- I'm here to ask your daughter's hand in marriage.

Charming's face was completely blank for a few seconds, as he took in Regina's words. A minute ago he was having breakfast with his wife and son. He was intrigued seeing Regina behind the door when he opened it since she always walked in unceremoniously, but was already letting her in when the queen's words stopped him.

- What?

- You heard me.

- I'm not sure I heard you right, Regina.

- I am.

Neither could say how long they kept staring at each other, but they notice it was probably too long when Snow came to check on them.

- David, let her in.

Snow smiled and headed for the kitchen, but saw that they weren't following her lead so they all just stood there in the living room with an uncomfortable silence hanging over them. A silence she saw no reason to, but was starting to get on her nerves.

- Regina, what happened?

Regina had prepared herself for this as one would prepare for a war, even hopping it would not be necessary, she would fight for Emma. She would accept every battle, win every war, sacrifice all she had, but she would be with Emma. She was so nervous, but was doing her best to hide.

- I came here to ask for your blessing, or however you want to call it, to marry your daughter.

Snow wasn't sure what she had being expecting, but it definitely wasn't that.

- Emma?

- Do you have any others?

- I think you can understand our surprise; you barely speak to each other these days.

- Snow is right, we couldn't have imagined you are together.

- We are not.

**SAWNQUEEN IS ENDGAME**

They were back to the enchanted forest, on the way to the queen's castle, when attacked by a group of thieves armed with sword and arrows. Regina, without the queen's fancy outfits, wasn't seeing as such and the men didn't hesitated.

Even being a smaller group, they refused to give up and in few minutes were all trapped in battle. The men had their weapons, but they had the queen, the savior, the wicked witch of west and, of course, the Charmings, who were still up to the fame they had in the old realm.

Quickly the thieves were all taken care of.

While the other rested, relived for not having bigger troubles, Regina could sense something wasn't just right. She felt like all parts of her were screaming only one name "Emma" just one order "Stay with Emma". And that's what she did, placing herself by Emma's side, looking everywhere trying to find the source of her worries.

Seeing the brunette's uneasiness, Emma stood up from the rock she was and got even closer.

- Regina, are you okay?

She barely had time to finish her sentence before she saw one of the men was now sitting, rather difficultly, and aiming one last arrow at her.

It was his very least revenge, it was useless to fight, he was as good as dead, but he was going to take one of them with him. He knew he couldn't miss it; whoever was at the other end was just as dead as he. He felt a smile growing on his face as life leaved his body.

It all happened so fast, as if Emma was watching the scene from someone else's eyes, as if she wasn't exactly there. She saw the men lying dead at floor, the arrow flying straight to her, Regina placing herself in front of her body, the arrow hitting her with all force on her abdomen, Regina crying in pain. She could hear herself screaming in agony as the queen's body started its way towards the floor. Only when she felt the brunette's weight on her arms she woke up to the horror happening around her.

Everyone around came closer to help them as Emma laid Regina on her lap.

- Regina, it's okay, you're gonna be fine, talk to me, please.

Regina was trying to say something, but the pain was so strong that all her efforts where focused in not screaming her lung out. Emma brought her mouth closer to the queen's ear, whispering almost like a prayer.

- Talk to me, please, I need to know you're okay.

With her face so close to Regina's, Emma was able to understand what she was trying to say. Just one name repeated with such love, as if it was the only thing that actually held any meaning.

- Emma…

And it felt like something had broken inside her, she couldn't restrain her tears anymore, she had no control over herself. Everything in her hurt like hell, her head was spinning, her hand were shaking uncontrolled. The pain of seeing Regina that way, so close to death, was much more than she could handle. She found herself in a state of complete despair, having as he only comfort the fact that she could still feel the queen breathing against her face.

She felt someone kneeling down on the other side, checking the queen's wound, and her first instinct was grab the wrist going towards the arrow, not wanting anyone to touch Regina. As soon as her eyes allowed her to see Zelena's face, she started to beg as if her life depended on it.

- You have to save her, please, I don't know how to do it but you do, you can. You have to…

- And what exactly do you think I'm trying to do? Unfortunately, I do need my hand to do that.

Emma realized she was still holding Zelena's writs, and how ridiculous that was. They were sisters, the past had stayed in the past and they were over it now, of course Zelena would try everything to help her.

Ashamed by her actions, Emma finally let go of Zelena's wrist, turning her attention back to the queen on her arms, whispering that all would be fine. If she was trying to convince Regina or herself, she no longer knew.

Zelena was prepared to take the arrow out of her sister's body when some blue spots caught her attention.

A scream of pure rage echoed through the forest and the only thing Emma could see when she turned her head was a green magical flame flying towards the body of the man responsible for all of that. She couldn't stop the slight pleasure she felt seeing the body completely incinerated.

If anyone asked, she would deny, and she might even deny it to herself, but in that moment she wished there was some resemblance of life on that body and the man could feel just a part of her pain.

- Zelena, are you crazy?

Snow voice made Emma go back to Zelena, the witch was shaking her head in denial and crying silently. Emma, that up to that point hadn't had the courage to look to Regina's wound, followed the witch's eyes and saw the blue spots all over her abdomen.

Poison. The cowards' weapon.

- I can heal the wound, but without an antidote she will die within hours.

They were all deadly silent, in fact, to Emma, it seemed like the entire world was silent, she wasn't capable to process anything. It was as if there was nothing else but pain.

After a few moments in an almost catatonic state, Regina whispering brought her back.

She had to put her ears just above Regina's mouth, her voice getting weaker by the second.

- Emma, it's fine, it happens.

That made a feeling of pure terror take over the emptiness that was her mind. Regina was giving up, accepting her defeat, accepting her death. No, Emma could deal with many things, had overcome everything life had thrown her way, but she for a fact she wouldn't be able to deal with this, she refused to take this one more lost.

- No. No, it isn't. It's anything but fine, Regina. But it will be. Look at me.

Emma held Regina's face between her hands, drying the tear that were falling of those beautiful brown eyes.

- I'm gonna fix it. We will find a way, I promise.

- Don't promise…

- I promise!

Her hands returned to Regina's dark hair, trying to comfort her, while she talked to Zelena.

- If you heal the arrow's wound, we will still have time to find a cure. Please, we can save her.

Hope didn't come easily to Zelena as it came to the Charmings, but the pain of seeing her sister almost lifeless on the floor was such she forced herself to believe in Emma.

She directed all her powers to that spell, needed everything she had to delay the poison as much as possible; they would need all the time they could get to find the antidote.

A cloud of green smoke surrounded all of Regina's body, new tears were running down Zelena's face, a mix of emotional and physical pain. She knew that spell was going to end all her energy, but she couldn't care less, it was her sister's life, she would stop at nothing.

After a few minutes, Zelena falls to the floor, she was breathing heavily and only had the time to watch the wound close before driving to nothingness.

Emma could hear her parents running towards Zelena, she could hear Snow saying she would be okay and just needed to rest, she could hear her father trying to find something useful on what was left of the man's body, just to come back with empty hands. She could hear they arguing and deciding their best chance was to find Gold and make a deal for Regina's life. She could hear their steps fading as they ran away to follow the plan.

She could hear everything happening around her, and she couldn't care less. Maybe she was just selfish, or maybe that was all too much to handle at once, but she didn't care about Zelena, and she didn't care about how they would get the antidote, as long as they did. She would give her own life if she had to.

All she could care about at the moment, the only thing in her world, was the brunette on her arms. When the smoke finally dissipated, Regina had her eyes closed and every second she remained like that Emma could feel a part of her soul being ripped apart.

She couldn't say exactly how long she stayed there; just looking at Regina, caressing her face, saying over and over again that it would all be fine and praying to every god she knew that that was true.

- Please Regina, wake up, I don't know what do. I need you.

In that moment, when the words left her lips, Emma realized how real they were, how much she needed Regina in her life. After years trying to push her out, all she really needed was Regina even closer. She didn't want to live in a world the brunette was no longer a part of.

She could feel her sanity going away at every second she spent not seeing those chocolate brown eyes, not hearing her voice, not kissing the lips she dreamed about secretly ever since the day she first arrived at Storybrooke.

So that's what she did. If she was going mad without her brunette, she was going mad knowing what those lips felt like.

It was only when her lips found Regina's she understood the real meaning of madness. She lost any resemblance of sanity she could have, and there was no better feeling. She would give her soul in exchange for that single moment.

Zelena woke up when she felt an unexplainable strong magic go through her body, she opened her eyes in time to witness rainbow lights all over the forest, looking around still confused by what was happening. It all made sense when she saw the scene just a few meters away, Emma finally decided to take a chance. She didn't try to stop the smile growing on her face; her sister was definitely on good hands.

The magic of true love.

**SWANQUEEN IS ENDGAME**

- I know is hard to understand, it took me a while too, with all that has happened between us. And is you stop to think that I'm in love with my step-daughter's daughter…

- Regina you're not helping yourself.

- The point is: I love your daughter, and I'm sure she loves me too. I came here to fix the only thing standing between me and my happy ending, our happy ending.

- Emma is not the kind of girl who likes it when people decide her life without her.

- I'm not deciding anything, she can still say no whenever she wants, I'm just making sure her parents are okay with whatever she decides for herself. I want her answer to be hers, not her parents'. Besides, I'm fine risking her staying angry at me for a few days.

- What I don't understand is why isn't she telling us all this.

- She is afraid. She is afraid of her feelings and she is afraid of you. She just found her parents, she can't lose you again. But I know you two better than anyone; you are probably the only ones that could truly forgive me. I'm sure you'll understand that what I feel for her is pure love.

Regina had to stop to take a deep breath, or tears would certainly join her speech.

- I know I did horrible things to you, and I don't expect you to be thrilled about this, but I love Emma. So I came here hoping we could just leave the past behind.

Snow and Charming could feel the sincerity and love behind Regina's words, they truly believed the two were each other happy ending's and even with all the past problems they couldn't deny their daughter the chance of love. Besides, past was, indeed, past, they were all new people, especially Regina. Deep down they knew Emma was a big part of the queen's new life.

They both smiled openly and Regina felt relief wash all over her, hugging Snow back.

- Welcome to the family, Regina. Again.