Author's Note: I believe this completes the "Birth" series, begun oh so long ago.

I Was Changed For Good (aka Birth 7)

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Emma eased away from the kiss, watching Regina's face for any sign of rejection. The brunette's eyes were closed. Boldly, Emma traced her thumb along the full soft lips. Long dark lashes fluttered and slowly lids lifted to reveal dazed brown.

Moisture gathered in the brown eyes. Emma licked her lips, begging her brain for what to say. She couldn't interpret the emotions as Regina's eyes darted between hers.

"Regina, I -"

An alarm bugled from somewhere.

As Emma rolled back onto her feet to track the source, Regina cradled Jenna to her chest and stood.

"Time to go," she said, and her voice sounded hoarse.

"I'll get the car," Emma said.

She hurried to the driveway while Regina gathered Jenna's things. Alone for the moment, Emma inhaled and exhaled, settling the roiling turmoil in her stomach that still lingered after their kiss.

There was a possibility, she thought. Maybe, just maybe, she and Regina could fix this and become the family Emma wanted to be.

Just as she was finishing checking the security of the belt catches holding the baby seat in the car, Regina appeared, walking down the front cobblestones to buckle Jenna into it.

It was a silent moment; Emma leaned back, and Regina leaned forward. Emma rested her hand on the small of Regina's back. There was a small shiver of the muscles, but the brunette did not move away until Jenna was secured in the safety seat.

As Regina straightened and turned, Emma pulled back her hand and walked quickly around to the driver side. Regina only watched a moment before slowly lowering herself into the passenger seat. Click. Click.

When Emma looked up from securing her belt, Regina was holding out the vehicle's key. Their fingers lingered in the exchange. Emma tried a smile, nervously swallowing back the lump that threatened to choke her until tears spilled.

She fumbled the key into the ignition.

Regina's hand rested on the center console padding. It migrated onto Emma's elbow when the blond put it there to turn and look out the back window to back the car down the driveway.

Emma's face held its tiny smile, pleased to be driving her family to the doctor. She didn't realize, until she went to add her right hand to the motion to steer into the hospital parking lot, that her fingers had intertwined with Regina's during the short ride.

A soft buzz of magic skittered up her arm and lodged in her chest.

She turned quickly away, flexing her fingers on the steering wheel and studying them as she maneuvered the Mercedes into a space. Once in park, she turned to pass the key back to Regina only to see the brunette studying her hands. Her downcast expression was too easy to read. Emma knew the answer, so she didn't bother to voice the question.

It was still only Emma's magic; Regina's had not returned.

Emma stepped out, sincerely wishing that Regina's magic would return, just so she could see a genuine smile from the other woman once again.

"I'd give mine to you if I could," she said.

Regina sighed, flexed her fingers, and quickly exited the car. Emma had Jenna in her arms before she could turn around, once more collected and her emotions safely tucked away.

"We're late," Regina said.

Emma said nothing as she followed Regina inside the hospital.

Whale was waiting for them. He started to direct Emma, with Jenna, to follow the nurse for Jenna's pediatric checkup. But Emma handed off the baby the second his hand landed on Regina's shoulder accompanied by a quiet, and gravely voiced, "Regina, this way."

Brown eyes studied her. Emma let her walls down, a silent plea for Regina to do the same, to let her in, to let her help.

Regina neither said neither no nor yes. She looked from Emma to Whale then turned for the door where they had been heading, walking away from both of them.

Emma followed first, followed by a querulous Whale.

Regina's hands went clammy at the sight of the scanning device Whale intended to use. It looked too much like… "No," she said firmly, stopping in the middle of the corridor outside the window of the room.

"It's the only thing we haven't tried," Whale stated. His voice wasn't cold, she admitted, but he didn't know - couldn't know - what was going through her mind: Owen, Tamara, so much pain.

"No," Emma's voice surprised Regina. "There's always another option." The solidarity from Emma made Regina let out a small breath of relief.

"There is nothing else. Regina, from all indications your heart is deteriorating - rapidly. This is the only way we can really look at it to find out why."

"Emma could take it out," Regina said suddenly.

Emma looked panicked at the mere suggestion.

"I will teach you."

"And I could kill you. No," Emma replied. "Just… let me go first? I'll check it out."

Regina locked eyes with Emma, watching the blonde the entire time as a medical technician helped Emma lay down on the table - no straps, thank god. The machinery whirred to life, the sound racing Regina's heart as she waited breathlessly. When the technician gave the all clear, Regina pushed past him to be at Emma's side helping her sit up.

The tingle between their fingers soothed Regina and Emma both. Emma wasn't too brave to admit that it had felt just a tad claustrophobic. But it had not been painful.

Regina gingerly lay down. Her fingers twined with Emma's. She felt Emma squeeze her fingers in reassurance, then slowly slip away. Staring at the ceiling, Regina heard Emma's boots on the parquet as she took a step back.

The machine surged to life, whirring, and then spitting sparks.

Emma yelled, "No!"

Regina's body flashed with energy. Shutting her eyes, she saw the edges of the darkness turn green, then all the lights went out, plunging the room into pitch blackness, and the machines grinded to abrupt silence.

Suddenly, Emma was there. A hand on Regina's foot, then her thigh, then her waist, and finally finding her hands. A squeeze was returned with another. Regina was tugged upright into a warm body, embraced hip to shoulder. She shook violently, shuttling between fear and relief.

The room's emergency lighting finally engaged. Regina clung to Emma, unwilling to let go and, feeling the way Emma rubbed her back, Regina realized the blonde felt the same.

Their eyes stayed closed, absorbing the contact and calm after the fright. Something slammed and they jolted apart to stare at Whale storming in through the doorway.

"What the hell was this?" he demanded, drawing to a confused halt, hands outstretched to his side.

Regina rubbed her eyes. The edges of her vision were shaded in golden color.

No. Wait. She looked down at herself, out at Whale, then over at Emma.

She and Emma glowed a deep golden color. Her hands flexed on Emma's arms in

surprise.

Reaching out, Regina felt the satiny separation as her fingers slipped through what appeared to be a veil of magic; where it stopped she felt tingles. The tips of her fingers were not golden outside the effect, and the golden glow seemed to collect and drip from her palm and fingers as she turned her hand.

Emma reached for her hand, drawing it back, mute in confusion.

Regina's hand retreated; she brought it to her chest as she felt the rhythm of her heart shift.

Emma's hand intercepted hers, there, over her left breast. Their gazes met and held.

Victor gasped in surprise when their two hands slipped out of sight inside Regina's chest. She closed her eyes, but Emma bent forward quickly, kissing her hard on the lips, and her eyes popped open again to see their hands together lift her heart from her chest.

"It's not like the others I've seen," Emma said. "Aurora's. Henry's."

It definitely wasn't as Regina herself recalled, having pulled it out to show Tink in Neverland. The mottled blackness was not entirely gone, but the red was rich. It kind of reminded Regina of a bruised apple. But it wasn't entirely red either. It was shot through with throbbing, pulsing veins of gold.

Emma captured Regina's lips again with soothing, soft kisses as her hand slipped the heart back inside behind Regina's ribs.

Regina spoke low, disbelieving, against Emma's shoulder as Emma folded her more tightly into her embrace. "It's not possible. It has to be some kind of…"

"It's totally possible," Emma whispered. "And yeah, it's magic. You wanna pull it out again and look at it? It's beautiful, Regina, just like Jenna."

She nuzzled Regina's cheek with her nose and whispered in her ear as tears streamed down both their faces.

"Just like you."

Regina felt her fingers tingling as she slid her hands down Emma's arms to clutch at her hands. "Let's go home?" she asked, feeling a trickle of trepidation at what she was about to attempt.

"Let's find Jenna," Emma affirmed with a blanket of trust in her voice which Regina hadn't been certain she'd ever feel wrap around her again.

Regina thought of her daughter - their daughter - and smiled as she felt her magic take hold of both of them, envelop them in gold and lavender swirls, and release them in the pediatric wing of Storybrooke Hospital.

The nurse holding Jenna on the exam bed for the pediatric specialist looked over her shoulder, a frown the only reaction to seeing the child's mothers appear only two feet away in a cloud of golden magic.

Emma silently applauded the woman's aplomb; she herself still disliked traveling this way.

But the smile on Regina's face made her collect Jenna and step back to Regina's side. "Take us home?"

The brunette wrapped one arm around Emma's lower back, and brushed Jenna's dark hair back from her eyes. The golden veil surrounded them again. Emma bent her head against Regina's and closed her eyes. "Home," Regina murmured and closed her eyes. The golden cloud shot through with lavender reappeared.

When it dissipated, they stood in the parking lot, about six feet from the Mercedes.

"I'm not leaving without my car," Regina chuckled, when she saw Emma's surprise. The brunette removed her keys from her purse and opened the doors. Emma laughed as she put Jenna in her car seat and then slipped into the passenger seat, buckling in.

Regina slid behind the driver's wheel; their hands entwined on the center console.

The play of the magic between them was sparks and swirls of gold and lavender. Jenna giggled at the sight. Emma and Regina turned back to smile at their daughter. It was, indeed, their magic.

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