A/N: Hand has healed up more or less now. Thanks for your patience. As a reward, have a double chapter posting. Ch 13 & 14 for you. Fluff, mostly. Enjoy!

Emma walked up to town hall with a smile, a flutter of excitement in her belly as she entered the building. She clutched the bouquet of flowers tightly in her hand, eager to get to Regina's office. Her smile faded slightly upon approaching Regina's secretary's desk, however, as Anne's usual happy grin was replaced with one that looked suspiciously regretful.

"I'm going to assume those aren't for me, sheriff?" Anne said teasingly.

"Uh, no. Sorry."

"I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you then. The Mayor isn't in today."

"She isn't?" Emma asked, frowning. Regina hadn't told her she had the day off.

"No. She called in sick today."

Emma's eyebrows skyrocketed, causing Anne to laugh.

"I know. I was surprised too. She never calls in. I'm sure she meant to tell you. She probably just hasn't had the chance."

"Yeah, maybe. Thanks for letting me know, Anne. I'll see if I can reach her at home."

Emma turned around, immediately reaching for her cellphone and dialling Regina's number. There was no way that she didn't have time to let her know. It was almost noon, plenty of time to tell Emma she wasn't feeling well. Emma's stomach vibrated with worry, biting her lip as the phone rang.

Emma cursed when she was sent to voicemail, leaving a brief message requesting Regina contact her as soon as she could. She then hopped into her cruiser, placing the flowers on the front seat before speeding over to the mansion. Why wasn't Regina at work today? Was she having a particularly bad bout of morning sickness this morning? Why hadn't Regina let her know when she had texted this morning?

Emma had had to pull a double today, so she hadn't been by this morning to make breakfast. But she had texted her to check in, and Regina had said that everything was fine with her. Everything seemed normal, and Emma had no suspicions that anything was off. Had something happened between their earlier texts and when Regina normally left for work? Why then hadn't Regina let her know?

Pulling into the driveway, Emma shook herself from her thoughts. Regina's car was still here, which meant she'd never left the house. Emma would find out in just a moment why Regina hadn't gone to work and then she'd question her as to why she hadn't let her know that she had stayed home from work. Not that Emma was trying to keep tabs on the mayor. But Regina never called in sick and so there was obviously a good reason. And if there was, Emma wanted to know what it was.

Emma grabbed the flowers before exiting the vehicle and jogging up the steps to the front door. She let herself in, carefully toeing off her shoes as she made her way into the eerily silent house. Henry would be at school at this time of day, but Emma couldn't hear any noise at all.

"Regina?"

Emma put the flowers down on the floor, reaching for her weapon as her stomach began to roll with dread. She quickly scanned the hallway, the kitchen, dining room, her belly filling with fear with each additional empty room. It was only when she practically ran into living room that she breathed a sigh of relief, spotting Regina curled up on the couch fast asleep. Emma holstered her weapon, her heart throbbing in her chest as she took a few calming breaths. Her eyes stayed glued to the slumbering woman as she walked over to her, reaching up for the knitted blanket on the back of the couch and gently placing it over Regina's sleeping form. She placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before getting up and making her way back to front entrance where she had dropped the bouquet of flowers. She picked them up, heading over to the kitchen and taking a look around.

The kitchen was messy (a disaster by Regina's standards), so Emma put away her weapon, put the flowers in a vase, rolled up her sleeves, and began to clean. She picked up the dishes from the counter and placed them in the dishwasher, carefully though, so as not to make any noise, before taking the dishcloth from the sink and wiping down the counters. She then put away the boxes of crackers and the bread that had been left out, and started on the various items lying about on the counter (pens, keys, an iPad, some napkins…). Once the kitchen was clean, Emma made her way upstairs, picking up the clothes that were on Henry's floor and adding them to Regina's hamper. She hauled the basket to the laundry room, starting up a load and closing the door so that the sound wouldn't carry.

"Now what?"

Not knowing what else to do (and not wanting to stray too far from where Regina was sleeping), Emma made her way back downstairs. She quietly stepped into the living room, kneeling down before Regina and gently stroking her hair.

"Why didn't you tell me you weren't feeling good?" Emma whispered.

"Hmm?"

Apparently not softly enough. Regina stirred, and Emma froze, biting her lip. She held her breath, arm hovering as she waited to see if Regina would fall back asleep. She stared at her with apprehension, but seconds later brown eyes slowly fluttered open. Startling awake, Regina jerked up as soon as she spotted Emma inches from her face.

"Emma!"

"Sorry," Emma winced. "I didn't mean to wake you."

Regina blinked a few times, looking around the room. Gods. She shook her head, her mind still foggy with sleep. She looked back at Emma, who was smiling sheepishly at her.

"How long have you been here?"

"A little over an hour? I came to check up on you. You weren't at work today."

"No," Regina said calmly, frowning when her hand rubbed against the knitted blanket on her lap. When had she grabbed that?

"I put it on you when you were sleeping. Didn't want you to get cold."

"Oh. Thank you."

"Are you feeling better?" Emma asked, moving up onto the couch.

Regina nodded, stifling a yawn with her hand.

"I was simply tired. I'm still tired to be honest."

"Did you have trouble sleeping?" Emma asked, reaching out to gently push Regina's fallen hair out of her face.

"Yes," Regina admitted. She closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of Emma's fingers softly stroking through her hair.

"Why?"

"I spent all of last night and this morning vomiting."

Emma's face fell, her hand coming down to cup Regina's cheek. She waited until their eyes locked before speaking.

"Why didn't you call me? Why did you tell me that everything was fine this morning?"

"I am fine. I was a little ill but nothing more."

"You called in sick, Regina," Emma insisted. "You never call in sick. So it was worse than that. I should have been here. I could have been here, but I didn't know. Why didn't you tell me?"

Regina stayed quiet. Sensing her hesitation, Emma continue.

"Please talk to me, baby. We can't move forward if we keep stuff to ourselves. I'll even go first. I'm feeling really guilty that I didn't know this happened this morning and I'm frustrated at the situation. You know, that I worked this morning of all mornings and I didn't see that you weren't feeling good. So I couldn't take care of you. And I'm also a little … I wish you would have told me that you weren't feeling well. And now I'm wondering why not. And I want to know what kept you from being honest with me so that we can talk about it and hopefully fix it so it doesn't happen again in the future. So will you please tell me?"

Emma stroked her thumb against Regina's cheek, holding her gaze. Regina licked her lips before looking away and then down. She looked back up at Emma and opened her mouth before swallowing hard and clearing her throat. Sensing her struggle, Emma attempted a small smile.

"Just give it to me straight, doc."

Regina rolled her eyes, though a faint smile appeared on her lips before it was replaced with a frown. She worried her lower lip for a minute, finally sighing softly and speaking up.

"I vomited for most of the night, and this morning I was not well when I responded to your text and told you I was fine. I was very ill, and I lied to you."

"Why?"

"Because I feel that I need to choose wisely what information I share with you. If I ask for too much, if I'm not careful, I'll…"

"You'll?" Emma prompted gently.

"I'll frighten you away. I can handle a bit of nausea alone. I cannot… I cannot go through this entire pregnancy alone. The first two weeks were enough. So, I decided it best to keep it to myself this morning when I wasn't feeling well."

Tears of guilt filled Emma's eyes. She reached over and pulled Regina into her arms, holding her tight as her remorse spilled onto her cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Regina. I am so sorry I made you feel like if you share too much, I'd be scared off. I get it. I get why, but I swear to you it is not going to happen again. I just, I got overwhelmed and scared and so I ran away from you instead of running to you like I should have." Emma pulled away, shifting until she and Regina were looking at one another. "I'm not going to run, Regina. I'm not going anywhere. I made a mistake. A huge one. Colossal. One of the biggest ones of my life. But I learnt from it. And I'm not gonna repeat it. And if I get overwhelmed again, or I get scared, I'm gonna talk to you instead of running away. I'll talk to my therapist. I'm not going anywhere and short of chaining myself to you, I have no other way to prove it to you other than just by being here. But I need you to help me. I need you to come to me with these things so I can prove to you that I'm gonna be here, okay? To prove that you can rely on me. If you don't start reaching out, I can't work on rebuilding that trust between us. And then we're not gonna get anywhere."

Regina closed her eyes, but she didn't turn away from Emma's words.

"It's difficult for me to believe you," Regina admitted in a whisper. She'd been betrayed and let down by countless people in her past. And Emma- Emma had hurt her deeply. How could she forgive that? Regina wanted to move on, wanted to trust Emma, but it was so difficult to trust that she wouldn't leave again if she became overwhelmed.

"I know it is, baby. And that's my own doing. I did that to you and I can never tell you how sorry I am. But, how are you ever gonna be able to know if you don't try a little? Try, little by little, to rebuild that faith in me. You need to know that even in the worst moments, when you're tired and yelling and we're fighting and the baby is screaming and Henry is acting out, that I'm still gonna be here to support you. Right now, you don't believe it. And that's okay. It's understandable because I broke that trust you had in me. But I need you to help me, help us, get to a point where you do again. And unless you give me a chance to prove it to you, to prove that I'm going to be here day in and day out, those feelings of uncertainty and that lack of trust, it's never gonna change. And you can't live like that. It's not fair to you. Or to any of us."

"No, it's not."

"So, I'm here now. As soon as I found out, I came here. And it's what I would have done last night, had I found out then. Because I may not be able to take the nausea away, but I can at least be here so you're not alone. I want to prove to you that I'm gonna be here no matter what. Besides, you can yell at me for doing this to you much more easily if I'm in the same room as you."

Regina smiled, some of her earlier tension easing as Emma teased her.

"You're an idiot."

"Yeah, but I'm your idiot. You know, if you want me."

Regina glanced up at the blonde, seeing that familiar insecurity and undying hope in her eyes. No matter what, Emma never gave up and that soothed some of Regina's worry.

"Of course I do."

Emma grinned widely and wrapped her arms around Regina's middle, tugging her close.

"Will you tell me next time please?" Emma whispered in Regina's ear. "I regret so much not being here with you last night."

"You didn't know."

"I wish I had."

"I'm sorry. I did want you here with me. I just…"

"There's a lot of trust to be rebuilt."

"Yes."

There was a lot of trust to be rebuilt, but Emma had a point. She was right. If Regina wanted to trust her again (and she did, truly), she needed to try. She needed to be honest and to reach out, to depend on Emma. She needed to swallow her fears and her worries, and she needed to trust that Emma was in this as well. She did believe it, for Emma had been coming every morning to make breakfast as promised (save for the mornings she did doubles), had sat with her during her bouts of morning sickness, had been sending weekly texts every time her phone updated the size of the baby (this week it was a fig), and she'd been dutifully reading the books she had bought with her father. So Regina did believe that Emma was excited, was in this, but Regina was still afraid of being hurt again. Of being let down. She was afraid to reach out and to ask for more, to ask for Emma when she wasn't around. And that was a problem, Regina knew. It was something they would have to work on, obviously.

Regina nodded against Emma's shoulder, acknowledging her earlier words.

"I'm going to try."

Emma kissed her temple.

"That's all I ask. I just need you to give me a chance, baby. I want you to trust that I'm going to be here for you. That I'm not going anywhere."

"Thank you."

"I love you."

Before Regina could respond, Emma yawned loudly, causing her to give a soft chuckle.

"Tired, dear?"

"Yeah. I mean, I did just work a twenty hour shift."

Regina's eyes widened as she pulled away.

"You haven't slept?"

"No. I swung by your work to bring you flowers before heading home. But then I found out you didn't come in and, well, here I am."

"You brought me flowers?"

"Yeah," Emma answered, blushing a little under Regina's adoring smile. "Wanted to do something nice for you today. And I know you like flowers, so."

Regina's heart warmed as she leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to Emma's lips.

"That's the Emma I fell in love with."

"The one who brings you flowers?"

"The one who is sweet and thoughtful. The one who is kind, supportive, and makes me laugh even when I'm angry with her."

"That does get me out of a lot of trouble when I make you laugh."

"I loathe it when you do that."

"You love it when I make you laugh," Emma said grinning.

"Not when I'm trying to reprimand you."

"I'm too beautiful for your harsh words."

Regina laughed, shaking her head.

"You're an imbecile. Now go home and get some rest," Regina demanded, getting up off of the couch.

Emma got up, but Regina sensed her hesitation immediately.

"What is it?"

"Can I stay here? You know, to sleep? I like it here. It uh, it smells like you. Here." Emma winced. "That sounds stupid."

Regina's stomach warmed at Emma's words, taking a step forward to stroke her cheek.

"Henry will be home shortly. I'm afraid you won't get much sleep if he's around."

"It's Thursday. He has his soccer practices on Thursday nights." Emma gave a soft smile. "Used to be our movie nights, once upon a time."

Ever since Regina had announced her pregnancy, they hadn't been getting together Thursday nights. They'd been far too distracted, had had too many problems between them. It had been weeks since they'd had a movie night and cuddled together on their chair.

"They were."

"Maybe, uh, if you're open to it, we could have a movie night tonight?"

"I'd like that."

"Yeah?" Emma asked, surprised.

"I enjoyed them. I've missed them. Quite a bit in fact."

"Me too."

Regina smiled, but didn't add anything more. They stared at one another for a moment, smiling, until Emma cleared her throat and pointed her thumb over her shoulder.

"I guess I'll get going then."

"You may stay. If you'd like. There's a guest bedroom upstairs."

"I know," Emma said, grinning. "I can take it?"

"You may. As long as you remake the bed after you've slept."

"Yes, your majesty."

Emma turned on her heels, grin wide on her face as she made her way up the staircase. In just a few hours, she'd be curled up with Regina on their favourite chair. She couldn't wait.