Regina Mills was a perfectionist and that's what made her a renowned director. She planned everything down to the last detail. She thought about ten possible scenarios for each decision she made, and then, she thought of solutions to each case. Some would call her "anal," but being "anal" had gotten her two Oscars and seven Golden Globes.

Regina Mills was a perfectionist. That's why when Emma Swan, the woman applying for the position of stunts woman, showed up late, wearing a wife beater and messy, blonde, curly hair flying haphazardly, Regina was more or less than impressed with her.

"Miss Swan," Regina acknowledged her as she skimmed through the blonde's resume, as if she hadn't read the paper more than twenty times before choosing Emma Swan to come in for an interview. She probably knew of the blonde's professional life by heart.

"Please call me Emma," Regina raised her eyes from the paper to look at the other woman. Emma was smiling at her and it made Regina's heart race in a way that could only mean trouble.

"Miss Swan," she repeated herself. "Tell me something about you," she commented, "Something that you didn't include in your resume."

Emma drummed her fingers on the table, a habit that Regina had always hated. "Everything important is in there."

The movie director laced her fingers and leaned on her elbows, studying the blonde. She looked anxious under Regina's scrutinizing gaze, as if she was afraid that Regina would sacrifice her to the gods of Hollywood. She almost reassured Emma that everything would be alright, but then the blonde smirked at her and Regina felt irritation rising up inside of her. She breathed in, refusing to show that she was annoyed.

"Why did you enter the stunt business?"

"It's not a very interesting story." Emma shrugged in a very unladylike manner. "As a kid, I was always doing crazy things with my brother so I lost the fear of getting hurt. When I grew up, I figured it would be a great way to pay my way through college and I loved it so much that I decided to keep on doing it."

Regina looked down at the piece of paper. There was nothing on it about Emma that didn't annoy her, but she had impressive performance experiences in big productions. She had great recommendations from actors and directors. Regina would be stupid if she didn't hire Emma. The character Emma would be filling in was a warrior princess who had a lot of dangerous scenes that the actor had refused to do unless they were simplified. But Regina decided the action scenes needed to stay and thus, a stunt double would be necessary.

And so, Regina reluctantly decided to hire Emma.

It seemed as if Emma was good at her stunts as she was at annoying the brunette. The blonde had a great working ethic; she would come to the set earlier than required and practice her scenes over and over again until she had mastered every move. Unlike her interview with Regina, Emma had been punctual for all her shootings and it took her few takes to finish with her scenes.

However, the blonde seemed to find pleasure in annoying the brunette director by just being there. She'd stay longer so that Regina wouldn't eat lunch alone. She would bring coffee to the stressed director. She would help with the setting and give her unwanted opinion every time she could.

"Don't you have any other things to do, Miss Swan?"

"Nope," Emma already replied with a sweet smile that gave Regina a toothache.

The blonde didn't stop at hanging out with Regina, not even when she was completely discouraged by the director. Emma would always find a way to turn Regina's snaps and mean comments around. Regina hated to admit it and she'd probably never say it out loud but she had grown used to have the blonde around. More than that, she had started to look forward to have lunches with the blonde and listen to her antics.

Emma had valiantly fought her way into Regina's heart. Regina's producer and best friend, Kathryn would tease her about it, referring to Emma as "Regina's knight in shining armor." But what had started as a joke suddenly scared Regina because her mother had always taught her that love is weakness. And what she started to feel towards Emma felt a lot like love.

As the filming started to come to an end, Regina found herself torn between being weak and telling Emma about her feelings or being strong and never seeing her again. She couldn't be weak, not when she had a career to think about, even though, at the moment, she didn't care too much about her bright future.

So, the brunette reverted back to her old self: distant and cold. And Emma noted the change and tried to talk to Regina, figure out what happened but she got nothing but stony silence. And it broke Regina's heart to see Emma give up on the fledging romance between them. But why wouldn't she? She had tried her best throughout the whole filming. She was patient and kind, and after so much progress, Regina went back to square one without even giving any explanation.

Emma's last day on set came sooner than Regina had hoped. The blonde's last scene was a tricky one for which Emma had been practicing for a long time. It started with Emma riding a horse at full speed, then she had to jump to another moving horse, flip around and ride backwards as she shot arrows at her enemies.

As soon as Regina yelled "Action!" in her director's chair, she gripped the armrests until her knuckles turned white, her stress levels skyrocketing as she saw Emma darting on

her horse and jump towards the other one. Regina knew Emma had rehearsed the scene; she knew it was almost like muscle memory for the blonde. But still, she worried.

Then, it happened.

And Regina's heart stopped as she saw Emma being knocked off the running horse and falling onto the floor. She didn't yell any directives. She just started running, yelling for Emma. Behind her, some of the cast followed her towards Emma, one of them carrying the first aid kit.

Regina reached the fallen woman first, she slid on the floor as close as she could without moving the blonde's body, especially the neck. "Emma!" It came out as a sob and it was the only thing she could say. All of her bottled up emotions were constricting in her chest, impeding her breathing. She was asking if it had been worth it, rejecting Emma for her career.

And the answer was no. Now that she looked Emma, unconscious on the floor, she realized that all the Oscars in the world would never compare to Emma.

"An ambulance is coming!" Someone announced and Regina didn't comment on it. She just leaned in to place a kiss on Emma's forehead.

"You'll be alright," Regina whispered against Emma's forehead before kissing it again before letting the paramedics take Emma away.

Happy Swan Queen Week!

As some of you might know, I'm a moderator for SwanQueenWeek's tumblr which means this year I won't be as active on my writing. However, if you guys like this story I might continue it after SQW is over.

Hugs,

Mara

Prompt taken from meetcuteprompts on tumblr