Because of Cora and Hook
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: If you hit control (or command) + f and type 'Emma was nauseous' then you don't have to read the first half over. Everything is the exact same up until that line.
In this one though, Cora and Hook come in (hence the title of this chapter). It is vastly different from the other one. More serious. I'm not sure how this one came out of me, but it is actually the one I typed first. I wanted the story to be like the first chapter, a little serious at the beginning then funny and fluffy, but this is what happened the first time I wrote it and I didn't want to chunk it, I still think it's worth reading. So, I hope you enjoy!
PS this one does have different babies than the other chapter.
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 Regina last night going to Archie's… She said she looked and smelt suspicious, like she had an agenda."
Emma brought her head from her desk to look at her father.
"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 nausea 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 could not believe that Archie was dead and that their only suspect was the woman she lov—had impenetrable feelings for. She could not believe that she was walking up the pathway to Regina's house with her parents to question her whereabouts the night before.
"Emma…? What—?"
"Save it, Regina." Snow stifled the other woman.
Regina glared to the pixie-cut woman and looked questioningly at a very tired-looking, very ill-looking Emma. The blonde sighed, dejectedly as she looked up to the brunette, "Is it all right if we ask you some questions?"
Regina knit her brows, "Of course." She nodded, seeing the pleading look on the blonde's face.
"We actually need you to come to the station…" Emma shook her head, angry that she could do nothing more.
"Alright."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Regina watched Emma, Charming and Snow walk into the interrogation room, "Glad to see the Sheriff's station is a family business. Why am I here?"
"You know why you're here. Because of Archie." Snow crossed her arms.
"Oh, it's now against the law to get in an argument with someone?"
"It is if you go to their office later that night and kill 'em." David provided.
Regina looked between husband and wife. She was waiting for a punch line. When she realized there was none, she let the logic settle in and looked to Emma, "Archie's dead?"
"Stop it, Regina. Ruby saw you going into his office last night."
Regina shook her head, "Then she's lying. I was home all evening." She stared at Emma, "Honestly can you believe that I would…" She swallowed, "After everything?"
"We've seen you kill countless people before. What makes this different?" Snow asked.
"How about the fact that I am changing? Trying to turn my life around for my son and for…" She looked at the table, stopping herself from continuing.
"For…?" Charming seemed to be bored.
Emma moved from her spot against the wall, into the fight zone, "Can you guys give us a minute? Just, please go wait in the office?"
Snow stared at her, "Be careful, Emma. You've no idea of what she's capable."
Emma stared at the woman she was supposed to call 'Mom'. She looked down and back up bashfully, "I do. I do know." She said as she walked them to the door and shut and locked it.
"Emma I didn't do it! I was going to Archie for therapy! I've been seeing him since you left! Trying to sort everything out… My feelings, where I fit in, in this world I created. I didn't—I didn't do it, he was helping me!"
Emma walked over to her and knelt down during Regina's rant. She nodded as she looked up at her, "I know. I know." She said as she pulled the woman in for a hug and let her hold on tight. "We have to find out who did. The fact that it clearly led to you means that it was someone else."
Regina knit her brows and pulled back suspiciously, "How do you figure?"
"Well, if you killed him there wouldn't be a trace of evidence, or for that matter, there wouldn't be a motive. You'd have been too stealthy and too hardcore. And you wouldn't have walked, you would have poofed… no one would have seen you…"
Regina tilted her head, "You really do know what I'm capable of."
"Yeah." Emma nodded.
Regina put her hands on the blonde's shoulders, "And you still want me?"
"Yeah." Emma nodded again.
"You don't care about my past crimes?"
"No." Emma shook her head.
"Okay…" Regina nodded. She took her hands from the blonde's shoulder and wiped her now teary eyes, "Okay. Good. Because… because I don't care about yours." She looked at the younger woman sincerely.
"You don't?"
Regina shook her head, "No." she whispered.
"Good. 'Cause I think I'm falling in love with you." Emma whispered back.
"I think I'm falling in love with you, too." The mayor continued whispering.
Emma smiled, "We'll figure this out." She gave a single nod of determination.
"We'll figure this out."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma beat on the door to the mansion. She'd just barely gotten a head start from her parents. When Regina answered this time, she pushed into the mansion, "You need to go into hiding. Now." She took Regina's face, "You hear me? They think you did it."
"How?" Regina pulled from the blonde with question in her eyes.
"I used magic and they saw you do it…" Emma looked down, "But I think I might have messed it up? I've been really worried about you and… I was thinking about you, so maybe I magicked you in Pongo's vision?"
Regina shook her head, "No, darling, that's not how it works."
Emma didn't have time to acknowledge the endearment like she normally would have, "Then why were you there when you weren't?"
"I don't know."
Emma shook her head, "You have to go into hiding." Regina moved upstairs, "Not to your room!" the blonde was exasperated as she followed her.
Regina was in her jewelry box. She pulled out a necklace of a small apple. "When you decide it's okay for me to come out, hold onto this charm with your hand and think of me. It will take you to where I am. I won't come out unless I know it's you."
"Not for anyone, you here me? If someone can clone themself…." Emma trailed off. She shook her head at the thought and put the necklace on, "Get out of here."
"Okay." She nodded, but stopped the blonde from moving down the stairs, "Wait." She took the sheriff's face in her hands and kissed her. Hard. "Okay, go."
Emma swallowed and despite the situation, gave the brunette a drunken, happy smile, "Yeah."
~0~0~0~0~0~
When Archie walked into the apartment, Emma didn't know what to do. She knew that she needed to get Regina.
"Can you watch him for a bit? I need to…" She didn't finish her sentence. She was already grabbing the apple and thinking of Regina. She was already gone.
Emma looked around the room. "A fake, white apple tree?" She looked around, hoping Regina was there somewhere. "Regina?" She called.
The brunette came from another room, "It's okay?"
"Archie's alive." Emma smiled as the brunette walked over to her, "Where the hell are we?"
"Under my father's tomb."
"Oh… that's both creepy and kind of perfect." The blonde said as she pulled back.
"Yeah." Regina nodded. She stared at Emma, "Do you know who it was?"
"Your mom."
Regina stared at her angrily, "I knew I should have killed her when I had the chance." She shook her head, "She's trying to ruin me, to force me to her side."
"Still… she's your mom."
"She's a person. A person with no heart."
"Don't say that—"
"It's the literal truth. She ripped her own heart out." Regina looked to the surprised blonde, "And I'm going to get it and put it back where it belongs, and we're going to have another child and a happily ever after."
Emma couldn't find Regina more alluring in that moment. The determination and hearing that they were going to get their happily ever after. It was everything the blonde never thought she could ever want.
~0~0~0~0~0~
"I can't." Emma said as she stared at Rumple, who decided it was perfectly all right to come into her apartment, "Literally, I can't go with you. I'm not arguing, I'm not trying to get out of owing you a favor, I just can't go."
Rumple glared at the woman, "You will go—"
"No. I won't."
"A deal is a deal—"
"And we'll just have to come up with some other way!"
"Why?" Rumple was mere inches from her face at this point.
Emma looked to Henry then back to the man, "Because I'm pregnant." She whispered. "And the father's a fairytale character. So unless you have two of those fancy cloak things, I'm not going. Our agreement was a favor for the freedom of a child, not a child for a child. I'm not going to risk crossing the border with a fairytale fetus without a 100% guarantee that everything will be okay. Not so you can find your son because your girlfriend doesn't remember you anymore and you suddenly feel the need to work our your relationships."
Rumple glared at her before turning and leaving, slamming the door behind him.
"Why is he so mad?" Henry asked after waiting a moment, making sure he wasn't going to barge back into their house.
"Because I said some not nice things and I'm refusing to go with him to wherever to find his son."
"Why?"
"Why, what?"
"Why won't you help him find his son?"
"Because I can't cross the border."
"Yes you can. Me and you are the only two."
"Yes, but it's not just me." Emma sighed, not wanting to have this conversation.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm pregnant, kid. And like I told Gold, I'm not going to cross the border without a 100% guarantee that this new kid will be all right and nothing magical or medical will happen to it by me crossing the border."
"You're pregnant?" Henry scrunched his face and tilted his head to the side, "Who's the father?"
"You haven't met him…"
"Captain Hook?" He asked.
Emma looked down, "Yeah."
"But I thought you liked my mom."
"I do! Henry… I… I like your mom. I have impenetrable feelings for your mom."
"Then why are you pregnant with Captain Hook's baby?"
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma walked from the station, across the street to meet up with Regina and get some cocoa. Or, at least she was until a certain accented voice stopped her, "You know, the thing about small towns, Love? Gossip travels faster than the plague."
Emma rolled her eyes and turned around, "What do you want, Hook?"
"Is it true?" He looked her up and down, "Do you have my baby in your belly?"
"Yes."
"And you weren't going to tell me?" The pirate seemed offended.
This made the blonde sigh, "No. Because you weren't supposed to be able to find a way here to reek havoc."
"Well, I'm here now, Love."
"And?" The blonde was clearly unimpressed.
"And I'm saying that I want to be a part of my child's life."
"And I'm saying fat chance." She turned to move to the door.
"You can't just do that!" Hook insisted, reaching for Emma's arm, "I have a right—"
"Yeah, well, you lost that right when you started working for the bad guy."
Hook knit his brows, "So, if I stop working with Cora then I'll be able to see the baby?"
"If you take responsibility for all your ill deeds, realize that they are bad, and yes, stop being on the bad side… Then I will consider letting you see the kid. But you have to own up for yourself first."
"Is everything all right out here?" Regina's voice was hard and bitter. And the glare she was giving Hook might have just killed him where he stood had Emma not backed away completely from the man and walked over to her.
"It's fine." Emma pushed her hand through the space between Regina's arm and body, linking at the elbows.
"Your Majesty." Hook gave the brunette a dirty look, "How lovely to see you again."
Regina inhaled the bitter, winter air, "Hook. Stay away from my family. That's your only warning. I don't play baseball; there are no strikes in my game."
"I'm afraid I can't do that. Your mother—"
"My mother is not my family. She's the woman out to ruin me." The brunette woman straightened a bit more, "In fact, do me a favor, give her a message for me."
"I'm not in the mail carrying business."
"Do it anyways. Out of the kindness of your heart. What little heart you have left." The look Regina gave Hook made even Emma a little scared to be around her, "Tell her that if she comes after my family, that I will kill her. And no magic will be necessary."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Months went by. Hook looked up at the once again lively apple tree that Regina cared so deeply for. Even though it was night, he could see just how red and delicious the apples would taste if he were to risk it and eat one. And, being a pirate, a robber of sorts, he really, really wanted a taste of the evil queen's forbidden fruit.
Just after plucking the juicy redness from the tree, the door to the mansion opened and footfalls came quickly towards him.
"Can I help you with something?" Regina asked in a tone that told him to tell her why he was there or she might just murder him like she seemed to want with her mother.
"How's Emma?" He asked nonchalantly.
Regina crossed her arms, annoyed. "…Fine. We were just heading to bed. She is seven months pregnant now, after all, tired all the time."
"Yes, I know." The pirate looked down. "How's the baby? How's my baby girl?"
"Good. Healthy. She doesn't stop moving." Regina gave a half smile, "It drives Emma insane; she thinks telling her to stop will make her stop, but that only seems to rile the baby up more."
"I want to see her… After she's born."
"Then prove to Emma that you've changed. Prove to me that you've changed. Prove to someone that you are at least trying to change…" She inhaled, "You have to give to receive." She took the apple from his hand, "This is something you can't take. You have to earn this." She took a bite.
"Why are you counseling me?"
"Because you gave me my second child. I can be nice to you for that as long as I don't think of how it came about."
Hook, leaning against the trunk gave the woman a lazy smile, "She tell you all about that, eh? That was a good evening."
Regina started walking away from the man.
"No, I'm sorry!" He tried to get her to stay, "A thousand apologies. Sincerely."
"Mhmm." Regina crossed her arms and gave him an unimpressed look.
He sighed and looked down, "So… I have to give to receive, hmm?"
"Yes."
"And it will be worth it?"
Regina looked at the pirate's chest a moment, "It will be everything you've secretly dreamed of. You won't have Milah, but it will be everything else you've ever wanted."
Hook nodded before taking the apple back from her, biting it himself, and strutting back into the neighborhood and into the night.
Emma opened the door and waddled into the backyard, "What did he want?"
Regina turned back to her now very pregnant girlfriend, "He wanted to know what he had to do to see her after she was born."
"I've told him that. Repeatedly." The blonde crossed her arms.
"I know, but that doesn't mean that he received the message." Regina turned the blonde back to face the house and rubbed her lower back as they walked back inside.
"And now?" Emma asked settling into a kitchen chair.
"I think he might just have received the message." Regina rolled her eyes and looked to the two figures in the living room, "Which is more than I can say for your parents." She said loud enough for them to hear.
"Yeah, yeah. Whine and complain all you want, but the moment you pull magic on us is the moment you prove you're not who you're telling our daughter you are. And that is the moment we will get out of your hair, daughter and grandchildren in tow." Snow gave the brunette snippy smile as she brought her and Charming's popcorn bowl into the kitchen.
Charming came in, hopefully to stop an argument before it started, "Now, now, Snow. Regina's provided for us and nothing has been poisoned. She wouldn't do that to Henry, Emma or the baby."
Snow rolled her eyes, "You're just being nice because Emma has you wrapped around her pinky."
Emma rolled her eyes, "No, Mary Margaret, I think what Emma is growing inside her has David wrapped around her finger."
David grinned to his daughter, "I'll tell you what, I look thirty, but I feel sixty. I'm ready to be a granddad again." He took his wife by the shoulders, "Let's go to bed."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Cora broke into the mansion the day after they brought Cadence Jillian 'CJ' Swan-Mills-Jones (though no one knew about the second hyphen and third last name except Emma and Regina) home.
The witch glared at her daughter when she found her holding the baby, playing house.
"You were such a waste." She announced her presence.
Charming and Snow were up, ready for a weaponless fight in the split second it took them to realize who it was.
"I spent years on you, training you. Making you become the best that you could be and what do you do? Every time you get close to becoming something real, you throw it away. On what? Love." Magic began flickering at Cora's fingertips.
Regina gave the baby back to Emma and stood in front of the two and Henry, who had been seated on her other side.
"Mother. Leave. Now. You're not welcome here."
"I'm fine being unwelcome. It makes me all the more menacing." She gave her daughter a fake laugh, "And that makes these two idiots jump in fear at any given move I make." She stomped Snow and Charming's direction, proving her point as they jumped and clung to each other.
It was in this moment, that Regina caught a shadow in the mirror behind her mother. But it was no shadow, it was Hook. He seemed to be waiting on an unsuspecting moment.
"What do you want? We've nothing to give you. Nothing you value."
"That's where you're wrong. I need power. In order to obtain that power, I need a heart." She looked passed Regina to the blonde behind her, "And not just any heart."
"That's out of the question."
"And what are you going to do? You, who couldn't give me real grandchildren, and couldn't just get over your precious Daniel and marry the King. No, you had to kill him and become untrustworthy just as you come into power. You were never…" Cora fell to her knees, grabbing her chest.
Hook stood behind her, his hand empty and a small chest between his body and hook.
Regina stared at the chest he held then up to his face as she moved closer to the older, evil version of herself, "Is that?"
"Her heart. Yes. It took a while for me to track it down. Looks like I found it and put it back where it belongs at a rather dramatic moment." He gave his token cheeky pirate smile.
Regina helped her mother sit up, and it was in this moment, as she caught her mother's eyes that she saw all the approval that she ever wanted or needed, "Mother?"
"You would have been enough." Cora let tears fall from her eyes as she clung to her daughter. "You are enough."
Hook looked from the mother and daughter to Emma to the bundle in her arms then turned to walk out of the mansion, dropping the chest, letting it break on the floor as he went.
"Hook, wait." Emma called. She hoisted herself out of the comforts of the couch and walked over to him, "You should meet your daughter. This is Cadence Jillian Swan-Mills-Jones. But we're gonna call her CJ"
"'Jones'?" He asked.
"You're her parent too." Emma smiled and gave the baby to the other man, "And you deserve to be a part of her, and a part of her life."
Hook nodded, staring at the bundle in his arms now, a couple tears escaping his eyes, "She's beautiful."
"She is." Emma nodded.
~0~0~0~0~0~
The only fights Cora ever got in after getting her heart back were with Charming and Snow, and even Rumple, who decided he got to be a grandparent since the oldest was his biological grandchild, and sometimes the ever quiet Belle over grandparent time. She refused to waste anymore time worrying over power and instead focused on feeling everything completely.
Rumple finally got Emma to honor her agreement and find his son. And that led to a whole lot of drama that Emma didn't have time for. Rumple was actually trying to form a relationship with Bae and Henry, and reforming a relationship with Belle.
Hook quickly became a good father to CJ and a good father figure for Henry. He got in a scuffle here and there with Bae over fathering Henry too much, and not wanting to deal with it, Emma would give one of them CJ and all would be calm for a while.
Henry loved being a big brother and when his blonde mother did finally honor her agreement to find Rumple's son, and apparently his father, he loved being a son to two fathers and two mothers and five-ish grandparents (depending on how Belle felt about being clumped in that category).
Emma and Regina had to have a lot of conversations about the fact that both of her baby daddies seemed to come into their life just as they were starting it—the joint life, the one life that is theirs. Emma had to do a lot of begging and apologizing for a very long time, but alls well that ends well because four years later, Regina and Emma made a baby of their own. Addison Olivia Swan-Mills was born into the most chaotic, insane, weird, dysfunctional family. But the only thing that mattered was that she, her sister and her brother were loved.