Outlaw Queen Baby

Finally

"In, out. In. Out." Zelena repeated. "Come on, sis. Keep it going," she said firmly. "In through your nose, out through your mouth."

"I'm trying." Regina moaned. Again, didn't count as moaning, it was talking.

"No talking," Zelena scolded. "Breathe."

Regina rolled her eyes so hard she thought they might stick in the back of her head. She could most certainly talk and breathe at the same time. She'd been doing it her entire life. Plus, if she talked during a contraction she could moan without feeling bad about it.

Regina let out a deep exhale when the contraction faded away. Finally some relief. She pushed herself away from the mattress so she was standing upright. She wanted to move, to walk around while she still could. She cringed a little with her first step but pushed through and continued to move. She was not going to let the pain overpower her.

"Do you want a shadow?" Zelena asked when her sister started to move away from her. She didn't want to intrude, but also didn't want to just sit back and watch. She wanted to help, but she didn't want to be in the way. She needed to find the happy medium. She knew Regina wasn't keen on the idea of accepting help from others. The feeling of weakness was one neither of them enjoyed.

"Not particularly." Regina mumbled with a scrunch of her face. "I would feel strange having you follow me around my bedroom."

"That's fair." Zelena said with a nod of her head before she sat on the edge of the bed.

"Earlier, you said there's something wrong with magic?" Regina asked to change the subject, and to distract herself.

"Yeah. Can't you," she held her hand up then clenched it into a fist, "feel it?"  

Regina closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was trying to summon a small amount of magic, just enough to spark her fingertips. Nothing. It felt like the air was flat. "No," she shook her head, "actually, I can't."

"That's what I mean. It's like it's just," Zelena paused to wave her hand in the air, "gone."

"What could do that?" Regina questioned, brow furrowed.

Zelena shrugged, "that would be a question to ask the Dark One."

There were a number of things that could explain the disappearance of magic, but with no investigating into it they would both only be guessing.

Regina scrunched her face up and shot a hand to the bottom of her stomach. "That's something I'll have to take care of later," she strained out, "when I'm not in the middle of-" deep breath, "the worst pain I've ever felt!" She could feel her voice getting higher with every word she spoke. She needed to just stop talking and breathe. If she kept talking the end result would have been a scream.

She bent her knees a little and crouched down. With her free hand she reached out for Zelena, she needed someone to help steady her. And she really needed something to squeeze.

"We do seem to have a more pressing matter on our hands," Zelena agreed as she rushed over to her sister. "This little ones coming pretty fast."

Regina was contracting at a very fast rate after her water broke, about every minute now by Zelena's watch. It wouldn't be long now.

She walked behind Regina and took both of her hands on either side of her body to pull her back into her chest. "Relax back and give me your weight," she said into her ear. "I've got you."

"Deep in through your nose then blow it out of your mouth," Zelena said in a calm steady voice, "nice and steady."

She was trying, really she was, but it was hard to keep steadily breathing. After every puff of air out of her mouth she waited a moment before she drew another. The amount of tightening in her stomach was reaching the point that she thought it was going to swallow her whole. It felt like everything inside her was being tightly compressed until the point that it turned to dust, much like what would happen when she squeezed a heart in her hand. She needed whatever force that was gripping her stomach to stop, if only just for a second, she just needed a moment's relief. Sadly, her wish was not granted. Her pain only intensified. She was thankful for her sisters tight hold on her, because as the pain became worse her legs gave out and she could no longer hold herself up on them. The sharp pain had her thighs quaking and her knees buckling. She wanted to drop to the ground and curl into a ball with her pain. Zelena wouldn't let her.