Chapter Text
Epilogue:
“You’re not getting out of it this year either,” Regina assured her wife. “I promised I wouldn’t, but that doesn’t mean you can just…”
“But you or the baby could need something, I should be right there with you in the convertible, not stuck on a horse!” Emma wheedled, not really anticipating a win, but knowing the fight was expected.
All she got was the famous Mills eyebrow raise. “You had better not jinx us into something weird happening, Emma. You’ll be fine, I’ll be fine, Henry will be fine, she’ll be fine. Can you please go make sure our oldest is on track and getting ready to go?” Regina patted Emma’s cheek in consolation.
“Even in diapers, she's probably already a better rider than me,” the sheriff may have muttered on her way out of the room, going to collect her riding boots, and her deliriously excited son.
Regina grinned as she walked into the nursery and looked around at the lovingly decorated room. Emma and Henry had done the majority of the work, with Regina stepping in to supervise when the squeals of laughter indicated very little work was being done.
The masterpiece of the room was the crib and changing table - a dark ebony that shone like Rocinante’s coat, hand-carved by local craftsman Marco, and gifted to the newest arrival by Daniel and Jefferson. Regina loved running her hand along the edges, feeling the subtle flow of the wood meant to represent a mane. She'd burst into tears at the reveal of the gift, awash with hormones anyway, and Emma hadn’t been much better.
“Hello my darling,” she cooed, reaching into the crib. The townspeople still had a little trouble believing their hard-ass all-business mayor was now a doting mother of two. Regina blamed Emma for making her soft, which never failed to prompt a grin from her wife.
The baby grumbled back at her, not entirely thrilled to be awake. The footie zipper half undone, and hair sticking up magnificently like a halo. “You look just like your Ma when she wakes up, my sweet girl. It's time for your first Founder’s Day parade. It's a family tradition, after all.”
After the parade, the Swan-Mills clan settled down in the picnic area with Daniel and Jefferson. Soon, the rest of their extended family group had wandered by, happy to celebrate the baby’s first parade and enjoy some of Regina’s delicious finger foods.
Once the mayor and the sheriff had 'gotten their heads out of their asses', as Granny lovingly expressed (she was still a little mad she'd lost the betting pool by mere days), they moved in together and got married in fairly short order. Henry was ecstatic, his biggest issue with the whole ceremony was which mom he'd stand next to. The idea of Henry Daniel Mills calmly watching from a pew didn't seem to be in the cards. Henry ended up walking Emma down the aisle, and then stood on Regina's side for the bulk of the service, right next to his father as 'man of honor'.
(Emma and Jefferson, now conjoined in their mischief-making, howled with glee at that title. They saluted him for months after. Daniel calmly saluted them back a middle finger.)
After Henry had been born, Regina and Daniel had discussed having more children. Neither of them wanted Henry to be an only child like they’d been. But, given their unusual circumstances, the how and when were tricky. However, they were a determined group, especially now that Emma and Jefferson were in the mix.
For Regina and Emma's first anniversary, the wives gave each other rather momentous gifts. Emma handed over the documentation from the fertility clinic - her tests had been clean, and she'd be able to donate the egg for their IVF attempt. While early tests showed Emma likely wouldn’t be able to carry a pregnancy to term, her eggs were healthy enough. Daniel offered happily to donate, and they were on their way to a baby that would become Elizabeth Kathryn Swan-Mills. She was a Mini-Emma in every way, and Regina couldn’t have been happier about it.
Regina's gift to her wife was...Angus. They'd been celebrating the good news about the positive steps in the baby-making process for several days. On the actual day of their anniversary, they'd gone out to a very nice dinner, and come home only to have Regina tug her wife into the backyard...
"Babe, I'm always good for some al fresco lovin', but it's a little cold." Emma muttered. "Who's gonna rob the sheriff and the mayor? That glare of yours alone could set someone on fire. Which is totally hot. Get it!?" The sheriff may have had a drinky-poo or two. But even then, as they stumbled into the rear of the house, there on the grass he stood.
Emma squinched her eyes together and shook her head. When she reopened them, nope. "R'gina, you see Angus too, right? You think he wandered away? Can horses do that?? Maybe he missed me! Aw, that’s my buddy!"
Regina, who'd been driving and thus sober, snickered. "Angus is here, and he's here for a reason. Happy Anniversary, darling. He's yours. You can still board him at the stable, of course, but we arranged a little visit to celebrate."
When her wife seemed struck silent, Regina had a half-second of worry. There was no reason she could think of why Emma wouldn't be thrilled, but had she overlooked something?
A tiny whisper explained the paralysis. "I can't decide who to hug first." Then Emma turned with a full body embrace so thorough Regina was lifted off the ground. "Thank you, thank you, thank you." Those green eyes Regina loved so dearly were full of happy tears. After gently-ish setting her wife down and kissing all over her face, Emma spun and turned towards Angus. As Emma was flinging herself around the horse's sturdy neck, Regina may have brushed away a tear or two herself.
“Regina,” Emma called, and soon she had an arm wrapped around her wife and an arm around her new/old horse, who patiently withstood all of these swirling emotions. “I am REALLY glad you forced me to take those lessons.”
The End.