Chapter 2: One Does Not Need to be Blood to be Family

Everyone was staring as Mr. Gold stood up, startled and confused. His gaze seemed to settle on Regina, his tone even but menacing. "I must apologize, Ms. Swan, I but I am not 'family'. I claim my own, and that is my son and Henry, but I am not family with anyone else here. Least of all this one, who has been nothing but a nuisance to me the entire time I have known her."

At that, Regina bolted upright, her eyes narrowing as she returned Gold's glare. "Do you really want to play this game with me?"

Belle was trying to get Gold to sit down again, while Snow tried to reach across the table with the turkey and diffuse the situation. "You know, the food's pretty good and we really should eat."

They both turned to her, looking at the food, but chose to ignore her. They continued to stare each other down.

Emma put her head in her hands as Neal rubbed her shoulder, before Charming stood up and walked over to her to do likewise. She whispered to them both, "This is a disaster and we're not even 5 minutes into things."

Snow was still trying her best to break things up, continuing to wave the food at the two combatants futiley.

Regina finally sighed, deciding that this wasn't worth her time or effort right now. She sat down, taking the turkey from Snow, but she was clearly still agitated.

Gold sat down too, looking apologetically at a miserable looking Henry, who crossed his arms silently and shook his head in disappointment. He didn't feel like an absolute fool yet, but he was questioning why he expected anything better from this lot he called his relatives.

Slowly, the food got passed around, and everyone started eating. Regina had to admit that the food was in fact really good. The turkey was juicy, the cranberry sauce was sweet and tart, and the dressing had just the right amount of sage to it. She knew. Food was a forte of hers, most famously for her casting spells and poisoning it, but she also understood the mechanics of how to make a great meal and prided herself on her culinary skills. She looked down at Emma, and didn't bother to question if she made the bulk of the meal herself or not, but instead silently thought that even though Emma was her step-granddaughter and not her relative by blood, somehow she must have instinctively passed those skills to Emma. And she smiled again.

That was, until Snow spoke. Snow beamed at everyone, that sweet, naive smile that always got under Regina's skin, as she said, "You know, I'm happy we're all together. I don't think I could ask for anyone else I would rather have done this with."

Snow noticed Henry looking at her and making the "cut" motion with his hands, and suddenly realized that there could sadly be no second take as Regina stood up again, walking out of the room and trying to promise herself she wouldn't make another scene in front of Henry, but her spite wouldn't let her and she stormed back in like a possessed banshee, throwing her water into Snow's face.

She growled out in an almost feral voice, "Of course you wouldn't, because you've never had someone taken from you. Especially not by someone you once considered your friend, someone that you loved. No, you've never felt that pain, so of course you couldn't understand. You just stand there in your naive innocence, as though you imagine yourself to be some immaculate angel untouched by your own actions, and assume your happiness has to be everyone else's or else that person must be evil, because it's evil to not be happy. And that's why I hate you, you ignorant little child! You can claim ignorance with what happened to Daniel if you want, but you know what you did to my mom, and you don't feel sorry for what happened. You might cry about upsetting me. They could be crocodile tears or genuine. But in truth, you got what you wanted, and I'm never going to forgive you for it. And what's worse, you promised me that I would get my mother back! That I would get her love! And it was all a setup!"

Charming stood up to defend Snow, when Regina turned on him. "And you...you're a lousy husband to not know what she was doing! So don't try to stand there and protect her innocence. You're failure as a man makes you just as culpable as her."

Emma couldn't let her father being verbally emasculated stand, and jumped up to try to defend both her parents, when the door swung open and two more people, who weren't really guests but did come bearing gifts, walked in. An older voice arose above the din and shouted out, "WILL YOU ALL JUST SIT DOWN AND BE QUIET?!"