Hey guys! There's not THAT much happening in this chapter but I believe it's necessary for the story to flow or something. Also, I think this story is coming to an end, maybe a few more chapters after birth? To see Emma and Regina interacting with the girls and see them grow a bit, maybe?
This story recently turned six months old and I wanted to, again, thank everyone for your support on this random idea of mine.
Any comments/ ideas/ suggestions let me know!
"Do I have to go?" The blonde whined.
"No, you don't have to, but I want you to go."
"But babe, I don't see the point. How can they possibly teach me how to deliver a baby? Well-" She paused to rub her belly. "Babies."
The brunette shook her head. "They're not going to teach you how to deliver, dear. They're teaching you breathing techniques and how to relax and exercises to prepare you for the delivery."
"Exercises? I know some ways to exercise." The younger woman waggled her eyebrows playfully and Regina swatted her arm gently.
"I'm serious. These are people that know what they are doing; I don't imagine that having a baby, let along two, is an easy task. I just want you, us to be as prepared as we can during this whole process. Plus it'll be a great opportunity for us to meet other new parents-to-be."
Emma bit the inside of her cheek but said nothing as she studied the pamphlets of childbirth classes her wife had given her. "Baby, please?"
The blonde groaned. "You know I can't say no when you call me baby."
Regina grinned. "We'll try one. If you don't feel comfortable we don't have to go to the rest."
"There's more than one?" Green eyes widened comically as she couldn't understand why was there a whole course to teach people how to have a baby. Wasn't that like a trial an error thing?
"Mm-hm. There is one on how to change diapers and the correct ways to hold a baby."
"We have a lot of practice in that department." She smiled widely before sighing. "Speaking of, I'm having baby Nathan withdrawals. It's been like a week since we last saw him."
The older woman nodded in agreement, she was also missing the little boy. "Darling, it's been two days, but you need to rest, don't think I haven't noticed that you haven't been feeling great." She scowled at Emma. "And you've been more tired lately. I want to avoid you any unnecessary stress. Can't be easy with my mother at Zelena's all the time and attempting to make it up to us every time she sees us."
Emma grabbed her wife's hand and brought it to her lips to kiss her knuckles. "She's really trying."
The brunette sighed. "I know. I'm just not used to her being nice."
Two weeks ago.
"Well? Say what you have to say." Regina said losing her patience when her mother stood quiet and Emma squeezed her hand in attempt to calm her down.
"I- well. First of all, I want to apologize to the both of you." Then she looked straight into Emma's eyes but the blonde said nothing so the older woman continued. "I know we haven't officially met." Regina scoffed and Cora side-glanced at her before looking back at Emma. "Yes, I know it has been almost eight years that you have been with my daughter and being honest the only reason for not meeting sooner is that I just didn't want to."
"Wow. This is going great." The younger brunette said sarcastically under her breath.
"You have to understand, I have always wanted only the best for my daughters. At the time and even for years after the two of you were together I didn't see what you could possibly give her." She paused and studied the other woman who was listening intently but hadn't moved an inch. "I mean, you were an arts student, your father is a police officer and your mother a teacher, it's not like you could provide for Regina."
"Are you going anywhere with this speech of yours or are you just going to insult my wife? Because if that's the case there are way better things that we could be-" She was cut off when Emma squeezed her hand again and gave her a small reassuring smile.
"It's okay, let her finish."
"Yes, I- What I mean is that, I didn't see it before. The love that you two share, I just thought that Regina was acting out after her sister left, that she was doing it to spite me, the same way I thought it was a rebellious phase of hers when she came out to me and told me she liked girls, women, after her father died." Cora sucked in a breath before continuing. "I didn't see what was best for her. I was blinded by my own expectations not realizing that Regina had met hers. You see, when I was younger and even until a few months ago, all I wanted was power. Power over life, over people, over decisions, over pretty much everything." She swallowed hard. "I loved my husband dearly, but the reason I married him in the first place was because of his name and the power that it held. I fell in love with him way after that and for it I am very ashamed."
She then looked at Regina with glossy eyes, silently asking for forgiveness but she was met with silence once again. "After he died I continued building our little empire, with a mindset of not letting anyone or anything come in between what I had worked so hard to accomplish. I put all the pressure on my daughters until Zelena decided to leave when she got tired of me and I couldn't let Regina do the same. So I pushed her harder and in a way I tried, sometimes accomplished, to ruin everything else in her life that didn't have to do with my ways and my very own selfish reasons. Until you came along and pretty much turned both our worlds upside down. Mine in a terrible way or so I thought. Regina stood up to me, she became harder to control and that made me lose my mind. But hers-" She smiled in a way that looked painful. "You make her the happiest I have ever seen her and for that I am grateful."
"In the time that I have been away I was reflecting on my actions and I can't begin to apologize for what I have done, all of it. I am extremely sorry that I tried to keep her away from you, I just wanted her to have the best in life, not realizing that you are it for her."
"I know that I don't deserve your forgiveness, but could you please give me the opportunity to make it up to you? Both of you? I had my priorities sorted all wrong and it took me a long time but I finally understand that family is what's really important. Not power, not anything else, but the people you surround yourself with. I don't want to spend the rest of my life being hated by the people I care the most about because of my wrong choices."
Regina had angry tears running down her cheeks but Emma was studying the woman standing before her. After a while of excruciating silence, she spoke up.
"Well then. I am glad we are finally meeting, Mrs. Mills." She rubbed circles on her wife's knuckles as the woman wiped her tears away with her other hand. "Being about to become a mother myself I can understand wanting what's best for your child. But that's not what you did, I'm not going to lie and say that you didn't make my life hard as hell as a consequence of treating Regina the way you did, but it is not me you need to apologize to." She looked at her wife. "I may be collateral damage, or whatever, and I have in a way made my peace with it."
"Right now you are nowhere near my good graces, but if my wife agrees, I'd like to get to know you. In the meanwhile, it is your daughter you need to start making it up to, if that's what she wants." She let go of Regina's hand a placed it protectively on her stomach before taking a step closer to the other woman. "But let me be clear about something. If after this moment you do something else to mess with my family, or me, I don't care how much power you think you have, Cora Mills I will end you." She said calmly but not missing a beat. "Now, if you'll both excuse me, I need to use the restroom."
Both brunettes were left alone in the middle of the waiting room, Regina looking at her wife walk away and Cora looking at her daughter. "I admire her, you know?" The younger woman spoke. "I'm not saying I didn't screw up, because I did. But after you tried to make her think that I cheated on her? I have no clue how she even let you speak to her just now."
She pinched the bridge of her nose. "I can't do this right now. I can't even look at you. I'll be civil for the sake of my sister and nephew, but there's a lot I have to think about." She sighed and looked at her mother before walking away towards the nurse station. "We'll talk, I just can't right now."
She stopped in her tracks for a moment when Cora called out to her. "I know that after everything I put you through you probably don't believe me, but I do love you." She just nodded and left.
When Emma came back from the restroom she met Regina at the nurse's station and they went to the cafeteria to grab something to eat.
Another couple of hours later they were announced of the arrival of Nathan Elliot Mills to the world. Ten toes, ten fingers, a head full or bright red hair and blue eyes that had everyone at the hospital falling head over heels over him.
The next two weeks after baby and mom were released were spent at the Elliot's household helping out with whatever was needed or just spending time with the new addition to the family.
Cora surprised everyone with how motherly and attentive she was being and even with her brunette daughter telling her not to push, she couldn't help herself with being overly nice.
She tried to engage Regina in conversations, but after a while the younger woman would get frustrated, she and her mother had never had a non-work related conversation and as much as she tried to just go with it, she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable with her mother's attention.
The blonde hummed and after a moment she spoke. "By the way, I've been feeling just fine. Maybe a little dizzy at times."
"That doesn't sound fine to me. And even if it's nothing you still need to rest and relax, I think they even offer a yoga class." The brunette saw her wife cutely scrunching up her face. "It'll be fun."
"Okay, okay. Let's do it."
XXX.
Turns out that Emma loved the classes and not just because they were indeed relaxing and she connected even more with Regina since the couples exercises were very personal, but because she also made some friends with other mothers to be.
She was by no means an introvert, she was easy going and friendly, but her whole life, consciously or not, was dedicated to the arts. Whether it was painting, or reading or listening to music and learning about its history, leaving her little time to actually go out and make friends.
One of the reasons she and Regina connected so well in the first place was their shared passion for a good movie or a book. The brunette couldn't paint to save her life, but she was surprisingly a great writer.
Since she had entered the pregnancy's third trimester, the doctor's appointments were every two weeks to check that everything was progressing smoothly and according to plan.
So far, at 34 weeks, it was.
Baby A, Reagan, was lower meaning that she was most likely going to be delivered first, and baby B, Riley, had taken the task to kick everything that was in her way even when there wasn't much room to move.
Doctor Palmer told them that even though everything was fine, he'd rather for Emma to stay in bed rest since the twins were due any second now but he wanted to try and keep them in as long as possible, but Emma being Emma, couldn't just stay in bed and that's how a few days later they found themselves lounging on a porch swing that they had bought for their backyard.
It was already dark but it wasn't extremely cold so the blonde was wearing sweat pants and a cream-colored woolen sweater and Regina was wearing her silk pajama shorts with one of Emma's hoodies and a blanket covering their legs.
The only light was the one that was coming from inside the house and the one the full moon provided, so they were just enjoying the darkness in silence and watching the stars, Emma resting her head on Regina's shoulder but after a while she lifted her head and looked at her wife's profile before speaking. "Are you happy? With me, I mean. And this-" She gestured with her hands to the house and herself. "Our home and family?"
The brunette turned her head to look at her. "Of course I am. Why?"
Emma stayed quiet for a while and then looked down. "Just asking."
"Ems." She pushed knowing that her love had something in her mind.
"It's just-" She sighed. "I know that your mom explained why she pushed you so hard but I often wondered if the reason for you to spend so much time working was to, I don't know, get away from me." She was still looking down and started fidgeting with the hem of the blanket. "I know I sometimes am too immersed in my own little world and I talk too much about things that you probably don't understand and don't care about like the design in the freaking Victorian era." She let out a sad chuckle. "Like the times where you wouldn't come home and didn't answer your phone I wondered if maybe you were getting tired of me and would rather sleep on a hard couch than having to share a bed with your wife." She paused when her voice started to break. " I know that I am by no means perfect, but I always tried my best to be enough and when you couldn't even ask for a divorce yourself but sent someone else to do it, I knew that I wasn't." She cleaned her cheeks that were tear-stained and rolled her eyes. "I now know that other people don't determine my worth. But I still need to ask, are you happy with me? Or are you just happy because of them?" She rubbed her belly as she said the last part, she knew that most of her rant was hormone induced, but she still had to let it out.
Regina didn't speak the whole time because, one, she knew that if she said something the blonde wouldn't continue and, two, she was speechless. She knew that she had hurt her wife, but she didn't exactly know to what extent. She never imagined that her actions had affected Emma in such a way that she even doubted the way she was as a person.
"Emma-" She said hoping that the blonde would look at her. "My love." That worked. "I can't begin to say how sorry I am. I-" She cupped her cheek. "I never thought-" She let out a breath. "I was an idiot. An idiot that didn't appreciate the amazing woman I had in front of me. Yes, I love our daughters more than anyone could ever understand." She smiled softly. "But you make me happy. You, I amin love with. And it is you with whom I want to spend the rest of my life with. Please never doubt that." Her heart was breaking seeing that green eyes were shinning with tears because of her and her stupidity. "You have made me happy since the day you made me spill my coffee and every day after that. Before you I didn't know what living was. There's no excuse for all the pain I put you through and all the doubt I inflicted but I need you to know that you have always been more than enough. You are perfect in my eyes." She wiped the tears that were running down pale skin. "Specially when you are talking about things you love, like the design in the Victorian era." She smiled when her comment made her wife snort. "Anything else you want to ask?"
The blonde sniffed and shook her head, smiling softly. "No, let's go to bed. I think those were enough emotions for a day. Plus these two are restless tonight." She rubbed her stomach to try and soothe the girls that were moving like crazy. "Help me up?"
Regina kissed her lovingly before standing up and taking her wife's hands in her own to help her stand. "You okay?" She asked when the blonde swayed a bit after finding her footing.
"Yeah, just got dizzy for a sec."
They walked hand in hand towards the sliding door but before the brunette could open it she felt Emma halt her movements and squeeze her hand hard.
"Shit."
She turned around, concern covering her face. "What's wrong?"
Emma was holding her stomach with her free hand. "My water just broke."
Happy new year! :)
