Prologue:

28 years ago

"Regina doesn't need me. Not now, not when she thinks she's about to win.

The curse won't last forever, it will end.

And when it does, Regina will truly have lost everything.

Than she'll need me."

Today

"Can't believe it's really you!" She was holding him, clutching him to her chest, and still she couldn't bring herself to believe it. Daniel, her Daniel was finally here.

She felt his arms wrapping strongly around her body, his heavy breaths on her neck as a confirmation of the fact that he. was. there.

When they separated, Regina gently brought her hands on his face and looked him in the eyes. She had missed those eyes so much, and in that moment she decided that she couldn't live another day without seeing them, no matter what, she wasn't gonna lose Daniel again.

"Regina… wh… what happened?"

His voice, coming out broken by heavy breaths brought her back to reality. He was alive yes, but for how long?

"Daniel… Daniel it's okay! I'm here with you now, I'm not gonna let you go again!"

Daniel felt his legs give up and fell on his knees on the dirty floor of the stable, he felt Regina's hands holding his shoulders tightly and could hear her reassuring words echoing in his head.

She was right, she wasn't gonna lose him again , he had to fight, he had to remain awake, for her.

"David! DAVID GET IN HERE!" He heard Regina's voice more and more distant, calling for help, and then everything went black.

Lying in his hospital bed, Daniel could barely hear the voices whispering next to him. He recognized Regina's voice but not the one of the man she was talking to.

"How was this possible? You must have an explanation."

"Well… deary, I'm not sure I'm the one to ask. It wasn't me that brought him back after all, you know that."

"Whale is awake but no one can see him now, he's giving his "version of the story" to the other doctors, I'll talk to him as soon as I can. Now I'm asking YOU. You MUST have an idea!"

"The only thing that comes to mind my dear, is that the final touch to REALLY bring him back… was you."

"Me!? How?"

Daniel heard a soft chuckle after Regina's question.

"After all these years… do you still need me to explain to you the power of true love?"

No answer came after that statement. Then Daniel heard footsteps walking away and managed to catch one last sentence from the unknown man:

"It seems that you are capable of that after all… your majesty."

Only now since he regained consciousness, his brain registered a sharp pain in his chest, as if thousands of needles were stabbing his heart at the same time. He tried to open his mouth to call for help but it felt hard to speak:

"R…Regina…"

She was watching Runpelstiltskin walk away when she hard his voice and for a moment she was startled by it. She wasn't used to hearing his it again after all this time.

"Daniel? Daniel I'm here!" she rushed to his bed and grabbed his hand that was hovered in the air towards her. "Don't move too much okay? Try to relax, lay down."

"Regina what happened? Where am I?"

No. Not now, now it's too early, she couldn't possibly be ready to tell him the truth.

"There'll be time for that Daniel. Now we need to get a doctor in here to give us some answers."

"From a clinical point of view, he's… he's recovering from heart surgery, but honestly… I… I really have no idea of what kind of surgery he might have had… I guess the, new state of things here in Storybrooke helped with that, your majesty. THAT and Dr. Whale's abilities."

The doctor that was filling them in on Daniel's condition was (if it was possible) more confused than them. But at least he was trying to provide an explanation.

"What about, his rage… when he woke up… Whale said he was, a monster…" she felt Daniel's hand reaching for hers on the bed sheets she was sitting on.

"Oh, that… we asked Dr. Whale about it, and he said something about the… shock of the procedure." He took a moment to check his notes on Daniel "It must have hurt like hell because the body was struggling to accept the new organ. Thanks to… well, "magic" and blood compatibility, his body only took five or six hours to start responding again, after that time the pain was only in his head, he only needed something… or in this case, someone…" He pointed his hand towards her "…to calm him down."

"Do you… do you think it could happen again?" she asked.

"I highly doubt it, but we're gonna prescribe him some strong painkillers, he'll have to stay here under observation for a couple of weeks. Oh and, rest as much as possible and absolutely avoid any kind of stress, even minimum."

Regina nodded slowly, she didn't want to lie to Daniel but there was no way she could tell him everything now. She turned to look at Daniel and smiled at him with the most genuine smile.

"See? You're gonna be okay soon." She whispered.

The deep voice of the doctor interrupted their moment: "Your majesty, with your permission I'm gonna go check on Dr. Whale now."

"Of course doctor, thank you." Regina dismissed him with a small smile and a nod, and Daniel noticed the strange look on the doctor's face, as if he wouldn't expert that answer. He heard him in the corridor after he exited their room: "Did she just SMILE at me!?"

This confused Daniel even more, what the hell was happening here?

He turned to look at Regina, her eyes were never leaving him, as if she was afraid that if she looked away he'd suddenly disappear.

"…Your majesty?" he asked.

He saw her face saddening: "Yeah… It's, kind of a long story…"

"What happened Regina? Where are w-…"

"Daniel…" Regina interrupted him "you have… no idea, how I would want to tell you everything right now. I want to give you all the answers you deserve, even if some of those answers will probably make you never wanna see me again…"

Daniel was more confused than ever: "Wh… what are you talking about!? Regina please talk to me!"

"No Daniel, Daniel look at me! The most important thing right now, is you getting better. I promise, I will tell you everything. But first you need to recover." She brought her hand to his face and delicately stroke his cheek.

"Do you trust me?" she whispered, her voice breaking a little.

"You know I do…"

"Then… what you need to know now is that… in this world we are safe, nothing can hurt us. Cora is gone, she's been gone for years now."

She saw Daniel processing her words, slowly realizing the meaning of her sentence.

"Regina you didn't… tell me you didn't…"

"I banished her." Before he could say anything else she interrupted him again. "I sent her to another world, where she can't hurt anyone."

Daniel let out a sigh of relief and a small smile formed on his face, but Regina's heart was sinking.

How could she tell him the truth? Tell him about all the pain she had caused? He was terrified even at the thought of her being able to kill the person that took his own heart. How was she supposed to tell him that she was responsible for the death of dozens of people? She knew he'd never wanna see her again after the truth would come out. But if it meant the he was alive and could live his life, she could gladly live with that.

She tried not to think about it, right now she needed to take care of him. To be there for him.

"Thank you…" His voice tore her away from her thoughts.

"What?"

"For bringing me back. Thank you…" his hand reached for hers, kissed it gently before smiling at her.

Looking in his eyes she couldn't bring herself to utter a single word. In that moment, her heart was overwhelmed by an happiness she didn't remember she could feel. All she could do, while long awaited tears of joy started forming in the corners of her eyes, was gently lay her head on his chest and feel his arms reach out to hug her, his hands slowly stroking her dark hair "Oh Daniel I missed you so much!" the tears started falling freely from her eyes as she listened to his steady heartbeat, the most beautiful confirmation that this wasn't just a dream.