+ + + + + Realization
But now, especially now, she needed to be careful. It had been four years and now, as Queen, she knew she was to finally have her long awaited daughter. Of course her goblin-lover had known about the baby. He had known before she even suspected. He seemed happy enough about it. Finally getting his payoff. And the king was excited, expecting a son, of course.
But she knew what must happen. She could not renege on her bargain with Rumpelstiltskin. She would prepare the way, letting everyone know the pregnancy was not going well, that as a mother-to-be, she suspected something was wrong, seriously wrong. Her plan was to isolate herself at the time of birth and explain that the baby had been stillborn.
I am considering ramping up the rating to M, not so much because of the underage sexual activity (which is sordid enough – although consistent with the moral vicissitude of both characters involved), but because of what the story is building to. I've done a bit of foreshadowing above to try to prepare the reader for what is to come.
Not getting too many reviews on this particular tale. I do seem to be off the mainstream with my interest in the Gold/Regina relationship, but I do feel they must be intertwined on some level. There seems to be a lot of anger in their relationship (and I don't feel that anger typically exists by itself without other emotions feeding it). Despite their stated feelings for each other, they do seem to keep getting drawn back to each other, as if there is some history.
Any comments, especially re: the rating issue, would be appreciated. I work with children with serious problems all day long, so my sense of over-the-top tends to be more relativistic than most ("if you think something sounds bad, let me tell you about this other situation"). Thx txm