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Disclaimer: Once upon a time...I got really sick of writing disclaimers. Here we go...I. Do. Not. Own. It. OUAT is the property of the meanies at Disney. I’m just borrowing their toys. I’ll return them...in like-new...no...make that...fair...condition.
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Friday, September 1, 2017
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“Henry, come one, sweetie, you’re going to be late for school!” Regina called up the stairs to her four-year-old son.
It was his first day of PRE-K (she couldn’t understand why the school insisted on starting on a Friday) and she couldn’t believe how fast he was growing. It seemed like only yesterday that she was driving to Boston to sign the final adoption papers to bring him home with her...now he was starting school. Sure, it was only PRE-K, and he would only be in class until noon, but it still seemed like a huge milestone to her. Just another sign that her little man wasn’t going to be her little man forever. Time really was going too fast for her liking...if only she could freeze it.
She sighed as she heard Henry’s footsteps running along the hallway upstairs.
“Don’t run!” She called before he managed to hurt himself falling down the stairs. The boy was always in a hurry.
A moment later, her son was standing in front of her wearing his new school clothes (jeans, a Superman sweater, and a new pair of light-up sneakers), had his new Star Wars bookbag on his shoulders and a big grin on his freckled face.
“Ready, Momma,” He took her hand and started dragging her towards the door in his excitement for his first day of school. “Let’s go!”
Regina - laughing all the way - barely had time to grab her purse and car keys before her son was dragging her out the front door.
When they pulled up in front of the daycare/pre-school where the PRE-K students also attended class, she followed an older model four-door pick-up truck into the parking area and parked beside it, close to the entrance. They were a little early so they were the only two vehicles in the parent parking area.
It was as she placed Henry’s bookbag on top of the car while she went to unbuckle him that she noticed the driver of the pickup truck step out of the driver’s seat...and her heart almost stopped.
David...
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September 5, 2007
Louisville, Kentucky
The Nolan Horse Ranch
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She hated her mother. No. Really. She 100% hated her mother. Hated her with the fire of a thousand suns. She went on one date with a guy her mother considered “improper” for her socialite daughter and she was banished to a damn horse farm owned by friends of the family. She was expected to marry a doctor, or a politician, or even an actor...so long as he was rich. The stable boy at their country home horrified her mother at a prospective son-in-law. Money ruled in her mother’s outdated world.
“You know, you could at least try and put on a smile on that made-up face of yours,” A deep voice made her jump.
She was down in the stables, visiting the horses, and hadn’t heard him come in. She didn’t know who he was. She had never met the Nolan family before this visit and she had arrived late the previous night. She had only had time to meet a tired Mr. and Mrs. Nolan, who had been nice enough to stay up and await the arrival of their guest (prisoner).
She turned to find a boy about her age leaning against the stall across from the one where she stood. He had sandy blond hair and bright blue eyes. He was wearing a pair of snug Levi’s, a flannel shirt rolled up at the sleeves, and a pair of black cowboy boots. She wouldn’t deny it...he was pretty to look at.
“What’s wrong with my make-up?” She gave him the ice queen glare that she had learned at her mother’s knee. “And I didn’t have a choice coming here...so why should I smile?”
If she had refused to come, her mother would refuse to pay her tuition to Harvard next fall when her gap year was over.
“Nothing’s wrong with it,” He shook his head. “You just don’t seem like you need it.” He shrugged as he pushed himself away from the stall with one foot. “And I want you to smile because...I have a feeling that you’re real pretty when you do.” He smirked at her before taking his leave of the stables.
Regina was left with her mouth hanging open and a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach...
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Once she got over her shock at seeing him, she unbuckled Henry from his car seat and balanced him on her hip for a moment as she watched David unstrap a beautiful blonde haired toddler. The little girl had the same hair and eye color as him and was dressed in white leggings and a red knit sweater-dress that stopped just above her little knees.
For reasons she didn’t understand, the thought of him being a father made her heart hurt.
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September 29, 2007
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Regina couldn’t help but laugh as David was once again thrown from the stallion (ironically named Prince Charming) that he was trying to break. This was the third time in the last hour.
She watched as he became frustrated and left the stable to join her outside the barn where she was giving her favorite horse, a black Friesian mare named, The Evil Queen, a bath.
“Having some trouble?” She taunted as she hosed down the animal’s hide.
He took the hose from her hands so he could rinse his arms clean of mud...the rest of him...was a lost cause.
“Yeah,” He said as sprayed her with a light mist from the hose. “I want to take you out...but you don’t seem to be picking up on any of my signals.”
Oh, she had been picking them up all right. David barely left her side during the day unless he had work somewhere on the ranch where she wasn’t. She’d already pissed her mother off enough. The last thing she needed was to come back from her banishment with a cowboy on her arm.
“I leave November first...what would be the point of starting something?” She countered as she grabbed the hose back.
“It’s called living a little,” He laughed as she sprayed him square in the chest with the water pressure at full blast before he wrestled the hose from her and completely drenched her.
“You jackass!” She squealed.
He laughed again before dropping the hose to the ground and catching her around the waist. Before she had time to comprehend what he was doing, David had pulled her flush against him and stolen her lips in a hungry kiss.
“Please, go out with me, Regina?” He nuzzled her nose with his when he pulled away.
Head still incredibly fuzzy from his kiss, Regina simply nodded her head.
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She tried to hang back so that they wouldn’t have a chance to bump into each other but her son was bound and determined to force her into an uncomfortable situation. As soon as she had set him on his feet, he had hightailed it away from her side, running towards the entrance...and David.
“Henry! Come back here! This is a parking lot!” She called as she ran to catch up to her son.
David stopped dead about three car lengths ahead of her and reached out and snatched one of the straps on Henry’s bookbag as soon as he tried to run past him.
Yep, she had done something to earn her son’s wrath, she was sure of it as she hurried to her former lover’s side. She saw the surprise register on his face when he recognized her.
“Hey,” She smiled...rather meekly for her. “Thanks for grabbing him.” She said reaching out and taking Henry’s hand as David released his hold on the bookbag.
“No problem,” David shook his head, clearly still a bit in shock.
She turned her attention to her son, whom she gave a stern look as she crouched down to his eye level. “Henry Mills what have I told you about parking lots?” She asked in her best angry mom voice.
“That I have to hold a grown-up’s hand,” Henry mumbled.
“You could have gotten hit by a car, buddy,” David spoke up.
Regina got back to her feet. “Again, thanks,” She couldn’t have been any more awkward if she had tried. “He’s just really excited about his first day of school.”
“No problem, Reggie.” He smiled warmly at her.
Why did he have to call her that? He was the only person who had ever called her that.
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Halloween 2007
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“Don’t leave, Reggie,” He whispered into her neck as they lay spooned in his bed.
“You know I have to.” She whispered back firmly.
Her future was already carved out for her. There was no chance that she could remain on the farm and still get the college education in political science that she dreamed of. Her mother wouldn’t pay for it and, even if she did, there were no colleges that interested her nearby.
“You do not...and you know it.” He abruptly sat up. “You’re choosing to go, there’s a difference.”
She too sat up, pulling the sheet up to cover her naked chest. “What’s wrong with wanting to get an education?”
“Nothing,” David shook his head. “There’s just something wrong with you insisting on an ivy league school. You could get a good education here in Kentucky but you refuse to consider it. I love you and want a life with you but you're too dead set on proving to your mother that you’re better than her!”
“To hell with you!” She hissed, getting out of bed.
That was the last time they had seen one another. She had stormed out of his room and he hadn’t followed her. He hadn’t been there to see her off at the airport the next morning either.
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“Reggie, you okay?” David’s voice pulled her back to the present.
“Yeah,” She shook her head. “I should get Henry to class.”
“Yeah,” He nodded. “I don’t want Emma to be late for her first day either.”
They parted ways and Regina hoped that was the end of it. She got Henry to his classroom and was with him when he met his new teacher, Miss Ruby. She helped him put his things in his cubby before hugging him goodbye and heading out of the school.
When she got to the parking lot, she stopped dead in her tracks upon reaching her car. David was waiting for her, leaning against the driver’s side door of her car with his arms crossed over his chest.
“What are you doing?” She asked as she walked to his side with her keys in hand.
“Waiting for you.”
“I can see that.” She rolled her eyes. “Why?”
“Because it seemed like you couldn’t get away from me fast enough earlier...why?” He raised an eyebrow at her in amusement.
Wonderful. He was just as arrogant as he had been as a teenager.
“We didn’t exactly part as friends...or have you forgotten that?” She bluntly put it out in the open.
“Trust me,” He caught and held her gaze. “I haven’t forgotten. I just hoped that we were old enough to not hold on to anger from the past.”
“I’m not angry at you,” Regina assured him. Herself, yes. Him, no. She was the one who had walked away from the only man to ever really love her and make her happy.
“Good,” He gave her that crooked smile that she loved so much. “I was hoping you might want to go and grab breakfast with me?”
She badly wanted to say yes, but as she looked at her watch, she saw that she only had twenty minutes to make it to work before she was late.
“I can’t...I have to get to work.” She told him regrettably.
“What time do you take your lunch?” He pressed.
“At noon,” She answered and then grimaced. “But that’s when I have to pick up Henry and drop him off with the nanny.” Her nanny was an elderly woman that lived in her neighborhood who didn’t drive.
“What are you and Henry doing for dinner?” He tried again.
“Probably take-out,” She hadn’t been able to make it to the grocery store yet that week so cooking wasn’t an option. It was probably going to be meatloaf from Granny’s for them.
“How would you feel about letting me cook for you? I could swing by the grocery store and come by with Emma whenever you get off work.”
He really wasn’t going to let her say no, was he? Not that she wanted to...if fate was going to give her a second chance, she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
“That would be nice.” She motioned for him to move out of the way so she could open the driver’s side door and grab a pen and paper (a take-out menu from Granny’s) out of the center console.
She quickly jotted down her address and phone number and handed him the menu. “I get off at four. I’m usually home by 4:30.”
David folded the menu and put it in his back pocket before leaning down and kissing her cheek, “See ya later, Reggie.”
At 4:30 that afternoon, Regina was rushing around her house like a mad woman trying to make the place look presentable. She had gotten out of work late - Mayor Spencer had held yet another staff meeting to try and figure out if he should run for another term in the next election - and Henry’s toys seemed to be...everywhere, and she had given up the battle on picking them up. For every two she put away, Henry took out four more. She had work papers scattered all over the kitchen table that she tried to tidy up but in the end had resorted to stuffing in a kitchen drawer. In her laundry room, clothes were overflowing out of two large wicker baskets, waiting to be washed. She had simply closed the door on that disaster. She really needed to just bite the bullet and hire a cleaning service.
The doorbell ringing made her jump and had Henry tearing towards the front door at full speed.
“I got it, Momma!” He always got so excited when they had guests over.
“I’ve already told you, sweetie. Only Momma is allowed to answer the door.” She caught up to her son just as his little hand reached for the door handle.
Gently pulling him back by his sweater, she opened the door and smiled at what she found.
David had little Emma in one arm and a paper grocery bag in the other.
“I should probably help,” She said as she reached out her arms with a friendly smile for Emma, who cautiously went into her arms. “I’ll take the cuter package.”
David laughed as she stepped aside so he could enter.
“Hi there,” Regina smiled at the little girl in her arms. “My name’s Regina. What’s yours?”
“Emma.” The little girl mumbled with a shy smile before hiding her face in her shoulder.
She looked over to David just as he finished introducing himself to Henry. “She’s an angel,” She told him sincerely.
“Yeah...James did good.” He nodded with a fond smile.
Wait a minute...James? As in David’s no-good twin brother?
“Henry?” Regina looked to her son. “Why don’t you take Emma into the living room and show her your toys?” She suggested.
“Okay,” Henry walked over and took the toddler’s hand. “Come on Em...I have lightsabers.” He led her into the living room.
“Henry, no lightsabers!” She called after them in warning. “Emma’s too little to play with those!”
With the kids settled, she showed David to the kitchen.
“So, Emma’s not your daughter?” She leaned against the marble counter as he began to unpack the grocery bag.
“Oh, she’s my daughter.” He confused her by responding. “Legally and emotionally speaking.”
“I’m confused.” She gave him a strange look before noticing the ingredients that he was pulling out. “I taught you how to make lasagna.” She smiled fondly.
“I know. It’s still my favorite...and I’ve passed the love on to Em.” He chuckled. “She should be red from head-to-toe by the end of dinner.”
“You still haven’t explained how you ended up with her.” She reminded.
David proceeded to tell her the whole story as he started dinner. His twin brother, James, had suffered from a drug problem since they were teenagers. In fact, when she had visited (been banished to) the ranch, he had been doing a six-month prison term for possession of heroin. Around three years earlier, James had gotten his girlfriend pregnant and had managed to clean up his act for the sake of his child. Sadly, when Emma was only a few months old, both James, and Emma’s mother, Mary-Margaret, had been killed in a car accident. David had stepped up and adopted his orphaned niece, who he raised as his own daughter. He made his living as a vet and had moved to Storybrooke after accepting the job of head veterinarian at the local animal shelter.
Once he had told his story, he asked her to tell hers.
She was honest. She told him that besides him, there hadn’t really been a man in her life that she had wanted to settle down with. She told him that her mother (the bane of her existence) had died of breast cancer five years earlier leaving her without any family and feeling alone. She explained how she felt that she was ready to become a mother and she didn’t feel like waiting around for Prince Charming to show up so she had adopted Henry as a single mother. As for her career, she had gotten the education in political science from Harvard that she had so badly wanted and moved to Storybrooke right out of college to intern in the Mayor's office. That internship had turned into a paying job and before she knew it she had climbed the ranks to become the youngest first deputy mayor that the town had ever seen.
At dinner, the conversation was kept to kid-friendly topics - school, what Henry and Emma wanted to be for Halloween (Han Solo and Lilo respectively), and (Henry’s favorite topic) Star Wars. After dinner Regina discovered that David had been right, Emma REALLY loved lasagna. As she ran a bath for the little girl, David joked that they should just take her into the backyard and hose her down. Once bathtime was over (she had conned Harry into taking a bath with Emma by promising to buy his favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream the next time she went grocery shopping), Regina found herself not wanting to let David and Emma leave so she pressed her luck as they helped the kids into pajamas - she had found an old pair of Henry’s in the closet for the toddler.
“You know, since it’s Friday and the kids don’t have school tomorrow...why don’t the two of you stay for awhile longer?” She asked as she helped Henry pull his Darth Vader pajamas over his head. “We could make some popcorn and watch a movie.”
“Stay!” Emma started jumping up and down on the couch as her dad tried to finish dressing her.
“Emma, honey, be still.” David laughed. He pulled her shirt on the rest of the way before turning to look at Regina. “We’d love to stay, Reggie.”
They had settled on watching Lilo and Stitch, which was apparently Emma’s favorite movie. David had dimmed the lights and made the kids a cozy bed out of blankets and pillows on the floor while Regina popped popcorn on the stove and filled two sippy cups with milk. For all of their hard work, both kids were asleep before Stitch even crash landed on earth.
Even with their children clearly out of commission, neither Regina or David felt like parting ways for the evening. David had laid back on the couch and pulled her to rest against his chest while he wrapped his arms around her waist. Regina grabbed the television remote and turned the movie off before going to the smart TV’s Pandora app and turning on some low-volume music.
“You don’t seem like you’re in a rush to go anywhere,” Regina gently teased as a slow song by Nickelback started playing.
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“Misused, Mistakes
Too long, Too late
Who was I to make you wait?”
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“You’re not exactly pushing me out the door, sweetheart.” He dropped a kiss to the top of her head.
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“That I love you
I’ve loved you all along
And I miss you
Been far away for far too long...”
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“I’ve missed you.” She admitted softly.
“I’ve missed you too, Reggie...so much.” His tone was husky as he responded.
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“On my knees, I'll ask
Last chance for one last dance
'Cause with you, I'd withstand
All of hell to hold your hand.”
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“This is our second chance, isn’t it?” She voiced the thought that had been running around her head all night.
He brought his hand up to her chin and used it to tilt her head up so he could lay a soft kiss on her lips. “Yes.” was all he said when they parted.
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ONE YEAR LATER
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“I’m dead,” Regina laughed as she plopped down on David’s lap on the couch. “For the second year running, our kids have managed to completely exhaust me. You’re taking them trick-or-treating next year.”
“They asleep?” David asked as he stole a quick kiss.
“Yep.” She made a popping sound with her p. “They crashed hard.”
After six months of dating, David had given up the lease on his apartment and he and Emma had moved in with her and Henry. Having David and Emma in the house made it feel like her family was complete. She couldn’t have loved Emma more if she had given birth to her and she knew that David loved Henry just as much as if he had actually fathered him.
“Good, I have something I wanted to give you without the munchkins running around.” He reached behind the couch cushion next to him and pulled out a ring box.
Regina looked at him questioningly.
Using his thumb, David flipped the lid open to reveal a simple gold and diamond engagement ring.
“I love you, Regina...and I love Henry.” He told her as he looked into her eyes. “You and the kids are my entire life. I fell in love with you when I was nineteen...and I’ve never stopped loving you...even when we were apart. I know I’ll love you for the rest of my existence. Will you marry me, sweetheart?”
Regina simply nodded, too overcome with emotion to actually speak, as he slid the ring on her finger, before cupping her cheek and coaxing her closer for a soul searing kiss.
It may have been delayed, and it may not have been conventional, but it looked like Regina had finally gotten the family that she had always wished for.
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FINIS
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