Season 6 Once Upon a Time

Chapter 4

"I'm pregnant."

Silence filled the room. Emma pulled back as though she'd been slapped. Regina's tears finally spilled down her cheeks.

"What?"

"I-I'm pregnant."

Emma blinked, her head shaking. Regina what?

"What? How?"

Regina stayed quiet, knowing Emma wasn't actually asking how she had gotten pregnant. She knew how; she'd been there.

"How do you know?" Emma asked.

What? What was Regina even telling her?

Regina stood and wordlessly went to her purse. She retrieved the four tests, handing them to Emma before sitting down and looking between her knees at the floor.

Emma stared blankly, eyes fixated on the plastic sticks in her hand. She knew what these were. They looked exactly the same as they had sixteen years ago when she'd been sitting on the cold tilt floor of her then girlfriend Lily's bathroom. Only then there had been seven pregnancy tests, all reading the same thing. Emma had been terrified back then, feeling a fear so intense she hadn't been able to do anything except repeat the word "no". Now, now Emma felt numb. Or maybe she felt nothing, or too much all at once. One thing was for certain, she was confused as hell.

"You're pregnant."

"Yes." Regina croaked.

Emma didn't sound happy. She risked a quick glance, her stomach plummeting when her eyes fell upon her lover. Emma's face was expressionless, and for a woman who wore her heart on her sleeve, her non-reaction worried Regina even more.

"Is it mine?" Emma asked, in disbelief that this was actually happening.

How could Regina be pregnant?

"Of course it's yours!" Regina snapped, the hurt of the question slicing her straight in the heart. "How can you even ask me that? God's, Emma. I haven't been with anyone else! Do you truly think me so loose?"

Hearing the hurt and the betrayal in Regina's voice, guilt instantly flooded Emma.

"I'm sorry." Emma said sincerely. "I'm sorry. I just - I'm confused. I didn't mean that. I know there isn't anyone else. I just - I don't... how is this even possible? I thought you couldn't get pregnant. Because of the potion. I didn't think this was possible. I thought this was something I didn't have to worry about with you."

Emma winced when she saw Regina flinch at the last sentence.

"Sorry. That came out badly. I just... I'm trying to be delicate here but we know that isn't my strong suit. I'm sorry. I just don't get it. I thought you had drunk that potion."

"I did."

Emma waited for a minute, hoping Regina would continue. When she didn't, Emma spoke again.

"Then how...?"

Regina took a deep breath, tracing her thumb with her index finger as she spoke, never once looking up from her hands. She owed Emma an explanation. She had planned on telling her eventually that she could get pregnant, that it was a possibility. She just didn't think it would happen so quickly and that she'd be telling her after she was already pregnant.

"I designed this town, this place, and everything in it. I rewrote everyone's story, took away their happy ending in order to find my own. I created an entirely new story, with new backgrounds, new names, new histories. And that included my own. I made myself mayor so that everyone would respect me, so that I would have control over this entire town. Manipulating everyone was only a part of my happy ending though. Because even if no one here hated me anymore - they feared me, but they did not hate me - I still had no one to love me in this new place. Deep down, even in my darkest moments, I wanted to be loved - even if I didn't deserve it. Daddy loved me, God's only knows why because I certainly didn't deserve it, but he wasn't going to be with me and I knew this. So I rewrote my future within the new spell and took away the potion's effects, the same way I rewrote Ruby's curse and removed the wolf from within her. The spell was powerful enough to transport half of the Enchanted Forest to a new place, which had been created out of nothing in a new world. It was certainly powerful enough to reverse the effects of the potion. My intention was to become pregnant once I arrived in Storybrooke, but there was no one with whom I wanted to share my bed. I may use my sexuality as a weapon, but I am not a slut, and I do not sleep with anyone I do not lo-" Regina caught herself, swallowing hard. "With anyone I do not like. And there was no one in Storybrooke I... liked. Artificial insemination was still experimental at best, as was in-vitro fertilization. I was not comfortable doing either of those things, and certainly not alone, so I turned to adoption. I wasn't sure if I would retain the ability to become pregnant once the curse had lifted, but once I realized Ruby never reverted back to the wolf, well..."