Dagian rested her hand on her stomach and felt the child kick as she accepted a glass of warm milk from her husband.
"I suppose we have a lot to talk about," he said and sat on the couch next to her.
"I don't want us to leave each other on bad terms," Dagian said, "I want us to be civil. If we're going to be stuck in this bubble for God knows how long then I don't want us clashing heads constantly so let's sit here and talk. If for anything, our baby will be needing two parents who love her and if she sees us fighting constantly-."
"Of course," he said, "Of course you'll need a home. I won't have you raising our baby in the Inn."
"There's a small house on Braxton that I can afford easily enough," she said.
He looked up, "Afford?"
"Well, I've been collecting a paycheck every month for 28 years," she reminded him, "And you always insisted that we live on your money, so I've got a nice amount saved up."
Despite their agreement to be civil, he found himself getting angry, "I'm not going to have you paying me rent just to live on the land either."
"And if I'm going to make it in this town then I'm going to do it because I worked for it. Not because I was your wife once. I don't want you to make allowances for charity for me when you won't make it for anyone else-."
"No one else is the mother of my children," he reminded her, "You use that money for furniture, and things for the baby. I'd offer but I know you'll snap my head off at the idea even though that child is technically half of me."
She frowned, she didn't want to live off his dime any more than possible but she knew that he'd never stand for her paying for everything. He was the baby's father and he was going to help her whether she liked it or not.
"Alright," she whispered. She knew it was wrong to refuse his attempts to help, "And what about custody of the baby?"
He looked at her in confusion, "I thought it'd be shared but you'd be the one she lived with"
Dagian looked embarrassed and looked down in shame, "To be honest, I'm surprised you're even letting me keep her without fighting me."
"Well why wouldn't I?" he asked, "When you actually were a mother, you weren't too bad at it. And I can't exactly feed her when she wakes up at night now can I? And how exactly do you expect me to carry a crying baby with both arms, with my bad leg and bounce her to sleep at night now can I?"
"Then how do you expect to have shared custody? She'll be spending some nights with you, you know"
"Still working on that," he said, "Perhaps when she's older."
"Make me do all the work, huh?" she teased.
"Now don't be like that darling," he reminded her, "Do you remember when you gave birth to Bae? Hm? And when he'd wake up at night, he was hard to get back to sleep? And you remember every time that I offered to take him after you fed him you'd practically bite my head off? Like I'd do something like that again."
"Perhaps when she's eating solids and sleeping through the night."
"Perhaps," he said and took a sip of his own milk, "And I can come whenever I want to see her?"
"Well, you're her father, aren't you?" she asked.
Dagian looked down and watched her baby's foot move across her stomach, "And what about Regina?"
"Oh, she's too busy with her sights trained on Emma right now. If you want to move, I think now's the time to do it. And besides darling, let's just say that recently she's seen how manipulative I can be. It would be very unfortunate if she decided to come after you."
Dagian nodded and prayed at hat her husband was right. Because she knew that staying with him wasn't going to work, "Is there anything else you want to talk about?"
He looked at her and she could almost swear that he looked sad, "No, I can't think of anything at the moment "
"Alright then," she said and waited for relief or sadness to take over now that the marriage was definitely over. She didn't feel anything though. Just the exhaustion that came with being about seven months pregnant and having feet so swollen that she could hardly fit in her shoes.
"Alright then," he repeated, "I'll get the divorce papers drawn up first thing in the morning."
And so that was that. Dagian watched as he grabbed his cane and stood up.
Dagian grabbed the armrest of the couch and pulled herself up, "Rumpelstiltskin."
He stopped and waited for her to catch up. She moved in front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He returned the gesture and held her close. He wanted to manipulate her into staying. Give her horror stories of some of the things Regina had done. Scare her a little bit. Find a way to get her back into his arms. However, he knew that it wasn't because of love but because having her around as his wife was what he was used to. It would just be a marriage of convenience and he knew that neither one would be really happy.
"I do have one more request," Dagian said as they pulled away, "You'll be there when the baby's being born, right? I mean, in the room and everything?"
"Darling," he said and put his hand where his daughter was moving, "You know I wouldn't miss it."
