CHAPTER 8

After a few long minutes Mellie appeared back inside the diner, red faced and flustered; visibly distraught. She walked over to Regina and took a deep breath before sitting down. She sat back across from Henry and Regina and in that moment, she instantly felt a sense of happiness through the agonising pain. They made her happy.

"Who was that, dear?" Regina said when she noticed the pained look in Mellie's eyes, which was a look she never missed.

"No one," Mellie said with a fake smile, which Regina without a doubt could see right through.

Regina raised an eyebrow when she heard the anger in Mellie's voice, "Mellie…" Regina said sternly.

"Can we talk about this later; I just want to be happy for a bit longer ok?" Mellie replied before she gave Regina a chance to continue she looked at Henry and asked, "So, you want to hang out huh? Tomorrow?"

Regina was extremely concerned about Mellie, she knew the phone call was important, she had looked at her phone only twice in the time she had met Regina, never mind answered it. She couldn't help but wish the meeting in the diner was over so she could find out why Mellie was so pissed.

After another half an hour, the trio headed home, Mellie and Regina took Henry back to Emma's before heading back to their house.

After the two women got in and got comfortable, Mellie headed straight to the office where she poured a stiff drink and drank it all in one gulp. Regina stood and watched Mellie until Mellie noticed her. The former First Lady walked over to Regina and threw her arms around her neck and hugged her dearly and extra tight, like she was holding on for dear life. Regina didn't complain once, instead she returned the hug. Mellie couldn't help but start crying silently on Regina's shoulder, Regina didn't notice until she pulled back.

After a few moments of silence, Regina realized Mellie wasn't going to speak, so Regina spoke first. "Right Mels, who was that on the phone?!" She said as she wiped Mellie's tear with her thumb.

Mellie was taken a back slightly by how Regina was taking complete control of the situation, in that single moment Mellie felt protected and genuinely cared for. "Fitz." Was all Mellie said, it was all Mellie needed to say.

Regina's fist tightened, she could feel the magic rising within in her body, she was so glad she had learned how to control it or the whole house would have been ashes by now due to how angry Regina was. "What did he want?"

"He wants to see me to sign the divorce papers." Mellie said quietly.

"And don't you want to sign the divorce papers?" Regina replied, almost felling super hurt, she knew this was probably nothing to do with her but it still hurt.

"Of course I do! I just don't want to see him," Mellie said, "I don't want to tell him where I am either so he can't post them. I'm just going to go and get it done tomorrow morning." Mellie continued; she nodded her head as she tried to talk herself into it.

"You don't have to go, I'll go get the papers and take them back." Regina said as she walked over to Mellie and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You'd do that for me?" Mellie said, she had never been so grateful for anything in her life.

"Mellie, I'd do anything for you, when will you realize that?" Regina said almost a whisper.

"I love you." Mellie said, looking Regina deep in the eyes.

"I know you do, dear." Regina said moving her hand on to Mellie's cheek.

"No, you don't understand," Mellie said pulling out of Regina's embrace. "I really love you, crazy love. Not just love, more than love. I really do love you, Regina Mills and that absolutely terrifies me." Mellie said turning away from Regina.

"Mellie look at me," Regina said but Mellie didn't move. "Mellie, please," The plead in Regina's voice made Mellie slowly turn around, "I love you even more than that, do you not think I'm terrified? You used to be the First Lady of the United States for god sake, you could have anyone, anyone you wanted, I have no idea why you choose me, all I know is I'm terrified. I'm terrified I'm going to wake up one morning and you're gone because I'm not good enough for you. You have no idea how petrified I am but I love you and I'm so willing to take the risk." Regina said, she didn't even notice the tears springing at the corners of her eyes. For the first time ever she had laid all her feelings completely on the table.

Mellie felt a sensation in her stomach, she didn't know what it was, love? Nerves? Fear? Happiness? A combination of all four? She had no idea, but she liked it. "Regina," Mellie said in almost a whisper before she almost ran over to Regina and put her hands around her head and pulled her in for a hard and reassuring kiss. None of the women pulled back for several minutes until they absolutely needed to. Mellie was the first to pull back. "Regina, I'm never ever going to leave you ok? You could have anyone you want, I mean look at Emma Swan, she's absolutely beautiful and she clearly loves you, I don't know if I'm going to wake up one morning and-"

"Stop," Regina said, causing Mellie to instantly stop what she was saying. "I'm not Fitz, Mellie, I choose you, I come home to you, not Emma, YOU. That's how it's going to be for as long as you allow, I'll always choose you. You've got to trust me."

"You've got to trust me too then ok?" Mellie said still not removing her hands from Regina's hair.

"Okay." Regina said before leaning back in and kissing her girlfriend on the lips gently. Regina pulled back after a few seconds. "So, I'm going to meet Fitz, okay?" Mellie nodded.

The next morning Regina had gotten the address of the diner she was to meet Fitz in and headed on her way whilst Mellie and Henry stayed back at the Mills residence. "What do you want to watch? The Lion King?" which Regina had informed Mellie it was one of Henry's absolute favourites, much to Mellie's delight who secretly shared the same love for the film.

"Yes! Can we have popcorn?" Henry asked, Mellie remembered Regina's strict number one rule. 'STAY OUT OF THE KITCHEN.'

"Can you cook the popcorn?" Mellie asked; feeling slightly embarrassed that she had to ask a thirteen year old if he could cook popcorn because she wasn't allowed to touch the kitchen.

"Are you banned from the kitchen?" Henry laughed before standing up and waiting for an answer.

"Yes, how did you guess?" Mellie said, surprised.

"I was banned from the kitchen for the first 12 years of my life; I had to take an intense cooking course before I was allowed to touch the microwave!" Henry said before reaching out to high five Mellie. "I'll cook it!" Henry continued before skipping into the kitchen leaving Mellie laughing on the floor fixing the DVD.

Regina finally reached her destination before pulling into the car park of a nice looking little diner, much better than Granny's. She was angry, she so badly wanted to do unimaginable things to this man, take his heart and kill him on the spot but she knew for Mellie's sake she couldn't do anything towards, although she desperately wanted to.

She slowly made her way in to the diner before looking around for Fitz who was sitting in a corner booth by himself; it almost looked like he was hiding. She composed herself, proudly and boldly walked towards Fitz. Long gone was the adorable Regina Mills, right now, she was in Evil Queen/Madam Mayor form and she was determined not to let this asshole intimidate her.

"Mr Grant?" Regina said, with authority and confidence in her tone.

"Ugh, what?" Fitz replied; he just wanted to see Mellie and get out of there so everyone would stop annoying him.

"She was right; you do have a short temper, huh?" Regina said as she slipped into the chair across from him.

"Who was right? I'm waiting on someone." Fitz said nervously looking around; he had never wished he still had the Secret Service following him about more than he did in that moment.

"Of course, you're waiting on Mellie." Regina said causing Fitz to give her all his attention. "Ah, that got your attention. I'm here to get the divorce papers on her behalf."

"What? Where's Mellie?" Fitz said confused and getting angrier because his wife failed to show up.

"She at home, OUR home." Regina said with a smirk appearing across her face.

"What do you mean 'our home'?"

"Like I said, but that's none of your business, I need the papers, I will bring them back to you, end of discussion, now, papers?" Regina said, holding her hand out.

Fitz silently handed the papers over to Regina, she had to have been with Mellie because no one else knew about their conversation yesterday not even Olivia. "She was too much of a coward to come by herself?"

Regina scrunched her fist up to resist resorting to magic she promised Mellie she wouldn't do anything so she didn't. "Melody Grant is not a coward; she's a woman who you made feel worthless and used. Now she's confident, loved and almost secure again, I won't let you ruin her again." Regina said as she leaned over the booth and lowered her tone, her tone was now almost threatening like.

Fitz was in complete shock, he couldn't believe someone was speaking to him like this. "So she's a lesbian now?" Fitz said, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh yeah, you have no idea what you were missing," Regina winked before getting up and leaving. She almost felt satisfied not as satisfied as she would have felt taking his heart and crushing it to ashes but satisfied enough.

Mellie and Henry were singing 'The Circle of Life' rather loudly and completely out of tune but they were having fun and that was the main thing. Mellie was interrupted by the sound of her mobile, when she saw it was Fitz she rejected the call, for the first time in almost twenty years she rejected his call.

"Who was that?" Henry asked, praying Mellie didn't have to go anywhere as he was having as much fun as she was.

"That was nobody, absolutely nobody." Mellie smiled as she ruffled Henry's hair before grabbing a bit of popcorn and popping it into her mouth.

The brunette's phone beeped indicating a message had just come through. She contemplated ignoring it, but curiosity got the better of her. She picked up her phone and with the click of a few buttons the message appeared, 'nice one sending your girlfriend, I thought we could have talked, but you've clearly turned into a coward.' Mellie read the text message three times because all she could concentrate on was the word 'girlfriend' she didn't care about the rest of the message, all she cared about was the fact Regina had told him that she was Mellie's girlfriend, her heart warmed.

'I'll return the papers tomorrow, same place, and same time.' Was all Mellie replied before switching her phone off, Regina had the house number if there was an emergency and to Mellie that's all she cared about, quickly she turned her attention back to The Lion King.

Regina finally got home an hour later and walked in to find Henry and Mellie curled up and asleep together on the couch whilst The Blindside finished, Henry had his head on Mellie's lap as Mellie slept leaning on her hand, her elbow resting on the couch holding her head up. Regina quickly snapped a picture of them together on her phone before setting it as her screensaver; it was a sight she definitely wanted to see multiple times a day. She decided to leave them sleeping, she turned the TV off and headed towards the kitchen.

She began cooking dinner; tonight they were going to have Lasagne for main and an apple turnover for desert, two of Regina's most favorite dishes. She sat and done a few bits of paperwork in the kitchen whilst waiting on Mellie and Henry waking up.

Half an hour later Mellie came through to the kitchen followed by Henry, they were both yawning and rubbing their eyes in complete sync. "Morning, guys!" Regina shouted as they walked through.

"Hey! What time is it? It can't be morning already." Mellie said as she looked at the clock, it was only 4:30pm. "Damn you Regina, you had me worrying for no reason." Mellie said her southern accent coming through strong with her words.

Regina laughed before speaking, "Did you have a good day, dear?"

"Yes!" Henry and Mellie said at the exact same time, causing the trio to laugh, clearly they had really had a good day.

"How did you get on, Regina? I know you told him about us." Mellie said with a smirk claiming her face.

"How did you find out?" Regina asked raising an eyebrow.

"I got a text message." Mellie winked before walking over and checking the oven and then sitting down across from Regina.

"Hmm, ok… I got on alright. He's a bit of an ass if I'm honest." Regina laughed, she wasn't sure how Mellie was going to take that statement but that was how Regina felt and after all Mellie did ask.

"I told you!" Mellie said, triumphantly almost. "I'll deliver the papers back tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" Regina said, "We could just give them to our lawyer and she could send them?" Regina continued; she desperately didn't want Mellie to go. If Fitz was that bad with Regina, he would possible rip Mellie to shreds for the fun of it.

"No, this is something; I have to do, for me." Mellie halfheartedly smiled.

The next morning Regina headed out to work whilst Mellie headed out to meet Fitz. Regina gave her a kiss goodbye, one of her least favourite things in the world was saying goodbye to Mellie, even if it was only for a few hours.

After what felt like the longest drive ever, Mellie finally pulled into the exact same diner as Regina did yesterday, she pulled the car into the parking space before stopping the ignition and putting on her sunglasses, she quickly fixed her hair in the mirror before stepping out and making her way inside.

She spotted Fitz sitting in the same booth as yesterday, Regina did say he'd probably still be hiding in the corner and she was right, he was. "Fitz." Mellie said confidently as she walked over to him.

"Finally, you came, you didn't send you girlfriend, wow!" Fitz said, sarcastically.

"What do you want?" Mellie said, ignoring his remark.

"I just wanted my papers back so I can marry Olivia." Fitz said, trying to get a rise out of Mellie which to his disappointment he didn't get.

"I'm happy for you," Mellie reached into her handbag before producing the papers, "here are your papers." Mellie said, handing them over.

"What's happened to you? The old Mellie would have kick off." Fitz asked confused when Mellie was nice to him.

"Regina happened to me." Mellie said as she cringed on the inside but smiled on the outside all the same.

"Oh yeah, your girlfriend, when did you become a lesbian? She's far too good for you; I have no idea what she sees in you." Fitz said; he just wanted one last argument from Mellie. Strangely, he wanted her to care one last time.

"I ask myself what she sees in me every day; I'll get back to you when I find out." Mellie smiled through gritted teeth, now she wanted to kill him. "Did you ever love me?" Mellie asked, curiously.

"No, I thought I did, I honestly thought I did, but I didn't, I didn't love you half as much as I love Olivia. I never loved you, I'm surprised anyone could." Fitz said.

That hit Mellie like a ton of bricks but she wouldn't dare show it, not one little bit. "I'm glad we cleared that up. How could you not, after everything I done for you, I gave my life for you, I devoted my life to you, and you couldn't even love me?"

"Why do you think I pretended to love you? I felt guilty, you done that all for me and all I could do was hate you." Fitz said; he knew he was completely crossing a line but he wanted her to feel low, he didn't want her to be happy, if he wasn't making her happy no one could.

"Okay." Mellie simply said as she got up from the booth and walked out to her car, she got in it and began driving home, in silence.

Mellie didn't speak to anyone or think about anything until Regina walked through the door, "Hey!" Mellie said as heard Regina walking through the foyer.

"Hey, dear, how did today go?" Regina asked as she kicked of her heels and walked into the living room where Mellie was sitting on the couch, popcorn in one hand and hooch in the other.

"Fine, it was fine." Mellie smiled before gulping down her alcohol. Regina could tell she was drunk, "I'm going for a shower." Mellie said as she stood up.

"Mellie, you're far too drunk to shower." Regina said, causing Mellie to turn around and glare at her.

"If I want to shower, I'll shower." Mellie said in between hiccups.

"Mellie, if you slip and fall…" Regina said, daring to even think about it.

"Then everything will be better right?" Mellie said as she walked up the stairs.

Regina's mind went into over drive, of course it didn't go fine like Mellie had told her, in fact it was so far from fine it was the complete opposite. Regina knew Mellie didn't mean what she said at all, she decided to follow her up stairs.

Once Regina got to the bathroom, she took her top and skirt off revealing her matching red lacy underwear. She opened the bathroom door and walked in. She slowly opened the shower door, to reveal a naked Mellie sobbing in the corner, her knees up to her chest and her sobs louder than the water pouring down on her.

"Hey, Mellie, shh, it's alright." Regina said as she crawled in next to Mellie.

"Can't I get any privacy in this house?" Mellie spat.

"Nope, sorry." Regina smiled, causing Mellie to smile, she loved that Regina cared.

"I'm sorry." Mellie said, now leaning into Regina's embrace. Regina continued to rub Mellie's arm with her hand, in an attempt to calm her down.

"You have nothing to be sorry for, dear. What happened?" Regina said, before looking straight at Mellie. "I want the truth this time."

"It was horrible, absolutely horrible." Mellie finally admitted.

"What did he say?" Regina asked, she was once again feeling the anger and magic rising within her body.

"He said he didn't know what you saw in me, and he couldn't understand how anyone could love me because he never did." Mellie said through sobs, the alcohol had made her even more worked up than before.

"Oh, Mels" Regina said as she kissed her forehead. "I love you, I don't know if he did or not but I do, and that's all that matter's right?"

Mellie simply nodded.

"So you're going to forget about everything he said, and you're going to move on with your life and forget about him okay?"

Mellie nodded again.

"Good, now this is the first time I've seen you naked and we're sitting in a shower, this is not the most romantic thing ever." Regina said trying to lighten the mood.

"We could make this romantic," Mellie said before crawling on top of Regina and revealing every inch of her perfectly toned body. Regina tried to burn every inch of it to memory but she was too lost in the moment to even concentrated.

"I like where you're going with this." Regina said through gasps of breath.

"Shh, no talking." Mellie said as she kissed Regina's lips hard, Regina's hands moved on to Mellie's bottom, it was her favourite part of Mellie's body so far.

Mellie moved her hand down Regina's back and placed her hand on Regina's bra strap but before she unclasped it, she pulled back from the kiss and looked at Regina waiting for approval, Regina nodded and smiled widely. She was in her element. Mellie unclasped the bra and pulled it off Regina before she kissed her again before leaving trails of kisses from her lips, down her neck and to her breast. Mellie once again looked at Regina waiting for a sign of approval before cupping Regina's breast with her hand and kissing it all over, before kissing her nipple gently. Once she had seen to the left one she moved on to the right doing to exact same, she could hear slight moans coming from Regina which made her ache.

Finally she looked up at Regina. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Mellie asked.

"I've never been so sure." Regina said as she pulled Mellie up for another long kiss.