A/N: I'm running free with the characters here. And the setting. But if you're willing to go for the ride with me, I think you just might enjoy yourself.

Poke.

Poke.

Poke poke poke poke poke.

"Mooooooom. I think I found a dead person over hereee," the round faced boy yelled as loud as his little lungs would allow him.

When he heard nothing in reply, he glanced over his shoulder. His mother was at least fifty feet back and strolled ignorantly along the beach with her shoes in hand. He looked back down at the heap of a body, particularly at the mess of blonde hair that was draped out in every direction.

He squatted down, his butt just grazing the moist sand. In his hand, he clutched a stick like a sword, seemingly ready for the mop of blonde hair to attack him.

A tiny sand crab crawled near the unidentified body, but he shooed it away with his stick. This was his find.

He huffed, impatient that this person wasn't moving, and looked behind him. This only caused another huff to release from within him, this time at the frustration of how slow him mom was walking.

He decided to take matters into his own hands and straightened his legs, his butt coming off the ground with a thin layer of sand still attached. Within seconds, he was running back towards the thin brunette that gazed out into the sea while trailing her bare feet in the sand. Overestimating his speed, and the distance between him and his mother, the boy ended up crashing into her with a thud.

"Woah, Henry. You're going to get hurt if you just-"

"Mom. I found treasure."

Regina smirked at the boys widened eyes. So now he was a pirate, she thought to herself. Her son had the most active imagination in the world, something she loved most about him. And it came out full throttle when they would take their nightly walks across the beach.

In the past week he had struggled with his conflicting identities as a prince, an explorer, a knight, and now apparently he had grown the aspirations of a pirate.

"What'd you find, sweetie?" She ran her fingers through his hair and looked down at her six year old. She hoped his big, round cheeks wouldn't disappear with age.

"I found a dead person," He stated proudly, his stick twirling circles into the ground. Regina's hand stilled instantly, and she tilted her head to the side. Years of being a mother had made her wary of listening to every thing that came out of her imaginative son's mouth, but she had no idea where he could have came up with this.

"You mean, you found a dead person because you're a pirate?" She searched his eyes for mischief, but found none. He was dead serious.

"No Mom, I found a dead person because its over there on the beach." He looked down the beach and pointed to where a lump lay in the sand. Regina squinted her eyes to see down where Henry was pointing and her breath caught when she did, indeed, she the a raised mound on the sand.

"Oh my-Oh my god," Regina went to grab the little boy's hand as she started jogging in the direction of the body, but he took off ahead of her in a sprint.

"Henry! Don't touch it!" She breathlessly called as she caught up to the boy, who had resumed his squatting position, stick still in hand. Regina slowed and kneeled down next to Henry, not caring that she was getting the knees of her white pants all sandy. She reached out a cautious hand, her fingers curled slightly, ready to pull back at the slightest movement, and nudged the shoulder of what seemed to be a woman. Nothing happened.

"Do it again, Mom" The boy encouraged while he poked the blonde mess of hair with his stick again.

"Henry! Don't poke her. She could be alive"

Regina placed her hand on the woman's shoulder again, this time putting enough pressure to successfully roll her over. Now, laying on her back, with one arm draped across her midsection, the blonde's head remained fallen to the side. Regina, seeing the woman's chest rise and fall, pushed the salt ridden blonde hair away from her face.

Tilting her head to the side so she could see the woman's face straight, Regina's eyes scanned over her face.

She had a bruised eye that looked fresh, purple creeping out from her eyelid.

There was a cut slashed along her cheek, Regina guessed the cut must have been older, since the water had seemingly washed it clean.

What looked the most worrisome though, was a gash that seemed to have split the woman's severely cracked lips.

Dirt covered the rest of her face, making it difficult for Regina to survey anymore damage.

Without quite knowing why, she reached out a hand to the beat up face and stroked it gently with her fingertips. Maybe it was her way of telling the woman to wake up. Or maybe she thought she could heal the cuts and bruises with her touch.

Whatever it was, her touch, or the timing, it worked.

The blonde's hand, which still lay across her abdomen twitched slightly.

"It moved! I saw it move!" Henry's eyes were the size of round golf balls, almost bulging out of his eyes.

"She. It's a woman..." Regina corrected while her eyes traveled all over the woman, looking for anything that was moving.

Her vision trailed down the blonde's clothes, it was now that she noticed how tattered and salt crusted they were. When she looked down at the blonde's pale skinned foot, she saw it. It moved slightly, as if testing out the waters of consciousness. And then again. This time, a groan escaped from her scratchy throat.

Both Regina and Henry gathered around her head, leaning forward in anticipation. But there was only quiet. The silence was too long for Henry's liking, so he reached out and poked the malnourished cheek of the blonde with his stick again. Regina opened her mouth to scold him, but another groan was released into the air.

Henry, who was standing above her head, craned his neck out so that his face was six inches away and upside down from the now awakening woman's.

"Are you awake?" He whispered, scared for the thin woman below him to answer, yet scared for her not to as well.

"Maybe," The blonde rumbled with a voice that sounded like sand paper. Henry giggled, despite the situation, and glanced over to his mother who looked completely unsure of herself.

It wasn't until the blonde started coughing that Regina sprung into action and put her hands on the other woman's shoulder, leaning her to the side so she could get some air. When the coughing died down, Regina gently laid her down on her back.

The blonde took a few moments to just breathe in and out with the lungs that now seemed to work. Her body felt so stiff she wasn't even sure if it was still attached. Behind her still closed eyelids, she focused on moving a body part at a time.

Toes.

Ankles.

Arm- Okay so her right arm was a problem. She had only moved it a fraction of an inch when a knife-like pain snaked up into her shoulder. She must have winced as a result, because her throat burned with the after effects.

Hearing the painful wince come out of the woman's mouth had Regina's motherly instincts kicking in.

"Don't move yet." She said in a hushed voice, placing her hand on the woman's forearm.

The minute that Regina spoke, the blonde's eyes lurched open, impatient to identify the source of the silky voice. Regina gasped when she saw her emerald eyes. They seemed to instantly pierce the air between them, locking on her own.

"What's your name?" Henry popped his head in front of Regina's head, giddy at the fact that he was the one who had found this woman.

"Emma," she whispered, her throat painful rubbing together with each push of air. Henry turned his head to Regina.

"Mom, we should take her home."

Regina snapped out of the foggy haze she was now in after the enormity of finding a seemingly cast away woman on the beach sunk in.

"Of course." She looked back into the eyes that made her feel suddenly exposed. Though it was ridiculous, Regina felt as though the person behind those eyes already knew all her secrets. "Can you stand?" she asked moments later while biting nervously on her lower lip.

It took Emma near five minutes to get herself to stand up, and even when she was, she clutched her right arm tightly and gritted her teeth in pain. Regina brushed the sand off her cuffed white capris and tshirt, slipping under one of Emma's arms and holding the brunt of her weight as they hobbled back to the house.

Every step caused pain from conflicting appendages, but none outdid the dull ache that took residence in Emma's heart. She was glad she was hurt, she thought bitterly to herself.

But it'd be better if she was dead. With them.

Before she could continue with her thoughts, her split lip seemed to crack open at the exertion. She felt warmth drip down onto her chin, but couldn't force herself to cause more pain that would be necessary to make it go away.

Just about thirty feet or so in front of them stood a small yellow house with a wrap around porch.

"Go get a glass of water and some rags please, Henry." Regina instructed. The boy went sprinting when he saw the blood flowing from Emma's lip.

"Okay, there are only four steps" Regina didn't know why she felt like she had to encourage the woman, she had enough drive within her consider she had just hobbled a quarter mile down the beach with at least one broken bone, not to mention severe dehydration.

Emma stumbled up the steps and collapsed into the padded swing that hung from the porch roof. Regina had intended to put Emma on the couch, but couldn't bring herself to tell the gasping blonde to keep moving.

Henry returned with a cup of water and some rags, which Regina placed on the ground. She cupped Emma's cheek, which had slid down, and now lay on the pillow of the swing, and put the water to her mouth. Tipping the cup minutely so that a slow stream of water entered Emma's mouth.

With the water droplets just at her lips, Emma remembered what people had always said happened if you got lost in the dessert. They said that after going so long without it, water would be like the nectar of the gods. That you wouldn't be able to get enough.

Instead, as the water bathed her throat, her heart lurched in her chest as the memory of liters of ocean water splashing into her open mouth and settling into her convulsing lungs played behind her eyes.

Emma's throat instantly closed in response and she coughed and sputtered, leaning over the swing so that her head hung above the free air. Regina pulled the stringy blonde hair from around her face just in case she was about to be sick.

"It's okay, you can have some water later." Regina reassured the woman whose head lay limply over the string in exhaustion.

"No." Emma rasped, her throat feeling like it, rather than her skin, had been coated with sand, "Now."

Regina moved the glass back to Emma's lips and held it there, focusing her entire body on releasing only one drop from the glass into the blonde's mouth.

This time, Emma kept her eyes open, and kept them trained on the olive skinned hand that held the glass. She fought back the memory that begged to resurface, and instead allowed the water to coat just a millimeter of her throat. It seemed to sizzle and relax with sweet relief.

She put her own hand on top of Regina's to tip up the glass a little more, noticing how soft the brunette's hands felt against her dry, calloused ones. The water came out in a thin stream now and ran into Emma's mouth and down her throat, washing the imaginary sand away, grain by grain.

It wasn't the nectar of the gods, but it was pretty damn close.

So I've had this idea in my head for awhile, and I began thinking more about it while also working on Lost in Translation, but I'm not really a multiple fic at a time kinda gal. But now that's finished, so here this one is! If you guys really like it, you're gonna have to give me a little time (we'll call it around a week) to work on before the regular updates start. I'm really excited for this one, hope you are too after this chapter.

That being said it's super important to let me know if you like this, I'll be more likely to continue it if there's some interest. :)