Well, here is the update! Thanks again to Alexandria, the amazing girl who translate the story :).

Hope you enjoy it, and please leave your opinions, it's really important for us!

Chapter 8. Some Sad News

Emma was sure she had violated at least five rules of the road by the time she had arrived at her mother's residence. In that moment it didn't matter that she was going above the speed limit, they had not given her many details but something urgent had happened and her mother was the most important thing she had in her life.

Upon her arrival she ran to reception and asked for Mary Margaret's doctor. Just two minutes later he appeared, his face serious, and the blonde could tell that it was something very serious. Indeed, the treatment had not worked and she should say goodbye to her because the doctors didn't expect her to live more than one more day. Emma crumbled upon hearing those words, and she had to sit down to avoid falling to the ground. Her mother was the only family that she had-when she died she would be completely alone in the world.

The doctor was very friendly and tried to comfort her by giving words of encouragement, but the blonde also knew she had to stay strong and not show her sadness in front of Mary Margaret. When she had composed herself a bit, she went to the room and her mother smiled at her. She approached her, taking her hand affectionately.

"Hi Emma. How's my girl? And the baby? Did you bring him?" Mary Margaret used to do that often, to talk about times past. This time she thought the blonde was 20 years old. Talking about it made her feel bad, but she knew her mother was not doing it to be mean.

"I'm well, Mama, but the baby stayed at the house with Neal. He is still too small to bring for a visit," she lied, knowing she would be content. No sense telling her the truth and upsetting her, because her mother had really wanted her to have that baby.

"Oh... that's a shame, I wanted to see his face. I bet he is just like you, and I could sing one of the songs that I sang to you when you were little." The short haired woman started rocking her arms while humming a lullaby as memories of when Emma was a child came to mind.

Emma smiled sadly, but she managed to change the subject. They continued to chat for a long time, reminiscing about things from her childhood and that made Emma smile. For a moment she forgot what the doctor had told her, as if things were fine and with no danger, but when her mother fell asleep she went to get a coffee and take a walk to clear her head. She still could not absorb the news.

She was returning to the room when the doctor walked up to her, his face said it all and he didn't need to say it: Mary Margaret had died. The doctor told her she had died in peace and without pain.

During the following days Emma was in a state of shock. She felt very guilty that if she had not agreed to the new treatment she might have had another year of life and she thought that because of her stupidity her mother was now dead. More guilt came because of the way she had obtained the money. She didn't regret meeting Regina, but in that moment she could only wish she could turn back time to have her mother by her side. That, however, was not possible. It seemed like a nightmare that she was desperate to wake up from.

She made all of the necessary arrangements for her burial, as it was not necessary to have a funeral-everyone had left years ago and no one would attend. At the end of the day they only had each other. Emma had wanted a brother, or maybe a son, to hold her tight while she lived through this horrible moment.

At work, she could get a week off, but not more. They would threaten her that they would find another girl if she delayed. The cabaret owners cared little about the blonde's personal problems.

Saturday was coming and felt just as bad and depressed. She could not stop crying and knew that Regina would call soon.

The brunette had been planning that on Saturday she was going to go before her "class" with the stripper. She thought she would have to make something up so that she would not realize how anxious she was to see her. So to notify her of the time change she decided to call Friday night.

"Regina?" Emma asked at the other end of the phone. She was trying to talk as normal as possible so that she did not notice, at any time, the state in which she found herself.

"Hello! So look, tomorrow I can finally go a little earlier, would it be okay to come at 5?" The brunette's joy was notable... she tried to hide it, but it did not go away.

Realizing that she would destroy the illusion of another woman made her feel even worse, but she was not in the condition for anything. "Sorry Regina… can we leave it for another, better, Saturday? I have some things to do…"

The brunette stayed quiet because she was not expecting that answer at all. She continued to think about what an idiot she was for opening up days ago and that maybe that was the reason the stripper now fed her lies. "You don't need to make excuses to me. If you don't want to or can't see me, tell me that already and-"

"It's not that…" The last thing she needed was for the other woman to be angry with her. "In all seriousness, I do have things to do. If you'll excuse me, perhaps we can meet before next Saturday."

Regina noticed something weird in the other woman's voice, "Did something happen, Emma?"

"No, nothing... don't worry. Now I have to leave you, if you'll excuse me." She wanted to finish the conversation already so that she didn't start to cry.

"As you wish," she sighed, "I won't bother you any more." The brunette hung up without saying anything more.

Emma huffed, sure she thought that she didn't want to see her and that was not true.

Although, at the moment, she didn't feel anything. Her anguished caused an insufferable pain in her chest. Images of her mother came to mind all the time, when she would go to find her at the school, when she would defend her against the abuse of her father, and even that day when she learned of her illness. She passed the rest of the night crying until it was very late, almost dawn, and she fell asleep.

Meanwhile, Regina was pensive all of Saturday morning, feeling bad: now that she was finally starting to feel comfortable with the other woman, it seemed that she had lost her interest. She knew that she had said she had things to do, but she wasn't sure if it was true or not, and so without much more thought she decided she was going to go to her house and if she didn't want to see her anymore she would have the opportunity to say it to her face. She rang the bell, and did nothing else, and she already felt stupid.

Emma had just finished showering and she was looking in the mirror: her face was horrible. She had swollen eyes from all of the time that she had been crying. She heard the bell and went to open the door thinking that it would be an annoying neighbor. To her surprise, behind the door she found the brunette.

"Regina...what are you doing here?" She looked very surprised, she was sure that she had said not to come.

The dark haired woman was ready to make a few things clear when she saw the woman, but not that she was looking at her face she could see that something was wrong. "Emma, what happened?" All of the anger she brought had dissipated.

The blonde covered her face with her hands, realizing that she could not hide how she was. "Nothing...I'm just having some bad days."

Regina entered, closing the doors behind her and drew closer to her, putting her hands on her shoulders. "You're not going to tell me what has happened?" It worried her a lot to see her like this.

She looked down and, although she tried to avoid it with all her strength, began to cry again while still covering her face. "It doesn't make sense for you to know."

The brunette sighed, it hurt to see her like this, she had always been a happy woman. She had no idea what to do in these cases so she walked closer to her and embraced her strongly. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

Emma needed nothing more than this hug and she pressed harder against her. "My mother...died a couple of days ago...and it was my fault."

Regina was surprised to hear what had happened and she felt worse for her. "I'm very sorry…" She walked over to the couch with her and made her sit down, but she did not stop hugging her at any moment. "But I can't believe that it was your fault."

"Yes it was...they had given her one more year to live and I paid for a treatment that ended her life in just a few weeks."

The brunette drew back a little to look at the other woman and dried the tears off her face with her fingers, very gently. "But you paid for the treatment so that this year could turn into many more, it wasn't your fault that it didn't work Emma."

"It doesn't matter...she's gone. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life now." She looked down.

Regina put her hand on the blonde's chin, making her to look at her. "Hey, don't get like that, it's normal that all you see is bad after the death of a loved one, but you have to get on with your life." Her voice had a sweet tone.

"Yes sure, it's easy when you have someone else. Not when you're the only child without a father and without other relatives. Not to mention a significant other." She really was very negative and the word of the other woman failed to comfort her.

Those words made the brunette upset, thinking how sad the situation was. She took Emma's hands in hers. "Don't you have any friends?"

"I only have two friends...the one that you saw at the club and one that lives in another part of the country." She looked into the other woman's eyes. "Don't worry, that's why I didn't want you to come, you don't have to put up with all this."

"But I want to do it." Those words had escaped her mouth almost accidentally. She squeezed the hand of the woman in support. "You shouldn't go through all of this alone."

Emma smiled slightly. "Thank you...I'm sure you have things to do and I have to recover for the week ahead, if I don't go to work they will fire me."

"You are going to recover and you are not going to lose your job, you will see, and if you need help I can use my influence and talk to your boss so that he will give you more days." Regina knew that if she named her husband she could obtain many things.

The blonde shook her head. "I could have problems if you do that, it's not that simple. Don't worry, I will be well enough to get back to work."

Regina looked at her for some seconds. "Have you eaten anything? It seems to me that you haven't. Why don't you go to bed, lie down and I will prepare something. I'm sure I can find something edible in your kitchen." She smiled a little.

"Do you know how to cook? I didn't think that a woman like you would know…" she paused, "No one has done that for me."

"Every good housewife can cook, although then we have employees that do it for us." When she heard that nobody did anything for her she felt very sorry for the blonde. She thought she must have had a very hard life. "It's the least I can do."

Emma got closer to her and kissed her cheek. "Thank you... I will be waiting in bed then." She gave a small smile and she went to her room.

The brunette felt a shiver throughout her body from the kiss and she stood from the sofa. She walked to the kitchen and began to search in the cabinets. There wasn't expired food like she thought, on the contrary, she noticed that the blonde took care of her diet.

She took some of the vegetables and started preparing a soup. Regina wasn't able to avoid thinking that it was ironic that she was preparing food for a stripper whom she was sleeping with because, supposedly, she only wanted to please her husband. She knew something weird had happened with Emma and though she should run from it, she was not able to leave her in that situation.

The blonde was resting in bed, she felt weird thinking that Regina was in her kitchen making her something to eat. She was the last person that she would have expected that would be kind with her. She didn't know if it was because the brunette really cared about her or if it was only because she felt bad that her mother had died. A few minutes later she appeared with a tray and she walked up to her and placed it on her legs.

"Here you go." She sat next to her on the bed smiling sweetly.

"Wow! A soup, thanks. You realized that the mess that I am I hadn't eaten?" She placed her hand on the other woman's leg.

Regina nodded. "And because when something like this happens you don't worry about what your body needs. I'm sure you've slept little or not at all." She gently stroked the blonde's back.

"I will take a painkiller and something to sleep... the issue is night, that's when it costs me, mostly because I'm used to not sleeping for work." She tasted the soup and found it to be very tasty.

"You will overcome it, I know from experience, but right now you think that you won't."

"It's easy for your to say that when you have it all... your parents, a husband, a son, money and all of the luxuries you could wish for. I don't mean to offend you, but it's not that simple for me. I have overcome many things but this surpasses them all…" Her life had been hard, but now everything was different because she felt more alone than ever.

The brunette fixed her gaze on the other woman. "I may have had money when I lost someone but in that moment, although physically I had my parents, I felt alone, unsupported, locked in a cage. Maybe it was gold but it was still a cage and after I left and still kept going." She remembered those unpleasant moments many years ago.

Now Emma was intrigued. "Who did you lose Regina?"

"My... my friend." She was not able to say that it was her girlfriend, the love of her life. She ducked her head a little.

"They separated you from a friend? And you never thought to return to find her?" It seemed weird to her.

The brunette shook her head. "It was a mistake, no matter how much I insisted they let me, my parents had other plans for me. It wasn't the type of life where I belonged."

Emma looked doubtful. "It wasn't just a friendship, was it?"

They remained with their eyes fixed on each other. "What do you think?" She asked after some seconds.

"Well, I think that it's more likely that she was your girlfriend. You know nothing of her life? With so many contacts, you haven't thought of at least finding out where she is?" Emma could not deny that she had imagined something like this. Regina had too much sexual experience with women and she noticed when they went to bed together.

The brunette didn't bother to deny her courtship, it was too obvious. "It has passed through my mind, but I have done nothing, we ended badly because of them. I'm sure she blames me for what happened and more-what would be the purpose? Now I'm a well-known person, married and respectable."

"Well if you no longer feel anything for her, I suppose it would make sense that you don't find her." She had finished her soup, put it down on the side table and made herself more comfortable in bed and laying on her side.

Regina did the same and they laid face to face. "Do you want something else to eat or drink?"

"No, I'm good... I already had too much with the soup. Look at the time, it's 7pm! Do you have to leave? Who does the boy stay with when you're not there?"

"With the nanny. It's still early, normally I arrive here at this time." She paused and looked at her. "Do you want us to do something else? Something to distract yourself…"

"Well, you can tell me more about the girlfriend that you had... that type of story interests me." She too the brunette's hand and began to caress it gently.

Regina lowered her gaze. She was somewhat embarrassed by that topic, but she smiled slightly. "Are you going to take advantage of the situation to get information out of me?"

"Clearly, and then I'm going to write your unauthorized biography. What are you saying?" The blonde could not believe that she had been making jokes with how badly she had been feeling for days. Regina definitely had a strange effect on her. Good, but strange.

"I don't know. What do you want to know? I met her at university; I was 20 and studying journalism when we began dating…"

"Ok...and was she the only woman that you were with in your whole life? Because, sorry to tell you but, you knew, very well, what you were doing when we slept together…" Emma raised her eyebrows.

Regina laughed and blushed. "Yes, she was the only one. I suppose that some things you don't forget."

"No, clearly...you will never forget these things." She stroked the hand she was still holding while studying her face. "And do you really like men or are you only with them because your parents demand it?"

"I think that... I'm not attracted to men, I only have eyes for women, but the teaching that I've had makes me believe, in certain moments, that yes, I do like men." She had never spoke of this with anyone, but with her she had the confidence to do it.

"When you don't like them there is no point...I don't want to excuse your husband, but do you not think it might also be a little bit your fault he looks for other women?" Emma tried to proceed with caution with this topic so that she didn't hurt the brunette's feelings.

Regina thought for a few seconds. "Maybe, yes, you should see us in bed. It's nothing like what you saw me do here... I get on top of him, I move a little, he comes and is done. I suppose it is normal that he's looking... for things outside of that."

"How sad," she looked at the other woman, "and you've never thought of having your own children?"

"Yes, for a time I was excited about that, at the beginning of our marriage, but Max doesn't want to have more and he ignores the one he already has. Also Henry is like mine so I've made up my mind not to have any more."

"I imagine that should you want to separate yourself from him you would also lose the boy, right? Or have they made him legally yours as well?" Emma loved being able to learn more about her.

"No, legally he's not my son," she said seriously. She didn't like this topic because she had spoken with Max and he had been very elusive. "And yes, that's one of the millions of reasons...I've already talked a lot about me, no?"

"Yes...maybe. Although I like to listen to you." The blonde moved a little closer to her and placed a hand on her waist.

Regina smiled, "Before you had said that you were not used to people doing things for you... I'm not accustomed to having people treat me well and say nice things to me." She raised her hand to the blonde's hair and she tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"We can make an exchange, okay?" She laughed a little, joking. "I will say nice things because you are not the same person I met that night while leaving work…"

"Yes, I am the same. Maybe you are seeing me differently." They stayed silent for a few moments. "Do you want to sleep? I could make you a tea that I'm sure will make you feel better."

Emma shook her head. "I want to sleep, yes, but I don't need anything," she smiled, "thank you for being here. Seriously."

"Don't think I did it for fun, then I will have to pay you." She smiled, clearly joking.

"What are you going to pay me with?"

"I will have to think about it." She moved closer to her, encircling her with her arm. "Relax, I'll stay with you."

"Okay…" The blonde closed her eyes, feeling very comfortable with Regina, and she fell asleep after a little while. She couldn't believe that the person who was consoling her was her, of all people.

The brunette continued to caress her back gently, until she noticed that she had fallen asleep. She watched her, she seemed very calm. Without realizing it, her eyes closed…

Some hours later Regina's telephone rang insistently. It was Max, furious, who asked what his wife was doing at this hour of night.