Regina wakes the morning after she promptly told her mother to fuck off, and how amazing to finally tell her mother what she has wanted to for so many, many years. The company is gone already, she knows. Forced to use Regina's understudy to fill the gap of her presence, the show must go on or so the saying goes. Zelena promised to keep her informed of any hints of Emma's whereabouts during the tour. It was unlikely, but it was at least something. She looks around the suite, most of her belongings are still packed after her mother's failed efforts. She avoids looking at them for too long, for when she does she thinks of Emma and finds it hard to breathe.
I'll just go for a walk, she thinks to herself. Fresh morning air will clear her head, for she will need all her strength if she is to find Emma. Her Emma.
Regina exits the hotel, her instinct is to go to town, distract herself. Perhaps ask around if anyone has seen the mysterious blonde woman around. She raises her arm to hail a taxi which promptly pulls up beside her. Her hand grazes the shining silver handle before something inside stops her. She feels the tugging of her heart beneath her ribs as if her heart might just burst through her chest and fall into her hands at any moment.
"Actually," she looks down at the taxi driver, "I am so sorry, I changed my mind."
The driver nods in acknowledgment before pulling off and away. Regina glances towards the glistening lake in the distance. She steps off the curb and begins her descent towards the lake.
As she approaches the lake she sees couples walking towards the docks, picnics in hand, and their loved ones close. Hears the laughter and can already see the smile on their faces below their shining eyes. She thinks of Emma's laughter, her smile, the overwhelming feeling of warmth from her. This woman who she loves so dearly, who she will never stop loving even when the dirt beneath her fades away and all time stands still. The next time she sees her she won't ever let go, no force on Earth, nor heaven or hell would tear them apart. The universe would have to slice their bodies apart, they would cling so tightly. Even so, Regina would hold on with every ounce of strength that her body could create, unwilling to let go of this woman she loves.
Regina looks up and she thinks for a moment that her mind is playing a trick on her, for in the distance she sees a sliver of red silk and a mane of blonde hair. No, this can't be her. It is merely a vision, an apparition, a cruel trick of her mind. Seeing what she desperately wants to see, like images in clouds. Even so, her heart is racing and something in her screams, go, go to her. Before her mind understands what she is doing, she is running towards her.
"Emma!" she yells, desperately as if this may all be real after all. "Emma!"
Emma hears someone calling her name behind her, it sounds like-No, that's impossible. It can't be, but then she hears her name called once more she is unable to help herself from whipping wildly around. There she is, Regina, her love calling for her as she runs across the green grass.
"Regina?!" she calls out, picking up her dress and running full speed towards her.
They collide in a mess of hair and limbs. Their arms gripped so tightly around one another that it is nearly physically painful but neither could care less at the moment. "I love you," Emma says, repeating it over and over again. "I thought that you had left me."
"Oh, never, never, never! Emma. I love you, I would never leave you", She pulls back to look at the woman, their arms still around one another "Emma, where were you? I searched everywhere for you."
She sighs, "Long story, but you can start with thanks for your mother."
Regina's expression is fiery, "I'll kill her with my bare hands."
Emma chuckles, "No, you won't. But thanks for telling me that you'd kill for me. I will be sure to keep that in mind for the future."
The anger in her dissipates, for she doesn't have the energy to stay mad at her, not with Emma in her arms, "Let's go home Emma," she says, smiling brightly at her.
They walk up the grassy hill together, once more towards the Storybrooke Grand Hotel.
The pair never stop touching each other until the moment they are standing in front of Regina's room. "Um, Emma?" she says.
"Yes?"
She looks down at their joined hands, smiling, "I don't want to let go but I do require both my hands to open this door."
Emma laughs, slipping her hands around her waist instead, "Oh of course."
The door unlocks and both women step through quickly, Regina shuts the door behind them and locks it.
Emma looks around the room at all of the packed belongings. "So is everything packed?"
"Nearly," Regina says, placing her keys on a nearby table. She slips off her shoes and shoots Emma a sultry glance, "The bed isn't," she says with a wicked smile.
Emma looks surprised for only a moment before she walks towards her, pulling Regina into a passionate kiss. Her hands reach for the button's of Regina's blouse, pulling them apart and discarding the garment. Her hands then reach for the side zipper of her skirt, undoing the fastening before lowering the zipper and letting it pool around Regina's ankles. She steps out of it wearing nothing but a pair of white bra and panties. Regina leads her to the bedroom that they slept in once before. "Regina, you look-"
"Shhh dear," she interrupts, her eyes have a mischievous glint, "show not tell." Taking the invitation, Emma's hands wander the body before her, reaching behind and undoing the fastening of her bra. Regina takes this opportunity and maneuvers herself behind Emma who is now facing the bed, her back against Regina's chest. Emma can feel the delicate touch of Regina's hands on her back as she slowly lowers the zipper. Pushing the dress over Emma's shoulders, allowing the silk dress to pool around her legs as she places feather-light kisses along the bare expanse of her back.
They discard the rest of their clothes quickly, standing in front of each other completely bare and exposed. They collide with one another, a tangle of skin to lips, lips to tongue, their hands and mouths exploring each other will boundless passion. They carry on with this throughout the day and well into the night. The sounds of ecstasy fill the room, with their moans, curses, and breathless laughter. Unable to pull each other closer, there is only the feeling of skin and moonlight upon their bodies. Their bodies falling into a dance and rhythm older than time itself.
Regina is the first to wake the morning after, reaching over and placing a kiss upon Emma's temple.
"Good morning, my love," she says rubbing circles on her back.
"Hmm, good morning sleep well?" Emma yawns.
"Best sleep in my life, I dare say," she smiles, "happens when you are completely exhausted yet surprisingly insatiable."
Emma snakes her arms around Regina's naked torso, "Oh? I hope you're not too tired from yesterday's activities."
"Of course not love, but-" as if on cue her stomach growls, "I have worked up quite an appetite. I'll order breakfast," she stands and wraps a blanket around herself, "any requests?"
Emma tries to lift her head off the pillow but before it promptly falls back down, "I'll just have whatever you're having, I'm good with anything."
"Alright," Regina smiles at her, "Coffee?"
Now, this wakes her up, she slowly begins to sit up, "Please."
The food comes quickly and they sit on the couch with nothing other than blankets to cover them as they eat.
"So you will marry me won't you?" Regina says nonchalantly, as she picks at the grapes in her hand. After a moment she glances up at Emma, her eyes serious.
Emma laughs, prompting the other woman to throw a grape at her, "Oh? You won't?"
Emma puts her hands up in surrender, "I'm sorry Regina it was just the way you said it, I couldn't help myself. Of course, I will, I would be honored to be your wife."
Regina's face breaks out to a bright smile, as she leans in to kiss her.
Now it is Emma's turn to look serious. Her hands reach behind her neck as she undoes the clasp of the locket. She looks at it, resting in the palms of her hands before handing it over to Regina.
"Emma, what's this-?" her brows furrow in confusion.
"I want you to have this," she states simply, "this is what led me to you, a story that I will one day tell you but not today." She stops to take a moment, breathing in deeply before continuing, "I do not have much to offer, really I have nothing to my name but I promise you Regina that I will love you for every moment of my life. I love you for who you've been, who you are, and who you will become. I feel like I've loved you forever."
She's crying as she places her hands on top of the other woman's, closing her fist around the locket. "I may not be able to give you a diamond ring but I can give you this, it is my past, present, and future. I want you, my future wife and the love of my life, to have every piece of me."
Regina is crying too as she pulls Emma into a loving embrace.
After a short while, Regina pulls back, looking down at the locket which holds the promise of their future lives together. She admires the cameo of a swan etched into the locket, her fingers tracing the ridges. "This locket reminds me of the older lockets that people used to make, people would hide secret messages and pictures inside them. My father had one that I used to play with when I was younger."
"Oh?" Emma says, curiosity lacing her voice. "How does it work?"
"It's simple really," she opens the locket and sees it immediately. "See look here," she points near the clasp.
Emma looks and sees nothing, looking towards Regina for guidance.
Regina smiles, "No, look closer see that little black dot there." She points to a small black hole, no bigger than the size of a needle.
Emma looks again and sees nothing, shrugging, "I guess."
Regina rolls her eyes and places the locket in her hands, "Hold this, I'll show you." She stands up and digs around in one of the boxes before pulling out what she was searching for, a needle.
She sits back on the couch, with the locket still in Emma's hands she places the needle into the barely visible slot and lifts. The once golden back of the locket rises, revealing a piece of paper folded into a square.
"What the hell?" Emma says, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. This isn't right.
"Well," Regina says smiling at Emma, "Open it, perhaps it's an image of the person the previous owner loved before you were given this."
Emma's hands are shaking as she carefully unfolds the piece of paper. She gasps as she looks at the image unfolded in her hands. It is a newspaper clipping from when she was first announced as the winner of the competition. There she is smiling at the camera, an award in hand. Below the image the caption: Pictured: Emma Swan, the 2010 winner of the junior college playwright competition. Her show is set to debut in the following months, at the Junior College Theatre of Boston.
Like the sudden shattering of glass, Emma drops the locket in Regina's hands, the image still tight in her fist before falling onto the couch. Her vision fades as echoes from the future ring in her ears.
"Excuse me, are you Emma Swan?"
"Yes, this locket belonged to Regina's first and only love"
"Come back to me."
Emma feels like her soul is being ripped out of her chest. As if pulling her backward, forward, side to side through the portal of space and time.
"Come back to me!" Regina screams, tears in her eyes as Emma's hand goes limp in hers, leaving only the golden locket.
"Regina," Emma manages to say at last. She can no longer see or hear her but Regina's phantom touch lingers on her skin and she knows, she knows, that if she is disappearing into the void of time, that these should be her final words. Her final declaration of love. "I love you"
As soon as the words leave her lips, Regina surges forward and pushes her mouth against Emma's. And although they had kissed many times before, something is different about this one. Emma feels the void inside of her chest easing as if Regina had somehow seized the invisible and ancient forces of time and space and bent it to her will. Emma was not going to leave her like this. When their time came it would be one night, many, many years from now. They would kiss each other goodnight, say I love you for the last time, and slip away during the night with their arms still wrapped around one another. For to live without the other, if only for an instant, would feel worse than any death they could endure, and this was not their ending, but their beginning.
Emma feels her life regaining strength, as the dark and soul ripping sensations leave her body. She opens her eyes slowly to see Regina hovering, tears slipping onto Emma's cheeks beneath her.
"Emma!" she yells, as her arms fling around her shoulders, holding her tight, "We promised."
Emma grips her with equal force, her body and mind still reeling from what happened only moments before, "What?"
"We promised," she leans back to make eye contact, "Don't go where I can't follow."
And Emma remembers and stares dumbly at her, her face breaking out into a smile before she begins to sob, burying her face into Regina's hair.
"Now," Regina whispers into her ear, "What the hell was that?"
