That One Second

Chapter 4

Regina was home just a bit earlier than usual. Emma had just put the children to bed, but she was certain they hadn't fallen asleep yet, so she encouraged her wife to go upstairs and read them a story.

Meanwhile, Emma cleaned the rest of the kitchen counter and turned on the dishwasher. The fact that her wife was upstairs with their children brought some ease to her mind. It felt good, knowing they were bonding.

Nothing had changed in the past two weeks, since she'd had her conversation with Cora. She regularly thought back of what the woman had told her and she knew it was time for a conversation with Regina. She hoped tonight would be an opportunity for them to talk. Emma tended to postpone things she didn't feel comfortable doing, but she hoped she had the courage to address the topic tonight.

She waited a while for Regina to come downstairs, but when twenty minutes passed and she still heard nothing from Regina, she decided to go upstairs to check up on her and their children. Regina wasn't in their bedroom and so she walked to Hope and Henry's room.

Though their house was big enough for them to have their own room, they'd both complained big time when Emma suggested they'd move Hope to another room. So Emma and Regina had decided it would be of no harm for them to share their room for a little while longer.

She softly opened the door and her eyes immediately caught Regina curled up in Henry's bed, with her two children in her arms. The three of them had fallen asleep and were squeezed together. Emma felt herself tear up at the sight and had a hard time looking away from this family moment. The three of them snored softly and it warmed Emma's heart. She knew she wouldn't get to talk to Regina tonight, but it was worth it.

~~~~~

Emma had never gone to college. Her High School teachers had begged her to, because they thought she'd make a fine lawyer or great doctor, but she hated studying and the idea of being locked up in an office all day terrified her.

Instead, she'd started working at a mechanic in a garage. She'd followed several short courses to master repairing cars and other mobile vehicles and there was nothing that took her mind off of her daily stress as replacing a screw or fixing an engine.

It was a tough job and she was the only woman working there, but after almost fifteen years of loyalty, everyone had learned not to disrespect Emma. She was one of the hardest workers, she was well aware of that.

Emma enjoyed her job a lot, though whenever she wasn't fully concentrating on something specific, it could become quite pressuring and stressful as well.

She was having her lunch break when her colleague Graham stepped in the room. "Could you fix the light in the repair room? It keeps flickering and a customer complained about it."

"Could it wait? My break is over in twenty minutes."

"But we've got a checkup in the meantime and you know how easily people badmouth companies if everything isn't perfectly taken care of." Graham looked at her with a slight pout on his lips and though Emma knew he was right, lunch breaks were the only moments she could calm down and eat her food in peace on a day. Though, almost every day she got interrupted to do a silly chore like this one.

"Can't you ask someone else to do it?"

"You're the best electrician, here. Everyone here knows things about cars, not lights. Come on, it'll only take five minutes."

He was right, Emma realized. It was no effort at all to do it and she had no energy to contradict him anymore, so she got off her chair, stretched her legs and made her way to the flickering light. It only needed its lightbulb replaced - literally every human being on earth could do that - but just when she had removed the broken lightbulb, Greg came her way.