#1st time I've written Marion

[rebelbyrdie]

I wish you would write a fic where ... Regina and Marian are bridge partners, and there's some cutthroat playing in Storybrooke!

Snow and Emma have joined the new Storybrooke Bridge Club and things get a little out of hand.

Building Bridges

“I don’t get it.”  Emma mumbled for the fourth time.  

Snow sighed.  David would have been a better partner than Emma.  She thought they could join the new Storybrooke Bridge Club to bond while David, Henry and Neal did “man stuff”.  Whatever that meant.

“Its an easy game to learn but impossible to master, Sweetheart.”  She patted Emma’s arm.  “You’ll get it.”

She would if she actually paid attention to her cards or their game.  Emma was watching a game three tables away.  She was specifically watching two of the players.  Regia and Marion were quite the pair.  They were at the top of the leader board.  They were playing against Granny and Marco.  It was a heated match, as Granny and Marco were sitting at a very close number two on the board.  

“Emma.”  Snow needed her daughter to focus on the game.  Not only were they losing, but Marge and Bea were getting annoyed.  

“Oh!”  Emma jerked her head and laid her hand down on the table face up.  Snow dropped her face into her palm.  “You weren’t the dummy hand this game.”  They were already past that phase.  

Emma picked back up her cards sheepishly.  “I mean yeah.  Uh.”  She glanced over the cards on the table and half-heartedly laid down a six of spades.  It wasn’t the suite they were playing or even the trump suite.  They lost the trick to Bea. They were being slaughtered because Emma was too busy staring at Regina to even try to play.  

“Why are they partners?  I thought they would uh not like each other.”  Emma was staring again.  “She’s mad at me, but best buddies with her?  How is that fair?”

Marge rolled her eyes.  Bea snickered. Snow wished that she were anywhere else.

Bea twisted around in her wheelchair to look at them.  “I think they make a good couple.  They bonded over what an asshole Robin is.”

Marge chuckled.  “Madame Mayor’s been hell on wheels lately but Marion can calm her down with a few words.  Her PA keeps her on speed dial.”

Snow felt her eye twitch.  This was not helping!

“Okay, yeah, sure.  I get that.  Do they have to be so buddy-buddy though?  I heard they both walked Roland to school.  Like suddenly they’re co-parenting!  Like divorced Mommies instead of girlfriend in-laws.   I had to fight tooth and nail to even see Henry for a year and I gave birth to him!”

Marge penciled in the scores onto their team cards.  She had a calm and unreadable face.  More suited to poker then bridge.  Snow knew that she was on Regina’s side.  She had been one of her biggest supporters in the Enchanted Forest.  Not that Snow held that against her or anything.  Bea was far more expressive.  She had been one of Regina’s advisors and made no qualms about it.  She looked like she was genuinely enjoying what was happening.  Like she was watching her favorite soap opera in real time.

Snow shook their hands and stood up to walk around a bit.  They had lost the match badly, again.  They were going to be at the bottom of the club.  Maybe not last since Grumpy was half-drunk and his partner, Anton, was too busy chatting with everyone to keep up with the game.

Snow sighed and checked the board to see who their next match was with.  She almost screamed and wondered if she could just forfeit now.  Emma would be useless sitting that close to Regina and Marion.

It took a few minutes for Marion and Regina to finish, and win, their match.  Granny looked sour and Marco disappointed.  Marion and Regina were arm in arm, laughing about something.  

Emma scowled as they walked closer.  Snow sighed.  This was going to be a long match.

For the first time since they’d arrived, Emma paid attention to the cards.  More specifically, she watched Regina’s hands shuffle then deal the cards.  Her fingernails and lipstick were the same shade of red as the back of the cards.  She was wearing black and red, like she had planned to match the cards.  Snow wasn’t blind, Regina was dressed to impress (more like torture and tease) today.  Several eyes, both male and female, had wandered her way.

Snow suspected that Regina had let Marion dress out of her closet too.  She was wearing a vibrant violet wrap dress and heels.  She looked very modern but comfortable, almost smug.  Regina was rubbing off on her.  They had been inseparable since they had both broken up with Robin.

“So you’ve adapted to Strorybrooke pretty quickly, Marion.”  Snow looked over her cards and hoped Emma was at least looking over hers.  “I’m so glad you’re doing well.”

As well as any out-of-time, out-of-realm, recently-resurected, almost divorcee could be doing.  

“It is my second chance.  I am so happy to be here.”  Marion flashed a brilliant smile at Regina. “There are so many miracles here.  I can’t imagine going back.”

Regina chuckled.  “Going back for a year was awful.  I’d forgotten how much I hated chimera and corsets.”

Marion giggled and reached across the table to touch Regina’s arm and spoke in a different language.  Regina’s eyes lit up with a mischievous spark and she replied in the same language.

Emma scowled, “Did you guys invent a special BFF language?”

Marion blinked and Regina cocked a brow.  “Have you never heard of Spanish, Miss Swan?”

“8 Hearts.”  Snow started off the bidding since no one else had bothered.  

“So you both just happen to speak Spanish?”  Emma squinted at them.  “Seriously?”  She shifted in her seat, “I didn’t even know you spoke Spanish.”

Snow did, though she had rarely heard her do so.  She also spoke French, Elvish, Latin and was passable at Agrahbani and Skailling (the language of the Northern kingdom that her mother had come from).

Snow had begged her stepmother for Skailling lessons, but had ultimately found them difficult and boring so she had quit less than two months later.  She had never been a good student and often wondered if Regina had cursed her to be a teacher just for that reason.  

She shook her head and focused on the game.  Someone on their team should at least try to play.

The bidding went fast and ended with Regina being the dummy hand.

“Well, Miss Swan.  I have all my cards-”  She spoke slowly and rubbed her fingers across the top of her hand as she laid it down.  “-on the table.”

Oh My God.  Regina was flirting.  With her daughter.  Right in front of her!  How was she supposed to focus on the tricks when Regina was trying to seduce her baby girl in front of the entire club?!

Snow looked over at Marion and the woman smirked and gave a quick nod.  Like she was in on Regina’s grand plan.  Like she thought it was a grand idea. They were doing this on purpose!

The rounds went quickly, but Emma was so focused on Regina that she rarely put down a card that helped.  Regina and Marion won the game easily.  Emma got the next deal and she shuffled the cards roughly, bending them and mixing them with some faces up and others down.  She corrected them with a grumble and finally dealt them out, counting to thirteen under her breath.  She slapped each card down hard and refused to make eye contact with anyone.

Regina and Marion upped their ante.  Not at Bridge, though.  They were playing an entirely different game.  Marion was intentionally trying to make Emma jealous.  Regina was putting on her best I’m not trying to be sexy I just am naturally irresistible act.  Snow could not believe Emma was falling for it.  The whole thing was middle-school drama club melodrama.  It wasn’t subtle.  For a master manipulator, Regina was certainly being blunt.

Snow wondered if she should stop them.  After a few calming breaths and a few sips of grape soda, she had calmed down a little.  

On the one hand, Regina had been the Evil Queen.  Her mortal enemy, the caster of the darkest curse in the land, etcetera etcetera.  On the other hand, Emma’s other suitor was a morally dubious pirate who drank five times more than he bathed.  

At least Regina was trying to redeem herself.  All Hook did was hang out on the docks, drink and make sexually charged passes at Emma (or any other female he happened to see).

Furthermore, Snow wasn’t deaf, dumb or blind.  Emma and Regina had been dancing around each other from day one.  She wished she didn’t know that, but she did.  In fact, she was starting to wonder if they had already crossed a line or two.   When she really thought about it, the signs were all there.

There had been the time that Emma had all but carried Regina out of the fire.  The way Emma had fought to save Regina from the wraith.  Then there was the way that Regina had been amazed at Emma’s magic.  How she had looked so devastated when Emma had accused her of murder.  They’d disappeared in Neverland a time or two with little to no explanation.  Then there had been the long and longing stars and stilted conversations when they were fighting Zelena.  Not to mention the fact that Regina had tried to remove her heart the second she was separated from Henry and Emma.  How she had spent a year ignoring her “soulmate” and staring off into the distance, like she was thinking about Emma had been more excited to see Regina than her and David.

She rolled her eyes, laid down her card, and gave Regina a small nod.  She wasn’t going to object, but it was not a full blessing either.  It was more of a we’ll see.  She’d leave the threats of bodily harm to David.

During the bids this time, Regina and Marion were far more tactile, leaning into each other’s touches and whispering back and forth in Spanish.  When Regina laughed, she threw her head back and her dark hair swished across her face.

Emma was gripping the edge of the table so hard that her knuckles had blanched white.

Snow looked around and realized that they were the center of attention.  Everyone was watching Regina and Marion torture Emma.  They were all obviously enjoying the show. 

“Nine Spades.”  Marion smiled and leaned over to take Regina’s glass of ginger ale.  She drank deeply.  “Thanks, Sweetie.”

Emma’s face twisted and she stiffened in her seat.  Three lightbulbs at the far end of the community center went bright and then blew out.  It could be a coincidence or Emma’s magic.  Snow bit her lip, but didn’t say anything.  Emma only became more agitated when people pointed out her magic being “temperamental”.

The game went fast but much differently than Snow expected.  They were winning.  Not because she was a particularly great player or because Emma had  suddenly started trying.  No, it was plain to see that Regina and Marion were intentionally throwing the game.  So there would be a third tie breaker game for the match.  They were dragging this out as long as they could.  It was diabolical and just a little bit cruel.  

Snow was pretty sure that no one else was playing.  They were all watching Regina and Emma.  There were the cards on the table and the entirely different game being played out with little smirks and furrowed brows.  The tension was so thick that Snow would need a battle ax to cut through it.

“Pardon me.”  Regina jotted down her team’s intentionally abysmal score on their card.  “I need to visit the powder room before our final game.  May I?”  She stood, not waiting for their answer.

Emma stood up too, faster and way less graceful then Regina had. Her chair screeched back and almost tipped.  “Yeah.  Me too.”

Snow watched Regina sashay towards the ladies room and Emma stomp after her.  Since Emma hadn’t taken a drink of her now warm soda all morning, Snow doubted that she needed to use the facilities.

“Whatever happens in there.”  Snow glared at Marion. “I blame you.”

Marion laughed, which was not the reaction Snow had expected.

“I don’t understand.”  She sounded like Emma now.  “What is going on with you and Regina anyway?”

Marion had been caught up in the war she and Regina had waged.  She would have been executed if not for Emma.  Not to mention there was the whole Robin situation.  Marion should hate Regina, or at the very least not be best friends with her.  

“I know what you’re thinking.”  Marion took a handful of the snack mix that sat on every table.  “I should hate the Evil Queen.”  

Snow nodded and grabbed a couple of chocolate covered nuts for herself.  “But you don’t?”

Marion smiled.  “We both know that Regina is not The Evil Queen.  She’s a completely different person.  Did you know that she came to me a few days after I arrived?”

During the two weeks that she had refused to speak to anyone but Henry?  During those same two weeks that Emma had been beside herself with worry and guilt?

“Robin tried to rush her off, like Regina was the dirty little secret I wasn’t supposed to know about.”  Marion shook her head.  Her voice was quiet and low, far less cheerful than it had been.  “Robin had taken mistresses before.  His code of honor is very flexible when he wants it to be.” 

Snow almost choked on her snack.  What?  

“None of them had dared to come talk to me.  To look me in the eyes.  She wasn’t there to talk to Robin, to convince him to leave me.  She came to talk to me.  I thought she was going to apologize.  I think if she had I might have hit her.”  

Marion looked over at the closed bathroom door.  

“She asked if I was okay.  If I needed anything.”  

Snow blinked.  Again, she hadn’t really expected that.

“Everyone was so excited about my sudden resurrection.  Robin had his wife back.  Rolland had his mother back.  Not a single person had asked me how I felt.  I-it-I cried.  I broke down sobbing and she comforted me.”

Marion picked up the deck of cards and started to shuffle it.  She was moving her hands and fingers, playing with the cards.

“She explained things to me that no one had thought to mention.  Offered to help me find a home.  She explained that here I could divorce Robin without losing Rolland to him.  She asked what I wanted.  She didn’t have any expectations or demands.  She really wanted me to have choices about my new life.  I don’t know what your life was like, Princess, but I’ve never been given a lot of choices.”

Marion paused and looked around the room briefly. “I get to be what I want here, and I want what she has.  A home, a job, a safe place for my son to live, learn and grow.  Love with no judgement.”  

Did Marion harbor love for someone?  If it wasn’t Robin or Regina, then who?  Snow was dying to know.

“So yes.  Regina and I are friends and-”  Marion chuckled.  “-she is a mess.  She is hopelessly in love with Emma.  She doesn’t even like Bridge.  She hates it.  She’s only here to see Emma.  I couldn’t take it anymore.  Even Henry is ready to lock them in a room together and throw away the key.  So we-”

A burst of bright light flooded the building.  There was a small earthquake and hundreds of butterflies suddenly appeared in the room.  They fluttered around and filled the room with a rainbow of colors.

“Well!”  Marion grinned.  “I suppose its mission accomplished, then.”  She looked over at the score cards.  “I wonder if they’ll let us team up since Regina and Emma aren’t going to be spending their Saturday mornings playing Bridge anymore.”