It takes her a moment for it to all sink in, Marian is returned to Robin, and Regina knows that she will undoubtedly be sidelined as Robin reunites with his wife after a 30 year absence. Emma recoils after Regina admonishes her for her decision-making whilst in the past and goes back to her pirate. Regina knows that she can't stand there in the middle of Granny's Diner for much longer without attracting attention and if she were to leave it would likely raise questions that she did not want asked or answered.
Ultimately she looks over Robin's shoulder to where Henry sits, opposite Snow and baby Neal. To get to him, she would have to squeeze past the reunited husband and wife, and the only thing that gives Regina the strength to even contemplate it, is know her son is just beyond that obstacle.
She wimps out and takes the long route, along the bar, closer to where Katharine and Frederick are filling David in on what's been happening in their lives since they last spoke. Then when she reaches the booth she nudges Henry and slides into the seat next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Snow gives her a huge smile, their corner of the room still unaware that Marian and Robin are reunited. Regina returns the smile, the corner of her eyes crinkling as she looks at the woman she once called a step-daughter.
Regina knows she could not stay mad at Snow forever, no matter what happened in their past, just as she knows that she cannot let herself turn back down the path that was the Evil Queen, lest she lose Henry altogether. Instead of making any decisions, she rests her cheek against the top of Henry's head, marvelling at how much he had grown taller in the twelve months they had spent apart. As always, he wears the red and grey scarf she knitted for his fourth birthday, when he first showed an interest in exploring her garden and helping her pick the apples from her tree. It appears to be getting smaller and thinner with each passing year, but she knows that it is not the scarf that is shrinking, but the boy that wears it is growing up.
0-0-0-0
Snow tilts her head to take the sight of her step-mother and grandson in. The woman she once knew and loved and then hated and now loves again, the endlessly complicated woman who first taught her about the power of True Love, the woman who spent the past twenty-eight years revelling in her curse of a happy ending, the woman who spent the past twelve years striving to be the mother that Henry deserved.
From the beginning of their relationship, Snow knew that Regina was always going to be a wonderful mother, from the time she saved her from a spooked runaway horse and wiped away the tears, to the times where she would beg the young woman, only half a dozen years older than herself to brush her hair and sing her a lullaby at night. She knows now that her father's marriage to Regina was a power-play between her father's kingdom and King Xavier's.
King Xavier's four eldest sons bore issue that all died under suspicious circumstances, so Regina would have ultimately been Queen in her own right, but Cora knew that Xavier himself would hold onto life for a long time to come, so to make Regina the undoubted queen, she would be married to Leopold, who would then be heir presumptive to King Xavier's kingdom, joining their lands in the end.
Cora's manipulations to make Regina a queen only came to light too many years later, after the damage had been done.
Snow looks at the woman she once called mother, knowing now that her childish selfishness meant that Regina became her mother, when she really should have married someone she loved and bore her own children to call her mother. With Neal asleep in her arms, Snow realises that now, more than ever, that she needs Regina once more.
'Would you like to hold him?' she asks Regina, whose eyes flicker from a spot on the wall to Snow.
'You're going to let me hold your son?' Regina replies, the surprise evident in her tone. But Snow is all smiles as she stands and deposits her son into Regina's arms that have released Henry and curled into the appropriate infant-holding position. The slight jostling movement has awoken Neal, who opens his eyelids to reveal deep blue eyes. The newborn does not wriggle or cry out in the stranger's arms, but instead yawns, and raises a curled fist into the air towards to unknown face and then returns to his slumber, his arm dropping back toward his chest.
'Henry used to do that when he was little,' Regina murmurs, 'I used to sit on the couch for hours when he was a baby, just spending that time curled up with him as he'd move about.'
Regina has a soft smile on her face as she nudges Henry, careful not to further jostle the now-sleeping Neal. In return, Henry rests his head on her shoulder, looking over at his baby uncle. Back in her seat now, Snow takes in the sight of Regina surrounded by children, and knows now that she robbed Regina's chance of being a birth-mother the day she asked her father if she could have a mother like Regina. As Snow continues to look at her son in her step-mother's arms, she notices that the man who had only the day before wrapped Regina up in a close embrace and kissed her hair is now closely entwined with the woman Emma and Killian brought back from the past.
Knowing the stories from this world, and the stories from home, this woman can only be one person – Maid Marian, the woman once to wed the Sherriff of Nottingham, and Robin's deceased wife. Snow is determined to not let it show that she has seen the scene that continues to unfold behind Regina. As always, she doesn't quite succeed, but a shake of the head from Regina, Snow knows to not bring it up and that Regina clearly does not want to talk about it.
So rather than let the evening take a turn for the worse, Snow decides right there and then that she will take it upon herself to make sure Regina doesn't get left out again, like so many times in their lives previously, Snow always thought it was a battle for happy endings between Regina and herself, whereas the truth appears that they are supposed to have their happy forever afters together, and it can only occur when they live in harmony with each other, fighting on the same side.
'So…' Snow begins, unsure how to be tactful about the request she's about to make, 'I know next to nothing about being a parent.'
Regina raises an eyebrow at that, but says nothing, allowing Snow to process what it is that she wants to say.
'I know nothing about parenting after having the baby, I didn't exactly get the whole mothering experience with Emma,' Snow continues, the words falling out of her mouth as she gets closer to her point, 'and since you have twelve years of raising Henry, and doing a fantastic job doing so, can you help me?'
Regina's eyebrows go further up, and her mouth opens as the shock registers. Snow has never been one to actually ask for help, especially from the woman who once spent a good couple of years trying to kill her.
But Snow is not yet finished with revelations; she turns and beckons to David, who is still conversing with Katharine and Frederick by the bar, he joins her in the booth and they share a moment of wordless communication before they turn in unison to Regina who holds their sleeping son.
'We talked it over the past couple of days,' Snow starts again, her confidence rising in the embrace of her husband, 'we spent a good long time talking over our options, and then all the positives and negatives and really there was only one option for us in the end,' Snow takes a deep breath and another peek at her husband, who gives a tiny smile and a nod, 'we wanted to ask you if you would agree to be Neal's Godmother.'
It doesn't appear possible, but it occurs anyways, Regina's jaw drops further and her eyebrows go even higher.
'Me?' Regina eventually stutters, 'Why in any realm would you pick me?'
'Why not?' speaks David from his spot next to his wife, 'There's not a better way to bury the pain of the past than making your own path for the future. Over the past year in the Enchanted Forest we all learnt to live with each other, letting the past stay in the past and as you said yourself this afternoon: you make your own destiny. We want you to stay in our lives, in the way that we should have been in the first place, as family.'
'Family doesn't let its members get off lightly when it comes to advice about babies,' jokes Snow, 'and since everything I know about newborns comes from self-help books that only tell you to talk to more experienced people, I'm turning to the most experienced mother I know, and as Neal's Godmother, you're going to be the only woman for the job.'
0-0-0-0
It's been three days since Snow and David appointed Regina to be Neal's Godmother, and it's only now that Snow realises just how good a decision it was. It turns out that it took three days for the loss of Robin in her life to really affect Regina. David is out with Emma at the Station working out shifts for the next fortnight when Regina knocks on their door, her eyes red-rimmed with unshed tears and a heart that is clearly broken.
Snow has tried her best to keep Regina busy, busy enough to keep the grief at bay during the day. Neal has been a fussy baby since day two at home, with no less than eight nappy changes in three hours alone, Snow realises that she is woefully under-prepared for the next stage of motherhood. Regina has been gracious enough to swoop in when Snow is running on two hours of naptime rest out of the past twenty-seven hours and take over the nappy changes and soothe any tummy aches after a feed, letting Snow crash on her bed for a much needed sleep.
But now it is Regina who is clearly in need of a rest, her shoulders droop as she nearly slumps on the door frame, her normally swept back hair falls over her face as her head rests on the frame.
Neal is fast asleep, so Snow boils the kettle and pulls out two mugs after she drags Regina into the house and deposits her onto the couch whilst she makes them both tea. A hot mug is placed into Regina's hand and Snow sits next to her, kicking off her slippers and curling her legs underneath her. Observing the slightly older woman, Snow can see that aside from the red-rimmed eyes, Regina also has other signs of exhaustion, her drooping shoulders and the turned down set of her mouth, even as she sips her tea and asks about how Neal slept through the night.
The infant in question decides at that very moment to wake, his cries gentle throughout the house. Snow is up in a heartbeat, gesturing to Regina, who made to stand as well, to stay. Neal is only fussy for attention, and quietens back done once he is being held. Back in the lounge room, Snow hands her son to Regina, who hadn't picked her mug back up. Neal is quiet again, his little arms reaching up to grasp the ring that Regina wears on a chain. Snow recognises it as the dainty wedding ring that Prince Henry had once given to Cora. Regina uses one hand to extricate the ring from his hand and tucks it into her top.
It's in these quiet moments with her that Snow gets to ask all the motherhood questions, how to ease wind pains; how much a baby will drink and how often he will fill a diaper; what the differences between a hunger cry, an attention-seeking cry and a pain cry are; how quickly he will grow into the next size up of clothing; what to do if he just won't sleep; the importance of skin-on-skin contact; the awkward question of teething (and though they don't go down that conversation path, both Snow and Regina know that breastfeeding a teething baby is not likely to be comfortable); what customs from their land could be brought forth into this realm, and which ones they laugh over and Snow promises never to force Neal into doing (an archaic tradition of making a royal toddler dress in the formal children's robe and be paraded around a room of adults, bowing in turn to all those in senior positions of authority, and being bowed to in return).
Snow knows in her heart that Regina will need time to heal, and plenty of space to do so, but she cannot help but feel protective of her, wanting to keep her close, if only to protect Regina from herself, from any spontaneous bad-decision making. Snow reaches out a hand and encompasses Regina's as it lay gently over Neal. Snow grips her hand tightly and shuffles over until she is close.
'We're here for you,' she whispers, 'don't ever think you have to do any of this alone. I can't even begin to comprehend what the past week has been like for you with Zelena and Robin, but I'm here for you.'
Snow knows that words aren't enough to reduce the grief that is so evident in Regina's eyes, but she wants Regina to know that there is no way she is going to let Regina suffer through any more consequences of bad decision-making, especially decisions made by others. As she holds Regina's hand, she tries to comprehend just how much Regina has lost in her life.
She was a big part of how Regina lost Daniel; then Cora disappeared just before Regina's wedding to King Leopold, only to have Snow poison her heart in the end (Snow still occasionally feels the stabbing pain that comes from the time Regina ripped her heart out and showed her the darkness in her own heart); Regina's father Henry was last seen joining his daughter in her exile at the Winter Palace (but Snow knows now that the Dark Curse called for the Heart of the Thing you Love Most; which for The Evil Queen, could have only been Prince Henry, The Evil Queen's Valet); then her half-sister who had only made their familial connection known for just over a day had taken her own life rather than change her fate (which Snow still considers suspicious) and now the loss of Robin (which Snow still hold hope over, because ultimately Marian does not belong in this time stream, no matter what occurred previously in the Enchanted Forest, plus the fairy Tinkerbelle had let it slip to Snow and David quietly that Regina and Robin were soul mates, destined to be together in the end).
No, words are not enough, but aside from her company and her love for Regina, Snow cannot do much more until Regina herself is ready to deal with whatever lies ahead.
0-0-0-0
Regina is tired, absolutely, bone-weary tired. She feels like she's intruding on Snow's quiet mid-morning rest, but the endlessly cheerful woman drags her into her home and makes her tea. Then when the baby wakes, Snow does not hesitate before placing her son in Regina's arms. For Regina it is a clear sign of just how far the two of them have come, from attempted murder to Godmother duties.
Then Snow does her best to provide any form of comfort, which Regina will always struggle to accept, so used to being alone as she is, even affection from someone who isn't Henry is still a foreign feeling. As Neal nods back to sleep, Regina twists until she is more comfortable and in what she could only describe as an act of grief, she lies her head on Snow's shoulder, letting the weight of the world crash about her. The tears that threaten do not fall, she is too used to swallowing them back, having Cora as a mother taught her quickly to hide any tears for they were a sign of weakness.
Regina knows she could probably cry if she wanted, but she's holding Neal, and it would be unfair to wake him so soon after he went back to sleep. Instead she lets her head fall even heavier on Snow's shoulder and closes her eyes. Regina thinks back to a time when their roles were reversed, long ago when Snow was still a child, when they both were essentially still children. Snow had taken a fall down a small flight of stairs after tripping over the hem of a too-long gown. She lay at the bottom afterwards and howled in pain. Leopold had been out hunting, leaving an eighteen year old Regina to babysit the then-eleven year old Snow. Back then it had been Snow to tuck her head into Regina's shoulder; it had been Regina holding Snow's hand as the pain ebbed away with time.
Now they have swapped roles, and Regina feels bone-weary tired in more ways than just physical. She is emotionally drained too, all hope sucked out as she relives the moment in the diner in which Robin was lost to her in her head; another part is that Regina is magically drained, light magic tends to creep into the inner-most crevices on one's soul, rooting out the dark and suturing the spirit back together with good. The process is not physically draining, but Regina feels the sensation of magical exhaustion all the same.
With her eyes still closed, she starts to fall asleep, though still aware she is holding Neal. It takes a few minutes before she realises she's mostly asleep on Snow's shoulder, Snow who has let her own head rest on top of Regina's.
She isn't entirely sure that Snow says anything, but a voice that sounds suspiciously like Snow's breaks through the heady fog that threatens to pull Regina into a deep restful sleep,
'Thank you for being a mother.'