A/N- You guys are so amazing and sweet with your reviews! So this chapter is up more quickly than I had intended. It has lots of David/Regina, David/Emma, Emma/Regina sweetness! It also has motivational, take-no-shit David, which I happen to love. Hope you enjoy it! Reviews are always welcome!

David and Emma stood outside the door to Regina's room, occasionally watching through the glass to make sure she wasn't awake. They were talking about anything that David could use to distract Emma from the fact that Regina was lying on a hospital bed. One particular discussion put the blonde woman on edge.

"Did you ask Snow about the complaints yet?" Emma asked quietly.

"No, I didn't want to discuss it with Henry around. That kid is an expert at eavesdropping."

Emma snorted. "Yeah, tell me about it. It's amazing how Regina and I were able to have anything private between us with him around."

"Are."

"What?"

"You said were, like you're signing off on your relationship. You are able to have private things."

"Right. I didn't mean it to sound like that."

"Ok." His voice was hesitant, almost doubtful.

"Dad…"Emma said in a warning voice.

"I'm not saying anything, Emma," he answered, looking once more into the room to find that Regina was stirring. "Looks like she's waking up, let's go in."

It was just after noon when they walked into the room and each took up on either side of Regina's bed. David gave his daughter-in-law a smile.

"How are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm ok. I'm just happy the baby is fine."

"You need to take care of yourself."

She smiled weakly in response before looking at Emma. "Dear, you need to go home and change your clothes. And no more magic."

"I know, I just wanted to make sure you woke up to me here. Since dad's here I'm gonna get going in a minute so he can stay with you. I'll be back in no time, ok?" Regina nodded and leaned her head up to receive the kiss that Emma placed onto her forehead. "I love you. Be nice to the doctors and nurses."

"I make no promises. Love you, too."

"Keys are in the left pocket, Emma, take my truck. And I'll make sure she behaves." She nodded and headed home to change.

David pulled a chair closer to her bed and sat in it, taking her hand into his own. "Now, Regina, do you want to tell me how you really are?"

She looked at him and gave him a weak attempt at a glare. "How is it that you can see through my façade better than my wife?"

"Because I'm not denying that it's there to make myself feel better. Emma was really frightened for you and the baby, I think she was so relieved that medically everything was ok that maybe she didn't realize that there could be something wrong that isn't medical. So…do you want to talk about it?"

"No," she answered, looking away from him as tears filled her eyes.

"Come on, Regina. I'm not going to judge you, or think less of you, or anything. You've got a few spare minutes with me…now talk."

She chuckled darkly, even as the tears continued to fall. "What if something had happened? What if I lost the baby and Emma blamed me and left? What if the only reason she's trying to fix things is because she wants a second chance to be around for a baby's childhood the way she didn't get to be for Henry? I can't lose this baby because I love her so much already… and because what if it makes me lose Emma, too?" She was sobbing and her voice was breaking. Her face was flushed from emotion and her chest was wracking with shallow breaths and the sobs that were choking her.

"Hey…hey," David said in a gentle voice, standing and nudging Regina to move over. He climbed into the bed and put his arms around her, letting her cry into his chest. "Regina, this baby…Emma is so excited for this baby, but Emma loves you no matter what. She wants you, no matter what. Don't think like that, ok? Emma…before Emma started dating you, I knew her more as a friend than her father, but I knew her then. She was lonely and defensive, she was secluded and independent, and she didn't want anyone relying on her. Henry broke some of those walls down, I know, but it wasn't until she started dating you when I saw her come to life. Don't think that way, please, Regina."

"But if she wants me…then why did she go back to Neal? Why did that night even happen? And why did she get so close to sleeping with him if I was enough?"

"Because everyone makes stupid decisions, and that was a really stupid one. The stupidest one I've seen in a while," he added, trying to lighten the mood. She gave him a light chuckle before responding.

"Even more stupid than sleeping together?"

"Definitely. We probably wouldn't be friends the way we are if we hadn't done that."

"You don't think so?"

"No, I don't. I think that night, recalling it as post-curse David, it gave me a different understanding of you. You didn't know you were letting your walls down for me, you thought it was only for David Nolan, but either way, I saw a part of you that Prince Charming never knew existed. When I rejected you at first, there was a look in your eyes that I've never seen, a deep loneliness, and I wanted it to go away. I wanted to be the one to make it better. So I did what I thought I could at the time. Granted, when I woke up from the curse…at first I was furious with myself, but over time it ceased. When you helped out so much getting Emma and Snow back, when you told Henry you wanted to redeem yourself, I saw that again."

"Why were you so willing to let the wraith kill me?"

"I was afraid. I was certain you would tell Snow that we slept together."

"I had thought about it."

"Why didn't you tell her, then?"

"It would have turned Henry against me. And my fight was never really with you, it was with Snow and I couldn't bring myself to destroy you in the process of destroying her. Also, it was around the time I began realizing my feelings for your daughter. Telling would have just been too damaging.

"I see. I get that. You've cared for her that long?"

"She saw me, she saw me when no one else did."

"I suppose she did," he amended.

"I'm trying to forgive her."

"I know," he whispered into her hair. He could still feel her tears soaking his shirt, but it didn't bother him. He would do this just the same if it were Emma. He stroked her hair back from her face and tried to get her heart rate to calm down by soothing her. "No matter what happens with you two…you know I'll always be here for you."

She lifted her head off his chest to look him in the eyes. "You will?" she asked, surprised.

"Of course, for purely selfish reasons, of course. We've already discussed how I don't really have any friends of my own except for you, why would I give up my closest friend?" She gave him a smile before putting her head back down. "Which would make you feel better…do you want to hear about my problems so you know your life isn't the only one that sucks sometimes, or would you rather me keep being optimistic Prince Charming?"

"Please…tell me how your life sucks right now…I can only take so much optimism," she teased.

"Snow tried to tell me not to come when Emma called." Again, she lifted her head to look him in the eyes.

"What?! You have got to be joking."

"Nope. I told her that if she told me I couldn't come that I would anyway and then I'd be back to get my stuff and move out. She dropped it. But to be perfectly honest, I don't know who she is anymore. She certainly isn't the woman I fell in love with."

"You just need to find each other again, Charming. It'll happen. One day she'll get over it, or at least try harder to, and things may go back to normal."

"Maybe you're right."

"Of course I am, I'm only ever not right when it comes to my own life."

"You're doing the right thing, Regina. Making your true love with Emma work, that's the right thing."

"Sometimes it seems to go well, then sometimes it gets awkward between us. I just don't know how to handle it."

"Start by letting her take care of you. Emma did a complete 180 when she started dating you, from not wanting people to rely on her to almost needing them to. She grew up thinking nobody wanted her, and feeling needed makes her feel wanted. Just let her take care of you and the baby, I think that'll be a good place to start."

She hummed softly in contemplation, and laying her head back on his chest, his arms wrapped protectively around her shoulders, she fell back to sleep. David lay there thinking about everything that had happened just since they had gotten back from their honeymoon and all the signs signaled that the only person out to destroy their relationship was Snow, which had him thinking even further that it was her who put in the complaints on the Swan-Mills family. If it was, he didn't know how it would affect their relationship, but he knew that his daughter and daughter-in-law would never want anything to do with his wife again.

He contemplated whether they should tell Regina about the complaints. She didn't need more stress to put on her body and the baby, but at the same time he knew that she would be furious if she found out without them, Emma specifically, telling her. He thought that maybe he would encourage Emma to tell her after she was released from the hospital. As though she had heard his thoughts, Emma walked in the room to find her father holding her wife in a very intimate manner and gave him a hard glare.

He shrugged out from underneath Regina, sliding off the edge of the bed to stand up, placed a pillow underneath her head and walked with Emma into the hallway.

"You look refreshed," he offered.

"You looked comfortable…holding my wife."

"Really, Emma? You're going to go into a jealous fit here? Right now?" Dropping his defensive tone, David cleared his throat and spoke again, softly. "She needed comfort."

"But everything is ok."

"Everything is not ok. She and the baby may be ok, but she's not, not really." Emma stared at him, stunned by what she thought she was seeing, not sure if she should say anything or not, still, her questionable judgment didn't stop the words that poured out of her mouth.

"You like her!" She accused.

"Of course I do! She's your wife. She's a good person. And she's…well, somewhere along the way she became my best friend," he supplied.

"No! That's not what I mean and you know it! God what else in this sick family could go wrong?" she spat.

"Emma!" he shouted, anger boiling beneath his skin. "Listen to yourself. Stop throwing fits over stupid things that don't matter and are not true! You want to know why I was holding her? You want to know what she said to me that made me hurt so much for her that I held her while she cried and fell asleep?" he viciously whispered.

"What?" Emma asked defiantly.

"She told me that she thought if she lost the baby, you would leave her."

"Wha…what?…No. That's insane! I want her. I need her."

"Then you need to keep reminding her of that and stop acting like a petulant child! Come on, you're a Charming, you need to tap into the genes already. She's terrified that you don't want her. She doesn't deserve that, Emma." He paused, letting a softer, sympathetic tone release his words. "You've got a long road to redemption there, kiddo."

"Why is it so easy for you to comfort her but not for me?"

"Because I haven't done something wrong by her lately, and because you know, you broke her a little bit. It'll get better, you just have to keep trying. You need to prove to her you're going to make the changes necessary or do whatever it takes. Words will only take you so far, Emma."

"I know…I just don't know what she needs right now."

"Ask her. It's better to gain the knowledge by admitting ignorance than assuming the wrong thing."

"Seriously…teenage Emma needed a sensible head like yours to give her advice."

"Do you want me to go get Henry for you guys?"

"Yeah, I suppose he should probably be here."

David left and Emma walked back into her wife's hospital room. Regina's eyes fluttered open once she noticed the empty space beside her, but saw Emma's face near hers from where the blonde was now sitting in the chair.

"Hey there, moonlight," Emma cooed.

"Hey there, sunshine." Regina replied, giving her wife a confused look. "You haven't called me that in a while." It was a thing they did, when they first started dating, comparing Regina to the nighttime, with her dark hair and dark eyes, her dark skin that glowed perfectly underneath the moon. The brunette had then taken to comparing Emma to the daytime, with her blonde hair and fair skin, her light eyes that gleamed almost blue like the sky in the sun. Emma realized it had been since before their wedding since she had last used that nickname.

"Yeah…there are a lot of things I haven't done in a while that I should have been doing."

"Hmm… like what?

The blonde grinned sheepishly. "Like telling you a hundred times a day how beautiful and wonderful you are. Telling you how much I need you and love you. Showing you how much I appreciate everything you do for Henry and me. Somewhere along the way I lost the base of our relationship and it became about us being a couple and not about us being Emma and Regina, who adore and love each other with everything inside them. We just got married, this should be the time when we're showing it the most, and instead I fucked up and could have ruined it all."

"But you didn't. And right now, that's what matters."

"What's the other part, Regina?"

"Hmm?"

"The other part of why you're trying to move past what I did?"

"Because I can't breathe without you. Before you came to town…I was bored, I had created this life to go exactly as I wanted it and, with the exception of Henry, it was dreadfully boring. When Henry brought you to town, you challenged me and you fought for him in a way that I would have loved to be fought for as a child. Then you protected me; over and over you saved my life. And even if I thought I had feelings for you when you were pulled through that stupid hat, it wasn't until the day at the well when I stopped drowning. You helped me breathe again. I know it wasn't even until Neverland when we shared our feelings, but I knew then that you were it, you were whom I wanted to be with for the rest of my life. I'm too selfish to give that up."

"You aren't selfish…not even a little bit," Emma countered, leaning down to nuzzle her face into Regina's neck, breathing in her scent. She placed a gentle kiss against the warm skin she found there and sighed against it. "I love you."

"I love you, too."