So I thought this story was well overdue for an update! I'm sorry to keep you guys waiting all the time, especially considering how sweet and wonderful you all are to me, but I'm entering my final 2 months of school! So really I should be studying, but I know you all have been uber patient, which I'm so grateful for. I should be able to get another chapter up in the next few weeks but don't hold me to it! After school's done I'll be able to devote more time :) Thank you for all the support, favs, follows, reviews, and patience!

Previously: August watched as the four of them turned a corner, still shocked by what he had just seen. But now he knew what needed to be done, and it wasn't good news for Neal.

"I'd like a room please," August said to the old lady, Granny, he assumed, at the bed and breakfast. She gave him a wary look.

"Square or forest view? And how long will you be staying for?" She asked briskly, raising an eyebrow. Geez, for a hotel receptionist she was kind of fierce.

He ignored her suspicious glare and answered smoothly, "Square please, and just one night."

She handed him the key and he thanked her before heading to his room. Once there he dumped his bag on the bed and took out the typewriter he'd brought with him. He started writing straight away, knowing he'd probably be up all night working.

He couldn't stop thinking about how happy they'd looked. Especially Emma! She had finally found her mother, and had seemed perfectly content with her new life, although August thought the baby was a bit of a surprise. But he was sure Emma could handle it - she was the saviour - and seeing the queen, her daughter, and her grandkids so happy August was sure of what he had to do next. He had to let Emma discover her family and build friendships with the rest of the town before she was told of the curse and her destiny. Otherwise she might run away. It was what Emma and Neal were used to doing after all. Damn, he still needed something to tell Neal. If he let the man know that Emma and Henry were safe he would be overjoyed, but August knew if Neal found out his family was alive he wouldn't stop searching until he'd found them and told Emma the truth. Then what would happen if they left together? Or if Emma thought he was crazy and abandoned the town? August couldn't let it happen – his father's life was at stake!

No, what Emma needed was to be with her family and gradually come to the realization that something was wrong with this town and its inhabitants. Once she accepted that, she would be able break the curse. She needed the next five years to prepare herself, even if she didn't know it.

x

"This has got to stop, it can't be healthy." Emma warned Mary Margaret as they entered the diner. Henry immediately ran over to a free booth and plonked himself down, looking expectantly at the two women. They joined him as Mary Margaret replied, "I know but I just can't help it! He's just so alone, and there's something about him…"

"He's in a coma! You've visited him every day for the past three months! It's like an addiction!"

"Not addiction so much as… a pull. Just something telling me I need to be there when he wakes." She shifted Rosie gently in her arms.

Emma took in her hopeful expression and she felt heartbroken for her friend.

"Come on, he's not waking up any time soon. I don't want to see you get hurt. Just… I don't know, take the visits down to once a week maybe?"

Mary Margaret nodded slowly. "Okay," she agreed mournfully.

"Miss Blanchard, could I have a hot chocolate pretty please?"

Mary Margaret smiled at the pleading look Henry was directing at her. "Of course you can sweetheart, as long as you stop calling me Miss Blanchard, Mary Margaret is fine."

The four year old attempted to say 'Mary Margaret' but the resulting sound was so garbled that Emma burst into laughter.

"Hmm," Mary Margaret said, attempting to hide her own smile, "Maybe not."

Henry looked at her, confused, and then at his mother, who was in absolute hysterics.

"Say it… again baby. Please…" she said between great gulps of air.

Henry once again attempted the name and this time even Mary Margaret could do nothing but giggle uncontrollably.

Emma, in tears, leant over and kissed Henry's forehead.

"Okay, okay," She managed to choke out after a few minutes. "We need a nickname or something 'cause I'm gonna lose it if he says that again."

Mary Margaret took a breath and tried to compose herself. "Definitely. Aunty M?"

Emma nodded. "I think he can probably manage that. What do you think Henry?"

"How about Granma?" He exclaimed.

"Oh, uh, I don't think so kid. Miss Blanchard probably doesn't –"

"What makes you say that Henry?" Mary Margaret interrupted.

"You make us hot chocolates and you let me wake you up when I have bad dreams and you look after me and Rosie and mama! Isn't that what Granma's do?"

Mary Margaret looked over at Emma, speechless.

"I wouldn't know." Was Emma's bewildered response. "I don't mind if he calls you that though, as long as you're okay with it. I mean we're only, what? Six years apart?"

"No, no, that's fine," Mary Margaret hurriedly assured her. She turned to Henry. "I would be honoured to be your Granma."

Henry beamed at her and Ruby approached the table.

"Sorry guys we're so busy today I haven't had a chance to breathe yet!"

"Do you need an extra hand?" Emma inquired. "It's just I'm looking for a job now that Rosie is three months and I've waitressed before. The only thing is I'd need to bring the kids to work."

"Sorry Emma, but we don't have enough money to hire someone new. Plus we're not usually this busy."

"That's okay, just thought I'd ask," Emma said with a smile, "Three hot chocolates with cinnamon please."

"Coming right up!" Ruby gave her an apologetic smile as she left.

"Emma I'll be right back, I'm just going to talk to Dr Hopper – he looks a bit worried today." Mary Margaret excused herself, and handed Rosie over to Emma.

Emma took her and smiled down at the little girl in her arms.

"You know I couldn't help overhearing that you need a job." She looked up to find the sheriff standing by their booth. "It just so happens that there's a deputy spot open, if you'd like. I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem to have these two at the station while you worked."

"Me? A deputy?" Emma asked incredulously.

"Why not? No one else around here needs a job, and a sheriff's got to have a deputy, right?" Graham winked.

"Well, if you don't mind having the kids around that'd be great."

He winked again. "Start on Monday?"

"Yeah. Thank you."

"No problem, deputy."

x

It was time for August to leave. He'd finished his project, a leather-bound book entitled "Once Upon a Time", which he left in the classroom of Mary Margaret Blanchard. He supposed he shouldn't have been shocked to discover that she was a teacher in this world – what better way for the Evil Queen to cause pain than by surrounding Snow White with all children except her own?

He figured she would take the book home to Emma eventually, although he knew it probably wouldn't happen for a few years, and that's when the curse would start to break.

The hardest thing was going to be calling Neal. With a sigh he pulled out his phone. No point delaying the inevitable. August reasoned that things would work out in the end, after all Neal only had to wait a few years and then he'd be reunited with his family. He was doing this for the greater good.

Neal answered on the first ring.

"August?"

"Neal. I… I'm sorry. I never meant for this to happen."

"Sorry?! I waited a week for you to tell me you're sorry? You said you'd be there for them! What the hell happened, August?"

"I left them for one night," he lied, "I thought everything would be fine but Emma left the oven on and the house caught fire. By the time I got there… it was too late."

"Why would you leave them? I trusted you! I trusted you with the two most important people in the world and you let them–"

There was a pause and August heard him take a breath.

"Why? Why didn't you just tell me that?"

"I'm sorry, Neal. I would have met you face-to-face but…" but I didn't know, he finished in his head. I was in Phuket.

"But you're a coward." Neal spat on the other end. August couldn't argue with him. "Where's the Bug, August?"

"The what?"

"The car! Emma's –" he broke off. "The car you took with you when you found out that they had died."

Crap! He'd forgotten about the car!

"You don't need it, Neal."

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT I NEED," Neal yelled into the phone.

"I'm sorry, Neal. But you need to move on. Forget about this. I'm sorry."

He hung up abruptly to Neal's outraged cry of "FORGET ABOUT – ?!"

With an exhausted sigh August buried his face in his hands. He had to go. He'd screwed up so many times he would only make more of a mess if he stayed here and began interfering with Emma's new life in Storybrooke. He needed to move on and escape from everything, but he vowed to come back for his father in a few years when the curse was finally broken. Maybe then this nightmare would end.

Well there you have it. I didn't really like this chapter, and I'm really not liking August at the moment! I hope you all enjoyed it, though. Please let me know what you think! You know I adore hearing from you :)

(Also I'm really sorry EevyLynn - you guessed it)