Regina was terrified of what was to come. She had mentally prepared herself for the worst in the short time she had. The small smirk on Gold's face suggested he had something to say that he knew she wouldn't like, and the fact that this would involve her daughter made her feel physically sick. She held Emma closer to her and Henry placed a protective hand against his blonde mothers shoulder. The family huddled together and prepared to find out how their newest member came to be.

"Very well." Gold spoke in smarmy tone. "Firstly tell me what you know? Or at least what you think you know." He addressed both women but Emma spoke up first.

Emma spoke as confidently as she could trying her best to hide the quiver in her voice "I know that I got pregnant while I was the dark one, I know that she wasn't conceived by conventional methods and I know that she has magic." As she spoke her hold on her daughter tightened unintentionally.

"Do you know what components are needed to create a magic baby?" The impish looking man addressed Regina.

"Everything we found suggested sacrifice, a life for a life and strong magic." The brunette answered her former teacher with an annoyed frown; she wanted him to just get on with sharing the information rather than turning the whole situation into a learning event. He was certainly taking too much pleasure in knowing more than they did.

"Correct dear."

"But I never tried to get pregnant intentionally and I definitely didn't sacrifice anyone. Did I?" Emma asked doubting herself.

"But you did dear. You sacrificed yourself."

"What?" Emma asked in confusion.

"You sacrificed yourself for Regina. You gave your lightness. You were willing to give your life for hers. You made the ultimate sacrifice. You just didn't pay the price."

"We have saved each other multiple times. By that standard we should have dozens of babies running around the place." Regina cut in.

"I don't understand how that resulted in the conception of a baby?" Emma didn't believe what the man was saying. She wanted too, she really did but Elizabeth being her and Regina's biological child seemed far too good to be true.

"When you took the darkness from Regina you connected on another level. It was an act of true love, the most powerful magic of all. Your combined magic, plus the dark one magic, plus an act of true love no power could ever be greater."

"Elizabeth, she's mine too, biologically?" Regina realised exactly what the man was saying. He was saying that their daughter was a product of true love, of her and Emma's true love.

"Can you not feel it?" He asked knowing full well Regina must have known on some level the biology she shared with her child.

"I love her, I feel a strong connection to her but she's my daughter. I feel the same with Henry. Biology doesn't make you a parent." Regina looked at her son with a loving smile.

"It's not about biology dear. It's about magic." The man said elatedly "The moment she came into the world I felt her magic. At first I thought it was Emma, and then I thought it was you. But I was wrong it was her, she's powerful. Without a doubt the most powerful being I've ever encountered."

"Does she have dark magic?" Emma asked reluctantly, feeling overwhelmed by all the information she was still trying to process but needing answers.

"She has the potential for darkness just like all of us but for now she just has magic. It's hard to predict what the future holds. She is not only the product of true love she's the daughter of both of you. You have strong magic and on top of that Emma was the dark one at conception. She will have powers like no other."

"She's just a baby." Emma said sadly looking at the wiggling baby in her arms. Her heart broke that her daughter would have so much power and inadvertently the burden of the responsibility that came with it.

Regina tightened her grip on Emma and placed a hand protectively on Elizabeth's back. "She doesn't have darkness now?" She asked and looked at the man with a determined demeanour. She would do anything in her power to give her baby the best life possible.

"No but she has the potential. She's already using her magic and she managed to transport me over the town line with no teaching. It seems she has a natural flare for magic even without any teaching."

"As she grows we will teach her. We will help her understand the dangers of magic. We will guide her to light magic. We will support her and love her and give her everything she needs to stay good." Regina spoke passionately.

"Be that as it may the potential for darkness will never go away." The impish man said with a smile on his lips that made Regina's blood boil.

"But neither will the potential for goodness. She will have something none of us had growing up, the unconditional love of her parent, her family." Regina eyes filled with tears as she spoke. "Thank you for the answers Rumple. I'm sorry that Elizabeth sent you over the town line." She added quickly not trusting herself to not cry

"That's quite alright. Next time I'll be more careful around the little mite. It seems you've got yourself three white knights deary" he said as he walked towards the door, Belle followed behind offering a thank you and 'bye' to the Swan Mills family.

Later that evening once Henry and Elizabeth were in bed Emma and Regina cuddled on the sofa.

"So today was an eventful day." Emma said with a small yawn.

"That it was dear. I'm a little overwhelmed with it all to be honest."

"Me too." Emma replied placing a kiss on Regina's cheek. "I'm incredibly happy though. That she's yours."

"Me too I can't believe it. I accepted a long time ago that I would never have a child, but thanks to you I have two, two incredible beautiful amazing babies that mean the world to me."

"I think they get that from me, the incredible, beautiful amazingness." The blonde teased with a smile.

"I believe that may be the truth." Regina said capturing Emma's lips in a sweet kiss. The kiss lingered and Emma tried to deepen it and attempted to pull Regina closer.

"Emma I have a confession to make…" she said against Emma's lips before breaking away from one another and looking at Emma, she bit her lip nervously. Unsure of how Emma would take her news.

"Go on."

"I think I know the reason you got pregnant. It was my fault."

"I think we established that you knocked me up Regina." Emma smiled at Regina, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"No, what I mean is… you didn't intentionally try to get pregnant did you? You didn't want to be pregnant."

"So?"

"When I felt the darkness taking over, I tried to fight it. I thought about all the good things in my life. I tried to ground myself. I thought mainly about Henry, my friends, my family and you. I thought of when Henry was a baby. How much I enjoyed being a mother I saw his first step, his first word, his first day of school. Being a mother is the greatest gift I have ever been given."

"And you're the most amazing mother."

"Let me finish. I didn't mean to but I think that maybe I subconsciously wished I could have that again and when I thought I wouldn't make it I thought of you and I wanted it for you. I hoped you got a second chance to raise a child. That one day Henry would have a sibling and you would both be happy."

"Wow, you did a lot of thinking in those few seconds."

"It didn't feel like a few seconds for me. It felt like an eternity, I was determined to hold onto what I had left for as long as possible. I'm sorry that took the choice away from you. That I took your free will away."

"Hey. I love you. I love Henry and I love Elizabeth. I know I didn't plan on having another baby. But having a baby with you, sharing this experience with you, I wouldn't change it for the world. I may not have chosen to get pregnant but I have never been happier in my entire life than I am right now and that's all down to you."

"You promise."

"Yes I promise. She was the greatest gift I've ever been given and that's all down to you. So please don't be sad about it. Maybe on a subconscious level this is exactly what I wanted. What I needed to be happy."

"But you had to birth her and deal with all the pregnancy symptoms."

"And you looked after me. You saved me Regina. I was in a dark place and you pulled me through. You supported me through the pregnancy, you were there for her birth. You loved me."

"I do love you. More than I ever thought possible to love anyone."

"Good because I'm not going anywhere."

The pair went to bed and held each other tightly. Neither wanting or willing to let the other go and when the baby woke in the night Regina retrieved her while Emma got comfortable and prepared to feed. Regina placed the small child into Emma's arms and settled herself in against Emma's shoulder.

Regina watched the baby feed in awe, her baby, her flesh and blood. She wondered what the girl would look like as she grew. Would she look like Emma or would she look like her? She tried to stop herself but her tears fell.

She saw Emma notice and placed a kiss on the blonde's lips to silence her. "Happy tears." she reassured.