Hour One

"So this is cozy…" Emma said, as she and Regina settled in the birthing room of the hospital. She looked around at the puffy drapes, ridiculous art, and the lack of anything that looked strictly medical.

"It's horrendous. I know I'm still at the hospital and clearly not at home." Regina said, grumpily.

"Still better than jail. Unless you want to re-think that tradition thing?" Emma said with a smile, knowing full well the room was horrendous, but their banter served as a great distraction for them both.

Regina just glared at her wife and didn't bother responding to the jab. "When is the Dwarf going to be here?"

"Snow just texted. He's on his way up now…" She glanced towards the door when they heard a timid knock. "And there he is. Come on in Doc!"

Doc shuffled in the room, still very intimidated by the situation. He had been extremely uncomfortable about this when Emma and Snow had originally approached him about being the backup, but had agreed, reluctantly, assuming the chances of actually being used were slim. Yet, here he was about to deliver the Evil Queen & the Saviour's twin babies. The pressure was undeniable and he hoped he was up to the task. "Hello."

Emma and Regina glanced at each other, not sure how to proceed. The poor guy looked like he wanted the floor to open up and swallow him whole. Fearing Regina's impatience Emma spoke up first. "Doc, you're just going to have to man up here. You're kind of our only hope right now. I mean I read up on some stuff as part of Plan F…anyway…I don't think either one of us wants me to have to do this." Emma glanced at Regina again and she was emphatically shaking her head no.

The dwarf nodded his head in agreement and slowly crept the rest of the way into the room. "I'm…I'm going to have to check her…" Doc's eyes darted from Emma's to Regina's mid section, hoping to convey what he meant.

"Stomach?" Emma said hopefully.

Doc shook his head no once and continued to dart his eyes between Emma and Regina. Regina finally snapped. "Oh for God's sake. I'm not some delicate flower who has no idea how this works. I assume that your shifty dwarf eyes are trying to say you need to check how far I'm dilated, yes?"

Emma and the Doc just stared at the floor, both unwilling to look Regina in the eyes. Doc slowly shook his head in the affirmative.

"Then you'd better get to it. I'd like to move this along please." Regina said, with an air of confidence.

"Um…I don't think that's…" Emma started.

"Shut up."

Doc used their sparing as a distraction as he slid his stool closer to the bed and carefully lifted the sheet covering Regina's legs, wary of a belated reaction from the woman. With a quick examination he pulled the sheet back in place and pushed the stool back slightly. "Everything looks to be progressing normally. You're dilated to a one right now, which is good. You need to be at about a ten before you start to push."

"So how much longer?" Emma asked.

"I'd say, right now my best guess is about 12-15 hours."

"WHAT?!" Regina bellowed and Emma just shook her head, resigned to the fact that it was going to be the longest day of her life.

Doc slowly backed his way towards the exit and with an apologetic glance towards Emma he slipped out the door.

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Hour Three

"Henry's down in the lobby. He wants to know if it's safe to come up." Emma said, waving her phone a little at Regina. The two had been entertaining themselves with them in between contractions and Henry would be a welcome break from the monotony.

"Of course it's safe. What does he think is happening in here?" Regina asked, unable to hide her excitement at a distraction.

"I don't know. He's 16. Don't you think it's good that this scares him? I mean when I was 16…"

"Just tell him to come up here." Regina rolled her eyes, although secretly in agreement with Emma.

A few minutes later Henry knocked on the door before walking in, taking in the room's decor. "This room is horrible. Why didn't you change it?" He asked, directing the question towards Regina.

"I tried. About an hour ago, but it seems that my magic isn't working right now." At Henry's look of alarm Regina was quick to reassure him. "I've been told it's completely normal. Something about this process being natural and the bodies way of preventing anything happening while I'm out of control."

"Oh, okay. So how long is this going to take?" Henry asked, taking a seat in one of the chairs by the bed.

"Apparently forever." Regina quipped, shooting a glare towards Emma.

Emma just ignored her wife, focusing her attention on Henry. "Like 10 or so more hours."

Henry scrunched up his face. "Do I have to stay the whole time? Or can I just come back and meet them when they get here?"

"That's fine, Henry." Regina said, her love for her son evident in the way she spoke to him. "I don't even want to really be here for the next ten hours, but I already asked and I can't just come back later." She shot Emma another glare. "Tell me about your day honey. I need a good distraction."

"It was fine. We were just over at Nic's hanging out. Nothing too exciting…" Henry trailed off when he saw Regina start to grimace. Emma looked down at her watch and then over at Henry.

"Uh, kid I'm not sure you want to be in here for this…" She said, hoping he'd understand what was happening.

"Yeah, I'm just going to…uh...go…I'll see you guys later." He bolted from the room before Regina's contraction made it into full swing.

Gripping her wife's hand, Regina went through the breathing they'd practice over the course of the last few contractions, Emma's free hand on her back, comforting her more than she thought possible.

"You're doing great babe, this one was a little early which is good. It means things are moving along." Emma beamed at her wife, getting more excited about meeting their babies as the minutes ticked by. Regina smiled at Emma through the last part of the pain and when it subsided kissed her hand that she'd practically been crushing the last few minutes. "I love you. I just wanted you to know that now…I think that maybe…"

"Babe, I know how this works. You're gonna start screaming you hate me, you did this to me…blah blah blah. I get it. I've done this before remember? I would have loved to have screamed at someone when I had Henry. I know you love me and as soon as you've got those little babies in your arms your going to forget all about the pain." Emma leaned up and kissed her wife, putting all the emotion she could into the action.

"Thank you." Regina looked lovingly at Emma for a few beats, before shaking the tears forming in her eyes away. "What do you want to do now?"

Emma shrugged her shoulders a little. "Words with Friends?"

"Okay."

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Hour Five

"I need to get up." Regina said, trying her best not to snap the words at her wife.

"Maybe you should let Doc finish up down there first…" Emma replied, jerking her head towards Regina's feet.

Doc's head popped up at the mention of his name. "I'm all done. She's at about a 3 now. It's actually good if she can get up and walk around a little."

"You can talk to me directly." Regina said calmly. The man had only been talking to Emma since he first came in and if he was going to be the one to deliver the babies he was going to need to get over whatever was stopping him and quickly.

"I…I…I…" Doc stuttered.

"Never mind." Regina huffed and Doc addressed Emma again.

"She can walk around for short periods of time up until her contractions are about 5 minutes apart." He said quickly before exiting the room.

"What is his problem? I haven't done anything remotely Evil-Queen-like in years."

"I..um…I think it's more that every time he comes in he has to look at your vagina. I mean it's not like the guy sees them everyday or anything….so…"

Regina just stared at her wife a few beats, unable to come back with a witty quip or even a snarky comment. Emma had a point. She'd have a hard time talking to Charming if she had to examine his parts every hour or so. She dismissed the train of thought with a wave of her hand and decided a walk was just what they both needed. "Can you make sure the hallway stays clear while we walk? I don't want…"

Emma cut her off immediately. "Please don't say you don't want the peasants to see you?"

With a roll of her eyes Regina continued, "I was going to say I prefer that only you see me in such a vulnerable state."

Emma's eyes widened at such an honest admission from her wife without any prompting. "Yeah, okay. Yeah, I can do that. Just give me a minute. I know Snow and Charming are still hanging around. I'll have them do crowd control." She leaned over and kissed Regina's forehead and murmured a quick I love you before she was out the door.

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Hour Eight

"Oh god! Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop!" Regina was screaming at the top of her lungs, crushing Emma's hand with hers as she suffered through another contraction.

"I don't think we want them to stop babe. You can do this…" Emma said, out of her element on how to comfort her wife at the moment. She hoped that her best shot was good enough.

"Distract me…" Regina ground out between breaths.

"Okay, um…did I ever tell you how Ruby and Belle got together?" Emma glanced at her wife's face and when she wasn't acknowledged she rushed on with her story. "It was right after I set fire to your kitchen…I was pretty upset about that one and feeling down and well just pissed really that I couldn't get anything to go right. I went home that night and got completely shit-faced, which I hadn't really done for awhile you know?" Emma felt a little extra squeeze on her hand so she took that as a sign to continue. "Anyway, I decided in my drunken state that I was just going to call you and confess everything and tell you how much I thought I could love you and would you want to love me back? The only problem was when I dialed you I hit Ruby's name instead of yours…'cause I couldn't really see straight…So I proceeded to leave a long, rambling profession of love on Ruby's voicemail instead of yours. I don't know how I missed her greeting, other than you know I was drunk so what the hell?"

"You're a complete idiot." Regina broke in, her eyes saying something totally different then her words. The contraction was subsiding and Emma's story had done enough to get her through the last of it.

"I know. Anyway, so I guess that next morning Belle stopped by the diner to see Ruby and she was the first one there so Ruby was still running around trying to get things opened up. She'd left her phone sitting on the counter and Belle noticed she had a missed voicemail and asked Rubes if she wanted her to check it in case it was important. So she proceeded to listen to my rambling message and apparently I didn't actually say your name because Belle thought I really had left it for Ruby…and let's just say that gave her the courage to set Ruby straight on who exactly she belonged to. Ruby didn't have the heart to tell her for quite awhile about how she knew I was after you and that it was just a drunk dial."

"What did you do the next morning?" Regina asked, genuinely intrigued about the story.

"Ruby was pretty quick to tell me I'd left the message to her and not you so that I didn't go saying something to you. I was a little relieved and a little disappointed to be honest. It wasn't the way I'd wanted it to come out, but a part of me just wanted you so bad that…well I would have taken anything really, just to have you know." Emma continued to hold onto the hand Regina had used to crush hers during the last contraction, stroking her thumb lightly across the back of it, enjoying such an intimate moment and reveling in how much their relationship had changed over the years. It was so easy just to be devastatingly honest with Regina, regardless of how embarrassing or terrible the story was she wanted to tell. Regina knew her inside and out and there wasn't an ounce of fear left in Emma that she could ever say something to make Regina un-love her. "I love you." Emma said simply.

"I'm sorry that you had to try for so long Emma. If I'd known…"

"Don't be sorry. I'm not. For the first time in my life I fought, fought hard for something that was just for me and I think that just makes me appreciate it even more."

Regina gazed into her wife's eyes, searching for something, she didn't know what. All she saw reflecting back at her was love and adoration and she was still amazed that that look was directed at her on a daily basis. "I love you." Regina said, the moment between them perfect and she knew that really, what more was there to be said?

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Hour Ten

"I thought this walking was supposed to be helping things?" Regina asked, on her second lap around the nurses station.

"It is. You heard Doc, he said you're at an 8 right now. We're getting super close." Emma kept her hand on Regina's lower back while they walked slowly down the hallway. The contraction's were almost 10 minutes apart and it was just enough time to make two loops before they went back into the room. "Some women are in labor for like 24 hours…"

"That's not helping." Regina glanced at her wife, not finding enough every to put the snark behind the comment it deserved. "I just want to kiss their faces and squeeze them and love them." Her eyes started to burn with the confession, getting more frustrated by the minute at being so closed to holding her babies and yet so far away. She felt Emma's hand rubbing a little more intensely, a silent sign of her support.

"You'll be able to in just a little while. We're so close I just know it's going to go quick now. Besides, just keep thinking about Snow pacing down in the waiting room…the longer it takes the more she suffers in those horrible chairs…" Emma smiled at her wife, hoping the comment would at least get a smirk out of her.

"There is that…if this was Charmed I could just orb them out and we'd be finished with this." Regina moaned, her tone uncharacteristically whiny.

"No, if this was Charmed a demon would be after us, no one would have magic for some reason or another, and you'd end up pushing these kids out on a dining room table without the aid of any doctors or nurses…"

"How exactly is that different from our current situation?" Regina mused.

"Shut up. There's no demons around so…"

"Didn't you just say your mother was still in the waiting room?" Regina cocked one eyebrow, quite proud that she still had enough to snark about Snow.

"Regina! Dammit…" Emma just shook her head, unable to keep the smirk off her face. "Okay, that was a pretty good one. Let's get you back to the room. You're due for another contraction."

"Yes, dear."

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Hour 12

Regina glared at Emma, her eyes narrowing at her wife's latest suggestion.

"So that's a no then?" Emma asked, hopeful that maybe she could change her stubborn wife's mind.

"I refuse." Regina said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"FIne. But I'm telling you it would help." Emma said with a shrug of her shoulder. Regina had been complaining about the growing pain in her back, but she was unwilling to take any of the suggestions the nurse or Emma herself made.

"There is not a chance in hell that I am going to sit on a fitness ball or getting in a bathtub right now. I want to push. If you want to help my back pain go get Doc and tell him it's time. Getting these babies out will help my back pain." Regina snapped, feeling the next contraction coming on. "I can't do this again Em….aaarrrghh! I can't, I can't…" Her voice fading out, replaced by a few pitiful sobs as she rode out the latest contraction with Emma.

"I love you. You know that right?" Emma said, hesitant about her next words but she'd been saving them and she knew they would do the trick. Regina just rolled her eyes a little at the sentiment, clearly showing her impatient with Emma at the moment. "Okay, right…well…I'm only saying this for your own good okay? Okay…If Snow can do this while your Curse to End all Curses was taking out an entire world you can do this too. Are you going to let her out tough you?"

Regina growled, a throaty, viscous noise that made Emma scoot her chair back from the bed a little, scared about what was going to happen next. "No.I won't. In fact, why don't you go get your mother so she can watch me kick the ass of when she pushed one baby out of her vagina." Regina sobered a little, her burst of aggression slipping away. "Besides, she'll need to cut the cords because there is no chance you are going any where near that end of me while the babies are coming out. I want to have sex with you again someday and I will not have you scarred by the image. And have Charming get Henry too, since we're getting so close."

"You know I wouldn't get…" Emma stopped her thought when Regina narrowed her eyes at her. "Right, get Snow, get Henry. I'll be right back."

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Hour 14

"I can see a head. Just one more push…" Doc said, excited that finally after an hour of pushing, relief was finally on the way.

Regina bared down again, pushing with everything she had, fortified somehow by the presence of Snow. Most everything was a competition to Regina and she knew that rationally childbirth shouldn't be, but thinking about it as one had helped her through the last hour of pushing and she planned to continue on that way until the babies were out. Suddenly confused, almost disorientated by an instant loss of pressure in her abdomen she looked towards Emma, who was staring at her mother intently.

"Snow?" Emma asked timidly, her mother uncharacteristically expressionless.

Snow's face suddenly transformed and she mumbled a half hearted apology about concentrating on cutting the right part. "It's a boy!" She held him up, tilting him just enough for both mothers to see him, before handing him off to a nurse to clean off.

"It's a boy." Emma repeated, leaning in to kiss her wife, tears streaming down both their faces.

"Um…I don't want to…" Doc's voice interrupting the moment. "It's time to push again…just one more time…"

Regina gave Emma's forehead one more kiss and turned forward, resolute on getting this last push over so she could hold both her babies. Baring down again, she was surprised when the release of pressure happened much more quickly and she turned her eyes towards Snow. Within seconds Snow was holding up another baby, her own eyes filled with tears. "It's a girl…" She said, her own memories of a baby Emma flooding back to her. Snow handed the baby girl over to the nurse and slipped out quickly to go fetch Charming and Henry from the waiting room.

Within minutes they all came barreling back into the room, Henry leading the charge. When he pushed threw the door he saw both of his mothers on the bed, each with a baby in their arms. Regina was the first to look up and she offered him a watery smile, unable to voice anything to him. He made his way to her side of the bed and Emma finally broke the silence. "Henry, I'd like you to meet your brother Blake Garrett and your sister Carter Grace."

He leaned over and touched both their noses with a single finger, scared that anything more would wake them up. Bending down to the bundle in Regina's arms he whispered, loud enough for his mothers to hear, "The girls are still going to out number us, but I'll teach you a few things that will have them all wrapped around your little finger…"

"Henry." Regina said with a loud sigh, smiling despite herself, because how could she not? She had a happy, healthy family surrounding her and she knew it didn't get any better than that.

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So here we are at the end, almost. I do have an Epilogue planned out…but then we'll have come to the conclusion of this little story. I want to send a HUGE thank you to all of those who followed, reviewed, and read this story. It means the world to me and I can't ever say thank you enough to show my gratitude.