Epilogue

Leaving the hospital, Snow backtracks and takes the long way out through the arboretum to be certain that no patient enjoying the autumn sunlight on this unseasonably warm afternoon needs a hand returning to their room before she heads for home.

She speaks to two patients, both of them pushing IV poles as they make the lap around the small garden. Satisfied that both are well enough to be left to their own supervision, she turns to leave once more, and breezes right passed a familiar face. Stopping belatedly when recognition sets in, she turns on her heel and approaches the bright blue metallic bench and the woman seated there; who is clearly lost in thought.

"Regina?" She inquires quietly and receives no response until she reaches out and gently touches her on the shoulder; unintentionally jolting her out of her own private reverie and causing her to slosh tiny rivlets of hot coffee out and down the back of her hand courtesy of the drinking spout in the plastic lid that covers her cardboard cup.

Silently opening her mouth in response to the heated liquid, Regina grimaces and quickly tosses the offensive cup into a nearby trash receptacle as Snow snags a clean tissue from the pocket of her jacket and apologetically blots steaming moisture from the back of her hand.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. I don't know where you were just now, but it must be someplace far and away. You didn't even hear me speak."

"Sorry, what do you say?"

"I was just trying to get your attention. Are you out here waiting for your sister? I saw you here last week too. She must be getting close."

Soft, wry laughter quietly escapes Regina as she shakes her head. "Not today. I was here yesterday with Zelena. She's almost two weeks past her due date and trying everything she can possibly think of to induce labor. She's sick and tired of being pregnant; she's too big to drive herself and her magic's out of order."

Snow nods with obvious concern. "She's lost her magic?"

"No, not lost, but it's not uncommon to have issues with it; especially in the last trimester. Mine went more than a little bit sideways during my last six weeks of pregnancy. I unintentionally blew up the coffee pot one morning. Our powers are tightly linked to our emotions."

Snow nods again, familiar with motherhood. "And emotions tend to be a bit erratic when the simple act of taking a deep breath makes you uncomfortable." Homing in on a missing tidbit of information, she asks, "Zelena's not here today?"

Regina shakes her head again.

"Well then, what brings you here? Are you feeling alright?"

"Came in last week for some tests. I came back today for the results. I'm perfectly healthy." She announces dryly.

Snow squints in response to the stale, arrested demeanor of her onetime nemesis turned friend. "Well, you don't have to turn cartwheels, but given that fact, I would think that a small smile might be in order. We had lunch together on Tuesday. Why didn't you tell me you were having tests of some sort?"

"No need to say anything. Not until I make up my mind."

Snow continues to squint. "Make up your mind about what?"

Regina sighs. "Never mind. You can relax. It's nothing for you to worry about."

"Uh-uh, I don't buy it." She quick-steps to the other side of the bench and helps herself to a seat eyeing Regina with determination; silently making it perfectly clear that she's not going anywhere. "You're sitting out here on a public bench in the hospital garden half a step away from catatonic. What's up? Spill!"

Regina rolls her eyes. "Don't be so dramatic. I'm not anywhere near catatonic. I'm just… preoccupied."

"Yeah, uh huh, that much I know. Tell me why?"

Regina sighs in moderate exasperation. "I don't suppose it would do any good to tell you that it's none of your business?"

Snow offers her a plucky smile. "Nope, not a bit!" She rolls her wrist in the air invitingly, a dramatic flourish that silently tells Regina to get on with it.

Regina groans. "God, you are annoying!"

Unbothered, Snow chuckles softly and whispers loudly. "Not the first time you've told me that. Those words lost their shock value a long time ago."

Regina glowers. "You're like the stray puppy who's been fed one too many times and you just won't leave!"

Snow nods. "So, if you know that, why don't you just tell me and get it over with."

"Ugh, fine! But I don't want the whole town talking about this before I decide what to do. You cannot tell anyone!

"I won't tell a soul."

Regina stares at her hard and bites back the dark retort on the tip of her tongue. "You remember a few months ago when Eliana tried to get rid of her baby brother?"

"God, how could I forget?"

"Well, he was with me long enough for Robin to come down with a serious case of baby fever."

In rapid-fire succession, Snow squints, shrugs, and then smiles brilliantly. Practically squeaking with the effort to remain quiet, she queries, "You're pregnant?"

"No!" Regina hisses.

"Oh well, don't get discouraged. Especially not if the doctor says you're healthy. It's only been a few months."

"Will you please calm down! We aren't trying - yet. I made Robin promise me he would take the time to seriously think it through. I wanted to make sure it wasn't just a fleeting impulse brought on by the whole belly swapping charade. At first, I thought that was precisely what it was, but it's been nearly three months. Zelena is overdue and it's still on his mind."

"Doesn't sound like a fleeting impulse to me. Sounds like he's pretty serious."

"So, I've noticed. I told him that if it didn't pass, I would at least go to the doctor and find out if it was even still a possibility. Weil says I'm fine but that if we're serious about having another, the time is now. At my age, the longer I wait, the greater the number of potential complications."

"Is that what you're worried about? Complications?"

"Not really, no."

Snow is silent as a stone for several long moments before she quietly asks, "Do you want another baby?"

"Not really, no. But Robin does, and he's such a good dad."

Snow nods understandingly. "Yes, he is, but having a baby is hard enough even when you want one with all your heart."

Regina nods. "I know I'll fall head over heels in love with any child we have. It's not that. It's just, I'm so busy. I'm tired. And I think I have finally gotten Norah to the point where she can almost be trusted to dress herself - with the exception of her socks. And he wants to start all over again at square one – diapers, bottles, teething and midnight runs to the drugstore for baby aspirin."

Snow chuckles as she squints. "What's wrong with Norah's socks?"

"If left to put socks on her own feet, the girl insists on wearing mismatched socks."

Snow laughs. "I'm pretty sure all three-year-olds do that- especially little girls It's socially acceptable, in fact, stores even sell deliberately mismatched socks now, Regina."

Regina squints. "I never did that."

Snow squeezes her hand affectionately. "You probably wanted to, but Cora wouldn't have let you. She was a social-climbing royal harpy with a stick permanently inserted in her uptight derriere."

Regina bites her lower lip and covers her mouth to keep from laughing and when she can't quite manage it, she smacks Snow hard on the shoulder and glares at her ominously.

Snow shrugs. "Did I lie?"

When Regina's quiet laughter finally dries up, she admits, "I'm afraid not."

"Okay, so what's the big deal? You don't dress her like some sort of antique porcelain doll - the way Cora dressed you when you were her age."

"Hey, you dressed that way too!"

"Yes, but the difference is, I wanted to. Nobody forced me. Simplify your life. Let the girl wear mismatched socks. The world won't come to an end. I promise."

Regina raises an eyebrow. "And, if Cora decides to haunt me?"

"Then we'll find a way to banish her narrow transparent ass!"

"You're feeling saucy today, aren't you?"

"You just now noticing? What are you going to do about Robin?"

Regina shrugs even as her eyes widen in response to the question. First, I need to go home and talk to him about it, let him know what the doctor said. Then, unless he's changed his mind… I guess maybe it's time to consider repainting the nursery."

"Really?" Snow stares incredulously.

"What? I'm not overjoyed about it, but it feels right. It's not like Robin is an emotionally detached, uninvolved, workaholic dad who never has time for his children. He's very hands-on with the kids, and it's not like he can do it by himself. This is one thing he literally needs me to do for him. And, he never turns away when I'm in need. If he knows I want something, anything, it doesn't matter what it is, he finds a way to get it for me. It's wrong of me not to even consider it."

"Sometimes, Regina, I forget just how far you've come. There was a time… the woman you used to be would not have done anything she did not expressly want to do; especially not something as major as having a child. You wouldn't have even considered it. Not for anyone."

Regina shrugs. "Robin is not just anyone. My life was easier back then. This is harder, frequently more painful, and sometimes it's downright maddening, but this life is a life worth having. And, he's at least partially responsible for the difference."

"Well, I'm on board no matter what you decide. Do it. Don't do it. Either way, need somebody to talk to, need somebody to listen, you know where to find me."

Nodding, Regina takes a deep breath and squeezes Snow's hand before rising to her feet. "Come on. Walk me to my car."

Struggling to get up, Zelena wallows in place for a moment on the edge of the sofa trying to find just the right momentum to get herself to her feet despite her heavily overdue belly.

She makes it to her feet just as her husband enters the grand parlor, and he laughs, mesmerized by her despite her own insistence that she's not fit to look at these days when she places both hands against her severely swollen abdomen and growls in frustration. "Will you please come out! I don't know what you want from me. I've tried hot sauce, I've tried sex, I've tried exercise, yoga, uterine massage, aromatherapy, cold showers, warm baths, acupressure, and even Mozart. Nothing works! And you cannot live in there forever because I can't see my feet anymore. Mummy misses her pretty shoes, and I'm tired of feeling like a big fat slug. So just come out… Please!"

"Darling. Just be patient with him, he'll come when he's ready."

In response to his overly patient tone of voice, his wife throws the book she was reading at his head and only narrowly misses.

Holding his hands up, palms out, Hades approaches cautiously and rubs his wife's belly with affection. I understand you're happy where you are. I don't blame you, dear boy, but you need to come out of there before Mummy's aim gets any better. Too much more practice and I'm going to be black and blue before you get here."

She glares in hostility at the deity she married and stomps from the room.

Two days later, she magically pops over to Granny's for a bowl of pea salad and a roast beef sandwich with horseradish sauce. Stepping out of the diner with her carry-out bag, she spots her sister seated at a patio table alongside Snow and Emma. She shuffles over as Regina glances her way.

"Still waiting, I see."

"I do not want to talk about it! I seriously think this kid is protesting his own birth!" He's staging some sort of bizarre prenatal sit-in!"

Emma squints. "His sister did move him around an awful lot. Maybe he's just happy to be back with you; doesn't want to leave."

"At this point, I'm almost ready to move him around myself."

The conversation pauses as Granny steps out the door to deliver Snow's lunch order. Picking up on the topic, the geriatric wolf in human form offers age-old wisdom. "A watched pot never boils. Stop waiting for him and he will make his grand debut just to get your attention. If that doesn't work, try some adventurous sex."

"Been there, done that, no fireworks."

"Well, there's your problem, wicked one! It's not just the sex, it's the orgasm. Tell Dad he's doing it wrong. Some men need a little coaching."

More in response to Zelena's horrified look than in response to the old woman's candid advice, Snow clears her throat to avoid choking on a swallow of herbal tea and presses a napkin to her mouth as her face goes slightly pink.

Zelena holds her hands out to stop anymore unwanted colorful advice coming her way. "Mea culpa! Poor choice of words. When I said, no fireworks, what I meant was, no baby. Trust me, my husband doesn't need coaching." She turns to her sister. "Wasn't Norah a few days past her due date?"

Regina puts down her soup spoon and shakes her head. "Two days early. Try skinny dipping."

Snow and Emma both turn their eyes to Regina and then, in turn, they stare at each other silently wondering if they heard correctly while Zelena stammers, "I, I beg your pardon! I look like a beached whale! You're suggesting that I go outdoors, in full view of the rest of the world, take off all my clothes and go swimming in the buff?"

Regina squints, at a loss for understanding. "Zelena, it's not as if you got fat from sitting in front of the TV eating a ½ gallon tub of Haagen Dawes every day. You're pregnant, you have nothing to be ashamed of. And it doesn't have to be in full view of the rest of the world. Pick some secluded place where you'll be comfortable, where you'll have some privacy. Swimming provides low-impact exercise." She offers her sister a malevolent smile. "Take Hades with you."

Zelena shakes her head as Emma and Snow continued to stare at her sister. "Why is everybody suddenly so concerned about my sex life. You do understand, that's how I got this way!"

Regina rolls her eyes. "Fine, don't go skinny dipping. Don't you have a huge Jacuzzi tub in that new house of yours? Use it! Turn the jets on and select the strongest water pressure you can comfortably withstand… What?" She sets down her water glass with the demonstrative thunk. "Why are the two of you staring at me?"

Emma smiles and wags a finger in Regina's general direction. "We're just a little confused. That's all. I don't think I ever expected to hear you, Regina, Queen of the Enchanted Forest, with all your tailored conservative pantsuits, advocate for something as free-spirited and uninhibited as skinny dipping."

Regina shrugs, and calmly returns her attention to her lunch as the diner's owner speaks up once more.

"Just because a woman is dignified and ladylike does not automatically mean she's a prude."

Emma shakes her head. "Oh, I didn't say that. That's not what I meant at all, but I guarantee you, if any one of the townspeople finds our mayor skinny dipping late one night by the light of a full moon… they will swallow their own teeth!"

Bev shakes her head and tosses the dish towel in her hand over her shoulder as she returns to the front door of the diner, calling back over her shoulder. "That's the trouble with you young pups, blondie. You have no imagination. You think everything that might require a smidgen of privacy occurs under cover of darkness and is reserved for the young and beautiful. You never stop to think; sometimes carnal things happen between the more heavily seasoned; between the wise and venerable… and sometimes they even happen in broad daylight. Isn't that right, Madame Mayor."

Regina chuckles softly. I'm not sure you can legitimately get away with calling me venerable, or even wise, for that matter; but some of the best carnal encounters I've ever had have happened in broad daylight." She turns to her sister. "Do you want to sit down?"

"No, I'm going to go home before my sandwich gets cold." She tries to magically transport herself back to the villa, and instead, she flickers in an out of sight like a grainy picture on the static-filled screen of an old black and white TV.

"Would you like me to take you home?"

Zelena's only reply is to growl in frustration, lift her face to the sky and bellow loudly, "Hades!"

Within seconds, he shimmers into view; casually walking their way. "Yes, my queen?"

She slaps her hand into his, grumbles, "Home!" and as the two of them disappear from sight, Snow comments quietly, "Now, that is one hen-pecked god."

Emma glances around the table incredulously before speaking, "Wait! All she has to do is wail like a disgruntled harpy and he hears her from… how many miles away? Shows up within seconds, and provides her with divine taxi service? Where do I sign up?"

Regina wipes her mouth with a paper napkin. "Emma, I think the price of admission into that particular club involves the incubation and nurturing of divine children."

"On second thought…"

Snow turns her attention to Regina once more. "Speaking of children, are you going to bring Norah and Roland to the school tomorrow night, or are you going door to door this year?"

"Norah did attend the festivities at the school last year, but she was really still too young to understand. This year, that's not the case, and Roland is determined to take her out trick-or-treating. Robin is busy right now turning the old carriage house on our property into a haunted shack. Henry is helping him, and I'm concerned that they may be going a little overboard. I'm afraid they're going to make it a bit too scary for the little ones."

Snow's eyes light up. "He's doing the whole haunted house thing? And you're okay with that, given the modern-day perversion of All Hallows Eve?"

Regina shrugs. "Sure, they're having a blast setting it all up, but, I did tell Robin that if I saw even one representation of a hideous hook-nosed old crone with a pointed chin or whiskery warts, I would file for divorce. Zelena is very much in favor of conical hats and broomsticks. Which is fine, both items have their place in magical history."

Snow chuckles. "But you boycott wizened old crones?"

"That's one of those modern-day perversions you mentioned. When was the last time you actually saw a female witch who would allow herself to look like that? I mean, if magic doesn't work for you, there's always Clinique's Anti-aging serum; this world's version of magic in a jar."

"I hate to break it to you, but the last time I saw a decent example of that cliché, I am pretty sure I was looking at you in disguise - never mind how many years ago."

"Umm-hmm. That was Rumpelstiltskin's doing."

"Why am I not surprised."

"Well, I've got to run. I've got a few quick errands to take care of before going back to the office."

Waving goodbye, she leaves them and rushes through errands she doesn't really have time for on her way back to the office. Once there, she quickly hangs a garment bag on the coat rack on her way to retrieve the transmission rolling out of her fax machine. Realizing it's nothing that requires her immediate attention, Regina places the pages in her inbox and steps back to the coat rack to remove the three costumes nestled carefully inside the reusable garment bag.

Princess Tiana's mother, Eudora, is an accomplished seamstress and her work brings a smile to the mayor's face. Regina holds up the two costumes meant for her children and quickly declares them more than satisfactory for the price paid. Eliana's costume is done with no more care or skill than the others, but it came at an unmistakably greater cost. Eyeing the ensemble with wonder, Regina sighs heavily in disapproval.

Italian silk for a costume that a four-year-old is going to wear for maybe three hours and, chances are, it won't fit her this time next year. She'll never wear it again after tomorrow night; except maybe to play dress-up. Hopefully, she can at least get some repeated use out of the extravagant hair accessory that complements the ensemble; the one that was shipped all away from a jeweler in Boston and overnighted to the post office here in Storybrooke. Regina would find it entirely appropriate if it were Eliana's first formal appearance at a ball or cotillion, but she is not being presented to society in the hopes of one day securing an advantageous marriage for the good of a kingdom. it's a Halloween costume for a preschooler! Shaking her head, Regina sighs again, returns the garments to the bag, and returns to her desk and the next thing waiting for her on her to-do list.

The next evening her father is seated at the kitchen table perusing the newspaper as she uses metal tongs to remove fragrant golden-brown treats from an electric kitchen kettle that contains bubbling hot organic olive oil. She glances up when the back door opens, and her sister crosses the threshold followed by her husband and in the process of reprimanding her redheaded child, who is clad in an ornate empire-style floor length Grecian tunic made of Italian silk and complimented by leather sandals.

"Elia, honey, that is enough! I am tired; my back hurts. Adjust your behavior or, I promise you, we will turn around and go home this very minute!"

The child growls at her mother as she stomps toward the kitchen archway. "Then you go home! I'm going upstairs. I'm going to play with Norah until we leave!"

Dropping the sizzling spring rolls onto a ceramic platter covered in paper towel to absorb the excess oil, Regina forces a smile onto her face and patience she doesn't feel into her voice, as she calls over her shoulder. "Hello, Eliana, nice to see you. Norah is in her room. Please check your attitude at the door before you infect her."

Already halfway to the spiral staircase in the great room, Eliana growls again.

Regina laughs quietly and shakes her head. "How does a body that small contain that much venom."

"Runs in the family." is her father's mumbled and nearly inaudible reply.

"Did you say something, Daddy?"

The elderly king nods cordially in greeting to their visitors as he lowers his newspaper. Speaking more clearly, he announces, "I said, the quick tempers run in the family. So do the pleasing figures, the awe-inspiring magical abilities, the devious minds, the penchants for style and elegance, and the great cheekbones. Every single one of the Mills women is breathtaking to look at and in possession of a temper more volatile than a heat-seeking missile. The girl can't help it; it's in her blood."

Caught between equal parts flattery and truth, Zelena grimaces and Regina smirks while Hades chuckles softly and sets his daughter's small overnight bag down on the end of the bar before he squeezes his wife's shoulders with affection and helps guide her to the comfort of a kitchen barstool.

Tempted by the heated aroma in the air, Zelena immediately chooses to help herself to a still-steaming, crispy indulgence from the platter. When she bites into it and instantly drops the uneaten portion back onto the platter to avoid burning her fingers as she inhales deeply around the bite of hot food, trying desperately not only to cool the food but also to avoid the humiliation of spitting it out, Regina snags a small section of paper towel from a nearby roll with the quick flick of her wrist, holds it in front of her sister's mouth and whacks her soundly on the back between her shoulder blades; causing her to cough up the morsel of searing hot food before it can do any further damage to the inside of her mouth than it already has.

"Ohh, hot, hot, hot!" Zelena covers her mouth and moans in chagrin as Regina quickly retrieves a glass from a cabinet and pours her a serving of cold milk.

Handing it over before she even bothers to put the gallon jug back into the refrigerator, Regina lectures, "Did you see me using tongs to take them out of a vat of sizzling hot oil thirty seconds ago when you walked through the door?"

Zelena nods behind her upturned glass of milk and drains dry it before speaking. "I wasn't thinking about it. They smell so good. The baby wanted one. What are those?"

Regina squints. "You've never seen spring rolls before?"

"Not any that didn't come from a deli package already fried and in need of a quick reheat. What's in them?"

"Lean pork, shrimp, organic shredded cabbage and carrots with a pinch of turmeric and curry."

"They're scrumptious. Where did you buy them?"

"I rolled them myself. Robin likes them."

"How domestic," Zelena says drolly. "I didn't think you cooked that much."

"I don't. He does most of the cooking, but I'm looking for some new recipes; trying to find substitutes for some of the red meat in his diet."

As Regina drops two of the delicacies onto a dessert plate and sets them on the table in front of her father, Hades squints in confusion. "Why does he need to eat less red meat?"

Zelena rolls her eyes in response to her husband's uninformed question. "Because honey; he's mortal."

Hades tips his head to one side. "That's too bad. Guess you'll be outliving him, Regina."

Annoyed almost as much by the prospect, as by his crass willingness to point it out, Regina carefully uses her fingertips to snag another steaming spring roll from the platter and shove one end of it into her brother-in-law's smug mouth before he has time to step away.

"Ow!" He protests loudly in response to the unexpected assault. Glowering in same the instant that the minor injury self-heals, he fumbles the hot food, repeatedly tossing it from one palm to the other as Regina offers him a self-satisfied smile. "Trick or treat!" She sings in dark victory as her husband steps into the room chuckling softly in response to the scene he's just witnessed from the kitchen archway.

"You don't really need me to remind you that she's evil; do you Hades?"

"That won't be necessary."

Robin shakes his head in amusement as he approaches and drops a light kiss on Regina's lips while he reaches into the cabinet over her head and extracts a plate for himself. With his back to them, Hades and Zelena don't catch the disapproving look Robin quietly shares with his wife when he says "I hope it's okay with the two of you. The girls are upstairs swapping hair accessories. Eliana decided she likes Norah's flowers better than what she arrived wearing. They've solicited Henry's help in making the swap. We'll make sure you get hers back when we drop her at home tomorrow."

Zelena raises a curious eyebrow in surprise. "Henry helps Norah with her hair-styling needs?"

Regina chuckles. "Henry's a good big brother. He does pretty much whatever she needs him to do. Of course, it doesn't hurt that he's completely wrapped around her little finger. I swear, she's part con-artist. He knows it, and still, he caves every time she flashes her smile."

"And my little angel is still trying to find ways to give her younger brother away before he's even born!" Zelena grouses.

"That's at least partly because your two are so close in age. Henry's nearly fifteen years older than Norah. By the time she arrived, he was too mature to be threatened by the new baby in the house. She does squabble with Roland on occasion."

Zelena smirks. "Has he ever tried to put her up for adoption? Yesterday, the little goddess informed me, and not for the first time, that if we wait until after he's born and drop our son off at a fire station, nobody will get in trouble, and the nice firemen will find him a good family to live with!"

Regina laughs freely, "Oh man! Of all the things she could have inherited, she had to claim your sense of sibling rivalry! You better hope she doesn't attempt to put him in a basket bound for a faraway land. She's likely to send him to the other end of the rainbow to live with the leprechauns."

"Hey, that's not funny!"

Regina nods with self-certainty. "Yeah, it kinda is!"

Forcing a tight smile, Zelena leaves her barstool. "Okay fine, laugh at my expense. I don't have to stay here and take this. We have reservations at Breaker House tonight and Hades gave me a new shaved ice maker."

Regina squints. "A new one? Already?"

"Burned the motor up in the last one."

"Maybe you need an industrial strength one."

"Can't help it. It's like the baby woke a dormant volcano somewhere inside me. At least I'm not in the underworld anymore. Between the normal temperature down there and the baby, I was starting to feel delirious."

Stepping close, Regina places a gentle hand on her sister's belly. "Hey, Your Royal Eminence, you need to come out of there. Daddy might be, but Mummy is not naturally flame-retardant."

Zelena waits for a noticeable beat. When there is no response to her sister's words, she shrugs and sighs in defeat. "Apparently, he doesn't listen to you any more than he listens to me."

Regina walks them to the door. "He will be here soon enough. Then you'll be wishing he was back in there, so you can get a few hours' sleep."

Standing on the back porch, Zelena says over her shoulder, "Oh no I won't! I hardly sleep now. Hades gets to stay up with him the first week he's officially here. As soon as he's born, I'm going to sleep, and I just might stay asleep for the whole first week. If he's not born this weekend I'm going to let Dr. Weil induce Monday. He offered last week. I didn't want to, but I can't take another week of this."

Regina waves as the couple steps off the porch. "Try to relax and get some rest. You're going to need your strength."

When she steps back into the house and closes the door Robin asks, "She's going to let Weil do what… Induce?"

Regina nods and explains for his benefit as well as her father's. "He'll give her medication that will bring on labor."

"Can he do that?"

"Here in this world, yes."

"Safely? I mean, I don't know everything there is to know about this, but I'm not so sure it's a good idea to start messing with what is supposed to be a natural process. What if there's a reason he's not coming out? What if he's not ready yet?"

Regina nods. "There is usually some possibility of a miscalculated due date; human error being what it is. That's why I declined when Weil asked me about the possibility of induction a few years ago with Norah. She was a few days earlier than expected, but nowadays, they ask all the questions early and try to set a plan in place prior to the birth. But, as long as there's not a life-threatening problem with either the baby or the mother, I say leave the child in there and let nature take its own uninterrupted course. However, Zelena is already well past her anticipated due date and this is not a normal pregnancy. Her discomfort is not comparable to that of a normal pregnancy. She is beyond miserable. Furthermore, even if this were a typical pregnancy, with a normal mortal child, she's fast approaching the point where complications will arise. I hope that baby makes up his mind to show up sometime in the next day or two before they do induce her labor. I have no personal frame of reference, but according to what little I've read on the subject, medically inducing labor usually makes it harder on the mother than if it occurs naturally, and she's already got an atypical labor to look forward to. The last thing she needs is a medication that might make it more intense than its already going to be."

The conversation pauses when Henry trots into the kitchen and helps himself to a bottle of water from the refrigerator. Since he's present, Regina drops a few spring rolls onto a plate and hands it to him without comment.

"Thanks, Mom!"

Ready to leave the room as quickly as he arrived, Regina's oldest child stops short when a pint-sized goddess with a wreath of lavender and lilies atop her head, a charismatic archer, and a bright-eyed wood nymph with two diamond-studded 14-karat gold combs nestled securely in her dark curls suddenly appear in the archway, noisily wanting to know if it's time to go trick-or-treating yet.

Shaking his head, Henry announces, "Man, you guys really don't get the concept of Halloween. You're supposed to dress up as something scary, not fictionalized versions of yourselves."

Eliana rolls her eyes. "I don't wanna be scary. I wanna be pretty!"

Henry steps sideways, sliding past them in the doorway and announces drolly, "Mission accomplished."

"Huh? What does that mean?"

Regina smiles at her young niece. "He was telling you that you do look pretty."

Eliana smiles and twirls herself around happily. "Oh, okay."

"Come on troops, let's head out. Everybody got their treat pails?"

They each hold up a small metal pail that's been hand-painted to resemble either a jack-o-lantern, a black cat, or a ghost, but Norah complains. "We can't go yet. You need a costume, Mama."

"Oh no, I don't. If I follow your examples and go dressed as a fictionalized version of myself, as Henry so eloquently put it, the townspeople will run screaming into the Atlantic!"

Roland giggles. "Na uh, Regina"

With a trace of laughter in his voice, young Henry calls out from the next room. "Better let her go as she is, Ro. It'll take her an hour to get into one of those royal get-ups of hers. Besides, she's scary enough as the mayor."

"Young man, do you want me to lock you in a dungeon with no pizza and no PlayStation for a solid month!"

As if he's issuing a reminder, Regina's son returns fire. "You don't have a dungeon in this realm, Mom!"

"Would you like me to conjure one… Because, I assure you, I can!"

The trio of happy children giggles as Henry sidesteps the question. "Bye, Mom. Have fun with the munchkins."

Chuckling softly, Regina quickly kisses Robin goodbye. "We'll see you later at the carriage house. Don't scare the little ghouls and goblins too badly. And Daddy, when you run out of candy, turn off the porch lights."

On her way out the back door, she picks up the flashlight sitting at the ready on the end of the kitchen table and gently lectures. "You three stay together. Stay where I can see you. If you run off, if I have to search for any one of you, I will make the three of you hold hands for the rest of the night."

Regina's trio of treat seekers wrinkle their collective noses as if they'd been threatened with a fate worse than death and then march through the door single-file, within easy reach of each other, but being very careful not to touch.

Seated with her date at a cozy table for two adjacent to a magnificent glass wall that overlooks the peninsula on which Breaker House sits and the turbulent Atlantic below, Zelena peers out into the darkness watching the waves pound relentlessly against the seaside cliff courtesy of candlelight and sparkling cider. When she feels his gentle caress on the back of her hand, she realizes that she's momentarily checked out without meaning to.

Turning her gaze to meet his, she smiles.

"Hello, and welcome back." Her husband teases gently. "Where've you been, my love?"

Sorry, I guess I got pulled away ocean watching. It's mesmerizing."

His eyes sparkle in the glow of romantic lighting. "I'll bet in rough weather those mesmerizing waves touch these reinforced glass walls."

Zelena squints doubtfully. "You think?"

He nods with quiet certainty.

"Hades, this hotel is sitting on a cliff. We're 100 feet above sea level; at least.

He nods again. "Yes, and the floor of the observation deck of the adjoining lighthouse is another 100 feet up. My brothers start feeling temperamental and the storms blow in. Especially when Zeus and by Poseidon are on the outs with their ladies."

Her laughter is music to his ears, "Forget about meteorology reports, barometric pressure, and the moon's gravitational pull on the tides. You're telling me the reason hurricanes form and ravage everything in their paths is that the gods are sexually frustrated?"

Hades shrugs. "Everything you've seen. Everything you're personally capable of, and you doubt me? Woman, you wound me!"

"Aww." Zelena struggles to her feet, leans over the table trying not to overturn anything with her belly, and drops a light kiss on his lips. "There, is that better?"

"All's right with the world again."

She shakes her head. "You are entirely too easy to please."

He raises an eyebrow. "Zelena, my dear, I don't think anybody's ever said that to me before."

"Somebody else better not say it!"

'What somebody else? I don't know anyone else. Nobody else exists anymore. It's just you and me, love. How's the Caribbean chicken dish?"

Smiling, and completely oblivious to the presence of other patrons in the restaurant, she returns to her seat and picks up her fork to feed him a bite. "It's almost divine."

He chews thoughtfully. "Hey, that's pretty go… Oh, my… That will incinerate the titans! How are you eating that?"

Zelena shrugs as she takes another bite. "It's not that hot; it's just seasoned with a few bonnet chilies."

"Not that hot? Zelena! You're gonna give yourself bleeding gastric ulcers!"

Chuckling discreetly, she signals for a waitress and quietly requests, "Bring him a chilled glass of milk." Nodding, the young girl hurries away to the kitchen and Zelena whispers playfully, "My husband, Lord Death, sovereign head of the underworld, love of my life, delicate flower."

He points an accusatory finger as he shields his roasted mouth from view behind a curled fist. "Keep it up, beautiful. See if I feed you any strawberries for dessert?"

"I think I'd rather have the tiramisu tonight."

"Behave yourself and I'll make it happen." He nods in recognition when the young waitress quietly delivers his milk and forces himself to sip discreetly from the glass before asking, "Do you want to visit the observation deck after dessert; see the view from on high?"

She squints in abject uncertainty. "Hades, have you gone completely mad? Why does everybody suddenly feel as if they have the right to push me to exercise just because I'm with child? I don't even like breaking a sweat when I'm not pregnant, and you want me to walk 100 feet up a steep cramped spiral staircase when I'm three times my normal size?"

Hades sighs patiently. "You are not three times your normal size, and I never said a word about you walking up there. I'll gladly escort you."

"In that case, maybe it would be nice."

Afterward, we can settle into our room, and call to check on Eliana if you think they will be done collecting candy by then."

Zelena checks the delicate gold watch on her wrist. "They're already done. My sister seriously monitors Roland and Norah's sugar intake. She won't allow them to stay out there for more than thirty minutes."

Well, maybe it's like the whole limiting Robin's access to red meat thing. Her children a mortal. If too much red meat isn't good for them, I'm guessing an excess of sugar is equally bad."

"Yes, but Eliana would revolt if I tried to limit her as severely as Regina… Well, come to think of it, I don't know that it does any good. Elia says both Norah and Roland have a secret supply of sweets."

Hades chuckles drolly. "If that's true, it's not as secret as they think it is. Trust me, nothing goes on in that house that Regina doesn't know about. She's in charge of everything and everyone; including Robin. I have no clue how he tolerates it."

Zelena offers him a sweet smile and wisely avoids pointing out just how much control she truly has over him. "Maybe he enjoys her being the dominant personality in the house." Quiet but wicked laughter escapes her. "Maybe he's into that."

"She's certainly got the requisite wardrobe. She has more leather and more corsets than you do, and don't get me wrong, there's a time and a place, even for that." He smiles and reaches out to caress her face. "But.."

"I know. She's definitely the head of the household. Call me crazy, but I actually enjoy being the girl in the relationship."

I can't figure out how his merry band of tree-hugging miscreants hasn't accused him of selling out. He used to steal from the rich and give to the poor - not that I'm advocating for that kind of altruistic drivel, but she's the mayor; she's royalty. He pours drinks for a living. Being a kept man would not sit well with me. I need to be able to provide you and the children with the luxuries you so richly deserve. I can't fathom how he doesn't see that as his responsibility; his job as a man."

"It doesn't seem to bother Regina. I mean, he's entirely too unsophisticated for my tastes, but she seems happy with the arrangement."

"Cora would probably set entire villages on fire if she knew precisely how much her daughter has given up just to be with him."

"Oh, she has some idea?"

"You think so?"

"I know so. Before we left the underworld, she used to try to use me as a conduit for information. She mimics her mother. "Zelena, how are you darling? How's your sister? Is she still shacking up with that carriage robbing misanthrope?"

Her husband's jawline suddenly goes hard and rigid as an unforgiving dark light rises in his eyes. "Zelena, darling, why didn't you tell me she was doing that. I would have put a stop to it!"

"it's alright. Believe me, I pay her back. I just smile a take great pleasure in reminding her that her precious queen is living out in the woods in an ancient old barn with a thief who, if it weren't for the fact that time stood still during the various curses, would be considerably younger than Regina. I also may have neglected to mention that it's possibly the most elegantly refurbished barn ever seen by human eyes. Plus, I get a wicked little thrill out of reminding her that they aren't just shacking up; that she's legally married him, and that she's busy raising his less than royal progeny. "

Hades chuckles with sinister amusement. "That's my girl!"

"Regina's lucky Cora hasn't found a way to stage a comeback. She'd have Robin's heart for su… Ow! Oh god! Hades!" she drops her glass of cider and watches the stain spread over the elegant white tablecloth in slow motion as she places one hand on her belly and fists the other; pressing it roughly into the small of her back where a searing pain suddenly erupts.

On his feet instantly, he knocks over his chair and rounds the table to kneel beside hers. "My love?" He watches her eyes go wide with harsh pain and fear. Swallowing his own rising panic, he places a hand gently against her swollen abdomen and his son kicks hard in response to his touch. His worry mounting by the second, he inquires, "Is it labor?"

She nods and then shakes her head. "Not sure… But something's wrong … Shouldn't hurt like this… Not in my back. Not like this last time."

"Okay, hold on." He pushes hair aside and kisses her temple. "We're going right now." He wraps his arms around her and shimmers out of sight leaving restaurant patrons and staff to stare after them.

Hours later, Robin groans quietly in their darkened bedroom and reaches over his sleeping wife's body to pick up the unanswered ringing cell phone on her bedside table.

"Umm Hmm." He murmurs into the phone as Regina stirs beside him. While he listens to the caller on the other end of the line, she slowly comes awake, drapes an arm over his chest, and reaches for the lamp on his bedside table.

Listening patiently to his end of the conversation, she lays her head on his shoulder and waits. When he hangs up the phone, she asks, "Zelena?"

Robin nods as he tosses the blankets aside and leaves the bed. "Doesn't sound good. Hades says she's bleeding and the baby's in distress. They're going to do a cesarean."

"Not good." Regina concurs. Reaching for his hand, she pulls him back toward the bed. "I'll go. You stay here. Sleep. Be with the kids; especially Eliana."

He shakes his head and reaches for the jeans tossed over the back of a nearby chair. "Your dad can handle anything the kids throw at him; even Eliana. I'm going with you."

Quickly stepping into the closet, partially shielded from view, Regina shrugs out of her nightgown and lets it fall to the floor as she searches a drawer of intimate apparel for a bra. "You sure? It could be a long night."

"I'll be ready in two minutes. Want coffee?"

"Yes, but we can get that at the hospital. Write a quick note for Daddy so he'll know where we are."

Pulling a shirt over his head and retrieving his boots from their spot beside the dresser, Robin nods and leaves the room, moving on swift but utterly silent feet.

Stepping into a dress, and reaching for the matching pair of heels, Regina chuckles softly and shakes her head, thinking to herself. "Thief in the night."

A minute later she's rolling her hair into a loose knot and quickly securing it with a clip as she steps into their darkened kitchen. She shakes her head again when she finds his note to her father affixed to the front of the refrigerator with a magnet and scans the scrap of paper in the glow of the recessed light emanating from the ice dispenser in the freezer door. The note reads simply, "We've gone to meet the stork."

As she opens the refrigerator door for a bottle of water, although she doesn't hear his approach, she feels Robin's familiar and capable hands at her back, gently tugging her dress's zipper up into the appropriate place. When he kisses the hollow of her neck, she leans into him. "You still move like a cat."

He's close enough for her to feel the upward curve of his lips when he smiles and whispers, "It still comes in handy."

Letting the refrigerator door close behind her, she turns in his embrace and wraps her arms around him; preparing to magically depart. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Who else are you sneaking up on in the dead of night." She asks standing halfway between their modern breakfast bar and their old-world stone fireplace.

Magically arriving in the waiting area just beyond the hospital's emergency room entrance, he answers. "Nobody but you, mi'lady."

Intent on offering him a quick kiss, Regina moves in closer, coming up on her toes, only to be interrupted when the double doors under a sign indicating the surgical suite swing open and a petite but strident blonde nurse pushes a distraught, combative Hades out through the doors into the hallway.

"You need to let us work."

"She's my wife, damn it!"

"I know that sir, and I know you're trying to help, but every time you touch her you make things worse. Please, you need to just wait here!"

"Like hell! I will not leave her!"

Hades jerks free of the forceful young nurse's grasp and begins to disappear from view; no doubt magically returning to his wife's side when Regina rushes forward just in time and stops him with a firm grip on his arm. Beyond the double doors, she can barely make out the sound of medical professionals talking excitedly; their voices nearly drowned out by her sister's unrelenting screams.

Hades shakes free of her strong grip intent on doing the nurse harm until he turns and realizes an instant before it's too late just who has taken hold of him. "Regina! He roars with as much anguish as rage.

Holding one hand up in a defensive manner she takes hold of him again as Robin steps forward; ready and willing to step between the two of them if need be.

"What's happening Hades?" She demands to know with as much compassion as she can manage while worrying that he's about to annihilate someone.

"They don't want me to touch her! I can't help her! Every time I touch her I make it worse!" He turns to the nurse once more. "I won't touch her anymore, I promise. But I won't leave her alone!"

He turns to leave again, but Regina holds tight. Fixing her gaze on the nurse, she firmly demands, "What's happening?"

The nurse gestures helplessly, "I've never seen anything like this, Ma'am. I don't think any of us have. The baby. He's too much for her. He's too strong. She's hemorrhaging but we're having a hard time doing anything about it because she's also throwing fire."

"It's not her! Hades shouts. "If you would just shut up and listen to me; you moronic twit! it's my son! He doesn't understand what's happening. He's just a baby. He's scared. He thinks you're hurting her. He's just trying to protect his mother."

"Okay sir, we hear you, but how are we supposed to save his mother if he's raising that protective bubble of his and setting everything on fire? I know you were trying to heal her, but that didn't work in our favor. I need to get back in there. So please, do us all a favor, and just stay here."

Regina stops her. With a firm grip on both their arms, she says calmly. "If you have no idea what to do next, going in there and getting yourself incinerated is not going to help anyone; right?"

The nurse nods helplessly.

"Now, Hades, why can't you heal Zelena? What's happening when you touch her?"

"I don't know why I brought her here, to be treated by Frankenstein! I should've taken her to Olympus. But no, she didn't want to go. She wanted to have the baby here, and I just had to let her have her way."

"Never mind the self-recrimination, Hades. That does us no good now. This is where we are now. Focus, please. Answer my question. Wait… Can you take her to Olympus now?"

"No. He shakes his head helplessly. It's too late to move her. I won't leave her."

"Can I go get someone who can help?"

Hades goes still for a moment, willing himself to focus – concentrate - think. At length, he shakes his head. "You could bring the whole family down, I don't think it would help."

"Okay, what would help? What's the problem?"

He gestures with hostility toward the nurse. "She right! She's just guessing, but she's right! He's too strong for her. He doesn't mean to, but he's killing her. And every time I touch her, to try to help, he taps into my power. It just makes it worse for her. I can't help her!" Frightened, angry, helpless tears flow from his eyes unchecked.

"He taps into you?"

"It can happen sometimes along familial lines, It's cal…"

Regina nods, finally understanding the problem. "it's called power-sharing. Sometimes it happens unintentionally between blood-related family, particularly at emotional or critical moments. He's too much god; she's too much human. Every time you touch her, he's co-opting your power, and overriding hers. Bringing more godly powers to the table, all of them related to you, is not going to help the situation."

"No, it won't. Hey…Regina… Can you?" He starts and stops haltingly; hopefully.

She shrugs, already anticipating his question, her mind running along the same track as his. "I don't know Hades. Maybe. Maybe not."

"Why - maybe not."

"Because, yes, I'm related to her, but that also makes me related to him. Different person, but same problem."

"Yes, but you're not godly. If I can share with him, then you should be able to share with her."

"In theory, yes. Maybe he wouldn't tap into it since I'm not a god, and she and I… We're only half relatives. I don't know if that would hurt, or help, in this instance. Maybe he wouldn't tap in. Maybe he would. I don't know. I've never done this before. Not even unintentionally. But, even if he doesn't commandeer my power, we still could have a potentially huge problem. I'm a shadow caster. Zelena is not. She's tired, she's weak, she's terrified. She has no idea how to control shadow casting. It's taken me the better part of four years to get a handle on it, and I'm still not an expert. If she taps into that, in her condition, if she casts a shadow… Well, the word Chernobyl comes to mind."

"She won't. She's not a light practitioner and you have to be capable of both to cast a shadow, right? She's never even used a light magic by itself let alone simultaneously with dark. The first time you used light magic, I'm betting it didn't happen simply because you wanted it to."

"No. It was deliberate. I had to will it, focus on it, give all of myself over to it."

"She's too weak for something like that right now. She couldn't do it even if she wanted to Regina… please. You have to try. I can't lose her." His eyes, his face, his very soul pleads with her.

Regina shifts her attention momentarily. "Robin?" She reaches for his hand.

Lord Death's face contorts in pain and rage. "Why the hell are you asking him? Don't tell me you need permission!"

Still holding Robin's gaze, when Regina speaks next, her voice sounds maddeningly calm to the deity's ears. "I'm asking him because he's my husband. He has a say in this. If this goes wrong…"

Robin stands perfectly still for an interminable second caught somewhere between nodding his head and shaking it as Zelena's anguished screams echo off the walls. With absolutely no desire to do so, he says, "You have to. This is what we do, right?"

She throws her arms around him. Holding him tightly, fiercely, and briefly, she whispers. "I love you." Then, tearing herself away, she takes hold of her brother-in-law's hand and pushes through the swinging double doors at a run.

At a loss for what to do next, Robin shouts, I'll just wait here."

Regina shouts over her shoulder, catching one last glimpse of him. "No, go get Emma! Wake her up! We may need some quick healing; The kind that works faster than Weil's medicine."

Robin shouts again, already moving for the exit at a breakneck pace, "I'll be right back!"

Regina tears down the hallway, running toward the sound of her sister's screams; Hades keeping pace with every stride. He points needlessly, and she veers left and steps over the threshold of an open door into a surgical theater. For a moment, the sight before her steals her breath and stops her heart. The protective bubble as the nurse called it – the magical force field that had protected him from the attacks of the dementors is large enough to almost completely encapsulate his mother leaving only her hands unsheilded. One wrist is free. the other is restrained; cuffed to the bed with the kind of padded enclosures that prevent unstable patients from harming themselves or others. Someone must have been lucky enough to restrain that one before the fireworks began.

Dr. Weil and his nursing staff are crouched low in the farthest corner of the room trying desperately to avoid contact with the wild unrestrained flow of fiery power that emanates from her free palm, she's on her back on an operating table with a curtained divider positioned below her breasts. The lower half of the sheet beneath her body is stained dark red with blood. Surgical instruments are scattered wildly on the floor. The room is overly bright courtesy of the large surgical lamp overhead, and that nearly blinding brightness is made to appear eerie and unholy by the steady stream of flame Zelena has no control over. Her thick curls are limp, lifeless and soaked with perspiration. Her face is pale; nearly drained of color, contorted in pain and anguish, and glistening wet with tears, while her neck is a shade of crimson that conflicts garishly with her normally vibrant red hair.

Regina takes a deep breath and a single second to collect herself before whispering to herself, "Okay, here we go." With nowhere to hide, she approaches cautiously in what she hopes is a non-threatening manner.

Zelena's blue eyes widen dramatically and she stops screaming long enough to focus on her sister before listlessly shaking her head side to side in a feeble attempt to keep her from stepping into harm's way.

"Can't make it stop." She whispers raggedly before wailing again as her body twitches and trembles involuntarily

Still moving slowly, Regina raises both hands, ready to attempt magical deflection if necessary. When she is still six inches away from her sister, she leans forward places one hand on the redhead's shoulder, and the other on her arm just below her elbow. Slowly she moves her own hand toward her sister's wrist until she is able to forcibly lower it ¼ inch at a time and point it away from all living things.

"No. Not you… Can't be here. Leave while you still can." Zelena begs.

Regina smiles and gently pushes sweat-soaked hair away from her sister's face. "Try and make me, Greenie. Hades and I aren't going anywhere. You're stuck with us. Just relax. Relax, breathe, focus on Hades, and let me help you."

"How? You can't. They can't. No one can." She clenches her teeth and screams again.

Regina hisses softly. "Hey, I've had my ass handed to me by furies, the Dark One, Cora Mills, and even you, Zelena. I survived it all. I'm not about to be taken down by one seriously unhappy magical fetus. So, stop arguing and take what you're being offered."

It takes a long moment for Zelena to react when both her sister's hands begin to glow a dazzling white-gold. There's a moment of confusion; a long mental hiccup before the diameter of the baby's magical shield shrinks infinitesimally. It takes several more agonizing seconds before Zelena realizes what happening and what she is expected to do.

She shakes her head again.

Regina counters with a nod of her own and whispers. "Relax, breathe please, and don't fight me. Don't worry about me. You grab hold, take all you can from me. If we can calm him, or at least subdue him, the doctor and the nurses can do their jobs."

"I don't want to hurt him." She sobs pitifully.

"We're not trying to hurt him. We're trying to help him, honey. He just doesn't know that yet. Besides, if he's anything like his daddy, and obviously he is, I'll wager he's pretty damn close to bulletproof."

Zelena chuckles weakly.

"If we're going to do this, we have got to do it now, because… well frankly, you don't look so hot, Greenie. Time is of the essence. You can either waste it by arguing with me, or you can take my hand."

It takes a great deal of concentration on the parts of both sisters, magic working in tandem with determination, but eventually, the steady stream of flames arcing from the redhead's palm does burn itself out. As soon as it does, Zelena reaches feebly for Regina's hand and the younger of the two squeezes gently and waits the longest four seconds of her life before she feels all their resistance slide away as a channel opens between the two of them allowing Zelena to draw on Regina's strength, magic, healing, and the very essence of her life. At first, the flow is tentative as neither sister knows precisely what to expect. Seconds later, when it becomes apparent that nothing cataclysmic is likely to happen, the pull becomes stronger; almost greedy in nature and Regina knows instinctively that the experience will be a costly one. She lets go of her sister's wrist and places her free hand just over the baby's protective field and allows it to glow hovering over her sister's abdomen. All eyes in the room watch hopefully as the magical shield shrinks and slowly begins to dissipate at a frustratingly torpid pace.

Once it finally does disappear from sight several long moments later, a new shift occurs. One Regina hadn't foreseen at all. Without her nephew shielding his mother from all perceived dangers the channel between the two sisters alters itself. Instead of remaining a one-way conduit between the two of them, it opens itself up, creating the possibility for equal exchange and the instant that occurs, Zelena's agony becomes Regina's as well.

Her head throbs. Sounds become amplified. She smells the coppery scent of her older sister's blood. She tastes the bile rising in the back of her sister's throat. Her lungs burn. Her breathing becomes labored. Perspiration breaks out from every pore in her flesh. Her physical strength is all but gone. Her knees buckle, and she leans perilously against the edge of the table. Unimaginable, indescribable pain sears through her back, her hips, and every hidden recess of her femininity. Regina clings to her sister's bicep, just below her shoulder and will herself not to break the connection. In agony, she clenches her teeth and grinds out the only coherent words reverberating around inside her head. "Son of a bitch!"

When one knee nearly touches the floor, Regina senses her brother-in law's reflexive movement behind her. Zelena's eyes widen, she shakes her head erratically, and both women screech hideously and in perfect unity, "Don't fucking touch me!"

Hades stops, momentarily frozen in time, hands outstretched, inches away from catching Regina in a misguided attempt to render aid. Zelena falls silent, and Regina hisses volatility. "I'm connected to her. She's connected to the baby. You touch me, you touch him, and then we're all going right back to where we started. You keep your damn hands to yourself… and somebody, get me a god damn chair!"

When she doesn't detect immediate movement from any direction, she screams in a hard, unforgiving tone of voice. "Now, damn it! Let's go! Move it! Hustle, hustle, hustle!"

Rising to his knees in the corner of the room where he and the nurses took shelter, Weil reaches out and grabs the stainless-steel rolling stool meant for him to sit on during normal deliveries and gives it a hard shove sending it careening in Regina's direction.

When Hades uses a foot to stop it from rolling right passed her, she's caught momentarily between 'thank you' and 'don't touch it!' He kicks it gently and when it rolls into place, Regina collapses onto it, a breath away from toppling over sideways before she catches and rights herself.

Now, with the free hand she no longer needs to support herself, she wipes tears from Zelena's face. "You're doing great. You're going to be fine. Hang on. I'm still here. I might scream a few more obscenities at your husband for you, but I'm not going anywhere."

The redhead almost manages to smile before she lets go of another piercing shriek.

Regina pants heavily, feeling like her empty womb is the guest of honor at a Viking funeral. Zelena wheezes raggedly and Regina orders, "Okay Doc, you're up. Do your thing. Do it right, do a good, do it fast!"

Weil approaches tentatively, as do his nurses. "It's 60 seconds from skin to baby… As long as he doesn't start throwing fire again or try to block our progress."

"Well, what the hell are you waiting for? Let's go! Clock's ticking! The baby is fine now, but if you wait much longer, I'm going to start hurling fire, right at your head and trust me, my aim is better!"

"I'd take her seriously if I were you, Doc."

Regina's head whips around at the sound of an unexpected, but intimately familiar voice. Although she can't manage a smile, she's utterly thrilled to find Robin standing just inside the door along with a sleep-deprived Emma who is clad in pajamas and an overcoat and standing immediately to his left.

"How did you… So fast?"

Robin flashes his grin. "Courtesy of the magic of North Atlantic Bell and Emma Swan. I was bloody well going to run all the way to her house. I made it out to the parking lot before it dawned on me that my cell phone was in my coat pocket. I called. She answered. Twenties seconds later she was standing beside me in the parking lot.

Emma steps forward, eyeing the two sisters with concern. "Who's first?"

Zelena needs everything you can give her - now! Once the baby's out, I can drop the magical link between us, and I should be okay."

"You're linked? Robin didn't tell me that."

Regina rolls her eyes. "Talk later! Help now, blondie."

Emma moves to the other side of the table so that she's facing Regina. Not really certain what is needed or how to go about providing it, she glances at Regina's glowing hands.

Regina nods encouragingly and Zelena watches the two of them as if she is somehow detached from the whole experience; her head and lolling listlessly from one side to the other.

"I don't know if I can do what you're doing, Regina. I'm not even sure what you are doing… or rather, I'm not sure how you're doing what you're doing."

Regina shakes her head. "Doesn't matter right now. You shouldn't try. Trust me, you don't want to do this. She's sinking fast. I can heal her, or I can act as a magical mediator between the doctor and the baby, but I cannot do both simultaneously. He's too strong. Stay away from her abdomen until the baby is completely out. Until then, just try to hold her steady. If you can hold the status quo until he's out, things will be a lot better."

Emma nods and smiles down at Zelena adding fresh low-level, but life-sustaining power to the cause.

Robin steps up behind his wife and rests his strong hands on her shoulders, letting her know that he's there.

One of the nurses looks around the room and shakes her head. "Not one of you in here is properly gowned or gloved, except for Dad. Our sterile field is shot all to hell."

Emma nods. "That's okay. We can fix that later. What we got will put your medical science to shame, lady."

Hoping nothing more is going to go seriously awry, the medical team finally gets down to business. An IV line is inserted. Medicine is finally delivered. A new uncompromised tray of surgical instruments is quickly located, and once the doctor and nurses settle into their familiar prenatal surgical routine, everything happens with mind-numbing speed and precision.

Even as weak as she is, Zelena makes a feeble attempt to pick her head up to peer over the divider hoping to catch a glimpse of her son as he arrives.

Regina blinks deliberately as though she's fighting a war with oblivion, so Emma says for her, "Uh-uh just lie still. Try not to move. You'll see him soon enough."

With people moving around in the room, Hades loses his view of things and attempts to move closer.

As if her arms suddenly weigh 1000 pounds, Regina lifts one finger, points with deliberation and she pants breathlessly; nearing exhaustion. "Stand over there in the corner where she can see you. Do not touch anyone or anything. In fact, put your hands behind your back. You'll be able to hold her soon. Until then, stay out of the way and leave the hard stuff to the women."

With one magical hand hovering at the ready, Regina watches the doctor make the necessary incision. She watches as he retracts skin, and muscle, gently pushing it aside until he's able to lift the baby's head partially into view and carefully cut through the length of umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. As soon as he's completely free, his gray pallor instantly begins to improve, and the nurses set to work clearing his small obstructed airway and nasal passages.

Hades stares at the fat naked baby boy mesmerized and completely in awe while his weakened mother waits desperately; aching to hear her son's first cry. It takes agonizing seconds but just when Zelena is on the brink of hysteria, thinking they didn't make it in time, he squeaks twice and then wails for all the world to hear.

Regina smiles and touches her sister's cheek. "You're done being pregnant, honey. It's over. He's out. He's free and… he's breathing."

Zelena sobs quietly and uncontrollably. As she reaches out for both Hades and her son, Regina lowers the hand providing the magical buffer around the baby boy.

Instantly, the doctor yelps as teal colored flames encircle the child, flowing outward from all around him. "Uh, little help here, Auntie Regina!"

Because the connection between them is no longer needed, Regina releases her sister's hand and quickly places it in her husband's as he already knows that the no touching rule is no longer in effect. While Hades eagerly takes his wife's hand in his and kisses her forehead, Regina quickly leaves the stool, rocks slightly on her heels, not quite yet released from the experience, but even without turning back to look, she's intuitively aware that Robin is near and moving with her just in case she needs his support.

While Emma and Hades quickly set to work healing Zelena, Regina gives her full attention to the baby, renewing her own protective shield that helps to calm and soothe the newborn boy's anxieties over this new place he finds himself in. She smiles down at her new nephew as the doctor and nurses work quickly; eager to hand the child over to his waiting parents.

"Hi there, handsome. Welcome to the world, and I think you've caused enough trouble for tonight. Let's not set the nice doctor man on fire." She moves in sync with Weil and the nurses protecting them from the frightened boy with a gentle shield of pure white magic until they wrap him in a blanket and eagerly hand him over. At which point she wastes no time crossing the room and carefully placing her nephew in his father's outstretched arms. "There you go. You can set Daddy on fire all you like. He indestructible. He can handle it"

She pats Hades on the shoulder, kisses the baby's forehead, and then her sister's. "Congratulations! If you need anything else, speak now. Otherwise, we're all going home." She waits for three beats, when no one speaks up she smiles at Hades. "Goodnight and, if you ever get her pregnant again, I'm telling you now, do not call me!"

Laughing, Hades stands as close as he can to his wife and eases their son gently into her waiting arms. "Look what we did."

"He's absolutely perfect." Zelena marvels at the tiny wonder resting in her arms and smiles around a yawn.

Regina limps out of the room as quickly as her exhausted body will carry her with Emma and Robin close behind and the sound of her sister's tired but happy laughter in her ears. "Hello, my precious boy. Mummy and Daddy are so very pleased to meet you. Happy birthday, Theo."

Concerned by her obviously weakened condition, Emma escorts Regina and Robin as far as their front yard. When they materialize a few feet from the steps of the porch, Regina stumbles slightly and both Emma and Robin reach for her. Tired, and the irritated by that fatigue, she gently shakes free of them. "Thanks for the lift." She says so quietly that it only makes Emma worry all the more. Even her voice is worn out.

In search of his keys, Robin pats either side of his lower torso only to be reminded that he's not wearing his jacket. It's loosely draped around his wife's shoulders and when she reaches into the left-hand pocket and comes up with his keys, jingling them ever so slightly, he smiles and bows slightly like an usher pointing her in the direction she needs to go.

Halfway up the front porch steps and the sudden unsettling feeling washes over her. Inexplicably concerned that she's no longer on solid ground, she turns a slightly, softly calling his name and as he rushes toward her, worry clearly visible in his eyes, oblivion claims her, and she falls into a cold and unwelcoming darkness.

Catching up with her just in time to keep her from toppling headfirst down the steps, Robin turns her in his arms and even as Emma rushes forward, reaching out to offer help, he sweeps his wife's feet off the ground and lifts her into his arms.

"I've got her."

Feeling the rush of adrenaline, Emma breathes deeply; catching her breath before she offers him an eager smile. "Yes, you do. Pretty quick there on your feet. You don't even seem surprised."

Robin shrugs as he steps carefully up onto the front porch and waits for Emma to retrieve his fallen keys. "Not the first time this sort of thing has happened. She thinks on her feet. In the heat of the moment, she's fearless. She gives all she's got. It's not until after a thing is over and done that she surrenders."

Stepping up onto the porch, keys in hand, Emma eyes Regina's unconscious body with concern as Robin lowers himself onto the porch bench with her draped sideways across his lap.

Emma sits down on the bench beside them as Robin gently touches his wife's face. He doesn't lightly tap or pat her cheek; impatiently trying to force her to come around the way everyone else does under such circumstances. He simply touches her… and waits. That very fact lends seriousness and weight to his words. He wasn't joking or exaggerating. It's not the first time that he's done this.

Tired, ready to go home, and obviously no less concerned, but considerably closer to panic than Robin is, Emma gently touches Regina's shoulder and speeds the process along, offering a little general healing as a magical boost.

Once she starts, Emma's consciously aware of time, counting off the seconds in her head. It takes considerably longer than she expected it would before Regina's eyelids even twitch. She murmurs softly, and still, it takes almost another 30 seconds before her eyelids flutter, open, close, and open again. At which point, Regina simply offers Robin a lazy smile.

"I'm cold." She whispers softly "Cold, tired - and really hungry."

"I'll draw you a nice hot bath. While you're in the tub, I'll make you something to eat. You can eat in bed, and tomorrow, you can sleep as late as you want. I'll get Roland and Norah out of the house, take them fishing or something, so they won't wake you."

Regina smiles again and starts to snuggle deeper into his arms until she remembers that they aren't alone. When she realizes that Emma is in the process of providing magical fortification Emma feels an unfamiliar shift in the flow of her own power, as if once it enters Regina's body, it's being manipulated, routed or directed to where it's needed most. Puzzled by this new sensation, Emma squints at her own hand, but except for a flicker of hesitation, she doesn't stop her efforts until Regina sits up straight and begins to rise to her feet of her own accord.

"I'm good now. That's much better. Thank you."

Emma nods. "Need anything else?"

"Nothing Robin can't take care of for me. You should go home. You look whooped."

"Not as whooped as I feel, and I wasn't even the one metaphysically linked to women giving birth to a demigod an hour ago. Did you really feel all that?"

Regina shrugs. "I'm not sure if I felt all of it, but I certainly felt enough of it. Giving birth to Norah was a cake walk compared to that."

Robin chuckles dryly. "Regina, you were in labor with Norah for nineteen hours."

"Yes, I know. I remember. I remember every minute of those nineteen hours, and I'm telling you, that was a piece of cake compared to tonight. I was serious when I told them that I am never doing that again. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I did. But never… ever again! I know - I didn't actually give birth to anybody, but a few minutes ago my body felt like I had."

She turns her attention specifically to Emma. "So, thank you again for the healing. I thought that once I dropped the power-sharing link between myself and Zelena I would be fine. I didn't expect the sensations to linger. Actually, when I started, I was just trying to offer her something she needed. It didn't occur to me that the link between us might flow both ways. Before I started, I never expected to feel what she felt at all. Good thing I didn't expect it. If I had, I'm not sure I would have done it."

Emma chuckles quietly. "Yeah, you would. Regina, in all the time I've known you I've never once seen you run from anything."

Regina nods aggressively. "Even so, if my sister ever manages to get herself pregnant again, you're going to see me do some running - and when I say run; I'm talking leave town!"

Emma smiles. "Okay, if you say so. But tonight, the only place you should go is upstairs to bed, and now that I've said that, I'm going to take myself home to bed.

An hour later, Robin moves Regina's tray from the bed to the top of his dresser and returns to his side of the bed. "I'll clean up first thing tomorrow morning." He says settling in beside her and wrapping his arms around her.

"Fine by me." She smiles sleepily and slides a hand beneath the hem of his T-shirt; resting her cool touch against the warmth of his lower abdomen. She places her head on his shoulder and pulls his arms tighter around herself.

"Still cold?"

She nods.

"Want me to turn the heat on?"

She shakes her head. "Then you'll be hot. Besides, I'm cold but it's not like it was before Emma healed me. I'm okay now. I'm sure it's just my body's way of reacting to the shock. You're warm enough. I'll be fine in a bit."

Robin rests a concerned hand on top of her satin sleep shirt directly over her belly "Still hurting?"

"Not at all. Emma fixed that. I'm just tired. That can be remedied easily enough."

"Need or want anything else?"

Lifting her head off his shoulder, she whispers, "Just you." Before placing a warm and inviting kiss on his lips.

When his brain and his body receive a message he wasn't expecting, he retreats slightly, pressing his head back firmly into his pillow and squinting at her with profound uncertainty. "Really?"

She shrugs. "Why not?"

"Oh, I don't know. Because you went through hell tonight. Because an hour ago you could barely stand on your own two feet."

She purses her lips and nods. "Yeah, but Emma fixed 98% of what was wrong with me. If she hadn't, you wouldn't be getting any for at least six weeks, but she did, and I don't have to stand up – not for this."

Robin smiles "Well, that's certainly true enough, but you're exhausted, Regina."

She smiles and nips gently at his lower lip. "Pretty close. But that's okay. You can do all the grunt work tonight."

"Oh, I can; can I?" He plays with the top button of her shirt, wanting to accept her invitation, but still somewhat concerned.

"I promise, I am tired, but I'm okay, Robin. It's okay. Tonight was beyond intense, I just want…" She shrugs. "You make me stronger, Robin."

He cups her chin in the palm of his hand and whispers gently but adamantly, "You listen to me. You have absolutely no reason to feel weak."

She shrugs again. "Maybe you don't think so, but I do. Ever since you mentioned it a few months ago, I've been thinking that I don't have the energy for another baby. After tonight, I feel lazy and selfish. Having his children could literally kill my sister. Tonight, it almost did. Did you see her holding that baby? With him in her arms, she couldn't have cared less that she nearly died. He's more than worth it."

"Feeling like you'd rather devote your energy to taking care of the children we already have does not and make you lazy or selfish. There's risk with any pregnancy. Yes, more so with the two of them, but they reminded me of that tonight. He nearly lost her. If that happened – if it happened to us, I…"

Regina shakes her head, pulling him closer even as he reaches for her.

Three weeks later, Regina answers the insistent repeated ringing of the doorbell to find her brother-in-law standing on the front porch with a screaming child in his arms. She steps back, allowing him entry and studies the howling baby boy curiously.

Completely mystified, she asks, "What'd you do to him?"

Hades scowls in annoyance. "What makes you think I did something to him?"

Regina gestures at the baby as if it should be self-explanatory. "Well, look at him. Every time I stop by the house to check on Zelena and this little man, he's smiling, and happy. He's normally such a content little guy. The only time I've even heard him fuss is when Eliana takes his pacifier from him."

"Oh, then you've never been around him when Zelena is not there with him? This is what happens if she's not around."

Regina reaches out and scoops the baby into her arms and props his little head on her shoulder. Rubbing his back, she asks, "What's the matter, Theo? Did Mama go away? It's okay. Trust me, she will come back. She's not going to stay away from her little prince for too long. No, she won't. I promise."

She waves Hades into the living room and follows, gently rocking his son. Within seconds, although he still cries, he gets quieter; stops howling.

While Hades helps himself to a seat on one of the lavishly upholstered sofas, Regina paces and rubs the boy's back in slow lazy circles.

"Where is Zelena today?"

"She took Eliana shopping, they're not supposed to be back for at least another hour. It's the first time she's been out of the house for more than five minutes since we brought him home."

Regina smirks. "So, you brought me an unhappy baby?" She retrieves Henry's storybook from one of the room's end tables before she sits down in Robin's favorite leather chair and moves the baby from her shoulder to her lap. She smiles at him and tells him, "Your daddy's silly, Theo."

Theo smiles, his little face still wet with tears, and blows bubbles in his own drool.

Regina holds up an expectant hand and, without a word, Hades easily tosses the cloth diaper that's draped over the shoulder of his custom-tailored suit her way. She wipes the baby's face and chin and settles in; tossing the cloth over her own shoulder.

"Let's see if we can keep you occupied until Mama and Sister return. Would you like that?" Opening the book to the back and balancing it carefully on her knees as she cradles her nephew close to her chest, she begins to read Henry's newest entry aloud in a soft soothing voice.

"He arrived very late on an unseasonably warm Halloween night. His parents, the Wicked Witch and the Dark Lord welcomed him into the world with open arms and happy hearts having decided long before he was born that he should be called Theo; a name of Greek origin meaning gift of the gods…