Because of the Estrogen
pamrenea asked you: so I dont ususally do the prompts. But i love the things I've read that you wrote.I'm new to SQ. But i would like to see a prompt where, Emma returns from FTL pregnant from a one night stand, she finds out the news just as she and Regina are sorting out thier feelings each other. But Regina surprises herself and Emma as she steps up to the plate. Can be a mix of fluff and early angst.
AN: This is a one shot that took two very different turns when I was writing it. I like both versions even though they are very, very different from the sentence 'Emma was nauseous' on (if you hit control (or command) f and type that sentence then you will get to the point that they are different). I wrote the second chapter first, but this is what I was originally intending when I set out to write this fic; it's a little serious at the beginning then turns funny and fluffy. However, I like the other one, which is a little more serious throughout the entire story, so I decided to put it up as well. I hope you enjoy them both!
Emma looked at the three different sticks. All of them read 'pregnant'.
"God, damn it."
She stood up, placed them back in the packages and the packages back in the paper sack. She carefully moved around her room, selecting a thick, bulky sweater over her usual leather jacket and gathered her keys, wallet and phone. She then grabbed the paper sack and moved to the front of the apartment.
It had thankfully been the first time she was alone since she and Mommy Margaret got back to Storybrooke. It seemed everyone had to stop by and make sure they were all right. People she'd never even heard of, people she'd only met once—they all came bearing goodies and sympathies and 'glad you're back's. She just needed time.
She'd opened the door to go to an alleyway dumpster and dispose of the pregnancy tests—the last thing she needed was her mother, her father or her son looking in the trash and seeing the pregnancy tests. Snow knew that something happened between her and Hook, but she didn't know specifically what it was. And Emma sure wasn't planning on advertising her sexcapade with the arrogant pirate.
She saw black boots in her line of vision as she looked down, ducking her way out of the apartment. "Regina." She looked up to brown eyes that showed the woman's every weakness. She hid the bag behind her back, "What.. are you doing here?"
Regina swallowed hard, "I'm not sure… I just… I needed to see you. See for myself that you were really okay."
"You have seen me. You made positive that Snow and I got through the portal…"
"I know, but that was all too brief. Especially…" Regina trailed off. She sucked in her bottom lip and looked to the ground.
Emma nodded, "I know." She nodded again and stepped aside, "You want to come in?"
"You were going somewhere…?" Regina pointed out.
"Yeah… Just to a dumpster. It can wait."
"Why a dumpster?"
Emma shook her head, "Doesn't matter." She turned, keeping the paper bag from view and walked to the kitchen counter, slipping the bag between the two potted plants that took over the breakfast bar. She turned back around, "You want anything? Coffee? Water? We might have juice…"
Regina shook her head, "I'm fine."
Emma nodded and pursed her lips to the side, "So… What are we going to talk about?"
"Why you kissed me."
"Which time?"
Regina sucked in a quick breath, "All three of them." She looked down a moment.
The brunette looked despondent and perplexed. Emma couldn't help the sad smile that came to her face as she walked back to the couch the other woman was standing in front of and sat down. She silently gestured for the brunette to sit with her and once Regina did, Emma took a couple of deep breaths before she began, "I don't know… The first time. I don't know why." She shrugged. "The mob tried to take you and we wouldn't let them. Ruby was watching Henry and you needed someone too. So, I followed you inside the mansion. When you turned and looked at me in that questioning, half-angry, half-hopeful way… I just kissed you. I guess I just wanted to."
Regina stared at her with undivided attention. "And the second?"
The blonde looked down at the coffee table. It took her a moment to form the right words, but even the right words got mixed up with her hormones now racing through her body, and what came out was, "I thought the wraith was going to take you away from me."
"So you kissed me to what? Stop it?"
"I kissed you so that you knew that the mansion kiss wasn't just a fluke, or a one-time thing, or a seizing the opportunity event. That it meant something."
Regina swallowed audibly, causing Emma to look to her blinking eyes. The brunette turned away quickly and tried to subtly wipe her eyes, "And the third?" She asked after turning back to the blonde.
"The third was a thank you for sucking up all that magic to let me and Mary Margaret back through the portal. And to tell you that you still meant something to me." Emma leaned in and kissed Regina's cheek, "And that was to tell you that you still mean something to me, but I don't expect anything."
Regina bit her lip, nodding. She looked off in thought before looking to the blonde again, "So, what does that mean? You don't expect anything?"
"It means that some stuff happened over in the enchanted forest, and… I can't…" Emma shook her head, "I have to take responsibility for them. I have to own up to the mistakes I made. And you shouldn't feel obligated to help me, you shouldn't help me at all." She turned away from the other woman. Standing to get out of feeling so constricted and angry with herself and possibly that the woman before her would be angry with her too.
Regina knit her brows, "What are you talking about? What mistakes? Talking to my mother about Henry? It's no big deal. She can't come here… there's no way left."
"No." Emma laughed dejectedly, angrily at herself, "Not telling Cora that we share a son." She moved to the breakfast bar, sat on a stool and stared at the paper bag she'd hidden. "For letting myself break." She spoke quietly as she reached forward and fingered the bag.
"Letting yourself break? You shouldn't apologize for that… I mean… I should apologize to you… I did it to you, after all. If I hadn't cast the curse, you would have grown up with a happy family in the enchanted forest. None of this would be shocking to you; you'd be able to accept the things, the people, the characters that we all are… Don't apologize for breaking in a place that was probably too overwhelming for your own good. I mean… All things considered, you seem to be taking everything in stride. It's surprising really, how well you're doing…"
"I slept with Captain Hook." Emma didn't look to Regina's eyes, only her general direction, "When there are things that I can't handle emotionally or mentally, or if I'm just too stressed to think, I usually find a man and scratch an itch." She paused a moment, "We found Hook and kind of..used him as a navigator-slash-prisoner. At a certain point, I knew he wouldn't try to get away, so I took the ropes tying his arms together off. He offered to help me go look for a dinner after I got into it with Mulan for ragging on Mommy Margaret. I took him up on it, just because I thought I'd have a chance to..breathe or something… And I did get a chance to breathe…"
"Or something…" Regina couldn't help the dejected tone that came from her.
"Regina—"
"No." Regina shook her head, "Please don't. Don't do whatever it is you're about to do… I don't… I don't think I can handle it." She stood and turned from the blonde.
"So this is ending before it even started?" Emma wasn't ashamed of the tears that sprang to her eyes.
Regina whipped back around to face Emma, "What 'this'? There is no 'this'." She moved to the front door, putting on her coat and gloves.
"There is." Emma's voice was small.
Regina wouldn't have heard her if she wasn't listening for a retort. She opened the door. Before taking a step to the hallway, she turned her head to the side, "I just need time to think about all of this."
"I have options. I still have enough time to have options." Emma got up and moved halfway between the counter and the door.
Regina turned fully to the blonde with a fierce look in her eyes, "You're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting. You're not suggesting of exercising your right to choose for me."
"I wouldn't do it for you… I'd do it for me… and for us."
"No." It was a simple word. But the woman packed a punch behind it. She left with a slam of the door.
Emma of course regretted ever making the suggestion. She knew in the long run, she wouldn't choose to abort. But it was a nice option to think about when you've only just met and started a relationship with your other child that you chose to give up for adoption, you just found out that your parents are fairytale characters and also have been frozen in time so they're your age, the woman you have come to realize you have deep impenetrable feelings for is the same woman who tried to kill your fairytale parents, and your newest baby daddy is also a fairytale character—and most importantly, all of this is happening when none of it could be possible. The option of being able to choose was nice; at least she had the ability to choose something in her life. Even though she knew she'd never exercise that right personally. It was nice to know it was there.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma was in the diner. She was way far on the other side of the diner from the Mayor—she had to give her time and respect, or was trying to or whatever. She was just getting ready to enjoy a delicious bacon cheeseburger. It was greasy, but not too much to be completely disgusting. There was no lettuce or tomato getting in her way, it was just the beef, the cheese, the bacon, and the secret amazing sauce that's not plain mayonnaise. Lunchtime was about to be on like Donkey Kong.
That was right up until the burger was ripped from her eager clutches and taken away by none other than the Mayor herself.
"Hey!" Emma watched Regina put the burger back in the basket and push it to the other side of the table. She watched as the woman's other hand placed a different basket in front of her. "What the hell is this?"
"It's a bruschetta chicken sandwich with fruit, Greek yogurt and a miniscule amount of fries as sides."
Emma reached for her soda, but Regina was quick to take that away too. "What the freaking hell?!" She looked up angry at the other woman as she watched her walk away with her meal, place it on the counter, lean in to Ruby asking her something, then come back with two glasses of water.
"Red meat is bad during…" Regina trailed off knowing Emma probably hadn't told anyone about the pregnancy.
"Since when?"
"Since I read the books and that's what they said." The brunette's stern, angry tone came out in a huff as she sat down. "You have to change your diet for a while. No red meats. And if you do slip, you cannot, CANNOT eat it if there is pink in the middle."
"That burger didn't have pink in the middle!"
"You eat burgers and steaks at medium. There was pink." The brunette's voice was deadpan.
"Let me eat the burger!"
"No."
Emma huffed, knowing she wasn't going to get the brunette to change her mind. She dug into the broomhilde chicken or whatever the crap sandwich. She was surprised to find it wasn't awful. It wasn't a bacon cheeseburger, but it was okay. After a few bites, she looked up to see that Regina had her eyes closed. She looked like she was in pain, or trying to hide pain.
"…Regina?" Her voice was soft.
"Don't. Not yet."
"I'm sorry." Emma tried.
"I know." Regina breathed the words out.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma had been hiding. She was hiding in her room at home and hiding in her office at work. She didn't do anything unless it was asked of her and she didn't go anywhere unless forced.
Regina walked into the Sheriff's station. It had been two weeks since Emma told her she was pregnant and a week and a half since the diner incident. And She knew that Emma hadn't done shit to schedule a doctor's appointment.
She looked into the inner office to see the door closed and the blinds drawn. With narrowed eyes and a purse of her lips, she walked up to the door and twisted the knob.
It was locked.
No worries. She took off a glove and let magic flow through her fingers. It took no effort to open the door this time.
Emma looked up from her iPad in surprise, "Hey! How did you get in?"
"Magic." Regina gave the sheriff a look.
"Oh…" After another moment, when Regina turned around to the coat rack, Emma decided it was safe to go back to Temple Run: Brave Edition.
"Come along, Sheriff." Regina stopped her from getting invested, after finding the blonde's coat, and tried to hand it to her, "You can bring your toy."
"Wha—It's not a toy! It's an electronic device that let's you handle business and millions of other things all in pretty, pretty packaging."
"Yes, and you watch Netflix or play games. It's your toy. Let's go." Regina tried to hand her, her coat again.
"Okay, okay!" Emma shut the case of her iPad and stood, taking the proffered coat. She knit her brows, "Wait… Where are we going?"
"The doctor."
"What? No! I don't need—"
"Did you exercise your right to choose?"
"NO!" Emma gave the other woman a glare, "I never was going to! But—"
"Then you need to go to the doctor." Regina crossed her arms and waited. A standoff that she'd had what felt like billions of times with their son. She now knew where he got the defiance for defiance's sake from, "Spit spot."
Emma glared at the desk as she jerked her way into her jacket, "I don't need to go to the doctor."
"Yes, you do. You need to go for your first exam and to get your vitamins."
"But I'm busy!"
"Yes, I can see that." Regina moved to the office door and waited, arms crossed. She wasn't taking 'no' for an answer.
And Emma knew that. So, after buttoning herself up and putting on her gloves, She grabbed her iPad and moved to the exit. She stared with as much intensity as she could muster at the brunette, keeping her from moving, and when she got close enough to really stare into Regina's eyes and touch her arm, she did, "I was never going to get an abortion."
"Then why did you suggest it?" Regina asked unimpressed with the words that came from the blonde.
"Because I didn't want you to leave."
"You were trying to say anything that would get me to stay?" The sarcasm was not lost on the blonde's ears.
"Yes."
Regina pulled from their closeness and looked at the other woman sternly, studying her, "And you thought… with everything you've known, could have known about me, that suggesting killing the fetus growing in your belly would be a way to get me to stay?"
"I was desperate. Being desperate doesn't make you smart. It's makes you desperate."
"I left because of what you said."
"You left because you couldn't be around me, not because of what I said."
"It was partly because of what you said." Regina willed the blonde to accept that statement.
Emma nodded, "I know. It pushed you out rather than pulled you back in. And that's why I needed to tell you that I was never—"
"Okay." Regina interrupted. Her closed eyes told Emma more than her open ones would have. She was hurting Regina more by telling her that. She was still causing her pain. When the mayor opened her eyes, a mask was put on, "Let's get you to the doctor."
"Okay." Emma let the older woman lead the way.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma was nauseous.
"Hey, Emma? Ruby just called. She said she saw Pongo on the loose…"
Emma brought her head from her desk to look at her father to beg him to go chase the dog down.
"Emma, dear? Are you all right?" Snow was quick to move from the desk in the main office to Emma's side. She took her face, "You look a little green."
"It's not easy." Emma tried to joke, but her feeling nauseous finally caught up with her. She grabbed the trashcan under her desk and let her breakfast go.
"Oh my gods!" Snow jumped back.
Charming quickly moved into the inner office. He waited a moment, "Listen, Emma… Snow and I will take care of it."
"Thank you." Emma nodded as she came up for air.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma walked across the street at lunchtime. She sat in a booth and looked at the burger choices wantonly, but held back.
"You know what you want, Sheriff?" Ruby looked at her differently than she ever had before.
"Yeah, can I get that broom-sheet or whatever chicken sandwich? And fruit and greek yogurt and fries? Maybe more fries than you would give Regina?"
"Okay…" The werewolf eyed her, "Anything else?"
"Uh… no soda or coffee…" She mumbled to herself, "Cocoa!" She was now excited, "Can I have cocoa please?"
"Good girl." Ruby winked and walked over to the counter to place her order in.
Emma stared at her as the waitress pranced around getting refills and other orders. She stared until the woman came back with her hot cocoa. "What did you mean, 'good girl'?"
Ruby looked to the side and back to the blonde, "I just… I mean that you're making healthier choices for the most part. That's awesome."
"You're looking at me funny. And you just lied to me." Emma crossed her arms and waited for a real answer.
Ruby pursed her lips in thought before she bent down and looked the Sheriff in the eyes, "I know." She stared until Emma's eyes shifted from expectance to terror, "I'm not going to tell anyone. But I know. Regina confirmed."
"…Regina confirmed?"
"Yeah, see… I could smell it like a month and a half ago. And when she took your burger away, I knew you knew and she knew and she only told me that what I was thinking I was smelling was right. Then she asked for two waters."
When Emma said nothing more, Ruby walked back behind the diner.
Emma sat there, turning her mug in circles. Estrogen running rampant; emotions flowing because of the estrogen. A sudden wave of sadness came over her. "Ruby?" Emma whispered looking up to the waitress leaning against the diner. The wolf girl was quick to look at her in question, "She say anything? In the last month? About me?"
Ruby bit her lip as she held back the sympathy tears for her friend. She shrugged and decided she needed to walk back over to the sheriff. She sat down next to the blonde. "She asks about you. But she doesn't ask much more than what you're ordering."
Emma nodded with tears in her own eyes, "At least she's asking." She sat back; willing the tears back in her eyes, "Damn it." She tried to laugh the emotions off, but that just led to an inevitable sigh, "We were so close. She was it. The one you always dream about, you know?" She looked back to Ruby with no emotion on her face, the mask clearly on for her own and everyone else's protection.
"I do." Ruby nodded. She rubbed the blonde's back a moment, "I really do. And you were… so close." She took a breath, "Can I ask you why?" She glanced down to Emma's belly.
Emma shook her head, "I was pissed. I was sad. I was angry. I was mad. I was confused. I was lonely. I was overwhelmed. He was there at a convenient moment. I just wanted… I wanted to be in control of something. I needed a release. I needed to feel something aside from feeling like I was drowning all the time. I needed human contact that wasn't a touch of comfort from Mommy Margaret. I needed to be myself. I needed to find myself…" Emma shrugged, "There are a million different excuses. Fact of the matter is, I was weak and I broke and it was convenient. And I regret it every damn day because…" The mask shattered and quickly another set of tears came forward and fell from her eyes, "Because I hurt her. And she's been hurt way too many times already, way more than I've ever been. And now I'm just another name on the list that's hurt her. There's nothing I can do." She shook her head before hiding her face from onlookers, "Shit. All this damn extra estrogen. I can't control myself."
The door chimed and Regina walked in. Once she saw Ruby and a hiding, shaking Emma, she walked over. Ruby was quick to move out of the booth and push Regina into her spot. Regina placed a hand on the sheriff's back and began rubbing, just like Ruby had been doing. When she looked to the waitress with questioning eyes, Ruby simply whispered, "It's because of the estrogen."
Regina pulled the blonde tighter against her after realizing that that was all she was going to get from the waitress. She turned the blonde into her and held her, trying to calm her.
It wasn't more than five minutes before Charming and Snow came into the diner with frantic, scared looks in their eyes. It didn't help when they saw Regina with their crying daughter.
"What did you do to her?" Snow asked with a worried, angry tone.
"Nothing! I came in and she was like this with Ruby." Regina spoke softly as she defended herself from under the blonde's body, which was now clutching onto her like a vise.
"Regina?" Emma pulled from the woman's neck and looked at her. Tears stopped for the time being and she wiped her eyes, nose and mouth, "Where did Ruby go?"
Ruby came back over with Emma's lunch and set it on the table, "Yeah, I got the hell out of dodge. I don't do crying in public for the world to see. I don't like to comfort it much either… unless you're a pregnant woman. Then I wait as patiently as possible for someone else to come in and take my place."
"Wait, 'pregnant woman'?" Snow looked from Ruby to Emma and back to Ruby and back to Emma, "Pregnant woman?"
Charming stared at Emma for a moment, "How can you get pregnant?"
"Oh it's like riding a bike. Once you know how, you don't forget. Probably get better at it." Emma let her head rest on Regina's shoulder, soaking up any contact from the other woman as she could.
"Okay, but… how?" he looked at the comfortable position the mayor and the sheriff were in, "Did you… can you—did you make a magical baby?"
"There are magical babies?" Emma looked from her father to Regina.
"Yes." Regina nodded.
"Oh my gods." Snow stared at her confused daughter—thankful that she was in fact confused because that meant that she wasn't sleeping with Regina. Her outburst though, caused everyone to stare at her as she put the pieces together of who could have gotten her daughter pregnant, "Hook."
"Mary Margaret!" Emma looked down. "Not now. Please." She felt tears springing up again, "Damn estrogen." She fell back into Regina's neck.
"Okay!" Regina cut off Mary Margaret, Charming, Ruby and any of the other patrons that looked like they were about two seconds from giving their two cents, "Listen. She's a little too emotional right now." She looked at the lunch, "I'm going to ask if I might be able to magic her meal into a to-go box and cup?" she looked to Ruby who nodded almost as if pleading with the other woman to take the crying, pregnant lady out of there. "Thank you." She waved her hand over the meal then made sure she was holding both the cup and box, "Now, I'm going to magic the two of us out of here. I will bring her to the apartment when she thinks she can handle it, all right?" She didn't wait for Charming or Snow to answer.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma looked up when she felt herself materialize, "Where are we?"
"My bedroom." Regina spoke softly as she set the food on her nightstand and looked at the blonde, "Are you all right?"
Emma shook her head and wiped her face, "I should go."
"You don't have to."
"Yes, I do. Thanks for getting me out of the diner…" She stood and made her way around the bed and picked up her food, "And thanks for getting me out of the diner with my food." She smiled a sad smile. "I'll try not to bother you anymore."
"Why are you leaving?" Regina sat up on the bed and inched to the edge when Emma stopped at the doorway.
"I don't need to hurt you anymore. I can't let myself hurt you anymore…" The blonde sighed, "I just… I need to leave."
"You're not hurting me right now." Her words stopped the blonde again.
Emma turned, "What?"
Regina shook her head, "You're not hurting me…" She sighed, "I said I needed time. And you did and are still doing your damndest to give it to me. But I don't need it anymore. I've thought. All I've done is think."
She reached out for the blonde and Emma's feet quickly got in gear, "And I've come to a conclusion." She said as she took Emma's food from her hands and once more set them on the nightstand. She then turned to the blonde and placed her hands on Emma's hips, staring at her still flat stomach.
She let her thumbs trace the blonde's hips, and after a moment she looked up into hopeful green orbs, "And the conclusion, no matter the pathway I take to get there, is that I want you. I'm falling deeply, passionately, irrevocably in love with you." She leaned in and kissed Emma's tummy. "I will love this baby. I will cherish this baby… as long as I can cherish you too."
Emma's chin was quivering. She was blinking repeatedly in quick succession. She was trying to keep herself together long enough to respond.
Regina stared at the woman that was just barely hanging on by a thread, "Are you going to let me cherish you?" Emma nodded vigorously. "Are you trying not to cry again?" Again, another vigorous nod. Regina nodded slowly with her as she pushed the blonde a step back and stood up, "You can cry, my love. I'll let you cry. I'll still be here."
Emma opened her mouth, "It's… it's…" She couldn't even get another word out; the sob was quick to let itself go despite her best effort.
"It's because of the estrogen. I know." Regina provided as she hugged the blonde and kissed her neck. "And that's okay."
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Okay, well… Wait…" Dr. Whale leaned into the screen a little more as he held the wand on Emma's stomach. He started to look back to Regina and Emma only to give the screen another look, and almost give himself whiplash as he did the same thing a few times over, "Yes… Interesting."
"What?!" Emma asked him impatiently.
"Darling." Regina calmed the blonde down with a squeeze of a hand with one hand and a brush of her hair and caress of her cheek with the other.
Dr. Whale turned from the screen of the sonogram confidently this time, "It looks like both heartbeats are strong."
"Well that's good 'cause I'm gonna have a baby." Emma spoke her thoughts aloud.
"Emma…" Regina kept petting blonde curls as she stared at Dr. Whale, "Both heartbeats?"
"Yes. It seems that little mister is gonna have a sister." Whale looked between the two of them.
"How?" Emma asked.
"Magic." Dr. Whale looked pointedly to Regina, "Especially considering sister is just as developed as mister."
Regina gave the doctor a look, "Why are you looking at me like I did it to her? She's got magic as well!"
Whale looked back to Emma, though he highly doubted between the two of them that Emma was the culprit, "Sheriff Swan, have you been messing with magic?"
Emma gave him a hand-caught-in-the-cookie-jar look. She shook her head, "No! Honest! I wasn't messing with magic. I just looked at this magic book on magical babies in the library…" When she got the same obvious look from both of them she crossed her arms, "What?! I was curious…"
Regina rolled her eyes, "Oh, Emma…" She placed a hand on her own forehead, and brought her other arm up to hold her position. Not even a moment later she came out from hiding as she twisted her hand to cover her mouth and stared at her lover, "You didn't."
"I… What?" Emma looked between the two of them.
Dr. Whale chuckled as Regina sighed again, "Darling, a person with as much magic as yourself and as little control as you have should not go around reading how magical babies get made."
"Why?"
"Because more often than not you wind up with an ankle-biter the next time you…" Dr. Whale trialed off, not wanting to say the S-E-X word in front of the town Mayor and the town Sheriff.
"Oh!" Emma gasped in realization, "How was I supposed to know that?"
"You weren't." Regina looked down at Emma lovingly. She then leaned down and kissed her cheek before looking to Whale, "I can only assume that sister's as far along because we already had mister from… him?" Regina was still a little uncomfortable with saying Hook's name. She was in love with the baby and the baby mommy, but not the baby daddy.
"Yes, that's the only thing I can think of that would speed the process up so much."
"So… wait. I'm still due in three months, right? But now I have a boy baby and a girl baby and one of them is Hook's and the other is Regina's," She gave a pointed look to her girlfriend, "And baby girl got made in the last month or so, but she's still coming at the same time as baby boy."
"Yes." Dr. Whale nodded.
"Is that why my everything has been hurting so much? I've had a baby growing at like… 900,000 times the speed it's supposed to?"
"Yes." The good doctor chuckled with another nod. "You want to get a print out?" He asked as he pointed to the sonogram once more.
"Yes." They both nodded.
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Two babies?" Charming asked as he and Snow sat at their kitchen table.
"Yes." Emma nodded, sitting at the counter, leaning into Regina who was rubbing her sore back muscles. "We're going to call them 'the twins' because they're gonna come out of me on the same day, hopefully pretty close to each other so I don't die or really, super want to when they're out."
"We're going to need to get a bigger place…" He looked to his wife who nodded.
"Actually...!" Regina stopped their thought process immediately, "I was hoping to have Emma and Henry and the twins move in and back in with me?" She looked to Emma, "If you want to?"
"Yeah?" Emma asked like she thought that was the cutest thing Regina had ever said.
"Yes."
"Well, I know I'd like to live with at least one of my babies' other parents—Oh my God, I sound like such a slut-faced whore." Emma looked down to the counter.
"You're not a slut-faced whore." Regina smiled at her love's self-degradation.
"But… I have three children and two baby daddies and one baby mommy… That's pretty whorish."
"The Savior ladies and gentlemen." Snow announced as she leaned against Charming.
Regina glared to the raven-haired woman before turning Emma to her, "Darling, you were a child yourself with your first child. And the twins… it's just…" Regina shrugged as she thought of a word, "Unfortunately fortunate happenstance." She kissed Emma's forehead.
~0~0~0~0~0~
"Look at you!" Astrid smiled happily as Emma approached the candle booth at the Miner's Day festival. "You're about to pop, huh?"
"Yes I am." Emma nodded, "Any day now."
"I can't wait to see their cute, little, chubby faces." She turned to Grumpy, "Won't they be adorable!?"
"Yes, dear." Grumpy nodded as if he'd said the words a thousand times.
Emma smiled, "Look at you two, already settled into married life with the 'yes dears'?" She looked to Grumpy.
"Watch it, Sister. You know we're only engaged."
"Oh, right… My bad." She gave him a look before turning to Astrid, "Hey, why don't you put the wedding off for another two years? That way little mister and little sister can be the ring boy and flower girl!"
"Sister!" Grumpy gave her an angry look.
"That's what you get for not letting me have innocent fun when I'm the size of a hot air balloon."
"You look adorable." Astrid tried to reason, "You should be pregnant all the time."
Emma gave the no-longer-a-nun a scary look, "Astrid, listen to me… You will one day have a child in your belly. It's the miracle of life. It's beautiful. It's also disgusting as hell. I get hot-flashes, I sweat in..places I'm not supposed to sweat, I'm in constant pain, these two fight and play all the time, I don't think they sleep! So, no… I don't wish that on my worst enemy… being pregnant all the time. Astrid! Never say that again."
Astrid and Grumpy stared at the Sheriff with slightly dropped jaws and unblinking eyes.
Emma looked down, despite their stare, "Oh, are these apple cinnamon?" She picked up a candle a smelt it.
"Uh huh." Astrid nodded.
"Regina's gonna love this." Emma handed over some money and took the candle.
The couple kept staring, now at the vacant spot the sheriff took up. Regina came over with a funnel cake and a candy apple. "Did she scar you for life? She doesn't have a filter now that she's this pregnant… Not that she had much of one before.."
"She uh… She doesn't want to be pregnant for forever." Astrid looked to Regina finally blinking, "I was just trying to give a compliment."
Regina nodded, "And she gave you the pregnancy sucks and this is why spiel?" Astrid nodded, "I'm sorry. It's really a lot more fun than she makes it sound." She tried to find the blonde before she mentally scarred anyone else and saw her hugging Henry and Henry looking utterly confused, "Oh my…" She started walking their way, "She's just… It's all the estrogen. That's what we blame it on. That and all the magic that she doesn't know how to handle, which I think just clumps in with estrogen at this point…"
"It's all right." Grumpy scooted Regina along.
"She really means no harm." Regina gave an apologetic smile to the couple before getting to her son and girlfriend, "Darling?"
"Hm?" Emma looked to the brunette with a million emotions in her eyes.
"I have fair food for you."
"I get to eat fair food?" Emma asked, pushing Henry to the side.
"Yes, because you are almost not pregnant now and you deserve to eat fair food after nine months of being so good." She gave the blonde the funnel cake and looked to their son, "You okay?"
"I… Yeah…?" Henry nodded, "I was just talking to Paige and she just came over and started hugging me…" He stared at his blonde mother as she munched on her funnel cake looking at all the different booths, "Is she high?" he whispered to his other mother.
Regina gave him an amused look, "No, but I think her magic might be affecting her mood. I don't think she even knows it. I'm afraid to have her try anything what with your brother and sister."
Henry nodded, "Yeah, don't want anything to happen to them." He looked back to Emma and gave a disgusted face, "She just peed her pants."
Emma was looking down at her pants when Regina looked over to her, "Oh! No! It's go time." She tentatively walked over to Emma, "Come on, darling."
"We need to go to the hospital." Emma said as she ate another bite of funnel cake.
"We are, my love."
"I'm eating this funnel cake. No one can stop me." She said through a full mouth.
"Wouldn't dream of it." Regina turned back to their son, "Go find your grandparents and tell them not to worry or rush to the hospital just to wait, but Emma's in labor. And you're going to stay with them tonight, like we talked about, all right?"
"Okay, mom." Henry nodded then started weaving through the crowd.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Dylan Nathan Swan-Mills and Winifred "Fred" Amy Swan-Mills were two very happy, very healthy babies. When Hook and Cora came to town, and found that not only was Regina happy, but that she had the family she had always wanted, it blew Cora's plans out of the water. She retreated and backed off to stew about what to do for a long while.
When Hook found out that Dylan was his, he begged and pleaded to be apart of his life. Emma being Emma conceded, as long as Hook forever fought on their side and his only goal would be to protect his son and his son's sister and other brother. He agreed and Nathan and Fred too quickly became the apples of his eyes.
When Cora did resurface, it was to apologize to Regina. And to tell her that she would have been enough if she'd kept her heart where it was supposed to be.
Emma and Regina finally got their happily ever after.