Warning: This chapter is heavy on the feels. ;)

They stayed there on the beach clinging to each other like that for a while, and Emma was surprised when Regina's tears continued to flow. She tunneled her head in Regina's neck and placed microscopic kisses there.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"I don't know."

"Yes you do. Tell me. Whatever it is."

"I'm being stupid. Sometimes it's just so—"

"—intense?" Emma offered.

"Yes, it's intense between us, and I let the fear of losing you—this—get to me."
Emma pried her head up and met Regina's eyes.

"Don't you know by now that as long as you want me, I'm going to be yours? In this life or any other. Take off the rings. Move to another town or some far away Fairy Tale Land or wherever the fuck. I could discover a vault filled with 10,000 hearts, and this will still be here," she said, gesturing finger between them. "We are bound to each other, and nothing will change that."

Regina tilted her head and looked at Emma, mollified, moved, and a slightly bemused.

"What is that look?"

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but eloquence with words wouldn't have been one of the traits I would have listed among yours. And yet, at every turn you always seem to know exactly what to say to make me feel better."

Emma chuckled. "It's because of how well I know you. But I can go back to saying dumb shit if that's more comfortable for you."
Regina waved her hand. "By all means, continue to be philosophical and articulate. It's forcing me to raise my game."

"Oh yeah? How is that even possible?"

"Well, I've actually been working on something that I want to show you. But I want to go back to the bungalow first. I'd like a drink, and I can hear your stomach growling."

Emma picked up the articles of clothing she'd shed and got dressed, lacing her hand with Regina's and reaching down to swipe the blanket of the sand.

"Well, you've officially piqued my interest, but what else is new?"

They walked back, barefoot across the sand, down their dock, and headed into the bungalow. Regina went about fixing them drinks, and Emma pulled out the grouper filets and plantain mash they had ordered in the afternoon during their parasailing excursion, and they sat down to eat.

"The suspense is killing me, so lets talk about something distracting. Want to talk wedding? Are we ready for that?"

"Honestly, Emma? I'd marry you right here, right now. There's only one reason to wait."

Emma arched an eyebrow in response.

"Henry? He'd kill us."
"Right. Of course he would. Well, we could keep it simple and just get married at the mansion?" Emma offered with a shrug.
"We could do that. The other thought I had was to do it at the stables. Sort of where I found you the first time," she says, pulling her swan necklace forward.

"That would be amazing. I love that idea. And I don't know about the logistics of the whole woman/woman thing. I mean, do we both wear dresses? Should I wear a tux?"

"I don't think there are any rules. What do you want to wear?"

"I am definitely not one of those people who used to daydream about her wedding day and run around with flowers in my hair, so I don't feel like I have to wear a white dress to fulfill some kind of childhood dream. But part of me thinks I should wear a dress because it's such an important, special day that I should do something really special. It would be predictable for me to wear a tux, don't you think? You know, all those lesbian/sheriff/savior stereotypes?"

Regina chuckled. "Well, how's this? How about we switch it up? I'll wear a tux, and you can wear a dress?"

Emma's eyes widened. "Really? Would you want that? I mean, you could wear a barrel and a bucket over your head, and I would sprint down the aisle to marry you. And seriously, you would look so hot in a tailored tux. Yeah, that's a great plan. But if you change your mind and decide you want a dress, that's totally fine with me."

Regina rested her fork on her plate and reached over to take one of Emma's hands.

"Emma, I've been thinking about what we talked about today. You know, at 500 feet in the air?" Regina said, smiling at the memory. "Would you want to adopt a child if we decided to have another one? Or would you want one of us to carry a baby?"

"I probably should know the answer to this, but can you have a baby? I know you adopted Henry, and I guess I never asked you why."

Regina looked at her thoughtfully, pulling at the ends of her hair. "I think I was just so anxious to fill a void, and the curse had a lot to do with when and why I decided to adopt Henry. But yes, I believe I can conceive and carry a child. I never gave it too much thought because I was never in the position to do it. What about you? I mean, after what you went through having Henry, would you even want to carry another child?"

Emma looked down at her plate, giving herself a moment to collect her thoughts. Nervously running a hand through her hair, she looked up when Regina tugged on her hand.

"You know, I almost think I'd want to have another child because of what happened with Henry. I don't know if I ever told you this story, but when he first came out, I told the doctor to take him away; I didn't want to hold him," Emma choked the last part out, tears filling her eyes and threatening to fall. "And then, at the last second, I told the doctor to bring him to me. And I just looked at him, memorizing him, like I could just process the negative later and hang it over my womb with a no vacancy sign. Giving him away—I almost had to make myself completely numb, and that's how I felt for so long. Until he knocked on my door in Boston. Until I fell in love with you."

"So I guess now that I have another shot at doing it right, I'd want to take it. I'd want to grow another baby inside me, give birth to her, bring her home with us, and give her a family. It would be like filling a void I never thought I'd have the chance to fill. Does any of that make sense at all?"
"God, Emma, yes. It makes perfect sense."

"The only little bit of guilt I would feel would be knowing that there are so many children out there like me who need homes, and it breaks my heart a little because I always promised myself that I'd give a kid like me a chance to get out of the system if I could."

Tears were streaming down Emma's cheeks steadily, and Regina was quiet for a moment, just running her fingertips mindlessly across the back of Emma's hand.

"Emma, you are not an orphan anymore. You know that deep down in your heart, right?"

Emma dragged her green eyes up to meet Regina's, wide with vulnerability and trust, and offered a slight nod.

"Come with me, my love. Let me show you what I've been working on." She led Emma to the bed, and they sat Indian style across from each other on top of the duvet.

She pulled Emma's hands up and placed them on her own temples.

"I've never done this with anyone else before, so I don't know exactly how it will work. But I've been on the receiving end of it on two occasions. I'm going to try to share a memory with you. You will see what I saw, but you will also feel what I felt. I'm going to show you a memory, and you will experience it like you're me, ok?"

Emma nodded her head, pressing her fingertips into Regina's head. The brunette closed her eyes, and for a moment it was just still.

Then, without a jarring motion or a sudden shift, Emma was in the Enchanted Forest, holding Henry back from a well. He was shouting, "You can't! You're gonna kill them! Please! No!" But she held him fiercely in her arms, wanting to protect him. "They're going to make it through! You have to turn it off! You're going to kill them!" And then Henry burst free for her arms and she had to rush to the well to drag him back from the danger.

She leaned down and looked at him dead in the eye. "Henry, what are you doing?"

"Emma and Mary Margaret are going to come through. I know it. You said you wanted to change—to be better. This is how. You want me to have faith in you? Have faith in me."

His words swirled in her mind with a gust of emotion, a desire to be better for Henry mixed with a desperate need for his words to be true—for Emma to be ok. It propelled her to act, to risk her life. She knew she might die trying to save Emma (and that twit Mary Margaret), but the risk was worth it, for Henry, for herself. She couldn't lose Emma.

"Regina!" Gold warned, as she looked into the well and raised her hands to absorb the whirlwind of evil magic. And then the magic consumed her, nearly swallowed her whole, but she fought to keep her focus, using all her strength and mental energy, and then she felt a overpowering bolt of electricity and was knocked back with a powerful current of energy, landing 10 feet from the well.

Then, when nothing happened, she felt a sadness overwhelm her, a suffocating sorrow, and a picture of a smiling Savior filled her mind and heart.

"No!" Henry yelled.

"I'm sorry, Henry," she whispered, the words laden with his disappointment and her own. "I'm sorry."

Then suddenly, a hand rose from the depths of the well and landed on the stone surface. And then another. Then the blonde's head, neck, and leather-clad torso were pushed up from the blackness. And she felt a joy rise from the pit of her stomach, warming her insides. Just two tiny words coiled through her mind, bouncing up and down, side to side. Again and again, and she had to stop the words from escaping her mouth.

"My love."

Emma gasped as the Enchanted Forest gave way to their bungalow, to the present, and she opened her eyes, looking at Regina whose face was wet with tears, eyes clenched tightly closed. Emma let her hands fall from Regina's temples to her cheeks, wiping the tears away, and grazing her jaw.

Regina opened her eyes, somewhat worriedly, afraid to speak, not knowing what Emma would think or say, now armed with the knowledge of how much Regina had loved her, that the hatred had been nothing but a mask all along.

Emma, still overcome by the intense emotions and adrenaline that were coursing through her, let her hands fall down Regina's body. She pulled the brunette onto her lap and cradled her, wrapping her arms around her, and burrowed her head into Regina's neck. Then, once a calm had settled in like a warm front, she pulled back, looking into chocolate brown eyes.

"You loved me?"

"Yes, Emma, I've loved you for a very long time."

A cry escaped Emma's mouth, and she began to sob into Regina, emptying the pain of an unloved orphan left by the side of the road. Regina let herself be the vessel and absorbed it, gladly, hoping that at last Emma could readily feel the love that she badly deserved.

And then, in a crackling voice overloaded emotion, Emma said the only words that were left.

"Thank you, my love."