A/N- I know this is a shorter one, but I wanted to get something up today. I'm not sure when I'll be able to work on it this weekend. Hopefully you all like this and please review! Your follows, favorites and reviews always makes me smile so much! Much love!

On her way home, Emma stopped at the diner and picked up Regina's current favorite dessert, a molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream on the side. She stopped at Game of Thorns and picked up a bouquet of light peach peonies, as an apology to show that she felt shame for her behavior, but they also stood for happiness in life and marriage and that was all she wanted for them. She purchased some nice cardstock at the gift shop in town and pulled out one piece, penning a letter to her wife. Not wanting it to be long, because she knew her actions were going to mean more than her words, Emma wrote a simple letter. She had made so many promises that turned out to be empty, and she knew that when it came time to really say the words she needed to say, she would be vocalizing them.

Driving home, she found Regina in the living room curled up on one of the couches reading a novel. She placed the bag with the dessert on the coffee table in front of her wife and pulled the container and spoon out of the bag, placing them on top of the now empty brown paper. She laid the flowers down beside the dessert and the card tucked halfway under the flower stems. She knew that Regina was watching her now, but neither of them said anything for a long moment. Emma looked at Regina, really looked at her, in a way she hadn't since that night Neal came over. She noticed the perfect swell of her stomach and how the prenatal vitamins were accelerating the growth of her beautiful dark hair, which now hung to the middle of her shoulder blades and rested in soft curls at the ends. She noticed that her wife looked younger with longer hair; less intimidating, but still so far beyond beautiful that Emma still couldn't place how she had managed to capture the other woman's attention. She noticed the pain and loneliness in chocolate eyes, but how they still somehow had a bright glint that added to the beautiful glow her face held with the pregnancy.

Bending at the waist, she kissed Regina on her hairline. "I love you, Regina. I'm going to go sit outside and enjoy the sun. Let me know if you need anything, otherwise I'll be in to help with dinner," Emma assured. She took in her wife's shocked look before turning and heading to the back of the house to sit outside. Knowing that if she sat there while Regina read her note, or lingered while she put the flowers in water or ate her dessert, her wife would feel like she was pushing for recognition for her loving gestures. And if she knew anything about Regina, it was that she didn't like being forced to do things she wasn't ready for, and Emma didn't deserve appreciation anyway, not yet, but eventually. She knew that one day she would earn it back. She sat in the grass, but only for a minute before she decided to lay back and take her t-shirt off so she was laying in her jeans and tank top in the warm sun.

Regina sat surprised at her wife's actions. She bit into her dessert and quickly had the whole thing devoured, not even realizing how much she had wanted it until she was finished. When she set the empty container back on the table was when she noticed the cardstock by the flowers. Picking it up to read it, she realized how much she had missed her wife's little notes that had been left daily until the confrontation with Neal.

Baby,

Yeah, I know you don't like when I call you that, or maybe you're just in denial and you actually really love it, I don't know. Anyway, my behavior has been unacceptable and I'm really sorry about that. I just wanted to let you know that you were right in our session with Archie. Some things are too hard to forgive. And if you can't forgive me, I understand, I really and truly do. But, what I have to say is that I shouldn't have stopped fighting for you, and I did, and I let you down, again, and that was so wrong of me. I know that actions speak louder than words, and I know I have some proving to do, so I'm going to work on that. I love you. I'll never stop fighting for you again.

Love,

Me

Regina smiled in spite of herself. Emma had a very endearing and annoying way of getting under her skin. This time, though, Regina would keep herself guarded better until Emma proved that she wasn't going to disappear again. She didn't feel bad for making Emma work hard for her forgiveness, it was what she deserved, but she did see the sincerity in her wife's sea-green eyes when she looked at her before going outside, and that was something she hadn't seen in weeks. She had missed it.

After walking upstairs, she put the note in her nightstand drawer with all the other ones she had received since they had gotten back from their honeymoon. Settling herself onto the edge of the bed, she cried. She wept openly and unguarded in a manner that she hadn't allowed since the first night she slept alone again those weeks before. Curling her arms around her expanded stomach, she held the baby inside of her the best that she could, stroking her fingers on the center of the roundness, up and down.

"My baby girl, I love you so much. You're going to be so perfect, just like Henry. Even if you cry all day and all night. You have two moms who love you so much, and a big brother who is so excited to meet you. Your grandpa, he's excited to have a granddaughter. I think he wants you to look like Emma, since he didn't get to raise her. Aunt Ruby is anticipating your arrival, too. I know we still have the second half of the pregnancy to wait, but you should know you're loved." Regina kept talking to the baby, soothing herself in the process. Their daughter had started kicking a couple weeks previous and Regina loved the feeling. No one had felt the baby kick yet, though, other than her. It was one of the reasons she was so angry with Emma, for taking some of the joy out of the excitement for this baby she was carrying.

Finally, she sighed and stood up to go downstairs. She found her flowers where she had left them on the coffee table in the living room and brought them to the kitchen. The stems were pretty, so she pulled out a clear vase and added some water to it before trimming them and organizing the bouquet delicately into the glass. She set it in the middle of her kitchen island and checked the time after her stomach grumbled lightly. Just as she was about to pull out the vegetables to make the dinner salad, Emma walked into the kitchen.

"What can I help with?" the blonde asked, her gaze lingering slowly on the flowers and she smiled.

"If you would prepare the salad, I could get the stuffed peppers going."

"Stuffed peppers, huh?"

"Yes…um…is that alright?" Regina questioned softly, worriedly.

"Yeah, it sounds amazing." Both women went to work on their respective tasks and the room filled with an amicable silence. After Regina had set her pan into the oven, and Emma tossed everything for the salad together and set it in the fridge, Emma pushed herself up onto the island and sat on the counter, watching her wife mix together dough to make biscuits. Her eyes followed her wife's figure, taking in how lucky she was that they were getting their dream of having more children, but chastising herself again for screwing up a time that should be so much happier than it was.

Regina felt her stares and turned to look at her. "Should we talk about our session?"

"Uh…yeah, if you want to, I guess we could."

"Do you understand where I was coming from?"

"Yeah, Regina, I do. Maybe I didn't before, but I get it, I should have informed Neal that he was no longer desired in my life and told him to leave us alone. I know what I did, and that even though I told Neal that night that I didn't love him, that I love you, and that whatever we did was just drunken actions, I…I wasn't proving that to you and it wasn't fair."

"No, it wasn't." She paused a moment before speaking again. "Do you want to know why I became the Evil Queen?"

"It was because you lost Daniel…yeah?"

"Yes. I lost Daniel. But there is more to it than that. Daniel…he loved me, he really, truly loved me. He didn't love me because of my social standing, or my beauty, or because I acted like a lady. He loved my heart, and my personality. He loved my laugh and my mind. He fought for me. Then my mother killed him. I never had anyone fight for me again. I saved Snow White, saved her from death, and she didn't fight for me. She told my mother the secret I told her she couldn't tell, so that she could have me as her mother, because it was what she wanted. My mother fought against all of my wishes for freedom and to live my own life, because she wanted me to be Queen. My father never fought my mother to protect me, he would attempt to, but then he would stop, because even if he loved me, he was weak. So I became the Evil Queen to protect myself. I fought for myself, because I was just a young woman who had never been fought for, and the one person who did have the guts to fight for me was killed. Because everything I love, everyone I hold dear hurts me or gets hurt."

"Regina, I—" the brunette shook her head to cut Emma off.

"No. Then I cast the curse, and nobody fought me here. No one defied me or fought against me, but still, I had no one fighting for me, I had no one to love me. That's why I got Henry, and even so…he fought against me when he started believing the curse was real. And then…and then we met. And despite all the fights and tension and animosity, you fought for me. Over and over, you fought for me, you protected me, and you used magic to save me even though our son hates magic. And I fell in love with you, thinking that finally, I wouldn't have to fight alone anymore. And then you gave up the fight when I told you about David and me. You got my hopes up again, telling me you just wanted me, and I thought we would get through it. Then you didn't defend me to your mother, and then cheated on me. You gave up fighting, again. All your notes and kisses and sweet gestures, they gave me renewed hope, and then one more time, you stopped fighting. That's what Archie and I discussed after you left. He said that battling against you to fix this isn't going to help. He said I need to decide if I want to fix it or not, and if I choose the latter, I need to let you go, but if I choose the former, well, then I need to fight with you instead of against you."

"Oh," Emma whispered, her throat dry and tight. She bit her tongue, prompting her mouth to fill with saliva and she swallowed it, trying to eliminate the pain that was building up in her throat. "Regina," she began, hesitantly. "Did you…uh, did you decide?"

"Not yet. Archie told me I should think it over this weekend and we'll talk about it Tuesday at our next session."

"Ok."

"Ok? You aren't going to argue with me, Emma?"

"No. I told you in my note that I understand if leaving me is the choice you make, you have every right. But I also meant what I said that I wasn't going to stop fighting for you this time. Even if you ask me to go, I'll live the rest of my life showing you that you deserve love and loyalty, because you are both the most loving and most loyal person I know."

"Well, alright."

"Ok."

"Would you…I'm going to finish these biscuits, would you please set the table?" Emma nodded, grabbed the dishes and went into the dining room. After Regina finished the biscuits , she put them in a pan to bake. She felt her daughter kicking wildly in her stomach and settled her back against the counter, angling herself so her shoulders were bent slightly forward. She had noticed that she could feel the kicks and movements better if she wasn't standing straight up, and she wanted to revel in her girl's motions. David walked in the room and she looked up, assuming it was Emma. She offered him a light smile and he looked at her questioningly.

"You look uncomfortable," he greeted.

"No, no. Actually, your granddaughter is kicking, I can feel her better this way."

"She's kicking?" he echoed excitedly. "That's awesome!" Regina reached her hand out to take his as he walked closer to her. She pulled his strong hand over to the bottom right side of her bump and pressed his fingers hard into the surface of her flesh. His eyes widened once he felt the movement and he laughed. "That's really cool. That has to be one of the coolest things I've ever felt."

"Didn't you ever feel Emma kicking?"

"Uh…no," he answered, shaking his thoughts as his eyebrows stitched together in a frown. "Snow…she was always so concerned about the curse, so we never really enjoyed the pregnancy the way we might have otherwise."

Regina moved her hand off of his, which was still pressing into her stomach. "I'm sorry, David. I took so much from you, and I am so sorry."

"Hey, hey it's ok. We've all gotten to the point where we know that without the curse things would be so different, and not in a way that we desire, so you don't need to apologize." She nodded and looked up, noticing Emma walking back into the kitchen as her green eyes lingered on her father's hand.

"Emma, would you like to feel our daughter kicking?" Regina offered quietly.

Emma's eyes gleamed in excitement and she walked to where her wife and father were standing, reaching one pale hand out towards her wife's belly. Regina's hand guided hers to the right spot and repeated the action she had done with David, pressing nimble fingertips inward to search for pressure. After nearly two minutes passed, the baby kicked again.

"She's strong," Emma exalted. "Henry didn't kick this hard when I was 20 weeks, at least, I don't remember it being this strong." Slow tears streaked down Emma's face and David took that moment to back out of the kitchen, letting his daughter and her wife enjoy the moment together.

Several minutes passed and Emma kept her fingers over the same spot, feeling a few kicks a minute until the stove beeped to tell them the food was ready. Smiling, Emma went to the fridge to pull out the prepared salad and some dressing, as Regina poked around with the other pans. Emma returned to the kitchen after setting her part on the table and took the pan of stuffed peppers from Regina, leaving the brunette to carry the pan of biscuits. Before they entered the dining room, Emma turned to face her wife.

"Thank you for letting me feel her kick."

Regina nodded. "I almost didn't," she admitted.

"Well, then double thank you for second guessing it. I really appreciate it." They shared small smiles and continued into the room to eat their family dinner.