Emma had decided to take the day off from work, because, well she wasn't about to leave Regina alone after the events of that morning. Emma knew that when Regina came downstairs she would start to clean and prepare dinner so Emma decided to be helpful and get the cleaning out of the way before her wife came down and did it herself. Emma vacuumed the dinning and living room, dusted the mantle, cleaned the kitchen and got all the nice place settings out so that Regina wouldn't have to get up on the stepladder. As she finished polishing the dinning room table she could hear the bottom step of the staircase creak, signaling that Regina was no longer in their bedroom.
"You polished the table without me having to bribe you with the promise of junk food or sex. If me being pregnant is all it takes for you to do that, I'll just have to do more often." Emma smirked at Regina's sass.
"Yes, yes, it's all very funny, but I figured you'd do it yourself if I didn't help and I didn't want you getting tired cleaning when we still have to make dinner and all that."
"I'm not an invalid Emma." Emma put the rag in her hand down and walked over to Regina, wrapping her arms around her wife's waist.
"I know, but you are pregnant with our baby and it would mean an awful lot to me if you let me fuss over you every now and then. I don't want anything to hurt you, either of you." Regina bit back whatever sassy comment she was going to make because the genuine concern pouring out from her wife was likely triggered by her emotional breakdown this morning.
"I'm ok now." Emma kissed the base of Regina's neck and kept her head there.
"No you aren't, I can still feel the tension in her body. Just because you aren't crying, doesn't mean you're ok. You know you can talk to me about it if you want." Regina nodded her head and untangled herself from Emma's embrace.
"I know, but right now, all I really want to do is not talk about it and focus on something that is much much happier." Regina was practically begging Emma to drop it for now and allow them both to focus on sharing the news of the baby with her parents and as much as Emma wanted to help Regina deal with her still haunting past, even she had to agree that it would be best for everyone if she let it go for now and focused on their dinner plans.
"Whatever you want to do is fine Regina."
"Thank you. Now, it's 2:30 now. The meat is in the fridge in the marinade and it needs to come out in an hour or it'll be far too salty. I need to work on dessert, the salad can wait until about half an hour before your parents arrive, but I might need your help with the potatoes. It depends on if my ankles start to swell or not."
"If they start to swell, please tell me. I can give you a foot rub and maybe then you won't be miserable by dinnertime. Also, you might want to change your shoes." Regina made a face that made Emma laugh and when she looked down at her heels she saw no merit to Emma's comment.
"Why on earth would I change my shoes?"
"Because Regina, you are three and half months pregnant, heels and pregnancy don't always go together babe."
"Pregnant women can wear heels."
"Of course they can, but not all day. Wear them at dinner, but please wear something more comfortable for now." Regina rolled her eyes, but kicked off her heels where she stood and though she would never admit it, feeling the carpet under her feet was a welcome change from her two-inch high heels. With the shoe debacle over and done with, Regina set about doing all the prep work for dinner, the majority of which meant getting everything ready for dessert. Emma helped where she could, or rather, where Regina allowed her to help. Emma didn't know when she would be forgive for setting the stove on fire two years ago, but she hoped it would be soon. Regina pulled out all the fruit and other ingredients needed for the pie she was making and Emma seemed shocked when she saw no apples laid out on the counter.
"You know you can start putting apples in things you feed my mother right. I think that joke has fizzled out."
"I'm very well aware, but I don't need to put apple in everything."
"Since when? Regina you made them put apples in our wedding cake, it's like your thing." Regina hung her head and mumbled something that Emma couldn't make out.
"What was that babe?"
"I said I don't like apples. Or rather your baby doesn't like apples." Emma laughed harder than she probably should have.
"I see so she's my baby when she makes her momma mad? I'll have to remember that for later." Regina looked a little stunned.
"She? What makes you so sure it's a girl?" Emma stopped laughing and went over to where Regina sat on a barstool. She put her hand on top of Regina's midsection, which only recently started showing signs of pregnancy.
"Just a hunch."
"Well, your daughter…"
"Our daughter." Emma corrected with a smile.
"Our daughter doesn't like it when mommy eats apples, smells apples, so far she still lets me pick them, but you never know, that could be next."
"So that's why we are having berry pie for dessert?"
"Indeed. Our unborn child is already calling the shots."
"Just like her mommy." Emma kissed the side of Regina's head and went back to what she was doing.
"I like calling the baby her, but what if we're having a boy?"
"Regina, come on. The kid isn't going to know and it won't matter. But if using female pronouns feels right, then use them." The conversation died with that because Regina knew Emma was correct; in the end all she wanted was a healthy baby, the gender of said baby really didn't matter to her. Dinner slowly started to come together and around 4 Henry came bursting through the front door.
"I smell mom's pie, can I have some?" Emma prevented her son from entering the kitchen and pointed to his things he discarded at the door.
"You can tonight after dinner. Right now you can go upstairs with your things and do your homework because once your grandparents get here I don't want any complaints of you staying up late to do that book report. Now go finish it and then you can have pie." The teenager looked over to his other mother as if she would relent, but he found no help there.
"Nice try Henry, but my hormones aren't so out of wack that puppy dog eyes work on me." Henry sighed and grabbed his bag, preparing to do as his mothers asked.
"Oh, grandma asked if she needed to bring anything to dinner, she said to call her when you got the chance." Henry went upstairs and Emma looked to Regina for an answer to Snow's question.
"Tell her they can either bring bread or wine."
"But you can't drink wine."
"I know that and you know that, but your mother doesn't need any help guessing what we are going to tell them. Besides, I'll just turn mine into grape juice when no one is looking."
"So may possible religious jokes, so little time." Regina rolled her eyes and handed Emma the house phone. "Call your mother and tell her a bottle of red wine will suffice. Emma took the phone and called her mother who was her usual over enthusiastic self and she quickly agreed to bring the wine for their dinner. Once everything was in the oven, Regina excused herself to go change into something more appropriate for dinner. Several minutes later she returned downstairs wearing a new dress that she bought on purpose to hide her baby bump. Emma smiled as Regina came back into the kitchen and snaked her arms around Regina's waist, resting her hands on the bump.
"You know you will have to restrain yourself for the remainder of the dinner. If you keep reaching for my bump, your mother will know something is up."
"Then I better get all the baby bump loving I can in while I still have the chance." Emma turned Regina around and knelt down on the kitchen floor so that she was eye level with Regina's stomach. She lifted Regina's dress up just enough to expose the baby bump. Regina was wearing leggings so the only part of her skin that was exposed was her midsection. Emma whispered something against Regina's slightly curved stomach before kissing the bump. Regina wasn't sure if she should laugh or cry, not that her emptions gave her much of a choice as the tears started rolling down her face. Emma let the dress fall back into place and stood up, know eye to eye with Regina.
"No tears." Emma kissed Regina softly and let her wife fall into an emotionally charged hug.
"Your daughter keeps making me cry." Emma smiled and kissed Regina's hairline.
"Well you tell her to stop that right now." They stayed like that for a few minutes, neither of them realizing that Henry had been standing in the doorway the entire time and by now had photos of Emma kissing Regina's bump. He decided to hold onto them and show them to his mother's later, after they shared their news with his grandparents.
"If you are both done being in love and gross, grandpa just called me and said they'd be over soon. So maybe start acting less weird or at least stop mentioning the baby." Emma pulled away from Regina, "don't be sassy, one day you'll be in love too. I'm going to go throw on a different shirt, you should probably take the food out of the oven." No sooner had Emma reached her and Regina's bedroom, than she heard the doorbell ring signaling her parent's arrival.
"20 minutes early, of course." Emma grabbed the gift they had read for her parents and with a wave of her hand she magically sent it to rest on the desk in Regina's study. With that out of the way, she quickly made her way downstairs to see Regina giving her parents a hug as the entered the house and put their things down. She hugged her parents and ushered them into the dinning room, making small talk about well, anything to keep them talking until Regina was in the room and could come up with a good topic of conversation that had nothing to do with the baby. As if on cue, Regina came on and gave everyone, save for Henry some of the wine. Emma noticed that Regina's glass was a slightly darker color, indicating that she had already turned the wine into juice. Dinner was laid out on the table and everyone dug in, having small conversation in groups of two or three. Everyone complimenting Regina's cooking skills and giving Emma a gold star for trying to help. By the end of the meal, Emma was practically bursting with the desire to blurt out that she and Regina were pregnant, but they had discussed how this would happen and she had to be patient. Regina could see that Emma wasn't going to hold out for much longer so she decided not to wait until after dinner.
"Henry, be a dear and go grab the gift we have for your grandparents from my study please." The teenager left the table and Snow and David both looked confused.
"Regina you didn't have to get us anything. I mean it's not the holidays yet and it's no one's birthday." Charming tried to be diplomatic, but deep down he wanted to know what the gift was and what it was for.
"Nonsense, we never properly thanked you for watching the house and Henry while we were in Greece for the honeymoon. Consider it a belated thank you gift." Emma was in awe of her wife; Regina could tell a pleasant lie and make you believe it was absolute fact. Henry returned from the study and handed the bag to his mother who slid it across the table, gesturing for Snow to open it. On the outside Regina looked stoic and totally put together, but the death grip she had on Emma's hand underneath the table betrayed her internal fear of this not going well. Emma squeezed Regina's hand in an effort to say it would be fine: this time everything would work out for them. This happy ending was fucking happening…Emma would make sure of it. Snow had by now taken the bag into her lap and removed the layer of tissue paper before pulling out a small wrapped box. She open the package and carefully lifted out of it a beautiful frame that had the word 'Grandparents' etched into the wood in beautiful calligraphy. Snow expected to see a picture of them and Henry in the frame itself, but instead, what she was met with was a black and white sonogram picture that had Regina's name listed as the patient. Even before she could say anything tears appeared in the corner of her eyes.
"You're pregnant?" Regina smiled wider than she thought possible and nodded her head.
"That's why you fainted the other day and everything else….you're pregnant."
"You said that already." Regina pointed out as Snow stood up and walked over to the other side of the table. Regina had barely enough time to stand up before her former stepdaughter wrapped her up in a tight hug. Regina and hugs never really mixed well, unless it was with Emma or Henry, but when Snow hugged her, completely full of joy at the prospect of another grandchild, even Regina had to admit, it felt nice. When she let go of Regina it didn't take long for Snow to lunge for Emma and hug her just as tightly.
"You guys are going to have a baby, that's so amazing. Congratulations. How did it happen though?"
"Apparently Regina didn't think to explain to me that two women can absolutely make a baby, so long as they both have magic."
"Guess we should have given you the magic version of the safe sex talk?" David regretted saying it the second the joke flew out of his mouth and Henry's reaction was more than enough to tell him that talking about his mothers having sex was more than the teen could bear quietly.
"Right, sorry, not funny. Congratulations you guys, this is such exciting news."
"Nice save grandpa." The whole family talked about Regina's due date and the early plans for the baby's room. The talking continued over dessert and as the evening wore on Emma could see exactly how tired Regina was getting. Emma started to drop hints that it was getting late and her father seemed to pick up the idea that Emma was trying to spare their feelings, but her wife looked like she was about to fall asleep sitting up. Charming made an excuse as to why he and Snow needed to be going and his wife finally seemed to get the idea that it wasn't necessary to plan their grandchild's entire future tonight. Everyone said their goodbyes and when her parents were finally gone, it didn't take much for Emma to convince Regina that the dishes could wait until tomorrow morning. By the time Emma finally fell into bed Regina was practically passed out asleep. Emma got comfortable and soon felt Regina turn over and rest her head against Emma's chest. Once Regina had seemed settled Emma shut off the light and then threw the covers over the two of them.
"Emma?"
"Yeah Gina?"
"Am I hallucinating or did I agree to let your mother plan our baby shower?"
"No honey, you actually did that."
"That's what I was afraid of."