(A/N-I want to thank my beta Bekki for beta reading this. Appreciate it so much boo! I also want to thank all those who read, follow, fav, and especially review this. I would like to say something on how I don't update this story. I work 40-50 hours a week, on the weekends I spend some time with family and friends. What little time I do have I try to write, but I have to be inspired to do so. And to be honest when I sense that the interest in any story of mine is fading, then my interest in writing for that fic also fades. So I just ask for a little time and understanding. Also I've been told how Her Secret and this fic is the same, if there are similar then to me its minor, while this fic is going into a fluffy stage, Her Secret is going into a different direction.)
More time passed and before Regina knew it, she was almost nine months pregnant. Robin became a very protective father to be. He kept checking on her almost hourly. He was even leaving work early these days. He also would have his friends Killian or Will stop by to 'check on the wiring' or 'to see about a light fixture', all excuses Regina knew to check on her. They were a little nervous being around her and her being so pregnant.
Robin was ten times worse. Once he was home, he would literally have her on the couch, or on the bed with her feet propped up. Asking her about ten times an hour, if he could get her anything? Was she hurting? Did he need to call someone if she was? She couldn't help but laugh at him sometimes, knowing it was hitting him, that very soon the two of them would become three.
One of the best days was when Robin had come home with their baby's first car seat. He had assured her that he could get it installed in his SUV in no time. Two hours later and still no installation, he had been forced to call his friends Will and Killian to 'assist him'. Will had brought Regina out a chair, so she could sit down and watch the three men try to install the car seat.
"I'm telling you that doesn't go there!" Killian called out to Robin.
"And I know it does, I read the description three times!" Robin called back. After trying it for a few more tries, he realized he didn't have the right part.
"I told you," Killian said softly.
"Be quiet," Robin said, clearly frustrated. He looked up at his wife, who was trying her best not to laugh at their antics.
Ten minutes later and still no luck, Will was keeping close to Regina so not to get in the crosshairs of either Robin or Killian.
"Then tell me where this goes?" Robin asked, his voice quite loud now.
"Bloody hell, I don't know, but they gave you three of them," Killian said.
"You mean to tell me you have two more of these?" Robin asked.
"How many kids are you two planning on having?" Killian asked.
Finally, it was over and the car seat was installed. Robin paid his friends back with grilling out with steaks and grilled vegetables. Once the meal was over and his friends were gone, Robin went to where Regina was up in the nursery. He couldn't help but smile at her as she was in the glider rocking chair with a toy duckling.
"I love you, you know that," Regina said.
Robin was about to tell her he loved her back, when she next said, "You're going to be so spoiled when you get here," he knew then she was talking about their baby. "I'm so looking forward to holding you in my arms. I've carried you under my heart for almost nine months, and once you are born, I'll carry you in my heart forever."
Robin felt a frog in his throat as he listened to Regina talking to their baby. The love she had for their child was the purest he had ever seen. She clearly already had the touch of a mother.
"No one will ever know the strength of my love for you," Regina continued, "After all you are the only one who has ever known the sound of my heart from the inside."
"Your father holds my heart as well, and you hold both of ours," Regina said.
"Our baby is our heart," Robin said as Regina turned to him and put her hand out for him. He walked to her and kneeled down beside her, his hands going to her swollen belly.
"I keep wondering if you'll have your mother's smile, or my eyes, but one thing I already know that you have of us, is the best part, you have our love," Robin said as he moved her shirt up and kissed her naked belly. He felt the flutter of excitement under him, and knew his child approved.
Robin looked up at Regina and said, "The only thing better than having you as my wife, is having you as the mother of my children."
"Robin," Regina whispered as he leaned up and took her head in his hand and kissed her. When the kiss kept going on, Robin had to pull away from her.
"We can't," Robin said as Regina nodded, "but I promise you that once our little duckling is born and it's safe for you, I'm going to ravish you all night long."
"I'll be looking forward to it," Regina said.
A few days later Robin had just left their bedroom to let Regina take a nap, when he began to think of how her time was getting closer. Robin knew it was still dangerous to have a baby, but he also knew they had a great doctor, and the hospital was very close to where they lived now. But it still plagued his mind on how he might loose her, might loose both of them. Some nights he would wake up to make sure she was still breathing beside him, he would snuggle up behind her and place his arm around her and feel their child moving around.
He watched as her body grew larger and she was definitely uncomfortable, and he winced every time he saw her massage her lower back, or put her swollen ankles on a pillow he had brought to her.
One night, he walked into the nursery and she was folding baby clothes, he simply could not keep his eyes off her. He was wiser now about babies and knew that her time was very near, and the waiting was driving him crazy. To someone who feared no one and nothing, this terror was a deliberating emotion, a force that ate away at his insides because it was not something he could fight against. He was powerless against it.
"Stop staring at me!" Regina snapped, "I know I'm fat and hideous, but you don't have to stare!" Regina blinked furiously at the tears that came with alarming frequency these days.
Robin hadn't been aware that he had been staring, but he reacted instinctively when he saw the tears that Regina's fury could not conceal. She was getting up from the chair, awkwardly heaving herself from it, and he knew he had to stop her. He was by her side and holding her in an instant.
Regina knew she was very sensitive right now, and to her horror, she discovered she was crying again, unable even to explain the reason for her tears. The worst part was that he would see her, and she looked so awful when she cried, as if things weren't bad enough already. She struggled frantically, but she was no match for him. Before she knew what was happening, he was sitting in her chair, and cradling her in his lap.
"Don't cry, please sweetheart, don't cry," Robin begged her, stroking her hair and massaging her back in the ancient gestures of consolation. Feeling impotent and helpless and clumsy, but not knowing what else to do, he continued to talk to her, alternately soothing her with meaningless phrases and urging her to stop crying. It took a long time, but at last she did. The sobbing slowed to weeping which in turn slowed to an occasional sniffle.
Robin waited patiently, and when she seemed to have composed herself, he asked cautiously, "Are you all right?" She nodded without looking at him. "Why were you crying?"
Regina drew an unsteady breath, "I don't want to talk about it."
"Regina, I just want to understand," Robin encouraged her.
"Because, I'm so ugly right now," Regina said, "I have feet I haven't seen in months, I ache all over. You have to think I'm ugly."
"Regina," he said softly. He got no reaction. "Regina," he repeated cajolingly, "look at me."
Slowly, stubbornly, she turned her head until they were face to face.
"Regina look close," he advised, risking releasing her long enough to point to his own face with one finger, "Now that is ugly."
She gasped a protest, but before she could speak, he went on "You are not ugly," he insisted.
"Yes, I am," she blubbered. "I'm fat and awkward, and swollen and..."
He looked her in the eyes and said, "That doesn't make you ugly," he told her fiercely. "Not to me, never to me. And do you want to know why?" Regina nodded so he did tell her.
"Because you are giving me one of the most treasured things I could ever dream of," Robin said as he laid one hand on her swollen belly, "you are giving me this."
"You gave me your vow of marriage to me first, then your love and soul, and this is more than I could have ever dreamed of," Robin said, "and you're going through this basically alone."
When Regina and said, "But, Robin, I'm not alone."
"I know I'm here, but I'm not the one with the aches and pains. I'm not the one who has to run to the bathroom five times a night," Robin said as Regina opened her eyes in shock that he knew that, "Yes, I count and I make sure you come back to bed, before going back to sleep. I'm not the one who is kicked constantly in the ribs like our soccer player here is."
"Football," Regina argued as Robin smiled.
"Your body is the one who is going through this, and I'm scared," Robin said.
"Of what?" Regina asked as she raised her eyebrows at him, "You're scared of the birth?"
Robin nodded as he said, "I couldn't bare the thought of loosing either one of you. If something was to happen to either of you...I'd..."
This time is was Regina who consoled Robin, "Robin, nothing is going to happen to us. Except you're going to have your hands full when we get back from the hospital."
Just then the baby moved and distracted them, "My god," Robin said, "it feels like he's trying to get out."
"Or she," Regina reminded him, "but the sooner the better," and they both laughed.
For a long time Regina sat there with her head on his shoulder while he just simply held her. "I love you Regina Mills Locksley, with all my heart."
Regina's face puckered and her eyes filled again. He was so dear to her.
"Oh no, don't start that again," he begged with comic dismay.
She laughed as she blinked the moisture away, and managed a wobbly smile, "I'm sorry. I can't seem to help it. All pregnant women cry easily." Robin nodded understandingly.
That night they both slept well, even Robin who didn't mind the tiny hands and feet that jarred him awake in the middle of the night. Early the next morning, he left her still sleeping soundly. When he placed a tender kiss on her forehead, she smiled in her sleep, awakening all his protective instincts and stirring all the old fears once again. Breathing a silent prayer that she would be all right, he left the room.
Nearing lunch time he heard her coming down the elevator he had installed in the house for her to use, he was startled to see how haggard Regina looked. After her restful night, he had expected her to be blooming.
"Regina? What's wrong?" Robin asked.
"My back's been hurting since I woke up," she explained as she rubbed it.
"Did I hurt you last night?" Robin asked, frowning.
Regina smiled around her discomfort, touched that he was willing to take all the blame, "No, it wasn't anything you did."
"Maybe you should lay down for awhile," he suggested still not completely convinced he wasn't somehow responsible. Should he take her to the doctor?
"I will after I eat something," Regina said as she sat down at the kitchen table. Robin cooked her some breakfast consisting of pancakes, and some fresh fruit for her.
He watched as she barely ate anything, but he didn't say anything. "Should we call Doctor Webber and go see her?"
She moved from her seat, but then suddenly gasped and gripped the edge of the table. Robin was out of his chair in an instant but a soft popping sound stopped him in his tracks. He followed Regina's startled gaze to the floor at her feet where a puddle was forming.
"It's the baby," she explained with a mixture of relief and excitement. "My water broke. That means the baby is coming!"
(A/N-To the one who blasted me for having a chapter about to be new father concerned over his first child and his wife about to give birth for the first time, which even in these days not all women survive, be concerned like a new mother or just a mother checking on their such child, you blast me but stay silent or incest and rape stories. Where's that concern then?)
