Chapter 25
Unforgiving limbs reminded Emma of her frequent and most recent sexual activity as she winced with every step she took from her car to the school. With each shot of pain she felt, a flash of memory visually reiterated why she'd felt it at all.
She remembered sliding around on Regina's shower floor and tapping the wall and tiles in surrender. She hadn't wanted Regina to stop and her tapping out only served to announce her orgasm, as well as her discomfort caused by a few strained muscles.
She remembered the way Regina moved, her rhythm, the beauty of her muscles as they contracted during specific moments. Emma's toy had worked marvelously between the two of them, though Regina rode her with much more grace than she rode Regina. The brunette had surprised her yet again with her more than adequate skills while also mesmerizing her with the fluid dance she performed throughout every round of sex. The dance was never the same. It had changed with every pace set during their various escapades, but it maintained the same power and passion and intimacy.
"I've never felt so close to anyone like I do when I'm with you," Emma panted as she laid on her back beside Regina on the bed. "We never talk about our pasts or our ambitions, but...I can feel you. Like, really feel you when we're together."
"I never expected it to go this far... For me to..." Regina said, as breathless and tired as Emma. "You really are my undoing, aren't you?"
Regina had asked quietly and seemed absent-minded, which gave Emma the impression she'd only been thinking out loud. With that in mind, Emma ignored the question and pushed forward in their sleepy, post-coital conversation.
"I'll tell you what I want for my future: to always feel close," Emma stated then turned her head to the side to look at Regina.
Regina returned her gaze.
"Be careful what you wish for, dear."
"I was being careful," Emma started. "Always feeling like this...it's the one thing I've never wanted impulsively. It's the one thing I've wanted since I was little. I was always being abandoned and this feeling is the only thing that could make it all worth it."
Regina thickly swallowed as she stared at Emma during the blonde's confession.
"I'm not gonna go as far as to say you touch me like you love me, but...there's more to it than when we started this. It seems less messy, less complicated."
Regina smiled, half-forced and half-pleased to hear Emma say such a thing. The smile didn't last long, but neither did the silence between them before Emma continued.
"You know, the day Henry brought me here...it was my birthday. After I'd made a wish on the candle I put on this cupcake I bought myself, he showed up at my door. He brought me to you and I finally got the chance to see him for more than two seconds before I told the doctors to take him away.
"Every day since then, between you and him, I can safely say I got my wish...tenfold."
"And...what was your wish?"
Emma warmly smiled at Regina in a way that reminded the brunette of Henry.
"I wished I didn't have to be alone on my birthday. For the past couple of months, I haven't once felt alone like I have for my entire life. Granted, when you stopped kissing me I felt pretty shitty and unwanted, but-"
"It's not because I don't want you," Regina quickly cut her off. "I...I'd tell you that I'll explain it to you some day, but I won't lie to you because I don't know if I ever will. The real reason I won't kiss you is..it's something I'm struggling with and probably always will, but I promise you that I want to try to make you feel wanted every day. I will do whatever it takes and while I'm still being honest, I already set some things in motion that will guarantee I can't hurt you like you seem to have been in the past."
Emma hadn't thought too hard about what exactly Regina meant by that the previous night and she didn't get the chance to think about it when she remembered it just then either. Her attention had shifted form her memories to her roommate in the school's faculty room with a sacked lunch in front of her on the round table she sat at by herself.
Mary Margaret's eyes flicked up from her tuna salad sandwich and landed on the tall blonde with a Sheriff's badge hooked onto waistband of yet another skirt of Emma's.
"Emma!"
She smiled at the schoolteacher.
"What are you doing here? And how are you here," Mary Margaret asked as she set down her sandwich. "This is the faculty room. For faculty only. Last time I checked, you don't work here."
Emma winced as she slowly sat down in the seat across from Mary Margaret. She hissed when her ass hit the chair. All reactions caused by the things she and Regina did the previous night.
"I got a visitor's pass and people seem to like me, especially since I apparently know how to keep the Mayor from snapping at everyone in town. That's according to the receptionist, by the way."
Mary Margaret halfheartedly smiled and bobbed her head in a single nod.
"They have no idea," Mary Margaret hinted with a raised eyebrow. "Speaking of Regina, did you have another rough night with her? You keep making faces every time you move."
"Not rough so much as vigorous and long lasting, but I didn't come here to discuss what I did last night. I saw the flowers on the dining room table. 'Mary Margaret, It really was a good time last night. No shame, right?'"
Mary Margaret's cheeks burst with a rosy pink tint.
"What happened at The Rabbit Hole?"
"Nothing. I had a few drinks and went to bed."
"Yeah, you went to bed, alright. With Dr. Whale," Emma exclaimed in a hushed tone.
"You shouldn't have read the note. It was for me," Mary Margaret said, embarrassed not angry.
"Hey, I thought the flowers were for me. I didn't know until I saw your name at the top of the card. Then I was curious. I mean, the only reason I went to the apartment this morning was to see you. I brought an extra pair of clothes to Regina's so I wouldn't have to go back there before work, but I owed you an apology. I still do, which is actually more so the reason why I'm here."
"I get it. You were busy with Regina. I was just being whiny and needy and-"
"No, you sounded like you were sad and in pain. I told you I'd come to the bar after dinner and I didn't. I'm really sorry."
Mary Margaret warmly smiled.
"Thank you."
"What happened with David? I thought he was staying over."
Mary Margaret frowned and looked down at the table. She folded her arms over her chest and shifted in her seat.
Emma's face fell and she leaned forward.
"Oh, no. What happened?"
Mary Margaret cleared her throat and looked up at Emma.
"He, uh, met Kathryn and I guess the two of them hit it off because she helped him get a job at the Animal Shelter and she took him out to dinner and she offered up her spare bedroom, which is better than a couch-"
"What? He just met this woman and he thought, 'Sure. It'll be much better than staying with Mary Margaret even though she stayed with me through my recovery after waking up from a coma'?!"
"Emma," Mary Margaret warned as she looked around at the other teachers that started to stare at them. "Keep your voice down. And...it's fine."
"No, it's not. God, now I really wish I hadn't been such a jerk last night."
"Well, I had company either way," Mary Margaret shrugged.
Emma frowned.
"Are you gonna see him again?"
"Whale? No. No, it was just a...a one night stand."
"Then...what's with the flowers?"
"We left things kind of awkward this morning."
"Wait, you stayed at his place? All night?"
Mary Margaret shyly nodded.
"Wow. I never stay that long for one nighters."
"Well, I'm not as resilient or have as much stamina as you seem to have. We both kind of just fell asleep afterward."
"You know what? Girls night. Tonight. You and me. I'll drink with you or dance with you or eat a bunch of junk food and watch a chick flick with you if it's what you need. We can invite Ruby too, if you want."
The schoolteacher smiled.
"Are you sure Regina wouldn't mind if I borrowed you?"
"After last night, I think she and I could use a break from bedroom activities."
"Okay. As long as you and her agree. I'd hate to make her angry. She doesn't like me much as it is."
"I'm sure she'll say yes," Emma smiled.
"Absolutely not," Regina exclaimed.
"Seriously?"
"I will not allow you to spend a night with Ruby! You know how I feel about her," Regina practically snarled.
Emma rolled her eyes.
"I'm not spending the night with Ruby. I'm staying at the apartment with Mary Margaret and Ruby might come over."
"The last time you were with her, you ended up on the front page kissing her!"
Emma chucked a french fry back in the to-go box from Granny's and gave up on eating.
"I straightened all of that out with her when I got us lunch. She and I know not to try that again."
"Did you tell her about us?"
"No. I just told her she's one of the first friends I've had in a while and that kissing would only complicate things. Then I explained that one or both of us would get hurt or upset and then I'd lose a friend and I don't want that. She doesn't want that either."
"I bet she doesn't," Regina growled in a disapproving tone filled with jealousy.
Emma stood from the visitor's chair she'd situated herself in when she'd entered the office and walked around Regina's desk. She swiveled Regina's chair to the side so she had room and lowered herself sideways across Regina's lap. She spun the chair back to face the desk then reached over and grabbed the fork from Regina's hardly eaten salad.
She stabbed at several bits of salad and stuck a good sized bite of everything to the fork. She brought the plastic utensil to Regina's mouth and waited for the other woman to part her lips in acceptance.
"Just because we're dating now doesn't mean you get to control everything I do and manage the people I hang out with," Emma explained.
"The only dates we have are family dinners. We're in a relationship, but we are not 'dating'."
Emma rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. Open up."
Emma tapped the food filled end of the fork against Regina's bottom lip twice.
Regina's eyes flicked up to bore deep into Emma's eyes.
Emma was prepared to bait Regina with teasing nicknames, but after a good moment of silent staring Regina opened her mouth.
Emma smiled and slid the fork past Regina's parted lips.
Regina clamped her mouth shut around the fork and never took her eyes off Emma's as she slowly pulled her head back to remove the fork, void of food, from her mouth.
"You can trust me," Emma barely said above a whisper as she leaned in and kissed Regina on the cheek. "I meant what I said last night. You're the only one who can make me feel like you do."
Emma dropped the fork back into Regina's salad and turned against to the brunette before she leaned in a second time. She brushed her thumb across one of Regina's cheeks while she kissed the other.
Regina's eyes relaxed closed.
"I'm not going to cheat on you or leave you for someone else, okay?"
Regina leaned back and rested her head against the back of her chair.
Emma moved back with her, stood for a split second, and fluidly turned to straddle Regina's lap. She sank down on top of Regina and leaned in. She stopped her lips right at Regina's lips and just hovered. Like magnets trying to connect, she started to brush her lips against Regina's after a moment and easily felt the electricity that sparked between them.
"We're in this together," Emma hummed and their lips brushed every other word. "You already let your walls down and in case you didn't notice, so did I."
Their breathing became shallow as they breathed on each other in their close proximity.
Regina slid her arms around Emma's back and held tightly to the younger woman's hips. She listened intently as everything Emma said sunk in so profoundly that she felt the truth and sincerity of Emma's words in her heart.
"For once in my life, Regina, I'm not running. And I could give Henry plenty of credit for that, but he doesn't give me strength like you do. The way you challenged me kept me here and I'm not leaving."
Regina would have smiled, but a rotten feeling in the pit of her stomach at the reality of her situation with Emma kept her from a warm display. She only held on tighter to the blonde and buried her face in the crook of Emma's neck. She hugged Emma like it would be the last time and tried not to cry.
Emma smiled into Regina's hair, her lips pursed dangerously close to pressing a kiss on Regina's head, and rubbed a hand over the back of Regina's neck. Her other hand rested on the other woman's shoulder and as she pulled away from the embrace, she squeezed the brunette's shoulder.
"I should let you get back to work," Emma said with a light, carefree tone and continued to smile.
"Yes, I suppose you should, though I really wish you could stay," Regina forced a smile.
"You'll see me again when I drop Henry off after school."
"Will you stay for dinner?"
"You know I only ever eat when it's you who's feeding me," Emma grinned.
"How strange that you've managed to make me your house wife."
"Mm. All I need to do now is put a ring on your finger and get you pregnant," Emma joked. "Then you'd just be my wife and all the domestic jobs would fall on you."
For a moment, Regina tensed at the idea of being married. Married to Emma. It terrified her to think of the possibility, but it also gave her a sense of comfort and happiness. Those feelings helped Regina quickly mask her worry and allowed her tease and joke with Emma in that moment.
"What makes you think I can't get you to do things around the house? Who says you wouldn't be my wife?"
"The fact that you wouldn't let me near your kitchen because you're afraid I might burn something down."
"I've never expressed that fear. In fact, didn't I once tell you to make dinner because I was going to be late?"
Emma thought back on it and when the memory hit her, she slumped in her defeat.
Regina smirked.
"My dear, I believe it's you who's whipped."
"I am not whi-"
Regina ran her hands over Emma's ass and squeezed before the blonde ever had the chance to finish her sentence.
Emma immediately shut her mouth and pushed her backside into Regina's hands.
"What were you saying, dear?"
Emma rested her forehead against Regina's and breathed out before she answered.
"Okay, I'm a little whipped."
"A little?"
Regina purred, her voice low and thick with lust. She kept one hand firmly on Emma's ass and slid the other one up Emma's shirt. She snaked her hand around to the front of the younger woman's body and pushed her fingertips underneath the band of Emma's bra.
"A lot," Emma groaned and pressed her sex against Regina's lower abdomen.
Regina stared up at Emma, the blonde's eyes closed and her expression showed she was unmistakably aroused. She blinked away tears that started to well up in her eyes, tears she wanted to cry because she knew there was no other way. She wanted to keep Emma happy and the only way to do that would give her the gift of ignorance. Gold wouldn't allow it since he was set on her breaking the curse, but Regina had another option in order to grant it. That option meant Regina had every right to stare at Emma and try to memorize the woman's face. It meant she had every right to want to cry because she would never again be the cause of that look.
She would never again see Emma light up and tease her. She would never again see Emma moments before release or see her tiredly smile at her after sex. It meant she would never again see a lot of things that often put a smile on her own face.
So Regina stared at her, memorized her, and almost cried because she did have every right to do just that. If there was one thing on her mind that she knew she couldn't confess, it was the real reason behind what she had planned.
Because it would be the last time, Regina abandoned Emma's breasts and slid her hand into the waistband of the woman's skirt. She wrapped her other hand, previously on Emma's ass, around the blonde's waist. When she teased Emma's clit, she held Emma steady as the blonde bucked her hips.
"Regina," Emma warned, though she hadn't said it with much authority.
"Encourage me to get through the day," Regina breathed out as she brushed her lips over Emma's neck, but refused to plant any kisses. "There are things I have to do and I don't want to do them. But...they have to get done. Help me?"
Regina moved her hand toward Emma's opening and slipped a single finger a short distance inside the other woman.
Emma's breathing became shallow, slightly erratic. She rolled her hips and tried to feel more of Regina, but the other woman removed her finger before she had the chance.
"Yeah," Emma breathlessly replied.
When Regina looked back on that moment, she would see it only made things harder, but in that moment, she wanted to feel everything she could never have. She wanted to remember what she had even though it was never meant to be.
Regina slid two fingers inside Emma that time and didn't dare pull away from the heat and the wetness she felt. She contentedly sighed and started a tender, sensual pace.
"I wish I could see you," Regina quietly admitted.
Emma rolled her hips to meet each thrust as she pulled her face back enough to make eye contact.
"You sound sad," Emma noted with her own somber tone.
"It's going to be a long day," Regina half-truthfully admitted.
"Can I make it better?"
Regina smiled, though her expression showed that the bittersweet answer that was on her own lips to Emma's question was not lost on her.
"You always do."
Emma beamed, almost with a childish innocence. She pushed off Regina's shoulders and stood.
Immediately, Regina frowned at the loss of contact.
Emma crossed the room and locked the office door. When she turned around to face Regina, she pulled down her skirt, black tights, and panties at the same time. She stepped out of them and kicked them off to the side somewhere. She headed back toward Regina and peeled off her shirt.
Regina raked her eyes over the exposed parts of Emma.
"You...you're just so..." Regina trailed off. She lacked the ability to find the right words.
"Accommodating," Emma asked with a smirk as she used one of Regina's previously used words against her.
Regina didn't miss the joke. She flashed a grin as Emma reached behind herself and unhooked her bra, but her expression turned more awestruck before she found the words she wanted to say.
"So kind and so beautiful. When you came into my town, I saw a challenge. Now? Well, I still see you as a challenge, but...you are so much more than I could have ever imagined."
Emma stripped herself of her bra and closed the distance between them. Completely bare, Emma straddled the fully clothed Mayor.
"For someone who's already got me, you sure do go the extra mile of trying to sweet talk your way into my pants," Emma teased.
"I'm not sweet talking you. I'm trying to tell you-"
"Regina, there are a lot of things you could say to me, but it's gonna take longer than the ten minutes you have left for lunch to fix the damage done by me being an orphan. So...why don't I give you what you want? I'm already naked. I'd hate for my nudity to go to waste."
"Believe me, even if we didn't proceed, your nudity would never go to waste. Not with me."
"Right, well, I'm still sore from last night and I also have some fading bite marks on my ass so I suggest we do this before I collapse," Emma lightly laughed.
"No need to rush," Regina said as she ran her hand over Emma's left thigh. "I'll catch you if you do."
Regina's fingers grazed the gauze wrapped around Emma's leg and it caught the attention of both women.
"I'm sorry," Regina said.
Emma licked her lips, not out of lust, but more out of nervousness.
"I forgive you."
"You wouldn't if you knew the truth," Regina looked down.
"Hey," Emma started as she tucked a finger under Regina's chin and gently forced her to look her in the eyes. "Let me tell you something about me. When I say I forgive you, it's a rare thing that should be highly appreciated. I think you're the first person I've ever forgiven in my life. That means something to me. I hope it means something to you."
"It does," Regina quickly replied. "Believe me, it does."
"Okay. So...sex or no sex," Emma asked with a small smile and raised her knee as far as she could toward Regina's chest. "'Cause I'm kind of starting to need another warm up."
Regina smiled and ran her hand up and down Emma's thigh with a feather-light touch. The closer she got to Emma's sex, she rubbed her hand over Emma's inner thigh. After the third time she ran her hand up the younger woman's thigh, she slowly swiped her thumb over Emma's clit.
Emma puffed out a sigh that was more like a muffled whimper that came from the back of her throat.
"Is that enough of a warm up for you?"
"Mhmm," Emma nodded and blinked a few times as she did.
Regina grinned and moved her hand off Emma's thigh. She slid two fingers into Emma and watched Emma roll her hips to meet her fingers.
Regina started the same sensual pace she had before Emma got up and locked the door. Slow, caring, deliberately paced to show Emma everything she felt but couldn't say. She hoped she got her point across because it was her only chance.
Emma breathed harder when she felt Regina's lips cover one of her nipples. Regina's tongue flicked over it while her mouth sucked. She clenched a fist in short, brunette hair. She bobbed up and down and rolled back and forth as she rode Regina's fingers.
With both women sitting up, Regina touching Emma the way she was, they were equal. No one was on top or on the bottom. They just...were. They were human, they were together, they were connected.
Regina kept an arm wrapped around Emma's back and held her as close as possible. She felt Emma tense her back as the woman moved with her, onto her fingers, toward her own body. She felt Emma's arousal coat her fingers as she continued to move in and out. She clamped her lips around the neglected nipple and started to lick and suck and after a moment, she pushed her hand up Emma's spine. Her fingers splayed on fair skin as she slid her hand toward the base of Emma's neck. Her hand slid aside, toward Emma's shoulder, and she passionately dug her nails into smooth skin.
Emma's breath hitched in Regina's ear as her walls tightened around the other woman's fingers. As Regina's nails scraped down her back, over her right shoulder blade, and down to her waist, Emma's walls tightened again. And again her breath hitched. She clung to Regina's shoulders to keep herself balanced and then let go while she clawed at Regina's clothes.
The sound of Emma's breath each time it hitched, the sound of her half-moan, haf-scream when she tumbled over the edge, the feel of Emma when her legs tensed before she limply fell on top of her, Regina committed to memory. She wrapped her arm around Emma once again when Emma collapsed and caught the blonde like she said she would.
Regina's fingers remained inside of Emma as the younger woman continued to sit on her lap and gave no room for either one to remove them. She didn't mind.
"Ummm," Emma panted but sounded worried as she stared down at Regina's lap between their bodies. "I'm pretty sure I ruined your outfit."
Regina looked down and saw the evidence of Emma's orgasm on her black dress slacks and on her white blouse where it tucked into the shirt.
"It's okay. It was worth it."
"Was it? I mean, I didn't even touch you."
"Trust me, dear. With you...it's always worth it."
Emma warmly smiled, but turned it into a teasing smirk.
"Work. You need to govern the people and instead you've got your hands in the Sheriff's department."
Regina salaciously grinned.
"The department is made up of only you, dear, and the sheriff is the only thing I want to have my hands in anyway."
"Well, like the Rolling Stones say, 'you can't always get what you want'," Emma shrugged, though she hadn't moved in the last few minutes and instead remained in Regina's lap.
"I certainly can't," Regina said with a frown. "You're right. You should go. Stop distracting me and let me get back to work."
"Mm, one more," Emma said after she pretended to mull over her options and started to rock her hips.
"Anything for you," Regina said as she smiled up at Emma and obliged the other woman's wish.
The term of endearment, "my love" went unsaid there, but Regina felt it in her heart and suddenly it didn't feel so cold and black and empty anymore.
Regina stared out of her office window an hour after Emma left her to her work. She looked down at her apple tree and watched the red of the apples dim. She hadn't remembered them being so faded and discolored the last week or so. In fact, the apples had been ripe and lively ever since Emma showed her how it felt to be respected and well-treated when they were underneath the tree. Ever since the night she'd asked Emma to kiss her until the sun came up. And when she looked at it then, the apples mirrored the defeat she felt. They represented the hollowness in her chest and the sadness in her soul, the weakness in her power as she struggled to do what she thought she had to.
After Emma left her office, she'd felt a darkness that suffocated the warmth Regina wanted to feel and show. That darkness stayed with her all day in a way she hadn't felt since before she enacted the curse. It clouded and surrounded her like loneliness had after she grew tired of the same boring Storybrooke routine only a week after casting the curse.
With the knowledge of what she was about to do, Regina became overwrought with a premature sense of loss.
Her office door opened and she turned away from the window. She flashed a quick and small grin at the man with dark brown hair mostly, but not entirely, tamed like he had been running his hands through it over and over again throughout the loss of his sanity. His blue eyes were narrowed and his jaw clenched. He flipped a playing card between two of his fingers as he seethed and let his anger show.
"Jefferson," Regina greeted with a grin and started to cross the room, her eyes trailing down to the playing card in his hand. " So you got my message?"
She walked to the mirror with her hands clasped behind her back and stared as intensely at Jefferson as the man stared at her, though her gaze held confidence where his held malice.
"How could I miss it? You know I watch her," Jefferson bitterly responded in a raspy tone as he kept his eyes on Regina wherever she walked.
"Must be so painful to have your daughter Paige so near?"
Regina sauntered toward her mirror and readied two tumblers.
"Grace," Jefferson quickly corrected. "Her name is Grace. You should know that. You changed it."
Jefferson turned to Regina as she stood in front of the mirror and poured him and herself a drink.
"What do you want," he growled.
"Your help."
"And what makes you think," he paused as he tried to stay composed. "That I won't kill you after everything you've done."
Regina slightly turned her body to look over her shoulder at him. Her grin faded a little, but her expression still showed her power.
"Because you don't have it in you," she spoke with all seriousness then grabbed his drink and walked toward him. "If you did, you would've have done it twenty-eight years ago when I brought you here. Because you know if I'm dead you will never get back to your daughter."
She held up a drink to his chest and continued.
"And I have a way for us to both get what we want."
Instead of accepting the drink, he lifted the playing card Regina had left on the back of his daughter's bicycle at the elementary school and set it in the glass regardless of the amber liquid in it.
Regina only smirked as she looked down at the glass then set it aside on the corner of her desk before she grabbed an oddly shaped and worn leather-bound case off the floor beside the couch. She held it up high enough for him to see it as she walked across the office once again and not-too-gently placed it on the table to the left of her desk.
"My hat," Jefferson said in recognition as he walked over to the table.
He unbuckled the front strap and threw open the lid. He looked inside, but a second later he saw Regina step too far into his personal space. He immediately took a step back and stared at her with widened eyes.
"I want you to use it again," Regina said.
"I can't make it work. No one can. Not here. Not without magic."
"Well then you're in luck because I happen to have some."
She slowly turned toward the table.
"Not a lot," she started as she set her own drink down. "But hopefully enough..."
Regina paused as she wickedly grinned and carefully pulled the hat out of the case.
"For one. Last. Journey."
She held the hat between them, the rim of it almost pressed to his chest as Jefferson stared down at it.
"Where?"
"Back to our land. Where there is a solution to a very delicate problem I have. How to get rid of the one person who can break my curse."
Surprisingly, Regina hadn't used a bitter tone when she spoke of the sensitive subject. It showed on Jefferson's face that he expected more sparks of anger from the woman he knew only as the Evil Queen.
"Emma," he said with a straight face that, after a moment, broke out with a huge grin as wide as the Cheshire cat's. "And why shouldn't I let her do just that? End the madness and go home."
Regina haughtily laughed right in his face with an expression to match the taunting her laughter conveyed. Her laughter and her expression said, "What a fool you are to think that way."
"To your hovel," she rhetorically asked. "Selling fungus at the fare? Why?"
She dropped the hat back in its case then turned back to Jefferson.
"When you could just stay here in the mansion I gave you," Regina continued and made herself sound every bit like the Evil Queen Jefferson was so used to dealing with.
Jefferson sighed as though he was bored and slipped his hands into his coat pockets.
Regina patted a hand against the front of his shoulder and walked around him.
"My problem, Jefferson, is the same as yours," she told him as she circled the man and stopped on his right side. "It's family."
She wanted to leave it at that because telling the truth about wanting Emma's happiness meant losing her target audience, but telling a lie meant denying the only thing that felt real since the curse, aside from Henry. She quickly weighed her options before she decided one more lie wouldn't matter; especially because if she did persuade Jefferson, the one thing that felt real would no longer exist anyway.
"We both want our children back and we both can get them."
Technically, it wasn't really a lie. Compared to every other lie she'd told since Henry came into her life, that one was actually a truth. Emma had definitely monopolized a lot of Henry's love and time even though she'd just shown up in his life a short couple of months ago.
"If we work together," she added.
"Why should I trust you now?"
"You shouldn't. ...But it's the only offer you've got. After we're through, I'll wake up your dear Grace so she remembers who you are."
"No," he boldly demanded then breathed out a scoff. "Remembering is the worst curse. Two lives in her head like me. I want to forget. I want you to write us a new story. A fresh start. Here."
"Well then, my dear Jefferson, then that's exactly what you'll have," she proudly, somewhat victoriously, grinned.
She walked around him and started to strut toward her desk, but she stopped herself halfway and turned back to him.
"Oh...after we take care of Miss Swan."
She had called Emma by her first name to everyone except the blonde since the woman's arrival in Storybrooke, but in that moment, she had to distance herself from the act she was about to perform. She had a relationship far beyond the anger and worry that shaped them into enemies the day they met. In fact, they barely had time to be enemies before they started to feel something more. Or at least until Regina started to feel something more. She still wasn't sure what Emma felt, though the younger woman had been plenty vocal about her appreciation for everything Regina did for her. And not just when it came to sex.
That distance she tried to create led her to her family mausoleum with Jefferson in tow. She descended the narrow, cement stairs to her underground vault and placed her hand on the archway above her head to ensure she didn't hit it.
"Watch your step," she warned with consideration, as if she actually cared for the man's well-being.
"What is this place," Jefferson asked as Regina swatted away nonexistent spider- and cobwebs.
It had been a while since her last visit to the vault. The last time being when she crushed Graham's heart, but thinking about that reminded her of why she killed him. Emma. She didn't want to think about that, not when it killed her a little more inside with every step she took toward protecting Emma from the truth.
"Where I've kept the last bit of my magic," she said as she entered the grand room that housed all her hearts and trinkets against the webbed walls.
"The only magic in this world is in the things I brought with me."
Jefferson looked around at the plain, gray-beige cement that surrounded them, his hat in his hand and the case left behind.
He placed it on the old design that stood out in Storybrooke but was normal in the Enchanted Forest. He stepped back with Regina already a safe distance away as she nervously twirled the ring on her finger.
They waited a moment, but nothing happened.
"It's not spinning. It's not working," Jefferson said as he motioned toward the dormant hat.
Regina thought about it for a few seconds and started to look around when it came to her.
"It needs to absorb the magic that's here."
She focused on a corner of the shelves behind Jefferson.
"I have a few things left," she said as she went to one of the shelving units. "A few trinkets."
She brought over a small box about the size of a jewelry box and dumped the jingling contents into the hat. It still wasn't enough.
Regina sighed and Jefferson reclaimed his hat. He turned it over and when nothing fell out, he too sighed.
"It's not enough. It needs something that still works."
She frowned and reached into her blazer pocket. She held Daniel's ring in her right hand between her index finger and thumb. She sadly stared at the golden circle pulled off a horse's saddle the night they'd mutually proposed to each other and agreed to run away together. The inner circle lit up with the image of Daniel and her shoulders heavily fell in deflation.
"Who is that," Jefferson asked, curious but still a little anxious about the hat.
"Someone long gone," Regina said as she continued to stare at her beloved.
"Well, whatever or whoever it is...it still has magical properties."
Regina looked up at Jefferson with a frown, her eyes wide and sad like she'd lost Daniel all over again.
"Give me that. Let me see what I can do with it," Jefferson said as he extended the hat to Regina for her to feed the ring to it.
Regina parted her lips and looked like a kicked puppy at the thought of giving up a memory. Sure, she would always remember Daniel, but the ring meant something. It meant everything. But then again, so did Emma.
"If you want your son back, if you want your revenge...give it to me," Jefferson sounded like a darker, more demanding version of himself.
Regina's sadness immediately left her body and she replaced it with disdain. She hadn't wanted revenge. That's not why she wanted to do what they were there to do. To give herself a moment and also to keep the upper hand, she pointed to the floor.
Jefferson put the hat on the floor and stepped back to give her some space since that was what she seemed to want.
Regina looked at the ring again and almost cried. She felt herself on the brink of tears as she thought about how to proceed. It all became very real in that moment that Regina had to make a choice. A choice between Daniel and Emma.
Even though Daniel was dead, she allowed herself to keep the ring as her anchor, a constant reminder of why she'd brought everyone to Storybrooke. When she'd started to doubt herself or lost her strength and resolve, she pulled out the ring for a brief moment of clarity. He gave her power figuratively and literally when she thought she had nothing left to give or gain.
But Emma gave her Henry and hope. Though their time together started off as a battle of sexual stamina and asserting control, power, and nearly ownership, she stood in front of Jefferson's hat with a sense of wholeness when she thought about the infuriating blonde. That infuriating quality about her wasn't even a con on a pros and cons list. Not after how Emma had managed to make her feel. It was like she had a piece of Daniel back, a piece of that hopefulness for a better and happier future. It was a piece of a promise that she could be the version of herself she once was and wished she still could be.
The choice was made. She leaned over the hat and let go.
"If only I could have you," Regina whispered as thin, purple smoke swirled around the hat that started to spin.
She smiled as she watched the magic work, but something was wrong. It wasn't as windy as she remembered it was before her journey to Wonderland. There was only smoke and not a void within the tornado of her magic like it would if a door had been opened between worlds.
"What's wrong? Why isn't it opening a portal?"
"The magic, it's not enough. We can't go anywhere."
"Then you failed," she gravelly breathed out and stared off as she felt the biggest sense of regret. She had given up everything to keep Emma from knowing the truth, from knowing the things she was sure would destroy the younger woman. And it seemed it had been for nothing. Sooner or later, as Gold said he'd ensured, the curse would break and she would lose everything. She would hurt the two people she loved the most and it would all be her fault.
"Maybe not," Jefferson quickly defended himself. "There's enough magic to touch the other side just not enough to get us there. There might be just enough to reach through and retrieve something."
"I can bring something back," Regina asked with a strange amount of hope for a broken woman like herself and crouched down beside the hat alongside Jefferson. "That's all I really ever needed from this."
"Then why did you propose a journey?"
"Because I didn't know I could bring something back," Regina snapped.
Jefferson sighed then continued with his previous discussion.
"Is there an object that can help you? Perhaps I can open enough and reach through and grab it. It would have to be small. Something that you can grab with your hand. Is there anything that can help you?"
"Yes. Yes, I believe there is."
"Then you need to direct me to where the time and place this thing exists," he said as he lifted the hat and held it out to her.
"How?"
"Think about it. Guide the hat."
Regina nodded as she took the hat and held it in front of her. She closed her eyes and remembered the moment as clearly as though it had been yesterday. With a grin, she set down the hat and opened her eyes. When she stepped away from it, the hat rumbled to life and started to spin. Purple smoke billowed around the hat and an apple as red as blood shot through the smallest of openings to the Enchanted Forest.
Regina effortlessly caught the apple and turned it in her hand to inspect it. Just as she remembered it, with no effect on the past, she held the bitten apple she gave to Snow as a punishment for her misdeeds and an insurance policy that no harm would come to her dear Prince Charming.
"Is this it?"
"Yes. Yes, it is," she grinned.
"And my daughter? My Grace?"
"First things first. The deal's not done. Not until I solve the next conundrum. How to get the Savior to taste my forbidden fruit."
Well, that was a loaded statement, especially since the Savior had already tasted her forbidden fruit. Multiple times.
At first, that thought brought her joy and an almost lascivious grin to her features. Then she thought about what that particular forbidden fruit in her hand meant, the one Emma had yet to taste. The apple. It would take everything from Regina and give Emma a peace the real world hadn't and couldn't bring her. Although, she would have to tweak the curse a bit since it was designed to cause pain. That was the exact opposite of why she relied on magic to keep Emma from breaking her curse.
It had to be done. She kept telling herself that even as she worked off a recipe for apple turnovers with the poisoned apple as her main ingredient.
Emma glanced at Regina every chance she got all throughout dinner. Any time Henry ducked his head or paid more attention to his food than the conversation, Emma made sure to look at the brunette.
Regina caught every single one of them too. She let the guilt eat away at her for the first ten minutes or so, but Emma started to worry and took it upon herself to reach out and touch Regina's hand. That made Regina smile and plans be damned, she was going to live in the moment since they were the last ones she had with the beautiful and strong Emma Swan.
Henry rushed off to watch a movie that Emma said she'd stay to watch with him until his bedtime and when he fled to the living room, Regina collected the dirty dishes.
She went to grab Henry's plate, but Emma swooped in and cleared the rest of the table with a smile. Regina stared at the woman, baffled by Emma's domestic helpfulness, and earned a wink in response.
Regina smiled and looked down at the plates in her hand and fought to keep her composure. Anything to stop the impending tears. She lifted her head seconds later and the two walked into the kitchen together.
"How did I ever get lucky enough to meet you," Regina asked.
She knew the answer: destiny. Fate. Whatever word you wanted to put to it, Regina was always meant to meet Emma. It had been set in stone the day Snow White and Prince Charming overcame her evil reign and tied the knot. If only she were always meant to keep Emma for the sake of her happiness. But she wasn't even meant to have Emma in the first place. Everything they had done, as real as it was, should never have happened if not as a way to get back at Snow. And her time with Emma was anything but revenge.
"You think you're lucky now? As I recall, there was a time you thought I was nothing more than a cheap and easy date," Emma teased with a grin. "Congratulations on being my favorite woman to spread my legs for, by the way."
"Your favorite?"
"There were only two or three others before you. And trust me when I say none of them compare," Emma said as she dropped the dishes beside the ones Regina had placed in the sink.
"You've been asking me to trust you an awful lot lately," Regina said.
"All in the hope that one day you finally will," Emma wrapped her arms around Regina's waist and pulled her backward to bring them closer.
Regina smiled when she felt Emma's chin on her shoulder and rested her hands over Emma's arms.
"Dance with me," Emma hummed in Regina's ear.
"I doubt you'd have any rhythm without music," Regina joked.
"If that were true then you wouldn't have made all those intoxicating sounds last night," Emma pressed her nose to Regina's neck and tilted her head up, which caused her nose to brush against Regina's skin until Emma stopped just below Regina's ear.
A recognizable and soon to be missed heat shot through Regina's body at the implication of and the memories elicited by Emma's words.
"Oh, you want that kind of dance, do you," Regina saucily asked seconds before she pushed back against Emma and began a slow grind.
Emma gasped in Regina's ear and unclasped her hands to push them down to Regina's belt buckle. She hooked her thumbs in the waistband of Regina's dress slacks and tugged down the harder Regina pressed her ass into Emma's sex.
Regina covered Emma's hands with her own and partially laced her fingers with Emma's. Her touch spurred Emma on and she instantly felt Emma reciprocate the grind with a roll of her hips. She let go of one of Emma's hands and reached behind herself to tangle a hand in blonde tresses. Her hand pressed against the back of Emma's neck and held the younger woman incredibly close.
Emma slid her hand, the one Regina had under her own, to Regina's left hip while she slipped her other hand inside the other woman's pants. She cupped Regina's sex over the woman's panties and caused Regina to whimper with need.
Emma swayed her hips from right to left and forced Regina's clit to graze the heel of her palm as her hand slid further down Regina's sex.
Regina struggled to breathe. She closed her eyes and tipped her head back to rest it on Emma's shoulder, Emma's head nuzzled into the other side of her own neck. She swayed her hips from side to side and pressed into Emma then slowly dropped down to the floor with her hand still on Emma's neck. She let it slip down to the front of Emma's shoulder, but not any more than that before she pushed her ass out between Emma's legs, started to stand back up, and brushed against Emma's inner thighs on the way.
"Oh. My. God," Emma breathed out just before Regina brought her ass to Emma's sex again.
Regina sped up the pace of her grind and rolled her hips in a circular motion.
"Where have you been hiding these moves," Emma panted into Regina's hair.
Regina stayed lost in the moment and grinned as her breath hitched when she felt Emma match her pace and thrust against her.
"I thought I did this very well when I gave you that lap dance the other night," Regina said, her voice husky from arousal.
Just one last time, Regina thought as she continued to put on a good show for Emma.
Emma gripped Regina's hip with bruising force as she lifted her head away from Regina's neck. Her nails sharply dug into Regina's outfit as though they wanted to tear off the pesky material, which Regina imagined could have very well been the case.
Regina whimpered when Emma slipped her hand beneath her damp panties and didn't stop until three fingers were buried knuckle deep inside her. She turned her head to the side and glided her lips across Emma's jawline to her earlobe, arched her back, and rolled her hips into Emma's touch. She flicked the very tip of her tongue against Emma's earlobe before she nipped it with playful teeth.
After two thrusts, Emma growled and removed her hand from Regina's hip. Before the brunette could stop her or even miss the hand on her hip, Emma grabbed Regina's left thigh and swept up the woman's leg. She stomped Regina's heel against the edge of counter in front of them before she continued to thrust deep into Regina.
Emma let go of Regina's leg when she knew the brunette would keep it there and brought that hand up to grope Regina's breast.
Regina opened her mouth in a silent moan and tightened her fist in Emma's hair. She accidentally tugged on it and Emma had to fight to keep her head from snapping back at the force. She met every single one of Emma's thrusts by use of her hips and felt the heel of Emma's palm press down on her clit. She bit down just below Emma's ear and let go of Emma's hair with one hand only to grab it with the other. Her recently freed hand wrapped around Emma and squeezed her ass. With each squeeze, she pulled Emma closer to her.
Emma opened her stance to keep up with Regina's demands then sped up her pace in retaliation for needing control over the situation.
Regina emitted an uncharacteristically high pitched moan in Emma's ear and caused the blonde to grin. Regina opened her eyes when she sensed Emma's smugness and deviously grinned back.
"Your mistake of the day," Regina panted, the volume of her voice low to keep their conversation and their current activity between only them. "Was wearing a skirt."
Before Emma could question what that meant, she felt Regina's hand slide up her skirt from the back and find her opening. Her real mistake was deciding to change out of her tights just before dinner once she was already at the house because they were itchy and the gauze on her leg wasn't noticeable.
Regina skillfully pulled Emma's panties to the side and tested Emma's slickness when she slipped a single finger into her heat.
"Not fair," Emma moaned. "You always have a comeback."
Regina chuckled, but it quickly morphed into a whimper when Emma's fingers curled and hit just the right spot. She clenched around Emma's fingers and relaxed her grip on the younger woman's hair then tightened it.
"Wait for me," Emma breathlessly purred in Regina's ear.
"Then hold on tight because it's going to be a quick ride," Regina warned and added a second finger.
Regina matched Emma's pace and pushed into Emma every time the other woman slid into her. Both women simultaneously moaned and turned their heads to make eye contact, though they could barely keep their eyes open for more than a few seconds at a time.
"How flexible are you," Emma panted.
"You've been sleeping with me for about a month and you don't have an answer to that question?"
"Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you," Emma said before she started to kick at Regina's right heel, the only one she had on the ground. "Lean your right foot to the left."
After a few well-placed kicks and Regina's submission, Regina's foot slipped off the sole of the heel and she stood on the side straps of the heel. She instantly lost two inches and fell backward into Emma, but the blonde pushed forward and kept her balanced.
Regina wanted to ask what that was about and even opened her mouth to speak, but Emma's pace changed again. Not only that, but Emma also rocked her own body back and forth. Every time she thrust into Emma, the blonde would push her hips back to meet the thrusts. Every time Regina pulled most of the way out of Emma, the younger woman would roll her hips forward. Emma's sex would brush against Regina's ass and suddenly, it all made sense.
Friction.
Without the extra two inches to make Regina her normal height, her ass wouldn't hit the spot Emma needed it to: her clit. To make it easier, Regina used the time when Emma nearly removed her fingers to push her ass back and roughly brush against Emma's clit through their clothes.
Regina clenched around Emma's fingers again and looked for the right spot-
"Mm," Emma drew out a moan. "Right. There."
Regina tilted her head back while Emma's lips sought out Regina's. They panted against each other and their lips brushed several times, but they never kissed. Even if they wanted to, the need to part their lips in silent moans and screams would have broken the kiss anyway.
Emma's walls tightened around Regina's fingers and her breath hitched like it had in Regina's office earlier that day.
Regina knew what that meant and she would never forget it. She blearily opened her eyes and watched Emma's open seconds after. They stared through hooded eyelids at each other while she choked back more moans and reached the very edge of something so beautifully beyond words.
Regina sucked in a breath and only released it when she came undone.
Emma sighed when that moment came for her.
The one thing they had in common about their near simultaneous climax was what they said.
"Emma."
"Regina."
Both names fell from a pair of parted lips and overlapped in a way that could only mean they shared the contented and satisfied feeling they expressed behind the spoken names.
If only they'd had the strength to say the words they really meant in that very moment.
"Hey, Emma," Henry yelled as his voice grew louder the closer he got to the kitchen. "Are you gonna watch this movie with me or what?"
"Shit," Emma panicked.
Regina's eyes widened at the same time and both scrambled to rid themselves of the scarring evidence their coated fingers would provide the ten year old.
Emma grabbed Regina's left leg and quickly pulled her heeled foot off the sink while Regina lunged forward and turned on the water. Immediately, both of them rushed their hands under the faucet and rinsed off.
They moved fluidly together and in record time, managed to look like a cutesy couple washing dishes together.
Which was what Henry saw when he popped into the kitchen. He frowned when he saw Emma standing behind Regina with her arms wrapped around his brunette mother.
"I'm supposed to be in bed in forty minutes," Henry said to Emma as he narrowed his eyes at his mothers in their overly affectionate embrace.
Emma turned to face him, but kept both hands in the sink while Regina poured dish soap on them and thoroughly cleaned them for her.
"Yeah, sorry. We got caught up with the dishes," Emma answered. "I'll be there in a minute."
Henry stayed in the kitchen, displeased with an angry glare trained on Emma.
"Kid, I said I was sorry, okay? I'm almost finished in here. Go wait for me in the living room."
"I've been waiting for you for the last ten minutes," he exclaimed.
"Henry, please," Regina turned to her left so she only exposed her clean hand, the one she hadn't needed to wash but would anyway. "Wait for Emma on the couch. I promise she'll be out in sixty seconds or less."
Henry's eyes narrowed further.
"Since when is she Emma to you?"
"Not nearly as long as it's been none of your business," Regina strictly said. "Now go."
Henry turned and left the room in a huff.
Once they were alone again, Emma took Regina's hand and weaved their fingers together regardless of the fact they were both soaked from their wash in the sink.
Regina looked up and saw Emma's eyes already on her.
Emma smiled.
"I'd call that race to hide proof of our copulation true team work."
Regina chuckled.
"Yet another way you've managed to surprise me. You know the word 'copulation'."
Emma rolled her eyes and her smile only spread.
"Well, I should get to my motherly duties and watch this movie with him."
"Indeed."
"Hey," Emma made sure to get Regina's full attention before she continued. "You know I'd lasso the moon for you, right?"
Regina furrowed her brow, confused.
"There is no way that is physically possible," Regina said.
Emma laughed.
"There's this movie called 'It's a Wonderful Life.' I used to think it was a lame story because, when I first saw it, I didn't think I had anything to live for and no one would care if I didn't exist."
"And now?"
"I told you I'd lasso the moon! That should say it all."
Regina still looked lost.
"Watch the movie, see for yourself. No way am I gonna ruin it for you."
Regina smiled.
"Then I suppose I'll have to find the time."
"I guarantee it's worth it," Emma said before she tapped her forehead to Regina's temple then pulled away and released Regina's hand.
Emma started to leave, but Regina stopped her.
"Are you still spending the night with Miss Blanchard," Regina asked.
Emma spun around and apologetically smiled as she nodded.
"Okay. I'll see you at Henry's bedtime to say goodnight," Regina said.
Emma smiled again, a little lustful and a little warm and fuzzy.
"I'll hold you to it."
With one of the biggest internal struggles she'd ever suffered through, and not her first of the day, Regina handed over a container with the apple turnover to Emma once Henry was tucked in. They awkwardly stood in the doorway together and just stared at each other.
The longer Emma stood in front with the turnover, the more Regina started to second guess her decision. But she couldn't take it back. It was already in the blonde's hands. The only way to pry it away from the woman would be to come up with some ridiculous excuse like, "I think I lost a nail in there so you know what? I'm just going to spare you that grotesque search."
When that thought crossed her mind, Regina had truthfully and quickly considered it.
Until she remembered that she and Emma had slept together way too much for the other woman to know she didn't wear fake nails and kept them trimmed. And then that excuse went right out the window.
She was back to square one, her attention stuck between the blonde and the turnover.
Finally, Emma broke the silence.
"See you tomorrow?"
Regina smiled as genuinely and as warmly as she could when she knew she would most likely not see Emma tomorrow.
"Yes."
"'Kay. Well, bye."
And just like that, both women gravitated toward each other. And just like that, the hug in Regina's office was not the last one she would have with the destined Savior. That one, the one in Regina's threshold, would be the last one.
Thoughts of making it count and not letting go wildly ran through the brunette's mind, but she had been able to do only one. She wrapped her arms around Emma and squeezed with a familiarity they'd certainly reached in their relationship, but hadn't displayed or expressed to each other in such a way.
One last smell of Emma's hair, one last time to mold her body to the younger woman's, one last opportunity to come clean and at least voice the reason behind her actions even if she never said out loud to Emma what those actions were. One last chance at happiness.
And it left her alone in the doorway as she watched it disappear down the walkway and slide into a beat up yellow Bug she hated and loved all the same.
I did it for you, Regina thought as she stood with the door wide open even after Emma drove away. I sacrificed everything for you.
And no one but Regina would ever understand the heavy truth and weight behind those words.
Barely awake, Emma lazily drifted down the narrow stairway of the apartment and went to answer the door. The one night she hadn't spent with Regina and she hadn't been able to wake up on time for work.
When Emma checked the clock on her way to the door, she saw that it was almost eight in the morning. She sighed when she reached for the doorknob and wrenched it open like the person on the other side would receive an ass kicking if they didn't have important business there.
She opened the door completely and had a similar experience to the night Henry had changed her life when he'd shown up at her place in Boston and said he was her son. Sure enough, it was the ten year old boy on the other side of her door that morning.
"Kid. What's up? Don't you have school?"
"I wanted to talk to you about my mom," he said as barreled into her place yet again, just like he had that night a couple months ago.
"Can't it wait until later? You've got learning to do and I've got Sheriff-ing to do."
"No, it can't wait because I'm telling you, she's the Evil Queen. The closer you get to her, the longer you're around her thinking she's just like everyone else, the worse it's going to be when you break the curse."
"Okay, it's way too early to listen to all this," Emma grumbled as she walked back toward the stairs. "Come on. I'll walk you to school."
"No, you need to listen," Henry said as he turned to follow her and keep eye contact.
When he turned, however, his eyes glanced over the kitchen and he saw a plastic container he thought he recognized. He suspiciously stared at it before he saw some kind of pastry inside it set on top of parchment paper. That was not something Emma did. What Emma did was somehow convince Regina to dump his breakfast in a sandwich bag to take to school when he was late and hadn't eaten yet. That was her handiwork. What he saw in the kitchen had Regina written all over it.
"What's that," he asked as he walked toward the kitchen bar where the container sat.
"Dessert. Your mom gave it to me last night."
Henry's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.
"What's it made of," he worriedly asked as he popped open the lid and smelled it. "Apples?! You aren't gonna eat this, are you?"
"I am, actually. What's wrong with it?"
"The Evil Queen used an apple to poison Snow White."
Emma rolled her eyes.
"What? It's fine, kid. Nothing's gonna happen if I eat it."
Henry stared up her with skepticism still clear across his face.
"Here, I'll show you," Emma said as she picked up the turnover and tried to raise it to her mouth.
"No," Henry yelled and yanked the pastry out of Emma's hands.
He turned his back on Emma and took several large steps away from the kitchen to keep the tainted dessert away from her.
"Henry," Emma tiredly warned as she took a couple steps toward him.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this. You may not believe in the curse...or in me. But I believe in you."
He bit into the turnover and still seemed perfectly healthy as he chewed then swallowed it.
"See," Emma asked. "Now can I take you to school?"
Just as she finished her question, Henry collapsed with the turnover still in his right hand.
"Henry," Emma softly asked, confused. "Henry?!"
Emma started to panic when the only response was silence. She placed a hand over her stomach and called out to him one last time before she decided he wasn't going to wake up.
A/N: Made sure this one was long enough for all of you, especially since it's a week late. Also, it's happening. The curse is about to break and everything will be out in the open. Don't worry though! This story continues into a couple events of season 2 so there's still plenty more to write for this. Let me know what you thought of this.
And I do want to warn all of you (because I kind of love you loyal and responsive readers) that this is the start of a dry spell for Emma and Regina. BUT...they aren't over forever. Just for right now. I always like to give my stories happy endings.
Oh, and since there's going to be some angst between Emma and Regina in this story for a while to come, you might want to check out my new fic That Holiday Magic for some sweetness and humor. But just a heads up, I've only posted the first chapter so it's not too funny or too sweet just yet. Again, just a warning! Don't let it keep you from reading it. :)
Anyway, please leave a review! And thank you for all the favorites, follows, and reviews so far.