Regina flung the book she had been reading across the room in frustration, this was no use, she was never going to be able to do it, it just wasn't possible, how the hell was she supposed to learn light magic? It wasn't something you could just do, it was something that was going to take months and she didn't have months, she had weeks, days even before Snow's baby arrived. She shook her head, this was pointless, she was wasting her time, she ran her hands over her face and let out a defeated sigh.

"Mommy?" She felt a little hand on her arm and looked up, seeing Roland tilting his head as he looked at her.

Taking a deep breath, she forced a smile onto her face and pulled him up to sit on her lap, "hi baby." It had actually been the first time he had called her that out of their chambers and it warmed her heart.

"What's wrong?" he asked, pulling an adorable, sad pouty face as his hand came to cup her cheek.

"Nothing," she whispered, holding him close.

"There must be, daddy says when you're sad that you come in here," his thumb caressed her skin gently, his eyes were wide as they looked into hers.

She rose her hand to move some of his hair behind his ear, "I am just trying to find a way for us all the beat the nasty witch."

"She isn't going to win," Roland shook his head, "villains never win."

"No, no they don't." She hugged him close, staring at the wall over his shoulder; he sounded so much like Henry then, the pure optimism that a child could bring was inspiring. "Where is your daddy?" She asked, eventually pulling back to look at him.

"He's patrolling the grounds," Roland nodded, "he told me to come and find you."

"Okay," she smiled, then something occurred to her, there was a new protection spell around the castle, why would he need to be on patrol? "Roland, did he say why?"

His eyes went wide as he snuggled closer to her, "he said there were flying monkeys."

"What?!" Her heart rate sped up and she was hit by a sudden fear, one that made her chest constrict. "Okay, let's go find Princess Snow, shall we?"

"No!" He protested, "you can't leave me too!" he flung his tiny arms around her neck, holding her tightly.

"Ro, I am not leaving you," she sighed, standing up with him in her arms. That wasn't entirely the truth, she was going to leave him with Snow for a short while, whilst she went to help Robin, but she wasn't leaving leaving him, she was coming back, she would be back sooner than he could have time to miss her. "We are just going to go and make sure that the Princess is alright."

"Okay," he sniffled.

"Right." Holding him tight, she used her magic to transport them to Snow's chambers. The heavily pregnant woman was pacing from wall to wall and Regina looked at her in alarm. "Snow?" She didn't acknowledge her, didn't even look up from the floor. "Earth to Snow," she was going to have to step up her tactics if she wanted to rouse her from her daydream, "Snow!" She shouted, glaring at the woman.

She snapped out of her trance and turned to look at Regina, "have you found something? Oh, please tell me you have Regina, please."

She sighed and shook her head, "I'm sorry, I have read every textbook there is to read on light magic and have found nothing, there's nothing that I can…"

"Well what's the use in that then?!"

"Snow…"

"No Regina! You claim to be this powerful sorceress who is going to help us, but all you do is sit and mope!"

"Sit and mope," Regina snapped, placing Roland down carefully on the bed, "I have been working my ass of trying to help you! I have not stopped and you accuse me of doing nothing! I think you need to take a good, hard look in the mirror and ask yourself, what have you been doing? It isn't my child that we are trying to protect here, it's yours."

"Do you think she won't hurt your child? Because she will Regina, she doesn't care who she hurts!"

"Mama," Roland looked up at her wide eyed, "will the witch hurt me?!"

Regina shook her head and scooped her little boy up into her arms, "no sweetheart, she won't hurt you." She glared at Snow over her son's shoulder, a guilty look was plastered on her face. "Now look what you've done."

"I'm sorry, I am just not dealing with this very well."

"That's quite clear," Regina spat; Roland was wrapped around her like a monkey clinging to a tree in a gale. "You scared my son."

"I'm sorry, I appreciate that you are trying your best to help."

"I know, this is going to affect all of us," Regina sighed, sitting down and holding Roland tight as he tucked his face into her neck. "I am not going to stop looking, we'll find something, we always do, well, you always do."

"We are lucky to have you Regina, I'm sorry, the closer I get to having this baby, the more worried I become."

Suddenly an idea hit Regina and her eyes went wide, "I know how to buy us more time."

"What?"

"You're not going to like it."

"Try me."

"You are not putting my pregnant wife under a sleeping curse," Charming shook his head, "no way, not going to happen."

"David," Snow sighed, rubbing her belly, "it's the only way, until we find some sort of way to defeat her, we need to stop this baby from coming, a sleeping curse is the only way to do that. Once you defeat Zelena, you can wake me up."

"This is crazy Snow, it really is."

"Oh, would you listen to yourself," Regina scoffed as she noticed Robin out of the window, in the courtyard below, brandishing his bow and arrow. "Do you not get it, Zelena is going to come and she is going to take your baby. The only way to stop that from happening, is to stop the progression of the pregnancy, hence the sleeping curse. If you can come up with another solution, I'm all ears."

"How about we offer you up as tribute."

"David!" Snow snapped, "she is trying to help and I think she's right, for now this is the only idea that we have come up with, it makes sense."

"Is it safe? I mean, should she be taking the risk of a sleeping curse with the baby so close?"

"Every spell comes with its risks, but it's safer than leaving her to have the baby, especially when Zelena is waiting to rip it from your arms the minute it's born."

"Do it," Snow nodded, "cast the curse, do whatever you have to in order to protect my baby."

"Okay."

"Snow, we have to agree…"

"David, I am not risking the life of our child, I am not taking the risk of Zelena getting a hold of him." Snow cast him a no nonsense look, that made Regina slightly proud of her for standing up to him. Mr Un-charming was too bossy and if he were Regina's man, she wouldn't let him push her around like he tended to do with Snow.

"She'll probably try to kill you," he spat, branding a finger at Regina as he moved closer to her. "How do we know this isn't one of your plots? How do we know that you don't want to hurt Snow?"

"No, she wouldn't!" Roland yelled, coming out from where he had been hiding behind her leg, "Gina wouldn't hurt anyone!"

David laughed and shook his head, "you don't know her very well kid, if you did you wouldn't be so quick to defend her."

Regina gritted her teeth, how dare David talk about her like that and to Roland, he was a child, so obviously, he saw the best in everyone, he was right, she wasn't going to hurt Snow, what would she gain from that?

"I know Gina and she is the kindest, most loving mama I could have!" Roland tried to go for David, but she quickly stepped in.

"Okay, that's enough," she scooped him up in her arms, holding him on her hip. "You can't yell at people like that and you certainly can't hit people."

"I'm sorry mama, but he was…"

"I know, let's not get into any more trouble though." She kissed his head and turned back to David. "As for you, do you really think I would try to hurt Snow whilst she's pregnant, or at all for that matter, I thought we had resolved our differences, but clearly, you still hold a grudge against me."

"I don't" Snow shook her head, "and I'm the one asking you to cast the spell, so do it."

"Are you sure?"

"Regina," she took her free hand, "please."

"Okay, I'll go and make the potion.

"Thank you."

Regina nodded, looking at the boy in her arms, she took a deep breath and prepared for the temper tantrum to come, "Snow, would you take Roland for me whilst I sort out this?"

"No! No, I don't want to stay here! I want to come with you!"

She looked down at him and shook her head, "Roland…"

"Nooooo!"

"Excuse me mister, you stop that right now. You know the rules regarding my vault, you are not allowed down there."

"The secret tunnels?"

"Hmm, so, whilst I work on this, would you please by a good boy for me and stay with Princess Snow?" He nodded reluctantly, still holding onto her, his head buried in the crook of her neck, "that's my boy," she ran her fingers through his hair gently. "I love you." She whispered, kissing his cheek sweetly. "I'll be back sooner than you know, I promise." She bopped his nose gently with her finger. She knew that talk of Zelena was scaring him and he felt safer when he was with her, but she needed to go to her vault alone; she also wanted to go and see what the situation was outside with Robin.

"I love you," he cried tightening his grip on her.

Carefully she untangled his arms from her and sat him down on the bed again, he then held onto Snow and tears began flooding his cheeks as he whimpered. Regina sighed, "Roland, I am only going to my vault, anyone would think you were never going to see me again the way you are carrying on." She tucked his hair behind his ear, "and here I was thinking you were a big strong knight."

"I am!" He protested, jumping up on the bed, "I'm your knight."

"You are," she nodded, "so, you're going to be brave whilst I'm gone, right?"

"Yes."

"And guess what, I have an important job for you to do."

"What?" He asked, his eyes going wide as he looked at her.

She bit her bottom lip and beckoned him closer, wiggling her finger, then she whispered in his ear, "I need you to protect Princess Snow for me, it's an important job and I trust you to do it well."

"I can do that!" He giggled, "you'll see mama, you will."

"Good, mwah," she kissed his forehead, "be good."

"I will," he shot up and kissed her cheek, warming her heart.

"I'll be back soon."

"Bye."

She used her magic to transport her to her vault and got to making the sleeping potion, following the ingredient list she had been given by Mal a while ago. She couldn't help but worry about Robin though, it was something that was nagging at her, preventing her from concentrating, she had already nearly put the wrong components in twice. Shaking her head, she tried to focus all her attention onto the potion that was bubbling away in front of her. Something deep down didn't feel right and as she tipped another ingredient into the vat, she felt an intense pain radiating up her left arm, that had her cry out.

Her eyes went wide as she pulled up her sleeve, seeing nothing, it felt like her skin was splitting, she let out a deep breath and clutched her arm. She felt tears welling in her eyes, she was in agony, but what the hell was it? Then she had a sudden realisation, Robin, what if she was feeling his pain? She stopped with the potion and magicked herself out into the courtyard. Her breath caught as she saw the merry men all running, trying to defeat flying monkeys that had somehow gotten past her protection spell. She saw Will and grabbed his arm, "Will! Where's Robin?!"

"God knows, haven't seen him."

"What?" She could hear the panic in her own voice, "Will, you need to help me! We need to find him."

"I think we got bigger problems that finding Robin."

She bit at her nails and rushed past all the Merry Men raising her hands, suddenly a wall of fire appeared around the boundary of the castle, incinerating any flying monkeys stupid enough to fly into it. "Men! Robin is hurt, so we need to find him! That wall should stop the monkeys." She hurried through the gardens, shouting for him, "Robin!" She was scared, really scared, the fear was consuming her and she was close to tears, she could feel them threatening to spill from her eyes. Where the hell was he?

She took a deep breath and carried on running, "Robin!" She cried, looking around frantically, then she spotted a figure on the ground by her apple tree. "Robin!" She ran as quick as she could, realising that it was Robin; she dropped to the floor beside him. "Robin!"

"Regina?" He groaned, looking up at her, plain clearly present in those blues she loved.

She pulled his head onto her lap, "Robin, where are you hurt?" She asked, her eyes scanning across his body in panic; she found his left arm, it had a deep laceration with his bone snapped in two, her eyes went wide as she felt her heart constrict, "oh my god." She hovered her hand over it and the bone cracked back together, the flesh beginning to move, binding back in place, causing him to let out a pained yell. "It's okay," she whispered, kissing his face, "I've got you." A tear trickled down her cheek and spilled onto him. "Oh god, Robin don't do that to me again." She held him tight.

"Sorry," he whispered, his right arm coming up to hold her.

"Are you okay?" She asked bowing her head to look over him, her hands clinging to him.

"Hmm, I am now," he grinned, pulling her lips down to his.

"I was making a potion and all of a sudden I just felt this terrible pain, I was so scared," she sniffled, "I thought I was going to lose you, I couldn't bare it..."

"You felt my pain?"

"Yes," she breathed, "in my arm and I realised that it was you. Was it a monkey?"

"It went for me and I fell back on my arm. It was the worst pain I ever felt."

"I'm not surprise," she let out a weak laugh. "It was quite the injury you sustained," she whispered, kissing the area of skin where the injury had been.

"You said something about a potion, why were you making a…"

"Sleeping potion; Robin, I am failing and until we find a way to defeat my sister, we have to prevent the baby for being born, a sleeping curse is the only way."

"I bet David didn't like that."

"That's putting it mildly, he accused me of wanting to kill Snow, saying that this potion was a way for me to take her out."

"You're kidding me," he shook his head, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Unfortunately not, however it appears that I had a little supporter with me. Roland was very vocal about his support for me."

"Oh, he got to you okay then, where is he?"

"I left him with Snow when I went to make the potion. Come on, we need to get the potion to her, the quicker the better, can you stand up?"

"I sprained my ankle slightly."

"Okay," she kissed him briefly, before moving to heal his ankle, "there, all better."

Regina and Robin were walking down the corridor, potion in hand when they heard yelling coming from down the hall. Regina furrowed her eyebrows and turned to look at Robin, "what the hell was that?"

"Make it stop! David!"

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Do something!"

Regina's eyes went wide as realisation sank in, they were too late, it sounded like Snow was already in labour. Regina growled and pushed the door open to see Snow with her hands pressed against the bed and her back arched.

"You took your time!" She snapped as she turned her head to look at them, "quick the potion."

"You're kidding right, I can't give you the potion now, you're too far gone."

"Well, how is that helpful!"

"Excuse me, I'm not the one who can't keep her baby inside her long enough; you're not due for another week yet."

"Oh, I'm sorry, does the birth of my baby inconvenience you?"

"Yes! Actually, it does, a couple more hours, that's all I needed, just that much time and maybe we could have done something about this, but no, you just had to go into labour early didn't you."

"Are blaming me for this? Arghhhh…" she cried, her grip on the bedspread increasing.

"No, I'm blaming your baby and it's shocking timing!" Regina moved closer to look at her friend, her face was red and she looked out of it. "What can I do?"

"You got to look, Granny is on her way back from the village, but I don't have anyone to… arghhh." She whimpered.

"Urm, no, no, I, no."

"Regina!"

"Fuck."

"Mommy you said a bad word."

She turned her head to see Roland sat in the corner of the room, her eyes went wide and she turned to Robin, "I am sorry Roland, I didn't mean to; why don't you and daddy go and see what you can do to help David huh?"

"Okay," he stood up and both him and Robin excited the room with a reluctant David.

"What do I do?" Regina asked.

"I need you to… oh god… see how dilated I am."

"Really?" she winced. "You want me, to look, down there?"

"Just look! Regina…"

"Okay…" she made a noise of protest before moving the hem of Snow's dress up further, "oh god."

"What?!"

"Nothing," she hadn't even got it up enough to see anything yet and was already totally freaking out; she'd never done anything like this before, how was she supposed to know what it should look like. Shaking her head, she nodded, she could do this, it was her friend and if it could help her, then she would do it. "Right," she lifted the nightdress the rest of the way up and pulled a horrified face, she thought she might actually pass out. "What's it supposed to look like?"

"I don't know," she cried.

"Well, I think maybe you should lie down."

"Oh god, Regina, what are we going to do?"

She didn't have a clue what they were going to do, she knew she was talking about Zelena and honestly, she had no answers, none whatsoever. "I think you need to concentrate on bringing your baby into the world, we can worry about everything else later."

"What if she turns up here?"

"Do you really think I'm going to let her take your baby from you?"

"Regina, even you said she's more powerful than you."

"I did, but this whole thing is about me, she said so, she wants me to suffer, wants my life; if it comes to it, that's what she will get."

"No." Snow shook her head.

Regina had thought about it and she wasn't going to let anyone suffer because of her, because her sister wanted to ruin her, that wasn't fair, it just wasn't. She would gladly give up her own life if it meant that nobody else that she loved was hurt, but she wasn't going down without a fight. "Yes, but let's concentrate on getting you through this okay." She helped her lie down on the bed, "Snow, I am so sorry."

"It's not your fault," Snow found her hand and squeezed it gently.

"I feel like it is," Regina sighed, "it always is right?"

"No… arghhh!"

"Fuckkkkk Snoww, my hand." Regina pressed her lips together tightly as Snow squeezed her hand with more strength than she knew she possessed, it felt like she was trying to crack her bones, turn them to dust; she was just thankful that Snow didn't have magic, god knows what might happen. "Okay, breath, breath," she was talking to herself as well, trying to distract herself from the numb feeling that was starting to occur in her hand.

Never had she been happier about that dumb fertility spell, the pain Snow was going through was unimaginable. Not that she didn't want a child of her own, she did, she really did, it would be amazing, bringing life into the world, after all, as Robin said, she was a Queen with a soft spot for children. Seeing this though, was enough to put anyone off.

Snow's grip loosened and she release a deep breath, dropping her head back into the pillow, "aw."

"Hurt?"

"Just a little," Snow laughed humourlessly.

"I admire you."

"What?" The pregnant woman stared up at her in shock.

"I admire you, having the strength and courage to bring life into the world."

"Regina, I'm sure that you could do this and probably deal with it better than I am."

She shook her head and swiped the stray tear from her eye, "that's not a possibility for me." She shook her head, offering her a reluctant smile.

"Oh, you mean you're…"

"Infertile, yes."

"Does Robin know?"

"No and I'm not going to be telling him anytime soon."

"Don't you think…"

"No, it's best he doesn't know."

"It won't make him love you any less you know."

"I just feel…" she shook her head, "I don't know what I feel." She did know, she knew exactly how she felt, she felt incomplete, like she was damaged goods. "Anyway, this isn't about me, it's about you."

"Hmm, I was glad for the distraction," Snow chuckled, before another contraction hit and she let out another scream.

"Breath in, and out," Regina instructed, "you're doing really well." She rubbed her leg in an attempt to comfort her. "I think you probably should have timed your pregnancy better."

"What?" Snow asked, dropping her head back as she turned to look at her.

"I mean, the Enchanted Forest has no pain relief, no nothing."

"Not helping."

"Sorry; I mean just think about the epidural you could have…"

"Wanna shut up?"

"Sorry." Regina smirked, nudging her.

Two hours later and Regina had deep purple bruises all over her arm from where Snow had squeezed too tight, she was now in between her legs, her hands keeping her knees as she tried to help with the delivery of the baby. "Snow I can see the head," she looked up at her as she wiped her hair out of her eyes and behind her ears.

"Oh thank god, is it nearly over?!"

"I bloody hope so," she murmured under her breath, it had been the longest two hours of her life; a mixture of painful assaults on her arm, Snow screaming blue murder, cursing David for doing this to her, something Regina found highly amusing. She swore she hadn't seen this much blood in one day ever, first Robin's arm and now this, it made her feel slightly faint.

"Oh god, Regina, aw, aw."

"Okay, breath Snow, breath. Count with me…"

"Fuck the counting."

Regina wanted to laugh, but she felt sorry for her, it must be horrendous to have to go through all this, "okay then, fuck the counting."

"I feel like I'm splitting apart."

"Now I didn't want to know that." She shook her head pulling a disgusted face, "can you push? Snow, push!"

"Arghhhhhh!" Her scream tailored off into sobbing.

"That was good, really good," she nodded, running her thumbs over Snow's knees, hoping that it would help somewhat, although she knew there was no way it would.

"It's hurts."

"If it didn't, you wouldn't be doing it right," Regina shrugged a smug smirk coming upon her face.

"Regina, now is not the time for your sarcasmmmarghhhhhh."

"Push Snow, you can do it, your baby is nearly here." More screaming followed and Regina felt slightly queasy when she finally managed to help Snow deliver the baby. "You did it Snow, you did," she smiled, looking at the baby which was all pink and screaming. She chuckled as she ran her fingers over the baby's little cheek, "he's' beautiful." She bit her bottom lip, looking up at the exhausted woman lying in the bed before her.

"He?" Snow smiled, her eyes closed.

"You have a beautiful little boy," Regina looked down at the baby again and cut the cord, before used the linen beside her to clean him up a little, wrapping him in it and moving up to Snow, placing her baby boy in her arms. "Look at him."

"Oh," Snow cried, "he is beautiful isn't he."

"Very," she nodded, running her fingers through the woman's hair, "I can't believe you just did that, it was…"

"Gross?"

"Oh definitely gross," she chuckled, "but also amazing, you're holding this little life that you've been carrying for nearly nine months in your arms." She placed her arm around her friend, "I promise you that I will do everything in my power to stop…"

"Well, this was unexpected," there was a wicked cackle from across the room and Snow and Regina turned to see the redhead stood in front of the bed. "Is it a little boy or girl? You know what, never mind, I don't care…"

"Get out," Regina stood up from the bed, "or I'll make you get out."

"Ooh, is that a threat?"

"Oh no, it's a promise, you aren't getting near this baby." Regina, suddenly waved her hand and the baby disappeared from Snow's arms.

"What did you do?"

Regina rose her eyebrows, "you didn't really think that I wouldn't have prepared for this moment did you, that I wouldn't be ready for you when you did come? You didn't think that I would just stand back and let you take my friend's baby away from her?" Regina laughed and bit her bottom lip, bringing her finger up to touch it playfully. "Oops."

"What did you do?!" Zelena, yelled lunging at her, grabbing her by the collar of her dress.

"I guess I am just one step ahead of you." She let out a smug chuckled, smiling at her before looking down at where her sister's hands were holding her, "careful, don't crease the fabric, they are extremely hard to iron out."

"I will find that baby and I will end you, you'll get everything you deserve."

"I think I already did," she grinned, "as for the baby, you'll have to kill me first and we both know that although you have the power to hurt me, I don't think you'd have it in you to kill me, after all, you're wicked, not evil." Her sister's usual powder blue eyes had darkened as she glared at her.

"I will be back," there was a cloud of green as Zelena disappeared.

Regina let out a deep breath and turned to Snow who had panic written across her face, "Regina, where's my baby?" She asked in alarm.

Regina had been bluffing the whole time, they in no way had been one step ahead of Zelena, she had simply improvised, knowing she had to get the baby out of the room, get it somewhere safe, before Zelena took matters into her own hands. She didn't know if Zelena did have the power to kill her, she might have, but from the look on her face, she had clearly found a sore point, did Zelena know that she couldn't kill her?

"Snow," the door opened and David appeared, holding their child in his arms. He rushed to her side and hugged her, minding the baby that was between them.

"That was too close." Regina shook her head, seeing Robin and Roland enter the room also. "She will come back and when she does, we have to be ready for her."

"We will be, we found something." Robin grinned.

She turned to him and rose her eyebrows, "I'm listening."

Hi! So a slight bit of drama, I tried to get the humour in there too and hope I succeeded with that.

I did a poll on my twitter and know that some of you will have voted, but if you want to let me know on here too that's cool. Should we continue with Enchanted Forest (there will be a twist) or, take everyone back to Storybrooke? I look forward to hearing your opinions, because they are what matter most.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Much love. :)