"Already?", the Queen whispered sleepily, snaking her hand under her pillow in search of the vibrating phone.
After finding it, contrary to expectations, she saw an incoming call on the screen and not the alarm clock.
"David, what happened?", she answered barely audibly, putting the phone between her ear and the pillow and closing her eyes again. "That's great.", she continued after the pause. "Congratulations... Yeah... Well, it's not great... Yes, I can... No, I won't fall asleep... I'll come, don't worry."
She lay still for a while, with her eyes closed and the phone under her ear. Then she raised herself on her elbows and shook her head, driving away the remnants of sleep.
"Rumple." she patted her snoring husband besides her. "Rumple." she repeated softly, leaning toward his ear.
"Hm?" He reached for a kiss without opening his eyes.
"I need to leave.", the Queen said, kissing him. "David called. Regina is giving birth and she's a little panicked. He was called for an emergency operation and he panicked even more than her due to the fact that she will be left alone. He asked me to go and sit with her."
"Has he lost his mind?" Gold yawned, looking closely at the clock on the nightstand. "Half past three! Where are you going?"
"Well, Regina can hardly wait until morning." Regina shrugged. "And I can't leave her alone."
"She is not alone.", her husband objected. "She's under the doctors' supervision. And David could have found a replacement for himself and not call you in the middle of the night.", he added displeasedly, pulling her to his hips and burying his nose into her hair.
"Well, he found it. Me." the Queen grinned, brushing her hair and exposing her neck for a kiss.
"I didn't mean that." He kissed her. "And generally, maybe I don't want to be left alone either. Now I won't be able to fall asleep without you."
"So you won't oversleep for the kindergarten." She turned to him. "And you know he cannot appoint another surgeon in his place. Furthermore, when I gave birth, David was next to us and supported both of us, appreciate it and don't be mean."
"I do appreciate it." Gold sighed, sliding his fingers along her back. "Don't pay attention; I haven't really woken up yet."
"Well, that means there is still a chance to sleep without me." The Queen smiled. "Don't forget about the kindergarten." She gently slipped out of his hands and headed for the door.
"I won't forget.", her husband promised, wrapping himself in a blanket again.
"Regina?" The Queen looked into the room. "How are you doing here?"
"Terrible.", a tearful Regina answered, curled up in a ball on the bed, not looking at her.
"Okay." She quickly went up to her sister and crouched next to her. "What's wrong?"
"Everything's wrong.", she answered quietly. "It wasn't supposed to be like that at all! I can't give birth to this baby. I'm not ready."
"You know, it will sound trite, but everyone says that." The Queen gently stroked her hair. "I said that as well and I don't know if David had the time to tell you about his mother..."
"He had.", her sister interrupted. "That's not the point!"
"Then what is the matter?" Regina asked cautiously.
"I'm not ready for my second child." She finally turned and looked at her sister.
"Well, dear, now there's nothing to be done. You're already having it." the Queen was a little bewildered. "And it seemed you were ready a few days ago. What happened now?"
"I don't know, apparently, I didn't fully realize that I had a child all the time she was inside me." Regina nervously cringed. "Now that she's about to appear, it's different."
"I still don't understand what scares you so much." She slowly stroked her shoulder. "I think it's just a hormonal surge that's causing this, it will pass soon. Don't worry. Relax and don't think about anything."
"This is not a hormonal surge.", her sister objected. "Look at us! David is always at work, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. At any moment, his phone beeps and he leaves. Even now he is not here. And I can't even complain to anyone. Everyone will say that I knew who I was marrying. Yes, and I'm always at work. David already has Esther, whom he sees at best once a month and I have Henry, who I need to take care of. I just returned from Cardiff yesterday and miraculously didn't give birth to this girl on the plane. How will we be able to raise her?"
"Wow, stop, stop right there." the Queen took her hand. "Do not wind yourself up. You are upset because David isn't with you right now and you have a hormonal storm going on, so it seems to you that everything is awful. Yes, you knew who you were marrying, but right now you are not ready to dwell on that. Tomorrow you will look at this situation with different eyes, believe me."
"Didn't you listen to me at all?" Regina got angry. "What do my hormones and my emotions have to do with any of this? We objectively have no way to raise a child well! We don't have time for this! She will grow up while seeing us for how much? An hour a day? Do you know how much maternal leave Trenton can give me after childbirth? Three weeks!"
"We'll talk to him." the Queen assured her.
"About what?" Her sister grinned. "This is also an objective reality. I can't be away longer. And I can't, like you, drop everything and sit with her. This is not my way, I need my position, my career. This is my life. I can't refuse it for the sake of the child. Just like David. He couldn't even if he wanted to. He has to work the equivalent of three people so as not to let his father down. You know, nobody was happy when he got his job, bypassing the chief of surgery. And until now, talks that he received it undeservedly and only thanks to his father, have not ceased. So he needs to prove every day that he deserves it. He cannot give it up."
"You both don't need to give up anything." Regina slowly stroked her palm. "That doesn't make you bad parents. The time that you can spend with her will be enough. And we will always be there. We will share our nanny with you. She is already tested and proven absolutely wonderful. And I can sit with my niece as long as necessary. Everything will be fine with her! She won't love you any less from spending time with the nanny or with me. You are her mother. The only important thing is how you spend the time you can spend together."
"And if that time won't be enough for me?" She carefully looked at her sister. "But I don't want to quit work either..."
"You'll throw a coin." the Queen shrugged. "When it falls, you will immediately understand whether you like the option that came out. If you don't like both, then you'll come up with a third. Everything will be fine, honey. Soon you will take your daughter in your arms and you will understand what to do next. No need to think about everything in advance and pre-wind yourself up. Somehow everything will work out; there will be a solution that's going to be appealing to you."
"How simple it is, according to you." Regina grinned.
"Don't complicate it." She stroked her sister's shoulder. "The child already exists but there is absolutely no point in worrying. Relax. In the end of it, you somehow coped with Henry, despite all the work."
"And what came of it?" - raised her eyebrows.
"Listen, this is ridiculous.", the Queen sighed. "You know very well yourself that Henry isn't like that because you were a bad mother to him. Seriously, Regina, you are upset about David, you're scared and it seems to you like everything is awful and will only continue to get worse. But this isn't so. So stop right now until you come up with a dozen more unsolvable problems and believe in their existence."
"Find Catherine." She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, clutching the blanket. "My anesthesia is starting to go away. She said it would be possible to add more when this happened."
"Of course." Her sister nodded.
After a while, she came back with Dr. Medisson.
"At last!" Regina was delighted. "Do it faster." She smiled nervously at the doctor. "This thing stopped working after one second."
"We will check the dilation first and then we will do everything else." Catherine crouched next to her.
"Can you add the anesthetic first and then check?", she asked, holding back her annoyance.
"No." The doctor shook her head, putting on gloves. "We need to make sure that dilation still allows us to add an anesthetic, I already told you. Don't be afraid, I will look very carefully."
"No, it hurts so much!" She squeezed her doctor's palm with her hips as soon as she barely touched her.
"Regina, we won't succeed." Catherine said seriously, stroking her knee with her other hand. "Do not panic. Relax. I will look very quickly and very carefully. Right now, take a deep breath."
"That's enough!" Regina pleaded after a couple of seconds.
"That's enough." Dr. Madison agreed, carefully removing her hand. "We can no longer add an anesthetic, the dilation is too large."
"What?" She was confused. "No, Catherine, I can't do that! I need pain medication!"
"And I need the delivery to go without complications; otherwise your husband will fire me." The doctor smiled. "Seriously Regina, if it was possible we would add it but now it's too late. Believe me, you don't need either an emergency caesarean or a dozen other complications that may come up if we do this."
"Well, I had..." the Queen began.
"You had a different situation." Catherine turned, looking expressively at her.
She mimicked locking her lips shut and throwing the key away.
"It won't be for long." The doctor continued, turning back to Regina. "You need to push through only a couple of hours and then we will give birth."
"No!" She shook her head. "I can't! I need David. When will he finish?"
"I'm afraid it won't be soon." Madisson sighed. "I don't know what kind of patient he has but they called in a neurosurgeon additionally to David, which is always a bad combination with a traumatologist."
"No." Regina repeated. "I can't give birth without him. Do something, stop everything! He will be free and then we will give birth."
"Regina? Are you okay?" Katherine looked into her eyes.
"Am I okay?" She threw herself up, sitting up abruptly in bed. "It hurts me and every minute it gets even more painful! And I need to tolerate "just a couple of hours!" Alone! While my husband collects someone in pieces! I feel great! Better than ever! I don't know how but you have to stop everything!"
"Sshhhh…" The Queen crouched next to her and hugged her. "Honey, you're not alone. I'm with you and I won't go anywhere. But this is really not going to work out this way. You need to calm down. Get a hold of yourself. Yes, everything is not going exactly as you planned but there's nothing to be done."
"Everything is going completely wrong." Regina sobbed, lowering her head on her shoulder.
"That may be so.", her sister agreed with her. "But now is not the time for tantrums, now you need to take care of your daughter."
"She's right.", Medisson said. "You need to calm down. Adrenaline inhibits labor greatly and affects the baby badly."
"Catherine, we can handle it." Mrs. Gold turned to her.
"Okay, I'll come back in half an hour." She nodded, appreciating her conversationalist's look.
"I can't." Regina breathed, digging her nails into the Queen's hand, clutching her tightly.
"Of course you can." The Queen gently stroked her back. "What is her name?" She asked waiting for the contraction to end.
"Whose?", she asked, catching her breath.
"My niece's.", Regina said.
"Avital." Her sister smiled.
"A beautiful name." The Queen continued stroking her back and shoulders. "Did David suggest it?"
"Yes." Regina nodded. "He really wanted to name his daughter that way. That was the name of his beloved grandmother. Esther's name was chosen by her mother but I agreed to Avital. You and I don't have any beloved relatives." She cringed again, resting her forehead on her sister's shoulder.
"Breathe." She slightly increased the pressure. "Tali and I are counting on you. I know how scared you are. But she's even worse and no one but you can help her now."
"I want David to be here." Her sister burst into tears again, hugging her.
"I know, dear." The Queen stroked her hair. "And he wants it too. But we also all know this is impossible. Instead of shedding tears, better think about how Tali is going to be so proud of her dad. Her dad is the head doctor of the best clinic in New York and the youngest head doctor in the country. Not many of her friends will be able to boast for the same achievements coming from their parents. Yes, he is like a rock star!"
"You know, I'm starting to get jealous." Regina laughed through her tears.
"The main thing is that you have already begun smiling." She smiled back. "Now it will be easier to get yourself together and calm down. You can give birth to this girl. You've been waiting for this for so long that just a few hours is simply nothing. I know in how much pain you are. But you need to try to get distracted. Stop panicking, close your eyes, take a deep breath and think about how you are going to pick her up in your arms."
Upon entering the house, the Queen noticed that her daughter's boots were still standing in the hallway. Having passed through the living room and glancing along the way to the kitchen, she went upstairs to the nursery and, to her surprise, didn't find Charlotte there. Opening the next door to their bedroom, she stopped at the threshold, looking at her husband and daughter with a smile. Gold was sleeping over the blanket, in a T-shirt and gray household pants and Charlotte as well, at his side, wrapped in a plaid, which usually lay in her bed. She looked at them for a while, leaning against the lintel and then she nevertheless went to the bed and carefully lay down next to her husband, so as not to wake her daughter.
"Good morning.", she whispered, kissing his temple.
"Oh, mom returned." He opened his eyes and, reaching out, kissed her neck.
"I see that not all children were taken to the kindergarten." The Queen nodded at her sleeping daughter.
"She flatly refused." Gold shrugged. "She said she wanted to sleep. And I understand her."
"And Gideon?", his wife inquired.
"Gideon has an important deal today." Gold smiled. "He and Kevin will exchange their Hot Wheels and Gideon is expecting to bargain for some very rare colors. So he woke me up half an hour before the alarm clock and we rushed to the kindergarten at its opening. How is Regina? Is she all right?"
"Yes." She laid her head on his shoulder. "We have a niece now. Look." She took the phone from her pocket and, flipping through a few photos, handed it over to Gold.
"Is this a filter or does she really have such blue eyes?" He looked at the photograph on the screen.
"She really does." The Queen confirmed. "And she is actually blonde. If I hadn't attended the birth, I would have thought that they had the baby replaced." She grinned.
"You know, you too were blonde in your childhood." Gold remarked, enlarging the photo.
"Really?" She squinted at her husband. "I don't remember that."
"That was in early childhood." He gently patted her hair. "You got dark pretty quickly. And there is no doubt at all. Even without being present, it is safe to say the child wasn't replaced. Look, she has David's nose. It is already obvious."
"Well, yes.", the Queen agreed.
"What did they call her?" Gold inquired.
"Avital.", Regina answered.
"That's pretty. And the girl is pretty as well." He returned the phone to his wife. "We need such a girl as well." He hugged the Queen with his nose buried in her collarbone.
"With David's nose?", she asked with irony.
"No, I would still like one with my nose." Gold grinned. "Well, with yours as an option too. But such blue eyes would not hurt us, for a change in our family." He ran his hand first down her thigh and then up, climbing under her skirt.
"Perhaps.", the Queen agreed, snuggling up to him and kissing his neck.