Stop Bugging Me

Spoilers up to 1x11.

Taken on from a prompt on Tumblr, Emma listens to the bug she planted in Regina's office in episode 11 and hears more than she bargained for.

A loud roll of thunder woke Mary Margaret with a jump. She groaned and turned over silently praying that they had already seen the worst of the storm. She looked at her alarm clock. The green digital numbers read "3.15"

"Give me something!"

Snow jumped up. "Did Emma have someone over?" She felt a feeling of unease wash over her. She heard no other voices, no talking, actually no movement whatsoever in the loft. She stepped out of bed gingerly, careful not to make a sound. She began to wonder "Was it wrong to investigate the situation?" She stalled by her bed "Surely not"

She made her way to Emma's room and cleared her throat and whispered "Emma?"

She got no answer. She peeked into the room and found Emma sitting in the middle of her bed, her legs crossed under her on her. She was still in her jeans with earphones in her ears and a laptop on her lap.

Mary Margaret stared at her with her arms crossed, Emma looked up with a confused look, her brow scrunched "Hi..."

"Why are you up?" Mary Margaret rubbed her eyes trying to keep them from closing.

"Ever since Regina bested me with the playground debacle, I need a way to bring her down and these recordings may be the answer."

Mary Margaret frowned "Recordings?"

"Oh I bugged the Mayor's office...don't give me that look! She is up to something dodgy and I will find out what."

"Regina is not someone to mess with. She is powerful Emma."

"I can take whatever she doles out" Mary Margaret sighed and looked at the blonde.

"Why do you obsess over her?" Emma shot her eyebrows up.

"I do not...obsess over her. She is raising my kid, I just want to make sure she is not up to something."

The brunette smiled softly and sat down on her roommate's bed. "Find anything yet?"

Emma frowned and rolled her eyes slowly "I know how Regina likes her coffee and that being a mayor is a lot of boring paper work but the rest is just the noise of her moving around."

Mary Margaret shut the laptop "Get some sleep. You can listen to it tomorrow."

Emma opened up her laptop again in an annoyed huff "I can't, it is a daily feed, if I don't listen to today's one then I have that and tomorrow's one to listen to. I am almost done."

The brunette turned around and went back to bed calling out "Don't sleep in your jeans, it is bad for circulation."

Emma rolled her eyes and called back "You are not my mom!"

She listened to the end of the recording only to find nothing of use. She grumbled and soon fell asleep.

The next night Emma was growing weary. 5 hours of footage of Regina's 9 to 5 work routine and all she heard was the odd cough or rustling of paper.

She was about to give up on the whole thing when she heard a door close on the recording.

"Hi Regina"

Emma couldn't quite place the voice of the woman on the other end. But she heard footsteps approach the desk.

"Hi" Regina sounded tired.

"Are you okay? Is it Henry?"

"Was that Katherine?"

"No, just...a lot of paper work."

"Oh please, you can't pull that on me, I can tell when something is wrong"

Emma heard a sigh and a chair move. From the footsteps she guessed they had moved to the couch in the office. Their voices became less clear. Emma highed the volume and listened.

"So what is bothering you?"

"Remember what we um, what we talked about last week?"

Emma heard a soft laugh and then a "yes", it was definetly Katherine.

"Well I did what you said, I tried being nicer but it just turned out with them hating me more."

The Sheriff highered the volume and pressed the earphones closer to her ears, finally she may have something on the Mayor.

"What happened?"

"She tried to expose me for the funds I used on the playground and then I just got really angry and I may have banned her from seeing Henry"

Emma sat up at the mention of what Regina did to her. "Was she feeling remorse? Does this mean I may see Henry again?"

Katherine's loud laughter snapped Emma out of her thoughts.

"Will you stop? This is not funny!"

"Oh come on, Regina, you banned the woman you love from seeing her son, your son, it is kinda funny"

Emma stared at her laptop with wide eyes and frantically rewound the recording, sure that she had misheard the mayor's friend. She highered the volume again and replayed.

"Not funny...Oh come on Regina, you banned the woman you love from seeing her son-...Gina, you banned the woman you love from-...woman you love fr-...you love"

Emma replayed it over and over but each time she heard the same words.

"The woman you love"

"What the hell!" Emma said out loud forgetting the time. She heard her roommate move around upstairs.

"Emma! What is going on?"

"Sorry, I saw a spider..." Emma said loud enough for the other woman to hear. She heard Mary Margaret grumble something, she could not tell what but she heard her get back into bed.

The recording was rewound again. Emma ran her hands through her hair. 'Regina likes...loves me...' She laughed to herself. It had to be a joke. There was no way the Mayor had feelings for her. It was too bizarre. The longer she let it sit in the more absurd it sounded but those glances, those looks, their heated talks, that draw that was there. The absurdity seemed to slowly ebb away.

Emma put back on her headphones, unsure if she should listen to it anymore but her curiousity got the better of her.

It was silent for a moment after Katherine. She heard Regina's voice low with a sound of reasoning but it was cracked so different from the stoic voice she usually heard.

"I...She makes me...She manages to..."

"Push your buttons?" Katherine offered.

"Exactly!" A sigh could be heard clearly. The smile on Emma's face turned to a grin though she was unsure if she even returned any feelings of such to Regina.

"But is that not what you want?...Sheriff Swan pushing your buttons." Emma could hear the playfulness in that question and blushed harder at the suggestion.

"Are you blushing?" Emma jumped and looked around her room. She realised it was from the recording

"Is Regina Mills blushing?" Emma smiled again beside herself.

'I bet Regina blushing is cute' Emma frowned at the thought that popped up in her mind.

A barely audible "Shut up" that was definetly the Mayor's voice could be picked up under the sound of Katherine making an "Awh" sound.

"Sorry...okay plan time, you need to find a way to talk to her without her guards up"

Regina scoffed. "That'll be easy." Emma rolled her eyes at the Mayor even though there was now way Regina could see her.

"Coming from you? Really? Really?" Katherine's voice seemed to have cut Regina down.

"Fine, how do I do that?" Slight desperation mixed with determination could be heard.

"Maybe let her see her son again, that could work."

"I suppose I could do that" Emma smiled widely. She missed that kid though she would never admit it out loud, she loved being a mom to him.

"And maybe you know, lighten up around her."

"I guess." The voice sounded forced, through gritted teeth.

"C'mon lets get lunch, my treat, we can talk about it more there." Emma listened as a door opened and closed and then nothing.

She sat in the dark, not knowing how to process the news. She tried to think back to all she and Regina had gone through.

The Mayor sure was welcoming when she arrived in Storybrooke, she had originally thought they could have been friends, but then Regina thought she was staying to steal Henry.

Emma smiled thinking of her son. He was more like Regina's son. He had her cunning, even thinking of how he had found her. Stealing a teacher's credit card. Emma rolled her eyes "That is something Regina would be capable of"

Emma had to admit that she had felt a physical attraction to other woman, the second she saw her in her garden worried over her son. She was in awe of her when Regina spoke to her that she lost her armour for a second and felt like a schoolgirl. Emma had never seen anyone that beautiful.

She also had to admit that when she had caught Graham sneaking out of Regina's house that she felt a lump in her throat. She didn't know how to explain it. But she felt a pain in her heart. And when Graham died, she felt horrible for thinking it but things were better.

She liked to believe that was because she had a purpose, a job but maybe it was because she got to see the Mayor more than any other job could offer.

Emma sighed in frustration. It was 5am, she needed to shut off her brain. One thought kept appearing in her mind, she had to see Regina.

Let me know what you think.