"Is this really necessary?" Emma asked, laughing softly as her father carried her up the stairs to their apartment.
"You need to save your strength Emma," her mother insisted, with only the slightest twinge of overprotectiveness in her voice, as they reached the top step. "Remember if it weren't for your father you'd still be sitting in that hospital bed."
"This is true," she smiled gratefully at her dad, who had somehow convinced Doctor Whale that she would recover more quickly at home, despite the many complications the night before. Mary Margaret turned the key in the lock and pushed the door open with her foot, having carried all of their luggage up herself.
"Now get her in there before you drop her," Mary Margaret teased, giving her husband a light peck on the cheek.
"Hey, if I can carry you through the woods I can certainly carry our daughter up a few stairs," He said winking at her,
"Did you just call me fat?!" Mary Margaret asked, pretending to sound offended.
"No, of course not, everyone puts on a few pounds after they have a kid," he smiled playfully.
"When you carried me through the woods Emma was not even an idea let alone Neal!" Mary Margaret retorted, throwing a playful smile back at her husband's joke. David simply laughed and carried his daughter to the couch, setting her down gently.
"Thanks," Emma said, still giggling at her parent's adorable relationship.
"Of course sweetheart."
"Hey there!" a familiar voice echoed from the stairwell above. "Welcome home mom!" She looked up to see her son running down the stairs of the loft.
"Kid?" Emma said, surprised to see her son here in the middle of the day. He plopped down next to her on the couch and smiled at her. "What are you doing here? I told you I don't want to get you sick."
"I could either be here with you or at home with my other mom who's just as sick, and she is spending the day with Zelena. They said they had to 'catch up,'" he said, using his hands to quote the end of this sentence. Emma gave him a skeptical look. "What?" he asked innocently, "why can't we just sit around and watch movies or something?"
Emma frowned, looking at her parents for approval. As much as she would love her son to stay, she didn't want to get him sick too. Her fever had dropped significantly since last night, but she was still experiencing other flu symptoms and the last thing Emma wanted was for Henry to catch this devil plague.
"Henry I don't know if you shoul-"
"You can stay Henry, but don't get too close, okay?" Mary Margaret interrupted before Emma could finish, smiling and putting her bag down on the kitchen counter. Emma was surprised at her mother's sudden and uncharacteristic lack of overprotectiveness.
"Fine," Emma said, sneezing into her arm, "but you have to stay on the other side of the couch."
"Deal, but not before I do this." he said, jumping up and grabbing Emma's favorite blanket from the basket they kept near the TV. He walked back over the couch and placed it gently over her, tucking the edges in around her. It was a white-knit replica of her baby blanket with her name stitched in purple. Her parent's had gotten it for her birthday a few months ago.
"Thanks kid," Emma smiled gratefully, she was a little cold. He smiled back, sitting down on the couch and leaning against the opposite arm. David came over with two glasses of water and a bottle of her prescription pills balanced on his wrists. Henry reached for the glasses, taking them both and handing one to Emma. She reached her hand out, it was still shaking slightly.
"Take this," David said, handing her two round pink pills from the bottle. She popped them in her mouth and took a tiny sip of water to wash them down.
"Thanks dad," Emma said smiling up at him. She had to admit, he was pretty good at taking care of her, especially now that Emma wasn't fighting it quite as much.
"So," Henry asked, beaming at his mother's acceptance of help from her father, "what are we watching?"
"Actually," David said, stepping in front of the TV, "you're not watching anything."
"I have a concussion," Emma sniffed, turning towards Henry, "so I shouldn't watch any TV or read any books or anything like that for a while," she said apologetically. She knew how much Henry liked to read with her and watch TV. "Sorry kid."
"It's okay, I have a better idea," Henry said, his eyes twinkling. He bounced back up from the couch and ran up the stairs before Emma could do so much as blink.
She and her father looked at each other in confusion.
"What is he-"
"No clue," Emma responded, cut off by a small bout of coughs. Her dad looked at her with concern that Emma picked up on almost instantly. "Dad it's okay, it feels better today," she reassured and motioned to her throat.
"Got it!" Henry shouted from upstairs, distracting David from his worry as they heard cluttering objects scatter on the floor.
"What are you doing up there Henry?" Mary Margaret yelled from the kitchen. Emma could smell cookies in the oven already, so typical.
"You'll see!" he said, his footsteps getting louder as he came running back down the stairs. He was holding Monopoly in his hands.
"A board game?" Emma said with a small laugh.
"Yes, a board game," he stated, placing it down on the coffee table, "for once, we are going to be a normal family and pretend a normal life." He sat down and took the top off of the game. Emma sat up slowly, her head only throbbing slightly at the change in position. She smiled, some normalcy around here sounded great right about now.
As Henry and David set about setting up the game, Mary Margaret removed fresh cookies from the oven and placed them on a plate, walking over and setting them down next to Henry and Emma. They were the one's who liked the sugar after all. She rubbed the top of Henry's head, only to be brushed off by the pre-teen.
"Gramma stop it, I'm meeting Violet later," He complained, trying to return his hair to it's former position.
Mary Margaret laughed at her grandson, who was growing up way too fast for her liking, and sat down next to Emma. Wrapping her arm around her daughter's shoulder, she pulled her close; kissing the side of her head. She was processing what Emma had revealed to them last night in the hospital, but was relieved her daughter did not seem to be pushing them away now that they knew. Infact, Emma had been more accepting of her parent's than she had been in a long time and Mary Margaret hoped this would continue as they kept moving forward and continued to mourn the loss of two great men. "I think," She said, looking around the room at all the people she loved, "a board game sounds like a lovely idea."
