Regina stared blankly out the window of the dark kitchen where she sat drinking a cup of hot cocoa that she had suddenly woken up craving at two in the morning. It was good cocoa, expensive and rich, but it was still lacking something, something that she just couldn't put her finger on. The cocoa had, however, reminded her of Henry, which, in turn, reminded her of Miss Swan...Emma. At the thought of her name Regina sighed deeply, setting her mug down on the counter, and hung her head. One hand went to the bridge of her nose and pinched, hoping to help the small headache popping up. The other settled over the slight swell of her slowly blossoming stomach, fingers sliding slightly under the hem of her silk button up pajama top to graze the soft skin just below her belly button and just above the low rise of her pajama pants. She wouldn't be able to hide the growing roundness for much longer.
Regina let out a half exasperated sigh, half growl, at the traitorous tears that formed in her eyes and the one that had actually escaped. She had so many conflicting emotions and thoughts running through her at the moment, not to mention the amped up hormones, that she was surprised that she had been able to keep her promise to Henry about not using magic. Not that it was really doing any good anyway, he hardly ever saw her, or even wanted to, she guessed. He was busy learning how to ride horses and about swords and things from David...Charming...James...ugh, Him. Regina missed Henry immensely, but what surprised her was the longing, almost empty feeling she got when she thought of his blonde...mother. She decided to chock that up to her being the other half of the DNA that was part of the tiny human growing in her now. How? She really had NO idea, especially since the one and only time this could have happened was weeks before magic was brought here. It was either that, immaculate conception, or spontaneous reproduction, and those last two were even less likely than the first theory.
Not only was it already a miracle that The Evil Queen and The White Knight, two women, supposedly mortal enemies, had created life, but it should have been a doubly impossible miracle because Regina should not have been able to carry the child at all. This was the main reason she had turned to adoption and thus procured Henry. She had always claimed that her reason for not having a child of her own flesh and blood was for reasons of vanity. However, those claims were vastly untrue. She already knew the toll being with child would put on her body, for that was the reason she couldn't bear children anymore, the night she lost her daughter and her ability to be a biological mother or so she had thought.
The child had been Daniel's, conceived the first and only time they had made love, the night that Daniel had given her the ring and they decided to run away to wed. By the time of her and the king's wedding night, she already knew she was pregnant, and so she willingly went to the king's bed and lay with him, knowing that the timing was close enough that she would be able to call the baby the king's without suspicion. As the months went on and the baby grew inside of her, Regina almost sensed that it was a girl. She decided that if she were right that she would name the child Lena, after Daniel's mother who had died when he was a young boy but had loved greatly. It meant "the bright one," which Regina felt fit perfectly as this little one was the only bright thing in a world that had become so dark for her as of late. Regina went into labor, seemingly, only a few weeks early when in actuality she was a few weeks late. It was a long and hard labor, and when her little girl finally made her appearance in the world, she was silent.
The doctor quickly handed the tiny girl to his assistant who took the child in the next room and away from a bleeding, feverish, and partly delirious Regina. Regina had developed an infection in her womb from being in labor for so long and that was what had eventually led to her barren state. The baby girl, she learned later, had been stillborn. She had begged the doctor and handmaids, and anyone she could, to at least let her see her daughter, to be able to hold her Lena, if only once, to give her the mother's love she should have and say goodbye. The king had disregarded Regina's request and told others to ignore her requests, then had refused to see the child himself.
He had promptly issued a statement to the realm and told Snow the news before holding a small ceremony in the family plot for the child. The grave stone did not even have a name etched in it, just a "Princess White," and the one date for both her birth and death. The next year, on what Regina would forever call Lena's birthday, she went to the grave site and planted a sapling tree that she had grown from an apple seed, from an apple from her own precious tree, next to the grave stone. As the years wore on, the apple tree grew and flourished. Regina would visit the tree and her daughter often, and, when it was big enough, she placed a spell on it so that the name, Lena, grew twisted in its own bark.
Regina was torn from her reverie while staring at her own, now mangled and rotting, apple tree by the noise of scraping wood on her floors and then a loud smash of porcelain on marble as the table that held a vase by the front door obviously fell over. Regina pulled her robe closed and padded quietly out to the hallway, peeking around the corner into the foyer where she watched an almost unbelievable scene play out.
Hell, if some one had told her that around three in the morning a portal would open up in her foyer then she would have simply laughed at them and walked away. The only thing that made what she was seeing believable was who she saw come through it. Regina felt her heart skip a beat as she watched Emma and Snow White step through, carrying an unconscious woman with an arrow lodged in her shoulder. It had missed anything vital, but the girl was clearly losing a lot of blood. Before she realized what she was doing, she felt herself quickly moving to them to help. Emma looked up and her face lit up with relief when she saw Regina hurrying towards them. Regina would have stopped to question that look, but the injured woman took precedence over her confused feelings for the blonde woman.
"Emma, Snow, take her into the kitchen and lay her on the island," Regina ordered. They quickly complied, moving the girl swiftly into the kitchen, turning on the light as they went, and then they moved out of the way so the sorceress could examine the wounded girl. First, she felt for a pulse. It was light and unsteady, almost nonexistent, but there none the less. However, she wouldn't make it to the hospital in town. Regina had to work fast.
"Emma, I m going to need your help."
"What do you need," the blonde asked without hesitation, stepping up beside the other woman.
"Roll the girl onto her side so I can get a better look at this." Emma rolled the girl onto her left side as Regina moved around the island to look at the girl's back. It was as she had feared. The tip of the arrow was protruding from the young woman's back.
"Damn! Well, good news is we can remove the arrow easily. The bad news is that as soon as it's been removed she is going to start bleeding profusely from both the entry and exit wounds, and, if her barely noticeable pulse is any indication, she can't afford to lose much more blood. So here's the plan. I'm going to break the arrow so the fletchings on the back end don't snag in the wound. Snow, I need you to come over here, and, when I say to, I need you to pull the arrow out. Emma, I need you to hold the girl where she is in case she wakes from the pain of the arrow being removed. I doubt she will with the amount of blood she's lost, but better safe than sorry." Regina moved to stand by the girl's head as Snow moved in where Regina had just been. Emma tightened her hold on the girl. Regina broke the arrow.
"Now, Snow," Regina commanded, and, as soon as the arrow was out of the way, she moved her hands to hover above the wound and immediately began pouring magic into it. Once the wound was sealed, Regina pulled her hands away and had to place them on the edge of the island to brace herself as a wave of dizziness swept over her. She felt a gentle hand on her shoulder and looked up into bottomless blue-green eyes.
"Are you all right," Emma asked, concern clear in her voice and eyes. Regina gazed into those eyes and felt a warm sensation spread through her body. It had been a long time since anyone had looked at her like that.
"I'm fine," she said, shoving the warm feeling, and her confused emotions, aside and focused on the task at hand. It's these damned hormones, she kept telling herself as she moved from the island.
"So, now what do we do," Snow inquired as she moved to the sink and washed the blood from her hands.
"Now, you call your husband and inform him that you and Miss Swan have returned to Storybrooke. I would take you home myself, but my car is in the shop getting its annual tune-up. The girl may stay in the guestroom upstairs."
"Actually, Regina, if you don't mind, I would like to stay here with Rapunzel. That arrow, it had been meant for me, and they had been shooting to kill. I feel obligated to be her when she wakes up," Emma stated.
"My, my, it would appear that The Enchanted Forest has rubbed off on our sheriff. Very well, Miss Swan, you may stay here as well."
"Thank you. Mary Margret, tell David to wake Henry and grab my black duffel bag from my closet. I'm sure Regina would love to see our son as much as I would," Emma said, giving the older woman a quick smile.
"All right," she said absentmindedly as she grabbed the house phone from its charger on the counter. "I'll go call David in the living room," she said as she left the room.
"Well, while she calls your father, we should move Rapunzel into the guestroom."
"Okay," Emma said, then, hooking one arm around the unconscious woman's shoulders and the other under the woman's knees, picked her up as though she weighed nothing. "Lead the way, Your Highness."