A/N: I am fully expecting to feel your wrath in your reviews when you read the last line of this chapter. And I regret nothing!
It was late in the morning when Emma and Regina emerged downstairs. Henry was sprawled on the sofa with his laptop balanced on his knees, a glass of coke in one hand, and the muted television playing a football match from the night before. As soon as he saw his mother and her girlfriend, his face went bright red.
"Henry, are you ok?" Emma asked, alarmed at the sudden and strange reaction.
"Fine," he mumbled, hastily packing up his things and standing to leave the room.
"No you're not," Emma said. "What's up?"
"Nothing," Henry insisted, his eyes desperately looking anywhere but at Emma and Regina.
"Oh …," Emma said, realisation suddenly dawning. "Shit. Sorry, Henry." Her own cheeks pinked as she realised why her son was so embarrassed.
She didn't know what had come over them. They were always wary of being too loud at night, knowing Henry was mere metres away. Emma had grown accustomed to screaming out her orgasms into pillows and Regina, well, until last night Regina hadn't come so … It had been well after one in the morning when their passionate lovemaking had ended, the two of falling asleep, breathless and satiated, in each other's arms. When they had lost themselves to the pleasure, they had also lost sense of where they were. And who was nearby.
"It's fine," he said, still staring at the floor. "Just -,"
"It won't happen again. I promise," Emma said at once.
"Me too," Regina piped up, having cottoned on to what the problem was as well.
Henry nodded mutely and left the room.
Emma turned back towards Regina, a guilty look on her face. But it didn't last long and seconds later the two of them were corpsing, giggles erupting from within them as they both collapsed on the newly vacated sofa.
"It's not funny! I'm scarred for life!" they heard Henry shout from the kitchen which only made them laugh harder. Moments later, they heard his heavy footsteps on the stairs and then his bedroom door slammed.
"What do you want to do today?" Emma asked when she had finally stopped chuckling.
"I have a doctor's appointment at midday but apart from that I have no plans. What about you?" Regina said.
"I didn't know Archie worked on Saturdays," Emma remarked.
"Different doctor," Regina shrugged. "An actual, medical doctor."
"Is everything ok?" Emma asked, suddenly concerned.
"Fine," Regina nodded. "It's just a check-up the hospital advised when I left Kent. It's basically an overall health check which I'd already had in November but figured I may as well go again, even if I do feel fine."
"Well you did say you were feeling a little dizzy last week," Emma reminded her.
"Yes, and I was also sick that day. I told you we shouldn't have eaten that sushi three days after we bought it," Regina scowled.
"I didn't force it down your throat and it was fine with me," Emma pointed out.
"In that case your stomach is made of iron," Regina replied. "Anyway, I'm fine now and my scars have all healed well. I'm sure the blood tests and whatever else they do will say I'm perfectly healthy."
"You are pretty perfect," Emma said, waggling her eyebrows as her gazed raked over Regina's body.
The kiss that followed only ended when Regina insisted she needed to leave otherwise she would be late for her doctor's appointment. After they untangled themselves on the sofa, Emma waved her off from the porch and Regina promised to let her know when she was finished so the two of them could meet up. For what, they didn't know. All they were sure of was that they wanted to spend their time in each other's company.
Emma and Henry wiled away the morning together playing a card game. Emma had bribed him out of his room with the promise of cold pizza for lunch and no salad. Naturally the lure of junk-food had worked on the teenager and he became happier and happier as they ate and Emma continually lost at cards. By the time Regina phoned less than two hours later, the embarrassing noises he had heard the night before were beginning to fade from his memory.
The brunette informed Emma that her doctor had been happy with how Regina's scars were healing as well as her overall fitness. They had taken some blood just as a precaution and would call with the test results some time in the future.
Henry, somewhat politely, turned down Emma's offer to accompany herself and Regina to the garden centre and then the cinema. Spring was arriving and Regina wanted to get to work on her cottage's garden. Henry was neither into flowers nor did he want to spend any more time than necessary in the company of two women whom he had heard orgasm the night before. It was bad enough that one of them was his mother but the fact that Regina was his history teacher was just the icing on the cake.
Emma bounded out of the house when her girlfriend arrived and slid somewhat elegantly into the Porsche. After complaining for weeks that the car was far too low to the ground to be practical, Emma had ceased criticising it when Regina had warned her that she wouldn't get to drive the sports car again if she continued.
If she was honest, Emma wasn't much for flowers either but she was more than happy to trail around after Regina if it meant they were together.
"Do you have any Muscari Armeniacum," Regina asked a young assistant as Emma pushed the trolley loaded with magnolia seedlings, potted alpine ferns, clematis seeds, blooming cyclamen, and a purple wallflower, the name of which she had already forgotten.
The assistant led the pair over to a row of trays filled with green shoots. A few had dark blue flowers just pushing through the leaves.
"Grape hyacinths," Emma exclaimed. "I loved these when I was a kid."
"Grape hyacinths?" Regina frowned.
"Oh come on, you must have heard that name along with that Latin gibberish you were spouting. They look like upside down bunches of grapes when they flower. See," Emma said, peeling back a leaf to reveal pale, underdeveloped flowers.
"Stop destroying them," Regina tutted. "But I love them too. My father used to have them in our garden in Kent."
"One of my foster homes had them in tubs by the front door. I thought they were so cute, these miniature bundles of grapes. I can't even remember the house where those flowers grew but I remember the pots so clearly. I even dream about them sometimes."
"How many foster homes did you have?" Regina asked as she lifted a tray of a dozen grape hyacinths into the trolley. Emma didn't keep her difficult upbringing a secret but they also didn't talk about it much.
"Seven," she replied. "To be fair, I was in the same place from when I was twelve until I was eighteen. It was only before then that I moved around a lot. At least my school didn't change when I was taking exams."
"Yes but early years learning is very important too," Regina pointed out.
"It is, and I did take a little longer to learn to read than kids should, but that didn't stop me getting into the best university in the country did it?"
"Second best," Regina teased. "Come on, I need a new pair of gardening gloves. I ripped mine to shreds on the rose bushes last weekend."
After they had paid and loaded up both boots of Regina's car (Emma still didn't understand why there was a space for luggage nestled within the engine), the blonde insisted they head over to the garden centre cafe.
"They always have the best cakes in places like these," she insisted. "I think it's because all the old biddies spend their weekends here and then need a sugar boost to get back to their bungalows."
"But I thought we were going to the cinema," Regina said.
"We are but the film doesn't start for another hour so we have time and I've booked us some seats online already. Back row," she added with a wink.
"I assumed you'd be getting popcorn."
"I am," Emma said, her face a little confused about to what the problem was as they queued for the cake counter.
"So you're having cake and then popcorn. And presumably you and Henry finished the pizza for lunch?"
"Are you nagging me about what I eat?" Emma said, feigning outrage.
"I'm merely expressing disbelief that your body is as amazing as it is whilst you continue to eat crap," Regina defended.
"My metabolism is awesome," Emma shrugged. "And your body is smoking hot too."
Emma pulled her grinning girlfriend towards her and wrapped her in a tight hug, peppering her neck with little sucking kisses until the a voice from behind them made the couple spring apart.
"Regina? Emma?"
Both women turned slowly towards their colleague. A heavily pregnant Mary Margaret was standing open mouthed behind them, David peering curiously over her shoulder at what they had just seen.
"Good afternoon," Regina said, clearly flustered. "What are you two doing here?"
Wordlessly, Mary Margaret held up a potted geranium.
"Oh lovely," Regina lied. She had always hated geraniums. "Emma was just helping me pick out some spring flowers for the cottage."
"Are you two together?" Mary Margaret asked bluntly.
"Um, yes," Regina nodded. "Yes we are." As she spoke she reached for Emma's hand and grasped it tightly.
"Congratulations," David said after his wife had left an embarrassingly long silence. "You two seem great together."
"Yes, of course you do," Mary Margaret said quickly. "But … this is a bit of a surprise."
"It surprised us too," Emma shrugged. "We're also trying to keep this quiet at the moment. What with everything going on at school with Henry we thought it would be best if the students didn't learn about our involvement just yet."
"Understood," Mary Margaret said. "We won't say a word."
Emma, Regina and even David all looked sceptically at the pixie haired brunette.
"What?" she asked, indignantly.
"Would you like to join us for some tea and cake?" Regina said. Emma's fingers flexed minutely against her hand but she ignored them.
"That would be lovely," David smiled. "I'll go and get us a table. MM knows what I want."
"So how many weeks until your due date?" Regina asked as the three women settled at the table and got the conversation going.
It was not the most natural or comfortable afternoon tea Regina had ever sat through but she supposed it could have been worse. After finishing off her chocolate torte, Emma had picked at half of Regina's own carrot and ginger cake as she listened to Mary Margaret babble on and on about her birthing plan. Luckily, Regina cottoned on quickly when Emma informed the Nolans that they had tickets to the cinema at an earlier time and, after Mary Margaret assured them once more that she wouldn't tell, they escaped.
The film was terrible. As it was the day before Valentine's Day, the listings were full of chick flicks. Not that it really mattered because once Emma had finished her popcorn, the two of them spent most of the film making out at the back of the cinema like a couple of horny teenagers. Emma was just grateful none of the actual horny teenagers they taught were in the same screening.
When they emerged into the evening gloom of the street, Emma checked her phone to see a text from Henry letting his mother know he was going to the Zimmer's for the night.
"He probably doesn't want to risk hearing you scream out my name again," Emma remarked as they reached the car.
"Like you can talk," Regina said.
"I … yeah ok," Emma conceded. "Can we stay at yours tonight? I think waking up on Valentine's Day in a cottage in the countryside is far more romantic than my suburban street. Plus we haven't been there for ages."
"Of course," Regina nodded. "Are you full of popcorn and cake or would you be interested in the casserole I was planning to cook tonight?"
"I'm always interested in food," Emma said.
"Your metabolism is more than awesome, it's magical," Regina laughed.
It was a perfect pre-Valentine's Day evening, Emma surmised as she climbed into bed alongside her girlfriend. She and Regina had cooked side by side in the cottage's kitchen, leaning on the Aga and sipping their wines as they waited for the food to be ready. Regina had managed to locate a white table cloth and after the brunette had stopped scolding Emma for plucking several flower heads from the cyclamen, even she admitted that the table decorations, bathed in soft candlelight, looked lovely. After they had eaten the couple curled up on the sofa, under a blanket and in front of the open fire. Regina's head was resting in Emma's lap as she read the latest historical journal she subscribed to and Emma completed her weekly Sporcle quiz to check she could still name all 197 countries. She could.
The sex had been slow, gentle, loving. Regina's fingers caressed every inch of Emma's body before they finally reached her sex and brought the woman to a mind-shattering orgasm with whispers of love and devotion in her ear. Regina's body was equally worshipped by Emma's hands and mouth before her core was stimulated to its peak with Emma's tongue.
Emma had never been a fan of Valentine's Day, considering it a commercial invention and merely a day for those in relationships to flaunt their happiness for all to see. She and Neal actively avoided participating. But with Regina, she didn't mind so much. The brunette spent much of the morning in the garden, transferring her new flowers and seeds into various beds. Emma would have helped but she didn't have her wellington boots. At least, that was the excuse she had given Regina. Instead, the blonde was preparing an elaborate lunch for the two of them. Henry had texted and asked to be picked up at three and Regina had insisted that the younger woman spend some time with her son.
"Valentine's Day is not all about couples," she had said. "Spend this afternoon and this evening with Henry. I think you both need it."
It took over two hours for Emma to prepare the traditional Sunday roast. It wasn't something she had cooked often since Neal died but she was quite impressed with the spread she had managed to create when Regina came in from the garden and found Emma standing rather proudly next to the table.
"Happy Valentine's Day, my love," Emma said as she pulled Regina's chair back and the brunette took a seat.
"To you too," Regina smiled, grabbing Emma's hand before she walked away and placing a soft kiss to her lips. "This looks amazing. Thank you."
"You're welcome. I like cooking for you," Emma said as she took her seat opposite her girlfriend.
The food was good and even Emma was impressed at her own competence. Their conversation topics ranged from school to their childhoods, Henry to dream holidays, and everything in between. They were both so completely and wonderfully relaxed in each other's presence, not afraid of being judged or saying something stupid. They respected and loved each other for whom they were, nothing more.
Emma left reluctantly that afternoon. It wasn't that she hadn't missed Henry. She had. But there was something so freeing about being with Regina. She wasn't obliged to be anyone: not a mother, not a teacher, not a wife. Just herself. Their final kiss was lingering and soft before Emma finally got out of the car and headed over to her own to pick up Henry. Before she ducked inside, she turned around and blew a kiss to her Valentine as the brunette drove away.
"We made it!" Henry mock cheered as he walked into Emma's classroom the following Friday.
The bell had just rung to signal half term and they were both breathing a sigh of relief. A whole week had passed since Felix was expelled and Peter was suspended and Henry had not received a nasty comment the entire time. It seemed there were many other students in the school glad to see the back of the drug dealers.
"We did!" Emma said, high-fiving her son before she resumed tidying her desk. "You are all packed, right?"
"I told you. I'm ready to go just as soon as I grab my iPod," Henry assured his mother.
"Good. Because if we miss this train your grandmother will kill me."
The Swans had been invited to spend half term with Neal's parents. Emma felt she couldn't turn the offer down, especially when Milah had mentioned that she was getting all of the cousins around for a surprise birthday party for Henry, who turned fifteen on Monday. The two of them were catching the train up to Northumberland that evening, arriving just before midnight if all went to plan.
As they were about to leave, Regina's head popped around the door.
"Sorry, I know you're in a hurry but I wanted to say goodbye," Regina said. "Again."
Emma smiled and tugged the brunette inside. Henry turned away and made gagging sounds as Emma pinned Regina up against the wall with a hard, passionate kiss.
"Mum, come on!" Henry exclaimed when he turned around a minute later and saw the two women still locked in an embrace.
"Sorry," Emma said when she pulled away. "To both of you. Henry, my bad for being 'gross' and Regina I'm sorry I'm leaving for almost ten days."
"I'll manage without you," Regina assured. "I have a couple of things planned with Rose and Ruby anyway."
"Yeah but they're not me," Emma said, winking as she opened the door and stood back to let Regina and Henry pass.
"No, they're not," Regina said. "I'll miss both of you, in fact."
It's hard to miss someone when you're in almost constant contact. Emma and Regina's text conversations were endless, whether they were exchanging loving sentiments or just filling the other in on their activities. Either way, Regina felt like she had been at Henry's birthday party when she woke up on Tuesday morning. The vivid images had been conjured by her brain as she slept from Emma's detailed descriptions of the day. Henry was completely shocked when his cousins, aunts and uncles arrived the afternoon of his fifteenth birthday. There were three boys of a very similar age to Henry and they, along with some of the younger cousins, had headed to the local arcade for a while before the adults had joined them and they had all gone to a local pub for a big family meal complete with a massive chocolate cake.
Emma meanwhile knew all about Regina and Ruby's trip out on Sunday to the moor. Although she still wasn't clear quite why either of them thought it was a good idea to go for a fifteen mile trek in the rain, Emma had laughed and gasped as Regina recounted the adventure. They had got lost within half an hour of leaving the road and after Ruby's walking boot was sucked into a bog, had decided to turn back only to discover upon their return to the car, that they had dropped the keys somewhere along the way and had to wait two hours for a road service man to come and rescue them.
Yes, Emma and Regina texted a lot but there were some things which needed to be said, spoken, heard. As Regina found when she hung up the phone to her doctor late on Tuesday afternoon.
"Hey!" Emma said, answering her phone after only two rings. "How are you?"
"Ok," Regina replied. "You?"
"I'm hiding."
"Who from?" Regina asked as she sat down on the dining room chair with a cup of tea.
"My sister-in-law," Emma replied. "She keeps talking about Neal and it's just all getting too much. I know they miss him too. And they knew him longer than I did but I can't deal with it any more. His mum is bad enough but there's something about Yasmin that I just can't bear."
"I'm sorry," Regina offered.
"What's wrong?" Emma asked at once, forgetting her own problems as soon as she heard Regina's voice.
"What makes you think there's something wrong?"
"Because I know you," Emma replied. "What is it?"
Regina took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"I'm pregnant."