Unexpected

Snow came to pick up Regina after her set of conferences for half her class that evening. When she arrived, she was greeted by Alina, whose shepherd's pie had been a great hit at dinner. "Hi, Snow! Regina and Mama and Papa are in the den with the twins, they're playing with them on the toy quilt," she told the schoolteacher. The toy quilt was what they all called the triple thick quilt with baby blocks, giraffes, roses, lions, and puppies that Belle had made with Alice, and they put the babies on it and played with them with their toy rattles, soft hand puppets, stuffed animals, and sang silly songs to them, like "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and "Bingo" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider".

Jimmy was busy trying to make some of his pictures into a collage at the kitchen table—it was eventually going to be a gift to Belle and Rumple, a kind of baby gift in a way, even though the collage featured all the Gold children and their parents, not only Dylan and Daria. It also had the Gold pets. "Hey, Mrs. Nolan," he waved at her as he arranged the pictures on a large piece of cardboard before gluing them down.

"That looks very nice, Jimmy," Snow said, peering at the collage.

"Uh . . . thanks. Err . . . it's not finished yet," he admitted, looking half-embarrassed.

"But it's a lovely piece," Snow praised.

Jimmy just blushed and looked down at the photographs.

Snow smiled at him, then went into the living room where Belle, Rumple, and Regina were all sitting on the floor surrounding the twins on the quilt, taking turns playing with them.

Though they were still very tiny, the twins seemed to be more alert than most newborns, and made funny little cooing and squeaking noises when Belle, Rumple, and Regina played with them.

The climbing trellis of roses and violets had exploded into bloom, and the sweet scent permeated the room.

Belle had Daria's little foot in one hand, and was singing, "This little piggy went to market, and this little piggy stayed home," as she gently tickled her daughter's toes.

Daria was cooing and making funny faces at her mother, her hands reaching out to grab Belle's hair.

Rumple was tickling Dylan's tummy, and the baby was sort of giggling and waving his feet and hands, his green eyes glowing as his father then played peek-a-boo and made silly faces whenever he removed his hands from his eyes.

Both parents were in casual clothing, Belle in another comfy lounge outfit, and Rumple in his gray and purple plaid pajama bottoms with his fuzzy slippers. As he straightened up, Snow got a look at the T-shirt he was wearing and started laughing so hard she almost choked.

"Oh my God! Rumple, where did you get that shirt?"

The sorcerer grinned at her. "Hey, Snow. Come to join playtime?" He beckoned to her. Then he pointed at himself. "This shirt? Alice gave it to me as new papa gift. I swear, I think she makes them or something."

It was a soft heather purple color and in bold royal purple letters were the words, "If a man calls you ugly, he's being nasty. If a woman calls you ugly, she's being vindictive, but if a kid calls you ugly—you're UG-LY!—Truth From Children's Mouths."

Snow moved over to see the babies, and knelt on the rug and cooed at Dylan and Daria. "Hello, precious babies!" she let the twins grab her fingers and suck on them.

They all laughed when Dylan made a face and spat her finger out.

"No, that's not as good as milk, is it, sweet thing?" Snow giggled.

"Mommy! I told the babies a story," Regina cried, and tugged on her mother's sleeve.

Snow turned around to look at her daughter, while at the same time Rumple reached for a puppet behind him and Belle for a little plastic mirror.

Thus everyone missed the flash of golden sparkles that surrounded Snow's hands for a brief instant.

When the adults and Regina turned back to them, the twins were smirking slightly, and making small impatient noises.

"Oh, Belle, they're so adorable!" Snow said, tickling Daria under the chin.

"Mommy, when are we gonna have one?" Regina asked again.

"Oh, sweetie. Not for awhile yet. Maybe next year," Snow hedged. "In the meantime you can play with Uncle Rumple's babies."

Regina nodded, but hoped her wish would come true. She gave the twins a secret smile before picking up a bluebird puppet and singing, "Chirp chirp says the robin, buzz buzz says the bee . . ." while making it "fly" over the babies' heads.

"It's amazing she's not jealous of them, considering a week ago she was the baby of the family," Snow marveled.

"They're new and interesting, dearie," Rumple chuckled. "But she could become a wee bit jealous later, when I start to do more with them, and she sees she doesn't have my undivided attention anymore."

"Well, you would know, Rumple," murmured Snow.

She kissed the babies on the forehead and then said, "Regina, we need to get going. Daddy is probably home from his meeting now and he'll be missing us."

"Okay, Mommy. But let me finish singing first," her daughter said, then commenced singing, "Rock-a-bye Baby".

Snow smiled lovingly at her baby girl and thought that maybe it might not be a bad idea to have another baby. She would have to discuss it with David tonight.

Page~*~*~*~*~Break

Two months later:

David had just set a platter of waffles with cinnamon and maple syrup on the table, along with a plate of bacon, when Snow suddenly got up from the table and raced into the bathroom.

"Huh? Honey, is something wrong?" he called, puzzled.

Regina looked after her too. "Daddy, is Mommy sick?"

"Umm . . . I don't know," David admitted. "Snow, are you okay?"

"Daddy!" Regina said exasperatedly. "Go and see!"

David hesitated, then he got up and knocked gently at the bathroom door. "Snow, are you sick?"

The bathroom door opened a crack and his wife said, rather peevishly, "No, David. I'm just throwing up for the fun of it."

"Is it something you ate?" he asked worriedly. "You want some ginger ale?"

"Yes to the ginger ale, and no, it could be some kind of stomach flu. Some of my kids had that a few days ago," she groaned.

But she thought that somehow the smell of the syrup was what triggered this bout of nausea. She bit her lip. Then she put a hand to her mouth as she realized something. Sweet smelling foods had bothered her only one other time in her life.

When she had been pregnant with Emma.

No. It can't be, she thought. We've been using protection . . . except for that time on my birthday, when we were kind of drunk after the concert, and I sort of forgot to remind David . . .

She cupped her hand over her still flat stomach and wondered if she ought to make a quick trip to Clark's Pharmacy.

Then she came out and drank some ginger ale and had some buttered toast and fruit for breakfast while Regina and David ate the waffles and bacon. Oddly enough, after about ten minutes, her stomach stopped complaining and she felt better.

Since today was a Saturday, David was able to be home with Regina and Princess, and the two spent the rest of the morning playing fetch with the growing Dalmatian puppy in the park while Snow went shopping.

Snow went to the grocery store first to buy food and snacks for the week, and then made a quick stop at Clark's, happy that Tom was not there to ring her up for once and see what she had purchased. She tucked the purchase in her purse and drove home.

Once she had put everything away, she went into the bathroom.

Page~*~*~*~*~Break

David was pushing Regina on the swings when his cell rang. He gave the swing another quick push and dug the phone out of his pants pocket and answered it. "Hello? Oh, hi, darling. What's up?"

He nearly dropped the phone when he heard what she said.

"David? David, what happened? Did we get cut off?"

"Umm . . . no, it's just . . . are you sure?"

"Of course I am!"

"Oh. Okay. That's great, hon! Wait'll I tell Regina. Oh, okay, I'll wait then."

He hung up the phone, then said, "Regina, how about we go home now? Mommy has a surprise for you."

"She does? Cool!" Regina squealed. Then she hopped off the swing and grabbed Princess's lead, which David had tied around one leg of the swingset.

Princess was lying down in the grass, but jumped to her feet when Regina came over to her, wagging her tail and licking the child.

"C'mon, Princess! Let's go home!" Regina laughed, shoving the puppy's muzzle away.

Then she tugged at the dog's leash and cried, "Hurry, Daddy! I wanna see what the surprise is!"

Soon they were walking back down the street towards the loft.

Once they were upstairs inside, Regina dropped Princess's leash on the floor and ran over to Snow. "Mommy! Where's the surprise?"

Snow went and picked her up. "Well . . . do you remember how you said you'd like to have a baby brother after Auntie Belle had the twins?"

"Uh huh. Why?"

"Because . . . I'm going to have a baby," Snow announced.

"Whoo-hoo!" Regina cheered, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Then she hugged her mother. "My wish came true!"

David started laughing. "What wish, minx?"

"The one I made a long time ago," Regina answered. "I wished for a baby brother or sister. And Unca Rumple's babies helped me."

Snow looked puzzled. "They helped you? How?"

"Cause they's fairy babies, Mommy. How else?"

"Sweetie, they're too little to do anything with their powers yet," David said. "Trust me. Henry and Alina didn't do magic until they were ten."

Regina huffed at him. "Daddy, they're different!" she was rather irritated that he didn't believe her. Then again, he was a grown-up and clueless about magic. She was sure if she told Unca Rumple, he'd believe her.

"Mommy, is it a boy or a girl?" she asked next.

"I don't know, Regina. I guess we'll have to wait and see," Snow said. "It should be born . . . err . . . in October sometime, I think."

"Cool! A Halloween baby!" Regina yelled happily.

"Could be," David said, then he went and hugged his wife and daughter. He couldn't believe this had happened, it was like a miracle, an unexpected one, but a still a welcome surprise.

He couldn't wait to tell Emma and the rest of the family.

At the rate the family was growing, they were going to need another photo album really soon.

A/N: Okay, now what should Snowing's baby be? Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing!