going to happen. You're fixating on the wrong part of the question."

"Well, I do want to think about the fact that you'd be staying there the entire night, with no parents."

"This is taking too long, never mind. I'm going to Nicholas's, and you'll see me tomorrow after school." Hope immediately turned around, without giving Emma a chance to respond.

Regina looked up from her work and smiled slightly at Emma, who was staring at the closed bedroom door. Emma started doing the dishes again, and rubbed the sponge much rougher over the plates than necessary.

"I know you're stressed, but you don't have to take it out on the plates," Regina said as she examined Emma's frustrated expression. "Hope's growing up and she knows what's best for herself. She'll be able to make a good decision. If she feels unhappy with Nicholas, she's coming back. She knows how to take care of herself," Regina said and offered Emma a soothing smile.

"She's also pregnant. And a teenager. And it's a school night," Emma stated and frowned. She looked at Regina, who shoved her chair back and walked towards her.

"I know," Regina said. "And I know she's partly going just to spite you, but there's nothing dangerous about letting her go over there, if that's what worries you most. I have Nicholas in my class, and there are many boys that are much worse. She'll be fine."

"Since when are you on her side?" Emma asked, pretending to be offended, but she smiled slightly. She did feel slightly more calmed, knowing that Regina knew the boy well, and although she still wasn't one hundred percent content, she did feel better talking to Regina - like always.

"I'm not. I just don't want her to sneak out in the middle of the night, like I did, because my mother forbade me things," Regina explained and Emma smirked slightly.

"You snuck out of your house when you were a teen?"

"Constantly," Regina said and nodded. "The fact that she forbade it, made me want to go more. And I didn't get pregnant, but I'm sure I wasn't nearly as innocent as all the students in Hope's class together," she added.

Emma stalled the clean plates and cutlery in the cupboard and cleaned everything that she'd used to do the dishes, before she leaned with her back against the counter and looked at Regina.