Hey guys! I tried to update sooner but it's my last semester in uni and it's literally consuming all of my time.

Short chapter, I know. I just didn't want to keep you guys waiting forever.

Anyway, thank you all for favoriting, following, reviewing and/or just reading this story. It's kind of my escape from reality and means a lot that you like it (:

Any comments/ideas/suggestions please, let me know. All mistakes are mine.


The moment they got out of the doctor's office Regina grabbed Emma's face that was still wet from happy tears with both hands and kissed it all over.

Doctor Palmer explained that everything was looking good so far but he still wanted to keep the appointments every three weeks to check on the twins since they were a little small, though he assured them that it was perfectly normal at this stage.

"Thank you." Kiss. "Thank you." Kiss. "Thank you." Whispered the brunette.

Emma chuckled and gently grabbed the wrists of the other woman. "What are you thanking me for?"

Regina kissed the tip of the blonde's nose and pulled back to look her directly in the eyes. "I'm thanking you for everything. I'm thanking you for making me the happiest woman on the planet. I'm thanking you for putting up with me all these years when you should have left me for being such a bitch. I'm thanking you for giving me another chance to be here even when I don't deserve it." She paused to try and keep her voice from cracking with all the emotions she was feeling. "I'm thanking you for giving me all I ever really wanted in my life, love, a family. I am thanking you for being you." She sighed. "I know that we are not in a great place, yet, and that anything could happen. But I want you to know that you, Emma Swan-Mills, are the love of my life and that I will love until the end of times." She let go of the blonde and lowered herself so she was facing her belly and placed her hands over it. "I love you two so much already. I will do good by you and I promise I will do better for mommy."

Emma ran her hand through the brunette's hair as she spoke to their babies. "You already are." She smiled when her eyes met her wife's. Regina kissed her stomach and stood up resting her forehead against the blonde's. They were the same height since Regina was wearing heels and Emma sandals. "Thank you for coming today." Emma whispered.

"I promised I would."

"I know. I just-" The blonde sighed and closed her eyes. "It wouldn't be the first time that something more important comes up and for a second there I really thought that you weren't going to show up."

"Hey. Look at me, Emma." When the younger woman did she continued. "There is nothing more important than you and our babies. Nothing. I'm just so sorry that it took me this long to realize it." She shook her head. "Maybe realize is not the word, because I always knew. I'm sorry I didn't show you how important you are to me and that I took our time together for granted."

Emma took a deep breath and smiled. "Stop saying sorry. I know you are." She had her arms around the older woman's neck and was playing with her short, black hair. "Besides, it wasn't all that bad." Her smile broadened. "I have loved every minute next to you. Yes, we are going through a rough time at the moment, but I believe we can work it out together. We all make mistakes. One step at a time, okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay, good. Now let's get out of here, I don't really like hospitals." She shuddered remembering the time when she was about seven years old and fell from a tree breaking her arm because she was convinced she was related to Tarzan.

When the brunette didn't attempt to move the blonde grew concerned thinking that there was something wrong. "What is it?"

"Well, I kind of came straight from the airport and brought all my luggage with me…" She pointed to a corner where indeed her suitcase and carry on were standing. "I was going to call a cab so I could take it back to the apartment. I now regret not driving my car back myself from New York." She sighed. "It should be here by next week."

"If you had you wouldn't have made it here today." The blonde gave her wife a quick kiss. "I'll drive you, and then we could go for a walk or something? If you'd like." She suggested hopefully. She had missed the other woman deeply, and after all those months they were apart before, she just wanted to be close to her wife again.

"I'd love to." The brunette returned the kiss and they walked to the car together.

Once parked in front of the building, Regina got out to take her suitcases out.

The blonde followed. "Here, let me help you."

"Emma." The older woman warned.

"What? I am pregnant not disabled."

Regina rolled her eyes in fake annoyance. "Still, I don't want you doing unnecessary effort. I got it." She knew that Emma would do what she wanted to do anyway.

The blonde stood there as if contemplating something for a second. "Let me carry your handbag then. I want to help."

"Fine."

The younger woman smiled and they went inside. It had been years since the last time she had stepped inside this building and she was both nervous and excited for all the memories she knew would come back the moment she stepped inside the apartment so once they got in the elevator she started fidgeting and unconsciously biting her lip.

Regina had given her the keys so when they reached their floor she went straight to open the door. Everything was as it was the last time she was in there except for the few things they had taken with them when they moved away. The paintings on the walls, the dining room, the living room were all the same. Emma's eyes went straight for the couch where she had told the brunette that she loved her for the first time, where she had asked her to marry her, where they made the decision to continue their life somewhere else. She started to get teary eyed. To think that all of it was hanging by a thread.

The older woman had just returned from leaving her belongings in the bedroom and rushed to the blonde's side. "Ems? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She gave a small smile. "Just my hormones messing with me."

"You'd tell me if something was wrong, right?" The brunette asked moving a blonde strand of hair and placing it behind the other woman's ear.

"Of course." Emma leaned in to kiss her wife, both sighing when their lips connected, but before either of them could deepen it the blonde's phone went off. She retrieved it from her front pocket ready to dismiss the call until she saw the name on the screen and her face broke into a huge smile. "Give me a second." She told Regina and gave her a quick kiss before moving away to answer the call.

"Hey stranger!" Regina frowned. What was so important for Emma to pick up in the middle of a kiss? And why was she smiling so big?

"I know, I'm sorry. I'm good! You?" Why was Emma apologizing?

"Yes, today. It went really good. Ugh, tell me about it, I'm not even halfway there and I'm huge." The brunette supposed the blonde was referring to her appointment.

"She did. And they are great. Growing and healthy and beautiful." The blonde said dreamily. "Nah ah. I'm not telling. It's a surprise." Emma laughed. Who were her wife giving details about their daughters to? Wasn't it like, private? And why was she laughing? It's not that she didn't want the blonde to be happy but she hadn't laughed like that since, well, a long time.

"I miss you too." The younger woman shook her head. "Yes, and your food. You should come visit sometime." The brunette's frown deepened. Whose food is she missing? Why is she missing someone? What the hell had happened in the months they weren't living together?

"Okay. Yeah, call me later we need to catch up. You too." You too? You too, what? Regina crossed her arms and cleared her throat when the blonde hung up.

"Sorry about that."

The brunette gave a tight smile. "It's quite alright." She wasn't going to ask. It was none of her business. Emma loved her. They were married for crying out loud. "Who was that?"

The blonde smiled. "It was Ruby, a friend from New York."

The older woman hummed. "How come I hadn't heard of her before?"

"Oh. Well, we met after you know…" She shoved her phone back in her front pocket. "She is the manager of a small café I used to go to work in when I couldn't stand feeling trapped inside the hotel anymore and after a couple weeks of being there every day she started sitting with me during her lunch breaks and we just hit it off." She chuckled. "She was actually the one who suggested me taking a pregnancy test after I stopped stealing food from her because just being next to it made me feel sick."

It was Regina's turn to feel sick now. Hit it off? Seriously? How in the world did it never occur to her that Emma could hit it off with someone else? Of course she would. She was charming, and wonderful and gorgeous and had a beautiful soul and was simply loveable.

How could she have been so stupid? Of course she had to let her mother control her and now the love of her life was hitting it off with someone else. Someone who was probably there when Emma was having weird cravings or emotional breakdowns. Someone who made her laugh when she was literally breaking her heart.

Christ, she was such an idiot. It was so easy to fall in love with Emma Swan and she had just let her go because, because what? She didn't even have a valid excuse. She was an idiot and that's it.

And now there was this woman, this Ruby person making Emma laugh. Her Emma. Her wife. Who did this woman think she was? Making the mother of her children laugh. Like, is she for real? That's Regina's job. Not this nobody's-

"Hey, are you okay?" The blonde asked concerned since a couple of minutes had passed and the brunette hadn't said anything. "Gina? What's wrong?" There was no answer other than the older woman's jawbone snapping shut. Emma knew that look and her frown morphed into an amused smile. "Regina Swan-Mills. Are you jealous?"

The woman didn't say a word but looked down, finding her shoes very interesting.

"Babe." Nothing. "Gina?" Nothing. "Baby, please look at me." Finally. "God, you are so fucking adorable when you pout." Emma smiled and took both the brunette's hands in her own, uncrossing her arms. "Babe, why are you jealous?"

The older woman muttered something unintelligible.

"What was that?"

Regina sighed. "I said, because she was there when I wasn't and now you are hitting it off and you are going to realize that I don't deserve you and you are going to fall in love with someone else and there's nothing I can do about it because it is all my fault."

Emma was trying really hard to contain the smile that wanted to break free from her face. "Baby, who am I married to?"

There was a small pause. "Me."

"Whose name is engraved on my wedding ring?"

"Mine."

"To whom did I swear to love until death did us apart and even beyond that?"

The brunette sighed. "To me."

The blonde placed one of her wife's hands over her belly. "Whose babies am I carrying inside of me?"

The brunette looked up to make eye contact with Emma. "Mine."

She grabbed the older woman's hand that was on her belly and placed it on her chest. "Regina, you have my heart, body, mind and soul. I once said that they were yours to keep and I meant it then the same way that I mean it now. No matter what happened between us, or what is going to happen in the future. I was yours, I am yours and I will forever be yours. So there's nothing for you to be jealous about."

Regina nodded and tried to break the eye contact but Emma had other plans. She gently held her in place by her chin and took a step closer. "I love you, and only you."

"And I love you." The brunette whispered.

"I know."

There were no more words needed after that. Regina closed the gap between them and kissed her wife as if her life depended on it but before things could get out of hand, Emma pulled back smiling. Not because she didn't want to go further, but because she just wasn't ready yet and the brunette knew that as well. One step at a time, she reminded herself.

Emma held out her hand for the other woman to take. "Come, let's go for that walk." She kissed her wife again. "And maybe get some food on the way. I'm starving." She said with a serious face, which caused the brunette to burst out laughing.

"Of course you are, darling, of course you are." She said with a smile as they both walked out of the apartment hand in hand.

Maybe there was hope after all.