Ever After ~ {Editing}

Chapter 20

The call came late at night in mid-March. Ever since her friend's due date had begun drawing nearer, Regina had kept the ringer of her phone turned up at night. And a good thing to.

She woke with a start as the call came in, her phone screen lighting up as the rings loudly bounced off the walls of her room. She sat up quickly and answered the phone, praying that Robin would remain peacefully sleeping. She had no such luck.

As she spoke with an anxious and frazzled-sounding, yet nonetheless excited, Prince Charming, she felt her lover stir next to her and sit up, placing a gentle hand on her back. She hung up the phone, wishing her friend a congratulations and promising to be there as soon as possible (Snow asked for Regina, and only her, as the two had grown increasingly closer over the course of their pregnancies, and Regina had promised time and again that she would be there when the big day arrived).

She slid out of bed and rushed to her closet, stripping off her silk nightgown and snapping on a bra as Robin called to her from the bed, "who phoned you?"

"It was David," she said, voice muffled by her favorite T-shirt of Robin's as she pulled it over her head, "Baby Nolan is on his way!"

She slipped into a pair of jeans, buttoning them as best she could around her four month baby bump. She slipped on a pair of Sperry's and wrapped herself in a jacket, shutting the light in the closet as she left and retrieving her phone from where she left it sitting on the bedside table.

Robin had caught on to the fact that she was heading to the hospital and had jumped out of bed, pulling on a hoodie and a pair of dark wash jeans before stepping into his sneakers and depositing his own phone in his pocket.

"I'm coming with you, Regina," he stated.

She merely nodded, walking quickly out of the room and down the hall to wake Henry. Robin stood in the doorway and watched, keys in hand, as Regina approached her oldest son and gently shook his shoulder to wake him.

He grumbled slightly and rubbed his eyes, looking up at her  with confusion and irritation written across his face.

"Your dad and I are heading to the hospital. I need you to watch Roland and tell the girls where we are in the morning," she whispered.

"Why? Is everything okay?"

"Everything's fine, sweetheart. Snow's gone into labor. Set an alarm to wake you up and go back to sleep. I love you, Hen."

"I love you too, Mom," he mumbled, doing as she said.

She pulled the door shut behind her and followed Robin quickly down the stairs. They rushed to his truck, making sure to lock the bolt of the front door behind them, and sped to the hospital. Robin took Regina's hand where it laid on the center console as he drove, squeezing it, and she smiled at him, pulled his hand to her chest and kissed his knuckles lovingly.

"This will be us in a few months," she whispered, and he grinned and nodded.

"I can't wait. How are you holding up with all this? Snow going into labor, us having a baby? How are you feeling?" He glanced at her, genuinely concerned, and his love for her warmed her heart.

"I'm...  I'm okay. I'm really excited for Snow and David, and I'm sure they're overjoyed. As for us having a baby... I'm scared. That I won't be good enough, that I'll go through what I went through with Henry with this baby. I'm nervous. But I'm excited. What about you?"

"Well, happy for the Charming's obviously. I'm scared, too, Regina. But everything will be fine, okay? You'll be an excellent mother. There's nothing to worry about."