And here we go!

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And only two more to go!

Storybook Love (Every Version Of You)

Chapter 18-Quiet Little Voices

Regina goes into labour, Robin is by her side, Baby Mills-Hood is born and Zelena is just there waiting to pounce, or is she?

When she looked back and she was able to drink again Regina would admit that she was going to have to send Snow and Emma presents…and then possibly check her stepdaughter into the ward downstairs, because why, why, you want to go through all of this for a second time was something that she just didn't understand.

The pain came and went in waves and she had always thought reading about labour that she would ride or die it like she had done so many other things in her life, what she had not anticipated was that the pain would be so great that she would literally beg for drugs.

Seriously…how did woman do this ten or twelve times in the Enchanted Forest?

And Robin was no help, no help whatsoever.

"Well what do you want me to?"

"I want you go guard the door and then promise me that you will never put me in this situation again—"

"Darling I have my memories back and if I remember—"

The look she shot him was so terrifying that he backed away slowly and then another contraction ripped through and she screamed dragging him back by the hand as there was a knock at the door.

It was Hook.

Who was not the last person that she wanted to see per say but he was certainly not in the top ten.

"What?" she snarled. Hook pulled a face and then.

"Your Evilness—"

"WHAT DO YOU WANT PIRATE?"

She screamed again as Whale told her to push and Robin swore as she gripped his hand.

"I wanted to tell you" Hook said looking deeply disturbed "That we have established a permitter that I fear is going to be breached"

It took her a second to realise just what the hell he was on about.

Oh. God.

Her sister was coming.

She tried to push herself up but the second wave of contractions hit her and she couldn't move, everything hurt, it hurt so much that she could barely control herself, the light above Whale exploded and she collapsed back onto the bed as the other man swore leaping out of the way.

She was not supposed to do this, Regina did not know how to explain this to the three men in the room who were all looking at her as if she was supposed to perform some kind of miracle. She was not supposed to be doing this, she was not supposed to be having a child this way, the one child that she was supposed to have was the one that only just remembered her, or maybe the one whose mother she was about seventy percent sure she had killed (and that was a problem for another day)

"You" she said pointing at Hook. "Get over here!"

"Why?"

"Because you have a hook for a hand and I need to break something"

Hook sighed but he came over. There was no way that he didn't see what was happening and he sighed.

"Like your favourite ship burning down—OUCH!"

"Even think about making funny, funny jokes like that again and I will not only feed you that Hook arse first but I will personally see to it that you end up needing another"

There was a pause as Hook looked from her to Robin as if trying to asses the validity of her threat and then he shrugged.

"Alright" he said holding out his hooked hand. "But just to be clear love I am really not happy about this—"

"Neither am I!" she shouted back just as another wave of pain hit her.

It was exhausting and gruelling and backbreaking and more than once she thought that the sheer force of what she was doing was going to kill her. It didn't help that the drugs didn't work. One day when she was not panting in pain like an animal begging to be put down she was sure that she was going to have to look into why her body burnt through the drugs so fast it was like they had never taken affect but the more she thought about it the more she could concede that magical pregnancies and magical babies were different. She knew enough to know that this baby was going to possess magic. There was no way a child of her blood, a child of her mother's blood and of Zelena's did not possess magic. She was quite sure that this child was going to have powers Regina did not understand.

She was not entirely sure how she felt about that either.

But Whale was looking oddly satisfied now and though she wanted to kick him she couldn't help but feel like there was a level of encouragement to that.

"I can see the head now" he said smiling.

"You can?"

"Hook the commentary is not helpful!"

"Hey Robin she wanted me in here believe me I would really love to be in the corridor—"

"WILL YOU TWO SHUT UP!" she snapped. She turned to Robin then and noted with a feeling that she was sure she would take back later that it was clear that he too had been suffering when she had been in pain.

"She's going to take this baby away" she said flatly. There was no need to raise her voice but the tremor of fear in it was enough to grab his attention. She had been steadfastly not thinking about what Zelena was going to do but she knew that the other woman must know by now that she was in the process of giving birth. Then she would take her baby and the spell would be complete and Regina was not sure what kind of world she would wake up in…if she woke up in one at all.

"She's not going to take the baby away" Robin said and he dropped a kiss to her forehead. "I promise you she is not going to get near him or her."

"You don't know what your having—"

"Can it Hook…if you want to do something go to the door and see if she's on her way"

She knew Zelena would be a bit more showy than that, girl was a Mills and God knows the Mills girls liked to be all flash and awe…their mother had seen to that a long time ago and so she watched as Hook left the room groaning.

"Okay Regina I can see the shoulders now, we've got one more big push and then this baby is out"

She sighed. She couldn't do it, she really, really couldn't and she stared up at the ceiling breathing in and out trying to control the steady flow of tears before Robin perhaps knowing in that way that only he could turned her head so that she had no choice but to look at him.

"It's okay Regina" Robin says taking her hand and uncurling it from the bed rail. "It's okay. I'm here. You've got me remember? You're always gonna have me"

She drifts in and out as the pain hits, the intense pressure, the cramping and the spasming and throughout it all she thinks of her own mother in that moment and what she had done and what she would have continued to do and somehow the knowledge that she is not going to be that woman…that she is not going to be the woman that did all of those things gives her the strength to push through.

"Nearly there" is all that is said and from somewhere beyond she musters up one hell of a push and there's a terrible sliding noise and a thumping and then…

It starts of small but it's a thin cry, a thin weedy cry that gets bigger and louder and she starts sobbing flopping back on the bed because it's over.

It's over…

She's done it.

She's given birth to her baby and from the sounds of it she sounds healthy.

Or he?

And because she doesn't know she cracks her eyes open and lifts her head and her arms for her baby.

Robin has took the baby out of Whale's arms and she thinks looking at him that this is a moment she wants to savour forever. Robin she thinks a little dazed half bleeding and falling apart and hurting, is one of those men who looks like they are most at home with a baby in their arms. She looks at him and she feels her heart heave with love and finally for the first time looking at him she thinks she can do what she has always thought impossible and move on.

She can move on from the past. She can move on from the pain…the mess…the agonising loss. Somehow with Robin holding her baby she thinks she can do it.

"Well?" she asks and she's more afraid than she dares to say.

"It's a boy" Robin says turning around and his face…oh his face has lit up and she smiles even as he comes over and he puts the baby in her arms, her son, their son in her arms.

Maybe it was a thing…she was going to be the mom of three boys, Henry, Roland and this little boy.

And oh! What a baby this little boy was going to be!

He was perfect, he was stunning…he was all hers.

He had a tuft of dark brown hair and big green eyes, the same shade as his father's that were big in his little face, his nose was a little button nose that fit in perfectly with his soft little chin and mouth was a perfect little pink…she could not believe even for a second that he was hers. That she, Regina the Evil Queen, the daughter of Cora had created something so pure and so perfect.

The baby had a disgruntled expression on his face as if he too had been annoyed with how much things had turned out today but she looked at him and she knew that she could feel the magic that pulsed through him pulse through her, it was almost like he was recognising her, as if his magic was recognising hers.

"Hello" she says softly. He's heavier than Regina thought he would be which is ironic considering he's been the size of a watermelon pressing on her bladder the last two months. Robin next to her smiles reaching out to brush one calloused thumb against their boy's hand. It's the little things Regina realises, the little things that you don't realise…even with Henry…she had forgotten that babies had tiny, tiny fingernails and the formations of little eyebrows and that they looked at you as if you were the only thing that mattered…because for them you were.

The was a knock at the door and she tore her eyes away to see her own son standing there, Henry with Roland in front of him watching with wide eyes. Roland had no such issue with coming to Robin's side and she saw out of the corner of her eye that Roland immediately got hooked on Robin's hip as if it was nothing, Regina on the other hand was watching Henry.

"You have a brother" she said quietly and Henry slid into the room coming to her side and looking down at the baby with wide eyes.

"Oh" he said quietly as if seeing a baby was a new thing for him.

But he didn't get anything else.

The door slammed open and there she was. Zelena.

For a second the two of them stared at each other and then her eyes flickered to Gold who was stood next to her, for one heartbeat of a second the two of them, pupil and teacher stared at each other and Regina suddenly knew what she had to do.

Regina watched in slow motion as her sister opened her mouth ready to take her baby but her magic was stronger, stronger and more powerful and she had been taught by the man standing behind her and she had watched and learnt and more importantly become what he had wanted her to be, Rumple always had a few tricks up his sleeve that he didn't want anyone else to know.

There was a moment and then.

She was gone.

Zelena fell forwards in shock.

It didn't matter.

Regina had taken her son and she had gone.

And there you go, two more chapters left.

Next Chapter-The Penultimate Chapter-In which Regina and Zelena battle it out the old fashioned way, Gold may or may not help just a little. Well...depending on who you ask.