A Charming Holiday

Part One~

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. The only thing I own is the plot of this three-part story.

A/N: I know I have been gone for a very long time, but I promise it was worth it. For me and for my followers, I have improved greatly in my writing and editing. Thank you for your reviews and critiques. That helps me continue to improve and hone my skills.

Please let me know what you think, critique is a writer's best friend, in my opinion anyways.

Acknowledgements: I have to thank my Perry White/Mother for her slight editing, thesaurus skills, and fresh eyes to go over my story. Without my mother an avid reader and Once Upon a Time fan, as well, I could not have smoothed out my writing wrinkles. I could not have finished this first part.

I also must thank the creators of the show and writers for their wonderful creative spins on the fairy tales that I grew up reading.

I also have to thank my father whom is always encouraging my writing and imagination. He also helps come up with these little plot bunnies. They don't always get finished, but he loves to listen to me read them anyway.

Also, the makers of Word for Apple Computers, without their 'Formal' style choice, my writing would not have improved this much. It continues to frustrate me and challenge me to not end sentences with prepositions, or create fragmented sentences.

No, really, it drives me nuts.

I must also thank Webster's Dictionary, online and hardcopy. It has helped greatly.

Emma may have been off duty for the night, but her cell for the sheriff's office was not on silent. Anything but silent, considering she had to dump Leroy's drunk ass in jail.

Again…

It was Christmas Eve, and tomorrow as the sheriff, she would have to make sure that the town was safe. Alas, it was a Sherriff's duty. So far, the only dangerous thing this time of year was a drunken Leroy (oh, excuse her, she meant Grumpy. It was crazy but true. ) and a few domestic calls.

It had something to do with Hansel and Gretel fighting over which gingerbread cookie was theirs.

There, in the tiny apartment, Emma curled up on the couch with a warm blanket and a mug of cocoa. She kept her eye on her parents, watching them go through boxes of decorations and a peripheral vision filled with green. She sighed, resting her elbows on her knees while staring at the offending object.

It was a Christmas tree.

Enough said.

"Mary, remind me, again. Why are we putting the tree up and decorating on Christmas Eve?"

Her parents look up from what they're doing at the same time. (Yes, parents. She is finally admitting that is what Snow and James are, maybe not to herself, and maybe not yet. Nevertheless, that is what they are.) Their expressions were almost comical. As if she was the one with three heads and not a crazy self-appointed Christmas decorating elf.

"We did this last year, Emma. It's tradition" Snow shrugs as if her answer explained everything. Her attention now turned back to the box of decorations.

"Yea, because we kept forgetting to put the decorations up earlier. " Emma deadpans rolling her eyes.

"Well, now it's tradition." Snow insists gathering the garland, a mess of gold and silver, up in her arms.

"Are you sure it's not because we put it off until the last minute again?" Emma retorts as she follows her mother from the front closet to the mess of Christmas decorations in the middle of the living room.

Snow glowers at the question, which to her, sounds more like a statement of truth. She would never admit that to the blonde, though.

She is struggling to untangle the garland while Charming sits back on his heels smiling at her frustration. Snow's cheeks were turning the slightest shade of pink in anger and frustration.

Emma walks towards the kitchen, her silhouette disappearing before shortly reappearing and with an extension cord wheel in her hands. Where that was able to be hiding in their tiny kitchen James never knew.

Emma rolls her eyes as she takes a piece of garland from her mother.

"Here, let's try this. If you guys are insisting on doing this whole decorating thing, then I am not making a trip to the store to buy more garland that isn't tangled up." She takes a strand and starts wrapping the garland around the wheel before pausing her movements.

Snow and James stare at their daughter curiously wondering why she stopped. Emma smiles, one that Snow White, as Mary Margret knew all too well.

"Like last year." Emma says wittily before resuming her garland wrapping duties.

Snow groans as Charming looks at her with a knowing smile on his face. "Like, last year?" He asks teasingly.

Emma grinned ready to spill the beans. "Last year our garland was so tangled up that it was almost impossible to untangle. No, scratch that. It was impossible. So of course I offered to help-"

"Right…" Snow interrupted, drawling. "If I remember correctly, when we met for dinner, I asked if you would help me untangle it because I couldn't figure it out. "

"But you got so frustrated later that you admitted over the phone that you broke it!" Emma protested defending herself.

"Only because you said you would help. After your shift."

"I did offer." Emma states off handedly, plopping back on the couch with the wheel of garland now perfectly rolled.

"But you could have kept your cell on and come home. Yet, you said you had a busy night at the station. Which you did not, I know, I checked."

Emma sat stunned at Mary Margaret's words. Her mother was checking on her. She never had someone do that for her, someone care enough about her to do that.

"I did! Leroy was drunk! Who else was going to keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't drown in his own vomit!"

"Emma, please. That's a rather crass and crude way of putting it." Charming softly reprimanded, a wink thrown her way to let Emma know that she was right.

"Please, we all know he'd have been fine alone for a few hours. Lord knows he's been tossed in that jail cell enough times. "

Emma blinked owlishly at Mary- Margret's counter argument. She knew her own was weak. There was no actual reason, just Leroy the Grumpy scapegoat. Then her eyes narrowed as a small smirk formed its way onto her mouth.

"And then you called two hours later informing me that i had to go to the store to find garland. And, David, do you know why?" Emma paced back and forth with an ornament in hand, grinning at their conversation.

Snow swallowed thickly. Her cheeks flushing a rather dark pink as she groaned in embarrassment, her hands flying to cover her warm cheeks. Charming raised an eyebrow to snow's obvious embarrassment.

"Actually, I think I do. " he said smoothly. "I know her temper, she ruined the garland didn't she? What did you end up using, tin foil?"

Emma smiled at Charming's joke and his heart swelled with happiness. "Well that was the second, no, wait- the third time, I think, that Snow called. She may have called more but I kept my personal cell on silent after our last argument."

"You put me on silent?" Snow asked, shocked that her daughter screened her calls.

"Anyways, I wouldn't really call it an argument, Emma. More of a..." Snow paused looking for the right word. An expression of thought and concentration with her eyebrows drawn together appeared upon her face and a hand that came to rest upon her cheek.

"Disagreement? Argument?" Charming finished for her, taking one of her hands and pressing a kiss to its palm.

"No, not argument." Snow shook her head taking her hand back to let it rest on her lap.

"Oh please! We both know it was an argument. There was frustration and even voices raised. We argued. Big deal!"

"Emma!" Snow exclaimed, gently smacking Emma's arm with the back of her hand in jest. "We had a heated conversation. That is what we had. "

"Sure, if that's what helps you sleep at night. " Emma gently teased, bending down to place a kiss on her mother's cheek. It was probably the most open form of affection she had ever shown her mother.

Whether it was from the two bottles of wine they had split over dinner or just the spirit of the season, Snow really didn't care which. It was the sweetest thing Emma's done for her. Regardless the simple gesture bought an ear-to-ear grin to Snow's face. She grabbed her daughter's hand dragging Emma down to sit with them.

"So, when she called me up the first thing i could ask her was how badly damaged the garland was! She was so mad at me and insisted it would be ok if i could just come home to help her fix it. "

"Which you did. But it didn't help at all."

"Nope, I took one look and grabbed the garland and tossed it in the garbage, thank you very much. " Emma stated proud of her accomplishment. No matter how small it was. Taking garland away from Mary Margret on Christmas Eve was like pulling teeth. Actually, come to think of it. Pulling teeth was probably easier.

"And I told you to go to the store."

"But you didn't, not at first?" David asks, looking to Emma. Her blonde hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun, a piece of tape from their wrapping marathon earlier on her cheek.

"Nah." She shook her head still smiling as if every sentence of the story was getting better. "She actually had tinsel she wanted to use. I was so fed up with it that I went back to the station to check on Leroy, again. It was when i called her on my way home that she didn't really ask, but at the same time she did. "

"Did she just ask outright? Snow would never admit that she made a mistake; she likes to cover it up. " Charming laughed, his green eyes sparkling with joy much like Emma's now do.

"No, I think she didn't want to admit it. So I asked, 'Did you ruin the garland?' and she was completely silent. That was when I knew. So I left Leroy in the jail cell to sleep it off." Emma sat back and stretched her legs out in front of her.

Charming leaned forward reaching across to brush a knuckle against Emma's cheek. Her green eyes sparkled in mirth and her cheeks rosy from laughter. The little sprite that she was had some wonderful stories about hers and Snow's time together. Though, he was sad he missed time together with his girls, he could not be happier that the three of them were together now, and four tomorrow.

"David…" Emma drew out feigning embarrassment from his show of affection. Suddenly she felt a pain on her cheek, looking confused she brought her hand up to rub the stinging skin, only to see him dangle a piece of tape in front of her. His face holding a smile of love for her, his child.

She laughed and pulled the tape from him letting it fall to her side somewhere. Emma stood and made her way to the kitchen in need of a coffee fix.

She puttered around waiting for the coffee to finish brewing and looked around her family's apartment at their handy work. Henry had helped string the lights on the tree earlier that day before Regina picked him up and it looked beautiful, even Emma had to admit that.

Garland taped to the fireplace, stockings hung. The apartment was like a perfect Christmas picture.

The tree was up, beautiful white lights twinkling from within it's oversized branches and star at the top which meant more to all of them for it's symbolization, Neverland.

Neverland, it was a fairytale, with its second star to the right. The first star you wish upon. Though she was a little sad at how their lives in the past went, their future was something they could all build upon.

So yes, the star meant more to Emma then just something to top a tree. It meant family.

It meant future.

It meant love.

It meant everything.

So, once the coffee finished she brought two large mugs with her back to the living room, one black with milk and the other with milk and a packet of cocoa. Her parents smiled and thanked her for her thoughtfulness.

Her parents…

God, it was so weird to call them that, and yet, they were her best friends. The day was perfect and so was the evening. Even though, Emma didn't have Henry for Christmas this year, she had him the day after and New Years. Regina didn't seem to care much for Emma's tradition of watching the New York City Mirror Ball drop. Not that she even seemed to know what that was. Some mayor she was, she probably didn't even know what New York City even was.

Emma would have Henry tomorrow. She would pick him up after her shift was over at 9 that night. She was always on call, but it seemed since Graham had died she was alone in this job. She was tired. Constantly working, and though she loved the job, she needed help. She considered asking David for help but was always used to doing things for herself or by herself.

She had constantly needed to remind herself that she was not alone anymore. She had people to help her out, wanting to help her out.

She would ask for help another time, just not today.

Therefore, Christmas this year was spent getting to know her parents better and herself. Because if she was honest with herself, and Emma Swan was hardly perfectly honest with herself, she would realize that this was perfect. In it's own weird sort of way.

Today Emma Swan was honest with herself. She let herself love and opened her heart to others, even if it was for only one day.

Moreover, their own odd little family was perfect the way they were, odd circumstances and all.