A/N: Originally I wasn't going to include additional flashbacks, but I kind of liked them and you kind of liked them, so I continued. A few season 2 and 3 moments, and then Emma's return to Storybrooke.

Regina: Storybrooke 2011

Regina stared at her reflection, knowing that they were all there on the other side of the two-way mirror. She couldn't hear them in the interrogation room, but she could imagine what Snow and Charming would be saying about her. It was Emma, as always, who was the wild card.

Emma came back in, alone this time, and sat down across from Regina. "I know you didn't kill him," she said. "Well, I don't know, but I have a feeling."

"I'm so glad that the only things standing between my town and utter lawlessness are your feelings," Regina snapped, but she didn't want to snap. She wanted to thank Emma, but not when the other woman's parents were watching from the hall.

"Don't be a jerk," Emma warned, but she had the slightest smile on her lips. "I'm the only thing standing between you and a jail cell right now."

Regina wanted to retort as usual, but Emma had a point. "You're going to find the person who really did this, right?" She could already imagine how devastated Henry would be about Archie's death. There needed to be someone else, some way to clear her name, so that he wouldn't jump to the conclusion that his grandparents had.

"Even if I don't, you're not going down for this," Emma promised, her eyes going completely serious and such a deep green. "I know that everybody thinks of you as the Evil Queen and whatever, but in my office you're just Regina."

At that, Regina couldn't help murmuring a soft thank you. Emma's hands inched slightly closer to hers on the table, and all the memories she'd been burying for months rose again. She wanted that connection so badly, Emma's skin against hers. "You really don't think I'm evil?"

Emma's pinky grazed just slightly against hers as the sheriff moved to get up. "You're a bitch, Regina, but I've never thought you were evil."

Emma would change her mind, of course, by the time Regina saw her next. And as she accused Regina of being the same person she'd always been, the mayor just wanted to yell back that it wasn't true. The Emma who loved her had seen the good in her.

All the flickers of hope and kind moments since Emma broke the curse came crashing down around her, and Regina ran.

For the first time in weeks, Regina felt something like happy.

She'd lost her mother and practically lost her son. She'd been kidnapped and tortured and on the brink of destroying everything she'd created. And then she'd realized that the only way she could keep Henry from a life alone was to sacrifice herself.

But it was almost worth it for the way Emma looked at her when she realized. "You're not coming with us."

Regina shook her head and gave her a weak smile. "Everyone thinks of me as the Evil Queen. I want to die as Regina."

She raised her hands, focusing her magic on the pulsing diamond in front of her before she could change her mind. Emma surprised her by reaching out and touching her arm. She could barely feel the blonde's fingers through her coat, but she could feel the spark of magic between them.

"You've always been Regina," Emma told her. "To me, at least. Don't do this."

Regina glanced down at her hands. "It's too late for me. Just take care of Henry."

The look in Emma's eyes reminded Regina of the moment before the blonde had stepped into the portal. Only this time, there were no promises that they'd see each other again.

Emma was going to be the last person Regina ever saw, and it felt fitting.

But death didn't come, and thirty lonely years didn't pass. Emma came back. And while it was stupid and reckless and just so Emma to do that, Regina could feel the tears rising. For once, she didn't try to stop them. Let them think she was crying about Henry, or about herself. She locked eyes with Emma as the blonde stepped up to help.

The blast of magic reminded Regina of their first kiss, only tenfold. She hit the wall hard, bruising her already-injured body, but she didn't care. She was still here. Emma was still here.

If only Henry was, too.

"Take a picture. It'll last longer."

Regina rolled her eyes. It was one of the rare moments when Emma's entourage was scattered elsewhere. Why Emma had ever told Regina's younger self that she was alone when she had parents and scruffy men flitting around her constantly, Regina couldn't understand.

Emma had certainly gotten that part wrong. Regina was the one who was utterly alone.

"So creative. Did you think of that one yourself?" Regina bit back. Although she had, perhaps, been looking at the blonde too much. She couldn't help appreciating the view of Emma's toned arms in that tank top, and she couldn't help remembering all the rest of Emma's body. "What would I do with a picture of you, anyway?"

Emma kicked out her legs in front of her, uncomfortable sitting on the pointy rock that was the closest thing this particular clearing had to a chair. Regina beat her to a slightly more promising log when they stopped to braid ropes. "Dartboard," Emma said after a pensive moment.

"Too bad I didn't pack my camera." Regina was now carefully not looking at Emma at all. She didn't notice that the blonde had moved until she sat down beside her on the log, arms brushing against each other.

"I look at you sometimes, too," Emma confessed softly, looking down at her boots. "When I'm keeping watch at night."

"That's not creepy at all," Regina replied sarcastically, glancing at the woman next to her to see that Emma looked almost hurt by her response. Before she could consider apologizing, Hook and Neal crashed back through the forest, and Regina resigned herself to being alone again. Although Emma never left her side.

How could she bear watching Emma leave again?

She stood back, having already received her goodbye from Henry, and watched as the only two people alive who cared at all about her headed towards Emma's car. The only two people she loved.

"Emma!" she called before she could stop herself, and the blonde turned to look at her through the tears. Regina hurried forward, catching Emma's hand in hers, keeping her tethered to this side of the line.

There was no time left, but Regina had to say something. Anything.

But the words didn't come out. How could she finally, after all this time, tell Emma she loved her only to wipe it from her memory a second later?

"I'll miss you," Emma told her, but Regina shook her head.

"No, you won't. But I will."

Emma snaked an arm around Regina's shoulders and pulled her into a half hug that only left Regina wanting so much more. "This isn't forever," she said unconvincingly.

Regina knew all too well that it was, that stopping Pan's curse would be permanent. Still, she leaned in to whisper the familiar words. "I will see you again."

Emma

Emma landed hard on the dirt floor of the barn, the wind momentarily knocked out of her. Hook was already on his feet, and when Emma lifted her head she saw the pirate looking back and forth between her and Marian. "Change of heart, Swan?"

"No." Emma got up with a groan. She was already sore from her hours in the Queen's bed, and the rough landing certainly hadn't helped. "Absolutely not."

Marian looked a bit bewildered, and Hook helped her up. "Where are we?"

Emma shook her head. The lack of sleep was certainly not helping, and even if she'd been at her best she did not want to deal with this situation. She just wanted to get back to town, see her family, see Regina. "Can you deal with this?" she asked Hook, gesturing in Marian's direction. "I have to warn Regina. We can't just spring this on her."

"Warn Regina?" Hook asked with a smile and angled eyebrow that Emma found profoundly irritating. "Is that what you ladies call it?"

"Grow up," Emma said, rolling her eyes. "Just fill her in until I send someone to get you."

It was dark outside, and Emma wished she knew what time it was. Or what day it was. Or if she'd altered something in the space-time continuum and blown up Storybrooke or caused a zombie apocalypse or something.

Everything looked the same on the long walk into town, and according to the clock tower it was after 3. The streets were silent, but Emma expected as much – the town usually shut down around 9 each night, with stragglers disappearing into their houses well before midnight.

She paused at the base of her parents' building, seeing a dim light in one of the windows. She figured that they were up tending to the baby, and she briefly considered going in. She could get a few hours of sleep, maybe a shower, and find Regina first thing in the morning.

The pull was too strong, though, and Emma turned onto Mifflin Street and kept walking. Waking Regina at 3 AM to tell her bad news would probably earn her a fireball to the face, but what Emma dreaded more was waking Robin, too. She didn't want to think about them sleeping together.

It was, of course, all she could think about. Well, that and what it had been like to fall asleep beside Regina for those few lucky nights.