Chapter 2: Dinner
Neal placed his hand on the small of Emma's back as the couple strolled away from the kitchen. Walking past the parlor, Emma stuck her head into the room where the rest of their group was gathered. "We're eating," she said succinctly to the men seated as she continued on her way to the dining room.
"Henry," she heard from behind her, "go round up the children and tell them to wash up. Dinner's on."
"Okay, dad," Henry answered as he passed behind his mother's large form and continued up the stairs to get his young aunts and uncles.
Reaching the dining room, Emma sat in chair nearest to her. As she settled down into her seat, she could hear the others entering being her. She didn't know if Belle had a certain seating arrangement, but in her condition she really didn't care. She was the size of a house and wasn't about to move for anyone.
"Hello, honey," Emma heard as she felt a kiss touch her cheek. She tilted her head and looked up into a pair of brilliant eyes, much like her own. To an outsider, one would think that this was the action of a lover or friend. If you looked even closer, brother would come to mind. Nobody would ever guess in reality it was her father. Only in Storybrooke, could Emma have parents of similar age.
"Hello, David," she responded. Although she accepted years ago that Prince Charming and Snow White were her parents, something she never imagined in her wildest dreams as a child yearning for her real parents, she still called them by their given names. Even Henry still slipped back and forth with Emma and Neal. It was a unusual situation, but it worked for them.
"How are you feeling? Is my grandson keeping you up too much at night?" he asked as he took a seat at one end of the long table.
"My granddaughter will be lively one", a striking man in a thick brogue said as he seating himself at the opposite end of the table from Emma's dad. As he laid his ornate cane against the table, Emma realized that she'd never seen her son's grandfather, who appeared to be in his fifties but nobody could ever speculate his real age, in anything other than crisp dark suits. Even as the rest of the family was dressed casually, Mr. Gold, as everyone in town still called him, appeared dressed to the nines. She often wondered if he slept in those suits. Something she could ask Belle about, but wasn't interested enough to be traumatized by the answer.
A snorting sound was heard from the doorway as Snow White appeared with a bowl as she helped Belle put the food on the table, obviously overhearing the conversation in the dining room.
"What kind of sound was that," David asked his wife as she set the set the steaming bowl of mashed potatoes down beside him.
"Nothing," she replied with a smile on her face and earning a scowl from Emma. "Come, Neal, help us carry the turkey platter in." Snow ordered her daughter's companion as she and Belle returned to the kitchen.
"Coward," Emma whispered to Neal who was smiling back at her in a way that said 'good luck' as he left the room with her mother and Belle.
"I'm going to tell you men, now," Emma declared, picking up her knife from it's place setting and pointing it at each man, "I am not discussing this pregnancy at the dinner table. We are not going to fight over who is the better grandfather, and I'm not telling you what I'm having right now. We are going to sit down and have a nice dinner with minimal swiping at each other." Setting her knife back, Emma unfolded her napkin and glared at both men she called family. At that moment, Henry appeared at the doorway, ushering in the children.
"Daddy, Rose cheated at checkers again!" Leo cried as hopped onto a chair beside Henry and diagonal to his father.
"Leo, I've told you repeatedly, it's not cheating if you lose fair and square. You can't win every time." David said to his young son. Evidently, this wasn't the first time the five year old accused the little girl of not playing fair.
"Papa," the other five year said to the older man at the other end of the table, "I didn't cheat. Leo just doesn't play very well. He thinks you can move straight ahead and I told him it's not allowed." Putting her hands on her hips in frustration, Rose continued, "So he said I cheated."
"Calm down, dearie," Gold said to his fiery haired daughter. "Not everyone can learn the rules at such a young age as you did."
"Okay," Belle demanded as she finished putting the gravy boat on the table, "enough about games and who beat whom. Rose, you sit here," she said pointing to a seat across from Emma and between herself and Snow. Meg, the youngest at the table was already in her booster seat on the other side of Snow and across from her brother.
"You know," Henry said casually as he sat next to his mother, "it would have been easier just to set up a kiddie table in the corner."
"No, Belle and I discussed it," Snow replied, "and we're sitting together as a family. No separate tables. Besides, if we were having a separate table, it sure wouldn't be the kids who were banished to it." She finished this sentence with a pointed look at the two men sitting at either ends of the long table.
"Why are you looking at us," David demanded, trying to look innocent.
"Yes," added Gold, "and we haven't even brought any weapons out, yet. However, someone else at this table hasn't followed the same protocol." Gold finished, smiling at Emma.
"Be good, Pop," replied Neal as he set the large turkey on the center of the table, much to the satisfaction of Emma, who was starving. As he sat to the right of his father, Neal leaned over and whispered in his partner's ear, "Are you feeling, okay."
"Yes," Emma murmured in reply as she rubbed her stomach, "just very hungry."
As she watched the couple across from her quietly finish talking, Belle looked at the eclectic group gathered around the table. "Good," she announced as she caught everyone's attention, "now that everything is on the table and we're all seated, I think it's time for the blessing. Who would like to speak?" she asked everyone.
"Oh, don't look at me, darling," said her husband, who was seated adjacent to her as she reached for his left hand, "I don't think the heavens could handle that today."
"I'll speak," volunteered Snow as she stood before everyone to give the benediction. "This may be our adopted home, but this wonderful holiday is about giving thanks for all that we have. We give thanks for our families who are healthy and with us in spirit and body and we give thanks to those that we will be welcoming in the coming year. And we ask that our friends not with us today to be equally blessed with their own lives and families. Thank you." she finished followed by a chorus of accompanying "thank you's".
"That was beautiful, Snow." Belle said as she raised her head and contemplated who was going to carve the turkey resting on the table.
"Those we will be welcoming?" Gold said in a questioning manner. "As in plural? Did you tell everyone the news then, Belle?" he asked his wife. With that comment, heads turned in their direction.
"What news?," Snow asked in puzzlement.
"No, Rum," Belle replied as she felt everyone's eyes on her , "I didn't. But since you brought it to everyone's attention I guess now is as good of a time as any." Squeezing he husband's hand, she informed the table, "We are having another baby come early summer."
"Congratulations, Pop," Neal exclaimed as he slapped his father on the shoulders. Turning to his sister seated across the table, he asked, "Are you excited, Rose?"
"Yes. Papa says Mama is having a baby girl and Papa knows everything," Rose replied is a tone sounding advanced for her young age.
Ignoring the strangled sound coming from the direction of her father, Emma looked at Gold as she asked the little red-head, "Has Papa told you what I'm having, Rose?"
"No, Emma," said Belle answering for her daughter, "Rum has not said anything about the what you're having."
"Yes he did, Mama," Rose contradicted her mother. "He told me yesterday that Emma is having…" Rose continued but was interrupted by her father.
"Rose, I thought we were going to keep that conversation a secret between the two of us for now," Gold quietly reminded his daughter.
"Okay, Papa," she continued and knew not to reveal further the contents of the discussion.
"Well," David teased Gold from the opposite end of the table, "didn't know you still had it in you at your age, Old Man."
"Oh, aye, more than enough stamina than you, I bet." Gold informed his antagonist, ready to volley anything shot his way.
"Enough of the good news," Belle said. Looking across the table to her stepson, she asked "Neal, will you do the honors and carve the turkey."
"Och, why does the boy get the honors. I'm the master of this house," Gold asked his wife.
Belle gave he husband an arched look and replied, "Because he is the only one of you I trust at this moment with a knife." Then she handed the carving tools over to the man in question.
As Neal began to slice up the large turkey, the rest loaded their plates with whatever was closest to them and then began to pass the dishes around the table. Belle and Snow helped the little girls seated next to them as David assisted his young son. Conversation soon became stilted as the blended family began to enjoy the feast set before them.
As Emma gazed at the scene around her, she rubbed her swollen belly and thought that if anyone told her years ago when she first put on that Deputy Sheriff's badge that she'd here with these people, she'd have had them arrested for possession of illegal substances. But somehow…someway this ragtag bunch of characters had become dearer to her than anything she had ever known.
