Regina,
I'm leaving Storybrooke. I can't stay. I see how miserable I'm making you and I won't allow myself to do that to you just so I can selfishly spend more time with you. Please take care of yourself and of Henry. Find someone who truly makes you happy. Someone who can love you the way you deserve to be loved and who you can love with all that you are. I guess we weren't meant to be. I will never forget you and I will always love you.
Emma.

Regina hadn't even finished reading the note when she felt salty tears running down her cheek and saw them fall on the paper, blotching the ink at places. She didn't understand. Had Emma really left? Why would she do that? How could she?

She neatly folded the paper and put it in a drawer in her desk. If it was the last thing of Emma's she'd ever see, she wanted to keep it forever.

Next, Regina grabbed her phone and frantically dialed Emma's number. It immediately went to voicemail. She cursed loudly, kept dialing the number and walked out of the house with the phone against her ear. She left voicemail message after voicemail message, telling Emma not to leave, to give her the chance to talk to her.

When she got to her car her first instincts told her to go to Miss. Blanchard's house. Emma had never quite moved out and Regina imagined Emma would want to say goodbye to her roommate and best friend before leaving Storybrooke for good. Perhaps she wasn't too late yet. Perhaps she could still stop her.

"Regina? Emma has already left," Mary Margaret told the disheveled looking woman after opening the door to her. The tear streaks on the mayor's cheeks surprised her. She'd never seen the woman show any kind of emotion, least of all sadness of any kind.

"She left about 20 minutes ago…" she added, hoping Regina could find a way to catch up with the blond and bring her home.

"Thank you," Regina muttered before turning around and running out of the building and back to her car.

20 minutes was too long. Regina couldn't leave the town. It would take Emma about 10 minutes to get to the 'leaving Storybrooke' sign, what with traffic lights. Perhaps something had held her up; Regina had to try, she had to get to the edge of town and see if Emma was still there by some miracle.

She speeded, for the first time since she'd gotten to Storybrooke, and ignored the red traffic lights. She hurried around the corners, forcing other road-users to hit the brakes and their horns, expressing their anger at Regina's reckless driving. Regina didn't care, though. All she cared about was getting to Emma, stopping Emma from leaving town and in extend leaving her life and that of their son's.

Regina wasn't a religious woman but as she drove past trees and hurried to the town border she prayed. She prayed to every deity that could possibly stop Emma from leaving town.

Too many people had run away from her already; she couldn't handle Emma leaving, too.

The note had said that Emma was making Regina miserable and Regina didn't understand it one bit. She loved Emma. She had loved her for far longer than she'd ever dared to admit. Emma couldn't make her miserable. No, it was the rest of her world that was making her miserable. The curse. Being mayor. Having to spend time looking after the idiots in this town when really she couldn't care two shits about them.

Regina wanted out. She wanted a normal life where she and Emma could look after Henry, living in complete honestly.

But Regina hadn't had the guts to tell Emma the truth about everything. She had been afraid and had made Emma feel like she was making her miserable. She had messed up. Again.

Slowly the car got closer to the end of her town. She could see the sign and to her immense surprise she saw a flash of yellow. Immediately she honked her horn, hard. She honked it, and honked it. She needed Emma to hear it and stop her car.

Emma did hear. And she did stop. She had hoped she could leave without Regina finding out about until it was far too late. She was a coward, always had been. She didn't want to face Regina. She couldn't deal with that. For once, Emma wanted to do the right thing and she thought leaving town was the best thing she could do in this situation.

She rested her head against the steering wheel and sighed. She had been too slow. She'd have to talk to Regina, now.

Before she could get out, the door of her yellow bug opened and Regina's teary face appeared in the opening.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" her voice was broken and lacked the usual passion in her tone.

"Regina," Emma said softly. After a long silence of them just staring at each other she averted her eyes and said, "I need you to be happy and I can't give you that."

Emma refused to make eye contact after that. Looking in the other woman's eyes would make her lose her nerve and just go along with her selfish desires that told her to take the woman home, make sweet love to her and stay there forever. And if that wasn't what Regina truly wanted then Emma couldn't do it. She had to resist.

"You're the one thing in a long time that has made me feel like I could be happy again, Emma." Regina placed her hand against Emma's cold cheek and made her look her in the eye. "Please don't leave?"

"I make you miserable," Emma let out, sounding absolutely defeated.

"You make me happy," Regina countered. "Emma, I love you."

Now Regina looked away. She hadn't said that yet. Emma had told her about her love for the mayor a long time ago but Regina could never get the words out of her mouth. The last time she'd uttered them it had cost the man she loved his life and it had cost her her happiness. She did love Emma. She had known that for a long time. But she had been too scared to actually say it.

"You do?" Emma blinked and Regina saw a lone tear fall from her eye and onto her lap.

"Yes, I do. Now please, come home with me."

Emma started the car and for a second Regina thought she'd push her away, close the door and drive off, anyway. But instead she put the car in reverse and backed away from the line a few inches.

"Are you sure?" Emma asked, not quite believing the woman. "Because I couldn't live with myself if I made you unhappy for just a second."

"I'm more than sure." Regina managed a weak smile. "I know I've been acting a little off lately, but that has nothing to do with you. At least not in the way you think."

Regina made up her mind, then. She would tell Emma everything. And hopefully Emma wouldn't leave her for it. It was a risk she was going to have to take. Regina wanted happiness, true happiness. And she couldn't have that if there was a secret this big between them. Not if it made Emma feel like she was to blame for Regina's strange behavior.

"Let's go home, then," Emma said, smiling up at the woman and motioning for her to get back in the Mercedes and lead the way to the mansion.

"Never scare me like that again, Swan," Regina said threateningly, "you have no idea what I'm capable of." She then closed the door to the yellow bug and got back to her car.

She did love Emma. More than anything. And now that Emma knew, their happily ever after could truly begin.

The End