"Look, I'm sorry—"

"You're sorry?" Regina interrupted, pushing off from the door and taking two steps toward the base of the foyer. "Three years and all you have to say is you're sorry?"

"What do you want me to say?"

"I want an explanation," the brunette demanded, softness gone replaced with an angry inquisition. "I want to know why you let me believe you were dead for so long and deem me worthy enough for a visit now, when I'm settled now, when I spent too many hours crying over you and wishing you would come back only to have to spend even more time admitting to myself that you were gone."

"Do you think I wanted to spend six months of my life trapped in a cell getting beat every day?" Emma snapped, her voice rising an octave. "I almost died! I should have! I was found on the side of a dirt road nearly beaten to death." She scoffed dryly. "Just like when I was a baby. Only this time I hung on. I hung on by a thread, and you know what was the last thing I saw in my mind when I thought it was over? When I was so sure this would be it? You. I saw you and Henry, so forgive me for living."

Regina faltered with a blink of an eye and a hitch of her breath. She placed a heeled foot at the last step then paused. Their eyes bore into one another daring the other to make the next move. There was a time where the idea of being together was like rain on a sunny day. There was no sun this time. Not yet. Just this thunderstorm flooding their systems until they were bare emotions, suffocating, drowning, fighting for release.

The dam broke.

Regina shot up and Emma caught her around the middle. In a blur of arms and limbs they kissed fiercely, determinedly, needing something to prove. Regina's lips were exactly as she remembered, firm and full and tasting like mocha and just plain right. She sucked in a breath and held tighter, her arms weaving around a slim waist to pull the older woman up onto her toes and onto the the main floor as Regina gripped her shoulders and held on.

The noise in her head, the doubt and the fear and the insecurity washed away as the feelings welled up inside her poured out in a tidal wave. This was all they needed to hold on and ride the waves trying to pull them under. Regina parted her lips and flicked her tongue outward, begging Emma's attention which the blonde was all too eager to pay. Emma was breathing and drowning all at the same time as she tugged Regina away from the foyer and further into the hallway. Inhaling Regina was better than oxygen, and if she could live on this woman alone, she would do so in a heartbeat. Her hands wandered, scraping the flesh beneath her palm when her left hand found the smooth back underneath her blouse and scraped her nails downward.

Regina hissed, pulling back just an inch to reveal nearly blackened eyes, and retaliated, gripping Emma's jaw in between manicured fingers and claiming Emma's lips in a bruising kiss. The impact was enough to send Emma tumbling backward, her hip knocking into the side table behind her and disturbing the bills, pens, and keys settled there. She steadied herself with a palm on the table and a hand on Regina's waist, but what made Emma whimper was when Regina's knee inadvertently pressed against Emma's core.

Desire flooded through her, and though the logical part of her was telling her that this wasn't the smartest idea, that there was too much they needed to say, the part of her that missed Regina so much she almost called it quits with her therapy and ran straight to Storybrooke had taken control.

"Regina," Emma whispered, removing her hand from the small of her back to grip her waist.

The brunette gasped peppering kisses so lightly on Emma's jaw, the blonde wanted to giggle. "Say it again."

"Hmm?" Her eyes drifted shut, and the intensity clouding them mere seconds ago simmered to a bubbling heat.

"My name. Say my name again."

She placed a tiny kiss in the corner of red lips, now smudged from eagerness. Her breath ghosted over tanned skin, her lip brushing Regina's as just a tickle before it settled on the scar above her lip. "Regina."

Emma was pulled in again for another searing kiss, this one less hurried but just as passionate as the last, and all Emma could do was hold on. "Emma."

Her lips curled into a smile and the ringing in her ears hummed until the only sound she could hear was Regina whispering her name over and over. It wasn't until she looked down to see that the brunette was in fact peppering kisses down Emma's jaw, along her neck, and up behind her ear, each kiss laced with her name, promising the world.

"Are you really here?" Regina whispered in her ear so softly the tingles made her shiver and pull the brunette closer.

She nodded. "I'm here."

Rational thinking was thrown out the window when Emma followed Regina eagerly up the stairs. Like so many times before, the brunette was leading the blonde by the fingertips and did it ever feel like home. Her eyes were trained on the older woman in front of her who continued glancing back with every step just to make sure Emma was still there, and every time green eyes met brown, Emma would squeeze her hand and pick up her pace just a little bit.

The need to be close was stronger than ever, and as soon as the bedroom door was shut behind them, the air thickened once again. They didn't wait to join their lips. They had done enough waiting. So Emma drowned in the mocha taste of Regina, vowing to never be without these lips for too long again because out of everything she had been through, that may have just been the cruelest form of torture.

They stepped toward the bed, Emma leading her backwards until the mattress hit Regina's knees, and Emma settled her down gently onto the duvet, hovering over her, refusing to part for a second. Regina was the first to pull away only to trail her lips down Emma's neck. The blonde moaned at the sensation and snapped her eyes shut until she felt Regina move upwards toward the head of the bed, bringing Emma with her by the belt loops.

She inched closer to the draped brunette, doubling at the waist to lower her lips to the exposed stomach there. Regina sighed, legs parting to better accommodate the woman on top of her. With each kiss, Emma expertly released the latch of Regina's blouse buttons, starting with the bottom and moving her way up with every hotly press of her tongue and lips against taut flesh until she reached a beige satin bra. Emma's breath quivered in want, hot air tickling Regina enough to make her squirm, then she latched her lips above the breast.

Regina groaned and threaded fingers through Emma's hair, pulling the blonde away from her ministrations to capture her lips in a desperate kiss. They hadn't done much other than heated kisses and that one blissful night in Boston, but instinct suddenly took over, and all Emma could think was that she needed to lose herself in this woman.

"Can we?" Regina asked breathily, just as frantic as Emma with her hair mussed, shirt open, pleading. She tugged the blonde's coat from her shoulders leaving Emma in her plain grey tee.

Emma opened her eyes to stare down at two darkened pupils, desire-filled and begging. The affirmation was on the tip of her tongue, but when Emma moved her hand to palm Regina's cheek reassuringly, her gaze zeroed in on her hand, metal against flesh. Her fingers curled in self-consciously, and Emma settled back on her knees, desire making way for embarrassment. "You don't . . .have to. Close your eyes. I can—"

Regina quieted her with another kiss. When their breathing laboured, Regina had taken Emma's palm, fingers clasped between the robotic joints and examined it as though she had just uncovered a precious gem. "Am I hurting you?"

"No."

Her lips came down over Emma's knuckles before releasing her fingers to trail her hand up Emma's forearm, caressing the socket there.

"It's just a nub," Emma muttered, drawing back completely and avoiding her gaze.

"I don't care what it is. It's you. Here." Regina let out a breathy disbelieving laugh. "Emma, you're here."

She smiled widely unable to control the flutter in her chest and found she didn't want to. "You're here," Emma repeated sounding just as astounded as the brunette. "Regina."

Regina mimicked her smile and nodded, biting her lip as she did so, her fingers dancing on the hem of Emma's t-shirt. "I have been waiting for you."

"Me too." Emma curled her fingers with Regina's, staring intently at her just to make sure before slowly helping her lift the fabric of the shirt up and over her head.

Regina was silent as she took in Emma's body. Her eyes roved over every inch, and though there was desire there, the love shining through made Emma want to blush. Emma followed her gaze down her torso to her bra-clad chest and harnessed shoulder, down to the long scar down her collarbone and the healed scrapes scattering across her stomach.

Emma turned away, her hand on her belly as if that alone could prevent Regina from seeing, but before she could fully settle, Regina floated up from her spot so the blonde was nestled over her between her legs and grasped Emma's fingers, leading them away from her stomach and keeping them intertwined on the bed. Quietly, Regina traced every visible scar with the pad of her fingers. A jagged cut down her right hip. A faint horizontal outline just under her chest. She kissed them. She kissed them all then moved to the scar on her collarbone and licked a line along its path. "You are even more beautiful than I remember," Regina whispered against her flesh.

Emma couldn't help but sigh at the sensation and steady herself with her free hand on Regina's waist. She was too broken. Physically damaged. But she believed Regina. Believed her words and every touch against her skin and the stinging water behind her eyes couldn't be helped when Regina threaded their fingers together again, metal between flesh.

"I love you." Emma found herself whispering though she knew that's all she wanted to say. "I love you."

"I love you too," Regina ground out in a desperate whisper before releasing Emma's hands and wrapping her arms around her neck. "God, I've missed you."

Like magnets, their lips were drawn to one another, moulding to perfection as they lay against each other on the bed once more. Any hesitation or doubt was gone because in this moment, even if this was their last moment or their first moment or by some will of the gods they were allowed just a few hours of time, they were together.

One more time, Emma told herself as her fingers unclasped beige satin, pushing the blouse and bra from Regina's shoulders. Lips trailed down familiar grooves of the softest body, memorizing every plane. If she was going to wake tomorrow and this all be a dream, she'd have one more time to relish in everything that was Regina Mills.

Regina helped Emma unbutton and pull off her slacks, her underwear the next to go.

Emma sat back on her knees, taking in the naked goddess beneath her. Pert nipples staring skyward, golden flesh kissed with a hint of pink from the heat coiling through her, smile shyly coy but eyes similar to Emma's: disbelief and wonder and unadulterated happiness. One more time was thrown out the window because she couldn't be happy with just one. She needed Regina like she needed air. Her hand stroked up a smooth calf and over a knee before tickling the older woman's thigh so her legs fell apart with a giggle.

Too long. Way too long, Emma thought as she scooted down to lie in between Regina's legs, her fingers still tickling high on heated thighs as she pressed kisses below the brunette's ridiculous yet amazing belly button ring.

"Wait," Regina whispered though on the breath of a moan Emma almost didn't catch it.

She lifted her head, chin resting on Regina's pubic bone as her finger lazily drew circles at the juncture of her thigh. The brunettes eyes fluttered before sitting up abruptly and tugging Emma until their lips crashed. "You." There was no mistaking the beg in Regina's voice. "I want you. Please. Please, Emma."

Her bottom lip tugged between Regina's teeth, Emma could only succumb to the pooling desire tightening in her groin as she twisted onto her back with a breathy "okay", pulling Regina flush against her, but the brunette hovered over her on an arm and soaked her in like she was the Eighth Wonder of the World. Fingers trailed lithely across Emma's bare stomach making her quiver until Regina reached her shoulder and toyed with her bra strap.

"Can I take this off?" She asked uncertainly.