A/N: This story idea comes from the lovely Shae Wild. I only hope I do it justice!

A/N2: For the purpose of this story, Emma was never the Dark One, but she still has her new house and Zelena has already given birth and been sent to Oz.

A/N3: I just want to warn anyone who might be bothered by it: Hook is going to have a moderate sized role in this story, but it won't be Captain Swan. I didn't tag him and I've already had CS trolls on this story so I'm not going to tag him and invite more, so the warning is there. Robin is also in this story as well, and with Regina for a chunk of it, but it's Swan Queen endgame :)

RECKLESS ABANDON

By RowArk

Chapter One: Thanksgiving

"You should leave."

Emma opened her eyes and frowned, rolling over to look at Regina, who had apparently gotten up and put her clothes back on after Emma had just begun to drift off.

"What? Why?" Emma asked, sitting up quickly and pulling the bedsheet up over her chest. She hadn't had any issue being naked with Regina when Regina was also naked, but now suddenly she felt self-conscious.

"Because!" Regina cried, sounding exasperated as she threw her hands up in the air as though the answer should have been obvious to the dumbfounded blonde staring back at her. "This was a mistake. You need to go."

"Regina! You're freaking out!" Emma insisted. "Just calm down."

"No. Get out." Regina turned away from Emma and started picking up the Sheriff's clothing from where it had been strewn around the room. She tossed jeans and a black bra and a white tank top at Emma without looking.

"Where the hell are your panties?" Regina asked, dropping to her knees to look under the bed.

"I wasn't wearing any, remember?" Emma reminded her with a playful grin as she began to put her clothes on.

"Fine. Get dressed and get out," Regina said, standing again and glaring at Emma.

Emma rolled her eyes. Leave it to Regina to flip out after the fact. Two hours ago she couldn't get Emma's clothes off her body fast enough, and now she was kicking her out of bed in the middle of the night. Emma smirked to herself, knowing she shouldn't have expected any less from the former Evil Queen.

"Uh… Regina?" Emma asked, once she was dressed and standing awkwardly beside the bed.

"What?" Regina snapped.

"Uh… are we gonna talk about that… thing… that happened? You know, the-"

"No! It doesn't matter. It was nothing, Emma. Now go home," Regina said, as she grabbed Emma by the arm and practically pushed her out of the bedroom.

"Call me?" Emma grinned, cheeky as ever. She couldn't help but think Regina was cute when she was flustered like this.

Regina answered by slamming the door in her face.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Alright, Madam Mayor, I'll see myself out," Emma said aloud, as she turned and headed down the hallway.

This night hadn't exactly turned out how Emma had envisioned, but she couldn't exactly complain, either, even if Regina was currently in a tizzy. The evening had started out innocently enough, when everyone had met up at Granny's for Thanksgiving dinner. Emma had been sitting with Hook, but practically ignoring him, as her attention was on Regina all evening.

Regina didn't seem herself. Robin, the proud papa, was busy showing the baby off to everyone, while Regina sulked across the table from Emma.

It had been Emma's idea to start taking shots.

Neither of them were drunk, but tipsy enough, perhaps, that their judgments were both a little clouded, and when Robin had left early with the baby, it had been Emma who suggested maybe she should walk Regina home, since driving was out of the question for either of them.

Killian had seemed less than thrilled by that, but Emma was more concerned with Regina at that moment.

"I don't think I've ever seen you drunk before," Emma laughed.

"I'm not drunk!" Regina shot back, before chuckling. The mirth was short-lived, however, as a more somber look replaced it.

"What's up with you tonight?" Emma asked, as they neared the Mifflin street mansion.

Regina raised an eyebrow. "Isn't it obvious?" she sighed, shaking her head. "I just… nevermind."

"No, what? We're friends, right? You can tell me."

"It's stupid. He just… fawns over that damn baby so much," Regina said, and cringed as soon as the words left her mouth. "Forget I said that. I have no right to be jealous over a baby. He's her father and…."

"You can't help how you feel, Regina. It's not an easy situation."

"Right," Regina nodded, as they reached the front step. "You… want to come in?"

And that's how they'd ended up drinking in Regina's living room until the wee hours of the night. With Henry staying the night at the Charmings' loft and Robin back at the Merry Men's camp with his children, Regina and Emma were free to sit, and drink, and commiserate about their faltering love lives, perhaps a bit more than they'd originally intended to.

Well, maybe not more than Emma had been intending to. She was already quite sure her time with Hook had run its course, and as the evening progressed, she started to think perhaps she really had a chance with Regina, after all those months spent secretly pining for the Mayor.

So then, when Emma spilled her drink on her sweater, and immediately blushed, asking Regina where she could find a towel, and Regina simply smirked and said "why don't you just take it off?", Emma knew she wasn't imagining things.

She left her sweater on Regina's living room floor, and her white tank top soon followed suit on Regina's bedroom floor, though Emma didn't really recall much of the journey up the stairs, other than Regina's tongue in her mouth and tripping at least three times as she tried to take the steps backwards so as to not break contact with Regina's mouth.

With her head buzzing from the alcohol and her body on fire from Regina's touch, Emma remembered little more than entangled limbs and fingers and tongues until the moment when it happened; something Regina thought was nothing but Emma thought felt an awful lot like magic, when Regina's fingers were inside of her, and Regina was on top of her, looking down at her, deep and intensely in her eyes, and the moment that Emma came, a white light flashed in the room and for a moment time stood still and Emma saw with perfect clarity exactly what her life was supposed to be, from this moment on.

And Regina said it was nothing.

"Nothing my ass," Emma grumbled to herself, as she trudged along the empty street towards her house. She was grateful, at least, that her new home was much closer to Mifflin street than her parents' loft. She was also quite grateful that she lived alone now, and didn't risk waking anyone up stumbling through the door with sex hair and deep red lipstick smeared all over her neck.

Yeah, this was much safer. No questions asked, since everyone knew exactly whose house she had just been at.

But that didn't mean she was completely in the clear, either, because there was someone she needed to talk to to tie up just one loose end. Being with Regina had been every bit as amazing as Emma had imagined it would be, but she certainly had no intention of letting Regina be the 'other woman'. No, she wasn't just some side chick. This was what Emma had wanted for so long, and she wanted to make sure it went off without a hitch.

And that meant she needed to be minus one hook-handed pirate.

She glanced at the clock. It was late, but she was sure Hook would still be up, probably drinking rum on the deck of the Jolly Roger.

"You can do this, Swan," Emma said to herself, as she scrolled her contacts on her phone and landed on Hook's name. "Quick and easy, like ripping off a bandaid. Then tomorrow, Regina will call."

She wasn't entirely sure Regina would call, actually, but she told herself she would if Regina didn't, as she hit call on her phone.

Hook picked up on the first ring.

"Swan," he said - well, practically slurred - into the phone. "Finally pry yourself away from the Evil Queen long enough to remember you have a boyfriend, love?"

"Actually, Killian, we need to talk."

"Wonderful."

Emma could hear the distinct sound of Hook drinking rum from his flask as she went through the usual it's-not-you-it's-me routine, and swore up and down there was no one else, it was just time to move on, for both of them.

Somewhere, about halfway through, Hook hung up on her, but Emma didn't care. In fact, she was a little relieved, as she made her way up the stairs to her bedroom. She could still smell Regina's scent on her clothes as she stripped down and changed into a new tank top and plaid flannel sleep pants, the whole time grinning ear to ear.

She debated calling Regina right now to thank her, but decided against it, in case she was still freaking out. She was sure Regina would come to her senses and calm down by tomorrow, and they could talk about where to go from here.

And Emma was quite sure she knew exactly where she wanted to go.

"This is it, Swan," Emma whispered to herself as she crawled into bed. "Don't fuck it up."