Regina finds Emma exactly where she knew she would. Sitting on the hood of that disgusting (endearing) yellow Volkswagen, just before the town line. Emma has been crying, Regina can tell; her eyes and cheeks are red.
She's barely been looking for Emma for an hour since Mary Margaret called her in a flurry of panic, talking fast and crying loud. She'd fought with Emma, that was all Regina knew. That was all she needed to know. It didn't take Regina long to realize that Emma would run, maybe even for good. She didn't even pause to think before heading for the town line.
She pulls her Mercedes up behind Emma's bug and parks. Against her better judgment, she climbs up next to the blonde onto the car, and crosses her ankles. She sighs quietly.
"Emma," She murmurs, reaching for one of the savior's hands. She pulls the pale hand into her lap and envelops it with both of her own. It's been a long time since she touched someone - besides Henry - with such open affection. She can't even remember loving another person as fiercely as she loves Emma and their son.
"Regina, please just go," Emma whispers. Regina shakes her head, and sighs again. She isn't going anywhere.
"Never," She tells Emma, who snorts like she doesn't believe Regina has any reason to stay. Regina's heart cracks.
"Emma, please," Regina says desperately. "You have to come home. Your parents need you, Henry needs you. I - I need you."
"I can't," Emma whispers, her voice sounding so broken that it shatters Regina's blackened heart. She looks so lost, so vulnerable, and Regina is once again reminded of how much they both have to lose right now. She cannot let Emma leave.
"Yes, you can, Emma" She begs, and Regina has never begged before, so the words are unfamiliar on her lips. Regina knows then that she is utterly lost without Emma.
"No, you don't understand. I - I told my parents something and they told me to leave. They don't love me anymore," The savior confesses, and Regina hates that title, savior, because it seems to make Emma so sad, like she doesn't know if people would love her if she weren't their savior. Regina knows that she would. God, she'd love Emma no matter what.
"They've always been idiots, forget about them. Henry and I need you," She tells Emma, who looks like she really wants to believe the former queen.
"They'll tell everyone, I'll lose everyone. I'll lose you," Emma argues, and Regina screams internally.
"You will never lose me, Emma Swan. I swear to gods, you will never lose me," She promises.
"Come with me, then," Emma is saying, and Regina is so shocked that she freezes.
"What?" She whispers, and Emma is nodding and smiling faintly and she says it again: "You and Henry, come with me. We can start over in a new town where no one knows us or our pasts and we can be a family. You and Henry, that's all I need."
Regina's voice cracks as she responds, "Really?"
"Yeah, we'd be happy, right?" She sounds so uncertain, so hopeful that Regina could be happy with her, that Regina does all she can think of doing in the moment. She kisses her. Leans in and presses her lips against Emma's and pulls her close. Emma's cheeks are wet when Regina reaches up to cup one, and their tears mix as they break apart for air, and Emma leans her forehead against Regina's.
"Yes," Regina whispers. "I think we'd be so happy."
"Then let's do it," Emma says with the excitement of a young child, and Regina smiles wide.
"Okay," She murmurs, and she tries to help herself, she really does, but she leans back in and kisses Emma again and again. They are loathe to part ways for even long enough to drive back to the mansion, but Regina somehow tears herself away from Emma long enough to get there. Henry comes barreling down the stairs and flings himself into Emma's arms, and Regina is overwhelmed by the pure love she holds for both mother and son. She never thought she could love like this.
"Ma, thank god mom found you! I was so worried," Henry says into Emma's shoulder, and god, Regina thinks, he's almost as tall as her now.
"Pack a bag, my prince," Regina murmurs, her eyes sparkling. Henry looks up at her, confused. "We're leaving Storybrooke."
This is her happy ending, and she'll be damned if anyone dares touch it.
They make themselves a home in New York. Not the city, the three of them decide that they want a real fresh start, somewhere completely new. So they find Albany, and settle on the outskirts. It's a big home, with plenty of room for their family. The backyard is large, and Emma puts in a swing set (she doesn't say why, but she knows they'll need it someday) and Regina plants a vegetable garden.
Emma's parents never visit, and they never call. Emma minds a little, but she keeps a brave face. She has everything she needs here, in Albany. She does her best to forget about the little town in Maine. When she struggles, she leans on Regina.
Emma finds a job in the police force, and Regina runs for office in the city government. The people love her, and she wins her first election by a vast majority. Henry gets into a really good high school, and takes a creative writing course that he absolutely falls in love with. When he finds a boy he loves just as much, Regina cries for hours (her baby is growing up), and Emma slaps the kid on the back and jokingly offers him a beer.
Regina and Emma marry on a summer day in August. The sun is shining overhead and they wed in the park, surrounded by the family and friends they've found for themselves in Albany. Henry walks Regina down the aisle, and Emma cries during her vows. They both do.
When their baby boy leaves for college, they decide to have more children. They adopt a beautiful little girl from North Dakota. She's nine years old when the papers go through, and she arrives home on their wedding anniversary. It's the best present they could've asked for.
Her name is Addison, and she fits so perfectly into their little family. Regina teaches her Spanish and baking and piano, and Emma teaches her to ride a bike and climb trees and play catch. When Henry comes home from college, he brings his little sister presents and reads her the stories he's been writing.
They consider adopting more, but decide that they have all that they need. Henry and Addison are more than enough.
Henry marries that boy from high school after he graduates from college, and Regina cries again. Her baby boy is officially all grown up. He stays close by, moves into a small house in a small town just twenty minutes away. He works as an editor while he works on his first novel. A few years go by, and he and his husband adopt a baby boy from Jamaica. Regina and Emma fall in love immediately, and Regina spoils the little boy rotten. Her first grandchild.
Addison grows up too quickly. She falls in love with medicine, and animals. She goes to vet school, and excels. Her parents are beyond proud. She stays in Albany less than five minutes from Emma and Regina, which makes them happy. She adopts a few dogs and never marries. (She is shy to come out as aromantic, but Regina and Emma are nothing but accepting).
Henry has two more kids before he even turns thirty; twins from Germany. A boy and a girl. (Regina spoils them endlessly). He publishes his first novel at thirty-one, and is a huge success. (It's the story of his mothers, meeting and hating and forming a tentative friendship and falling in love and it's beautiful and Regina cries yet again).
Regina retires two years after Emma, after a successful political career. She made her way up the ranks, and serves two terms as mayor of her city. Emma retires only because she has too, when her age gets in the way of her ability to keep working. Regina rolls her eyes and sighs as Emma puts up a fuss about retirement, and how bored she'll be. They find ways to make it interesting. (Regina takes up knitting).
Regina dies in her sleep at eighty-seven, with three human grandchildren (all from Henry and his husband, Jamie) and way too many dog grandchildren (which she isn't too happy about at first but grows to love). Emma soldiers on, but it's easy for her children to tell that she misses her wife. She passes on less than two months later, quietly and peacefully.
It's a good life.