"Regina please open the door," a comforting voice calls, knocking on the distraught woman's door.
"GO AWAY!" is the response.
"Please, Regina we just want to see you. Make sure you're all right," another says.
"I'm fine, now go away!"
Regina lays on the couch in her pyjamas; her mop of black hair unsightly, her cheeks stained, a pillow against her stomach, wadded tissues carpeting the floor, a tub of melted ice cream on the coffee table, re-runs of Heartland on the TV and a bottle of wine clutched in her one hand. She doesn't want to see anyone. It's been two days since she yelled at Robin and broke up with him and she never wants to leave her apartment again. Why does it seem like she's always the one who loses? No matter what she does, she always ends up broken-hearted. She can't catch a break no matter what she does. Zelena says that Regina always got exactly what she wanted, but one thing... love.
Suddenly, the door opens. Regina sits up abruptly as Emma and Mary Margret enter her trashed apartment.
"How did you get in? The door was locked?"
"You learn things when you grow up the streets," Emma says.
"Well go back out there," the brunette says, throwing her pillow at her friends. It merely hits the pregnant Emma in the leg and lands on the floor. The blonde feels a sharp pain go through her as she bends over to pick up the pillow. Regina goes back to watching the TV.
Mary Margret immediately goes towards her friend and uses the remote to turn off the TV.
"What the hell?"
"Regina, we need to talk," the teacher insists sternly.
"No, we don't," the broken-hearted woman says. She attempts to grab the remote, but Mary Margret keeps it out of her reach.
"Regina we're worried about you. We tried calling you so many times," Emma says.
"My phone is at the bottom of my toilet bowl," the real-estate agent says, turning away from her friends again.
Emma goes around the couch and sits on the opposite end, ignoring the movement of the baby. Her stomach was turning slightly, but she ignored it for the sake of comforting her friend. She places her hand on her friend's leg.
"Regina, we know you're hurting right now..."
"No hurting is when you scrape your knee on the sidewalk or someone forgets your birthday, this is..." Tears flood her eyes again. It's amazing she still has fluid in her body, one would think she'd cried herself dry over the past two days. She clings to another pillow and refuses to look at anyone.
"Devastating...?" Mary Margret suggests, taking a seat in a chair next to the couch.
"Wounding, damaging, heart-breaking, upsetting, like someone ripped your heart out of your chest and stomped on it?" Emma suggests.
"All of the above," Regina mutters.
"We know how that feels..." Mary Margret says sympathetically.
"How? How could you possibly know? You're married to your Prince Charming, you have a beautiful son and a place to call your own. While Emma has a son, a new home, the man of her dreams and another baby on the way! Meanwhile, I'm the spinster who can't keep a man for more than two years and is destined to be alone..." she sobs.
"You're not destined to be alone," Mary Margret says comfortingly.
"And you seriously don't think we know what it's like?" Emma says in frustration."I was in love with a man for more than ten years. He asked me to marry him and I thought we'd grow old together, but then he upped and left, leaving me with my son and nothing else... It felt like a huge hole was punched through my chest and I just kept bleeding and bleeding, nothing could stop it."
"And unbelievably, I did date someone before David."
Regina looks at the raven-haired teacher with shock. Emma looks at her best friend, equally surprised.
"His name was Thomas. We met in high school..." she swallows hard. "I fell head over heels in love with him, I thought he was my soul mate. I did everything I could to make him happy, we were inseparable. He let me love him... We dated all the way until we graduated. We tried to have a long-distance relationship, but we were drifting apart. The problem was, I was so blinded by love that I didn't see what was right in front of me. I decided to surprise him one weekend by driving to his campus. It was pouring rain outside and I came in a red raincoat. I was going to knock on his door, b-but I saw that it was open... I g-go in and..."
Mary Margret bursts into tears. Emma and Regina immediately rush to her side, putting their arms around her. They sit in silence for a long time, waiting for the poor woman to recover, reliving a very painful moment in her life... The short-haired woman gasps several times and wipes the tears from her eyes. She tries to smile at her friends, but it does little to mask her pain.
"I found him in the arms of another woman... Her name was A-Ashley, w-we used to go to high school together and then it all became clear to me... I f-felt like such an idiot. I screamed at him before ripping off the necklace he'd given me. I drove away and never saw him again. Just as well, he never once tried to contact me to apologize."
"Oh my god Mary," Emma says. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"Because it was so embarrassing. I was nothing but a love-sick puppy, blind to what was painfully obvious."
"Love makes us do crazy things," Regina says. "One time I bought my first husband and $2,500 watch for Valentine's Day. He gave me a bottle of nail polish. Six weeks later, he served me with divorce papers."
"Oh Regina," Mary says, putting her arm around the heart-broken woman.
"You think that's stupid, one time I decided to take up ballroom dancing with Neal," Emma says.
"And how did that go?"
"Six ripped dresses and pound of sweat later, neither of us could waltz. It still takes a lot of vodkas just for me to think about it."
The trio smile at one another.
"One time, when David and I were dating, I decided to recreate the Say Anything boombox scene outside the station."
"What happened?"
"I didn't know how the loud the speakers were and I nearly got arrested for public disturbance," Mary says, turning red. "Plus after that, it rained and the boombox exploded..."
"Oh my god," Regina says, laughing a little bit.
"It would've been arson as well if David hadn't explained everything to the police officers."
The three women laugh a little.
"I once took my second husband to Six Flags for a day trip and he dared me to eat six churros in one go..."
"Oh..." Emma says, laughing a little. She shifts a little to get rid of the pain on her left side.
"Then it was his brilliant idea to go on the rollercoaster with the most loops. Let's just say everything came back up before the second loop, on his shoes."
All of them burst out laughing. They hold onto each tightly, sharing more embarrassing stories about what they'd done with their past boyfriends. How love was such a funny thing and you'd do things that you weren't exactly proud of.
They take the time to talk a little bit more, discussing their feelings and eating a discarded bag of pretzels between the three of them.
Around this time, Emma winces slightly. She tries to shift into a more comfortable position on the couch. Her stomach doesn't seem to agree with the salty snack. She gets up to walk around a little bit and grab a bottle of water from the fridge. Her stomach lurches violently.
"Regina do you have antacids?" the blonde asks.
"Yeah, in the medicine cabinet."
"Thanks,"
Emma walks down the hall to the bathroom. She sees a few wet towels and more wadded tissues as well as a broken toothbrush holder, obviously a victim of Regina's break-up rage. She goes for the medicine cabinet behind the mirror. She's twisting the top of the bottle...
Just then a shock of indescribable rips through her body. Pills go flying everywhere as Emma's knees buckle and she becomes light-headed. She clings to sink and holds her stomach tightly. She lets out a cry of pain and she feels something wet. She looks down to see the puddle of fluid gathering at her feet.
"Oh my god!" she gasps loudly.
"Emma, are you okay?" Mary Margret asks.
"My water just broke!"
A/N Thank you for being so patient. It's finally time!