First, I apologize for disappearing like this. Someone really important walked out of my life, and it felt impossible to get into the happy mood to write anything for a while. I'm back now, and I would like to thank each and every one of you who took the time to pm, review, follow and fav this story. It means a lot to me.

This chapter holds a special place in my heart, and I hope it makes its way towards yours, too.

Chapter Twenty-two

January, 1987

"I am not going," Emma said.

"Of course you are going, your best friends are getting married!" Ingrid said. She had a flourished shawl wrapped around her head like a turban, covering the absence of blonde hair, and she was trying to look flippant as she applied make up on Emma's face.

"I can't go," Emma looked at her mother's frail figure. She had always been thin, but now she looked so… small.

"I'm not gonna die while you're gone, kid," she chuckled. "Go! Have some fun! Besides, Granny said Ruby's flipping because you asked her to go with you. You can't blow her off, Emma!"

"Ruby will have me for the rest of her life, mom. You-"

Ingrid pulled Emma to her. She buried her face into her mother's shoulder, and when the first sob erupted, Ingrid withdrew and held Emma at arms' length.

"Listen to me. You're the youngest Deputy in Storybrooke, missy! You're supporting us because you had to be the adult here. You took care of me the whole week and I can't stand to see your face anymore," she added with a smirk. "Go have some fun, make out with a bridesmaid-"

"Mom-"

"Then you come back and tell me all about it. You're going and that's final. Mom's order."

"That's not fair-"

"You know what's not fair?" Ruby asked as she barged in furiously. "To live with a woman that doesn't understand shit about being a woman!" she panted, hurrying to Ingrid's side after noticing that Emma was not dressed yet. "I know I was supposed to wait at home so you could pick me up, but seriously, I can't do my eye shadows!"

"Hey, calm down," Ingrid grabbed her by the hand and guided her to sit on the couch where Emma was a minute ago. "Let's see what I can do-"

Emma stood by the doorway, watching the obscenely tight dress clasped around her friend's hips.

"You look hot," she blurted out, and both Ingrid and Ruby turned to look at her. "I'll… go get dressed," Emma stammered, hurrying to her bedroom and closing the door behind her.

She walked towards her wardrobe, exhaling deeply. Ruby had reached a whole new level of hitting below the belt with her, and Emma wasn't sure whether she liked it or hated it. She opened a drawer, scrambled through her socks and found one of the only photographs she had of Regina by herself.

She was sitting on the passenger seat of the GTI, reading a book. Her hair was cute, arranged on a red headband, and sunlight fell perfectly on her. Emma had no idea who took that picture. It was a masterpiece – a masterpiece that broke her heart whenever she looked at it.

XXX

She was smoking a joint with Ruby in front of the diner, laughing at MM's cousins' haircuts, when Granny came outside. Out of reflex, Emma took the blunt from Ruby's lips and threw it away.

"Ingrid called, Emma," the old woman said.

For someone who was expecting to get scolded for smoking, Emma stood up and ran to her house, forgetting all about Ruby and her car.

They didn't live too far – about ten blocks away – but Emma got home within seconds. Maybe the academy trainings were finally paying off.

"Don't you DARE!" Emma yelled as she burst through the front door, searching frenetically for her mother. "Don't you DARE die on me like this-!"

"Did you just… run home?" Ingrid asked, coming out of Emma's bedroom.

"I… Of course I… ran…" she panted, feeling relieved to see her, even if with that smug smirk on her pale face. "Granny said… She said…"

"I told her to send you home in case she caught you smoking marijuana on the street. You are the Deputy, Emma! What the hell, kid?"

Emma pursed her lips as she stared at the worn out floorboards.

"I'm sorry if I got in the way of you… fooling around with Ruby, but well, you can do that whenever you want. You can't afford to screw this up, though. You can't! I'm not gonna be around forever-"

"I know that!" Emma spat angrily. "I fucking know that."

Ingrid sighed, pulling her inside. "I was cleaning a little. Your bedroom's a pigsty."

Emma chuckled. "Now you care?"

"I don't regret being a cool mom, okay?" Ingrid said, resuming folding a t-shirt and placing it on top of a pile of clean laundry on Emma's bed. "I'm glad you'll have that memory, but you gotta tidy up, young lady. You can't live like this when I'm gone. Deal?"

"When our fun conversations became so morbid?" Emma plopped down the mattress, crossing her ankles, placing her enlaced fingers behind her head.

"Said little miss sunshine," Ingrid chuckled, slumping down next to her. "I put the letters in that shoebox over there. Read them, some day."

Emma sighed with an eye roll.

"She looks really pretty in this picture," she added, taking the photograph Emma left on her bedside table. "I was testing the camera."

"You took that?"

"You're welcome."

"For making me want to rip out my heart and set it on fire every time I look at it?" Emma said scandalized. "Sure, thanks, mom!"

"Stop being dramatic and go get me some water, please," Ingrid chuckled, nudging her.

"Can't you get it yourself?" Emma said from the door, a mirth smile crisping her lips. "Stop acting like you're dying and shit-"

She heard her mother laugh as she walked only a few steps to get to the kitchen.

"You should have seen MM's cousins, mom," Emma said as she filled a glass.

"Bunch of freaking poodles in fluffy dresses?"

"You have no idea-" she shook her head, laughing. She couldn't wait until they got to see the video together, eating popcorn and making fun of everyone. "You are gonna-"

Emma stopped dead on her tracks when she got to the doorway. Ingrid looked like she was sleeping, the picture still dangling precariously from her fingers. Emma dropped the glass of water. Her bedroom started to spin, and it felt like the floorboards cracked open under her feet.

"Mom?"

They had been fucking around with sick jokes to lighten the mood every now and then, but if she was doing that just to screw with her… that was just cruel.

"Mom?" Emma asked again, approaching the bed and reaching out for her hand.

She swallowed hard as she walked backwards and out of the room until she hit the phone table. She dialed Ruby's number, and it was Ruby herself who answered after the third tone.

"It's three in the morning-" she paused when she recognized a sob. "Emma?"

"Get your ass over here."

XXX

Ruby never got her license, and as she drove as a maniac, she understood why. She sucked. Big time.

After hitting Mrs. 402's trashcan and waking up at least fourteen dogs, she parked abruptly in front of Emma's house. The tall blonde was kicking everything they had on the porch, no longer looking elegant in her fancy clothes as she barked her cruelest opinions about life, God and sexual-related offenses to whoever was willing to hear.

Clad in pajamas, Ruby didn't hesitate to jump out of the stupid GTI and hold her firmly in her arms until she calmed down and the only sounds she was making was from crying. They sat down on the front steps, and they stayed there, Emma with her face buried in the crook of Ruby's neck.

"I hate weddings," Emma sniffed. "If one day I tell you I wanna get married, kill me."

"Yeah, yeah," Ruby patted her back, planting a kiss on top of her head. "It's gonna be okay…"

December, 1992

It was absurdly cold in New York that afternoon.

Regina knelt down in front of Henry, adjusting his red beanie to protect his ears from the gushing wind.

"It itches," the six year old boy whined.

"It's better than getting a cold, mister," she said patiently, grabbing his hand as they resumed their walk towards the mall.

The usually crowded streets looked twice as packed on Christmas Eve, and Regina was now kicking herself for leaving the gift shopping for the last minute. Her job in the office was too all consuming, and adding it to the task of being a single mother, she barely had a few minutes to remember she had to buy gifts.

"What do you think we should get for Grandpa this year?" she asked, and then she noticed he had stopped. "Henry?"

He was staring at the window of a huge bride's store, curiously looking at a sparkly wedding dress.

"Are you going to get married someday, mom?"

Regina smiled. "Aren't you glad with the two of us?"

Secretly, she always wondered when they would have this conversation. She always dated women – a not so incredible total of three in almost a freaking decade – but she never told Henry about them. He had been oddly mature about their conversation on Regina not being his biological mother, and she was not willing to push his buttons with that kind of talk.

"Of course I'm glad, but don't you feel lonely when I go to bed?"

"Why are you saying this, honey?" she asked with a frown.

He shrugged, pulling the beanie against his ears. "You look sad sometimes."

Involuntarily, she grabbed the front of the denim jacket and pulled the fabric closer to her body. She was wearing a thick woolen sweater underneath it, but she always added the jacket when it was too cold, even if the shabby hem and the Sex Pistols button didn't exactly match her formal office attire.

It was large enough to fit her on top of any thick layers of fancy sweaters.

It was loose and worn out because it wasn't hers.

And it didn't carry Emma's scent anymore because, well, it had been over a decade.

"I've been reading a really sad book before bed, dear," she offered a reassuring smile to her son.

"Well, stop reading it, then," he said matter-of-factly, sounding incredibly like herself.

Regina chuckled. "That's one smart advice."

"I'm smart," Henry grinned at her. "Can I have a corn dog before we get inside?"

"Sure, sweetheart."

Regina threw the dress one last look, remembering the wedding plans her mother made for her, and the frenetic struggle with her perfectly normal weight once she started dating Robin.

And then, she remembered how wedding plans stopped sounding scary when she woke up naked next to Emma Swan for the first - and only – time. The second she realized Emma's arm was draped around her, Regina wished she could wake up like this forever.

She didn't say anything because well, Emma had gorgeous arms but she was still a little bit immature for that kind of talk.

Now she wished she had said something.

1996

The second Cora closed the front door, Regina emerged from the shadows of the living room.

"Hi, sweetheart," she smiled, reaching out to hug her son. "How was your day?"

"Oh it was okay," he shrugged, barely managing to keep the secret. He looked into his mother's eyes; she didn't seem as happy as she probably wanted to appear, and he wanted to break the news so she would smile for real.

But he couldn't, because he was a young man with a mission.

"How was it at… Emma's?" she asked hesitatingly.

"It was cool. Did you know she got her old car back? It's so full of stickers-"

Regina scoffed. That car managed to be more ridiculous than the bug…

She loved that car, of course, she just wasn't in the mood to bask in the good memories and how strongly she fell for Emma virtually inside that stupid tuna can covered in stickers and cigarette butts.

"Well, it's late," Cora said, turning to her grandson after briefly staring at Regina. "Time for bed, Henry."

He smirked when the older woman winked at him. He winked back over Regina's shoulder as she kissed him good night.

When he was gone upstairs, Cora watched her daughter. She looked exactly like she did when she turned six and didn't get a pony for her birthday.

"Would you join me for some tea, dear?"

Regina sighed. "Sure."

They walked in silence towards the kitchen. Cora started to prepare it, just waiting for the outburst. She turned around with a frown when it didn't happen. Regina looked genuinely aggravated as she stared intently at the counter's stony surface.

She didn't look up at her mother when she placed her tea in front of her; she sipped it and sighed.

"Regina."

The brunette exhaled deeply and faced Cora.

"You can celebrate. Go ahead and say you told me so."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Emma Swan, mother! Go ahead, gloat all you want!"

"Regina-"

"She didn't even want to come inside and see me!"

Cora refrained from smiling. "I didn't invite her. It's late."

"Was she at least worried?" she asked, and her eyes were inconveniently drenched with hope.

"Of course that barbaric woman was worried, Regina! She's unable to hide her emotions-"

"How was lunch with her that day?" she interrupted. "You never told me how it went."

"Predictable," Cora lied. "She's an unstoppable glutton, and has no manners whatsoever. I have no idea what you see in her… Well, chest out and chin up. You are the Mayor of Storybrooke, and you are a Mills. Act as such and stop hiding pretending to be sick! If you have a problem with her, go and fix it."

Regina huffed and rolled her eyes as Cora walked away.

Her mother once told her love was weakness, and the saddest part was that she never felt weak around Emma – at least not in a bad way. She felt weak on the knees, boneless after earthshaking orgasms, sure, but never helpless.

She went upstairs and sat down on her bed, letting out a deep sigh as she rested her back against the headboard. Her head was full with Town Hall problems, and now it seemed crowded with Emma Swan problems.

Maybe she should have never yelled at her in High School. If she hadn't, they would never be friends. They would never kiss, and never have sex, and never fall in love…

But then again Emma's smile invaded her thoughts, and her body relaxed instantly. It was unrealistically impossible to hate that imbecile. She growled as she closed her eyes, but then…

"Hi."

Brown eyes shot wide open with the sound of Emma's voice. Regina sat bolt upright on her bed, realizing there was a stupid blonde head on her window with a stupid smile on her stupid face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she snarled between her teeth, walking towards the window, folding her arms across her chest and her racing heart.

"I was hoping I'd walk in on you naked," Emma said.

Regina rolled her eyes. "What do you want? And why can't you use the front door like everyone else?"

"Your mother said you were not feeling well," Emma shrugged, passing one gorgeous arm over the windowsill to show her a paper bag. "I went to buy some chicken soup and Gatorade for you."

Regina grinned and sighed in relief, unable to hold it back as her heart gave a strong jolt inside her chest.

"You are an idiot, did you know that?" Regina chuckled, bending over to give the blonde a kiss as she accepted the paper bag.

"I've been told. Many times. By you," Emma said pensively, and then she smirked. "You're not gonna invite me in?"

"No. I want to see how long it will take until you fall on my backyard like a potato sack."

"That's mean. I'm not seventeen anymore, Mills. I might not survive the fall this time, you know."

"You wouldn't dare," she smiled, and the butterflies in Emma's stomach started to dance like crazy.

The blonde smiled too. "No, I wouldn't."

"So…" Regina sat down on the footstool nearby. "You're not here to break up with me?"

"That is a very stupid question for someone with Einstein's IQ, Madam Mayor."

The brunette studied the green eyes in front of her, trying to find the slightest trace of the need to back off because things got way too serious between them.

Emma held her gaze, getting lost in the depths of her dark orbs. Her eyes travelled down to her scar, and then to her plump lips, and then to the minimum cleavage that was showing under her silk robe…

"What's your deal with my boobs?" Regina asked, making Emma snap back to reality and lift her eyes to her face.

"The same deal you have with my arms."

Regina scoffed, rolling her eyes as she rummaged the paper bag. She touched a warm recipient, the isotonic bottle and… she paused when her fingers grazed a velvet surface…

She looked at Emma, and the blonde merely stared back.

Regina clasped her fingers around the small box and pulled it out from the bag. She looked at Emma again.

The blonde reached out and held it open. "I was supposed to be down on one knee for that."

In half a second, Regina dropped the bag on the carpet, spilling all the chicken soup as she flung her arms to grab Emma and pull her inside.

"Why can't you do things like normal people do, Emma?" Regina said, laughing in between kisses as they stumbled against each other.

Emma rolled her eyes, sliding the ring down Regina's finger. "What, I was planning to, but you didn't let me get in-"

"Shut up," Regina whispered against her lips, taking a moment to stare at her hand with the beautiful jewelry. It was so unexpected and so heartwarming… And it did explain why Emma was acting so weird before. Nerves. Adorable Swan nerves.

"You do know I feel horny when you start giving orders, right?" the blonde muttered in between kisses, grabbing her around the waist, holding back the absurdly immature urge to grope her ass.

"The perks of dating your boss," Regina grinned against her lips.

Emma pulled back for a second. "If I find out that you use this with other people to get what you want, Madam Mayor… We're moving to… to… Timbuktu, did you hear me? I'm the only one who can-"

"Oh, don't you look adorable when you're jealous?" Regina muttered in her ear before pushing Emma towards her bed.

Emma fell on the mattress without any resistance when she caught the dirtiest smile on Regina's face. She groaned, a sudden rush of desire ripping through her body. Every nerve-ending she possessed was throbbing, and it was difficult to breathe as the brunette came closer…

Regina undid the lace around her robe with one hand, eye-fucking the blonde as she did so.

"Jesus Christ," Emma hissed once she caught a glimpse of what was underneath the silk fabric -olive, smooth skin covered by nothing else. "Fuck, Regina…"

"I was naked," she chuckled, straddling the blonde slowly, lowering her head to kiss her again.

"What were you planning to do naked if I hadn't showed up?" Emma muttered, trying to get the upper hand with a cocky voice, but failing miserably when the robe parted open and Regina's breasts greeted her with hard nipples.

The brunette grabbed the hem of Emma's t-shirt and pulled it up her head and arms, throwing it over her shoulder as she leaned forward, grazing the blonde's jawbone with her lips and stopping by her ear, biting her earlobe softly. "Probably masturbate furiously thinking about what a hot… idiot… you are."

"Oh God," Emma gasped, grabbing the edges of the mattress, unable to move as she watched Regina undoing the flare of her jeans. "You were… that mad at me?"

"I was very… very angry, dear," the brunette hissed with a hint of a smirk as she pulled her pants down. Emma swallowed nervously, and she loved when the blonde did that. She looked down at her crotch, noticing that she was wearing grey pants. There was a not so small, wet spot on the fabric between her legs, only visible because it was a shade darker than the fabric. Regina lifted her eyes and met hooded green ones. "Is that all for me?"

Emma only offered a small nod that ignited every nerve Regina possessed on her body.

She pushed Emma back so she would lie down, and kept her gaze as she crawled her way on top of the blonde leaning in for another urgent kiss as she massaged her perky breasts, getting an impatient groan and a sigh from the woman underneath her.

Without breaking the kiss, Regina's hand traveled down to the elastic band of Emma's underwear and gently rolled it down her long legs, until the last piece of clothing fell on the floor. The brunette lifted her body and sat up on top Emma, throwing her shoulders back.

The silky robe slid down her arms and hips smoothly, making Emma roll her eyes back in pleasure with the sight. With her eyes on Emma's gasping lips, Regina crawled downwards between her legs, burying her nails on her tights as she dove on her wet, throbbing core.

Emma let out a strangled moan when Regina's tongue first touched her. She heard a soft, husky chuckle coming from between her legs, immediately using her hand to cover her mouth to muffle the sound. The other was already tangled with Regina's short hair, trying not to pressure her into licking faster, but failing miserably.

Regina complied to the silent order anyway, exploring the wet center with a very dedicated tongue. She was good at that. Emma rolled her eyes back into her head, shuddering with the touch.

Her abdominal muscles started to clench involuntarily, and her legs started to shake with the impressive and impending orgasm she was about to have, when Regina slid two fingers into her wet folds and she almost didn't react fast enough to suppress a scream of pleasure as she came.

She let out a lone, muffled groan, panting against Regina's hair when she crawled back up to kiss Emma.

The brunette propped her head on one elbow, watching the woman below her with particular adoration. She loved how Emma lowered her walls for her, how she let Regina look at her when she was in her most vulnerable state, and she looked so, so beautiful laying down like this, trembling and grinning and unguarded…

"Will you… marry me, Mills?" she whispered.

Regina grinned, leaning down, cupping her face. "Yes," she whispered back. "Yes…" she kissed her. "Yes. Yes. Yes…" she added a kiss to each sentence, making Emma smile as she kissed her back, suddenly flipping Regina and switching their positions.

"I wasn't expecting you to recompose so fast," Regina let out a muffled chuckle in between more kisses, feeling her body shudder when Emma ran her long fingers on her sides and hips.

"I'm thirty," Emma hissed with a grin. "Not dead…" She dove for another urgent kiss when Regina dug her fingernails into her ass cheeks. The blonde nested her warm body between her legs, gasping when Regina spread them further for better access.

Emma almost lost her mind when their equally heated and wet mounds touched for the first time. She lifted her hips slightly, tangling her fingers with Regina's as she held out both hands on her pillow, and made a soft motion towards her center, pressing herself against her.

The strong grasp of fingers on her hands was the reaction she needed to keep going; she lowered her hips and pushed back up, craving friction as much as the brunette. Making circular movements with her body, Emma increased the rhythm until Regina started to buckle her hips against her frenetically, biting her shoulder to avoid making a sound.

Emma closed her eyes and smiled as she had the privilege to hear and feel the smallest sounds of rapid breathing against her skin, desperate moans and the bed jarring against the floorboards as she kept rubbing herself against Regina's at fast pace.

She let go one of Regina's hands and slipped her arm between their bodies, penetrating her with two fingers at the same time that she covered the brunette's lips with hers. Regina whimpered into the kiss, using her free hand to smack Emma's butt cheek as quietly as she could, digging her fingernails against her soft flesh in a silent request for more.

Emma moved her fingers along with her hips, keeping her mouth close to Regina's, alternating between her ear and her jawline, just loving the way their breaths mixed in the air, and the way her ass's skin was burning with the new scratches, and the way Regina clenched and unclenched around her fingers…

The blonde lifted her chin and kissed Regina, curling their tongues, absorbing her final scream after release.

They lay together in bed in silence for about half an hour. As much as she loved when Regina stroked her hair and her arms softly, Emma rolled on her belly to face the brunette with a shit-eating grin. She winced slightly when she felt the wet fabric against her thigh. There was a considerably large puddle between them.

"What is it?" Regina mumbled.

"You're gonna need a new set of bedsheets."

Regina rolled her eyes, chuckling. She went back to stroking Emma's hair when the blonde rested her chin against her chest, a cute frown naturally gracing her forehead.

"I wanna marry you forever," Emma mumbled, planting a soft kiss next to Regina's left breast.

"Well, isn't it what marriages infer?" the brunette retorted with a smile, appreciating the ring as she reached out to caress Emma's face.

"I'm not talking about the… institution," she shook her head. "I'm talking about me."

Regina's heart jolted at her serious face and the adorable statement. She curled a tuft of blonde hair around her finger. "I love you," she whispered.

"There's my silver lining," Emma grinned, pulling Regina to a kiss. "I love you and I don't want to go, but I should."

Regina sighed. "I don't want you to go. I'm your boss. I demand that you stay."

Emma grinned down at her, feeling her body start to tingle in all the best inappropriate places. "You're doing this on purpose."

Regina offered an uncharacteristic mischievous grin to her. "Is it working?"

The blonde chuckled, burying her face into the curve of Regina's neck to kiss the sensitive spot.

"Like magic, Mills."