It had been a long time since Ewan had a child sleep on top of him, but Henry had fallen asleep watching television while his parents were out on a date and Ewan had no motivation at all to put the boy in his crib. Just having him here was soothing, and he just wanted to spend some more time with his grandson while he had him – who knew when they would see each other again?
He heard Belle coming into the living room from the kitchen, but he couldn't really do much to greet her without disturbing Henry so he waited until she leaned over the back of the sofa and kissed him quickly on the lips.
"How are my two favorite guys?" she asked quietly.
"Tired," Ewan replied. "But comfortable."
Belle smile and stroked Henry's hair softly before leaning down to kiss Ewan again. He felt a brief pang of longing for what might have been if things had gone differently for them, and he knew she was thinking about it, too. It wasn't that he regretted anything about his life with Belle, but it was just bittersweet to have a baby in the house after they'd tried so hard before to have one. He tried to push down the thought, but some of it must have shown on his face because the next thing he knew she was sitting on the sofa next to him with her head resting against his shoulder and her hand settled on his arm.
"No regrets," she said with a little wink.
"No regrets," he agreed. How could he have any regrets about her? No matter what else he'd done wrong in life, marrying Belle had been unambiguously good.
The three of the sat like that for awhile longer with the television playing uselessly in the background. Ewan felt at peace in that moment, and it was all too soon that the front door opened and he heard the door open and the soft laughter of Emma and Neal as they entered. Belle strained her head upwards a bit to greet the two, but Ewan didn't dare to move and risk waking the baby.
"Hey guys," Emma said as she approached the trio on the sofa. "How was he?"
"Perfect," Ewan replied honestly.
"How was your date?" Belle asked. "I know there's not much to do in Storybrooke."
"It was a lot of fun," Emma said. "To be honest, I really just wanted to go out alone together without worrying about the baby, so dinner and a movie was just fine." Her eyes went quickly to Henry where he slept on Ewan's chest. "Although I guess it's time for him to get tucked in, huh?"
"I'll take him," Ewan said instantly, putting his hand on Henry's back and sitting up so he could shift the baby into his arms.
Emma and Neal exchanged a quick glance before Emma turned back with a smile on her face.
"Yeah, sure," she said. "If you don't mind."
"Not at all," he replied. "It's been a long time but I'm pretty sure I remember how this all goes."
Neal didn't argue, which had been what he'd been afraid of, and Ewan left the sound of conversation and laughter behind as he ascended the stairs to the bedrooms. Henry barely stirred as Ewan set the toddler in the crib and tucked a blanket around his chest lightly. It wasn't particularly cold in the house, but it was old and drafty and he wanted to maintain contact for just that little while longer. He really looked so much like Neal had when he was a boy.
Neal didn't want his dad to get married. He didn't want to go to Mexico with his dad and Belle. He didn't want to stay with an old lady Belle knew while they went away. He just wanted for things to be the same as they were before, he wanted to go back to the circus or to their old house with his mother. He barely even remembered his mother anymore, but he remembered being happy there. Here he just felt weird and kind of alone.
When Dad and Belle got home from their honeymoon, Neal wasn't really sure what to think. He liked Belle fine, but he'd barely even known his father was dating her before they were all living together and then his dad was off on a trip for work right after they got home. And then another, and another. By their first anniversary, Neal was pretty sure he'd spent more of the year with his step-mother than his father. Belle was fine, but things were changing so fast.
"How are you doing?" his dad asked one day when they were alone in the car over the weekend. He only really saw his dad on weekends anymore these days which sucked, but Neal didn't really know what to do about it. They had a lot more money now, anyway, so it was nice to not be nervous about asking for things or whatever. Plus there was more food, and Belle was a pretty good cook.
"I'm fine," Neal said with a shrug.
"Yeah? I know a lot of things have changed for us this year and I want to make sure you're okay with it."
"I'm fine," Neal replied because he didn't want to talk about it at all – he barely wanted to think about it. His dad looked at him again but didn't push it. Not that Neal would have let him push it anyway, because he was too old for that now – he was ten now, almost eleven, and that was way too old for his father's fairy tales.
"Did I tell you about the prince and princess I met while I was away?" Dad asked instead, and all Neal could do was roll his eyes. "They were hiding from her evil stepmother and his father didn't approve of them getting married, so I had to help them find a place to live."
"Uh-huh."
"Now, it's pretty hard to find a castle in New England," his father continued. "Much less get financing for one. But we managed it!"
Neal wasn't looking at his dad anymore. He didn't want to hear about princes and princesses – or castles, or finance, or any of the things his father talked about. He wanted to know why he was alone all the time now.
"So how have things been at home?" his dad said after a couple seconds. "I know – I know I've been gone a lot lately, and that's got to be hard. I don't like it, either."
"It's okay," Neal replied, feeling fragile all of a sudden. "School is good."
"I'm glad. Are you making any friends?"
"Yeah, I guess. I'm trying out for baseball this week."
"That's good. That's really good. Let me know how it goes?"
Neal nodded, and the car got silent again. They were almost home when Dad pulled off to the side of the road and turned off the car.
"Dad?" Neal asked, looking at his father curiously. He had no idea why they were here, but his father never did this kind of thing.
"How are you and Belle getting along?" his dad asked him, and Neal wasn't really sure what to say. He liked Belle fine, but he didn't really know what the point of this was.
"She's fine I guess," Neal finally said. "Why? What did she say?"
"Nothing," Dad replied. "She likes you a lot, I just wanted to see how you felt."
"Oh. Well, I don't mind her too much."
"I'm really glad," Dad said, turning the key in the ignition again. "That's really good."
Neal didn't say anything, because it didn't feel like dad was really done with this conversation and he didn't know what he could add to it and they were just pulling into the driveway when his father finally spoke again.
"How would you feel about being a big brother?"
Neal tried not to flinch at the idea. He wasn't sure how he'd feel about it. He had lots of classmates who had brothers and sisters, and he guessed it wasn't really surprising that Belle might want kids of her own or that Dad might want new kids – but it was still kind of a big deal and Neal had no idea how he really felt about it.
"I don't know," Neal said. "I guess that'd be cool."
His dad took a deep breath and smiled a little before putting his hand on Neal's head and ruffling his hair. Neal wasn't sure how he felt, but he knew that was apparently the right answer.
Dad left for work again that Monday, and things went back to normal with Belle taking over as Neal's only parent. She made his lunches along with hers and dropped him off at school on her way to work, and it was fine. He did kind of like Belle, and he was pretty sure she was trying really hard to make him like her, he just didn't want to deal with the changes. Change was hard, and Neal was sick of not having a say in his life.
Belle was more cheerful than usual for a while, but he didn't think much about it. She would whistle and hum when she cooked dinner or whatever, and Neal just tried to stay out of her way even though they were getting along pretty well now. It wasn't bad, really. He was adjusting or whatever.
Or at least he was for the first few weeks. Dad would come home on weekends still, and sometimes he'd stay for a few days and he was getting cheerful, too. Neal wasn't sure what was going on yet, but his conversation with his dad from the month before was the last thing on his mind when Belle suddenly wasn't cheerful anymore. She just gave him money for lunch and stayed in her bed a long time, and Neal didn't really know why. She'd been fine on Tuesday, but Wednesday she barely spoke and stayed home from work all that day and the next. He thought maybe she was sick, but she didn't get any medicine and then Dad came home early on Friday and he didn't go to work the next week.
Nobody told Neal what was going on, and he didn't want to ask. Something told him that the answer wouldn't be any good, and Neal didn't push. She probably just had the flu or something and it'd be fine. Still, it was pretty surprising when Dad was the one who made his lunch on Monday.
"Is Belle feeling any better?" Neal asked when his father handed him the paper bag with a sandwich and an apple in it.
"Not yet, son," Dad said and he sounded really tired all of a sudden.
"What's wrong with her?"
Dad looked away and Neal saw his hands gripping the edge of the counter really hard and he wanted to take his question back but then dad was talking anyway.
"Fairies," Dad said. "Do you know about fairies?"
"What do you mean?" Neal asked. "Like, Tinkerbell?"
"Yeah, sort of. Fairies are tricksters, you know? Sometimes they can bring you blessings and all kinds of good things. And sometimes...sometimes they'll take away incredibly precious things that you can't get back."
"So, fairies are why Belle is sick?"
Dad didn't answer, and Neal was sure he saw tears starting to well up in his father's eyes. Neal didn't want to know anymore. Something bad had happened, and he didn't want his dad to be crying but he didn't want to know what this terrible thing really was. It was too big, and he had a horrible thought that it wasn't his business, either.
"Go get your coat," Dad said at last. "I'll drive you to school."
"Okay," Neal replied softly. He turned and as he left the kitchen he was sure he heard his father sob.
