I keep trying to post in bulk, but I promise this still has several chapters already written. I didn't even have time to attempt to edit this chapter as I'm really busy, so sorry in advance!

Chapter Twenty-Nine

You're Still my Baby.

"Can we talk?" Emma asked. Regina didn't look up from her paperwork as Rowan sat in her lap with a crayon and her own paperwork.

"Depends, Ms. Swan, did you make an appointment?"

"Yeah, you needs an apo…appo…accointent," Rowan finished proudly sending her sister a big grin. Regina had come to the realization that she was Rowan's devoted Godmother so as long as Rowan wasn't in kindergarten, she agreed to set aside one day a week when only Rowan came to work with her. Today was the first day the girls hadn't popped all over town or directly to her when she only had Rowan. Assuming there weren't tantrums that morning already, and assuming Regina wasn't sobbing that they weren't ready after all.

"No, I didn't think I needed one with my fiancé," Emma grumbled shoving her hands in her pocket.

"Your fiancé no, your boss on the other hand yes," Regina told her. "So, if it's not work related, I will see you at home." Emma huffed and stomped out. To say the day was long was an understatement, but she made it through before she picked up all three girls from daycare. Apparently unlimited screen time and an impromptu birthday celebration of one of the kids had kept them at school.

"Please tell me those muffins were sugarless," Regina muttered. The teacher nodded, but the girls were excited to see her. They only went once a week to start, because that's all Regina and the teacher could handle for very different reasons.

"You made it all day," Regina told them as she signed. They gave her huge smiles and signed back. She clapped and they looked very pleased with themselves as she gathered their little backpacks as they put on their shoes and left after saying goodbye to everyone.

"Mamá," Darien said making the sign for swan.

"You want to visit Mamá and tell her how good you did today?" Regina asked signing. Three enthusiastic nods were given in response. "All right let's do that." Rowan was in the front yard playing on the smaller play structure than she was used too.

"Reggie look I'm so tall." Regina smiled at her.

"Row, you're almost as tall as Emma when you're up there," Regina exclaimed. Rowan grinned. "Come down, we're gonna stop and visit Emma." Rowan hurried down and ran to get in the car. Regina was glad she could strap herself in as well as Darien, but she did check to make sure they were in securely. She drove over to the station, and she allowed all the girls except Xavieré to run ahead. She instead took her to the bathroom.

"Just in time," Regina chuckled. Xavieré looked up at her and giggled too. Regina got her cleaned up and dressed again before she set her loose to run after her sisters.

"Oh, there's my last baby girl, did you run off and make Mami chase you?" Emma asked, scooping her up. Xavieré just giggled mischievously.

"We took a bathroom break; I had a gut feeling, and I was right." Emma nodded seeing her fiancé walk in.

"What brings you by, is there a problem madam mayor?" Emma asked. Regina knew that it was a little dig from earlier.

"No, you were requested by your baby girls, so they could tell you how they spent the whole day at daycare with no popping over." Emma looked at her girls.

"Aww really, good job," Emma told them. They signed and talked to her sometimes clearly and sometimes not.

"All right, munchkins, Mama still has a lot of work to do, but she'll stop by for bedtime, okay?" Darien protested but accepted it as long as Emma walked them out and strapped them in the car.

"I'll see you later," Regina told her as she got a chaste kiss on the cheek.

"Yep." Emma turned and waved enthusiastically to the girls before going back into the station. Regina huffed and drove home. Once everyone had snacks, were pottied, and changed into something comfortable she relaxed.

"Regina!" Cora yelled walking in. Regina sighed from her place laying on the couch watching the girls. She still had some aches and pains that were lingering potentially from the poison, which had also potentially caused the blighted ovum according to her mother.

"Yes, mother we're in here," Regina called. Cora came through the baby gate and shut it, after Darien once flooded the downstairs bathroom when she'd left it open, she had learned to close it.

"Sit up straight, why are you lying about in the middle of the day."

"It is the middle of the afternoon, but I'm just resting while they eat before we probably head out back for some air, what are you doing here?"

"I'm starving, and bored, so I decided to come teach my grandchildren."

"Definitely going outside, the amount of times I have decorated this living room is insane."

"Darien come to grandmama, let me look at you," Cora called as she sat down. Darien didn't answer her or even acknowledge her with a look. Cora tried twice more.

"Regina what is wrong with this child?" Cora asked. "It must be your babying her that she disrespects me so or that woman's genes." Regina had left briefly and come back with some snacks for her mother to hold her over while she warmed up something.

"Her hearing aid isn't in," Regina told her. "You have to get her attention first." Regina tapped Darien and pointed to her grandmother, and her little face lit up.

"Granmamá," she said. She gave her a hug.

"What did you mean by her hearing aid?" Cora asked once she had checked her over often to see that she was healthy. It was the little ways that Cora showed she cared. She followed much of the same with Lincoln and Xavieré. Rowan a bit less until recently Rowan had demanded the same treatment as a Mills child, she would not be denied.

"She's deaf, her left ear needs surgery in order for her to hear, but her right ear doesn't need surgery and she just needs a little machine in her ear to amplify it."

"Why on earth would you not heal her with your magic!" Cora demanded. "Are you taking it this far about no magic on them?" Cora was absolutely seething. "What kind of mother are you, that you would let your child go through that after such a rough illness and you are angry at me!" Regina looked properly chastised.

"I would never, she was born that way I can't heal it," Regina told her as she bit back her tears. She would be damned if she cried in front of her mother. Cora froze.

"It's those damn White genes for sure, do not worry I will ensure she is not at any disadvantage. We shall give her a companion, an Owl, whose ears will be like her own."

"Perhaps when she's older, I do not want a pet in here, besides right now I need her learning sign language."

"I will teach her sign language from our Kingdom, the White Kingdom has no such language, she will follow her southern ancestors."

"Actually, we've been learning the ones from here, we aren't going back to the Enchanted Forest ever, I prefer this world, and its hygiene practices. And an independent woman isn't frowned upon."

"How am I supposed to communicate with my granddaughter," Cora huffed.

"I can give you the flash cards that Emma has finished with," Regina told her. Cora of course took it very seriously and was managing a few simple sentences by the time everyone was home for dinner.

"Is…is your mother actually signing to our children?" Emma asked as she stared at the interaction with wide eyes and glanced back at her fiancé.

"Yeah, she's been working hard on it all afternoon."

"Huh, thought for sure she'd react like Snow, and we'd never have to see her again."

"No, worse she wanted to get Demi an owl to be her ears." Emma's eyes went wider as she shook her head frantically.

"You put your foot down, right?" Emma asked. "She's a terrorist and that woman wants to give her superhuman hearing."

"Absolutely, not on my watch." Emma let out a breath.

"United we stand against owl shit on your furniture," Emma said. Regina made a face.

"Ugh, I would be cleaning that wouldn't I," Regina grumbled as she headed back to the kitchen and started bringing food out to the table as Rowan dutifully set the tableware and Henry the plates and cups.

"Good job, Row, you put the fish knife in the right spot tonight." Rowan beamed at the praise.

"Can Daddy come?" Rowan asked, finding an empty spot where she had put extra silverware.

"Uh go ask your sister and come tell me what she says." Rowan hurried out and unfortunately told Emma she had told Rowan to ask her. She huffed and realized that Emma probably wasn't going to be the bad guy tonight. She was correct when Henry came in for an extra cup and plate.

"You went on a heroic adventure, you can do dinner," Henry teased. Regina stuck her tongue out at him, which he returned with a huge grin. Eventually they were all sitting down to a quick dinner, but Emma wasn't even there long as she got called out. She wouldn't officially be off shift until the girls were ready for bed. She allowed David to put Rowan to bed, who was very insistent on waiting for Emma but lost the battle.

"You have some nerve," David said coming to the doorway of the twins' bedroom where she was nursing them in tandem.

"What have I done now; I didn't hinder you from putting her to bed like you asked."

"Her name is Rowan Bailey Nolan not Mills." Regina let out a breath.

"She changed that herself not me," Regina told her. "It originally said Nolan, but that's not what she wanted." The girls popped off feeling her agitation and wouldn't pay any more attention to her. She sighed and covered herself, but David had the grace to look away.

"I don't care, change it back, and stop corrupting her, she's coming back home eventually."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself, I believe you can see yourself out if you're done." David glared at her, but he did come hug each of his granddaughters' goodnight. She wasn't making any efforts to create a bond between him and the children, but she never denied him the right to say hello or goodbye. She would explain to the girls why they kept their distance later on, but it would be their choice to inquire more as adults. Eventually Emma was back in time for a round of kisses and a bedtime story.

"It go okay with David?" Emma asked as Regina washed her face and brushed her teeth.

"Yes, eventually, he saw the Mills on her wall and totally freaked. I told him, she did that." Regina rinsed her mouth out and finished up in the bathroom. She walked out where Emma was fidgeting and sitting on their couch staring off into space with a small beer.

"Of course, but whatever," Emma muttered. Regina sighed. This was the first night in ages that the girls had gone down on time, her parents were home, and Henry had retired to his room to text his friends. She had thought Emma would at least want to cuddle or make out. Sex was still off the table for another week, but she was damn sure ready to be tempted.

"All right what gives?" Regina sat down on the couch facing Emma. "You came in to talk earlier, so you can talk now."

"Oh, sure I don't need an appointment with my fiancé after all?" Emma groused.

"You have been lowkey pissy for over a week, and today you straight up didn't even kiss me goodbye. So don't act like me not wanting to have a personal conversation in front of Rowan is what's got you so upset." Emma huffed.

"You were pissy first; you threw a literal fireball at my head."

"I threw it at the game system, and I had every right too, you were up here sleeping and playing while I'd been wearing the twins with Demi on my hip and Row god bless her the cutest thing, but I had no mental capacity to be interrupted every five minutes or less to look at this or that while trying to get budget reports done. Reports I had already pushed back; going after mother wasn't a vacation, it was a necessity. So yeah, I was a little pissed, in that time I had also managed to clean the downstairs and you'd managed to rest. On top of that I am still recovering from a miscarriage." Emma frowned.

"I'm sorry, I should have been more of a partner," Emma murmured.

"You should have, and you deserved everything you got from the girls, but no excuse what you did during my bath."

"I needed five minutes," Emma grumbled as she crossed her arms defensively.

"You needed more than that, Henry said you stomped out of the house and when he came up it had been twenty minutes, and when I woke up you weren't even home. You slept at the station."

"Because you didn't come after me!" Emma cried. "I knew then that it was inevitable you kicked me out, because you saw what I saw." Regina frowned.

"And what was that?" Regina asked, raising an eyebrow.

"That I'm completely incapable of caring for my own children, like no wonder you don't want any more babies with me or to at least give Promise a chance to return to us. And the kid just keeps looking up at me with big doe eyes like why haven't you fucked up again. He literally checks with me every morning to ask why you haven't cursed yet."

"Seriously that's how he tells, I'm pregnant, I can't with him," Regina muttered.

"I mean well you got a track record if it's not the cayenne pepper giving you away." Regina made a face.

"I plead the fifth, and Emma are you under the impression that you've never taken care of our girls before that day?"

"You're always there," Emma said. "In the background, I never had them like this, and why would you want such a weak ass partner."

"Em…babe, you're not a weak ass partner, there have been so many times where if they allowed it, you had taken the girls. How many late nights have you spent driving Demi around so I could get ten minutes? How many diapers have you changed or taken them to potty? You have put in just as much pacing and cuddling through the late nights as I have. You've wiped tears and cleaned up messes and made them yes, but they were wild that night!"

"No, I can't even do Demi's hair properly, if you weren't here, I'd probably end up having to shave it just to get the tangles out."

"That's extreme, do you know how obsessed Ruby is with her curls, she would never let you do that."

"Okay maybe, but still, I'm just a lazy so called mother."

"Stop it, you have your moments, but you are perfectly capable of caring for our children. Is this why you've been distant from me because you thought, I think you're incapable?"

"Yes, you certainly didn't come to the water to tell me that I am capable?" Emma complained, crossing her arms tighter.

"You threw four wild girls into my bath with their clothes and hearing aids on, when was I supposed to follow you?" Regina asked. "I wasn't about to make Ruby run over for five minutes just so you could have a pity party by the coast. I took care of our children." Emma frowned. "You don't need me to remind you of what an attentive parent you can be, I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been there for Demi and me before we knew it. You only need to look at how healthy and happy all of our children are. Do you see how prideful Henry is filling his schedule to either share his interests or theirs. He literally canceled on me, his own mother because Darien asked him to cuddle instead." Emma chuckled.

"We were supposed to hang out and Darien came over all big eyes and a wonder woman comic in her hand. He legitimately told me bye, took his shoes off, and marched off with her." Regina chuckled, she knew the exact face Darien made or the way Lincoln would cling to him while he played until he had tucked her into his lap, and she would just close her eyes and nap peacefully for hours if Regina let her.

"So why don't you want to have more children with me?" Emma asked. Regina leaned on her arm and sighed.

"You know that's not it; I've been pregnant twice unexpectedly, and twice expectantly only because we knew what was going on. It wasn't easy for me."

"But you're happy about Promise and your blighted ovum," Emma grumbled. "You don't care."

"I do care, they are the main event of my nightmares, and I am not happy about Promise, I didn't want to be pregnant so quickly no, I wanted more time between the girls and our next child by adoption, but like I told you. Promise was a part of me, and very much wanted, especially when I thought they were all I had left of this big, beautiful family of ours. I'm sorry if you think my resistance to being pregnant has anything to do with my love for Promise or the potential baby. I have so much love to give, and I'll be miserable for them if they're here, but I'm not going to go out of my way to get them. You have to respect that, because my body isn't entirely my own, like we just started having sex."

"Great sex," Emma murmured. Regina hummed her agreement. "I'm sorry I was a jerk and withheld affection."

"Apology accepted if you promise to never do that again." Emma nodded and moved closer to Regina, so her head was in her lap.

"Can we plan at least one more baby and one adopted son between two and three years old."

"When the girls are four years old, we can revisit the adoption," Regina told her. "If you want to have another daughter, you are free to get pregnant." Emma huffed. "Preferably after the girls second birthday though so that they're like more like three when the baby is born."

"You know I'll eat like shit the entire time," Emma told her. "I won't even breastfeed."

"Good thing, I'm in charge of feeding you and I'm still lactating, but I expect you to give them all the colostrum."

"I won't be able to work after a while and I don't wanna answer uncomfortable questions from Granny."

"I'm sure your pregnancy will be just as fast as my own," Regina told her. "You'll recover in no time and the old woman won't have time to ask you every single uncomfortable question."

"I'll be an absolute baby about it," Emma huffed.

"Well, that's a relief since you're already my baby," Regina told her placing a kiss on her head.

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