When she heard the sound of another child waking up and crying, Regina stood and followed her wife into the same room, lifting a two-and-a-half year old Samantha into her arms as Emma cradled Keileigh.

"Maybe this was a bit much," Regina laughed as she calmed their older daughter and handed Emma a pacifier for their younger one.

"You think?" Emma chuckled, shaking her head as she popped the pacifier into the mouth of the six-month-old girl, who made a cooing noise, then quieted quickly.

As soon as this happened, the two heard a scream from the boys' room, and knew it was coming from their one-year-old Shon. Emma sighed, placing the tiny girl in her arms back into her crib, then hurried into the other room to comfort her son. Henry, the oldest at four years old, was sitting quietly on his bed, staring at his little brother.

"Why do they cry so much?" he asked his mother, frowning in their general direction.

"You know, that's a pretty good question, buddy. You didn't cry much when you were a baby. You were actually pretty easy to handle. Sammy was a little more of a handful, but Shon and Keileigh… they're just… sensitive, I guess."

"What does sensitive mean?"

"It means they get upset really easily."

"Oh. Okay."

"You alright? I imagine that scared you."

"I'm okay. When do I get my own room?"

Emma blinked at him, then said, "Well… I guess when you stop jumping in bed with us in the middle of the night."

The boy scowled, crossed his arms, and lied, "I don't do that!"

"You certainly do. But you're a big boy now, and you really gotta stop that, okay?"

By this time, Shon had stopped crying, comforted by the sound of his mother's voice, so she laid him back in the crib, then walked over to her son and knelt down in front of him.

"It's okay to get scared. It's okay to have nightmares. Everyone does. But you gotta be a big boy and stay in your bed at night, okay? Your mum's really worried about you, 'cause you're still sleeping with us."

Henry sighed and looked down at his feet.

"Okay, bud?" Emma pressed.

"Okay," he muttered, swinging his legs and kicking the frame of his bed with the backs of his feet when they swung backwards.

"So are you ready to get up, or do you wanna go back to sleep?"

"I wanna get up and watch Sesame Street."

"Alright, kiddo," she said, lifting the quickly-growing boy into her arms and holding him over her shoulder. "Just like a sack of potatoes. Let's go downstairs, yeah?"

"Put me dooown," he whined with a laugh, kicking his legs.

"Nope! I've captured you, and now we're going downstairs into my dungeon where I'm gonna tickle you!"

"Moooooom, noooooo!"

"Mom, yes!" she cried happily, marching down the stairs into the living room and setting him down on the couch before proceeding to tickle his sides until he was squealing. When she finally stopped – mostly because she was worried he'd pee himself – the boy was grinning and out of breath.

"You're meeeeean," he fussed, kicking his feet again.

Emma, looking down at his tiny little socks and felt a sudden pang of emotion explode inside her, as her heart swelled and tears filled her eyes.

"I love you, buddy," she said softly, kneeling in front of the couch where he was still laying down.

He sat up quickly and wrapped his arms around her neck, holding on tightly, and said, "I love you too, mama. Can I sit in your lap?"

"Of course you can, big guy. C'mere."

So she sat on the couch, lifted him onto her lap, and wrapped her arms around him to hold him there as she used the remote to turn on the television. By the time her wife came down the stairs, they were both completely engrossed in the show.

"Hey, guys," she greeted them brightly, giving them both a wave. When they didn't respond after a minute or so, she said, "Jeez, Em. Didn't know you liked Sesame Street so much."

"Huh? What? Honey, hush! Cookie monster!"

Henry still hadn't taken his eyes off the TV and was consequently ignoring his mother as Emma joined him in staring at the screen. Though Regina probably should have been irritated by their lack of attention, she simply leaned on the doorframe and watched as the two bonded, as Emma's hand reached up and absently stroked the boy's hair, her attention still completely on the show.

Eventually, Regina turned and entered their kitchen, where she began to prepare their dinner. After a while, she stood in the doorway once more, watching the two continue to ignore her, but this time because they were engulfed in an intense tickling match (that their son was quickly losing). Trying not to laugh and take their attention away from each other, Regina smiled happily, then ascended the stairs to wake the rest of their children from their naps.

After helping Samantha down the stairs and placing her on the couch beside her other mother, Regina went back upstairs to collect Shon, leaving Keileigh asleep in her crib to be fed by a bottle later that evening. It was only when the woman announced dinner that the three on the couch took their eyes off the screen and noticed the brunette standing in the open doorway leading from the living room to the kitchen. Excitedly, Henry screamed and ran into the other room, and Emma followed him, stopping to kiss her wife slowly on the lips as she entered the dining room.

"Thanks for making dinner, babe," Emma said, once she was finished eating and was turned to face Shon in his highchair. She helped him pop the last few pieces of fruit into his mouth, the said, "Good boy, Shonny! You finished all of it!"

"How come Shon gets fruit and I have to eat yucky brocc'li?" Henry whined, slapping his fork down on the table as he made exaggerated gagging sounds.

"Henry Swan-Mills!" Regina snapped. "Don't you make those noises at the table!"

But the boy just giggled and made the noise again, until Emma turned to him and warned, "If you do that one more time, we're not going out for ice cream."

"Ice cream?!" the boy nearly screamed, bouncing in his chair and clapping his hands.

"Only if you finish your veggies and stop acting like an animal at the table."

Regina smiled at her wife, nodded her head in approval, and watched as her son immediately put the rest of his broccoli into his mouth, almost all at once.

As soon as they were finished and their stomachs had all settled, Emma and Regina loaded all four kids into their minivan, and the blonde pulled out of the driveway while her wife sat in the passenger seat. Once as they did, Emma pushed play on CD player, starting the disc of children's songs.

"Wait," Henry said from the seat behind them. "Play mama's music!"

"What?" Emma asked, whipping her head around to look at her son. "What music?"

When Henry said, "I dunno. Just… music!"

Emma looked at her wife, raising an eyebrow, but Regina just smiled shyly and pulled a CD out of the glove box. After ejecting the kids' CD from the player, she put her own CD in and hit play.

"Eojjeol su eobseoseo beoryeosseo

Modeun gamjeongeul jiwosseo

Neol aesseo jiul su eobseoseo

Nae mami ansseureowoseo"

"Babe!" Emma cried out, turning the volume down after the first verse, a huge smile spreading over her face. "Since when do you play Vixx for our kids?"

"Honestly?" Regina asked with a playful grin. "I've been playing this for them every time we're alone since Henry was a baby."

"I like it!" Henry cried out happily. "It's pretty!"

"It is, isn't it, babe?" the brunette asked, turning to look at her son.

"Uh-huh! Don't you like it, mama?" the boy asked the blonde.

"Actually, Henry… This music is the reason I met your mom."

"Huh?"

"I'll explain when you're older," Emma laughed as they pulled into the parking lot of the ice cream parlor. "Let's get something yummy for you, yeah? You did a great job eating all your veggies tonight. So did Sammy!"

The girl siting beside her older brother clapped her hands and smiled broadly at her parents.

"You did, Sammy!" Regina agreed. "You did great with your veggies!"

"Ice cream!" the girl cried out, clapping her hands again. "When we having ice cream?

"Right now, goober!" the blonde laughed.

"Yeah!" Henry chimed in.

Shon and Keileigh had little interest, since they hadn't really eaten ice cream yet (though Shon had tried a cherry popsicle). They just seemed happy to be taking a ride and getting outside, once their parents brought them out to the picnic table.

Samantha held onto the cone of her ice cream tightly, but out of the corner of her eye, as she watched the little girl lean against her other mother, Emma could see exactly what was about to happen. The little girl's hand slipped, and the ice cream fell directly into her lap, after smearing her entire shirt and pants with chocolate on the way down. Immediately, the girl screamed and started to cry. As soon as they saw this, not having been quick enough to stop it, Emma and Regina froze, just long enough for their eyes to connect.

The memory they'd shared of the little girl back at Disneyland all those years ago came flooding back to them as they listened to their daughter cry, and even though they were smiling, a few tears filled their eyes. Emma knelt in front of the girl and quickly wiped up the mess with a few napkins. Meanwhile, Henry watched the tears that had filled the brunette's eyes stream down her cheeks.

"Mama, what's wrong?" the boy asked her. "It's just ice cream…"

"No, baby," Regina sniffled, wiping her eyes with a napkin. "Your mom and I just share a very special memory that this reminded us of."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, back when your mom asked me to marry her at Disneyland-"

"MOM TOOK YOU TO DISNEYLAND?!" he screamed, jumping off the bench of the picnic table and running over to the blonde as he flailed his arms. "WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE US TO DISNEYLAND?"

As her brother's excitement bubbled over, Sammy's tears began to dry, and she started to relax, captivated by his enthusiasm.

"Henry," Regina laughed, once she'd realized that her daughter had finally calmed down. "We'll take you when you're all a little older. This was a long time ago, before you were born. Anyway, your mom asked me to marry her there, and right after that, we were sitting on a bench in the park, just watching people, and we saw a little girl drop her Mickey Mouse ice cream bar and get it all over herself. She cried and cried until her mom got her another ice cream. It was adorable, really. And that's…"

When the brunette trailed off and Emma noticed that she was getting choked up, she finished the sentence, saying, "That's when we decided that we wanted to have you guys."

"Really?!" Henry gasped, enchanted by the story. "That's like a fairytale!"

"Fairytale?" Sammy asked them, eyes wide with wonder. "Mommies have a fairytale?"

"Mhmm," Emma told her, pinching her cheeks. "Just like the ones we read you guys at bedtime!"

"Moms have their own fairytale!" the boy cried brightly.

Shon and Keileigh, enchanted by their siblings' excitement, giggled happily and watched as their older brother and sister interacted with their parents.

"Your mom is a queen, you know," Emma told them brightly.

"Emma, stop it," Regina hissed, giving her shoulder a gentle shove. "Knock it off."

"What?!" Henry gasped. "Nuh-uh!"

"Yes, huh! When we met Snow White-"

"YOU MET SNOW WHITE?!"

"Yeah, baby. And she even recognized your mom!"

"Emma…" Regina protested, trying to glare at her wife but unable to hide her smile.

"She's a queen, buddy," the blonde told her son. "Which is why you all better listen to her when she tells you to eat your veggies! Otherwise, she'll banish you from the kingdom!"

"What? No! Mama, don't banish me!"

"Eat your veggies, then, Mister!" Emma laughed, tickling his sides.

Regina smiled as the blonde finally let him go and kissed the woman's cheek softly, whispering a quiet, "I love you."

"Love you too, my queen," her wife replied, making Regina blush.

Sammy, just like the little girl in Disneyland, was too tired to finish another ice cream cone. She nearly fell asleep as she leaned into her mother's side. Regina, who was holding Shon on her lap with one arm, wrapped her other around the sleepy girl and smiled at them both, her heart swelling with contentment.

"Let's get going," Emma suggested, as soon as Henry had finished his ice cream.

So they loaded the kids back into the car and headed home. The younger three fell asleep in the car, but Henry was wide awake and kept asking them questions about their trip to Disneyland.

The brunette laughed, saying, "Henry, relax. We'll take you when you're all a little older."

"How much older?" he whined, kicking the back of Regina's seat.

"Hey," Regina warned. "Stop that."

"How much older?!" he pressed, swinging his heels back against his own seat instead.

"Well…" the boy's mother said slowly. "Maybe when Kei-bear turns three. That way she'll be able to walk around a little and kinda take in what's going on, and everyone else will be older too."

"But moooooooom! I wanna go now!"

"I know, love," Regina sighed. "But think about it. Right now, you're too little to ride most of the rides. You'll be almost seven when Kei-bear is three!"

"I'm too small to ride them now?" he fussed.

"Well… most of them. Some you'd be fine on, but we'd have to go on them with you."

"But, I-"

"Buddy," Emma cut in. "Don't pout, alright? I promise we'll take you. You just gotta wait a while. It'll be more fun for you when you're older. You can give all the princesses kisses and ask them to marry you!"

"Ewww!" the boy gasped. "That's yucky!"

The blonde laughed, telling him, "You might not think so by the time we go."

"That's true," Regina agreed. "By that time, the girls will be all over you, you handsome man."

"What does handsome mean?"

"It means that you're really cute, and that the girls will all love you."

"But I don't want them to love me! The only girls I like are Sammy and Keileigh! Everyone else is gross."

His younger sister woke to the sound of her name, and, hearing what he'd said, clapped her hands and screamed happily, "HENRY LOVES ME!"

Their mothers laughed at both of them as they pulled into their driveway, just in time for the two youngest children to wake from their older sister's screeching outburst. Shon just opened his eyes wide and looked around calmly, but Keileigh started to cry.

"Oh, boy," Emma laughed. "Time for bed, guys."

"I wanna stay up!" Henry cried unhappily, unbuckling his seatbelt and squirming in his seat. "Wanna watch more Sesame Street!"

"It's not on right now, buddy," the blonde chuckled, then slipped out of the driver's seat and opened the door for Henry.

He and Samantha hopped out, but when the boy made a run for the door, his sister attempted the same thing, and ended up falling when she reached the steps, scraping her knees and hands.

In an instant, Emma was by her side, lifting her up into her arms as she wailed and Henry opened the front door. As soon as thee blonde was inside, she hurried to the downstairs bathroom and sat the girl on the edge of the tub, then quickly pulled their first-aid kit out from under the sink. Regina followed, holding Keileigh by the handle of her portable car seat and carrying Shon with her free arm. Once she'd checked on her wife and her two children in the bathroom and saw that Emma was perfectly in control of the situation, she went up the stairs and quickly put her two youngest children to bed, being grateful that both the exhausted little tykes quickly fell asleep, almost as soon as their heads hit the soft bottom of their cribs.

Once she was sure that those two were fine, she ran back downstairs to join the rest of her family in the bathroom, anxious to check on the wounded girl once more.

"Em, is she-"

"She's fine, babe," Emma replied with a smile. "She's gonna cry harder when I clean it, though."

"Oh, honey, don't-"

"Do you want it to get infected?"

"Well, no, but I don't want it to hurt her or make her cry more!"

"I'm not letting these little wounds get worse, alright? She's gonna be just fine," the blonde told her as she poured a small amount of hydrogen peroxide over the cuts on Samantha's knees. Henry's eyes went wide as the young girl screamed and kicked her legs.

"Oh, come on, baby girl," the blonde begged her. "Just calm down and it'll be over soon."

After repeating the action on the little girl's palms and earning another loud, exaggerated scream from her daughter, she placed Band-Aids over each of her four cuts, which she was sure would quickly turn into small, sore, swollen bruises. When Emma turned to look at her wife, the woman was covering her mouth with her hand as tears filled her eyes, looking distressed.

"Hey, stop it," the blonde warned. "You need to stay strong for her. She's gonna be just fine. It stings, I'm sure, but she's gonna be fine. They'll heal soon, and she'll be all better in no time."

Regina nodded, but the tears began to fall from her eyes as she continued to be horrified by the cries of her distraught child, who was clearly in pain.

"Baby," Emma sighed, helping the little girl down from the side of the tub, then turning to her wife as she held her daughter on her lap. "She's okay." When the woman kept crying, and the blonde noticed that her son also seemed upset by his sister's pain, she asked their other mother, "You remember Baltimore?"

Regina nodded with red eyes.

Her wife continued, "You were fine, yeah? I took care of you?"

Again, the brunette nodded her head.

"And what did I say?" her wife pressed.

"You s-said… You said…"

"That I didn't care if you got upset at me because it hurt. That I was going to do whatever it took to take care of you, no matter what. Didn't I?"

"Y-Yeah…"

"I'm gonna do the same for our kids. It only makes it hurt more for a minute, and then it cleans the wounds and makes sure that they're not gonna get any worse. You know that, Regina. I know her crying scares you and freaks you out, but she's fine." Then, Emma looked down at the little girl in her arms, who was slowly calming down and only crying in silence at that point, and asked with a soft smile, "You're alright, aren't you, baby girl?"

When her daughter saw the calm, relaxed look on her mother's face, she nodded in agreement and smiled a little.

When she looked to her other mother, she said, "I okay, Mommy," and wiped her eyes, this only made Regina cry harder as she fell to her knees in front of her wife and child, kissing the girl's forehead and cheeks.

"Gina, baby. Stop it. Don't scare her. You getting upset isn't helping. She's fine."

It was only then that her wife and oldest son began to ease their demeanors, looking at Samantha with fondness in their eyes.

"See?" Emma asked. "We're okay. We're all okay."

Regina leaned over the little girl and pressed her lips to her wife's, earning a shout of, "GROSS!" from their son, who was disgusted by the tender gesture of love.

"Alright," the blonde announced. "Bedtime. Let's go brush your teeth, guys."

Henry whined, but marched up to the bathroom at the top of the stairs.

Regina grabbed Samantha's toothbrush and helped the girl brush her teeth, while Henry used his special Avengers one to perform this task himself. Emma did the same, until both kids were finished. As the blonde put each child in their respective rooms, Regina took her turn to get ready for bed, also brushing her teeth and putting on her silk pajamas. By the time she appeared in the girls' room, she found Emma reading Samantha a story. She watched until their daughter's eyes fell shut and she started to take slower, heavier breaths.

Emma stood up, walked over to her wife, and then the two of them moved into the boys' room. Henry was sitting up in bed, holding his own book, which had less pictures and far more words.

"Fairytale," he announced proudly. "Like yours."

"With princesses?" Regina asked with a bright smile.

"And pirates!"

"And queens?" Emma added.

"And knights!"

So his parents sat down on the side of his bed and took turns reading, each of them doing a few paragraphs at a time, until Henry finally laid back against the pillows and shut his eyes. It was a little while longer before they heard his quiet snoring.

Back in their own bedroom, Emma changed into her own pajamas – a pair of red, heart-covered boxer-briefs – and a tank top, then slipped under the covers beside the brunette. Her wife looked at her for a long moment, saying nothing, but soon, Emma noticed her eyes lighting up and shimmering in the dim light of the candle beside their bed, watering as though she might cry.

"Baby, what's wrong?" she asked the woman carefully, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"You're a perfect mom, Emma," Regina managed, her voice choking up as she spoke.

"Nah," Emma laughed lightly. "I just try hard to be one. You're the perfect mom in this family, Regina. You love them more than words could ever express."

"So do you. I see that every time you look at them."

"I'm so glad we have four," the blonde sighed, flopping back against the pillows.

"I knew you would be," the woman countered with a satisfied smirk.

"Yeah, well, whatever, smartypants. At least I-"

"Twat."

"Dick!"

"Dildo."

"Stop it right now!"

"Dillldooo."

"Regina Swan-Mills!"

"Dildo!"

"C-"

"EMMA DON'T YOU DARE!"

"You know what, Gina?" Emma led with a grin.

"No, what, you little twat?"

"You're a cockmaggot."

"I'll have you know that I am a QUEEN, and that you deserve to be-"

"What? Punished…?"

"Exactly. For every single time you've ever said that, or tried to."

"You know, you never did punish me for it all those years ago…"

"First of all, you wouldn't let me. Second of all, I'm gonna make up for it tonight, and it's gonna be all the worse for you."

"Oh, yeah?" the blonde teased. "I think you're all talk, just like you were then."

"I think you're gonna find out exactly what I'm capable of."

"Finally," Emma groaned. "I thought you'd never get around to it."

Without hesitation, Regina grabbed the collar of the woman's shirt and literally tore it open, then gripped the woman's shoulder roughly, pulled her forward to turn her body, then used both hands to roll her until she was on her stomach, and shoved her down onto the bed.

"Oooh, babe," the blonde giggled. "You been working out?"

"You know that I have no time to work out. I've just carried four kids around over the past four years."

"Well, it's certainly done a number on your arms after all this time."

"Yeah?" Regina laughed, tearing her own shirt open, sending most of the buttons flying, to reveal her bare breasts and muscles, which had, in fact, grown a great deal over the past four years. "You're just noticing now?"

"Well you haven't really put them to the test until now, have you, darling?"

"Yeah, well… Tonight's the night."

"And what exactly-" she was cut off by the force of Regina grabbing the back of her neck and shoving her cheek into the mattress "-are you gonna do to me?"

"I'm gonna fuck you, baby," Regina cooed. "Until you're fucking raw and begging for it."

"Let's see if you really can punish me. Personally, I think you're just gonna cave in and make love to me before you can really break me."

"Oh, I'm gonna break you, Emma. You're not used to me giving it to you rough, but tonight, you're gonna fucking take it and cry like a little bitch."

Emma laughed at this, trying to hide her nervousness, and also trying not to take the woman's words seriously, but as soon as the sound came out, Regina dragged her nails down the woman's back until she cried out.

"Fucking strip," Regina hissed, holding Emma down.

"I fucking can't! You're fucking-"

"Oh, that's right. You can't fucking move, can you?" the brunette cackled, nearly bursting with the excitement of finally taking control.

She threw the covers off the bed, then jerked the woman's boxers down and off, revealing Emma's pale, bare ass.

"That's exactly what I wanted to see," the woman's wife husked.

Emma cried out again when she felt the burning sensation of her ass being slapped by Regina's forceful hand, much harder than she ever could have expected from the woman had always been so gentle with her. Fuck, she was thinking. She fucking is strong. Regina didn't stop there, though. She slapped the other cheek, hard, but this time, Emma saw the shadow of her hand pulling back and bit her lip to stifle the whimper that she knew was bound to escape if she didn't.

Knowing that her children were all the way on the other end of the hall, that their walls were exceptionally (and intentionally) thick, and that it was highly doubtful that the kids would heart them, the brunette hissed, "Open. Your goddam. Mouth."

Gasping at the order, Emma opened her mouth just enough to let the sound out, as she was too shocked to disobey.

Regina slapped her ass again, even harder, and shut her eyes when she heard Emma's cry, just for a moment, relishing the noise and the immense amount of control she was exerting over her lover. When Emma gasped for breath, but quietly, Regina brought her hand back once more, but when the woman winced in anticipation for the blow, she stopped, staring down at the woman she was supposed to be 'punishing.' Instead, she decided on another way to shock her wife.