"Was it the boiled leaves or fried rabbit carcass?'

Regina delicately wipes the corner of her mouth with a handkerchief before sneering at it in disgust. "Excuse me?"

Emma crosses her arms, and raises a brow at her once nemesis. "You've thrown up at least twice in the past fourty-five minutes."

Regina fixes Emma with a glare that could probably wipe out an entire army. And who knows, maybe it had in the past. The past that's still pretty elusive to Emma besides pictures in a storybook that doesn't even refer to Regina by name in favor of her moniker. She shifts her weight from one side to the next, and offers Regina a hand up, which she decidedly ignores.

"I'm perfectly fine, Ms. Swan." She retorts and stocks forward, ever the solid, stoic queen. Which would be fine, if Emma didn't know how much stress she's been in, they'd all been, and the fact that she'd been through an electroshock machine almost to the point of death. And there's one thing Emma's come to realize in this whole Neverland adventure: they needRegina alive and well if they're ever going to make it.

A more terrifying thought is that perhaps she needs Regina too. That they're better as a team than they ever were as bitter enemies. So instead of shrugging this off and saving it for another rousing campfire, she reaches forward and lightly grasps Regina's upper arm.

"Ms. Swan." Regina warns.

"We've started to refer to Henry as 'ours.' And you've already called meEmma before. I think we're on first name basis."

Regina sighs, and it's a long, frustrated, ancient sigh. Like Regina's just….tired. Of fighting her way through everything, of others demanding something of her she doesn't know she can give. She turns to Emma with those bright eyes, lips pursed, and moves her arm out of Emma's grasp.

"I don't know about you, Emma, but I'd rather not get captured by lost boys while discussing trivial matters, such as a simple upset stomach that I can easily do away with magic when we're at a safer location to perform it." Her eyes are blazing, and it's only because Emma is contemplating her warm breath that she realizes just how close they'd become. She opens her mouth to say something, tries to move her feet to a safer location, but Regina speaks again. This time, her lips curve up into a familiar smirk.

"Or are you so afraid of magic, like your imbecilic, goodly mommy and daddy that you think I'll somehow turn back into an Evil Queen?" Emma feels the usual knot of annoyance in her stomach, as well as her face and collarbones warming for entirely different reasons–she'd come to think of it as the thrill, the only reasonable way she could think of describing the bit of enjoyment she gets with spats with Regina.

After a few deep breaths, she takes a step back.

"We're going to battle with Pan, soon, Regina, and if you're sick-"

"Just drop it, Ms. Swan. I am not ill, and I can take care of the problem myself."

"There could be a leaf nearby that you could chew on till we get back to camp? I heard Mary Margaret discussing something like that back in my unplanned fieldtrip to the Enchanted Forest."

Regina scoffs. "Do I look like I have extensive knowledge of the flora in Neverland?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Drop it." And before Emma can say anything else, Regina turns around and stalks ahead, letting the leaves in front of her hit Emma in the face with a smack.

Emma sighs wearily, and wonders just exactly why she suddenly cares.

If Regina throws up again, she'll bring it up later.

Regina does.

Twice more, and after each time she fixes Emma with a knowing glare.

She'll gently ask Mary Margaret to lay off the Neverland spices in the boiled leaf stew next time.

The next day, and Emma's sure it isn't the leaves. Or that Regina's sick. Her skin doesn't have a sickly pallor, in fact it's sort of glowy. Not quite glowing, but her cheeks are flushed in a healthy way, as opposed to feverish.

When Regina holds her head during another patrol, sways a bit on her feet, and just announces to the others that she's fine, Emma starts to wonder further. And when Hook quietly takes her place in the next patrol–much to her chagrin, as he either leans in lecherously at every chance he gets–Emma starts to get suspicious.

She's not quite sure what she's suspicious of, the knowledge is sitting just underneath her tongue, until she glances over at Regina just as her hand comes up to rest on her chest, her face held in a grimace, and Emma has a flashback to doing that same action in prison while….

…Hell no.

It takes a lot of courage, but they don't call Emma the Savior for nothing.

(Again, she wonders why she cares so much.)

(For Henry, she reminds herself. This affects Henry too, and therefore her.)

(Right.)

She corners Regina two days after that puke-y patrol, and mentally wrings her hands together. The action ends up being Emma jamming her hands her pockets for a second, before chancing a glance at an impatient Regina

Regina's arms cross. "Is there any reason why you need to have whatever this conversation is in lieu of coming up with the plan to save our son?" She punctuates the "our," surely to make Emma jump, and feel guilt building, and yeah, it works a little bit. She takes another breath, and then decides to get right to the point.

"Are you pregnant?"

Regina starts and she puts on an angry front, but for a moment her face falls, and her eyes look stricken, and Emma has her answer. Her eyes widen, and her voice holds nothing short of awestruck wonder, and slight horror.

"You are."

Regina lets out a breath, and the stricken expression comes back. She shifts her arms so that they're wrapped around her waist. Like she's holding herself.

Emma wracks her brain, and even contemplates pulling her hair. "But…how?Who could you even have….? I mean you have my Dad, I mean, David-" Emma shudders.

"Not even in your most horrifying nightmare, dear."

Emma lets out a sigh of relief. Oh thank god. No need to complicate the family tree–or family dramas–further.

"Or….Hook?"

Regina blanches and sniffs. "I wouldn't touch that filthy mongrel with a ten foot pole."

Emma throws up her hands. "Then who? And furthermore, how?" She's aware she's sounding shrill, but this just makes no sense. And Emma's had it up to here with things making absolutely no sense. Regina's eyes darken then, and she stalks forward, and suddenly they're almost nose to nose again, Regina's lips curled into a dangerous snarl.

"I don't know, Emma. If you want answers, like I've been trying to find for the past five days, you'll have to contact the closest all-knowing being, because I don't know, and I still don't know if that's exactly what it is, because as you've said it makes little to no sense. And frankly, it's none of your business."

She steps back again, and Emma deflates. No, it isn't her business. If Regina wants to deal with this later, and herself, of course she can. But this is going to affect everything whether Regina wants it to or not. Their plans for the rescue mission, battling pan, Henry, so Emma's…going to have to ask some more tough questions. Whether she wants to her or not, and seeing the panic in Regina's eyes, beyond the anger, she really doesn't want to.

"Alright, that….that doesn't matter right now. What matters is what you're going to do about it."

Regina holds herself again. "Like I said two days ago, Emma. I will keep the nausea settled with magic, and will formally 'deal with it' once we're off this forsaken island, Henry with us."

Emma moves to speak again, but Regina lifts up a hand. "I'm aware that I've seemed tired lately, and that is why I've given the patrols to Hook. I know I need my strength, and I will be fine for the battle."

Emma crosses her arms. "Alright, but-"

"Pregnant women-" She pauses on the word, and it seems like she's even testing the word out in her mouth. "Are not delicate flowers, Ms. Swan. If I even am…that." She says, her voice harsh on the last word.

"Alright." Emma says, and it's calmer now. "Look, I've been pregnant. I know. I went through hell while I was carrying Henry, but it was a decidedly different hell than omnipotent psychopathic teenagers running a magical island of mindfuckery and deathly booby-traps. So just, be careful. And please tell me if it will really affect our current plans to take down Pan." She puts a hand on Regina's shoulder, and Regina looks at it carefully, considering it, before meeting Emma's eyes meaningfully, nodding at Emma's probably concerned expression.

Regina removes Emma's hand, but holds it a moment longer than necessary.

"I will. And like I said, it could still be a simple ailment. It mostly is." She sounds like she's convincing herself. Emma rubs the back of her neck, working out a crick, and gestures towards camp.

"We should probably get back. They'll most likely think we've slaughtered each other."

Regina's amused smirk is small, but present. "Probably." She agrees. Her expression then turns darker again. "And Ms. Swan, if youtell anyone about this, especially your mother-"

"Yeah, yeah, you'll destroy me if it's the last thing you do. I've got your number, Madam Mayor. Your Majesty."

Regina's smile is wider this time, and she stalks ahead of Emma.

"Just Regina is fine, dear. After all we're on first name basis, now."

"You got it, Madam Mayor."

There's a shake of a head, and Emma finds herself with a wry grin, even as fear and doubt churn in her stomach. Like Regina, she convinces herself it's probably just a bug. A bug that Regina can fix, or tamper down with magic. Because if it is pregnancy, she has no idea what it'll mean. Or why it matters so much to her what it'll mean.

She takes a shuddering breath and returns to camp, her heart heavy, her confused thoughts not even the slightest bit cleared. She shakes them away as she approaches her parents, Regina, Hook, Neal, a roaring fire.

Henry. Henry. That's who she needs to focus on, and that's all she'll focus on until he's alive and well and in her arms.

A/N: From a prompt by mayhemprincess on tumblr.