summary: One-Shot, inspired by this quote: "I don't even want sex. I just want to curl up in her arms and run my fingers along her skin. Just to feel her. To know she's real. That she's mine. I just want to be with her." Regina just wants Emma back.

timeline note: Set immediately following the end of season 4.

I Just Want

Regina refused Hook's demands that the Dagger be used to summon the Dark One. His attempt had failed. Shaking, Regina had picked it out of his hand, sneering at him with disdain.

Her name is EM-MA, her inner voice screamed at him while she remained pinched lipped and frowning. She's Emma, just Emma, her heart hammered in her chest to the rhythm of her thoughts.

"Regina, we have to get her back!" She turned to see Snow clinging to David, her eyes – not quite the same green as Emma's but close, oh so close that Regina bit her lip – revealing how quickly the younger woman was falling apart.

Snap her out of it, her mind demanded. Regina growled, "Don't you think I know that?" She tangle her fingers in her own hair, pulling at the strands, trying desperately to pull out a thought, an idea, a solution, for god's sake.

Pacing away from the clot of people, Regina flinched when she felt a presence rush up to her left side. "Henry!" She swallowed down the pain - like rocks plugging her throat - seeing him, knowing what he would know soon enough.

His mother was gone. Emma was gone. Henry's gaze searched hers silently. If he had his mother's ability to read people, he was using it now, discerning what no one could bring themselves to tell him.

The realization spread pain like a shadow across his face. She swallowed, reached out her hand toward him. He grasped it, their fingers intertwining. Maybe he knew, maybe he didn't, but Regina drew strength from the contact, the small pinched lips he gave her, the tiniest squeeze he put into their touch.

"Mom?"

"it was," Regina hesitated, struggled to get the words out. In a whisper, she added, "supposed to be me."

"Ma took away the Darkness," Henry said.

Emma had done that long before this night, Regina thought, the fleeting flash of an earnest smile and "See? That's a start,"falling from pale pink lips. She felt the burn of tears behind her eyes. Henry stepped in closer. She dropped her head, simultaneously hiding her face and yet keeping her words only for him. "The Darkness took her away," she confessed.

Henry's gasp and jerk brought Regina's eyes up to watch him looking around the street.

"I'm sorry." She watched his head snap around to her. "I tried to stop her."

"She saved you," Henry said.

Regina lifted her chin, again feeling the pull of tension in her throat like shards of glass as she once again swallowed down her tears.

"She did the right thing." Henry said. "We'll get her back."

I know she did the right thing, so why do I feel miserable? Again. Regina felt another hand touch her lower back and jerked around glaring. When she saw it was Robin, she growled. "Don't touch me."

But she desperately wanted someone's touch. Unbidden, her gaze went to the spot on the street where Emma had vanished. Unconsciously, she hugged herself, wishing it was other arms.

"Emma," she breathed. Henry crashed into her chest, wrapping his arms around her.

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