In an instant, Regina and Emma are tearing for the barn as one. "No, no, no," Emma is chanting, Regina in grim silence behind her. "Not after all this. Not Henry. No–" Regina is hurling chunks of the rafters aside and Emma races through the cleared space, shoving debris aside to find a hint of their son.
She touches matted, bloodied hair instead. "Beetle. Beetle, please–" Regina raises both hands to throw wooden beams to the side, unearthing the rest of the horse. And curled beneath him, half-covered by Beetle's torso, is a shaking Henry. "Henry!"
"Ma! Mom!" He stumbles up and falls, one leg at an odd angle beneath the horse, and they both wrap him into their embrace before he can hit the ground again. Emma's heart is expanding, expanding, larger and larger until she can't quite breath with her chest so full and her eyes are getting foggy. "I tried to…" He's gesturing down, frantic to tell them. "I couldn't move fast enough. And Beetle threw me and then stood over me– I think he was trying to protect me– Do horses do that–?"
He's babbling and babbling, red-eyed and terrified, and Emma finally kneels to press a hand to Beetle's chest. He's still, silent and unmoving as he's never been before, and Emma sucks in a breath and whispers, "He's dead."
He's been her loyal companion for longer than anyone in the universe, stayed with her through prison sentences and through tangles with kings and then from one realm to the next. They say that animal companions in magical realms begin to develop human characteristics after enough time, display understanding and affection that should be beyond them, and Beetle's been hers for so long that she knows instinctively that he'd sacrificed himself to save her son.
She blinks back angry, useless tears and turns to Henry. "You're okay," she says. "That's all that matters right now." He can't feel guilty for this. Blue is to blame, not their portal or how quickly they'd escaped the barn. She leans against Beetle one last time, hands gentle at his mane, and Regina strokes her shoulder and holds Henry to her as they crouch over Beetle together.
"He took good care of you," she murmurs. "He took good care of us because we were yours." And it's a small comfort, but Emma takes it.
"Come on," she says. "Let's go kick Blue's ass."
When she turns, she can see them approaching; Blue and a horde of fairies, all brightly colored in the dark. Trailing behind them is Zelena, dressed in a green cloak that sparkles in comparison to the one Emma's wearing, shining iridescent like a dragonfly.
The clearing in front of the collapsed barn is beginning to brighten with Blue's light, and Emma and Regina lift Henry between them and haul him out of the barn. They only need to exchange glances once to recognize that they're in agreement when they bring him to Tamara. "You have to keep him safe," Regina says, her eyes hard as they bore into Henry's onetime kidnapper.
And Tamara nods, quick and solemn. "Yeah, I can do that," she says, and Regina presses the dagger into her free hand.
"Hold this," she says, and Emma finally turns from them to watch Blue's approach. As that blue beacon of light shines brighter, Emma can finally see them– hordes of townspeople pouring from the woods, their way to Emma and Regina lit up at last.
It's like an eerie performance. There's nothing to illuminate the night but multicolored light from the fairies, barely self-contained, and the cloak that Zelena wears that's been dusted with fairy light. And everywhere Emma looks, there are faces of friends and allies and those she's helped over the years– and now they're dead-eyed and shaded with the colors of the fairies, silent as they claw at her.
Emma nearly draws her bow but thinks better of it. She can't hurt innocents. "Knock them out," Tamara calls from the general area of the barn wreck. She's staying away from the light, and Emma can barely see her face glinting from beside Henry's.
"Thanks for your input," Regina calls back snidely. She turns to Emma. "We knock them out."
"Yeah."
Blue is nearly upon them, and she laughs derisively. "Do you think you can defeat a whole town of your friends?" She turns, gesturing Zelena forward. "Come, child." Her tone is cloying, closer to Glinda's than her own as she speaks. "There is still good in you." Zelena stares up at her, wide-eyed and needy. "Defeat this evil, dear, and you will be worthy at last."
"Fuck you," Emma breathes as Zelena turns to face Regina. "Fuck, fuck, fuck you." It's in the blasé way that she controls Zelena, in the way she easily repeats all the arguments that Zelena's been parroting since Emma had met her. It's in the shameless manipulation that's undoing all the work Regina has put into her, and in the fact that Zelena reaches out and hurls a fireball at Regina's chest.
Regina's jaw tightens. She catches the fireball, letting it fade away in her hand, and then fires a bolt of invisible energy toward Zelena to ward her off. Hands grasp at her and Emma swats them away, kicks people back and throws them to the ground. Under the influence of the fairy-kindness, they're slow to rise again, and others surge forward over them.
"Three hundred years in the making and you think you can stop me now?" Blue trills from above them. "The babies are born. Dorothy will still open the portal. And the land is cleansed at last. And all you're doing here is fighting a battle when you've already lost the war. Humans," she says, a touch of irritation in her voice.
"We're irrational like that," Emma supplies, elbowing Red in the face. She sinks to the ground, her pained reaction sluggish. "We're not actually all that impressed by how old you are."
"Reul Ghorm is older than three hundred." Emma knows Blue's other name but when it rolls off Regina's tongue, ancient and impressive, it makes her shudder. Above her, the other fairies murmur dazedly, a quiet and insistent buzz. Regina ducks Zelena's next blow and goes for a punch, drawing blood from Zelena's mouth. Zelena's eyes flicker for a moment with recognition. "This grand plan, though…"
"One bean to take the Dark One's son from him," Blue says triumphantly. Neal is somewhere behind her now, and Emma twists, shoving at him as Zelena's magic ricochets off Regina's shield and slams into the man beside him– Runs-With-Wolves. He drops to the ground, his eyes deader than before. "Men are weak. Men are easily swayed. To find him, the Dark One would create a curse so despicable that I could never be tainted with."
"You had him do your dirty work. I'm stunned," Regina grits out, her eyes on her sister. Their palms are inches away from each other now, gusts of wind hurled at each other and their own wind their protection. Around them, more townspeople are thrown backward.
Blue smiles. "And then he had you do his, didn't you? If not for Cora–" The disgust is clear in her voice. "I would have had the land cleansed long ago. I had my acolyte from Neverland return you all to the Enchanted Forest to cast the curse again."
"That's why you took Zelena when we were children? As a backup plan?" Regina sounds disbelieving. "Zelena, would you just listen to her?"
"Glinda," Zelena whimpers, still lost.
Blue just sighs. "Quarrelsome children. Pugnacious and, essentially, useless." She flutters back. "I will let you devour yourselves, as you always do."
There are still townspeople rising up to devour Emma now, unbothered by how easily she fights them off. They aren't a challenge as much as an annoyance, a way to…
To…
They're a diversion, and Emma looks around wildly, seeking what it is that she's being kept from. The babies. The babies are the key to this. And Blue wants them delivered through a portal but she hasn't yet. Why?
She tears through the crowd, moving away from Regina instead of around her, and Blue shouts, "Stop her!" as Regina calls her name.
The fairies converge upon her, hurling ineffectual fairy dust at Emma as she keeps her head down and runs, climbing onto Rocinante again and swinging them in the direction of the convent. Riding another horse so soon after Beetle's demise feels a little like cheating, and she ducks her head guiltily and urges Rocinante faster.
They reach the convent but it's nearly empty, Mulan and Lancelot gone and Snow and Aurora asleep in their beds. The babies are gone, and Emma feels the first surge of hope they've had since Blue had arrived again.
"Emma?" Regina is still calling in the dark when she rides back.
"Emma has abandoned you," Blue says, tranquil. "Emma might love you, but she loves surviving more. Haven't you realized that by now?"
Emma drops from Rocinante silently, drawing her bow. Regina hesitates and Emma's blood runs cold. After all this time, all this work, has she still…?
And then Regina scoffs, her voice strong, and Emma's heart sings with relief. "You have no idea who Emma is, do you?"
And Emma fires one shot, grazing past Blue so close that her blue light dims for a moment. "She really doesn't," she agrees. "And she's bluffing."
"Am I?" Blue's voice is lower now, more dangerous as she rounds on Emma. "What new lies will you invent to convince your lover to murder her sister?" Regina flinches.
Emma says, "So David took the babies over the town line, huh?" and fires again.
The other fairies swoop down to stop her and she shoot at them, too, watching as they scatter and then converge again. Regina laughs, loud and mocking. "That's what this is. You've been trying to keep us from finding out that we're the ones who won this one."
"You haven't won anything," Blue says, her voice chilly. "I will retrieve the children from corruption. I've spent hundreds of years as the White family fairy godmother and not for naught. This is how the story has always been destined to unfold."
And Emma remembers, very suddenly, a moment in the woods with Blue, moments after she'd revealed that she'd been the one to put Henry in the wardrobe. Another backup plan. The curse broken in case the first curse hadn't rid the Enchanted Forest of its denizens. Or…?
Blue had told her, sweet and comforting, You had the courage to change others' destiny in ways that even fairies never could.
Even fairies.
And Blue is here now to fight them. Blue knows how this will end. Blue is here instead of forcing her people over the town line to stop David because she knows that Emma and Regina are destined to…?
"We're going to stop you, aren't we?" Emma asks. Regina looks at her in surprise and nearly misses a blow from Zelena. "That's why you've put in so much effort to slowing us. You didn't need Regina's sister to cast the curse. You took her and you used her against Regina because you wanted Regina dead. You tried to assassinate Regina." Confidence blossoms within her, understanding at the edges of her thoughts. "You've been doing everything you could for years to try and push Regina and me apart. You took Henry. You took my courage to believe in Regina."
"I took only what you offered," Blue retorts. "You were your own destruction. You didn't need me to push it along." She dodges an arrow that gets too close and Emma catches it where it drops and nocks it again. "You won't stop me."
"You saw us at the end," Regina murmurs. "You saw us here together. And we…?" She turns to Zelena. "Zelena," she says, a touch of fondness under the frustration. "You useless idiot. Stop fighting me."
Zelena wavers in place for a moment. The next moment, she gears up for another blow. "Zelena," Regina repeats irritably, hurling a fireball at her.
Blue raises her hands. "Come, children!" she calls. "Protect a better future!" The townspeople rise with her, the dwarves leading the pack with their pickaxes in hand. They swing at Emma, focused more now than they'd been before, and Emma has to put her bow away and fumble for a knife instead. She dodges, she ducks, and they bear forward still.
Regina and Zelena are at a standstill now, back to the same attacks at the same time, one deflecting the other and townspeople caught in the crossfire. Regina curses and throws up shields for them, too, the energy draining out of her twice as quickly.
Emma drops to the ground and rolls, a pickaxe spearing the dirt beside her. Regina is still shouting at Zelena. "I know you're in there. I know that Blue has you…under her damned fairy dust, but enough is enough! I let Glinda take you once," she says, and her voice is lower now, heavy with guilt. From her vantage point a few feet away, Emma sees Zelena's eyes flicker. "I won't let her take you from me again."
Zelena freezes. Regina drops her hands, letting her defenses go, and Emma lets out a low curse. It won't work. Blue's loaded her up with too much fairy dust, and whatever immunities Zelena might have built up, she's completely under Blue's curse this time.
"Come home to us, Zelena," Regina whispers, and Zelena crumbles. Her hands are at her head and she shivers violently, an agonized cry tearing from her mouth. Her eyes are still fixed on Regina and she doesn't budge, doesn't fight or flee or surrender, just stares hopelessly. Regina steps to her, cautious as she moves forward, and Zelena shakes and shakes and shakes until she reaches for Regina and holds her tight, breathing hard with silent sobs.
Emma exhales, dodging Happy and Grumpy tag-teaming her as she watches them in the fairy light. Zelena is hanging onto Regina like a lifeline and Regina is kissing the top of her head, comforting as though she's looking after Henry, stroking her hair and murmuring soothing words to her sister.
Zelena doesn't look much older than a child in this moment, vulnerable and wide-eyed and so desperate as she retreats into Regina's arms. Blue is crooning something, too, but it's impotent in the face of the sisters' embrace, of the way they only tighten their grips on each other when she attacks.
And Emma sees the way that Blue glows even brighter. Emma sees what Regina doesn't, so caught up in Zelena as she is. Blue is drawing energy from the stars themselves, from the fairies around her, shining with more and more light until she's glowing like the sun and Emma can't see a thing, but she knows–
She knows–
She runs without a second thought, stumbling with her cloak drawn around her; her eyes half-closed with the glare of Blue's sunshine, bright and pure and deadly. She pulls her hood over her head in an attempt to shield herself from some of it but there's no time, it's too late–
It's never too late, Emma thinks idly, and cuts in between Blue and Regina as Blue hurls every last ounce of energy she'd collected at Regina and Zelena.
Regina shouts, "Emma!" and the magic hits like a sledgehammer, pouring into Emma with so much force that it feels as though her lungs and stomach have collapsed for a moment. Regina is still screaming but it's all dulled, drowned out with the immensity of the blow, and Emma is nothing but bright light and silence.
Is this death? she wonders for one dazed moment. Her cloak is spread around her in tattered pieces, shredded by the magic around her and the hood shining as brightly as Blue over her head, and she thinks that this is how she'd like to go– as Swan Hood, as Regina's, fighting all the way until the end.
Wait. She hesitates, moving slowly with the power surging through her. This is beyond true love's kiss, beyond warmth rising through her and magic in the pit of her belly. This is magic everywhere, sharpening her senses to hyperaware levels. And there's someone else in the whiteness now, glowing from the light she's casting out, and Emma says, distraught, Regina? Had she failed to take the blow?
But Regina is haloed in light magic, her own and Blue's, and she's mouthing something again and again and again that Emma can't understand. She steps closer to Emma, stroking a hand along her back, and it emerges with Emma's bow and an arrow.
And Emma realizes what she's mouthing. Shoot, Regina is saying. Shoot, Lady Swan.
Emma raises the bow and the arrow glows, the magic around her converging on it, and she can finally see beyond the bow. Blue is in front of them, fluttering higher and her eyes bright with fear, and Emma draws back her bow and fires.
The arrow flies true, taking all of Blue's magic with it, and it hits its target with well-honed precision.
Blue dies like a supernova, her magic expanding outward and then in again, sucking in the light and blotting out everything around them for a moment before she disappears. There is a new star above them, gleaming an unnatural blue in the night sky, and Regina leans into Emma's embrace as they gape up at it together.
And then light bursts from the place where Blue had vanished, radiating outward in ring after ring, freeing the people around them of fairy-kindness as swiftly as it had taken them. It comes and comes and comes, each one lighter than the next, and when one ring disappears, another one comes until the town is as bright as daylight and there's a ring of energy hovering above them.
Emma sees Henry below it and panics for a moment, suspecting the worst, but Regina lays a hand on her wrist. "Wait," she says. "Not Henry." Tamara is still standing beside him, the dagger in one hand and the wand in her other, and the ring of energy waits above her expectantly.
Tamara doesn't move for a long minute and the ring of energy begins to dissipate, ceding defeat for whatever it's been offering. But then she raises the dagger and the wand together and the energy hurtles into her at last, burning multicolored and strong.
"We were wrong about those ingredients," Henry says, breathless as he charges out of the house and staggers to a stop in front of the porch table. "The babe, the wand, the dagger. It didn't mean an actual baby." He nods over to the other end of the patio, where Snow and David are huddled over tiny Ruth in the stroller, oohing and ahhing every time she moves. "A babe. A potential fairy. It wasn't about Blue's goals, it was about crowning a new…fairy queen, or whatever."
They all glance toward the duo in the corner of the yard that's being given a wide berth. Tamara and Zelena are perched on their lawn chairs side by side, Zelena saying something scornful that Tamara rolls her eyes in response to. A few of the fairies have arrived at their victory party uninvited, hovering behind Tamara like they're still not quite sure what to make of the two of them. Zelena says something else, clearly directed to them, and Tamara politely conceals a smirk with her hand.
This is their victory celebration, a bit muted by what some cynics have labeled the defeat of good by evil. There had been an obligatory afternoon shindig at the diner, but Snow had been insistent that they have a quieter, more intimate gathering for close family and friends. Emma suspects that that's more about the dirty looks that some of their party have gotten when they've stepped out into the town.
"Belle helped me translate more of the book," Henry says. "The thing it talked about a lot was that Blue was never supposed to be the ultimate fairy. To lead the fairies, you have to have light and dark within you, and Blue had only light, right?"
Emma nods indulgently. "The dagger leeched out all of the darkness from her mother before she was born."
"Darkness isn't always badness," Henry says, and his eyes move to his other mother now, probing for a reaction. Regina's brow furrows dubiously, but she listens. "Just like light isn't always good. Clearly. You have to have the right mix of both. So Tamara using the dagger and the wand to take the fairy magic means that she's going to be the kind of fairy Blue was supposed to be."
"Fairy politics." Regina leans back in her seat. "I'm already getting a headache at how many new laws I'm going to have to institute to incorporate those." But she's beaming, glowing with pride for Henry and for their victory the night before.
Emma shakes her head. "But none of this explains why Blue's magic just kind of…stuck to me." They'd staggered to bed last night, exhausted and relieved to be alive, and Emma had asked the question but fallen asleep before Regina had given her an answer. This morning, they'd been much too busy in said bed to talk about much of anything.
"No, it doesn't. That wasn't Blue," Regina murmurs, sliding her fingers along Emma's arm. "I told you I enchanted your cloak. It didn't survive that attack, but it did its job."
"You enchanted it to…?"
"Withstand any magical blows. I wanted you to stay safe." There's a dark cast to her eyes now, history that they still can't escape, and Emma understands with dawning wonder.
"But…back then…the only person who I knew who used magic was…" A young Regina, sending her off into the night because she'd chosen darkness over love. Regina had enchanted Emma's cloak to protect Emma from herself.
Regina shrugs. "I thought– someday– I might do something I'd regret forever," she admits, and Emma remembers a dozen times when Regina had been panicked over the cloak's disappearance, when she'd demanded again and again its whereabouts. For all their distance, Regina had only ever wanted Emma safe. "I did, eventually," Regina admits. "You never wore the cloak after I was exiled."
She'd been angry– first at herself and then at Regina– and she'd wanted no reminder of Regina's love around her. Now she sits in a shirt and jeans, the ruined cloak buried in the ground with Beetle, and she has other reminders of Regina's love.
She leans over, kissing her languidly as Henry groans and stalks off across the lawn to see the baby. When they separate, Regina is grinning with her lips pressed together in a failing attempt to tamp down her joy right now. Emma has no such compunctions. "We did this together," she says. Emma's arrow, Regina's enchantment. Swan Hood and the Evil Queen, as Blue must have foreseen.
"Blue wasn't wrong about that," Regina says when Emma mentions it. "Whatever she might have done to manipulate us…we were active participants in it. I won't deny my own part in it. I don't want to deny it." Regina still clings to her agency with fierce desire, claims it every time she can without fail.
"No," Emma agrees. "But we made it through."
"We made it through," Regina whispers, and kisses her again.
"Whenever you're done," Henry says crossly, lifting a bag. "I have food."
"Food?" Emma perks up.
"Good food."
Regina sighs. "You both just ate hot dogs a half hour ago. What is this?"
"Belle and I went shopping during research?" Henry tries. Regina levels a glare at him. He sighs deeply. "Mom, it's for Ma. I wanted her to try out some of this realm's best–"
Regina is already fishing through the bag. "Henry, these are just candy bars." She sounds exasperated by it. Emma mostly just hears the candy part.
Henry snatches up a carton from the bag. "And pastries! See?"
"I think I should try the pastries," Emma says gravely. Henry nods, somber. "It's important for me to learn more about this world."
Regina scowls at them both. "Fine. Eat your pastries. Don't expect me to hold your hair back when you're up all night vomiting!" she tosses over her shoulder, stalking toward Snow and David with the baby.
The baby is Ruth, named for the mother Emma had barely known, and Emma doesn't know why she'd teared up over it when they'd announced it. It's been an emotional week. She isn't overly sentimental. It's fine.
Regina lifts Ruth up with a kind of awe, gazing into her eyes and rocking her like a natural. Well. Regina's always been a natural with babies when she hadn't been plotting dark curses or murder. There's a traitorous tugging at Emma's heart at the sight of it, Regina in her Storybrooke garb rocking a baby and cooing to her, and she goes somewhere for a moment. Somewhere they're definitely not ready for. Not yet.
When she smells chocolate, she returns to the present, relieved at the cap on her own emotions. Henry is doling out pieces of candy to the Merry Men, all of them settling onto the chairs around them as they examine their food. "This is called…a peep?" Mulan asks, eyeing her marshmallow. "Why is it shaped like a rabbit? Is this how you pretend to hunt here?"
"This just seems tacky," Will says, waving around a bar called a Baby Ruth.
"And I have– Wait, Aunt Zelena!" Henry waves to her. The Merry Men all stiffen. They may have been de-winged, but they're still less than thrilled about being flying monkeys in the first place. Which…fair. "I got something for you!"
Zelena perks up, making her way over to them. Tamara follows, glaring warningly at the Merry Men as Zelena peers over Henry's shoulder. "What…is this…?" she says, her voice a growl as though she isn't sure if she's being mocked or not.
"It's called a Pez dispenser! See, the candy comes out of your mouth over here!" Henry shows her and Emma tries not to laugh.
Zelena's eyes are bulging out a little and Tamara bites her lip hard, eyes glittering with amusement. "My nose is not that long!" Zelena sputters, gesturing at the green-faced character on the dispenser.
Tamara claps her hand against Zelena's back, mock-comforting. "It could be worse. My movie version was a white girl." She snatches the dispenser from Henry and pops the mouth open, snatching a candy and popping it into her mouth. Zelena gapes at her, outraged.
Emma sits down with them, the Merry Men following her lead and moving closer. Regina, perhaps sensing a disaster, hurries over to take a seat between Little John and Zelena, her fingers twining with Emma's as she does. "How are you settling in?" Emma asks Tamara. Zelena is living with them for the time being, but Tamara had opted to stay with the fairies.
"I'm not going to be a nun," Tamara says immediately. "I want to make that clear. I didn't make it through Oz to wear a habit."
"We don't wear habits," one of the fairies says helpfully. "We do try to observe every Sunday, though."
"Fabulous." Tamara rubs her temples. "This is…not what I signed up for. I don't even know what I signed up for. I was just trying to do the right thing." She reaches into her bag and for a moment, Emma almost believes that she's going for the taser again.
Instead, she retrieves a pair of shoes. "I think these belong to you now," she says, offering them to Regina.
Zelena snorts. "Have you been sitting here all this time waiting to return my shoes to my sister?" Tamara grins at her, irreverent and smug, and Zelena rolls her eyes, cheeks pinking. "Go right ahead. I don't care," she says unconvincingly.
"You're a flight risk," Regina says sternly. "You aren't going anywhere with those slippers." But to offset her tone, she lays her head against Zelena's shoulder. Zelena looks at her, startled at the affection, and her cheeks grow pinker still.
"Ma, this is for you," Henry says, rescuing Zelena from saying anything too sappy or off-putting. "It's called a bear claw. I thought that since you liked the donuts–"
"Oh. Oh, god." Emma takes another bite of the pastry. "What is– how did they– this is better than donuts. Or pizza. This is–" She chews some more, closing her eyes in wonder at the consistency of the sugar– no, almonds. "This is the happiest day of my life."
Regina buries her face in her hands. "I can't believe I share a child with you."
Lancelot pats her on the shoulder as he moves across the yard, wandering toward Snow and David and leaving his seat empty. It's claimed by Neal, who slides into the seat and then immediately spots Tamara across the table. His eyes narrow. "Tamara."
"Neal," Tamara says pleasantly. Henry pokes her side in silent reproof. "Sorry about that time I shot you," she says sulkily. Henry pokes her again. She adds, equally reluctant, "And pretended to be in love with you. And posed as your fiancé to destroy this town. Really sorry." Zelena sniggers. Neal scowls.
Emma says, "I don't want to know. Bear claw?" He takes the proffered pastry and settles down next to Mulan, still glaring at Tamara. Zelena gives him a stink eye for his trouble.
When Emma finishes her bear claw and a chocolate bar, she follows Lancelot to Snow and David, settling down on the steps as she eyes her new niece. "Hey, kid," she croons, letting Ruth settle into her arms. The baby is tiny, smaller than Henry had ever been, and she blinks sleepy eyes shut as Emma gazes in awe. That frustrating tugging is happening again, that lurking feeling of someday that she'd never dared dream of before, and when she looks up, it's to Regina gazing at them with the same quiet longing.
"You're both so good with her," Snow says, and her eyes are knowing. Emma shrugs, incapable of talking about this just yet. Lancelot puts an arm around Emma and tickles Ruth's chin, a buffer zone between her and the conversation she can't yet have with Snow.
The yard is well-lit with chatter and baby talk and celebration, and no one notices when Emma passes the baby back and slips away from the crowd, tugging Regina with her as they duck outside. They're laughing at their escape, walking hand-in-hand in the dark as they haven't since they'd been teenagers at a masquerade ball, and Emma can finally do what she'd wanted to all those years ago and back Regina against the side wall of the house and kiss her.
Her hands are against the wall, tucked under Regina's back, and Regina's smiling into the kiss, cupping Emma's face against hers as she keeps her steady against her. Emma's fingers dip down, slipping under Regina's dress to stroke her inner thigh suggestively, and Regina whispers, "Shh," and doesn't protest when Emma hoists her up to wrap her legs around Emma's waist.
"How far away are we from the yard?" Emma breathes in her ear, discovering with delight that Regina had opted for nothing more than a scrap of lace under her dress. She slides a finger past it, wriggling against Regina's clit, and Regina shudders hard and bites the shell of her ear in approval.
And then harder. "Someone's coming," she hisses, and Emma pinches her vaunted spot within Regina once, enough to have Regina squirming against her, and leans forward, fading into the shadows. "This is a terrible idea," Regina mutters, sucking in a breath.
"Shh," Emma echoes her, and she moves rapidly as two shadows approach, twisting her fingers inside Regina. She attack Regina's collarbone with her lips and brings her closer and closer to the edge, her free hand clasped over Regina's mouth warningly. Regina shudders again as the passersby near, teeth sinking into Emma's palm as she muffles a cry; and only then does Emma retract her hands and set Regina down, sucking come off her fingers as she recognizes their intruders at last.
It's Belle and Milah, close enough that their shoulders are touching, and they pause just a few feet from where Regina and Emma are hidden in the shadows. For a moment, Emma thinks that they've been exposed, but then Milah says something in a murmur that has Belle tittering and turning, arms sliding around Milah's neck as she kisses her with the ease of a longtime lover.
They walk on, and Regina says, "You know, I had wondered–"
"Me too," Emma says, and they both laugh helplessly, leaning on each other with their still-unsteady feet.
The mood is still light, a breeze whipping past them and leaving them windswept and bright-cheeked as they clean up and stroll back out toward the yard. It's unexpected when Regina says, "I don't know if I've ever told you this, but decades ago…when I was a young queen…I met Tinkerbell then. She offered to find me my soulmate."
"Yeah." She's even seen it in the spider's vision, Regina at the door of the tavern while Emma drinks inside, fleeing rather than meeting her. In the real version, Regina had gone inside and spoken to her instead. "It's not like it's anything I couldn't have told you," she says, rolling her eyes. "You needed a fairy for that?"
Regina sighs expansively. "I don't know why I put up with you."
"I'm your soulmate." Emma nudges her. "Whatever that means." She can guess what it means now, caught as they've been in each other's orbit for all this time. "We chose each other years ago and never really let go, did we?"
"We never really wanted to." Regina stares up at the sky and Emma follows suit, her eyes landing on the unnaturally bright blue star that still remains there. The fairies are sure it will dim in time, as every fairy does after death, but Blue is unsurprisingly stubborn. "I don't think it was ever about designating you as something that I hadn't already decided on."
"Yeah." They'd been two girls lost, abused and neglected and fighting the world in their own ways. They'd met when they'd thought they'd been hardened by the world but had been vulnerable all the same, and they'd fallen in love until they'd been doomed for it.
And somehow, they've still managed to come out of this together; fought tooth and nail every step of the way to be here tonight, holding hands and strolling through Storybrooke without a care in the world. And Emma isn't foolish enough to believe that this is the end, but it could be. This could be completion.
It's certainly a beginning.
She tucks her hand into Regina's more tightly and walks to the back of the house, blinking in the bright light of the yard. Snow and David are wrapping up, tugging Red up from a corner to walk back with them. The Merry Men are getting restless– are Mulan and Neal arm-wrestling? (Mulan easily wins that one, and Will collects chocolate bars from the ones who'd bet against her, very smug.)
Milah and Belle are standing on opposite ends of the table, a comfortable distance apart again. "I told you not to bet on him," Milah is saying reprovingly to Little John.
"My own mother." Neal rolls his eyes and Milah reaches out and musses his hair soothingly. He ducks away from her, wincing as the rest of the Men snicker.
"Milah," Emma calls. "I think you should challenge Mulan and defend Neal's honor." She smiles sweetly, winking at Mulan, and the people around her hoot and place their bets. Regina tucks herself under Emma's arm, a whispered You ass so low that her teeth graze Emma's ear as she murmurs it.
"I'm going to head out, too," Tamara says after a fierce battle that ends with Milah's defeat, and she closes her eyes and transforms in a burst of light, a tiny fairy springing through the sky in a short dress and jeans. The other fairies follow suit and Zelena watches them all go, her expression wistful.
"You okay?" Emma ventures.
"She loves flying," Zelena says. "She told me that earlier. I do love flying, too. It's…freeing, after all this time."
"Maybe someday you'll fly together." Emma entertains the image in her mind, the witch on her broom and the fairy fluttering beside her, and it's oddly charming in very non-Zelena-and-Tamara ways.
Zelena turns to watch her for a moment, long and thoughtful. "Maybe," she says, and she sounds very serious about it.
And soon enough, it's just the four of them cleaning up the yard, putting away plates and chairs and tidying up the barbecue area. Zelena claims exhaustion when they're done and Regina sends Henry to bed. "School night," she claims, frowning at the leftover hot dogs and buns. "And I…have to go bring these back to Granny's or I'll never hear the end of it."
It's a very terrible excuse for what Regina actually wants to do, and Emma is only too happy to pick up on it. "Right. I'll come with you," she offers, blinking inconspicuously. Zelena stares at them, her lip curling in disgust.
Henry says, "I'll just…go to bed." He ducks for the stairs, pressing a kiss to Regina's cheek and then Emma's, and makes a hasty escape.
"I'm going to grab something upstairs. That I need to return to Red." Emma flushes at Zelena's unimpressed stare. Why they'd invited a witch to live in the room next door to them during this new honeymoon period, Emma still doesn't know. And Zelena has no qualms about yelling at them through the walls, as they'd discovered this morning. Regina has been looking for a decent soundproofing spell that will stay up when they're otherwise occupied.
Regina smiles, slow and predatory. "I'll wait in the car."
She hesitates at Henry's door, watching him as he fishes around under his bed for his pajamas. "It's so gross, watching you two and knowing what you're going to do," he complains.
"Sorry, kid."
"It's…it's kind of okay, I guess." He says it a bit glumly, but he also offers her a tentative smile. "I'm glad you're both here and…and in love. Really in love. I never thought that we'd really get this."
"Neither did I," Emma whispers, her voice unexpectedly hoarse. "I think…I spent a lot of my life searching for this piece of me that was missing, and it's…" She can't quite finish the thought, not even in front of a boy who means everything to her.
But he seems to understand, his eyes softening even more as he watches her struggle for words. "Goodnight, Ma," he says, smiling up at her again. "I'll see you in the morning." He squeezes her hand once and she steps back, shutting the door behind him.
And she doesn't know how to describe tonight to Henry or Regina except that it feels like family again, like home beyond cabins in the woods and rooms in a castle. It feels like there's more to their lives than their own stubbornness and failings constricting around them, leading to an inevitable conclusion. It feels like soulmates, whatever that means.
She picks up the item she'd needed, hidden deep within one of Regina's drawers, and tucks it into her waistband like she might have a knife, once. And because old habits die hard, she climbs out onto the balcony and makes her way down to the top of the garage, landing on the top of the car in the driveway with a thump.
She crouches on top of the car like she's seventeen and robbing coaches again, the wind whipping through her hair and her jacket. The car starts in response, Regina unimpressed with her posturing, and Emma ducks down and slides through the door the other woman had already opened for her.
In the opposite seat of the car, a dark-haired woman, stunningly beautiful, turns to stare at Emma. "Swan Hood," Regina drawls. "How nice of you to drop in."
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune-without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
A year and a half later, IT'S DONE. I'm a little in shock, lmao- this has been a massive undertaking and I can't believe we've finally hit the end! Thank you so much to all of you for sticking with me throughout this– I know that we've ranged from ~horrifyingly depressing~ all the way up to ~mildly depressing~ and I did want to give you a happy sendoff, at least. They beat the bad guy!
Much, much thanks go also to MM, who has spent an obscene amount of time listening to me plot this fic, to Maia for the same and to all the people along the way who've been enthusiastic about this story- with art or meta or feedback- and kept me going. I think that this is one of the most commented fics on AO3 for Swan Queen right now even though it doesn't have nearly the readership of the other fics up there– and I think that really says plenty about how wonderful y'all have been to me. I couldn't have done it without your encouragement.
You can head over to AO3 for a small oneshot that takes place after the series, and you can also check my blog (coalitiongirl) at /tagged/smbts-art to see some of the stunning artwork that has been made for this series. Enjoy!