Chapter Twenty Six

"Let's go home."

"Mmhmm, in a minute," Emma mumbled as she leaned into Regina's lips again. They kissed again, long and slow, until Emma moved away from Regina's lips, kissing down her jawbone, to her neck.

"Emma!" Regina let out a small laugh, but her hands found their way to the back of Emma's head, lacing through her hair once more. Maybe home could wait just a little longer.

"I missed you," Emma whispered, before moving her mouth down further, kissing Regina's collarbone. "This is the first place I ever touched you."

"With your tongue," Regina acknowledged, remembering the line of salt Emma had licked off her skin.

"Mmhmm," Emma said again, before repeating the action she'd done so long ago, and licking a slow, steady line along Regina's collarbone, before leaning back slightly and looking up at Regina. "I've always loved your collarbones."

Regina licked her lips as she looked down into Emma's eyes. "Maybe we don't have to go home just yet."

Emma grinned and raised an eyebrow. "Oh no? What should we do instead?"

Regina closed her eyes for a moment, debating with herself. She'd never seen this side of Emma - truthfully, she'd never let Emma show her this side of herself before - but suddenly her cocky self-confidence didn't seem so cocky. Suddenly, she wondered what it might be like to let Emma take over, just this once.

"I don't want to play games, Emma. I just want you to make love to me. I want you to… I want you to touch me. Emma, I trust you."

"Regina, are you sure?"

"Yes, I-" Regina was cut off by the distinct sound of her phone ringing in her purse on the end table next to her. She closed her eyes for a moment, cursing the worst timing possible. "That's probably Henry checking to make sure you and I haven't killed each other yet."

Emma smirked and backed up. "Answer it. And take a minute to think, and make sure this is really what you want. I'm going to get some water."

Emma slid off the couch and headed into the kitchen while Regina took the call. She forgot about her water as she opted to pace the kitchen floor instead, thinking about how this time, when she left this apartment, it might really be for good. It was thrilling and terrifying all at the same time.

All she'd ever wanted was a home, and now that she thought about it, she realized the only home she really wanted was one with Regina. Maybe she'd wanted that since the night she met her, and hadn't let herself hope for it since it seemed so impossible. But now it was right within her reach, and she wasn't going to let this opportunity slip away.

Curse be damned, no amount of magic or fate or anything was going to take this from her. She'd lost everything and everyone she'd ever loved or even came close to loving in the past. She wasn't going to lose out again.

By the time Regina was off the phone and had come to join her in the kitchen, Emma still hadn't managed to grab a glass of water, and instead stared at Regina expectantly.

"That was Henry," Regina confirmed, even though neither of them had expected it to be anyone else.

"Did you tell him I'm coming back?"

Regina nodded. "Is that alright?"

"Yeah."

"Can I help you pack?"

Emma paused for a moment, realizing that Regina was likely having second thoughts about her request for Emma to touch her. Emma wasn't entirely surprised, and she was actually a little relieved. She'd rather give Regina time to be sure, than to do something with her that Regina would regret later.

They were going to do this right, this time.

"Yeah, there's not much though," Emma said, leading the way to her bedroom. "I don't own any of the furniture and there wouldn't be room for it at Mary Margaret's anyway, even if I did."

"You're going to stay with Mary Margaret again?"

Emma shrugged. "I mean, I guess there's a chance she won't let me, because of how I left in the middle of the night, but she doesn't seem like the type to hold a grudge."

"Right."

Emma pulled her suitcase from the top shelf of the closet and opened it on the bed. "I think it's best if I stay with her, at least in the beginning," Emma explained, catching the disappointment in Regina's voice. "If we're going to start over, we should do it right. You know, date and stuff. We really barely know each other, you know?"

"No, I know, you're right."

Emma sighed as she began pulling clothes from her closet and laying them on her bed for herself and Regina to fold. "I never had a suitcase when I was a kid," she said, offhandedly. "That's crazy, right? I moved every couple of months, and no one ever thought to get me a suitcase."

"What did you put your things in?"

"I didn't really have things. I had clothes, sure, but I could only take whatever I could fit into a garbage bag with me to the next place. Toys and books had to be left behind. Most of them were never even mine anyway."

"I'm so sorry, Emma."

"It's fine. I mean, it's fine now because it's over. But it's why I gave Henry up. One of the reasons, I guess."

"You know, that's something I always wondered about, before I knew you were his birth mother. I would always look at him and wonder, how could anyone give him up? Never in a million years would I have thought his mother was a teenager in prison."

Emma let out a small laugh. "Well, it wasn't exactly how I pictured my life going, either. But it was the best choice I could have made for him. If I hadn't… well, he would have ended up in the system, just like I did. I didn't have a job or a home when I got out, they never would have let me have him. Putting him up for adoption was the only way I could ensure he'd have a family and a home, right from the start."

"It was brave of you. Even so, I'm glad you're going to have a chance to get to know him. My biggest fear has always been that he would end up alone once the curse was broken and I was-"

"Regina," Emma said, cutting her off. "Stop. No more talk about you being killed or locked away. It's not going to happen. I promise."

"Alright," Regina agreed, though she sounded less than convinced.

Within the hour, Emma had everything packed and ready to go in her Bug. She really didn't have much, and as she got in her car, she realized it was going to be easier than she'd expected to say goodbye to this apartment and this city for good. It was a nice place, but she'd never really made it home, and if she were being honest, it was an incredibly lonely existence.

On so many levels, she understood why Regina had done what she'd done for so long. When Emma had started meeting women in bars, she'd gotten high from the thrill and excitement, and hadn't given much thought to why. It struck her then exactly what Regina had meant when she said she found ways not to be alone. Emma would have never admitted it at the time, but she'd been doing exactly the same thing, for years.

She watched Regina get into her own car, and wished that they had been able to drive back together. She didn't exactly like the idea of Regina alone with her thoughts for that long, but at the same time, there was no other way to get both of their cars back to Storybrooke, than for each of them to drive themselves.

Soon after getting on the road, Emma found herself lost in her own thoughts. She was the first to pull onto the highway, and she checked her rearview mirror every so often to make sure Regina was still close behind. It was an odd feeling to realize that when she crossed the town line into Storybrooke this time, she wouldn't be leaving again.

She thought about what it would be like to see Mary Margaret and David again, knowing that this time she'd be looking at them and knowing exactly who they were, but not being able to tell them. For a split second, she wondered if staying with Mary Margaret again wasn't the best idea, but her other options were the motel, or staying with Regina, since she couldn't very well sleep in her car in a small town where Henry would surely hear about it.

The motel was an option, she supposed, since staying at Regina's right now was out of the question, even if she'd been invited. As much as she'd like that in the future, she knew how volatile they both could be, and she didn't want this whole thing to crash and burn before they even got started.

It seemed like an eternity before Emma finally saw the main road of Storybrooke come into sight. She and Regina were alone on the road now, and when she glanced back in the mirror, she couldn't read the expression on Regina's face. Still, she drove over the town line without hesitation, and Regina followed right behind.

Emma considered stopping once they'd crossed over, but she kept going instead, leading the way to Regina's home. Somehow, the huge house seemed more inviting and less domineering than it had the very first time Emma had pulled up here, and she wondered if it was because it was daylight outside, or because, for once, she felt like she was wanted as she pulled up to it.

She parked on the road, and got out of her car as Regina pulled into the driveway. Mary Margaret's station wagon was already there, and Emma guessed Regina must have called Henry from her car when they were close.

By the time Emma made it up the pathway, the front door was already swinging open, and Henry was running over to Regina, who had gotten out of her own car. He threw his arms around his mother, and while Emma felt a slight twinge of jealousy, wondering what it must be like to be hugged by the child you raised from an infant, she still smiled widely at the look of relief on Regina's face as she wrapped her arms around him.

As much as Emma had tried to reassure Regina that everything would be fine, she knew no amount of words could compare to coming home to a son who missed her, no matter how conflicted he felt about her at the moment.

Fairy tales and curses be damned, Emma refused to believe that Regina was evil. Perhaps she'd hurt others, because she'd been hurt deeply, but the woman she was watching right now was the woman she'd known Regina was since the first night she'd let her sleepover, and the first morning she'd bought her all the food she could dream of just to be sure she didn't go hungry.

And even if she didn't remember telling Regina she loved her all those years ago, she was sure she felt it now.

To be continued...