Author's Note: Miner's Day. Part 2.
Content note: This is the CLIMAX, folks, and that means things get dicey for Regina, Emma, and their baby.
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Chapter 21
Emma exhaled as she settled to the blanket on the grass by the waterfront next to Regina. They'd staked out a pretty good spot for watching the fireworks display that was the official concluding event. Henry leaned against Regina's other side, murmuring to her about his many activities throughout the day. The brunette had closed her eyes and was now simply listening to Henry's voice while rubbing her stomach. Her thoughts, to Emma's relief, were calm and content. Regina didn't seem to be upset that Henry had spent so much of the afternoon with his father.
Soft fingers grasped Emma's hand and drew her from her thoughts. Emma looked at Regina's hand on hers and smiled when their palms moved over Regina's belly. There, she heard, do you feel her?
With only a small bit of surprise at the clarity in her mind's magic eye, Emma saw tiny arms and hands, and legs and feet moving. A smile appeared on tiny lips under closed eyes. Hi, baby girl, Emma thought and shifted her fingers to meet the tiny hand pushing outward. She lifted her gaze to Regina's. "She's restless."
"Reluctant to go to sleep," Regina suggested.
"Though mommy is quite tired," Emma noted. She directed a quieting thought toward the baby. "Maybe if we could name her, it'll help with the soothing."
Regina oofed as the baby kicked. Emma's hand warmly caressed her belly. "What do you think of Laurel? It's a symbol of wisdom and peace?"
"Mmm," she said non-committally. "What about Rose?" She is a symbol of our love." She chuckled at Regina's blush.
The baby's response to her mother's voices was to become briefly more restless. Emma asked aloud, "Do you think she likes either name?"
"We'll have to keep trying." Regina sighed.
Henry said, 'How about Henrietta?"
Emma snorted. "No." She reached across Regina to ruffle his hair; he ducked away.
"Just a thought," he replied, offering a cheeky grin.
A musical score abruptly sounded through the pole-mounted speakers along the waterfront. The fireworks show was about to begin.
Emma turned her gaze skyward, still gently caressing Regina's belly. "Maybe she'd like Star."
The air filled with the shrieks of fireworks being launched and then the explosions of the powder and a thin haze of smoke over the harbor became the backdrop for bursts of red, blue, green, white, and even gold.
"Princess Star." Regina hummed, soothing her hands over her protruding belly. "She is going to be the daughter of a princess and a queen," Regina added.
"I kind of forget about that," Emma admitted.
"Why were you thinking of a star then?" Regina asked.
"Because she sparkles. It's her magic, I guess, like a twinkling star when I see her in my mind."
Regina nodded. They'd been unable so far to find a way to share Emma's ability to 'see' their daughter. But Emma would describe her frequently. They looked down as Emma's hand joined hers on her stomach. "What do you think, darling? Are you a Star?"
Under Emma's and Regina's fingers, the baby shifted and the energy was definitely positive. "Looks like we have a winner," Emma said with a small laugh.
"Our own little wishing Star," Regina murmured.
"Yeah," Emma agreed, resting her temple against Regina's as the last of the fireworks faded and the music ended. "Star Mills."
"Star Swan-Mills," Regina corrected softly.
Emma lifted her head. "Yeah?"
"Both of our names will be on the birth certificate, dear."
Emma felt a full rush of love when she processed Regina's words. "Thank you." She leaned closer to Regina.
Regina's hand clenched hers. "Not now."
Emma's heart constricted sharply, painfully. "No?"
"I only meant don't kiss me right now."
"Why not?"
"You're mother just stepped up to the platform to address the crowd. I think our kissing right in front of her might result in a heart attack." Brown eyes crinkled in the corners and Emma's heart expanded in her chest.
"Oh." Emma processed the whole of the conversation, spoken and not. "Oh," she said again, eloquent as always. Her cheeks heated with embarrassment.
Deep and sensuous, Regina's laughter pulled pleasantly at Emma's stomach. She smiled even after seeing her mother frown at them.
Henry smiled at Emma past Regina's shoulder. "Little sister's finally got a name," he said. "And my moms are officially gonna get together. Good day."
Emma laughed. Regina grasped Henry's hand, joining it with hers and Emma's on her legs.
The news of Regina and Emma becoming officially a couple spread like wildfire through those nearby. Snow found herself pushed along on a tide of good will toward her daughter and her nemesis. The Blue Fairy's candle weighed heavily on her mind, not just her sweater pocket.
"Mom," Emma said.
"Emma." Though it pained her, Snow smiled. Seeking fortitude as she turned toward Regina, Snow fisted her hand around the candle in her pocket. "Regina," she said, following Regina's hand moving over her belly. There was no denying now that Regina was with child. The softness about her face, weariness around her eyes, and tilt to her posture all added up to a woman who nurtured another life. "Will you stop working once the baby is born?"
"Why should I? I raised Henry while being mayor."
"Things are different now."
"How so?"
"Well, you're… you'll need time to recover, won't you?"
"Mom, it'll be fine."
Regina winced. Good, Snow thought. Feel guilty for taking my baby from me.
Emma's hand slipped over Regina's onto the woman's stomach. Snow found herself staring at her daughter's chest when the woman pushed between her and Regina. Abruptly Emma gripped Snow's wrist painfully. "What's this?"
Snow swallowed and explained as Emma withdrew her hand holding the candle. "I bought one of the Miner's Day candles."
"This isn't a standard candle," Emma said darkly. "Regina? Does this look like the one Blue showed you?" Lavender, white, and blue veins marbled through its cream surface. Eyes wide, Regina nodded. Emma's hand around it started to glow.
"What, what are you doing?" Snow asked. The candle was listing now, bending from the middle where Emma's magic warped it.
Emma's frown deepened, and she grit her teeth. "Ending this," she said. "Now."
A burst of light as bright as any of the fireworks exploded outward from Emma's fist. When the light faded and the spots stopped dancing behind Snow's eyelids, she opened her eyes to see Emma's empty palm; the candle had vanished.
"Emma?"
Snow watched Emma ignore her question and turn to Regina. "How are you feeling now?"
"Better," Regina said.
Emma turned back to Snow and demanded, "The Blue Fairy gave you this?"
Defensively, Snow said, "It would tell us if the baby's magic was light or dark."
"Star is light and dark," Emma growled. "She's perfect."
"Star?"
"Yes," Emma growled. "We just decided on her name tonight."
Regina winced again; Emma turned around hard to find the threat she sensed. "Uh!" Regina's wince became a cry. Emma grasped Regina's shoulder at the same time she finally caught movement moving in. Too close.
"Thank you, dearie. Star? What a lovely name."
Emma surged between Gold and Regina, magic already glowing in her palm. It snuffed out when he casually moved his own hand.
"Ah, ah," the Dark One tut-tutted.
He lifted a crystal from his pocket and it started to glow. Its many faces lit up in varying swirls of color. Lavender and white strands became lively. Regina's knees buckled and she fell to the ground with a cry.
Emma leaped, hand outstretched for the crystal; Rumple stepped aside. "Ah, ah, dearie. Now that I have a name, I don't need your connection to the child." Magic threw Emma aside and she landed several feet away from Regina.
Twining threads of color formed the core of a glowing line from the crystal to Regina's body. "No!" Emma and Regina both screamed. Regina clutched her belly. Emma leaped at Rumple again. When Gold moved closer to Regina the magical threads thickened; he cackled with glee.
"Mom! Ma!" Henry shouted. He too tried to reach Rumple but was flung to the pavement. Still on the ground, he suddenly shouted, "Dad!"
Emma turned to see where Henry was looking and caught the moment Neal blindside tackled his father. The two men crashed to the pavement. Dislodged, the crystal flew up in an arc. Emma tried to scramble under it as it fell toward the ground. She was too late. A massive energy wave erupted when the crystal struck the ground. When Emma could blink away the light spots dancing before her eyes, she saw the crystal lay in pieces, some still dimly glowed, others were faded out.
But it was Regina huddled protectively around her belly that made Emma cry out. "Regina!" She pushed off the ground and stumbled toward the brunette.
Struggling to rise on her hands, Regina reached for nearby pieces of crystal. "Magic," she breathed out, around her pain.
David hurried up. "What's going on?"
"Rumple," Regina gasped, even while she struggled to breathe around obvious pain.
When all eyes turned to Neal holding Gold, he vanished from his son's grip.
"Damn it!" Emma shot to her feet. "Find him!"
David said, "He could be anywhere."
"I don't care! He can't do this!" Emma started to close her eyes to seek Rumple by tracking his magic like she had when playing hide and seek with Regina so many months ago.
Blue stepped forward and grasped Emma's hand. "We will find him," she turned to her cohorts and made a gesture. Instantly the nuns shifted, becoming butterfly-sized glowing fairies. "Signal when you have him and I will find the cuff."
Snow was aghast. "Why would Rumple attack the baby?"
The Blue Fairy exhaled as her fellow fairies flew in search of the Dark One. "Regina and Emma's child is unique. She has both their magic. Dark magic is always hungry for more." Emma remembered Regina's fear that her dark magic would doom their child.
"The magic, Star," Regina murmured. "Pieces," she murmured, scrabbling.
Snow crouched instantly to the brunette's side. "Regina?" Her plea was plaintive and pained. Tearful brown eyes begged her for help. "What can I do?" The brunette went back to gathering up the crystal shards scattered around her. Snow took off her scarf and the pieces started to pile upon it.
Panicking, Emma started threateningly toward the Blue Fairy. "You've been coming after Star's magic too!" Emma accused. "After the damn candle, why should we trust you?" She turned her back on Blue and reached down to Regina once more.
The woman held up a hand. "I swear it, Savior. The candle was only to read her magic," Blue explained. "The crystals stole it."
"Just read?" Then why did Regina feel so awful every time? She and Regina had been so sure Rumple was just a nuisance, and Blue was the threat. "I have to find Gold. Make him fix this."
Regina was breathing heavily in Snow's arms and suddenly gripped her belly in alarm. "Emma!" Snow called. Emma turned her full attention to Regina.
"Rumple was taking the baby's magic," Blue explained. "She's weakened now and taking everything from Regina."
"Emma, help Regina," David said. "We'll take care of Gold."
"You better," Emma demanded.
"Em." Regina sounded as weak as Emma had ever heard.
When their gazes met, Regina's eyes filled with tears. Emma reached out her hand. Regina's grip was painful, and the siphoning of Emma's magic that instantly started to happen, drove the Savior to her knees. "Ah!"
Snow stood, kissed Emma. "Stay," she murmured. She even smiled at Regina before she hurried off with David and Blue.
When she could lift her head, Emma worried, "Regina, what do we do?"
"I... need..." Star no longer was content to only take magic. The situation obviously dire, she had tapped into Regina's life energy, too. The lively light in the brunette's brown eyes flickered, like a candle hit with strong winds.
"Okay. Let's get to the hospital." Emma picked up Regina. Sending her worry higher, Emma felt the normally strong, independent brunette clutch her arms around Emma and bury her face in Emma's shoulder. Emma exhaled and inhaled and drew on every feeling of protection and love she had for Regina and Star.
She closed her eyes, picturing the hospital. A flash of magic lightning exploded a nearby lamp. Emma and Regina vanished in a pure white cloud.
Emma knew she was shaking, knew she was leaking magic - the potted fern in the corridor had blossomed the moment she passed, running alongside Regina's gurney toward the emergency room. Damn it. Damn it! DAMN IT! Emma punched a wall after the doors swung shut behind Whale. The drywall cracked and a fluorescent light stick above brightened, then shattered.
"Shit!" Emma shook the glass dust from her hair.
Someone burst through the doors and Emma turned with a stance to deal with a threat.
"Emma!"
Magic spiraled out of her hands and shoved Neal and Henry on his heels against the wall. Shocked, she fisted her hands, closed off the magic flow, and rushed forward.
"God, I'm sorry! Henry!"
"Is Mom all right?" Henry asked as she caught him up in her hands.
"They're looking at her right now." She turned on Neal. "Where's Gold?"
He shook his head. "We found him. Dad's locked up."
"What makes you think he'll stay put?"
"I…" Neal looked at his hands then back up at Emma. "I put the cuff on him. The one Pan had. Belle and Blue are with him."
"Ma," Henry asked. "What about Star?"
Emma looked up mutely at Neal.
"Okay. C'mon." Neal wrapped his arm around Henry's shoulder and turned him back toward the entrance. "We'll wait out here. Let your moms work on this, okay?"
Henry looked back over her shoulder, but Emma couldn't bring herself to even smile. He offered her a quirk of his lips, so like Regina's that Emma gasped.
"Emma?"
She turned to see Dr. Whale leaning out of the swinging door. Without another word, Emma slipped past him to the space beyond.
Regina lay on a gurney. Someone had thought to tuck another pillow under her head. She had been given an IV, and the fetal monitor band had been settled around her belly. The ultrasound machine stood next to the gurney. Emma rushed to Regina's side and grasped her fingers atop her rounded belly. "Hey," Emma said.
"I can't," Regina whispered, eyes leaking tears, but she was took weak to lift her head. "She's so... I can't feel her, Emma."
"Tell me what to do?"
"I don't... know... She's… taken everything I…" Regina bit her lip. "Help her, Emma."
Emma kissed Regina's lips, feeling how chilled they were. "You stick with me, okay?" She gripped Regina's hand and laid her other open palm against the woman's distended belly. "Hey, Star baby, your mommas are here." Resting her head against Regina's, Emma closed her eyes searching for the baby with her magic sight. "We're here."
"It's more than... magic... energy," Regina said. "The IV isn't… Rum- he took so-so much."
Emma nodded. "Okay." She inhaled to a count of three, then exhaled to a count of five. The only thing she could equate giving life energy with was CPR. She'd given Star boosts from her magic for months now. That process she knew. But the sparkling essence of her daughter which she usually connected with wasn't there. Star? she queried. A fog rose inside Emma's head. Searching deep within it, Emma called for her daughter.
Magic twinkled; without a life force to tether it though, it was an out of control swirl. Emma tried to gather it in her arms. She now understood Regina's scrambling on the pavement. It was like little wisps in the air. If only she could pull enough of it together...
Gradually Emma sensed a different energy. Not magic, more raw: life. She saw the umbilical cord linking Regina and Star sucking and throbbing as Star pulled everything she could from Regina's body. But even that didn't seem to be enough. Regina was gasping for every one of her breaths. Star was going to kill Regina if she didn't have another source.
That meant, without drastic measures, Emma was going to lose them both. "Star, I'm here. Take mine," she begged.
Regina's grip on Emma's hand weakened and Emma squeezed harder to hold onto her lover. The brunette laid back with a labored exhale.
Emma's throat clogged with tears but she strained to get past it. "Hey! Baby girl." Star! her mind screamed. Her fingers moved in Regina's. She laid her lips against Regina's belly and kissed. Sparks of magic hovered in to the air. She breathed out; The baby turned toward it. Regina whimpered as the action stressed her weakened body. A flicker of connection to Emma started to form, but then faded again. Emma put her hand on her heart, thinking about the blood and life beating in it, and added that to her focus on their daughter. "Star. Love," she murmured. So much love, she thought. The flicker brightened a bit, tendrils reappearing. "Anything I have, everything I have, sweetheart, it's yours. All you gotta do is find me. Let Regina rest, okay?"
Emma gasped the moment she felt the connection formed. A kaleidoscope of energy, both magic and life, became a tether with Star's second mother. Emma had no idea what it looked like outside her squeezed shut eyes, but here it looked and felt like a thick rope from the Jolly Roger was being pulled out of her belly. It felt like both her blood and her magic were being sucked out. Her head swam, feeling faint; a pinprick in her arm signaled someone had stuck an IV in her arm.
The connection between Emma and Star grew thicker, brighter. It appears as thick as Emma's arm in her mind's eye, coming out of her chest. Emma fought through the pain to see Star. Finally the beautiful face of their baby girl appeared to her, but it was pinched with mouth wide. Star's fingers gripped the magic, and her mouth seemed to be sucking in a cyclone. Star herself looked like a photograph overlaid with an ultrasound picture, Regina's brown hair and Emma's green eyes -but skin and bones were sickly shades of gray. The baby's veins and heart barely moved.
Emma exhaled; the baby's chest expanded and gained brief color in Emma's mind's eye, like an oil slick hit by light. Emma breathed in and moved Regina's fingers with hers along where she knew was the baby's back. "Come on."
"Ah!" Opening her eyes, Emma found Regina's brown ones brimming with tears. "Em!"
Emma pushed more life energy at their daughter. "Come on, come on."
"Em! Ah!" Regina screamed. Emma kissed her and a kaleidoscope of color burst forth from her mouth to Regina's.
Immediately she felt Regina's struggle to breathe ease. "Thank God." She kissed Regina again, tiny trails of magic flowing between them.
"Star," Regina breathed.
Regina closed her eyes. Emma felt Regina attempting to twine her faint magic with Emma's. Consciously or not, the two magics sought one another out, weaving over and under, back and forth. Slowly a blanket formed of lavender and white around Star. Emma listened to Regina's breathing and her own gradually synchronizing. The blanket of light began fading. Emma tried grasping after it, worried and feeling it shouldn't leave. Star still needed it, needed them.
But the light faded, sinking into the baby, a smoke in her nostrils and sparkles making her chest expand and fall then expand again. Star's heart filled with the kaleidoscopic pattern of light.
After an eternity in which Emma and Regina both struggled to give everything, the heart pulsed once. They both jumped at the sound of the heartbeat from the fetal monitor.
Regina and Emma clutched at one another, with one shared thought: Star. The monitor beeped again.
"Please," Emma murmured.
"Love," Regina whispered.
"Love," Emma echoed.
Another beat.
Then another.
And another.
Finally the beats occurred at a regular rhythm. Whale critically studied the readout. "I don't believe it."
Emma lowered her brows angrily at him.
"No, no. It's… good. The baby seems to be … all vital signs are now normal."
Relief flooded Emma. When she tried to rise though, her knees gave out and she stumbled. The baby had taken nearly everything. A nurse caught her arm but she still landed hard on her knees on the floor next to the gurney. She waved away an oxygen mask, but her breathing and Regina's remained labored. She put her head down to fend off the headache and dizziness.
Star's okay. Emma's tears flowed with her relief.
Gently Regina's fingers touched Emma's shoulder. Emma weakly lifted her hand and caught Regina's fingers, kissing the knuckles, tasting Regina's salty tears and the sweet, sweet taste of her lover.
Finally Emma felt she could lift her head. "Hey," she tried to sound strong, but it came out barely a whisper. Regina looked extremely pale and Emma brushed her hair from her eyes. "How are you?"
The brunette didn't answer right away. She inhaled, then exhaled. As tears dripped down her cheeks, she said, "I could sleep for a week."
"Yeah." She felt like she needed a gallon of coffee and a week of sleep.
After taking another round of Regina's vital signs, the nurse removed Regina's IV. "We will monitor things tonight. Dr. Whale ordered the mayor moved up to a room."
Once the nurse and Whale had both left and they were alone, Emma laid her head on Regina's chest and listened to the steady monitored beep of their daughter's heart and Regina's own heart thumping under her ear. The brunette's fingers sifted through Emma's hair. Slowly, she lifted her head. "I love you."
"I know that." Regina cupped Emma's hand against her belly and they both felt Star moving. "Star knows that, too."
"Ma, are you proposing?"
From her hunched position by the gurney, Emma turned to see Henry holding the swinging door partially open. "Who let you back here, kid?"
Henry stepped inside. "Dr. Whale. He said mom and Star are going to be okay."
"Yeah." Emma hugged him and then watched him lean over the gurney and hug his mother. "Still…"
"So are you guys talking about getting married?" Henry asked.
Emma looked down at position and realized Henry must have thought she was on one knee proposing. She thought about that. If they were married, everyone would have to accept their relationship. "It's not a bad idea."
"It's a terrible idea, Emma."
"But it would make it absolutely clear that we're a family," Henry said.
"Kid-" Emma started. She knew Regina's objection to marriage was rooted in her past, but she really was too drained to have this conversation.
"You guys just saved each other. That's worth celebrating, right?"
"This isn't time for us to plan a party, kid."
"So let me plan it."
"You?" Emma asked.
"Yeah." Henry smiled at her and rubbed Regina's shoulder. "I hadn't really figured out how to show you how much I'm looking forward to Star joining our family. This is a good way."
Emma looked at Regina. "What do you think?" The brunette's eyes shined with more tears.
Regina bit her lip and nodded. "I…" She looked at Henry. "You can't possibly do such a thing all by yourself."
"I already know who to get to help!" Henry grinned. "Gotta go!" He kissed Regina's cheek, then Emma's, and ran back out the door.
"He's enthusiastic," Regina said.
"Yeah." Emma leaned on the edge of the gurney and looked down at Regina.
Regina sat up slowly, rotating her body around her middle. "Tired."
Tired was an understatement. Emma rolled her eyes. "What are you doing? Whale's moving you up to a room."
"I am not staying here. I want to sleep for a week. I can do that far more comfortably in our bed."
Pushing herself up against Regina's gurney, and standing between her legs, belly to bigger belly, Emma leaned forward and kissed Regina's lips. "I'd like to argue with that, but I really don't have the energy ... Let's go home."
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