Trigger Warning: Discussion of abuse and suicide.

A/N:

Hey gang!

Thank you for all of your wonderful reviews on the previous chapter, I'm very glad to see that people are enjoying where this is going. This is a nice long chapter for you which is the fall out from the last few chapters, featuring a lot of emotional and personal discussion between Emma and Regina concerning both their pasts. I really enjoyed writing this so I hope you all enjoy reading it!

Just to let you know, I think there will be roughly 10 chapters of this story left and I will let it come to an end at the same point S3 ended. I would love to continue writing it but I don't think it will be possible. Don't worry though; there is SO MUCH to happen in these next 10 chapters.

Anyway! Comments are appreciated as always, enjoy!

Rosie xx

(I do not own once upon a time, no copyright intended).

Emma woke with a start, disorientated for a moment. It was dark. For a split second she thought she was back in Zelena's captivity but then she felt the warm comfort of the duvet around her; the soft mattress cradling her weary body. She breathed in deeply, inhaling the unmistakable smell of Regina's washing powder, crisp and fresh and so like home. This, however, didn't stop the marathon race she was running in her mind, running away from all the terrible memories she had tried to keep in a little box for so long.

She wanted nothing more than to stay in bed forever but her stomach protested so she made her way to the kitchen where she found Regina cooking dinner. The brunette had her back turned and apparently hadn't noticed Emma's entrance; her bare feet making little noise on the floor. She watched her, just for a minute. Heel-less she stood significantly shorter than usual and Emma found that after all that had happened in the last day all she wanted to do was wrap Regina up in her arms and protect her from everything that was inevitably going to break them both.

"Hey," Emma announced herself quietly.

The unexpected noise gave Regina a fright and she jumped around turning to see the Saviour standing in the doorway, her reactions still flawlessly quick.

"Emma, sorry," Regina said, clearly pulling herself out of some depth of her mind and putting herself together, "I was in my own world."

"That's okay," the blonde replied, "Sorry I startled you." She walked forwards, situating herself carefully on one of the bar stools. She hadn't been badly injured at all, considering the situation, but she still felt unbelievably fragile; something which, of course, she would never admit to anyone.

"How are you?" the older woman questioned earnestly. She put down the knife she had been using and moved to the fridge, pouring out a glass of juice for Emma and sliding it across the counter.

Emma gripped the glass in her hand but didn't drink. "I'm…uh… I don't know," she answered truthfully, deep green eyes glassy and troubled.

Regina met her gaze and looked at her with overwhelming reassurance. "That's perfectly fine. No one expects you to know."

"My parents do," Emma replied quickly and without thought. "All they did was tell me I was okay when really they don't know anything, they don't understand anything." Her anger tried to break its way through but failed miserably, instead the statement just became cold and distanced. "I just…I can't talk about it you know?

"Yes," Regina answered, lost in the past for a brief moment, "I know."

The blonde rest her head on her hands and sighed, deep and tormented, but Regina's voice caused her to lift her gaze.

"I think, my dear, we have more in common than either of us would care to imagine."

Henry, Emma and Regina were sat on the couch in the living room, tucked underneath a huge blanket, watching the credits of Bridesmaids roll across the screen. Regina had insisted it was inappropriate but Henry had granted Emma movie choice for the night and though Regina would deny it under oath, she did find it quite amusing. Emma had been tense and distracted all evening; skipping between closing her eyes and resting on the arm of the couch or sitting up and watching the film with an unfocused gaze. Regina watched her then, sitting stock still, face stoic, eyes directed unwaveringly at the screen but not really seeing anything.

"Bedtime for you young man," Regina said, rubbing Henry's back with her hand.

"Do I have to?" Henry asked dejectedly.

"Yes, you do," Regina communicated to Henry with her eyes. With just one look he understood what she was trying to convey. He was smart enough to realise, unlike his grandparents, that his other mother was not herself. What he also understood though, was that this had been difficult for his adoptive mother and that she needed some time by herself, and time with Emma.

He hadn't been blind to what was happening between them. He saw every look, every step towards friendship and lately, he was sure, something more. He wasn't sure however whether his mothers really understood what was happening, though he suspected that Regina did.

"Okay Mom," he smiled and her and wrapped his arms around her, burying his face into her neck. Then he whispered, so quietly that Regina wasn't even sure she had heard anything at all, "Don't worry about Emma, she's going to be okay."

Regina pushed her son back and gripped his face in between tender hands. "I love you Henry," she replied.

"I love you too Mom," he said, accepting a kiss on the forehead before he turned to his blonde mother. She looked at him and her eyes lit up slightly.

"Night kiddo," she voiced. Her arms opened and welcomed him in. "I love you."

"Love you too," he said. Then, to Emma's surprise, he gave her a soft kiss on the cheek.

The boy grabbed his book from the coffee table and left the room, shouting goodnight to his mothers once more on his way up the stairs.

"I think I'm going to go to sleep too," Emma confessed. She wanted to be near Regina, but she also just needed to be buried in the safety and comfort of her bed. Her bed. What the blonde wanted more than anything was to sleep in Regina's bed but even though she had an inkling that the woman would say yes if she asked, she couldn't bring herself to actually voice the question. She hesitated for a second, contemplating it but in the end she stood from the couch and turned to face Regina. "Goodnight," she said quietly.

"Is there anything I can do? Do you need anything?" The former Queen asked.

Ask her, Emma said to herself. Just ask her. Emma tried to give Regina genuine smile, "No, I'll be alright. Thank you though Regina."

"Goodnight dear, sleep well," the brunette answered as she watched the other woman leave the room, not able to quiet the digging worry inside of her.

It was a long time before Emma was able to put her mind at rest for long enough to drift off to sleep. She had tossed and turned for several hours before she had finally fallen into a fitful slumber.

She woke at some godforsaken hour, terror on her lips, heart beating hard and fast in her chest. It was like there was someone in there, desperate to get out. She felt the blood rush in her ears and tried but failed to control the hurried inhale and exhale of breath, shaking in the covers from the cold feeling permeating through her every fibre. Every crackle of silence in the air was deafening and she couldn't find a way to quiet the voices in her mind which talked over it. She couldn't shut any of it up; it was all too much. She wanted to scream but she knew she couldn't, so instead she did something she hadn't known she even had the guts to do. Her feet moved underneath her against the soft plushness of the carpet.

It was only when she reached Regina's bedroom door that she realised where her legs had brought her, after all she was still wrapped up in sleep and her own thoughts. Emma reached up, wiped away the wetness from her face with the back of her hand and sniffed quietly, pulling herself together.

Three knocks on the door, a whispered 'Regina' and several shuffling steps later the door opened to reveal a tired yet wide-awake mayor.

"Emma," Regina's face immediately dropped. "Is everything alright?"

The blonde looked down at the floor as she replied, "Can I come in?" she asked timidly, scared of the response, even though she knew that Regina wouldn't turn her away.

"Of course," Regina answered automatically. She went to grab Emma's hand but thought better of it and instead ushered the woman in and closed the door behind them.

Emma walked across the room and climbed into what she already thought of as her side of the bed. She settled in between the covers, it was not very different from her bed but something about it just made her feel automatically protected.

"Hang on, let me just turn the light on," Regina said.

"Can you leave if off, please?" Emma said quickly, sinking further into the pillow as she buried herself in the safety of Regina's bed. There was a part of her that didn't want Regina to see the evidence of her tears, so that somehow, in all of this, she might maintain the illusion of her strength. In this moment the darkness didn't scare her but sheltered her in its comfort.

"Yes." Regina slid in next to her and turned to face Emma's direction. They lay like that for a while in silence, both contemplating who would be the first to say something. Regina wanted to leave it to Emma to speak because she didn't want to ask about anything that the blonde might not want to talk about, if she wanted to talk at all. But she suspected that it was the bringing it up that caused the biggest problem for Emma.

Emma toyed with what to say, currently hyper aware of the presence opposite her. She felt like her venture up here would be pointless if she didn't try and get some things off her mind. The blonde remind herself that she was no longer a child who tried to bury all of the pain inside of her and that it might be time for her to try and deal with things like she should have a long time ago.

"I couldn't sleep," Emma started. Realising that that much had probably been evident she apologised. "I'm sorry for waking you up."

"Don't apologise Emma, you have nothing to be sorry for. I told you that you could come to me whenever and that has absolutely no restrictions," she said, trying to tell Emma that she was being truthful, because the woman wasn't very good at allowing people in; same as Regina.

"Well, I'm sorry anyway."

Regina waited for her to continue but she didn't. "Would you like to talk about it?" she asked gently, trying not to push her. There was part of her which just wanted to know for the satisfaction of knowing the Saviour better than anyone else. But the larger part of her was genuinely asking for Emma, and that was something which had been dormant inside of her for a long time now. Other than Henry there hadn't, for what felt like eons to Regina, been someone whose wellbeing she genuinely cared about. For many years almost everyone in Regina's life had been disposable, replaceable at the drop of a hat - or in her case a little call to her Genie. Emma was neither of those things to the brunette anymore and hadn't been for longer than she cared to think about. Emma was…indispensable to Regina for no reason other than her own selfish need to maintain the blonde's presence in her life. However, all of that ceased to matter the moment Emma's voice broke through the silence of the darkness.

"I had a nightmare," she paused and Regina listened intently, shifting centimetres closer to Emma. "I used to have them every night. They stopped for a long time…" She trailed off, thinking about how many years she had been free of the terrors that plagued her dreams. They had stopped for the most part by her mid twenties but occasionally they had made a reappearance. In fact, she couldn't recall having a single one since she came to Storybrooke, which had to mean something.

"What are they about?" Regina pressed gently, interrupting Emma's train of thought.

"Things…" Emma began, gathering the courage to do something she had never done before. "Things that happened to me when I was a kid. In foster homes."

"Oh, Emma. I'm so sorry," the former Queen didn't know what else to say. She was uncomfortably unaware that Emma's terrible childhood had been partly her doing, though Snow and Charming weren't entirely unblameworthy either.

"It's fine," she said quickly, "I mean its not fine. At all. But like, no one can change it now so I just have to deal with it." Emma said, fully aware that not being able to change what happened didn't make it any less painful. The brunette didn't know whether this was an attempt to mask her emotions or whether it was more of the remarkable strength that Emma seemed to exude in even the most surprising of situations. "I guess being in there, with Zelena. It made it come back to me somehow."

"Trauma never stays buried forever Emma, but at some point we have to deal with it before it breaks us apart. Though I am one to talk. There are many things I have experienced, things I have done which I have never come to terms with. I am here for you and I want you to know that while I may not know exactly what happened to you I understand how hard it is to cope with it all when such terrible things happen. I spent a whole lifetime coping with things in precisely the worst way possible. "

"Why can't anything just be easy," Emma said, her voice tired of fighting. Regina's hand moved forward and slid across the blonde's forearm making comforting circles with the pad of her thumb. "You said you understand…?" Emma questioned but stopped herself. "You know what don't worry about-."

"No Emma," Regina interrupted, "Its fine," she took in a deep breath and exhaled. "You have had the displeasure of meeting my mother and as you know she wasn't the most…loving of parents. She could be rather unpleasant when the mood struck, as it did of a regular occurrence. Though of course she never left me with physical scars, wouldn't want to spoil me for my future husband."

"I have plenty of those," Emma said nervously, "But I cannot imagine was it was like growing up with Cora for a mother. I guess I can't even imagine what growing up was like for you at all, in a completely different world."

"The physical pain my mother caused me over the years was nothing in comparison to everything else she did. The sad thing is that somehow theres a part of me which still exists that loves her. It is that which I hate her for the most." Regina paused, "I have to say I cannot imagine what it must have been like to grow up in this world either."

"Isn't it strange," the blonde pondered, "how two people can grow up in entirely different worlds yet have so many of the same experiences?"

"I don't think so dear, human nature is fundamentally the same everywhere you go. There are good people everywhere and there are evil people everywhere and there are many many people who are simply somewhere in between."

"So many people think that the world is black or white," Emma continued for her, "I still hate all the people who hurt me but none of them were truly truly evil. Because if they are then your mother was, and you are, and I cannot believe that you and I aren't both on a sliding scale of grey trying to claw our way towards the light."

Regina was taken aback at how deeply Emma seemed to understand the mechanics of the world, even though she thought she was lost. The brunette was grateful that the other woman thought of them both on the same standing, as both a shade of grey, even if she didn't completely agree. The list of her crimes was long and terrible and she was sure that one day she would have to tell Emma everything tonight was all about Emma and what she needed. Something else in what Emma had said had struck her and she wanted to question, but it was more personal than they had delved before and Regina was apprehensive.

"You can ask me whatever you want to ask me," drifted Emma's voice across to the brunette, as if she could read her mind.

Regina hesitated for a moment before conceding. "You said you hate 'all the people'? Emma, how many times did this happen to you?"

The blonde took in a deep breath and ran her hand along the brunette's bicep to distract herself from the confession about to spill from her lips. In her whole life Emma had never spoken to anyone about this in so much depth, or any depth at all really. It was always the one thing she never talked about; even Neal knew next to nothing about that side of her childhood.

"I was in over thirty different homes until I ran away when I was 15. It happened in at least ten of them, maybe more. I only really remember the worst ones. The one from the dream?" She questioned, not waiting for a response, "that one was the worst of the worst."

Regina's hand stilled for a moment on Emma's arm and gripped her tightly. In her dream Regina had seen Emma as a little girl, injured and curled up in the corner of a room, locked in the darkness; scared and alone. She had thought that it had simply shown her where the blonde was but now she realised that they had in fact been somewhere different. Somehow they had been in Emma's memory of herself.

"That was real?" Regina said. It was intended for herself but it left her mouth before she had the chance to stop it.

"What was real?" Emma asked immediately.

"The room, the little girl. It wasn't just a dream?" Regina asked as if Emma knew all the answers to her questions.

Words flew round in Emma's mind at a mile a minute. There were so many things she wanted to get out of her head and into the air but all ability seemed to leave her.

She thought about her dreams; the one's she had had in Zelena's cell. It had just reminded her so much of… Wait, Emma suddenly thought.

"Regina?" She asked.

"Yes Emma?" the woman replied, awaiting an answer to her question.

"Earlier, you said…" Emma tried to think of how to phrase her question. "You said that you knew where to find me because you saw me in your dream?" She thought back to her dream in New York, where she had seen Regina. It had been what had convinced her to trust Hook and what had got them back to Storybrooke.

"I…I'm not entirely sure, if I am honest," she paused. "But after we had searched for you I came back to sleep. In my dream I saw the room, only it was slightly different to the one under the hospital. The room wasn't the same and…you weren't the same. But it was you. I woke up and I realised that I knew where you were."

"I dreamt of you too," Emma answered breathlessly.

"You did?" Regina asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I think so. I was having the nightmare I used to have. That room, always, and they always used to come for me." Regina wanted to ask what she meant by this, remembering the little's girls words in the dream, but she stopped herself and let Emma continue. "But instead someone else came. I think it was you. In fact, I know it was you. You helped me."

Regina's hand still rubbed up and down Emma's arm reassuringly. "You were so small, so scared."

"So I was really there? And so were you?" Emma racked her brain for answers she didn't have.

"Yes. I don't know how it happened but I am sure we were both there, in some way," Regina answered. She didn't know how else to explain it.

"I don't know how it happened either," Emma said, hand coming up to rest on Regina's, fingers intertwining, "but it has happened before."

The former Queen was shocked, "It has? I don't remember." She could just about make out Emma's face through the dusky greyness of the room.

"Yeah. Um, remember when you asked me what made me come back to Storybrooke and trust Hook?"

"Yes, you said that he had said something which jogged your memory?" Regina queried, wondering where this was going.

Emma took a deep breath before she replied. She and this secret had been friends for quite a while now, and even though she wanted to tell Regina letting go of it meant setting something in motion that she wasn't sure she could deal with right now. Fuck it, Emma decided. Time to come clean.

"Well, that was a lie, kind of. It was because of you."

Regina was absolutely taken aback at the revelation. "Because of me? What on earth do you mean." Her hand stilled on Emma's arm.

Emma soothed her hand across the top of the brunettes as she spoke, "In the missing year I had this dream. I was on what I now know is the road out of Storybrooke, just standing there with my bug. A woman came along and she knew me, she knew my name. She told me to tell Henry that she loved him, and that her name was Regina." Emma smiled through the darkness. Letting the brunette know about this was like a huge weight off her shoulders. "And then she got sucked up into the sky."

"Obviously I had no idea who you were, and you don't remember it because all your memories were wiped but when Hook came to see me he told me that Regina sent him and I just had to find out who you were, I had to find you, so I spoke to him and took the potion, and here we are."

"Emma….that…," Regina was at a loss for words. This had so many connotations for them that she struggled to process it all. It happening once would have been enough but twice? Regina knew little about what happened in the dream realm, but she knew for sure that it had happened for a reason. Both times they had been separated, and both times their dream had helped bring them back together. It was as if their joint subconscious knew something they didn't. But the former Queen could see no way to explain this to Emma without explaining everything and if they both acknowledged that the first dream had happened then they would have to acknowledge that the connection between them had been there much longer than either of them wanted to confess or admit they were aware of.

"…You came back here because of me?" the brunette asked in a voice laced with doubt; vulnerability seeping through the gradually lessening space between them.

Emma grasped Regina's hand in hers and stared through the darkness at the face in front of her, "Yeah, I think I did…." Emma paused. She didn't know whether to take this further, or whether she should leave things where they were for the time being and be content with Regina knowing only part of the story. Alas, her mouth got the better of her mind. "In fact, I think I came back here for you… somehow. But…" she pondered her next words for a second, "I don't quite know what that means yet."

Regina drew slow even breaths into her lungs as she took in Emma's words. The blonde was insinuating and in Regina's mind almost admitting that there was something more between them, a deeper, unexplored depth, as if now they just swam on the surface. The fact that Regina was already aware that such a depth did exist made no difference to the way she approached the situation. She wanted Emma to figure it out on her own, knowing that if the woman did truly love her fate would play its cards right. But for the first time in a long time she was filled with hope for a future never imagined.

"You don't have to say anything," Emma said defensively, worried by Regina's continued silence. "I'm sorry…" she confessed nervously through the dark, her hand still tight gripping the other woman's. The fact that the brunette hadn't moved away gave her hope. "I don't know what I'm saying, I'm just…gonna go…"

"No Emma don't, I'm sorry," the younger woman didn't even have time to start moving from the bed before her arm was clasped by a warm hand. This immediately stilled Emma; the direct contact from Regina appreciated and adored. "I was just…," the brunette continued, "overwhelmed, by it all."

"Thats not like you," Emma joked insecurely, using her words to hide the fear surrounding her unanswered confession.

Regina's fingers glided smoothly over the Saviour's soft yet muscular arm, down to her hand which she gripped tightly, fingers intertwined, feeling terribly foolish and childlike.

"You seem to have that effect on me, Miss Swan, more often than not." Regina answered, her voice confident with a sultry tone that Emma found it impossible to miss. The brunette's use of a name she hadn't used in a while surprised Emma but she realised that it was probably part of the Mayor's constant attempt to hide her true feelings from the outside world; even when the only person who could hear what she was saying right now was Emma. The sexual side of the statement intrigued Emma. Of course, she had thought about it many times but her relationship with Regina was definitely not at that level quite yet. She thought that if it were to happen it may put a bump in the road for anything that could happen with them in the future and that was a risk she wasn't willing to take. Yes, she wanted Regina in that way, she would be lying and frankly insane if she didn't; but that element of a relationship wasn't all she wanted and she was not about to ruin that possibility for herself, as fleeting as it was, for the opportunity to fuck her troubles away, even if it was possible that such a thing could happen. However Regina's flirtatious confession also surprised Emma. She seriously hadn't thought, until tonight, that she had any kind of an effect on Regina besides perhaps being her friend in some capacity. But the hand holding, the light touches, the whispered confessions, that felt like more than friendliness to Emma.

"I suspect that there is more at play here than either of us know," Regina continued, her voice suddenly solemn, as if she had only realised just now that her road to happiness was not going to be as easy as she anticipated.

Emma gripped the woman's hand and ran her thumb over it to soothe the thoughts of the mayor. "There may be more than we know Regina, but there is never more than we can handle," the blonde began, suddenly overwhelmed with the realisation that they were going to have to fight soon, and hard, and it wasn't going to be easy. A part of her wanted to stay in this little bubble of darkness and comfort with Regina for the rest of eternity but she knew that they had to do this and more importantly that they could.

"Soon this'll all be over. We haven't failed yet, we stand a pretty good chance," Emma reassured but to no avail.

"Do you really believe that Emma? We just keep doing this over and over again. Do we really fight just to live another day with another person who is hellbent on taking away everything we love in this world and crumbling it to dust? Do we really fight just so another Villain can come along and take away our happy endings?"

"But that isn't why we do this Regina, that isn't why we fight," Emma expressed, her voice clear and truthful with a gaining sense of understanding for their situation. "We don't fight for everything to be happy and perfect at the end because this is life, and it never will be perfect. Yes, there might be more Villains, or there might not be or whatever. We never know what is going to happen. We fight because what else can we do but survive?"

"My entire life has been about survival," Emma continued, "I spent my childhood trying to survive the foster system, my adolescence trying to survive being out in the world on my own. I spent a lot of time not wanting to survive because I thought that giving over to the unrelenting powers of this world would be easier than having to live among them. But then I survived prison and I spent years surviving through having to give my child away, and I started to realise that I had to do it, I had to carry on because what was the point otherwise? And then Henry came along and I survived Maleficent and Rumplestiltskin and Cora and a giant and Peter Pan and you," she emphasised, poking Regina gently in the arm with her free hand, "sometimes all I want to do is give up, even now. Right now I'm fighting the urge to bury myself in this bed and abdicate from my role of Saviour effective immediately, but I won't. And I'm sure there will be many times in the future that I will want to do the same thing but I won't. "

"Because you are a survivor," the former monarch affirmed, gripping the blonde's hand for dear life. "You know," Regina announced seconds later, "you continually astound me Emma."

"I do?" The Saviour asked, suddenly self-conscious that she had gone a little overboard.

"Hmm," Regina murmured, "indeed. You have managed to live a life of pain, of hurt and hatred and sheer survival yet never been turned to the dark side. You have never tried to take revenge for what has happened to you and that is something which I am in awe of. I, as you know, have been wronged and in return have done many, many grievous wrongs to those who crossed my path yet somehow you have managed to emerge through it without taking your pain out on others. You never give in to the darkness as I have many times. I spent almost my entire adult life not wanting to continue. I used to think I was strong," Regina confessed, "But next to you, my dear, I am nothing of the sort."

Emma was taken aback. Regina was actually impressed by her? "Thank you? I guess?" The blonde replied nervously, she was terrible at accepting compliments. "But you were strong Regina, you are strong. I don't know everything that has happened to you but I do know that you are one of - if not the strongest woman I have ever met in my entire life. You are not weak Regina, you are a force to be reckoned with."

"I was evil Emma," Regina admitted, almost ashamed of it now. "One day I will explain to you quite how much and maybe you will never see me in the same light again, but I also hope you will listen to my side of the story, though I will not mind if you do not. Your childhood experiences are a direct result of my heinous decisions. I am responsible and I take that weight upon my shoulders."

Emma wasn't sure she wanted to be having this conversation but luckily it was something she felt very strongly about, even if she had only admitted it to Regina once before.

"No Regina, I don't, because I understand that you are not made of your past mistakes. I will listen to anything you want to tell me. That was who you are then and this," Emma affirmed with a touch to Regina's cheek, "this is who you are now. My childhood is not your burden to bear. Yes, you set the ball rolling but my parents did not have to put me in that wardrobe and all those people who I lived with, who hurt me, it was their fault. They are responsible for their own actions and they didn't have to do what they did to me but they did it anyway. At the time, I guess in some twisted way you thought it was your only choice. And I cannot fault that choice because without it Henry would not exist.

"You are right, in that sense," Regina conceded, "I do not regret what I did because it brought about my having Henry in my life but I do and will always regret what happened to you as a result of my actions Emma. I'm sorry," she said. The words felt unfamiliar on her tongue, like she had never spoken them before but what she realised, however, was maybe that she had never meant them so truly.

"Its okay, really, Regina. And thank you, for this. I…" Emma paused wondering whether to confess this, "I've never spoken to anyone about my childhood before," she said, her words interrupted by a large yawn.

Regina let out a quiet girlish giggle as Emma interrupted herself. "I feel privileged then Emma, to have an insight into what makes you who you are. Maybe we should get some sleep now, do you think you might be able to?" Regina asked, very conscious of the fact that her hand was still gripped in Emma's tightly.

"Yeah I think so. I'm so tried," she replied, yawning again which furthered her point. Slowly she detached her hand from the brunette's opposite her and the sigh of disappointment didn't go unnoticed. She flipped herself over and leant on her elbow, drinking some water from the glass on the side table. Behind her she felt the bed dip as Regina moved backwards but didn't turn around and Emma settled herself into the pillow, facing the same way as the brunette. She shuffled backwards minutely until she could sense the warmth from Regina's body permeating the air between them.

"Goodnight then Emma," came the voice from behind her, soft breath tickling her neck tantalisingly.

"Goodnight Regina," was her soft and loving answer.

They both lay stock still for a while, equally scared of startling the other and causing them to move further away. Regina was thinking about her wish the previous night; that she could have Emma sleep in her bed. It had come true but now her resolve was shaken. After everything Emma had confessed tonight - especially the fact that she had come back to Storybrooke for Regina - should have told the brunette once and for all that her feelings for Emma were reciprocated but her nervousness got the better of her and she simply lay still, listening to the other woman's breathing and wishing that she had the courage to bare herself emotionally in such a way. But she wasn't there yet. If Emma wanted it, she had to ask.

Emma lay there feeling the presence of the woman so close behind her that it was impossible to ignore. When she had been trapped by Zelena all she had wanted was Regina's presence, her touch. She wanted it now more than ever. As soon as she had decided to sleep her mind had woken up again; muted by the feeling of safety around her but still there, undeniable. She battled herself for what felt like hours, going over and over in her head what to say. She contemplated sneaking herself backwards until Regina was forced to welcome her into her personal space.

The blonde moved backwards inch by inch, pushing herself towards Regina until she felt the woman's arm come into contact with her back. Half asleep, the brunette's fingers curled out and brushed the bare skin of Emma's shoulder blade several times; backwards and forwards in reassurance. Another few centimetres between them were eliminated and Regina was roused from her almost-sleep enough to realise the blonde's intent. Inhibitions masked by the fog in her mind she shuffled forward until her knees met with the back of Emma's. Her hand continued its gentle caress of soft skin on her shoulder until Regina felt the warm clasp around her sleepy fingertips, pulling her arm around Emma's waist and pulling it inwards to be met with the warmth of linked fingers and a thumping heartbeat.

Regina allowed it to happen, revelling in the feeling of having Emma in her arms. She pushed herself closer and upwards so that her chin sat near the back of Emma's head.

"Regina…" came Emma's question, vulnerable and apprehensive, "Is this okay?"

The brunette wasn't quite sure why Emma thought she even needed to ask, obviously Regina found the arrangement to her liking, but she dignified her with a response anyway, if only because she knew that Emma had had the courage to do something that she had not.

"Yes Emma, this is most certainly okay," Regina replied, melting into Emma and enjoying the warmth the proximity brought to her heart.

She didn't dare move until the blonde in her arms had fallen asleep, only then did she let herself drift off again; reassured that no strange dreams would be coming to her that night. She allowed herself to mull over the conversations they had, her body asleep but her mind still somehow producing coherent thoughts. Finally, just before she fell asleep her neck moved of its own accord, head dipping to rest lush lips against the messy blur of blonde hair atop the woman's head. Regina closed her eyes and breathed in the scent of Emma; vanilla and everything that is good in the world and that was how she fell asleep, with the Saviour wrapped up in her arms.