A/N: This is indeed the last chapter. My intention was never to have this go very long. I just wanted to have a fun short story to do. I hope you enjoyed it.
Five years later
"Regina!" Emma called out from the kitchen.
Regina appeared a few seconds before Emma almost yelled her name again. "Would you not yell like that, I just got your son down for some sleep," Regina said.
"Yeah, well your daughter made another mess," Emma said standing up where Regina could barely contain her laugh at the food now gracing Emma's shirt. "I need to go change before I go into work."
"How many times do you have to be reminded not to try and feed her while wearing your work clothes?" Regina said, approaching her wife and giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Go change, but try not to wake Cameron by running up the stairs."
"Bossy much," Emma said with a grin.
"You didn't complain about my bossiness last night in bed," Regina winked at her.
"Not in front of the kids," Emma said with exaggerated shock.
She left the kitchen and barely remembered not to go running up the stairs. She took off her shirt as she entered the bedroom and went rummaging in the closet for something to wear. Pulling on her shirt she glanced in the mirror to make sure all was well and remembered to put her dirty shirt in the hamper. She paused a little thinking about how much this one room had changed over the years.
The first time she was in it she found it to be immaculate. The bed was always made when she came up here with Regina when they were dating. At first, small amounts of Emma began to creep into the room until Regina graciously decided to give her a drawer. Even when they made the decision to move in together Regina kept things neat and tidy – and tried to get Emma to do the same.
Now the room still looked tidy but not immaculate.
Sometimes Emma forgot to put her wet towels in the hamper and Regina tried to keep the bed made at times but it was no longer an every day occurrence.
Emma thought about all the special times in that bed – the first time Regina and her were together, which happened much quicker than Emma ever thought it would be based on how they started out dating. Then there was the night after Emma had proposed to Regina out at the town line.
Regina had asked her why she chose that location to propose and Emma explained that her whole life had changed when she had crossed that town line the first time with Henry. She spoke of how much it meant to her that Regina had stood there and given Emma and Henry memories of a life together when they had to flee Storybrooke. And she said with a smirk there was that one time when they had gone out of town for a date and Emma had pulled off the side of the road before entering the town line and they had sex in the car.
They had also had their wedding night in that bed before leaving the next day on their honeymoon. It was also in that bed that they talked about having other children and Regina had cried as she explained to Emma why she couldn't have children. Emma had held on to her the whole night never wanting to let her go.
In the end, they had decided on adoption and so the twins Cameron and Cassie came into their lives.
That first night neither Emma nor Regina had wanted to let go of their babies and so they had laid in bed holding them before Regina finally decided they had to put them down in the nursery. Emma was overjoyed at doing all the things she missed out with Henry. Even when it meant extra loads of laundry because Cassie was a finicky eater who liked to throw her food at Emma. She never did it with Regina for whatever reason yet that morning Regina had been busy trying to get Cam down to sleep. Emma was still tired from being up all night with the kid, but it was her turn and she wouldn't trade it for anything.
She left the bedroom and quietly crept into check on Cam. He was a deep sleeper when he slept – taking after Emma – and Emma smiled as he had his stuffed elephant tucked up next to him. She had gotten him the elephant when he was a baby and he absolutely would not sleep without it. She told Regina she was afraid his college roommate would make fun of him when he took that off to school with him. Thankfully that concern was years down the road.
Emma left the room and stopped at Henry's door, breathing deeply as she thought about her son being so far away. He had gone away to college – having graduated high school just that spring. Emma had cried way more than Regina had at both the graduation and when they dropped him off at Boston College. He had been there two months now and was having a great time. They texted and each week they Skyped so he could talk to not only his mothers but his siblings.
She was looking forward to him coming home for the holidays. Maybe they could put him on babysitting duty so she could take her wife out for a date.
Emma returned to the kitchen, leaning against the doorframe as she watched Regina feed Cassie without any issues. She walked over and sat down at the table.
"Don't you need to get going," Regina said.
"I will in a moment," Emma said. "You can't blame me if I want to sit for a few minutes and watch my wife and daughter."
Regina leaned over and they shared a kiss.
"Do you ever think about it, about how we started out and how far we have come?" Emma said.
"Well I try not to dwell much on how we started out – at least as far when you first came to Storybrooke and broke my curse. But yes, I think about it. Why do you ask?"
"I don't know. I was just upstairs and I thought about how the bed always used to be made and the dozens of other changes to just the house since we started dating. Then there is you stepping down as mayor and Henry learning to drive and becoming an adult. It all seems surreal sometimes. Do you ever feel that way?"
"I guess. I mean whoever thought I would co-write two best-sellers with your mom of all people," she said.
"Hey people love those fairy tales told for the modern audience," Emma said. "Especially the first one where the Evil Queen falls for the Savior."
"Did you even read the book – if you had you would know the Savior falls for the Evil Queen," Regina smiled.
"She sure did," Emma smiled. She stood up. "I better get to work. I will see you at lunchtime." She bent down and gave Regina a kiss and then gave Cassie a kiss on her head. "Bye baby girl."
She made it only as far as the kitchen door before she turned.
"Regina."
"Yes?"
"Do you remember our first date?"
"Of course," she asked.
"You told me that night that Tink had offered you fairy dust so you could see if I was your soul mate yet you turned down the chance."
"Is there a reason you are bringing this up?"
"Well I've always wondered. Without the fairy dust, when did you know I was your soul mate—like knew, knew I was your soul mate?"
"Do you really want to know?" Regina asked getting up and coming over to her.
"Yes, I do."
"The truth is I lied to you that night of our first date."
"You did use the fairy dust."
"No, that wasn't the lie. The lie was why I didn't use it. The truth is I have known you were my soul mate since you showed up at my door to take me on the date that Will was supposed to take me on," she said. "I knew when you told me. I knew it because I knew you wouldn't lie about something like that and despite our past I knew you wouldn't intentionally hurt me. I knew because when you looked at me that night when I opened the door, that your eyes shone with this brightness I hadn't seen before directed at me."
"But if you knew why did you put me through that bit of hell? I thought you were never going to speak to me again, much less date me."
"First of all, I put you through that bit of hell because you deserved it. Showing up like that and presuming I would just go out with you," she said. "Secondly, by now you should know that sometimes I just need to step away from a situation. I've made too many mistakes in my life because I didn't step away and this was one thing I didn't want to mess up. I needed that time to have an internal debate about you being my soul mate. I believed you when you said it, but I didn't believe I was worthy of it so I told myself it wasn't true and that you were crazy. I told myself all the things I needed to tell myself so I could accept it if it didn't work out. I needed an out that said I wasn't your soul mate in case I did stumble along the way. But I always believed it was true, I just didn't want to believe it at first if that makes any sense."
"It does," Emma said. "Thanks for telling me."
"You're welcome. Now get to work."
Emma gave her another kiss. "Maybe when I get home tonight and the kids are asleep I will let you use your bossy voice on me again," she smiled.
"Out," Regina commanded.
