Disclaimer — Once Upon a Time is the property of ABC and Horowitz/Kitsis. I make no claims to ownership of the series or its characters, and I make no monetary profit from the publication of this story.

"EMMA!"

Without a second thought for the basket of clean clothes that she has been so painstakingly folding for the past quarter-hour, the aforementioned woman bursts out of the laundry room, darts around the corner, and flies down the majestic staircase faster than she'd previously thought possible. Her pulse thumps wildly in her ears as she races towards the kitchen, a silent prayer hanging on every quickened breath. Not the baby, Emma begs to any deity that will listen. She's finally got the family that she'd long since given up hope in having — her parents, her fiancée, their kid, and now the baby on the way — and she can see everything crumbling to ashes in her mind's eye. Please let Regina and the baby be okay.

Emma skids to a stop as she reaches the kitchen doorway, breathlessly coming to a halt a few feet from the source of the cry that had sent her running in the first place. Regina stands, hunched over, with one hand braced against the island, a partially sliced apple forgotten on its surface, and the other hand clutching her now noticeably rounded abdomen as she looks up at Emma with wide, stunned eyes.

"Oh god, what's wrong?" Emma asks, trying to chase the panicked edge from her voice for Regina's sake. She takes Regina's cheeks into her palms, forcing the other woman to focus on her face. "Regina, baby, talk to me."

Regina's lips move silently for a moment, unable to find the right words to convey what it is that she's feeling, before she ceases her attempts at verbal communication and instead grabs Emma's hand. She presses it firmly to the side of her swollen belly, and after an instant of confusion, Emma feels her muscles relax and panic loosen its grip on her chest. The baby is kicking, she tells herself, forcing her lungs to adopt a regular in-and-out pattern once more. The baby is all right.

Even though her heart still hasn't quite stopped hammering away in her chest, Emma can't bring herself to be annoyed with her fiancée. Regina has been anxiously, impatiently waiting for this moment for a long time now, and Emma knows that even though Regina won't admit it out loud, she's still terrified that something will go wrong, despite the doctors' reassurances to the contrary. Even now, with her mother cold in the ground, she's still waiting for someone to come along and steal away everything that she loves. It pains Emma to see Regina still reeling from her mother's abuse like this, but she can't say that she doesn't share the fear that this beautiful family that they've created is all too good to be true.

No, what Emma feels, beneath the relief and happiness, is a twinge of jealousy. She knows from personal experience that it's probably still too early to feel the baby's movements externally, and though she doesn't begrudge Regina for it, she still can't help but feel a little left out. The only thing that Emma knows about being a mother to a baby is being pregnant, so now that Regina's the one carrying the baby, she's completely out of her depth.

Emma tries not to look too sad as she prepares to pull her hand away, but a sudden, fleeting bit of pressure against her palm stops her dead in her tracks. Eyes wide, she stares at the back of her hand, certain that she's imagining things, but no — there it is again, the tiniest nudge against the center of her palm.

"Holy shit!" That's going to cost her a dollar in the swear jar, but Emma doesn't even care; she'd pay it tenfold every day for the rest of her life if she had to. She looks up and finds Regina's dark eyes shimmering with tears, her lips curved up in the sweetest, most pure smile that Emma's ever seen. The nausea, backaches, and tenderness have all been forgotten, it seems, because the smile that lights up Regina's face is one of perfect happiness, and Emma thinks for a moment that she can spot a glimpse of the girl that Regina used to be, before heartbreak stole that smile away.

"Emma," Regina murmurs, the tears sliding unchecked down her cheeks now, "we made a baby."