"You're wrong!" the blonde yelled, the sound echoing throughout the foyer, "you do need it…I need it!"

Regina's brow furrowed deeply as she regarded the woman before her, the woman she had come to care far too much about, the woman it hurt too much to want. "This is the only way to stop it, to stop me" her dark eyes bore into Emma's desperately trying to make her understand, "I can feel it Emma…I can feel it and I can't survive it!"

"Yes you can," came the instant and steady reply, the quaver of the brunette's cries only confirmed what the younger already knew, Regina didn't really want to do this but it was the only option she could think of right now. She couldn't fathom the blonde returning her feelings but had she forgotten these past few months so easily? Had she overlooked the change in their relationship? It was far more than friendship, everyone could see…everyone except Regina it seemed.

Dark eyes watched intently as Emma stepped cautiously closer, her fingers instinctually tightened around the muscle in her hand, the glowing heart…her own heart. She let out a small gasp at the suffocating feeling but held her grip, the blonde's hands instantly went up as she stopped moving forward, "please…" she breathed, her own chest heaving as though it was her own heart in Regina's hand, "please Regina…"

Why did she care? With Regina out of the way she was free to raise Henry the way he should have been, by his birth mother, the woman who had given birth to him, broken a curse for him and travelled a realm for him…he didn't deserve the stigma of being the Evil Queen's son. "You're not her anymore," came the blonde's soothing voice and Regina realised that, as she had been lost in thought, she had moved closer, much closer.

Her proximity was suffocating though the fingers reaching for Regina's free hand were somehow pulling the brunette closer, she couldn't allow herself to fall into her anymore, not when it meant something to only one of them. A tear made it's way down the older woman's cheek, it took everything Emma had not to reach out and wipe it away as she had done so many times before when Regina had allowed her walls to fall, when they had remained awake for hours talking and allowing the other in. She had thought the brunette would have detected her growing affections, would have realised that Emma had taken to spending time with her even in Henry's absence…why couldn't she see? Why couldn't she feel what was right in front of her?

"You need to leave" came the low tone from Regina, her fingers tightening once again around her heart, she wasn't afraid of death, only of the silence it brought, the finality and the two she would be leaving behind. As her grip tightened and a groan of pain fell from her lips, she realised that hers wasn't the only one…Emma's face had contorted with it also…"can you…wh-"

"I can feel it Regina…I can feel you" This time when Emma's fingers moved to lace with her own she didn't move her hand away, she couldn't for she was too shocked at what she had just heard. The blonde, seeing the confusion in dark eyes, moved in closer so that Regina's raised hand, holding the glowing heart, was pressed against her chest, beating in time with her own. "I can feel you Regina, I don't know when it happened but…it did. How do you think I knew you were in trouble? Why do you think I came here?"

"I…I-" she was cut off by the hand Emma placed on her cheek.

"It wasn't a conscious decision and probably not the easiest I have ever made but…for some reason, my wasted heart has decided to latch itself onto yours…to give itself to you whether you want it or not…" She leaned into the touch, tears streaming faster down her cheeks as she just stared with parted lips at the woman before her. "I love you Regina…and I think I always have"

The brunette stumbled back then, a choking sound coming from her throat as she gasped for air. Emma had expected this, it had been like a reconstruction of her own reaction when she had spoken with Gold. "You're my soul mate…the other half of me, my true connection."

"S-stop…please, just stop" The blonde moved quickly as she watched the brunette crumpling to the ground, she didn't hold her up but fell with her, a hand pressing the sobbing woman's face into the crook of her neck as she began rocking them soothingly.

"I thought you knew Regina, I thought you could tell…" Emma's own tears were falling now as her fingers stroked through soft dark locks, the simple scent of the woman filling her completely. "It hurt to be around you and not tell you, I couldn't understand why but now I think I do…"

"…you were getting my pain also…" the brunette sniffed, pulling away slowly in order to look at the heart beating brighter within her palm, it had taken Emma's words and latched on to the hope dangling in the air…

She didn't stop the hand that moved to cover the muscle nor did she completely let go, she had been hurt too many times, manipulated through most of her life, how did she know this wasn't a trick either?

"Look at me" came a soft voice to accompany the finger now lifting her chin, her eyes remained down even as her head moved up, "please Regina…just look at me"

"I can't" the words sounded strangled leaving her mouth, the anguish clear as she looked only at the heart in her hands, if it wasn't in her body how was she still able to feel like this? How was she still able to physically ache for the woman before her with her heart gone? It didn't make sense.

"Look at me" and this time she did, her dark eyes trailed up the soft, tear marked skin of the blonde until she was held by piercing green eyes. She couldn't help but gasp at the emotion held within, the love so clearly shining through. That amount of feeling couldn't be faked…could it?

Lean fingers moved forward to brush against the pale cheek as green eyes fluttered closed at the contact, "oh Emma…" the brunette breathed as she found herself moving closer to the woman. The younger woman's eyes flickered open when she felt something brush against her nose, she startled slightly at the proximity of Regina but could do nothing to move away.

Just as Regina was about to close the distance completely, she was stopped by a strange sensation, she felt as though she had just emerged from an ice cold body of water. "Wh-"
Looking down she found Emma's arm to have disappeared within her chest from the wrist down. "I couldn't do it without this first…not without your heart…never without your heart"

And finally, after so long simply wanting one another, Emma closed the distance and captured Regina's full lips without her own, reveling the unity of their two hearts beating with nothing but love for one another…