Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any of its characters. This is a work of fiction.
A/N: An AU, what if story that shakes up the plot of season 2. This idea has been floating around my head for a while now and I finally decided to post it. I'm not sure on the rating. For now, there won't be anything too graphic. My apologies for any grammar mistakes. I am curious to know what you think. Happy reading!
The events of this story center around Emma and Snow's fall through the portal to the Enchanted Forest. Before and after they return.
1.
Before
Something changes during the night. A small, fleeting pull of magic lures Regina from her dreamless sleep. Yet, as quick as it comes, it goes and she is left alone in the cold and quiet, dark of her mansion. The small analog clock beside her bed reads the time as 6:19. It could be day, or it could be night. Her black out curtains are pulled tight and there is no light peeking out from under them. She thinks it is morning. The days are a mashup of abbreviated days of the week and numbers on a calendar that she no longer bothers to read. She realizes quickly, though, that it is a Tuesday and she promised Henry that she would have a late lunch with him after school at Granny's.
It has been a little over two months since the shepherd prince—or David Nolan, or whatever the hell he wants to be called—appeared on her doorstep with a sword to claim his grandchild, her son. Regina regrets letting them leave without a fight. She misses her son terribly and has cried herself to sleep every night since. The mansion is not the same without Henry living in it. She doesn't have the luxury anymore of watching him sleep, the rise and fall of his chest helping to calm her spiraling nerves. There are no more tears left.
She spends the better part of the morning, once the sun comes up, with her head in the toilet, knees aching against the cold, tile floor of her bathroom. It is the first time in twenty-eight years that she has been sick, and it should concern her, but she chalks it up to her body punishing her for not eating a decent meal in a week. Or drinking on an empty stomach and not having a decent meal in a week.
Somewhere in her house, a phone rings but she makes no move to answer it. Not while she's rinsing her mouth out with mouthwash.
"What?" Regina answers the phone beside her bed in a harsher tone than she intends. But it's been a rough few weeks since Emma broke her curse and the most phone calls she gets are threats from the dwarves. She has yet to back down.
"It's me," comes Henry's voice on the other end. The unmistakable sound of David Nolan's truck engine vibrates in the background. She whispers his name, and a smile pulls at her lips. Henry gives her an uh huh in response. "We're not having school today. A gas leak or something. Grandpa David and I are going to have breakfast at Granny's instead. Wanna come?"
"Yes, Henry. I would like that very much."
Since Snow and Emma have been gone, Regina and David have settled into somewhat of a co-parenting routine. He still has a long list of restrictions, but he allows her Saturday or Sunday visits with Henry. Never a full weekend. And while she's not complaining, glad that she gets to spend some time with her son, she can't help but wish Henry were doing those things willingly and not at the behest of his grandfather.
As much as she wishes it were just she and Henry, she'll count it a victory that she didn't have to wait five days from her last visit with Henry to see him again.
When she makes it to the diner, she sees David sitting alone in a booth near the window. His shoulders are hunched as he stares down intently at the smartphone in his hands. He looks more like a sheriff today than a shepherd in a blue flannel shirt and jeans. Not the best look in the world but she's seen him in worse. David waves her over like she is incapable of making her way over without him flagging her down.
"Good morning, Regina," he says and when her mouth opens to ask about Henry, he answers before the words can spill out. "Henry is in the bathroom."
Regina nods and settles on, "Good morning, shepherd."
This is the first time she's physically seen him in a month. Most of their conversations have been clipped phone calls about Henry. He doesn't provide her with any details on his work as sheriff. Now that Emma is gone, the work falls solely on him. Nor does she provide him any details about what goes on in her office. Unless it will have adverse effects on Henry.
She clears her throat and turns her attention to her menu. Every time she visits Granny's—which is more often than people think—she orders the same thing. But anything is a welcome distraction from the shepherd's blue-eyed gaze.
"Hey, mom," Henry says and slides into the booth beside David. "You came."
Despite the unwelcomed third party, Regina enjoys her breakfast with her son and the shepherd. Henry rambles on about a history project that's due at the end of the month. He asks to borrow a few books from her study to help him prepare, to which she agrees. Tells him that he can stop by at any time to pick them up. Henry makes a joke about libraries, and she laughs. Actually laughs for the first time in a long time. She lets herself relax, loses herself in the normalcy of it all.
The wolf ruins her mood.
"How far along are you?" Ruby asks as she clears the table. Luckily, Henry had run off with a friend a few minutes ago and David…she couldn't care less where he went. He left his jacket, though, so she knows he'll be back.
Regina, mid sip of her black coffee, sputters and nearly chokes getting the liquid down before she responds. "I beg your pardon?"
"You forget what I am," the young waitress rolls her eyes. "A random trick of the trade. We can tell when one among us is with child." When she fixes the girl with her best Evil Queen glare, she adds, "I can smell you."
Regina laughs. "I don't know what you're talking about, wolf."
"See you later, mom!" As if on cue, Henry bounds into the diner and marches over to their booth. He wraps his arms around her in the briefest hug they've ever shared then slings his schoolbag over his shoulder and exits the way he came.
"Don't worry," Ruby winks. "Your secret's safe with me."
Ruby walks off, stopping to talk with David, who has reappeared from God knows where, before disappearing into the kitchen. Regina places enough cash on the table to cover their bill and leave a tip.
"Regina, wait up!" She glances over her shoulder at David as he jogs to catch up with her but keeps walking as she digs through her purse to fish out her keys. Lunch had been pleasant, only taking one sour turn when he and Henry brought up Jefferson's hat and getting Emma and Snow home soon. Henry has gone off with a friend and was currently laughing with said friend near David's truck. There is no reason for David to be following her.
"What do you want, shepherd?"
"I want to talk to you," he says, matter of fact. "We haven't talked about…what happened."
"There's nothing to talk about," she scoffs without turning around. "It was a mistake, and it won't happen again."
She continues walking. Cursing herself for parking as far away as she did. He follows, of course he follows.
"Regina, I'm sorry."
She stops then and when she turns, she does not expect him to be as close as he is. There is about three inches of space between them. David's hands are at his shoulders, palms facing out toward her like that alone would stop their collision. With venom on her tongue, she spits out, "For fucking me?"
He blushes at her crassness. "For leaving after. That wasn't very—"
"Charming?" She rolls her eyes. "Did you expect to cuddle all night?"
"You are a real piece of work; you know that right? I'm trying to apologize."
She nods once. "Is there anything else? There are things that I need to see to at the office. Will there be anything else?
She turns and climbs into her car before he can respond.
Back in her mayoral office, she shoves her purse into the confines of one of her desk drawers and distracts herself with work.
Not even ten minutes later, she slams down her pen in frustration and sifts through the drawers for her purse. Forgetting that she placed the purse in the closest drawer to her right. The wolf's inept declaration has not left her mind in the last few hours.
"How far along are you?"
Regina grabs her keys.
She is glad that the teenage cashier avoids eye contact with her as the places the pregnancy test on the counter for purchase. Somewhere in her vault, there is a potion, or a spell stowed away, but she promised Henry that she would not use magic and she intends to keep it. Plus, she would prefer to pee on the stick and wait two to five minutes than gather any ingredients needed for a spell. She pays for the test and shoves it deep in the confines of her purse, not even bothering with a bag or a receipt as she exits the store.
A fleeting pull of magic.
It does not concern her that she has neglected her nutritional needs since her son was taken from her. It does not concern her that she has consumed more wine before bed in the past week alone than the last twenty-eight years in this town. It concerns her that if—a very strong if— the wolf is right, then the father is the shepherd turned prince.
Head in the toilet.
She laughs when she looks down at the plastic stick and two small lines stare back at her. Her laugh turns into something of a sob or whimper at the irony of it all. This is all Emma Swan's fault. Storybrooke's savior. A product of true love. The only thing strong enough to break her curse. No, she only has herself to blame.
She takes her anger out on the woman staring at her through bathroom mirror. Hits the glass once, twice, three times. Pain sears through her knuckles but the glass stays intact. The woman doubles over in defeat, hand pressed against her stomach.
What a fucking mess she's made.
After
The first thing Regina sees when she opens her front door is David's back as he retreats. A small part of her revels at the fact that she has just missed him; delighted that she does not have to go to sleep angry after another bitter fight. But a larger, more rational part of her, cannot just watch him go. So, she steps out onto her front porch, the cold biting into her bare feet, to ask him why he's here.
She has spent twenty-eight years in this house. Knows every nook and cranny from each end of her property. She can walk it blindfolded if she so chooses to. Which is why it comes as a great shock that she stubs her toe on something hard and nearly tumbles forward after the shepherd. Regina bites her lip to stifle her scream and tastes blood. A strong arm grips her forearm as David is right there to stop her from falling.
It is a rocking horse that nearly causes her demise. A dark, pine wood, sanded and smoothed and polished to near perfection. Complete with a padded cushion for sitting and pint size handles near the neck meant for small hands to grab on to. A plain little thing but it only makes her love it more. This is the only gift she has received thus far.
"David?" She pulls her gaze from the horse to the man still holding her arm. He lets go of her arm and shoves his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, putting a few steps between them. "Did you make this?"
He nods. It's an olive branch, she knows. They have been at each other's throats for the better part of a week now. Arguing about anything and nothing. Their arguments reared to an ugly head not even twelve hours ago when he went under a sleeping curse to save his family. Regina has yet to see her former stepdaughter since her return. And she wonders if the only reason that he's here is because he had the conversation with Snow. The one where he tells her that he got the Evil Queen pregnant.
"I wanted him to have something from me." David doesn't know the gender yet but declared their unborn child a boy on a random rainy afternoon sitting across from her at Granny's. How's he doing? He'd asked with a nod to her stomach.
Regina nods, one hand pressing into her lower back and the other rubbing smoothing circles on her ever-growing stomach. The baby has not given her a moment of peace since she absorbed Rumple's spell at the well. "T-thank you, David. It's nice."
David's response is a single nod of the head. He turns to go but she stops him again. "Would you like to come in?"
David carries the horse into the mansion because she can barely lift a laundry basket without being winded these days. Plus, the tiniest exertion of her magic drains her physically for days. All of her magical efforts going in to protecting the small human in her womb. Rumple didn't mention that in his lessons, she thinks with a roll of her eyes. Anything extra is overkill. Which is why she hadn't bothered to answer the door when David knocked earlier. She had been too comfortable on the couch.
She decides that the living room is the best place for the rocking horse for now. The nursery is mostly done, thanks to Henry's enthusiasm to decorate it. But if she walks up those stairs now, she's not coming back down.
David tells her that Henry is driving Emma and Snow mad with questions about the Enchanted Forest when she asks about him from the kitchen. Regina hums a response as she closes the refrigerator, beer in hand. His alcohol of choice. She returns to the living room with the beer and the small white envelope she snagged from beneath the apple shaped magnet on the fridge outstretched to him.
"Thank you," he says about the beer. And she tells him to just open it when he raises an eyebrow at the envelope. David grins like an idiot when he reads what's inside.
"Told you it was a boy."
Regina rolls her eyes but smiles despite herself. She has known for quite some time now the baby's gender. There was a moment early in her second trimester that she just knew, sensed it through their shared magic. She winces as the baby boy offers her a swift kick to her ribcage. David asks her if she's okay and she blinks at him in response. He moves the conversation to her appointment on yesterday. He has yet to come with her to one and she thinks he's too afraid to ask her to join.
"Dr. Whale says that he's doing well," as much as she hates the man, he is the only certified doctor in this town other than the one dwarf. It helps that the nurses at the hospital know what they are doing. "On track to be about nine pounds and four ounces."
"That's a big baby, right?" David asks. Neither of them, mostly him, are well versed in labor and delivery in this realm—or their realm for that matter. She read one or two books but skipped the nitty gritty parts since Emma had already gone through the hard part with Henry.
"Have you seen yourself, shepherd? You're huge."
David laughs.
It has been twenty-eight weeks since she woke up naked and stiff on her living room floor. Shivering despite the throw blanket haphazardly thrown about her. David long gone and the remnants of their time together dried on her skin. She had not expected him to stay, nor did she want him to. They had both achieved the release they sought. She had been so reckless. He had been so rough. All of their pent-up anger and frustration and hatred rearing its ugly head as he fucked her on the floor of her living room.
They are not friends. Had not been planned on becoming lovers. Not that you can call what they did loving. It doesn't count if it only happens once. Regina offers him a small smile and it's a sad excuse for one. Because it hits her suddenly; there was no love that went into the creation of this child.
"Regina, are you okay?" David asks.
Regina shakes her head but doesn't say anything more. And David doesn't press her.
She doesn't ask him about his conversation with Snow White. And he doesn't ask about her mother who may or may not have slipped through the portal with his wife and daughter. For the first time in a long time, they enjoy each other's company.
A/N: Shall I continue?