"A what?" Emma asked no one, glancing at her phone. A noisy alert had interrupted her ritualistic mind-numbingly tedious paperwork. "Tornado watch. Huh. Yeah, ok, I'll believe it when I see it."

The morning had started off hotter and stickier than usual. The afternoon brought the town to a slow boil. A thunderstorm was coming, no question about it. But a tornado? In Storybrooke, Maine? Nah.

Regardless of her disbelief, Emma stood up and walked to the front door of the station. She poked her head out and looked up at the sky. Mostly sun, with a few looming clouds in the distance. She shrugged, refilled her mug with the weak coffee stagnating in the pot, and returned to her desk.

"Hey Em," David called as he flung the door open. "Hot as a bitch out there."

Emma nodded, giving him a half-hearted wave. She could hear muffled rumbles of thunder, presumably coming from miles away. The sun was still blazing down on Storybrooke and she was still entering data into the department database.

"I just got a text from your mom. She wants to know if she should dismiss the kids from summer school. I don't know why everyone is freaking out, this isn't our first tornado watch. We get at least one or two a summer," David mused, quickly hammering out a text reply.

"I think it's because there were some touchdowns in upstate New York last night. The news was all over it. But I agree with you, we're not going to see a tornado."

David shrugged. "Well, I'm going to take off for the night. Henry still staying over at our place?"

"Yeah, he's probably there already. He's helping mom with some project she's doing with the summer school kids. I'll head out soon, too."

"Okay. Tell Killian I said hi," David said, giving Emma a quick kiss on the head before he left.

Emma sighed heavily and sat back down, finishing up for the day. She keyed in her last entries, straightened papers so her desk didn't look so disheveled, and dumped the remnants of her cup into the sink. She started switching off the lights when she heard the door open once again.

"Emma?"

"Regina, hey. Everything ok?" Emma asked, unconsciously straightening her sweaty blue t-shirt.

"Yes. Everything's fine. I just wanted to check on the Keystone report. I have a meeting with them tomorrow morning." Regina raised her eyebrows expectantly as Emma fumbled around the outbox sitting at the edge of her desk.

"Ah, here it is. I was going to drop it off on my way in tomorrow," Emma lied, thankful Regina stopped by. She had forgotten about it completely.

Emma watched as Regina flipped through the sheets of the report, nodding slowly at each turn. Over the past year their relationship had ebbed and flowed; lately it had seemed to be ebbing.

It was not lost on Emma that when she and Regina were at their most comfortable, laughing, talking, sharing, and really connecting, was when Regina invariably pulled away. A few months ago they had been sitting out on Regina's back porch, drinking wine and discussing Henry's college plans. Regina felt it was never too early to start vetting school choices. Emma didn't really care which school he chose either way, as long as he chose one, but she wanted to appear invested. Their conversation had drifted into the past, as it sometimes did, mortal enemy territory.

Warmed and giddy from the alcohol, both women were on the edge of hysteria. "A-and you slammed me up against a locker! I've never been so shocked in my entire life!" Regina laughed.

Emma smiled and threw her head back. "Well, you tried to poison me! If this is a contest, honey, I win!" She slapped her hand down on Regina's leg, and for some odd reason, left it there. Regina covered it with her own.

"What's so funny out here?" Robin asked, standing in the doorway. Emma snatched her hand away like it was on fire.

The lightheartedness immediately drained from both of them. Emma cleared her throat.

"Nothing. Just rehashing some of our…past differences. All in fun," Regina told him, a grin threatening to break through.

"Yeah," Emma agreed, smiling. "I was actually about to get going anyway. See you guys around," Emma said, slipping past Robin and setting her glass in the sink. As much as she tried, she couldn't warm up to him. At all. She didn't notice the blatant disappointment on Regina's face as she left.

It had been like that for a while. They'd have a great time together, experience a closeness between them that was always on the brink of something…and then…nothing. Life would mysteriously get in the way and they would go weeks without seeing each other. It was exhausting, but neither of them were willing to just write the other off. That thought seemed to be off limits.

"This is good. Really good. Thank you," Regina said, snapping Emma out of her reverie. The report. Right. "Have a good night," she told her, still engrossed in the file.

Another alarm blasted through the silence of the station, this time both of their phones screaming in unison.

* AT 648 PM EDT...A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM CAPABLE OF PRODUCING A TORNADO

WAS LOCATED 9 MILES WEST OF STORYBROOKE...MOVING EAST AT 40 MPH.

HAZARD...TORNADO.

SOURCE...RADAR INDICATED ROTATION.

IMPACT...FLYING DEBRIS WILL BE DANGEROUS TO THOSE CAUGHT WITHOUT

SHELTER. MOBILE HOMES WILL BE DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

DAMAGE TO ROOFS...WINDOWS...AND VEHICLES WILL OCCUR. TREE

DAMAGE IS LIKELY.

TAKE COVER NOW! MOVE TO A BASEMENT OR AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST

FLOOR OF A STURDY BUILDING. AVOID WINDOWS. IF YOU ARE OUTDOORS...IN A

MOBILE HOME...OR IN A VEHICLE...MOVE TO THE CLOSEST SUBSTANTIAL SHELTER

AND PROTECT YOURSELF FROM FLYING DEBRIS.

HEAVY RAINFALL MAY HIDE THIS TORNADO. DO NOT WAIT TO SEE OR HEAR THE

TORNADO. TAKE COVER NOW!

Regina looked up at Emma with panic in her eyes. "What do we do?"

"I don't know," Emma said. "We don't get tornadoes here. I'm sure it's a false alarm." Emma opened the door and her hair whipped across her face from the intensity of the wind. She looked up to the sky, the earlier sun replaced by greenish-yellow clouds, rotating in a slow circle. Lightning struck somewhere nearby and an explosion of thunder assaulted her ears. "Okay, maybe it's not a false alarm. Shit, this is new. Where's Zelena when you need her?"

"Very funny. I should get home before-"

"No, you can't leave. Haven't you ever seen Twister? God. Can't you just –uh–make this go away?" Emma asked, swirling her finger in the air.

"No, Emma, I cannot. Where is the basement in this godforsaken place?" Regina ran a hand through her hair, anxiety nearly overwhelming her.

"Right. The basement. Come on," she said, taking Regina's hand. Regina did not pull away. Emma led them to the basement door, fighting to release the swollen wood. The door flung open, Emma put her hand on the small of Regina's back to lead her down the stairs. She closed the door tightly behind them, and nearly fell down the stairs while pulling the door closed tightly behind them. She looked down to see the doorknob sitting stupidly in her hand. "Fuck," she muttered.

"Come on!" Regina demanded, pulling at Emma's arm. The howling wind above them continued to intensify, and a constant growling grew louder by the minute.

Emma raced out in front of her, fumbling for Regina's fingers. Regina latched on and followed the sheriff into a dark corner of the basement. "Under here," Emma instructed, pointing below a tool bench that was built into the structure. She snatched some tablecloths that would have to act as pillows from the shelf next to them, and crawled into the small space beside Regina.

"We're okay," she said soothingly, absent-mindedly running her hands through Regina's hair. "Henry is with my parents, and I'm sure they're hunkering down in that jam-cellar-thing under the house. We're all okay."

Regina nodded, blinking back tears. "Maine was supposed to be safe from natural disasters, except for maybe a blizzard once in a while. Not a fucking tornado," she spat, holding onto Emma's free hand with both of her own. She closed her eyes as Emma continued to smooth her hair, gripping lightly on the back of her neck.

"Such foul language, Mayor. I'm offended," Emma smirked, crinkling her eyes at Regina.

"Shut up, Emma," Regina breathed out, finding her intake of air to be shallow at best.

Everything around them grew quiet. Still. Regina looked slightly relieved, but Emma knew this was probably a bad sign. A very bad sign. Her limited knowledge of weather included the fact that the atmosphere was at its most tranquil before the raging tempest blazed in to destroy. But maybe she was remembering wrong.

Nope. Regina clutched her ears as Emma's own popped in agony. The shifting barometric pressure caused them both to slide in closer together, Regina's head now resting on Emma's chest, her arms encircling her waist. Emma adjusted her position so she could hold onto Regina tightly, burying her head in Regina's apple-scented hair. She felt she could have appreciated the moment a little differently if they weren't seconds away from being swept up into an ungodly abyss.