Thousand apologies for the delay in updating this chapter. I made a mistake. I thought I had sent this chapter to my beta reader before, but just yesterday I realized that, in fact, it had never been sent and I have to thank her for the speed on getting it corrected.

To Ailec-12; Thank you! and about Henry. I have to make him a nice son here because I just want to kill him NOW! sorry...

To Guest; OMG! I love your review! Please, let me know your name... Thank you very much.

To ciaramontana1; Yep! I used a lot from that show and I loved it by the way. Thank you for reading my story.

To Hannah Holloway; Thank you... me too!

To Annie; I have to say. I love u! haha thank you!

Enjoy it!

CHAPTER 10 – VISITS

"Mother?" Regina said, recognizing the figure in the darkness.

"Yes, my dear, it's me! I came to pick you up." Cora said gently.

"What? Pick me up? Where are we going?" Regina asked confused.

"I'll take you to see your children."

"But they are sleeping in the next room."

"No, Regina. They aren't sleeping in the next room. Try to remember. Many things happened lately."

"No, what are you talking about, mother?" She asked getting up and going to Henry's room to check if he was there. Cora followed her.

"You see? He isn't here."

"He must be in his sister's room, he always goes there at dawn when she's crying." Regina said running to her daughter's room just to find it empty.

"Regina, don't you remember what happened?"

"What are you talking about, mother? Where are my children, what have you done with them?"

"You were fighting. You became the Evil Queen and killed Archie. I thought that you wouldn't come back to be the Regina that I know. You would have killed your children, Regina."

"What?" Regina looked terrified, "You're crazy! I would never hurt my children, never!" She cried at her.

"But you did! You almost choked Henry and almost drowned your daughter in the bathtub, but it wasn't really you, Regina. Now you're fine."

"Mother, why are you doing this? Why are you lying to me?" Regina asked starting to cry. "Where are my children?"

"I'm not lying, my love. Everything I have done was to protect you, even if you haven't noticed yet. I took them to protect them from you. After you killed Archie, I didn't have a choice. But now it's time to see them again. Let's go, come with me." Cora said extending her hand to Regina.

Regina looked at her mother and saw that she was telling the truth, and then she remembered what had happened in the last months. She became the Evil Queen again. Regina held her mother's hand and together they disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke.

They reappeared in a place that looked like a hall of a large and beautiful castle. Cora led Regina to a room that was located on top of a tower. When they entered the room, Regina saw three coffins. The biggest one was white and the other two, much smaller, were white with gold trim and red.

"What kind of joke is this, mother?" Regina asked turning to face Cora.

"I'm so sorry, my daughter. I tried, I swear, but you were very powerful and I couldn't stop you." Cora said with tears in her eyes.

"What?" Regina said blankly.

She was shocked and gasping for air. She couldn't breathe, her vision was getting blurry. A sudden urge to throw up came over her, her mind was spinning and then her feet were no longer on the ground.

Regina opened her eyes frightened and screaming. She ran to the bathroom and thrown up everything she had eaten hours ago. It wasn't the first nightmare that she had. In fact, since Cora was trapped, dreams like that were becoming frequent. What is more terrifying to Regina is that, in these nightmares, Cora was always protecting the children from the Evil Queen.

She knew she shouldn't go visit Cora in the cell, but her desire to see Cora was getting the best of her. Archie and Emma would never allow her to be there, but she had to do it. She got up from her position with her head in the toilet and cleaned herself up in the sink. She changed her clothes, put on a coat and went to the mine. It was 3:42 in the morning.

She also knew that Cora was never alone in her cell and there was always at least one of the dwarves, who kept an eye on Cora. She had to convince him to let her go in there because Cora was forbidden to receive any visit without the consent of Emma or Mr. Gold.

When Regina stopped the car near the entrance to the mine, she could see two dwarves at the door.

"Regina, what are you doing here? It's almost 4 am!" Leroy asked.

"I just... I just wanted to see her." Regina replied.

"No way. No one can enter or leave without Emma's permission."

"She's my mother and I know her better than you. You think I don't know how dangerous she is? I'm not going to help her, I just want to talk to her. I need to know why she did the things she did." Regina said irritably.

Leroy looked at Regina's eyes and saw the weakness that few people had ever seen in Regina.

"Okay. But you'll not get close to her and I'll have to tell Emma you were here."

"No, Please!" Leroy was surprised by Regina's words, the same woman that he knew would never ask 'please'. "I just want to talk to her and see her. Emma doesn't need to know this, she'll be worried about Henry but there is no reason for that. And I won't stay in there for so long."

"Okay, but that's just for today and I'm going with you."

Regina wanted to be alone with her mother, but she knew that wouldn't happen. "Okay, thank you, Leroy."

So they walked up into the mine. It was dark and there were few lights inside. Regina couldn't feel her own magic, it's as if it had been left out of the mine. When she approached the cell, she could see the figure of her mother lying in the corner of the cell. She looked at Leroy, who decided to give them some privacy and distanced himself from the two women.

"Mother?" Regina called but Cora seemed not to hear. Regina had to call her twice more, so she began to stir.

"Regina?" Cora stood up and walked towards the bars of the cell.

"It's me, mother." Regina said with a sad look.

Cora was dirty and didn't look anything like the powerful woman Regina knew. There wasn't glamour, no power, nothing. She was just a careless old lady.

"What are you doing here?"

"I needed to see you, I... I was wondering, why have you done all these things, mother?" Regina asked with tears.

"I... I wanted to see you, Regina. These days I spend here, I have had much time to think." The older woman said looking at the floor.

"And what conclusion did you come to?"

"I was an idiot, Regina. I know you don't believe me now, but if I could prove it to you-"

"You had the opportunity to prove it and you almost killed me!" Regina shouted.

"You attacked me first, Regina." Cora said sadly.

"But I would never kill you." The young brunette said crying.

"I know! Forgive me, Regina. I was stupid with you and with Daniel too. I didn't learn to love very well but I want to learn. I'm sorry I hurt you, I'm sorry I said those things about you and your baby." Cora said staring into Regina's eyes.

Distractedly, Regina ran her hands over her belly. She wanted so badly to trust her mother but she couldn't do that. Cora almost killed her and could have killed her babies. Cora didn't know they were twins and Regina wouldn't tell her that.

"So, what is it? A boy or a girl?" Cora asked Regina, genuinely curious.

"I don't know yet, mother." Regina said.

"Okay, you may end up catching a cold and it's not good, neither for you or for the baby." Cora said.

"Okay," Regina said turning toward the mine entrance. "Bye, mother."

"Regina-" Cora called her.

Regina just stopped in her place but didn't look back.

"Please, come back again." She pleaded.

Regina just nodded and kept walking, hiding the tears that ran down her face. She returned home but couldn't get back to sleep. She ate a little, but soon the urge to throw up came again and she had to run to the bathroom.

"This isn't good. We'll have to enter into an agreement," She said gently caressing her hand on her belly. "You'll have to let mommy eat a little because I need to have some strength to carry you two." A smile graced her features as the disconfort slowly disappeared. She lay back a little but she was still unable to sleep and wondered what her babies would be like, their gender and all that stuff about babies that could distract her from her recent nightmares and make her forget, even momentarily, her encounter with Cora.

Henry woke up early and saw Emma, Snow and David talking at the kitchen. He had to break the news and couldn't wait longer for that.

"Hey, good morning!" Henry said humming happily.

"Good morning!" The three said together.

"What is it, Henry? Why are you doing this face?" Snow asked.

"He's been happy since yesterday, when he returned from Regina's house, but he won't tell me what it is." Emma said pouting.

"I didn't tell you yesterday because I wanted to tell it to all of you!"

"So, what is it?" David asked, already guessing that Regina must have told him that he would have a sibling.

"Well, yesterday my mom told me that she's pregnant!" Henry said with a huge smile.

"This is wonderful, you'll have a sibling, Henry!" Snow said but not one of them seemed genuinely surprised.

"No, I won't!" Henry said.

"How so?" Snow asked confused, looking at David. Emma already knew what it was. She would have to make it look like it was a surprise for her too, though Archie had already told her weeks ago.

"I will have two siblings, mom is pregnant with twins!" Henry yelled.

"What?" Snow and David both looked surprised.

"That is fantastic, isn't it? I'll have TWO siblings, two!" He said making a 'two' with his fingers. "And mom said that if I'm careful, I'll be able to hold them when they are born." Henry said excitedly.

"That is really a surprise!" Emma tried to pretend but hasn't gone unnoticed by Snow.

"So, Regina is pregnant with twins?" Snow sighted. "I didn't expect that." She laughed.

"But it's great news, soon we'll have two little monsters running around Storybrooke, can you already think of that?" Emma said laughing at the scene that appeared in her mind. Two miniReginas. That would be fun.

After leaving Henry in the school, Emma went to the stables. It was her routine since Regina was teaching her how to use magic and since Regina didn't want any more unforeseen things happening in her home due to Emma's inexperience in magic.

"Good morning, Regina!" Emma said as she entered the stables to come across Regina who was already waiting for her.

"As always, you're late, Miss Swan." Regina warned her.

"Well, today I had a reason."

"And what is that reason that made me waste my precious time?"

"It was a little difficult to calm Henry today, he was restless and eager to meet his siblings, to know their gender and stuff… I almost couldn't open my mouth on the way to school because he couldn't shut his mouth up." She said rolling her eyes.

Regina was lost in Emma's words and remembered Henry's happiness in the last day. "I'm so happy that he's happy-" Regina said absently.

"I told you, Regina. And it will only get worse," Emma said. "Besides, he must be telling it to all of his classmates. He might be bragging because he will have twin siblings."

Regina smiled and nodded. "Let's start then?"

"What do I have to do today? Because you know, I have been training and I really think I have improved very much." Emma said sincerely.

"I think you talk too much, darling, and I want you far away from my apple tree." She said remembering when Emma unintentionally burned Regina's apple tree.

"I told you Regina, it was an accident!"

"Okay, I'll teach you to focus your magic to deflect attacks."

"Cool!" She said excitedly.

"And dangerous if you don't pay attention."

"Come on, Regina. I'm the 'Saviour' and I did put Cora in that cell, I can very well do that." She said smugly.

"Take it easy, darling!"

After teaching Emma, Regina began shooting some fireballs against Emma. At first, Emma had a bit of difficulty, but with time and training she was getting good at it and Regina had to admit it.

Emma was grateful that Regina was helping her. Not that she fully trusted in Regina, but she trusted her more than Mr. Gold. And, surprisingly, Regina was being so patient to help her and teach her that Emma almost could say that her mornings were the best moments of her days. She could witness the changes in Regina's body and especially the changes of temperament, which Regina was experiencing, were really fun for Emma.

Emma couldn't help but smile when she remembered when Regina taught her how to launch fire on a target and she accidentally fired against Regina's apple tree. Regina quickly turned from a bossy woman to a crying one claiming that Emma had burned her favorite tree.

Thus, Regina and Emma were spending their mornings together since the event with Cora. Somehow, Regina learned to respect Emma and sometimes even laughed at some jokes that the blonde made. The two were learning to look out for the other. They could venture to think that a friendship would develop.

So, what do you think?

Review please. The more you review, the more the author is happy and she updates faster;)

xoxo,

Bárbara