Blinded By a Dream-

"See Regina, I told you I could do it!" Emma smiled smugly as she held herself in a surprisingly steady handstand, her palms pressed against the lush green grass that made her sparkling emerald eyes stand out enchantingly.

"Okay, okay, you can do a perfect handstand you proved me wrong." Regina chuckled as she lounged casually on the red picnic blanket a few feet away from the blonde. "How does it feel to finally be right Miss Swan?" The brunette teased, her whiskey brown eyes shimmering with amusement.

"I've been right before Regina. Or have you forgotten the map incident in Neverland?" Emma shot back with a smirk as she dropped out of the hand stand and landed easily on her feet. She walked over to the picnic blanket and the woman sitting on it with a playful bounce in her step, wisps of her golden blonde hair falling from her ponytail into her face as she stood at the edge of the blanket.

The brunette rolled her eyes and shook her head though a smile was still evident on her lips. "You would be the one to bring that up Miss Swan." She chuckled and looked up at the blonde giving her a small but radiant smile that made Emma feel like she could melt from the genuine warmth of it. "Come dear, sit down. I do believe we still have a picnic to enjoy." Regina invited and held out her hand to Emma.

Emma felt her heart soar as she took Regina's hand and knelt down into a sitting position on the picnic blanket. "But what if I'm already enjoying it?" She asked and looked at Regina with an admiring glance. It was an unexpected treat for Emma to catch Regina blush at the complement only making her gaze at the woman much more closely, trying to drink in every detail of the stunning brunette.

Regina bit her lush red lower lip gently and glanced up at Emma under thick black eyelashes. "Well then I would hope you might be able to enjoy it more with the food I packed." She replied and dipped her hand into the basket beside her. When she pulled her hand back out she was holding a container with fresh strawberries inside.

"Strawberries?" Emma asked with a pleasantly surprised smile.

"Well I figured that I might have overdone apples in the past and so I thought strawberries might be a nice change." Regina explained as she pulled out a baguette, some cheeses, grapes, deli meats, two wine glasses and a bottle of wine. "Beside's this is far healthier than that diner double bacon cheeseburger you are constantly stuffing your face with." She pointed out and shot the blonde a lecturing look.

Emma only laughed and reached forward to pluck up a strawberry from the container. "Well I'm glad I have you looking out for me then." She smiled and bit into the strawberry, her taste buds relishing the refreshingly naturally sweet taste of the red fruit.

"I always am." Regina replied with a wink as she poured the white wine into the two glasses and passed one to Emma.

Emma took the glass and sipped it, surprised at how much she actually enjoyed the taste as it blended with the strawberry. "Do you think Henry will be jealous that I'm stealing his mother for my own selfish needs?" The blonde asked jokingly.

"I'm sure he'll learn to live with it." Regina reassured and took a bite of a strawberry. Emma watched the brunette like she was in a dream, she watched every movement of the soft red lips in front of her and felt herself wanting to lean in and claim them with her own. "What kind of sandwich would you like Emma?" Regina's voice pulled the blonde back to world and the blonde licked her lips hoping to hide her embarrassment.

"Ummm, just pastrami and cheese." Emma answered and took another sip of her wine. "Thanks by the way, I mean thank you for the beautiful picnic Regina." She smiled and reached forward to place her hand gently on top of the brunette's who was putting together her sandwich. "I love everything about it." She uttered with a genuine smile.

Regina looked up at Emma and smiled, "I'm glad, I hoped you would. I just figured we could both use some time to rest and be away from everything." She paused and put down the bread knife. "And everyone." She added softly.

Emma hadn't realized how close she had gotten to Regina nor how close the brunette had gotten towards her, only now did she realize that she could feel Regina's breath and smell the wine and strawberry mix. Licking her lips Emma couldn't help but glance down at Regina's mouth, "Yeah, I totally agree." She breathed. "Everything has gotten so… so hectic lately. We ha… have no t-time for-" Emma tried to speak but realized she was losing all ability to do so the longer she remained so close to her beautiful picnic companion.

"Emma." Regina cut her off gently.

"Yeah?" Emma swallowed.

"Kiss me." Regina demanded in a throaty yearning voice that Emma could never have denied.

Emma leaned in and pressed her thin pink lips against Regina's soft red ones, her mouth moving with Regina's in a beautiful passion filled dance that made Emma feel as if she had never truly been kissed before. Any movement her mouth made, Regina's lips sealed perfectly against in a way that no one had ever before done. Emma felt herself raising a hand to run through Regina's silky dark hair, her other hand gently cupping the woman's cheek. Soon Emma could feel Regina's tongue run along her bottom lip as if asking for permission to enter which it received more than willingly. Emma took her time to explore Regina's mouth and run her own tongue long the woman's perfect teeth, occasionally rejoining Regina's tongue in affection filled swipes. It was as if nothing in the world truly mattered so long as they stayed like this forever, nothing had ever felt more right or more real to Emma than Regina's lips pressed lovingly against her own. This was not hunger or lust, it was not deprivation or a charade, this was real and full of passion and desire to be close this way forever, it was realization that nothing could have ever been more than this, nothing could have ever been more perfect or more right. Emma knew that what she had right now in this moment as she kissed Regina was something beyond magic and words, beyond anything to have ever been seen or even thought of before. It was beyond love, even the truest love, it was beyond soul mates and missing halves, it was beyond any and everything, it was her and it was Regina, it was them, and nothing had ever been more beautiful.

Emma almost cried when Regina and she had to break away in order to catch their breath. For a moment she couldn't help but curse the air for breaking something more precious than the Mona Lisa, but the moment passed the instant she caught Regina's whiskey colored eyes with her own. As she looked into the depths of the brunette's golden brown gaze she could see such beauty and love swimming within them, such emotion beyond compare shined bright within her enchanting stare. Emma knew that everything she had felt during their kiss, Regina had felt too and with just as much strength and passion. Knowing that seemed to make Emma's heart soar even higher than it already was, knowing that everything she had felt in their moment of complete and utter connection had been felt by the intoxicating brunette as well made the sensation more blissful and heavenly than anything ever before it had even come close to feeling.

"Regina…" Emma whispered the woman's name as she looked into her eyes, only just realizing that they were both now lying on their sides resting on the picnic blanket.

"I know, I felt it too Emma." Regina uttered and gently ran her thumb along Emma's lower lip.

"Do you really think that after everything that has happened that it might finally be our turn?" Emma asked softly and reached her hand up to hold onto Regina's. "Do you think we can finally have our chance to be happy?"

Regina looked at Emma and smiled, "I think it could be." She admitted which made Emma's lips part into a small genuine smile. "If we choose it to be." Regina looked into Emma's eyes and Emma knew that she would never find a place that felt more like home than in the eyes of the brunette laying beside her.

"I choose it to be." Emma whispered and squeezed Regina's hand lovingly, her other hand delicately brushing a lock of dark hair behind the woman's ear.

"Than it shall be." Regina promised and leaned forward pressing her lips to Emma's, the blonde eager to receive them. Emma was ready to have her chance at love and happiness because she now knew what it truly could be like and would be like, she knew it would be Regina Mills.

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Rumpelstiltskin sat in a padded room of the hospital's mental ward with a look of shame painted upon his surprisingly aged immortal face. In his hand's he held onto the golden grip of his cane, even though he didn't need it anymore, and small vial filled with an eerily glowing blue liquid. His tired and guilt ridden amber eyes gazed into the corner of the padded room, staring woefully at the scrawny pale figure curled up tightly at the base of the conjoining part of the two walls. He had been there for most of the day watching the figure which rarely ever moved, he had come almost every day for the past three months to sit with her. "Emma, I'm so sorry." He whispered as he looked away from the blonde who was yet again crying as she sat curled up in a tight ball, her chin resting upon her knees.

Rumpelstiltskin had thought that by creating another monster consumed by darkness that he could finally have his happy ending. That is what he had convinced the Queen's of Darkness of and that is what he had even in some twisted way convinced himself of. He thought that by corrupting Emma, by getting her to open up to the darkness that her soul had only tasted in the slightest, that he could finally obtain his happy ending. Only when too much damage had been done to ever be reversed did he ever realize that he had been wrong. Rumpelstiltskin hadn't counted on his former monster, his former pupil, trying to stop him from creating his new beast. Of course he had expected Regina to show some resistance, but he had believed that once Emma had joined the side of the villains that eventually the Evil Queen would return as well. After all, if there was one thing he had known about his former student it was that she would have done anything for love. Only know did he realize how right he had been, that she truly had been willing to go to whatever lengths in order to save the souls of those she loved most. He had never realized how fragile everything around him was, he had never known how easily he could break it all.

Rumpelstiltskin tightened his grip on the golden top of his cane and hung his head shamefully. Too late did he realize that he had driven the Savior towards the path of insanity rather than the embrace of darkness. Too late did he realize that he had misjudged the light that had grown strong within his Evil Queen's heart. Too late did he realize that he couldn't have been more wrong about everything he thought he was sure of.

He had watched with glee as it had happened, he had told the Queen's of Darkness that they could finally find their happiness through Emma. When Regina had stood in his way and tried to talk Emma down, tried to bring her back from the darkness he had coiled her in, he had been so caught up in the little details that he hadn't seen the big picture. Of course he had wanted her out of the way the moment she had tried to bring Emma back to the light, he had wanted her gone so that she couldn't mend the saviors darkened soul. When Regina had begun talking to Emma and refusing to leave her side, Rumpelstiltskin had wanted her gone, but this isn't what he had wanted. He knew Regina well and knew how convincing she could be, especially towards Emma. He hadn't expected for the blonde savior to reach forward into the chest of his former pupil and rip out her heart. And when it did happen he had simply assumed that Emma knew what she was doing, never having realized how insane she truly had become. But Regina had seen it, somehow she seemed to know how far gone Emma was, she saw past the façade into the soul of the twisted and warped savior and she had been determined to pull her back. He still couldn't help but wonder how his former pupil had managed to escape her own darkness, how she had managed to heal so greatly after the years of torment she once knew, how she managed to be the one to fight for the side of light when not long ago she had belonged only to darkness.

"Let me help you forget?" Rumpelstiltskin whispered and held the luminous vial in his hand out to the woman curled up in the corner. He truly wanted to help her forget the pain that had plagued her for three agonizing months now. He wanted to help her wipe her mind of the horrors she had come to know, he wanted to help Emma to become herself again.

"I don't want to forget." Emma muttered as she tightened her arms around her knee's curling up into a tighter ball.

Rumpelstiltskin looked at her with eyes that looked to be almost pleading. "Please Emma, you won't have to deal with all the pain anymore. You can get out of this room, you can see Henry." The old man tried to persuade, giving her a small smile at the mention of his grandson.

"Henry wouldn't want to see me!" Emma spat and looked at Rumpelstiltskin with blazing emerald eyes. "How could he ever want to see me!? I don't even want to see me! I'm stuck with me! I'm stuck with these hands! I'm stuck with these eyes! I'm stuck with every part of me!" She cried out with tears in her eyes. "THESE HANDS HELD REGINA'S HEART! THESE FINGERS CRUSHED IT TO ASH! THESE EYES WATCHED HER DIE! AND THESE-" Her voice broke into a sob before she could finish her words. She buried her face in her knee's and sobbed heart wrenching sobs that only the most broken of people could emit. It took several long moments for the blonde to control her breathing long enough to utter her unfinished words. "These ears heard her say 'I love you Emma' before she died with the ashes of her heart in my hand…" The broken blonde whispered through her tears.

"Don't you see Emma; I'm offering you a chance to forget that." Rumpelstiltskin insisted and looked desperately at the blonde. "You shouldn't be in here Emma, this isn't where you belong."

Emma shook her head and turned away from Rumpelstiltskin and his potions. "I need to remember it, I need to remember all of it… because… because if I forget… then I lose her." Emma sniffled and rested her head against the padded wall. "And if I remember… well… then I have her always… in my dreams."

Rumpelstiltskin shook his head and sighed sadly. It broke his heart that she had been damaged so badly, it haunted every moment of his immortal life knowing that he had helped make her this way. He had broken the Savior in an attempt to make a monster, never realizing how fragile a mind could be. Now she couldn't tell her waking hours from her sleep, now she saw herself in a dream world when she still roamed the realm of wake, now she whispered sweet words to a woman who was no longer alive. She did it because she thought she was dreaming, she did it because she wanted to live the life that she now never could. It broke Rumpelstiltskin's heart.

A/N: So yeah, this is a bit depressing. The first part of it is a hallucination Emma has while in the mental ward, she never even realizes she is having them, she thinks they are dreams. Basically instead of going dark side like Rumpel wanted, Emma just goes insane and Regina comes to talk her down but Emma ends up crushing Regina's heart and killing her. Regina's last words are what snap Emma back but also breaks her again and that's why she is in the mental ward. Rumpel feel's really bad now and just wants to fix things that are beyond repair. Hope you all enjoyed the story. Please comment and review! Love you all!