Slight fluff alert. I know I said I'd be moving slower, but I couldn't resist just a little bit of fluff. Please let me know if you like where this is headed.

Cheeseburger In Paradise

When Emma opened her eyes she was laying on her side in the hospital bed. She spotted the bedside clock reading 3:26am. It only took her a minute to feel the presence in the room. She swallowed hard. Here we go. "Please tell me you brought a cheeseburger with you," she said as she rolled to her back.

Regina was startled and nearly jumped out of her skin. She thought Emma was asleep and had no intention of confronting her yet. She still had no idea what to say. "Emma, I'm sorry if I woke you," she stammered awkwardly. She felt her face flush as Emma just grinned at her. "I just-wanted to see if you were alright."

Emma pushed herself into a sitting position, wincing slightly. "I think you missed visiting hours."

Regina was embarrassed and unsure of how to explain herself. She needed to get out of there. "I'm sorry, I'll go, I just-"

"Didn't want anyone to see you here?" Emma offered. When Regina just stared back at her, mouth agape, Emma laughed gently. "It's alright. Don't go, I could use the company."

Regina shifted her weight, unsure of what her next move should be. She decided it best to distract them both from the fact Regina had basically just been caught sneaking into Emma's room in the middle of the night to watch her sleep. "Are you alright?"

Emma nodded and motioned toward the machines. "Yeah, they just wanted to keep me for the night to monitor me and let me get rest." Regina nodded. Emma smiled. "Apparently magically demolishing an entire town takes a lot out of ya."

Regina bit back a smile. "Don't I know it." They both chuckled.

"And makes you hungry. I feel like my metabolism has tripled."

"Well, didn't you ask them for food?"

Emma wrinkle her eyebrows. "Yeah but I'm still hungry. Besides, have you tasted hospital food?"

Regina nodded in understanding. They just stared at each other in silence for a few moments. Finally Emma spoke. "Mary Margaret told me what happened."

Regina's face grew white. She was NOT ready for this conversation. She took a step backwards, shaking her head. "I should go, let you get your rest-"

Just as Regina lifted her hands, Emma spoke up, "So help me, Regina if you poof out of here right now I swear to God I'll..." She paused and looked down at herself. "Okay, I'm not gonna finish that because we both know whatever threat I was going to throw out there wouldn't carry much weight in the state I'm in."

Regina lowered her hands back down, half smile on her lips.

Emma looked up at Regina and said quietly. "Regina I had no idea that you felt...that way."

Regina smoothed the front of her shirt with her hands, eyes darting around. "Neither did I."

Emma raised her eyebrows. "Well you must have had some idea for you to even try it to begin with."

Regina's first instinct was to lash out when she was uncomfortable. "Well I was desperate." Emma's eyes widened at the implications to what was just said. Regina realized her words and tried to backtrack. "We. We were...desperate. It's not like it was Plan A. We were out of options." Regina looked at her from a down turned face.

Emma shook her head and chuckled. "Man, I wish I could have seen the look on my mother's face."

Regina couldn't help but let out a small snicker. She noticed Emma looking at her with a serious look.

"Regina, we can try and make light of this all we want, but the truth is things just got extremely complicated." Regina lifted her chin. "I mean, it's not exactly easy telling your boyfriend that," she swallowed, "the 'I love you' you gave him was apparently meant for someone else and you didn't even know it."

Regina's mouth fell open as Emma had all but told her she loved her. She quickly swallowed down the panic and attempted to keep her face expressionless.

Emma sighed. "Turns out finding out your girlfriend is someone else's True Love is kind of a deal breaker."

Regina suddenly realized the predicament she had put Emma in with her relationship with Hook. "Emma, I'm sorry."

Emma looked pointedly at Regina. "Regina, don't be sorry. Don't ever be sorry. You saved my life! You probably saved the entire town! There's no telling what I would have done." She was pleased to see Regina relax a little bit. "Besides," Emma smiled. "Although it could have happened under better circumstances, it did force us to admit some things to ourselves."

She saw Regina stiffen a bit and realized she was unintentionally pushing Regina too much. "Look, Regina, this is a lot for all of us to process. I mean, we've just recently become friends finally. This doesn't have to-you don't even have to tell Robin. He wasn't there, right? Nothing has to-" she stopped when she saw the strange look on Regina's face. "What?"

Regina looked at her feet. "I already broke things off with Robin. Before the kiss, actually."

Emma's jaw dropped. "What?! Why?"

Regina bit the inside of her cheek as she met Emma's eyes. "Lets just say...he wasn't the man I thought he was. And...he may have become aware of my...feelings...for you before I even did."

Emma's eyebrows shot up, not completely understanding what exactly that meant. But the take home message was that even before the kiss, Regina had been struggling with her feelings for Emma. Their eyes met, finally the cards laid out on the table. Emma felt a flitter in her stomach. "So," she said quietly through a shy smile. "Now what?"

Regina bit her bottom lip and shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea."

Emma thought for a moment. She put her tongue in her cheek and shook her head. "Well you need to figure it out."

Regina raised an eyebrow. "Me? Why me?"

Emma smiled mischievously. "Because you already have one up on me. You owe me."

"What are you talking about?!"

Emma raised an eyebrow. "We both experienced True Love's kiss," she paused, gauging Regina's reaction. "But, I don't even get to remember it."

Regina felt her ears flush, the smile Emma was giving her doing funny things to her body. Before Regina knew what she was doing, she was slowly walking across the room towards Emma.

Emma swallowed hard, not noticing that the beeping of her heart monitor increasing. When Regina reached her bedside, she realized that what she was about to do was crazy. But she couldn't help herself.

Emma's monitor beeped even faster as Regina reached down and took her hand. They looked tentatively into each others eyes, shy smiles slowly disappearing. Regina swallowed and started to bend down toward Emma's lips.

Neither women registered the fast beeping of Emma's monitor until the shuffling of nurses caught their attention. Emma let go of Regina's hand and turned quickly to the door as the nurses rounded the station and headed to her room. She looked back at Regina just in time to catch the last of the purple wisps disappear into the air. And just like that Regina was gone.

The nurses burst into the room, spotting Emma sitting up on the bed. "Miss Swan, are you alright? You're heart rate just spiked."

Emma's eyes darted around as she tried to come up with an excuse. "Uh, I must have had a dream."

The nurse checked the monitor, satisfied to see her heart rate back down to normal. She shrugged and headed back out the door. "Must have been some dream."

Emma smiled and shook her head. "You have no idea," she whispered.
Emma sat quietly reflecting on the roller coaster ride of a day she had had when suddenly in her lap appeared a puff of purple smoke, dissipating to reveal a white take out bag. She stared at it in surprise before opening it and looking in. A cheeseburger and fries from Granny's. Emma smiled, inhaling in the delicious smell. "Regina, Regina."she sighed as she removed the burger from the bag. "What AM I going to do with you?" She smiled again, sinking her teeth into a piece of heaven on Earth.