Title: And She Whispered, Sometimes Love is Only Sleeping
Category: TV Shows ยป Once Upon a Time
Author: ScarletGypsy
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T
Genre: Drama/Romance
Published: 04-28-15, Updated: 04-28-15
Chapters: 1, Words: 1,927
Chapter 1: Chapter 1
Prompt from anon on Tumblr: Swan Queen - She looked at me And the emptiness in her eyes was cruel to see Then she turned away and said,"Once I loved, but love is dead" And I whispered, "Sometimes love is only sleeping" (Love Is Only Sleeping - The Monkees) {your call if you use the whole song, just that verse or just the quotes above.}
Sometimes it's hard to see someone hit their breaking point and be able to do absolutely nothing to help them. Being lied to, hurt, and then left empty. I've been there. I handled it worse. I killed thousands and had no sympathy.
But here the savior was. She was light magic; the product of true love, but now evil consumed her soul. She looked at me and the emptiness in her eyes was cruel to see.
"Emma? You can't do this, step back."
Then she turned away and said, "Once I loved, but love is dead."
I studied the distraught and trance-like expression on her face that only seeped words of sorrow. You can see she has long forgotten the love of her son, the love of her family, the love of a friend. The darkness that long lingered behind secrets has entered her heart and soaked up her kind soul that everyone grew to love. I thought about my own battle with the darkness and my own route to finding hope and love again, and what I realized was that, though sometimes it feels like you'll never feel it again, you will.
And I whispered, "Sometimes love is only sleeping."
I could see her body shake and tremble at my words. Her eyes found mine as she tried to ground her emotions. You never thought someone so pure, so light in her own way, would suffer so deeply. I guess I never really took the time to understand how deep Emma's emotions were.
Soon after the truth of her parents' secret surfaced, all the sorrow her heart possessed started erupting to the surface of her being. The loneliness, the fear of never having love or trust, and then the unsettling notion of never being able to stay settled all, intertwined into an emotional monster.
I reached my arm out and hesitantly laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. The contact made her jerk away and I winced in fear that she would lose her footing on the edge of the cliff on which she stood.
She said, "I cannot cry and I cannot give or feel or even try." And her sweet voice was hard and cold. Then her sweet young face looked old and I whispered, "Sometimes love is only sleeping."
I pulled her away from the edge and held her in my arms. "You're loved, Emma. Can't you see? You have to pull through this pain, for Henry."
Time passed, but her healing was slow. Her heart was betrayed.
"Emma, I brought you coffee the way you like it." I put the fresh brewed cup down at her desk. She stared off into a blank space, fidgeting with her yellow number two pencil as she wrote endless reports.
"Where's David?" I inquired. Since the incident, she was on desk duty while her father got to prance around town on runs that she was banned from helping with, just in case.
"Out fetching Pongo."
"Okay, well I will be having lasagna for dinner if you would like to join Henry and me?
"Yeah, that would be nice." She said monotone without even a glance up. It's like talking to the ghost of Emma we all once knew and grew to love.
That night I cut her a slice of lasagna and shared a smile over dinner. She was there for Henry. She tried her hardest to be the mom he grew to love and not the monster she became months ago.
"Henry, can you clean the dishes while I speak with Emma?" My sweet boy nodded in understanding. He, too, desperately wanted nothing more than for me to help Emma. There was no fixing her. Just helping.
I walked into my study and motioned for the younger blonde woman to follow. I poured whisky into two tumblers and handed the crystal glass to the other mother of our son.
"Emma, I know living with your parents is difficult, and probably making things worse. I think you need a break from them. It could really help you by giving you space."
"Right, Regina. Great idea. Except you built this town for the exact number of people you cursed. I have nowhere else to go." Her response was said with venom.
I nodded and sat alongside the stressed blonde. "That's untrue. You have somewhere else to go. You are always welcome in my home, here, with me and Henry. You would be able to come and go as you please. I have extra room to offer and you could spend more time with Henry. Besides, I am a way better cook than your mother."
I waited for a response that never came. Instead, the blonde stood and put her tumbler back on the counter and kept her back to me as she internally battled the feeling of being shuffled around once more.
I stood and placed my hand on her back, "Emma, trust me. I just want what's best for you."
She turned and looked at me with the empty glossed over emerald eyes that I grew to yearn for. "I'll do it." She left the room and soon after, I heard the front door shutting.
Weeks passed as we all adjusted to this new arrangement. I would see Henry off to school and Emma would walk with him home while I prepared dinner. Over our meal, Henry would fill the void in the air with words of excitement over school and his new friends. Emma would push her peas or whatever green vegetable on her plate around in circles until dinner was over. Afterwards, we would sit in compatible silence over a glass or two of whisky. She would stare off into space, fighting her own monsters, and then retreat to her room.
Through the endless days and nights, she could not help but wrap herself in sorrow. I could hear from her room at night, the tears she shed for the ones she killed in cold blooded murder. She felt the pain of all the lives she took, even her own. You could see the pained expression and the worry in her eyes as she worried that she would not win this fight within.
I would hoover outside her door at night, hearing her sobs. I waved a protection spell over the door to prevent Henry from hearing her cries. He need not know how tormented his mother was.
I would pace back and forth and question if it was my place to help Emma.
Tonight, enough was enough.
I knocked quietly. "Emma?"
I heard her sobs stop and I turned the handle to the door and entered the dark abyss of her room.
I walked with caution towards her bed and noticed her tears that coated her face caught in the soft glow of the light from the doorway outside. I sat beside the blonde who was waging war within.
"Emma, sweetheart, you're going to get through this. We're going to get through this."
"How, Regina? I just don't see how. I'm a lost cause."
I sighed, "Did you ever give up on me? I've done far worse crimes than you have." I stroked the long blonde tendrils of hair as I continued to speak, "Even when I seemed to be at my worst, you stuck around and you were impossible. Even when I tried to get rid of you myself, you sidestepped me. When I lost Robin, you told me what?"
"That I wouldn't stop till you had your happy ending too."
I nodded. "Right, but Robin is gone. I still don't have my true love. I do have my son and that brings me great happiness, but my son's happiness is also contingent upon your own, since you're his other mother. Therefore, I must work to ensure you get your happy ending too."
"I think tomorrow you need to have a day off work. Don't worry about that Charming prince, I will take care of him. Goodnight, Emma." I leaned down and kissed the top of her head, magically, putting her to sleep.
I sighed to myself and turned to leave. Through the endless days and nights we waited for a shiny new tomorrow. I knew that love was sleeping. My stubborn Emma would resurface.
So many tomorrows led to months of sorrow filled nights and lonely days. But soon the tomorrows led to trust, understanding, and ultimately, coping. Emma was starting to make a breakthrough with Archie, the town therapist, and soon she started to feel and seem lighter.
"I went on a jog today." She said.
"Oh, how was it dear? Did you go through the park?"
"I did and I guess it's almost spring because a snake slithered right in front of me. I jumped so high up in the air and then stumbled over."
I laughed, Emma's reactions are sometimes childish in nature. "Emma, you do realize the snakes here aren't poisonous. It's too cold. You got yourself all worked up over a garden snake." I laughed as I poked fun at the younger woman. I turned to toss the fresh salad I was preparing for dinner. My back was to her as I listened.
She laughed and said, "I realized that after I fell over. It looked at me like I was insane with two heads. I couldn't help but laugh. It was just so unexpected and I couldn't stop."
And then I turned. She laughed. This was the first time in nearly a year that she had laughed.
She looked at me and her smiling tears felt warm and sweet and free, as my hand cupped her rose tinted cheek. I gasped for air, "Emma?"
She smiled back and pulled me in her arms. "Thank you, Regina, for never giving up hope and seeing the light that was still left in me." I pulled out of the hug leaving the blonde with a confused expression. I looked at her questioning eyes. My eyebrows knitted into a frown as I stared at the other woman.
I asked her, "Is this real?" My heart ached for the truth after months of tending to the heart of the one person I most desperately loathed for quite some time. But that had, at some point, changed. It morphed into something much stronger and beautiful. Love.
She took that step forward and both of her hands cupped my face as her eyes asked permission to move in. I nodded and our lips crashed into one another. Slow and tender at first and then rough as our tongues danced in sweet synchronicity. This was real. This was our happy ending and the moonlight kissed her eyes as it mingled with our sighs that night.
We buried our bare bodies under the cool sheets and she whispered into what she thought was a sleeping form, "Sometimes, love is only sleeping."
That was the start of our love story.