A/N: Sorry about the wait! I got a little stuck, but I'm hopefully breaking through. Enjoy a little cuddly SQ before things get dark again.
The drive was quiet, as was the stop for lunch. Emma merely picked at her food, and although Regina was hungry she found it hard to eat while the blonde looked so miserable. She reached across the table, waiting for Emma to take her hand and look up at her. "Talk to me."
Emma shrugged. "I don't want to tell you what to do, Regina," she said softly, hardly audible in the din of the restaurant.
"If I keep it, will you stay?"
Emma looked down at her plate, thinking and fiddling with her fork. "You and Henry are all the family I have," she finally answered, meeting Regina's eyes. "For the first time in my life I'm not alone. I don't know if I can go back to how things were."
"You won't be alone," Regina promised. "You'll always have Henry if nothing else."
"I don't want nothing else," Emma said, gripping Regina's hand hard. "I want you. Always."
Regina couldn't help smiling at that. She wanted nothing more than to pull Emma to her, but she was growing increasingly aware of the other diners. "Come on," she said, getting up from the table and going to seek out a little privacy in the bathroom.
The blonde followed, locking the door behind them and launching forward into Regina's waiting embrace. "I'm not leaving," she promised. "Even if you have five babies or something."
"That will not be happening," Regina said with a laugh, threading her fingers through the hair at Emma's nape and pulling her up for a kiss. "We'll figure this out," she added soberly. "But no matter what we choose we can be together."
Emma went in for another kiss and stayed there, holding Regina's hips tight against hers as she continued with lips and tongue. Regina's hold in her hair tightened almost to the point of being painful, but Emma didn't seem to mind. She wished for a moment that she could have all of Regina here and now, but the trauma was too recent and she didn't want to push. Instead, she focused solely on the kissing.
After realizing that they'd been there for a suspiciously long time, the two finally separated and made their way back to their table to finish lunch. "I don't think we should go back to Storybrooke today," Regina suggested after a comfortable lull.
"No?"
"We need to find a house. Make this official." She offered her hand to Emma again, and the blonde readily took it. "Plus emotions are too high right now to mix with magic."
Emma couldn't deny that Regina had a good point. If she had to face David again, now knowing that he was possibly the father of Regina's child, she had no idea what she might do. "Maybe we should figure out what we're doing about, you know." Her eyes darted down to Regina's abdomen and back up. "Before we drag Henry into it, at least."
"Henry doesn't find out unless we keep it," Regina affirmed, and after a squeeze she reluctantly let go of Emma's hand to finish eating.
"And here's another bedroom, same layout as the first," the realtor told Regina as they stepped through the doorway. The brunette didn't speak, mind racing. One room for Henry and one… She touched a hand to the wall to brace herself suddenly feeling faint. She did want another child, one she and Emma could raise together. But the timing was all wrong, and Regina didn't want to bring a child into this house if Emma was never going to be able to love it.
"Regina!" Emma called from wherever she'd disappeared to. "Come see this."
The realtor smiled. "It seems your wife has found the master bedroom."
Regina trailed the woman down the hall. "She's not…" she started, but went quiet when they crossed the threshold into the room where Emma was waiting.
Beyond Emma and a smile brighter than the blonde had smiled in weeks were huge windows with a spectacular view of the ocean. Regina joined Emma at the window, feeling an arm thread reassuringly around her waist. "Look at that."
Regina smiled and rested her head against Emma's shoulder. "It's beautiful."
"I really like this house," Emma told her. "I know it's not quite as big as you're used to…"
"It's perfect," Regina reassured her. "It feels safe." Although she was sure that had something to do with the arm around her.
"I want you to have everything you could ever want," Emma said over the sound of the realtor's footsteps retreating to give them some privacy.
"You, Henry, a gorgeous view, a remodeled kitchen…"
"I can't wait to fall asleep every night, listening to the waves and holding you."
Regina folded herself into Emma's arms, both smiling and tearing up at her words. "You want me to have everything I want, huh?"
"Why?" Emma stroked small circles on Regina's back. "What do you want?"
"You."
Regina had curled in on herself, and Emma wrapped her arms around her. "It's okay," she whispered yet another time. "You're okay."
They were back in the hotel, and despite Emma repeatedly checking if Regina was sure, sex had not gone well. Sex hadn't gone at all, really. It had just been making out and a little groping before Emma did something, she didn't know what, that triggered memories and caused Regina to completely fall apart.
"I'm so sorry," Emma said again.
"It's not you," Regina said miserably. "It's them. They've ruined everything."
"Not us. They didn't ruin us."
"But this baby might," Regina pointed out, her voice low and quiet.
Emma just tightened her hold on Regina. There was no way she was going to let Regina go. Even if that meant keeping the baby and constantly being reminded of what had happened. Of who the father could be.
But she loved Henry even though she hated his father. And nine months might just be long enough for the pain to fade and for her to love this child.
"I will be right here with you," Emma promised. "No matter what you decide. I love you and I will learn to love the little goober if you decide to keep it." She touched a hand lightly to Regina's stomach.
Regina flinched, still on edge, but then reached down and laced her fingers with Emma's. "Are you sure?"
Emma was sure that she wanted Regina's happiness, but the fathers still gave her pause. But she could erase them, she realized. She could make it so the child was Regina's and nobody else's. "I'm sure."
She was going to finish Sidney when they got back to Storybrooke, and then she was going to destroy the man who had a claim on her and a claim on this new life. And this time, Regina wasn't going to stop her.