Author's Note: I said in the beginning, the story would jump around in time a bit. Here's the first big jump. Thanks so much for the reviews, I enjoy reading every, single one.

Ch. 7: The Future Looks Bright

Emma could hear the noise before she even opened the door. 'Wooden swords,' she thought. Again.

She walked around a "castle" made of sheets and pillows and stepped over hundreds of blocks.

When she made it through the minefield that was her living room, she found her youngest brothers, who were alternately using swords and trying to wrestle one another to the ground.

"Emmy!" shrieked Leo. "You're here in time for my final battle."

"It's not your final battle!" yelled Tanner. "I'm gonna fight the dragon!"

"More dragons!?" inquired Emma.

She heard a little growl behind her. "Rrrrr Mama. Rrrrr."

Emma's mouth dropped open. Her daughter was scootching along in her baby walker, pale green with a handmade tail trailing behind her.

She scooped up her daughter and turned to glare at her brothers. "What did you do to my baby?" she demanded.

"Sh-she's the dragon," Tanner stammered.

"So you painted her!?" Emma demanded.

"Only a little bit," Leo assured her.

"What the hell? You know better!"

They looked contrite. Kaelyn burbled in her ear, unbothered by the commotion. "Alright, here's how it's going to go. You guys are going to make sure this entire room is cleaned up in the next ten minutes, and I'll consider not telling Mama that you painted her grandbaby."

Instant fear. "We'll clean up," said Tanner.

Leo nodded emphatically. "Puh-leeease don't tell Mama," he pleaded.

"We'll see," said Emma sweeping majestically out of the room.

Kaelyn laughed wildly as she carried her to the kitchen. Henry was pouring over some sort of drawing with his (she's-not-my-girlfriend-mom) friend, Ellie.

"Henry, are you supposed to be watching the kids?" Emma asked.

"Yeah," said Henry in a please don't embarrass me mom tone of voice.

"Well, you're doing a crap job. The boys were in there painting your sister."

Henry had the grace to look chagrined as he wiggled Kaelyn's foot with one hand. "Sorry. I got busy."

'Busy doing what?' Emma thought suspiciously. Their clothes weren't mussed. She stripped Kaelyn and dumped her in the sink.

"Mom, all the books say bathing babies in the kitchen sink isn't really sanitary," Henry reminded her.

"Yeah? What do the books say about letting babies get painted in the first place?" Emma tested the water on one side of the sink, then used the sprayer to start squirting Kaelyn down. She giggled wildly.

Henry sighed. "We'll go upstairs."

"Leave the door open," Emma yelled as they left the room.

A grumble was his only reply.

Both Snow and David had laughed when Emma had introduced the "open door" rule.

"Is it a magic door?" asked David, not even trying to hide his grin.

Emma looked at her parents, slightly confused. "Everyone does that. It's to keep them from having sex."

"We understand the purpose Emma, but if they really want to have sex, they'll have sex," said Snow, merriment lighting her face.

"Well it will make it harder at least," Emma claimed firmly.

Both Snow and David suddenly found the floor very interesting.

"Oh my G-d," said Emma. "What are you guys, like fifteen? You're supposed to be good examples."

David raised his hands as if to protest, the put them back down without saying a word, obviously realizing they had no defense.

"I suppose it will make it a little harder," said Snow in a speculative voice.

Emma glared at them. "If Henry gets some girl pregnant, I'm blaming you guys and your ridiculous tendency to screw like rabbits."

Her parents tried really hard to look offended, but it was hard to take offense when something was so blatantly true.

After that conversation, in addition to the door being open, Emma had a tendency to "look in" on her son every few minutes.

"Ree, Ree," said Kaelyn splashing happily.

"Yeah, that's your brother. Big pile of hormones." Emma was thankful to find that the boys had used watercolors. She finished washing her daughter and realized she hadn't brought a towel. She swore softly and used half a roll of paper towels to swaddle Kaelyn.

She peeked in on her brothers to see them industriously picking up their toys. The sheet castle had already been dismantled.

"Let's go get you some clothes, baby," Emma said, starting up the stairs. When they reached the little girl's bedroom, she changed her daughter into pale lavender outfit and slung her over her hip.

She caught her mother as she was just leaving her room, looking flushed and rumpled. "Emma…," she began. Then she looked down at the little girl and frowned. "Why is my grandbaby damp?"

Her father moved behind her, buttoning his shirt. "What?" He immediately reached for Kaelyn. "How's my little princess?" he cooed sweetly, covering her face with kisses.

Kaelyn shrieked and reached for him. Emma gave her over easily. She rolled here eyes. "Really? Mom, you're going to pop any day now."

Her mother looked vexed. "I was supposed to 'pop' three days ago. This baby needs to come out. Now."

Emma couldn't help but grin. Her mother had become distinctly more surly as the due date had gone by and no baby appeared. "Sacrifices need to be made," she agreed, erasing the smirk from her face.

Snow reached out and swatted her arm. "Very funny, Princess."

David ignored them both and made ridiculous faces at his granddaughter. Kaelyn responded with gurgles of delight.

Snow paused a moment. "Wait – Henry was supposed to be watching the kids."

Emma rolled her eyes. "He has Ellie over. The only thing he was watching was her."

"Emma…"

"I know, I'll talk to him," Emma assured her mother. "Or maybe…," she switched her look to her father, "his Grampa needs to have another facts-of-life talk with his grandson."

David didn't look away from his granddaughter. "I had that talk," he sing-songed, "about five years ago…"

"Maybe you need to have it a-gain," Emma replied in the same tone.

"I remember that talk," said Snow. "Henry came back full of information about the breeding habits of rabbits, sheep, cows, and horses."

David finally looked away from Kaelyn in exasperation. "There's something unfair about me having to give double the amount of life talks than anyone else in the family."

Snow rubbed her stomach fondly. "Well, you won't have to do it for this one."

They gave each other one of those intimate looks that made Emma feel she wasn't in the room, then they looked at her, expressions tentatively hopeful.

She sighed loudly. "I told you guys it's cool. Stop looking at me like I'm going to run away like a teenager whose parents forgot her birthday." And it was cool. Maybe it wouldn't have been if she didn't already have three brothers…if she didn't have Kaelyn, but she did. She could handle this. She wanted to handle it. She wanted her parents to have everything they wanted. They deserved it. She closed her eyes. Please let me be able to handle this.

From the identical looks her parents were giving her, they didn't believe her. For a moment she hated herself. Hated that she couldn't just grow the hell up and deal with this. Let her parents be happy and not feel guilty. Again. Still.

"Emma," her father began.

She was inordinately thankful at that moment that Kaelyn began fussing in her grandfather's arms.

He jostled her rhythmically in his arms and tried again. "We…"

Emma talked over his like she didn't hear him. "Have you heard from Ash yet? I swung by to see if he was done, but the team was still practicing."

Snow sighed and traded a look with her husband, "not yet. But his practice has been going until 6:45 lately."

Emma drew her cell phone out of her pocket. "That's in fifteen minutes. I'll go now."

"You don't have too," David offered. "You just got home."

"No," Emma replied. "I told him I'd do it today." She trotted out what she hoped was a cheerful smile. "Please don't let the boys paint my baby again."

"They what?!" exclaimed Snow.

Crap. She'd gotten distracted. "Ummm," Emma started.

"Tanner! Leopold!" Snow called.

David rolled his eyes as Emma opened her mouth once more. "Don't even try Emma," he said sternly.

Emma grimaced and started out the door. The betrayed looks of her youngest brothers confronted her. "Sorry guys, they got it out of me," she lied. Wow, what a crappy daughter and sister she was today. She decided she needed to leave the house before she struck out with Kaelyn and Henry too.

"It's okay Emmy," said Leo seriously. "Mama and Papa are really good at that." Tanner nodded.

She couldn't leave the house fast enough.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

When she got to the field, the Lacrosse team was just finishing up. She saw the eager faces listening seriously to the coach. Ashton, with the captain's mark on his shirt, seemed to be the most serious of all.

When the team huddle broke, he grabbed his gear and scanned the parking lot. As soon as their eyes met, he grinned. He loped over to the car and threw his equipment in the back seat. "Hey Emmy," he said, slapping the passenger side door with one hand and buckling his seatbelt with the other.

"Hey Bubba. How was practice?"

"Pretty good. Coach thinks we have a good chance of beating the Chimeras on Saturday."

"That's good," Emma said.

They travelled silently for awhile, Aston giving her sidelong glances every once and awhile. Finally he sighed explosively. "What's going on?"

"What? Nothing," said Emma decisively.

"I don't know why you even try lying to me," said Ashton. "You suck at it."

"Hey!"

"Please Emma? I can tell you're upset," he looked at her pleadingly.

Emma drummed her fingernails on the steering well, careful to look away from her brother.

"Is it the baby?" he asked.

Emma's head instantly swiveled towards him. "No!" she said angrily.

Ashton rolled his eyes. "It's okay for you to feel weird about it Emma. Everyone gets that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emma asked.

Ashton looked incredulous. "I mean, seeing Mama and Papa raising a girl that isn't you is going to be hard," he clarified.

Emma shifted uncomfortably and stomped too hard on the brakes, causing them to jerk in their seatbelts. "Is the school offering psychology classes now, or what?"

Ash rolled his eyes, "We aren't stupid Emma."

G-d she hated this. Being so transparent…being so…textbook. She gritted her teeth and took the next turn a little too sharply.

"I'm a little scared too," Ashton admitted.

Emma's head swiveled on its own volition. "Why?"

"Well...," Ashton picked at a loose thread on his uniform shirt. "The last time I was having a baby sister, she got taken away. We lost her for a long time, and there was nothing we could do about it."

Emma pulled abruptly to the side of the road, her heart simultaneously beating hard, and aching with sadness. "Ash…" she began.

Ashton carefully continued not looking at her. "We were so excited. Even though we knew about the Queen's curse. We still tried so hard to make everything perfect. And we thought…we really thought that we would be able to beat her."

"We did beat her," Emma's throat was tight.

Ashton finally met her eyes, "Not before you were sent away. Not before we lost you. We didn't really win you know. We lost being with you. That's not a real for true win."

"It's a hard-fought win," said Emma quietly. "A sacrificial win."

Ashton shrugged his shoulders and resumed gazing at his lap. "If our new sister is born okay, it'll be a real sign. That things will be different. That something like that won't happen again." his finger twisted nervously in his shirt.

Emma grabbed one of his hands, "Is that how you see it?"

Ashton met her eyes again. "That's how we see it. I know Mama and Papa feel the same way. The baby isn't a replacement, she could never be. All those things we did Emma…when we got ready for you. All the things we said…they are all yours. This is different. But if the baby's okay…if she's able to grow up with us…"

Emma saw the worry in his face. She pulled him close. "She'll be okay, Bubba. She's going to be fine. I-I promise. We'll all look out for her."

Ashton looked relieved. "She won't be the Savior, or anything like that," he said. "She'll just be her own little self."

"She'll be our little sister," said Emma, feeling protective. She felt powerful. She could do this for the family. Give them the security of knowing their growing family would stay together. She gave her brother a firm pat on the leg and pulled the car back onto the main road.

Ashton continued gazing at her.

Emma thought of their parents, realizing something...

"Ash?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"I think it's about time we made a nursery, don't you?"

Emma watched as the anxiousness that had been there for months, literally melted off his face.

"I don't know if Mama and Papa are ready yet," he said nervously.

"We'll make them ready," Emma was eager to watch the same look of contentment rise on her parents' faces. How had she not seen the uneasiness on their faces, the reluctance to truly plan for this baby's arrival?

"Do you think we can get Gepetto to make her a crib really fast?" Ashton asked.

A smile quirked the corner of Emma's lips. "He's had one ready for the last month," she said.

Ashton looked at her incredulously. "You told him to make a crib?"

Emma had to look away from the adoration in his face. "I had an idea. Made a little sketch…It's no big deal really. I thought…I thought Mama and Papa would like it."

"Emma," he said softly.

She held up a hand, preventing him from saying anything else. "Let's stop by the toy store. I think we have some toys to buy."

Ashton reached back for his equipment bag and grabbed his wallet. "I want to buy her the first toy," he said. "Maybe I'll get her a stuffed dove."

"A dove?" asked Emma.

"Yeah, because a dove is a symbol for hope." Then he grinned secretively.

"What else?" Emma asked, preparing herself.

"Symmetry."

Emma Swan felt herself smile.