The terms of Regina's house arrest were very specific about who could escort her off the property. Emma wanted to do it herself, but Regina insisted that it was crucial that they follow the rules. Once they decided to ask, it only took one phone call from Emma and surprisingly little convincing to get David to agree to help them.
They were gone for nearly two hours. Emma tried to distract herself by helping Henry with his homework and putting dinner in the oven, but when she heard David's truck pulling up in front of the big white house, she was immediately on her feet and out the front door. By the time he parked and came around the front of the vehicle to open the passenger-side door, she had made it to the sidewalk.
"What happened? Is she okay?"
"I'm fine," Regina insisted, shrugging off David's hand at her elbow, but her face was drawn and, even in heels that let her tower over Emma, she seemed somehow diminished. "I'm just tired."
Emma slid an arm around Regina's waist and looked to her father for confirmation. David simply shrugged. "I couldn't go in with her," he said apologetically. "That place is like a fortress. But she's not hurt."
"I said I'm fine," Regina said through gritted teeth. She looked Emma up and down, taking in the tank top and bare feet. "But it is freezing out here. You need to get inside, dear."
"In a minute," Emma said, nudging at the small of Regina's back. "You go. Henry's setting the table." She wrapped her arms around herself as she watched Regina stride toward the house. Once the other woman was out of earshot, she asked, "Did she say anything?"
David shook his head. "She just asked me to bring her home. Emma, what is going on?"
"I will tell you, I promise. Jut not yet."
David tried to look stern, but the way Emma looked up at him sideways melted his resolve, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders instead. "You know I trust you. But I'm hoping you won't ask me to do this again, Em. It's dangerous."
"I know," she said, sounding like a harangued teenager. "Thank you, Dad."
He grinned down at her. "Do me a favor and don't mention this to your mother? She'll kill me."
Emma brought her fingers to her forehead in a lazy mock salute. "No names, no pack drill."
He gave her shoulders another little squeeze. "Now go inside, it is freezing. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow," Emma agreed, and watched him climb into his truck before heading inside to where dinner and her family were waiting.
As soon as he'd finished eating, Regina excused Henry from the table. "You don't have to clear tonight. You can go watch television."
Henry's eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Why?"
"Really, kid? You like helping with the dishes that much?" Emma teased.
Henry flicked his gaze back and forth between his mothers. "Is this about where Mom went this afternoon?" He didn't miss the look the women gave each other at that. Having two parents was weird. It wasn't like they kept secrets, exactly, although sometimes there was that, too. It was more like they had something that was just about the two of them and not about Henry at all. That had irked him when he first noticed it, but more and more, he found that it made him feel safe, like there was more holding their family together than just him.
"Henry, go," Regina pressed, leaving no more room for argument. He pushed away from the table with an exaggerated sigh, but Emma caught his eye and winked at him, eliciting a grin as he left the dining room.
Emma fidgeted, waiting until she heard the television come on in the next room before asking, "What took you so long? Felt like you were gone forever."
"It took me a while to get to him. Belle was supposed to help, but when she found out it was I and not David who wanted in…" she rolled her eyes rather than finishing the explanation. "Typical."
"Sorry." She wasn't sure what for, exactly. Emma knew that Regina had little right to ask anything of anyone, but it still bothered her to see people reject the woman at every turn.
Regina shrugged. "David was no help at all, either. Maybe you should have come after all."
"You know I don't have that kind of magic."
"Don't you?" Regina took another sip of wine and raised one eyebrow at Emma over the rim of the glass.
Emma ignored that. "And you didn't make any deals?"
"Just like we agreed," Regina assured her.
"Regina," she said, losing her patience. "What did he say?"
"Almost nothing. He knows of it happening one other time."
"And it's… magical?" Emma prompted.
"Apparently." This was directed at the far wall. Regina was always hard to read, not least because she usually had about sixteen things going on underneath the surface of whatever she was saying or doing, but this degree of reticence was unusual even for her. It was starting to scare Emma a bit.
"Could you just tell me?" She waited for Regina to look at her before she continued. "Whatever it is that you're trying not to say?"
Regina dropped her eyes and nodded, taking a deep breath before speaking. "He said that in… before, the only spontaneous magic was that which was the result of true love. There was one child rumored to have been conceived because of such spontaneous magic. They said that her parents' love for each other was strong enough to create new life, even when it shouldn't have otherwise been possible. It was only a rumor," she clarified. "But he has ways of knowing when things are false, and that wasn't the way he spoke about this." She looked up at Emma when she finished. The blonde was never the quickest to put things together, and Regina could almost see the idea coalescing in her mind.
"True love, huh?" It wasn't something they had talked about, ever, at least not in those terms. But when Emma thought about it, in the succession of things they'd shared—child, town, home, bed—why shouldn't love come next? The fluttery, excited flush of new love that she remembered from her few formative attempts at relationships would feel ridiculous now, but there was this other thing she'd been trying to put a name to. It was a feeling that this thing with Regina was the thing that made everything that had ever happened in her life make sense. It was the way Regina seemed to sit on the edges of Emma's thoughts, even when her thoughts were just about mundane little things like what to order for lunch. And it was the oddly serene confidence that what they had would be permanent, even when it was messy or ugly. It was inevitable, like gravity. If that was true love, then… oh.
She studied Regina, who was trying hard to look Emma in the eye but kept dropping her gaze to Emma's mouth. Emma looked for the truth of her next thought, which was the memory of the first thing Regina had explained to her about true love—really magical, curse-breaking love. In the fading light of that day, the worst day, Regina had told her that true love, in order to be true love, always had to be returned.
"You love me back," she said, unable to keep the hint of triumph out of her voice.
Regina pursed her lips and stuttered a half-hearted attempt at mitigation. "Things are different here. It could—"
"No," Emma cut her off, grinning and very sure of herself. "You love me back."
Regina couldn't help herself—she returned the smile. "Well, all right, then."
In their bed that night, Emma lay on her back under the white sheet, dancing her fingers like tiny legs across her still-flat abdomen. Regina was next to her, curled on her side, not touching Emma, just watching. "You said I didn't ask you."
Emma's fingers stopped mid-twirl, and she turned her head to look at Regina. "What?"
"Before, when you thought I'd done it? You said that I didn't ask you."
Emma sighed. "Well, you didn't ask me. You have to admit it's a shitty thing to do to someone without their consent."
"Yes."
"But you didn't do it."
"No."
"That's all I meant," Emma said dismissively, turning away again.
Regina was quiet for a moment, tempted to let the subject drop, but she found the question burning in her chest. She had to know. "Would you have? If I'd asked?"
"Let you… knock me up?" she smirked.
Regina sighed at the willful crassness. "Yes."
Emma thought for a moment, squinting up at the ceiling. She considered their situation. It was much too soon, for one thing. It had only been half a year that she'd been in this house, less time than that since they'd been anything resembling a couple. But the other thing—the love that suddenly felt overwhelming now that she knew it was returned—made her reluctant to say no. "I don't know," she admitted. "Would you have asked?"
"I didn't know it was an option," Regina reminded her. She swallowed hard, and when she spoke again it was almost a whisper. "You don't have to do it, you know."
Emma looked at her, eyes wide with surprise. "Regina—"
"No, I mean it. I can make you an appointment. It can be taken care of tomorrow—if you want."
"You don't want it," Emma guessed, tears springing to her eyes. She felt stupid, mentally berating herself for believing that Regina, so fixated on order and with the scope of her control now so small, could possibly accept something as life-altering as a new baby without meticulously planning every aspect.
"I do want it," Regina said with a fierceness that made Emma feel all prickly. "But I'm saying that you have a choice here. I've seen—made people do things without being given a choice. I don't want to do that again. I especially don't want to do it to you."
"Hey," Emma rolled toward Regina so that they were face to face. "Nobody's making me do anything."
"We didn't make a plan for this. We could wait until we're ready."
"And when will that be?"
Regina was silent
"This is, you know, insane. The timing is terrible. But come on, a magic baby? Who knows when we'll get a chance like this again? And I just think…"
"What?"
Emma wrapped her hands around one of Regina's, her thumbs stroking it almost imperceptibly. "There are so many things to make right. And I know you think that means you need to be punished. But maybe this is how we make it right. By doing something new. Something good."
"And the price?" More than anything, Regina wished that the monstrous man had not reminded her that there were some truths in the world that were absolute, and one of them was that nothing good ever came without cost.
"Loving a kid? Magic or not, there's always a risk you're gonna get hurt. Henry's proof enough of that—for both of us. Has it ever not been worth it?"
Regina shook her head. "Of course not."
"Well, all right, then."
