It didn't take long for Emma to park the car and when she made it to Katherine's room the nurse was placing the baby in Regina's arms. Katherine was smiling from ear to ear, she looked tired, but glowing. Frederick was in a chair pulled up close to the bed watching his son's every movement. As Regina leaned back and cradled the baby, Emma took a moment to take in the picture from the doorway before anyone noticed her. She was smiling down at his face, his eyes closed and she placed the smallest kisses on his forehead. The baby looked so small in her arms, smaller than Emma could even imagine. She wondered if Henry looked that small when he was born, regretting for an instant she'd never laid eyes on him. She had made a conscious effort since she gave him up to avoid newborns ever sense.

Regina cooed at the baby a little more and looked up when she noticed the figure lurking in the doorway. "You can come in you know…" She said, smiling at her wife. She looked scared to death to enter the room.

"It looks pretty crowded in there. Maybe I should just go wait in the car?" Emma hesitated. The room was starting to feel like it was closing in around her.

"Oh, please. Get in here and hold my baby. His name is Grayson. Isn't he beautiful?" Katherine said, from her spot on the bed.

"I'm good, really. I don't need to hold him. Regina's doing a fine job of it." Emma stepped a little further into the room, hoping that the smile on her face was enough to mask the panic she was starting to feel. Regina glanced at her curiously and with a small shake of her head, Emma brushed off the unasked question.

"Sheriff, are you scared to hold a baby?" Katherine asked, her voice teasing. "You better get a little practice in now. You're going to have two pretty soon and that means one for each of you, all the time."

Regina laughed and waved Emma a little closer to her. "She's right you know. Here take him." Regina held him out towards Emma and waited. She could see the fear in Emma's eyes and knew that her wife was seconds from bolting. She breathed a sigh of relief when Emma finally, gently took him out of her arms.

Emma cradled his head, holding him tightly against her body. She looked down at his tiny features and then up at Regina, her eyes wide with an array of emotions. He started to fuss a little and Regina saw the panic set in instantly. Emma's back went rigid and when Carter started to cry, Emma handed him back over to Regina as quickly as she could, exiting out the door before Regina could even call out to her.

"What just happened?" Katherine asked.

Regina sighed loudly and leaned down to kiss Carter's forehead again. He settled down and she gave him another smile before answering Katherine. "Well, if I were to guess, that was the freak out I've been waiting 8 months for. Trust Emma to wait until I can barely chase her down."

"Frederick, get the baby from Regina so she can go after her wife."

He obliged and once he was safely snuggled back in his mother's arms, he turned and helped Regina up out of the chair she was in.

"Thank you, Frederick." She made her way to the bed and kissed the top of Katherine's head. When she got a wide eyed look from her friend, she simply shrugged. "What? So these babies have made me a little soft around the edges. He's beautiful, Katherine. You do good work." She smiled at her friend, patting her hand once more before turning and heading out. "You too I guess, Frederick."

Once Regina was out of sight, Frederick finally spoke up. "Did our hard-ass mayor just kiss you on the head?"

Katherine laughed at the statement, just as floored by the show of affection as he was. "I don't think that it's just the babies making her a little soft around the edges. Emma's good for her. I hope she doesn't freak out too bad and make it hard on Regina."

"Something tells me Regina has her number and she won't let it last too long." Frederick said, wisely.

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By the time Regina made it down to the lobby, she saw the yellow bug waiting outside the front doors for her. When she opened the car door to get in, Emma jumped a little at the intrusion. She settled herself into the passenger's seat and waited. If Emma was going to talk about this, she was going to have to be the one to start.

"I'm sorry." Emma finally said quietly.

"You mean for throwing a baby at me and running out of the hospital like you were on fire?" Regina said, knowing exactly how to pull Emma out of her funk.

"I didn't throw him at you. I just….yeah, okay I kinda threw him at you. Sorry." Emma mumbled again.

"I'd like to put my feet up, so why don't we continue this when we get home. That will give you a few more minutes of freak out time, but believe me, it's stopping the second we get home." Regina gave her signature eye brow raise, the look that dared her to argue.

"Yes ma'am." Emma said, a small smile already playing at her lips.

Within minutes they were pulling into their driveway and Emma got out of the car quickly, making her way to the passenger's side to help Regina out. They made their way inside slowly and settled on the couch in Regina's office. Regina put her feet up on the coffee table immediately and Emma slumped down beside her.

After a few minutes Regina finally broke the silence. "Do you want the nice, sweet speech or do you need the hard-ass version?"

"Huh?" Emma said, not following her wife's segue.

"To help you through this. I've been waiting for this since we first found out. I assumed at some point you'd have a little freak out. You've lasted much longer than I thought you would though…" Regina trailed off, smiling at her wife, hoping to show she wasn't upset with her for running out.

Emma switched positions, moving herself to the coffee table and she took one of Regina's feet her in her hands, digging her thumbs into her arches. The receptive motion keeping her from focusing on her panic too much. "I don't think I'm going to be very good at this." She said, keeping her eyes focused on Regina's feet, so she wouldn't have to see the look in Regina's eyes.

"Emma, darling, I love you. One of the things I love most about you is your ability to jump headlong into things and make it work. Did you know how to fight a dragon? No. You made it work. That's how it is with parenting. You make it work." She glanced at Emma to make sure she had her full attention before she continued. "You had instincts with Henry and you're going to have instincts with these babies too. You aren't the same person that gave up Henry and you won't be doing this alone. You'll have me right there with you the whole time. And we're also getting a nanny…" She trailed off when Emma hit a particularly good spot on her foot and she moaned appreciatively.

"A nanny? For real?" Emma asked, surprised.

"We both have full time jobs and there's going to be two babies…I may be good but it just seems ludicrous not to get some help. Besides, I don't think I'll be able to just take them to the office with me everyday like I did Henry. Since people remember things now it might be frowned upon."

"Is Mary Poppins a real person? We could get her."

"Sadly, she's not. I took an ad out in the paper for applicants. We'll have to start doing interviews soon."

"Was that the nice speech or the hard-ass speech?" Emma said, the tension she had been feeling finally lifting.

"A little of both. Did it work?" Regina closed her eyes and laid her head back on the couch, fully enjoying the foot rub.

"Yes."

"That's….good…" Regina gritted out. She took a few deep breaths, rubbing her hands over her belly, her face grimacing. "Because I think I'm having contractions…"

"Is this another drill?" Emma asked, her voice squeaking. Regina's look silenced her quickly. "Not a drill. Got it. Let's get your shoes back on so we can go…good thing I already practiced this today." The comment earned her a swift kick to the shins and another glare.

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By the time they arrived back at the hospital, the contractions had subsided. "I think it was a false alarm. Let's just go home." Regina said, knowing that if Dr. Whale checked her out he was going to say something she didn't like. She'd read plenty about birthing twins and she knew her days were numbered before she would be put on bed rest.

"Oh no. No, no, no. We are having them check you out. Something's going on even if its not the babies time yet. Besides, we're already in a room. It's not going to take long." Emma said, the concern still written all over her face.

"Time's not really my concern here…" Regina started, her sentence cut off by a loud knock on the door. Dr. Whale's head popped in the room and he was waved in by Emma.

"The nurse said you're having contractions?" Dr Whale asked, already donning gloves for an exam.

"Was. They've subsided now, so we can probably just be on our way." Regina said, her need to call the shots not limited to the Mayor's office.

"Braxton-Hicks contractions are quite common, but I still need to examine you and the babies before I can release you." Dr. Whale rolled is stool over to the end of the bed, where Regina's feet were already in the stirrups. He lifted the paper sheet covering her legs and after a quit cursory look, he pushed back, snapping the gloves off. "Everything looks good down here. You aren't dilated yet so I think its safe to assume it was a false alarm. I want to hook you up to some monitors for a little while to check the babies heartbeats and then you'll be free to go. Emma, can you follow me out?"

Emma shot Regina a confused look and when she surprisingly didn't get any refutal at the request, she agree with a single nod of her head and followed him out. Once they were safely in the hallway with the door firmly shut behind him he spoke again. "She's going to have to go on bed rest the next few weeks, until she goes into labor." He looked at Emma expectantly.

"Oookayy…" She hedged. When he only continued to look at her, looking more pitiful by the second, it dawned on her. "You're too scared to tell her." She said, crossing her arms and rocking back on her heels a little.

"It's probably best if she heard it from you."

"You're a chickenshit."

"Like I said, it's probably best if she heard it from you. I can provide you with some pamphlets to explain the reasoning…" He said, looking hopefully towards the blonde.

"I'm going to remember this." Emma poked one finger in his chest for emphasis and spun on her heels to head back in the room, laughing a little at how quickly he was trying to get down the hallway and away from their exam room. He really was a chickenshit. She opened the door softly, so she didn't startle Regina and made her way back into the room.

One look at Emma's face and Regina knew what her fate was. Before her wife could even open her mouth to explain she said, "I'm on bed rest aren't I?"

Regina saw the sigh of relief Emma let out and was grateful when she closed the gap between them quickly. Emma sat on the abandoned stool and slid as close to the bed as she could get, taking one of Regina's hands in hers. "Yeah…But we made it this far…a few weeks won't be so bad." Emma shrugged off the look Regina shot her and quickly amended her statement. "It won't be too terrible?" When Regina continued to only stare at her, she deflated. "It's going to be torture for me isn't it?"

"Mmmm…more than likely. Torture is one of my favorite past times..." The glint in Regina's eye told her everything she needed to know.

"Great."