"Regina calm down."
"Don't tell me to calm down."
"Everything will be fine."
"Who told you that? Was it the woodland animals, no maybe it was the dwarves or fairies, because I cannot see how this situation could be classed anywhere near the region of fine."
Emma rolled her eyes as she witnessed the exchange of petty squabbles and over exaggeration from her mother and step-grandmother/ Son's adoptive mother. "And this is why I have nothing to do with anything Christmas related." David stated walking out of the kitchen and joining the rest of the men and kids in the living room.
"I'm thinking you had the right idea." She called after him.
"Emma, why are you just sat there? Useless!" Regina complained as she juggled with the massive turkey. "The most annoying thing about this is that I could just magic up the whole thing tomorrow, no work necessary."
"Yes, but making it is so much more satisfying."
"That is a matter of opinion."
"At least if we get everything ready today all we have to do is actually cook everything."
"I suppose. Emma, are you going to help us or not?" Regina asked again, feeling rather annoyed that we was just sat down watching them do all the work and not contributing at all.
"Sure, what do you want me to do?" She stood up, grabbed an apron off the peg on the back of the door and tied it around her waist.
"How about you sort the vegetables?" She suggested, then said under her breath "That should be simple enough."
"Fine, I will do that." She looked at the masses of vegetables that lay in front of her in the chopping board. What was she supposed to do with them? She wasn't use to cooking things that incorporated fresh vegetables and therefore didn't have the first clue, she could manage tacos and grilled cheese but that was about it. "How exactly am I meant to?"
"You have to be kidding me. You don't even know how to prepare vegetables, Snow it seems that your daughter really did suffer because of your absence."
"Whose fault is it that I was absent?" She asked.
"Oh give it a rest, how many times do you want me to apologise for that."
"Oh I think a few more would do, I mean it's not as if I missed out on 28 years of my daughter's life."
"Yeah, but time for us was frozen, which means that you'll still get to spend an extra 30 years with her when you would most likely had been dead, plus life expectancy in this world is a lot higher, I don't know if it's the great medical facilities or the food that is actually edible or maybe it's the fact that you can't just go around killing whoever you like, I just don't know."
Snow couldn't help but chuckle a bit at that one, "Okay Regina, I get your point, let's just get this done, then we can enjoy the evening."
Reluctantly Regina nodded and when Mary Margaret wasn't looking waved her hands at Emma's pile of vegetables and winked at her as they were all sorted and in neat piles on the counter. Emma shook her head and moved them into their designated pots.
"Oh Emma, you managed, perfectly I might add, have you ever thought about becoming a chef?"
Regina who had paused to take a drink nearly choked. "A chef? She's a bail bondsperson, becoming a chef isn't exactly an attractive option after you've had that role. All you have to do is sit around and drink coffee all day and then when you spot the criminal jump them, I mean it hardly takes skill does it."
"I could be a chef if I wanted to be." Emma stated defensively although she knew that Regina was right, a chef probably wouldn't be the best career path for her.
"Okay then Swan, peel this." She picked up a spare carrot off the countertop and tossed it to her.
Picking up the peeler she began to unsuccessfully attempt to peel it, after a short time she dropped it on the counter and chuckled "Okay, maybe I couldn't be a chef." Regina smirked and Snow realised what had gone on.
"Did one of you use magic to peel those vegetables?"
"No, why would we do that, when Emma's quite clearly capable of peeling them by hand." She laughed into her glass.
"Seriously you two, why do I even bother."
"Mom, it's a few vegetables, what's it matter."
"I suppose it doesn't does it?" She stated covering them over. "Are we bringing the Christmas pudding?" She asked changing the subject.
Regina nodded "Yes and I'm making the Yule log, with a little help from Santa's helper." Emma gave her a strange look. "Roland."
"Ohhh so cute." Emma swirled her wine in the glass as she sat back down at the kitchen island.
"He is really cute." Snow added, dusting off her hands after having finished what she was doing.
Then he ran into the kitchen "Gina." He stated hugging her "Henry and Daddy are trying to get me." He hid behind her legs and watched the door.
She bent down to talk to him "Trying to get you, well guess what, they don't have any magic, me and Emma, we have lots of it, so they won't be going up against us, not unless they want to spend Christmas as toads, why don't you go and tell them that."
He giggled and ran back into the living room leaving her laughing at him.
Emma and Snow exchanged glances they had seen her demonstrate how good she was with him a lot over the past week, she was a great mother and he was clearly smitten with her, much like his father.
"Stop, Gina says she'll turn you into a toad." They all laughed.
"A toad? Something tells me that she won't be turning your father into a toad." Hook winked at him, causing the other two men to shake their heads as they caught where he was going.
"No, she won't, but I know that she can, so we better not run the risk, hey Henry?"
"Okay, Roland we won't get you. What do you wanna do?" He asked feeling rather bored even though he was sat in a room with Prince Charming, Robin Hood and Captain Hook, all who were either already family members or had potential of becoming them. He found that his mom's tended to provide the most excitement it was the way their personalities both clashed and complimented each other at the same time, if that was in any way possible.
"Regina lets me play games on her phone."
"She does, okay, why don't you go and ask her?"
Nodding he ran out of the room into the kitchen where he had just come from and back again holding Regina's phone. "Henry look at this." He stated showing him the front camera as if he hadn't seen one before.
"Wow, shall we take a picture?" He asked.
"Yeah." Holding the phone up like she had shown him he smiled and clicked the button. "We pulled a funny face." He stated referring to the time they had taken pictures in the mall.
"What's that Roland?" Robin asked becoming aware of what he was doing after being lost in conversation with Charming and Hook. "Is that Regina's?" He took the phone from him and scrolled through the pictures that the two of them had taken at the mall, stopping in one of them both pulling funny faces at the camera. "Come on Daddy, we should all take a picture together." Robin just stared at the photograph as if it were the most precious thing to him. "Daddy."
"Right yeah." Handing the phone back to Roland they all commenced to take both funny and serious photos, however Robin's heart wasn't really in it, he was rather distracted by the fact that she was in the next room.
"The dwarves are not coming here for Christmas dinner, it's just not happening, end of story."
"Why not? I mean, where else are they going to go?"
"Frankly, I don't care, there's seven of them Snow, my house is already going to be full as it."
"Leroy said that..."
"I don't care what that miserable old dwarf said they are not coming here and that is final. Why don't they go spend Christmas with Granny and the rest of them?"
"I suppose they could."
"This dinner is family only, I don't think that I could handle anyone else."
"How's it going in here?" Robin asked as he grabbed another beer from the fridge and kissed Regina on the cheek, putting his hand on her back. The women were sat around drinking wine and talking, they had finally finished preparing for the day to come.
"We are just about done, does Roland still have my phone?" She asked pointing at the door, feeling rather unnecessarily awkward.
"Yeah." She stood up and they walked out of the room into the hallway.
She could tell just from looking at him that he was up to something "what?" He gestured at the ceiling with his eyes, she looked up and spotted the mistletoe hanging there. "Mistletoe, how did that get there?" She asked glancing at him suspiciously.
"I might have had something to do with that." He stated wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Is that so?
"Let's just say it's my favourite Christmas tradition." He leaned in and touched his lips to hers.
"Mine too." She whispered before continuing the kiss. Emma and Mary Margaret peered around the wall, turning to cast a smile at one another, plotting they walked out, knowing that they would have to pass them to get to the living room, chuckling like school girls as they went back to re-join their men.
After everyone had left and Regina and Roland had made their Yule log, it was bed time, Henry was staying at Emma's and Roland was restless. Robin sat with him in his bed telling him a story...
The heroes were on a mission to reach the Queen's palace before nightfall, they had all agreed to stay there together, but something new was going on in the forest. Flying creatures were appearing from nowhere and attacking people, they were after one person in particular, The Queen Regina...
"Gina, they why did they want to hurt Gina?" Roland asked looking at his father, Regina heard her name and came to the door; standing there she listened to the rest of Robin's story about their first encounter...
They were servants of the Wicked Witch, not that anyone knew who she was or what she was up to at the time, but it turned out that she was Regina's wicked sister, Zelena. Zelena was determined to make her sister's life a misery, all because she was jealous of her, jealous that she'd had the life that she had wanted. Now these flying monkeys took the heroes by surprise, Snow White and the Queen were talking alone when they heard a rustling in the bushes. Suddenly one of the witch's monkeys flew at them, the Queen flung a fireball at it but it grabbed hold of her, she managed to fling it off, but not before it scratched her arm. It was about to come for more when out of nowhere master bowman Robin Hood came to the rescue, shooting at the monkey and forcing it to leave Snow and the Queen alone, becoming their hero. As soon as the Queen met his eyes she fell in love with him...
"That's not exactly how I remember it." She stated from the doorway coming in and sitting on the edge of the bed...
The queen didn't know what to think of the forest smelling outlaw who had admittedly helped save her, but he was a thief and she didn't know if she could trust him or not. Later that day after they had found that a protection spell had been put in place around her castle, one that she hadn't cast, she was in an even worse mood, just adding to the pain she felt from the loss of her son. They began on the walk and again the flying monkey came for them, this time Robin Hood's son was walking slightly away from the rest of the party, the monkey swooped as if it was trying to attack him. The queen scooped the little boy up, saving his life; placing him back down she turned around and turned the monster into a stuffed monkey toy; she handed it to the young boy, who smiled at her...
"Yes, but who was the monkey after in the first place?" He asked "I'm pretty sure that beast was coming for you."
"Oh we know it was, anyway after that..."
The outlaw carried on pestering the Queen, he felt as though he owed her a debt, instead of helping her, he got in her way, insisting that he come along to turn off the shield. Then again when they needed to go to Rumpelstiltskin's castle he insisted in coming along and nearly took off her head with one of his arrows...
"The door nearly took off your arm, just another example of me saving you and I stopped you from putting yourself under a sleeping curse."
"You didn't, I wasn't just going to let Zelena hurt my family."
"Okay, so in your mind when did you fall in love with me?" He asked.
"I suppose it was when I met you again in Storybrooke. How about you?" She questioned continuing their conversation.
"Well, straight away, in the enchanted forest."
"Really?"
"Yes really." The two had failed to notice that during their conversation, Roland had fallen asleep, holding his monkey toy, which had come along with them from the enchanted forest in the curse.
"I thought that you were charming in your own way, I wouldn't say I was in love, but you were beginning to grow on me somewhat."
"Is that so, well you certainly didn't show it, I was beginning to think that I didn't stand a chance with you. The Evil Queen was certainly hard to win over."
"She might have been, but me, it didn't take much, when I found out that we were soul mates, I knew that I would have to stop being scared of falling again and just take a leap."
"Well, I'm glad you did, it was rocky for a while there though."
She shook her head "that is putting it mildly, the return of Marian, only to find out that she wasn't Marian and in fact she had been killed by Zelena who was pretending to be her, the amount of times I was tempted to just." She stopped herself, before she could say something she would regret, after all Zelena was pregnant with Robin's baby, however much she hated it.
"I know, but she won't get between us anymore, I love you and nothing she or anyone else does will get in the way of that, I promise you, Regina."
She chuckled and looked down at Roland "oh, he's asleep." Standing up she leant down and kissed him on the forehead; taking Robin by the hand she led him out of the room.
"I'm looking forward to tomorrow." He stated as they walked along the corridor towards their room.
"So am I."