All Regina's senses faded in slowly, like the beginning of a blockbuster movie. Suddenly there was feeling in her toes and fingers. She wiggled them slowly. Sensation rolled through her body like a tidal wave, and suddenly she was back in her body. But it was dark still. It only took a moment for her to realize it was because her eyes were closed. They seemed as heavy as weights as she was slowly able to flutter them open. It was then that she felt the soft lips on her own.

Emma.

The kiss had ended before she was even allowed to recognize it as such. She opened her eyes just as the savior was pulling back slowly, her own eyes flittering open as well.

As green eyes met brown, for a moment it was as if they were seeing each other for the first time. The world as they had known it in the past faded away, and their new one came rushing in. Emma had felt the wave rush out from their kiss, and was still exhilarated by it. Looking now into Regina's sparkling eyes, she was ashamed at how long it had taken her to embrace this epic love. Her hand went up to cup Regina's cheek, her chest sinking as she seemed to melt into the touch. She laughed out a silent chuckle as her face turned up into the happiest smile she had ever mustered. "Regina!" When she saw the woman smile back, Emma sighed out deeply, and sunk into Regina's embrace as she leaned up and into her.

"Emma!" Regina wrapped her arms around Emma eagerly, and reveled in the warmth of the embrace. In the past they had been careful not to touch, as if it would ignite a spark they could no longer ignore. They were both unafraid now. Regina squeezed the blonde tight as if her embrace alone was enough to seal their love for eternity. The scent of leather and feminine cologne surrounded her, and she felt her eyes prick with glorious tears.

The embrace went on for some time, until finally Emma pulled back, looking Regina in the eyes. They both had tears and enormous smiles on their faces. Emma ran her hand down the side of Regina's face, brushing tears away as she went. She took in the sight of the beautiful woman like long deprived oxygen, her breath still labored. "Is this real?! Are you here?"

Regina chuckled, reaching up to grip Emma's wrist gently. She nodded through her tears. "Yes! I'm here. Although, I have no idea how."

Emma shook her head in disbelief, hoping that Regina wasn't going to keep trying to deny this. "True love, Regina!"

Regina licked her lips and shook her head. Looking deep into Emma's eyes, she pleaded, "But how? How can you love me?"

Emma chuckled and wiped away the fresh tears off Regina's cheek. "How could I not?"

They simply gazed at each other, taking in the moment. Emma moved her hands down, surveying Regina's appearance, making sure everything was as it should be. Her hands moved down to gently squeeze arms and hands. Regina allowed herself to be gushed over, cared about, adored. She watched Emma's face as she made sure Regina was in fact alive, and was blown away at the love in her eyes. She chuckled as Emma finally looked up at her again, seemingly satisfied at her state. "It's alright. I'm here!"

Emma's tears of joy started back up again as she scooted closer to Regina on the slab. Her hands never stopped moving, rubbing up and down Regina's arms, to her back, and again to her face. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again!"

Regina reached up and took Emma's hands, bringing them down to rest on her leg. She looked on in reassurance at the face she would never get tired of smiling at. "Well, I'm afraid you were wrong. You're stuck with me for a long while yet."

Emma sighed out in joy at hearing these words from Regina, and put her hand over Regina's as it came up to her cheek. She turned it inward and kissed Regina's palm. As their eyes locked again, Emma leaned in again and put her hand behind Regina's neck, pressing their foreheads together. Before she could capture her lips once more, she was stopped by the sudden clearing of a throat across the room.

Regina looked over, eyes half lidded from the sheer joy and passion she had been feeling. She pursed her lips when she saw Zelena leaning against the door frame, smug look on her face.

Zelena crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Finally. Welcome back, Sis."

As Emma stood up, Regina carefully swung her legs off the table, graciously taking Emma's support as it was offered. It had been a while since these legs had actually been moved and they were a bit wobbly. "You knew."

Zelena shrugged arrogantly. "Of course I knew."

Emma stiffened. "You knew? This whole time, you knew and didn't tell us?"

"Well, not the whole time. I had to be sure, thus my little Affection Elixir."

"I knew it," Regina said, her and Emma inching forward to stand before Zelena. "I knew that was crap. Why the lies, Zelena? Why not just tell us the truth?"

Zelena let her arms drop to her sides defensively. "Tell me something. Once we knew you were alive, if I had told you back then you two were True Loves and the only way to bring Regina back was True Love's kiss, what would you have done?" Regina and Emma thought for a moment and looked at each other in silence. They both knew Zelena was right. "Denied it, that's what. And it would most likely have pushed you two further away rather than together."

"That's what the spell was about...your little Affection Elixir. To tighten the soul bond, not release it," Emma tried piecing it together.

"Actually, no. I needed to cast the first part so that I could confirm that yes, you were actually True Loves."

Regina looked over at Emma. "The vials. Let me guess, yours was bright purple?"

Emma thought back to the color of her vial. How could she have been so blind? Purple is, after all, the color of True Love. She just nodded at Regina and they both had to smile at each other.

"Right, so once I confirmed that, I knew you weren't ready to admit it. I thought...confining you to close quarters together might help. Seems I was right," Zelena smiled in satisfaction.

Emma shook her head, still allowing Regina to lean onto her for support. "I can't believe you talked Blue into lying to us."

Zelena crossed her arms again. "If you remember, she wasn't much help. Were it not for the use of her magic, I wouldn't have involved her at all."

When Emma felt Regina stand upright, relying more on her own strength, she looked over in concern. She admitted that Regina did look stronger. She loosened her grip. "Are you alright?"

Regina quirked a smile, smoothing down the front of her red dress. "Better. To be honest, I really want to go hug my son."

Emma sighed out and smiled. "He will be thrilled to see you!" She paused in thought for a moment. "What are we going to tell him? What are we going to tell everyone?"

Before Regina could respond, Zelena butt in. "They already know."

This caught Emma's attention. "They already know Regina is awake?"

"Well not that. But they already knew how to wake her up." When she saw the confused and embarrassed faces in front of her, she rolled her eyes. "Oh, please. Everyone could see it. They just knew how stubborn you both were and that you needed to figure it out on your own. I'm pretty sure there's a pool going. I had weeks down the line, but it seems I didn't give you enough credit."

Emma scrunched up her face. "I don't get it. How did anyone see this coming? I mean, all we did was fight."

Regina scoffed. "Well, you were threatening to undo my curse."

Emma looked over at Regina in shock. "Uh, yeah! A curse you placed on me!"

Regina shrugged her shoulders and put her hand up defensively. "Not on you, exactly. On your mother. You were just...collateral damage."

It was Emma's turn to scoff. "Seriously? You're gonna blame our long sordid history on me? Hello! Savior here!"

Regina put her hand on her hip. "Well, and we wouldn't have a savior if it weren't for me."

"I wouldn't have been in foster care and jail, either!"

Regina pursed her lips. "An unfortunate chain of events. But...if I hadn't set the curse..." Regina took Emma's hand firmly and smiled salaciously. "You and I could never have been."

Once again, Emma had been beaten. Their little exchange was only half-hearted, and one of Regina's trademark smiles had brought Emma right back into the moment. She blushed when she couldn't push down her own smile. "Touche."

Regina sighed and took a step closer. She smiled over at the blonde, who's look of adoration was enough for Regina to melt. "What do we tell them? We tell them the truth. Against all the odds, the Queen...has fallen in love with the Savior."

Emma sighed out and turned to face Regina fully. She slid her arms around the brunette, pulling her close. "Emma has fallen in love with Regina."

When their lips found one another, the two women felt their true happy ending start to unfold. Never before had Regina felt softer lips and her brain short circuited slightly. Emma felt her body sigh, as if releasing a long held breath of relief. Finally she was home. Nothing could possibly break the magic held in that long awaited moment between two star-crossed True Loves. Nothing, that is, except the disgusted scoff from the Wicked Witch.

"Gwah! I'm out of here. I'm starting to get a tooth ache from all the saccharine in here," With one last glance at the two who were now giving her a dirty look, Zelena smirked and winked at her sister before sauntering up the stairs and out of the vault.

XXXXXXXXXXX

Although Emma's text was extremely vague, Snow had a pretty good idea what it was about. It was a mass text that simply read 'Meet me at Granny's ASAP. It's about Regina.' It had decidedly taken Snow a bit longer than everyone else to come to the realization and acceptance of Emma and Regina being True Loves. No one had actually spoken the words, but the knowing looks and eyebrow raises had been telling. Between David, Henry, Archie, even Zelena, it was completely obvious to all of them that there was something more between Emma and Regina than friendship. It wasn't until Emma saved Regina from the darkness that Snow finally let herself believe in the possibility of this impossible match. As she, Henry and Charming rushed into the diner, she hoped that their suspicions were about to be proven correct.

As they piled into the diner, they found Emma sitting alone at the bar, with a smirking Granny standing behind the counter. She kept a stoic face, which was difficult when she saw Henry's face.

"Well? Have you figured out how to bring Mom back?" he asked excitedly.

Emma was going to put on a little show, but she couldn't. Instead she put her hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Yeah, Kid. I did."

With that, Regina stepped out from around the corner, grinning from ear to ear. "Henry!" she exclaimed.

Henry ran into his mother's arms, gleefully hugging her with all his might. "Mom! You're back! I knew you'd come back!"

Regina held on tight to her son, accepting cheers and hugs from the friends that had joined them in the diner. The happy tears and smiles were finally met with the question Regina and Emma had been expecting.

Snow smiled as she gripped Regina's shoulder. She looked from Regina over to Emma expectantly. "So? How'd you do it Emma? How'd you get Regina back?"

Emma recognized the look on her mother's face. She knew, and was leading Emma to come clean with everyone. Normally this would have irritated Emma, but this time she let her mother have this victory. Emma smiled and looked around at everyone who were staring at her with bated breath. She chuckled before looking over at Regina, Henry's arms wound tightly around her waist. "Well, I suppose you all already know the answer, don't you?" The room was silent as Emma walked over and stood a foot away from Regina, smiling. "True Love." With that she reached down and took Regina's hand in hers. It was a simple gesture, but one signifying that they were now a package deal. The quiet of the room was abruptly ended as the room erupted into cheers. Emma couldn't help but shed a tear as more hugs came her way. When Snow came up and looked Emma in the eyes, Emma felt like she needed to set something straight. "Listen, Mom, about Killian..."

Snow waved her off and shook her head. "No, it's okay. You're not really married, I know."

Emma's eyes went wide. "You know?"

Snow scoffed. "I knew you'd realize what a mistake that was eventually. Why do you think I asked Archie to do the service?"

Emma was speechless. In the end they all had a laugh about the fake wedding, and even Emma finally let the betrayal go. Champagne was popped, fries were eaten, congratulations and well wishes were offered. As Zelena and Blue stood in the back of the diner, watching Emma, Regina and Henry all arm in arm, they clinked glasses.

"Looks like I was right after all," Zelena said, eyes not leaving the happy couple.

Blue rolled her eyes and her face turned red. "It appears a broken clock is indeed right every so often."

Zelena just smirked. "So...about that bet..."

With the beginning of happy endings filling the diner, the chatter of happy family, Emma couldn't help but give Regina a sweet kiss, even in front of Henry. And as a shriek came from outside, sending the room scurrying over to look out the window, they held tight to each other, anticipating the worst. But as Zelena laughed heartily, they all screamed in shock and amusement to see the Blue Fairy streaking down main street.

The End