Five months of living here, waking up in the enchanted forest was still weird for Emma Gold-March.

Weird because for 21 years…not counting the two that she'd been away, she'd awakened every morning in her room and she could look out the window and see across the street. She knew the houses, she knew the streets. Five years after that, she knew the view by heart when she looked out the window of her and her husband's bedroom and found the rolling hills and the town in the distance.

Now when she got up and looked out the window, she didn't see any of tha.t She saw rolling green hills with mountains in the distance. No sign of any town because her adopted father, Rumpelstiltskin, moved her to live an hour away from the town. Something she was eternally grateful for. It was quiet here. She loved it. It was just…different.

Even going to her father's house and looking out the window of her old room, she didn't get the view of the old street, she got forest. Her father didn't want to stay in town any more than she did; he moved his house onto the property as well. Close enough to visit every day but far enough so that they could both enjoy their quiet.

Emma would be happier if he was living with her, but she didn't think he'd ever allow himself that. Espeically not with Baelfire living with him. They were trying to work through their problems. All of them were. But her father still very much liked his privacy. He had centuries to catch up with on his son.

And he was still mourning. He was still deeply grieving for Belle and he didn't want Emma to know. She knew he did but if it wasn't for Baelfire telling her things like he cried himself to sleep at night sometimes, she wouldn't know how badly.

Emma couldn't confront him about it…or comfort him because he wouldn't want her to know. So she managed to do it in little ways.

Though she'd be surprised if he didn't know she knew. Bae and Emma were working on being close again. They told each other everything when it came to their father.

And Emma still came to her father to tell him everything. Distance and changes of scenery didn't deter them from being close. In fact it made them closer.

And one particular morning, five months after they settled down, Emma needed to talk to him.

It was the weekend. Which meant that everything was turned off that could wake them up. Even the coffee machine. The smell always woke Emma up too early.

But she didn't sleep well. And she was up early that morning before Jefferson even stirred. It'd been one of their weekend date nights. Which for them, meant that David her oldest went to go spend the night with his father, Grace went to go spend the night with her adopted parents and her mother and Charming watched the baby.

Emma had come to value the alone time she had with Jefferson. Being parents of three kids never left one with much one on one time."

"Up early?"

Emma looked over at her husband. He'd kicked the covers off during the night, so she took a second to admire the view. He was mayor right now….but he was an active one. He didn't sit there in the office all day losing that muscle that he'd worked so hard to keep, he got out there with the town and helped their crops constantly. He helped with building. He did anything active.

He hated being indoors for too long. It reminded him of Wonderland and how he was shut in those rooms in the palace for far too long.

"Yeah," Emma told him and walked over to grab some exercise clothes. She did her best to make sure they stayed in good shape because once they were gone, she didn't have anything to replace them with, "Just…gonna go for a jog."

He gave her that mischievous boyish smirk, "Come over here, I'll show a work out."

Emma laughed and threw a pillow at him. He caught it and put it under his head, "You alright?"

"Yeah….," Emma said but she wouldn't look at him, "Just…matters to discuss with my dad."

"Am I in trouble?" he asked almost jokingly and then grew serious, "No seriously what did I do?"

"It's not you."

"What did the kids do?"

"It's not them."

"Emma," he took her hand.

Emma lowered her eyes, "Yesterday, my mom took me to the side when we were giving her Alice to spend the night with."

"Yeah, I remember that," his eyes searched hers. She saw concern in them but she also saw that look that he got when he either knew something or already guessed.

"And I should be happy…and I am but….it's complicated," she played with the blanket, "They're going to have a baby, Jefferson. They're going to raise a baby in a way that they never got to raise me."

Saying those words made it sound like she regretted her upbringing….and for the most part she didn't. There were a lot of things that she wished had been different, but she didn't regret that Rumpelstiltskin was her father.

But she did regret that her birth parents who she knew did love her never got the chance to raise her. And now they were going to have a baby. She was going to have another sibling that they would get to raise, and they would get to love like they'd wanted to raise her.

And Emma knew her birthparents loved her. And she loved them but…not in the way that any of them wished they could. Too much had happened in all of their lives and Emma was still getting to know them.

It was just….so complicated. She loved her father and she loved her birthparents and she didn't want to turn it into some sort of competition at which upbringing she wanted because that wasn't the case at all…

She wasn't sure what she felt. Overflowing happiness for them that they would finally have their baby that they always wanted but fear in her part at getting replaced….because what they had would never be what they hoped for. And while Emma was happy with what they had…things changed with a baby. It would hurt to see what she could've had but never got with them.

And Emma just really wanted her dad.

"Oh Emma," Jefferson whispered.

Emma leaned down and her husband wrapped his arms around her in an embrace. She buried her face in his shoulder and tried to fight the tears as those fears that she thought about all night overwhelmed her.

And before she knew it, she was pulling off what little clothes she had put on. Her husband nodded and pressed his lips against hers and then moved down to her throat.

Because there was one thing that they were both good at, it was knowing exactly what the other needed for comfort.