Archive of Our Own

Week 1

Being a small business owner is hard. Being a small business owner post global pandemic, mid economic recession is almost impossible. Being a small business owner post global pandemic, mid economic recession when you recently gave up your very promising law career and cut yourself off from your controling mother is just insane.

These are Regina’s justifications as she applies for the Bachelorette. Any contestant who goes on that god-forsaken show, and gets a couple of passably charming moments of air time gains a whole slew of social media followers. Regina just needs to make it on the show, make it to the final six at least, and then direct her new reality TV acquired fans to her beautiful, struggling bakery. 

It’s a flawless plan.

It’s a little unhinged.

Sometimes things are more than one thing at once.

This plan can only be made possible thanks to the historic bisexual Bachlorette, Emma Swan. Emma Swan took the Bachelor by storm two seasons ago. Despite her stereotypical blonde haired blue eyed appearance, she quickly proved herself to be anything but your classic Bachelor contestant. Unapologetically herself, she got in some trouble for flirting with fellow contestant Ruby in the early weeks of their season. However, after Ruby’s elimination she quickly charmed the Bachelor and the nation with her humor and carefree attitude, as well as her tragic orphan Annie backstory. 

Emma Swan fever only intensified after she was eliminated in hometown week when Bachelor Neal Cassidy explained that he ‘just couldn’t imagine bringing her home to his father’. Fans were outraged at what appeared to be a shot at Emma’s background and class status. Outrage only compounded when the next Bachelorette was announced to be runner-up Ashley Boyd, not Emma Swan. Soon after, an internal memo from ABC executives was leaked wherein higher-ups were lamenting the ‘logistical difficulties’ Emma Swan would create as a lead, as she refused to be the Bachelorette with a pool of only men. 

The internet and all of the Emma Swan stans blew up over that one. Emma Swan was announced to be the next Bachelorette before the previous season even finished airing. 

That is how Regina finds herself sitting in a limousine in a crisp sculpted suit with one of her signature cupcakes sitting on her lap. Production members asked her at least five times if she was sure about the suit. Every time they asked she got a little less sure but she stuck with her guns. 

The production team in the limo with her is touching up her makeup and fluffing her hair right up until the moment she steps out of the limo. Emma is wearing a redd dress and she is gorgeous. Regina has been so focused on what to do, how to be likeable, how to promote her business in a non-obnoxious way, that she hadn’t really considered Emma. Sure she had watched Emma’s season of the Bachelor four times in preparation for this experience, but that had been strictly research. She has to actually make it far in the show to get her business the attention she needs. She’s not here for love after all. She’s here for exposure. Emma’s toned arms and perfect figure are really not relevant to her.

She’s frozen in the limo headlights for what feels like forever but really can’t be more than five seconds before her debutant training kicks in and she smiles, walking towards Emma with all the poise she can muster.

“Hi.” Emma says, a little more coyly than Regina expected.

“Hi.” Regina responds. She thinks she might be blushing. Is her blush going to be aired on TV? “I’m Regina.” She offers.

“I’m Emma.”

Regina cocks her head. “Really?” She drawls, “I thought this was Ruby Lucas’s season.”

Emma snorts and a little bit of tension drains from her shoulders. “Okay smart mouth, what’s in the box?”

“It’s not a bearclaw, but I did make this for you.”

“You made this? No shit?” Emma delicately lifts Regina’s perfect cupcake out of the crisp lavender box she packed it in.

“No shit.” Regina confirms.

Emma is about to go in for a bite when someone from production hops out to say “Emma your makeup.”

“I mean you guys can like touch it up right?” 

The little intern looking girl winces. “I guess.. there’s just a schedule.”

“Great.” Emma replies, immediately digging in. Then Regina is forced to stand there and wait for production to ‘touch up’ Emma’s makeup while Emma makes put upon expressions at Regina over the shoulder of the makeup artist. 

All that delay was really only so they could get a shot of Emma promising to meet Regina inside, a promise that she’s sure everyone who gets out of the limo receives.

It is immediately clear to Regina that she is one of the last arrivals. Perhaps the majority of the men cast thought they were the only contestants because some of them have physical reactions when they see her. One man’s jaw literally drops and a murmur ripples through the room. She hasn’t felt this many eyes on her at once in nearly a decade. She forces down the urge to cover her clevage and looks past all the men, like they don’t matter to her. 

She guessed all throughout casting that there wouldn't be many women. The questions that they were asking her made it clear that they absolutely did not want any contestants running off together. It would distract from the lead and the horrible artificial love story they were aiming for.  The more women cast, the higher the probability their attention would turn to each other over Emma. Regina thinks it’s a stupid fear. Two women running off together in the middle of a season would get them amazing publicity. The subset of Emma/Ruby shippers that exist online are a testament to the public’s taste for that sort of thing. 

Whatever. She’s not going to tell them how to run their stupid, vapid show.

No other woman has entered the room by the time Emma comes into the common area and given a toast to kick off the evening. Regina wonders if she is it. Surely that guarantees her a certain amount of screentime. It’s perfect. Screw Mal for calling her crazy, this is a perfect plan. 

A painfully clean cut blonde man is the first to grab Emma for some one on one time. Regina personally thinks that he looks disturbingly like he could be her father. Maybe that’s Emma’s type though. God knows there is not a great diversity of faces here.

The men are immediately pacing, fussing, and downing flutes of alcohol. Some of them chat sprawled out on the couch, and some others huddle together in a little circle. Regina half expects a fight to break out. Men disappear to hunt Emma down to interrupt her time with other men. Regina forces herself to wait, only take small sips of champagne, and wait even longer. She won’t be desperate and she won’t be drunk. 

She takes her shot when a ginger man returns from outside looking vaguely dejected. He snatches another glass of champagne and then sets his eyes on Regina. 

“You swing both ways or what?” He says when he approaches her. Regina can only interpret this to mean that his first meeting with Emma went poorly. She glares him down, but before she can respond another man responds for her.

“You've seen her outfit, that’s a dyke if I’ve ever seen one.”

A hush falls over the room. Regina knows this is her moment. She makes sure to project her voice for the camera. “If I were interested in men, I would hardly be interested in you.” She hands the ginger man her empty champagne flute. “Hold this. I’m going to go get to know Emma. That’s why I’m here afterall.” She  marches off with as much swagger as she can muster, feeling very proud of her made for TV moment. 

Emma is just dismissing a dark haired man when Regina approaches her. Emma smiles and stands to meet her and Regina’s stride falters only the slightest bit. “Regina.” She beams. Regina is awfully proud of the first impression her cupcake made if Emma is smiling at her like that. Emma reaches out a hand to her. “Walk with me?” She nods at the massive luxurious lawn behind her

“I can not walk on grass in these heels.” She may be wearing a suit of sort but she wasn’t stupid enough to turn her nose up at a pair of stilettos. She’s used to walking in heels and she knows that TV audiences don’t have that palette to watch women who eschew femininity too much. 

Emma sticks her foot out from under the hem of her dress and wiggles her bare toes. “Ditch them.” It’s a charming request. Regina obliges, takes Emma’s arm, and lets her lead her across the lawn. “So why the suit?” Emma asks after a moment.

“Isn’t that what all Bachlorette contestants wear?” Regina responds with a little cheek.

“Yeah I guess so.”

“Plus I look excellent in a suit.”

“That you do.” Regina can feel Emma’s gaze on her. “But I bet you’d also look killer in a dress.”

Regina turns to her and smiles despite herself. “I guess you’ll have to give me a rose tonight and maybe you’ll get to see.”

Emma laughs gamely. They continue mostly idle but pleasant chit chat. Regina knows a lot about Emma from watching her season but the little anecdotes she shares are still thoroughly pleasant and interesting. Near the end of their walk it occurs to Regina that if this were a real date, in the real world, she’d be asking for a second date right about now. The thought throws her so much that she offers Emma a soft kiss on the cheek instead of going for the real kiss she knows she could have gotten away with. 

Her spot next to Emma is immediately taken by yet another man when she steps away. She nearly forgets her heels as she flees the scene. She will not become a cliche. She will not have a crush on Emma. She will not willfully walk into a situation where she could only get hurt. She is here to grow her instagram account and promote her bakery, that is it. 

She’s still feeling a little off balance when she makes it back to the large main room just in time to hear a man call. “Hey another limo. Are they bringing in more contestants?” Regina is buffeted by the waves of men rushing over to gawk out whatever is happening outside. She doesn’t care. She has done enough to get a rose tonight and that is all that matters. Whoever comes out of that limo does not matter to her.

She eats her own words in under a minute. The sound of heels on the tile outside the room is enough to make her turn her attention to whoever is coming in, another woman.

Well the producers have found a way to ensure that none of the female contests run off with each other. 

What a stupid thing to think. 

Her brain isn’t working very well right now.

She can’t believe she’s about to be made a fool of on reality television.

The other woman is Zelena.

Zelena is wearing an elaborate green gown, because of course she is. “Sorry I’m late.” She announces with a massive grin and all the flair of a wanna-be Broadway star. 

Regina is going to throw up.

They are pulled away for a joint talking head before Zelena can go introduce herself to Emma. “We’re sisters!” Zelena crows with delight when the production assistant prompts them.

“Half-sisters.” Regina corrects solemnly. She hasn’t seen Zelena in nearly two years. She thought she’d never see her again in all honesty.  

A couple more questions are thrown at them which Zelena answers in turn. It’s the last one that really gets to Regina. “Why yes we have both pursued the same girl before. What was her name again Regina? The one you met at law school?”

“Robin.” Regina replies. Zelena remembers Robin’s name. Zelena also knows that Robin was more than ‘the one Regina met in law school’. Regina and Robin dated for three years before Robin and Zelena slept together. Regina hasn’t dated anyone since. Regina swore off both dating and Zelena after that. 

“Oh yes, Robin.”

The producers ask Regina to stay to answer some questions by herself and dismiss Zelena to go make a splash with Emma. Regina can suddenly picture the two of them making out at the lovely fountain that Regina and Emma had strolled by just moments before. 

“We didn’t grow up together.” Regina explains. “She’s older than me, different father, same mother, hence the... different looks.” She gestures at her medium skin tone and dark hair. “She came to live with us when I was in highschool.” She’s trying to put on a charming persona for the camera’s but she can’t. That had been one of the worst years of her life, Zelena in eleventh grade and her in ninth. She had been so offended on daddy’s behalf that Cora would bring the product of one of her affairs into their home. Zelena was competitive and combative from the start. There was never a hance for them to be even civil to each other.

When Regina escapes from the person currently interviewing her she gets another flute of champagne, and another, and another. She locks herself in a bathroom and cries and throws up quickly and neatly. She won’t let any of the cameras catch her like this. She’s still going to keep some of her fucking dignity. 

She missed the first impression rose while she was in the bathroom. She can see it pinned to the lapel on some dark haired man with a crooked grin and faint traces of eyeliner. Before she knows it she is being ushered into a lineup for the rose ceremony. She is in the front row, with only one man between her and Zelena. 

It takes all her concentration to neither sway from the alcohol, nor glance at Zelena. Emma looks even more lovely now then she did at the start of the night and that makes Regina inexpilcably even more angry that Zelena is here. 

“Regina.” Emma says as soon as she picks up the first rose. Regina steps forward on shaky legs but finds there is a lump in her throat as she reaches Emma at the front of the room. Emma takes one of her hands in both of hers. Regina can’t look at her or she’s going to start crying. “Will you accept this rose?”

“Yes.”

Emma looks at her with searching eyes as she pins the rose to her lapel. Regina’s distress must be written on her face. Regina wants to go home. Regina wants to go home. Regina wants to go home. She carefully pulls her hand away from Emma’s and returns to her place in line. 

Week 2

Regina wakes up with a horrible hangover, to the sound of Zelena snoring across the room. The sensation of it reminds her so thoroughly of being a teenager that she almost gives up on her stupid plan right then and there. 

Then she thinks of all the seed money her and Mal put into their perfect little bakery, she thinks of all the months she spent recipe testing, she thinks of the way her mother would smile if she failed, she thinks of how happy Zelena would be if she got further in this stupid vapid competition than Regina. She does not think about Emma Swan, because that is not what this is about. 

She rouses herself with great effort and spends her morning doing everything she can to avoid Zelena until they are meant to gather on the couches in the main room so the dates can be announced. 

The first group date is announced at noon, giving all of them enough time to recover from the night before and make themselves camera ready.  Regina has just barely pulled herself together in time to hear her name not be called for the first group date. Zelena, and a selection of men are all called meaning (thank god) Zelena will not be receiving the first one on one date. 

The amount of time that she has to kill is driving her insane. She wishes she could bake. She almost wishes she could relate to the men that are milling about in common areas, that way she wouldn’t feel the need to hide from them like this. 

The group date people are gone for so long that Regina falls asleep in the messy little room she shares with her sister and her sister’s four suitcases of clothing. The nap prevents her from being strategically somewhere else when Zelena gets back. 

“Hello darling, where were you this morning.” Regina hates her fake fucking accent. She knows she doesn’t need to answer. Nothing she will ever say will ring in Zelena’s empty head. “I just had the loveliest time with the woman of the hour.” Zelena continues with her unstoppable conversational agenda. “Don’t you think we ought to compare notes on the woman? We’re not just the only women, we’re  sisters.” As if Regina could forget that little fact. She remains firm in her resolve to not speak. “I mean she’s a bit plain, but she is funny, and dreadfully sweet. She seems like just your type honestly.”

Regina takes a deep steadying breath and stands up. If she wants her time on this show to result in a positive public perception she knows she has to rise above this petty sister drama the producers are trying to engineer. She did enough research to know that contestants involved in drama do not typically last very long. She will not let herself become the dramatic cartoon villain of this season, hated and then forgotten. 

“Aw come on, don’t walk away Regina, I’m only playing.” Rise above. Rise above. Rise above. “At least this one is a better kisser than Robin.” Zelena calls after her as she’s opened the door. Regina can’t help but falter for a moment. It’s enough for Zelena to know she’s hit gold. “But you wouldn’t know would you? You haven’t even kissed her yet.”

Regina doesn’t need to turn around to know that Zelena is smiling. “Haven’t I always said you’d have better luck with the ladies if you weren’t such a prude?” That is what Zelena told her after her and Robin had slept together. She’d said that Regina made it too easy for her to swoop in, that poor Robin had been deprived. She’d said she was just being a good big sister. 

Regina slams the door behind her as she flees.

Regina is on the second group date. The first one on one date of the season is saved for dreadfully safe, dreadfully boring, David Nolan. At least he’s not offensive like some of the contestants are. 

The group date is an exercise in public humiliation as all early group dates are. These early weeks are where the producers like to showcase big characters doing wacky things before they buckle down and focus on the manufactured romance. Regina has decided to make a big splash in this portion of the competition and jump ship before serious things like hometowns and fantasy suites. 

The strange group date talent show is her current concern. Regina is lucky that with a little bit of stretching she can call to mind enough of her past gymnastics knowledge to be impressive to people who have no idea about gymnastics. 

Her old instructor would no doubt yell at her for her form, but Emma and the other judges seem delighted and Regina knows that her wearing a leotard is enough for her to get screen time in the episode even if her impromptu floor routine is shit. 

It’s the man who won the first impression rose last night who ends up capturing the most attention. His name is Killian Jones and his talent was a very premature, and underwhelming confession of feeling for Emma that had all the other contestants in the back room reeling. It sets them off enough that some of them are fighting now, and threatening to tattle to Emma about various perceived or real slights that other men have committed.

Regina knows that this is what the producers want her and Zelena to do to each other. She also knows that all these squealing whining men will be eliminated one by one. She does not care about Killian Jones and she won’t say a word about Zelena around Emma. 

Regina’s lack of concern over the other men means she gets one on one time with Emma quite quickly once the night time portion of the date begins. She’s in a beautiful dress, just as she promised Emma she’d be and she’s only a little nauseous. 

“Hi.” Emma says with a fluttering smile, like she’s nervous. Regina knows this can’t be true. She is the one in the position of power here. She is the one who is free to kiss Regina’s sister then come over here and smile at her like that. 

“Hi.” Regina responds, trying to recapture the fluttering feeling that she had the first time she saw Emma. All she can manage is a small bubble of rage that has been growing for the last day.  

“I feel like I should make some sort of crude joke about flexibility after that.” Emma says, “but I’ve already ruined the punchline now haven’t I?” 

“It’s probably for the best.” Regina responds, though somehow Emma can pull off the line without Regina finding her irritating. That fact however, irritates her greatly.

“Yeah I’d say so. Anyways, you look spectacular, and I’ve already learned one new thing about you today: former gymnast.”

“Former amateur gymnast.” Regina corrects. 

“I mean I can’t tell the difference.” Emma shrugs.

Regina is suddenly reminded of Zelena’s words to her the day before, of the performance she is supposed to be putting on, for Emma and the cameras. She angles her legs and chest a little more towards Emma and leans in closer. 

Emma’s eyes are drawn downwards for only a moment before she returns her gaze to Regina’s face. How charming of her. “Are you alright?” Emma furrows her brow so earnestly that Regina feels compelled to lean back and get some space from those eyes. 

“What?”

“You seemed a little off, at the end of the rose ceremony the other day, and tonight.”

“Well you don’t really have a good baseline for what me being alright looks like now do you?” Regina says coldly. It’s too harsh for this sanitized show but she can’t stop herself.

Emma doesn’t falter. “No I suppose I don’t, but I am good at reading people.”

“Are you now?” Regina can’t help the condescention from creeping into her voice. 

“Yeah.” Emma doesn’t back down. 

Regina leans back and scoffs. She can feel herself blowing this in real time. But that ugly rage bubble that Zelena produced is out of her own control. She’s thinking about Emma’s beautiful graceful fingers tangled in Zelena’s red hair. She’s thinking about Zelena ontop of her just she had been with..

None of that should matter. This whole thing wasn’t even supposed to be about Emma. “I think you’re full of shit.” Regina announces, because now that she’s already going to be sent home at the next rose ceremony she might as well say her piece.

“No I think you are.” Emma responds. “I think you’re upset and you don’t want to be arguing with me right now.” That is enough that Regina stands and makes to leave. “Where are you going?” Emma stands like she’s going to follow her.

“I don’t know, home?” Regina can’t help but raise her voice a little

“Do you want to go home?”

“Do you want me to go home?”

“I asked you first.” Emma’s voice is rising too, to match her own.

“Well no.” Regina admits, for the off chance of winning back a favourable edit, and for something else too.

“Then stay.” Emma practically shouts.

“Fine.” Regina shouts back before storming off.

Needless to say she doesn’t win the group date rose for that date. Neither does Killian Jones. It goes to a bland man named Walsh something-or-other, and that suits Regina just fine.

She goes into the cocktail party filled with an overwhelming sense of dread. Zelena is chatting casually with some of the men who were on her group date. She’s acting like she’s normal, and friendly, a feat Regina is too bitter and fucked up to manage. 

She’s bitter, messed up, nearly friendless, and alone. She’s incapable of love, or even normalcy, and now the whole world is going to see her and Zelena held up in comparison on national television, and come down on Zelena’s side. 

It’s the worst thing she can imagine. 

She’s pulled out of her spiral by a firm hand on her shoulder. “Hey, you okay?” It’s David Nolan, with his one on one rose pinned neatly to his lapel.

“Yes of course.” She sniffs.

“Outside of the show. Are you okay?”

“Nothing is outside the show.” Regina snaps. In her brain she adds ‘you idiot’ afterwards.

David looks around at the cameras filling the area. Dozens of people mill about, filming Killian and the men he is arguing with, and the men off to get in some last-minute time with Emma.

He pulls her down a hallway away from the action and unplugs the cord of his little body mic. “There, outside the show.”

“You’re only doing this because you already have a rose, or because I’m a woman and you’re less threatened by me.”

“I’m doing this because you’re crying.” David corrects with a demeanor that reminds Regina of her father. 

“No I’m not.” Regina snaps.

David reaches out and wipes a tear off of her cheek so casually it makes Regina shake. She legitimately hadn’t noticed that she was crying. “Yes you are.”

“Oh.”

“Why?”

Regina pulls on the little cord attached to her own body mic with shaking hands so it disconnects. “Because I’m an awful hateful person” is all she can come up with.

“No you’re not.”

“Why should I listen to you. You might be a terrible judge of character.”

“I’m an excellent judge of character.”

“You’re an idiot.” Regina says through her more heavily falling tears. 

“You don’t seem hateful, you seem sad.”

Regina starts to cry so hard that she’s sure her makeup is running. David puts his hand on her shoulder again and it makes Regina cry harder. “I’m so stupid.”

“No you’re not.” Who is this man, disagreeing with everything she says. What does he know. His confidence makes her feel a little better despite herself. David is interupted by a production assitant calling everyone in for the rose ceremony. “Yeah we have some sound issues over here.” David calls. He gives her one last reassuring smile before he steps out to meet the sound guy that’s rushing towards them.

Regina has under a minute to wipe away her tears before it’s show time. 

This rose ceremony is a special kind of hell. Regina thinks that maybe they all are. In contrast to last time, her name is not called first, or even in the first half. She accepts her fate when there are only three roses left and a handful of people. 

It’s not till Emma has the last rose in her hand that she says “Regina.”  And Regina stumbles forward on shaky legs. “Will you accept this rose?” Emma says it with a deep imploring note in her voice, like Regina’s answer really matters to her.

“Yes.” She says it out loud because it seems like Emma wants her to. Some tension faddes in the blonde woman’s shoulders when she hands Regina the rose.

Week 3

The moment that she has been dreading comes far too quickly. The next week she and Zelena are assigned to the same group date. It is one thing to avoid her in their own room. Regina hides in bathrooms, reads books in private corners of the vast bachelorette mansion, stays close to David Nolan when he is around, tries to return to the room after Zelena has fallen asleep and leaves before she wakes up. Still, she has been occasionally subjected to speaking to her half sister, but never in front of Emma and rarely in front of the camera.

Their group date is a cheesy animal photoshoot.  Emma, aside from her past as a bounty hunter, now works at the animal shelter in her small seaside town, hence the animals. It’s an efficient way for editors to montage together a lot of contestants and their interactions with Emma, and has the added benefit of goofy or revealing costumes.

Some men get dogs, or miniature horses, or teacup piglets, Zelena literally gets kittens, while Regina herself is assigned a snake. It feels like a shot at her. Maybe after he strange outbursts last week the produers has decided she will be one of the villians of this season. The audience will love the visual of her with the snake if that is the case. The snake is beautiful, a large adult carpet python with a lovely calm temperment. Mal’s carpet python is smaller and meaner than this one so Regina takes the snake in stride regardless of what was expected of her.

Regina is sent to go first. She thinks it’s a little morbid that she’s wearing a snake skin dress while wielding a snake but at least she looks good. 

Emma greets her with a small whispered “damn.” instead of her usual nervous ‘hi.’

“Hi.” Regina responds, feeling herself flush a little at the compliment. 

“You look awfully comfortable with that snake.”

“Oh she’s a sweetheart. My best friend is a little obsessed with reptiles so I’ve dealt with far meaner snakes.”

“Weird friend.”

Yes she is. “Great friend, she’s like the only family I have.” Regina is so focused on not mentioning the fact that her and Mal used to sleep together that she forgets she can’t say shit like that in front of the cameras and Zelena.

All the air is sucked out of the room and for a moment it feels like everything stops. Petty, nasty Regina, slighting her poor sister right in front of her. Mercifully Emma keeps the ball rolling. “Okay snake expert, show me how to hold this guy.”

The massive python is draped across Regina’s shoulders and over her arms. It weighs a ton and had climbed from the handler to Regina very willingly. She assumes it will do the same for Emma. “Come here.” Regina whispers.

Emma shifts closer to her so their chests are only inches apart. That awkward space that has remained between them in all their interactions is suddenly gone and Regina is reminded of exactly how attractive Emma is. 

Regina lifts her hand that is supporting the snake’s head to Emma’s shoulder. Emma shivers and the snake begins to climb across to Emma’s shoulders. 

Once the snake is draped across them both the photographer calls out “perfect ladies, now pose.”

Regina fully forgot that was what they were supposed to be doing if she’s being honest. Emma lets her hand fall to the small of Regina’s back and pulls her in closer, closing the small distance between their hips. Regina inhales sharply and can’t help but look  up at Emma’s lips.

She hears the camera shutter click and is jolted back to reality. “Perfect, Regina, look over here.” The camerman prompts. Regina is rudely pulled away from her fantasy of mounting Emma right here in this photo studio. Then Emma licks her lips and Regina’s brain is instantly back in the gutter. 

“Regina, look here.” The pesky photographer calls again. She puts her now free hand on Emma’s chest by her collarbone and turns her head towards the camera. Emma pulls her in tighter in response. Regina is having all sorts of filthy thoughts about Emma’s hands right about now.

And then just like that, her turn is over. She extricates the snake from Emma’s neck and brings it back to the animal handler, still feeling Emma’s warm hands on her.

Then she is resigned to standing off to the side while everyone else takes their turn. They all have to stay in their costumes until this part of the group date is over so they can take promo pictures afterward, so she squirms in the tiny dress she was provided, feeling other men look at her. 

David bumps her shoulder with his. “You didn’t look very sad up there.”

“Shut up.” Regina scoffs playfully. It is digusting to her that she seems to be in the process of making a friend right now. She is making friends with someone vapid enough to sign up to be on the Bachlorette. An even more horrifying thought occurs to her. She is technically someone vapid enough to sign up for the Bachlorette. 

“You and Emma and that dog all look like you’re siblings.” She grumbles at him. 

David looks down at the golden retriever next to him and laughs out loud. “I guess we kind of do.”

Killian starts getting jealous while a man named Viktor is taking his turn. Regina hears him mutter under his breath “she’s kissing other guys.” Which is a little obvious but Regina supposes it can be hard to watch. Regina wants to say: hey at least she's not kissing your sister. 

Killian must be some special sort of idiot though, because he steps forwards to interupt under the guise of wanting to take another photo with Emma. Regina rolls her eyes and walks away while the date breaks down into squabbling

The night portion of the group date is no better. Men are accusing Killian of being toxic and he is accusing them of not being here for the right reasons. One by one guys are pulling Emma aside to tattle on each other like the toddlers they are. 

No one pays attention when Zelena creeps up to her in the common area where Regina is waiting for the right time to snag some alone time with Emma. “Did you gain some weight since production took your sizing?” Zelena whispers with an air of faux concern. It sends a familiar prickle up her spine. She was always the pudgy one in their mother’s eyes. “That dress seemed a little tight.” She won’t stoop to defending herself. “And beside that, green really isn’t your colour.” Regina is not fifteen anymore, she is not even twenty-three anymore. She doesn’t care about any of this. She’s not fatter than Zelena, she has different genetics than her. Her mother’s opinions of her do not matter, especially when they are coming out of Zelena’s mouth.

“Thank you Zelena.” She says sarcastically. Sometimes that is the only way to handle her. 

“You know the lady of the hour is going to get bored of you soon if things don’t start to get physical.” Regina doesn’t know how Zelena can tell she hasn’t done so yet. Maybe she knows Regina well enough to know she hasn’t. Maybe Regina’s intimacy issues are something Zelena and Robin talked about behind her back. Regina has always been slow moving and slow to trust. She’s quick to tease if she needs to in certain social situations but Regina doesn’t tend to follow through. She’s had three sexual partners in her life and non since Robin’s betrayal. The worst part of the whole situation is that she truly wants Emma but she’s been so in her head since Zelena showed her stupid face she can’t even think straight.

Oh shit. She really wants Emma. She wants Emma in a way she hasn’t bothered to want someone in ages. She’s feeling that warm fuzzy third date feeling that she absolutely should not be feeling. Fuck this.

David finds her hidden in a back room at the end of the group date, trying to wipe runny mascara off her cheeks. “We have to stop meeting like this.” 

“I really blew my chance at getting some alone time with Emma.” She says as if that is the only thing going on here.

“I think she’ll cut you some slack.”

Regina shrugs. She knows she is performing objectively poorly as a contestant. She is not neat and perfect in front of Emma and she keeps having breakdowns that are just off camera enough that the producers probably can’t edit together a cohesive storyline with them. So Emma probably thinks she is crazy and the producers are probably frustrated by the lack of content they are getting from her. 

“Come on, we’re going to be in the last car back. Zelena is already gone.” David says gamely.

“Thank you.”

“Family, it can really drive you crazy eh?”

“Yeah.” Regina sniffs

The pressure is on for Regina at the cocktail party. This is her last chance to say something to Emma after her disappearing act on their group date. She can’t decide if she is about to buckle down now that she has admitted her real feelings for Emma, or jump ship to save herself the inevitable heartbreak that would come. 

It’s always hard to get a hold of Emma with so many people vying for her attention. Tonight is the exception. After the cocktail party is officially kicked off for the cameras, she is promptly informed that Emma would like to speak to her first. 

Regina’s hands shake as she walks out to meet Emma. Emma is standing and waiting for her with a look of distress on her face. “Hey.” She says the moment she sees Regina.

“Hi.” Regina says sheepishly.

“I didn’t see you during the night part of our date.”

Our group date, Regina’s mind fills in. “It got a little chaotic. I didn’t feel well.”

Emma gives her that dubious look she’s so good at. “I would have liked to come comfort you. It would have been a relief compared to what everyone else was up to.”

Regina really doesn’t know what to say to that. She does want Emma to comfort her. “Oh” is all she really manages.

“Regina, is something the matter?”

“In general or right now?”

“Both I guess.” Emma reaches out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind Regina’s ear. When did they get so close?

“I guess so, but it’s really not your concern.” She sniffs with as much composure as she can manage.

“I mean if this is a relationship then anything that is the matter would be my concern, you’re my concern.”

“Oh.” It’s a sweet thought. “It’s not really about you.” Is all she can manage.

“Good?” Emma makes it sound more like a question than a statement.

Regina nods. “I’ve just been.” She waves her hand in effort to describe what she’s been feeling.

“Okay. I’ll see you at the rose ceremony Regina.”

Regina closes her eyes and knows that it’s over. Whatever muddled, messed up reason she has for staying here she’s done.

Emma presses a soft kiss on her cheek before leaving to continue with her night.

Miraculously she’s wrong. She gets a rose. She gets the third rose, not even having to wait with anticipation like she had the week before. A whole chunk of men from her group date are sent packing while Killian Jones and Zelena both receive roses of their own.

Week 4

“Excuse me Miss Mills.” A little intern grabs her right after the rose ceremony. She assumes she’s being pulled off for a talking head but the poor dear is shaking in his boots. “Just in here.” He indicates a small bathroom near the back of the set.

“What?”

The door swings open and Emma’s head pops out. Her perfectly curled hair is already up in a casual ponytail even though it’s been minutes since she was last in front of cameras

“Thanks kid.” She grins at the intern. “Get in here.” She grabs Regina by her forearm and yanks her towards the door.

“Hey what are you doing?”

“They can’t put cameras in bathrooms.” Emma replies, dragging her in and slamming the creaky door.

“What?”

“Can’t put cameras in bathrooms.” She repeated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Now listen here Regina.” Emma launched right into what she had been planning on saying before she gave Regina a chance to catch up. “I don’t know what I did or what you realized that made you decide you don’t want to be here anymore but you’re staying.”

“What.”

“Listen, even though you don’t like me, think of the optics.”

“The optics?” Emma thinks she doesn’t like her?

“I’m the first bisexual lead in this stupid franchise. I hate that they wouldn’t cast a fifty-fifty gender split on this season because of ‘logistical problems’.” Emma spits out the words ‘logistical problems’ like they taste bad. “I hate how many times I’ve had to hear someone say logistical problems in the last couple of months. But I’ll be DAMNED if you leave in the second week and then there’s one woman left and everyone starts saying: why did they even bother doing it like this, why did they make such a big deal about it. AND THEN this stupid franchise is never going to try anything like this ever again and this is just going to be a failed experiment. You have to think of the bigger picture and just-”

“Why do you think I don’t like you?” Regina finally has it in her to interrupt Emma’s monolgue.

Emma stops dead and cocks her head at Regina like a confused puppy. “Your actions and demenor.” She says haltingly. 

“I like you.” She feels stupid saying it because it’s true. 

“Really?”

“Really.” Regna summons up all the courage she is capable of before saying. “I like you more than I feel like I should given the circumstances.”

Emma blinks dumbly at her. “Really?”

Regina nods. “But if you just need to keep me around for representation or whatever you were saying that’s fine” At least that would serve her original purpose for being here, even if it will kill her.

Emma laughs incredulously. “Oh my god you’re impossible.”

“What? I’m agreeing with what you said.”

“Literally impossible.” Emma shouts.

“I don’t understand, I’m agreeing with you.” Regina shouts back.

“Did you even listen to me?”

“Yes!”

“No you didn’t!” They are yelling at each other in a tiny bathroom and poor intern Henry can definitely hear them. “I obviously like you!”

“How is that obvious you were just talking about keeping me around for optics?” Regina has undergone so much emotional whiplash recently she wants to scream.

“That was because I thought you didn’t like me. I obviously like you.”

“How was I supposed to know that?”

“All of my actions and demenor!” Emma cries out throwing her hands up in the air. “I keep giving you roses even though you won’t talk to me.”

“Oh.”

“Oh!” Emma shouts for emphasis. Regina feels more than a littel stupid. They stand in silence for a second both turning over this stupid inasne conversation they are having right now. “Can I kiss you?” Emma asks. The edge hasn’t fully gone from her voice but her softness is starting to creep in.

“Yes.” Regina says without hesitation.

 Emma steps forward and Regina feels her back hit the wall. Regina’s breath hitches as Emma’s hand comes up to cup the side of her face. She doesn’t feel nervous, she only feels warmth. They’re both still wound up from screaming at each other so Emma’s lips meet her more harshly than you’d expect for a first kiss. It makes Regina keen and wrap her arms around Emma.

The kiss is too much and too little all at once. Emma pulls away after only a few moments but Regina is overwhelmed nonetheless. Emma is staring into her eyes with such an intensity before she seems to shake herself out of it and pull back. 

“I’ll see you soon.” She says in a strained voice.

“I’ll see you soon” Regina confirms. The rose that was pinned to her is now crushed in between them.

“And you’re staying?”

“And I’m staying.”

“Okay.” Emma says firmly. She smiles then and presses a quick warm kiss to the side of Regina’s head before slipping out of the bathroom and away. Regina’s legs shake in the aftermath.

They have a horrible, grueling day of travel, kicking off the international portion of the season. They all fly to Scotland with the contestants and a couple of production people on one plane, and Emma on her own separate one to prevent any off-camera fraternization. 

Regina heads out on her group date the next day feeling... happy. She’s excited to see Emma. David is on this group date again, as is Graham who seems to have a head on his shoulders. Zelena is not. It’s a great day.

To match the location they are playing highland games, and it’s... fun. Regina’s logs are lighter than the ones the boys throw but she’s proud of her log throw, and it’s delightful to watch Emma insist upon taking a turn after they've all gone. She finds herself smiling, laughing even. Everyone is laughing, Emma is very good at dividing her attention between everyone, she’s like a gracious host. 

Regina’s crowning moment comes during the axe throw.  Her competitive spirit takes hold of her and she watches everyone else’s attempt with an extreme fixation, trying to figure out what they’ve done wrong. It's not about strength, it's about releasing at the right time. Nobody is throwing the axe at the right angle for it to stick into the log.

She has an idea of what she’s doing when she steps up to throw. She takes a deep breath, adjusts her grip and throws.

It hits the log with a satisfied thunk and stays in place! She literally jumps and whoops in excitement. She can feel Emma right next to her cheering for her. She turns to her and sees her arms outstretched “Holy shit!” Emma exclaims.

Regina does the only thing she can think of and steps into Emma’s arms. Before she can doubt her own actions Emma has picked up and spun her around gleefully. Regina giggles like a little girl. 

“That was sick.” Emma says reverently as she sets Regina down. 

“Yeah no big deal. I have some axe throwing experience.” Regina says with a faux casual air.

“Seriously?” Emma says.

“Of course not.” Regina laughs at her.

“Jerk.” Emma snipes with a wide grin on her face. 

“Dummy.” Regina shoots back just as playfully.

For once Regina goes into the night portion of the group date feeling good. She changes out of her ridiculous kilt and into a fun purple dress that isn’t too tight on her thank you very much.

She actually takes the initiative this time and ends up being third to speak to Emma who smiles when she sees Regina. 

“Walk with me,” she implores. “I get so jittery just sitting here while everyone takes their turn coming to talk.”

They walk arm in arm around the little yard chatting idly for a little before Emma pauses and says. “You know I don’t know a ton about you yet Regina.” Regina freezes. This kind of show moves fast and if she’s now decided that she might actually like Emma, and wants to win, she is way behind. “Let’s play a game: worst ex, best ex.”

“That is not a game.” Regina laughs.

“It is so a game.” Emma defends. “I just made it up. The rules are you have to tell me your worst ex-girlfriend and your best ex-girlfriend and why.”

“You can’t just rank people like that.”

“Um yes you can and it’s super fun.” Emma protests. “Here I’ll go first to show you how to play. My best ex was Lily. She was a fellow foster kid back when I was fifteen. She was my first kiss, and like super badass, a little lippy honestly, got us into all sorts of trouble. She was cute too, a couple inches shorter than me, dark brown hair. Oh god I think I have a type.” Emma interrupts herself. Regina laughs and Emma smiles and plows on. “Anyways her bio mom actually ended up tracking her down. She was this really cool rich lady who was only twenty-nine, had a really dramatic story about her own parents taking Lily away. It was real lifetime movie shit. So Lily gets whisked off to some fancy penthouse in NYC and that’s curtains for us. No hard feelings, super cool story.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. Now you go, best ex.”

Regina sighs. She supposes that her only friend who she had an on and off sexual realtionship with for years is not a good answer. So she only really has one answer left and it’s not a fun one.

“Come on, best ex is the easy part.”

It’s not. “Her name was Dani. She worked at the stable where I rode.”

“Horses?” Emma cries incredulously.

“Yes of course horses.”

“Wow, gymnastics, horseback riding, did you also play violin and do ballet?”

“Not very well, why?”

Emma laughs again. “That’s like an intense slate of highpowered righ girl hobbies.”

Regina can’t really argue with her. “Hush judgy, it’s still my turn.” She has to keep talking or she’ll lose her nerve. “Anyways we’d known each other for awhile and I... liked her.” Regina used to cry about how much she liked Dani. She was so sure Dani would hate her for it. “We got together when I was sixteen which was not a great year for me.” All of Regina’s teen years were unabashedly awful but between Zelena, her father’s heartattack, and her mother’s increased control over her life sixteen had been hell. “We dated in secret for awhile and it was like my refuge from life. Eventually my mother banned me from riding horses so I could focus on other things. I couldn’t drive either so it got pretty hard to see her.” The other things Regina’s mother thought she should focus on were school and her upcoming debutant ball, the first step to finding herself a good husband. Regina wasn’t allowed to drive, because Cora wanted final say on where she went. “We kept seeing each other, sneaking around until my mother caught us.”

“And that didn’t go well?” Emma winced in sympathy. 

“No, it did not.” Cora had gone to Dani’s parents, despite Regina's begging. They'd promptly sent her to a Christian wilderness camp for ‘struggling teens’ just like Dani always knew they would if they found out. Regina never saw her again. She used to lie awake at night wondering if she was okay. She doesn’t know. She still doesn’t know. “Sorry.” She mumbles, feeling the tears prick at the cornerrs of her eyes. 

“Don’t be sorry. I’m sure it’s hard to have that sort of relationship with your mother.”

“I mean you’d know.” Regina remembers the things Emma had said about her dysfunctional string of foster parents while she was a contestant on the Bachelor.

Emma chuckles. “I always forget that there are some parts of my life that anyone who watches prime time TV knows about now. It’s weird. It’s different though, because when one of my foster parents was being awful at least I could think: my real mom wouldn’t do this to me.”

“But mine did.” Regina finishes solemnly.

“Sorry, that was inappropriate.”

“No. It’s nice to talk to someone who’s willing to speak about my mother with candor.” She’s so used to people cowering in fear of Cora. “Maybe I find your tactlessness charming.” She adds as an afterthought.

They stop their pacing. Emma pulls her in so they’re chest to chest. “Yeah? Baby I can be so tactless you don’t even know.”

“Dummy.” Regina chuckles.

“What else about me do you find charming?” The glint of Emma’s grin is intoxicating from this close, Regina wants to wipe it away.

“Who says I find you charming?”

“Your pupils are huge right now.” Emma says smugly. She moves her hand out of Regina’s and to her wrist. “And your pulse is racing.”

“You’re incorigable.” Emma cuts her off before she gets the full word out. This kiss takes her off guard as much as the last one. The force of it causes her to stumble back a step, but Emma is right there with her, pulling her in. 

They get too distracted to do the worst ex part of the game but Regina wins the group date rose this time.

Week 5

“It seems like you  had a good week,” Zelena says once they are back in their room. Her voice is soft with champagne. She sounds like their mother when she’s drunk, her British accent fading a little, like she’s less focused on maintaining it. 

“Yeah, I barely saw you.” Regina flops down onto her bunk and kicks off her shoes.“You really are a hateful little witch.”

“Please, you’ve been tormenting me on purpose this whole time.”

“How else am I supposed to get your attention baby sister? You haven’t spoken to us for months.” Eighteen months to be exact. “Mother’s been sick with worry about you.”

“I’m sure Cora is worrying about what my antics are doing to the Mills family name.” It’s easier to call her Cora these days. 

Zelena puts on an exaggerated pout. “Oh, poor Regina was mother’s favourite her whole life, got to grow up with both of her parents yet somehow is always the victim in her own mind.”

Regina is sick of having this fight, she’s been having it for decades. She’s not going to do it here. “Cora only kept me because she was married to my dad and he had money. Cora only abandoned you because your father wouldn’t marry her and she thought that would be bad for her reputation. That was always her only criteria. She doesn’t care about me. She doesn’t care about you.” Regina snaps as coldly as she possibly can. She reconciled with this truth in her time away from Cora but it's still hard to say out loud. She has to get away from Zelena and all thoughts of theeir fucked up mother. She slams the door behind her as she flees their shared room. 

David is in the courtyard by some miracle. It stops her from feeling sorry for herself alone. He is, out of character, smoking. “Bad habit from highschool.” He says when he notices her.

“Law school.” She shoots back, taking the cigarette from him for a drag. Robin would smoke when she was drunk and over the years Regina stopped hating it and started doing it. 

“I had to get away from all the crazy people in my room.” David explains.

“Me too.” She responds. She wonders vaguely if there are cameras around here, catching this conversation. 

“That Killian Jones is driving me crazy.”

“Huh, I’ve been trying to steer clear.”

“I have to admt that it worries me that he’s still here. What’s he saying to her when they’re alone that she’s decided to keep him around still?”

Regina shrugs. “Maybe she likes wannabe goths. I’ll worry about it if he makes it to fantasy suites.” She had silently decided to feel the same way about Zelena. She can deal with whatever is going on right now but she won’t be able to deal with that.

“I just don’t want her to get hurt.”

“Oh and everyone else would hurt her but you wouldn’t because you’re good guy David?” Regina drawls sarcastically.

“No.” David chuckles, bumping shoulders with her. “I think Emma has plenty of good potential matches out of the people here and Killian Jones is not one of them.”

“You got to say that loudly, clearly, and into a camera if you want screen time.”

“You’re an asshole.”  David says with the same affection he always aims at her.

“Yeah. Can I stay here and smoke with you until I’m sure my sister is asleep?”

“Of course.”

They burn through a few cigarettes, passing them back and forth, exchanging only a handful of words, mostly taking in the silence. 

Regina’s name is not on either of the group date cards. Graham and David congratulate her on their  way out. Really what that means is that Regina has to wait around the hotel and watch everyone come back from their group dates, and miss Emma desperately. 

The boys are fighting. Something about a rugby game and whether or not Killian meant to knee Greg in the face, but it is spiraling and spiraling so almost every man from the rugby group date is involved in the drama. Zelena sits just to the side  of every argument and cackles and subtly eggs them on in ways Regina is sure they haven’t even noticed, she’s slippery like that. When watching her behaviour around the men Regina wonders if she’s just here to be entertaining in front of the cameras and then get invited to one of the franchise's many spin-off shows. 

It’s a relief to be away from the conflict of the hotel when she is loaded into a car and brought to her date. It’s a relief to fall into Emma’s arms. She knows Emma feels the same when she says “It’s so nice to have a break from all that drama.” She looks tired and a little worn.

This is why Regina won’t say anything about Killian, even though she privately agrees that he seems vile and insecure, but she’s sure Emma has heard more than enough of that sort of thing in the last couple of weeks. Regina refuses to be just another person bringing more stress into Emma's life.

Their date starts in a hot tub, located in a picturesque location. Regina does not mind having the opportunity to see Emma in that black bikini but then remebers that everyone who watches this stupid show is also going to see it. 

“What’s that look on your face?” Emma asks as they get into the water.

Regina shakes herself. “Oh nothing, I’m just objectifiying you.”

Emma grins. “You cad.”

“I know, it’s a serious problem.” She says with a purposely lecherous grin.

“You know I would never objectify you.” Emma says sarcastically as she starts to pull Regina forward by her hips. Regina feels a flutter of excitement and lets herself be guided onto Emma’s lap. 

“Never?” Regian asks, cocking her head in faux innocence as her knees come to rest on either side of Emma’s hips. This is the closest theyve been yet. Regina relishes the feeling of Emma’s bare skin on hers.

“Never.” Emma shoots back, trailing her hands down from Regina’s back to her ass.

Regina kisses her with vigor, and Emma tightens her grasp and pulls her in closer. The firm pressure makes her gasp. She can feel Emma smile against her lips. Cheeky girl. 

She knows they have to keep in PG for the cameras, or maybe PG-13 she thinks to herself and she grinds against Emma a little. She wants to gloat at the little gaps that illiciates. She loves the way Emma’s hands feel on her. She doesn’t feel any panic, only desire.

The couples massage that they do next does nothing to curb what Regina is feeling, especially when Emma moans when her massuse digs into a sore spot on her back. Their frustratingly hot makeout continues on into the sauna afterwards as well. They talk in between of course, but Regina would be lying if she said she wasn’t frequently distracted by Emma, Emma’s body, Emma’s hands. By the time they are done their little spa day and fully clothed Regina feels sexually frusterated in a way she has never experienced before. It’s kind of nice, to stew in that unfamiliar feeling as Emma walks her to the car. 

Emma stops her before she gets in. “You seem like you’ve been feeling... better recently.” Her eyes are searching but Regina can tell she’s trying not to push. 

“Yeah I guess.”

“You know I felt like such a mess when I was a contestant.” Emma admits. 

“You seemed very self-assured.”

“I got a good edit, but really I was a mess. I flirted witha fellow contestant, almost got the boot for it. I undershared, then I overshared. I was self conscious. I feared rejection and I was a flight risk at the same time. A producer talked me out of quitting the week before I got dumped. Mess.” She declares decisively. 

“But why? You seem so steady now. Also you were the best one on that season by far.” Maybe Regina’s intense research led her to form some opinions about the contestants on that season. “I mean you were easily the most interesting and I understand that people have types when it comes to looks but-” Regina stops in her tracks when she see’s Emma grinning at her like a cat that swallowed a canary. 

“No, keep going.” She urges. “You were talking about how I’m the coolest, hottest girl in the world.”

“I never said that.” Regina blushes furiously.

“Seriously though, my roommate and best friend Mary Margaret convinced me to use some of my TV money for some therapy. It’s helping I guess. It’s hard to be the one who’s rough around the edges in a crowd of people who seem so perfect and normal.”

“I get that.” 

“I mean I barely finished high school. I used to dress up in cocktail dresses and fight men for money.” That’s the least generous description of a bounty hunter Emma could have come up with. “I don’t have parents, I have like three friends.  I spend most of my time alone. I just feel a little broken sometimes. Sorry. That was a lot.” Emma withdraws by degrees.  “I’m sure my therapist will have something to say about that.”

“I went to law school and passed the bar because my mother wanted me to and now I don’t talk to her or practice law. I spend most of my time alone and I have trust issues and I feel a little broken a lot of the time. I don’t care about your level of education or your work history. I think you probably looked very hot beating up men while dressed in cocktail attire.”

“What about the rest of the stuff?” 

Perhaps the better answer is that two lonely people with self described abandonment and trust issues shouldn’t date. Regina commits to the other option. “Well I guess we’d just have to work all that out as we go.”

“That sounds nice.” Emma kisses Regina one more time before she gets in the car to be driven back to the hotel. 

Regina turns her rose over in hands the entire drive back. This one feels the most special so far.

Week 6

The daytime portion of Regina’s group date is as smooth and pleasant as the last one they went on. Even though Zelena is there she doesn’t seem to be interested in causing any problems for Regina. They flew to the Netherlands two days ago, which was a nice change of pace after all the drama that went down in Scotland. They get to walk through street markets in Den Haag, chatting and eating. 

The first one on one of this week went to Graham, where apparently he and Emma went nude bungee jumping. It’s exactly the sort of gimmick that producers love to do, goofy and just a little naughty. Graham came back to the hotel with a rose and a sheepish smile. Maybe it’s because she thinks Graham is a good guy, but she thought the date sounded genuinely funny. Killina on the other hand, had eventually grown outraged at the idea of Emma being naked next to a naked man. Regina thinks the whole thing is hypocritical. Surely Killian is no blushing virgin himself.  Now the loser, wannabe punk is sitting in the hotel room, stewing, waiting for his own one on one date tomorrow. 

When the night time portion of the group date rolls around it becomes clear that Killian is not in fact stewing in the hotel anymore. He stomps into their group date with a purpose. Whatever stunt is about to go down is going to mess up everyone’s night.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Zelena crows.

“I just need to talk to Emma.”

“Dude you’ll have plenty of time to talk to her on your date tomorrow.” August replies. “You literally have a one on one.”

“This is important.”

“No it’s not.” David says. “It’s definitely some stupid bullshit about-”

“Guys.” Regina interupts, raising her hand. “Just let him make his own dumb mistakes. He’s going to go in there raving about whatever, and his bag will be packed by the end of this week.”

“What are you then?” Killian turns to her, “the queen bitch? You raise your hand and your subjects obey?”

“Don’t fucking talk to her like that.” David snaps back.

“There it is your majesty.” Killian exclaims with a sweep of his hands. “A well trained subject.”

“I don’t need someone to tell me to tell you to fuck off dude.” David starts to raise his voice. “I’ve got a brain. I’ve got eyes. I can tell that you need to fuck off all on my own.”

“David, stop.” Regina says, in a tone that sounds an awful lot more desperate than it did a moment ago. She knows it’ll play well for David on camera but she’s worried that fighting with Killian will get him sent home. She finds herself dreading the thought of his elimination, for now at least.

He relents but that only tools Killian  up even more. “Oh my god, you are such a pussy. You know she’s an actual dyke right?” He only gestures at Regina, keeping his eyes focused on David. “She’s not gonna fuck you.”

David moves to stand like he’s going to Killian. It takes all of Regina’s strength grabbing him by the arm and pulling to keep him on the couch. “You’re not going to fucking fight him.” She hisses. 

“God you guys are all so boring.” Zelena interrupts with an exaggerated yawn. She’s leaning back in her chair like it’s a fucking chaise lounge. There’s something strange about her but Regina can’t tell what. She stands like she has all the time in the world and saunters off, not in the direction of Emma, but the opposite, leaving the building. 

“I’m out of here.” Killian snaps, and storms off towards Emma before David can say anything else. 

In minutes Arthur is stomping back into the main room from where his time with Emma was interrupted by Killian. 

It’s all chaos after that. Everything keeps escalating and escalating. It’s chaos in the main room and she’s sure it’s chaos wherever Emma is as well. What started with naked bungee jumping and Killian calling her a slur in front of a whole crew of film cameras (idiot) has spiraled into an all out fight. 

By the time Emma comes out to hand out the group date rose, she looks so tired. She’s clearly been running her hands through her hair, and her jaw is set. She gives the rose to Walsh, quickly and decisively before saying, “hey Regina, a word?”

She follows Emma to the back. “Hey, I didn’t see you tonight.” She’s worrying her lip with her teeth.

“Everything got kind of crazy. I didn’t really have a chance.” Regina can’t look at her right now. She’d been so afraid of getting pulled into the fight, of fucking something up with Emma. 

“I’m sorry.” Emma says. She runs her hands through her hair again. “I couldn’t get things under control. That was so chaotic.”

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. This whole thing feels so crazy, to have so many people here, competing for me. I’m just trying not to be a fuck up.”

“Emma you’re not a fuck up.”

All of Emma's normal confidence has drained out of her. “Did Killian say something to you?” She asks haltingly. 

“Emma I don’t want to talk about anyone but you right now.” She reaches up and wipes away an errant tear from Emma’s face. 

“I’m sorry.” She turns her head away from Regina just a little bit. “I’m getting a little overwhelmed.”

“It’s okay.” Regina soothes.

“Before I went on the Bachelor was just some nobody who only had one person in the world who had ever loved her. I only went on the show because Mary Margaret thought it was a good idea, and I got sent home because I wasn’t normal enough. Now everyone is watching me, and looking at me to make the right choices and it’s too much.”

Regina pulls Emma in, stands on her tiptoes so Emma can tuck her head into the crook of Regina’s neck, and holds her while she cries softly. “You’re doing just fine.” She soothes as best as she can. 

Emma pulls away too quickly. If Regina had her way they’d have stayed like that for far longer. “Sorry.” Emma mubles again.

“You don’t need to apologize.”

“I just wanted to make sure you were good. Some of the guys said some stuff.”

Regina’s stomach is in knots. A part of her does want to tell Emma about Killian and what he said. But she refuses to add to the weight on her shoulders and she remains equally confident that Emma will get rid of that asshole eventually, on her own terms. “I’m fine Emma. I trust your judgment.” Emma winces a little at that. 

"Are you sure?" Emma says, her attempt at self-depricating humour falls flat and she just ounds self concious. 

"Yes." Regina says decisively. "I'm sure."

Killian returns from his group date without a rose the next week, but he does in fact return from his groupd date. He’s now sitting in a limbo of not safe and not sent home. 

Regina doesn’t realize it until Emma is holding the second last rose in her hand. Killian doesn’t have one yet, but neither does David, or Zelena. What if David doesn’t get one. The possibility scares her more than it should. She’s not used to having friends but it’s been nice to have one here. 

“August.” Emma says, “would you accept this rose?” August agrees of course. Regina holds onto her rose a little tighter as Emma pauses and says “Killian.” 

Shit. 

“Will you accept this rose.”

Killian looks at all of them as he steps down to where Emma is waiting for him. “Of course love.” He tells her, “everytime.” 

His presumption makes Regina seeth. Zelena, David, and Arthur all step down and start to file out of the room and suddenly she doesn’t know how to feel. Emma is getting whisked away by producers and the other men next to Regina are starting to turn to leave.

Regina lets her feet carry her out after the departing contestants. She has to get to them before they are in cars. “Wait.” Regina shouts once she’s outside. All three of them stop where they are and look at her. There is something on Zelena’s face that Regina can’t quite place but she doesn’t care. She doesn’t care about Zelena right now. “David.” Zelena whirls back around and gets into her car. 

“Hey.”

“Hey, I...” She really didn’t think this far ahead. He wanted to say goodbye to him, but now she also kind of wants to apologze.

“Regina it’s okay. I think Emma only kept me around this long because I’m nice. We never had that much of a romantic connection.” He smiles at her.  

“Oh.” Regina turns to look at the camera person next to, something they are strictly instructed not to do. She forgot about the show for a second. She doesn’t know how this would read to an audience. She doesn’t even really know what she’s doing. “I’ll miss having you around. And you’re not... you wouldn’t have been a bad choice for her.”

“Not as good as you though right?” He says it like it’s their inside joke. I’ll talk to you once you’ve wrapped up this whole thing okay?”

“Promise?”

“Promise.” David sticks out his pinky finger like he wants to pinky promise her. He’s such an idiot. She hugs him instead. 

“I think you have to go back inside now.”

She knows she does. “I don’t want to yet.”

David unplugs his mic box and hands it over to the production worker closest to him. He leans in to whisper. “No more chain smoking, or crying in back rooms now.”

God she really has been a mess.

“She likes you more than you think” David reassures her, he’s giving her advice on a girl who just dumped him, which seems too evolved even for a man as nice as David. “You just have to trust her.”

Regina nods mutely, starting to feel self conscious about her dramatic run out here. David gives her another hug before he steps into the black SUV and disappears from veiw. 

Regina returns to her empty room and doesn’t sleep well that night. 

Week 7

She gets the first one on one of the week. This is the last week before hometowns, two one and ones and a group date with the remaining four guys. Regina is glad to not be on the group date but a little horrified at the idea of taking Emma back to her very empty home. She knows Mal will be perfectly charming and make fun of them a lot, and Ivy will be fun but that’s all there is. She has nothing else.

“Heeey.” Emma greets her with a smile. She’s wearing jeans that really do something special for her ass and her beautiful hair is in a swishy ponytail. 

Regina kisses her instead of saying anything in greeting.

“It’s so good to see you.” Emma says.

“You saw me last night at the rose ceremony.”

“Pfft that’s never the same. 

It’s a simple date, no gimmicks, they walk the streets of Delft together. They take pictures on the polaroid camera that production gave them. They walk through cutesy, expensive stores and take turns showing their favourite strange atrefact they can find on the shelfs. Emma kisses her regularly, on the cheek, and the side of the head and the back of her hand and her lips. It makes Regina blush and frankly swoon a little. After a couple hours of carefree time Emma pulls her aside and says “I have a surprise for you.” Her grin is so wide that Regina trusts her.

“Okay.”

“So.” Emma waves her hands for emphasis. “Have you ever been on a date and thought, man I wish this was a double date? ”

“Of course not.” Regina can’t help but laugh at her.

“Yeah, no one has, which is why this may seem like a  stupid surprise buuuuuut.....” Emma pulls Regina around the corner into a restaurant. “Tada!” She gestures at a table where three women are sitting waiting for them. Regina immediately recognizes Ruby Lucas from Emma’s season of the Bachelor. Sitting across from her is Belle French who she met on the Bachelor spin-off show Bachelor in paradise last summer.

“Regina, I’m sure you're familiar with my good friend Ruby, and her girlfriend Belle.” Emma takes on a very puffed up and self-important posture as she’s introducing Regina to her people. It’s very cute.

“That implies that I’m not also your friend.” Belle interrupts.

“Wow, super fucked up Em.” Ruby chips in.

“You guys are embarrassing me in front of my date.” Emma chirps them right back. 

Ruby and Belle both stand to shake her hand. “God you’re hot.” Ruby says. Regina is familiar with Ruby’s persona from watching her on Emma’s season of the Bachelor, and therefore not entirely surprised by this statement.

“Ruby!” Emma scolds.

“No she’s right.” Belle agrees as they sit back down. 

“Yeah I know that, but honestly, pull it together you two. Be appropriate.” Regina blushes as Emma agrees with their assessment of her hotness. 

It’s  nice to see Emma around her friends. She’s much more relaxed than she has been the last couple of weeks. Ruby is hilarious and inappropriate but very sweet to Belle. Belle is clearly very smart and has a dry wit that Regina admires. They both make Emma losen up and crack jokes and act like a fun loving dork. 

Belle and Regina monopolize the conversation talking about their favourite books for way too long before they realize Ruby and Emma haven’t said anything in awhile. Ruby looks at Belle with such naked admiration. When Regina stops talking and turns to look at Emma she is met with a very similar expression. 

Ruby and Belle go off about their experience on the Bachelor in Paradise and why they ended up leaving together mid-show. Regina is sure that conversation will never see air time. It is not complimentary to the franchise. 

Regina doesn’t want the double date portion to end, but it does. Regina can picture Ruby and Belle getting along with her friends so vividly it’s almost painful. She’s not just infatuated with Emma, she can picture their lives fitting together. 

“That was really nice.” She whispers to Emma as they are walking away from the bar. 

“I wanted you to meet some of my people. I wanted you to feel comfortable going into your hometown.” Emma’s voice is soft and warm. She sways a little from all the beer she drank trying to keep up with Ruby. 

“My hometown?” Regina teases.

“Duuuude, did I not give you a rose yet?”

Regina throws her head back and laughs. Emma is clearly a little drunker than she thought. 

“Yo can I get a rose over here?” Emma shouts, loud enough for other people to turn and look at them. 

Regina laughs even louder and has to steady Emma as she turns frantically to and fro looking, presumably looking for a rose to give her. 

A producer sits them down and makes them drink water and eat a sandwich. Neither of them can go back to their rooms to sleep until Emma has given Regina her rose. Emma is not allowed to give Regina her rose, however, until she can sober up and do it seriously. Every time Emma takes a deep breath and plasters on a fake, cloyingly sweet expression Regina bursts out laughing and they dissolve into giggles. 

They get the shot eventually and are allowed to ride back to the hotel in the same car, giggling and making out in turn, before being escorted to their separate rooms. 

Week 8

Regina is nervous as she paces up and down the street waiting for Emma. This is the most outside of the process she has felt since it began. There are no other contestants around. She doesn’t know who Emma has already seen or how it went. She slept in her own bed last night. Today Emma is going to see parts of her real life, for better or for worse. The other contestants have the advantage of showing Emma their city as well as their life, but Emma lives in a small town in Maine and is very familiar with Portland. What makes Portland with Regina different from Portland without her?

Emma sneaks up behind her and taps her on the shoulder. It’s enough to make Regina jump and shreik a little. “Asshole.” She says with a smile.

“I love it when you call me pet names.” Emma croons exageratedly. 

 “Dork.” Regina shoots back.

“Ooo more.” Emma fake maons.

“Shut up and kiss me you loser.” Regina commands. And Emma does. She eases Regina into her arms so casually.

They’re on Commercial street near Old Port. Regina wanted desperately to walk along the water, hand in hand with Emma. Her bakery is just a little further down the street but she wants to warm up first, squash her anxiety, and emotionally prepare before she presents her pride and joy to Emma. 

“We’re getting a lobster roll right?” Emma demands as soon as they are gone greeting each other. 

“I don’t know. It’s a little dangerous to take someone else from Maine to your favourite lobster roll place. This could be enough to end our relationship.”

“Wow, insulting me and threatening to leave me. Regina Mills, you really know how to treat a girl.” 

Regina laughs and buries her face in her hands. “That’s not what I mean.”

Emma pulls her into her arms and playfully kisses both her cheeks, her forehead, her nose, and then her lips. Regina melts. “You drive me crazy. You know that right?” They may spend most of their time joking, but here Emma’s voice is soft and sweet and all Regina can do is smile shyly and nod. “If you bring me to your lobster roll place, I promise to pretend I think it’s as good as my lobster roll place.”

“Deal.”

They get their food and walk along the water just like Regina envisioned. Emma slots so perfectly into Regina’s vision of her life. It feels like she’s always been here, walking next to her. 

Emma talks about Storybrooke, and the loft her and Mary Margaret used to share, and the animal shelter she works at. Regina talks about the neighbourhood she grew up in, and the big old house her father owned, that eventually became a trap. She hates it, and she enver wants to see it again, but she also dreams about the apple trees in the backyard that her father planted the year she was born to celebrate her. 

Emma talks about the foster home that had locks on the outside of all the bedroom doors, and the threat that was there from the first moment. Regina talks about her lonely childhood where Cora kept her isolated from her peers under the guise of class and status differential. 

It’s easy to talk to Emma and it’s ebay to listen to Emma. Regina has mostly stopped lying and holding back the worst details of her stories, because Emma certainly doesn’t. 

They turn away from the water and start to walk back up Commercial street. Regina feels no nerves as they approach her bakery. She catches a glimpse of the lavender coloured edifice from a block away and feels the warmth of coming home. This, even moreso than her apartment is her home. She knows Mal and Ivy will be there waiting for. Her family, her home.

“I have something special to show you.” Regina prefaces as they get a little closer.”

“Yeah?” Emma says with a smile. She turns to look in the direction Regina is looking. “Oh my god!” She cries. “Is this your bakery? It’s the same colour as the box from that cupcake you gave me.”

“Of course Emma would remember with that amount of detail, because she sees everything, because she knows Regina.”

“Are you ready?”

“Are you ready?” Regina bites her lip and nods. “Then lead the way.” Regina takes a deep breath and pushes open the weighted glass door.

 Mal drops the cupcake in her hand. It lands on the ground with an audible splat. “Ginny.” She gushes. It only takes her three strides to cross their little shop and envelope her in a hug.

“Ginny?” Emma says incredulously as Mal sets her back down.

“You’re already embarrassing me.” Regina admonishes her friend. She can feel herself blushing. 

“Are you working today?” Ivy chimes in from behind the counter. She has fetched a new cupcake and dealt with the customer Mal abandoned with her usual efficency. “This place is falling apart without you.”

“It is not.” Mal snaps back. “I promise it’s fine Regina.... Mostly. No one else can get your apple turnover recipe right, but other than that it’s fine. And the milk steamer broke. And the second fridge isn’t holding the right temperature, but we have it totally under control.”

Regina can’t find it in her to be stressed, or upset. She’s just so glad to be here, with Emma and her two favourite people, in her favourite place. Any problem with the bakery isn’t really a problem because it’s such a joy to solve problems for this. “Come here.” She gestures to Ivy, who reluctantly leaves her post behind the counter. 

Regina kisses Ivy on the cheek and the young girl scowls, which Regina knows means that she is pleased to see her. “Emma, this is Ivy. She is my store manager and dear friend. And this is Mal, my business partner and oldest friend.”

“The one with the snakes.” Emma supplies.

“The one with the snakes.” She confirms. She wants to call them her family. They really only have each other. They spend all holidays and special occasions together, in the bakery or at Mal’s house. They also don’t talk about the fact that they only have each other. That’s not the way they are wired. She knows Emma understands what they mean to her without her saying it. 

Ivy makes them all impeccable lattes with the newly fixed milk steamer and it takes Mal seconds to steal Emma away. “I’ve seen this show before,” she says haughtily. “This is the time where I get to take Emma away and interrogate her.”

Shit. Shit. Shit. She forgot about this part. “Mal be nice.” 

“I’m a big girl.” Emma says reassuringly. “I can handle myself.”

“See Regina?” Mal’s grin turns sharp and a little devious. “She can handle herself.”

Fuck. “Emma, she used to be a political campaign manager, people used to call her the dragon.” Emma is already following Mal’s lead towards the back. “She can be very scary but I promise she doesn’t mean it.” She calls after them. They both laugh at her as they go. Regina wonders if they realize they are laughing for very different reasons. “Dear god that’s going to go terribly.” She says more to herself than to Ivy. 

“So you’ve fallen in love with her then?” Ivy asks without preamble. 

“What.”

“You wouldn’t bring her here like this if you weren’t in love with her.”

Regina blushes furiously. She knows Mal must’ve come to this conclusion as well. They both definitely know that her insane plan has been thrown out the window. “It was an accident.” She offers pitifully.

“You fell in love with her by accident?” Ivy raises a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at her.

“Yes?”

“Have you thought this through?”

“No.” She hasn’t, and she’s terrified, and she wants Emma to pick her so badly it hurts.

“Couldn’t this end badly for you?”

“Yes.”

“So why are you doing this.” Ivy glances at the cameras around them and remembers to mind what she says. “I honestly thought you’d leave if it got this...serious. I didn’t think you were... ready for this.”

“I don’t know that I am but I’m willing to try.”

“And if you get hurt?”

“Well that’s part of life isn’t it?” She tries to smile but she’s scared. “I think it’s worth it.”

Ivy rests her hand on top of Regina’s. She pretends to be tough like Mal, but she’s soft like Regina. Regina loves her for it. “I worry about you.”

“I worry about you.” Regina shoots back.

That silences Ivy for a long moment before she looks over Regina’s shoulder and calls out “did you two get along?”

Emma and Mal rememerge from the back with unreadable expressions on their face. “I get along with everyone.” Mal lies with a smirk.

That makes Emma laugh which Regina interprets as a good sign.

Later they are set up in the back of the store icing a batch of cupcakes that Ivy prepped for them. Emma is terrible at it and keeps eating Regina’s finished cupcakes as she helplessly attempts to fight her off. 

“You’re incorrigable.”

“Show me how to do it right.” Emma pouts. Regina obliges in the most exagertted manner possible, stepping behind Emma to wrap her arms around her and guide her piping bag. “Are you putting the moves on me Mills?” Emma whispers as Regina pushes her hips forward just a little.

“Get your mind out of the gutter Swan.” Regina whispers back, as she continues to most certainly put the moves on Emma.

It’s a perfect day. It’s a perfect date. They mess around in Regina’s kitchen and makeout more than Regina would normally be comfortable with considering the cameras. Regina tells Emma the story of her little family and how the three of them found each other, Mals dead biological family, and Ivy’s awful mother who reminds Regina so much of Cora.

Emma tears up a little when Regina talks about taking Ivy under her wing after the girl dropped out of high school to run away from her mom. “You’re spectacular.” She tells her.  

Night has fallen and the bakery has closed when production informs them that they need to change into nightwear and that there is a surprise. Emma looks to Regina, but she’s just as clueless as. This is supposed to be Regina’s hometown. There isn’t supposed to be a surprise for her. She is supposed to be in control. 

There is a modest black dress from her luggage waiting for her, and a woman from hair and makeup to repair the damage done to her appearance by spending hours in the bakery. Emma clearly gets much of the same treatment because she’s in a blue dress out front once Regina is done. 

Regina says her rushed and tearful goodbyes to Mal and Ivy before being ushered into the awaiting black car. She’s too nervous to speak and Emma doesn’t push her. They just hold hands as the car cuts its way across Portland.

It takes Regina an embarrassing amount of time to realize where they are going. It’s been nearly two years since she’s been there, but once they get closer they start to turn up streets that are seared into her brain. She couldn’t not recognize where they are going. 

Emma feels her tense and looks over. “What’s wrong?” Regina shakes her head, letting the numb feeling wash over her. “Regina what’s wrong?”

“I think they’re taking us to my mother’s home.” She used to call it her father’s home, or her childhood mom, but truly it is Cora’s home, it always has been. 

“Shit. Regina we don’t have to do this for the show.” Emma’s eyes are wide and earnest and she’s so naive. 

“They’re going to try to make us.”

“They can’t make us. They shouldn’t have set this up without talking to you. That’s fucked up.”

“If Cora already expects us then I have to go. It’ll be worse if I don’t.” The cold ice out was effective for eighteen months. Cora’s pride and the clean break Regina orchestrated gave Regina eighteen months free, but now that first contact has been made she is going to take it as a reason to start a relentless pursuit of Regina’s attention. 

“You don’t have to do this.”

Regina sighs. “I do, but you don’t.” She turns to Emma. “Whatever is about to go down in there is going to suck,  I wouldn’t subject you to it.”

“Of course I’m going with you. Your problems are my problems right?”

“Emma this is a big problem.”

Emma takes Regina’s hand in hers. “Your problems are my problems.”

So when the car stops they get out and walk up the cobbled path to the big house that haunts Regina.

The maid answers the door. It’s a new woman, whose name Regina doesn’t know. She leads them out of the grand entrance way, down familiar hallways to the formal dining room. 

Cora looks exactly the same as Regina remembers, she sits stoically at the head of the table. On either side of her are Zelena, and Cora’s new husband Robert. No one says anything and the maid gestures for both Emma and Regina to sit. 

Regina rushes to sit next to Robert so she’s not stuck too close to Zelena. Emma smiles at Zelena and takes the seat next to her.

No one says anything while the meal is served. Emma keeps looking at Regina, no doubt for behavioural cues. Regina has nothing to offer her, She doesn’t know what is going on. 

“Good of you to join us Regina.” Cora says cooly right as Emma is picking up her fork to start eating. 

“Mother. It’s been awhile.” How can she say anything else? 

Cora turns her gaze to Emma. “So this is the romantic prospect?”

“I’m Emma Swan.” She says. Regina is impressed that she doesn’t stutter.

“Yes I know. So tell me Emma Swan, what made you decide that you liked one of my daughters more than the other?”

“What?” Emma asks incredulously.

“I mean I do understand that Regina is more refined and well raised, but she’s also far more difficult than Zelena.” Cora says this as if it is a normal thing to say. 

“What?” Emma repeats.

“Are you hard of hearing or are you stupid? I am merely asking your reasoning for selecting Regina over Zelena.”

Regina what’s to die. Regina wants to fall through a hole in the floor and disappear. 

“It doesn’t really have as much to do with them. It has more to do with me.” Regina watches Emma’s hands fidget as she answers. “Zelena and I got along just fine as buddies but the way I like Regina is different.”

“Better.” Cora supplies. 

“I mean I-”

Cora smoothly interrupts her. “So what is it you do for work?”

“I work at an animal shelter in my town. I’m thinking of doing a vet tech course at some point so I can do more stuff and work at other places too.”

“So you don’t have any advanced degrees?”

“I got my GED.” Emma says in a self deprecating tone.

Cora of course does not laugh along to diffuse the tension like most would. Cora thrives off of tension. “If Regina were still a lawyer that would be one thing. She could support your hobbies. But what with her struggling business, I’m not sure if you two make a good match.”

“Mother.” Regina snaps.

“I’m just looking out for your best interest darling. Unless you’re counting on inheriting money soon to keep you afloat. I’m sorry to tell you dear, but I am in perfect health.”

“I don’t need you to die for me to be alright financially.” Regina snaps. “And I’m not trying to marry Emma so she can support me. I’m trying to marry her because...” She catches herself just before she goes too far. 

“Finish that sentence.” Zelena chimes in with a self-satisfied smirk.

“I-”

Emma interrupts Regina before she can say anything. “Wait, I would also like to hear the end of that sentence.”

“I-I-” This is not what Regina wants to be saying or doing right now. She can’t stop herself, not when Emma is looking at her with those big imploring eyes. “Because I’m in love with her... With you.”

Emma’s face splits open. Regina can only describe the expressions that pour out as shock, and awe. She smiles that beautiful smile of hers. It’s almost enough for Regina to forget that she has just displayed weakness in front of her mother. 

“That’s delightfully pedestrian, but all together beside the point.” Cora says.

“What else could be the point?” Emma says, not taking her eyes off Regina. 

“I would like my daughters to make good matches with people of high repute. Unfortunately they have done little to make themselves appealing to people of high repute, but I am still their mother and I am still obligated to try my best.”

“If you think I am not a good match why would you let both your daughters come onto my season of this show.” Emma’s face closes down as turns her attention back to Cora. 

“Tell me Emma Swan, how much money do you make from being on these silly little shows. If you get married at the end of this one, how will you continue to make money going on shows to find love?” Cora lets the words ‘find love’ curl into the air and echo around the empty room  

“Mother stop.” Regina finds herself begging. 

“I’m fine Regina.” Emma says. “Mrs Mills I have made a considerable amount of money off my appearance on the Bachelor because I made it to week seven and I scored well with the audience. I expect I’ll make alot of money from this appearance as well, the exact amount isn’t set until the season starts airing but the range they gave me is impressive. The problem is Mrs. Mills in that I don’t care about money, look at my social media accounts and you’ll see. I don’t take sponsorships. I don’t shill for random shit for an extra buck. I have more mony now than I ever thought I would. I will never worry about rent, or food, or what to do if I have to replace the tires on my car ever again. I’m grateful for that but I’m never going to do shit I don’t believe in for money.”

“Then you’re a fool. If you’re a fool who gives up your chance at being rich for my daughter then you are both perfectly matched fools.” Cora turns to Regina. “This is the last time I’ll say this to you. Sell that stupid bakery for the retail space, cut your loses, stop flaunting about with your dreadful, tactless ex-girlfriend and come home. I will find you a suitable match, it can even be a woman. I will make sure a reputable law firm gives you an interview. We will put this behind you.”

“Who’s your dreadful tactless ex-girlfriend?” Emma says, with an air of actual curiosity, not anger like Regina expected. 

“Mal. I didn’t actually ever really date her. Really we’ve mostly always been friends.”

“You didn’t tell her.” Zelena crows. “You had her chumming around with your ex-girlfriend this morning and you didn’t tell her.”

“Because it doesn’t matter.” Regina shouts. She’s lost now that she’s raised her voice. Stupid emotional Regina. She’s always like this and she’ll always be like this. If only she could be smarter and more restrained like everyone else. “Mal is my friend and she is my family and we haven’t been intimately involved since I was twenty-two and we are not interested in each other. Besides that even if Mal was interested in me she wouldn’t pursue it because that is not our relationship. Besides that even if Mal tried to pursue me I wouldn’t care because I am only interested in Emma and I would never be involved in an affair, unlike SOME PEOPLE.” She is standing by the end and she’s screaming. It’s been so long since she really fought with Zelena. It feels good. 

 “Oh it’s always going to be this isn’t it?” Zelena stays seated because that’ll give her the high ground. “Get over it.”

“You slept with my girlfriend in my apartment!”

“It was her apartment too.” Zelena shot.

“OH MY GOD!” Regina screams. “IT DOESN’T MATTER!”

“She was an asshole and you were going to marry her.”

“So you fucked her in my bed? How is that the logical next step?”

“Because you would never listen to me. I saved you from yourself.”

“Oh thank you Zelena. Thank you SOOOOO much. I don’t know what I would do without you selfless fucking my girlfriend.” Regina throws her hands in the air. 

“That was the only time and you were gone for forty-five minutes.”

“SO!!?”

“You were only gone for forty-five minutes and it took me less than that to get her into bed.” 

Regina drops back down into her chair and puts her head in her hands. “Why are you saying this?” It’s been years and it still hurts. 

“If she’d jump into bed with your sister in under an hour she’d do it with anyone. I’m sure she did.” Regina has thought about this a thousand times before. “The only difference is that this time she got caught. I knew you were coming back Regina. I knew Mal was going to get called away and you’d have to turn around and come back instead of having your meeting because I called her and pretended to be her exotic animal vet.”

“Why would you do that?”

“So you’d walk in on us.”

“Why wouldn’t you just talk to me?”

“Because you’ve always hated me.”

“You’ve always hated me.”

“You’ve always blamed me for your father dying and you’ve always resented me for being born.”

 It’s true. Both of those things have always been true. She always thought that Daddy’s heart problems were exacerbated by Zelena’s grating presence, and the ever increasing amount of fights in the house. “You followed me onto this stupid show and made my life as miserable as you possibly could.”

“You only pay attention to me when I make you angry enough.”

“That’s insane.” Regina says flatly. “You make us insane.” She says to Cora, her voice hollow. 

She stands more calmly this time and downs the rest of the wine in her glass in one go.

“Regina that’s hardly appropriate.” Cora sccolds as if the last fifteen minutes didn’t happen. 

Regina throws her empty wine glass against the floor with as much force as she can muster. The sound and feeling are viscerally satisfying. The way Cora flinches is beyond that. “I’m done here. Zelena, maybe I will talk to you after this is done. Mother, maybe I will speak to you on your deathbed.” 

She feels a firm grip on her arm. Emma is guiding her out of the dining room, and steadily out of the house. 

Regina is proud that she doesn’t start crying until she is hit  by the cool outdoor air. Emma holds her as she is wracked with sobs. “I’m sorry.” She sobs. “I’m sorry.”

“Hey, why are you apologizing to me right now.”

“I didn’t..” She can’t even get a sentence out, “...tell you about Mal.” 

“Regina you said there was nothing to tell and I believe you. I trust you. I believe that everything is above board. I met her and she did not read as jealous when she was giving me her shovel talk, she read as a concerned friend.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Regina that was so immensely fucked up.”

“I know.”

“Why didn’t you mention all of that stuff about Zelena before?”

Regina sniffs. “Like when?”

“Oh I don’t know, like when you were both contestants on my season of a pretty big dating show.”

“I didn’t want to get caught up in anything petty or catty.” Regina sniffs.

“That’s hardly petty or catty. Zelena talked about you all the time. I could tell there was bad blood there but I had no idea.” Regina shrinks just a little bit. Maybe she’s been stupid this whole time.  

“It’s been awful.”

“Is that why you were so... so all over the place for a couple of weeks?” Regina starts crying again at that. “Oh my god Regina. I would've done something differently. I would have done everything differently. Why did you never tell me?” Emma takes a deep breath like she’s trying to wrap her head around everything that just happened. “Okay, a lot just happened but to be honest there is really only one thing that I care about right now.”

She feels like there’s no ground under her feet. 

“You love me.” Emma whispers with so much awe and gravity it nearly knocks Regina down. 

“Yeah. I do.” She can’t deny it. She doesn’t want to.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I love you too.”

Regina feels her hands shaking. “God Emma, I think that’s the best thing I’ve ever heard.” 

“Yeah. Yeah, I had a similar thought when I first heard it but that was about twenty minutes of screaming ago.”

Somehow that makes Regina laugh. It’s relief and it’s joy. This night has been full of so much shit but she loves and she is loved. 

She gets the first rose of the rose ceremony and Emma smiles as she pins the rose to Regina’s dress. 

Walsh is sent packing and suddenly herself, Graham and Killian are going to fantasy suites. 

Week 9

Regina is flown back out to Bora Bora from Maine. She wears a beautiful flowing blue coverup over her bathing suit and lets her hair fall loosely down her back. She’s almost too nervous to enjoy the gorgeous view in front of her. She wants to see Emma, she even wants to be invited into the fantasy suite with her, but she dreads the expectation of it nearly as much. This particular date feels like a test moreso than anything else has. 

Her worries are washed away when she sees Emma. They run to each other like they can’t wait a single extra moment to be holding each other. That’s what it feels like to Regina at least. Emma lifts her off her feet and spins her.

“I missed you.” Regina whispers into Emma’s neck. 

“I missed you too.”

It’s so easy to be with Emma like this, to hold hands, to talk about nothing, to dip their feet in the water, to kiss. Regina could do it forever. 

They’re taken out on a boat cruise, because it would seem tacky to jump right into the fantasy suite portion of the day. Regina is glad that there aren’t any real activities being pushed on them this morning. It would set her on edge to be doing anything other than lounging in the sun with Emma.

Regina takes off her cover up and lays out on the lounger on the deck. Emma climbs onto the same chair and lays her head down on Regina’s stomach.  “You’re going to give me tanlines.” Regina complains jokingly. 

“I don’t care.” Emma mumbles, “I’m not moving.” She turns her head and kisses Regina’s bare stomach softly before resting her cheek back down. It’s a simple gesture that makes Regina’s stomach flip. She runs her fingers through Emma’s loose blonde hair. Emma nuzzles even closer to her. “I love it when you do that.” So Regina does it again. 

Emma convinces her to get in the water, even though Regina hadn’t wanted to risk ruining her hair and makeup in front of the camera. They kiss in the gentle waves and Emma picks her up.

By the time they have dried off and showered and changed and redone their hair and makeup for the night portion of the date Regina’s worries have crept back in. She wishes she could be carefree and plunge into theis experience she wants to have without fear. She wishes she wasn’t so difficult.

Emma looks so beautiful Regina could cry. She has the key to the fantasy suite in her hand and Regina can tell she’s going to invite her in. She does. They get to enter into this stunning overwater villa. It’s just one room and a master bathroom. The bed is king-sized and made up with immaculate white linens. There is a bottle of champagne on ice and there are rose petals strewn about. It is very bachelorette. It’s a little over the top, a little corny, and not something either her or Emma would ever choose themselves. 

It’s that feeling of wrongness that starts to compound as Regina stands there taking in her surroundings.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Emma is there in an instant.

“Nothing, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t lie to me, especially not when there are no cameras and it’s just us.” Emma is almost stern. 

“Emma, I really, really want to have sex with you.”

“Good?”

“But I just feel a little uncomfortable right now. I’m not always great at being normal.” That’s the best Regina can come to describing what she is feeling.

“Don’t say that.”

She sighs and rephrases. “Sexual intimacy can be challenging for me.”

“Regina I have no expectations, we don’t have to do anything you don’t want to-”

“I want to though.” She interrupts. She really does. A part of Regina thinks she shouldn’t bother. If Emma picks her in the end they will have plenty of other chances. If Emma doesn’t pick her then having had this experience will make it hurt more. That sort of logic is having no sway over her at the moment though. “I want to, but I just feel a little nervous. It feels like a test I have to pass and I hate the thought of someone setting up this room knowing what we’re going to do in it.”

Emma lights up with inspiration. “Well who says we have to stay in here?”

“What?”

“The crew got all the shots for the night, they’ll be going back to the hotel. No one else is around. If it’ll make you feel more comfortable, why don’t we just leave?”

Regina laughs but the thought of it does sound nice. It feels like getting one over on the producers and the audience and the weird voyerism of millions of people knowing exactly where and when their first time took place. “Where would we go?”

“The boat is docked right outside.” Emma’s face is alight.

“Grab the duvet.” Regina commends, grabbing the bottle of champagne.

They undress slowly. Both sitting on the lounge chair where they spent their morning. They take turns sipping champagne and undoing buttons and zippers on evening dresses that they put on only to take them off again. 

They’re halfway done the bottle of champagne when Emma guides Regina onto her back. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to perform, or pass some test you’re imagining I’m giving.” Emma is so earnest. Her gaze is pinning Regina down. She feels exposed, not because her evening gown is lying crumpled on the deck next to them, but because she’s convinced Emma could take her apart and put her back together again with no effort. “. I want tonight to be about you okay?”

Regina nods slowly because she can’t trust her voice to speak. 

Emma turns Regina’s head and tenderly kisses her neck, just beneath her jaw. She kisses, then sucks the same spot, then gazes her teeth over it. Regina is almost embarrassed of how turned on she is, but Emma leaves no room for her to be embarrassed. Regina loves the weight of Emma on top of her. She keens when Emma slips a leg in between hers and presses her weight into it. Emma leans back and makes eye contact with Regina before she reaches to remove her bra. Regina in turn unfastens Emma’s and throws it away. Emma chuckles at the sound of it landing in the water but Regina does not care, she just wants to feel Emma’s bare skin on hers. 

Emma is so thorough Regina is always a moment away from begging for the next step before it comes. Regina winds her fingers through Emma’s hair and pulls when Emma flicks her tongue over Regina’s erect nipple. Emma bites a hickey into her breast and Regina feels like she could cry. 

She pulls Emma up so she can kiss her again. They’re so wound up that their teeth crash together and they have to readjust. Regina takes the opportunity to palm Emma’s breasts, and circle her nipples with the very tips of her fingers, before pinching and twisting just hard enough to make Emma gasp into her mouth. 

Regina is so wet and Emma has technically not even touched her anywhere below the waist. She wonders briefly if they’ll fuck all night. “All I can think about is how good you’re going to taste.” Emma whispers, biting Regina’s earlobe after she says it. It’s crude but so so hot. It’s exactly something Emma Swan would say.

“Oh my god yes.” Regina says. She thinks she might die if Emma’s mouth in not on her in the next thirty seconds. 

Emma seems to be on the same page as her because she immediately slides down Regina’s body and eases her underwear off. Emma does not tease, does not hesitate. Any awkwardness that normally comes from first times with new partners is completely overshadowed by Emma’s enthusiasm. Regina keeps her hands in Emma’s hair, relishing the way Emma reacts when she pulls. Regina’s hips jerk the first time Emma pressed her tongue flat against her clit. In response Emma pins her hips down with one hand and does it again and again and again until Regina is seeing stars. 

Somehow, like always, Emma knows what she needs. She thrust inside of her with two fingers and it knocks the air out of Regina’s lungs. “Fuck me.” Regina moans. She can’t help herself.

Emma egregiously finds the time to quip “yes ma’am.” Before she hitches Regina’s legs over her shoulders and doubles down, with her tongue and her fingers. Regina can feel the tension building inside of her and her last coherent thought is that it might be too much but instead she cums and Emma fucks her through it until she is lying limp and boneless on the duvet covered lounge chair. 

She pulls Emma up to her because she can’t stand the idea of not touching her right now. She feels so overwhelmed with love and desire and sensation. She grabs Emma’s hand and takes the fingers that were inside her into her mouth, sucking them clean.

The noise Emma makes is almsot too much for Regina. Emma pulls her into her sweaty arms and they lay there together. “That was so fucking hot.” Emma says in a strained voice. 

“I love you.” Regina says back.

They sneak back into their villa with the duvet cover and their crumpled clothes before sunrise. They manage to get a couple hours sleep before producers come knocking. The filming of talking heads and shots of them having breakfast reminds Regina of the reality of the situation. By the time Emma leaves she feels decidedly unsettled

It’s strange to see Graham again. They don’t speak as they line up for the second to last rose ceremony. Regina notices that her dress and his suit are the same colour of blue, such a strange production decision. Killian comes in late, typical. His salmon pink suit looks stupid if she can say so herself. 

The moment Emma rounds the corner Killian steps up to meet her. He is trying to talk to Emma in a low voice but her body language is way off. She won’t even look at him. Her response is loud and clear. “No, I am not going to talk to you right now.”

Killian doesn’t move. “She said no bro, just fall back in line.” Graham tries to help, but any commands from anyone else have always made Killian worse.

“No, just go.” Emma says, her voice raising. “I already... just go.”

“Emma I will stand here all day.”

“No the fuck you won’t” Emma snaps. She rakes one hand through her hair and takes a breath. “I am about to lose it so can you please just leave.”

Killian continues totally unaffected. “I just need closure right now.”

“Well I have closure.”

“I understand that but I’m not leaving till I at least have closure.” He clearly does not understand that.

“No. you  will leave, because I already sent you home.” Graham turns to face Regina, and she could laugh out loud at the desbelieving grin that breaks out across his face at Emma’s words. She feels the same way. Emma is only ramping up though, she keeps talking. “Since we have ended I have been going back through everything in my mind and I feel like I just have so much clarity about how much I’ve put all the other contestants through, how much I’ve put myself through just for your sake. I’ve been bending over backwards trying to give you chances.” It’s good to hear her say it, but it’s heartbreaking to hear her say it.  Of course there was a reason Emma kept Killain for so long despite all the chaos he caused, but she looks so sincerely rattled Regina wants to go to her. “You can’t take back what you said the other night.”

“I’m not here to take anything back. Relationships only work through communication.” he’s saying stock phrases that people say about relationships but he doesn’t seem to understand them.

“Well you-”

“Listen! Listen!” Killian cuts Emma off. “This is my heart we’re talking about-”

“This is not about your fucking heart!” Emma shouts. “Leave! Leave! I’m so fucking done. You are so narcisistic. Everything is always my this, my that. I don’t care if your heart is broken.”

“My heart isn’t broken because I’m still standing here.”

“Okay well then here.” Emma picks up the little pedestal that holds two roses on it, walks around Killian, and sets it in front of Regina and Graham.

Regina’s heart swells despite the chaos of the moment. To see Emma so firm, so sure, is an amazing feeling.

 Killian turns and tries to get here back and Regina has had enough of standing by the sideline. Emma has made her decision. Regina gave her all the space to do it for herself with no judgment or pressure. But now that the decision is made she has no problem helping take out the trash.

She steps forward and feels Graham follow. She slides between Killian and Emma, relishing the staisfaction of it. “Can you guys give me a minute?” The dullard genuinely asks.

“We’ve given you plenty of time.” Regina says cooly. He steps forward and she puts out her hand to stop him.

“Take your hand off me.” Killian makes it clear he is making a threat.

“Or what?” Graham interrupts. He’s standing protectively just over her shoulder and he looms over both her and Killian.

“Or what?” Regina repeats the question with as much calm as she can manage.

“What’re you going to do?” Graham doubles down. Regina expects that the answer if they were alone is that he’d hit her. But with Graham and the cameras all around Killian won’t do anything. 

“Emma did you send him home?” Regina confirms.

“Yes!” She cries. She still has her back turned to Killian, her shoulders set.

“It’s time for you to leave then.” Regina doesn’t remove her hand from Killian’s upper arm. It feels good to be physically between him and Emma. 

“I’m not leaving.”

Emma whirls around to face them. “I bet I can say something that’ll make you get in that car.” Regina hadn’t even noticed the SUV that had pulled up for Killian to get into at some point since they’ve been arguing. 

“There’s nothing you can say-”

“I did have sex.” Emma blurts out. “I wanted to let you leave with grace without me saying so, but you clearly won’t.” Everything around them has skidded to a halt. “I went into the fantasy suite and I don’t think I did anything wrong.” Was this what their last fight had been about? Killian didn’t want her to go into fantasy suites with anyone else? How stupid is he? Surely he knew the format of the show before he signed up. “If you have a problem with the fact that I fucked on a boat, and I’m not sorry about it, then you should probably go.”

Regina blushes deeply, a little stunned about Emma referring to their encounter so directly. She feels Graham turn to look at her which makes Killian turn and look at her. He seems to have deflated. Now that he has no fight left in him, he is slowly being ushered in the awaiting car. 

Emma is not okay. You could tell from a mile away, but they are still being lined up for a rose ceremony. It’s a stupid formality. There are two roses and two of them. It’s cruel to make them all run through these motions.

Emma gives her the second rose. When Regina finally gets a moment to be there with her. She grabs Emma’s hand before she can pin the rose on her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Emma shakes her free and pins the rose to her. “I’m sorry about all this.” She mutters. 

“You have nothing to be sorry for.” Regina whispers back.

“I feel so stupid.” Regina cups Emma’s cheek in her hand. Emma closes her eyes and leans into Regina’s palm. “He just... I just... I just felt like I haad to give him more chances.” Emma scrunches up her face trying to find the right explanation.

“I understand, and I also don’t care. He’s gone.” Regina tries to make herself sound confident. “You did nothing wrong okay?” Technically Regina shouldn’t even have been allowed to have this moment with Emma but she’s glad she was allowed to provide some comfort before they are separated again. “I’ll see you soon.”

The next time Regina sees Emma will mark either the end of their time together, or the start of their lives outside of this show.

Week 10

It’s hell to wait. It’s hell to not know. She has no idea where Graham is. She knows that if she is the first to step out of a car to see Emma today that means it’s over. She also knows that she will have no idea when the time comes, if Graham has already come and gone and been rejected. 

She has to trust Emma. Emma loves her. She has no idea if Emma loves Graham. It will kill her to think about it. She has to do a talking head. It’s hard not to cry. She says that she’s confident in her relationship with Emma. She says that she loves her and she just wants this to be over. 

She wears a suit because she thinks it’s funny and she came in wearing a suit. She likes bookends. It’s a good suit. If she’s going to propose today she wants to be able to kneel. She also wears dress shoes instead of heels. If she’s going to get her heart broken today she needs to be able to flee without worrying about tripping. 

She goes back and forth in the car. Everyone around her knows whether she is about to get engaged or get destroyed. The producers know. The tech team knows. Hell, the driver might even know. It makes her hate them all. Filthy vultures. 

The car pulls up to a beautiful cliffs edge. Regina can see the water below, it’s gorgeous, and in between, there is Emma. Regina has to walk down a set of stairs to the lookout where Emma is waiting. 

Emma is looking out over the water, and suddenly Regina is sure. “It’s me.” She breathes. There’s nothing else that makes any sense. 

She has to stop herself from running down the stairs. She wants to. If she could jump to Emma she would.

“Hi.” Emma says with a smile. There are tears in her eyes and Regina is not any less sure.

“Hi.” Regina replies. 

“Regina I-” Emma stops and wipes the tears out of her eyes. Regina is not any less sure. “Regina I love you so much. I think I could feel something stewing the moment I met you.” Only Emma would describe love as something that stews. “You feel real. I feel more real when I’m around you. I can’t imagine leaving here without you by my side. Regina I want to start our lives together. I want to help you ignore your crazy mother. I want all our friends to meet and I want to host massive drunk holiday parties in our home in Maine without two dogs.”

“Cats.”

“As long as you don’t say snakes.”

“Emma I think you’re supposed to ask me something.”  Regina needles.

“Oh, right.” Emma reaches back and grabs the final rose. “Regina Mills, will you accept this rose?”

“Yes.” Regina drops to her knee once the rose is pinned to her lapel. Emma drops down right with her. As Regian pulls out her carefully selected ring Emma does the same. “This is my job.” Regina protests.

“Well I want to propose to you.”

“Shove off. I have a speech.”

“Don’t tell me to shove off when I’m trying to propose.” The dress Emma’s wearing is so tight that she has to be on both knees

“Don’t muscle in on my proposal.”

“I love you.”

“That’s my line.” She’s forgotten everything she thought she was going to say. She realizes that she has forever to find the right words. 

After the Final Rose

Zelena kills it on the men tell all , which has been renamed the contestant tell all due to her presence. David does excellent as well, but that surprises no one. He was one of the most popular contestants from week one airing, straight through until his elimination. Regina is surprised at how many moments of their friendship make it past the final edit. Though sometimes without sound, he’s shown comforting her. They mess around and joke on group dates. His moment standing up to Killian on her behalf is topped only by her desperate run to say goodbye after his elimination. There is a corner of the internet dedicated to talking about their friendship and making 60 second video edits of them hugging. It’s a little weird, a little invasive, and a little sweet. 

When asked about any hopes of becoming the next Bachelor David confident leans back and says that he’s not really on the market, and doesn’t intend to be any time soon. It took less than a week after the show before Emma and Regina realized that he and May Margaret were a perfect match. They were so in love after their first date and Emma thinks they’ll end up married before her and Regina.

Overall their friend groups merge shockingly well. David and Mary Margaret’s easy kindness disarms Ivy for much of the same reason it disarmed Regina. Ruby and Mal are terrors when they are drunk together. 

Regina is shocked to find that people like her. She comes across as spunky, and funny, and authentic in the final edit. In her opinion, it’s clear that Emma is going to pick her from pretty early on. She kind of wants to yell at her past self every time one of past-Emma’s advances is met with hostility from past-Regina, but present-Emma thinks it’s funny. It’s easy to find things funny now that everything is okay.  

Everything is not okay. Being a public figure kind of sucks. Being a prominant lesbian and bisexual couple in the public eye can really suck. Regina’s bakery is doing better but someone does spray paint the word ‘dyke’ across the front at one point. It takes six coats of the lavender paint to cover it. 

Things are still tense with Zelena. Years of strife do not disappear in the face of one cathartic conversation. They talk on the phone after every new episode airs and Zelena comes over to watch the hometown episode with them. It fels right to watch it together even though it’s mildly horrifying. Her fight with Zelena is edited down as much as it can be to be appropriate and comprehensible at the same time. They both come off as mildly disturbed, but Cora is the one who really comes across as evil.  

Regina’s mother has started to harass them, with a vaguely threatening tone. Now that Zelena has cut contact with her as well, she is no longer willing to sit passively and wait for her daughters to come back to her. She says everything she can think  to get Regina to talk to her. She tells her her father would be disappointed in her. Regina knows it’s not true but it hurts. It hurts but Emma is there for her every time. 

 Emma has to watch everything with Killian happen on screen. She doesn’t necessarily have to, but she insists on it, cause it would be worse to not know. She cycles through shame and anger for a couple of weeks and she waits for the next episode to come out. She picks a fight with Regina when she sees all the footage from that week 6 group date and she locks herself in the bathroom for hours instead of coming to bed that night. 

But Emma still does open the bathroom door and come to bed that night. When she tries to apologize Regina won’t let her. She did nothing wrong.

Everything is not okay but at least 60% of things are okay. That might be the highest percentage Regina has ever achieved and she’s convinced she’s trending upwards. Her and Emma will have a long engagement. They’ll never be rich. They’ll never go on a Bachelor franchise show ever again. They’ll never have normal families, but maybe by the time they get married they’ll be at 80% okay. Regina doesn’t know what more she could ever want.