Snow bristled. Rumple had forced her hand and she didn't know why. The last thing she had wanted to do was give Maleficent and Regina more time with Emma. She gathered up Emma as soon as the bell rang, fully intending to storm Rumple's shop to demand answers. Her ire flared further when Belle told her that Rumple wasn't in today, and that she needed to leave.

It turned out that allowing Regina or Mal to watch Emma a day or two a week worked out in her favour. The town started to come around a bit, at least to see Emma, which meant they at least had to talk to Snow. Regina and Mal seemed a bit friendlier to her. Charming seemed in a better mood too. Even Emma seemed happier in the month she'd first agreed to these visits.

The brunette took the weekend to just be by herself with Emma, sending David off to do the errands. Snow had taken Emma to the park, and out to the garden while she planted her remaining seeds. Thanks to Maleficent giving her drop-ins of milk, Emma was starting to gain weight and hold down her food. She'd taken a bath while Emma napped. Both ladies were currently in front of the TV, on the couch.

A Pup Named Scooby Doo entertained Emma to no end for some reason. The little one smiled at the TV and babbled at it Snow had no idea what she was seeing, but the show was kind of cute. Snow thought an hour of this cartoon was enough, and switched to Animal Planet. Ear shattering shrieks had her quickly changing the channel back.

An hour later, Snow felt someone staring at her. Looking down, green eyes met bright blue. Emma was staring at her. If Emma had been older, Snow would have said her baby was studying her, but she was just a baby. A gummy smile broke out on the little one's face as she elicited a happy shriek and her whole body flailed about, reaching for her.

Emma was finally happy to see her? Snow didn't know if it was the cartoon or if it was the good day, if it was being able to see Regina and Mal more, or maybe Emma was finally warming up to her. Whatever the reason Emma was happy with her, she wasn't going to squander it. She scooped Emma up from the couch and set her in her lap.

"Hello my pretty girl! Mommy is so happy you're in a good mood! Perhaps you'll sleep for me tonight, hmm?"

Emma giggled at her and grabbed a fistful of hair, yanking hard.

Snow winced and tried to disentangle the little fist. "Should I take this as a no?"

She got one fist free only to have the other one grab a handful on the other side and jerk towards the baby, Emma full smiles and happy shrieks now.

Emma leaned forward and placed open mouthed, slobbery attempts at kisses on Snow's face until she reached the woman's nose. Snow didn't think anything of it, reveling in what she thought were kisses. At least, that was until two sharp teeth sunk into the tip of her nose. Instantly Snow remembered Emma was teething, and motherfucker did it hurt!

Snow got Emma away from her face and dodged another kiss attempt. She could feel blood drip from her nose as drool dried on her cheeks. She was wholly unprepared for the double fists that yanked her hair hard enough to rip some out, causing her forehead to jerk forward. Emma was leaning in to try and slobber kiss on her again, causing a hard, little baby headbutt to her mouth, splitting her bottom lip.

It took ten minutes to clean her face of the blood, but Emma had held her death grip fist in Snow's hair. Emma wouldn't even let go when Snow gave her a bath and dressed her in jammies. The unintentional abuse was all worth it though when Emma laid her head on Snow's shoulder and wrapped her little arm around the brunette's neck, falling asleep on her as Snow fed her a bottle. This was the first time Emma happily fell asleep on her.

In that moment, Snow knew that whatever Emma put her through, whatever she'd done in her past, it was all worth it to have this precious angel, her daughter, finally adoring her completely like this. Her heart was finally softening, warming and growing. It was like the Grinch when he finally found and accepted love.

Charming came home to find his wife half asleep on the couch, Emma asleep on her chest, empty bottle hanging loosely from one of Emma's tiny hands. It was so adorable. Emma was finally making Snow happy. His wife was finally getting what she had wanted all along. Smiling at them both, he lifted both up and carried them to the bedroom.

DQDQDQDQDQ

Regina and Maleficent honestly loved getting Emma a few days a week. It'd been a month, and the growth in the little blonde was tremendous. She no longer felt lighter than air thanks to Maleficent agreeing to act as nursemaid to the little one. Emma seemed a lot happier now that she wasn't stuck in the animal shelter office all day. She was always smiling and energetic with Regina and Mal.

Lily was happier having Emma around too. They babbled at each other nonstop. They sat in their Hugaboo support seats playing, well throwing their toys to one another. Both little ones had started to teeth, so they were constantly drooling. When they were close enough to be touching, the girls loved leaning over and planting open mouthed kisses on one another. Mal and Regina thought it was the cutest thing. They had started dressing them the same when they were together.

The girls were alike in a lot of ways, and completely different in others. Both seemed to love anything giraffe. Somehow they just knew if you wrapped them in anything but their hooded giraffe towels. If it wasn't Sophie, they threw all teething toys as far as their little arms could. Emma was quieter than Lily. Lily liked green whereas Emma liked purples. Emma liked to be held constantly by Regina and Mal, whereas Lily was happy trying to explore on her own.

Regina and Mal had hired a hospital nurse to come help them babyproof the house. The way the babies wriggled around, they both bet crawling wasn't far off. Hopefully the crawling stayed in the playpens, that Lily wouldn't use magic to get around outside the safety of the pen.

The girls had started a bit on purees. Regina and Mal had quickly learned the benefit of the Boon squirt spoon that housed the food and allowed you to control the mess somewhat. Trying to feed one baby was difficult enough, but two was always a chore. Lily liked any food that wasn't green. Emma liked sweet potatoes and bananas, pretty much any fruit as well. She didn't seem to mind vegetables either. Both girls loved applesauce or anything paired with apples.

DQDQDQDQ

Storybrooke Prep had off school. The teachers were all taking a service day to prepare for exams and determine which students were moving on. It meant Mal and all the teachers, including Snow were going to be locked away all weekend. It's normally just at the school, but the board had voted this year to be shut in at Granny's Inn. Regina knew that meant do not disturb unless under death threat.

Regina was going to be alone all weekend with Lily. This was the first extended period of time she'd be without Mal since Lily was born. She was nervous as hell. Lily preferred her wife. How was she going to go three days without seeing her? They'd never been away from Lily, ever.

Maleficent had made sure to leave enough milk in the freezer for Lily. She's sent what extra she had over to David for Emma. It was easy to see worry in brown eyes as Mal packed her bags. Regina only grew more anxious as it came time to leave.

"Darling, I'll be right up the road. I'm sure you can handle it, but you can always text me. I'll call you before bed and when I wake up. You're going to be just fine."

The blonde's heart was breaking, despite her reassurances to her wife. She didn't want to leave them. They'd never been apart more than a few hours. Three days was going to feel like a lifetime. Even if she was just going to be doing paperwork for three days just ten minutes from her little family, it felt like she was going away for an eternity.

After endless kisses to both Lily and Regina, she finally took herself to her room at the inn, leaving Regina alone with Lily.

The first day was okay. Regina really enjoyed having Lily all to herself. It was nice to finally have Lily's sole focus and attention on her. Her wife usually was the one Lily calmed best for, behaved best for. Lily loved Regina, of that, she was certain, but she wasn't normally Lily's first choice, so this time alone was fabulous.

The second day Lily woke up crabby. Regina wondered if it was a teething issue, a missing mama issue, or the fact that Emma wasn't with her last night. For the past month, three or four nights a week Regina or Mal would go check on Lily to find Emma with her. Snow and David didn't seem to mind, and neither woman was going to look that gift horse in the mouth.

She's called Mal and let Lily hear her voice. She'd tried baby Orajel and massaging her gums. She'd tried tummy time and Sprout cartoons. She tried the dragon lovie and a bath. Nothing was working. Lunch seemed to help a bit, but not much. Perhaps David would let them see Emma for a bit.

Regina had just gotten everything ready to leave the house to visit the Charmings when a frantic knock sounded at the door. Lily was fussing in her carrier. This was so not what she needed right now. She flung open the door, fully expecting to ream out whoever it was only to find David standing there looking out of sorts, holding Emma's carrier and bag.

"David? We were just coming to see Emma."

The man stormed past her into the house, setting down Emma's carrier next to Lily's along with a small duffel bag. Regina eyed him warily, eyebrow raised in question.

"Perhaps you are confused, but this is my house. Is there something I can do for you?"

David ran a hand through short blonde hair before staring at his daughter's carrier in a mix of exasperation and angry glare.

"She won't settle. Normally she adores me. Snow is the one that gets Emma's unhappy moods. I have tried everything. I can't go give her to Snow, so I need you to take her for a while. She's been mad at me for two days."

"You let her be unhappy for two days. Did you take her to a doctor to see if anything was wrong?"

"Well, no. She's not running a high fever. Dr. Prescott said it's normal for teething to cause a slight fever and to give her a tiny bit of Tylenol. Emma is just in a mood. I expected this at thirteen, not seven months."

Regina chuckled and squatted down to look at both babies. Emma broke away from her staring contest with Lily to smile up at her.

"She seems fine now. How long did you want me to watch her?"

David the decency to look sheepish as he backed towards the door. "I haven't had any time with Snow since Emma came. You could just bring her to Snow Monday morning."

Brown eyes widened in surprise. "Parenting isn't selective, David. You can't only take the good times. This isn't like one of the shelter animals you can give away at the challenges. Emma needs unconditional love and care."

"You don't understand! She…"

"Emma what, David?"

"She bit me! Hard enough to bleed and need gauze! I swear she's part vampire or something. Since getting her teeth, Emma has taken great joy in biting me and Snow, anyone really who gets too close to her mouth. I've had a day and a half of screaming and biting. I can't do it anymore right now. Please, just watch her until Snow comes back."

Regina smiled down at the little blonde who returned the smile with one of her own before looking over at Lily. She felt proud this little one was getting her shots in on those two idiots.

"Emma has never bitten either me or Mal. They're baby teeth, David. You deal with pests of all kind day in and day out. You're telling me two tiny baby teeth are your downfall?"

The babies giggled and reached out for her.

"Whatever, Regina. That's my cue. Bye."

Regina watched the shepherd run out the door before scooping Emma and Lily out of the carriers and settled them in her lap on the couch. Both little ones seemed much happier being around one another. Perhaps they'd remain happy.

The reality of two babies at once all alone set in around dinnertime. Both wanted her undivided attention which caused preparing bottles with a bit of cereal in it to take longer. Feeding also took longer, since both wanted to be held as they ate.

She'd never bathed the girls together. It certainly was a new experience. Regina thanked modern technology for the idea to put the girls in a laundry basket to keep them and their toys in one place without worry they'd slip and hurt themselves.

Regina tried putting the girls to bed one at a time, but neither was allowing that if the howling screams of protest were anything to go by. She settled for moving them to her bed, holding both after she changed into pajamas. Emma and Lily fell asleep, matching pajamas and pacifiers, holding hands as they had their little heads on her chest. Using magic, she took a few pictures on her phone and sent them to Mal.

The morning proved more challenging than Regina had ever imagined. The girls were up at quarter to five, crawling all over her. Lily was chewing on the collar of her silk pajamas. Emma was bouncing on her, knees digging into her stomach and hands pushing on her chest. Regina would have adored it had it not been the ass crack of dawn.

Her heart dropped when there was only one bottle in the fridge. David had only sent one bottle with Emma. She supposed she should have felt lucky he'd sent that, but right now she was too busy cursing him as amplified wails of protest came from Lily's room.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Regina scrambled for her phone and tried to call her wife. Maybe she could just poof what she'd been pumping this weekend to her. Maleficent had placed it out just right so that both Emma and Lily would have exactly what they would need while she was gone.

The phone rang and rang, finally getting the answering machine. Quickly throwing a protection spell around the crib, Regina poofed herself to the Charming's apartment. There was no answer to the frantic knocking so she poofed in.

Regina found David and Leroy passed out on the floor of the living room, empty bottles of alcohol strewn all over. She searched the fridge and freezer for the bottles, coming up empty. Regina nudged David with her heel to wake him up. When that failed she delivered a swift kick to his shin that bolted him upright.

"R'Gina? What you doin?"

"I want to know why the drop-in bags for Emma's bottles are all empty. Mal gave you enough for this weekend. Where'd the milk go?"

"Milk? Ohhh, that was Emma's? No wonder it tasted weird. Stuff made me sick."

Regina cuffed him upside the head. "Idiot! I've nothing to feed your daughter now! My wife is locked in that stupid Inn for another six hours. I've nothing to feed her and she does not want food. I've tried six different jars! This is all your fault!"

David flopped back down with a shrug, falling asleep again leaving Regina to poof back to the house. Lily got the bottle. She felt so bad for Emma, but it was Lily's. She rocked Emma and tried to soothe the upset little one as she frantically searched through spellbooks to see if there was anything that could help.

Lily peered at them from her Hugaboo. Brown eyes trained on tear filled green ones. Regina was shocked when white light burst forth from her daughter and dropped a book at her feet, its pages flipping until it rested on a page.

Looking down, Regina gasped at the spell. She had tried this once with Lily, but her little one just wasn't having it. Was it wrong to do this with another child? If Lily was suggesting it though, perhaps it was okay.

Maleficent poofed to her house a little after nine. She just couldn't bear to be away from her girls anymore. She was surprised to find Regina on the couch with Lily and Emma. She certainly hadn't expected to find her wife with Lily being fed a bottle next to her while Regina had Emma to her breast.

"Darling, what are you doing?"

Regina's shoulders slumped a little, staring guiltily into amused blue eyes.

"David came yesterday after lunch and left Emma here because he couldn't tough it out. She loves to bite them. I found great joy in it. He left me no bottles, and I ran out of bottles. He wasted all her milk. I called you! I did! Lily is the one who used magic to show me this spell. I'm sorry!"

Regina rushed through everything in such a frantic one-breath rush that Mal almost missed what she'd said. She walked over and ran a hand through Regina's curls before leaning down to kiss her wife.

"Calm yourself, love. It's okay. Lily is happy. Emma is happy. You did what you needed to do. So...you had Emma for a day and a half by yourself? How'd having two all day go?"

"They love each other so much! Lily was having an awful day until Emma came over. By David's account, he let her be miserable for two days. They've been fine together ever since. I may have a few grey hairs now, but aside from the disaster a few hours ago of no food, it has been good."

"Does this mean we could have another baby?"

Brown eyes widened and jolted up from staring at Emma.

"Ask me when Lily is two. I only had two days with both of them alone. I think we could probably get away with asking for more time with Emma, or offering them date night a day a week or something where we have her twenty four hours straight."

Mal scooped up Lily and her bottle, leaving Regina to hold Emma. She knew firsthand what a bonding experience feeding was, and wanted her wife to get all she could out of it.

They fed the girls in silence for a while. Regina stared down at Emma, remembering the first time she'd fed Emma a bottle. Emma's little hand was on her chest again and she ate with no less vigour than the first time. Green eyes locked onto brown as the other little hand reached up and secured itself around an errant curly lock.

"So, what happened that David had no milk for her?" Mal finally broke her reverie from watching Lily slowly eat her bottle to glance over at her wife. She just looked so good, so right, feeding a child like that.

"He was trashed, passed out on the floor next to Leroy. Apparently they drank it or used it to mix drinks. He said it made him sick. Idiot."

"No one ever said they were smart or good parents. I think Emma finally broke through to Snow though. She seemed happier this weekend, and actually expressed worry about Emma."

Regina nodded, staring back down at Emma. She was always amazed at the pull she felt towards this little one, how close she always felt to Emma. Hopefully they'd get more time together since this weekend went so well.

"You should keep the spell. It'd help me out trying to keep up with both girls, and we'd never run into this crisis again."

Mal and Regina placed the girls in the playpen once they were done eating, laying back together on the couch to watch them try and scoot around, babbling together. They reveled in how amazing these little ones were together. Sure, Lily got on with other babies, but none as well as Emma. Both Regina and Mal connected so well to Emma too, more than any other unrelated little one.

Regina let Mal take over bathing the girls once it was bedtime. Lily and Emma had tired themselves out crawling all over the house. For the first time, Lily chose Regina to feed her dinner, little arms reaching for her instead of her blonde mother. Pride bloomed in Regina's chest as she scooped up Lily, leaving Mal to feed Emma.

The blonde was just as mesmerized with Emma as her wife was. Emma ate entirely different than Lily. Her daughter tended to fall asleep quickly when eating, eliminating the bonding through intense baby stare Emma was doing. Lily ate slowly, needing lots of encouragement, while Emma guzzled like her this was her last meal. Emma seemed to need both hands touching the person feeding her, while Lily seemed to prefer holding a teething ring or toy.

Mal smiled down at Emma as the little one fought sleep, blinking rapidly to try and keep up eye contact. She stroked the little blonde's cheek lovingly. "Go to sleep, princess. I'll still be here in the morning."

"She's wonderful, isn't she?" Regina came to stand beside her wife, having put a soundly sleeping Lily into her crib a few minutes ago.

Both women stared down at Emma, the girl rapidly losing the battle to stay awake. Emma filled something in their hearts they didn't even know they were missing. They'd definitely have to ask for more time with this angel.

DQDQDQDQ

Rumple was eating lunch at Granny's with Belle when he heard that this weekend was the one all school staff holed up and prepared for end of term. He grabbed Ruby's wrist as she moved to pass by to the kitchen.

"Miss Lucas, are all the teachers at the inn?"

The brunette looked at him skeptically. "Yes, why?"

"Even Snow?"

"Yeah, she's there. What's it to you?"

"I'm concerned for Emma. The shepherd leaves her all day in that car seat, sometimes unattended. I ask for the safety of the baby." He rubbed his palm as though it hurt.

Ruby eyed him warily, glancing at Belle who just shrugged.

"Charming has her. He was out last night at the Rabbit Hole with the dwarfs. Maybe he got a sitter."

Rumple didn't even wait for his food to come. He kissed his wife, and took off for the Charming residence. The door was locked, no one answering, so he poofed in. His jaw dropped as he took in the trashed apartment. Empty alcohol bottles, empty paper plates, and half eaten food littered the apartment. It looked like the morning after at a frat house. In the middle of the room, half under the coffee table was a passed out David who was wearing only boxer shorts. Leroy was half on, half off the couch, equally unconscious. The short man almost looked like he was praying. Rumple hoped it was for some dignity.

He was poofed to Emma's room upstairs only to find it empty. He tore apart the rest of the apartment coming up sans baby. He was just about to wake Charming when the front door opened, revealing the Dark Princess. Ooh this was going to be good!

Snow had left the lock in just after noon, eager to get home to her baby. She'd missed Emma terribly while gone. She'd had a lot of time to think at the inn, and had decided Emma was exactly what she wanted, needed. Being a mommy made her happy. It was no longer about revenge, well not solely revenge. She could kill two birds in one stone wanting to really be Emma's mommy and still rub it in their faces. She couldn't wait to see Emma again, to kiss her little face.

Seeing her apartment in such disaster had her reeling. She spied Rumple and gazed at him questioningly. Rumple simply pointed to a near naked David and Leroy.

"Emma?"

"Not here. I just came to check on her. I know as much as you, dearie." Rumple gave a nonchalant shrug and nudged his cane at the sleeping shepherd.

Snow quickly surveyed the state of her apartment before zeroing in on the plastic drop-in bags ripped open and empty next to a half drunk bottle of whiskey. Her anger rose. He'd sent her baby god knows where to get wasted, and taken her food from her. He couldn't even be a father for a few days without her.

"DAVID FINLEY NOLAN!"