Emma was pacing in the guest room of Regina's home when she was supposed to be resting. And while she felt tapped out of energy, she couldn't even think of sleeping after what had transpired on the roof of that building.

Regina had told her that she loved her.

Then she had promptly left with Robin.

She had been stunned that Regina had even said it and then it was like everything was on fast forward. Her parents were talking, Henry was talking, Robin was talking and there she was standing so close to Regina yet feeling like she was a million miles away from her. She wanted to yell at everyone in that moment – to tell them all to shut the hell up so she could hear Regina say those words to her one more time.

Now she had to wonder if she ever would hear those words again.

Robin had taken Regina and Henry home, and by the time Emma had gotten there Regina was in her bedroom with the door shut and according to Henry, she wasn't alone in there. Robin was in there with her and that was why Emma was now pacing.

She knew Regina had to be exhausted because she was feeling that way. Yet Emma wasn't resting because of the idea that Robin was in there helping Regina rest.

Shaking her head, she knew she was being a little irrational. Regina had told her she wasn't interested in Robin that way any longer so it would probably be in Emma's best interest to trust that Regina was not doing anything other than maybe talking to him. It was easier said than done however. She kept thinking of excuses she could use to interrupt whatever was going on in there. Regina of course would see right through any such actions.

Finally she couldn't take it any longer and she slipped out of the guest room and quietly went over to Regina's door. She was about to knock when she heard Regina laugh. It caused Emma to stop as she considered the light-hearted sound she had just heard. It was unlike any other laugh she had ever heard come from Regina's mouth. This was a laugh of pure happiness.

And Emma wasn't the one in the room with her when she did it.

Turning away, Emma went back to the guest room, but she was only there for a moment before she used her magic to teleport outside. Appearing beside her car, she felt dizzy and put her hand on the car door to keep upright. Once it passed she got into the car and left.

….

Regina was tired by the time they pulled into the driveway and yet she wasn't even thinking of resting. All she could think of was what had transpired on that rooftop. She had told Emma that she loved her.

It still seemed unreal to her that she had said those words.

Yet even as she thought about it, she knew she had spoken truly.

She was in love with Emma Swan.

The realization of that – and the fact she had said it out loud – hit her harder than she would have anticipated.

There really was no turning back now. Not that she had been thinking of turning back, but she had no idea how any of this was supposed to work and now she had essentially leapt in with both feet. She and Emma hadn't even been on a proper date.

"Mom?"

Regina was pulled from her thoughts by Henry who was standing there next to her car door, holding it open for her. She hadn't even been paying attention to know they had parked.

"Are you sure you are alright?" Robin asked her.

"Yes. I just need some rest is all," she replied, giving him a small smile. She got out of the car and Henry got to the front door first to open it for her. It took a moment for it to register that Robin had also gotten out of the car and was now walking beside her.

"You don't have to walk me to the door, I think I can make it," Regina said to him.

"I'm sure you can," he said. "But I was hoping we could talk."

"Robin, I'm really tired."

"I know, but after what happened up there, I really think we shouldn't wait to talk."

She stopped and turned toward him, cocking her head slightly. "What do you mean after what happened up there?"

He smiled at her. "I'm fairly good a reading lips. And 'I love you' isn't really a hard one to understand when it comes to lip reading."

She closed her eyes and nodded; then opened them. "Yes, perhaps it would be best if we didn't wait to speak."

They went into the house and after assuring Henry that she was fine once more, she went upstairs to the only place she figured she would get any privacy with Robin – her room.

As soon as she closed the door behind them, she said, "I'm sorry. The last thing in the world I wanted was for you to get hurt."

"Do you really love her?"

"I do," she sighed. "I don't know how it happened or why, but I do."

"I think I do," he said. "I think maybe I knew there was something there between you two all along, but until I saw you up there on the rooftop and saw you say those words I didn't know it was love. Since I have known the two of you, there always seemed to be this indefinable push and pull between you. It was like being adversaries and friends at the same time. Then when Emma sacrificed herself and became the Dark One to save you … I probably should have stepped aside then."

Regina moved away from the door, walking past Robin and sitting on the bed. After a moment, he sat there beside him.

"When she took on the Dark One's curse I had myself convinced that Emma would have done that for anyone. I mean she can't actually seem to help herself sometimes. She just runs in to danger like the consequences to herself don't matter. And I was doing a pretty good idea of ignoring that she had done it for me. She was with the pirate after all and I was …I was with you," she said. "But the moment she did, the moment she took on that curse I knew I had to do everything in my power to get Emma back. Again I had myself convinced that I was just doing it for Henry, or even for her parents. I didn't allow the thoughts into my head that I too wanted Emma back."

She wasn't looking at him as she spoke. She wasn't sure she could keep talking about this if she was actually looking at him. She wasn't even sure why she was telling him all of this, only that she needed him to understand that this was never a reflection of him.

"When the curse was broken why didn't you and Emma get together then?" he asked.

"She didn't seem to want to be around me when she first returned and so I let her have her space. It wasn't as if I was even consciously thinking about her and I as a her and I back then. I wasn't. Yet I was drawn to her and what she had gone through because I know what it is like to come back from darkness," she said. "Then there was you and I."

"Yeah, well I made a mess of that didn't I?"

"Don't," Regina said, looking at him and putting a hand on his. "Don't blame yourself or beat yourself up over all of this. Zelena tricked you. But you, you were doing what you thought was best for your family. It was not an easy situation for me, but it wasn't easy for you either. Like I said, I never wanted you to get hurt through all of this."

"I take it that means that Emma returns your feelings; that you and her have talked about this?"

"She has feelings for me yes. Is it love, well that up on the rooftop was the first time either of us said it. I don't want you to think she and I have been sneaking around behind your back, we haven't. In fact it wasn't until this flood happened that Emma even suggested that she had feelings for me. When confronted with it, well, I could hardly deny that there was something there between her and I. But I told her that nothing could happen between us as long as I was with you. She knows that I needed time to talk to you about all of this. I wanted to be as fair to you as possible even if this situation feels as anything but fair to you."

"I appreciate that you haven't been seeing her in addition to seeing me," Robin said. "This may sound like a stupid question, but where does this leave us? The whole soul mate thing, I mean."

"I don't know," she said. "The more I think about it, the more I wonder if while you were my soul mate, when I didn't choose you back all those years ago if that in someway nullified it. I don't know, maybe that is just me trying to justify what is happening now between us."

"It would appear you aren't choosing me again."

"Oh Robin, I'm sorry."

"No need for an apology," he said standing up. "I do care for you Regina and all I want for you is your happiness. We have both made mistakes along the way, and who is to say that fate won't bring us back together again some day. Although I rather doubt that Emma would ever let that happen."

Regina laughed, unable to keep it in. Robin didn't know how right he was about Emma not letting that happen.

"She really does make you happy, doesn't she?"

"She's is without a doubt the most aggravating person I know, but yes, she somehow makes me happy."

"Then it is settled," Robin said. "We have spoken, now you can move on."

Regina got up and gave him a hug. They held on to each other for several moments and then Regina escorted him down the stairs. As she held the door open for him to leave she noticed that Emma's car wasn't out there. She thought she had heard Emma come home earlier and go into the guest room.

Once Robin left, she went back upstairs and knocked on the guest room door. There was no answer so she went in and found it empty.

It took only a minute for her to come to the conclusion of why Emma wasn't there. The question was where was she?

….

Emma peered into the darkness and wondered what this area of town would look like in the morning. It was clear - the combined use of their magic had succeeded in making a lot if not all of the water go away, but there was still a lot of work to do. She had been up there – where she and Regina had been just a couple of hours ago – trying to make sense of everything that had happened.

When she had first left Regina's house, she had driven around, but soon discovered her behind the wheel right now was not a good idea as she felt like sleep would claim her any moment. Instead of going back to Regina's she had come up here.

She still couldn't believe Regina had told her that she loved her and then had gone away with Robin.

"How long were you planning on staying up here, or is this where you intend to sleep tonight?"

She turned to see Regina walking toward her. She must be tired, Emma thought because she hadn't heard Regina arrive until she announced her presence. Emma turned back to where she had been looking out at the town. A few moments later Regina joined her there.

"You should be sleeping," Regina said when Emma continued to ignore her.

"So should you."

"Yes, but I can't because you're out here and I told your parents I would come fetch you. They were worried that they hadn't even known you had left."

"I just needed some space."

Emma still wasn't looking at Regina.

"Do you wish me to leave then? Or would you like to try being an adult and speak to me?"

This time Emma did look at her. "Oh now you want to speak to me. Well tough, now I am not in the mood."

"What is that even supposed to mean?"

"I don't know Regina, why don't you tell me. Why don't you tell me why you said you loved me and then went off with Robin?"

"I'm sorry," Regina said. "I figured that it was why you left the house. It's also why I left you alone for a bit, hoping you would maybe be a little less upset when I found you."

"A little less upset." Emma said; her anger apparent. "Why shouldn't I be upset? Is this some sort of game to you? Did you think I would accept that you could say something like that to me and then lock yourself away in your bedroom with him? I get it, you said you needed some time to deal with things with Robin, fine, have all the time in the world."

She moved away from Regina, intent on leaving the other woman up there on the roof and finding some other place to be alone with her thoughts. She had gone about 10 feet when she ran into a barrier – a magical one. Whirling around to face Regina once more, she moved forward with the idea of making Regina drop the barrier, but she had gotten about half way there when another barrier blocked her path. She hit it with her fist a couple of times.

"Let me out of this," Emma said through gritted teeth.

"I will when you calm down and listen to me."

Emma hit the barrier again, and then took a step back, calling up her own magic which flared in her hands.

"Don't," Regina warned.

Emma ignored her as she let her magic blast at the barrier. Regina took a defensive position, using her magic to keep the barrier up even as Emma's magic battered it. Emma felt her magic draining her so she called up more for one last blast. It smashed the barrier and hit Regina full on, knocking the other woman down.

"Regina!" Emma said rushing forward once she realized what she had done. She was down on her knees next to Regina whose eyes were closed. "Regina."

"You really need to learn to control your magic," Regina said, opening her eyes.

"Are you ok?"

"Yes," Regina said, sitting up. She scooted back a bit so she could lean against the small bit of wall there. "Although I don't think it's likely either of us will be using magic anytime in the coming days."

Emma moved to sit beside her. "Are you sure I didn't hurt you?"

"I'm sure," Regina said. "Just knocked the breath out of me for a second."

"I'm sorry."

Regina turned to look at her. "I'm the one who is sorry. I'm sorry I left here with Robin."

"Why did you?"

"I don't know. I guess I was in shock over what I said. It was not my intention to blurt that out like that. Then everyone was here around us talking and it was just easy to let him guide me to the car and take me home."

"I wasn't far behind you, but when I got there Henry said Robin was in the bedroom with you and …and I didn't like that."

"Robin saw that I had said I love you to you. He read my lips," Regina said. "I had to talk to him, to explain things to him. And the weird thing was, he wasn't really surprised. He said he had always known there was something between us and when you took on the Dark One's curse he said he probably should have stepped aside then. It wasn't how I planned on speaking to him, but it had to happen once he knew. We spoke and things are over between us. You knew I needed to talk to him before you and I moved any further, so why are you out here on this rooftop?"

Emma didn't say anything at first. "I sort of got impatient with him being in there so I went to the door. I wasn't going to listen in; I thought I might interrupt though. Then I heard you laughing and it sounded beautiful. It sounded happy and I thought that with him in there that he was the source of that happiness. I left because I didn't want to be there when you went back to your soul mate."

"You're an idiot," Regina said. "I've known this for a while, yet you keeping proving it."

"Hey," Emma said, elbowing her. "Be nice."

"I was laughing because Robin and I had just talked about us being soul mates and that despite that I was still choosing you. He made some comment about never knowing what the future would hold and if he and I would get yet another chance but then he said that there was no way you would ever let that happen. I laughed because it was true. I laughed because I know that you are a person who loves fiercely and once you find someone you love, you aren't going to let them go. I was happy because I was thinking that maybe, I was going to be that person for you."

"Yeah?"

"Yes," Regina said.

"Does that mean I can kiss you now?" Emma said, flashing a smile.

"Yes."

Emma leaned over and placed a light kiss on Regina's lips, followed by several more. When she stopped, she leaned her head back against the wall. "I'm really tired."

Regina laughed. "Well lucky for I happen to know where a bed is that you can sleep in."

Emma yawned. "If the next words out of your mouth include guest room, I'm staying up here."

Regina got to her feet and held a hand out for Emma, helping her up. "Come on, it's past both of our bedtimes."

….

Four months later

Emma slid into second base to the cheers of the crowd. Wiping off the dirt, she looked back at the stands which were packed with townspeople. This softball game was part of a community picnic – a way to get together and relax after the months of rebuilding their town from the floods.

Emma smiled as she picked out Regina from the crowd. She was sitting about three rows up, holding Vincent in her lap. Zelena was sitting there next to her, trying unsuccessfully to wipe Vincent's face off from where he had been eating chocolate ice cream.

The two sisters had managed to call a truce on any animosity and had even managed to be cordial to each other. Regina watched Vincent on many occasions when Zelena or Robin was working. It was Regina who had finally convinced Zelena that she should stay there in Storybrooke.

The two women would probably never truly act like sisters, but for now their relationship was benefiting both of them. Emma knew that Regina loved being able to spend time with Vincent and for Emma it gave her a glimpse of what she supposed Regina had been like with Henry growing up. A part of her thought it might also be a glimpse of a future yet to come with Regina – but those were thoughts she kept to herself mostly.

Their relationship was going well, so well that Regina had asked her to move in with her just last week. She spent most of her time there anyway so it made sense, but it was still a milestone for where they were progressing to.

The others in town, including her parents, had been surprisingly accepting of their relationship. It turned out many people had already thought there was something going on between their mayor and sheriff.

True to her word Emma had been learning about magic and she had to admit she felt better knowing how to control it. Of course any excuse to hang out with Regina was good with her.

The crack of the bat roused her from her musing and she stood there watching as the outfielder made a failed attempt at catching the ball before it went over the fence. She jogged from second base to home and turned to congratulate her teammate who had hit the home run.

"Trying to show me up?" she said.

"Maybe a little," Robin replied.

The two of them after a couple of months of avoiding and not speaking to each other had also settled into a tentative kind of friendship. Like Zelena and Regina, Emma didn't expect that it would be a true friendship, but at least they were getting along.

After the game, which the team Emma was on lost by 1 run, Emma walked over to Regina who was waiting for her.

"Where is Henry?" Emma asked.

"Getting ice cream with your parents."

Emma took Regina's hand in hers as they walked to the parking lot. "It's going to be a nice night out," Emma said. "What say I ask my parents to keep Henry overnight and we lay some blankets out in the backyard and lay there looking at the stars."

"I had no idea you had such romantic notions as stargazing."

"Oh, I fully expect to get you naked later too."

"Thanks for ruining the moment."

Emma kissed her on the cheek as they reached her car. "Come on, what do you say, me and you, a blanket under the stars. I can show you how romantic I can be."

Regina appeared to think about it. "Ok, but we're using one of your blankets. Mine are much too nice for such things."

"Only because you bought all new ones after the flood all because other people slept with them."

"Yes, well, I couldn't take any chances."

"You can be such a snob sometimes, you know that right?" Emma said as she put her softball gear in the trunk.

"Here I thought you loved me for who I was."

Emma shut the trunk and walked over to Regina, wrapping her arms around her. "I do love you for who you are," Emma said, giving her a kiss. "Just like you love me with all my flaws as well."

"I do," Regina said. "I really do."

The End