So... I'm sorry if it took awhile for me to update this. I think it makes you happy the fact the my brain keeps giving me more and more ideas to this story. Please enjoy this (huge) chapter and read the note in the end!
Regina was now three months pregnant, almost four. She was wearing a black legging, a large white blouse and her hair was down. She was alone in her big house and she went to answer the door when she heard the doorbell ring.
"Hi Regina." Snow said smiling.
"Hi Snow. Come in."
Regina gave a step back, giving space to Snow go inside pushing a stroller with Neal in it. David came after her holding a box in his arms and he greeted Regina when he passed by her.
"Regina, where can I settle up the portable crib?" David asked looking at her.
"On Henry's bedroom. His bedroom is big and it will fit perfectly there, and Henry asked to sleep in the house of his friend Jacob today, so he won't be there."
David nodded and went upstairs, leaving the women alone.
"Regina, you sure you don't mind taking care of Neal for us tonight? It's our wedding anniversary and David wants to go out, just the two of us, but I wouldn't mind if we had to stay at home."
"Of course I don't mind." Regina said softly, taking baby Neal in her hands and sitting in the couch with him in her lap. "You and I will have some fun tonight, right?" she said playing with his hands and her heart melted when he smiled at her.
"I wouldn't be so hopeful about that." Snow said and by the tone of her voice Regina knew she was smiling. "I changed his diaper and fed him, I believe he will be sleeping before you realize."
"Is that so?" Regina asked looking at Neal, making a pouty face.
Neal chortled and both women laughed with his infectious little laugh. They played with him for a little while and soon David was back. They left after Snow saying that she made sure there were plenty of diapers and formula in his bag that was in the stroller and that they were going to pick him up tomorrow morning as they agreed.
She did her best to entertain Neal, but after five minutes his parents left he started to cry. She checked his diaper, it was clean. She prepared formula despite Snow saying that she had already fed him, thinking that maybe he was still hungry, but he angrily pushed the baby's bottle away. She gave him his pacifier but he spat out the object, his crying intensifying.
She was running out of ideas and she was growing concern thinking that maybe something was really wrong with him. She started to freak out, just like she did on her first days with Henry. He couldn't stop crying too and she started to think that she was the problem. That she wasn't enough. That Henry was sensing how evil she was and he wanted to stay far away from her. With Neal, these same feelings were returning to her. She passed a hand through her hair and looked at Neal, trying to keep calm. She looked to his mouth and noticed how his gums were red and swollen.
"Oh my God you're teething! That's why you're crying!" she said smiling for finally having discovered what the real problem was.
She made a little research in his bag and found a blue comotomo silicone baby teether there. She gave it to Neal, who willingly accepted the formidable material. Neal started to bite at it furiously and she sighed in relief as he stopped crying and she placed him in his stroller. She started to stroke his short dark hair while she hummed a sweet lullaby to him. Soon he surrendered to his tiredness and fell asleep and she took both of them to her office, so she could get some work done. She was still the mayor. And after Emma insisting so much, she did a professional email only with things related to the town hall. She placed Neal's stroller in front of her desk so she could keep an eye on him as she work and sat in her chair in front of her computer. She opened her email and she immediately regretted doing so. At least 20 emails were popping up in her inbox, and they all had almost the same content. All of them were complaints emails.
She read all of them, and when she finished, her heart was pounding really fast. The emails made it seems like she was a horrible person. As if she just had not fixed the problems simply because she didn't want to. She felt stupid for feeling so sad to hear these things. In her life, she heard worst things from people meant way more to her. But that doesn't mean it didn't hurt just the same. Maybe it's just my freaking hormones, she hissed lowly as she felt a tear running down her face.
She started to think that everything was so much better when she could fake it all. When she masked her sadness with her anger. When she was the Evil Queen, no one ever saw her sad or crying. If someone hurt her, she would just throw a fire ball at it and get over it. It was way more simple than... feel.
These thoughts were still floating over her head a few minutes later when she heard the front door of her house open and close. She got up from her chair and went to the door of her office, getting out of there and closed the door, leaving it half open so she could hear if Neal started crying again. She heard footsteps getting louder and closer to her and she smiled knowing who it was. Just thinking about him made her realized how wrong she was. Yes, sure, allow yourself to feel can be sad sometimes. But also had the good part. The part she wouldn't have if she refused to feel.
She waited right outside her office, waiting for him to come to turned the hall and appeared in Regina's view. He smiled when he saw her, and she smiled back. He gave her a peck and hugged her, and since she wasn't in her typical high heels her height was lower and her ear was right at the height of his heart.
She breathed him in, his familiar smell and his heartbeats were enough to calm her down. Were enough to remind her that no, she wasn't a horrible person. She wanted to help the town, but the budget of the town hall wasn't enough to fix all the problems at once. He parted them just a little so he could see her face and placed a strand of hair behind her ear with a loving smile in his face.
"While Roland and I were in the car and I was taking him back to New York to his mother, he couldn't stop talking about how much he's going to miss you. I think he's going to miss you more than he's going to miss me." he smirked.
"Don't be so emotional about it." She smiled widely and genuinely, lifting one hand to play with his chin before adding "How did you know where to find me? You came straight to my office."
"Because I know you. I knew you'd be working." he replied looking in her eyes and she grinned. "Is our little guest here?"
"Yes, he's at my office sleeping."
As she replied, she remembered of her office, her email, and what had in it. Regina swerved her gaze from his and looked down.
"What's wrong?" he asked, sensing the change in her humor.
She sighed and looked up to meet his eyes.
"Robin, the prices of fruits and vegetables, because of the lack of rain, it's only going up, and there's still that problem of infrastructure at the old mining tunnels. People are sending emails to me complaining about it" she said raising her voice a little "And our wedding is next month and we already know the place where we want to get married, but I still don't know what flowers to pick, still don't know what kind of food I want in our wedding…"
"Hey hey hey, please don't take it too hard on yourself." he said holding her face with both of his hands. "This stress can't be good for you or for our child. Calm down, lovely." he lowered his hands to her waist and pulled her closer, hugging her tight. "Let me take care of the organization of our wedding and let Snow help you with the things of the town hall. I know she wants to help and you're refusing it."
She nodded with her head still laid on his chest and she felt tears burning in her eyes.
"I don't know what they said to you, but I bet it was pretty harsh and untrue things. I know you're doing everything you can to keep all under control, and if some people can't see that, that's their problem. That's their loss." he placed a kiss at the top of her head and he felt his heart clenching terribly at the sound of her hiccups. "Tell me who those people who sent emails to you are; I'd love to have a chat with them."
She smiled at that, loving how he was always ready to defend her. It was astonishing how quickly he was able to make her feel better. It was impossible for her to stay sad for so long when she was in his presence.
"Well," she said raising her head just a little so she could see his face. "Luckily for them, I don't know who they are."
She felt her normal self coming back as she replied, felt her insecurities fly away from there.
"What?" he frowned. "How so?" he asked lifting his hands to wipe the tears from her face.
"All of the harsh emails were from fake emails. It was anonymous."
"Such a cowards. They didn't have the decency of putting their own name, their own face. Are you going to care about what they're saying? You're so above them, so much better than them."
"I wish I could see myself in the way you see me." she whispered and smiled shyly. "I mean, there are times that I do, I see that I deserve happiness, I see that I'm worthy. But that are times that it's hard."
"And when it's hard that I shall remind you the most of how beautiful your heart is."
He smiled and leaned in to kiss her at the same time she leaned in too, with a big smile in her face and tearful eyes. They savored each other's mouth and moaned as they felt their warm tongues dancing together. They quickly went to her bedroom after carefully placing Neal at his crib, turning on the baby monitor and Regina thanked to all the Gods there's that he didn't wake up. He loved and worshipped her body and she did the very same with his. She cuddled against him after they were satisfied, at least for the moment, trading lazily touches and kisses.
As she layed there in his arms she thought about the turns her life made. How unexpected her life turned out to be. After she lost Daniel, she saw a lot of happy couples together, had to sign agreements with people who decided to get married in the royal lands, making her being required to witness other's people happiness. And she never thought she would find love again. Never thought that would be possible for her. Just as she felt his warm body pressed against hers, she made a silent promise to never doubt fate again. To live one day after another, to believe when things are suppose to happen, they will. He ran his thumbs over her arms, and suddenly they heard his stomach growl. They laughed and he admited he hadn't eaten dinner yet because he wanted to get back to her as fast as he could and she said she left something separate for him to eat when he arrived.
They got up and she put on her underwear and his white shirt that ends up right above her ass and he put his boxer and his pants back on. They're on her bedroom's door, about to leave to the kitchen when she put one of her hands in his arms, making him stop and look at her expectantly.
"Are you going downstairs wearing just your pants?" she asked in a low voice.
"Yes, why?" he replied with another question, turning completely in her direction.
"It's a little.." she wandered her eyes through his abs and then looked up to meet his eyes as she bit her bottom lip. "Distracting. And you can't distract me while I'm in the kitchen!"
"I don't think you're in the position to claim about it since you're wearing only my shirt." he placed her arms around her waist and brought her closer, lowering his hands to cup the cheeks of her ass. "Let's see how long we will be able to stand without touching each other." he smirked and winked at her, leaving the room right after.
Oh, he wants to play? Two can play this game. She thought as she left the room with a machievous smile and went to the kitchen. She put the food she had left separately for him in the microwave to heat and took out from the refrigerator some strawberries and nutella for herself to eat.
She washed the strawberries and he took two platters, for him and her. The microwave beeped and he got up and placed the food on his platter. He began to eat quickly, and she noticed how hungry he really was. She started to eat too, putting some nutella in her knife and passing in the strawberry. When he was almost done eating, he looked at her. She noticed he was looking and took advantage of that. She brought one strawberry with nutella to her mouth and she smiled internationally when she felt some nutella stayed in the corner of her mouth.
She ran her tongue in it to clean, and he gulped loudly. But he took a deep breath, refused to give up and focoused on the food left for him to eat. On his last forkful of his food, he looked at her right when she was about to put some strawberry in her mouth. He saw her mouth close around the strawberry and he wished her mouth was closing around something else. He felt his pants tighten as he grunted and went to her. He sat her body on the table, placed himself in the middle of her legs and closed his mouth with hers in a furious wet kiss. She placed her hands in his neck to regain some balance as she smiled in victory. She won the game. He placed his hands on her back, bringing her even closer and they moaned when his sex slammed with hers. She squirmed and felt him already hard against her. She ran her hands in his abs and dug her nails there, making him groan. His fingers started to unbutton the shirt she was wearing and her hands started to unzip his pants. When he finished open all her (his) shirt he threw it elsewhere. One of his hands found the way inside her panties and rubbed her clit while his other hand went up and traced circles around her nipples.
She moaned and he kept doing the same movements till she hissed something about how her fingers were trembling and she wasn't being able to get rid of his pants. He smiled in the kiss and helped her task and he felt his pant going down. He kicked the pant away and their mounts met again, her hands unceremoniously went under his underwear. She closed her hand around his hard cock and started to slide her hands up and down his erection. He moaned loudly and bit her bottom lip as he squeezed her right nipple. His free hand found the middle of her legs and ripped her underwear out. They kept teasing each other, bringing one another closer to the edged till they came apart in each other's hands. Then she placed him inside her and they felt the knot of tension build again. She closed her legs around his waist, making him thrust deeper inside her and he placed his head on her shoulder as he let out a moan right in her ear. His moans, the deep thrusts that made him hit just the right spot, all made her go crazy and came undone fast, quickly followed by him.
"I always wanted to know how it would feel like to have sex in the kitchen." she said breathing heavily, with a silly smile on her face. "Now I can took that out of my bucket list."
His smiled mirrored hers and as he was about to reply, they heard a small cry coming from upstairs. They dressed and went to see the baby. She took baby Neal from his crib and changed his dirty diaper. Robin prepared the baby's formula and Regina sat in Henry's bed with Neal, feeding him as she rocked him. Robin watched them with a loving smile on his face, admiring how natural she was with babys. The thought made his eyes wander on her belly, making him want the baby to come as soon as possible. He couldn't wait to have their baby there with them. Soon Neal was asleep again and Regina placed him on his crib, and they went to take a shower. They laid in bed together and she fell asleep in his arms.
They woke up with the baby crying at 5am, but Robin told Regina to stay there, that he was going to see Neal. She smiled and slept again, waking up a few hours later. She found him still sleeping by her side and she smiled, drinking in his natural feautures. His mouth was half open and one arm was up and the other was down. In the middle of the night his legs must have kicked the blankets and now the blankets was only covering his legs. She ran her hands in his naked abs and then went up, running her hands in his hair. He slowly started to wake up and looked at her with a sleepy smile in his face.
"Good morning, love." he leaned in to kiss her and then asked. "What time it's?"
"It's 9:45am. Soon the Snow and David will be here."
Robin nodded and stretched his body, letting out a small yawn.
She made breakfast and they ate, and not much time later Snow and David came to pick Neal up. They left and Robin helped Regina to clean the kitchen. They watched tv together for a few minutes and then went upstairs to changed their clothes. They had to go to the doctor, Regina had an appointment with Giselle in one hour.
Robin drove them to the hospital and told Regina to go inside first as he was going to find a place to park the car. She nodded, gave him a peck and went inside the hospital and as she walked to the obstetrician session, she spot Gold sitting in a chair outside the X-Ray room. She walked to him and saw his eyes looking up and meeting his.
"Hi Gold. What are you doing here?" she asked softly.
She found it odd that he was in a hospital, considering whatever healthy problem he could have she knew he would be able to heal himself by using his magic.
"Belle stumbled and she thinks she broke her right feet. I told her I could heal it for her, but she said she didn't want me to. She said that if I want her to trust me again, I won't use magic for such mundane things as broken feet."
"That seems fair to me." Regina smiled sadly to him.
"Indeed." he replied looking down.
She understood his point, she really did. He suffered a lot in his life, and that's why he got so attached to his powers. He was just tired of being weak, of being left behind. To be stepped on. And by looking at him it was clear how tired he was and how sorry he felt for the things he did in the past. It shoked her seeing him so vulnerable, so fragile. She always loved how strong he seemed to be, and seen him like that just reminded her that nobody is strong all the time. That it was ok not to be ok. But, she also understood Belle's point.
"You really hurt her, Gold. After she made you leave she was a pretty mess. She was devastated. And I believe she can see that you changed, she can see that you regret the awful things you've done. But she's afraid that if you start to use your powers a lot, your old self, the old who only cared about power, will return."
Gold nodded.
"I understand her fear, that's why I'm trying to respect her wishes."
She sat beside him and they stayed in silence for a few moments and Regina decided to break the silence, asking again a question she has been asking since Gold returned from his meeting with the author.
"Can you tell me what did you want from the author?" she asked looking at him.
"You won't give up till I tell you, right?"
Regina nodded with a smile and Gold sighed.
"It seemed like years and years of doing bad things, came to catch up to me. My heart was all black, with just a little of red spark. I knew that when that red spark was gone, I was going to lose all the ability to love. To feel something good. I wanted to find the author for him to cure my heart. But he told me that I could cure my heart on my own. I just had to make good actions and be selfless." he cleared his throat and continued. "And he was right. I let Belle go away and be with Will because I knew that was the best for her, and I felt my heart gets lighter. And even if I let her go, she came back to me. And as I did more and more good things, I felt my heart healing. The author showed me that I needed to believe in me in the first place. I needed to believe that I could change, that I had the control of my life."
Regina smiled and sighed in relief. She was afraid whatever Gold wanted could stay in the middle of her happiness. That it could affect her or the ones she loved. She voiced her fears to Robin, and he told her to let that go, that she shouldn't worry about that. He said that if what Gold wanted was going to create problem for them, it would have already happened. And her soul mate was right.
"That was almost the same thing he said to me. He said that I don't need him to write me a happy ending. I'll get it naturally if my actions stay good, if I stay the way I am now."
"This author is quite hopeful." Gold said with a small smile in his face.
They stayed in silence again and Regina decided to wait for Robin there because she knew he would have to pass by them. She didn't have to wait long. Soon he was there with them, and she saw his eyes widened when he saw her sitting next to Gold. He politely said hi to Gold, and Regina got up and they left after saying goodbye to the older man. When Robin was sure Gold couldn't overhear them, he asked what she was talking with him. She told him she asked again what he wanted from the author and that this time he told her what it was. His mouth opened in surprise and he asked then what did Gold tell her. She spitted everything out as they headed to the part of the hospital they needed to go.
"Turns out you were right and I didn't need to worry." she said after she finished telling him all Gold told her. "I think you have a sixth sense."
"I do believe I have a sixth sense when it comes to protect you." he said putting an arm around her.
Her lips curved up in a smile and she pressed her body more against his and lifted her hand to hold the hand he had on her shoulder. She kept holding his hand, laid her head in his shoulder and they kept walking that way. As they got in the obstetrics area Regina announced herself to the secretary and they sat, waiting to be called. A few minutes later Giselle called them.
"Hello Regina." Giselle said smiling as she gave space for her and Robin to go inside her room. "And hello to you too Robin. Are you coming to every session now?" she added as she closed the door, happy to see them together.
"I wouldn't miss it for anything." Robin smiled and put his hands on his pants pockets.
"Oh. I was just wondering because you missed the first one."
The smiled on his face faded and he looked down.
"It wasn't his fault." Regina came in his defense, taking one of his hands out of the pocket and squeezing it as she looked to the doctor. "He was kidnapped."
"Oh my god." Giselle's piercing green eyes widened. "I had no idea. I'm so sorry. I'm stupid and a talker. Sometimes I say a lot of things without really thinking about it."
"Don't worry." Robin gave a small smile to the doctor.
Regina could see that he was still sad about it. Not with the doctor, but about what the doctor reminded him of. He hated the fact that he lost the beginning of Regina's pregnancy. He felt guilty for it even if he wasn't to blame. They already had that conversation and she knew there was nothing else she could say to him to help to make him feel better. She knew the ultrasound could help judging by the first and only time she came with him. This was the second time he was there with her. She remembered the joy in his face seeing their baby on screen and hearing the baby's heartbeat. She already knew the procedure so she took the hospital clothe and went to the bathroom to change.
"I said what I said before because I see a lot of single moms here." Regina heard over the door Giselle talking with Robin. "And sometimes the dads simple changes their mind. In the beggining they can't accept the pregnancy, but then they starts to accept it and they want to be a part of it. And that angers me a little. Like… You were ready to give up your child? I cannot bear it."
"I understand your anger. But trust me; I would never turn my back to a child of mine, even more to a child that the woman I love is carrying."
Regina smiled lovingly even though they couldn't see and she heard Giselle say "Awwww"
Giselle started to talk about her life to Robin, the same story she already told Regina. She was going to marry someone, but as it always happens, someone else didn't want that to happen. They tricked her in her wedding day and she fell in a enchanted well. She arrived in this world in her wedding dress and she did the best she could in a horrible situation. She didn't know anything about this new world and she was scared and alone. A man was kind with her and brought her into his home and she slowly started to fall in love with him without noticing it. One day the man she was engaged with found a way to come to this world too to rescue her, but she admitted he wasn't the one she wanted anymore. He accepted it and he let her go. She married with the man she was in love with and years later she decided she wanted to show her husband where she grew up. A man called Dragon helped them to go to the enchanted forest, and they lived there for a while, till the new curse brought them to Storybrooke.
Regina finished changing and went to meet Robin and Giselle after organizing her clothes.
"Well, at least we didn't lose our memories. I heard in the first curse no one could remember who they were."
"That was my fault." Regina smiled.
Obviously she didn't feel proud of the things she had done, she still regretted it, but she made peace with it. Those actions belonged to someone else, someone she no longer was.
"We don't know each other for a long time, but I can see that you changed a lot." the doctor said with a warm smile.
"She did." Robin said smiling to Regina.
The brunette got up in the digital scale and then she laid in the bed positioned in the left side of the room and the doctor checked her vital signs and her ladies parts. As the redhead woman was about to start the ultrasound, Regina said she and Robin wanted to see the baby in the third dimension. The doctor nodded, started the ultrasound, pressed a button in the computer and the baby in the third dimension appeared.
"One of the baby's hands is on the mouth!"
The baby took the hand out of his mouth and Regina and Robin saw each contour of the baby's face and finger. Robin held Regina's hand and they looked to one another, smiling.
"So little and perfect." Robin whispered and the tone of his voice gave away the emotion he was feeling.
The baby put the hand back on his mouth and the doctor grinned.
"Regina, are you eating well? The baby seems famished." Giselle said looking to Regina and she noticed the doctor was joking but decided to defend herself nonetheless.
"I am! I don't have much appetite in the morning, but in the afternoon and in the night I practically eat every food I see in front of me."
Giselle smiled and nodded, turning her attention back to the computer. The baby turned a little and the doctor followed him with the machine pressed on Regina's belly.
"Hmm" the doctor frowned a little and pressed a button in the computer, giving a zoom on the image in the screen. "Maybe if I just…?" she applied the zoom again and her eyes shined as she hummed a small "Yes!"
"What's going on?" Regina asked wanting to know what the doctor was doing.
"Do you want to know the baby's gender?"
"What?!" Regina said surprised. "I thought we would only be able to know next month!"
"Yes. But the baby is in a really good position today, and with a few more clicks I can find that out."
Regina and Robin exchanged a look and she smiled telling the doctor that yes, they wanted to know.
The doctor focused on the computer, pressed some buttons and then looked at the couple with a bright smile on her face.
"It's a girl." she announced.
Regina felt tears coming down from her eyes and she looked to Robin, seeing tears in his own eyes too. They smiled and he pulled his arms around her, pressing her against his chest. She closed her eyes and heard him whispering "It's our little girl." in her ear as she felt his hands caressing the space that it was free in her belly. Giselle stayed quiet, let them have their moment, just like she did when Regina and Henry got emotional too. After that the consult continued normally, and soon they were leaving the hospital. They walked to the car with their hands entwined and he opened the door for her.
"Since now we know the baby's gender, what do you think about we go do some shopping?" he asked once they're inside the vehicle.
"I think it's an excellent idea" she smiled and saw him smile too by seeing her smile.
He drove them to a baby store near the hospital and parked the car in front of the store. They went to the clothes section and she started to look for clothes in one shelving and him in another. As she looked the clothes, she started to think that she was actually glad that the author changed their story. She felt like she was more ready for him now. If she had met him in the tavern that day, she wouldn't learn the things she had learned. She wouldn't have grown up as much as a person like she did. And she suspected that he would agree with her about his own story too. He was a better man because of the things he had to go through. Because of the things they had to go through separately in the past they were stronger together now.
She saw some baby rompers and she found one that she knew she had to buy it. It was white, and in pink was writing "You think I have cute dimples? Just look at my daddy." She picked the cloth up and she heard Robin calling her name. She looked at him and saw him walking closer to her with something in his hands.
"I'm totally going to buy this one." he announced.
With a smirk on his face, he stretched the fabric and she saw it was a pink romper and "My mom is a queen" was writing in it in white. She threw her head back laughing and smiled.
"And I'm totally going to buy this one."
She showed him the cloth she had in her hands and he laughed too before approaching her.
"So…" he said in a low voice placing both of his hands around her waist. "You think our little girl will have my dimples?"
"I sure hope so."
She grinned and leaned in to kiss him. They chose others clothings and looked at others objetcs such as baby bath, high chair and bibs. Then they paid the things they bought and went back to their home.
This is NOT the last chapter. It will have more two chapters. I hope you all are enjoying read this story as much as I'm enjoying writing it! Please leave a review telling me your opnions or contact me on twitter inloveithlanap ❤️❤️