Emma anxiously shifted her weight from one foot to the other before peeking around the doorjamb. Thankfully, the coast was clear, so she made a mad dash down the two flights of stairs in the apartment building.
She was clad in yoga pants and a tank top with her flip-flops slapping her feet with every step she took. The last time time she'd headed outside in something even remotely resembling pajamas, she'd been seven years old and running around a campsite with four other kids.
The things I do for my kid, she thought, giving a slight, disbelieving shake of her head. Apparently those things included traipsing outside in her pajamas.
By the time she stepped outside with the can of bug spray her mother had mentioned at the ready, Henry and David had chosen the spot for the tent and were working in lantern light to clear the patch of land of sticks, stones, pine cones, and hickory nuts. Emma stood a small distance away, watching them work with a small smile on her face. Between their efforts and the yoga mat, no tiny objects were going to be jabbing her in the back tonight, that was for sure.
Henry eventually set his small rake aside, swiping his arm across his forehead as if all that activity had worked up a sweat. Then the funny part began: watching the two of them attempt to pitch the tent.
At first Emma couldn't figure out what the problem was, but after a moment, it hit her. Although the tent had never been used because David Nolan had never really gone camping, the instruction guide that was supposed to have come with the tent was missing. As such, poor David was left to rely solely on false, curse-given memories as to how all the hardware was supposed to fit together.
Lantern in hand, Emma strode over to the chosen campsite to put the two of them out of their misery. Intending to help or not, she couldn't resist a little good-natured ribbing as she slid a tent stake from Henry's hand. "Seriously? We give you two one job, and you can't manage to do it correctly?"
David started at the sound of her voice, fixing her with an expression so helpless that both she and Henry had to bite back laughter. "False memories do not make the best instruction booklet," he admitted somewhat sheepishly. "Plus, it's dark out. We should have pitched the tent first."
Since Emma had recently had plenty of experience setting up camp by nothing more than firelight, she simply smiled. "I'm gathering that. But since we didn't, how about we get all the pieces laid out and see what we can do, okay? I'm not sleeping out here with nothing over my head."
Under Emma's instruction, Henry set out the stakes and rods while David spread the tent out flat over their chosen area. After darting her gaze from the hardware to the tent and back again, Emma said, "Let's try staking it first. It might be easier to get the rods in place if the tent's anchored."
As they were driving the tent stakes into the ground with heavy rocks, Snow walked up to her family, dressed in her own sleep attire and clutching three of the sleeping bags. "I don't recall the original plan for the tent-pitching as being a family activity," she teased with a tender smile on her face.
"We don't have instructions," Henry informed her. His breathing was a little labored from the effort of pounding his stake into the ground.
"I see," Snow replied, swallowing a chuckle. "So you're all just playing it by ear?"
"Playing it by ear is the only option we've got at this point," Emma said, standing up straight to face her mother. "Want to play it by ear with us?"
A smile curled on Snow's lips. She took a brief moment to pretend to think it over before joining her family.
It took a little bit longer than it would have if they'd had the instructions, but the four of them did manage to get the tent upright. It ended up being a little lopsided but everyone agreed that the small amount of tilt was not worth taking everything apart in an effort to fix it.
After taking a moment to proudly survey their work, Snow headed back to the truck to retrieve the yoga mat for Emma and the final sleeping bag. Henry leaned against a nearby tree trunk, breathing heavily. "Pitching a tent is hard work!"
David and Emma shared a laugh. "You've got that right, kid," Emma smiled. "Although, you think that was hard? Try pitching a tent using nothing but tree branches and rocks while also hiding from ogres."
Henry's eyes widened in awe. "That sounds cool!"
"I think you and I disagree on the definition of cool," Emma replied with a gentle smile at her son, causing David to snort in amusement.
Before the two of them had a chance to get into a joking but no doubt impassioned argument over whether or not having to hide from ogres was cool, Snow returned with the sleeping bag and yoga mat. "All right," she said, handing both items to Emma. "First things first: bug spray for everyone. I want a mosquito-free bubble surrounding us. Then, we can decide on sleeping arrangements."
Emma, who'd already sprayed every inch of her exposed skin when she first stepped outside, narrowed her eyes at the tent in thought. David had been correct earlier; the tent was in fact a decent size. Even still, the four of them were going to be packed pretty tightly together, which meant she was going to have at least one member of her family in her personal space all night long.
"I want a wall," Henry spoke up as he passed the can of bug spray to his grandfather.
Emma wrinkled her nose. Her parents were obviously going to want to sleep next to each other, so unless she wanted to be on the opposite side of the tent as Henry – which she didn't – the fact that he wanted a wall of the tent left her somewhere in the middle.
So that made two members of her family in her personal space all night long.
Although, there was a small silver lining. Henry wanting a wall meant that he would probably have to climb over Emma to get out of the tent, which also meant that someone would have to climb over her to get in. Not that she was naming names or anything and not that she thought Regina would attempt any kind of attack when all four of them were together, but a little bit of defense went a long way. "Okay, you can have a wall," she agreed, making Henry grin.
Everyone squeezed inside the tent to set up their sleeping bags, and Emma noticed with a quiet whimper of claustrophobia that there was just enough room for all four of them to lie side by side. She ended up sandwiched between her son and her mother, which was, in all honesty, how she had figured the arrangements would work out the second Henry said he wanted a wall. Snow met her eyes and gave her a reassuring smile.
Emma smiled back and unrolled her sleeping bag on top of the already unrolled yoga mat. Henry scoffed and shook his head at her insistence on using the yoga mat, but he couldn't quite hide his amused smile.
After a beat of silence, Henry plopped down on top of his sleeping bag and teasingly grinned up at his grandmother. "Be careful, Gramma. Mom's a bed hog."
"I am not," Emma replied with a roll of her eyes.
Snow winked at her grandson and said, "Oh, I know all about that, believe you me."
Emma's jaw dropped open in indignation as she placed her hands on her hips. "I am not!"
David, who had been watching the conversation with an amused grin, tried and failed to swallow a snicker.
"I'm sorry, but you are," Snow insisted, giving her daughter an apologetic smile. "I lost count of the number of times I woke up in the Forest due to a certain someone's knees digging into my back."
Emma felt the heat rushing up her cheeks, and she thanked her lucky stars that it was dark enough in the tent that no one could see her blushing. Unable to think of anything to say to defend herself – because she clearly had no way of knowing what she really did when she slept – she instead decided to turn the teasing conversation back on her accuser. "Yeah, well, I remember waking up more than a few times with a certain someone'shand in my face."
David burst out laughing. "Oh, this is going to be a really fun night … and by fun, I of course mean hilarious. You're both bed hogs."
Even in the semi-light of the lanterns, Snow's fair skin made it quite obvious when she was blushing. Henry's muffled giggle made the adults laugh, David joining his grandson in actual amusement while Snow and Emma released their embarrassed tension in relief.
All four of them settled down on top of their sleeping bags, mostly to make sure that everyone had enough room. A half-smile tugged at Emma's lips as her eyes drifted closed. She was pleased to note that the yoga mat did provide a decent bit of padding. The ground was still hard, of course, but she was a good deal more comfortable here in the tent that she had been on any given night in the Enchanted Forest. The pillow helped, too. Actual pillows weren't a thing during their adventure in the Forest. She'd mostly used her jacket, which, though better than nothing, had been nowhere near a close substitute.
"So now what?" Henry asked. He sat up and, with a little frown of consternation as he spotted Emma's closed eyes, poked his finger into her arm.
Emma's eyes snapped open as her hand flew to the now sore spot on her arm where Henry had poked. "I don't know," she shrugged, swiping a hand over her eyes as she pushed herself up on one elbow. "What do you want to do?"
She prayed he wouldn't suggest any kind of even mildly strenuous activity. After a day filled with two-and-a-half-mile hikes, mountains of food, and pitching tents, she was getting tired.
What he suggested wasn't a strenuous activity but it caused Emma to groan nonetheless. "We could tell more scary stories."
"Kid, I hate to tell you, but the old 'woman wears a black ribbon around her neck so her head won't fall off' story stopped being scary about five decades ago," she said, making her parents chuckle.
"Oh, yeah?" Henry asked teasingly. "You think you can do better than that?"
"Maybe not much better, but yeah, probably."
"You are aware that you have to tell us a scary story now, right?" David asked, raising his eyebrows while giving his daughter a grin. "I mean, you did just pick up the gauntlet that Henry threw down."
Aw, crap, she had, hadn't she? The thing was, Emma didn't really do stories. Not on her own. Spinning yarns had never been a forte of hers, which struck her as more than a little ironic, considering who her parents really were. She glanced over at her mother, who nodded almost apologetically at her.
Damn it. She was going to have to come up with something on the fly, wasn't she?
Then something surfaced from her memory banks, a ghost story Kevin Browne had told the three older kids that first night, after the elder Brownes had called for lights out and after Natalie had fallen asleep. Mostly, Emma remembered how it had scared the crap out of her little seven-year-old self. She ran the details over in her head, and though it wasn't as scary to her now as it had been back then, she remembered enough of it that she could comfortably repeat it to her family.
Eh, what the hell? she asked herself. Even if it ended up coming across as kind of lame, it would still be better than the stories that had been told around campfires for so long that they were groan-inducing instead of scary.
"All right," she said with a grin, repositioning herself on her sleeping bag and setting her lantern down in front of her. Henry grinned back as he moved to sit cross-legged next to her. Snow and David met each other's eyes, smiled, and closed ranks, creating a circle. Emma raised her eyebrows almost devilishly and smirked at her family members. "It's scary story time."