One Heart

Once Upon A Time

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: Emma/Graham

Summary: Emma broke the curse, saved her son, and defeated the Evil Queen. But when she returns to her office she finds the one person she never expected to see again. Graham.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

One heart
Tenderly beating
Ever entreating
Constant and true

-From One Song by Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

The big, dramatic purple cloud had swept over the town like a sandstorm in the desert. But then it passed and nothing happened.

At least nothing that anyone could see right away.

Emma ran a hand through her hair and her fingers got tangled in the knots that she had developed during her long day of fighting a dragon and defeating an Evil Queen while saving a whole town of fairy tale characters from a curse.

She put her key in the lock and turned it.

A whole town of people that kept looking at her as she walked down the streets and that were really starting to freak her out. The way that they would stare at her was full of awe, gratefulness, and curiosity.

In a weird way, it made Emma's skin crawl because it was all so new and unfamiliar. She had never been one for change and today, so many things in her small town and the lives of the people in it (including her own) had changed.

Another part of her hated the way they would stare because it made her feel guilty. The people looked at her like she had saved them on purpose.

She wanted to scream at them that she did not do it for them so they would stop staring at her like she was their savior. Emma had done it for Henry, her son.

She felt guilty about wanting them to get off her back so she just let them stare and she smiled as she passed them by with quickness in her step that was not usually present.

After all, she was their Sheriff so she had, in her own way, signed up to be their savior. She would just have to get comfortable with this new role of curse breaker.

The door opened and she walked through it and when she was on the other side she closed it by leaning her whole body against it, softly slamming her head back, and closing her eyes. She just needed one moment to herself to adjust to everything that had changed in the last few hours of her life.

Her son was the most important thing on her mind right now.

Henry was still at the hospital. He had insisted she go home and shower because she had earned it.

After all, she had broken the curse so a shower was a worthy reward but when she had said she could wait, he had kindly told her that she really did not smell that pleasant and he was asking her for his own good.

Emma chuckled as the words flitted back to her.

"Mom, you smell like rotten eggs."

"Well, that's what fire breathing dragons smell like so can you blame me?"

"Mom, please, for me?"

Henry had called her mom and that alone tugged at her heart strings.

So Emma relented and left him under the care of Dr. Whale or… whoever he was. She had never found out his character counterpart was but regardless, she knew Henry was safe in the hospital now that the curse was broken.

Of course, that apparently was a problem that would be long forgotten about when they figured out what the heck that cloud thing was.

That big purple dust cloud had held a certain ominous feeling to it.

Emma shook her head.

She could not think about that. That was a problem for a different day. Emma just wanted today to be done with.

She took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.

Emma reveled in the silence of the Sheriff's Department. Emma had thought about going back to her apartment but the thought of running into Mary Margaret was just too much for her to handle.

Seeing as it was her Mom, and everything.

Emma chuckled. Her mother was Snow White and her father was Prince Charming.

She swallowed her laugh as another thought occurred to her. If her parents were… like royalty then that made her… a princess.

"Just great, as if I'm not enough of a freak already, let's add a crown."

She whispered to no one or so she thought.

"I think you would like rather fetching in one and you are not a freak. You're trouble… but the good kind."

The voice was unmistakable.

He was the only person in Storybrooke who had an accent.

Emma's heart started to pound in her chest.

Her eyes snapped open and she turned her head to the side.

There he was as if he had never left. He was standing tall and proud in the room by the desk where she had kissed him like he had never fallen to the ground from a heart attack and died.

No.

If the curse was real then that meant that everything he had told her on his last day was right and that, the Evil Bitch Queen Regina had killed him.

Emma felt fury run through her veins as she realized so many things had been going on under her nose simply because she refused to believe.

Well, she believed now but Graham had died.

Now he was standing there with his deep brown eyes staring right into her soul like hallways had and the fury in her vanished as a smile started to spread across his handsome face.

He couldn't be real but god; she really wanted him to be real.

"Graham." She said and the tears welled in her eyes as a cautious smile spread across her own face.

"Emma," He started taking a step to her and in an instant she was off the door and into his open arms.

She wrapped her arms around his neck as he picked her up off the floor. He held her in his strong and sturdy arms.

And she just knew.

He was real.

"Oh, Graham," She whispered into his neck as the tears spilled down her face. His clean scent was overwhelming her and as he buried his face in her neck she could feel his tears land on her skin.

Emma thought her heart was going to pound out of her chest.

"Emma," He whispered in return and she held him tighter.

She leaned back in his embrace. His bright eyes were shining at her and she could not stop smiling at the man before her.

Emma could not care about how or why he was in her arms right now. He held her firmly in his arms and she brought her hands to his face and touched his rough, warm skin and it sent shivers down her spine.

She knew that he was just as confused and happy as she was. He was furrowing his eyebrows and his red lips were stuck in a silly smile just like hers.

"How," Graham asked, "What happened?"

Emma just shook her head and laughed a little at this incredible and ridiculous situation. On top of everything else that had happened today, the man she loved had come back from the dead.

"Does it really matter? You're here." Emma said. "And you're never going anywhere again, okay?"

Graham smiled at her. "Emma, if death can't stop us… I don't think anything or anyone else can either."

She laughed a little as she put her head to his and closed her eyes.

God, he was perfect. He was real, and he was here, and he was staying in her arms forever.

There was nothing else she could ever want in her life; Emma decided then and there to not be afraid of anything anymore.

She had slayed a dragon, broken the curse, defeated the Evil Regina or she was going to if that witch thought about ever hurting anyone she loved again, and saved her son's life now she knew she could do anything and she was going to tell Graham what she was afraid to tell him before he died.

It had been too soon. She had been too scared.

Now, she wasn't and she knew he felt it too.

"I love you, Graham." She said quietly and she opened her eyes but did not move her head.

He smiled. "I love you, Emma."

The accent was heavy in his words and if he were not holding her the whole moment would have made her weak in the knees but he was not going to let her fall.

Emma sighed.

He had certainly been the one to save her. when everyone else in this town had looked to her (unknowingly) to be their savior Graham was the one breaking down her defenses and making her feel again. He had awoken her heart to feeling and because of him she could love freely from now on.

Emma was the product of the true love between her parents (who she would have to deal with very soon) and now she had found true love of her own.

There was nothing they would not face together from that moment on and so she decided to take one more leap that day… because Emma figured, once you found the one you love why waste any more time?

"Hey Graham," She asked tentatively.

"What?" He replied.

"Wanna get married?"

End.

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