Note and Disclaimer: This is my first published FanFic, meaning any errors that proceed to annoy readers are entirely my fault. This was also written in a hurry after I finished watching "That Still Small Voice" and if I don't post it now it will never be posted. I do not own any of the characters, locations, or items mentioned in this story nor do I have any financial stake in ABC.
Emma had been walking the streets of Storybrooke for hours. The intent of going once around the block had been lost without any thought towards where she was going. Her jacket had been left at Mary's place, which is where she should have stayed, but the last thing the school teacher needed was to deal with a roommate whose life was continuously unraveling. It was a tug on her string that finally brought her to a stop and made her look at her destination. In another life it could have been a pleasant surprise to find herself standing outside the home to Storybrooke's Mayor, but that life didn't exist and she wasn't sure it ever would after everything that had happened in such a few hours.
The thought of never belonging wasn't new. Every time she would start to feel complete a thread would catch on a nail and she would be back to being nothing more than a pile left wanting on the floor. Yet, never before had she felt her life comes apart to such an extent. For a few minutes she felt whole, like she had finally found herself a part of something bigger than her daily existence. Looking back it was a stupid idea, but Emma couldn't deny the quickening of her heart or the thrill the idea still sent racing through her.
When Regina stood in front of her, terrified, worried, perhaps even appreciative, it seemed as if everything beside them had disappeared. For those brief seconds she actually thought Regina felt something, hell she thought the woman was actually going to kiss her right then and there, in front of all those people. That didn't happen, maybe because she pulled back slightly when Regina moved forward, maybe because Regina stopped only upon realizing it would be inappropriate with all those people around, but either way she went into the mine believing things had changed.
The trip down the air shaft hadn't exactly been a wonderful experience, nor would it be one she cared to repeat, but she knew in her heart that Henry and the Doc were alive and she wasn't going to let them die. Almost losing Archie hadn't been a part of that plan, but they all came out of the tunnel alive and when Emma felt the dirt beneath her feet it felt like home.
Her life was finally something she wanted to live and even after the less than love filled greeting she received from Regina it never occurred to her that her new life was utterly, and completely, false. To Emma it seemed like all that was wrong was a matter of pride. She had hurt Regina's when she was most vulnerable and that was something Emma knew she would eagerly make up to her.
It wouldn't have been hard to live up to that idea, especially after seeing the two of them together after everything could have gone so wrong. When the idea crossed her mind it seemed perfect and how could anything perfect go wrong in a town called Storybrooke? Going to them, getting on her knees to be closer to them, Emma reached out to touch them both, to hold them, to embrace her family and in that instant it was all lost. The woman who had held her attention from the moment they met, the woman that she wanted to protect from everything wrong with the world, broke her heart as if it was the easiest thing in the world and never even looked back.
That had been the worst of it, waiting for that act of kindness that never came. Maybe the woman really was an evil Queen because Emma knew that she would always look, no matter how much it hurt.