"No thank you, I don't want porridge!" Charlotte pushed her plate away from her and frowned. "And in general, mother promised that today she would prepare breakfast for us."
"Well, that would be the same oatmeal." Gold smiled, pouring himself coffee.
"Well, yes." the girl agreed. "But anyway, I wanted mother to have breakfast with us."
"Mom doesn't feel very well." He sat next to his daughter and stroked her hair. "She needs some more sleep. Eat your porridge and then we'll go at the cinema. And after that we'll cook dinner together. Aunt Regina and Uncle David are coming tonight."
"And they will bring us presents?" Gideon, sitting next to him, perked up.
"Off course.", his father assured him.
"Will Esther come?" Charlotte was enthused in turn. "Say she will come!"
"And Esther will come." he nodded.
"And what will we be watching at the movies?", the boy asked.
"That'll be up to you." Gold smiled. "Finish your breakfast and we'll have a small competition."
"Hey, how are you?" Gold sat on the edge of the bed and, bending over to his wife, carefully kissed her temple.
"Give me a couple more hours and I will come back to life. Probably." Regina answered without opening her eyes.
"Maybe you want me to bring you something?" He gently stroked her hair.
"No, I don't want anything." She leaned her temple against his palm. "Here, hold your hand like that."
"Massage it?" Gold clarified.
"Try it." She barely shrugged.
"Listen, you probably can have at least some kind of pain medication, right?" He asked after a while.
"It won't help." the Queen grimaced. "I already tried. Medisson says a headache is kind of like a morning sickness. Will be gone in the second trimester."
"And what does she suggest?" Gold asked hardly restraining his irritation. "Simply to endure a daily headache for twelve weeks? You know, I think we should change our doctor."
"There are far less than twelve weeks left." Regina said conciliatorily. "Don't be nervous, otherwise your head will also hurt and you still have to entertain the children. For the next few hours for sure. Where are they, by the way? You and I are both here and the house is quiet. This is very strange somehow."
"They're assembling puzzles.", her husband answered moderately.
"Wow!", the Queen admired. "And how did you achieve this?"
"Very simply." Gold smiled. "I said that the one who is the first to assemble their puzzle will choose the cartoon we will watch at the movies today."
"And between which ones is the struggle going on?", his wife asked.
"Between Transformers and the new story of Rapunzel."
"Well, I hope this new story will be fascinating." The Queen grinned.
"You don't even doubt the leader." Gold said. "I don't know how fascinating it will be, I personally plan to sleep during it. We have been having fun here since six in the morning. I need to take a break."
"Perhaps." Regina agreed. "I'll sleep a couple more hours too. What time will Regina and David arrive?"
"Maybe it's better to cancel everything?" He looked doubtfully at his wife.
"Are you crazy?" She finally opened her eyes. "After they, following us, canceled a trip to the islands to still celebrate Christmas with us, it will be very impolite. And for what reason should we do this? I will be in shape by the middle of the day, everything is fine."
"Well, you understand that they will come with the children." Gold began. "With all their children.", he emphasized. "Including Henry. And I do not want him to grate your nerves. You already feel unwell, no need for him to torture you all evening."
"Come on, stop it." His wife stroked his hand. "We can survive one evening in a year. And honestly, since David appeared, you and I have nothing to complain about. He does a great job with him. So we are already free from all our obligations. Once a year we can welcome David and Regina together, along with their boy now."
"He's unpredictable." He shook his head. "We haven't seen him all year, we've only heard about his successes from Regina. No one knows what we can really expect from him. And you don't need any extra stress."
"Rumple, everything is fine." The Queen took his hand. "I'm not sick, I'm not dying. I just have morning headaches. And Henry seems to really have changed a lot. Just listen to Regina when she talks about him. She is all glowing. Compare this with what was a couple of years ago. He went to college and a year later even received a scholarship. Can't we be hopeful?"
"Apparently, David is a good father." He looked at her palm, slowly stroking it with his thumb.
"And that's good." She sat up and hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Henry finally got the family he always needed. There is Regina, who loves him, and David, who loves Regina and is ready to take care of her son. Now we can be calm for both of them and ourselves too. And you no longer need to perform several roles at once, now you can just be his grouchy grandfather, who he sees on holidays. Everything else will be taken care of by David."
"Grouchy?" Gold pulled away from his wife and looked at her, slightly narrowing his eyes.
"I said this as an example." She lay back on the pillow.
"Dad! I've finished already!" Charlotte ran into the bedroom. "Come on, I'll show you."
"Well? What did I say?" The Queen smiled.
"Mom, come with us to the cinema too!" The girl climbed into bed and lay down next to her mother.
"Another time, honey." She stroked her baby girl's hair. "Today I need some more sleep. When you come back, you and I will bake a pie, okay?"
"Okay." Charlotte agreed. "I love you." She reached out and kissed the Queen.
"And I you." She smiled, kissing her daughter in response. "Go show dad your puzzle."
"Mom is cooking lasagna." Gideon concluded as he stepped into the hallway, sniffing.
"Seems like it." Gold agreed. "Help Charlotte undress and I'll go see how mom is."
He quickly took off his shoes, took off his coat and went into the kitchen.
The Queen stood by the stove, stirring apple slices with syrup in a frying pan.
"What are you doing here?" Gold went to his wife and hugged her from the back.
"Most likely I'm cooking dinner." She reached out to kiss him.
"There's no use." He kissed her back. "Go lie down. I'll do everything."
"It seems I have come back to life." The Queen turned to her husband. "Where have you been for so long?"
"Well, we went to the cinema, then walked around a bit and then went to the cinema again." He put his arm around her waist.
"That is, in the end, there were no losers left?" Regina specified.
"None left." Gold confirmed. "But we watched the story of Rapunzel first, so Charlotte still got her prize."
"Did you have a good sleep?" She laid her hands on his shoulders.
"No, this plan failed." He rubbed his cheek on her arm. "Every time I hope that they will just watch the cartoon but every time they go like this: "Oh dad, look !""
"Well, it's good that you don't lose hope." The Queen grinned, kissing his nose.
The children, simultaneously appearing in the kitchen, started speaking.
"Mom, can I have lasagna?"
"Mom, you promised that we would make a cake when we arrived!"
"You can and will." She looked up from her husband and switched her gaze to the children. "Come here." She nodded to Charlotte. "Look: now the apple syrup will turn into caramel and we'll bake the tart taten. Get the dough out of the refrigerator; we'll roll it out now."
"What about the lasagna?" Gideon recalled.
"Dad will cut a piece for you now." Regina turned back to her husband. "And for me, he'll grate a couple of lemons on the smallest grater."
"Well, here we go." Gold sighed. "Maybe we can do without it this time?"
"Work hard!" The Queen smiled. "You just offered to cook dinner all by yourself."
"I wouldn't grate lemons for it." He nevertheless unbuttoned the sleeves of his shirt and rolled them up to his elbows, looking around the cabinets and trying to remember where the grater was.
"Uncle David! Aunt Regina!" Gideon and Charlotte raced to the entrance hall upon hearing the bell. "Can I open it?! Can I?!"
"Only mom and dad open the door, you know that." Gold, going to the door, gently removed the children from it. "And you always need to see first who is behind the door, okay?" He looked into the peephole and opened the door.
"See? This is Aunt Regina and Uncle David, as we said." Charlotte said and immediately rushed to hug the Mayor.
"Hi, baby girl!" Regina squatted and kissed the girl on the cheek. "Hello, Gideon!" She reached out to the boy standing next to her and hugged him.
"Is Tali sleeping?" The boy looked into the sling on the Mayor's chest.
"As you can see." She smiled.
"She's so tiiiiny!" Charlotte continued.
"You were just the same recently." Regina patted the girl on the shoulder. "We have a whole bag of presents for you, yes?" She turned to her husband who was standing behind her.
"Hold on!" He leaned over and handed to the siblings some large shiny packages.
"Wow!" Gideon peered into his. "It's such a huge track! Will you help me assemble it?" He looked at Stern.
"Well, I don't know if I can do it." He smiled. "But I think Henry definitely can."
"You are early." The Queen appeared from the dining room. "I thought you wouldn't arrive before eight."
"We can go for a walk." The Mayor shrugged, looking at her sister with a smile.
"Oh, no." She went up to her and kissed her on the cheek. "You won't leave here before tomorrow morning. David." She reached for Stern.
"Hi." He stroked her shoulder.
"Where are your older children?", the Queen asked.
"Inspecting the Christmas lights and decorations in your yard." Stern waved his hand vaguely. "Very impressive, by the way."
"Yes." The hostess smiled. "Papa was on a roll this year."
"Well, see, everyone likes it." Gold kissed her on the cheek. "You're the only one that grumbles about it being too elaborate."
"I've already agreed with everyone." She stroked his hand. "Oh, and here are the children!" She nodded, looking over Stern's shoulder.
"Esther!" Charlotte rejoiced. "Will you play with us today?"
"Of course!" The girl in the gray coat who entered the hallway, smiled at the little girl. "I haven't seen you for only two months and you have grown so much already!"
"Let's go, I'll show you our new game room!" the little girl was enthused.
"Let's go." Esther agreed.
"And take Henry with you." Stern pulled up his stepson, who was standing on the threshold. "Here, a young man needs your help with a racing track." He smiled at the teen.
"No problem." Henry cast a quick glance at Esther, who, having removed her fur coat, straightened her hair. "Regina, grandfather." He kissed both of the Golds. "I'm so glad to see you!"
"Yes, we are too.", the Queen answered automatically and she and her husband looked at each other, bewildered.
"The bedding is all in there." The Queen opened a cabinet at the guest bedroom in front of Regina. "Choose yourself what you like best. There is one big blanket, there are separate ones. You can generally figure it out yourselves."
"We'll try." The Mayor smiled, hugging her sister by the shoulders. "Thank you for the dinner."
"Thank you for coming." She hugged her back. "Do you have everything for Tali?"
"Yes." Regina nodded.
"Good." The Queen breathed. "Of course, with the current state of my memory, I haven't prepared anything for her."
"It's alright." She kissed her sister. "You should go to bed too."
"I still have to check how the children are."
"Don't worry about them, our children will lay them down." the Mayor assured her. "Did you show them their rooms, by the way?"
"Yes." She nodded.
"Then you don't have to worry about anything else, rest."
After kissing her sister and wishing Stern good night, the Queen went down to the living room, carefully glancing into the nursery on her way, where Henry and Esther were reading a story with two roles to Charlotte and Gideon. Gideon was already asleep and Charlotte looked with interest at the readers, who obviously enjoyed reading as much as their listeners. Henry read for Prince Charming and Esther for Snow White.
In the living room, she sat on the sofa by the fireplace, next to Gold, who was slowly sipping cognac.
"What a wonderful miracle, huh?" He hugged his wife, still looking at the fire.
"Well, I can already see the reason for this miracle." She leaned against her husband.
"Truly?" He looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Can't you see it yourself?" Regina was surprised. "He is in love with Esther and is struggling to make a good impression on her father. The light of true love revealed his true face." She laughed.
"David is unlikely to be happy about this." Gold twirled thoughtfully his glass in his hand. "This is clearly not the boy he would like for his girl."
"Esther has her own mind." The Queen shrugged. "And she will decide for herself anyway."
"Technically, she is his sister." Her husband remarked.
"Step sister by marriage.", Regina retorted. "So nature isn't an opposing factor to anything here. And whether David will resist this, depends on Henry and Esther. Although, frankly, I don't see the same enthusiasm on her part. But who knows. Maybe this will make Henry work even harder. So what will happen next - we'll see."
"We'll see." Gold agreed.
He unfastened his waistcoat and comfortably sat on the couch, clutching his wife.
"You know, we still have a little time until morning when I turn back into a pumpkin." She slid a hand over his stomach, hugging him. "We should take advantage since our many children are busy with each other."
"Perhaps." Gold ran a hand through her hair, tucking a strand behind her ear. "Come here." He pulled her by the chin and gave a gentle and long kiss.
"Here or at the bedroom?", the Queen said looking up at him.
"Here." He sat her on his lap. "And at the bedroom. And maybe somewhere else along the way..."