WARNING: Character Death

EPILOGUE

There was a reason he was the baby, a reason he hadn't been put on this Earth before everybody else. He wasn't equipped to handle stress, he didn't know how to properly process it, he just shut down. Much like his mother, Regina anyway. Emma was always the one he went to when he was in trouble, she kept a calm head about everything in life. He had heard the stories about his grandfather and how his moms had devised a plan to get rid of him. He was happy he'd never met him, he didn't think he'd like him very much. But Emma wasn't here to bail him out anymore, he would have to figure out how to do this on his own.

Emma stood in the kitchen, clutching her phone to her ear. Her knuckles were white and her face had been drained of all color. "What do you mean you didn't see it before? How could you have not caught this!?" She screamed into the phone, but the screaming made her head hurt so she took a few deep breaths to calm herself, or try to anyway.

Regina put down the book she was reading in the study and made her way into the kitchen, the yelling had gotten her attention. She stood in the doorway and watched as Emma paced back and forth, her breathing becoming more and more shallow as time went on. She took a tentative step forward, silently announcing her presence if Emma needed her. When Emma turned around she stopped dead in her tracks, the words on the other end of the phone and Regina's surprise appearance halting her movements, her world. She collapsed on the floor, her knees simply giving out as the phone slipped from her hand. Before Regina could reach her she burst into sobs.

Regina ran to her wife's side, not knowing what the phone call had been about or even who it was that had upset her wife so much. She picked up the phone and noticed the call was still connected, "Hello? Who is this?" she demanded.

"It's Dr. Whale, I'm going to need Emma to come in for some additional tests."

"What do you mean additional?" Regina questioned.

"Just bring her in Regina, we'll explain it all when you get here." He hung up, and after Regina had placed the phone on the counter she maneuvered Emma into her lap on the kitchen floor. Not caring that the cupboard handles were digging into her back, or that her tailbone was being ground into the hard surface, all that mattered in that moment was her wife and the heart wrenching sobs still escaping her lips.

"Emma started coming to me about six months ago complaining on constant headaches so we started running tests, everything we could think of. But all of the tests kept coming up negative. So last week I decided to run a PET scan and that's when we found it."

"Found what?" Regina croaked. She hadn't stopped crying since they had entered Whale's office and she found out that her sweet Emma, her darling wife, had been hiding this for so long. Yes, she knew about the headaches but she always thought they had gone away because Emma only ever mentioned them once when they would start and that would be the end of it. Now she knew that Emma had been suffering silently for the past six months and it was too much to process. Why hadn't she told her? Didn't she trust her to take care of her? Of course she did and Regina knew the answer to both of those questions although she was loathe to admit it; Emma had suffered silently because she didn't want Regina knowing she was suffering at all. She always had to be the strong one, the savior. But she didn't have to go through it alone either.

"The tumor," Emma whispered beside her.

Regina's eyes snapped up to Emma and in that moment all Emma saw was fear. This is why she had kept things quiet and she hadn't said anything. The look of plain unadulterated fear in Regina's eyes was almost too much for Emma to bear. She knew the hurt and pain Regina had felt after losing Daniel, and now she was going to relive it again.

"H-How long?" Regina stammered out.

"Another six months, if she's lucky," Dr. Whale said. He looked down at his hands clasped on his desk, this was the last person he had wanted to share the information with but he knew he didn't have a choice.

"What kind of treatment options are there?"

Dr. Whale looked up at that making eye contact with Emma and in that moment Regina knew. She could feel it in the cold hard band that had snaked its way around her stomach and in the hole she started to feel growing in her heart. She looked to Emma to say something, argue that it wasn't right, to deny it. But Emma's silence spoke volumes.

"I see," she whispered. "Well, I—" but her façade broke and she crumpled into Emma's arms. She held on to every piece of clothing she could, hoping that if she did Emma wouldn't simply deteriorate over time. She wanted to hold on to everything about her. Her beautiful loving wife.

"I'll give you two some time," Dr. Whale said before leaving his office.

Emma sat there rocking her wife back and forth like she used to do for Penelope and Ryker when they were inconsolable. She knew it wouldn't work the same as it did on the kids but it was the only form of comfort she thought she could offer. She brushed Regina's hair behind her ear and tried whispering soothing words in her ear but that only made her cry harder.

"I love you Regina Mills Swan," she finally said.

The woman in her arms began to slow, her sobs not so deep, the shaking of her shoulders not so intense. Regina took a few deep breaths before she dared to look up into emerald green eyes. But when she finally did, she didn't see defeat or loss; she saw love. She leaned up and kissed Emma then, like they had never kissed before, like their first kiss again. She poured everything she had into that kiss and in that moment she knew things would never be the same. But she refused to waste a single second that she had with Emma.

They buried Emma that winter. It was a small ceremony, everybody in attendance fit around the coffin that lay on the snow covered grass. Henry had his arms around Regina, he was the new pillar of strength she leaned on. Penelope and Ryker stayed stoically silent, the only signs of life were the occasional shake of the shoulders that neither child could hide. Snow stood silent as well, Ruby's arms encompassing the smaller woman. No words were said, no words were needed. They had all taken turns at the end telling Emma everything she had meant to them. She had wanted it that way, she wanted time with every person in her life before she passed on, only to let them know that she would never stop loving them and she would always be in their hearts.

"Regina," she had said the last day they had together, "I will never stop loving you. Never. You were my savior love, and that will never change. I'll wait for you on the other side."

Ryker sat watching his mother sleep, that's all she seemed to do anymore, but the nurses at the home said it was normal at her age. He picked up her fragile hand and traced the veins that stood out, the bones protruding under her papery skin. If he closed his eyes he could remember doing the same thing when he was younger, when Regina's flesh was full of life and color. Now it only reminded him of how near the end she was and it didn't matter what the doctors did, there was no going back. You can't turn back the clock on Alzheimer's they had told him once, it only turns the clock back on you.

He pulled the phone out of his pocket, he didn't have a choice any longer. He could feel it and he was almost certain Regina could too. A week at most was all she had left and he needed his siblings by his side.

"Henry? I need you to come home for a bit. It's mom, she's not doing too well." He made the same phone call to Penelope and the next day both of his siblings showed up.

The man that stood in the doorway to her room looked familiar but she couldn't recall where she had seen him before. His brown hair and muscular build piqued something in her brain, if only she could place it. It hit her then and her eyes filled up with hope. "Daniel? Is that you?"

Henry had seen the confusion and then the sudden clarity in his mother's eyes and for an instant he felt hope that today would be the day she remembered who he was. But as always, he was wrong.

"No mom, it's me Henry. I'm your son, remember?"

A frown crossed her features and she shook her head slightly. "But that can't be, I didn't have any kids with Daniel and you look just like him." She looked at the woman who had entered the room behind him and smiled lovingly at Henry, "Is this your wife? She's beautiful."

Penelope looked at Henry and shrugged her shoulders slightly, if she needed to play the wife today she would, if only to keep the happiness she saw on her mother's face.

A few days later, her children surrounding the bed Regina mumbled something in her sleep that made Henry, Penelope and Ryker look up with undeniable hope written in all of their eyes. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked at each of them in turn, tears welling up in her eyes. "My babies. I'm so happy to see you."

All three kids let out a collective breath, she had recognized them. All of them.

"Did you have a good dream mom?" Penelope asked.

"I did, I saw your mother there. She says hello and that she loves all of you," she said as a single tear rolled down her cheek. She reached out to take their hands in hers, tears still streaming down her face. "I love you all so much, thank you for coming to visit me. But I'm so tired, would you mind if I just rested a bit more?"

"No mom, that's fine, we'll be here when you wake up," Henry spoke for all three of them.

"I love you," she whispered as she drifted off to sleep.

She was walking along the beach, but was it a dream? She thought surely it couldn't be because she could feel the sand beneath her toes, the waves lapping at her feet and the warm summer sun shining down on her face. The bottom of her white cotton dress would be filthy but she didn't care. She felt solace in the place she was at, a peace within. She shielded her eyes and looked further down the beach, fifty yards or so down there was something in the sand. Keeping her eye on it so she wouldn't lose it she slowly made her way towards it. When she finally reached the object in the sand she smiled. The glass bottle at her feet had a note rolled inside, tipping it upside down so the note spilled into her hand her heart soared as she recognized the writing.

It's time to come home. Love Emma.

She never did wake up after telling her kids she loved them, but the smile on her face after she died told the kids everything they needed to know really. She had found Emma again, she was home.

The End.

A/N: I want to take the time to say thank you to everybody who started this with me over a year ago and thank you to everybody who just tuned in. I never would have found the motivation to finish this if it wasn't for you all. From the bottom of my heart thank you.