Notes: Again, sorry this takes me so long. It's been odd to pick it up and find everyone again and I have to keep rereading, but I'll finish. Thank you so much for all your support. You really are the best readers I've ever had. Next chapter is the birth! I don't know how long it'll be, but I promised I'd finish for a dear friend, so keep your fingers crossed.

"What did Lily say about when Regina was due?" Snow asked, shifting Neal to the other hip. He squirmed there, wanting to be down to explore the floor. Emma reached for him, taking him from her mother and setting him down on the rug to crawl. She sat beside him, watching him search for treasures.

"It's hard to tell," Emma reminded her mother, again. "Magic can be complicated, Regina was under a sleeping curse for several weeks and that may have had an effect. The baby's healthy. Regina's fine." She halted too long and Snow's expression shifted. Her gaze sharpened, and Emma looked back at little Neal, chewing on the corner of a pillow.

"Not exhausted, uncomfortable and sick of being pregnant? I was."

"She hasn't-" Emma began, and stopped. Regina wouldn't complain. Hadn't. She slept poorly, constantly turning beside Emma, but she still smiled so easily. Maybe she was saving all her complaints for Maleficent while they went over what the town would need while Regina was on maternity leave. Maybe it was easier to tell her.

"She hasn't what?"

"Complained to me." Emma watched Neal look for something to gnaw on and wondered how long it would take the little one to reach this stage. At least she'd get a little practice.

"Did you ask Maleficent?"

"I think she might get more of the complaining, but that's okay, they spend a lot of time together. Regina has a lot to teach her about the town and paperwork." She tugged the stuffed dog from Neal and he crawled after it, cooing, maybe gurgling. He was determined though.

"And that doesn't bother you?"

Emma rolled to her back, letting the little guy paw her with his hands while she watched the ceiling. "Regina and Mal?" This is an odd discussion. "Why should that bother me? They're friends."

Snow sat down on the chair, looking down at her as if Emma's missed something big. "Who have a child."

"Lily's thirty-one," Emma replied, rolling her eyes. "That's kind of a long time ago."

"Not for Maleficent."

Now she had to sit up, because this was ridiculous. "What are you implying? Regina and Maleficent are having some kind of thing? Regina's pregnant, like really pregnant, and Mal already lived in our house for months. I guess she was sick then, but still. If they were what, having an affair? They've had plenty of opportunities. I work a lot of night shifts."

Her mother stares pointedly over her tea. "That's not what I meant. They just spend a lot of time together, sometimes more than you and Regina, and I wanted to make sure that was okay with you. "

Getting to her feet, Emma reached for her jacket. She did not need this today. "Of course it's okay with me, and if it wasn't, I'd talk to Regina about it."

"So if you had a problem, you'd talk to Regina."

"Of course I would!"

Snow leaned back on the sofa, tapping her fingers against her mug. "You would?"

And now she's trapped, because she walked right into that one. "Well, yeah."

"When's Regina due?"

Emma sighed, folding her jacket over her arm, then folding it again. "Could be any time in the next few weeks, first babies often run slow. I know it's not science, but Lily's studied a lot, she knows what she's talking about. She'd know if something was wrong, and I think between her and Mal, Regina would be fine."

"Emma, come sit, you're not really leaving yet, talk to me."

Flopping down on the couch, Emma stared at Neal, wishing her life could be that simple. "She's fine. Regina is as fine as someone can be when very very pregnant."

"What about you?"

"I can still see my ankles, so I'm good." She looked up at the ceiling, because mom would want more than that. "I wish i could do more to help."

"Emma-"

"I do! I try to do all the good things, rub her feet, make sure we never run out of ice cream, or pickles, or kale chips." Her phone chirped, and Emma flew from her chair to grab it. Her heart thudded in her throat, but the text message was only Maleficent. Not an impending baby.

Snow's voice rose in pitch. "Emma?"

"It's fine, Regina's fine," she said, waving her down. She read the text message twice before she calmed down, forcing herself to smile at how ridiculously jumpy she was. "Maleficent just needs to talk to me about town stuff. She's deputy mayor dragon at the moment and we're all getting used to it. She's good at it, Mom, I promise."

"So you have to go?"

"Yeah, I gotta go," Emma broke off, putting on her jacket and stuffing her phone in her pocket. "I'll see you Thursday for dinner?"

Snow lifted Neal up off the floor and helped him wave goodbye. "Unless you have a baby by then."

Emma winced, but tried to hide it as much as she could. "At the rate this kid is going, probably not even by next Thursday."

"So you hope."

"Mom-"

"Bye Emma," she said, pulling her into a quick hug. "Talk to Maleficent or someone, if you won't talk to me. You're carrying around a lot and it's easier if you say it outloud."

"Okay!" Emma smiled again and pulled on her hat and gloves on the way to the car. She waved her hand and cleared the snow from the Bug, then started it. She took a breath, then another, willing her heart to stop pounding. Regina was fine. No one would chain her down. She'd be safe. She'd have Maleficent, and Lily if they needed her.

Still, her wrist ached, and, the phantom cold of handcuffs taunting her, because this was about Regina, not Emma and her bad memories. Regina needed her to be present, to be there, without faltering, because having a baby was fucking scary and Regina deserved to have everything go well.

Emma turned down the quiet, snowy streets and headed for the mayor's office. It was still weird not to have Regina's car parked there. Maleficent just teleported, which did save her from having to deal with the snow, but made the little parking lot look so empty.

Emma parked next to Regina's spot, not in it. She'd never park in it without Regina. Shutting off the car, she steeled herself for the cold and the dragon lady and the memories she didn't want to deal with that everyone seemed so concerned she talk about. How could talking help? She'd been through the shrinks and the grief counseling and how she should be gentle with herself about losing her baby.

He wasn't lost. He'd had a whole life, a good one, and now he had more family than he knew what to do with, so all of that was bullshit, and the years she'd been alone, maybe those were worth it too, because she needed to be here, now, not earlier, not without Henry.

By the time she walked into Regina's office, still stomping snow off her boots, Emma needed a drink. She hung up her coat and went straight for the cabinet. The whiskey already out sat out, right there with a glass. She turned, curious, and Mal had a tumbler balanced on her paperwork.

"Help yourself," she said without looking up.

Emma sniffed the whiskey and poured. "How is it?"

"Running this town is immensely complicated and requires copious amounts of forms," Mal paused, then set down her pen. "It's almost enough to make one nostalgic for monarchies."

"I'm sorry."

Mal shrugged and her chair (Regina's chair) creaked when she leaned back. "It's temporary. Regina deserves a break."

"Still sucks."

Taking a swig, Mal grinned over the glass, her smile somehow bright and vulnerable. "I do feel like I owe you two a rather large debt."

"You going to follow us around and be our Wookie sidekick?"

That made her laugh enough that she set down her glass, rather than spill it. "Do you know how many times Henry and I watched that Star Wars while I was recovering?"

"You did?" Emma leaned forward, trying to focus on that image rather than the stubborn panic in her stomach.

"I let him chose, most of the time, and when he was particularly tired or reading comics, he'd put it on to keep me company. After the fifth or sixth time, I think I understand the appeal." Maleficent shut the folder on her desk, moved it neatly across to the pile. She circled the desk and moved to the sofa, inclining her head for Emma to join her. "Chewbacca is a wonderful creature, I would be pleased to be compared to him."

Emma trailed after her, bringing her drink. It was easier to sit on the sofa, less strange than watching Maleficent sit in Regina's desk.

"You're smiling."

"If you're Chewbacca, and you owe me a life debt then Regina's Princess Leia-"

Mal chuckled at that. "She'd resent being a princess, most certainly."

"Maybe we don't tell her that part of the analogy." Emma leaned her glass over, clinking it against Maleficent's. "You don't have to think of it that way, you know."

Turning to her, Mal raised her eyebrow. "Think of what, dear? Star Wars?"

"No," Emma said, taking another sip. She let the whiskey sting her tongue, making it numb. "It's not a debt. We didn't save you so you'd owe us. It's not like that."

"You think debts are only about obligation?"

Shrugging, Emma set down her glass. It was an odd conversation, but far more pleasant than she'd imagined it was going to go. She didn't want to talk about Henry, and how he was born, so the longer this took, the better it was. "Well, yeah, that's why people say indebted, and stuff."

Maleficent touched her shoulder, her hand warm and gentle. Emma hadn't known her when they'd saved her, barely understood who she was, let alone what, but now, she got it. She was warm, not just in that dragon way, but as a person. She cared, about Regina, she loved her, but the way she looked at Emma sometimes. "I believe the alternate meaning of debt is one of gratitude. While I tried to finish the tortuous paperwork Regina left me, my mind wanders."

"That's understandable."

She smiled at Emma. "I hear one is meant to hate paperwork."

"Unless you're Regina," Emma muttered, reaching for the whiskey again.

"She likes to feel useful," Mal explained. Her hand rested on Emma's wrist. "It's important to her, how she cares for the town, and I will do my best to keep Storybrooke intact until she can do that again."

"I'm sure she'll come back as soon as she can."

"She does not need to rush, neither do you, time with your child, that's the most precious thing." She inhaled, her breath too sharp.

"I'm sorry, here I am worrying about the one thing you wanted more than anything." Emma finished her whiskey and set it down. She wanted to hug her, to do anything to take the pain away, but they didn't really hug.

Mal filled her glass and stopped. "If you drink this, we'll have to travel home with magic."

"Now that you're temporary mayor, you understand things like driving while intoxicated."

Tapping her head, Mal made a face. "Dragon memory. The entire ordinances of STorybrooke, including far too many pages about apple trees, are seared into my memory."

"You must really care about Regina if you're willing to do that." The whiskey didn't even sting anymore, which meant Mal was right, no driving.

"You know I love her." Mal traced her hand over the rim of the glass. "And our family."

"All of us?"

"What you did, Emma the savior, was share your fire with me, among my kind, that's the deepest of connections. We're family."

Emma put a hand on her shoulder, then wrapped her arm around her, because that felt right. "Is that why I felt like I owned you? Back then, when I wasn't- me?"

"You were you," Mal promised, leaning into Emma's arm instead of pulling away. It's weird, but comfortable. Almost normal. Family was warm, and safe. Part of Emma knew that deep. "There's a little of you in me, and Regina, and I- I want to help. I don't want to pry into your past."

"I just want to seal it up, push it away, never deal with it. It's- like a pothole, you just cover it up, smooth it over. I was never going to have another baby." Emma left the couch, walking away before she started crying or something else stupid. Staring at the snow didn't help, because it fell heavy and thick, covering everything, making it smooth and even.

"Regina is fine."

Shaking her head, Emma folded her arms over her chest. "She's afraid."

"I was."

"You?" Emma turned, facing Maleficent who sat on the sofa, glass in hand as if that was a normal admission, something that could just be said so easily. "Why were you afraid?"

"Having a child changes you, you know that, but birthing one was a new experience. You hear of it, see it perhaps as a human among humans. Other than a few desperate villagers who thought the sorceress could help them because she lived in a castle."

Emma remembered that, she'd spoken of that before. How when they were desperate, the people of the Enchanted Forest would turn to anyone with power, even a dragon.

"So that's what you knew of birth? Women dying and you still thought, hey, instead of having an egg-"

"Some can take an egg, a hatchling is a powerful magical talisman, or could be raised to bend to someone's whim. A dragon is well, the closest one could get to an Air Force, back in the old world. I was so afraid someone would take her."

"And my parents did."

Maleficent met her at the window, resting her hands on her shoulders, somehow taller, warmer and more calm about that horrible fact that Emma ever could be. "Whatever your parents have done, is no reflection on you."

"But someone took her, they walked into your cave and just took her. How do you not hear them coming?"

Hands ran down her arms, comforting her even though Emma couldn't put into words yet why she was upset.

"What do you hear, Emma?"

She shook, trembling as Maleficent stood behind her. Emma took a breath, trying to force it out of her mind. Henry went to a better place, he'd gone to Regina, he'd been loved. She couldn't have helped him.

"He wouldn't stop crying when they took him away," Emma said, staring at the snow. "I heard him, all the way down the hall, to the other room. He knew that I left him."

"You didn't."

"You hear Lily, don't you?" Emma turned, reaching for Maleficent's pain instead of hers. Maybe that she could talk about without wanting to tear her heart out.

"I always hear her." Mal stroked her face, like she did to Regina when she was upset, and Emma stared at her, losing herself in her eyes because she knows that pain. She heard Henry crying in her nightmares, remembered that cuff that bound her to the bed and the cold metal, the spasms of pain: all of it blurred together into Henry crying and her turning away from him.

She saw it now, reflected in Maleficent's eyes. Lily. That vulnerability, the weakness of not being able to get her back. It burnt between them, sizzling like a flame jumping from one tree to the next.

"Whoa."

"I told you," Mal whispered, still stroking Emma's hair. "We share the same flame. Don't fight it. Let it burn, it'll help."

Magic lapped at her, reaching with little tongues of fire inside of her, or was it from Maleficent's eyes? It wasn't her magic (it was) but that old magic, the hungry, inhuman, dragon kind of magic. That wasn't her, but it felt like her when it reached up, alien and so very strong.

"What is that?"

"That, is your dragon, dear."

"I don't-"

Mal kissed her cheek, and heat spiralled from that, reaching inwards. "That spell, saving me, marking Regina, conceiving your child- all of that is you, the spell just let it out, amplified it. You, are one of the most powerful humans I have ever met, Emma. No spell could change that, or give you something that wasn't already here."

Her hand rested on Emma's chest, fingers not claws, even though Emma felt the weight of them. "You love REgina, and you, just your presence, is what she needs. If she needs anything else, anything you can't handle, I'm here, Lily's here, Henry, your mother- Regina is safe. She has her nest."

"But I-"

"Emma, you're safe. We're all here for you, too."

Old magic, perhaps older memories, supplied Emma with the sensation of being surrounded in scales and flame, being warm in a way she'd never been, wrapped in the bodies of those who loved her. That was the nest, what Mal talked about when her eyes grew wistful. That was the literal, dragon sense of it, and the human was here.

Human nesting was being hugged and led back to the sofa. It was tissues pressed into her hands and stories when Emma couldn't stop crying. Regina will be safe, the baby will be safe, everyone will be safe: it echoed in her head, over and over, crackling with fire.

When they finally went home, Lily dried the damp patch on Maleficent's waistcoat with a wave and hugged Emma tight before releasing her to Henry, who held her tighter.

Mal left her with them, heading into the kitchen to see what Regina had baked today. With the snow falling fast and thick, and nothing else to do on maternity leave, Regina had baked enough in the past week that Emma had been giving away cookies, brownies, pieces of cake, to anyone who stopped by the Sheriff's station. Lily took some to the clinic and Henry had fed his class and the others on his floor.

Regina needed to be busy. She wasn't used to not having anything to do and maybe she'd just watched way too much of that cute baking show on Netflix.

She met Emma in the door, hands on her nearly vanished hips, her belly covered in an apron. "Hey."

Going to her, wrapping herself around Regina and scent of cinnamon and vanilla and her, the fire in Emma's chest slowed, calmed, settled into embers. She was home, her family was here, and everything in the past, stirrups and guards, Henry screaming because she'd never held him: all of that burnt away.

This time was safe. Hands on her back, Lily's, Henry's, Maleficent's all promised that as they set the table for dinner. Regina looked at her as they took down the plates, stroked her cheek and then kissed her, soft and so gentle.

"There you are."