It took a considerable amount of effort to avoid the Charmings at the best of times, let alone when they were hell bent on extracting as much Emma related information from Regina as they could. News of Regina and Emma's venture outside of the town's limits had predictably not taken long at all to spread and so by the time they had returned, it was to find both of Emma's parents and a worried Henry waiting for them at Emma's house. Though Regina knew it gave Emma to pleasure to silently stomp up the stairs in to her house without saying anything more than a quick hello to Henry, Regina had had to fight back the urge to laugh at the astounded look on Snow's face when her attempts at comfort went unwanted. Ever since then, when the Charmings had become more fully aware that Regina knew more than she was letting on, they had been unrelenting in their pestering of her.
While Regina did a fairly successful job at either avoiding the Charmings or telling them to give Emma some more time, it was far harder for her to avoid her son. Due to Emma's current state, Henry was living at Regina's full time. It was only a very recent development that Emma let Henry in her house to see her so that they could have dinner every second night, and thankfully Emma hadn't needed any sort of push in that regard. If anything, it was blatantly clear to Regina that Emma was beginning to feel more and more guilty for pushing Henry away without explanation.
Each and every time that Henry went to see his other mother, Regina expected him to come home fresh with the news that Emma had told him she was pregnant, and yet Regina was never surprised that this didn't happen. In the week and a half since their trip to Portland, Emma and Regina had only seen each other once when Regina had all but dragged Emma out of that house to have coffee and something to eat at Granny's. People stared at them, more than half would likely report the event back to Snow within the hour, but they stared more because it had been so long since they had seen Emma than anything else. The image of the two of them sitting there peacefully together considering their long history was now no longer a shock to the townspeople.
When Regina's phone rang at almost ten she frowned to herself, and quickly answered, her mind immediately jumping to the conclusion something terrible had happened for Henry to be calling her during his time with Emma.
Before Regina had even gotten a word out, Henry was speaking quickly. "There's something wrong with Mom."
All but launching herself out of her chair behind her desk, Regina raced out of her study. "I'll be right there Henry," she promised firmly, her heart immediately flying in to a wild panic of rapid taps against her ribcage.
As a general rule, those able to use magic were currently doing their utmost not to use it unless it was absolutely necessary. Despite the madness that had occurred with Camelot and then the Underworld, Storybrooke was currently enjoying a very rare period of calmness. That being said, Regina was hardly going to waste precious minutes driving to Emma's house when she could easily transport herself there with magic.
Henry, being the exceptionally intelligent boy that he was, evidently knew this would be Regina's course of action and was already pulling open the front door when Regina appeared on the porch outside it.
"I don't know what happened," Henry started in a rush, quickly stepping aside to allow Regina to sweep across the threshold in to the house. 'She was fine during dinner and then all of a sudden she got really sick. She hasn't come out of the bathroom and won't let me in. She told me to call you.'
Vaguely familiar with the layout of Emma's house, Regina had a good idea of where she needed to go in order to find Emma. First, she gently placed a hand on Henry's shoulder and attempted to offer him a warm smile to calm him. "She'll be fine, Henry. Stay down here, and close that door," she told him before hurrying up the stairs in search of the bathroom.
On the second level there were only four doors to choose from, three of which Regina knew led to different bedrooms. Only one was closed, and Regina made her way toward it, forgetting all sense as she merely barged right in rather than bothering to knock and wait for a response. Though it hardly mattered, as Regina's panic came to a grinding halt as she looked down at where Emma sat on the floor next to the toilet.
Leaning up against the wall, Emma's legs were spread out in front of her while both of her arms were wrapped around her stomach. Tilting her head to one side, Emma's pale lips twitched. "What if I had been naked?" the blonde queried, an attempt at a joke.
Slowly, relief seeped through Regina, turning her fear induced ice-cold blood warm again. "Morning sickness," she breathed out.
"At night time," Emma pointed out rather obviously. 'Did Henry call?'
"He did, and almost succeeded in giving me a heart attack," Regina replied, inching further in to the room, Regina made quick work of her assessment of Emma. The blonde had certainly looked worse, but with her hair messily tied up and her face drained of color, she had definitely looked better. 'Are you finished?' she added, nodding to the toilet next to Emma.
Sizing up the toilet as though it had done her a personal harm, Emma screwed up her nose but eventually nodded. "I asked to call you so you could pick him up, I knew I could drive him," she explained as Regina flushed the toilet and closed its lid.
"Moms?" Henry's voice hesitantly floated through the bathroom door a second before he appeared there, hesitantly peering in. 'Is everything ok?'
From her place on the floor, Emma exchanged a quick look with Regina, one that was tinged with guilt but was also something of a warning and a request. "Henry, help me get your mother on her feet," Regina instructed, unsure that she could manage to lift a weakened Emma from the floor under her own steam without causing injury to one of them.
Grateful to be able to help, Henry quickly strode forward, and took one of Emma's arms while Regina too the other. After a three count, they both pulled, with Emma doing her best to aid them. "Here's good," Emma declared as soon as she was upright, immediately swaying dangerously in to Regina as she did so before dropping on the closed seat of the toilet.
"Classy," Regina snickered once she was sure the blonde wasn't about to slide off and back on to the tiled floor.
"That's me," Emma practically groaned, arms wrapped securely around herself like she was willing her body not to betray her again.
Taking a step back, some of Henry's fear had abated, replaced by an almost irate suspicion. "What's going on? Shouldn't we take to a hospital or something?" he asked of Regina.
Peering up at Henry, Emma slowly shook her head. "I don't need a hospital, kid, I already know what's making me sick," she said, and from the way she quickly cut her gaze to Regina, it was obvious where this conversation was finally heading.
"I'll give you some privacy," Regina murmured.
"No, it's ok," Emma said before Regina had even taken a single step toward the door. 'You already know and besides, if I need to puke again I wouldn't want to do it all over the kid,' Emma added.
Placing her hands on her hips, Regina cocked an eyebrow at Emma. "But throwing up on me would be just fine?"
Despite her illness, Emma grinned back up at her. "It'd be funny," she admitted.
"Moms, come on. What's going on here? You've both been acting weird since we got back from the Underworld. You hang out and talk but won't tell Grandma and Grandpa what you talk about," Henry said, his frustration with being left out of the loop finally coming to a head. 'You guys are my moms and I'm not a little kid anymore, you don't have to keep secrets from me. You're starting to scare me.'
Ghostly smile slipping from Emma's lips, she nodded seriously back at Henry. "You're right, Henry. We treat you like a child at the wrong times and an adult at the worst. We haven't learned that there's a middle ground with a teenage, especially you," she told him earnestly.
"So just tell me what's going on for once," Henry implored, looking from one mother to the next beseechingly.
"Take a seat, kid," Emma instructed, as though this conversation weren't taking place in a bathroom.
While Regina understood that Emma wanted her there, she couldn't help but feel like she was intruding on an incredibly intimate moment between mother and son as Henry perched himself on the edge of the bathtub. But what was more important than Regina's feelings was the fearful look in Emma's eyes, like she was anticipating Henry to have a bad reaction to what he was about to hear. It was the same uncertain, frightened look Emma had had in the doctor's office when getting her blood taken, and Regina resolved to remain standing exactly where she was for as long as Emma needed her to stand there.
"I'm pregnant."
The confession blurted unceremoniously from Emma's lips, and Regina didn't bother to hide it as she rolled her eyes at Emma's tactlessness. For them both, though, Henry was their main concern and they watched him carefully for any sign of a reaction.
His eyebrows rose in initial surprise, he pursed his lips and then, "Oh."
Regina blinked rapidly. "Oh?" she and Emma echoed at the same time.
"Well, the sickness makes sense now," Henry said, gesturing toward the toilet that Emma was currently still seated on.
Just as taken aback by Henry's lack of reaction as Regina was, Emma frowned at their son for a long moment. "You don't have anything you want to say, or any questions?" she asked of him.
After a long moment of consideration, Henry's brow puckered. "I mean, I'm sorry," he said quietly, staring down at the tiles at Emma's feet instead of directly at her. 'I know that it must be hard to deal with now that Hook is gone and you have to do it all alone.'
At the mention of Hook, Emma's expression hardened and she clasped her hands distractedly in her lap. "I've had your Mom, so I haven't really been alone," she muttered, giving Regina a tight smile. 'She figured it out and came to see me, she's been a lot of help.'
It felt like an overstatement. All Regina had really done was made sure that Emma still ate something and had driven her to the appointment in Portland, that hardly screamed support to Regina but she really wouldn't know either way considering her lack of experience.
"I'm not surprised you figured it out, Mom," Henry said to Regina, smirking at her knowingly. 'You spent years trying and failing to find Snow White but you can sniff out anyone else's secrets in an instant.'
Narrowing her eyes playfully at her son, Regina endured the short laughter that he and Emma shared at her expense. "You would be careful to remember that the older you get, the more inclined I'll be to find out your secrets," she jokingly threatened, so that Henry only continued to grin back at her.
Her own humor drying up a bit, Emma continued to watch Henry curiously. "Are you sure there's nothing on your mind? You can tell me how you're feeling, Henry, it's ok. This is a big thing and you're right, you're not a little kid. You're allowed to share whatever it is that's going on in that brain of yours," she told him seriously, willing him to be honest.
Given the option to be honest at Emma's request, Henry looked almost nervous before he answered, "Is this a good happy ending kind of thing?" he asked cautiously.
A sad smile flitted across Emma's lips. "It's a life thing," she replied quietly, her shoulders rising and falling in a helpless shrug.
Henry nodded in understanding, "I feel kind of sad for you. I want to help," he said decidedly, strength finding its way in to his voice so that the words were supported by a determination to do something to help.
With a tearful smile, Emma pushed herself up away from the toilet under her own power and quickly enveloped Henry in a hug where he was still sitting on the edge of the tub, kneeling on the cold tiles in order to do so. Henry hugged her back tightly, and only once Emma had refused to let go did he look up at Regina in search of help.
"I think you might be strangling him, dear," Regina murmured softly, smiling along with Henry as Emma squeezed him tight once more before finally pulling away.
"Shut up, it's the hormones," Emma told Henry when she caught sight of him smirking at her while she wiped tears from her cheeks before yawning widely.
At the clear sign of Emma's exhaustion, Regina strode forward and put a hand under the blonde's arm. "I trust you're capable of dressing yourself?" Regina lightly mocked as Henry took up Emma's other side and helped the blonde back to her feet.
Rolling her eyes, Emma stubbornly shook both of her assistances off. "I can manage, or I'm sleeping in jeans," she said, shakily walking off out of the bathroom, and childishly turning the lights off on Regina and Henry with a snort as she did so.
It took all of two minutes for Emma and Henry to say their goodbyes, as Emma was too tired to do anything else but go straight to bed. Regina and Henry hadn't even left the house before Emma succumbed to her exhaustion and fell asleep, from the bags that had been under the blonde's eyes it was safe to assume that sleep was not a regular occurrence for her. But with Emma safely asleep and in bed, not sprawled on a bathroom floor, Regina and Henry could return back home. It wasn't too far, and Regina didn't know when they had decided it, but they were soon walking home together.
"Is she going to be ok?" Henry asked after a couple of minutes, his hands gripping the straps of his backpack while he stared down at the pavement intensely.
"Your mother has been through this before, Henry. She'll be fine," Regina said, sounding far fiercer than she had intended to.
Next to her, Henry slowly dipped his head in a short nod. "I know, and it's better that she has people that love her this time. But I mean will she be ok on the inside? Even though she has you and me, and she'll have lots of other people once they find out, will it matter? Hook is still gone and she's still sad, won't she still feel lonely?" he wondered, kicking at a loose stone that came across their path.
They were questions that Regina had gone over many times since first coming to the realization that Emma was pregnant, and there were countless other worrying factors that Henry had thankfully not thought of yet. Regina didn't have the answers, and she wasn't about to lie and pretend that she did.
"Your mother has survived a lot, and it won't be easy for her but she knows that she isn't alone. I think as long as she knows that there are people here that want to help her and who care about her, she'll stand a fairly good chance of being happy," Regina said, finding herself thinking back to the many times in which she had seen Emma prevail when all sense and logic had been against her. As her enemy, it had been an infuriating trait. As Emma's friend, Regina found it to be almost inspiring.
"Is she going to tell anyone else?" Henry asked after a few moments, their face a mere meandering along the sidewalk through Storybrooke at night while the rest of its residents were safely tucked away in their homes.
Regina glanced at Henry, well aware that the Charmings had a habit of interrogating him whenever they saw him, too. "Emma needs things to go at her pace, that's very important, Henry. So if your grandparents ask you about your mother, just be vague," she told him. Neither she nor Emma would ever want for their son to keep secrets for them, but Regina could already tell that Henry had no intention of spilling Emma's news to anyone.
"I never tell them anything anyway. It was their idea to give her space," Henry said with a definitive shake of the head.
Regina exhaled deeply, "Your grandparents' plan to give Emma room to grieve apparently had an expiration date," she muttered under her breath, though Henry could still hear her perfectly. 'In any case, they will learn of the news whenever and if ever your mother decides to tell them. Until then, all you can do is continue to be there for her and make sure she knows you love her.'
Watching Henry, as grown up as he seemed these days, Regina could see that he was still conflicted and likely keeping much more of his true feelings hidden for Emma's sake. It was the wrong time to ask if Henry was excited, and it would be a stupid question to pose to either Henry or Emma given the circumstances. Still, it meant that Regina would be keeping an eye on both mother and son in the near future.
