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Snow has been hearing whispers going about town all morning, through her stroll going into Storybrooke. Whispers about her daughter and the Evil Queen. Very disgusting rumors if her ears were working correctly. However, she doesn't want to believe them, so she lets them go, even though the townsfolk wouldn't be quiet about the sheriff and the mayor.
When she made it to Granny's, she was exhausted from all of the ridiculous rumors that were plaguing the town this morning and wanted her usual breakfast and tea. That didn't go according to plan, however.
“Have you heard, the queen and savior are in a relationship!”
“No way?”
“Yes way. They were apparently at Tiana's Palace last night, at least that's what Greg said.”
“Dang, Tiana's place is fancy and takes a while to get a reservation—they're definitely dating then. You don't just take a friend to Tiana's. I mean, I wouldn't take you to her restaurant.”
“What the hell, dude.”
“Sorry, just the truth.”
Ruby couldn't even come collect her order before she heard of this tomfoolery. Emma would never date a woman, and certainly not the evil queen. She wouldn't embarrass her like that. Embarrass the family or their image like this.
She just wouldn't—certainly not by being a dyke.
Snow would get to the bottom of this and make sure this rumor disappears before it can damage her—their image. Regina wouldn't get to destroy her family again, and not by tainting Emma with something so wrong.
If Emma was going to be dating anyone, it would be with a lovely gentleman of her own class, a prince that could match her. Not a woman, it goes against everything the enchanted forest stood for, and Snow plans to continue it.
Her daughter and the evil queen wouldn't bring back such mockery on her watch.
She's glad David's watching Neal; she has a lot of things to handle.
As she's leaving the diner without her breakfast, Ruby gets hit with the most bone-chilling chills, and not the good ones. “I hope whoever has to deal with that has a 6-pack and prayers.” She shook her head and got back to wiping tables.
'Poor bastards,' the wolf thought.
Regina is finally relaxing after a long week of work and a long night. It was a wonderful night spent with Emma, but they did stay up late and got back to the manor way past midnight. Her and the sheriff had an incredible time, and they finally had time for a date last night after weeks of rescheduling, but the wait was worth it. Emma took her to a remarkable restaurant and truly wined and dined her.
She didn't know what to expect from the blonde, but she went above and beyond, and it truly made Regina fall more in love with her.
Now the following day she missed what she felt yesterday, but the town doesn't run itself, and she had to go to work, same for Emma. She's back home, and they were going to spend some family time together—her, Emma, and Henry. However, their son wanted some ice cream, and the blonde can never say no to ice cream or their son's puppy eyes.
So, while they're out collecting ice cream, here she is resting on the couch, waiting for them to come back. Or she would be resting if the insistent knocking and her doorbell wouldn't be going off. Maybe if she ignores it, they'll go away.
…
She sighs and goes to see who's at the door. They didn't end up going away.
As she opens the door, truly the most awful person is pacing on her front porch. “Snow, what a lovely surprise. Why the hell are you here?”
Snow gives her a disgusting look—what else is new? “I'm here because I heard an awful rumor that you're dating my daughter.”
That makes Regina roll her eyes. “What about it, Snow? Your presence is testing my patience, and I don't care to answer your dumb questions.”
Snow barrels her way through the door and starts pacing her way through the hallway to the living room. “Right now, my 'dumb' questions are wanting answers, Regina.”
“Because this ridiculous rumor that I'm hearing better be false, I don't know why anybody would spread or believe it without wanting to damage our image.”
The pacing continues, while Regina's anger builds rapidly, “I mean really, Regina, my daughter isn't gay, and she certainly wouldn't taint herself like that or by dating you.”
Snow finally stops her pacing and looks at Regina. “So, please tell me that all this talk about you and Emma is false so I can go and fix what everyone is saying.”
The mayor looks at Snow, really looks at her—that makes the other woman antsy. Regina takes a moment to gather herself and to not just fireball the lousy woman. How can she say that about Emma? She doesn't give a shit what Snow says about her since they've been trading blows since before time.
However, she does care what this woman says about her girlfriend and the woman's supposed daughter. How can you say this about someone that's your child? She really wants to just poof Snow to the middle of the ocean and never deal with her again, but something tells her the town will care about that.
So, she'll do the next best thing and rip Snow a new one—like always.
She gets closer to Snow and reacts like a woman protecting all that's hers: “What you don't seem to be getting is that it's none of your business what mine and Emma's relationship is, and you have no say over anything we do.”
Snow is ready to interrupt, but Regina is already ahead of her: “No, you don't get to talk right now, not after the absurd spiel you've been saying since you barged into my home—so, no—you do not get to interrupt—at all.”
Regina is starting to really want to fireball this insane woman at this moment: “Mine and Emma's relationship is our own; we don't need your awful input or narrative that you have going on, put onto us.”
The schoolteacher starts to get red with anger; her mouth seems like it's about to get her into even more trouble. “Regina, your 'relationship' with my daughter is wrong, since it seems like you're concluding that you and Emma are… together.”
“Which is just wrong—honestly, Regina, you know a relationship like this goes against everything right and moral. I just don't know why either of you would do this to us. Do you know how bad it makes me look—that you and my daughter are being in sin together?”
Snow looks completely deranged at this point. “I know my daughter would never do this to me; you must be corrupting her! Why would you taint her, Regina! With this—filth!”
“My daughter isn't a dyke!”
Right when Regina seems like she's about to kill Snow, Emma, and Henry are back from getting ice cream.
“Ma, ice cream is like—the best thing in the universe; that's why we had to go get some,” Henry said while licking his chocolate ice cream cone.
Emma chuckles, “Yeah, right, kid, you just knew I couldn't say no to ice cream, or you.” The little prince nodded, knowingly.
“Let's get inside so we can munch on our stuff and get back to annoying your mother,” the blonde said while pulling up to the manor's driveway.
Henry hummed in approval, but he couldn't help but notice Snow's car parked in the driveway. “Ma, why is Grandma here?”
Emma shakes her head in confusion. “I don't know, Henry; I don't think we had any plans. Let's hurry inside, so your mother doesn't have to deal with her by herself anymore.”
They both nod in agreement and head inside, and Emma can hear yelling, specifically Snow yelling in intense anger, 'This won't be good,' the sheriff thought.
Right when Emma and Henry got to the living room, they heard Snow yell the word dyke. Right then, Emma instantly knew that this wouldn't be a very enjoyable conversation with her mother.
She gives Henry the look to go upstairs; he hesitates at first—but he knows not to fight this right now, and he heads to his room. He doesn't know why his grandma would say that word to his mom, but he doesn't feel sorry for her when his mom retaliates—sucks to be Snow White.
Emma heads directly to Regina and grabs a hold of her hand to ground both of them so they can be a uniting force against Snow. She also just wants to hold her girlfriend's hand; both can be true at the same time.
“What the hell are you saying, Mary Margaret.”
“Emma, I was just explaining to Regina that whatever relationship you have with her… we can fix. We can explain to people that it's just a misunderstanding and you guys are just friends—because my daughter isn't…”
“Isn't what, Snow?” The blonde already knew completely why Snow was here at this point. She honestly hoped that her mother wouldn't react like this, but she should've known the woman would act like a complete bigot.
“Gay, Emma. You aren't gay. We can tell everyone that you aren't like that and your relationship with Regina is purely friendship. I'm sure when we do that, all of this will blow over and people will forget this, well—nonsense.”
Snow looks so sure of herself. It doesn't hurt Emma at this point. She's used to parents disappointing and hurting her at this point in her life. Turns out foster care prepared her for something: parental disappointment.
Mary Margaret's never been shy about her views, but she's never been this openly hateful towards people having same-sex relationships. Emma knows that she's never said anything when Ruby or anyone else came out. At the same time, she never heard Snow support Ruby or anyone else. Her daughter dating the evil queen is where she must've drawn the line, and now she can't hide her true colors anymore.
“And what's wrong with that, Snow? I don't know what to tell you, if you haven't figured it out already, but I've liked women long before, Regina. I'm not sure why it's some big surprise to you; I haven't exactly hidden it.” The blonde is pretty surprised Snow is only just saying this shit now; if her mother had a problem with her being gay, she should've said something a long time ago—that's for sure.
Snow White is pretty oblivious—that doesn't give her the excuse to be a bigoted piece of shit and say awful things to her girlfriend, however, Emma won't let that slide. She's sure Regina has already or was about to rip Snow a new one, but the blonde needs to be upfront that this behavior from her mother won't stand.
Emma's not going to do anything to damage her relationship with Regina; she loves her. This is one of the instances where romantic love will come before familial love.
Her mother is flabbergasted: “So, you don't get to call my girlfriend or me a dyke. Never. Don't bring that shit into our home, where our son can hear your shit. Say all the crap you want about me, but leave my girlfriend out of it.”
“Emma…you don't understand. What you're doing is wrong. I never said anything to Ruby, but relationships that are gay are against everything we stand for. How are we supposed to be a strong and right family when you're going about locking tails with the evil queen? That makes us look awful, Emma!”
Snow huffed, “I don't get why my daughter is such a…sinner.”
“I don't know what you mean when you say you've always been gay; you had Henry, and then you were with Graham, Neal, and then Hook. You always seemed to let good men go. But please, we can find a good guy for you, honey—we can find you your dream guy.” Snow said with an awful, sickly tone.
After all of Snow's awful spiel, Regina has about lost it. She wants so badly to wreck this woman, but Emma beats her to it. “That's enough, Snow. I don't want a guy! I don't want anyone besides Regina.” The blonde is sick and tired of her same homophobic narrative: “I never dated those guys, and I was never into them—you just saw what you wanted to see.”
“And fuck you, Snow, really. All of what you're saying is bullshit—and I'm actually glad you're finally saying what you've been thinking this whole time. Glad to know you hate who I am, and all you care about is your image. So glad we got to the point you wanted to make the whole time about me living in sin with the love of my life.”
Emma took a deep breath. “I may be a dyke, but at least I'm myself. Who gives a fuck about my image when I've never cared anyway, and I'm not going to let you start controlling my life or who I love.”
She gazed at Regina with a sweet expression before turning back to Snow, “Me and Regina don't need to hear your utter bullshit. In fact, I don't want to hear you or see you at all—anymore.”
Snow's about to spew more words, but Emma's had enough. “Leave, Snow. You've said all you need to say, and I've said my piece. I'm done with you. This is it. I've dealt with you belittling me since you first remembered who you were, and I dealt with that because I wanted a relationship with you, and you seemed to want one too. But enough is enough, and you crossed the line.”
They both were locking eyes at this point. “Leave, and don't talk to me unless you're going to apologize to me and Regina.”
Snow shakes her head no. “Emma, I'm not leaving until we've fixed this situation, and I'm not apologizing for saying the truth.”
The blonde held up her hand. “The only truth you've spilled is your own true self-bigotry, and I've heard enough of that in my life, and I certainly don't want to hear any more from you.”
Her mother gets closer, but Emma holds up her hands and remembers her magic lessons with Gina. With a sweeping motion of her hands, Snow was gone with a poof.
Fingers crossed it was back to the loft, but a poof is a poof in Emma's book.
She turned to Regina and was about to apologize when the queen turned to her and embraced her. “Don't apologize, Emma.”
“I wasn't going to.”
“Yes, you were. I know you, darling.”
Emma released a soft breath. “Yeah, you do.”
They held onto each other for a while—just basking in one another's presence. “Guess our date turned into more of a spectacle than we thought.”
“At least we gave them something to talk about,” Regina said while working slow motions across her back.
That made the blonde laugh. “Yeah, we did, didn't we? I just didn't think my mother would go the full distressed bigot—worried for image.”
“I mean, I know she wasn't going to be the most supportive of our relationship, but I didn't know she would be like that.”
Emma lifted her thumb and gently caressed Regina’s cheek. “What did she say before we got home, baby?”
The queen shook her head gently. “Nothing she didn't say to you, Emma. Don't worry about what she said to me—I've been dealing with your mother since before you were born.”
“Don't you dare say anything about my age.”
Emma chuckled, “I wasn't going to say anything.” The brunette gave her a look. “Honestly, baby, I wasn't.”
“Sure, darling.”
She leaned against Regina, letting her head settle in with a sigh. “My mother isn't going to get in the way or ruin what we have, Gina. She can try, but nothing will get in the way of us—I swear.”
Regina looked at her and gave her a genuine smile. “I know, Emma. I don't know where she got all this hateful rhetoric from, certainly not from everyone in the enchanted forest. Same-sex relationships may not have been the definitive norm, but in no way were they deemed to be a sin, like your mother is saying.”
'She must have gotten it from Leopold,' the mayor thought.
“I don't care what Snow says, Emma.”
“Neither do I, baby.”
Let her live her hateful life while Emma and Regina have their little family and close friends. That's all they really need anyway. It seems to the blonde also that Snow is really the only person to have a serious problem with their relationship. She doesn't even want to hear what David has to say. She knows he will just follow with whatever her mother says.
Who cares? She has the gorgeous woman in front of her as her girlfriend and a charming son.
Emma gently pulls Regina forward and kisses her. The brunette responds back by wrapping her arms around her neck and pulling her deeper into her lips.
This is definitely the life.
…
“Is it safe to come downstairs?” Henry yells from his room. The parents look at each other and laugh, “Yes, Henry—it's safe.”
“Okay! Also, sorta bad news: all the ice cream…melted.”
“No! Not my rocky road! This is horrible.” The blonde yelled out dramatically.
“Don't worry, darlings, we'll all just go get some more together.”
Both Ma and Son look at her with jovial eyes. “Yes!” They both yelled at the same time, 'They really are the same,' Regina thought.
Let Snow White be bigoted all she wants. For as long as she continues down this path of not accepting her daughter and being an idiot—well, that's her loss.
Ice cream has never felt better than in this moment with the Mill and Swan family.