Alrighty, this is the beginning of the holiday companion pieces to Moving Forward. These can stand alone, but I would recommend reading Moving Forward first just so that it is a little more complete and later chapters of this make more sense. Each chapter of this will be a different holiday, the first being Halloween because that's how the timeline fits with Moving Forward. These are also funnier and fluffier than the main story, so enjoy.
P.S. This fits in chapter 6 of Moving Forward. There is a note in that chapter that says where this fits exactly.
Chapter 1 –Halloween
October 31. The one day out of the year where people can dress up in just about anything and go up to doors and ask for candy and not question it. This year, however, is the first year where Roland can actually enjoy Halloween. Last year had been rather busy with the Snow Queen, and the year before that they had been in the Enchanted Forest where almost everyone was living in the castle and candy wasn't as readily available as it is in Storybrooke (though Regina did poof some candy in her hand just for Roland to try, to which he kept as a secret between the two of them), and Zelena and her monkeys were a constant threat. But this year, the only problem or threat facing the town and its inhabitants was Emma being the Dark One, and she wasn't bothering them at the moment, so everyone decided to celebrate Halloween this year. A Halloween party was being held at City Hall because it was the only place large enough to do so for the town, what with all the new inhabitants from Camelot around.
Regina was at the store with her three boys, shopping for decorations and ingredients for her apple pie that she would be making. As they were perusing the aisles with the Halloween decorations, Roland and Henry were walking quickly ahead when they spotted a rather large ghost shaped light hanging from one of the shelves.
"Mom, can we get it? Please?" Henry asks, bouncing up and down on his toes.
"Yeah, Mama, please? Can we get the ghost?" Roland asks, imitating his 'older brother.'
"I suppose so. Yu have to be careful with it so you don't break it, but yes you boys can get it. Have you found anything you want to get, Robin? Robin?" Regina looks around, not seeing her husband anywhere, when she looks back at her boys questioningly, they just shrug their shoulders with a confused expression on their faces.
"Robin?!" Regina asks more worriedly.
"Sorry, love. I'm right here. I went back to the freezer section to grab some ice cream for tonight," Robin says, kissing Regina on the lips and placing a hand on the small and subtle, but noticeable bump on Regina's belly.
"That's alright, but I thought we still had ice cream left in the freezer from a few nights ago?" Regina questions, subtly removing Robin's hand from her belly, as they hadn't told the boys about the baby yet.
At Regina's insistence of there being ice cream, Robin smiles at her guiltily, making her shake her head. They spend another fifteen minutes picking out decorations, almost filling up the cart before Regina to remind the boys that they weren't the only ones bringing decorations. They paid for the stuff, loaded it up into Regina's new SUV, and headed home.
Regina had decided to get a new vehicle shortly before they had all traveled to Camelot. Her Mercedes was okay if it was just her and Henry or her and Robin, but for the four of them, getting Roland's booster seat in the back, was just not practical or conducive to their family, especially now with the new baby on the way. Trying to fit a booster seat and a car seat (though she didn't know that was going to happen then) in the back of the Mercedes along with squeezing a growing teenager back there too was not something that could have been done.
They arrived home about ten minutes after leaving the store and proceeded to unload the groceries and Halloween decorations. That took about ten minutes because Roland could only carry one bag at a time, Robin wouldn't allow Regina to carry any of them because of the baby (eliciting a confused and suspicious look from Henry), and Robin and Henry would get caught walking behind Roland (though Robin would have walked with the young boy anyways) and Roland's little legs could only carry him so fast. While the boys brought in the groceries, Regina put them away, so by the time all the groceries were unloaded and the car was locked up, all but one bag was put away.
Robin walked back into the house after locking up the car and hears Roland squealing and Henry and Regina laughing. When he walks into the kitchen he finds Regina doubled over, one hand on the counter and the other clutching her stomach while a tear escapes her eye because she is laughing so hard. He looks over at Henry and sees almost the same exact position as Regina, just on the other side of the island. Meanwhile, Roland is sitting on his knees on one of the barstool laughing right along with them.
Robin steps into the kitchen with a quizzical look on his face, looking between Regina, Henry, and Roland, trying to figure out what brought on all the laughter.
"What's going on? What's so funny?" Robin asks no one in particular.
"Mom was opening up the last bag of decorations when the ghost light that we got basically jumped out of the tied off bag and scared her half to death," Henry explains as he doubles over in another fit of laughter.
"You should have seen Mama's face when the ghost scared her," Roland says, laughing even more.
"Oh yeah? When I jumped so did you Mr. Roland. You should have seen your face," Regina says between breaths, trying to calm her breathing down.
"Seems like I missed quite the event here," Robin says, moving over to stand behind Regina, who has straightened up and is laughing a little less now.
All of a sudden, though, she stops laughing and looks down at her belly with a confused and quizzical look on her face.
"Love? Are you alright?" Robin asks in a worried whisper, standing in front of Regina and holding her face in between his hands looking for any signs of fear or worry. But instead all he finds is wonderment and… Happiness?
"Regina? Are you alright?" Robin asks a bit louder this time, causing Henry to stop laughing and look over at his parents, getting a bit more worried by the second that they stay silent.
"I'm fine, Robin. Perfectly fine. Here," Regina says with a smile on her face as she grabs Robin's hand and places it on top of her belly. They wait about ten seconds before Robin feels a subtle, but noticeable nudge against his hand.
"Is that?" Robin asks, unable to finish his question, looking into Regina's eyes to make sure he is feeling what he thinks he's feeling. When Regina looks at him, she has tears in her eyes, threatening to spill over.
"What's going on?" Henry asks, looking between his parents and their hands on Regina's stomach and then at the tears in his mother's eyes.
"Mama, are you okay? Why are you crying? Are you sad?" Roland asks, getting down off the stool and walking over to stand between his parents, looking up at Regina confusedly.
"Yes, my little knight, I'm fine. And no I'm not sad," Regina says, looking down at Roland, running a hand through his messy curls.
"Come here my boy. Your mama and I have something we need to tell you and Henry," Robin says picking up Roland and motioning for Henry to come over to where they are standing.
"What is it, Papa?" Roland asks, looking at his papa and then at his mama, looking for an answer.
"Well, boys, a couple weeks ago your mom told me something that we thought impossible to happen. Something that made us both immensely happy," Robin says smiling and looking between the boys and Regina who is still smiling, but the tears that were pooling in her eyes have spilled over and run down her cheeks. Robin wipes them with the thumb of his free hand, smiling just as much as his beautiful wife.
"What did mom tell you," Henry asks.
"Henry, honey, I'm pregnant," Regina says looking at her son who is as tall as she is now. "And the baby just kicked."
"Really? It did?" Henry asks, excited about the idea of having a new brother or sister.
"Yes, sweetie. Are you okay with this? I know it wasn't planned and we hadn't talked about it-"
"Mom. It is totally okay. It is better than okay. I'm really excited," Henry says with a smile that splits across his face. "Is she still kicking?"
"She?" Regina and Robin both say at the same time.
"Well, I mean I already have a little brother and a one year-old uncle, there are a lot of boys that it would be cool to have a girl. That and it would be cool to have a baby sister," Henry says, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. "So? Is she? Kicking?"
"Uh, yeah a little bit here," Regina says, grabbing Henry's hand and placing it on the side of her small bump.
"I wanna feel too, Mama," Roland says From Robin's arms.
"Here you go my boy," Robin says, kneeling down and placing Roland on his knee so he is eye level with Regina's stomach.
Roland places both hands on either side of Regina's stomach, and Henry has his right hand on the place where Regina had placed it on the top right side of her belly. The baby didn't do anything for a good twenty seconds, and Roland was growing more impatient by each passing second.
"Maybe that was it-"
"No wait, Mom. She just moved. Did you feel that Roland?" Henry says, cutting Regina off as the baby moved around at the sound of her voice. "Say something else, Mom."
"Like what?" Regina asks, but at the same time the baby moved around some more again when she talked.
"She likes your voice, love," Robin says.
"She likes your voice too, Dad. She just kicked," Henry says, looking up at Robin and Regina. However, at Henry's words, the two adults look at each other and then at Henry. Realizing what he just said, he was quick to defend himself. "I mean, Robin. Actually, I had been thinking about this a lot recently, and I know you said you didn't want to replace my dad, but Roland calls my mom, Mom, so I figured, if you didn't mind, that I could call Roland's papa, Dad. If not, I can go back to calling you Robin."
"Henry, stop. I don't mind in the least bit. I actually liked hearing it," Robin admits with tears starting to well up in his eyes. He saw Henry as his own son, much like Regina saw Roland as her own son, but he never thought Henry would call him Dad. It warmed his heart immeasurably, and in that moment, they were the happiest family in the entire world, at least to him.
"She likes Mama and Papa's voices?" Roland asks, looking at Henry and breaking the silence that had spread amongst them all.
"Yeah, buddy, she does," Henry says, ruffling the young boy's hair and chuckling slightly at the young boy's innocence.
"Well, not to disrupt everyone, but if we are to make it to the Halloween party on time, we should probably get ready. Especially since it takes about two hours for the apple pie to be made and baked and we have to be there in less than four," Regina says.
"Right, boys, go get all the decorations together and we will take them to City Hall and set up with everyone else. Love, we will probably be back around the time the pies are done," Robin says, placing a quick and sweet kiss to Regina's lips before heading towards the front door after the boys.
"Alright. Have fun and don't cause too much trouble. You, too, boys," Regina calls over her shoulder before she hears the front door open and close behind the three boys.
"Guess it's just you and me, little one," Regina says rubbing her hand over her belly, causing the baby to do a somersault at the sound of her voice. "You sure do like to dance, don't you?" When Regina gets another twirl and kick, she just chuckles and gets to work on the task at hand.
About two hours and two pies later, Regina is just heading up the stairs to change when she hears the front door open and her boys enter the house.
"Regina, love," Robin calls out into the house, causing the baby to kick in response, eliciting a chuckle from Regina.
"Right here, thief," Regina says, heading back down the stairs to greet her boys.
"What was with the laugh, love," Robin asks, wrapping Regina up in his arms and planting a long and passionate kiss to her lips.
"Your child was excited to hear you were home," Regina says after they break apart from their kiss, causing a chorus of 'ewws' from Henry and Roland behind them.
"Was she?" Robin asks, bending and placing a kiss to Regina's belly.
"You know, you should probably stop calling the baby a she when it could in fact be a he," Regina says, laughing.
"It is a girl. I just know it," Robin says, standing upright again.
"Yeah, Mom. It is definitely a girl," Henry says, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Yeah, Mama. It's a girl," Roland says, mimicking his older brother.
"Henry, you are a terrible influence on him," Regina says, pointing to Roland while looking at Henry, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Sorry," Henry murmurs, looking over at Roland who is in fact doing exactly what Henry is doing.
"That's fine, honey. Just be more careful when you are around him. Also, you two boys should get upstairs and put your costumes on," Regina says.
"Yay!" Roland says excitedly as he runs up the stairs.
"No running, Roland! And wait for me!" Henry says, following Roland up the stairs and down the hall.
Regina just shakes her head after them before turning towards Robin who is just staring at her with a smile that nearly splits his face and looks at her with nothing but love in his eyes.
"What?" Regina asks defensively.
"Nothing, love. Just marveling in how wonderful of a mother you are," Robin says.
"Come on, Robin. Let's go get ready, shall we?" Regina says grabbing his hand and leading him upstairs.
About an hour later, the family of four are finally ready and heading over to City Hall. Roland is dressed up as Aladdin, Henry as Prince Charming, Robin as the Evil King (though Regina hated having to add the 'Evil' moniker to the name, but Snow insisted that it was the rules), and Regina isn't dressed up since her costume no longer fits due to her growing belly and wider hips.
"I still say you could have poofed a ball gown on and gone as a Queen, Mom," Henry says from the backseat.
"Yes, because that would be dressing up for me," Regina says, rolling her eyes at her son from the driver's seat in the rearview mirror. "And besides, that wasn't the character I pulled from the hat earlier this month."
At the beginning of the month, the Charming family (minus Emma but including Hook), the Mills-Locksley family, and the Gold family had all put their storybook characters into a hat and drew random ones. They had to add a couple extra because of Roland, Henry, and little Neal because they weren't really iconic fairytale characters. So, they had added in Aladdin, Stitch (to Roland's insistence), and Olaf. Regina had drawn Robin Hood, much to people's surprise and Robin's amusement. People got suspicious, but let it go. That is until Robin drew the Evil Queen-turned-King, but it was that or Aladdin left, which Roland drew.
"Yes, but mom what if you just poofed on the bandit outfit you wore in the alternate story, 'Heroes and Villains'? And just make a few adjustments?" Henry asks innocently, and also thinking he was quite clever for thinking of it. "It had that belt that went across your ribs and caused the bottom part to be a little looser."
"Fine, Henry, if it is so important that I dress up-"
"Of course it is!" Henry exclaims, cutting Regina off.
After a sigh of exasperation, Regina does just that after she parks the car in the half-full parking lot. A cloud of purple smoke engulfs her and when it clears, she is wearing her bandit outfit, complete with side braid and bow and arrows in a quiver at Roland's feet in the back seat.
"Mama, your bow is back here," Roland exclaims, looking past his feet from his booster seat to the floor at said bow.
"Good, now, is everyone happy now?" Regina asks while adjusting her belt, loosening it a bit because it started cutting into her slightly protruding stomach.
When she gets a nod from everyone, particularly her son in the back, she sighs and steps out of her car. The family of four walks up to the entrance of City Hall, and are greeted with fake spider webs, fake spiders, and other ghoulish and Halloween-y decorations. At the end of the hall, the ghost light they had bought earlier is guiding them to the room where the party is being held. When they open the doors to the room, they are greeted with a full room with decorations everywhere and music coming through the various speakers placed around the room. Regina can hardly recognize this as City Hall, it looks more like a room that is only ever used for parties.
"Wow. You boys did an amazing job with the decorations," Regina says as the family makes their way across the floor and over to where Snow, David, Hook, and Neal are.
"Yeah, it's pretty great right?" Henry asks, watching his mom's reaction to everything. "It's too bad you aren't out here to see it too, little sister," Henry says, bending slightly and talking close to Regina's stomach.
"Henry, I don't want everyone knowing right now about the baby, especially the people from Camelot," Regina says, causing Henry to straighten up just as Snow, David, and little Neal come up to them.
"Well, Regina, that is quite the Robin Hood outfit you got there," Snow says, then adds in a whisper, "You can hardly see the bump that Henry was just talking to."
"Yes, well he was just informing his sister how wonderful this place looks," Regina says so only the small group could hear.
"Wait, what sister?" David asks, holding Neal in his arms and looking between Regina, Snow, Henry, and Robin.
"My, my, my, Snow. You didn't tell your husband? And here I thought you told him everything," Regina teased.
"Well, yes, but you also said you wanted to keep it a secret, and I learned my lesson from last time," Snow says, good-naturedly and smiling a bit.
"Huh, I guess you did, but David isn't a blabber-mouth like Leroy, so you could have told him," Regina says.
"Tell me what? What is going on here? What sister?" David asks frantically, trying to get some answers from someone, anyone.
"The Queen and I are expecting," Robin says, clearing up the confusion. "And Henry, Roland, and I believe it to be a girl considering how many boys are in this town."
"Really? That's fantastic. Congratulations!" David says, clapping a hand on Robin's back, causing him to stumble forward a couple steps.
"Yes, well, now that that is out of the way, shall we get back to the party?" Regina asks everyone, and then receives nods. "Nice costumes by the way."
Snow was dressed up as Belle, Charming as Rumpelstiltskin, Neal as Stitch, and Hook as Olaf. Meaning that there is a beauty dressed up as Snow White and a former Dark One dressed up as Captain Hook.
The party went well into the night, and around ten, the family of four said their goodbyes and headed home.
"Well that was a rather fun night, don't you think so?" Robin asks as he puts a sleeping Roland in the backseat into his booster seat.
"Mhmm. Very," Regina says sliding into the driver's seat while a sleepy Henry slides into the backseat next to Roland.
"It was really funny when Grams took a bite of your apple pie and everyone looked at her, shocked," Henry says sleepily from the back seat.
After buckling up Roland, Robin gets into the passenger front seat and buckles himself up before Regina pulls out of the parking space and heads home. When they reach the mansion and look back at the boys, they find them to both be asleep. Regina removes Roland from his booster seat and lifts him up. He wraps his arms around her neck and wraps his little legs around her waist, practically sitting on her belly.
"You sure you don't want me to get him?" Robin asks as he tries to wake up a sleeping Henry.
"No, I've got him, but you aren't getting that one to wake up. You're going to have to carry him, because once he is out, he is out," Regina says as she walks into the house with Roland clinging to her like a monkey.
"Alright, love. I will be right in," Robin says as he picks up Henry and shuts the door and locks the car.
When both boys are changed and tucked into bed, Regina and Robin head to their bedroom, get changed as well (Robin in a t-shirt and boxers, Regina in her light blue silk pajama set), and crawl into bed.
When they had settled in bed, Robin pulled Regina against him so her back was against his front, Robin kissed the back of Regina's head, eliciting a small hum of satisfaction from her. Though he could tell she was exhausted, he still had one thing left to do before he went to sleep. It was something he did every night before bed and every morning when they woke up. So even though he was entirely happy having his beautiful wife snuggled up against him, he pulled back just a bit, causing Regina to lay on her back and open her eyes to look at him with confusion and a little bit of annoyance from moving from his spot.
"Sorry milady, but before we get entirely too comfortable, there is something I must do first," Robin says as he kisses her lightly on the lips before sliding down a bit and lifting the hem of her night shirt.
Regina chuckles a little bit, but closes her eyes nevertheless, even though Robin knew she wasn't going to fall asleep just yet, as he soon learned she actually quite enjoyed this. So Robin grabbed the bottle of coconut oil from the bedside table and put some on his hands and rubbed them together.
"Hello there, little one," Robin says, speaking to Regina's stomach and rubbing soothing circles with his hands over the small but well defined bump.
Regina sighs, perfectly content and growing more and more relaxed.
"I know today was a long and busy day, full of many errands and what not, but your brothers found out about you, so overall I think today went wonderfully," Robin says, rubbing his hands over Regina's belly, massaging the top, bottom, and sides as he talked to their baby. At the mention of Henry and Roland, the baby kicked in appreciation for them finally knowing.
"Yes, your brothers are absolutely thrilled to meet you, just as your mama and papa are. Tomorrow, we get to see you for the first time since finding out about you, and we are going to make sure you are happy and healthy, even though it is pretty obvious you are happy. We might even be able to see if you are a girl or a boy, if your mom allows it," Robin says, looking up to Regina for confirmation.
"Fine, we can find out," Regina sighs in exasperation and a hint of annoyance.
"See little one, with enough persistence and patience, your mama will eventually give in. Though it takes a lot of patience because she is so stubborn. It is something that I absolutely love about her, and something that I hope you love too, even if at times you get upset with her because of it, but I have a feeling you will be just as stubborn as she is because you will inherit every trait that I love about your mother. I know you are a girl, and you will have your mother's beautiful brown eyes and dark brown hair," Robin says, still rubbing his hands over Regina's stomach.
"And your dimples and smile," Regina says, looking down at Robin.
"As her Majesty wishes," Robin says smiling up at her and revealing said dimples and smile. "For now, though little one, time for bed. We don't want you kicking your mama all night, now do we? She needs her sleep as do you and as do I."
Robin places a kiss over Regina's belly button, then one a couple inches above it, one a couple inches below, and a kiss a couple inches on either side before crawling back up and kissing Regina on the lips passionately. They break apart only when the need for air becomes overwhelmingly necessary. Regina turns on her side and Robin pulls her against him and lays a hand on her still bare stomach while his other is propping his head up a bit.
"Good night, my beautiful wife and my beautiful baby. Happy Halloween."
Hope you enjoyed this. I will be posting these in line with Moving Forward, so it probably won't be a while until I post the Thanksgiving chapter. As always, Fav/Follow/Review :)