Chapter 10

*author's note*

Thank you so much to everyone who is reading this! I hope you are enjoying it. If you have any criticisms, or generally anything you'd like to say about the story, please do review it. Similarly, if you have any suggestions for other fanfics, that would be greatly appreciated too. Thank you!

-Sophie

Snow's pov

"So you're done?" I asked Regina, who was leaning over a suspiciously bubbling cauldron.

"No, not yet. The last thing I need is… a heart." Charming and I both looked at each other in shock. I would gladly give my heart, except we share one, so using our heart would kill the both of us. Robin stepped forward to Regina, who was already shaking her head and opening her mouth to refuse.

"Please, let me do this. I trust you completely, Regina," he smiled, "after all, what says that we can't share a heart."

"But… mine is darkened from all the things I have done in this realm. I won't put that burden on you."

"Why can't you just get one of the many hearts that you own, Regina? I know that you have a secret vault here too, since you lived here before us." She shook her head, her face filled with despair.

"The heart must be of the person you love most."

"Please, Regina. I want to do this. Please let me be the hero this time, not just your lover following you around while you save everyone." Regina looked at her love with sad eyes, wanting to refuse that Robin was just her lover, but unable to find anything there. She took a step towards him, looking deeply into her true love's eyes.

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes. I am."

Regina stepped even closer to him, a single tear running down her cheek. "I love you." She said

"I love you too." He replied, taking her shaking hand and placing it on his chest.

Regina plunged her hand into his chest, Robin hardly batting an eyelid as he stared at Regina.

"They really love each other, don't they? I mean really love each other." I murmured to Charming, who was grasping my hand.

"I remember when I did the same thing for you," he replied with that half-smile thing that I am a total sucker for. He kissed me lightly on the forehead as we watched the discourse between the two lovers. Regina crushed his heart into the cauldron, causing him to fall into her arms, and then to the floor.

Never had I seen anyone reach into their chest, pull out their heat, rip it in two and share it out between the two of them so quickly. (To be fair I had only seen it happen once before, and it was my heart.)

More impressively, though, Regina barely reacted to all of it, and I can say from experience that it was one of the most physically painful experiences of my life, she was just that focused on keeping Robin alive. He suddenly gasped for air and his eyes snapped open. Purple smoke began to flood out of the cauldron, I embraced Charming and closed my eyes tight and hoped that all goes to plan and our memories remain intact.

I opened my eyes to see Storybrooke around us, and Regina and Robin still on the ground mid-kiss. And I remembered everything.

"Where do you think Emma will be?" Charming asked no one in particular

"My bet's on your place." Regina said, standing up with Robin.

Killian's pov

I lay next to Emma on the bed that she had been in, as she recounted to me all that had happened while I was in Hades' grasp. Her head rested in the nape of my neck while my arm wrapped around her and my fingers absent-mindedly rubbed circles into her shoulder. As I lay there all I could do was relish the touch of her body against mine and the sound of her voice once again. People say that you don't know what you have until it's gone, and I knew precisely what I was missing while we were apart, yet that didn't mean that I couldn't appreciate every fraction of a second we had together.

Quite abruptly, the door was slammed open and to my surprise, Emma's parents, Regina and Robin all streamed in, looking around the bottom floor (we lay in the upper floor).

"Emma! Henry!" Her father started shouting, looking fitfully around.

"No need to shout mate, we are only up here." I said to him, raising my eyebrow. What shocked me more than his entrance was the fact he seemed relieved to see me in person.

Mary Margaret began to run up the stairs, making Emma stand up rather unsteadily (she was still rather weak after dying and then… un-dying) I quickly came round and held her before she fell down. Her mother appeared at the top of the stairs, and without a word hugged the both of us.

She was closely followed by her husband, who added to the large embrace. It was a strange feeling, something that I had never really felt before, what with a lack of family or friends, or even allies.

"Emma… how are you…here?" Her mother asked her while pulling away. All Emma did was look up to me with all the love in the world in her eyes, and I returned the look, since the feeling was rather mutual. Her mother managed to understand, but to be fair, she is well-acquainted with true love. I suppose that answer sated her parents for now, but I presumed we will be bombarded with questions over dinner and some wine.

"I could ask the same thing for you. Killian told me that you were in the Enchanted Forest."

"Regina cooked up yet another curse for us, except this time we kept our memories." Her father replied, his arm around his wife much like mine with Emma.

"But I thought a curse like that required a heart of the person you love most," Emma inquired.

"Yes, it does. And I am glad that I sacrificed mine for your family and for Regina's sake." Robin said, reaching the top of the stairs, "it is good to see you again, Emma, you too, Killian. How strange it is to imagine that there are only three hearts between all six of us."

Our audience began to depart back down the stairs, Robin to find Roland and his little lass, and the Charmings to see their grandson. I wager they also knew we could do with a little space, so we went back to the bed, and just lay there, without speech, just basking in the company of one , without speech, just basking in the company of one another.