"Emma, wait!" Regina went after the blonde.
Emma turned around and they were face to face. Both of their eyes gleaming with unsaid emotions.
"There's something I haven't told you," Regina began.
"What now?" Emma's voice was small.
'I love you, I'm sorry, I've always loved you' were the things Regina WANTED to say. But she couldn't. Not in front of the whole town. Not now when was seconds away from losing everything. Not when it wouldn't matter anymore.
So instead what she said was, "When the curse washes over us, it will send us all back, nothing will be left behind. Including your memories. It's just what the curse does. Storybrooke will no longer exist, it won't EVER have existed. So these last years will be gone from both your memories and we just go back to being stories again." The unspoken meaning was clear to them both. Emma would no longer know Regina had even existed.
Emma looked panicked. Tears were threatening to fall at any moment. "What will happen to us?!" She meant herself and Henry but in her heart she was asking more.
"I don't know," Regina admitted.
"That doesn't sound much like a happy ending," Emma was struggling to breathe.
Regina let out a short, harsh breath, almost crying. "It's not." She looked deep into Emma's green eyes. "But I CAN give you new ones."
Emma looked at her, confused but hopeful. "You can preserve our memories?"
Regina looked at her sadly, "No. I can do what I did to everyone else in this town." She paused, "and give you new ones." Ones that didn't include her. She couldn't stop the tears in her eyes.
"You cursed them and they were miserable," Emma said back. Regina could tell Emma was grasping at straws, trying desperately to find a way out of this. Her eternal hope was something Regina never wanted to forget.
"They didn't have to be." She took Emma's hand in hers. It was something she'd wanted to do for so long and the irony was not lost on her that now when she finally did it they were one curse away from never seeing each other again. "My gift to you is good memories. A good life for you," Regina paused and looked back for Henry who was clutching Neal tightly. Henry hurried up to her and she took his hand with her free one, "and Henry. You'll have never given him up. You'll have always been together," she managed to choke out, for the tears were flowing freely now.
Emma's tears fell down her cheeks, matching Regina's. "You would do that?"
Regina looked steadily into her eyes, willing Emma to trust in her. "When I stop Pan's curse, and you cross that town line, you will have the life you've always wanted," Regina promised, but both women knew it wasn't true. Because Regina wouldn't be there.
Emma looked into her eyes, a desperate plea. Longing passed between them and Regina couldn't help but squeeze Emma's hand tightly. "But they won't be real," Emma was begging her to fix this. Regina wished more than anything that she could.
"Your past won't, but your future will." Regina didnt want to let go, wanted them here with her always. Like she thought they would be. She wished she'd done so many things differently.
But the time was here. She could feel the curse almost upon them. "Now go. There isn't much time left and the curse will be here any minute." She reluctantly released Emma's hand and drew Henry in her arms one last time. She wasn't sure how it was possible, but her heart broke again as she realized she would never be able to hold him again. Never be able to see him grow up and start a family of his own. She remembered back to the first time she'd held him in her arms as an infant 11 years ago. He'd been the best thing that had ever happened to her. Him and Emma. She let him go.
Regina looked up and watched as Snow placed a tender kiss on Emma's forehead. Emma turned and hurried to the yellow bug, Henry behind her. Regina's heart broke as she watched the two people she loved most in this world climb in and buckle up. She, along with the rest of Storybrooke watched as the car kicked to a start. The sound felt like an arrow in her chest, piercing her lungs and leaving her unable to breathe. She could hear the cracking of thunder behind her as the cloud rose up behind them. In almost a daze she spread open the scroll between her fingers and with a quick tug tore the paper from the roll. As she crumpled the curse between her hands she closed her eyes and said a silent prayer. That Henry and Emma would be happy. Even if she couldn't be with them, she hoped that they would be happy in their new lives together. This was it. Everything she had wanted and had worked so hard for, for so long was about to be erased.
Regina turned around, facing the quickly-approaching curse. She wanted so much for one more glimpse of her son, of Emma. But she couldn't turn back. There was no time. Everyone before her clutched on to each other in fear and devastation. Regina was facing this alone. Going out just as she had come in.
She held up her palms and a purple electricity shot out, mingling with the cloud's mist. The sickly green turned to an all-to-familiar purple.
And then it was upon them. Regina saw the faces of the townspeople as they vanished before her. The fear, the desperation, the sorrow. She heard their cries as they clung desperately to those they loved most.
Behind her, she could hear the tires as they carried her son and the woman she loved to safety.
"Henry, Emma," their words were on her lips as she closed her eyes and felt the electric mist on her face and all she could hear was the rumbling of thunder and the crackling of electricity in her ears.
Emma didnt try to stop the tears that fell. As she watched in her rearview mirror everyone she cared about was slowly overtaken by the cursed cloud.
The last thing she saw was Regina's black silhouette and then the cloud closed over the brunette, swallowing her from sight.
Emma blinked. The road behind her was empty of other drivers. As it had been for a long while now.
She smiled and looked over at her son who smiled back at her. The sun shone brightly and Emma marveled again at how lucky she was. They'd had a great weekend for a vacation. All sunshine and storm-free. To think 11 years ago she had almost given him up for adoption.
She didn't even like to think the thought. That had been a rough time in her life but Henry had changed all that for the better when he'd come along.
She reached over and squeezed his hand. Who knows what her life would have been like had she actually gone through with giving him up. She smiled. Good thing she never had to find out.