This chapter is for tvaddict2011 with the prompt: "Ocean"
Emma sat on the beach, the cool breeze blowing her hair behind her. The sound of the waves was calming, making her forget just for a moment that she was in a magical town full of magical problems.
"There you are," Regina said in relief. "I've been looking everywhere for you."
"Have you?" Emma asked. "Sorry. I got distracted."
"By what?" Regina asked, standing next to her. She may love Emma, but there was no way that she was going to get her outfit dirty.
Emma smiled out at the ocean. "That."
"The ocean?" Regina asked.
Emma nodded. "It's just so soothing. When I was younger, I would always run away to go somewhere near the ocean. The sound always calmed me and helped me to forget my problems."
Regina snapped her fingers and a blanket appeared next to Emma. She sat down before closing her eyes and listening to the sounds of the ocean. It was calming.
Regina opened her eyes and saw Emma smiling at her. "What?"
"Nothing," Emma said, looking back out at the ocean.
"Nuh uh," Regina said. "What's that smile for?"
"Look down," Emma said, chuckling.
Regina looked at the sand and realized that her blanket was gone. "Emma!"
Emma laughed as Regina pushed her away. "You are such a pain in the ass," Regina said, chuckling.
"It's sand," Emma said, a huge grin on her face. "It'll just brush off."
Regina stuck her tongue out at her. A comfortable silence settled over the two women, and they both gazed out at the ocean.
"How many times did you run away?" Regina asked.
Emma sighed. "More than my social worker would have liked. But every time that I got comfy, something always came up and I was sent to the next home. I would just get fed up with being sent to the next home, so I'd run."
"Where did you run to?" Regina asked.
"The ocean," Emma said. "Or if there wasn't one nearby, I would find a way to get to one. Eventually my social worker figured out the pattern and started sending me to families with houses by an ocean."
"And you liked it there?" Regina asked.
Emma shrugged. "It was nice because I could leave the house and just go to the ocean. But usually the families were rich snobs."
Regina laughed. "Every one of them?"
"Okay I take that back," Emma said. "There was one family that weren't snobs. But it was because they were an older couple."
"Older couples foster?" Regina asked.
"They couldn't have kids when they were younger, so they had adopted kids that were in the foster system. Those kids told the couple what the system was like, and they were determined to get as many kids out as they could," Emma said. "They were well known as a couple that always got kids adopted. So I arrived at their house with a lot of hope."
"What happened?" Regina asked. She knew that Emma had never gotten adopted.
"The same thing that happens every time that I get my hopes up. Something bad happens. The husband had a stroke. A bad one. They kept me as long as they could, but I knew that they were running out of money between taking care of me and his medical bills. They had to send me back," Emma said.
Regina reached over and grabbed Emma's hand, squeezing gently. Emma took a deep breath. "After that, I gave up all hope. But I still ran away to the ocean. There was finally a time that I ran away and my social worker couldn't find me."
"You escaped your social worker?" Regina asked. "Wouldn't you have come up as a Missing Person?"
Emma chuckled. "No one cared where I was. Not at that point. She assumed that I had found someplace to go."
Regina squeezed her hand again before pulling her in for a hug. "Do you still have no hope?"
"Some days I don't," Emma said. "But then I look at you, and my parents, and Henry, and I realize that I don't need to hope anymore. I'm happy where I am."
Regina smiled before kissing the top of her head. They sat together and listened to the soothing sounds of the ocean, both in love and happy.