AN: It just had to be done.

After that final kiss, Regina tore up the page depicting her alternate destiny if she hadn't run away from Robin Hood at the tavern that night so many decades ago. As she turned from the town line and walked away, she released the torn paper and let the wind scatter it where it may. It wasn't a heavy wind, but she certainly felt winded. It was a wonder she was able to hold back the tears long enough to drive herself to Granny's. She certainly couldn't bear to be in the vault at the moment, and being home without Henry just seemed pointless, it reminded her of those first 18 years she'd lived there alone without him. She'd come too far to become that person again, and without her job as mayor, she wouldn't be able to bury herself in work. What was she going to do, watch TV? She snorted at the thought. Nope, she'd go to the public place where she would be safe from people bothering her, while also knowing they at least respected her enough as a human being to not let her do anything stupid.

If nothing else, Regina was still a mother. Although she seemed to only be a part time mother, it was better than being completely alone. Though at the moment, it didn't feel like there was much difference.

When she opened the door, she felt like she'd just run into a brick wall. No, it wasn't magic. But it was definitely, in a metaphorical sense, a brick wall. Somebody had beaten her there. Granny's had, apparently, already been claimed as someone's spot to break down. Who it was, though, surprised the hell out of her. It was enough that she broke through that invisible brick wall, and was suddenly no longer thinking of wallowing in her own misery.

"Miss Swan, what on Earth has gotten into you?!" She didn't quite snap, at the moment, Regina didn't really have the heart to. But it had nothing to do with feeling like she'd recently had her own ripped out. Emma Swan was definitely crying, which in and of itself was scary enough, Regina could only think of two times she'd personally witnessed it. But even those two times combined held no candle to what she was seeing now. Not only was the Savior crying, she was practically drowning herself in alcohol. Shot glasses littered the counter top. Definitely more than ten. And the blonde just kept slamming them down like they were water and she was stranded in a desert. Regina found herself glaring at the girl behind the counter she only vaguely recognized. "How many has she had?"

"I – I – I lost track," the girl answered apologetically.

"Then why the hell are you still giving them to her?" Regina demanded.

The girl swallowed, eyes wide and frightened. "She-She wouldn't let me stop her. She threatened to arrest me when I tried." Her eyes went to the floor, not sure which woman she was more afraid of at the moment.

Regina's eyebrows flew up into her hair. That was all kinds of ass backwards and very much unlike the woman who so loved being a pain in her ass. All of this was very unlike her. "Well, she's not the only sheriff in town. Her father's the other one and her mother's the mayor, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be happy that you're letting their daughter get intoxicated at a level that looks dangerously close to crossing the legal limit." She shook her head. This was complete nonsense.

"Emma Swan." Regina snatched her current shot glass and slammed it on the countertop so hard that it shattered. "I don't care if I have to carry your ass out of here kicking and screaming, but there is no excuse for this behavior coming from you. It ends now." She grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, which wasn't the best idea as it only led to the crying woman falling on her ass on the floor and bringing her down with her.

"Jesus Christ," Regina grumbled. "You're going to get yourself killed. Me, too, probably." She pushed herself back up. "Come on, get up."

Regina cringed when Emma let out a shrill shriek. She was seconds away from finding Hook and getting him to take care of his crazy girlfriend. She didn't hate the Charmings quite as much as to make them see the thing with the shell of their daughter. "Fuck it," she growled and pulled the hysterical woman up off the floor and into her arms before poofing the both of them away to her mansion.

Regina deposited Emma onto the couch. "Now," she huffed and stood with her hands on her hips. "Give me your phone, I know you have it."

It seemed the blonde was at least aware of her surroundings somewhat and hadn't totally lost her mind, for she listened, lazily tossing her white iPhone at her.

Regina caught it and opened the contacts, scrolling until she found Hook's name and pressing the dial button. It rang and rang and rang until it gave a message that the user hadn't set up their voicemail yet before clicking off. Figures. The man was clueless with technology. Regina tried it again. Same result. By her third try, in the middle of the ringing, Emma spoke coherently for the first time since Regina had found her at Granny's,

"He's not going to answer," her voice sounded raw, a combination of the alcohol, the crying, the shrieking.

Regina rose an eyebrow. "Who do you think I'm calling?"

"You have my parents' numbers, you'd only – you'd only u-use my phone to call a n-n-number you don't al-already have."

"So you haven't completely killed all your brain cells, good to know." Regina hung up the third time after getting the same message. "So why the hell isn't he answering? Another fight?"

Emma's face crumpled into a pained expression. "He's dead."

It was so quiet, Regina wasn't sure she'd heard right. "What?"

"HE'S DEAD!" Emma shouted.

"Hook's dead?" Regina felt the world tilt to an odd angle. She couldn't quite believe that.

"YES, HOOK'S FUCKING DEAD, REGINA! DEAD PEOPLE DON'T ANSWER PHONES!"

Regina blinked, letting the information settle in. It finally hit her. "Oh shit, Emma… When? How?"

"When do you think?! Gold – Gold crushed his heart, he-he tried to w-warn me, I knew something was wrong, but I was too late. I was too late!" Emma curled in on herself, crying again. "I told him everyone I love always dies. He was too stubborn to believe me."

"Oh, Emma, I didn't know…" Regina set the phone down on the coffee table in front of the couch and joined Emma on the couch. She wrapped her arms around her. "I'm so sorry, I understand now."

Emma clung to her. "I'm so s-s-stupid! I waited too long, I waited too long…!"

Regina frowned and began rubbing her back. It actually hurt to see Emma so unlike herself. "The heroes and the villains aren't both supposed to feel like that at the same time."

Emma barked out a humorless laugh. "I'm no hero. The only people I manage to save are Henry and you. That doesn't make me a Savior."

"I let Robin go," Regina changed the subject, not to make it about herself, but to give Emma a distraction.

Emma looked up at her, surprised, forgetting her pain for a moment. "Why?"

"Marion was dying again. I couldn't be happy even if I had Robin, knowing I'd cost Roland his mother. More than kids needing their parents alive, they need them together. Robin didn't want to go either, but he understood that."

Emma paused a moment, thinking, her tears drying. "You know what you just said, right?"

Regina's expression went confused. "I believe I do, my memory's not that bad."

"And you know that we happen to share a kid?"

"Oh." Regina blushed. "Well, I didn't mean it like that. I didn't mean –"

"Us?"

Regina cleared her throat. "There is no 'us', Miss Swan."

"You're holding me like we're an us," Emma pointed out.

Regina's face went even redder. "No, I'm trying to comfort you. You just lost someone in a similar way to how I lost Daniel."

"According to you, we're not even friends."

"Emma, shut up."

"No, see, I think I have a point."

"And I'm beginning to feel like I've been set up."

Emma's face fell. "No, this is real. I'm not pretending anything. But come on, we both just lost someone and we share a kid. Why not?"

"Those are two very good reasons right there. That's exactly why not. With our patterns, at least one of us is going to end up dead, or at least permanently separated."

Emma smiled.

"I don't think you should be smiling about that."

"Oh, I'm not," Emma replied. "I'm smiling because your answer wasn't, 'I don't want to'."

Regina paused. She had to admit she had a point. That should have been the first thing to come out of her mouth, but it hadn't been. "Your parents will kill me."

"Oh, now you're afraid of them?"

"You are the biggest pain in the ass. And you do have this tendency to leech onto my life when I don't want you there."

"Uh huh."

"So, I guess you wouldn't be going anywhere…"

"Nope." Emma snuggled closer in her arms.

"And you always know when I'm lying."

"Yup." Emma looked into her eyes.

"And you did say you'd give me my happy ending."

"Exactly," Emma murmured against her lips.

Regina put her hands on her shoulders to keep her at a distance. "You're drunk. This isn't happening right now."

"Then I'll sleep it off."

Regina blinked. "What?"

"You heard me. I'll prove I want you sober. This…it isn't new. But by the time I recognized it, you were kind of busy in jail for a fake murder, and then your mother, and all the Greg and Tamara stuff, and then Neverland and then there was Hook and Neal and by the time that was finally over, I had to leave and then I came back and there was Robin and…I waited too long," Emma repeated her earlier line. "But give me a couple days, I'll prove it."

Regina's breath caught in her throat in amazement, a lone tear trailing down her cheek. "Alright." She brushed her lips against Emma's forehead before releasing her. She went to the closet and pulled out a blanket, draping it over the blonde. "Good night." She went up to her own room.

Emma slept off the alcohol, and stayed at Regina's as her hangover wore off over the span of a few days. She didn't try anything in those days, knowing she could be patient. Once she'd been there a week, she was back to a hundred percent sobriety. She got up before Regina that day and went up the stairs, going into her room and settling on the bed beside her. She found one of Regina's hands and laced their fingers together, doing nothing more as she waited for her to wake up.

As Regina returned to wakefulness, she felt a few too many fingers on one of her hands and realized it was being held. Her eyes opened and it only took her a moment to find Emma. Before she could even open her mouth, Emma began talking,

"I told you I'd still want you. And I don't mean physically, even though that's totally true, too. I only began letting…Hook…have his way and trying something with him when you became unavailable. Everything I'd been feeling had all come rushing back when we were trying to find a cure for Henry's memories in your office. There was this look you gave me and for a moment I almost thought you felt it too. But Henry was more important. Neither of us were going to be happy without him knowing all of us, what his true life was, and we had the Wicked Witch AKA Zelena to worry about. And Neal died, so that threw things off, and by the time something might have worked, you went for Robin. I decided to settle. I decided it might not be so bad, it would be better than pining over unrequited love. And it was, until Marion. You weren't happy, so I wasn't happy, especially because it was my fault. I was even distracted by you enough that Hook noticed. And then there was Elsa and Anna and the Snow Queen, you know Storybrooke, one battle after another, and now we're here. We've both lost so much, and that stops now. You need more than just Henry, and I need more than just my parents. We stop each other from being too stupid. We protect each other. And when you were under the spell of Shattered Sight, the thing that really pissed you off was me being with Hook. Do you remember that? Of course I didn't mean it, I needed you to be pissed at me to get the stupid ribbons off. But I think, I hope at least, I'm not crazy, and that you want me too, and just maybe what was keeping me away is what was also keeping you away."

Tears filled Regina's eyes and eventually spilled over. "Emma…" She pulled the blonde down to her and kissed her. "Don't let me push you away anymore," her voice cracked with emotion.

"I'm not going anywhere, Regina." Emma stroked her cheek. "We're best when we're together." She kissed her gently, slowly, silently promising to never let anything slow them down again, no matter who their next enemies were or what mind games they brought with them.

Regina wrapped her arms around Emma tightly, returning the kiss, tears still spilling from her eyes because this was it. Finally, this was it.

This, Emma Swan, was her happy ending.