A/N: Guys, this is the second longest chapter this fic has ever seen! Hope you enjoy the big update. Reviews are the best type of gift that a fanfic writer can be given :) All of you who follow/favorite/read/review this story are the best and I have so much gratitude for you all! Please enjoy!

Regina tried to convince Emma to work a full shift on Monday but the blonde showed up at her office at noon, right when Regina was getting ready to leave.

"Emma, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be working," she asked as the blonde swooped in without knocking or an announcement from her secretary.

"I thought I would come check to see how my beautiful wife is doing?" Emma said, her pitch rising on the last word. Regina sighed and set her purse back onto her desk. She wasn't big enough to be at a waddling stage, but as she walked toward Emma, the blonde could see that there was definitely an extra sway in her hips that didn't used to be there. When Regina stepped close to her, Emma moved her arms to pull Regina in close…as close as she could with the growing bump between them. Her fingers ran circles on the sides of her stomach as her lips found Regina's plump ones in a soft, slow kiss.

Her senses overwhelmed with the scent of vanilla and apples, the taste of Regina mixed with celery and peanut butter, the feel of her wife's full, smooth lips against her own and the sounds of her own pulse in her ears and the soft and slow breaths of both women as their kiss deepened. Regina's arms wrapped around Emma's neck, her hands tangling in blonde tresses holding the other woman close to her. Emma moved her hands up Regina's sides up to her arms and her fingertips teased the bare skin of the toned and smooth limbs.

Their mouths opened to each other, tongues meeting in a dance that they had become familiarized to long ago. Regina moaned into Emma's mouth as Emma's hands moved to cup her wife's cheeks. The blonde pulled away from the kiss before things could get too intense, but Regina whimpered at the loss of contact. Keeping her hands on Regina's face, her thumbs stroked the cheekbones beneath them.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come home with you?" Emma whispered huskily. "We could continue that for a few hours until dinner time."

"As tempting as that sounds, my darling, you need to complete your day of work so you can be home in time for dinner." Regina dropped her arms down, pulling Emma's with hers so she could hold each of Emma's hands in each of her own.

"I was actually thinking I would go home now and then go finish my shift from like…four to eight." Regina glared at her, brown eyes boring into pale skin.

"No. I invited your mother for dinner so that she can try to make amends with you." Emma sighed exaggeratedly. "Sweetheart, just because that's why she's coming…it doesn't mean that you have to forgive her today, nor does it mean you have to really give it a try today either. You just have to be there for dinner. It might be awkward, actually it will probably be very awkward, but Henry and David will both be there, too. It'll all be fine." Regina leaned in and pressed her lips to Emma's in a gentle and reassuring kiss. "The second she says or does anything that upsets you or makes you uncomfortable is the second I ask her to leave, is that fair?"

Emma nodded and laid her head on Regina's shoulder. It was move that was harder to do these days, when Regina no longer wore heels and Emma wore slightly heeled boots, add in her being naturally an inch taller than her wife and the inch of the heels it kinked her neck in a weird way. But she needed her wife. Regina brought one hand up and stroked lightly through Emma's locks.

"What if she decides I'm not enough to attempt redemption for?" Emma asked. The question was muffled against Regina's shoulder, but she heard what her wife said and it made her heart ache for her. Regina tugged Emma's hair lightly so the blonde would lift her head and look at her, as she did that she tilted her own head back to await the sad look she knew would be in forest green eyes. She waited to speak until those eyes met her own chocolate ones.

"My darling Emma, you are worth everything in this world. If she doesn't want to attempt atonement, that is on her and not on you. Don't be sad, my love. You have more than enough people who love you, and I know you miss her, you miss her from when she was your best friend, but if she ends up not trying, well then she isn't worthy of you. But, I really do think she's going to try. Who wouldn't want you as their daughter, hm? You're brave, smart, funny, strong and honest." Each compliment was punctuated with a peck on Emma's lips. "She will try."

"Fine, I'll go back to work." Emma's response was thick with tears and she quickly brought her hands to her face to wipe them away, shrugging away from Regina. "What time is she coming over?"

"6:30. You will leave work at 5 so you can shower and change, yes?" Emma nodded her agreement and leaned in for another kiss from her wife before leaving. "I love you, babe."

"I love you, too, Emma. Now get back to work before the mayor has to fire you." Emma smiled and saluted Regina in a mocking fashion, bringing a smile to the brunette's lips.

David brought Henry home from school that day. The teenager usually liked to ride his bike when it was nice outside, but it had been raining that morning, thus his bike was left at home and he didn't want to catch the bus. When the two guys arrived, Regina was in the kitchen preparing dinner.

"That smells good, but you know dinner isn't for three hours," he teased as he entered the kitchen after watching Henry rush into the living room to play video games.

"Shut it, Charming," Regina answered. She lifted her knife and pointing it at him to punctuate her request. "This part had to be done early so I can put the food in the crockpot for the next few hours, so don't give me your lip."

"Hey, you should show some respect to your father-in-law."

"You should show some respect to your—"

"Elders?" he interjected, earning a death glare from the brunette.

"Excuse me. I was going to say stepmother-in-law, but you had to go and be a jerk. I'm only 3 years older than you!"

"Well, of course I meant it in the most respectful way possible," he exaggerated. Regina shook her head at him and continued cutting the chicken.

"What are you doing here so early?"

"Oh, am I not welcome?"

"David," she warned.

"Sorry, I'm teasing. Henry wanted a ride home from school and since grandparents can be suckered into basically anything, I agreed and brought him home. I figured I might as well stay and torture you while we wait for Emma and Snow to get here."

"You're always welcome, you know that."

"I do." He sat on one of the stools across the island from where she was working at cutting the cooked chicken into shredded pieces. "Do you think tonight is going to go well?"

"Honestly? No. I think that Emma isn't open to forgiving Snow just yet and I think Snow expects Emma to easily forgive her. They aren't on the same page, but I am hoping that dinner tonight will put them on the same page, or at least a page or two closer."

"Yeah…maybe. So…Snow and I had lunch together yesterday."

"Oh? You didn't say anything at dinner."

"I didn't want Emma to know yet. If Snow doesn't fix things with Emma…as much as I have missed having my wife, I don't think that I could be ok with staying married to her if things between them aren't repaired. I don't want Emma to think I am forgiving Snow before the attempt for Emma's forgiveness is even really made."

"I can understand that. I do have a question for you…" she trailed off, waiting to see if he would give her the go ahead.

"I'll answer the best I can."

"Do you think she'll really stop having a problem with our friendship, all of a sudden?"

"If I'm being completely honest, no. I think that if we were just friendly it wouldn't be an issue for her, but I think once she sees how good our friendship is that she will have a problem with it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. The only person I talk to more than I talk to you these days is Emma, I know we started being friends a little while before you married Emma, but it seems like since all the drama went down, I mean what it's only been two months, and in that time our friendship has blossomed and I don't think Snow will be expecting it."

"So, what do we do?"

"We act like we always act. There's no reason to act differently. If Snow has a problem with it, she needs to get over it. We've discussed this and she says she will try to be ok with it, we'll just let it come down to that."

"Ok." Regina finished with the chicken and started putting it into the crockpot. David followed her over to the other counter to watch her add all of the ingredients into the ceramic dish before setting it into its cooker and turning the timer to two and a half hours. David found the ingredients intriguing. She put in uncooked instant rice, cream of chicken soup, the chicken, swiss cheese and a few seasonings.

"What do you call this?"

"I don't really have a name for it. I was being lazy when Emma and I first started dating. Do you remember that week that Henry and Snow went on that camping trip? Emma asked you if she could take the week off to go to Boston since Henry wouldn't be around anyway?" David nodded. "She didn't go to Boston, she was here all week."

David cut her off. "I didn't even know you guys were dating then."

"No one did. That week was sort of our first official week I suppose you could say. Anyway, we literally spent the entire week in the house, between the bed, the living room, the bathroom and the kitchen."

"You really can spare me the details."

"Like I was going to give them to you anyway. Please, stop interrupting." When she was sure David was done cutting her off, she smiled and continued the story. "So, we spent the whole week indoors and you know how Emma eats, probably better than anyone else knows except me. By Saturday I had run out of my standard ingredients for meals. I had stuff for sandwiches, hence the swiss cheese. I always have chicken, since it's so healthy, and I just happened to have the other ingredients. I decided to give it a shot and threw it all into the crockpot for dinner."

"Did you know to precook the chicken that time?"

"No, but we had like, 6 hours for it to cook and we just snacked the rest of the day while we waited. This time, I didn't have all that time to allow it to cook. Or, I did, but I forgot to start it when I got home so I had to improvise. This…pregnancy brain thing that your daughter kept warning me would happen seems to be doing so. Though, I don't think I've forgotten anything in front of her yet, so I'll keep hoping on that one." David chuckled.

"I like hearing stories about you and Emma. You guys kept to yourselves so much in the beginning of your relationship that nobody really understood how it happened, but when you tell stories like that its easier to see why you two fell in love."

"Hmm, why do you say that?"

"Well, I can't imagine anyone else being able to keep you from leaving your house for an entire week and I can't imagine anyone else doing the same with Emma. She gets sort of…claustrophobic if she doesn't get fresh air every…like, hour or so," David joked and both laughed, knowing that even if it was slightly exaggerated it was true.

"So what do you think I can hope for from this dinner with Snow?"

"I think the best thing you can hope for is that it will be uneventful." Regina nodded and begged the universe to let the dinner be so.

Dinner was not uneventful. First, Emma came late, rushing into the house at quarter after six. She was filthy; dirt was smeared on her face and arms, jeans had grass stains on the knees and her hair was caked in mud and had leaves sticking out in random places. She rushed into the house and ran upstairs, trying to get to the shower before Regina could yell at her for being late, but Regina, of course, was in the bedroom getting ready. When she burst through the bedroom door, Regina stared at her, eyes wide and hands on her hips.

"What happened to you?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "You look filthy. Your mother is going to be here in fifteen minutes, Emma!"

"Sorry, I had to get a cat from a tree and I fell off the tree into like…a dirt bed or something, I don't know what it was, or who keeps a pile of dirt in their yard. Anyway, after I was already covered in dirt, it started raining and I left my jacket at the station. And then I had to chase the stupid cat and yeah…"

Regina shook her head at her wife. "You are just so graceful, my dear."

"Great, so do you want to keep picking on me or can I go take a shower?"

"Go take your shower, I'll have Henry set the table and everything else is already almost all set. I'll have your dad help with whatever is left."

"Ok, I'll be out soon."

Regina went downstairs to find David in the kitchen with a bottle of wine. He raised it, showing the label to Regina.

"Is it ok if we drink this one tonight?" Regina nodded.

"Of course, dear. That one is a delicious white."

"It's not one of your favorites or anything is it? I don't want to drink anything that you'll be missing out on."

"No, dear. It's fine. Here, let me get you a glass." Regina went to the cupboard and pulled out four wine glasses and pulled a bottle of water from the fridge. She and David walked to the dining room and Regina poured water into her glass, set the two free glasses at Emma and Snow's place settings and waited for David to open the bottle before handing him the glass to pour some for himself. That was when things got awkward.

Regina stepped toward David when he held out his hand for the glass, but her foot caught on something and she tripped. David caught her, but the bottle shook in his hand and covered his shirt and her blazer. After he straightened her out, David set the bottle down and looked her over, checking that she was ok.

"Take your shirt off, I'll throw it in the wash. Emma should be just about finished getting ready, you can ask her for a shirt. Or you can wear one of Henry's. It would be a muscle shirt on you, but you could try."

"How would Emma's fit me any better?"

"She wears really big shirts to sleep in." He nodded and pulled his shirt over his head as Regina pulled her blazer off. She was wearing a red silk camisole that pulled tightly over her belly and her breasts were exposed much in the way they used to be in her Evil Queen outfits. Henry opened the front door, when he got outside Regina didn't know, but in he strolled with Snow while Regina and David both stood more exposed than appropriate, Regina holding David's shirt in her hand and they both stared in shock at the two who had just entered the house.

"Wow, this is awkward," Emma joked as she walked down the stairs. "Kind of reminds me of the stuff that happens in movies. Regina, why are your boobs out, and…dad, why aren't you wearing your shirt?"

"Wine. Um, Henry, what have I told you about leaving your backpack lying around? I tripped over the strap, thankfully David didn't let me fall, otherwise the baby could be hurt. You need to be more careful, sweetheart. Take your backpack upstairs. And Emma, would you give your father one of your sleep shirts to wear for dinner?"

"All mine are dirty, sorry I haven't been able to get around to the laundry. There's the t-shirt from our honeymoon that I bought you, though. You know, the blue one, it's like a men's large, I think?"

Regina nodded, though she caught the look on Snow's face and she was pretty sure everyone else did, too. David would be wearing her shirt and though it was not at all anything sexual or endearing, it was something that was Regina's on David's person and Snow wasn't happy. "Very well, David, go with her and I'll go start a load of laundry, your shirt will be done before you leave tonight. Emma, will you please bring me a shirt to wear?" Emma nodded and Snow was left standing in the foyer as all the other family members disappeared to complete their tasks.

After Regina started a load of laundry, she walked into the dining room to see Snow standing awkwardly in the doorway between the entrance hall and the dining room, looking uncertain of what to do.

"I'm sorry about that…seems pregnancy has skewed my balance."

"Yes, well I can't say it wasn't awkward to walk into. But, what can I say? I'm…uh, I'm glad you didn't fall."

"Thank you, dear." She heard laughter echoing from upstairs, so she walked to the bottom of the staircase and took two steps up before yelling to the trio on the second floor. "Are you three going to come down and eat dinner sometime tonight?"

The giggling stopped and she heard three sets of feet coming down the hallway until she could see all three of them as they began walking down the stairs. She smiled and shook her head as she watched David grab Henry in a chokehold and rub his knuckles on his head, causing her son to laugh and call 'mercy.'

"You guys are children," she said, shaking her head as she walked toward the kitchen. "And no, I'm not talking about Henry, seeing as he is the only underage person here, he's allowed to be a child."

"Hey, you just want in on some of our fun," David joked, running down the stairs past Henry and passing Snow, who was still standing in the doorway to the dining room. He grabbed Regina around the waist, clasping his hands in front of her tightly around her bump and lifted her off her feet. "Henry, come on…come help me tickle your mom."

Henry smiled mischievously and ran up to them to poke at his mom's sides, making her laugh uncontrollably as she tried to wriggle free from David's grasp.

"David, I swear to god if you don't put me down right now…" she started in a threat.

"You can threaten to sit on me again, but I'm pretty sure if I can pick you up that you sitting on me isn't going to hurt."

"All right, David, be nice and put my wife down," Emma joked. She was the only person in the house that seemed to notice the rage in Snow's eyes at the sight of David's arms wrapped around Regina. As much as she felt her mom was overreacting, she also knew that if the same thing happened the week after she found out about David and Regina, she too would have been upset.

David set Regina back onto her feet and unfolded his arms from around her. He nodded to her stomach and told Henry that the baby was kicking and he should feel. He hadn't been around when the baby was very active yet, and he made a comment to David about how it would be kind of cool to feel a baby kick. Regina nodded at her son and he reached a hand out, waiting for his mom to guide it to her bump. She pulled his hand to the left side of her stomach and pushed his fingertips in so he could feel her kick. A broad smile crossed Henry's face when he felt the kick against his fingers and Regina smiled with him.

"Pretty cool feeling isn't it, kid?" Emma said.

"Yeah, probably one of the coolest things I've ever felt."

"That's what I said," David agreed.

"You should feel it from the inside. It's a strange but wonderful feeling," Regina told him. A hard look once again crossed Snow's face, as she had to have picked up on the mention of David having felt the baby kicking another time other than just now against his arm. "Well, we should all eat before dinner gets cold." She led the group to the dining room and told them she would be right back with the food.

"I'll help," David offered, wanting to give Snow and Emma time to talk.

"Actually, Emma would you be willing to help?" Regina asked, widening her eyes to make sure her wife understood to say yes. Emma nodded and followed her into the kitchen.

"Sorry," Regina started once they were in the kitchen. "I just…your dad is naïve and I think it would have been the last straw for her if we were in here alone to bring dinner in."

"Yeah…he's sort of like a loyal puppy dog to you."

"What?"

"Yeah…I mean, not in a mean way, but he kind of follows you around when he's here."

"He doesn't—" she started to argue, but stopped when she realized that Emma was right. She tried to remember a time when he was over that he spent more time with Henry or Emma than he did with her and she couldn't think of one. "Well…he works with you all day, and he and Henry go and do things all the time, what's wrong with us spending time together when he's over for meals?"

"Nothing…I just think that like you said, he's naïve to how others see it."

"Does it look bad from the outside?"

"Um…maybe on the outside of Henry and me. We get it, and if you and I weren't married, and if dad wasn't married…I think that other people might think you guys were a couple."

"No!" Regina whispered incredulously. "There's no way!"

"Let's get dinner in and we'll talk about this more later." Regina nodded and they carried in the dishes with the chicken and rice, and broccoli. There was also a bowl of fried apples that Regina had just found the recipe for and threw together before Emma got home.

The group ate in an awkward silence, Snow asking Emma the occasional question about the baby and work. Those questions were answered by Regina and David, though, because Emma still wasn't talking to her mother. It was the most uncomfortable dinner they had been party to since the first day Regina found out Emma had cheated on her and discussed it with David and Henry. But Snow did prove to the group, Regina and David particularly since they were at the stage of being willing to forgive her, that she was trying. She may have made faces at all the David and Regina weirdness at the start of the night, but she hadn't said anything negative about anything or anyone. She didn't feed into Emma ignoring her, and she didn't shut down. She acted as much like herself as she could and that was the best anyone could hope for.

Emma excused herself first, David following to talk to his daughter in the kitchen. Henry spoke to clear the silence from the room but Snow stood and thanked Regina for the meal, asking her to please tell Emma goodnight and that she hoped they could do this again. Regina nodded and walked her out, heading for the kitchen, only stopping when she heard Emma and David talking about her.

"Dad, I'm just saying that maybe the reason mom hasn't invited you home yet is because you were kind of all over my wife tonight in front of her."

"What? I was not."

"You were. You picked her up!"

"So? I've done the same types of things to Ruby!"

"Yeah, but have you had sex with Ruby?"

"No! And I haven't had sex with Regina except once, five years ago. Why can't men and women just be allowed to be friends? I'm not trying to be weird, she's not being weird, I don't get why it bothers everyone. It was ages ago, and she's my daughter-in-law or something, that's just…I don't think of her like that, Emma. She is just my closest friend who I like to spend time with. I mean…maybe you should get out and hang out with your friends."

"I don't have friends."

"You have Ruby, and Hook."

"I'm not sure Regina would approve of me hanging out with Hook."

"Why not?"

"Because I cheated on her."

"Once, and it's not like it was with him. I think Regina would be fine with it."

"I just don't know, dad." Silence fell between the pair and Regina leaned against a wall. Emma seemed to have a problem with how close they were, but every time Regina asked her about it, she acted ok with it. Regina found her temper flaring at Emma's dishonesty. She may have been doing it for reasons that she felt were noble, but so was Regina's dishonesty about David in the first place. It was not something she was going to let go. She was about to walk into the kitchen, but David spoke again.

"Does it make you uncomfortable? How much I'm around, I mean?"

"No, dad. I don't mean it like that."

"Then how do you mean it?"

"You…when she's here and you're here, you kind of just stick right by her most of the time, like you don't want to be away from her."

"Do you want me to explain it?" Emma nodded. "Alright, well, I work with you all day so by time we're here for dinner we have exhausted our conversation topics for the day. Henry plays his video games all the time when I'm here, it's his free time, I'm not going to bug him to hang out with me. Regina…she likes my company, or she seems to and we get along well. She teaches me to cook some of the meals she makes and that's nice because I can really only cook like, two dishes otherwise. The Regina that she is now is the person she was when Snow knew her before…everything. Do you realize that when she isn't in a bad mood, she is literally one of the best people to spend time with? She and Snow are actually fairly similar in their personalities, it's nice to be around. But, you're my daughter, if you have an issue, I'll stop coming around. You are more important than any other relationship I have."

"Thanks, dad. And no, I don't want you to stop spending time with her. Just…maybe don't be so much like yourself when mom is around."

"Oh. So…"

"Yeah, there were a lot of less than pleased looks crossing her face when she first got here."

"I didn't realize. I'll work on it."

"Well…um, I'm going to go grab more dishes," Emma offered awkwardly. Once Regina was sure which entrance Emma was going to go through, she slid through the other one, not catching her wife in her path. David was standing at the sink rinsing dishes and looking like he was deep in thought. She shook her head and walked up to him, standing to his left at the sink. She nudged his arm with her shoulder.

"Hey…so I kind of eavesdropped on you guys."

"Yeah?" He turned his head so he could look at her, offering a small and insecure smile.

"Ignore it. I'm going to have a talk with her about this in our session with Archie tomorrow. She should have been kinder to you about it."

"You've spoken about this with her?"

"Just earlier…when she and I went into the kitchen. When I asked her to help instead of you."

"Oh. So…it's something you've noticed?"

"Not until she pointed it out." He nodded and bowed his head a little. She reached her left arm across her body and tugged on his shirt on his left arm. He turned slightly toward her and she smiled warmly at him. "Hey, it isn't anything that bothers me. It's kind of nice having someone who wants to be around me all the time. I mean, lately Emma and I have been sort of inseparable, but she and Henry didn't want to be around me for a while there, and you were still here being my friend. That's important to me, and Emma had her chance to tell me she wasn't ok with us being friends." He nodded again and smiled a little more warmly at her.

"You're sure? Even if it causes another fight with you guys?"

"Emma has no place telling me who I can spend time with. Other than Neal, I would never do that to her. I'm going to go up to bed. Don't worry about the rest of the dishes; Emma will get them. I'll see you in the morning?" She leaned up and kissed his cheek, following her lips with her hands to wipe the lipstick mark she left on his face. "Emma may be my wife, and that makes her the most important person to me after Henry, but you are family and you are my best friend, I'm not willing to lose that, ok? Don't let her little temper get you down." He followed her out of the kitchen and pulled his coat on. She walked him out and closed the door behind him. Emma came into the foyer after hearing the door close.

"They both left?"

"Yes. You can finish the dishes, I'm going to bed."

"Sure… you ok?"

"I'm fine. Don't come to bed too late, we have a session with Archie tomorrow, and you have to work early still."

"I know. I'll be up in a few, once the kitchen is all set."

"Goodnight, Emma." And with that she went up the stairs, leaving a confused Emma standing in the foyer.