4 Months, 3 Weeks, 3 Days
"Snow!" David screamed, moving toward his wife when he and everyone else noticed that she still looked stunned. Snow White was hunched over, her hand protectively covering her abdomen. Everyone else had recovered from the freezing spell Zelena had placed on them quickly but the Queen had remained just like that, looking pale, and in shock."Snow, are you alright, did she hurt you?!" David demanded with concern.
Slowly, slowly, she rose to full height, but her gaze and hand stayed the same as she did. "No," she breathed quietly, giving her head a small shake. Quiet and pale, not okay...she should go, find a doctor, someone to help her downstairs. "No!" the Queen shouted suddenly, pulling away from David and making her jump. "No, I'm not alright! I am far from alright, David!" she yelled sounding uncharacteristically hysterical and pacing almost nervously on the other side of the room.
"Snow, just take a breath and calm down so we can figure this out!"
"Calm down!" she shouted rounding on her husband. "Calm down? David how are we supposed to calm down?! She wants our baby!" She felt another swell of guilt expand in her chest. She didn't know Snow White well, not nearly as well as she could have in the last year or so, since she'd been freed. But she knew that pacing and wringing her hands wasn't how she normally dealt with crises. The pregnancy, hormones might have been making it worse, but sheer terror was scrawled across her face because she understood the situation completely. Maybe this was a sign. Maybe they should all be panicking.
"She wants our baby, we'll find out why," David assured her, placing his hands on her shoulders and rubbing her arms. "She wants the baby after it's born, we only just learned you were pregnant, there is plenty of time to figure out her plan and defeat her." She was shaking. It wasn't until he touched her that she could see her trembling. Though David seemed to help. It nearly made her cry, watching the two of them be there like that, knowing that at that moment to Snow White and David she wasn't in the room, Regina wasn't in the room, it was just the two of them gazing into eyes they knew well, communicating peace and calm without words. Snow softened and calmed under his gaze and she had to wonder as she watched them, if she looked into her Rumple's eyes, what would she see there now…who would she see?
The world seemed to come back into focus quickly for Snow White. She could tell the minute it happened, the minute her back straightened with pride and she held her head up a little higher. She gave her husband a small nod then looked at the room around her, her eyes flashing over to her, then over to where Regina stood. She looked better than Snow did but not by much. It wasn't so much a look of shock that she had, as one of exhaustion and hopelessness, as if she was tired of constantly dealing with every little thing that continued to make demands on her. Her reaction was just as understandable as Snows. Henry, Emma, Cora, Greg and Tamara, Peter Pan, and now Zelena. Would it ever end?
"Regina," Snow said moving around David and looking at her stepmother with fiery determination, the kind needed to go to war. "What does she want with our baby?!" she demanded.
"Not a clue," Regina growled, suddenly defensive, staring back at her with anger blooming behind her eyes. This wasn't going to be a fun conversation, she could already tell. "The number of spells involving baby parts would surprise you."
Snow White's jaw dropped, her eyes widened, and she flattened her hand against her stomach as tears sprang into her eyes this time, one comment undoing everything that David had done. It was a startling admission, but to be the person that was pregnant-
"Not exactly helpful, Regina," David commented unamused as he reached for Snow.
"I'm just being honest. Zelena wants the baby, that doesn't exactly give us a flashing neon sign telling us what she's up to! You have something else to go off of?" she yelled, clearly growing more and more impatient.
"Yeah," David breathed. "Why does she want our baby?! There's got to be dozens of babies in the realm, not the least of which was Philip and Aurora's. Why not use theirs before they became…" David's voice trailed off as he motioned out the window to the last place he'd seen the King and Queen. Monkeys. They were monkeys now. With only a wave of her hand, what could she do to them, to Rumple- "Why focus on us?!" David went on, shaking his head and taking the conversation forward, back to the problem at hand. "Why have them wait for us?! Why our baby?!"
"True love." The answer popped out of her mouth without her ever giving it permission to do so, without her even really giving pause to think about it. In fact, it wasn't until she looked up and realized that they were all staring silently at her sudden suggestion. A suggestion, no, a theory, a guess. She'd heard Rumpelstiltskin talk about using their child once before, why it had to be her. She didn't know if this was for a similar situation, but a theory was better than what Regina or anyone had offered so far.
"True love," she went on, "that was why Rumple needed Emma, your child, to break the curse. She was born of true love her magic was strong enough to transcend time and space, to be carried over into a world without magic. Maybe Zelena-"
"No! You don't get to speak!" Regina shouted suddenly, making great strides over to where she stood.
"Regina-"
"No!" she yelled at David. "She is why this is all happening now, because she and The Imp's Son had to go play hero. Before she got that dagger the only thing keeping her at bay was that there were too many of us for her to handle at once! Thanks to her that's not a problem anymore!"
She took a step away from the Queen, who was staring at her with that same look she'd had all those times she'd lifted the little door on her solitary cell…like she was meat to be devoured. It turned her stomach, made her heart pound in her chest, and the worst thing of all was that deep down, she knew it was true. Zelena was strong, certainly, but not strong enough to take on everyone single person in this castle at once. Rumple was.
There were footsteps behind her, running, and she felt her hands ball into fists as she prepared to hit and scream. She couldn't deny what she'd done, but she'd run away and die in the woods before Regina brought guards in to take her away again!
"The witch was here!" She glanced over to find Robin Hood standing at the entrance to the room, bow and arrow drawn, prepared. "And I heard shouting. Is everyone alright?"
"Peachy," Regina growled, never taking her eyes off of her as she advanced step by step. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't lock you back up in that tower for treason?"
She opened her mouth but no words came out. It was hard to think, hard to speak, with terror like that pulsing through her, with Regina staring at her frightened and angry, while she felt guilty, without Rumple or Neal or-
"Regina, stop!" Regina was suddenly shoved out of the way, unexpectedly by Snow White, who had crossed the room so fast she hadn't noticed her moving. "No one is getting locked up anywhere!"
"Why not?!" she shouted at her.
"Because I don't care whose fault it is!" Snow yelled back at her . "I don't care how or why it happened just that it is!"
"There has to be some way we can solve this. Some magic you know!" David added across the room.
"I don't even know what kind of game she's playing," Regina screamed back at him. "I can't counter anything when I don't know her plan!"
"So we figure it out! All of us! Together! Regina, David is right, this isn't the end, she's left us time. We've faced worse than her with far less at our disposal!"
"No, you haven't!" Regina argued. "You think you have but all you've really faced is me and though I hate to admit it my magic is nothing compared to Rumpelstiltskin! We stood a chance against Zelena but now it's not just her we have to worry about, it's him too. And don't give me some line that he's harmless and you can break his curse because it's not that simple!" Regina screamed rounding on her once again. "Nothing is simple anymore!"
She didn't give any lines. She didn't try to fix it because she could truly see what was fueling this anger. Fear was there, just as it was for everyone, but that wasn't all. Hurt. She'd seen that look in Rumple's eyes enough times to recognize it on Regina when she forgot not to show it. And she wasn't the only one to spot it as she turned and paced the room.
"That's not what Henry would say," Snow White muttered into the silence.
But no matter how delicately she'd said the words Regina had heard them and stopped in her tracks at the declaration. For a moment there was no sound in the entire room as everyone watched Regina take ragged breaths and collect herself.
"Henry's not here," she stated softly after a moment. "And there's no telling who he is now that he doesn't remember me. Who knows what he would say? If he even believes in happy endings anymore? I'm nothing more than an Evil Queen to him now, remember?"
"It doesn't matter," David insisted gently. "Who he and Emma are together now doesn't matter because you know the real Henry."
"He wouldn't you to give up on this Regina," Snow White chimed in. "Surrender to the Wicked Witch of the West? Leave his father and grandfather to the wolves? No! He'd want you to fight, to find a way for all of us to get our happy ending!"
"That's not fair!" Regina yelled, finally turning on Snow. But the anger behind her voice faded quickly. They hadn't meant to hurt her, just wear her down a bit so she'd concede. But it was clear that they had hurt her all the same. She honestly wasn't sure if she'd ever seen tears, unshed or otherwise, glistening in her eyes before. They'd pushed her too far.
"Life never is fair," Robin Hood stated, standing with his bow at ease by the door, "but if we can't change for our children, if we can't be willing to do our best to make life a little better for them than it was for us, what can we do?"
"I don't remember inviting you into this conversation and that principle doesn't apply!" Regina laughed. "Henry isn't here. I'm never going to see him again, I wouldn't be making anything better for him by destroying Zelena!"
"Neal and I freed Rumple for a reason," she muttered, looking at the faces around her, but mostly at Regina. She knew what they were doing, but if she knew anything about talking to people who had no hope it was that reminding them how hopeless a situation was wasn't a way to make them willing to help others. There had to be hope, a light at the end of the tunnel. She'd done a terrible thing, she and Neal, but because of what they'd done…there was a glimmer of hope even now.
"Neal and I brought Rumple back because he wanted to get back to Henry and Emma and we believed that Rumple could help us with that."
"Well then Neal wasted his life for nothing. Going back isn't possible for us, not anymore!" she stated, crossing her arms over her chest stubbornly. "Our realm is completely shut off from the rest of them now, there's no way to get to Henry's world or any other world for that matter. That's the price I paid to bring us back here."
She shook her head, refusing to believe that Neal had done what he'd done in vain. "Something you learn living with Rumpelstiltskin is that nothing is impossible," she insisted. And right now they needed to do the impossible. Steps on a path. Destroy the witch. Restore Rumple. Save Neal. Then figure out how to get back to Emma and Henry. All of them. Not just her and Neal. They could do this, she refused to believe that it wasn't possible! They just needed the right people and Regina…Regina was one of them. "Whether we succeed or fail, what have you got to lose?"
Regina looked as though she'd been slapped in the face and for once she found herself actually feeling sorry for the woman who had imprisoned her and threatened to imprison her again only minutes ago. "Nothing," Regina drawled after a moment. "I already lost it." She felt like she was just collecting guilt these days, storing it up so that it would all haunt her for the rest of her life. But maybe it would be worth it if she could make up for what she'd done, for what they'd done, if only they could fix it. If only she could get Regina to-
"Fine," Regina spat after a second, dropping her arms and rolling her shoulders, suddenly becoming as stiff and emotionless as she always was…always appeared. "First we need to secure the castle, make sure she's not hiding in plain sight again," she stated looking around the room at everyone. "I'm tired of turning around and finding her in this castle. I want more guards, as many as possible, to protect this place around the clock, and I want every monkey, winged or not, out of my forest! Then I'll get back to finding that witch while you go back to being your charming selves and making sure the guests are safe, comfortable, and completely oblivious of what's really going on here until we decide to make the official announcement of your pregnancy and can send them home safely."
"Not a bad plan," David nodded.
"No!" Snow shouted over him, making every eye turn to look at her again. What now? "No, we're-we're not going to just stop living because of this. That's what she wants, that's what every villain always wants, to know you live in fear because of them, that they've stolen your happiness!"
"Snow!" David plead.
"I don't believe this!" Regina balked, understandably.
"No! We'll announce the pregnancy as planned!" she stressed. "I don't want to keep it a secret, to pretend like we've done something wrong! David this is good, we need to share it!"
"Snow," David shook his head, taking her hands in his own, his voice still pleading as he tried to reason with her. "Snow, Regina's right-"
"Thank you!" the Queen yelled from across the room, clearly tired of this argument.
David ignored her. "It wouldn't be forever," he told her. "We'll only put it off until we can't anymore, buy some time with this!"
"Put it off?!" Snow questioned as if it was the most ridiculous thing she'd ever heard. "David we can't exactly put it off for long, eventually people will notice and in case it's escaped your attention we have royals from half the Kingdom already gathered here for an announcement!"
"But not all of them," he fought back. "Let's just bide our time, give Regina a chance to locate her and find her so the Kingdom doesn't worry, and wait for the others to show up, until we can't hide it anymore."
"And what do you suggest we do with those that are here."
"Keep them comfortable, just like Regina suggested. Snow, there's strength in numbers."
"And do we just tell them to close their eyes every time we're in the room together?" she fought. "They have eyes David what if they start to notice?"
"I can help you hide it," she stated from across the room. Lacey had already been eyeing her figure and her gown, she already knew it wouldn't be difficult, after all it wasn't as though she was six months pregnant only six weeks at the most! "Longer gowns, petty coats, thick material, fabric that will hold the right flare and the right stitches in the right places and we can hide it for a while," she assured her.
Snow White opened her mouth, as if to say something but in the end just shook her head as if what she'd just stated was the most insulting thing in the world. Then again, to a mother desperate to have another child…it was. "Mary Margaret…Snow," David corrected with a shake of his head. "Snow, please. Please do this for me, for us, for the sake of our child," he begged, "let's just take a little more time to see how this plays out. Please. For the baby," he whispered, reaching out to touch her abdomen.
Snow looked at him for a long time as though she'd just been betrayed. There were tears in her eyes as she considered the proposition and no one dared to move a muscle or speak a word. They were nearly there. Regina had agreed, David had agreed, they just needed Snow to give her permission, to go along with it. In all honesty she wasn't sure what withholding information about the baby would do how it would help them against Zelena. If the witch had threatened other Kingdoms, if they knew that she wanted Snows baby then that would only paint a target on their back. For now there was no harm in holding it back for a while.
"Until the end of the month," Snow White finally agreed sadly, angrily. "That will give the royals that aren't here enough time to join us and get comfortable, it'll give us a chance to find Zelena and figure out a plan. I don't think we'll be able to hide it much longer than that. I don't want to hide it any longer than that!" she concluded, walking around her husband and leaving the room with an uneasy plan agreed upon.
Alright so...Snow's pregnancy...where were we. Oh! That's right! "But Treatian, you and A&E got it wrong! How could that all be a year ago?! Snow White looks 8 months pregnant not six weeks!" Yes, yes she does observant reader. But do you want to know why Snow White looked 8 months pregnant then? Because Ginnifer Goodwin was 8 months pregnant. Edaurdo is a genius when it comes to costumes but even he after a while can only do so much with someone who is about to pop. So, for the purposes of this fiction we are going to concentrate on how I think they were trying to make Snow White look. And at this point I think they were trying to make her look not far along. It was in the skit that they gave her, the camera angles, and even the way that Bex touched her belly, lightly on the top as if she didn't want to emphasize how much of a stomach was actually there. So, for the duration of this fiction I'll be basing the timeline off how I think she was suppose to look. No worries, I'll keep you up to date as we move forward!
Thank you to Fox24, Meredith Pechta, Agent66, Kathryn Claire O'Connor, Kagi-chan2, Raizen Yusuke, and Skitzoeinhoven for your reviews on the last chapter! They are much appreciated! Peace and Happy Reading!