More Than She Wanted
-Surprise, surprise:
,,Pardon me?" Regina says politely and stares blankly at dr. Whale.
There's no way she heard that correctly.
,,You're pregnant," doctor Whale repeats with a smile on his face. ,,And judging by your symptoms, I'd say you're easily five weeks along already."
,,That's absurd."
,,And judging by the interesting things I found in your blood, I'd say there's a great deal of magic involved in this pregnancy."
Regina barks out a laugh. ,,A great deal of magic you say? I'm married to a woman and I can't have children. I think it would take a bit more than a great deal of magic."
,,The results are crystal clear," doctor Whale says with a shrug. ,,There's absolutely no doubt about it."
,,How can the results be crystal clear when I can't have children?!" Regina says and her voice rises an octave.
,,Sometimes fate works in mysterious ways, Regina."
,,That's crap!" Regina hisses. ,,I took a potion long ago that would prevent me from ever getting pregnant, and now you're telling me that I'm with child?!"
Doctor Whale shrugs. ,,It sounds to me like you've found something that broke whatever curse you cast upon yourself."
,,But how is that even possible? It was a long-life curse," Regina mutters and feels a sharp pang of regret.
,,You've recently married Maleficent, didn't you?"
,,Yes."
,,And you are both magical beings," dr. Whale states plainly.
,,That still doesn't explain why and how the curse broke."
,,Curse or no curse," dr. Whale says. ,,The blood test doesn't lie. You are pregnant, and you will have to book an appointment for your first ultrasound, and we need to discuss pre-natal care and just getting your body ready for the pregnancy and delivery in general."
Regina's mind is spinning. Pre-natal care. Ultrasound. Delivery. Pregnancy. This is crazy.
,,Your test is wrong," she says flatly.
,,Madam Mayor.."
,,I mean it. I want a second opinion," Regina says sternly.
,,Very well. Then I suggest you buy a pregnancy test," dr. Whale says and has the nerve to roll his eyes. ,,But I can assure you it will come back as positive as the blood test did."
,,You are wrong."
Dr. Whale holds up his hands. ,,I can't force you to believe me, Madam Mayor. But I can assure you.."
,,Shut up," Regina snarls. ,,Are you aware that you are in the process of accusing me of cheating on my wife?!"
,,I never implied anything like that," doctor Whale says sternly.
,,No? How would you explain it then? What's your medical opinion on this? Are you suggesting that my wife should have impregnated me?!"
,,This is Storybrooke," doctor Whale says and shrugs lightly. ,,Stranger things have happened."
Regina does her utmost not to murder dr. Whale. The other patients in the waiting room would probably not be pleased about it.
,,I've heard of this nonsense," she says sternly and rises from the chair. ,,This is insane."
,,Very well. Take a couple of days to process it," dr. Whale smirks. ,,And then phone me so I can arrange your first ultrasound."
Regina's temper flares up anew. Stop talking like she's pregnant. She's not pregnant!
,,In the meantime," dr. Whale continues and hands Regina a small box of medicine. ,,Take these. One pill every morning."
,,What for?" Regina says through gritted teeth.
,,Morning sickness," dr. Whale smirks at her.
Regina grabs the box of medicine and flings herself out of the door. She slams the door forcefully behind her, not really giving a damn about the other patients right now.
She is royally pissed off. How dare that stupid little doctor imply that she's pregnant when it's impossible? The blood test is obviously wrong.
Regina rushes out of the waiting room and completely ignores Emma when she asks how it went.
She climbs into the Mercedes and turns the engine on. The tires screeches as she swings the car around and leaves the hospital and that incompetent doctor behind.
There's no way in hell that she's pregnant. It's simply impossible. There's a reason Henry is adopted. Doctor Whale is obviously wrong, of course he is, Regina tells herself as she pulls up in front of the pharmacy. Bloody nonsense. She's gonna settle this once and for all.
Regina climbs out of the car and takes a couple of deep breaths before she enters the pharmacy. She's still incredibly nauseous. It's a miracle she didn't throw up in dr. Whale's office.
Regina almost sneaks into the drugstore. She isn't particularly interested in being seen today. She feels awful, and she's certainly not interested in being spotted buying a pregnancy test. Because that's exactly what she's getting. She marches over to the shelf and grabs the first pregnancy test she finds. Then, Regina heads straight for the counter and calmly puts the pregnancy test on desk without giving Sneezy a second look. He doesn't bat an eye, though. He simply informs her how much the test costs, and Regina throws the money on the counter. Sneezy offers her a bag, and Regina accepts. She forgot her purse in the car, and she's not interested in flashing the test on the streets on Storybrooke.
Regina is in the process of stuffing the pregnancy test into the bag when a prickling feeling in the back of her neck gives her the feeling of being watched. Regina promptly spins around (which makes her dizzy again) and comes face to face with her sister with Robyn on her hip.
Zelena is watching her intensely. Too intensely. There's no doubt she saw Regina buy the pregnancy test. Wonderful. Brilliant. Absolutely fucking perfect.
Regina marches past her sister and doesn't even bother to open the door by hand. She simply uses magic to swing the door open and leaves the pharmacy.
She doesn't get very far though. Half way home she has to pull over and nearly stumbles out of the car. Her nausea is getting worse, and she's gonna be sick again. It's humiliating beyond measures, but there's nothing she can do about it, and Regina is forced to vomit in a dirty alley.
She wipes her forehead and straightens herself up from her bend over position. Regina looks around. There's no one here to witness her public humiliating. Thank the gods.
Regina quickly waves her hand and makes the evidence of her nausea disappear. She wipes a hand over her mouth, throwing up simply can't be done with grace, and walk/wobbles out of the alley.
So much for thanking the gods. Two steps outside the alley, she nearly runs into Zelena. Dammit.
The redhead tilts her head to the side and gives Regina a look. There's no doubt she heard (or maybe even saw) Regina throw up.
Regina tries her best and flashes Zelena a reassuringly, fake smile.
Zelena isn't buying it. ,,What the hell is going on?" she inquires with a raised eyebrow.
,,I don't know," Regina answers truthfully and wipes her brow.
,,Are you preg…"
,,Don't," Regina says sternly.
,,Have you seen dr. Whale?"
,,I've just been there."
,,And what did he have to say?"
,,A lot of nonsense."
,,About what?" Zelena demands with a hand on her hip.
,,About magic and morning sickness and ultrasounds." Regina says emotionless.
,,So you are pregnant!"
,,Keep your voice down! I can't be pregnant. I can't have children, you already know that."
,,Does Maleficent know?"
,,There's nothing to know, Zelena. I can't be pregnant, because I can't have children. End of story. And kindly step aside, I would very much like to get home now. I'm not feeling well."
And with that she marches past her sister and climbs into the Mercedes. She ignores the look Zelena is giving her and starts the engine. She is most definitely going home. She has a feeling she's not done throwing up yet.
Regina reaches the mansion without puking her guts out on the car (thank god!) and creeps inside the house. She hears Henry and Maleficent chat away in the kitchen, and sneaks into the bathroom.
Regina has never taken a pregnancy test before, but quickly finds out that that two blue lines means positive, and a single red line means negative. As in not pregnant.
It seems completely foolish to pee on a stick. Is that really the best way to do this? Apparently yes, it would seem, Regina muses to herself as she washes her hands and waits. It takes three minutes before she will know. It's gonna be the longest three minutes in her entire life.
Regina does her best not to pace up and down the bathroom floor as she waits for the results. She has never been very patient, and time is ticking by agonizingly slowly. She's tempted to flip the stick over at once, but knows she has to wait until the time is up.
Suddenly, somebody is banging on the locked door, and the doorknob is being pressed down.
,,Mom? Is that you in there?"
,,Yes, Henry. I'll be out in a second," Regina quickly rambles off.
,,What did dr. Whale say?" the teenager inquires through the locked door.
,,He just uh… gave me some medicine for my stomach." It's only a half lie, really. He had given her some pills.
The three minutes are up, Regina realizes. She takes a deep breath and then flips the pregnancy test.
Good god.
Two thin blue lines has appeared on the pregnancy test. Regina quickly grabs the box and reads the instructions closely one more time. But there's nothing to question. She is, in fact pregnant.
Regina suddenly feels rather lightheaded and has to sit down on the edge of the toilet seat. Pregnant. Pregnant. How can it be possible? She's barren, prevented from ever having children on her own. Doctor Whale rambled on about "a great deal of magic being involved in this pregnancy". A great deal of magic. What does that even mean? How can she suddenly fall pregnant after being prevented from it for most of her adult life?
A million questions keep popping up in Regina's clouded mind. According to dr. Whale she's five weeks along. Regina doesn't need to ponder long to remember what happened five weeks ago. She and Mal was on their honeymoon. Did she get pregnant on her honeymoon?
Good lord.
,,Mom?"
Regina nearly drops the pregnancy test. Henry is still right outside the bathroom door.
,,Yes?" she replies and tries to sound normal.
,,Are you alright?"
,,Yes, I'm fine. I'll be right there."
,,You didn't throw up again, did you?"
,,No no, I'm fine," she assures and throws the pregnancy test in the trashcan.
Fine and pregnant.
She washes her hands again and opens the bathroom door. Regina flashes her son what she hopes is a reassuring smile, and heads into the kitchen where she downs one of dr. Whale's pills with a large glass of water.
The pill actually helps quite a bit, and Regina doesn't throw up for the rest of that day. She also does her utmost at pretending that everything is exactly the same. She gives Henry a hand with his homework, she cooks dinner for her family, and all the time Maleficent is watching her silently. The dragon doesn't say anything, but it's obvious that she knows that something is going on.
And Regina tries to piece things together in her head. Has she been feeling weird lately apart from throwing up? Well, she has been feeling rather tired for the past week, but she thought that was because she was sick. Apparently, the "sickness" had been a surprise pregnancy all along.
Regina's mind is still spinning in all directions at the same time. How on earth is she gonna explain this to Maleficent? What if she will think that Regina cheated on her? How is she gonna explain this to Henry? He has already seen so much, and this, this is just plain strange. A magically educed pregnancy. It sounds like complete madness.
And then there's the Zelena-problem. Can she keep her mouth shut or is she in this second blabbering on about what she saw earlier? Good god. What if she tells Snow or Emma? News spread like wildfire in Storybrooke. Tell one person, and the rest of the town know it the day after.
Regina becomes vaguely aware that Mal is staring at her again, and she pulls herself together and tries her best to keep the reassuring smile plastered to her face for the of the evening.
Eventually, Henry retires to his bedroom, probably to scroll through his phone until he gets so tired he's incapable of holding on to the device.
Not soon after, Regina excuses herself to the bedroom as well. It has been a long day to say the least, and she could do with a good night's sleep to process everything that's happened today.
She quickly changes into a grey silk pajama and climbs into the bed. She wraps the covers around her and runs her hand lightly over her still completely flat stomach.
Is she really carrying another life in there? Can this really be happening? Doctor Whale seemed very sure, but Regina won't be calm until she heard the baby's heartbeat.
The baby. What an impossible thought. Is she really pregnant? If she hadn't seen the two blue lines with her own eyes, Regina would have dismissed the thought immediately.
Maybe fate does work in mysterious ways once in a while. Maybe this is meant to be. But Regina is still very much interested in finding out how this became possible. And how Maleficent was the one who got her pregnant. Now there's a riddle Regina would like to solve very quickly.
She hears the bathroom door open and Mal potter around in there for a while. Then the blonde sorceress appears in the bedroom, wearing a light grey nightgown. Regina watches as her wife frees her hair from the bun and let it flow freely all the way down her back.
Maleficent climbs under the covers and wraps an arm around Regina. Regina instantly snuggles closer to her, but she can sense that Mal is watching her again.
,,You haven't really been here today, have you?" Maleficent says quietly.
,,What do you mean? I've been with you and Henry all day."
,,Not really," the blonde accuses softly. ,,You have been a bit, distant shall we say."
,,I'm sorry."
,,You're not feeling sick again, are you?"
,,No. I'm feeling better," Regina says, and it's true. That pill dr. Whale gave her is a true miracle.
,,You are thinking about something."
It's more a statement than a question, and Regina chooses to ignore it.
But that's the thing with Maleficent. She doesn't take no for an answer, and she certainly doesn't take it lightly to be ignored.
She promptly puts a hand under Regina's chin to force the brunette to look into her eyes.
,,Will you please tell me what's going on in that pretty head of yours? Before I'm going mad."
,,Nothing is going on," Regina tries, but it doesn't help one bit.
,,Regina dear, it's not very polite to lie to your wife. Now spit it out, before I'm forcing it out of you."
,,And how, exactly would you do that?" Regina asks and tries to buy herself some time.
,,Wouldn't you like to know," Maleficent teases before sending Regina a very stern look: ,,Spit. It. Out."
,,I…" the words gets stuck in Regina's throat. She's about to tell her wife that she's pregnant. She wouldn't be the tiniest bit surprised if Mal turned into a dragon and ate her in one piece. She's well aware over how it must sound to Maleficent. Completely alien. Like everything else that has happened between them so far. Good god, her life is always a bumpy road of surprises. Nothing is ever easy.
,,What?" Maleficent insists, and now she looks genuinely concerned. ,,Have I done something to upset you? Are you cross with me for some reason?"
,,No!"
,,Then what?" Mal demands. She sighs heavily. ,,It's been going too fast, haven't it? You're regretting the marriage. That's what's going on, isn't that right? You feel like I've pushed you and…"
,,I'm pregnant." Regina says sharply. She really doesn't like it when Mal is doubting herself or Regina's feelings toward her. ,,That's what going on, dragon."
The bedroom falls completely silent, and Maleficent looks very much like a dragon caught in the headlights...
To Be Continued..