[Chapter 4]
"Regina!" Emma burst into Regina's apartment, as she was known to do these past few weeks and pulled the brunette off the couch and towards the full-sized mirror on her wall.
"What is it? Is something wrong?" Emma pulled her shirt up and stared at it in the mirror. She frowned.
"Aw, come on! He was doing it before!" She poked at her growing belly. "Come on, kid. Do it again!"
"Emma, what are you-" Regina paused when the perfect indentation of a tiny foot stretched from inside Emma's belly.
"Freaky, isn't it?" Emma watched with horrified fascination, while Regina's reaction was more overjoyed. She smiled. "It's like something outta Aliens." Regina raised an eyebrow. "You know, Aliens? The alien thing burst out of the guy's chest like raaaaaaaaaaaaawwwrrrr!" Emma clawed her hand like the fingers were a screaming mouth and faked her arm coming out of her chest. Realizing Regina had never seen the movie, she shrugged and turned back to the mirror.
"Anyways, it's still creepy." Emma said.
"It is perfectly normal, Miss Swan." Regina laid a comforting hand on Emma's back. Emma felt the warmth radiate through her shirt. Emma felt the heat rise to her cheeks, and start to zip down to another area, but the moment was ruined when there was a knock on the door. Regina answered it and found Mr. Gold standing there.
"Good day, Regina. Emma, how is the baby?"
"Fine." Emma answered tensely.
"This came for you, dearie." Mr. Gold handed Regina a white envelope that had some kind of rusty stain on it. Regina seemed to forget Emma was there as she ripped it open and read the letter inside. She seemed worried as she hastily scanned the letter.
Regina's heart was beating fast. The letter was from one of her knights. Rather, her only knight, seeing as the letter stated the rest had perished in an attack on the castle. What was worse was her father had been injured. He was on a flight to be taken to the closest country to be treated. Upon reading that bit, Regina cried out. Emma immediately went to her side. Gold had left the second Regina took the letter, so it was just the two of them in the apartment.
"What's wrong? Regina?" Emma asked. She pulled the brunette to the sofa and sat her down. Emma sat next to her as Regina re-read the letter. "Regina?" Emma asked again.
"My... my father has been hurt. He is in a hospital."
"Is he okay? I mean... of course he's not, he's in the hospital, but is it serious? Did it say how he was hurt?" Emma asked. Regina shook her head.
"It only said he was hurt." Regina suddenly stood up. "I need to talk to Mr. Gold." Regina ran out of the apartment and just caught Mr. Gold as he was about to pull away from the curb. She ran up to his window and at her appearance, he rolled the window down.
"My father has been injured. I need to be with him." She demanded.
"Have you thought that maybe that leter was written to lure you from hiding?" Mr. Gold suggested.
"I know my knights' handwriting. It wasn't a ruse." Regina insisted.
"I cannot take you there, Miss Mills. Even if it isn't a ruse, then he is most certainly being watched. I will look into the situation, but I cannot allow you to risk your life and walk straight into your enemies' hands." Mr. Gold rolled the window up and pulled away from the curb, leaving a very frustrated Regina behind. She looked back to the apartment, where Emma was waiting by the entrance. Regina was sure the blonde didn't hear the conversation, but she still felt nervous about everything that's happened so far. Emma pulled a face and put a hand on her stomach and Regina remembered the original reason for her visit. The baby was growing and moving and deep down Regina couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. She'd always wanted to experience the joys of motherhood, but it just wasn't meant to be. She found herself able to give Emma a small smile and joined the blonde as they reentered Regina's apartment.
Sidney sat at his desk, searching through numerous files. He was enamoured by the Latina beauty ever since she arrived in Storybrooke. After she refused to talk to him and turned down having a drink with him, he just couldn't take no for an answer. He needed to learn more about her. But there was just one problem: he'd been searching for months, using every source he knew, but he just could not find any Regina Mills that matched the one that captured his heart. It was like she never existed... at least, not under that name.
Desperate, he searched through page 193 on Google, hoping there was something on the woman when something caught his eye. There was a foreign link with the hilighted name of Regina in the description. Curious, he clicked the link and found a picture of a familiar face. A much younger version of Regina stared wide-eyed at the camera as she had a large crown placed on her head. Next to her was an old man - maybe her father? He tried to read the page but it seemed to be in Spanish or something like that. He suddenly regretted failing high school Spanish. He emailed the link to a friend and hoped he could translate it for him.
To try and help Regina feel better, Emma got her favorite movies, created a blanket nest on the sofa, and had a movie marathon. They sat together and ate ice cream from the carton, sharing it between them. It was nice sitting together.
"Regina?" Emma said, getting the brunette's attention.
"Hm?"
"Did you ever want a kid?" Emma asked.
"What made you ask that?" Regina asked, still half watching the movie.
"You've been stroking my stomach for forty minutes now." Emma replied.
"Sorry." Regina pulled her hand away, but Emma reached out and put her hand back.
"No. You put your hand back. It feels good." Regina smiled and continued stroking Emma's belly.
"Well? Do you like babies or not?" Emma asked.
"Yes. I have always wanted a child, but... life just did not work out that way."
"Well, you're still young. I'm sure if you-"
"Emma, I'm barren. I can't have a child." Regina confessed. Emma only paused a second before going on.
"Well, there's always adoption. And I'm sure you'd be a damn better mother than any of the foster parents I ever had."
"Were you an orphan?" Regina looked at Emma with a hint of sadness in her eyes.
"Still am. My birth parents left me on the side of a freeway when I was only hours old. I went from foster parent to foster parent and when I was sixteen, I was about to be given up again, so I ran away. I've been on my own ever since. The closest thing I ever had to a mother was my old roommate, Mary Margaret, but she went to live with her Prince Charming." Emma felt soft fingers entwine with her own.
"Emma, I... I appreciate you telling me of your past and I want to share my own, but... I'm afraid you might get hurt if you knew." Regina whispered.
"Well, maybe you could share little things? Things that won't give anything away." Emma suggested. Regina bit her lip, which sent a small shiver down Emma's back. A small smile formed on Regina's full red lips and she started to tell Emma a bit of her life.
"I love horses. When I was younger, my father and I would ride all over our property. When he got too old to ride, he sat under our apple tree and watched me ride and jump. He always told me how proud he was of me when I cleared a difficult jump." Regina smiled at the memories.
"He sounds nice." Emma commented.
"He is. I love him with all my heart." Regina answered. "I had hoped he would join me here. You would love him. He would probably love you, too. He has a big soft spot for babies." Emma smiled at the information.
"Anything else you wanna share?" Emma asked.
"I can speak five different languages. My father taught me Spanish and English, while tutors taught me French, Portugese, and Italian. But I am most fluent at Spanish and English."
"You know Spanish? The most Spanish I know is El Pollo Loco and it sucks 'cause Storybrooke doesn't even have one." Emma said. Regina raised an eyebrow, but didn't question what would be so great about a crazy chicken.
"I could teach you if you would like?" Regina offered.
"Really?" Emma said. "I just hope you know that my 9th grade Spanish teacher failed at teaching me. In fact, I got kicked out of the class after only two weeks."
"Well, I will go at a slower pace so you can learn better." Regina promised. "I'll start with easy words." Regina taught simple words first, like Hello, Good-bye, and Good Day, and Emma got them pretty fast. But then Regina tried to teach her a word that required her to roll her R, Emma failed terribly.
"I know you can do it." Regina said. "Try it."
"Aahd-d-d-d-d." Emma frowned. "I can't do it!"
"Yess you can. Try again. Arrrrrrrrrrrrr." From Regina, it sounded so attractive. When Emma tried, she sounded like a moron.
"My tongue can't do that." Emma complained and turned away, but Regina grabbed her face and turned it towards her.
"Try again. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrr."
"Ard-d-d-d-d."
Back and forth, Regina tried to teach Emma to roll her R's, but Emma kept failing miserably. Emma watched Regina's mouth, but after a while, she stoped hearing what Regina was trying to teach her and stared, mesmerized by the perfect lips. Regina noticed and found herself glancing to Emma's pale pink lips.
"I want to teach you one more word: beso."
"What does that mean?" Emma asked.
"Kiss." Emma's eyes glanced up to Regina's and through some unsaid signal, they got closer and their lips pressed against the other's. It was sweet and sensual and so much better than any Regina had ever had. Regina's hand buried itself in blonde hair, while the other ran from Emma's shoulder to her stomach. A tiny kick felt under her hand snapped her out of it and she backed away.
"Sorry, I..." Regina tried to apologize but Emma only shook her head.
"No, that was... amazing! I like that word. Any more like that I should know?" Regina couldn't help but laugh. She was relieved Emma wasn't mad about the kiss. If her mother was around, she would be furious Regina kissed her. Her mother wasn't as accepting of these things as her father was. Emma gave a shy laugh.
"So... Can this... can this happen again?" Emma asked with hope sparkling in her eyes.
"You would want it to happen again?" Regina asked.
"Yeah." Emma answered. A kick from her stomach made her hand immediately go to the spot. "The kid agrees, too."
"Have you thought of any names, yet? You cannot call him 'Kid' forever, you know." Regina asked. Emma shrugged.
"I didn't really think about it. I figured I wasn't keeping him, so why bother?" Emma looked a bit sad at that.
"Do you still feel this way?" Regina asked. "Do you still want to give him up?"
"I don't know. But I already made a deal with Gold and he never lets you back out of a deal."
"Gold? Mr. Gold is the baby's grandfather?" Regina asked, surprised.
"I didn't mention that?" Emma frowned, trying to remember how much she told the other woman. Regina made a mental note to talk to Mr. Gold about it.
Dear Daddy,
I hope you get better soon and join me here in Storybrooke. Emma and I have become so close. I even kissed her. She really knows how to make me smile when I feel down. She's having a baby soon and she has to give him up once he's born. But I think she wants to keep him. What can I do to help her? I wish you were here to help me.