Hii guys here's another chapter for yall, I hope you enjoyed it.

Sorry for any typos.

Chapter 20: Jealousy & Fries – Part II

...

"You apologize," Ruby said.

"Yea, that part I know but like I can't just apologize and forget everything, right? Regina doesn't even work like that and I didn't understand why she was so upset over some stupid fries; she already saw me feeding Henry fries before and she didn't complain! At least not like this," she looked down at her son and noticed that he was just stuffing his mouth with the fries, so she began to remove them from his grip, even she knew when she should stop feeding him these kinds of things.

"Oh soldier, you still got a long way to go, you need to understand women better and you specially need to understand Regina better because that one is feisty," Ruby chuckled as she walked away.

"Tell me about it…" Emma mumbled as she just watched her son with a small pout. Now she looked like the child and Henry was still too entertained to try to get the fries to care about what was going on around him. "Let's eat the soup, kid," Emma sighed out and grabbed the spoon to feed her son the soup and Henry complained and moved, smacking the spoon away from him, leaving Emma's jeans dirty with soup…talk about karma, maybe. "Ugh, fu-…great," she complained, placing the spoon away and settling Henry besides her again.

"No shoup," Henry said as he pressed his palms against the window, looking outside.

...

Storybrooke Streets

Emma walked down the streets of Storybrooke after trying again to make Henry eat the soup, but he was already full enough because of how many fries he ate while she and Regina were busy arguing about something that the soldier still wasn't sure what it was exactly.

"Mama, mama, mama," Henry called out for her as he quickly got in front of her legs and looked up at her while stretching up his arms.

"Henry you haven't even walked for five minutes, you can do it a bit more, buddy," Emma told him as she moved him aside and took another step, but Henry pulled her back and quickly began to throw a tantrum.

"No, no, no," Henry complained as he wiggled his arm out of Emma's grasp and dropped his bottom on the ground. "Up, up," he repeated while stretching out his arms and giving her a big cute pout.

Emma sighed out as she just stood there and stared at her son, she literally didn't have the energy to even try go against him, she was just processing what was going on right now. It seems both Mills were up against her today. "Fine, I will carry you home, but when we get there your dinner will be vegetables," Emma told him as she bent down and picked him up, after comfortably placing him in her arms, she kept walking.

"Yay," Henry said cheerfully, his sad facade completely gone as he threw his arms around her neck and dropped his head over her shoulder.

"Why you so manipulative champ?" Emma grumbled under her breath as she kept on walking.

She even passed by the building where Regina's office would be and she thought twice about going in there to perhaps make things right, but at the last minute she chickened out. She couldn't do it, she had never seen Regina this kind of angry before, and it scared her, and she didn't want to make this a bigger issue than it already is. So, she just went home.

Mills Mansion

"Okay, so here's the plan to make things better. First, we will clean all your toys up and then cook something healthy for you and leave food for your mom in case she comes home earlier, and then! We will give you a good bath, put on your pajamas and get you to sleep for hopefully some long hours and you will only wake up in the morning, got it, champ?" Emma was rambling about her plan to her son while opening the front door of the mansion.

Of course, Henry didn't understand almost anything she said but he still stared at her with his big green eyes like he was listening to his favorite bedtime story.

"Now give me a fist bump if you agree," Emma said as she closed the door behind them and showed her fist to Henry and he looked down at it for a couple of seconds before quickly ram his tiny fist against hers, as hard as he could and looked pretty proud about it. "Good job, buddy! Now let's get down to business." Emma had taught him how to fist bump recently, so now every time he remembers he can do that, he does it very excitingly. At first Regina thought it was ridiculous of her to teach such thing to a toddler, but deep-down Emma knows she found it very cute when she saw Henry getting in board with that idea.

For the next couple hours, Emma tried to stick to the plan as best she could, but she got a bit behind on the schedule because when they were putting away Henry's toys, she found a few that she thought were very curious and entertaining, so she ended up playing with Henry for like thirty minutes, till she quickly remembered she had to get things done perfectly before Regina got home so she could avoid another argument and perhaps this could be a good way to apologize. – Now her biggest challenge was getting Henry to eat a healthy meal she made, well she tried to make and ended up ordering soup from Granny's that Ruby brought and stayed a bit to hang out.

"Thanks for this, Ruby, I tried to make something to eat but honestly I don't even know how Regina's stove works…" Emma said a bit embarrassed because she has already been here for a few weeks and she still doesn't know how a simple stove works, mostly because almost all of her meals are at the Granny's and usually Regina cooks dinner, so she never had to interact much with the kitchen other than washing the dishes.

"Are you serious?" Ruby chuckled as she followed Emma into the kitchen and saw little Henry sitting on his highchair, eating cereal off the table attached to it. "Hi cutie!" She said in a high pitch tone as she rushed up to him and began to caress his hair and Henry looked up at her with bright eyes and cheeky smile, mouth full of cereal and crumbs.

"Yea, I know it sounds a bit ridiculous," Emma tried to not blush right now of embarrassment as she placed the bag with the ordered food over the kitchen island. "I gave him Regina's fitness cereal while we wait. I hope he can eat that and it's healthy, right?" She asked the waitress, hoping she did the right decision here, even if Regina wasn't around to see what was happening, she didn't want to have to lie later if the mayor asked her what she gave Henry for dinner.

Ruby chuckled at the soldier's words as she ruffled Henry's silky brown hair. "I am sure it's fine Emma, and now he has soup to eat, I also bought white rice, since he seemed so against eating soup at lunch, perhaps a bit of both will make him more excited."

"Really? Thank you so much, red! Forgot about that alternative," Emma thanked as she removed the stuff from the bag. She got Henry just a mix of vegetables soup and some good pasta, completely going against her desire of getting burger and fries again, but she thought if Henry saw it, he would want that too and her whole plan of getting him to have a healthy dinner would go to waste – and even with the pasta, she is not going to dare herself to eat it at the same time he's eating his dinner, she wants him to only be focused on the food that's put in front of him and nothing more.

"You welcome, I am sure with time you will get more used to Henry's eating habits. I bet it's Regina who controls everything he eats, right?"

"Yes, definitely. Sometimes I am feeding Henry stuff I don't even know what it is, it just looks mushy, but now he is getting more teeth, so she also gives him a bit of our own food, but it's all very well cooked and healthy. I could never cook like that," Emma explained as she began to prepare the soup for Henry to eat and a small bowl of white rice as well.

"That's normal, Regina is a bit of momma bear and she is a bit of a control freak, so," Ruby chuckled, saying this with no mean intentions at all.

"Ah ha, yea, she kinda is and usually it's not a problem since I usually don't mind doing things her way but today things got a bit carried away," she pressed her lips together and rose her eyebrows, still surprised that things went down like that. "Okay, Henry, look at me, look at my eyes," she quickly got into her best parenting mood, which was like she was the superior giving orders to cadet Henry, but in a good tone so she wouldn't frighten the toddler. "You are going to eat this soup, and you will like it, it's different from the one you had at lunch. This one is better, okay? And after you eat the soup, you can have a bit of rice, which is more yummy, got it?" She was speaking very seriously to her son, and every time she did this, Henry would be quickly sucked in and his green eyes would stare deeply into the ones similar to his and he'd be attached to the information she gave him – even if he didn't understand, he knew it was serious and he wanted to get the job done with his mother. "Okay, open your mouth," Emma said as she moved the spoon to his mouth and Henry took it, without complaining or fussing at all. "Great job! Fist bump!" She said excitingly, hyping hope the kid and he delivered the fist-bump with the same excitement. Eating like this was more fun for him.

Ruby just watched the whole scene a bit amazed at how Emma handled things with Henry, not because it was impressive, but because it was different and funny, plus it worked! Henry was really eating his soup without complaining and he'd give a fist bump back to his mother after every spoon full of soup he took.

Feeding Henry probably took thirty minutes and he ate half of the soup and the entire bowl of rice, so Emma felt satisfied with that and Henry seemed full. Next up was a quick bath and Ruby was still with them so she helped Emma bathing Henry and getting him into a comfortable cute pajamas and now they were both on the couch, with little Henry over Emma's lap as she had him snuggled up against her torso, while Ruby was reading a bedtime story for him from one of his books. – It didn't took long for Henry to fall asleep, because he was comfortable, warm and full plus he had his favorite pacifier in his mouth, which Regina had already insisted they need to make him stop using it but she just wants him to fall asleep so she can have a better talk with Ruby about Regina, she needed a few tips.

"I guess he's out," Emma whispered as she looked down at her son and even moved him gently in her arms and his head just dropped like a heavy stone, so he was completely asleep. "I will put him in his crib, give me a minute," she said quietly while going upstairs to put him in his crib. She gave him a soft kiss on his forehead before putting him down and before leaving she dared herself to remove the pacifier from his mouth, and it was a success! It didn't wake him up, so she went back downstairs to meet up with Ruby in the living room. "I got his pacifier back," Emma said with a big grin, feeling very proud of herself.

Ruby just giggled; she still couldn't understand these things that felt like small victories for parents but maybe one day she will. "That's great, Emma."

"Wanna split the pasta with me? I am not that hungry, and you've been helping me with Henry and keeping me company," she said while pointing at the kitchen.

"Oh, sure, I could eat something," Ruby stood up and followed Emma into the kitchen, Emma just took off the paper lid of the container and gave Ruby a fork while she kept another fork for her. She didn't even bother to get them different plates and split since it was such a big container of pasta and Ruby could care less about that as well since now they were both digging in, just bent over the kitchen island with their free arm over it for support and they just began to chat about life while eating.

"So, you still don't know why she seemed so pissed at lunch?" Ruby asked.

"Hmn, no," Emma managed to say with her mouth full of pasta, and she continued after swallowing it, "Like we were fine this morning, we had last night just for ourselves since Mal and Kat were babysitting Henry, then she went to work this morning, she was very cheerful and just fine," Emma explained while remembering how her day went down, "then after I got Henry, I went to her office since it was almost lunch time and at first things were fine but then I asked something stupid and things got a bit weird, but fine? Because like after that I just left with Henry and waited at the diner and she seemed fine," she stopped her explanation so she could continue eating.

"What did you ask her?" Ruby perked up an eyebrow at that, maybe that was the clue.

"I asked-oh-well…" Now Emma was getting nervous because she felt like it was a bit embarrassing to s hare that information with Ruby, and the waitress doesn't know to extent Emma's issues and she would think the reason why she asked such thing was just dumb. All because Mal and Kat made her feel nervous about how the future would look like with Regina, if they were going to make it or not.

"Spit out, junior," Ruby teased the soldier and that got her a gentle bump on her arm by the blonde's elbow.

"It's a bit silly but I asked her what did she thought about marriage and that's when things got weird, and then I found out that she was married before? That was a real shocker for me but now it's fine," Emma said with a shrug.

"I didn't know that either," Ruby commented, "why did you ask her about marriage, though? Are you thinking about proposing to her?!" Now all the sudden Ruby got very excited.

"What? No!" Emma quickly shut down that idea as her cheeks got slightly pink with the embarrassment. "I just wanted to know her opinion on it for the future, you know?"

"You mean you two future?"

"Yeah, I guess part of me always wanted to marry and have a family but I gave up on that long time ago because of my time always being away from America," she said while staring down at the pasta and moving it slightly with her fork, "but now I got that chance and I wanted to see if it was possible or not," she mumbled.

"Hmn…do you actually want to be married to Regina in the future? Or do you think it's what you should do since you two got a kid now and are living together?"

Emma wasn't prepared for that question at all because now that she thought about it Ruby was making a lot of sense with that question and it was a serious one. "I…I don't know actually…"

"Because look if you gonna marry her under pressure or because you think that's how things should go, you shouldn't do it, like at all," Ruby explained as she pointed her fork at the blonde woman, "if you ever want to marry Regina, you need to do it because you love her, nothing else, okay? The reason needs to be because you love her and you want to spend the rest of your life with her, not because of Henry, it's not a child that puts a marriage together," after explaining, Ruby went back to eat the pasta.

Emma didn't say anything to that, she was just staring at the pasta and taking in the redhead's words; they made perfect sense and it was the truth, if Emma ever wanted to marry Regina was because of love and nothing else, but they haven't even said those words to each other, would Regina say it back if Emma said it first? That's already a scary step for the soldier.

"And I am pretty sure she wasn't pissed because of that question. She was pissed because of something else," Ruby pointed out and Emma snapped out of her own thoughts.

"About what then?"

"Are you really that clueless soldier? She was pissed because-"

Right before Ruby could say it, they heard the door unlock and open it. Regina was back.

Regina had a long day at work, she did her best to stay focused on her paperwork but she felt very irritated throughout the day then before she decided to come back home, she called Kat and Mal to vent and for advice and both sisters told her that she should just talk it out with Emma and be more honest with what she was feeling. So, she was determined to do that, however, when she got back home, went to the kitchen and saw Ruby there too, it didn't help one bit, because Ruby has only been here like once or twice and now she is seeing the waitress comfortably sharing food with Emma out of the same plate basically and in Regina's eyes they looked pretty comfortable, even though the soldier looked at her like she was a child who messed up.

"Hi Regina," Ruby quickly greeted the mayor as she placed the fork down and stepped away from Emma, "I was here keeping Emma company, but I was just about to head out now," she explained.

"Good evening, miss Lucas," Regina greeted her back, professional as always, "don't mind me, I am going straight to my office to finish more paper work, you two can carry on," she didn't gave much chance for anyone to talk her out of it because she just went straight upstairs to her office, but not before checking on her son, making sure he was sleeping just fine.

Both Emma and Ruby were left behind with an awkward silence till Ruby decided the best was really to just leave.

"I am going, you should go talk to miss mayor over there and clear things out," Ruby told her as she gathered her things and headed to the front door.

Emma walked her out and sighed a bit frustrated. "I really hope I can fix this. I've never seen her like this before."

"Don't worry too much about it soldier, jealous moments always happen in relationships, you can easily fix it," Ruby winked at her and walked out, "bye!" And with that she was gone.

Emma didn't think much about it, till she closed the door and had questioned look on her face. What did Ruby mean by jealous moments? Was Regina jealous? If so, of what? Well nothing like to go find out now, so she gathered all her courage and went upstairs to Regina's office.

Regina was already pouring herself a glass of her apple cider, feeling a headache coming, things weren't really working out for her today and she was going to try to talk to Emma about stuff but the events throughout the day only made her feel like that maybe Emma wasn't looking for anything serious with her, so she was keeping her options open. Of course it was a bit of childish thought for Regina to have, but she also didn't know how to love very well, she wasn't good at this relationship stuff because she didn't know how to deal properly with her feelings and talk things out before assuming the worst and start arguments. Her bad side always got the best out of her in these kinds of situations.

"Regina?" Emma called out for the brunette, and it was clear she was nervous by the tone of her voice.

"What is it?" Regina asked, not even turning around to face the soldier, she just took a sip of her cider.

"Well I…" Emma stared down at the ground and shoved her hands inside the pocket of her jeans, unsure of what to do with her hands. "I think we need to talk, right?"

"About what?"

Regina clearly wasn't going to make this easy for Emma but still the soldier wasn't going to back down. "About what happen at the diner? Clearly something is wrong, and it started there, I think."

"You think?" Regina snorted at that and kept her back on Emma.

"Come on, Regina, don't be like that," Emma frowned slightly, trying to not get annoyed by this attitude, "can you at least look at me? I think we really need to talk."

Regina took a deep breath and finally turned around to face Emma, cradling the cup of cider with her both hands. "Okay, let's talk."

"Good, so…" Now she wasn't sure how to continue this, she thought Regina would just quickly tell her what was wrong, and they could talk it out, but obviously the mayor also had her flaws, and this was going to be harder than Emma thought.

"So?" She asked, sounding irritated.

"Can you at least tell me what's wrong? I don't get why you are so irritated and angry with me," Emma asked, almost pleading with her eyes, she really wanted to make things right.

"You don't know? You were parenting Henry the wrong way," that part wasn't fully truth because if Regina was in a good day, she wouldn't care much about the way Emma handled things back at lunch time with Henry.

"I don't think that's the whole issue here, it's not the first time I've done that, and you were never upset about it before," Emma pointed out.

"Well, I got feed up and this time decided to talk to you about it."

"That wasn't exactly talking about it…you even raised your voice and your tone and the way you acted. I've never seen you like that before."

"Well now you have seen it, I am a normal person too, Emma," Regina said a bit coldly and frustrated because sure she didn't act the right way but sometimes people forget she has flaws like every other person and of course there are times she is going to mess up. People need to stop assuming she will always act this perfect and professional way just because she is the mayor.

Emma sighed out at that; it was obvious the mayor was giving her poor answers to void the big elephant in the room. "Come on, Regina, this isn't going to work like this."

"If we don't work, then we don't work. There's other options, clearly."

"What are you talking about?" Emma frowned at those words; she was really hoping this wasn't going to end up in a breakup. Ruby said she could fix this! That these kinds of things were normal! Then why did Regina sound like things were already over?

"I am saying, if you and I can't be together, then we won't be and there's other people for you date," Regina took a sip of her cider, refusing to look at the blonde's eyes right now.

"What? Why would you say that? You don't want us to be together?" Emma was really trying her best to not freak out right now, but her chest was tightening up and she felt like she couldn't breath properly and her hands were shaking, inside the pocket of her jeans, but shaking.

"I didn't say that," Regina spoke while turning her back on the blonde woman again.

"Then what did you say exactly? Because it sounded like you already gave up on this before it even started properly," she said and Regina gave her no answer, so she pressed on, "what the hell did I even do for you to act like this all of the sudden?! Yesterday things were perfect, this morning you were just fine and now since lunch time you are pissed off about god knows what and breaking up with me?" She almost choked on her last words, she really hoped Regina wasn't going to do this.

"You were talking to her!" Regina snapped and gripped on her glass.

"What? Who?"

"To Lily! When I got the diner, there you were with Henry, happily chatting with Lily and then when you noticed me, you had such a big guilty look on your face," Regina turned around again to face the other woman, "and don't try to fool me, miss Swan, because I see how Lily looks at you, she looks at you like she loves you and I know you two had a past that was never solved, so if you are going to end up having feelings for the one that got away, then lets end things right now, before it gets too messy."

"Regina, I-"

But Regina still wasn't done, "and then when I come home, after calming down and decided to talk things out with you normally to fix this, I see you sharing dinner with Ruby all comfortable in my kitchen. It just looks like you are keeping your options open, Emma and I am not going to play this game, if you don't want anything serious with me, then let's stop," Regina was really angry and confused and hurt, tears were even threatening to fall from her eyes, but she was keeping it together.

"But Regina I even asked you about marriage!" Emma quickly said that, trying to save this conversation because what Regina was rambling about didn't make any sense.

"Yes, you did and it first I got very scared but then hopeful, so imagine how I felt when I get to the diner and see you and my son with that woman and then I come back to my house and see you with another woman that I didn't know you were even friends to begin with," Regina pointed her finger at the soldier, "I am not going to compete with anyone, so if you want Lily, go head, or even Ruby, who knows."

Emma frowned at Regina, now she didn't feel scared anymore, she felt angry and frustrated that the brunette just made all these assumptions without even asking her anything. "You are something else, you know that?" Emma said as she stepped forward, approaching the brunette, who stood confident and proud, even rose her chin up and wouldn't back down. "Everything you just said is completely bullshit," she said while finally being only mere inches away from the other woman and they both stared at each other's eyes with a deep frown, looking like things could explode any minute now till Emma grabbed Regina's chin gently and brought her lips close to kiss her.

Regina wasn't that strong, she melted a bit in the kiss and the tears that were threatening to fall, actually did when she closed her eyes to kiss back the soldier, only for a couple of seconds till she snapped out of it and pushed Emma away, creating distance between them. "No, stop, don't fool me like this."

Emma stared at Regina; her anger was gone the very moment she saw tears rolling over the mayor's cheek. She was hurting, she didn't say those things because she wanted it to be over, she said those things to not get hurt. "Regina, now you really need to listen to me," she stretched out her arm and grabbed the brunette's wrist.

"Emma, please don't," Regina was almost begging, she really didn't want sweet words to fool her, she just wanted the truth.

"The reason I was talking to Lily was because she showed up at the diner before you and she just wanted to check on me and my physiotherapy, then she stayed longer because I wanted to know her opinion about marriage. Since she is married, I wanted her to tell me what that felt like," Emma explained while Regina looked up at green eyes, with a pained expression but getting relieved. "And Ruby, damn, she was just here because I ordered food from Granny's since I didn't know how to cook anything properly for Henry. So I got him soup and white rice and he ate almost everything, then Ruby stuck around to keep me company and help me out with Henry and before you came in, I was basically asking for help because I knew something was wrong and I wanted to fix it but I didn't know how or what the wrong thing was even, and Ruby was just helping me out," while she explained, she took Regina's hand into her both hands and caressed the back of it with her thumb.

"Are you serious?" Regina asked with a shaky tone.

"I am dead serious. I don't have feelings for Lily anymore, that's on the past, and that's where it stays and I am not dumb, of course I know Lily still has a thing for me, that's why I felt so guilty when you saw us and also because we were talking about marriage and I knew that question put you off, so I didn't want things to get even more weird."

Now both women just stood there in silence, both staring at their own hands as the soldier kept caressing the mayor's. After a few seconds of silence, Emma took a deep breath and gained the courage to say something that she has been meaning to say before, but she never knew how true it was till this very moment. Till she felt like everything could be over and she couldn't live like that. "I love you," there she said, and it doesn't matter if Regina doesn't say it back, she had to say it.

"Y-You what?" Regina asked, quickly looking up at Emma, hoping to see green eyes but Emma had her eyes closed. "Emma, are you sure?"

Emma nodded and opened her eyes, finding brown ones staring deep into her soul. Goddamn, she was nervous about this. "Yes, I am sure, it's you, Regina. Not Lily, not Ruby, not anybody…it's just you."

Regina's plump lips shook before she threw herself at Emma, wrapping her arms around the strong neck but careful, because she was still holding that glass. "Emma, I love you too," she whispered those words into the soldier's ear.

Emma was startled by the sudden movement but then happiness invaded her heart when she heard those words. She slowly but strongly wrapped her arms around Regina's petite figure and hugged her tightly.

Maybe things weren't dealt the best way, but they still managed to do it and a good thing came out of this whole situation. Now both women know they just need to start to trust each other more and talk things out and believe things between them are meant to be.

Tadam! Did you guys like it? I hope so. Tell me what you would like to see in the next chapter.