"Emma are you sure about this?" Henry asked, the hesitation clearly visible on his face.

"Of course I'm sure. We'll have plenty of time to finish up. You're mom's shopping in Portland with Katherine so she won't be home all day." Emma said, as she trudged up the stairs, her arms full of painting supplies.

"It's not getting done that I'm worried about, it's the surprise part. I'm pretty sure you shouldn't surprise a pregnant woman…"

Emma continued down the hallway towards the babies' room and set down the remaining things they needed to complete their project. "You worry too much kid. It's not like we're going to jump out at her when she gets home. We'll just bring her up here and show her and she's going to love it."

"And you're sure that she won't mind that you picked out the cribs by yourself?" Henry asked again, trying to make sure that they had all their bases covered.

Emma walked over to Henry and brought both her hands down on his shoulders. "Of course she would mind. That's the beauty of this plan. For the past month I've been asking her if she liked the ones we just bought or another decoy crib better whenever she wanted to look at baby stuff. And every time she picked this model. Then I would mention the fact that it would look really good in the nursery with the walls painted pale yellow and she would usually nod her head. And then I would get all vague about something else to get her off the subject so she couldn't pin me down on any decisions."

Henry was nodding his own head, his teeth worrying on his lower lip. "So really she picked all this out and she didn't even know it?"

"Yep. I'm practically a genius. If there were wife olympics I would get a gold medal."

"How about you congratulate yourself after mom gets home and doesn't kill you?" Henry said, his hands on his hips, channeling every bit of his other mother. "What do you want to start with?"

"I figured we'd get a coat of paint on the walls, put a crib together, another coat of paint and then put together the other crib." Emma crouched down and popped open the first can of paint. "Simple as that."

"Yeah, famous last words." Henry said with a shake of his head.

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"This is so exciting Regina! I can't wait to get there. It will be like shopping but better because we don't have to pay for anything." Katherine glanced over at her passenger, taking in the less then pleased look on her face. "Hey, you don't get to look like that today. It's going to be fun. Trust me."

Regina just continued to look perturbed at the situation. Going outside the Storybrooke boundaries always made her nervous and she was very unhappy about the whole trip. When Katherine had suggested that they register for their joint baby shower in Portland she thought that Emma was going to be coming with them. Regina was sorely disappointed this morning when she'd begged off the trip because "she had stuff to do." Regina couldn't think of anything more important then picking out the babies things, but Emma had become increasingly hard to pin down about planning anything regarding them over the past month. "I'm sorry Katherine. You know I just get nervous leaving the town boundaries. I'm sure once we get there I'll perk up." Regina said unconvincingly.

"You better. How did you get Snow to agree to helping plan our joint baby shower anyway?" Katherine asked.

"Well, I'd already agreed to let her plan mine in a moment of weakness so really I didn't get her to agree. I just told her it was what I wanted and she had to go with it. It's just an added bonus that she'll remember you slept with Charming every time she looks at you at the party."

"Don't remind me please. That's something I wish I didn't remember…" Katherine smirked. "You could have a least cursed me with someone a little more adventurous in bed. I have to say I'm quite glad he was in a coma for the first 28 years. Doing the same thing over and over and over for that long..."

"That's enough. I would rather not picture it. And I obviously didn't mean for him to ever wake up. My intent was only to keep him from his precious Snow. I really thought you and your knight would have found each other and you'd have something going with him long before you did." Regina said, slightly uncomfortable at the turn the conversation had taken.

"Hey," Katherine patted Regina's leg in comfort. "I was just kidding with you. Everything worked out exactly how it was supposed to."

"True." Regina said, noticing that they were pulling up to the Babies 'R' Us store. "Looks like we're here. Let's get this over with."

"Regina."

"Let's get this party started?" Regina said, the sarcasm dripping from her words.

Katherine laughed out loud and shook her head at Regina's dry whit. Who would have ever known the Evil Queen was so funny? "You sounded just like Emma just then." Katherine said as she got out of the car, with a little boost from the passenger's side.

"Yes, well I am married to her dear. That means she rubs off on me-in more ways than one." Regina smirked as she opened the door for the blonde to enter the store, the double-entendre causing a gleam in her eye.

"So I've heard. Oh my god this place is enormous. Where do we even start?" Katherine mumbled. "I'm not even sure I know what I need…"

Regina just stood beside Katherine, just as overcome with the choices surrounding them as she was. A store clerk approached them before they moved any further into the store.

"Excuse me? Are you two here to register?" The clerk asked, her overwhelming perkiness annoying both women.

"Yes." Regina said shortly.

"Right this way. I'll just sign a scan gun out to you and I also have a list of things women typically put on their lists to help you out." The portly woman waved at them to follow her over the the registry desk to begin the process. Within minutes they were set up and set loose in the store to add whatever their hearts desired to their lists.

"Oh my god Regina. This is so dangerous. No wonder Fredrick and Emma didn't want to come…they might not have survived." Katherine said, her hand reaching out to grip Regina's arm.

The mention of Emma not wanting to come sparked her earlier melancholy and she simply nodded her head in agreement, not wanting to further the discussion any more. Thankfully her companion dragged her off towards the clothing section and it was finished. They each wandered through the department separately, scanning items here and there, showing things off to the other one if they found something cute. Regina found herself ewing and awing at the tiny little outfits, the emotional reaction to clothing surprising her.

She found herself having a good time, until she came across the bib section and one particular piece jumped out at her. She took it off the rack and was once again surprised when the tears formed in her eyes. Overcome, she glanced around making sure that Katherine wasn't close by and she let the tears fall. She had learned over the past few weeks that if she tried to stop or tamper her emotions they would only come back later-and they would always come back in a much more dramatic fashion. She jumped when she felt a hand patting her back, sliding around in comforting circles. She must have misjudged how close by the blonde was.

"What's wrong?" Katherine asked softly. She was a little bit startled by the show of emotion from Regina, but she also understood there were just things that you couldn't control when you had something growing inside you.

Regina looked up, embarrassment coloring her cheeks, but when she saw understanding in Katherine's eyes she simply held up the bib for the woman to see. "This."

Katherine looked at the item Regina was holding up for her and it read "These fools put my cape on backwards." She smiled at the sentiment and looked questioningly at her friend.

"Emma would have wanted to buy this for the babies. But she's not here."

Katherine simply pulled Regina into an embrace, hoping that it wasn't going to get her head bit off and was a little taken aback when she felt the hug being returned. "Are you just missing her?"

Regina stepped back from her, wiping at her eyes and gathering herself. She took a deep breath to calm herself and shook her head. "No, that's not it. It's just that for the past month she's become very…I don't want to say distant, but very noncommittal about anything that has to do with these two." Regina rubbed her stomach, which was now very visibly showing off her state. "The first month after we told her parents it was wonderful. We'd talk about things, her and Henry were constantly making plans to get things done and they even borrowed Ashley's baby to help baby proof things." Regina chuckled at the memory of Emma and Henry following the toddler around, making notes on everything she tried to get into. "I just don't know what happened. I think maybe she's not excited anymore."

Regina felt another wave of tears coming and she mentally cursed every extra hormone in her body. Wiping at her eyes again she looked at Katherine, hoping that she would be able to help her out of her funk.

"I really doubt that's true. Trust me, everything going on in your body right now is clouding up how you see things. I wasn't supposed to tell you but she called this morning lecturing me on safe driving and reminding me you get nervous leaving town. She was every bit the mama bear you would expect her to be. Maybe she's just been trying to not drive you crazy? I could see that being the case more than anything."

Regina thought back over the past month she'd been feeling this way and realized that Emma hadn't been any less loving towards her and had taken care of her every whim and need without a single complaint. It was only making decisions that she seemed to pull back from. "Perhaps she has just been giving me space on those things. I don't know anymore."

"I know I'm only a month ahead of you, but you're going to have to start talking about this kind of stuff together before it gets out of hand. Trust me, it only gets to be more of an emotional roller coaster from here on out. You've still got 4 months to go girlfriend." Katherine smiled brightly, noticing that Regina was already starting to feel better.

"Ugh, don't remind me. I've almost magicked all my clothes to the brink. I'm going to have to start buying actual maternity clothes soon, I feel huge already."

"So that's your secret to a fabulous wardrobe. You just made yours bigger. I'm going to go ahead and tell you there is nothing fair about that."

Regina turned and grabbed another one of the bibs down from the shelf. "You're right. And trust me I paid the price. I've already ruined more clothes then you can imagine. There's only so far you can magically stretch something. I'm buying these two things today."

Katherine just went with the abrupt change in topic, knowing that she'd already stretched the limits of an emotional conversation with her friend. "You should. Now let's go check out strollers." Katherine linked arms with Regina and tugged them off towards another corner of the store.

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"Hey Henry can you open that window? I think these paint fumes are getting to me. The first crib was a lot easier to put together…shouldn't it be the other way around?" Emma asked from her spot on the floor.

"Should be. But that was like 5 hours ago. And 2 coats of paint." Henry muscled the window open, the wood groaning in protest. "You want me to clean up the rest of this paint? I need a break from the crib of doom."

"No, leave it out just in case we see some touch up areas when this coat dries. Come here and hold this side. I think I got it."

Henry moved back across the room, holding the end of the crib while Emma tried in vein to line up the screw holes. He looked around the room, taking in the color and he actually found that he liked it. When his eyes caught movement by the window he looked over Emma's shoulder and he couldn't believe what he saw. "Uh…Emma…" He said, his finger pointing to the window sill.

"Crap…what the hell? Shoo squirrel!" Emma yelled, moving towards the creature, waving her hands like a maniac. "Get back outside…"

Henry and Emma watched in horror as the little squirrel wiggled his nose at them and jumped down from his perch into the room with them.

"Guess he doesn't know what shoo means…"

"You're snark is not helping! What do we do?!" Emma yelled, the squirrel clearly unaffected by the noise.

"Freeze it!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Mom and me used to watch a lot of Charmed. Freeze it and we'll throw it outside…" Henry said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Charmed? Your mom?" Emma turned to Henry, not bothering to hide the look of disbelief on her face.

"Emma! Focus!"

"Okay, I can do this…" Emma put her hands out in front of her, palms facing the squirrel. She thought about how pissed Regina would be if she came home to a rogue squirrel in her house and she used the fear it triggered to fuel the magic. "Freeze!" A burst of white smoke engulfed the little animal and when it cleared there were two sets of eyes sitting there staring at them.

"Why does your magic keep making two of everything!" Henry screamed.

"I don't know! Stop yelling at me!" Emma's eyes darted around the room looking for anything to use as a weapon. When she didn't find anything she looked to Henry hoping he'd have another plan.

"We're just going to have to chase them out the front door."

"Good idea. Go open it up and come back to help me." Emma said, praying with everything she had the squirrels wouldn't move until he got back. He quickly rushed out of the room and down the steps as she continued to stare down the little creatures. She sighed with relief when she heard him running back up the stairs and when he burst back into the room, the previously docile squirrels suddenly spooked and bolted under the fully assembled crib.

"I'm gonna scare them out, you chase them down the stairs when they come out okay?" Emma said, already on her hands and knees by the crib.

"Okay let me just grab…." Henry trailed off as Emma started banging on the crib and he watched as both animals ran out from their hiding spot straight into the roller pan of paint sitting on the floor.

"Shit!" Emma yelled again as she watched the two squirrels roll around in the pan. "Grab them!" Emma started moving towards them when they suddenly righted themselves and they took off out the doorway. "Just keep chasing them outside! GO!"

Henry shook himself out of his stupor and chased the squirrels down the steps, trying to not slip in the trail of paint they were leaving behind. He prayed they would see the sunlight and head straight out the front. When they did, he followed them all the way outside onto the porch, making sure they didn't have plans to come back in. He let out a victory yelp when they disappeared into another tree, his fist pumping in the air. He heard a throat clear next to him and he realized he wasn't standing out there alone. His mother had come home early.

"Uh…I gotta go!" Henry took off the porch as fast as his legs would carry him. He didn't turn around at his mother's calls, instead turning down the street towards his grandparents house.

Regina couldn't believe what she'd just witnessed, but the trail of tiny yellow foot prints confirmed it. Two yellow squirrels were just chased out of her house by her son. Emma's bug sat in the driveway so she was certain the blonde had something to do with it. She glanced down the street at Henry's back and decided it wasn't worth the chase. He had to come home eventually. She stepped over the trail of yellow paint and into the foyer, noticing that the paint continued all the way up the eyes followed the trail all the way up and when her eyes reached the top they collided with a very surprised set of blue-green ones.

"You're..not Henry…" Emma said, her excitement at besting the squirrels evaporating. Regina stood at the bottom of the steps, arms crossed over her chest, looking expectantly at Emma for an explanation. "Can you just gimme like an hour? I'll have all this cleaned up and…"

"No." Regina cut off Emma's attempt and started to make her way up the stairs.

"Come on, please? You're gonna ruin the surprise…" Emma trailed off hopelessly and watched as Regina stalked past her barely sparing her a glare as she went by.

Regina stopped dead in the doorway off the nursery. Her eyes taking in the yellow walls and the crib pieces scattered around and the finished one in the corner. She couldn't stop the tears in her eyes and as Emma approached she flung herself into her wife's arms.

"Whoa, okay. Hey, are you crying?" Emma asked, unsure on how to proceed. She felt Regina's head shake in denial, but she curled her arms around the brunette a little tighter anyway. "I'm sorry. I promise I can fix it, I just really wanted to surprise you…" Emma continued to hold on to Regina, rubbing her back and placing little kisses in her hair until she felt her start to pull away.

Regina slid out of the embrace, her hand capturing one of Emma's so that they could stay connected. "It's perfect…" She turned and looked into the room again her eyes seeing beyond the mess.

"Huh?" Emma responded, still not following what was happening.

"I said it's perfect…I thought that maybe you weren't as excited about the babies any more…you'd just seemed so disengaged whenever I wanted to plan this out…" Regina said, trying to explain herself fully. She knew she was being much more emotional then usual and she wanted Emma to understand her.

"Hey…no…I've been planning this for awhile so I had to try and distract you whenever you got it in your head you wanted to get it done. Henry helped too. The coward…." Emma pulled her back into an embrace, both of them looking into the room smiling. Emma let out a content sigh when Regina laid her head on her shoulder.

"As perfect as this is you're still cleaning it all up. Do I want to know how two squirrels got in the house and got covered in yellow paint?"

"Probably not. Unless you want to tell me about your Charmed obsession."

"Hmmm…I'll just leave you to it then. I'm going to go lay down and take a little nap." Regina turned and made her way towards their bedroom. It seemed that she was going to have to remind Henry their were a few things that needed to stay between just the two of them once he returned home.