Illusions

Chapter Sixteen

"Oh, yeah," Emma hums happily. "There's just something about that song-"

"I know," Regina sighs, swallowing her emotions and tears from the loss of her parents.

Emma would give anything to tell this woman that she understands exactly how she feels. She knows the pain and suffering of losing both parents and that together they can help each other heal from missing their mommies, but she can't. And she has never loathed her job more than in this moment.

"It's kinda crazy, right?" She softly whispers, gathering Regina's full attention. "That even though she's sometimes completely lost, she still remembers that song?"

"Yes," her voice cracks and somehow Emma's even more attracted to this vulnerable woman. "There are days where she doesn't recognize me at all when I visit, yet she always asks for my father. She's always talking about him absentmindedly and waiting for him to visit and it tears my heart apart. He was her world and she was his and their love still seems to be hanging on through this awful disease."

"I'm so sorry, Regina. I can't even imagine how hard this must be for you, but to know there's that kind of love out there...that love that strong actually exists, well, that's really amazing."

"I take it after your divorce you stopped believing in love?"

Emma quickly swallows a large portion of her drink and hesitates, does she reveal her truth or does she easily lie? She's coming to discover that the lies are harder to find in the back of her mind when they used to be right at the forefront, ready to go.

"Ever since I was little, I had a hard time bonding with people and love..." she's absolutely mortified with her damn mouth for being so careless, and yet, she still proceeds, "love is something I have never really understood." She presses the cold glass to her lips and quickly downs her drink from embarrassment while Regina nods along. "How about you? Must be hard to find love in a small town that only consists of one lesbian," she jokes, and from some miracle, Regina actually chuckles as well.

"Yes, it was rather difficult." There's a twinkle of mischief in her eyes that intrigues Emma and lures her in closer to the warmth emitting from the woman. "Although," she allows the word to linger in the space between them, taunting her and urging her in closer, "Ruby and I may have never fallen in love, but that never stopped us from enjoying the more pleasurable route that may lead to that," she smugly divulges on her little secret that has Emma's heart rattling with excitement.

"Shut up."

"I will not."

"You and Ruby..." she trails off while Regina neglects confirming or denying while she polishes off the last of her drink.

"Would you like another?" Regina casually asks, but she's already stealing the glass and pouring them another round.

"You can't just drop that bomb and pretend like you didn't spill."

Jealousy, it's an evil little thing, sneaking up in the most obscene and inappropriate places. And Emma feels it coiling tightly around her heart like an octopus with all eight tentacles, squeezing the life out of her and she knows in this moment, there's no going back. She's feeling far too much for this woman and there's no denying it anymore to herself.

Regina pushes the glass back in Emma's hand, her seductive brown eyes flashing over the rim of her own glass as she smirks and takes another long sip.

"Well, now I know why Ruby was like a damn guard dog around you."

Regina flinches from this. "Excuse me?"

"When she found out we hung out one night, she grilled me. She was sniffing all around for information with her fangs out, ready to bite off my head for getting too close to you and Henry," she states and Regina senses the bitterness in her tone, even if Emma doesn't hear it herself.