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It was pouring with rain as she sighed and sipped at her second glass of cider of the evening. She misses Henry just like any other day but today it's different somehow. Stronger. She feels the overwhelming urge to leave town and try to track the pair down, though she knows it would be fruitless.
Neither of them have any memory of her and that thought alone makes her body ache everywhere.
She knows that deep down its not just Henry she misses. She knows it will never just be Henry. The brunette looks over at the picture sitting in pristine condition on her mantlepiece. The picture had been taken the day after they had arrived back from Neverland, when they had been given false hope that everything was going to be okay again. Henry had taken the photo on his phone; he was in the centre and herself and Emma were on each side of him, kissing him on each cheek as his face nearly broke into two from smiling so widely. She had a copy sitting on her bedside table as well. Tears began forming in her eyes as she thought of Emma and Henry. Neither of them having any memory of her. It was all too much.
Regina gulped down the rest of her tumbler of cider before standing to retrieve another. When she returned to her seat, the only sounds filling the air were that of her heartbeat and the rain quietly hitting the window. She started to think back to the nights when storms would hit Storybrooke. When Henry was younger; too young to think of Regina as an Evil Queen. When she would calm him to sleep during the storms, and he would fall asleep in her arms as she rocked him gently. She would stay up with him all night if it meant that he would sleep peacefully.
She thought of him now. Still in New York with memory's of Emma soothing those stormy nights rather than herself. It's not that she was jealous of Emma, she had given her those memories for a reason after all, but she knew that deep down it had only created more of a hole in heart that she would never be able to fill. Because Henry was still in New York. And so was Emma.
She was startled from her thoughts as she heard a frantic knocking at her door. She frowned at the clock on her mantelpiece; 9:45pm. Who would be at her door at this time? In the middle of a storm no less. She sighed for the umpteenth time before placing her cider on the perfectly positioned coaster and rising to get the door. What she found waiting for her at the bottom of the small set of steps was certainly not what she had been expecting. She had expected another one of the townspeople, brave enough to come alone to the house of the Evil Queen, just to accuse her of erasing their memory of the previous year. She had not expected a shivering mass of soaked blonde curls and feet shifting from foot to foot, whether from nerves or the water dripping down every inch of her body, she couldn't tell. A pale face with green eyes that seemed to instantly lock onto her own.
"Emma... Are you completely insane!?" The brunette asked in bewilderment staring down at the woman in front of her. She raised an eyebrow when all she received was an amused chuckle and a lopsided grin.
"I've been gone for a year and that's all I get?" Emma smirked when she saw Regina duck her head in embarrassment. It struck Regina then that it had been a year. It had been a whole year and yet seeing this woman standing on her porch was such a familiar sight it felt like any other day. It felt like she had only seen her yesterday for their weekly budget meeting or their dinner at Granny's with Henry.
"How do you remember?" She asked after regaining her senses a little.
"Hook found us." A strange sensation of jealousy began to rise within Regina, one she tried very hard to push down. "And shockingly True Loves Kiss didn't work." Emma said the word with such mockery that instantly the feeling inside of Regina dissipated. "He had this potion that brought back my memories." She shrugged in true Emma Swan style and Regina fought the urge to grin like an idiot.
Change the topic. "Where's Henry?"
"He's fine. He's with my parents."
"Does he..." She couldn't quite force the words from her throat and so she tried to convey the question through her eyes. Emma simply smiled softly.
"We'll work on it. I promise." Regina nodded slowly before another question popped into her mind.
"Shouldn't you be with your parents?" Great, make it sound like you're not glad to see her.
"Well... I was. But then I realised there was something I needed to do." Emma took a small step forward and instinctively Regina did the same. They were still two steps separated, Regina having the height advantage for once and Emma still standing under the pouring rain. A thought flickered it's way into Regina's mind as to why she hadn't started to shiver yet and even more so why she hadn't taken the conversation indoors. But the thoughts disappeared as soon as they came when Emma began to speak again. "Regina, I never thanked you."
"What do you-"
"No you gotta let me say this okay? Because I don't think I'm going to be able to do this again." Regina swallowed against the lump in her throat before nodding slowly. Emma took a deep breath, shifted her weight again and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, all the while Regina watched each movement intently. "I was always so terrified of telling you this. And then before I even knew what was happening it was too late. The second I stepped over that line I knew something was missing." Regina looked at her so intently that Emma felt she was about to melt into a puddle. But she needed to say this, so she ploughed on. "I never got the chance to thank you for what you did for me and Henry. You gave us happy memory's and I can never thank you enough for that. But what you didn't realise is that you weren't giving me my happy ending." Regina frowned in confusion and Emma smiled, her eyes seemingly glowing in the darkness that surrounded her form. "There was one very important person missing from that ending." Regina's frown deepened now and Emma rolled her eyes as she watched Regina ticking off all the plausible options in her mind. "You, Regina. I'm talking about you." Regina's breath hitched as her face turned to one of complete shock.
"Emma, what are you-"
"My happy ending is Henry and you. I choose you. I don't care about fate or anyone else that tries to get in my way because I'm choosing you." Regina stared in awe with her jaw slack as Emma essentially began to pour her heart out, soaked to the bone on her front porch. Emma looked down at where she was standing as a smile formed on her face. "Do you remember when we first met?" Regina breathed out a laugh that turned into fog in the night as she looked down as well, a large smile blooming across her features, one that Emma found extremely contagious. "I thought you were the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen..." It was said on a whisper. Regina looked up with wide eyes. "Emma..." Moments of silence passed as the two women exchanged multiple conversations through their eyes only. Eventually Emma reached up and took Regina's hand, entwining their fingers as their hands moulded together perfectly. Regina gazed down at their joining hands as Emma began speaking again.
"I've waited this long. I'm willing to wait forever, if that's how long it takes, just to prove my love to you Regina." And then that hand was gone, the warmth leaving with it as Regina was left with a shiver running through her entire body and once again, an aching she felt everywhere for that warmth to be returned. She looked up in panic as she saw the other woman slowly walking down the path that led to her haphazardly parked VW bug.
And then everything slowed. The rain paused mid-fall, Emma froze mid-step and time seemed to slow down for Regina as all of her memories played like a film reel in her mind. Every moment she had ever spent with Emma, from the moment they met, to the time they did the impossible by stopping the trigger. The time at the mines when Henry's life was in danger and Regina had found comfort in Emma's presence, stepping dangerously close to blonde hair and red leather, as the world around them had faded to background noise. The moment that they had looked up at each other after saving Henry in Neverland, their arms brushing softly as their son hugged them. The time they had moved the moon together and transcended realms and absorbed curses and saved each other and...
Regina gasped painfully as reality was returned to her senses. She was letting this woman walk away. This woman who had saved her life in so many ways. This god damn woman who had crawled her way into Regina's heart, was walking away. No. She tried to force her body into motion, her feet feeling like bricks attached to the end of her legs. She took one step. Then another. And another before she was running. Barefoot and soaked instantly, she ran after this woman who had crashed into her world and knocked it off its axis. Before she could catch her breath she grabbed Emma by the arm and spun her around. Ignoring the confused expression and the cold water pouring down her neck, she took a chance. One that could end in heartbreak, but she took it anyway because this woman was everything.
Regina looked into piercing green eyes and smiled brightly before pressing her lips to the ones in front of her. This time everything else completely blacked out. It was just her and Emma. And as Emma started kissing back, Regina lifted her hands to weave her fingers through wet, blonde hair and Emma wrapped her arms around Regina's waist. It was just her and Emma. Her and Emma. Regina and Emma. A shock wave of white magic blasted out of their combined lips and ricocheted throughout the entire town, but neither woman noticed. They simply stood in each other's embrace, expressing feelings they could never express through words. Everything they had been through together and promises of the future all moulded into one kiss.
After long moments, both women pulled away with one last lingering kiss, pressing their foreheads together as their smiles almost broke their faces in half. They began laughing in unison as the reality of the situation dawned on them both. Regina smiled at Emma with a softness Emma had never witnessed, she felt blessed to have that kind of beauty directed towards herself. In that moment she made a vow to make Regina smile like that more often.
"I love you..." Emma nearly missed the confession, watching as the words turned to fog as they left Regina's throat. She smiled brightly as she pulled the brunette impossibly closer.
"I love you too."
And that's it. That's the story of how two women became one. How two women let go of all of their fears and let themselves fall into the arms of the other. How two women let themselves love with every being of their soul, how two women let go of the past and started looking to the future with their son. Together.