The quiet between our heartbeats

When Robin leaves Storybrooke with Marian, Regina Mills is left behind to pick up the pieces of a future she had only just allowed herself to believe in.

She expects to do what she has always done: close the door, rebuild the walls, and fall apart where no one can see her.

Emma Swan has other plans.

What begins with simply showing up slowly turns into something neither of them intended, shared mornings, quiet walks, unexpected laughter, and the strange comfort of having someone beside you who doesn't ask you to be anything other than what you are.

But Storybrooke is a small town.

People notice.

And when friendship between the Savior and the Evil Queen becomes the town's newest favorite subject, whispers turn into rumors, rumors find their way into headlines, and Regina is forced to wonder why the idea of Emma being something more suddenly doesn't feel quite as impossible as it should.

Emma only wanted to make sure Regina didn't have to fall apart alone.

She never expected to become the person Regina started letting in.

And somewhere between grief and healing, friendship and something neither of them is ready to name, the quiet between their heartbeats begins to say more than either of them ever could.

A Swan Queen slow burn about grief, healing, rumors, friendship, and accidentally falling for the one person you never saw coming.