David, Snow, and Ruby had been officially dating since a couple of weeks after David had moved to town with his mother, brother, and stepfather. The three were inseparable, and were often spotted at Granny's diner during their teenage years were they were more comfortable hanging out than in David's or Snow's homes, when they reached adulthood David and Snow both had enough money that they could easily afford to rent apartments so the three were often found in one of the two places none of the trio were sure how to bring up living together even though they desperately wanted to.
Granny would still see them around the diner, Ruby worked there and David was often popping as he was a rookie in the local sheriff's station, Snow was much more academic than the other two (her granddaughter was a whiz at math so took an online degree but only to make her girlfriend proud) and often drove to the nearby college for her classes before heading back to town where she would study in the diner (where she was inevitably distracted by her partners). Life in a small town in a poly relationship was hard, David had practically been disowned by his stepfather who had forced David's own twin to turn against him in the process, but the trio were happy. And so clearly, in Granny's opinion, waiting for the next opportunity to take their relationship to the next level.
Then suddenly two became one.
Snow stopped seeing them, stopped answering phone calls and texts other than to send them both one stating that she was fine and to give her space, she was either not home or refusing to open the door of her loft and David glumly told Ruby that there was no legal reason for him to break her door down. She stopped going to Granny's, and most of the shops around the town, they could only assume that she was getting her groceries from a supermarket between her college and her loft apartment as they could never catch her around the local shop. They would have thought that she had moved out of the town completely had others from the town not told them that they had seen her in the pharmacy or driving down the road to or from college.
The triad had gone from David, Ruby, and Snow secretly trying to figure out engagement rings ready to surprise the other two, to heartbroken.
"I want to rip my heart out." David stated. He was sat at the counter at Granny's, it was his day off and he knew it would have been Snow's day off from college too normally they would be together at his or her apartment or they'd all be together at the diner. Those places seemed too quiet now. They hadn't realised quite how much Snow filled the room but now the rooms seemed as empty as they felt.
"I'll join you." Ruby told him seriously. She filled up his mug of coffee before slamming the pot down. "Why can't she just talk to us, just tell us what the hell we did wrong, I was… I had been planning on asking you both to marry me…" She admitted for the first time.
David smiled bittersweet. "I was doing the same, my mother gave me her engagement ring, the one she had been given by my father, I was just trying to find the right ring for you too…" He pulled out the ring box he had been carrying around in his coat pocket and showed her the green stoned ring. "It just doesn't seem right now."
Ruby nodded her head, she knew what he meant, she still wanted to marry him but she wanted Snow as well, they were both her true loves. She had gotten David a band, she knew it wasn't traditional for males to get engagement rings, but then nothing about their relationship had been traditional so far so why stop now? Plus she knew it would stop David's dramatics about being left out, her own ring for him She knew she was being selfish but it was all or nothing in her mind. She leant across and kissed his cheek before having to go and top up the coffees of the other inhabitants of the diner.
Regina sat at a table nearby the counter in Granny's, across from her sat her four year old son Henry eating blueberry pancakes and chattering about a movie he had seen the trailer for. But she was concentrating upon David and Ruby's conversation, she was estranged from her step daughter but she found that the distance between them and the longer she had her son, the more she found herself wondering if she and Snow could ever make up with one another. She and Henry finished up their food before Ruby could come and top up her coffee, though her son happily went to talk to David and Ruby as Regina payed, she noted absently that the two twenty year olds both seemed very good with kids.
Regina's mind was on David and Ruby's conversation as she and Henry walked into the pharmacy which also doubled as a local store, she absentmindedly responded in kind when the cashier greeted the mayor. She held onto her little boy's hand as they headed down the aisles, she wasn't one to allow her child to have many sweet treats but she had promised Henry that he could have a magazine and small bar of chocolate if he behaved while Kathryn babysat him the night before while she was on a date.
Her mind drifted back to the date, Robin, she had known him for a few years, he had a two year old son, Roland, who Henry had played with at the park plenty of times. He also had a baby daughter, Rowan, who was six months old, he hadn't known about her until his ex-wife had left her on his doorstep before disappearing again – it had been hard to get someone to find her and have her officially sign over her maternal rights, but Regina had supported Robin through it all. Regina found herself looking forward to seeing him again rather than trying to put it off or look at the challenges which could come about.
Her son's voice brought her out of her thoughts.
"Snow." Henry said happily but his step sister stayed deep in her own thoughts. "Snow!" He shouted as he and Regina got up to her, his volume brought her out of her thoughts. "I just saw David and Ruby, can I come to your home again, I wanna show David my new superhero toy."
"Henry, why don't you go pick out a bar of chocolate bar," Regina suggested, she had noticed what was in her stepdaughter's hand, she pointed to where the chocolate bars were at the end of the aisle, "just not too big, okay?"
Snow breathed a sigh of relief but she looked at Henry as he went over to the chocolate, it was March now, Henry would be five in August-
"Do they know that you're pregnant?" Regina got straight to the point, she knew that the way that Snow was looking at the pregnancy test in her hand meant that she already knew what the result would be, this wasn't her first time buying a pack of two of those.
-And her baby would be born in September as she had gotten pregnant in January, Snow finished off her thought. "I just want to be sure." Her voice was small when it came out of her mouth and it showed that she had been alone for a long time, long before she had moved out of Regina's mansion which had also been her home for sixteen years.
"Do they know?" She repeated softly.
Snow shook her head. "They're only twenty." She didn't point out that she was too, in fact her birthday on the 1st of December had been the reason for the baby's conception. "I don't want them to have to deal with it, what if… if they didn't want to keep it then we would have broken up anyway, I… I want to keep it." Her hand fell upon her stomach as she had started to do more and more.
Regina didn't look too kindly upon David or Ruby, David in particular after finding out that her stepdaughter was expecting, but she couldn't imagine either of them being anything other than over the moon about this. "When are you due? Do you know?"
"The tenth of September." She had repeated that date so often in her head that it was always on the tip of her tongue. "I'm meant to go to my twelve week scan in just over a week." She wasn't sure why she was telling Regina this, the only people who even knew were her academic adviser at college and her doctors, her mind went back to David and Ruby. One of her hands went into her coat pocket where the ruby engagement ring, her mother had left her, was safe in a ring box in her pocket.
Regina may have been distant from Snow, but she knew that Snow was not herself, this had all been so hard on her, harder than she really needed it to be. Henry was quickly back at their side with a chocolate bar in his hand and a grin on his face. Regina placed her hand on the top of his hair, she remembered when she had adopted the little baby boy when he was barely a month old, it seemed he was growing more and more each day. She crouched down beside him. "Do you want to choose a chocolate bar for Snow too? She's going to be having dinner with us and I'm sure she'll need a bar to watch movie with you."
"Regina-" Snow started, she hadn't socialised with anyone for weeks, she didn't know if she was up for it.
"-I insist." Regina said with finality. "I'll make lasagne."
"Come on Snow!" Henry said, happily dragging his much older stepsister along to the chocolate bars at the end of the aisle.
Regina smiled at her precious son, she waited for him to convince Snow to pick a bar of chocolate and handed Regina her favourite fruit and nut one, Regina grabbed one of the pregnancy tests, Snow obviously needed to see it was real still, then she walked to the checkout to pay.
The mayor of Storybrooke strode into the sheriff's station when she knew that Sheriff Graham Hubert and his rookie David Nolan would both be about to head to lunch. Ruby was already there to share her lunch break with David, and Graham looked as though he was about to get out to go to the slightly happier atmosphere of the diner.
'Good,' Regina thought, 'that will make this easier.'
Regina, or more accurately Henry, had managed to get Snow to stay at theirs late enough for it to be easy to convince Snow to let Regina give her a lift back to her loft. Regina had never quite understood the appeal of the third floor loft apartment not far from the centre of the town.
It was decorated very differently to the mansion Snow had lived in before moving to the loft, when Leopold was alive the mansion had been full of dark wood and deep red plush fabrics, and now was all clean cut lines and black and white furniture with the occasional bright colours coming from Henry's toys and pictures proudly displayed. Snow's was certainly cosy, it was full of comfortable looking furniture in warm beige tones but the loft was obviously no devoid of colour, there were cabinets which had been reclaimed as bookcases. There were about a million items which clearly belonged to David and Ruby, despite their supposed break up. She didn't see that break up lasting very long, but Snow was stubborn, Regina tried to tell herself not to care but she could still see the ten year old Snow.
She had ordered a delivery of groceries to be delivered which would be healthier for Snow than the stuff she already had, some prenatal vitamins, and a couple of mom-to-be toiletry gift sets. She even convinced Snow to host her for lunch in a couple of days time. Which was why she was at the station.
"Madam Mayor?" The Irish lilt would have once (several years ago) have made her knees go weak, they had been friends with benefits once, but she found herself much preferring Robin's English accent. "Is there something I can help you with?"
She gave him a tight smile, kind but business like, she shook her head making her bobbed hair span out from her jawline. "No thank you Sheriff, I'm here to talk to Mr Charming," she felt rather proud that his face drained of colour, "and Ms Lucas."
Ruby's hand flew to her necklace, as it normally did when she was worried, she glanced at David and knew wordlessly that he had no idea what this was about either.
"Good luck, mate." Graham clapped his hand down on David's back, and nodded to Ruby as he left, clearly the sheriff wasn't going to be any help.
"You two are coming with me."
"Do we get a reason?" Ruby raised her eyebrow.
"Because I sometimes frequent Granny's diner for breakfast with my son and I prefer my waitresses to not be snapping and making the mood of the diner . And rookies who are heartbroken seem tend to be more useless than usual." They looked at her confused and she rolled her eyes. "You two are going to speak to Snow until you all get back together."
"She doesn't want to see us." David's voice sounded just as heartbroken as Ruby suddenly looked.
Regina sighed gently and shook her head. "Idiots." She said just loud enough for the pair to hear, then headed out of the station. Luckily Ruby and David followed her, she thought it was a good remark to head out on, and it would have been embarrassing having to head back in and convince them.
Snow opened the door when she heard Regina's only too familiar knock. "I made soup, not it's not poisonous, but you seemed to buy all the vegetables in Storybrooke, so I thought you should have to-" She trailed off when she saw who was with Regina for the first time. She took a few slightly stumbling steps back into the loft allowing David, Regina, and Ruby to walk in.
"You need to tell them, you're all being idiots, even if you weren't they deserve to know." Regina told Snow in a tone which was somehow both firmly and lovingly. It was a very parental way of saying it, she realised, the same way she would ask Henry to tell her if her was injured because he had been doing something she had told him not to do because it was dangerous. "I won't listen, I'll go and save the soup while you talk, if you still want them out I'll make sure they leave you alone."
Snow nodded but her eyes were on David and Ruby, who were watching her in kind, it was as though she was having a dream. She had never thought she would see them in her loft again. She figured she most likely would have to legally deal with David, but most likely Ruby also, with the baby being his. She could tell that the breakup had been incredibly hard on both of them. But she had convinced herself that it would be for the best, she was doubting that decision now, especially with them looking at her with loving concern.
"Why did you break up with us?" Ruby's quiet voice rang out as clear as a bell.
"I…" She trailed off trying not to cry. This was why she hadn't done it this way, it hurt so much to see them heart broken, she just wanted them all to hold onto one another, from now until forever.
"Did we do something?" David's voice scratched his throat as he too fought off tears. "Can we fix it? If you really don't want to be with us we'll leave alone, but just explain it to us, please Snow."
That sounded good, if they could just wave a magic wand and fix everything, but she had to put the baby first… she wasn't quite sure how she had convinced herself that her partners wouldn't want anything to do with their child (yes, Ruby might not have a biological claim, but she was certainly there for the conception so in Snow's mind she was just as much a parent as David)… now she saw them with her own eyes she was doubting her original choice. "Let me show you both something." She decided it was all or nothing.
She led the way to the bathroom.
David and Ruby followed her, their confusion grew as she led them to the bathroom, with anyone else they might have lost their tempers but they trusted Snow despite their recent hurt.
Snow opened up one of the drawers she had found herself opening more and more, to remind herself that everything was real, though since she had told Regina it had started to seem even more real.
Ruby stared at the drawer as she processed what the little sticks were. Then her hand flew to her mouth. "You're…?" She asked full of hope. Her eyes were watering.
"You're what?" David asked, a little slower to catch on, he picked one up and looked at Snow and Ruby who both had tears in their eyes. He didn't read the stick as he was so concerned about his girls. "Snow, what's wrong? Are you sick? Is it serious?" He asked worried about Ruby and Snow's reactions, but his mind was starting to slowly turn the gears, but Snow told him before it could quite click.
"I'm pregnant." It was the first time she had actually told anyone that, Regina didn't have to be told, and her doctor and college adviser didn't count. She mustered up enough courage to look up into Ruby and David's eyes. She immediately knew that they were over the moon, both the green and blue eyes were now on her stomach, but she could see the tears in her eyes.
"Oh, Frosty," Ruby used her old nickname and placed her hand on either one of Snow's cheeks, "why didn't you tell us?"
"I didn't think that you'd both want to suddenly be stuck here with me, this is what this baby will do, we always talked about going and living in a city, adventuring and staying awake all night… I didn't want to hold you both back."
David and Ruby shared a look, they were overjoyed about the news of the baby, but their hearts hurt when they found out that Snow had felt she had to take this on by herself.
"Hey," David said gently taking hold of one of Snow's hands while Ruby did the same thing to the other hand, "this is the best news I've ever been given."
"Same." Ruby agreed wholeheartedly. "And a baby is the best adventure I can think of. We do this like we always do everything."
"Together." David finished pulling them all into a hug. He smirked. "Anyway, I think we'll be staying awake all night with a baby, now."
For the first time, he saw Snow crack a smile, and soon they were all laughing. Eventually they all forced themselves out of the tight embrace and out of the bathroom. Snow thanked Regina, and told her that everything was going to be okay now, she didn't have to play bouncer for her.
"Call me. Please." Regina said as she opened the door ready to walk out of the door.
It was such a motherly request that it should have been completely out of place, but the pair were a sort of mother and daughter, Snow nodded. "Thank you."
"Thank you." David echoed, still a little in shock at the fact he was going to be a father, he was already planning on how to propose to his partners, without making it appear as though he was only doing it because Snow was pregnant.
"For everything." Ruby agreed, she had heard Snow saying about all the vegetables Regina had forced upon her stepdaughter when Snow was opening the door, she was a little surprised at how close the pair had grown, but it seemed to have done Snow a lot of good.
Over the next week Ruby, Snow, and David went back to normal, all just as in love as they had always been. Ruby and David started to leave more and more of their stuff in Snow's loft, Snow asked if they would both move in by Wednesday, they were there all the time anyway and the three would be equal parents to their baby.
Ruby and David sat alongside their girlfriend at her twelve week scan, watching in wonder as the ultrasound of their baby appeared on the screen, and they were given printouts which they kept staring at especially as they tried to come up with names.
After the ultrasound they went on a walk through the park. David got down on one knee with a ring for Snow, and plans to take Ruby ring shopping, he because dreadfully confused when both Ruby and Snow started to laugh. Snow pulled out her mother's old engagement ring, her parents' marriage hadn't been one full of love, but she was determined to change the fate of the ring which suited Ruby to a T. Ruby pulled out another ring box with the ring for David, the trio had all had the same plan, soon Snow's laughter turned to crying which she blamed on pregnancy hormones, and David was extremely relieved that he hadn't ripped his heart out like he had said he wanted to do only a week before.