Hey, this is an idea I got in the car on our way to Italy and I wrote it in the car too haha :) Uploading now in my tent haha :)
Warnings: it's angsty and might make you cry but also smile, which seems weird I know. Already working on the second chapter but it might take me a little long since the wifi here sucks and I don't have that much time to write after all..
Or something.
Regina wakes from a loud knock at the door. She flinches at the sound and shoots upright in her bed. She quickly wipes the hair from her face and she isn't surprised when some of her make-up appears on her hand and her cheeks feel sticky. She has been crying again.
"Come in dear." She responds and slowly the door is opened.
"Are you okay?" He asks as he sees her looking at the empty spot beside her.
"I'm fine." She says, still not looking at her son.
She hears the footsteps come closer and her son sits on the bed too, he's careful not to sit on the side next to her but on the end of the bed instead. He knows Regina doesn't like it when he sits on her side of the bed.
Her 16 year old son puts a tentative hand on her ankle through the fabric. Finally Regina looks at him and he can see exactly what he had been expecting to see, something that was far from being fine.
"It's okay not to be okay." He says softly and smiles at her.
She doesn't return his smile but instead pushes herself up and out of the bed, but not without looking at the other – extremely empty – side of the bed once more. "I have to be the strong one here, not you. I have to be okay."
Henry stands up and follows his mother out of the room. "Not today." He says to her back as they walk down the stairs, Regina stubborn enough to keep walking and moving through the kitchen like any other day, that is until she notices the cake standing on the counter with a big '39' on it.
She turns slowly and with a little more force than usual she places the milk on the counter. She looks at Henry at the pain in her eyes almost makes him regret making it at all. "Henry…" She starts and her voice almost breaks.
The boy quickly holds his hands up. "I know, I know. We talked about this and you don't want to celebrate but please mom, just let me do this for you."
"It's been two and a half years exactly today." Regina sais, a single tear coming from her eye.
"I know." Henry answers as he pushes forward and pulls his mother into a hug, which is a lot more comforting lately since he is now the same height as she is.
Emma steps out of her bug and quickly moves towards the other side of the car to hold the door open for her wife. She offers her hands but Regina roughly pushes it away. "I don't need your help."
Emma sighs and rolls her eyes but grabs the arm anyway. "Let me go, I can get out of a car on my own." The stubborn brunette says once more as she pulls back.
The blonde steps back and holds her hands up in defeat. "Look, Regina I know this is the pregnancy talking but would you please stop being so stubborn and let me help you. You know I'm not going anywhere, I love you."
Suddenly the brunette does look up at her and two seconds later tears are streaming down her face. The smile quickly fades from her face when she realizes she is crying and makes place for an – adorable – frown.
"Why did you and your magic have to make me pregnant, Miss Swan? I hate this."
"It's Swan-Mills now, remember?" Emma says and she can't help but laugh at Regina's face as she opens the front door for them and quickly guides Regina towards the couch. Once they're both seated Emma quickly drapes an arm around her wife and starts playing with Regina's hair.
"But coming back to what you said earlier, don't lie to me, your Majesty. I know you love it. Being pregnant."
The brunette can't help but return the sweet smile. That is, until the baby starts kicking again and the smile is replaced by a grimace. The blonde instantly places her hand on Regina's swollen belly.
"Hey there girl." She says as she moves her head closer to Regina's belly. "We know you're in there and me and your mommy love you very much but right now I need you to be a little quiet and take like.. a nap or something so your mommy and I can have some alone time without you interrupting because I'm pretty sure there will be enough of that once you're born and-"
"Especially if you become such a talker like your mother, I'm not sure I could handle two of that." Regina says with a teasing smile. Emma just glares back at her.
This time it's Regina who pushes the blonde's head back up and she uses a hand behind her neck to pull the blonde closer. Emma's eyes flutter close at the contact she's missed for the last couple of weeks. She almost groans when Regina stops just before their lips touch. "We're not even sure it's going to be a girl."
"Trust me, I know it's going to be a girl."
"Mommy, Mommy!" Regina's head shoots towards the opening of the kitchen. "I dreamed that I was going on a school trip to a big princess castle and there were a lot of pretty dresses and princes and my whole family was there! You and Henry and Mom was there too!"
Regina's eyes immediately watered at the words and she grabbed the girl who was now running into her arms. She placed the girl on her hip and looked into the deep brown eyes, so similar to her own but shining as bright as Emma's used to. "That sounds beautiful, sweetheart."
The girl's eyes roamed over her face. "Mommy you okay?"
Regina nodded. "I'm fine Jessica, mommy is just a little bit sad today."
The little girls eyes water at the sight of her mother crying and she nuzzles her head in the crook of her mother's neck. "I need to cry too."
Regina can't help but chuckle at that as the strokes the girls back. "Happy birthday." Jessica murmurs in her mother's neck. For a second the former Mayor tenses up but she forces herself to relax. "Thanks sweetheart."
She feels Henry wrap his arms around them too and the girl happily exclaims, "Family hug!"
The air around them suddenly feels heavy and she feels Henry tighten his grip around her a little bit.
"Do you really have to go out of town today?" Regina says as she watches her wife place the badge on her hip. She looks up at Regina's words and smiles affectively, first at her wife's face and then at her belly. Regina is 7 months in but it looks like she's 9 months pregnant. Not that Emma is complaining, Regina looks absolutely gorgeous like that.
"Yeah, I'm sorry but I have to fix some things in Boston with my job before the baby arrives, then you have me all to yourself and me and Henry can start working on the kid's room." She turns around and opens the door but Regina is quick to stop her.
"Hold on, not so fast Miss Swan-Mills."
Regina uses the hand on Emma's arm to turn her around and quickly leans in to kiss her wife soft and tenderly. Emma moans.
"I love when you're like this. Definitely my favorite mood from all the ones that have passed by since you've been pregnant."
Regina chuckles and the hands around Emma's neck make little soothing circles. "Just.. be safe okay."
"You know I will."
The first thing they do, what they always do, is step by Snow and Charming's house. "Hey Regina!" The short-haired brunette said as she pulls the older woman in for a hug, Snow was smart enough not to mention anything about the brunette's birthday. Their relationship has improved big time since they had something in common to worry about.
It's still a bit awkward to hug someone she used to hate so much but Regina is slowly getting used to it. When she pulls back she can see right past the woman's smile and knows she feels as bad as she herself does.
"Where's Charming?" She asks as she looks around the apartment. Snow smiles at that.
"He's trying to change Tyler's diaper." The look on her face tells Regina enough. The man has no idea what he is doing.
Jessica tugs on Regina's sleeve and the brunette looks down. "Mommy? Can I go to grandpa and baby?"
"Yes you can, but be careful remember and take your brother with you."
As soon as the Henry and Jessica leave the room, Snow breaks. "She just looks so much like Emma. Sometimes it's hard to look at her."
Regina nods understandingly. The little girl really did look like her blonde mother. She had the same, messy and curly blonde hair and her eyes had that same sparkle in there. Even her smile looked like Emma's.
"I know."
"Hello Miss, what can I get for you?" A sweet older lady behind the counter asks Emma as she steps into the shop. It's getting late, she had being doing a lot of things in Boston today, she still had some money to get to her boss and there was the fact that she actually still had her apartment there, about time to give that up. She also went shopping afterwards for their baby girl which had been fun but now she couldn't wait to drive back home. Unfortunately her stomach had other plans so she had stopped by a gas station to get some food.
"Uh some chips and a chocolate bar would be great thank you."
The woman nodded and after she turned away Emma remembered her wife's words. "Oh sorry, I changed my mind, do you guys have salads too?" The woman smiled knowingly and walked towards the back of the shop. Emma entertained herself watching the other customers. There was a mother in the back, holding a hand over her pregnant belly. The grimace on the woman's face reminded her of Regina.
Suddenly the doors burst open and before she knew it she was being pressed down on the counter, a gun to her head. "Give us the money."
Ow god ow god ow god what was happening. Instinctively she reached towards her own hip but she was painfully remembered that she wasn't on duty today and she didn't have her gun with her, she wasn't allowed to outside of working hours.
"I don't work here." She managed to get out, pleased with how calm she sounded. She used to do this, well not like this but she used to steal so she had at least a little bit experience with panic.
"Well then, get out of the way."
She was roughly pushed onto the ground. She started to take in her surroundings, she needed a plan like soon if she wanted to get out of this. Okay so there were three men, one was locking the door, one was now pushing all the hostages including herself to sit in a group and one was taking the money. That was obviously the dominant one and she needed to get him talking, built report or something.
"What do you want?" She asked calmly, her question directed at the dominant man standing by the counter. She hoped that wherever that salad lady was, she was smart enough to call the police as well. To get them safe.
Safe.
She thought about Regina's words earlier. She hadn't kept her promise. She was anything but safe.
"Shut up Blondie and sit with the rest of the group. No talking or I blow your head up. And if anyone even tries to call the police, we'll kill all of you."
She crawled over towards the rest of the group and sat down. There were six of them in total. The pregnant lady, two scared teenagers holding each other's hand, a businessman in a suit and a man who seemed like a dad and then there was her. The pregnant lady seemed to be in complete panic so Emma reached over and gently squeezed the woman's hand. She had to keep it together in here.
"Bolem! Come back here look what I found." The man who had been standing by the door now replaced the man who looked over them and the other followed the dominant one towards the back, out of sight.
When they hadn't returned after twenty minutes, their man seemed to get bored and started wandering through the store. Where the hell was that salad lady or the police? Slowly Emma pulled her phone out and speed dialed Regina's number, she hoped that her wife was in a good mood and that she would pick up. She placed the phone back in her pocket and mentioned for the businessman that it was okay. He smiled at her and shifted.
"Can we go to the bathroom?" Emma asked, trying to get his attention. Regina needed to know what was going if she was listening to this.
"No, and shut your mouth." He pulled the safety from his gun and Emma was sure it would be heard through the phone.
"But then can you at least let this woman go, she's pregnant and not supposed to be here, it's really bad for the baby."
The main now ran over towards her and struck her in the face with his gun. The object hit her temple and for a second everything felt dizzy. Luckily her vision cleared and she hissed from the pain. "Nobody gets out of here until we have what we need!"
Emma looked toward the pregnant lady who reminded her so much of Regina and the thought that there was someone at home waiting for her and her unborn baby made Emma's stomach clench. She moved a little closer to the woman who still seemed to be fighting with herself.
"You just have to stay calm, okay?"
The woman nodded and all were silent again. Emma had no idea what to do but she hoped that Regina was hearing all of this and that the police would be here soon. After ten minutes, all of the sudden, the pregnant woman pulled out her phone. It was very quietly but the sound of the iPhone unlocking made the man, and his two friends who had just returned, turn their heads.
"What the fuck are you doing?" They said as they snitched the phone from the crying woman's grasp.
Emma's heart started beating faster, this was not good.
The man turned the screen so everyone could see it. 911.
Suddenly everything happened really fast. The group was pulled apart, Emma was yanked towards one of the man who held her in a strong grasp.
The only one left on the ground was the woman. "What did we say about anyone killing the police, mm?"
The woman started crying harder and Emma twisted and turned in the grasp from the man who had watched over them in the beginning, receiving another painful punch with a gun but she ignored the pain for now, all that mattered was getting that woman safe.
"I think we mentioned something about killing all of you, and since it was you who made the call I'm going to start with you I think."
At that same time Emma took the phone from her pocket and managed to pull it towards her face. The man who was holding her didn't seem to be paying attention to her now that there was somebody about to be shot.
"Regina, I don't know if you're hearing this but I'm so so sorry. I promise I'm not leaving you but will you please make sure that Henry and Jess , because yes that's going to be her name I know you love it too, are going to be okay. And watch out for yourself too. I'm sorry. I have to do this."
The gun was raised and within seconds Emma was free and threw herself in front of the pregnant woman. A loud bang was heard and she felt the bullet enter her body, dangerously close to her heart. She fought with herself to stay awake but her vision and the distinct screams faded quickly and all that was left was darkness.
Henry and Jessica had tried to make this day as good for her as these days could get. They had even her some gifts and though Henry could tell Regina didn't really like it, she accepted them anyway and thanked them, trying to push Emma from her mind for at least till they went to bed. She was proud of herself when she managed to keep it together and she even laughed with them as they went through some old pictures of them, most of them including Emma too.
But after the kids had gone to bed Regina couldn't help but let the tears fall and crawl into her bed with her phone tucked to her right ear.
"Regina, I don't know if you're hearing this but I'm so so sorry. I promise I'm not leaving you but will you please make sure that Henry and Jess , because yes that's going to be her name I know you love it too, are going to be okay. And watch out for yourself too. I'm sorry. I have to do this."
Replay.
On evening's like this, Regina could listen to the voicemail for hours. She knew every exact word that Emma was saying but it was the voice that seemed to calm her down and she longed to hear it again, once more every time.
Replay.
After ten more times she broke. While sometimes it could give her some comfort tonight it didn't. Tonight it just reminded her of the choice Emma had made two and a half years ago and the pain Regina had felt every single day afterwards caused by that decision.
Her – their – daughter was a constant reminder of what she had lost but also a gift. She still had a piece of Emma with her, everyday. And maybe Henry was right, maybe it was time to start living her life again. Maybe she should stop listening to that voicemail over and over and over again. But not tonight though, she told herself as he finger moved towards the replay button.
Just before she could hit it, she was startled by the sound of her phone ringing. She frowned, who would call her at this hour.
"Regina Swan-Mills." She said into the phone, her voice still a bit shaky.
"Regina, it's Dr. Whale. You need to come to the hospital right now… Emma woke up."
What did you think?
