A/N: Finallyyyyyy got this update done, sorry for the wait! No warnings for this one though, I don't think. Just Swan Queen and fluff. And something else towards the end... Enjoy! ;)
CHAPTER TWO
Sat on the stairs, Henry watched amused as his mothers rushed around, their behaviour erratic as they tried to get everything ready on time. It was eleven-thirty in the morning and they had to be at the airport in, well—Henry checked his watch—about an hour.
His interest peaked as Emma groaned, dragging yet another suitcase past the stairs to settle by the front door. All the while a man with a camera followed her (day two of Modern Royals) and Henry grinned as she tried not to look at him but found herself staring at the camera every so often anyway.
"Re—" Emma was promptly cut off by staring at the camera again, shifting uncomfortably under the gaze before scooting by and walking back to where her wife was currently emptying her handbag with a huff. "Regina, come on, we're going to be late."
"Yes, I am well aware!" Regina snapped. Emma didn't take it personally, they were both nervous, understandably so. They wanted everything to be perfect. "I can't find my passport," she added in a voice that sounded way too much like a growl.
Lipstick, a purse, tampons, and various other items scattered around the dining table. But no passport.
Emma suddenly grew amused and if anything it only served to aggravate the woman standing beside her who was pawing at each item on the table as if it would magically show the passport.
Magic, Regina thought, but quickly dismissed such a thing with a narrowing brow. No, she wouldn't use magic to conjure her passport. She didn't want to have to rely on it for such a simple thing. Although, it would be easier…
"Seriously?" Regina turned to look at her wife's ever growing amusement. "Regina, I have the passports. You told me to hold onto them."
Regina's aggravation melted away, somewhat. She visibly relaxed and turned to rest her hip against the table. "I did?" Emma nodded. "I did," she mused in remembrance. "Alright then—" a wave of her hand had each item back in her bag "—let's get on with it."
Interview:
The Swan-Mills Residence
Emma and Regina
"Well," Regina began from her position on the couch, a nervous yet happy smile falling onto her lips, "Emma and I…" She cast a glance to the side where Emma sat, sharing her happiness with a goofy grin. They were sitting thigh to thigh with Emma's hand on Regina's knee and Regina's on top it.
The picture of domesticity, or something.
Emma took the okay from Regina and decided to be the one to break the news to their camera crew. After all, everything was to be documented. "We've decided to add to our family."
The two shared a look, brown eyes on blue-green, smiles mirroring the other's as they sat impossibly close. No one knew besides the pair and, of course, Henry, of their choice to have a baby. They kept it quiet for some time, working out the details before getting their hopes up.
But now, apparently, was the time to smile and boast about it.
"We're adopting." Regina informed the room with eyes trained ahead. She seemed awfully happy about it, smiling at the thought of adopting yet another child.
Beside her Emma shared the look, though her eyes misted over quite a bit. But she was smiling nonetheless. "We thought it would be a good idea to give a child a home that doesn't have one."
"Yes," Regina agreed, seeming adamant, "so many children don't have homes and need one. And considering Emma's own experience in the system—" she squeezed her wife's hand in a silent way of communicating, to which Emma offered a grateful squeeze of her own "—we thought it to be best."
"We did consider other options." It was Emma who spoke now, explaining things. "Such as IVF. We even talked about Regina carrying one of my eggs, or I one of hers. But adopting just seemed like the right way to go. Henry was adopted, I," she faltered, her long complicated history not one she liked to talk about often, "well, yeah. It just seemed right."
Regina nodded along to her wife's words before adding quite seriously, "and I don't do stretch marks."
After all the drama and panic and finding out that Emma actually had lost the passports, only to find them in the suitcase, stuffed under a pair of underwear—something Regina still couldn't comprehend, the pair had finally arrived at the airport. Only it seemed their rush hadn't even been needed as their flight was delayed and it would be another hour and a half before boarding.
Emma sat next to Regina, her foot tapping off the ground like an alcoholic without their drink. It was real to her now, very real, and while her wife was eerily calm checking over the last of the forms, she kind of felt like bolting. She figured she would always have that default when she felt the pressure. Not that she would actually leave, because she was bound to Henry and Regina and to their new little addition waiting for them in Boston, but that didn't mean that the feelings were unwarranted.
"Stop," Regina droned from beside her. She didn't even lift her eyes from the paper, busy scanning over each and every question, making sure the appropriate boxes were ticked. It was the last in terms of paperwork, just for show if anything, but she needed to make sure it was perfect. Emma's incessant ticking from beside her didn't help matters. "You're giving me a headache."
When Emma exhaled her apology and placed a hand on her thigh, moving forward to squeeze her knee and quell her nerves, Regina removed her attention from the papers. She already had her little freak out earlier and it was clear that Emma was now having hers. It was to be expected, really.
They had spent a good portion of their time moving back and forth from Storybrooke and Boston, had filled in many forms, partaken in even more interviews, some of which involved Henry, others which had a woman evaluating their home and living environment. But it was two weeks ago when the 'okay' came in and that there was a newborn in need of a home.
A newborn girl who, if Regina remembered correctly, was three weeks old to the day. They had never really thought about what age the child they were adopting would be, they were just happy to add to their family. But when they heard about this baby girl, born to a sixteen year old in and out of juvie, it hit close to home and they just knew that the baby was for them.
A baby the same age as when Henry had come to Regina from a mother of a similar background to Emma? If there was anything they learned from True Love and fairy tales, it was that nothing happened by accident. Fate, destiny—whatever, it had a way of bringing you to exactly where you're meant to be.
"Hey." Regina removed Emma's hand from her thigh so she could intertwine their fingers and brush a soothing thumb across her wife's jittery knuckles. Her tone adopted a softer tone, one so genuine only few were lucky to ever hear it. "We got this."
It was only three words. Three simple words spoken so simply and yet Emma's tensed body relaxed immediately. Regina was right, they had it, they truly did. They were already raising an amazing kid, they had a lot of love to give. They had the nursery set up in the room beside their own, from the crib crafted beautifully by Marco to the unicorn mobile that had once been Emma's; they were more than ready.
Emma's eyes crinkled at the sides, her lips harbouring a smile as she brought their joined hands to her chest. "We got this," she repeated Regina's words, agreeing with a wider smile. Then she brought her wife's hand to her mouth and planted a gentle kiss on her smooth skin.
They got this.
The flight hadn't been delayed as long as previously thought, and with the plane ride to Boston, most of which Emma spent trying to pry her numb fingers from Regina's death grip—she never would get used to the turbulence—it didn't take them long to arrive at the adoption agency.
All worries, doubts, or possible regrets the pair could have were immediately lost when they set eyes on the squirming bundle before them.
"Oh." Regina felt like the wind had been knocked out of her.
Save for Henry, she hadn't ever seen such a beautiful child. She had the lightest skin, almost snow white (yeah, the irony wasn't lost on her) and a dark head of hair. When she opened her tiny eyes, limbs flying about, Regina saw that she had the most piercing green eyes she had ever seen, a deep forest tinted hue that she found herself getting lost in.
While she was staring at the little miracle, Emma was beside her, looking like she was about to cry or maybe pass out, possibly both. They both had yet to move to touch the child, overwhelmed that this was their daughter. Legally, emotionally, in every way that mattered. She was theirs.
The feeling that came over Regina was one she hadn't felt in many years, not since she first laid eyes on Henry. That was how she knew it was right. To have such an immediate, intense, selfless and genuine connection with another human being wasn't something she experienced often and by the shift beside her—Emma moving closer—she knew she wasn't the only one moved by the moment.
"Hi." Emma finally spoke to the bundle, sheepish as the first time Regina had seen her, a smile of awe on her lips. She raised her gaze to the lady holding the baby and gave her a can I…? look to which the woman laughed an "of course" and carefully handed the baby over to her new mother.
For a minute Emma's eyes widened, fear etched on her face. But not fear of becoming a mother again but fear of dropping the baby when her limbs felt like jelly.
What if I break her? she had asked only the night before, much to her wife and son's amusement.
She didn't.
No, she cradled her daughter to her chest, completely lost in the action for it felt like only three people existed in that moment—herself, Regina, and their daughter. The world could swirl into an apocalyptic doom and she wouldn't even notice nor care, not when she was overcome with the immense love she felt for the little girl.
Emma was so lost in the moment, wrapped up in new feelings and ones long left but never truly gone. She thought of herself, as the eighteen year old kid who had been hurt one too many times and who had given birth in jail only to say goodbye to her son. The feelings resurfaced as a tear dropped down her cheek.
This was different, she reminded herself. No goodbyes, no holding onto the memory of thirty minutes with a child carried for nine months. No ingraining every sound, cry, smell and touch into her mind. Just hellos and smiles and new memories. This baby wouldn't be taken away from her, this baby was given to her. She thought of Henry's birth and how painful it had been to give him away. It made her think of her daughter's biological mother, much younger than she herself had been, but going through the same pain undoubtedly. She had never truly understood her own action of giving Henry up but now she understood it completely.
While fourteen years ago she had been broken, sobbing for her baby, she was now whole. It had come full circle. And she could only hope that her baby's biological mother would get to experience the same thing one day, because it was amazing.
Reality hit her as the baby moved in her arms and she glanced to the side just slightly to where Regina was near her shoulder, peering over at their daughter with one hand on Emma's waist. Standing just behind them, her body craned to the side, she allowed the baby to grasp onto her smallest finger much like Henry had done at that age.
Their faces mirrored one another's, tears of happiness and smiles of joy. And Regina, with a whisper, told the baby, "welcome home, Evelyn."
"One smile! Come on, kid," Henry groaned from his position on the main living room floor, his knees hurting from digging into the hardwood. The now six week old baby just looked at him, content in her swing, swaddled in a pale yellow blanket. "Just one smile," he urged, "c'mon Evie."
Nothing, zilch, nada.
Evelyn had yet to smile and Henry wanted to be the one to reach that milestone with her. In fact he had a wager going on with Emma about it, behind Regina's back of course.
"One smile, I know you want to…" He trailed his index finger up her small leg and poked at her stomach. There was a change in her features, her lip curling upward momentarily and Henry gave a triumphant grin only to look disgusted when an unpleasant odour hit his senses.
Pulling his body to his feet, Henry scrunched up his face. "That's gross, not even your cuteness can save you. Man," he murmured, waving at the air in front of his face.
He switched on the low swinging motion for his sister before moving to sit down, his eyes now focused on the episode of The Walking Dead that played on TV, while he wondered what time his moms would be back from the doctors at—he was getting hungry.
Regina's eyes flashed dangerously as she left Doc's office, Emma quick on her heels.
"Regina!" Emma called breathless from behind the woman. While Regina had opted to magically transport herself out of the building, Emma had took to running down the staircase and man, that cheeseburger from Granny's earlier now felt like a really bad idea. "Regina, wait!"
Regina stopped at the Sedan, her hand furiously gripping the keys and causing the jagged edges to indent the skin of her palm. God, this was not happening. The timing couldn't be more awful. She pressed the key's button, the car unlocking, and turned with so much force that Emma was almost knocked over.
"You," she sneered at her wife and in that moment she held the Evil Queen's persona. Her upper lip twitched, her eyes rimming red. "You don't get to talk to me." She spat, seething. "This is all your fault!" She exclaimed in a high pitched tone, so completely taken over by her emotions that she would have given Jefferson a good run for his money as the mad one.
"Babe—" when Regina's eyes flashed dangerously yet again, her nostrils flaring, Emma gulped "—Regina, I know this is a surprise—"
"Surprise?!" Regina yelled, drawing the attention of a few passers by. "You have no idea." Her voice was low, deep and like gravel. It was almost sexy if it didn't scare Emma so much.
But Emma knew that Regina wasn't angry, not really, she was just taken aback and frightened more than anything. The woman liked to be in control of everything so when something happened out of her control, and something she hadn't expected no less, she lashed out. And she was putting the blame on Emma, which, was kind of appropriate—but it wasn't like she meant for it to happen!
Interview:
The Swan-Mills Residence
Emma and Regina
"So… we got some news earlier," Emma began with uncertainty. Regina sat beside her, as far away as possible with her back straight and arms folded. "Well, you see—"
Staring right into the camera, Regina almost growled. "This idiot knocked me up."