A/N- Seems I have some more things to explain for a guest reviewer. I apologize that you think I'm not handling the cheating story line. I suppose I should have posted this chapter with the last one, so you could see that I am handling it with care. I've been planning chapters out since the conflict and I have every intention of addressing the cheating, as you will see in this chapter. Angst..I love angst, but no I wouldn't throw it in just for some fun. This is a Swan Queen story, which means that, yes, they will have moments of love and healing. But, given their personalities and the situations I've written, they will face their demons. Again, you'll see a lot of that in this chapter, and the only reason I did decide to separate it from the last chapter was because it skips a bit of time and has a couple of flashbacks. I hope this will be satisfactory to those of you wanting to see a heavier side and what is truly a realistic side...because I've been in almost this exact situation. Also-Regina, yes has a history of being unloved, which is why she has been so easy on Emma so far, because she doesn't trust that if she's angry and spiteful, that Emma will stay. That will be addressed again in the next chapter after this one. Anyway, I do appreciate your thoughts, and I hope this chapter is pleasing! Reviews are absolutely ALWAYS welcome, even if they include things you think I'm doing wrong, because I would like the chance to rectify and/or explain, so thank you. Enjoy, and review :)

The next several weeks were highly emotional for the Swan-Mills clan. With Regina being confined to the house for the greater bulk of her time, combined with her high-strung pregnancy mood swings and the growth of her abdomen, she was nearly never satisfied. School had started again and Henry was, for once, thankful for the amount of time it took from his being at home. Regina had begun to nitpick everything. His hair, the amount of time he was spending with friends, how much time he spent playing video games with Emma and anything else she could find. Not even to bring up Emma, it seemed as though she couldn't do anything right anymore.

It had been a week after David left Snow that he showed up at the door, and all the couple's attempts at making things better had been everything except completely forgotten.

Regina heard a knock at the door while she was preparing dinner, David was already there for the meal and was playing with Henry on his game system in the living room and she didn't know where Emma was, so she set down her knife and the spoon she had just used to stir the stew and went to answer the door. She hadn't expected who would be there, but when she saw him, her heart dropped.

"Mr. Cassidy," she had said coolly.

"Uh…Regina, hi. I was hoping Henry would answer. I haven't seen him in a while, and I miss him. Is he here?"

"Of course he's here. With his parents. His actual parents, not a hardly needed sperm-donor."

"I'm sorry?" he replied.

"Oh and you very well should be, now get off my porch." Each word was punctuated with disdain.

"I want to see my son!" he answered in a slightly raised voice.

"He is not your son. He is mine and he is Emma's. Now go!" she all but yelled. David and Henry came at the sound of her raised tone and David stepped up next to Regina.

"Neal, I think you should probably leave now," David offered calmly.

Neal ignored both of the other adults and looked at Henry. "Hey kid, do you want to come hang out for a minute? I haven't seen you around, I just miss hanging out."

"I don't want you here. Can't you get that? Nobody wants you here!" Henry's voice was angry. He had purposefully chosen not to see his father since the situation with his mothers and he was sticking to it, at least until his moms were better.

"Henry, buddy, what did I do?"

"You know what you did!" Regina cut in. Before she could speak anymore, Emma noisily took the last few steps on the stairs and paled as she swallowed the bile rising in her throat.

"Em…you told them?" She walked to the door, shooing David and Henry back into the living room.

"Why would I keep something as stupid as what happened from my wife? I'm married, Neal. That night…"

"That night was awesome, Em. I was going to back off once you married her, but you obviously still have feelings for me. It was like nothing had changed, Em."

"No, Neal. I was drunk, and sad, and you got me even drunker! I just thank whatever deities may exist that Ruby stopped us from getting a room!"

"You would have slept with me if she hadn't!"

"Yes! Is that what you want to hear? Yes, I would have probably slept with you. People do stupid things when they're drunk! Good God, Neal, it doesn't mean I still have feelings for you! I love that you gave me Henry, but there is nothing, nothing else that I love about you. You need to go."

"Em, you can't stop me from seeing Henry."

"Technically, since we have full custody of him, I can. Also, you know, you're not even on the birth certificate. And, furthermore, we didn't stop him from seeing you. That was his choice. And if he chooses that he wants to see you again, we won't stop him because all we want is his happiness, but right now, that doesn't include you. Now, leave!" Emma yelled defiantly, those last two words. And finally, Neal left. But the damage had been done. She could see it in Regina's eyes as her wife closed the door and went back to the kitchen. She could hear it in the woman's voice when Emma asked her if she wanted help with the rest of dinner. And she could most definitely feel it while she was lying back in the cold guest room bed. Yes, the damage had been done.

Regina was now halfway through her pregnancy and positively glowing. She looked like someone had cut a basketball in half and placed it beneath her wardrobe, perfectly shaped and not an ounce of fat anywhere on her body. She was the kind of woman that all pregnant women envy, from the side and front she looked beautifully with child, from the back, aside from the slight widening of her hips, one would never know she was halfway through carrying a child. But with everyday of her pregnancy, her mood was unpredictable. They had good days and bad days, but never truly successful days. It seemed as though they were stuck in a rut that they couldn't get past, right before the line that they needed to cross for Regina to decide once and for all if she could forgive Emma or not.

This day was their twelfth session with Archie and their progress had dimmed considerably, even the doctor was concerned. When they arrived for their appointment they had both taken seats on opposite ends of the couch and neither seemed inclined to talk.

"Regina, Emma, I really need you two to talk in order for us to try and solve your problems."

"They can't be solved, Dr. Hopper," Regina snapped. He knew with her not calling him by his first name meant that today wasn't going to be a good day.

"They can! You just aren't trying anymore!" Emma argued.

"I'm not trying? What the hell are you talking about, I'm not trying?"

"You gave up on us the day Neal came over! That was like, almost a month ago, Regina. We are halfway through this pregnancy, and we don't have all the time in the world for you to decide if we're going to still be a family when she gets here!"

"Like I would kick you out?"

"You already did! Maybe not out of our house, but you kicked me out of our bed!"

"I'm sorry if I'm just a placeholder for Neal, I'm so sorry if you don't have someone to keep you warm at night!" Regina's voice was dripping with the sarcasm that Emma hated. It wasn't her fun and witty type, it was her biting and hateful kind and it cut Emma deep into her gut.

"Damnit Regina, pick a different fucking tune already! In case you failed to notice or remember, I kicked him off our porch, too! I told him I didn't want him around. I get it, what I did was so fucking shitty, but we can't make it better if you don't even want to try!"

"Alright, Emma, please refrain from that language. Regina, do you hear what Emma is saying?"

"Of course I hear it. I've been hearing it the last several appointments we've had." And she had.

Two and a half weeks previous was their first session after Neal had showed up on their porch. Archie was surprised when the women told him about it. Or, less like telling him and more like having a shouting match about it in front of him, but it surprised him nonetheless.

"Emma, have you been in any contact with Neal since the night at the bar?" Archie had asked.

"No. I told Regina I wouldn't, that I didn't even want to, for that matter."

"Ok, and Regina, do you hold Emma responsible for Neal showing up?"

"Yes! Of course I do! She could have at least text him to tell him he wasn't welcome anywhere near our home."

"You told me you didn't want me to have anything to do with him!"

"And I don't! But it wouldn't have hurt you to send one goddamned message! It certainly barely hurt you to nearly sleep with him just one more time!"

Emma didn't have a reply to follow, instead, her face had earned an expression that made it look like she had been slapped and she shut down. They had left that session early because nobody was talking anyway.

"My point, Emma, is that Neal said it was just like nothing had changed. Might as well have said it was just like old times. Which tells me there was passion, because you loved him romantically back then, so what else am I supposed to take from that?" she spat.

"You're supposed to take into consideration the fact that there's this idiot that's still in love with me, no matter how many times I've told him I don't want him anymore, and he was probably imagining what he wanted to have had happen!"

"Well you sure did want him that night, Emma, didn't you?"

"No!" the blonde gritted her teeth and released a frustrated sound that was half scream and half growl. "No! I wanted you! I wanted to make love to my wife and it was a problem that I couldn't deal with, so I got drunk and got stupid! I'm sorry, for the millionth time, I am SORRY!"

"Sometimes there are things that are too hard to forgive, Emma."

"So what? So you're saying you'll never forgive me?"

"No, that's not what I am saying," she sighed, utterly exasperated. "I'm saying it has been too much, too soon. I should not have begun to give in so easily when we first started coming to these sessions."

Archie cleared his throat. "I'm sorry, Regina, may I cut in?" he asked, and with Regina's slight nod and raised eyebrows, he did so. "What do you mean you gave in so easily after you two first started seeing me?"

"I just, we kissed too much, too fast. We…I touched her in ways I wasn't ready to. And on two occasions, very shortly before Neal came over, we nearly had sex. And I'm not ready for that."

"Then why do you think it nearly happened?"

"Why? Because I'm pregnant and my hormones are messing me up. And I hadn't been with my wife in weeks, and that's painful. One of the things we have never had trouble with…the only thing that we never had trouble with was sex and for that to just be gone…it's…well, it's frustrating."

"I can imagine so, but was it your decision to almost have sex, or to stop it, for that matter?"

"It wasn't a decision to almost do it, it was just a heated and complicated reaction to her. And…no, Emma stopped it both times."

"And how does that make you feel?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Regina, you seriously can't just shut down every time something is hard to talk about!" Emma growled. Regina glared and threw her arms into the air before letting them drop to her sides.

"You want to know how it felt? Fine! It felt shitty! It hurt like a fucking bitch to be stopped from having sex with your wife, by your wife, when someone else had to stop her from having sex with her ex!" Regina started crying at her confession, her voice dropping the harshness and filling with pain. "It felt like you didn't want me anymore. It…it felt like all you wanted was this baby and that I'm just this convenient incubator and housekeeper."

"Regina," Emma replied gently. "Regina, of course I want you. God, do I want you. And stopping those times, that was for you, not for me. If it were up to me…well, you know my appetite for you. I knew that if we slept together that quickly it would just confuse the situation more. If we got back to the physical stuff without getting past the emotional stuff, I just…I knew that it would just make it worse when we finally dealt with the emotional parts."

"I know that…now. But it didn't make it feel any less bad when you were rejecting me."

"I think…ladies, I think we should leave this topic for the rest of today. Some very strong feelings were revealed and I think you should each take time to think about those feelings before we come back, ok?" Both women nodded in compliance. "Now, Emma, would you like to talk about things surrounding your mother?"

"There isn't really much to say. Ruby sees her, and dad visits once in a while, but she doesn't really leave, and she hasn't done anything to apologize or try to make up for what she did."

"How are you feeling about that?"

"It sucks. My wife and I are having problems, my mom is being the damn ice queen and the angrier Regina gets, the less my kid is around, so I feel like I have no one right now."

"What about your father?"

"He and Regina are best buds, not sure he's on my side."

"Emma," Regina chastised. "He's your father, of course he'd be supportive. Maybe, if you would just talk to him, you would know that. It's not my fault that I talk to him and you don't. He makes a very good Switzerland."

"Whatever."

"Don't you 'whatever' me, Emma. You're isolating yourself, not the other way around."

"I'm gone. I'm done for today. See you Tuesday, Archie." Emma ripped her red leather jacket off the coat rack by the door and stormed out, walking in the opposite direction from home. She didn't want to be there right now. She decided she'd go to work for a few hours.

Regina remained seated on the couch in Archie's office, her face stoic and very old-school Regina.

"Do you want to talk about anything else?" Archie asked her softly.

"No. I…I just want my marriage back. I want my relationship, that love…I want it back."

"It takes work, and I'm not saying you aren't trying, because I can see the battle in your eyes every time you are here, Regina. But, maybe you should go back to a few weeks ago when you were letting her help with that battle. This isn't your issue with yourself, you shouldn't be arguing with yourself on whether or not you're going to forgive her. You need to decide which it is, and then either let her go, or let her fight for your forgiveness. Pushing her away and pulling her back is unfair to the both of you."

Regina nodded. "I know."

"Then that's your homework for the weekend. You are both strong willed and independent beings, but you agreed to get married because you wanted someone to share your lives with. You wanted someone to be on your side for this journey, and yes, things have changed because of what Emma did, but you need to determine what it is you want from Emma. You told her the same thing when she was going back and forth about your situation with David."

"Yes, and then she said she forgave me, and then she went and cheated on me."

"So the lesson here is that people make mistakes."

"It was a decision, dammit! NOT a mistake."

"I apologize." He cleared his throat. "People make bad decisions. We just have to decide how they're going to effect the rest of our lives, or if we're going to let them."

"I know."

"Ok. Then, I will see you Tuesday. Think very seriously about it, alright?"

"Yes. Thank you, Archie."

Emma stormed into the station to find David sitting at his desk and pushing paperwork. Her walk slowed when she saw him turn slightly to see who was entering the building.

"Hey, Emma. What brings you in today? I thought you switched your appointments with Archie to Thursdays so you couldn't be here."

"Yeah, well, I left."

"Why?"

"Because…stuff."

"Emma, stuff isn't an answer."

"Because she's never going to forgive me, there isn't anything I can do."

"I don't think that's true."

"See! Just like I told her! She's your best friend, you're going to take her side!"

"Emma, I am not. I wasn't taking her side, I was saying that I think she is going to forgive you."

"I don't want to talk about this."

"Ok."

"That's it?" she asked, surprised.

"Yes, that's it. Emma, I'm not going to pry into your life. You're a very private person and I'm not going to invade your space if my advice or opinions are unsolicited. But...I am here if you need to talk about it. What about Killian? You haven't talked to him in a while, either?"

"Well, I didn't want to give Regina any reasons to be suspicious of my behavior."

"Well…I don't think she's really jealous of him."

"Why not?"

"Because you're all friends and Killian isn't the kind of man to tear apart a happy family. He'll work hard at a woman in an unhappy relationship, but he's not going to go after either of you. He'd have too many people to answer to."

"Yeah, well, in case you've forgotten, we're not a happy family, and we are in an unhappy relationship."

"When did it get worse after getting better?"

"The night Neal came over. I've been back in the guest room ever since."

"Anything else change since then?" She looked at him guiltily. "Emma…"

"I used to do things…every day, for her. Like I would leave notes or buy her flowers or get her something she was craving. I haven't since Neal stopped over. I just thought…she was so angry, dad. And, I guess I was angry. I am angry. She kicked me out of our bedroom, again, just when I thought we were going to be able to fix it."

"I can understand your anger. I really, truly can, Emma. But you both need to see each other's side here. You can't keep looking at your own anger, neither of you. It isn't healthy, and it's exactly why Snow and I broke after the Regina thing came out. I don't want to see you two split up, because in all honesty, you're perfect for each other and I never thought I would say that. When you started dating…I may not have shown it, but I hated the thought of it. We had all just started forgiving Regina for the things she had done, and here you two were starting to have a serious relationship and it was too much, too soon for some of us. But over time, I don't think anyone could really deny how much your personalities complement each other, or how much alike you are, even in your differences."

"I know, dad. I know we're perfect for each other. But right now, all the things that used to make so much sense with us seem to make everything crash down harder."

"I know, kiddo. I get it. Trust me, I really get it. Would it help if I stopped coming over for meals?"

"No. I think that would make it worse."

"Why is that?"

"Because Regina doesn't let people see the worst of her, except me and Henry."

"Ok?"

"So she isn't as mean when you're around and she's a little easier to handle."

"So I'm your buffer?" Emma laughed lightly despite her mood.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Well, then I'll keep being your buffer, but you've gotta figure it out somehow. And I think maybe starting those sweet things again would be a good place to start."

Emma nodded. "I know you're right, but I just…I'm having a hard time mustering up sweet when it seems like all she can give me is spite."

"Yeah. I don't know what else to tell you."

"I just want to be able to hold her and kiss her and talk to the baby, but she won't even let me touch her. I literally haven't even kissed her since that day. Not even on her cheek or her forehead or anything."

"Well, maybe that's part of why she's so angry?"

"What do you mean?"

"Ok, so obviously Neal coming over pissed her off that night and she got moodier. But, then the very next day you stop giving her the daily shows of affection and the sweet and simple kisses. How would that make you feel? Especially after what Neal said that night?" Emma thought for a couple of minutes, tracing everything in her mind that had happened since that evening and how Regina's distance grew stronger everyday. Realization crossed her mind and showed on her face.

"I would feel like what he said…wow, fuck! I would feel like there was merit to what he said."

"Ok. I think that might be a breakthrough, kiddo. Maybe I'll ask Archie if he needs some help." He offered a light grin at his own joke.

"Dad, thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I need to go. I've gotta…I…I need to go!" She stood, rushing to the door.

"What are you going to do, Emma?"

"I'm gonna fight. Because that's exactly what I stopped doing, and that's exactly what changed."

"Good for you, Emma. Let me know how it goes." And with that she was gone.