Author's Note: Bonus festive chapter! It follows on from where Midnight left off. Just Swan-Mills Christmas family fluff with a couple of blips, as all families have. Set on a Christmastime evening, no precise day. I hope you have a lovely Christmas day, sharing it with those you love. This chapter was longer than I expected so consider it as an early Christmas present.

Enjoy, my lovelies!

"Mommy looks cute doesn't she?" the saviour asked her daughter on her lap. The pair were watching as Regina and Henry decorated the Christmas tree, both taking turns to hold the new infant addition to the family as they did so.

Isla nodded as she leaned back sleepily against her mother's chest. It had taken a little bribing to make Henry fully participate in wearing the festive attire but it had concluded with him begrudgingly agreeing to put on the Christmas jumper they'd asked him to . The whole family was wearing Christmassy clothing and Emma loved it. It was the kind of Christmas she'd always dreamt of- a whole beautiful family around her just being domestic and gorgeous. Her parents were due to come by for the evening also and that only warmed her heart further.

"I like mommy's jumper," Isla smiled. "And Max's onesie!" The saviour smiled as she agreed. Regina wore a red woolen jumper with Rudolf artfully embroidered on the front; she didn't want her Christmas attire to be tacky of course- she still upheld her quality standards. The dark haired baby wore a white fleece onesie with red Christmas patterns across it. The boy was happily sleeping as his two family members took turns rocking him. It was a lovely scene.

Emma and Isla were exhausted. They'd been attempting to track down Dr. Hopper's dog, Pongo, all day. Despite it being her day off, the sheriff had been called by Archie that morning who'd sounded so worried that she'd reluctantly agreed to help. Henry, Regina and Max had been out Christmas shopping so Emma had no choice but to bring Isla along for the chase. The girl beamed at having something to actually do (the Christmas holidays were already proving to be too long for the excitable child) and she was dressed and ready in an instant.

It had taken four and a half hours to find the mischievous canine. The dalmatian had decided to raid a campsite on the edge of Storybrooke after smelling their cooking breakfast (over a mile away) and after succeeding in finding the source, he snaffled the lot. Upon the dog's attempt to return, he had grown lost. Hence why they had been scouring the woods of Storybrooke for the majority of their afternoon.

Upon their arrive home, Regina had given them both a sympathetic smile and a hug before leading them to the kitchen where two hot chocolates waited. "Can I marry you?" Emma had laughed as she'd planted a kiss to her cheek. Henry had rolled his eyes at their antics from his seat at the table.

"What is it?" Regina asked from the tree as she saw her wife staring at her. Isla had an equally fond-tired expression and in their almost matching jumpers, the sleepy pair had never looked more alike. The girl's blonde hair was still growing and despite her whining protests, Regina always loved plaiting it and putting it into obscure hairstyles. Much preferring sports and annoying her older brother, Isla hated her mother primping her but she knew how happy it made Regina so she chose to mostly put up with it. Emma rescued her sometimes anyway, pulling out the oddly placed pigtails or finding a way to distract her wife from doing it in the first place- mostly with Max related issues or simple kisses or hugs to allow the girl to escape the apparent beautician's grasp.

"We just really love you three," Emma said fondly. Henry blushed at the blunt affection but turned back to the tree to smile widely to himself. Regina rocked their baby boy as she smiled too. She looked at Emma knowingly, sharing the saviour's feelings of warmth for their family. Both women wanted to kiss to commemorate the moment but chose not to as they didn't want to avert their attention from their family time. They'd have time to cuddle up with baby Max and smile about it later. They'd decided all of this with quick eye contact. With all their years now spent together, and co-parenting, they'd mostly mastered the art of silent conversation.

Henry wrapped a long piece of tinsel around the back of the tree before bending down to retrieve a few more baubles. Despite enjoying his new macho-teen persona the boy would never turn down an opportunity for tree decorating, especially when nearly everyone was too tired so he had mostly free reign for his fabulous artistic license. He wished Max were older and the two could enjoy the activity together. It upset him that he would likely have left home before Max would have grown to a true communicating age. He wanted to see what the baby's personality would become. With Isla being so good willed, he hoped that finally someone would receive Emma's sarcasm and Regina's cynicism. It was a deeply entertaining idea. He was over the moon though to have a brother now too.

The teenager looked at the boy asleep against Regina's chest and met her eye. "Could I hold him again?"

The brunette smiled and nodded, gently passing him over. They'd been doing this for most of the evening between she, Henry and Emma. With supervision, Isla had her moments holding the infant too but obviously lesser so. Regina was astounded by how much Henry had taken a liking to the baby. She had figured that the novelty of a new baby would have worn off after Isla but apparently not. His enthusiasm made both of his mothers proud. They did wonder quite how long it would last though once the boy had stopped being quite so sleepy and quiet.

"It's sweet how he is with him," Emma said to Regina as the woman sat down next to them. Isla leaned across lazily so that she was now sprawled across both of them. The former mayor chuckled at their child and playfully patted her face.

"It is," Regina agreed while pulling faces at Isla. "What are you doing?" she asked their daughter as she rolled over on their laps. Emma looked down for a moment and smirked too.

"I'm bored."

"Why don't you go decorate the tree with Henry?" Emma suggested.

"But I'm sick of trees. We've been getting lost around trees all day."

Regina laughed at that. From what she'd heard from Emma's tired, groan-filled explanation, it did sound like the pair had had quite an ordeal. No wonder the girl was tired.

"Grandma and grandpa will be here soon," the saviour said, brightening the child's mood significantly. Isla nodded, sat up and hopped off their laps to go chat to Henry. "That was odd," Emma said to her wife. Normally it took more coaxing for Isla to cheer up than that.

"It was indeed," Regina nodded. She glanced at the sheriff as she looked around the room a little vacantly. She hadn't realised how exhausted she looked. Like Regina had with Isla, Emma had been up half the night very often recently at Max's decided feeding times. The boy had a habit of sleeping all day and staying awake all night. Emma had been deeply tiring herself out as she tended to Max's every whim as well as taking Isla to her soccer games and school events and still making time to spend time with Henry. Emma had realised that Regina had taken Christmas under her wing this year and had worried that the brunette would overwork herself with their newborn like when Isla was younger. Part of Emma's desire to do everything now was rooted from the anxiety she'd had in the hospital while giving birth to Max- that they would all become too stressed and unhappy and arguments would break out. She feared that Christmastime was the prime time for that situation so had subconsciously tried to force everything onto herself in order to not stress out Regina. Neither women had fully realised this.

"Are you alright, dear?" Regina asked gently.

Emma looked at her and sleepily nodded. "I love moments like this. When everyone is warm and quiet and happy."

The brunette moved closer to cuddle into her side and gently say, "But, my darling, you don't look so happy."

The saviour frowned and looked at her, seeking some kind of explanation.

"You look exhausted, sweetheart. Please go easy on yourself. Let me deal with Max tonight. We could get the pump and get it all sorted so that when he wakes up I can get up for him."

Emma shook her head, wrapping her arm around her back and pulling them slightly closer together. "You need your sleep."

"So do you!" Regina said more loudly causing Henry and Isla to look over questioningly.

"What are you talking about?" Their son asked as he took a seat in the armchair, the baby still in his arms. Isla reached up and put a few more decorations on the tree, meanwhile still listening.

"Your mother here doesn't want to rest and I'm simply stating that perhaps we should take up a few of her duties so that she can catch up on some sleep.

Emma rolled her eyes to her son with a gentle smile. Henry smiled back but after observing her appearance also, did realise that Regina was probably right. Much to the saviour's annoyance, he agreed with his other mother in the fact that she did look tired and should take some time off of her many responsibilities.

"Are you two quite finished?" Emma asked with raised eyebrows. "Because mom and dad are coming over soon and I need to go make us some dinner." Before anyone could protest, she got up and grumpily left the room.

Henry looked at his other parent with a confused expression. "What's going on with her?" Isla came over and sat on the floor, also confused by the current turn of events. Her mom had been in a great mood before.

"You know what she's like," Regina said to her son. "She loves making herself exhausted by doing everything for everyone by herself."

"You do that too, mom," Henry raised an eyebrow knowingly.

"Yes, well, it's Emma right now. And we need to take care of her, okay?"

Both Isla and Henry nodded. They knew that this little argument should definitely stay between their parents. When they got involved with domestic debates, it never went well. Their mothers were strong minded to say the least.

"Right, I'm going to go give her a hand." Regina looked to her son. "Would you like me to take Max? He might need changing." Henry nodded and got up, maneuvering the baby back into her arms.

"I'm gonna go play video games upstairs," he announced. At Isla's pleading look, he smiled and added, "you wanna come?" She nodded enthusiastically and soon enough they were heading upstairs. Henry didn't really want to leave her with them anyway, this little tiff could easily expand into a little Swan-Mills warfare knowing his moms.

Cradling their snuggly baby in her arms, Regina raised his body so she could plant a quick kiss on his head. He still had that clean baby smell and she adored it. She knew it wouldn't last long. "Right, baby. Shall we go see mommy?" she hummed. It amused her that the boy didn't even stir. He could sleep through anything.

Regina headed into the kitchen and upon seeing her wife's back to her (as she stirred something on the kitchen hob), she walked to the woman and planted a kiss just beneath her ear. She planted another slightly higher and Emma instantly smiled (it was one of her weak spots and they both knew it), swiveling around to kiss the woman properly. Emma moved as close as she could without leaning against the baby at all and took her lips against hers. Emma cupped her wife's jaw with her free hand as they kissed and left it there for a further moment once they'd pulled away.

"Feeling better, dear?" Regina asked.

"I'm fine," Emma sighed, though fairly happily this time. Her whole demeanor- shoulders hung, head slightly drooping, sore looking eyes- all screamed exhaustion. Regina hated nagging the woman for anything really, but it upset her to see her looking so deflated. Especially if it was preventable.

"I love you," Regina pecked her lips, "but you're not. And you being so defiant about it is making me more concerned than before. You've looked this terrible for days, Emma."

"Gee thanks," the woman's smile dropped to a scowl.

Regina used her free hand to cup her cheek. "You know what I mean. Is there a reason you aren't allowing yourself any rest?"

The saviour shook her head, still allowing her hand to remain there though. She sighed as she said, "I just don't want you to get tired."

Regina's mouth gaped open. "You're doing this for me?"

Feeling rumbled by herself, Emma pulled the sauce pot away from the heat and turned back to face her with crossed arms. She uncrossed them to run her hands back through her hair. "I've just been so worried we'd both get stressed and fight. Kind of like what we're doing now actually."

Regina sat down on one of the kitchen counter stools and adjusted Max so that his head rested on his shoulder, her free hand cradling it from behind. "Darling, you don't have to do this. Emma, we have three children, we've been through far more stressful situations than Christmas, what makes you think we suddenly can't handle it?"

"I'm just being insecure, okay. Happy?"

"No," Regina frowned, she wasn't happy. It suddenly struck her where these feelings could have rooted from. "It's what you said in the hospital isn't it." Emma didn't say anything so she continued, "you're afraid our whole family is going to break down with the stress somehow. You were worried it would be too much." Tears of concern came to her eyes at the thought that her wife had been feeling this way and not spoken to her about it. She hated the thought of Emma sufferring; at all. After putting their son securely in the kitchen table baby seat, she went and enclosed her arms around Emma.

"I know it's crazy," is all Emma could say. She held Regina tightly, revelling in the feeling of their soft jumpers adding to the warmth. Her arms always brought Emma home. Any of her children's really. When things felt off, all she needed was a family member's embrace and she felt safe again, home.

"It's not crazy, my love. God, Emma. I love you so much. We all do. So, so much." She rested their foreheads together. "I'll say this as many times as you need me too. We all will. We're not going anywhere. We're here and we're yours, my dear. We're your family."

Emma felt borderline psychotic at how much she'd needed that. Of course her family loved her. She knew that. There was always just a niggling feeling that everything could just fall. This was the longest time she'd ever had so many people stay in her life. Hell, it was the longest relationship of her life. She knew she had reason to be a little scared, she just wished she wasn't. "Thank you," she said quietly, irritated by the emotional crack in her voice. "I know i'm being crazy."

Regina shook her head immediately and gently raised her chin so she'd meet her eye. "You're not being crazy, Emma. It's okay to be afraid. Just don't shut me out. We can help each other with these things."

Emma planted a kiss on her forehead with a gentle smile. "It's ridiculous how much I love you, Regina."

"Show me later," Regina gave a devilish smirk. It faltered as she glanced back towards their sleeping child. "That's if he decides he's no longer nocturnal. And actually," she shook her head to herself. "You're not showing me later. You're sleeping."

Emma rolled her eyes with a smile and then walked over to him. "There's our little neglected baby," she grinned. She was pleasantly surprised as he chose that moment to awaken. His tiny face contorted from a fairly neutral expression to deeply unimpressed in an instant. He began cry loudly and Emma pulled him up into her arms. "I know," she rocked him. "I don't like being woken up either. I'm sorry." He continued to cry and she rocked him while looking over at Regina.

The brunette smiled sympathetically at their baby and retrieved the breast pump from the cupboard, praying Emma would use it and be able to sleep tonight. "Will you let me look after you from now on, please? So you can actually sleep for a change?"

Emma nodded with a gentle smile. "Fineee." As Max broke out into a fresh wave of wails, she resumed her rocking, realising she must have stopped. "I know, I'm sorry, baby boy."

"Can we swap?" Regina asked, holding the pump. Emma groaned and nodded. She much preferred the baby. They did as planned and Emma took a couple of baby bottles from the cupboard and sterilised them whilst her wife rocked the child. Once finished, she took them into the other room and Regina went to change the boy, realising it was probably the cause of his upset.

"I'm gonna whoop your ass at this," Henry said confidently as he loaded Mario Kart on his Wii. It certainly wasn't his most preferred game, or even preferred console, but it was the only one in which was Isla-appropriate so that is what they would play.

"Henry, you're not allowed to say that word," she whined.

"You're such a nerd!" he grinned as they began playing.

"Ugh!" she shoved him, quickly retrieving her remote so as she wouldn't fall off the edge of the Rainbow Road. Trust her brother to choose the hardest track for them. She wasn't stupid, she knew it was the worst.

Henry laughed smugly as Isla's Luigi did just that, and fell from the course. She scowled at him (mostly jokingly) and resumed her playing once she'd been returned to the track. "You're so annoying," she said grumpily.

"Nah."

"Just because you prefer Max..." She challenged him.

Henry glanced at her for a moment. "What makes you think I prefer Max? He can't even speak?"

She shrugged, eyes glued to the screen. She laughed triumphantly as his Mario slid from the track and he lost a life.

"Isla, I don't know if you're just saying that to distract me into falling off but I honestly don't prefer him. I don't have favourites."

She ignored him again to concentrate on the colourful hell her character was embarking on, moaning fiercely as her brother paused the game. "Henry!"

"I wanna talk to you!"

"What!"

Henry laughed then at how annoyed she'd become. She couldn't help but smile too and she shoved him again, more playful this time. She said more calmly, "What?"

"You're still my sister, Isla. Despite Max's new...existence. We've still had all of our years hanging out together you know?"

"Stop being an adult and just get to the point, Henry..." she said cheekily.

He raised his eyebrows for a moment and resumed what he was going to say. "He hasn't replaced you. For anyone. Our mom's still love you just as much. And me too, okay?"

"Yes!" She groaned. "Will you press play now?"

He smirked and nodded, doing so and falling off immediately as he hadn't mentally prepared himself for a change in road direction quickly enough.

With sighs of relief, they finally finished the course; coming in 7th and 8th... Henry only laughed before selecting another one. The faintly raised voices they'd heard downstairs had now dimmed to nothing. He wondered if they'd sorted their odd disagreement out. Emma being tired wasn't really a fight-worthy topic in his opinion but he didn't know if that was all it was. The pair often didn't let on things they were going through for the sake of Isla and well, supposedly him. They seemed to forget that he was seventeen years old and extremely perceptive. He'd also found in his years of observing them that their fights were occasionally far more complex than they were letting on. They fought fairly rarely now, certainly more rarely than when they'd first met, but they were occasionally quite explosive when they did. He didn't worry though, he knew how crazy they still were about each other. Going into their room unannounced too many times in the past few months had certainly confirmed that. The thought alone made him grimace.

Apparently Isla was thinking of their parents also as she suddenly asked, "you think they're okay?"

He focussed on dropping a banana on the kart behind him before nodding. "Yeah. They always sort themselves out. You know that."

"Why do you think they argued so much just then?"

She was mainly referring to their raised voices. "They're just tired. Things will be fine, I promise." His sister didn't respond and he looked over to see her devilishly smiling at the screen. He followed her gaze to see that she was being carried by the flying bullet halfway around her lap. She screamed triumphantly as she finished in 1st.

Mary Margaret and David arrived an hour or so later and gave their daughter, daughter-in-law and their family their Christmas presents. Henry cheerfully put them under the tree. Under Regina's instruction, Isla gave them their presents proudly and her grandparents hugged her thankfully in response.

As they all filtered into the kitchen, Isla watched with relief as her mother quickly gave her other mother a casual chaste kiss. The brunette parent smiled in response before turning back around to plate up their dinner. The girl hopped up onto her seat and gave a big smile to Emma.

"...Yes?" Emma asked with a nervous smile. Mary Margaret looked over with amusement as she sat down. David was at the other side of the table cooing over Max.

"I'm just happy you two are happy," Isla nodded to her mother cheerfully.

Emma noticed her mother's furrowed brow to the left of Isla. "We had a little argument earlier," she explained, looking back at her daughter too for a moment.

"You did? What about?"

David was listening also by this point. Henry was at the other side of the room helping Regina with assembling the dinner and drinks.

"Regina wants me to take it easy. I protested and we argued a little."

"A little?" Regina challenged her with a raised eyebrow.

"Moms..." Henry warned them.

Emma shook her head with a smirk. "Okay, we argued quite a bit. But Regina is obviously fabulous and helped me see the light so we're in agreement now."

"Well said, dear," Regina smirked and planted a kiss to her head on her way past.

Henry came over and sat down. Emma watched as her daughter gave him a not-so-subtle thumbs up. "Were you two talking about us before?" she asked her eldest children.

The teenager nodded, adjusting his jumper for a moment with his fingertips. His was blue with a snowy village scene on the front. "Just airing our concerns," he smirked. "Over Mario Kart..."

"You two do that?" Regina asked. "Why don't you talk to us about your concerns?"

Emma raised her eyebrows. "Do you two keep secrets together?"

Isla widened her eyes and bit her lip. Her and Henry had broken many things in the past and kept it a secret together. Isla always went to him when she'd done something wrong hoping he'd find a way to cover it up. It often worked and it resulted in them having tons of secrets.

Seeing his granddaughter's sudden panic, David smiled. "Emma, they're allowed their secrets," he said. "We all know you've probably not told us all of yours."

"Hey!" she challenged. Henry smirked, loving how this had been turned around on her.

"I just had character, okay? Some things are better left unsaid."

Regina raised her eyebrows at that, wondering whether it was something which had been shared with her before or not. She was just curious now. As was Henry judging by his raised eyebrows.

"Anyway," Regina said loudly, noticing Emma's rouge cheeks. "I hope you two appreciate our jumpers,"she addressed her apparent 'in-laws'. It still felt weird considering them in that way. It gave her a headache to think of all their family ties.

David chuckled as he looked around, properly taking them all in. "They're lovely. We appreciate the effort." Mary Margaret smiled in agreement.

For the next hour or so the group chatted happily amongst themselves as they ate, occasionally laughing at their various recent misfortunes. A prime example being Pongo trying to run again once Emma had retrieved him and the dog pulling her over into a large heap of mud. 'I was just thankful it was only mud!' She had said, a fresh eruption of laughter breaking out.

After dinner was finished, the group all had some of Regina's famous apple turnover. The brunette always got a raised eyebrow from Emma at that one. They drank mulled wine, even allowing Henry to have a small cup. Isla was sadly restricted to only hot blackcurrant.

The moon shone high in the dark sky and it was almost midnight now. Their guests had returned home and everyone was in their beds, Isla and Henry happily thinking about the number of sleeps until Christmas. Even Max had fallen asleep at an appropriate time. They'd managed to keep him up all evening at the hope that he'd sleep later.

Regina lay with Emma curled into her side. She savoured her evening snuggles with the woman. They had significantly less time together now and they were both missing on another's company. Eleven p.m onwards was their only real time alone together now. They'd known this would be the case from the very first moment Regina fell pregnant with Isla so they certainly didn't hold it against their children- they adored their babies, immensely. Even the seventeen year old. They just occasionally missed how much time they used to have with one another when it was just the three of them; either screwing up or saving their town together on a day-to-day basis.

Emma traced shapes on Regina's stomach. She'd managed to subtly sneak her hand under her pyjama top and now the action was too comforting for Regina to want to reprimand her for it. With a soft hum, Emma said, "thank you for doing all the cooking tonight. You really could have let me help."

Regina shook her head and planted a kiss to her wife's forehead. "It's nothing, dear. I'm just glad you finally got to relax a little."

"You're beyond perfect," Emma sighed happily against her chest.

Regina blushed and smiled. "We both know that's not true, dear."

The saviour leaned up and took her lips. She rested their foreheads together once they'd pulled away. "No, I mean it. You know I mean it."

Regina nodded her head softly against her. "I know you do."

Emma looked at her deep brown eyes. Regina's astounding beauty still struck her. "I love you so much."

"I love you too, my darling. Now get some rest, dear," she smiled. The saviour stretched her body before nestling even closer to her. They could hear the gentle snores of their son sleeping in his cot. They couldn't wait to spend their first Christmas with him. They couldn't believe they'd added another beautiful addition to their family. They were so blessed.

"Can I have one more kiss?" Emma asked quietly. Regina grinned and nodded, leaning down to take her lips one last time before sleep attempted to steal them both.

The last thing Emma heard before submitting to slumber was the Storybrooke clock tower chime midnight.