Anonymous asked: Birth
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Regina rubbed her lower back and then passed a soothing hand over her protruding abdomen with a smile lost in a mix of memories and wishes. The baby in her womb should have never been possible for at least a dozen different reasons. However, the top two were why she smiled since the first moment she had learned.
She had been told, as a young woman, that she could never bear a child. The devastation came after Leopold's albeit unwelcome advances hadn't produced a child in the first year. An old midwife had broken the news to her after the humiliating examination. Terrified of the dreams of murdering Snow already crowding her sleepless days and nights, Regina had been almost relieved. But as the years wore on, first the woodcutter's children, and then young Owen, the urge to mother had grown until she'd begged Gold to find her a child. He'd brought her Henry. And she'd thought there could be nothing greater.
However, the second, and more astonishing reason she had smiled upon learning of her pregnancy, was the indisputable revelation that this had to be a child of true love. Regina hadn't slept with anyone but Graham since coming to Storybrooke — until Emma Swan and a cold bedroll where they'd commiserated and comforted one another regarding their lost son.
Melding their magic to save Henry had saved his life — and created a new life. Even if Emma never believed, it was enough that Regina knew the truth.
Regina winced as the baby twisted and she remembered trying to share the good news with Emma. She cupped her hand over the baby's kicking feet and rubbed in soothing circles. "All right, I'll let us both nap for a bit," she promised, making her way slowly up the staircase in her mansion.
Henry was in school and then, afterward, headed to the stables to meet up with his grandfather, David.
Ruby was due by with Regina's takeout from Granny's around 6 pm. Regina would sigh, then smile whenever the craving hit — a burger piled high with onions and mushrooms and swiss cheese, smothered in gravy. It was so Emma Swan that it left Regina with no doubt who had 'fathered' her baby.
Emma rang the doorbell at 108 Mifflin as she held a bag of Granny's takeout. Ruby had pressed it on her when the diner was suddenly packed just as the waitress had been preparing to take the meal to the mansion.
"Run it over for me, please?" the waitress had wheedled. Emma rolled her eyes.
"I'm not even going that way," she protested.
"Your patrols start over that end of town every night," Ruby had replied knowingly.
And she did know, Emma sighed, finally accepting she was going to have to see Regina.
Flutters of both anxiety and anticipation battled for control of her stomach and Emma pressed her free hand against it. She drove by this place every patrol route, at least three or four times a night, looking up at the second floor windows — the one that remained on until nearly two or three a.m. regularly. She often saw Regina's silhouette pacing, had watched the silhouette grow over the months, until Regina was often arching her back, pressing away pain with every step.
Emma had constantly battled the desire to leap at the trellis and scramble up it into Regina's bedroom and soothe away every ache, every pain… She remembered all too intimately the feel of Regina's body curling into hers in Neverland. The feel of lips mutually kissing away worried tears under the darkness of night.
The sound of her name on Regina's lips whispered reverently as she came undone with Emma's touch…
Fuck, Emma thought, feeling miserable. She knew what Regina was going through. Alone, pregnant, wondering what to do next, what would happen…
"God damn it!" Emma exploded, balling her fist as she slammed her hand against the front door. She hated what Regina Mills made her remember, what she made Emma feel… "Regina, open the door!"
There was no answer. Emma raised her fist again, but this time, she shoved not flesh, but magic, at the entry, and it shimmered and vanished.
"Regina!" Emma strode into the foyer, swinging the takeout. "Got your dinner from Granny's. I'll just leave it in the kitchen and you can get it later."
The silence following Emma's pronouncement lasted until she had her hand out to rematerialize the vanished door. A whimper reached her ears. She froze in place, turning to stare up the staircase from where, she knew, the sound had come.
"Regina?" Emma's heart raced. She knew that whimper. It was pain. It was worry. It was Regina.
Another whimper, closer to a sharp cry this time, poured adrenaline into Emma's body and she bounded for the staircase, grabbing the railing and leaping upward past the first several steps. Her boots would barely land on a step before they were leaving it for another. She was at the second floor landing in four leaps. "Regina!"
"Em…?" Regina's voice was broken by a gasping breath. "Em…ma?" The woman was panting. Emma raced toward the sound. Regina's bedroom door stood half open.
Reaching out, Emma was terrified what she would find. Had someone come to the house, taken advantage of Regina's limited mobility and taken revenge? Would she find Regina laying in a pool of blood, dying from some mortal wound? Damn it, why had she ever left the woman alone? She knew better than anyone that enemies don't just give up and go away. She should have doubled, even tripled, patrols here. She should have demanded Snow and David order the rest of the town to leave Regina alone.
"Regina?" Emma's voice was a mere murmur now. Her palm contacted the door, and it was strange but she felt every fiber of the wood grain sliding against her skin, and suddenly heard her own hard breathing in her ears. "I…"
Emma stopped, frozen in place once more. Not by a sound, this time, but by a sight.
Regina was on the bed, rumpled sheets balled in her fists. The pain painted her face in scrunched patches of red and the tendons of her neck and arms were in sharp relief against her drenched naked skin.
The roundness of her belly was distorted and Emma realized why when Regina, eyes squeezed shut, screamed out incoherently and pulled at her knees to either side of her belly, Regina was in labor. Hard labor.
Emma took in the entirety of Regina's body in seconds, from the lank sweaty hair sticking to her cheeks and forehead, to the splay of her legs and the already widening center of her, and the dark short hairs covering her womanhood. Then Emma realized that was not all Regina.
"The baby's coming," Emma gasped aloud. She ran into the adjoining bathroom, starting the bathtub's warm water, and grabbing every towel in sight. Her thigh banged into the sink and she looked in the cabinet underneath, giving a small sound of victory when she came up with a first aid kit. She'd need the alcohol swabs.
When she returned to the bed, Regina was wide-eyed, staring at Emma, her hands wrapped around her calves. Emma patted a wet handcloth against Regina's temple.
"Emma?" There was a breathlessness to Regina's voice.
"Yeah, I… was bringing your dinner." Emma backed away. "Here," she laid a dry towel over Regina. "You're going to get cold." She glanced toward the no longer visible space between Regina's legs. "How long? You didn't call anyone."
Regina bit her lip and threw her head back, clearly pushing her way through another contraction. "No one to call," she said, finally, breathing heavily with every word.
Emma swallowed. "I'll help."
"Don't nee—" Regina's voice pitched upward as she experienced another contraction.
Grasping one of Regina's hands on her legs, Emma squeezed it. "OK." Regina's hand squeezed hers through yet another contraction. Emma lifted the towel and examined Regina's progress.
One of Regina's hands weakly tried to push away Emma's head. "Em…" Brown eyes were filled with tears when Emma glanced up. Emma gave a sad twist of her lips to acknowledge the situation and straightened back up. "I've got some warm water. I'll be right back."
Emma soaked and twisted out one of the towels in the warm bathwater, then returned to the bed. She set it out between Regina's legs and grasped the woman's ankles. When Regina struggled, Emma slid her hands up soothingly along the calves. "All right. Now, I don't think there's much more. The baby's head is already crowning. You'll want to bear down steadily through the next contractions. Keep pushing."
Regina nodded. Emma bit her lip in the middle of her answering smile. Regina's eyes were doe brown in this moment meeting her gaze. Even sweaty hair sticking to her face, she was a stunningly beautiful woman.
The moment the final contractions began, Emma knew. She could see the glaze of pain wash out brown eyes, now almost obscured with tears. Regina squeezed her eyes shut, and Emma reached forward with the warm wet towel.
A tiny body slipped free of Regina's and Emma wiped away birth matter. Once the baby was turned onto her back, Emma noticed the sex immediately, the squalling began. She started to lift the baby onto Regina's belly. The woman had fallen back against the pillows and sheets.
It wasn't until she was trying to extricate her pocket knife to cut the cord that the baby's eyes, face pressed against Regina's belly, opened. Emma was trying to hold the baby steady with one hand while fishing in her tight jeans pocket for the knife with the other.
The baby's eyes were softly colored in the low light, and Emma realized with a start they were green. Not a vague blue, but unmistakably green. Emma's green. She'd only met two other people with those green eyes. Her father, David, and her son, Henry.
The knife fumbled from her fingers with the realization. Regina groggily opened her eyes with the sudden motion of the bed as Emma scrambled to retrieve the knife.
"Eh… Emma?"
"Hey," Emma's voice was choked. "I… Just hang on. We need to get the afterbirth, and I… I've got to cut the cord." She swallowed, her throat almost too full of emotion to speak. "You, uh… you okay?"
"Is she okay?" Regina asked instead.
Emma stroked over the baby girl's back and pulled Regina's hand onto it as well. "Yeah. Yeah, she's okay. She's okay. She's… fine. She's beautiful." She watched Regina's hand splay across the baby's back. Tears soon obscured the sight and she swiped at them with the back of her arm. Regina gave a small grunt and murmur, but her lips unmistakably turned up in an exhausted smile.
Gathering herself together, Emma wiped her knife down with several alcohol swabs. Studying the cord for a panicked second, she suddenly remembered she'd need to tie it off. Quickly she bent over and pulled her boot laces out, hands shaking. Finally she tied off the cord and cut through it with the pocket knife.
"Regina," Emma coaxed. "You've got to push once more."
Regina strained, half up on an elbow, and Emma felt the rippling of muscle where her hand rested on Regina's belly. The placenta slipped free on the next contraction and Regina grunted with exhaustion. Emma folded the towel around the afterbirth and moved it aside. She'd have to get Regina and the baby to the hospital to make sure it was all out, and there were no complications.
Emma brought another clean, warm damp towel between Regina's thighs and wiped gently, cleaning her up. Regina stirred. Emma rubbed her belly soothingly. "Sorry."
Regina said nothing, her eyes drifting from Emma to the baby on her belly. She moved her hand slightly on the baby's back.
The newborn girl whimpered. Regina's hand was joined by Emma's, rubbing warm, soothing circles softly on the silk-smooth skin. The whimpering turned to barely audible breaths and then an unmistakable sucking noise.
Emma met Regina's eyes as they both realized the baby was trying to turn her head and root to suck at the skin of Regina's belly. "I think she's hungry," Emma said. "You… you wanna try…?"
Regina's legs settled together on the bed and she struggled to sit up with the baby still on her belly. Emma lurched forward to plump pillows. The gesture wrapped both her arms around Regina's shoulders and she found herself pulling mother and baby against her in a tight embrace.
"Em?" Regina murmured. She sounded tired.
"Um, I'm sorry. I'll…" Emma moved away and finished, businesslike, covering her own emotional mess, and settling Regina's pillows. "You… uh, got it?"
Regina lifted the baby girl to her chest, resituating her fidgeting form so that she rooted first at the side and then found the nipple. Regina gasped suddenly.
"Regina? What happened?"
"Um, she found what she wanted," Regina said sheepishly. She lowered her head to place a kiss atop dark wisps of hair, then nuzzled the baby's temple with her nose. The sounds of the baby girl sucking gradually filled the room.
Emma closed her eyes and fell slowly, reverently, a petitioner for penitence, to her knees on the floor beside the bed. Her arms supporting her chin, she opened her eyes and gazed at mother and baby. "Wha… what's her name?"
Regina's gaze slipped benevolently over Emma's. She lifted her near hand to caress a lock of Emma's hair behind her ear. "I hadn't decided. I thought we might… together?"
Emboldened by Regina's touch, Emma lifted one hand from beneath her chin and reached out toward the baby's cheek. With the back of a fingertip she stroked the satin skin. "I… it's really not… I didn't think my life was supposed to happen this way, y'know?"
Regina nodded. "Yes, dear. I… I know."
Emma looked at the baby's contented face and closed eyes and light dusting of dark hair. "Jenna," she said softly.
Regina looked from Emma's face to the baby's head and nodded after a moment. She lowered her lips to the girl's forehead and pressed her lips there softly. As she pulled away, she murmured in confirmation, "Jenna."
Emma's hand slipped over the top of Regina's on Jenna's bottom. "You… I… I owe you an apology, Regina," she said.
"No, no apologies."
"But all these months… I thought you were lying to me."
"I know."
Emma pulled away from the tenderness she didn't feel she deserved shining from Regina's gaze. She'd been horrible, leaving Regina to fend for herself for all this time. "We should probably get you and Jenna to the hospital, have Whale check you out. Make sure everything's okay." She was going to fix that now. Do everything necessary, and right, by Regina and Jenna.
"Emma," Regina started, then paused with an exhale as Jenna released her breast. "It's all right." She shifted Jenna to her other breast. The position was a little more awkward, but eventually Jenna once again settled to nurse.
Emma had said nothing as she watched the most beautiful, natural act she'd ever witnessed in her life. And how beautiful was Regina as she did it?
"You… you okay if I call… Henry?" Emma wanted her whole family around her suddenly. Henry needed to be here. Needed to know it was going to be different, for all of them.
Regina looked up from brushing a finger along Jenna's cheek and watching the girl nurse and nodded. "He's at the stables with David."
"Well, he should know he's a big brother," Emma said.
"All right."
Emma reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, dialing quickly. She heard David answer the call and exhaled. "Um, David, could you bring Henry home? Regina's house. Yes. It's time for… a family meeting."
She closed the call and returned the phone to her pocket. "He'll be here soon."
Regina was looking at her with furrowed brows. "Family meeting?"
"Yeah. We're family, Regina."
"Are we, Emma?"
Emma hesitated. She'd felt so confident. Maybe Regina didn't want Emma as part of her life. Yeah, so she'd helped name the baby, but Regina hadn't exactly ever said that she wanted Emma in her life, after Emma rejected her the first time.
"What do you want, Regina?"
"What I've always wanted, Emma. My happy ending."
Emma looked from Jenna, already dozing in Regina's arms, to Regina. "Will you settle for a broken Savior, who's going to keep making mistakes, probably forever, about nearly everything?"
"I don't settle for anything." Emma's face fell. Regina asked suddenly, "Would you take Jenna, please?"
Emma reached out and gingerly collected Jenna, wrapped in her towel, from Regina's arms. Even as Emma backed up, Regina pushed herself off the bed and got unsteadily to her feet.
Emma looked panic-stricken from Jenna and her completely occupied hands, desperate to reach out a third arm if she'd had one to steady Regina, even as Regina's hand came to rest lightly on Emma's forearm wrapped around Jenna.
The brunette leaned across Jenna, lips a breath away from Emma's. So close she made Emma close her eyes or risk going cross-eyed.
Then warm breath and words brushed Emma's lips. "Emma, I want and need you, mistakes and all."
Emma let herself linger in the kiss Regina pressed to her lips, closing her eyes, tears squeezing out from beneath the lids.
"I'd better get into a dressing gown before your father arrives with our son," Regina said when she pulled back slowly. Emma opened her eyes and before her stood Regina, nude body with new plusher curves freshly flushed by pregnancy.
"That would probably be best," Emma replied unsteadily though she had tried to choke back the lust that would have buckled her knees were it not for the baby she held preciously in her arms.
