Awakening at 5 am, from her position on the couch, Emma groaned. She had a kink in her neck, and somebody was making a lot of noise in the kitchen. "Shut up!" Emma moaned into her pillow, and surprisingly the sound of the microwave whirring and the teapot chirping stopped.

Curious, Emma sat up slightly, looking over to see who the annoying, early morning cook was. She groaned again.

James was peering her way guiltily, "Sorry!" he whispered back to her, before pulling out the slice of half heated leftover lasagna from the microwave, and instead opting for a glass of juice.

Emma sunk back down into the couch, closing her eyes. However the events of last night wouldn't stop replaying in her mind. After Neal had left things had gotten pretty awkward with James. His raised eyebrows, and slightly suggestive comments, made it obvious that he thought she and Neal were 'getting friendly.'

Thankfully, he had left shortly after Neal, needing to continue his evening patrol of Storybrooke, and it was obvious he had just returned. However, now that Emma was awake, she couldn't get back to sleep. Not because she wasn't tired (because she was) but because she knew it was her turn to keep watch over Storybrooke. She was due to start her patrol in an hour, and therefore needed to start hitting back some black coffee… now.

Sighing, Emma sat up and rubbed her eyes. Folding up her blankets, and grabbing her pillow, she walked silently to her (and Henry's) room. She didn't want to wake him last night with her unsettled sleep, so she had slept on the couch.


Emma, showered, dressed and slightly more awake, entered the kitchen, to find her father still in there. She sighed internally as she entered the kitchen to find him with two mugs of coffee. Gratefully, she took her mug, and drank half the cup, to the amusement of James.

"What do you want for breakfast?" he asked as she resurfaced from her second mug of coffee.

She looked at him, stunned that he was offering her breakfast. He caught onto her look quickly, and attempted to diffuse the tension. Failing spectacularly. "I mean, well, you're tired, and well, I'm your dad, and well, I can make French toast…? … if you would like me to" James stuttered.

Glancing at her father, Emma was surprised to see he looked nervous. Charming never came across as nervous, David… maybe… but since the curse had broken he had been everything but nervous. Awkward… shy… unsure… but never nervous. Emma felt somewhat obliged to accept his offer once she had noticed how he was sweating.

Sitting at the kitchen table with her third cup of coffee, Emma studied James. He was exactly as she had always imagined her father would be. Maybe a bit younger… but his personality was just what she had always dreamed of. Growing up with a slew of foster parents who either didn't care, or were oddly restrictive, Emma had always imagined her ideal father.

He was someone who would play with her for hours on end as a kid, someone who would teach her cool things like self-defense, just because he was worried about her. As she had grown older, she had filled with resentment towards her parents. But often, times would occur when all she wanted was her father. After a bad day at school where her bra had been stolen from the gym locker rooms, she wanted her father for protection, for somebody to stick up for her. After countless drunken high school parties had ended disastrously, all she wanted was for someone to care, and be angry that she had gone out and gotten trashed. She knew that if she had a father, he would care about all these things.

However, now she had a father, all those ideals seemed irrespective. Sure, she now had a dad, Prince Charming nonetheless, but all their relationship summed up to was – awkward moments, where Emma felt frazzled and uncomfortable, whilst James tried his hardest to bridge the gap.

Proving her point, James walked over with her French toast and sat down beside her. Emma immediately grabbed her fork, shoveling food into her mouth so she didn't have to talk.

"Sooo…." James begun, "you and Neal seem to be getting a lot closer"

Doing an awkward nod/shake head turn in order to disagree with her father, Emma sighed internally. Of all the father/daughter moments he could have picked, he had to decide on the 'you and a boy' talk.

After a moment of silence that had Emma think the subject was being dropped, James continued. "You may be angry at him still… but … he is a good guy Emma."

Emma's fork clattered to her plate as she stared wide eyed at her dad. She attempted to swallow her mouthful of food, and gasped "what?" just loud enough for James to hear.

He swiveled in his chair, facing Emma fully, and preparing himself for what he was about to say. "When you had him locked up last week, we had time to talk." This made Emma roll her eyes, only James would think of having a guy in lockup meant there was time for a heart to heart.

"I know his full story Emma, and whilst there may have been a few little things I didn't really approve of, I realized the parallel between your story with him and my past with Snow." James continued. "And it made me wonder if you love him, Emma, because he definitely loves you."

Emma, who was becoming more and more uncomfortable with this conversation made to stand up from the table, but James' hand shot out to hold her still. "No. You need to hear this. Finding true love isn't easy. And often, we have to put those that we love before ourselves. Neal heard about your destiny and knew he had to let you go. It is so similar to what happened between me and your mother. She knew that if she didn't let me go, that my life would be torn apart. So, she broke my heart. Ripped it into thousands of pieces more like." James sighed, remembering the past.

Emma took his pause as an opportunity to get a word in. "but you two were true love's it didn't matter what happened you were destined to always find one another. It's not like that with Neal and I."

"Says who?" Charming countered. "You are reacquainted now, so what is stopping you?"

Emma thought back to the moment she realized she had been betrayed; the moment she knew Neal had left her, and wasn't coming back. Under James' scrutiny, Emma managed to choke out a simple response, "he hurt me too much"

"That's love Emma. It hurts but that is what makes it so powerful. – what was it that you and Snow told me when you finally came home?" James asked, his own heart clenching at the mere memory of being told about Cora's heart pulling stunt with Emma.

"Love is strength"James reminded her as she sat unmoving in her chair. "Love is magical, and magic, is power. And whilst all magic comes with a price, so does love. Vulnerability. For love to be a success, you have to open yourself up, make yourself vulnerable, and allow somebody to fill your heart." James whispered, lifting Emma's downcast face upwards by her chin.

As they made eye contact, Emma began crying silently, and allowed James to pull her in for a hug. Whether he knew it or not, she was making herself vulnerable to him, and in that moment letting him into her heart. Whilst Emma was always fixated on having a father for protection, she never truly realized how much she needed the comfort provided by the strong arms of her dad.


8 am found Henry and Neal at Granny's dinner, with 2 steaming mugs of hot chocolate sitting on the table between them.

Neal wanted to know everything possible about Henry, but didn't know where to start. Henry on the other hand was not shy.

"Do you like chocolate too?" Henry begun with his interrogation

"yep"

"what's your favourite sport?"

"umm… soccer, you?"

"I'm uncoordinated; I prefer books." Henry supplied before continuing. "What's your favourite book?"

"Uhh… fairytales are interesting in this world…"

At Henry's skeptical look, Neal decides to answer again. "Harry Potter was my favourite when it came out… what sort of books do you like?" Neal asked, taking a sip of his cocoa.

"Oh, anything really. So do you know August well?" at this question, Neal inhaled some cream from his mug of cocoa in surprise. As he coughed and spluttered, Henry kept his face in an impassive, curious mask.

"Why do you ask?" he questioned his son once he could breathe again.

"I heard about what happened and was wondering if there was any more to the story." Henry asked, averting his eyes and taking a large sip of cocoa.

Neal sighed, knowing that Henry was still fishing for facts amongst the onslaught of information he had learnt in the past week.

Reaching over to grasp the boy's hand, Neal coaxed Henry to look him in the eyes. "The last time I saw him before I came to Storybrooke was when I gave him your mom's car. I wanted her to have it, and I was hoping he would pass it along to her. And he did, which I am grateful for. It made me feel like a part of me was always with her. That car is special. It's where we met."

Henry nodded, his brow furrowing slightly. "Is that when you gave him the money he stole from Emma?" he asked.

"Yeah" Neal murmured across the table.

There was silence, the father and son sat looking around the diner, drinking their cocoa, and imagining how their lives could have been different.

The longer the silence stretched on however, the more upset Henry looked. Neal knew he had to say something. "What are you thinking about?" Neal asked cautiously.

Henry looked up at him, gauging his trustworthiness. "My mom's" Henry eventually sighed. "I don't know what to do."

Neal had to admit. He was slightly relieved. Henry wasn't upset over a mistake he had made. He was concerned about something else entirely.

"Well" Neal begun, "Maybe I can help. What's the problem?" the slight nudge was all that it took for Henry to open up.

Within minutes Neal had heard all about the awful evening where Regina and Emma had discussed custody with Henry. As far as he was concerned, Henry had thought decisions had already been made. He didn't want to be the one to break anyone's heart, and Neal could see how the guilt was eating away at the boy.

"It's hard dealing with parent's sometimes. They want what they think is best for you, but they don't always know what is right. I think Emma and Regina just want to spare you the unhappiness of ending up somewhere you don't want to be." Neal reasoned

"But I love them both! I don't want to make that decision!" Henry exclaimed quietly.

"…well, if you love them both are you saying you want to stay with the both of them… equally?" Neal asked

Henry sheepishly kicked the table leg, and murmured something unintelligible.

"Sorry… didn't catch that" Neal stated

"No" Henry replied, louder this time. "I want to stay with Emma and Gran and Gramps, but I don't want to hurt Regina. She's still my mom. I grew up with her."

Neal took in a deep breath. "I know it's hard to go against someone you love, but you need to consider what's best for you and your happiness. Tell them what you just told me and Regina will understand. Besides, this isn't permanent. If in a few months you want to change the arrangement around, you can. This isn't permanent"

Henry stared at him for a while, eventually saying something that made his heart stop. "You know, Mr. Gold's shop is right around the corner if you want me to show you. It must have been hard to lose your dad, but he is here now. The separation isn't permanent for you either."

Neal didn't need or have time to ask who Mr. Gold was, because before his heart restarted and he could force his mouth open a voice behind him croaked.

"Bae?"


Sooo…. Yeah at the moment I'm pretty convinced Neal is Bae…. I mean seriously… it's a very large possibility. And if he isn't then… oh well… but I'm thinking yes at the moment.

Anyhoo… what did you all think about the Emma/Charming and the Neal/Henry stuff? I tried to keep everyone in character but it's hard considering that Emma is a closed off person and we hardly know Neal….

Anyway reviews are always welcome so feel free to leave a quick (or long) message below :D