A/N: So wow, this is it. The end of the journey. When I first started this last November, I couldn't have even fathomed how it would grow, how I would grow. This last year has been one of the hardest of my life, I'd like to think it can only go uphill from here. I have some amazing opportunities coming up, including traveling to all 5 Creation conventions as a volunteer. I am very nearly a totally different person than I was a year ago and that's a good thing. Thank you so much to all the readers that have been there for the whole journey, your support has meant everything to me.
With that said, please enjoy!
A soft mewl carried through the master bedroom, a tiny sniffle followed and Emma jerked awake; sliding sideways from the bed before Emily could break into full on crying. Eyes barely even open yet the blonde made it to the bassinet at the foot of their bed just as the tiny infant was fluttering dark eyes open and letting out a cry. "It's ok, Jelly," Emma shushed the week old baby, rocking her and patting her back.
"I swear to, God… if that child thinks her name is Jelly one day..." Regina's raspy voice threatened as she shuffled to sit upright in bed.
Emma grinned unapologetically as she shifted to kiss Emily's forehead. "Her name is Emily, but after nine months…" She cooed at the baby when the sudden kiss stilled her crying for a second.
Regina frowned at her wife but the shining mirth in her eyes belied the frustration. "Yes well," she smiled softly when another kiss quieted Emily again. "Bring the starving baby here." She held her arms out, pulling Emily into her chest when her wife handed her over and settled half behind her so she could cradle mother and baby while the blonde bundle suckled hungrily at her breast.
It had been a blissful week, Snow and David had brought Henry and Sarah over the day after Emily had been born. Regina had spent a solid hour crying after watching Henry cradle his baby sister in his arms and start to tell her their family's story. The moment wasn't helped by Neal climbing into the chair beside his nephew and staring at Emily with awe as he softly touched wavy blonde hair following Henry's directions to be gentle.
The moment of the day however had been Snow's face when they shared Emily's full name. It had been a full circle moment for the two women, that had tears streaming down both faces while their spouses quietly ushered the kids out of the room; allowing the two some privacy for the moment with the tiny baby between them.
Emma stroked a slightly chubby cheek as Emily continued to nurse. "I love you so much, Regina." She whispered as she kissed her wife's cheek and held a finger to the baby's waving hand, Emily latched onto it and shook her hand as tiny unfocused chocolate eyes looked up at them.
"I love you too, my darling." Regina reached over her shoulder with a free hand and tangled her hand in blonde hair, scratching lightly at her scalp. "You are my everything, you and our children." She couldn't help the happy thrill that ran through her at the plural term. Emily slowed her suckling, as if sensing the emotional moment; she pulled away enough for the nipple to slip from her mouth and gave contented and sleepy yawn before nuzzling back into her mother's breast and starting to nurse again.
It was 1 o'clock in the afternoon the next day when the doorbell rang. Emma looked from where she was reading through a police report her father had thought she shouldn't wait to read and glanced at her wife and new baby. Regina was curled up on her side on the opposite end of the couch from her, Emily in her yellow Born in a Fairytale onesie sound asleep beside her between her mother and the back of the couch. The brunette had one hand resting on the tiny chest of their daughter assuring her safety even in sleep.
Emma knew who was at the door and she made her way to let Joanne in for the one week check up. When they made it back to the living room Regina was sitting up and softly bouncing a happy looking Emily in the cradle of her arms. The brunette looked tired, but healthy and most importantly as happy as the babe in her arms.
Joanne set her bag down on the coffee table and smiled her Queen, "How are we?" She held out her arms.
Regina stood, placing the infant her arms. "Very well, no pain. Just sore and very achy in places." She watched her former personal physician make faces at Emily and smiled at the woman who had always been loyal to her.
"That's good isn't it, Jelly?" Joanne singsonged to the baby and Regina groaned, fully aware already that the nickname was spreading through town right alongside her actual name. The blonde doctor laughed at the brunette's audible groan, "How's nursing? Any problems with pumping?" She tickled the round belly of the baby, laughing again when Emily smiled and then promptly frowned when shortly after a rather noxious smell emanated from the tiny bundle of joy.
Emma swooped in and took Emily from their doctor, "I'll change her." the blonde had thrown herself into the baby's care eager to make up for everything she'd missed with their first child. Regina wondered how long before the exhausted blonde eased into a more even split, Emily was seven days old and Regina had barely changed a dozen diapers. It wasn't unheard of for the blonde to slip downstairs as the baby was starting to wake and utilize one of the breast milk bottles in the fridge so that she could sleep through the night.
Regina smiled as two of the loves of her life left the room and headed upstairs for the nursery. "No problems." She followed her wife and baby upstairs with the doctor behind her, it being much easier to perform her postpartum exam in bed. "She's nursing with no trouble and the pumping was a little uncomfortable at first, but I think I'm used to it and she's taking a bottle just fine." Regina sat on the king sized bed and slipped the loose sweatpants that belonged to Emma from her lower body and settled back on the bed.
Joanne snapped on a pair of gloves, "Any trouble in the bathroom?" She turned away as Regina slipped her padded underwear off.
"No, everything seems to be functioning properly." Regina laid back got comfortable. "Still bleeding, but it's mostly just spotting" she grimaced slightly as Joanne started her examination.
The blonde doctor gently felt the tender flesh inside her Queen, "That's good, swelling's down significantly," she slipped her gloves off and raised the baggy t-shirt her Queen wore up over her still swollen and distended stomach. The brunette hadn't gained much extra weight and Joanne suspected she'd the lose the weight easily, giving the women of Storybrooke another reason to be envious of her experience. She softly palpated the spongy flesh. "Everything looks good." she tugged the t-shirt back down.
"This is when I usually discuss birth control with new parents…" Joanne started as Emma entered the room, Emily swaddled and in her arms. Regina started to comment and the blonde doctor cut her off. "I know, we're not sure the spell was permanent." she smiled at Emma. "But assuming that it is, the next few months will be your most fertile Regina. However I'd personally recommend waiting at least six months before conceiving again, preferably 12; give your body time to heal and reset," she stood and let Regina dress again.
Emma rocked Emily in her arms, smiling at the happy, cooing baby, "Condoms are suitable?" She never thought she'd sing-song a sentence like that to a baby, but motherhood.
Joanne took Emily and laid her on the bed. "Perfectly. You had no complications, no tearing. So really resuming sexual activity is at your comfort level." she smiled at the squirming baby as she unwrapped her and opened her onsie, checking her umbilical stub."You'll want to stay away from penetrative sex for another three weeks at least and even then be cautious. If it hurts stop, if you're still spotting I would hold off." she slipped the yellow onesie from Emily and stood from the bed, moving to the scale she'd set on the dresser again.
"You'll likely start an ovulation cycle 3-6 weeks from birth, so we should know fairly quickly if we even need to worry about contraception." Joanne laid Emily on the scale and tickled her round belly. "We're up a couple of ounces, right on track." She lifted the blonde baby from the scale and moved back to the bed. "I recommend to most new mothers that they...achieve pleasure at their own hand a time a two before being with their partner." Emma flushed and Regina cleared her throat into the silence that followed, Joanne smiled at the pair.
"It will give you a chance to see what feels different, reassure any body negativity issues you may be having postpartum." Regina nodded along, she hadn't had any particular issues just yet, but she had caught herself avoiding looking very long at her changed body. "It'll also be a good way for you to gauge tenderness and sensitivity as well, but also it's your body and you absolutely should not let anyone." She cut a look at Emma. "Push you into anything you don't feel ready for."
Regina smiled. "I can assure that won't be a problem, it's likely I'll be the one pushing." She closed her eyes and gave happy hum when a soft kiss was placed against her temple and a strong arm wrapped around her shoulders as Emma joined her on the bed. "But, back to Emily, she's been nursing almost constantly; more often than I remember Henry eating." She watched their doctor measure the baby's length and record both the weight and length into a small tablet computer.
Joanne nodded. "Breast milk digests quicker than formula, in only a couple of hours. Since Henry didn't have that benefit-" Joanne cut herself off and glanced at Emma. "Sorry, poor choice of words."
Emma waved her off. "It's fine." Regardless the comment had stung, she consoled herself with the absolute fact that everything that had had happened had brought them together. "Can't change the past and it's the truth of biology." She picked up the onesie and when Joanne laid Emily back on the bed she started to slip the clothing back on her.
Regina rubbed her wife's back soothingly. "Thank you, Joanne." she cleared her throat and left her hand resting on a tense back. "We appreciate everything you've done for us, if you'd like we can schedule the next appointment at the office?" Emma had Emily dressed then and the tiny mix of the two of them started to become fussy, indicating a hunger.
"It's fine either way, I truly don't mind coming to you guys though." Joanne smiled as her Queen slipped the loose t-shirt off of one arm and opened the nursing bra she wore, pulling Emily in and smiling beautifully when the infant hungrily latched on. "Such a beautiful family, my Queen. I am so happy for you." She stood from the bed and started to pack up her bag. "Unless you have any issues we'll plan for a one month check?"
Emma stood to follow the doctor out. "That sounds great." She smiled at the other blonde, mostly recovered from the moment she'd had earlier, knowing the woman truly hadn't meant anything by her comment and that she felt bad.
Regina watched her wife follow the doctor out and made a note to check on her lover's mental state when she returned, she was pulled from her thoughts though by a soft gurgle and she glanced down to see Emily kneading at her upper chest; tiny mouth surrounded by milk bubbles and dark eyes focused somewhere around her forehead. "Hi there tiny baby." she stroked a small cheek with one finger, laughing softly when it caused a fist to flail away from her chest for a second. "Don't tell your brother but you're my favorite right now." Regina cooed to the suckling baby. "For now anyway, until you're 13 and causing drama." she gently broke the suction with her pinky finger when she felt her milk flow slowing and switched Emily to her other breast.
"Henry was fairly behaved, but your mother..." Regina shook her head as she rocked Emily slowly while she nursed, "I didn't know her when she was 13, but the stories I've heard." She shook her head again. "But your mother didn't have a lot of love in her life until just a few years ago." Regina tickled a chubby cheek again, smiling when it garnered no reaction this time and chocolate eyes closed and opened slowly. "That's why it's our job, and your brother's and your grandparents' to make sure she never goes a day not knowing how much we love her." Emily released her nipple long enough to yawn before she was nuzzling back in, suckling softer now; mostly on instinct.
Emma stood just outside the doorway, unintentionally eavesdropping at first; but then not wanting to interrupt the moment between mother and child. Tears streamed down her face as she overheard the words and she felt the overwhelming love for her family, the one she'd dreamed about when she was that 13 year old girl but never hoped for.
"She saved me." Regina stroked Emily's cheek as she continued to sleepily suckle. "She came into town and turned my whole life upside down." Emily released her again and gave a wide yawn for such a small baby. "Your brother may have warmed my cold heart, but your mother?" Regina eased her onto her shoulder and rubbed at the tiny back. "Your mother took a blowtorch to it." Emily burped and dribbled a little spit up out.
"That's ok, baby girl, your brother has the same reaction when we get a little to sappy also." Regina laughed as she pulled Emily down and wiped her face of the spit up. "It's true though, until she came into my life driving horrid cars and wielding chainsaws. I didn't even know I was missing her." she tickled a rounded belly and laughed when Emily kicked out a little. "Don't tell her, but I actually loved that stupid jacket, however the blue one was my favorite." she smiled when pink eyelids started to droop and she carefully swaddled her child into the blanket still on the bed.
Emma entered the room then. "I knew it!" She teased even as her face was still damp with tears.
Regina looked up at her wife, a contrite smile on her face that quickly fell when she processed the reddened eyes and tear tracks. "Darling? What's the matter?" She stood from the bed and gently laid Emily into her bassinet at the foot of the bed.
"I didn't mean to eavesdrop…" Emma sighed as she sat on the bed watching her wife shed the soiled shirt she wore and toss it into the laundry. "I never felt like I belonged until Henry dragged me here and brought me home." She stood and followed Regina into the ensuite, watching while the brunette took a washcloth and soap cleaning her shoulder where the spit up had leaked through. "Sometimes I'm still a little thrown by the sense of belonging I feel." she stepped forward once her wife was done and wrapped her arms around the brunette, letting her hands rest on the evidence of the baby sleeping in their bedroom.
"When Henry first showed up on my doorstep I never would have imagined that I'd be here in six years." Emma bent to kiss tanned skin, smiling when Regina arched her neck granting more access. "Everything reminds me daily how much I'm loved." She stroked her thumb over one of the few stretch marks on her wife's deflated lower belly. "How much our family means to me and how much they need me and want me." She kissed tanned skin again, sucking just enough for Regina to mewl slightly and bury a hand in blonde hair.
Regina smiled into the attentions, meeting her wife's hazel eyes in the mirror before them. "Easy, Tiger." She laughed at the teasing growl and nip from Emma. "Joanne may have cleared me for light activity, but I'm not quite ready." She scratched at her wife's scalp again and smiled when a soft kiss was placed against her cheek.
Emma laid her chin on a shoulder, not caring that she had to arch her back awkwardly. "I'll always love you, I'll always want you." She kissed a tanned neck again when chocolate eyes misted. "Whether it's holding you in my arms, making love or sharing our life together. Nothing can change how I feel." Another kiss and Regina was turning in her arms.
The brunette looped her arms over her wife's shoulders, lacing her hands together. "Of that I never doubt." She pushed up onto to her toes while tugging at her lover, pulling the taller woman into a sweet kiss.
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Emma yawned loudly as she stirred the pot of stew that was simmering on the stove, it was a sleepy mid-afternoon Wednesday. A nearly a month old Emily sleeping contentedly and strapped to her chest in the army green tactical baby carrier, a gift from Ruby that Regina had rolled her eyes at. The brunette herself was napping in their bed while Emma cared for the infant and kept an eye on dinner. She yawned again and stroked a hand over the canvas and kevlar material before bending her head in to place a soft kiss against downey blonde hair.
The level of happiness in the last few weeks still left her spinning, she absolutely loved Henry and wouldn't change a thing about him. But she'd truly been reveling in all things she was getting to do with Emily. Another soft kiss that had Emily stirring and she added the handful of bay leaves wrapped in cheesecloth that Regina had prepared and left instructions on when to add them before heading upstairs.
She gave the pot a stir as she started to rock side to side to sooth the starting to fuss infant. Emma detected the soft mewl that indicated she was about to start demanding food and she opened the fridge to retrieve one of the packets of breast milk and set it in the simmering pot of water she'd started a while ago, knowing her daughter would be hungry soon.
Emma paused mid-stir when she felt a familiar tingling between her legs that she hadn't felt in months. A grin broke out on her face. "Guess who's getting more siblings?" She sing-song to her daughter as she laid a hand on her back and bounced a little, soothing the baby as she started to really wake. "You are. You and your big brother, Henry!" A soft kiss was placed against downy blonde hair.
A husky voice carried into the room then. "I take the fertility spell just activated?" Regina stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame and smiling softly at the image of her wife in sweatpants; tank top and the baby carrier.
"Yup." Emma popped the P as she poked the warming milk, "I already started milk for Jelly. You going to be ok?" She turned to her sleep tousled wife and placed her hands on rounded hips as she kissed her chastley on the lips.
Regina touched her breasts as Emma moved back to the stove, massaging them lightly. "I think so, I pumped before I napped. So I should be fine." She moved further into the kitchen then and took a seat at the kitchen table as she yawned. Content to let her wife care for their child, even if the blonde seemed to be doing most of the caring. She knew Emma felt she was making up for everything she'd never done with their first child. She leaned her chin on a palm as she watched her wife deftly prepare the bottle and maneuver both herself and Emily out of the carrier after testing the milk on her inner wrist.
"She slept the whole time you did, because she's a good little girl." Emma offered her the bottles' nipple as she spoke, grinning when Emily enthusiastically latched on and started feeding.
Regina smiled and stood from her seat wrapping an arm around her wife and leaning against her strong shoulder as she tickled a pink cheek and watched her daughter eat. "Of course she is, she's ours." She placed a kiss against blonde hair and inhaled the fresh baby scent that wafted from their baby girl.
It was hours later, dinner had been consumed and put away. The teenagers had retreated to their bedrooms to work on homework and Regina was feeding a sleepy Emily on their bed while Emma was in the shower. "Your first night in your nursery little girl, aren't you excited?" She stroked a soft cheek as her daughter suckled from her breast. Emily gave a wave with the hand not kneading at her upper chest. "That's right!" Regina kept the conversation going. "But don't worry your Momma and I will he keeping an eye on you the whole time." She glanced over at the baby monitor on her side of the bed, it showed a picture of Emily's crib in her nursery and also carried any sound to them.
"Still sure you want to put her in the nursery tonight?" Emma appeared in the ensuites doorway, still dripping and working a towel over her muscled body. "We can keep her in here longer." She watched Regina detach Emily with her pinky and shift her to the opposite breast.
"I'm sure." Regina laughed and smiled at her anxious wife. "We agreed before she was born, 4 weeks in the bedroom with us and then into the nursery we spent weeks preparing." She cast an appreciative glance over her wife's muscled body, pausing briefly at the apex of her thighs. Where the coalescence of the fertility spell rested in its flaccid state. Regina wasn't ready for anything to be inside her yet, but that didn't mean she'd gone blind.
Emma nodded, her expression one of acceptance and contrition. "The monitor is set up right? You checked the batteries? And you double checked the thermostat in her room? Took out the extra blankets and lace thingie mom bought? Is the night light plugged in? Did I put the batteries in the mobile?" She tossed the towel into the hamper and strode towards her dresser.
Regina appreciated the flexing and shifting muscles even as she choked back amusement at her wife, her own maternal instincts were warring with the decision a little. However she did feel it was the best. "Yes, darling to everything." Emily broke away and gave a long milk bubble filled yawn, eyes sleepily drifting open and close. "Not quite yet baby girl," Regina soothed as she lifted the infant to her shoulder and gently rubbed her back.
"Sorry." A sheepish and dressed Emma settled on the bed beside her wife and child. "I don't know what's wrong with me." She kissed Regina on the cheek just as Emily let out disproportionately loud burp.
A soft kiss to downy soft blonde hair and Regina stood from the bed after pulling the loose t-shirt back over her breasts and shoulders, "Maternal instinct darling, it's kicking in stronger than ever. I'm not ashamed to admit that even when I transitioned Henry into his nursery that I slept in the rocking chair more times than not." She cut a look at her wife. "Don't even think about it." Emma deflated back to reclining on the bed. "I'm going to put her down now, it's going to be ok my love." Regina leaned in to kiss her wife on the lips and then left the room.
Emma sighed and watched her wife leave the room, eyes inadvertently drawn to the swaying yoga pant clad backside. Her lover was curvier than ever and Emma couldn't help but appreciate the new curves. She found them attractive in general and the effect was compounded by the knowledge that they were caused by their love and passion. Her train of thought quickly devolved then into memories of her wife writhing in pleasure beneath her, over her, beside her, all in a plethora of positions they'd partaken of each other in.
She twitched in her sweatpants then, "Goddamnit." She cursed, Emma hadn't missed undesired erections. She knew her wife wasn't ready for sex yet, and she was in no hurry to rush the beautiful brunette. Regardless, her penis was filling with blood and for every unarousing thought another two replaced with images of her wife naked and panting.
The blonde was just contemplating returning to the shower and alleviating the problem before her wife returned when the sexy woman of her thoughts appeared. "Darling, I think that…" Regina trailed off as their eyes met and she took in her flushed wife and the middling bulge in her sweatpants, chocolate eyes darkened and dilated. "...You have a situation there." Whatever she'd been about to say when she entered their bedroom was gone, replaced by the observance of her wife's arousal.
Emma flushed. "Hi, babe." She offered sheepishly. "Sorry, one thought just led to another and…" she gestured to the ridge of her cock, obvious through black cotton pyjama pants she wore.
"No apologies needed, darling." Regina sashayed into the room, her voice having dropped an octave. "Assuming those thoughts were of me, I'm flattered." She joined her wife on the bed, laying a small hand on a muscled thigh; an inch from her lover's arousal.
Emma nodded and swallowed. "Of course it was, babe." She watched the hand move up and a single finger trace the shape of her.
Regina slipped her hand through the button fly of her wife's sleep pants and stroked her length. "I may not be ready for you, but that's no reason to leave you hard and wanting." She settled a thigh over one of her wife's, pulling Emma into a kiss as she pulled her from her pants.
Emma groaned as Regina slipped two fingers into her own mouth, sultrily licking between them and drawing the glistening digits out and licking her palm, leaving behind a swath of salvia. She wrapped her hand around her wife's cock and pumped her slowly. Regina couldn't help the smile as Emma's eyes slipped shut and her head fell back, a deep resonating moan leaving her chest. "Look at me, darling." She husked as she brushed a thumb across the sensitive tip.
"Fuck, that's good." Emma whispered as their eyes met and she couldn't control the jolting of her hips as she met her wife's strokes. Regina added a twist to her motion and Emma all but cried out at the change as a thumb brushed across her tip on every stroke.
Regina kissed her wife's cheek, moved down to her neck and licked at her pulse point. The stroking and twisting and brushing never faltering. "That's it, my love. Feel me, imagine how wet and warm I'll be when I can take you inside again." She husked the words into the shell of an ear, wrapping her hand around just the tip of her lover's cock and massaging at the mushroom head. "I'm wet right now, I can feel myself throbbing to be full of you." She took her hand away, licking at her palm again and moaning at the salty sweet flavour left behind by her wife's pre-cum. "Not much longer, darling and I'll be so ready to have you inside me." Regina nipped at an earlobe, smirking when Emma shuddered bodily. "Do you want that?" Another nip. "Do you want me, Emma?" Another nip, this time to a jumping pulse point.
Emma buried her hands in dark hair. "Fuck. Yes." She husked out against plump lips as she passionately kissed her wife. Thrusting inside her mouth and groaning through the kiss as she started to come, white cum arcing from her tip and splashing against her blue tank-top and her wife's black yoga pants.
Regina moaned right back into the kiss as she felt her wife's ejaculate falling across her thigh, dripping down her fist. She continued to stroke lightly, drawing the last from her blonde lover.
"So much, darling, all for me?" She pulled out from the kiss, glancing down at the mess left by their ministrations.
"Every last drop." Emma pulled her into another kiss, it was soft and sensual. It left Regina feeling equal parts aroused and loved.
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"Emma have you seen the-" Regina cut herself off mid sentence when she stepped from the kitchen into the living room. Emily was a month old and they were having a family dinner to celebrate the event. Emma had been playing with the bubbly infant while Regina puttered around the kitchen working with Henry and Sarah's help to put together the meal. But the brunette was caught speechless and instead of asking the blonde for the corkscrew she'd not been able to find, she found herself fighting back tears of love and joy.
Sprawled out on the couch was her wife and daughter. Emma on her back, one leg off and firmly planted on the floor an arm flung wide and hanging off the couch, her other hand protectively splayed over a tiny; rhythmic moving back as mother and child slept soundly. She knew Emma had been pushing herself, caring for their newborn. Her own feeling of well restedness could attest to that and as grateful as she was, Regina needed her wife to start taking care of herself.
The first thing she did was snap a picture of the scene and immediately save it to her phone's background. The next thing she did was to sit beside her wife, placing a gentle hand over her wife's on their child's back and she leaned forward to place a soft kiss to her lover's forehead. Emma snorted and jerked awake, her arm wrapping around Emily as she came awake quickly. "It's alright, darling," Regina smiled at the tired blonde.
Emma shifted and held Emily close as she moved to a sitting position. "Sorry, she drifted off and I just thought I'd close my eyes for a second." She yawned widely and maneuvered Emily into a cradling position holding her close against her stomach with one arm while she scrubbed her face with the other.
A soft smile graced Regina's face and she soothingly rubbed a strong thigh. "You've been taxing yourself so much, love. I think perhaps it's time I put my foot down." Emma arched an eyebrow at her wife. "About Emily's care, that is." Regina leaned in to kiss her wife's cheek as she yawned widely again. "I've let you care for her in the majority, I know you feel you're somehow making up for things with Henry. But darling, we're both her parents." She smoothed soft blonde hair from their daughters forehead as she gazed at the peaceful face of their infant.
"I…" Emma sighed and ran her hand through her shaggy blonde hair, messing it more than it already was. "I know, I just…" She trailed off again and deflated back against the couch. "..."I've changed every diaper. Soothed every fever. Endured every tantrum"… sound familiar? I guess...I know I've been trying to make up for that...I know it's stupid."
Regina's face fell and she cursed the tears she felt pricking her eyes. "My darling." She stroked her wife's face and let her tears fall. "They were words said in anger and fear, I do not hold that first 10 years against you. I cannot say how much I regret them and that they still haunt you." Regina swept a finger beneath each eye, it was for naught as more tears quickly replaced the ones she wiped away, she laced a hand with the one of her wife's that wasn't cradling their second child.
Emma smiled sadly. "I know, I do really." She drew their laced hands up and kissed the back of her wife's tanned one. "But it doesn't mean that you weren't right and that I don't have regrets." Emily snuffled then, stirring against her blonde mother and nuzzling into the underside of her breast.
"Nothing can change those regrets, not really. But darling, you can't keep going like this…" Regina stroked the top of Emily's head. "Why don't you head up and take a real nap while I nurse her? There's two hours before our family arrives?" She leaned in to kiss her wife, cupping her cheek and pushing every bit of love and affection she had into it.
A deep breath and Emma nodded. "I think, I think that sounds great." They transitioned Emily into her brunette mother's arms and as Regina shifted her clothing and moved the starting to adamantly fuss baby into position Emma headed for their bedroom in a sleepy shuffle.
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Emma rubbed her eyes as she came down the stairs, she'd taken her nap and then showered and she had to admit ruefully that her wife had been correct and she felt much more refreshed and she made a vow to share more of their daughter's care. It was better for all of them and Emma's sanity. When she entered the kitchen the teenagers were fluttering about the room, being directed by her seated wife who held a once again sleeping baby. Emma crossed the room and laid a hand on Emily and kissed her wife chastely on the lips. "Hey, babe." She greeted softly, settling into a chair beside Regina at the kitchen table.
"Feeling better, darling?" Regina questioned as she kept an eagle eye on Henry stirring a delicate mushroom risotto.
Emma nodded and smiled sheepishly. "I am, I uh had a decent cry too, feels like a huge weight is gone." The doorbell sounded and they heard the front door open and what sounded like a dozen people piling in through the door. That could only be the Charmings.
Regina smiled, she knew her wife preferred to shed her emotional skin in private, particularly when it was of her more self loathing emotions. "That's good, my love." She stroked a cheek and leaned in for another kiss.
"Hello family!" David announced as he entered the kitchen, Neal on one hip and Snow trailing after him.
A while later when they were settled around the dining room table, Ruby and Belle had arrived shortly after the Charmings alongside Granny. Clive and Harry joined them with baby Amelia, they had invited Joanne as well but she'd declined due to work. Regina looked around her at the people sitting around her. Her life had been one of pain and destruction, both to her and by her. She had regrets, she always would. But right now sitting with her family, she couldn't be more grateful for where she was now. This was her life, she was surrounded by love and she couldn't wait for the future, whatever it may bring.
The End