I'm trying to do better for you guys, I swear! Thank you for your patience if you're still reading this. Seriously.

Holiday Spirit

Chapter 35

Two months later…

"Can I come with you this time?" Henry asked hopefully, bouncing around the foyer as Regina reached to pull her coat out of the closet.

Catching the look on Regina's face, David stepped in for her. "Not this time, buddy. School's almost out for the summer, and you want to make sure you don't lose momentum on your homework." He was grateful to know for a fact that Henry had a history paper due in a few days that he hadn't yet finished, and he was able to use the excuse to keep Henry from accompanying them. These appointments always made Regina anxious, and today had been even worse. Jane had told them at the last appointment that they'd be able to tell the sex of the baby any day now, and for the last week Regina had been on edge, unable to sleep peacefully and having a hard time finishing her meals. The last thing she needed was for her son to be sitting in on one of her appointments in case anything ended up going wrong.

David held her hand across the seat of the truck. Much to her disdain, she'd begun to have trouble climbing in and out of her little black Mercedes.

"Are you okay finding out?" he asked, broaching the uncomfortable subject. They'd discussed it every night, weighing the pros and cons of knowing, but they hadn't come to a decision, and it was one he wanted to leave to Regina.

She leaned her head against the back of the seat and sighed. "We should."

He hid a smile when he noticed her free hand rise to rest on her abdomen. The subconscious movement had become more and more frequent as their child grew inside her and he was glad to see she was opening up to it the more time passed.

Lifting her head again, she looked straight forward and nodded. "I think knowing will take some of the pressure off. If it's a girl, well…we'll go from there, but if it's a boy, we'll know once and for all that our future will be different from what we saw."

He nodded. "It will be one less thing to wonder about."

She squeezed his hand. "Thank you for choosing a future with me, regardless of how it turns out," she said sincerely, and neither of them had to voice how much they wished they'd get their children back.

"Well, you have a perfectly healthy baby," Jane announced with a smile, but then leveled Regina with a slightly scolding look. "But you haven't been taking it easy like I've asked." With months of Regina being under her care, Jane had become more and more comfortable with bossing the woman around. She'd learned that while still intimidating, Regina was more bark than bite these days, at least when it came to the health and well-being of her unborn child. "If you don't continue taking proper care of yourself – full meals, exercise and a full night's rest – you might have a few problems later on. Now…would like to know the sex?"

Regina nodded almost hesitantly, but she wasn't going to back out now.

"You're having a little girl," Jane told them grinning widely.

Regina sucked in a breath and her chin dropped to her chest. David moved a hand to rub comforting lines up and down her arm. "Regina?" he asked quietly.

She nodded slightly and looked up, wiping away a few tears that had fallen. Sniffing, she said, "It's a girl."

"Yes," he nodded, holding back the wave of happiness that had washed over him at the news.

"It's really possible," she whispered. "It might be her." The smallest of smiles escaped and David couldn't help but grin at her. "Let's go home?" she asked.

He stood and held out a hand, helping her up, and she turned. "Thank you, Jane," she told the doctor and the woman nodded.

"See you next week. Just remember to take care of yourself."

"I will."

Family Mills was headed down the sidewalk after an impromptu trip for ice cream. Henry had felt the need to ring in the new summer with mint chocolate chip, and Regina had agreed whole-heartedly. Double-scoops all around, and if Regina went back for a third when she thought no one was looking, well, David didn't say a word. Just smiled. He'd been thinking a lot about what the doctor had said about keeping Regina's stress level low, and he thought he might finally have come up with an idea. He just needed to make sure everything was in order before he broached the subject with his wife. Before he could think too much on it, a huge ball of stress approached them in the form of the time-travelling, realm-crossing, mysterious Christmas meddler.

Regina and David were the first to spot her striding semi-confidently in their direction. She had a determined if somewhat nervous expression on her face as she made her way toward the family. Henry, walking before the hand-holding couple, stopped dead in his tracks when he finally looked up from studying the cracks on the sidewalk.

"What're you doing here?" he asked timidly as the woman approached, and Regina's hand squeezed David's.

"I wanted to talk," she said carefully, coming to a stop near enough to have a conversation with the three, but still far enough away so as not to be within arms distance of the angry Regina - not that Regina didn't have magic and could burn her to a crisp with the mere flick of her wrist.

Fortunately for her, Regina, not wanting to start a magical showdown in the middle of Main Street, kept her magic to herself, instead focusing all of her anger into the glare she directed at the woman. "Why now?" she ground out.

"I wanted to wait until I thought you'd be more receptive to what I had to say. It wasn't easy avoiding you with all the magic you laced around town."

"You disappeared with no explanation after the spell ended."

"You all were able to reach the ideas and understanding that you needed to in order to break the spell. I told you I had nothing to do with when it would be broken, I was only its instigator. It was you that determined when it was broken."

"So if you had nothing to do with when it was broken, what could you possibly want to talk to us about now?"

"It was more that I understood you would want to speak with me."

"You're damn right about that!" Regina said, taking a step forward angrily. "How dare you come into our lives just to turn them upside down and leave us without hope of achieving what you showed us?"

"You and David are married now, are you not?"

"Yes," she huffed.

"And you are with child? A girl who would be born in the same year as the daughter you consider lost?" she prompted, gesturing to where Regina moved a protective hand over her belly.

"Yes," she agreed tersely, biting the inside of her cheek in order not to say more. "But you can't guarantee that this is Isabella," she added, rubbing her stomach as she watched the gnat. "You don't know if I'll carry to term, or if I will become pregnant again in a few years. You showed me children that you said I could have, but with the very knowledge of that future, have you not already altered it?"

The woman tilted her head. "Perhaps you haven't considered the fact that me showing you this version of the future was what led to it in the first place?"

Regina rocked back on her heels, eyes widening for a moment before she managed to hide her stunned expression. "You told me yourself that you couldn't say for sure what the future held."

"Yes, but I also told you that your future was up to you, and it appears that you've chosen to have the future I showed you, and furthermore, that you are well on your way to achieving it without further help."

Regina opened and closed her mouth a few times, not sure how to react to the woman's words. It was true - she hadn't allowed herself to think too much on the possibility, mostly because it seemed too good to be true. Time travel was impossible by magical standards. Except for the "gift" this woman possessed, which she claimed was more of a window than a door. A damn convincing one. But the idea of anyone ever being able to time travel brought along certain expectations – the main one being that once someone had ended up in the future or the past, every minute action they took created changes. The butterfly effect. Even this world without magic had a grasp on the concept of what would happen if anyone were ever somehow able to find themselves in such a situation.

The woman shook her head sadly. "You've always been...very cautious with your happiness," she started carefully. Pessimist wasn't an appropriate adjective for Regina. She was a strong woman, and while she didn't leave much room for hope, she wouldn't have been able to carry on if she'd had none. "You are a large part of why I saw the need for help and came to Henry. I wanted to show everyone what they could have if they wanted it so that they'd be ABLE to have it if they chose to. Otherwise, the very nature of what I do would cause more harm than good, and what would be the point then? My task is to help find happiness, not cause misery."

She looked around at all of them and gave them a small smile. "I'll be around for a little while longer, but I'll stay out of your way," she said. "You won't have to see me unless you wish to. I hope for only the best for you." With that, she disappeared, the air shimmering in her wake.

"What…" David started, but trailed off, leaving the three of them in silence.

Henry moved back to the pair. "So it's really over?" he asked.

Regina was shocked at the abrupt exit, but relieved. The woman hadn't answered any of her questions directly, but what she'd said had made Regina feel more confident that she had a chance at their future – not something she'd expected. And now she was gone, her disruptive presence would no longer be hanging over their heads. "It would appear so," Regina nodded, rubbing circles on her abdomen with her hand. Then she extended it for Henry to take. "Come on, honey, let's head over to Granny's. I have a sudden craving for cake."

"But we just had ice cream."

"Are you saying you don't want to?"

"No!" he said quickly, grinning. "Let's go."