So the epilogue, at last. What a ride it has been. I couldn't be happier about the way this story turned out, although I gotta admit i'm a bit sad that it's actually over. I wanted to take a moment to thank you guys for reading this story, for following, favoriting and reviewing it. It was a pleasure to know your thoughts and read all your kind words.

I sincerely hope you'll like this epilogue. I personally feel it's the perfect wrap up for this story. So, enjoy! and please let me know your thoughts at the end. I would love to hear what you guys have to say about the story in general once it's over :) Til next time! xoxo

"Regina, will you stop pacing?" Emma asks, as she rakes a hand through her tousled blonde locks. "You're driving me crazy."

Emma had broken the news to Regina about talking to her parents in the cave and what they told her about having found a way out for them a couple of hours ago. It took two or three times of Emma repeating the events that had transpired inside the cave for Regina to actually believe a word of what she was saying.

The brunette was skeptical, to say the least, and rejected the story with ferventness at first, accusing Emma of having dreamt it or even hallucinated it. After the third time or so, something began to crack in the brunette's mind and she actually looked like she could believe her.

Now it's already nightfall and the weight of Emma's words is starting to take its toll on the brunette, who jumped from their bed and started pacing across their small room back and forth like crazy.

Emma sighs when Regina doesn't even register her words and sits up on the bed. "Can we, like… talk about this?"

Regina finally stops to look at her. There's a wild sparkle in her dark eyes that sends a shiver up the blonde's spine. Regina looks like she's having a meltdown and it makes Emma's heart clench painfully in her chest. She never knew that seeing Regina struggling like this could make her feel that way too, as if she was emotionally connected to the other woman.

And maybe she was.

Emma pats the space beside her on the bed. "Come here."

Regina lets out a tiny breath but does as she's asked, walking over to the bed and crawling over the mattress, until she's sitting cross-legged beside her sleeping daughter.

"Emma." Regina whispers brokenly, dropping her head as if she can no longer bear the weight of her own thoughts.

Emma bends over the space between their bodies, careful not to wriggle around too much so as not to disturb Brooke, and cups Regina's cheek tenderly with her palm.

"I know." She whispers back to the brunette and a pair of dark eyes locks with emerald green. "Believe me. I know."

"How is it possible that they found a way out when we failed countless times before?"

Emma shrugs, letting the hand on Regina's cheek drop to her kneecap. "How does Mr. Gold ever do anything?" Emma asks rhetorically. "Magic."

Regina sighs and her shoulders sag. She looks utterly lost and smaller than Emma has ever seen her.

"So they'll send our emotional tether tomorrow." Regina states, although it partially sounds like a question. One that Emma feels compelled to answer.

"Yeah," She says matter-of-factly. "They wouldn't tell me what it is, though."

"That's ridiculous." Regina spits, furrowing her brows in confusion. "Why wouldn't they tell you?"

Emma lets out a long, tired breath before answering. "I don't know, Regina. There are many things I wanted an answer for and didn't get one."

"Well, they should have answered you."

Emma squeezes Regina's knee, trying to calm her down. "We'll get all our answers tomorrow, I guess."

Regina bores her eyes intently into Emma's and, for a moment, she looks so unsure of herself, of what they are about to do, that she sends waves of anxiety rippling into the air.

"Hey," Emma calls her, trying to bring back her attention to her. "You do want this, right?"

Regina sucks in her lower lip and mulls over Emma's words for an instant. Then, her eyes travel down to the tiny form of their daughter, who is sleeping soundly in the middle of their bed, oblivious to everything around her. She caresses Brooke's back lovingly with the tips of her fingers and, after a couple of silent minutes, the motion seems to soothe both mother and child.

"For once in my life I'm not sure of what I want." Regina whispers, without looking at Emma.

The confession leaves Emma speechless. She never thought Regina could ever be as lost as she is now. The woman always seems to have a plan for absolutely everything. If anything, she's known for her drive and resilience. This woman, though, the vulnerable looking brunette before her now cannot be further from Emma's memory of how Regina used to be back in Storybrooke.

It is crazy how much things have changed, how Regina has mellowed and softened, how she has learnt to open up and be more trusting, how she's allowed herself to relax.

"I thought you wanted to go back to Storybrooke more than anything." Emma offers feebly, trying to steel the woman into the right direction again.

"I want to be reunited with my – our son more than anything," Regina corrects her. "That doesn't necessarily involve Storybrooke or its occupants."

Emma looks at the expression on Regina's face. She looks tired, conflicted and slightly angry with all of this. Emma gets her; she feels some of those emotions too.

"So you don't want to go back unless it's the only way you'll be with Henry again?" Emma asks tentatively.

She's hoping to get a yes/no answer, simply because when Regina is backed against a corner, she pushes back, so she's clearly struck mute when the brunette gives her more than what she was expecting to hear.

"I never thought it would happen," Regina starts, deliberately avoiding Emma's gaze, "but I… like it here."

The way she makes it sound, though, doesn't seem like a mere 'like', and Emma knows that. She knows that Regina means to say that this island was hell to be stranded on at first but that, eventually, she grew fond of it, she learnt the ways in which it works. She means to say that here she found happiness. Here she found hope, and love.

Emma stretches out her hand to take Regina's smaller one in hers, fingers tangling atop their small daughter's back. Their gazes meet in an intense moment. "I know." Emma whispers, conveying exactly what it is that she knows. She's found happiness here too. She's found love.

Emma squeezes Regina's hand and they share a small smile when Brooke breathes and their joint hands are lifted up a little with the motion. Regina caresses the baby's back with her thumb and Emma follows the gesture with her eyes, unable to help the grin that threatens to overthrow her features.

Finally, she says. "We don't have to go, you know?"

Regina's eyes snap up to meet hers. She looks horrified. "What?"

Emma raises her free hand to placate the woman's sudden spark of anger. "We don't."

"But Henry," Regina straightens back up, untangling their conjoined hands in the process.

"If they found a way to take us back, then surely they can just send the kid over to us instead."

Regina's eyes widen in shock, as if Emma has just lost her mind completely. She stays silent for a long minute, unable to even form a coherent thought, let alone speak.

It's preposterous. Abandoning everything, and yet…

"You would do that?" Regina asks, confusion etched upon her face.

"What?" Emma asks. "Leave everything behind? My parents? My friends? For this?" Emma motions around with her finger. "For you?" She looks down at their sleeping daughter and, just when Regina is sure that the blonde is talking about Brooke, her green eyes travel up to lock with hers, and Emma's words adopt a whole new meaning all of a sudden.

They stare at each other for what seems like an eternity. Regina's heart beating wildly in her chest in anticipation, until Emma throws her cards on the table, rendering herself vulnerable to the woman sitting in front of her.

"Yes, Regina," She says, boring her green eyes intently into hers. "I would." Regina's mouth falls agape, shocked by the weight of Emma's confession. "For you, I would."

Emotion constricts her throat and her voice cracks when Regina says, "Emma." She drops her head and her brown locks come cascading down her face, concealing her from sight.

Emma bends over once more, using both her hands to tuck Regina's locks of hair behind her ears.

"Hey," Emma calls but Regina still refuses to raise her eyes to meet hers. "Please, look at me." A pair of tear filled brown eyes slowly lifts back up and lock with hers. "Don't you get it?" She whispers, using her right hand to cup Regina's cheek tenderly. "I love you, Regina." She confesses in a mere whisper. She knows Regina heard it the moment a lonesome tear springs from the brunette's eye and trails down her face. Emma brushes it away with her thumb. "I love you." She repeats, this time louder, more confidently.

"Emma."

"No," Emma interrupts her, not letting Regina continue. She needs to say what she's kept hidden away for so long now. If this is their last night on the island, if this is their last moment of freedom from their pasts, from the people they used to be, then she needs to say this. "I love you, Regina. And yes, I would leave everything behind, even my family, to be with you and with Henry and Brooke, because you are my family now."

The confession is more than what Regina can bear right now and she drops her gaze again, unable to look straight into the blonde's eyes. Tears roll freely down her cheeks now as emotion overtakes her. She wishes she could say something but she's lost her voice momentarily.

Regina chokes back a sob and buries her head in her hands. Emma is quick to envelope her in her strong, lean arms, and Regina rests her head comfortably on the blonde's shoulder.

Brooke stirs beneath them, letting out a stifled whimper that still manages to catch both her mothers' attention.

Regina slips away from Emma's embrace then to look down at the baby, who is now rolling over to her back and rubbing a hand across her sleepy eyes.

"Hey, Mowgli." Emma whispers, smiling down at a sleepy Brooke.

Brooke blinks up a few times, trying to chase away the cobwebs of sleep, and then rakes her eyes from her blonde mother to her brunette one.

"Mamma," she calls in a raspy voice, looking at Regina with confused eyes. "You cry?"

Regina chuckles and brushes away her tear tracks with the back of her hands. "Yes, baby. Mamma was crying." She answers, almost immediately brightening up again. Brooke has that power over them. "But she won't anymore if you give Mamma a kiss."

Brooke reaches out with her tiny hands to Regina, who bends over and scoops her up. The brunette holds her close to her chest and Brooke makes use of the momentum to wrap her arms around Regina's neck and pull her in for a wet kiss on the cheek.

"Don't cry, Mamma." Brooke says as solemnly as a sleepy two year old can.

Regina smiles at her and kisses her on the forehead. "I won't." She holds the baby close to her chest and lays a comforting hand on the sleepy child's back.

Brooke buries her head on the crook of Regina's neck and yawns sleepily as her brunette mother begins to rub soothing circles across her skin.

Emma watches their interaction with a goofy smile plastered across her face the entire time. She loves the way Regina acts around Brooke, so tender and loving, unlike the woman everyone back in Storybrooke believes her to be. Regina is full of love and has an enormous capacity to give. It's a shame that this side of her is unknown to the majority of people, and Emma feels extremely privileged to be one of the few who actually are able to witness it.

"Is she asleep?" Regina whispers to Emma, lifting a hand to cup the back of Brooke's head. She turns around, so that Emma can check for herself.

"Yeah, out as a light."

Regina turns to look at Emma again, mirroring the sweet smile on the blonde's lips. She bends over to lay Brooke back down on the bed but the baby whimpers in protest and clings tighter to Regina's neck.

Emma chuckles at her daughter's reaction. "We're raising a clingy monkey, Regina."

"Indeed," Comes the amused reply. Then, she sighs and lies down on her back, Brooke firmly held in her embrace.

Emma lies down as well, lifting herself up on her elbow to look down at the pair of brunettes lying beside her.

They remain silent for a couple of minutes, each lost in their own thoughts, until Regina sighs and breaks the silence.

"Emma," she says, turning her head to look up at the blonde. "We've been away for so long…" she trails off, looking like she's struggling to say the next words. Emma waits patiently for her to gather the courage to do so. "Do you ever think about what our lives will be like when we return?" She asks, and her brown eyes shine under the moonlight.

Emma's heart churns at the discovery that new tears are forming on the brunette's eyes. She wishes she could do anything to offer her some comfort.

"We don't have to go back if you don't want to, Regina." Emma whispers, trying to convey all that she feels inside with that one sentence. She'd already told the brunette how she feels about her. She and Brooke and Henry are her family. If Regina wants to stay here then she's sure Gold can send Henry over to them. "If you want to stay, I'll stay with you."

Regina lets out a shuddering breath and her arms tighten around Brooke's sleeping figure. "I can't let you do that, Emma."

"What?" Emma asks.

"I can't let you choose between your parents and me."

Emma sighs, and suddenly she's the one with tears in her eyes.

"I know that you would make the choice without a second thought but, eventually, the weight of it would tear you apart." Regina continues in a broken voice. "And I can't, I just can't let that happen."

"Why?" Emma whispers, feeling herself lean subconsciously closer to the brunette in her attempt to draw the answer from her. An answer that she is sure would change everything forever.

Regina turns her head to look at her, boring her tear-filled eyes intently into Emma's. Emma gasps with the intensity of the gaze.

Regina doesn't utter the words, though. She doesn't need to. Emma can see it clearly across the woman's eyes, as if it was written in neon lights. She sees it now: Regina loves her back.

Emma smiles unrestrictedly at her, a pure, joyous smile that lights up her entire face, and lets out such a relieved breath that sends her tears springing down her eyes.

Regina smiles back and reaches out a hand to brush Emma's tears away from her cheeks.

"You do understand, don't you?" Regina whispers, letting her hand linger on Emma's cheek for a moment before pulling away.

Emma traps the brunette's hand in hers before she can pull away completely and takes it back to her cheek. Then, she nods and her skin brushes Regina's palm.

"Let's get some sleep," Emma says, letting her head hit the pillow and opening her arms in a silent invitation for the brunette to move closer.

Regina moves as carefully as she can, mindful to not awaken Brooke, and lets Emma pull her into a loose embrace. She sighs when her head comes in contact with the blonde's chest and she closes her eyes.

"Rest now," Emma whispers in Regina's ear, tightening her hold on her, and closing her own eyes as well.

"What are we waiting for?" Regina snaps, breaking the charged silence between them.

Both she and Emma are so anxious with anticipation that they can barely stand to stay still. The only one seemingly unaffected by all this is Brooke, who is sitting on the ground next to Regina, playing with one of her flat rocks.

"I already told you," Emma replies, raking a hand through her tousled blonde locks. Regina is making her more nervous than she is, if that's even possible. "We are waiting for Mr. Gold to send us that damn link so we can go home."

Regina's face falls at the mention of Storybrooke as being their home. It's been an awfully long while since she's thought of the place as her home. This is her home, this island. Not the town she cursed thirty years ago because she couldn't bear to live with her misery anymore.

For the first twenty eight years of the curse Regina did think of Storybrooke as her home, but not anymore. After spending so much time here, she realized that her conception of the town was misplaced. Storybrooke didn't give her what her heart desired. The only good thing that came out of that place was Henry.

So no. this island was her home. Here she could truly be who she was, here she could find peace. But that was about to end. It seems that she's not meant to have her happy ending after all.

"Hey," Emma calls her, breaking her out of her absorption. "I'm sorry. You know what I meant." Emma looks truly apologetic, and Regina does know what she meant. It was just an old habit, to talk about Storybrooke as their home. It once was, after all.

Regina nods. She does know.

Emma seems to accept her silent reply and she sighs tiredly, plopping down on the ground to rest for a while.

Catching the tired look on the blonde's face, Regina realizes that on top of not having had much sleep at all, they both have been standing on this cliff for at least two hours now. Her own legs are going numb, now that she thinks about it, so she sits down too, as regally as she can, with her back ramrod straight.

"Mamma, look!" Brooke squeals in excitement by her own achievement. She's been trying to get her flat stones to stand vertically for days now. She's seen Emma do it and she wanted nothing more than to copy her blonde mother. Now, after many failed attempts, she managed to get her stone standing vertically on its own.

"That's…" Regina trails off. She's so overtaken by this whole 'going to Storybrooke' and the implications it will have thing that she cannot even process what her daughter is showing her. Thankfully for her, Emma sees her struggling and intervenes just before Brooke's expression can fall.

"Wow, Mowgli!" Emma exclaims, making the baby turn in her direction. Emma scoots closer to her, wanting to catch a better look at the stone. "That's so awesome," She says cheerfully and Brooke beams at her.

"I made it stand, Dada." Brooke explains, pointing with her chubby finger to the stone in front of her lap.

"I see that, baby." Emma leans closer to the rock, until her nose almost bumps into it, and widens her eyes comically behind it, which makes Brooke burst into laughter. Emma laughs too because there's something about the way Brooke laughs that's so very contagious, and reaches out her arms to take the baby into her lap.

Brooke settles against Emma's chest comfortably but, after a minute, she realizes that she cannot reach her stone like that, so she bends forward and crawls out of her mother's loose hold, getting on two wobbly legs as soon as she's out of Emma's reach, and walking on unsteady feet to her goal.

Regina follows her daughter's steps with a watchful eye and a hand always ready to catch her, should the baby stumble with her own two feet. But even though Brooke hasn't been walking on her own for long, she was always a sure footed child, and so she manages to reach her goal without faltering even once.

Both mothers watch as Brooke sits down on her bottom and begins playing with her flat rock again, oblivious to the ever growing tension in the cliff.

After a few moments, Emma catches Regina's eye. She gives her a lopsided smile, intent on showing her support. Regina smiles back at her, though hers is a sad one, invaded by the swarming thoughts on her head.

Emma frowns at it, not liking Regina's expression one bit. She reaches out her hand and rests it in the empty space between their bodies, in a silent invitation for Regina to take it.

The brunette snorts, because Emma can be more childish than their daughter sometimes, but she moves to take the blonde's hand anyway, if only because she's in much need of the blonde's comfort and closeness.

Their hands are about to touch when the leaves of the bushes at their left ruffle loudly, and Emma bolts to her feet, one hand on the hilt of her hatchet blade and the other outstretched protectively in front of Regina and Brooke.

The bushes move again and, a moment later, a figure is standing in front of them.

"Mom? Momma?"

Regina's heart stops beating. She can't believe what her eyes are seeing. "Henry?" The words leave her mouth, although she's sure that her brain didn't process them before uttering them.

Her legs move on their own free will, and Regina finds herself running towards her son. Emma does the same and, in less than a heartbeat, all three of them are hugging so intensely that breaths are knocked out from their chests.

Tears spring from Regina's eyes and her throat constricts. She can't believe this. She finally has Henry in her arms, she can finally feel his skin brushing against hers, she can finally smell her sweet boy's scent and ruffle his tousled brown locks again.

Emma is prey to similar sensations, holding onto the back of Henry's black jacket like a lifeline and crying on her kid's shoulder.

Neither of them was expecting this. They knew they were going to be reunited with their son in Storybrooke but neither ever thought that he could be their emotional tether, their link to the real world.

It makes complete sense now. Henry is their strongest bond; he is the reason why Regina and Emma clashed paths in Storybrooke. He's the reason why they grew closer at the beginning of their complicated relationship. It's only fitting that he'll be the reason why they find themselves back to the start, back to Storybrooke.

"Dada?" A tiny voice asks from behind them. "I'm hungry."

Emma chuckles, a hearty laugh that tears from the bottom of her chest, lighting up the atmosphere around her. She moves aside to allow Brooke room to step closer.

"Henry, this is Brooke." She says, pointing with one hand to the beautiful brunette, whose tiny baby fists find purchase in her blonde mother's shirt, shyly.

Henry's kneels down on one leg and stretches out a hand. "Hi, Brooke," He says, smiling warmly at the baby. "I'm Henry."

Brooke has never seen any other human, aside from her two mothers, let alone a boy and close to her own age. So she's immediately overtaken by a shroud of shyness and, instead of taking Henry's hand, she gets her own in her mouth, looking up at the boy with curious green eyes.

"Henny," she repeats, drooling her hand.

"Yeah, pretty close, kiddo." Henry laughs and ruffles Brooke's brown locks with his hand, which makes the baby gurgle and smile up at him. "She looks like Mowgli from the Jungle Book." Henry points out, looking curiously at Emma. "Is she from that story?"

"What?" Emma asks, slightly horrified. "No! Of course not." She says, laying a comforting hand on Brooke's head.

"So, who is she?"

Emma gulps and her head shoots to the right, finding Regina's eyes immediately. Her green eyes flare in a clear sign of alarm.

"She's uh…"

"She's your sister." Regina chides in, always straight to the point.

Henry's mouth parts and for a moment he tries to speak, but no sound comes forth. "I don't... but how?"

"Trust me, Henry. There'll be time for that." Regina says and her words seem to have an immediate effect on Henry, who nods and relaxes almost instantly.

"Okay," He says, accepting his mother's words without further ado.

And it's in that moment that both Emma and Regina realize how little their boy has changed. He looks barely older than the last time they saw him, as if not a day had passed by. Then it strikes them that Henry had spent his days in Neverland, a land where the clock never ticks life away.

"Henny?" Brooke asks again, breaking the tense atmosphere surrounding them. She looks curiously at Regina when she asks this, recognizing the name from the stories Regina used to tell her when she lulled her to sleep.

"Yes, baby." Regina replies tenderly. "He's Prince Henry of Neverland."

Brooke beams at that and turns to look at Henry with adoration in her big green eyes.

"Henny," she repeats enthusiastically, reaching out a chubby hand to Henry, who bends over and lifts her into her arms.

"Prince of Neverland?" Henry asks, a small smile adorning his face. "That's so awesome."

"Thank you, dear." Regina smiles back. "I thought you might like it." She envelops him in a loose embrace, mindful of the baby in the middle.

"I do," He says and rests his head against Regina's chest. "Thanks, mom."

Regina sighs, emotion catching up with her again. "I missed you so much, Henry." She breathes out shakily, tears clouding her vision.

"I missed you too, guys." He says, lifting his head from Regina's chest to direct a glance to Emma, who is smacking her own tears away.

"You were in Neverland this whole time?" Emma changes the subject, never a big fan of emotion.

Regina straightens back up, allowing Henry room to move freely. He sets Brooke on the ground and turns to Emma.

"Yeah. Greg and Tamara took me to Pan but then he turned on them and killed them." Regina makes a grimace but doesn't interrupt him. "At first I wanted nothing to do with him, because he's evil, but he was also kinda fun." Henry shrugs sheepishly. "He made me a Lost Boy." Henry adds, beaming at the memory.

Emma's mind reels back to the times she'd seen Henry playing down by the shore with some of the Lost Boys.

"But then grams and gramps found me, and Mr. Gold and dad were there too," He continues, "They saved me from Pan and dad used Pan's shadow to get back home, like he did when he was my age."

"Sounds like quite the adventure, young man." Regina chides, a hand subconsciously raking Brooke's hair.

"It was awesome," Henry grants, "but I missed you, guys. Both of you."

"We missed you too, kid." Emma says, a sad smile gracing her lips. "But now we're together again."

"Yes and nothing is going to take us away from you ever again." Regina adds in a serious tone of voice.

"Promise?" Henry asks, and there's something about the way he says it that makes him sound younger than he is, and slightly frightened.

"We promise, Henry." Regina vows solemnly, leaning closer to her son to lay a comforting hand on his cheek.

"Henny," Brooke calls in a tiny voice, the one she uses when she knows something's wrong.

When all three heads turn to look at the baby, they see that she's holding her flat rock in her hand and that she's reaching it out to Henry.

Henry frowns, slightly confused by the gesture, but accepts the rock nonetheless."Uh, thank you, Princess."

Emma scratches the back of her head sheepishly, "Yeah, we gotta give her some real toys."

Henry chuckles, holding up Brooke's rock in his hand, "Like hell, Ma."

Emma smacks him playfully in the back of his head, making Henry burst into a fit of laughter.

"Emma!" Regina chastises disapprovingly, pursing her lips and holding Henry's chin in her hand to check for any damage done to her son.

"What?" Emma asks defensively. "He insulted my creativity!"

"Well, he's rather right, dear." Regina concedes and Emma narrows her eyes at her. "You do make a lousy craftswoman."

"Oh, hush you two." Emma bends down and scoops Brooke up in her arms. "Thank God I have you on my team, Mowgli." She says, pecking the little girl on the cheek. "We can take these two down, can't we?" Brooke beams at her and throws her chubby arms around Emma's neck, hugging her close. The baby rests her head in the crook of Emma's neck and yawns tiredly. "Yeah, we'll take you both down right after her nap." Emma adds with a smug smile that makes both Henry and Regina chuckle. Once the laughter dies down, Emma asks. "So, uh… how do we go back?"

Henry clears his throat before replying. "Uh, basically we have to jump off the cliff."

Both women pale at that.

"What?" Emma asks, scandalized.

"Mr. Gold said that he'd cast a portal for us there." Henry explains, pointing to the edge of the cliff.

Emma runs her free hand down her tousled blonde locks. "Right," she says, trying to breathe in some confidence. "It could have been worse," she adds and Regina shoots her a death glare. "Yeah, maybe not."

"So, you guys ready?" Henry asks, looking from one mother to the other.

Emma sighs but nods all the same, following Henry to the edge of the cliff.

They stood there so many times before, she and Regina. It never occurred to Emma that the way back home could ever lay there hidden all this time. Of course they didn't have Gold's magical aid until now, so it probably wouldn't have worked anyway.

"Okay, I go first," Henry announces. "You guys follow right after me."

"We got it, kid." Emma says, smiling nervously at Henry.

"Cool," Henry smiles back and it warms his entire face. "See you guys on the other side." He winks cheekily then and jumps off, almost immediately disappearing in mid air.

Emma lets out a nervous breath after Henry disappears and holds Brooke closer to her chest. "Okay, our turn now." She says over her shoulder but, when she receives no answer, Emma frowns and turns around to glance at the brunette.

Regina is still standing in the same spot she was before, a terrified look on her face.

"Hey, you okay?" Emma asks, feeling her own worry for the woman crumpling her features.

Regina nods, although it doesn't look convincing at all. "Yes, I just…" she takes a look around, trying to imprint a mental image in her mind of the way the island looks. "I'm going to miss this." She admits in a whisper, looking down.

"It's going to be okay," Emma says, "I promise." Regina looks up then and Emma rewards her with a smile. "Nothing is going to change. Except that Mowgli will have new toys and actual clothes now."

Regina chuckles and shakes her head at Emma's ability to always make light of everything.

The blonde reaches out her hand to Regina and smiles warmly at her again.

Regina walks over to the edge of the cliff and sighs, not daring to look down. Instead, her eyes lock on Emma's green ones. She takes the woman's hand and gives her a tentative smile.

"Ready?" Emma asks her.

Regina looks down at Brooke's sleeping form in her blonde mother's arms, then at their joined hands and ultimately back up, into Emma's green eyes. She squeezes Emma's hand affectionately and answers, "I'm Ready."