Chapter four

Regina frowned down at the two cups of to-go coffee in her hands and she wondered whether she had ever been this nervous in her life, especially when it came to Emma Swan. She had certainly been somewhat nervous when the woman had first shown up in town considering that she symbolised the possibility of losing her son and her cursed life. Now things were different though and rather than wishing that the saviour would just leave town she was wishing that she would be able to just go and spend time with the infuriating blonde.

It hurt more than she thought possible when she had realised that she hadn't seen her best friend in days and what was worse yet, she had no idea what was keeping her away. She knew that it had something to do with what she had admitted to Henry the last day she had seen her. She had of course thought that it must have something to do with her admission of bi-sexuality, but her mind was having some trouble figuring out what it could be. Either Emma was homophobic, which she was pretty sure was not possible, or she had rushed out because she had been freaked out by Regina herself not being straight.

The brunette quickly shook her head, trying to force all of her worries to leave her mind as she pushed the door to the sheriff's station open.

After a short walk down the corridor, she swallowed hard as she came to the main area and her eyes were instantly drawn to the office at the other side, where a certain blonde was visible. In her concentration, Emma hadn't even noticed that another person had entered and she held up a scrunched up piece of paper, trying to angle it perfectly. Regina watched with a quirked eyebrow as the woman finally threw the paper, which went straight into the waste bin without touching the side.

The mayor chuckled lightly and began walking over to the sheriff's office while the childish woman did a little victory dance at her desk.

"Our tax dollars hard at work I see," Regina smirked while she leaned against the doorframe.

Emma's mouth dropped open slightly and she looked up at the older woman, looking very much like a deer caught in headlights.

"Regina…" she breathed with her expression halfway between anxious and happy. She was more than missing Regina, even if the very thought of seeing her had made the saviour's mouth go dry. She thought that it would be easier to not think about her crush if she didn't have to see her unfairly beautiful face as often as she usually did, but honestly it was probably making it worse. All she thought about was trying to find some random piece of paperwork so that she had an excuse to go to the mayor's office and it made her so happy to see that the former queen hadn't even bothered with pretence. They usually planned when they were going to have coffee together, but the other woman had obviously taken the initiative and the blonde felt her stomach erupt in butterflies when she wondered whether the brunette had missed her as much as she had missed her.

Finally, the blonde woman realised that Regina was looking at her expectantly and she quickly thought of a reply, "you've already used that one, madam mayor."

"I believe it applies quite aptly," the brunette chuckled lightly.

Emma chuckled too and Regina walked over to the desk to place the coffee upon it.

"I can see that you're very busy, but I assume that you have time to have one drink."

The blonde was about to nod her agreement, before she realised that having coffee with Regina would mean that she would actually have to sit down and have a real conversation. She wasn't sure whether she would be able to get through the whole thing without mentioning what she had found out. In that very moment, she actually wanted to blurt it out.

"Actually…I have a meeting…" Emma said as convincingly as possible.

Regina frowned for a second as she looked over her shoulder at the trash bin surrounded by balled up pieces of paper.

"With who?" she asked disbelievingly.

The blonde bit the inside of her cheek and desperately ran through all of the people that she could possibly have a meeting with, but it wasn't exactly like she could lie about town hall business to the mayor herself.

But then it occurred to her that there was something that wouldn't exactly be a lie, assuming that the person that she needed to talk to was actually available.

"The events coordinator for the winter festival wants to meet with me to discuss what would be expected of the sheriff's department during the event."

Regina narrowed her eyes for a moment. She knew that the woman wasn't telling the complete truth, even if that was something that she had to do, she certainly didn't have to do it this very second.

"You have a meeting with Alex?" the brunette asked.

The saviour frowned and asked, "Alex?"

"The events coordinator for the festival…"

"I thought Thomas was doing it…" the blonde sighed as she practically felt her cover story collapse around her.

"Alex wanted the experience and Thomas decided that he would rather go to the festival this year," the mayor replied, her eyes narrowing further as she explained.

"Well then I guess that it's Alex that I'm meeting with," Emma said as she stood from her desk chair. "We can have coffee another time, Gina."

The brunette watched her go and considered that she could offer to walk over to Town Hall with her, but she was pretty sure that she wouldn't be able to take the thought of more awkwardness, so she instead just nodded.

Emma offered her a quick wave and a smile as she thanked the other woman for the beverage and then just about stopped herself from running out of the station. Once the saviour was out of sight, she leaned against the nearest wall and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You're an idiot, Swan," she muttered.

-Later that day-

Henry blew out a breath of frustration as he walked up the drive towards the mayoral mansion. He looked over his shoulder and quickly offered Hook a wave goodbye before he pushed open her door and allowed his backpack to drop to the ground.

They had spent the whole day trying to plan a way to get the saviour and former Evil Queen to finally admit their feelings for each other, but nothing seemed like a good idea. He had suggested arranging a lunch date by convincing both of them that they would be meetings someone else, but Killian had pointed out that there was great potential for awkwardness if they went that route. This also seemed to be true for most of the other things that he suggested since they almost all resulted in both of his mothers ending up in a situation that they hadn't planned for themselves.

He couldn't help but think that his grandfather had been right in saying that he shouldn't meddle in matters of the heart, especially since he didn't understand exactly what was keeping them apart.

"Henry?"

The boy looked up to the direction that the sound was coming from and instantly allowed his feet to carry him towards the kitchen.

When he appeared in the doorway, Regina quirked an eyebrow at said, "I thought you were coming home in an hour."

"Killian forgot that he planned to have dinner with ma…he did invite me but I thought that you would have probably already started dinner," he replied as he came over to the counter upon which his mother was chopping vegetables.

Regina nodded and looked back down at the carrot before a loud chop filled the room and Henry's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"What did the carrot do to you?" he asked.

The older brunette blinked a couple of times and sighed before she placed the knife down and shook her head,

"I'm just a little…on edge," she replied.

Henry tilted his head for a moment before he moved forward to take a seat on the opposite side of the counter to his mother. He could tell from her facial expression and how tense her shoulders were that her words were true and he also had a feeling that he knew exactly why she felt so on edge.

"Is it because of ma and Hook going for dinner?"

Regina furrowed her brow at the mention of the pirate. She had initially hated him when it appeared as though he and Emma were set for a relationship, but her hatred had faded almost as quickly as their romance. It soon became apparent that Killian was actually a good man who her son needed in his life after Neal had died. She didn't want to imagine how Henry would have dealt with the loss of his father without the support of Hook. Her and Emma wouldn't have been able to provide the same kind of support in their capacity as his mothers and the more time that Henry spent with the pirate, the more that Regina started to like him. Since the curse had broken, she had learnt that if Henry was an excellent judge of character (with the exception of Peter Pan of course, but she tried not to think about that too much).

"They have dinner all the time, Henry, it's not an issue," she replied as she slowly picked up the knife to resume her chopping. She didn't really want to discuss the infuriating blonde since she had no idea what had suddenly gone wrong with them.

"So…what's wrong?" Henry asked and pulled a piece of carrot from the safe zone of the chopping board. When Regina made no attempt to reply, he added, "is it because ma hasn't come here in a few days?"

The older brunette took a deep breath, she didn't really want to talk to her son about this since she didn't want him to know that she had been so bothered by not seeing the blonde in a few days. There was no obligation for Emma to come to the mayoral mansion every day for dinner, they were not together and she was still fulfilling her motherly duties to Henry. They were just friends and not girlfriends, she shouldn't be this frustrated at not seeing her 'friend' every-day. Though she had to admit that it hurt earlier when the sheriff had refused to have coffee with her.

"She is under no obligation to attend dinner here," she replied tightly and as evenly as possible.

Henry raised an eyebrow at the woman who was refusing to look up from the vegetables she was currently assaulting. If he had any doubt about the mutual attraction between his mothers, it certainly now gone. There was no way that he could deny the fact that Regina had strong feelings for Emma, which could only mean that what Kathryn had told him was absolutely true. A small smirk overcame his face at the thought of Regina ranting to Kathryn about her 'crush' on Emma just as Emma would have been ranting to him or Hook about her own feelings.

The boy was about to make a suggestion, but then he remembered the threat that his mother had made just a few hours earlier. He had told Hook exactly what he had to do and now he couldn't get involved anymore. As much as he knew that Emma's grounding threats would disappear the moment that she and Regina got together, he couldn't risk them becoming a reality before the operation was successful.

"I'm gonna go and do my homework," he announced after a moment of silence.

Regina frowned but still nodded. She had been almost certain that there was some kind of operation going on and she had been sure that Henry was moments away from telling her. At least if she knew exactly what he had done, she would know that Emma wasn't avoiding her because of something she had done. Of course, she didn't know that her son was working under the threat of a five-year grounding.

Killian offered Emma a final wave as she exited the diner and brought the coffee he had ordered up to his mouth. As he had promised, he had not once mentioned Regina or the operation, no matter how much Emma had tried to prompt him to give her clues. Even though the blonde had forbidden the operation to go forward, she had clearly not thought that it would have actually been effective. It was for that reason that Hook had tried to stick to his word and maintained that Henry had listened to her and given up on Operation Wingman. Luckily, he had managed to word it in such a way so that the Saviour's infernal superpower was not activated, though he could tell that she was still suspicious. However, he was also sure that she seemed somewhat disappointed that there was apparently no longer an operation for her and Regina to be together.

As the pirate placed his mug back down onto the table another blonde slipped into the booth opposite him and he smiled at her. The last thing that Henry had done for the operation was to inform Kathryn that she could talk Killian to coordinate and they had set up a meeting for after Hook had dinner with Emma to make sure that she thought the operation was over.

Kathryn returned the smile, though it was slightly tight. The two of them had never actually met, which made it very strange for them to meet to talk about such an important matter.

"I take it that you received Henry's message?" Hook asked.

The blonde nodded and replied, "he said that he's not allowed to help anymore and it's up to us."

Killian frowned, he had hoped that Henry would have sent a full plan to the woman since he had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do next, but Henry probably didn't really know either. The boy was probably relieved that he could leave this in other people's hands.

Kathryn laughed at the nervous expression on his face as she thought about all of the stories she had heard about the great Captain Hook.

"I assume that Henry didn't give you any ideas either?" she asked, half exasperated and half amused.

Killian shook his head, "I think that he may be out of ideas at this point, probably why he was so willing to listen to Emma…"

Kathryn sighed and nodded, even if she had wanted Emma and Regina together as soon as possible that didn't mean that she had any ideas. Of course, she had considered forging a note from the mayor so that she could force them to have a meeting or a lunch date. But that plan hinged on the idea that Emma would actually show up to any of these meetings since she was currently avoiding Regina like the plague.

"The first thing we need to do is make them act like friends again and then we can work on getting one of them to ask the other one out," Kathryn pondered.

"And how do you suppose we are going to do that?" Hook asked with a frown. Getting the two most stubborn women in town to do what they wanted wouldn't be the easiest part of their operation.

"Absolutely no idea," Kathryn sighed.

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