First prompt for the first half of the story: When was the moment Regina realized she was in love?

Second prompt for the second part: When was the moment Emma realized she was in love?

Regina

Seventeen hours. They'd sat in the hospital room for seventeen hours while their son stood by their new daughter-in-law's bedside during labor.

Regina hadn't slept very well that night and as soon as she got the call from Henry that he and his wife were on their way to the hospital, she had no chance of resting until it was all over.

She'd had at least three bad cups of hospital coffee while they waited. She would have had more, but the fleeting caffeine rush wasn't worth the vile taste.

"They're so young," she said to Emma as the blonde finally stopped pacing and took a seat next to her.

Emma had been like that for the last few hours. In and out of her chair to walk back and forth a few times and stretch out her legs. The woman never could sit still for too long.

"They're older than I was when I had Henry," Emma reminded her.

"Not by much."

"Regina," the blonde warningly said her name. "This is a good thing. Our baby is having a baby."

"I didn't even like it when he had girlfriends. Now he's married and having his first child. Where did the time go?"

"It's been time well-spent and you know it, Madam Mayor."

She glared at Emma, who flashed a cheeky grin at her before Regina had even turned her head. Emma rarely ever referred to her by her title, but when she did it was either because she was upset or trying to lighten the mood. The blonde's smile conveyed that Emma was trying to accomplish the latter of the two that time.

"How can you be so easygoing at a time like this?"

"Because one of us has to be level-headed and apparently that isn't going to be you."

"If you're so level-headed why do you keep pacing every so often?"

"I'm restless. Do you have any idea how long we've been here?"

"Of course I know," she snapped at the woman.

Emma raised her hands in surrender and leaned back in her chair to give Regina some space. "You're the one that insisted we stay here no matter how long it took. Henry said he'd call when it's over, but you said we'd be right here waiting."

"We're his mothers, Emma! We should be here." She spoke a little louder than she had intended and a few of the other people nearby turned to look at the two of them.

She sighed and shook her head as she looked down at her lap. She was a wreck. She was anxious and excited and probably a flurry of other emotions she couldn't quite name at the time. She just wanted to see Henry and know that everything was okay. If she just saw Henry's face after it was all over, she would finally be able to relax. Until then, however, Emma was stuck waiting with her while she was in a jumbled, but mostly fowl, mood.

"Everything's going to be fine," Emma tried to assure her.

Before she could respond, she felt Emma rest a hand on hers over the uncomfortable wooden armrest of the chair. Upon contact there was a spark. It felt like static electricity, but it ran deeper than a jolt from one hand to the other. It seemed to awaken her dormant magic, which she hadn't used, or even thought to use, in weeks.

She looked up and gazed into familiar green eyes that were already staring back at her when she was finally able to drag her attention away from their joined hands. For a moment, neither of them said a word. Emma just smiled at her like nothing could or would go wrong, like she knew without a doubt they were going to be alright.

Less than a minute later, the nurse confirmed it for her.

"Mayor Mills? Sheriff?"

They were on their feet in an instant. They moved together, side by side toward the nurse until they were close enough to keep the conversation semi-private.

"Congratulations," the nurse smiled at them. "You have a granddaughter."

Relief rushed through Regina and her previously tense shoulders sagged as she was finally able to relax. She smiled and leaned into Emma's side, seemingly in need of more physical support than she thought.

Emma didn't hesitate. She wrapped an arm around Regina's waist and helped her stay on her feet. Regina was sure she would have collapsed if Emma hadn't been there.

"Can we see them?"

"Yes, of course."

Emma guided her to the hospital room as they followed the nurse. As soon as they reached the room, Regina sighed and held an arm around her stomach. It was a nervous habit of hers, but in that moment she wasn't nervous. She just wanted to keep herself from falling apart. Before her, Henry stood bent over the side of the hospital bed with a hand on his daughter and an arm slung around his wife. He smiled brightly at his little girl where she fidgeted and let out a few sounds of discomfort in his wife's arms.

After all of Regina's near-death experiences in both in the Enchanted Forest and Storybrooke and especially after all that had happened, and could have happened, in Neverland, she never thought she would have been so lucky to see the day her son started his own family.

"He did it," she said with so much love and adoration.

"Not so young anymore, is he," Emma teasingly asked a second before she squeezed Regina closer against her side. "We did that."

She sniffled and rested her head on Emma's shoulder. Slowly, she agreed. "Yes, we did." She closed her eyes a moment later and smiled as contentment washed over her. In that moment she was sure that not only was her happy ending finally written, she was deeply in love with Emma Swan.

"Moms," Henry called out to them. "Want to meet your granddaughter?"

"Of course we do," Emma answered. "We've waited nine months and seventeen hours for this."

They walked toward the bed and Regina forced herself to look away from the little girl and their son so she could smile at their daughter-in-law, because she looked exhausted and deserved at least a smile after all she'd gone through. Their daughter-in-law smiled back before she handed the baby to Regina, which the brunette hadn't expected at all. What surprised her even more was the fact that the little girl quieted down almost as soon as she'd been placed in Regina's arms.

"Meet Hope," their daughter-in-law said. "Hope Valentina Swan-Mills."

She stared down at Hope and felt a tear slide down her cheek before she looked up at Henry. "Mi queridos. Mi familia." She looked from Henry to their daughter-in-law and down to Hope again before she risked a glance at Emma and added, "My everything."

Emma

"Mom! I can't get her to stop," she heard as she slowly started to wake. The voice was tired and frantic and one she recognized, but she hadn't opened her eyes yet and she really didn't want to.

"Relax, Henry. It's okay," Regina replied over the sound of a crying baby.

She furrowed her brow and shifted on the couch to make herself comfortable enough again to fall back asleep.

"I don't know what to do," Henry nearly shouted. He sounded on the verge of tears.

"Shh," Regina began to coo. Emma wasn't sure who she was cooing, though. Henry was in a state and the baby continued to wail. Neither seemed happy or able to be calmed, even by Regina's melodic voice. "Oh, you're alright. You're alright."

Emma took a deep breath and rolled onto her side. After only a few moments, she couldn't keep her eyes shut any longer and was unfortunately awake. She grabbed her phone off the coffee table and checked the time. It was the middle of the night. Almost 3am.

"We've tried everything, Mom," Henry said. "She won't stop crying!"

"We're desperate," another voice said, also familiar but less so.

"It's fine. Why don't you two go upstairs and take the guest room. Try to get some sleep."

"Not until we know she's okay," Henry insisted.

"She'll be fine. She doesn't seem to have a fever, so I think she's just like you. Crying at all hours for no apparent reason, at least not apparent to us."

Henry groaned. "It's karma, isn't it?"

"Yes," Regina replied, and Emma could hear the smile in her voice before she even sat up or looked at the three of them. "But at least you have me."

Emma groaned and cleared her throat as she finally sat up. "And me," she groggily interjected.

"Ma? Wh- What are you doing here?"

"I was sleeping."

"On the couch?"

"I fell asleep watching a movie."

Henry looked from her to Regina, confused as ever. He also didn't seem all that convinced.

Emma stood up and walked over to the group where they stood in the foyer. She put a hand on the baby's chest while Regina continued to cradle their darling granddaughter. She smiled down at the upset little girl and tapped her index finger against the baby's nose.

"Hey," she quietly said. "What's going on in that little mind of yours?"

"Is she hungry," Regina asked.

Henry's wife, their daughter-in-law, shook her head. "We already tried. She took the bottle for a few seconds, but she pushed it away after that and started screaming."

Emma leaned in and peppered the baby's face with kisses even while she cried, her face red and scrunched up. The baby settled down for a few seconds and seemed to catch her breath, but started to cry again. It was a piercing sound that made Emma grimace as the little one cried loudly and directly into her ear. She didn't pull away, however. She placed a hand on top of Regina's where she held their granddaughter and then pulled open the blanket the girl was wrapped in. She pushed up the shirt to expose the baby's stomach and started to blow raspberries against her.

The baby started to calm down again, but Emma assumed it was probably out of confusion and not because she was being soothed.

"What are you doing," Regina asked with a hint of laughter laced in her tone.

"Distracting her from whatever's bothering her," Emma answered between blowing on the baby's stomach. "Maybe I can do that long enough for us to figure out what's wrong. It's worth a shot, right?"

Once she'd stopped giving the baby raspberries, the crying started again. Emma decided to run her fingers along the girl's stomach instead, a gentle caress that didn't seem to stop the crying or even register with the baby. She pulled back and started to tickle their granddaughter's toes through her socks.

"We'll take care of this," Regina said to the couple. "Go. Get some rest. She'll be fine with us."

"Yeah, Kid. You'll be better equipped to take care of her when you wake up. Even if you only sleep for another twenty minutes. Just like you'd be better equipped to handle anything after even a little bit of sleep."

"Mm, because baby's are just like everything else," Regina sarcastically said before she swatted Emma's hand away from the baby's toes when it only seemed to make her cry more.

"Thanks, Moms," Henry said before he took his wife's hand and led her upstairs.

"Thank you," their daughter-in-law said a little breathlessly and with so much relief.

The two of them made it upstairs before Emma or Regina could respond, but that didn't matter. Their main focus was the baby.

"Sorry they woke you," Regina said when they were alone. "If you hadn't stayed, you wouldn't have been bothered."

"You say that like this is your fault, or like I would hate to take care of our beautiful granddaughter with you. If I hadn't been here, I wouldn't have even known our son needed us. Well, you. I mean, why else do you think he came here? I don't have any experience with babies…except with giving them up."

Regina shifted the baby in her arms so she could reach out and grab Emma's bicep with one of them. "You're here now," the brunette reminded her. "You're here for Henry and now you get to be here for Hope."

"I just…feel like it isn't enough," she confessed.

She looked down at Hope as she squirmed in Regina's arm and started to cough between her cries. She placed a hand on Hope's chest and moved close enough to the brunette that Hope became comfortably sandwiched between their bodies.

"It's enough, Emma," Regina assured her.

"Then why won't she stop crying?"

Regina faintly smiled and rolled her eyes. "Being here is one thing," the brunette said. "Soothing her is something else entirely. So let's focus on that."

Regina looked down at Hope and smiled a little brighter at their granddaughter. There was so much warmth in her expression before she released Emma's bicep, slid her arm beneath the baby and started to gently rock and bounce Hope.

Emma kept a hand on Hope's chest while Regina started to hum to the baby. Slowly, Hope started to quiet down and stared up with wide, brown eyes at Regina. It was an incredible sight to see.

Regina's smile cracked as she continued to hum and she flashed Hope her teeth. There was nothing but happiness in Regina's expression and that was just as incredible as seeing Hope relax in the other woman's arms.

Before she could stop herself, Emma took in the brunette's disheveled appearance. Regina's hair was wavier than it usually was most days and her makeup had been washed off. It hadn't been when they'd watched the movie earlier that evening, so she must have removed it after Emma had dozed off. She wore a sleeveless silk top and short, matching silk shorts. There was so much olive skin to look at, but Emma couldn't look away from Regina's face for too long.

"Gorgeous," Emma said.

"She really is," Regina replied as she turned and looked at the blonde. Her smile fell when she realized Emma had been talking about her and not Hope. Her eyes dropped their focus to Emma's lips before they flicked up to lock onto Emma's eyes again.

For ten years, Emma had danced around the truth. She'd avoided her feelings and paid attention to all the wrong things. Nothing was more important than what she'd just figured out in that moment. Looking at Regina, everything became crystal clear. That moment and every moment with the brunette and their family was all that really mattered.

She slowly leaned in and closed what little space remained between them except for the space that was created by Hope. Careful not to crush their granddaughter between them, Emma pressed their lips together in a soft kiss. As soon as they touched, a burst of light erupted from their contact.

Emma pulled back just far enough to look at Regina and the two of them stared at each other, breathless and wide-eyed.

Hope made a few content little sounds and their attention shifted to the baby. They smiled down at her for a moment and then looked up at each other again.

"Finally," Regina said with a smile.

Emma furrowed her brow.

"I've been waiting for you to do that for seven months," Henry chimed in from the stairs.

"Seven—" Emma stopped herself and turned to look at Henry before she asked, "Since Hope was born?"

Their daughter-in-law joined him on the stairs and smiled at them, despite how tired she looked. "Why do you think we named her Hope?"

"Between you two and Grandma and Gramps, how could we not name her that," Henry added with a smile of his own.

Emma and Regina looked at each other again. Emma still looked shocked, but Regina looked a little relieved. She also looked happier than she had when she'd stared down at Hope and started to hum, which Emma hadn't thought was possible until she saw that look of happiness being directed at her.

"I love you," Regina said.

Emma breathed out a laugh and said, "In case the kiss wasn't clear enough, I love you, too."

They moved in again and kissed without any hesitation. Hope remained in Regina's arms between them and the second kiss was as soft as the first, but there was more passion and promise that time. Their connection, strong as it had always been, was reinforced in that moment. She'd never felt more cared for and loved than she had whenever she was with Regina, especially as they kissed.

That night and every night after, Emma finally knew without a doubt where her home was and would always be.

Note: These are all the prompts I was able to finish within the month for SQ Fanon. I might add more short fics to this story based on the prompts from the fanon list I didn't have the chance to do before the deadline, but for now this is where I leave this. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. :)