*First and foremost I am alive. Just you know in case you guys were wondering.
*Well here's another chapter, hope you guys enjoy it. Also if you guys have any questions and stuff know that you can PM me and stuff.
Chapter 4: Baby Mills
Elizabeth had been released from the hospital a day later. Emma wasn't too happy about that, but didn't argue with Regina. She knew she was missing something but also knew that Regina would tell her, so she didn't push. Even though she was dying to do so, since she had walked into the hospital room a day prior to find mother and daughter fast asleep on the bed.
Elizabeth would be staying with Ruby for the time being. She didn't want to stay with Emma because there was barely space in the apartment and let's face it her grandparents where a bit annoying. She also couldn't stay with Regina because it would raise questions and the last thing they wanted was to draw attention to the young blonde.
Elizabeth for her part was happy with the arrangement; well she was until Emma started spewing rules left and right.
"You know the pull-out bed is big enough for two, you sure you don't want to stay and keep a closer eye on me?" she asked her mother who just gave her a warning look. "just saying" she mumbles and turns to look around the small living room.
"Okay so, you will have breakfast with me, lunch with your mother and we'll try and all have dinner." Emma told her for the fourth time.
"Yes, and in between Ruby will be my personal guard do…wolf" Ruby lets out a small howl making Elizabeth laugh and Emma frown. Somehow she knew this was probably going to be a bad idea. She was practically leaving her teenage daughter to be looked after by another teenager.
Regina lays a soothing hand on Emma's shoulder and tries to calm her down. She had barely gotten any sleep the past week and she knew the blonde's patience was hanging by a very loose thread. The last thing she wanted was for Emma to go off on their daughter.
"It's getting late, we should go" Regina suggests, motioning for Elizabeth to come over. She opens her arms and the young blonde dives into them. "Be good" Elizabeth nods into her neck before pulling back. She stares at her blonde mother contemplating whether or not to give her a hug. Regina seems to sense her dilemma and gives her a push towards Emma.
Elizabeth wraps her arms around her mother's midsection and furrows her head into her neck.
"Sorry for being a pain in your ass, I just can't help it." Emma chuckles and wraps her arms around her daughter.
"See you tomorrow at breakfast" Elizabeth nods and pulls away. She watches as her mother say goodnight and then as Emma walks out the door and Regina disappears into a cloud of purple smoke.
Elizabeth waits a moment before opening the door her mother just walked out off. When she sees that she's no longer in the hall she makes her way to where she left her shoes and starts putting them on.
"Where are you going?" Ruby asks, having watched Elizabeth move around the room.
"Over to the diner" She tells her. "I've been deprived of Granny's food for too long. I'll I want is a big, juicy burger and some fries and a milkshake." Her mouth was already watering at the thought.
"Emma said you have to stick to Dr. Whale's gross diet" Ruby reminds her. They stare at each other for a moment before Elizabeth darts for the door. She manages to open the door before she's being lifted over Ruby's shoulder.
Ruby closes the door and lets out a victorious laugh. Elizabeth for her part thrashes around for a moment before sighing in defeat.
"You win this round, wolf" She tells Ruby defiantly.
"Just like I will win all the rounds after this one, baby Mills" Ruby told her and with that she drop Elizabeth on the bed. The blonde rolled her eyes at the werewolf's smug expression. "By the way, you should think about taking a shower" Ruby said scrunching her nose.
Elizabeth huffed and headed towards the bathroom, but not before throwing one last glare Ruby's way. The werewolf laughs and heads over to the diner to get them some healthy snacks. Once she's back she waits patiently for Elizabeth to finish taking her shower.
"Thank God, I can finally breathe" Ruby remarks with a smile. She makes a big show of taking in a deep breath and then letting it out.
"I didn't smell that bad" Elizabeth tries to argue as she walks into the small kitchen area and hops on the counter.
"Whatever floats your boat" Ruby tells her. She grabs a glass and fills it with some milk; she sets it in beside Elizabeth along with a lone cookie.
"I don't think I'll be able to finish that, it's too much" Elizabeth tells her sarcastically. Ruby ignores her walking to the living room to put in a movie. "How come you get five cookies and all I get is one?"
"Because I can eat sweets all I want, you can't" Her mother's rules were going to leave her starving. "So, how about a movie?" she nods and walks over to the pull-out bed. Next thing she knows Ruby is making herself comfortable next to her.
As the movie starts Elizabeth starts to notice it's going to be a scary movie. She tries to avoid them because it reminds her of all she's done. All the screams in them, remind her of the people she's hurt, of what she is…
"I can't watch this" She tells Ruby and turns away from the screen. Ruby can see it's not because she's scare of it, it goes way deeper than that so she doesn't tease or fight it.
"How about we watch something funny?" She doesn't wait for an answer. "Okay, all set."
"Thank you" Elizabeth murmurs from under the covers, already peeking her head just enough to watch the movie. She doesn't want to come on as a wimp, but sometimes you just can't help it. About half way through the movie Ruby hears small snores coming from beside her and knows it's time to call it a night.
Hours later Elizabeth wakes up with a start. She looks around and lets out a breath in relief, it was all a dream. She wipes at her forehead and gets out of bed. She needs to strengthen her magic, the nightmares weaken it and the darkness starts to try and pull her in. It truly sucked having to be good and strong all the time.
She takes a deep breath and disappears into a cloud of smoke.
Ruby walked out of her room two hours later only to find an empty pull-out bed. With a quick huff in frustration she started to run around the apartment throwing on clothes and shoes to go in search of baby Mills.
"Now if I was the daughter of The Evil Queen and The Savior from the future where would I go?" She shakes her head at herself. You really did hear the craziest things in Storybrooke. She was heading towards the door when there's a loud thud coming from the other side.
She hurries over to it and yanks it open. She lets out a laugh at what she sees. There on the ground, rubbing at her forehead is a sleep deprived, pouting Elizabeth.
"So freaking close" She grumbles as she tries to stand up. Seeing her predicament Ruby helps her up.
"Where did you go?" Ruby asked as she helped the blonde inside.
"I had a nightmare so I had to go try to cleanse my magic and stuff" Elizabeth tells her not making a lot of sense but then again it wasn't like she was a magic expert. So she just shrugged and went with it. Her eyes caught the small gash on the teen's forehead and she started to clean it up.
Once she was done and a colorful band-aid adorned the blondes face Ruby suggested she change to go meet her mother for breakfast.
When they walked into the diner Emma was already waiting for them in a booth. She smiled at them and waved them over. Her smile vanished when she noticed she noticed the band-aid on her daughter's face.
"The hell happened?" She was quick to ask. She got up and pulled her daughter close to take a closer look at the redness around the band-aid. She was sure the bump was going to be there for a few days.
"I had a run in with Ruby's front door" Elizabeth tells her with a small laugh, waving it off as nothing. "So breakfast?" she gave her mother a quick hug and then slid into the booth and motioned for Ruby to join her.
She was about to start ordering when Henry joined them.
"Wait if you're having breakfast with me and he's having breakfast with us as well, who's having breakfast with…"Elizabeth trailed off because she knew her mother would know who she was talking about.
"It's really complicated right now." Emma told her, but Elizabeth wasn't convinced. "He's having a hard time coming to terms with what happened" Elizabeth knew she was talking about the curse that had taken place months prior.
"Does she know?" Henry pipes in, looking at his mother for an answer.
"It doesn't matter, Henry." Emma told him "Why don't we all just order and move on with our day" Emma tries.
Everyone seems to be good with that. After having her mother turn down many of her food choices Elizabeth finally gives up and settles on some chopped fruit and yogurt.
They didn't talk much all the conversation was held mostly by Henry and Ruby.
"Okay, Henry, remember we have dinner with your mom tonight." Emma mentioned as she was finishing with her breakfast.
"I don't want to go and you're my mom not her" Henry answered with disdain in his tone. This made Elizabeth glare at the boy she didn't like his tone one bit.
"Well I'm stuffed" Elizabeth interrupted whatever Emma was about to say. Her mother turned to look at her half eaten fruit salad and uneaten yogurt with a disapproving look but the teen didn't really care. "Listen I've been holed up in a hospital since I got here so I think I'm going to go look around town." With that she started to get up. Ruby sensing breakfast was over quickly slid out as well.
"Thanks for breakfast, Emma" with that Elizabeth walked out of the diner with Ruby following her. Emma watched her go with a defeated look. She knew she shouldn't have brought Henry along with her, it was just asking for trouble. Especially when her daughter seemed really close with her other mother.
"She doesn't talk much" Henry commented after a moment and went back to his food.
Elizabeth and Ruby made it to the park before either of them spoke.
"I take it you didn't like the comment Henry made about Regina not being his mother" Ruby commented as they made their way to the swings.
"Of course not. Does he not understand that without the curse he wouldn't of been born?" Ruby shrugged and Elizabeth went on "I mean, how can he hate someone who raised him and loved him for ten years? And mom just let him say that, she's supposed to stand up for mom." She was not used to this. The past was not nice and sweet like her mothers' made it seemed in their stories.
"I'm starting to think your mothers' didn't tell you much about what went down after the curse broke. That and I'm also thinking you're used to your family being close in the future." Ruby commented.
"Well now I know they lied and sugar coated everything." Elizabeth grumbled as she swung back and forth. "and all because I was sick."
"That's parents for you" Ruby told her calmly. "It's what they do. It's on their job description"
"I guess. I hope mom knows I'm not above beating up an eleven year old" Ruby laughed at this and gave her a disbelieving look "Okay, maybe a couple of wedgies and a few wet-willies." That wasn't really evil or anything, right?
"Problem solved, then?" Elizabeth smiled and nodded. She didn't like to delve on things for too long. "So I don't want to meddle or anything but what brings you to the past?" now it was Elizabeth's turn to give her a disbelieving look "what I don't want to meddle, I'm just really curious" Ruby defended her self.
"Practically the same thing" She pointed out "But I guess I have time" and so she started her story. The short version, not the one she gave her mother. She watched as the young werewolf became enthralled by her story.
"You're not going to tell me who sacrificed themselves are you?" Ruby asked intrigued.
"It's better that you don't know" Elizabeth told her. With that she got up from her swing and started to walk away. "Want to go grab a snack or something? Just know that you're paying." Ruby huffed and nodded and they were off in search of the perfect snack.
When one rolled around they headed to the Mayor's office to have lunch with Regina. Well Elizabeth did, Ruby kind off just walked her there.
"Hey mom" she greets as she walks in the office. Regina looks up from the food that she's arranging on the desk and smiles at her daughter. "Wow, how many people are coming to have lunch with us?" she asks looking at all the food in front of her. You'd think some of them would look appetizing.
"Hey, sweetie" Regina greeted back "it's only the two of us but your mother called me and said you didn't really eat much for breakfast this morning" she explained.
"Oh, right. Henry was there and he made a comment and I didn't take well to it I guess." Regina nodded along. Emma had told her all of this.
"He's just a boy he doesn't-"
"You shouldn't make excuses for him, mom" Elizabeth went to grab one of the different salads her mother had laid out in front of her, changing the subject completely. "Do I really have to eat this?"
"At least until your mother understands what's going on with your body" she tells her and opens her own salad.
"I feel like that's something a parent tells their kids during the sex talk" Regina was glad there hadn't been any food in her mouth when her daughter said that. She was sure she would have choked.
"I don't know how to respond to that" she really didn't. Emma was better built for this kind of comments.
"Sorry, I have no filter" the teen gave her cheeky grin and went to eat her salad.
"Seems like you have that in common with your other mother" Regina offered making Elizabeth chuckle and nod. "So I was thinking tonight at dinner we could tell her what you told me in the hospital."
"Sounds like a plan. When are you going to tell her you have a bun in the oven?" the blonde inquired
"I'm going to guess that by that you mean when am I going to tell her am pregnant?" Regina asked and Elizabeth nodded in affirmation. "Well I was thinking at some point this week, perhaps after dinner. Now tell my why you're sporting that big a bump and such a colorful band-aid"
"Great, tell her fifty bucks says it's a girl" she tells her mother with a cheeky grin "as for this" she starts motioning to her forehead "I had a run in with Ruby's door. I never really got the hang of the poofing thing, but don't worry I'm getting better at it. Also is the smoke bad for ones lungs or not?"
"I didn't teach you? In the future, I mean?" Elizabeth shook her head. "And I don't think so."
"To sick to learn and stuff." Is the simple explanation she gives her mother "But like, you can teach me now if you'd like. It's not like I have anything better to do, I already told you guys why am here so my mission is over now I'm just passing time by until whatever is going to happen to me happens"
Regina stares at her. Her daughter was serious; she didn't care what happened to her anymore. She was ready to accept her faith.
"I probably won't cease to exist until you decide you're going to fore go the 'treatments' and I know you guys aren't going to decide any time soon, so you guys' are stuck with my awesome, witty, brilliant, amazing, beautiful, intelligent, powerful-"
"I'm afraid if I allow you to go on with that list you'll go on for quite some time, just like your mother" Regina pipes in interrupting Elizabeth's ranting. Then she gets a serious look as she looks at her daughter "and you really shouldn't give up so easily, sweetie. We are going to figure out how to save you without the treatments as you call them."
"If you say so." She gave her mother a half-hearted smile and went back to her food.
"I do." Regina reassures. "Now, do you want me to heal that bump?" she asks and when she receives a small nod she gets up from her seat and walks around her desk. She crouches in front of her daughter. She gently removes the band-aid and begins to heal the small gash.
"Tickles" Elizabeth comments trying to look up to see what's happening on her forehead. After figuring out it's physically impossible she gives up and waits for her mother to be done. "You know when we were kids you used to take us out for ice cream after when had an injury and stuff"
"I would hardly called that an injury. But I'm guessing this is your way of telling me you want ice cream" Regina said before her eyebrow knit together. "Wait you said we…"
"Crap." Elizabeth looked around the room trying not to meet her mother heated stare.
"Elizabeth…?" Regina questioned seriously. The serious tone finally got her daughter to meet her eyes.
"Okay, so perhaps you and mom don't know the meaning of safe magical sex or whatever. But don't worry it's only a few of us." Elizabeth gave her mother a small smirk. She knew her mother was internally freaking out thinking they would have a ton of kinds in the future. When in reality it was just Henry, the twins, and herself. "Now, I don't know about you but my injury has taken a lot out of me and it's only fixable by ice cream"
With that she got up and reached for her mother's hand. Regina snapped out of her internal panic and smiled at her daughter, accepting the offered hand. They walked out of the office and out of city hall.
After they enjoyed their delicious ice cream Regina handed Elizabeth over to Ruby once more and went back to work.
"I'm bored, Ruby" Elizabeth whines halfway through the second movie, when the brunette only hums in response, the blonde huffs "Come on, Ruby. I don't want to watch the movie anymore." Elizabeth got up and started to put on her shoes. "Let's go down to the beach."
"No" is all Ruby says before going back to the movie. "and stop pouting it's not going to work. I'm immune to that shit."
"Pretty please" She whines and intensifies her pout.
Needless to say fifteen minutes later they were walking along the beach; Elizabeth smiling brightly and Ruby with a sour expression on her face.
"Yeah, enjoy it while you can because next time that pout ain't working" Ruby grumbled.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever floats your boat" Elizabeth tells her thinking back to what Ruby had said to her last night. "Wanna fly a kite?" the honey blonde asks excitedly.
"How old are you again?" Ruby asks. "and we don't have a kite"
"One is never too old for this stuff. As for the kite…" she trailed off and extended her right arm out to conjure up a kite. "Now we do, so come on" she said and leaned down to grab the kite from the sand.
After running around for a bit like idiots and Ruby had put it they decided to stop and do something else. After shutting down Elizabeth's idea of going for a swim, they (Ruby) decided to go back Ruby's apartment and wait till she had to go to her mother's for dinner.
"Is red your favorite color? Cuz you know you're Little Red Riding Hood."
"What's your favorite food?"
"What about snack"
"What do you do for fun?" The questions had started as soon as she had put the movie in.
"Did you really use to dress like s stripper?"
"Do you like hot stuff?" How she went from stripper to spicy food Ruby would never know.
"Do you eat animals when you're in wolf mode?"
"Did you know a person cannot taste food unless is mixed with saliva?" Yup, they got weirder.
"Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks otherwise it will digest itself?" At this point Ruby had decided to just nod along.
Ruby was going to go on limb here and say this is what Elizabeth was talking that day at the dinner days ago. This girl really did have problems keeping quiet.
Eventually Elizabeth fell asleep and stayed like that until it was time to go over to her mother's for dinner.
"Elizabeth why don't you tell us what you got up to today" Emma suggested when Henry refused.
"Well, I woke up early and went for a stroll in the woods" Regina and Emma gave her questioning looks at this "then Ruby and I joined Emma and what's his face for breakfast" disappointed looks were thrown her way now "then after that went down the drain Ruby and I headed to the part, were we proceeded use the swings, then we talked about breakfast and the I gave her the short version of my story. After that we went out in search of a snack, for which she had to pay for cuz I'm broke. Then I had lunch with mo-Regina. Oh, she took me for ice cream…"
And she continued off until she retold her day completely. It was then that Regina noticed they had quite the talkative daughter.
"Thank you for that, Elizabeth" Emma said trying to cover up a yawn.
"You wanted to know about my day" she small blonde argued with a smirk. She looked over at her brother and smirk when she saw that he was resting his head on his palm half asleep. She moved her foot and hit his chair making him lose his balance to the point where he was almost falling. "What did you think about my day, Henry?"
'That was not nice.' Regina mouthed.
'What you're mother said' Emma followed.
"How we get the dishes and you kids go watch some television?" Regina suggested. Elizabeth for her part didn't need to be told twice. She knew her mother was only doing this so she could talk to her other mother.
Later when they were half way through and program a loud crash was heard coming from the kitchen. They looked at each other before bolting out off their seats and towards the kitchen.
"I should of timed that better, now I need new plates." They heard Regina say.
"I take it you told her." Elizabeth commented as she walked inside the kitchen to find her blonde mother leaning against a counter and broken plates around her.
"Tell her what?" Henry asked.
Emma looked up and rushed over to Elizabeth and pulled her into a tight hug.
"From now on you can eat whatever you want." Emma whispered.
"What's going on?" Henry asked when his first question went unanswered.
"Henry there is a lot we have to talk about but for right now…" Emma spoke up finally releasing Elizabeth from her grip. "Right now…let's just…god, I don't know if I should be sad for what happens or celebrating that I'm going to be a…" her excited could be felt by everyone in the room.
Regina shared the same conflict, but it did not stop her from smiling brightly at Emma. Upon seeing this Emma rushed to her and lifted up. She twirled her around before setting her down and hugging her; then without a second thought pulled her in for a kiss.
Elizabeth smiled then looked over at her brother. His mouth was hanging open and his eyes were wide in surprise.
"Is this a bad time to tell you I'm your sister from the future?" might as well get everything out in the open. Elizabeth watched as her brother slowly turned to look at her.
"Explains the eyes" Henry tells her before his eyes close as he passes out.
*What did you guys think?