Zelena liked to think that she was the tor of her little corner of the world. Her father was never summoned. She was summoned if someone had a problem. She was decided to be the important one. They came to her.
And she didn't ask for firstborns or for people to become pieces on a chessboard or anything like that. Her requests were simple. Money for those that could afford it. Something like apples or chickens for those that couldn't. She made a living and she made sure other people around her could live. It was the most useful she'd felt since she had been born.
She loved her family, but all she'd done up on the mountain was train and train and train…she didn't get to use her ability for much good until now. And it felt….wonderful. She was helping people while asking for little in return. All magic came3 with a price, but that price was what she decided it would be.
The people in her remote part of the world thrived. Thanks to her. Six months ago, the crops were dying, infant mortality was at an all-time high…but she changed that. She did.
And if she could do that in this little part of the world, what else could she be capable of out there?
She could change the whole world if she wanted to. Not like the fairies, who had their own strict rules. Zelena read about them. Not like her parents who used people to get things they wanted and needed.
No, she could….there were so many possibilities.
And those possibilities kept growing as Zelena raced home from town. She had a basket full of things which she immediately dropped on the entrance table upon arriving. The servants could take care of it for her.
Her lady in waiting walked beside her as soon as she left the entrance hall. Zelena handed her the cloak, "Where's Jefferson?"
"In the library, m'lady."
Zelena stopped midstride and took a sharp left. The heavy wooden doors opened without trouble as she walked through it. Sometimes she actually turned the doors, sometimes she got lazy.
"Darling!" He walked over and kissed her, "You're back early."
"I had to talk to you," Zelena looked over at the maps on his desk, "Another journey?"
"Not yet," he assured her, "I'm still looking at jobs."
Zelena turned to him and rested her hands on her hips, "Jefferson."
"Zelena?" he asked in amusement.
She broke into a bigger grin, "Jefferson, I'm pregnant."
He blinked and then broke into a grin before he tried to look serious, "Truly?"
"The healer told me," She gave him a happy grin back. The excitement was suffocating her. She'd been bursting to tell anyone but it had to be him first. It had to be Jefferson.
He broke into a happy grin and kissed her. Zelena returned the kiss, wrapped her arms around his neck and let him lift her up and twirl her. They were going to be parents! They didn't know much about what that was goi8ng to entail but they were going to do it.
She was going to be a mother. His child was growing in her belly.
Jefferson covered her face in kisses before he pulled away and looked grim.
"What?" Zelena asked.
"We'll have to tell your family."
That. Zelena felt herself freeze. She wrote to her parents and her sister, but visiting didn't happen often. There was a part of her that was still mad and hurt over this curse. Zelena wondered if there was a part of her that would ever forgive them for what they were going to put Regina through.
How was she supposed to bring a child into their world? Would they do if she went to visit? Lock her up inside so that she and the baby were safe? Antagonize Jefferson for making her pregnant in the first place?
"We don't have to tell them," she whispered.
"We have to," he told her gently, "They'll be furious if we don't."
He knew as much as she did that their spies were in this house, always reporting back and forth to her father and mother. They kept everything quiet between the two of them. Even arguments were handled elsewhere so her family wouldn't' get the wrong idea.
She put her hand on her belly. What were they going to be like with a grandchild?
She bit her lip and finally nodded, "Let us have two weeks though. Let this secret be ours before we let anyone else know."
He nodded, "You are aware that your father will skin me alive for impregnating you?"
"Oh, I doubt it," she kissed him and rested her forehead against his, "It's my mother you should fear."