WHO:SwanFire WHEN:Feb 16th; WHERE: Their home WHAT: Post-Babyscan cuteness and serious decision making. RATING/WARNINGS: Nada STATUS: Complete
Emma had, objectively, been somewhat apprehensive about the twenty week scan. She hadn’t found out what Henry was, really she had been too preoccupied with other things, like how off kilter her life had been at that time. But it seemed like something they should know -for naming the baby, planning the nursery, just Henry getting that information too.
Opting to find out the sex seemed like a given just a few months into the pregnancy too. Because there was so much planning involved in this that Emma might not have been fully prepared for to start with but was absolutely loving every minute of so far. It brought her to the nursery, the empty room they’d cleared out with the intention of decorating for the baby, Emma sitting herself on the floor with baby scan in hand (she still occasionally lost the baby and had to squint to work out where the head was again), trying to picture a theme.
She’d already been on numerous websites to try and find things, looking up different ideas and then laughing at the possibility of a Snow White and the Seven Dwarves theme.
Wouldn’t suit for a boy anyway.
Because a boy. Another little baby boy. Henry was over the moon, and even the likelihood of her being outnumbered in a house full of boys wasn’t even to deter her.
The nursery had been primed for a theme and cheery, bright colors - as in, Neal (with Caleb’s help) had cleaned the room out already, washed the walls down, and spackled holes that needed the treatment. Previously, the space acted as sort of a guest room - he and Emma shared theirs next door, and Henry had his superhero, New York skylined-theme room down the hall. He even had his own bathroom so there was plenty of space, something that Neal had a feeling would come in handy as Henry entered those precarious teenage years and the new baby arrived.
A baby boy, and Henry had responded with no shortage of ‘told you so!’ exclamations - therefore he won the bet with Regina, whatever the stakes were. The Truest Believer strikes again, or maybe it was just a really good coincidence. Either way, Neal was pretty over the moon too. Still sort of on cloud nine, he walked into the now-empty room, a stack of baby nursery theme books in one hand, a pint of ice cream in the other, spoon already stuck in it.
The books were supposed to help you create your ‘dream nursery,’ and had tips and ideas - he’d ordered them from Amazon, while he’d been ordering other interior design-related products for Regina. The ice cream was just because, well, Emma usually always craved it. “Does the scan still look like a blob to you?” he asked. “Because it sort of does to me, but it’s the cutest blob.”
“I think I know where his head is,” and wasn’t it nice to be able to assign the gender now? Emma had gotten a little insane using a genderless pronoun. “But I’m not convinced about the whole ‘and this is his penis’, because yeah. Really cute blob.” But maybe that just happened sometimes, and the baby was still developing. Although Emma was quite obviously pregnant now, the paunch on her tummy clearly a baby bump -and Emma was already sick of the cooing at her tummy.
Grinning at the offer of ice cream, because she had moved from her outlandish pizza cravings to the need for ice cream almost all day every day, and thank God they lived in California. “I’m not convinced that he’s not going to come out a little yeti from all the ice cream I’m eating.” But she wasn’t about to turn that down either.
“And your son wants to name him after more super heroes.” And that was where Emma drew the line, because she’d read a few of his comics now, and they weren’t calling the child Colossus or Iceman, jokingly or not.
“It’s frozen yogurt, I think? Technically?” Neal chuckled, because he didn’t even really see the difference between ice cream and frozen yogurt - it was all cold, creamy, and flavored so it fell under the same category. “I’m shocked that you don’t like ‘Thor Cassidy’ as a name though.”
Yeah, not happening. Sorry Henry.
He settled on the floor next to his lady, with Neal lying on his stomach to lounge like a lizard and flip through a few baby books, maybe to get some nursery ideas. They were stumped on that too but now that ‘hey, there’s his penis’ had been confirmed, it was time to start making decisions. “Man, this is tough. The Snow White theme’s definitely out. So’s the Neverland theme.” There were a lot of things he could contemplate - that wasn’t one of them.
Thor Cassidy, not likely. Setting the poor little guy up for a downfall there. But then Emma was still going through the list of a million names in her head trying to figure one out that she could see giving to a kid for his whole life.
“It’s all the same to me,” really it was, good treats and yummy soft icy goodness. She was surprised her stomach wasn’t getting upset from all the sugar she was consuming. “You think this counts as fruit too?” It was strawberry flavoured, that counted right? At the very least Emma would count it as half portion.
“Maybe we should move away from Disney in general.” Because the kid was going to have enough of that as he grew up, right? They seemed to have some kind of connection to everyone, the fewer fairy tales the better. “Something light and soft.” Nurseries were meant to be soothing, right? They could have a nice, soft calm room for the baby.
“You think we should get a rocking chair? A lot of these show rocking chairs.”
Moving away from Disney in general seemed a good idea to him. Because otherwise it gave him a shudder - but one piece of advice in the book said to choose a piece of art you liked, or a wall hanging, and pull colors from there so that way everything appeared to fit together nicely. Neal could see that, kind of. He’d learned a few things about interior design while working for Regina. “Light and soft is definitely good, cheery too. I’ve read that rocking chairs are a necessity though,” he said. “It makes the sleepless nights a little more bearable.” They could order one, or get a nice, custom handmade one done - he wondered if there was anyone on Valarnet who made furniture for a living. Suppose it didn’t hurt to ask.
“It also says...” Neal flipped to one of the pages he had flagged with a sticky. “Don’t put the crib by the window, have adjustable lighting, and also have ‘stimulation’ by the changing table for the baby to look at. Gonna be interesting changing diapers for a baby boy.” Piss, everywhere. You had to point the little winkie south or something, otherwise it just got messy.
Light and cheery sounded good, she wanted something that the baby would like, even if he wasn’t sure what it all was for a while, and they’d be spending time there too, so something relaxing for when they were up until ungodly hours with restless babies. “Comfy one, probably make nursing easier.” Rocking motions and all that.
“Well, we could put the crib against that wall,” since it got light but wasn’t against the window, probably too risky to have a baby by a window anyway. “So, mobiles, we’ll need those. Maybe just use an animal theme? You can get animal everything right?” Animals were always popular, and they worked with animals part of the time (as much of the time as Emma could in her case).
“I mean, I’ve already wishlisted an entire zoo of beanies online.” Online shopping was dangerous.
“Well, if you’ve already got so much bookmarked...” Neal grinned at the idea, because animals sounded plenty doable to him. It was tasteful, simple, and would be cheerful and above all cute. Nothing completely whackadoo later, that would be unappealing to a baby’s untrained eye - the bald chubby little one just wanted aesthetically appealing, to bring a gummy smile to his face. “Apparently there’s a difference between straight up ‘animals’ and safari themes - “
Motherfucker, that was not something he would have guessed, but alright. “So how about a safari theme, then? The colors are mostly pale yellow and green and cream, we could get safari wall stencils, art, lighting - I mean, elephants and giraffes are good, right?” The ‘animals’ theme looked to be horses and bears, and...raccoons? Then there was Noah’s Ark which was just way too Biblical for him, so safari seemed safe enough.
They might have just made a very important decision. In triumph, he stole a bite of Emma’s fro-yo, and hopefully she wouldn’t hiss at him for that.
“I like safari.” It was a little different from the usual animals like farm yards and the Noah’s Ark stuff, besides, tigers and stuff. Emma liked that idea -she’d seen an adorable tiger onesie with a tail and hood with ears, that was officially getting added to the list of adorable things that will barely last a few months to buy. “We can always go with the desert, watering hole, trees thing on the statement wall.” Stencils would be good, animals and trees and that fun and sunny kind of look. Good, they had a plan.
Batting lightly at Neal’s hand, because this was hers, damn it, she just huffed and narrowly avoided hugging the carton to herself and stroking it, precious.
“That was actually pretty easy.” One task down, hundreds more to go. “And it’ll make the registering easier. Which apparently we’re supposed to do. Regina says so.” Emma really had thought that was just for weddings.
Neal laughed a little at the swatting hand, putting his own up in defense as he rolled over on his back, reaching over to playfully poke Emma in the side. “Desert safari, then,” he agreed. And he actually knew what a statement wall meant, so that was progress as far as he was concerned. It’d be cute though - stencils of camels marching toward a watering hole, shades of blue mixed in there too, and very sunny.
“Registering? Oh, right, for the baby shower.” Grabbing another book, he propped it up on his stomach and leafed through, while lying on his back and letting Emma have her strawberry dream in a pint. “We can do that soon too, get some registering done. I’m guessing there are stores around here? Uh....Babies R’Us? Or are there smaller, less chain-like places we’re supposed to look at?” He honestly had no idea.
“Yeah, Regina says we can do it online or go and get one of those little zapper things and scoot around the shop zapping things.” Really, Emma thought that might be a little more fun than just clicking a bunch of things on the screen. “You know, we could take Henry, now he’s sure he’s getting a little brother, and maybe I don’t know, make a day of it?” Because baby shopping. She’d never actually done that part before. Neither had Neal.
They could coo over all the little things and imagine using all the stuff and being really embarrassingly sentimental about it all. God, she was already getting emotional.
“I feel like Regina might at least have a better grip on these ideas. Since, you know, shower planning. You get to come to that, right? It won’t be me and a bunch of other girls, right?” And Emma was starting to wonder who even went to baby showers?
Zapper things. It was a funny turn of phrase, and gave Neal a snicker. “Sounds good to me. We’ve never done any of this before, may as well go all out, right?” He was perfectly willing to follow Emma around and look at baby stuff, oohing and aahing all over how adorable everything was. “I think taking Henry would be fun too - we could go zap things, then have lunch somewhere? Then get dragged to comic book stores?”
Because he was pretty sure Henry would convince them regardless, and it was a way to make the day more of a family excursion, with something fun to do for everyone. “Should we brainstorm names now too...I mean - “ He let out a blustery sigh, because difficult. “I’ve got a few name books but nothing really leaps out. Maybe it’ll be one of those things where it’ll come to us after he’s born.” Did that actually happen?
Going all out seemed like the best thing; really enjoying the pregnancy, getting to do all those little milestone things, just embracing the whole thing together. Emma definitely understood why women went through all these changes and discomforts time and time again, just for the sake of having other people around to go through the changes with them.
“That sounds like a great idea,” because she wanted Henry just as involved as well, and after a day shopping for his little brother (sort of) the kid would probably appreciate some new comics. Although Henry was so shockingly mature about everything.
“Yeah, I mean, I read online that sometimes you just look at the kid and go ‘oh, wow, you’re a Kevin, how can I not name you Kevin?’ which, I suppose I get. And maybe it’s like subliminal, you know? Once the baby is there you have to name them, no more pussyfooting around.” Couldn’t get away with sprog or bun or cookie roll after that. Unless you went with Cookie as a name, and no. “We really can’t name him after my pregnancy cravings though.”
Cookie Cassidy. That didn’t really have a ring to it either. But otherwise? Neal was still kinda stumped. He just had a block or something - there wasn’t a name yet that told him this was the one, and it wasn’t even a decision they could take lightly either. This kid would have that name for the rest of his life - presuming he didn’t change it when he legally could, but hopefully his parents picked one that wasn’t weird.
They would. They had better taste than that.
“Strawberry Ice Cream...or Fro-Yo,” Neal suggested teasingly. “Fro-Yo Cassidy. It sounds like that would be his rapper name, if he had one.” Maaaan, they’d probably have to just hope something came to them when the baby was born - if they tried to force something, it would just end in a big question mark.
Shifting closer, he turned dark eyes on Emma and watched her thoughtfully. Words couldn’t even begin to describe how happy he was to be experiencing everything with her - not even just with her, but also Henry and Regina as a part of everything. And Killian too, he supposed. It was a hell of alot better than being alone - he’d gladly cater to all of Emma’s cravings, he’d rub her feet and let her throw things at him, and he thought he was doing a pretty good job with all of that so far. “Do you ever think about like...marrying me?” he asked carefully. “Not, you know, tomorrow or anything. But in the future?” It was something that had come up with a few friends, just casual chats about it about whether he and his lady would tie the knot - he wanted to hear what she thought.
“The rest are all baked goods, and those are really more hooker names for little girls.” And that was a no, just as much as super heroes. But maybe they could just wait, see if something sparked as they worked through it. They knew they were naming a boy now, that meant listening and checking boy names. Emma knew she’d keep reading through the books to see if something hit her.
But this was a pretty big thing, kid had to live with the name.
“We can’t tomorrow anyway, I promised Henry we’d go to the dog park.” And Emma was teasing lightly, even as she stretched out a socked foot to poke at Neal lightly, small smile curving her lips. “I think,” really Emma had thought about it. “I could see it.” But really, she could see herself marrying him one day, maybe not right away, definitely not just because she was pregnant, but she doubted that was where his thinking was anyway -otherwise he would’ve asked her before.
“I know we don’t need to, we’re a family even without the certificate and the ceremony and whatever, but…” But Emma almost really liked the idea of standing in front of all their friends to choose each other. “Yeah.”
Oh, right, Neal wouldn’t want to get in the way of dog park excursions. Henry would be pretty upset. The grin on his face was bright and blazing, as he caught Emma’s foot and sat up to let it rest in his lap, his thumbs pressing into the arch. Not to tickle her, because she’d accidentally kick him in the face, but more and more her poor feet would start hurting as her baby bump grew larger and she was carrying more weight, so he’d be there to alleviate that.
“We don’t need to, no, but...yeah, it might be nice,” he concurred. Not just for the tax break purposes, or the discount on car insurance - but the whole ceremony of it, having Henry and the rest of the family and their friends there, celebrating with them. That was something he could get behind. “I was just like, putting feelers out. I promise I’ll come up with a more creative way to propose with a ring when you’re not expecting it.”
After the baby was born, definitely. But it did warm and squishy things to his heart to know that Emma would say yes.
It was a nice feeling, the way his fingers just pressed into those soft, tired and sore muscles, and Emma groaned happily, not just from the awesome fro-yo and the fact that decision time was officially over because they were awesome and sailed through that. But Neal really was amazing at these foot massages now.
Before, Emma didn’t really have much of a feeling on marriage, she’d been to a wedding or two through her life, and the space wedding was by far the most amazing thing ever, but that was definitely an isolated incident. When she was a little girl she hadn’t really had her dream wedding or anything either. It figured that she’d need to be more there in the moment to actually think about it.
“I’ll be sure to act surprised,” although he likely would be able to surprise her. He was really good at doing that too. “But pressure off, because I’ll say yes.” There really wasn’t any point in pretending she wouldn’t. “But you should absolutely make sure that I’m not in a desert stained top and stretchy pants, so that we can at least have a slightly more romantic story to tell.”
He proposed to me over fro-yo and baby books. Still sweet mind you.
The space wedding really was awesome - Neal didn’t think he and Em would be able to top that, but they’d have something beautiful, simple, something sweet and fun for their loved ones. No boring two-hour long ceremonies or a reception where the alcohol ran out, and there wasn’t anything to eat. That’d be awful.
“I’ve got this,” he assured happily, continuing to give Emma an impromptu footrub. Well, he took her sock off first so he could really knead into those muscles. “We can promise to grow old and grey together, as long as we both shall live, and be officially stuck with each other.”
He liked that though. It hadn’t taken him long to come to the conclusion that Emma was the one - and not getting to do anything about it in the dreams, their other life, before leaving this Earth meant that he was determined to not make the same mistakes twice.
They didn’t need to make it anything fancy. Emma had seen enough magazines with those celebrity weddings where everything was over the top and so insane. It wasn’t like she cared too much about some magical, massive, over done thing. She just needed something that was them. And later down the line, when they weren’t trying to decorate for a baby and Emma wasn’t eating her weight in ice cream, fro-yo and pizza, they could have that perfect little day for them.
Finally getting to do and say all those things that they missed out on.
Of course, if he kept giving her massages like that, she’d marry him in a barn if that was what he wanted. “Oh, you are ridiculously good at this.” And that had been such an awesome part of this whole experience too. “I’ll absolutely grow old with a footrub expert.”
Stretching her other leg out, leaning back onto her elbows, Emma just grinned at the wonderful sensations running up her leg.
“I haven’t had a lot of practice, before you get the wrong idea,” Neal quipped. “It’s mostly just instinct.” And he was good at working with his hands? It was what he did most of the day at the ranch, so, it sort of made sense.
There was something else he also wanted to bring up with Emma - it seemed relevant, now that they’d had another doctor’s visit and learned the sex of the baby, and also that he was healthy, had a strong heartbeat, and was doing well in his waterbed. But given the nature of Orange County, uh. “Have you thought about...godparents?” he asked. “Maybe we could make Regina officially his godmother, since she’s gonna be doing a lot anyway. I don’t know, it’s a good idea. In case anything happens. I wouldn’t want him to be alone, or...put somewhere else.”
Like in an orphanage, with a group home, foster care. That was terrifying - both he and Emma knew what it was like in foster care, to be a kid with no one. Never would they wish that on their own child.
“I wasn’t sure if you’d want Lina or Regina.” And honestly she wasn’t. While Regina had been amazing for them, between the fact that she literally saved Neal’s life and was such a support for Emma learning her magic, she’d financed them getting Henry legally and had been a steadfast friend ever since Emma moved to the area, Emma also knew that Lina was very important in Neal’s life too.
Sure, Lina’s baby was most likely going to end up being an unofficial cousin for their little boy. But Emma hadn’t been sure if Neal would’ve wanted that to be more official with making her Godmother. “I’m totally on board with asking Regina, we both know she’s going to be a fixture, and we know that… if anything did happen, she’d be sure to put him, and Henry, first and foremost.” Which was the most important thing for people like them.
“And um, I want you to think about us maybe asking Killian to be his Godfather? I know that sometimes things can be awkward between you both, but he’s a really good man, and I would be very happy if you could consider it.” Emma wasn’t about to push though, she knew there were issues from the dream past, from what they’d both had to remember. But Killian had done so much for her, not just in the dreams.
The look on Neal’s face was downright hilarious for a minute there - like he’d just swallowed half a lemon, all puckered and sour. But then, as he kneaded in the center of Emma’s dainty foot, he considered it some more. Like, really considered as opposed to just giving it a cursory thought and brushing it off.
He supposed she had a point. “Well...okay,” he agreed. Did he like that the pirate had basically swooped in two days after Neal’s death and made a play for Emma? No, of course not. However, that was in a whole other world, along with the hurt and betrayal he felt regarding what Killian had done to him, his family, and the overall shit example he set for Henry.
But that hurt didn’t have to come to this side of the realm - things were different, and he knew that Hook was trying. Overall, Neal also couldn’t dispute one very important fact.
“Killian’s always there for you, I guess,” he allowed begrudgingly. And he knew it to be true, because he hadn’t hesitated to get to Emma after receiving that memory restoring potion from a bird, the one Neal sent him after breaking free from the trap of sharing a mind and body with his father - he’d traded his ship and hopped realms to New York, just so she could find her way back to Storybrooke. To her family, who did need her, and she needed them. “He’d...be there for our kids too. So okay, yeah. I’m good with it.”
Now he just needed a drink, maybe.
Things in their dreams got complicated, and Emma didn’t try to underplay that, but she tried to not let it shape things here. She could be mad at the dream Snow and Charming for how things played out before she was even born, but she felt like it was unfair to hold any of that against Mary Margaret here. Just the same as she’d pushed past her distrust of Regina. She knew Neal was trying, and the fact that they’d lost him over there likely didn’t help matters -there was no closure, no real resolution to it all.
But Emma recognised a kindred spirit in Killian, and she trusted that he would be there, for Henry and the little one.
With a grateful grin, Emma shuffled herself around a little to drag Neal in for a quick and soft kiss. “Thank you,” she was just getting all dopey and happy with all the decisions they were making now. “You’re so great, you know that? Not just at feet-rubbing and food getting, you’re just… You’re my favourite.”
Aw, hell. Neal would take hearing that he was the favorite over drinks. “You’re my favorite too,” he laughed, leaning in to return the kiss. “My very most favorite mother of my children, and just favorite in general.” There weren’t any other mothers of his children though (and he could say that with certainty - he wasn’t a manslut, just fertile apparently) so it was kind of a big deal.
“I’ll think about how Lina will be involved too - I mean, it’ll definitely be something.” But that could wait for another day. They’d made a lot of decisions this afternoon, he felt pretty proud of them.
And stole another bite of Emma’s fro-yo, before wiggling free and dashing back down the stairs. Sneaky!