A/N: Alright I know you're all thinking: what's with the damn rock? Well all of your questions shall soon be answered.
Regina went flying out of her house, Henry sprinting right along side her. He had no idea what was going on but followed anyway. Regina didn't know if Cora was staying and knew she couldn't just leave her son so she grabbed her on her way out of the house.
"Where are we going, Mom? He asked breathlessly as he slowed to a halt, his engine burnt out. Regina slowed along with him, realizing that she had nowhere to run to. Emma could be anywhere.
"We have to find Emma." Regina kneeled down to the boy's face and said to him slowly. He nodded seriously and instantly his eyes began to roam around the beach, now determined to find Emma
He and Regina walked towards the dunes where there were more hidden spots than the flat, open beach outside their house. Regia stayed close to the shore, looking up and down the beach while Henry explored deeply in the reeds.
After pushing away a large thicket to the side, he spotted the blonde haired woman sitting on the edge of a dune. Luckily, she spotted him first and put a finger up to her lips effectively telling him to 'shhh'. He mimicked her and quietly tip-toed over.
"Hi Henry." She said after he crawled comfortably in her lap, completely forgetting the urgency of the situation.
"Hi Emma. My mom is looking for you" He whispered, taking Emma's request to be quiet very seriously.
"I know," Emma responded with a slight smirk as the young boy nuzzled up into her.
The time she'd been on dunes since running out of Regina's house, however short it was, had allowed her to clear her head. With all that was whirling around inside of it, she came up with six things she knew. Six things she was positive of. The only six things that really mattered.
One. Her parents were dead.
Two. Despite the hurt she felt when she found out they had kept Regina a secret from her, she knew they did it out of love.
Three. She had promised Regina when she was pregnant that she would protect and love the baby growing inside of her no matter what. She looked at Henry sitting on her lap. She would keep that promise.
Four. She had been in love with Regina Mills six years ago.
Five. She was currently in love with Regina Mills.
Six. She was never letting her go again.
"Emma?" Henry turned from her lap and whispered in her ear.
"Yes, Henry?"
"My Mom is looking for you!" This time he said it in a hushed whisper, one that was urgent.
"Look. There she is." Emma pointed down from the dune to the shore where Regina walked into their view. Emma knew they were fairly hidden by the reeds.
She watched the brunette woman approach a blanket she'd spread out on the sand. On top of the blanket sat a rock. The rock that Emma had clutched for hours while drifting through the sea. Her mother's very last message to her.
"Watch," Emma whispered in Henry's ear. He leaned back against Emma's chest and watched with wide eye as his mother approached the blanket cautiously. She leaned down and picked up the rock, bringing it to her face.
"What's that?" Henry asked, squinting his eyes to see the small object in Regina's hand.
"A rock. It will help her remember."
"Remember what?"
"Remember me." Emma nudged Henry so he was looking forward, a small smile on her face as he fidgeted around anxiously.
Regina saw the blanket and a rock perched on top of it. It was jagged in some parts, round in others. She looked around slightly for a reason why it was here. It seemed so out of place.
Leaning over, she picked up the rock and looked at it quizzically. It felt so familiar in her hand, she turned it around with her fingers.
When she saw a crack that seemingly separated the rock into two she brought it closer to her face. The crack was kept together by clear glue.
"This is your most favorite possession?" Regina asked with her eyebrows to her hairline looking at the grey rock that Emma held in her two hands.
"Yes"
"Why?"
"Because it's so deceiving. It looks like a plain, boring rock, but when you open it," Emma pulled apart her hands, "you realize it's more."
The rock which looked completely unspecial and ordinary in every way, was pulled apart to reveal a near hollow inside. One that was lined with glittering purple crystals.
Regina ran her fingers over the crystals gently, they were jagged and pointed out from all different directions, shooting the sunlight every which way as it reflected off of it.
"Wow." Regina kept fingering the crystals, glancing up at Emma with incredulity.
"Yeah. I used to want to keep it forever, but I think I have a better idea." Regina reluctantly pulled her hand away from the crystals.
"What is it?"
"Well, I was thinking," Emma looked down at the rock in her hand and blushed, "we're leaving tomorrow and I know you're going to miss this place. I thought it'd be nice to leave a piece of you here forever. " Regina tilted her face down, lining her head up with Emma's line of vision so they could make eye contact.
"And what piece of me are we going to leave here?" Regina smiled softly, encouraging Emma to continue and thinking it was so adorable how suddenly shy the blonde was.
"Well, we could write something on a piece of paper, put it in the rock, seal it back up, and then throw it in the ocean. And it would sit there. Forever." Emma pushed the two sides of the rock together to demonstrate how there would be space in the crystal encrusted center for the paper, "I don't know, something about knowing you'll be connected to a place even after you die is pretty cool, I think."
Regina looked at Emma like she was the most precious thing in the entire world. But when Emma didn't hear a response, she immediately got self-conscious
"I mean we don't have to-"
"I love you," Regina stilled Emma's hands and forced her to look at her.
"I love you too" Emma's face lifted as she cupped her hand on Regina's cheek. They leaned together slowly and met in the middle for a lingering kiss.
"That's what I want to live on even after we die. At the bottom of the ocean. In a rock."
"Our love?"
"Our love." Regina nodded resolutely and nuzzled her face into the crook of Emma's neck.
"And how do you plan on materializing our love onto a piece of paper?" Emma looked down at the woman who she could feel smiling against her neck.
"I have a few ideas." Regina retorted, her lips brushing against Emma's skin as they moved to talk.
Regina gasped, sucking in a sharp breath of air. That had been real. She knew it. She knew it as well as she knew what she had for breakfast that morning.
Glancing back down to the rock she realized the floodgates had been unlocked.
She collapsed to the ground, her knees digging into the gritty sand, tears rapidly falling from her eyes. Within seconds, her face streamed with the salty liquid.
She cried in pain as she remembered Henry's father deciding once he'd slept with her, he was done.
She cried remembering how lonely and helpless she felt when she realized she would raise a child alone.
But then she met Emma. God, how clearly she remembered meeting Emma.
Her blonde hair. Her crooked smile. Her mischievous eyes. Her slightly dimpled cheek that only showed she was smiling so big her face had to hurt. Her slender fingers. Her lean legs. Her blush that would spread from her neck to her cheeks in seconds. Her tan skin. Her lips.
Regina sighed. Her lips.
Tears fell down even faster now. They fell for the reason that these memories had been invisible to her all this time. That she's gone all those years without knowing that she'd felt the way she had about Emma.
They fell for the reason that she'd been pregnant and raised Henry completely alone when there had been someone who wanted to be there with her.
Her body swelled with emotion, waves of anger conflicting with those of sorrow. And all she could do to let it out was cry.
So for once, she left nothing inside of her, crying for everything she had missed.
"What's wrong with her Emma?" Henry's eyes were wide as he watched his mother hunched over, crying.
"She's remembering," Emma whispered to herself. She wrapped her arms around the boy, hugging him from behind. "Henry, what do you say we go make your Mom feel better?"
"Yeah!" Henry lifted up his fist, determined to make his mother smile as he did so often.
"Go get her," Emma lifted Henry up from her lap and he took off, sprinting and sliding down the sand dune to get to his mother. Emma followed slowly, lagging back so she could let Regina have a moment with her son first.
Henry crashed into Regina as he finally made it down the slope, tripping and falling.
"Mom, why are you so sad?" Henry wrapped his arms around the brunette's neck as she wrapped her own arms around his back.
"I'm not sad, honey. I'm just remembering some things and it's a lot to take in." Regina had fallen back on the sand when Henry ran into her and now sat down with her legs splayed out. She looked up at Henry with her tear stained faced.
Henry put his little hands up to his mother's cheeks and wiped the tears away. Regina let him, a small smile forming on her face.
"I found Emma." He said simply after he rested his hands on her cheeks. Regina's smile only widened.
"Yeah, me too." She responded while glancing atop Henry's head where she saw Emma standing, her hands in her back pockets, looking on.
Henry turned around to see where his mom was looking and yelled to Emma.
"I made her feel better Emma. It's your turn!" He twisted around in Regina's arms and ran over to the blonde, his arms flying around in the self-created breeze.
Emma slowly began to walk down the rest of the sand dune towards Regina, Henry attached at her side. Regina pushed off one foot and stood up from her previous sitting position. Her heart was racing in excitement and her breathing quickened.
Despite seeing Emma just an hour earlier, this was the first time she had seen her Emma in six years.
Emma took one step at a time, willing her pulse to slow enough for her to be able to think semi-clearly. She saw Regina stand and took a deep breath of air, knowing that oxygen would be scarce once she got any closer to the woman.
When they were about a foot away, they both stopped, staring at each other nervously.
"What were you doing up there?" Regina's shaky voice finally pushed out, her head tilting to the sand dune where Emma had been sitting.
Emma's eyes flickered around Regina's face, wanting to look at everything, touch everything. A slowly smirk settled on her own face and she bit her lip slightly to contain it.
"I was waiting."
Regina's brows furrowed as she asked innocently, "Waiting for what?"
"For you to catch up," Emma said, her smile growing slightly, the memory of the first time they'd had this conversation flashing through her head.
Regina's jaw dropped, knowing exactly what Emma was doing. Remembering exactly what came next. Her stomach flopped uncontrollably and she gulped audibly.
"Catch up to what?" She asked in a trembling voice, so quiet that Emma could barely hear it.
"To this." Emma whispered as she hooked her arm around Regina's waist and gently pulled her toward her, capturing her lips with her own.
Regina's world was shattered in that moment.
Everything that had been and was now fell away, the only thing that mattered to her in that moment was that kiss.
That kiss made her feel like time and space didn't even exist.
She felt her skin tingle, but she wasn't even sure if it was her skin that was tingling.
She decided, if it was possibly for every organ, every blood vessel, every cell of her body to hum excitedly at once, it was.
Regina fingers traced along Emma's neck, curling up and tangling in Emma's blonde hair as she gently tugged her closer so that she could deepen the kiss.
I know, I know! You still don't know what's in the rock. All in good time, lovely readers. All in good time.