A/N: Yay original characters, sorry if they're a bother, but they make it easy for me :) Picture Jeanie as Lindsay Wagner circa Warehouse 13 and Walter as Lawrence Turner circa Nine Dead.
Belle jumped. Startled when purple magic swirled beside her and Regina materialized next to her in the shop, it was early, but after Ruby had slipped from bed, she'd been unable to fall back asleep, "Regina! Hi," she'd briefly heard from Ruby what was going on, "How are you?" Her voice was laced with concern for the older woman. "Fine. The list. The list of different items. One of them was for twin cuffs that let you tap into the feelings and emotions of the other user. Do you carry them yet?" Belle stared at her. Shocked that the brunette was there after sex toys while her wife and father-in-law were missing, "Uhh, not yet, they're rolling out next week. But is now really the time?" Regina growled, "I don't have time to explain. Who's the magic user producing them?" Belle faltered, "Uhh, it's Jeanie Thompson, the same one who enchanted the doorway. She's really quite good," before Belle could ask why, Regina was asking for the address. A flustered Belle pulled it up on her computer screen and Regina pushed her aside and input it into a map webpage. She studied the location for barely a second before she was gone in a plume of purple smoke.
Jeanie Thompson startled awake and rolled quickly out of her husband's embrace. She was up and in a defensive posture before the purple smoke was cleared. Regina waved a hand and the fireball the other user had conjured hissed into non-existence, "No time for that, I need your help," and Regina was striding out of the bedroom, fully expecting the woman to follow her. Jeanie scrubbed at her face, at 49 she was far to old to have former Evil Queens magicing into her bedroom at nearly 7 in the morning. Walter stirred awake then and she quickly tugged him up and out of bed to follow along sleepily as they moved into their living room to see what the brunette Mayor wanted.
"Coffee?" Jeanie offered as she started a pot. "No," Regina dismissed, "You're supplying products to Belle's shop correct? The sexuality section?" Jeanie frowned as she accepted a thick maroon cotton robe from her husband, "Yes, I swear Belle said she had the proper legal documents and your approval-" Regina waved a hand to cut her off, "Yes, of course she does, that girl couldn't do anything illegal if she had a gun to her head. You're working on cuffs that link one user to the other right?" Jeanie nodded, she really didn't know what to say, "They work on the concept of shared emotion and magic being based in emotion correct?" Regina was making assumptions based on what little she knew of link magic. Jeanie nodded again and poured a large mug of coffee for herself, "Yes, Walt has been helping me, he's better with that sort of magic," she gestured to her bearded husband.
Regina whirled towards the man and he couldn't help but take a step back, "I have a theory that I can use the cuffs to link myself to another user and with a few tweaks of the spell enchanting them, I can channel their magic, even over the townline. Thoughts?" Regina was fully aware that she was being brusque with people she'd never met and before today had only seen in passing a time or two. She wasn't even sure of their identities pre-curse.
Walt took a mug of his own from his wife, "It's possible. The cuffs do work over the line as long as they've been enchanted before crossing. It could only be possible with a very experienced user though. On the receiving end, the giving side wouldn't need much skill. Although, the stronger the sending user, the stronger the flow," he gulped down a mouthful of the hot liquid and studied the brunette as she clearly worked things over in her head, "I could have a set of cuffs ready in about an hour, to do what you're asking, maybe a little longer. I'm assuming you'll be the receiver over the line?"
Regina nodded and unbuttoned the cuffs of her silk maroon shirt, "Now, do you know anyone willing to provide me the power I would need?" She didn't want to ask outright, she wouldn't force anyone to use experimental magic, but these two were clearly pretty gifted users. Walt smiled kindly, "We'll provide for you. I can link a couple sets, let you channel from both of us." Regina eyed the man. She'd not been expecting the generous offer so quickly, "You'd do that?' Jeanie, nodded, "We can recognize a woman after her lover. Your wife's the Sheriff, correct? Has something happened to her?" And Regina launched into the story so far as they headed into the couple's garage that acted as their magic workshop.
SQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQ
Maggie trailed the gun muzzle down the side of Emma's face, "I wasn't entirely faking it you know. You are very attractive and we could have had a lot of fun together. Right before I killed you," the last came out in sing-song and Emma shivered. Maggie straightened and headed back for David,"But, no. Then I decided I'd just take your bitch of a wife. After all, the whole point was to make you feel the pain that I've felt for the last seven years; when my sister killed herself in prison because she'd been remanded back for skipping and had 5 years tacked on," she pressed the barrel into David's wound and he squirmed as a quiet groan left his lips. "Then you introduced me to brother dearest here and I just couldn't help but see the irony. And so, it was decided, he would be the one to die," she raised the gun and leveled it at David's chest, story complete there was only one last course of action.
"Drop the gun," a deep, quiet voice sounded from the shadows. Emma jerked at her restraints, peering into the shadows trying to find her wife in them. Her voice unmistakable, even with the hardened edge of anger that made it quaver just so. She had to get free, she couldn't let her wife and unborn child be hurt. "Well, if it isn't the Queen Bitch herself," Maggie drawled and lowered the gun, spinning in a circle to try and locate the woman. Regina stepped from the shadows and into the light, a smirk gracing her plum colored lips, "Oh, little girl, you have no idea how accurate that is or who you are dealing with," purple danced in her eyes and violet arcs traveled between her fingers. For the first time Maggie faltered, "What the hell is that?"
Emma had the same thought. Had Regina somehow brought magic to the expansion district? She tried to tap into her own and she got nothing in response, so no then, she took notice of the two black leather cuffs wrapped around both her wife's wrists then. They must be how she was channeling magic, but Emma had no idea how. "You've messed with the wrong Queen and her family, dear," Regina pulled a fireball from the air and toyed with it in both hands, "Ask anyone around, I don't do so well with people hurting those I love," she tossed the fireball back and forth in her hands and Emma swallowed. Was it wrong to find this version of her wife hot as hell? The light from the magical fire danced across her face and the purple swirling in her eyes mixed with her natural brown and created an hypnotic look. Emma watched her wife play with fire in a literal sense and was amazed by the talent behind it. She'd never seen her brunette wife like this before. Regina rolled the fire over and around a wrist, watching it circle and come back. She tossed it into her other palm and repeated the move, "Nasty habit, revenge. I've been trying to kick it for years,"she sent a wink in her wife's direction and Emma stifled a chuckle, now was not the time.
"Now, I'll ask you one last time. Drop the gun and get on your knees," Regina held the fireball in one hand, letting it hover in place inches above her palm and placed the other on a cocked hip. Maggie had been watching the entire performance with a look akin to shock and disbelief, "No," she whirled back on David and raised the gun. She pulled the trigger just as something hot and heavy slammed into her back and she lurched forward as the gun went off.
SQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQ
Ruby and Mulan burst through and into the small back room just as Regina was magically freeing her wife, "Regina!?" Both women exclaimed at finding the brunette Mayor, "Ladies," Regina greeted as she hugged her wife and together they moved to David and freed him. "But...how?" Ruby spluttered as Mulan stepped away to call for paramedics and update the rest of the team.
Regina helped her wife ease David to the ground. The gunshot had just missed him, but he had a friction burn along the left side of his face. The shot had scared him more than anything and if ever asked he definitely didn't scream when it went off. "David, do you want me to heal you?" Regina asked politely, his injuries weren't necessarily life threatening and she didn't want to use magic on him without his permission.
"Sure, sure. Maybe leave a little scar on my jaw? Snow likes scars," his eyes twinkled even as they dulled, his head lolling as the blood loss started to counter the adrenaline and then they broke as his face contorted in pain.
Regina rolled her eyes and huffed, "How about I just heal this oozing wound on your thigh and you can take up the rest with the doctors? There's not much I can do about the blood loss I'm afraid, the best I can do is close the wound," He nodded sheepishly and she held her hands above his thigh. The worst of his wounds from what she could see, purple glowed and his wound closed as it healed and he was left with once again untarnished skin, the magic faded and he finally slipped into unconsciousness. Regina pressed two fingers to his neck. His pulse was a little slow and the beats lasted longer than she thought they should, but he'd be fine, she was sure of it. He was after all Prince Charming.
"Uh, 'Gina...babe...how are you doing magic?" Emma questioned once the healing spell was complete. Regina grinned proudly and held up her cuffed wrists. She had rolled her sleeves to her elbows and it was an interesting look, "You married a genius, what can I say?" Emma eyed the stamp in the cuff, "Are you wearing sex toys?" She questioned with a laugh. Regina sniffed, "Only technically. They're the connection cuffs, connecting two users feelings and emotions. Magic is emotion, dear," she slipped the cuffs from her wrists and slipped them into her pocket, "I was connected to magic users right at the edge of the townline. Tapping into their magic and using the cuffs as a sort of conduit. Keeping me tethered to the other side," she sat fully on the ground then, suddenly very tired from her activities.
Ruby eyed the body of Maggie McLaughlin, the redhead lay facedown. A smoking hole in her back that depressed several inches into her flesh. The werewolf wrinkled her nose at the smell of burnt flesh, "Why did she come after you guys anyway?" As Emma was relaying the story the rest of the team showed up. Clive, Robin and two paramedics, one of which was Harry, who had stepped in to temporarily fill in the gap when the call had come. As soon as they'd realized Regina had gone missing they'd rushed to the station and when the call came that they'd been found and paramedics were needed he'd hopped right on in without a second thought.
SQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQ
Hours later, it was just after 3pm when an exhausted Regina and Emma all but stumbled in the front door of the mansion. David was staying at the hospital overnight. He had been minorly dehydrated and he'd lost not quite 2 pints of blood. And there wasn't anything magic could do about either of those things. The doctors had wanted to keep him after his trauma. He'd been held captive almost 12 hours longer than Emma and he had received the brunt of Maggie's hostility. Henry followed after them, Neal on his hip and Sarah right behind them. They'd excused the two of them from school for the day. It had taken some explaining to the principle about the very basics of Sarah's situation. They'd taken Neal, so that his parents could be uninterrupted at the hospital. The toddler had fallen asleep on the drive home and was currently conked out on Henry's shoulder in the way that only a nearly 3 year old could be. Harry and Clive had headed for home a couple of hours ago after profuse thanks and with Harry driving since he'd actually gotten some sleep the night before.
"Put him in his room, Henry and then you two can take a nap as well or work on your schoolwork, your choice," Regina leaned against her wife as she slipped off her low heels. The teenagers and toddler were headed up to the bedrooms when Regina's afternoon morning sickness reared it's ugly head and she barely made it into the downstairs bathroom before the apple juice and vending machine turkey sandwich that Emma had provided at the hospital made a reappearance. Emma was on her knees beside her and holding her hair back as the first heave was wracking her body. Rubbing her back in soothing patterns as biology wracked her body in heaving gasps.
SQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQ
Regina stirred awake when her phone pinged from the nightstand. She was sprawled across her blonde wife and she glanced up to see if the sound had awoken the blonde. It hadn't. Her poor wife was exhausted, with the hormones coursing through her body she'd managed, willingly or not to get a couple hours of sleep at the hospital leaning against her son and then wife when the blonde had returned from being examined. But Emma hadn't gotten any sleep since the short hours she'd had before running out the door at 4am that morning. As soon as they'd collapsed into bed after her nausea had subsided and the blonde had run through a shower, Emma had fell sound asleep and not moved since. It was unusual for her normally light sleeping wife and Regina placed a kiss against firm flesh before rolling away to check her phone.
9/29/2015 4:59pm
Henry: Making dinner w Sarah. Just chill, I know where the fire extinguisher is :) we've got Neal and will get you when it's ready. Love you
Regina smiled softly and sent a quick response before curling back into her wife, "'Ev'thing k?" The blonde sleepily asked as she wrapped strong arms around her wife and kissed brunette hair. Regina sighed and snuggled deeper into her wife, "Yes, we have a wonderful son. He's making dinner with Sarah and Neal." Emma shifted into a more comfortable position, half spooned around her wife while still holding the brunette half on top of her, "Good kid," she sighed and let her eyes slowly open. She was awake now, for better or worse, "So, speaking of Sarah…"
Regina sighed, "I was going to call her parents after dinner and set up a time to sit down with them tomorrow. Our life just doesn't stop does it?" She rolled onto her back and let a hand rest on her lower abdomen, "Maggie, Sarah, the Mercedes, the construction site… We're breaking ground on the juvenile center in a week and I haven't even gotten the jobs posted to staff it yet. The expansion district still needs a final inspection scheduled." Emma propped herself up on an elbow and observed her wife, letting her get things out of her system. She smiled as she watched her wife subconsciously stroke the soft skin of her stomach. Now that they knew, she was almost certain she could see a tiny swell there that hadn't been there even a few days ago. Regina was starting to taper off, words coming out now more than full sentences and she let her hand rest atop her wife's and a thumb stroked the tanned skin alongside her, "You know what though?" She asked quietly in between words, Regina turned her head to look at her wife and sighed at the love, respect, adoration and healthy amount of attraction she saw in hazel eyes, "We're having a baby," Emma husked across the space between them.
Regina smiled what was definitely not a dreamy smile. Queens didn't dreamily smile after all. She laced their fingers together, "We're having a baby," she edged across the space and kissed her wife. They kissed for long minutes, bodies slowly creeping across the bed until they were pressed together on their sides. Regina was cupping her wife's face in tanned hands and Emma had strong arms wrapped around her waist. They pulled apart finally and Regina smiled at her lover, "Well we're awake now… want to do my lotion and then we can go join the kids and make sure the house doesn't go down in flames with us in it?" She was teasing of course. Henry had been cooking with her since he was barely able to walk and on many levels was more proficient in the kitchen than his blonde mother, though she could out chop him. At Emma's nod, Regina rolled from the bed, "I'm going to go to bathroom first, why don't you call and check on David?" Emma nodded and retrieved her phone from her nightstand.
When Regina emerged from the bathroom a couple minutes later Emma was ending the call with her mother, "How's he doing?" She stripped the sweatpants and oversized t-shirt off and tossed them towards the hamper.
Emma took a moment to appreciate the tanned flesh on display, "Doing good. He fell asleep shortly after we left and is still out," Emma accepted the jar of thick lotion from her wife.
Regina settled onto the bed, reclining back against the pillows, "That's good, I'm sure he'll make a full recovery and be back on his feet in no time," she sighed deeply as strong hands started to rub and massage the lotion in across her stomach.
Emma smiled into her work as she caressed the area of her wife's belly that was just barely starting to swell, "You're starting to show, babe," if she didn't know her wife's body so well it could be easily overlooked, but it was there.
Regina smiled as she shifted to get more comfortable, "I noticed too, oh Emma, thank you."
Emma grinned and smoothly glided her hands up and massaged lotion along her rib cage and upper abdomen, "I feel like I should be thanking you," her grin grew wider when she scooped up more lotion and started to massage the undersides of her lover's breasts and a low, quiet groan of pleasure left her wife's throat and her legs shifted, spreading just a little apart. She could really learn to love this activity, hell she already did.
Regina cleared her throat as she felt her arousal stirring. She really hadn't necessarily meant for the lotion to become a sex act, but who was she kidding. The new ritual was likely to lead them there more often than not. Another groan left her as her wife shifted the attention to a single breast. Using both hands to cup and knead the fragrant lotion in. Teasingly running a thumb across her nipple and grinning wildly at the shuddered gasp it drew. "Oh, shut up," Regina slapped at a thigh left bare by Emma's boy shorts that she'd slept in.
Another grin, "Didn't say a word, babe," she took the nipple between thumb and index finger this time and rolled it a few times, "Just making sure I'm being thorough," she gave it final tweak, smiling as her wife deeply arched.
As Emma shifted to her other breast, Regina shifted her legs further apart. Groaning when she could see and feel the arousal that had the very tops of her inner thighs glistening, "Please, please be thorough, as much and as long as you want," she moaned this time when a teasing tongue flicked at her, as yet, unlotioned nipple.
Emma smirked and sat up as she continued her ministrations and rolled the nipple between lotion covered fingers, "I plan to. Roll onto your side for me." While Regina could still easily lay on her stomach, Emma wanted to get into the habit of rubbing in the lotion on her side. Also, she was using the excuse to further their reconnection after the ordeal they'd just been through. The brunette compiled, a sound of pleasure leaving her lips when her thighs rubbed together and spread the slick arousal further over her tanned skin.
Emma scooped more lotion out of the jar and leaned down to kiss her vibrant and sexy wife. Regina buried her hands in shaggy blonde hair and held her in the kiss for a long minute as their tongues tangled. The brunette suckled softly as her wife moaned into her mouth. Emma pulled herself away from the temptation to end the lotioning early and shook her head to clear it, "Let me finish," she chided when tanned hands tugged at the elastic of her boy shorts. Regina hummed to herself and settled back onto her side as strong hands massaged and kneaded the firm, spongy flesh of her hip. She groaned lowly when fingers dug into the hollow of her hip and circled, creating a delicious sensation that felt like it was centered on her clit. She tucked an arm under her head and let her eyes close at the blissful feeling as her wife shifted her attentions to her ass, kneading the muscle and rubbing in the fragrant shea butter.
Her grin grew wider when Emma let just her fingertips slide down and slip between warm thighs, just brushing her wife's wet heat. A moan and, "Now you're just full on teasing," Regina sighed when the touch disappeared and Emma turned her onto her other side. The blonde started her ministrations over again. Rubbing, massaging, kneading all with the scent of vanilla permeating the room. By the time her wife was rolling Regina back onto her back she was equal parts ridiculously aroused and relaxed.
Emma slipped between her wife's thighs, a low moan of her own slipping out at the sight of her wet glistening sex. The arousal that had left her inner thighs slick. Staying on task, she scooped more lotion and started to work on her thighs, taking care to work the lotion in with long smooth strokes that had Regina canting her hips on every upstroke. After several minutes of working on the first thigh, the brunette tossed a black cuff at he wife, it landed on the bed beside them. Emma grinned up at her wife, her breath catching when she met aroused brown eyes, "Put it on and hurry up, I need you to fuck me," Regina palmed her own breasts and tugged at her nipples.
Emma swallowed and she paused in her rubbing long enough to snap the leather cuff around her bicep. She scooped up some lotion and moved onto the second thigh as her cock shimmered into existence, standing proudly out from her hips. She fought back the urge to hurry through the last part of the lotioning and kept her slow, languid pace. Regina propped herself up on her elbows and all but panted as she watched her wife's working hands. She watched the tendons and muscle jump and flex as she worked the lotion in. The brunette licked her lips as her attention was drawn to the twitching cock between her thighs. She reached a hand down wrapped around it, stroking it. "Fuck," the explicative left Emma's lips as her wife stroked her.
A twisting motion at the end of each stroke had her rolling her hips into the attention. With more willpower than Emma knew she had, she pulled out of her wife's hand and tried really hard not to laugh at the more than adorable pout it put on her wife's face. She slid further down the bed, hands still working the firm flesh of her wife's thigh. A groan left her lips as her cock rubbed against the soft cotton of their sheets. Finally she was laying on her stomach between tanned thighs and hands buried in her hair, "Oh fuck, yes please," Regina moaned out the request as Emma flicked her tongue out and slipped just inside her quivering cunt. A liquid moan escaped into the room that made it sound like Regina had just found the answer to all the questions ever asked.
Emma swirled her tongue once and shifted her attention to her wife's straining clit, flicking at it in alternating fast and slow strokes. Regina arched as she held her wife tightly against her, appreceating the attention to her hard, swollen clit. She was so worked up from the lotioning that she was already so close to her orgasm, "Make me come," she begged as she rolled her hips into her wife's mouth, groaning as she was sucked into the wet heat and Emma suckled at her clit. All it took was a single flick of the tip of her tongue after that and Regina was exploding into her wife's wonderful mouth. She whimpered as Emma kept sucking and flicking, sending tiny vibrations into her swollen flesh as she moaned at the warm ejaculate covering her face and neck.
Regina was tugging then. Pulling her bodily up and into a kiss, groaning at the taste of herself. A gasp left her when her wife settled in the cradle of her body and she felt the hard cock pressing against her, "Inside, inside," was all she could get out as she forced her hand between them and wrapped her hand around the girth of her. Emma shifted just enough for Regina to line her up and then she was sinking into her tight, wet heat. They both groaned as Emma rested inside for a long beat, tanned hands clutched at her back and Regina panted through her intense arousal, "Fuck me," she finally demanded as she rolled her hips.
They moved into a rhythm that was all gasped kisses and heaving, sweaty bodies. Emma's hips moved faster and she buried her face in the tanned neck of her lover, sucking at the salty skin there and adding an extra roll to her hips at the end of every stroke. Regina buried her hands in blonde hair, holding her wife there as she was marked and fucked and goddamn she loved her wife. "I'm coming," she gasped as she announced her impending orgasm and Emma sucked harder, fucked faster and Regina was coming, coating both their lower bodies in hot cum. Regina groaned and scratched at her wife's heaving back as Emma moved faster, reaching for her own climax, "Yes, yes, yes. Come baby, come inside me," she begged as her body arched and she tensed, her body revving up and preparing for another orgasm. It took Emma another few pumps but then she was coming, deep inside her wife and Regina cried out her name as she fell over the edge right along with it. Loving the feeling of the hot cum bursting inside her and filling her up.
They lay there panting together for what felt like hours but was really only a couple of minutes. Finally Emma rolled off her wife, "Didn't hurt you, did I?"
Regina rolled her eyes and rested the back of her hand against her sweaty forehead while her other hand rested against her stomach, cupping the tiny barely there bump, "No, I am fine. So, so... so fine," she grinned as she released a sigh and her body relaxed into lassitude.
A soft smile graced Emma's face as she watched her wife. Enjoying the sweaty glow to her skin and the way her hair mussed in the back where it had rubbed against the sheets as she had made passionate love to her. "I love you," Emma whispered words as she tenderly stroked a strand of hair behind an ear.
"I love you too, darling," Regina smiled back as the hand came to rest on the one resting against her stomach. Their fingers laced together and they curled into each other. "We should shower and check on the kids," Regina whispered, not wanting to break the warm cocoon of love and snuggles.
Emma sighed, "In a minute," and Regina smiled, burying a hand in blonde hair and lovingly scratching at her scalp. Giggling a little when Emma all but purred at the feeling.
SQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQSQ
Henry flicked the page in his mom's handwritten cookbook and double checked the oven temperature, "325," he told Sarah and she set the oven to heating as he stirred the cream sauce he'd carefully and slowly heated on the stove.
Sarah smiled as she watched him dump bowtie pasta into boiling water and return to his cutting board of chopped tomatoes. He finished dicing them and dumped them into a bowl alongside the green onion and red bell pepper he'd already diced, "You're very good in the kitchen," she sipped at the glass of homemade apple juice she'd poured for herself when she'd poured Neal's. The toddler was camped out on the kitchen floor playing with his special markers that would only mark on the paper designed for them.
Henry blushed, "Thanks, I've been cooking with my mom since I can remember. Mostly just watching until I could recognize things she was asking for and over the years I started actually helping. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it," he stirred the pasta and the sauce.
Sarah smiled at his flush, "Daddy never sets foot in the kitchen. It's nice to see a man not afraid of a stove," she toyed with her glass, "And Chuck always said a woman's place was in his kitchen and in his bed," or his back seat as had usually been the case.
Henry frowned, "Yeah, well Chuck's an idiot. He was cut from the soccer team last week for his grades and I heard he was suspended the same day for fighting," he added some shredded cheese and a tiny bit of one his mom's seasoned oils to the vegetable mix. Garlic and italian herb blend with a hint of smoked sea salt.
"Do you feel like you missed out on anything?" Sarah asked softly as Neal came and tapped at her knee.
"What do you mean?" He turned from the stove and watched her help his Uncle climb up onto one of stools and settle in.
"Being adopted?" The question was so quiet he had to strain little to hear it.
Henry contemplated the question as he handed Neal a slice of the pepper he'd saved aside to snack on, "I don't, not really. If you'd asked me that a few years ago, when I first found Ma, I probably would have given a different answer," he watched the toddler chew at the piece of pepper. He still had one stubborn tooth trying to come in and he manipulated the pepper so he could work it against his gums, "But Mom really was the best thing for me. Ma gave me up to have better life than she could provide and I got that, in spades." He turned back to the stove and tested the pasta. It was al dente, which is what he was going for and he turned the stove off and drained the pasta, "Is that something you're thinking about? Adoption?" He left the pasta in it's colander and added chicken breast that he'd diced to hot oil in a pan and left it to sizzle and cook.
He dumped the drained pasta into the casserole dish he'd greased and added the cream sauce to it and the vegetables, "I am, Regina brought it up in passing and Harry mentioned that it's a wonderful option for non-traditional families. I guess he and Clive have been thinking about kids and are between getting a surrogate or adopting," she helped Neal reach over the island counter and retrieve another pepper slice.
Henry stirred the concoction together and stirred the chicken, added chopped bacon to it and watched it sizzle along with the chicken, "That's pretty cool, if that's something you want. I'm sure Mom or Ma could help you contact the right people to put your baby up for adoption," happy with the half cooked chicken and crispy bacon pieces he dumped it into the colander he'd used to drain the pasta and tossed it around, adding some of the seasoned oil to it and tossing it again.
"I think, I'd like that. I don't know what mom and dad will say about it though," she jumped when Neal wrapped tiny hands around her glass and tried to drink from it. She helped him lift it and cupped a hand under it, supporting it as he drank from it. Only spilling a little out and down his face.
Henry nodded as he handed her a damp paper towel for Neal's face before turning to stir chicken and bacon into the pasta, vegetables and cream sauce, "It's not up to them. It's your choice and you have people behind you, even if your parents don't or won't want to support it," he sprinkled some parmesan cheese over the top of it and placed it into the oven just as the preheated timer was going off.
Sarah helped Neal set her glass back down, "And I appreciate that, but they are my parents, Henry," the toddler climbed down then and she helped ease his way down the stool.
Henry frowned as he set the timer on the oven, "I understand that, but you can't just let them tell you how to live your life, not with something this big. They've already proven they don't have your best interest at heart. He'd never had to deal with parents that didn't have unconditional love and the concept was bothersome to him. He rinsed out the pasta pan and added water and a steamer basket to it before setting it back on the stove and lighting the burner. He dumped a large amount of raw broccoli into it and put a lid on it.
Sarah sighed and took a deep drink of apple juice, "I appreciate everything you and your family are doing to help me and I know that you're right, but I spent a lot of years being taught one thing and until we...immigrated… to Storybrooke, that was all I knew. Then they discovered that church and it's only gotten worse. But at least here I've gotten to learn about other ways of life," she laid a hand on his forearm as he leaned against the counter and munched on a pepper stick, "And meet people who make a difference in my life and are actually good for me."
"Smells great kid!" Emma's voice interrupted them and they sprang apart. She arched an eyebrow at her son's flushed face and Sarah's staring into her glass of juice. That could be an interesting development. "Thanks, Ma," he scrubbed at his face, hoping to get rid of the flush sooner rather than later. Regina entered the kitchen then and hugged her son and smiled at Sarah, "How are you, Sarah?" The teenager smiled softly, "Good, Mrs. Swan-Mills. You're family is wonderful and Henry here is pretty awesome in the kitchen," Henry blushed again at the praise and cursed his Ma and her pale complexion.
Neal collided with her legs and Regina picked him up with a groan, "You're getting big, little man," she tweaked his nose and he giggled, "He's always been a quick study in the kitchen," she watched her son open a pan and stir what looked like broccoli. He added some of her lemon garlic dry seasoning to it and stirred again. She smiled, her little family was rapidly expanding and even with all the drama in their lives, she wouldn't change it for the world.