A/N: Thank you all so much for still joining me on this journey :)

Chapter 12

As she opened the door she saw David standing there.

"Hello Regina."

"Hello David."

"Is my daughter here?", David said in an unexpected calm, but slightly worried manner.

"Yes, she is."

Relief showed on his face, "Well, could I come in and have a talk with her?"

Regina didn't get the chance to respond to the question. Emma and Henry had heard David's voice and they stood behind Regina now.

"I only want to talk to you if you're not going to dismiss everything I told Mary-Margaret yesterday. Or treat me the way she did. I assume she has told you what happened?".

Her father noticed that his daughter was trying to sound and look strong, but he could still see the pain yesterdays event must have caused his little girl all over her face.

David nodded, "Yes, when I got home your mother was crying, and you were gone." It took me a while to get her to calm down and tell me what happened, but I know. I'm not here to drag you back home, or to yell at you, or to tell you…. He hesitated for a moment, he didn't know for sure if his daughter had told Regina about the feelings she has for her. He didn't know if they were still good friend or possibly more at this time.

He sighed, "I just really wish to talk to you, please?".

Regina looked at Emma and silently asked if she would approve if she let her father in. Emma nodded.

"Come in David, you and Emma can go into my study to talk in private."

"Thank you". David stepped inside and took of his coat. Henry took the coat from his hands and put it away for his grandfather.

"Henry, would you mind going upstairs to your room for a moment? Your grandfather and I need to talk, and I want your mom to join the conversation too.

Henry knew that Emma wanted some privacy, so he didn't ask any questions and just headed upstairs.

Confused Regina looked at Emma and asked, "You want me to stay for your talk with your father?"

"Yes, because this isn't just about me", she responded and then took Regina's hand and walked into the living room.

David just followed and noticed that his daughter took the former Evil Queens hand in hers.

"We don't need to go to the study", Emma guided herself and Regina to the couch in the living room and sat down, she then gestured to her father to take a seat in the chair that was positioned askew to the left of the couch. David turned the chair a bit before he sat down on it, so he was facing Emma and Regina.

For a moment there was nothing but silence to be heard, and tension to be felt in the room.

David cleared his throat "So, it is safe for me to assume that you told Regina everything? I mean since your holding hands, and you wanted to her to join our talk?"

"Yes, I told her exactly why Mary-Margaret got so upset with me. I told her that she is amazing and that I love her. And the best thing is, she loves me too." At that last sentence Emma had taken her eyes off of David and turned to face Regina, to give her a loving smile.

As he took in the scene in front of him, he recognized the way the two women looked at each other. He saw love, maybe even true love. And it wasn't the first time that he had seen this. David had had some suspicions before as to how Regina and Emma felt about each other. He had noticed through the years how close they had gotten. And he knew that that wasn't just for the sake of his grandson. He knew his daughter and Regina truly cared for each other, liked, each other and needed each other in their lives. It was the small things that made him realize that they might even love each other. A touch here, a glans there, and all the things they did together. He was no fool, nor blind, unlike his wife. The connection between Emma and Regina was not invisible to him.

At first he couldn't really believe what he thought he saw, but over time everything became so clear, there was no denying it, and after a while he didn't even want to. He had seen that Regina truly had changed, and he saw how her presence made his daughter happy. He didn't want to stand in the way of his daughters happiness, he didn't want to stand in the way of true love. Even if it meant he had to accept Regina, the ex- Evil Queen, his former greatest enemy, into his family. That woman didn't exist anymore.

"Good", David responded to what Emma said a moment ago and gave her a sincere smile.

Both Emma and Regina's mouths fell open at that. They looked at each other, both with confusion on their faces, and then back at David.

This made David chuckle.

He put his hand on Emma's knee while leaning forward in his seat and continued "I'm happy for you, baby girl. You might be surprised to hear me say that, but in the end all a father wants for his children, all a parent should want for their children, is that they find happiness.

"If your chance at the same happiness that I have found with your mother, lies with Regina then I accept that."

The sincerity in his voice moved Emma to tears, this was better than she could have ever imagined. This was how a parent should support their child. Maybe all was, indeed not lost, maybe everything would be okay. Just like Regina told her.

As Emma let go of her girlfriends hand, she stood from the couch. David in turn rose from the chair. They closed the distance between them and fell into a hug. Emma resting her head on her dads shoulder and her arms around his waist. David let his chin rest on top of his daughters head and held the back of Emma's head and neck with his hands.

Emma said, between sobs, "Thank you, dad, I love you."

"I love you too, baby girl".

When they broke the hug, Emma wiped away her tears and they both retuned to their seats again

"But what about mom? What did you tell her?"

"I told your mother how I feel about the matter after she was done with telling me what happened. She was…surprised, just like you two are. But I told her I had seen this coming for a while now, and that I'm okay with it. Because I had some more time to get used to the possibility of you and Regina being together, I am as calm as I am now. I had already accepted the fact that there was love between you two. Unfortunately, I have never spoken of my suspicions with your mother and unfortunately she hadn't noticed anything at all. So that's why she was so shocked."

"I told her she shouldn't have reacted the way she did. That she should have taken the time to get her head around the idea first, let it all sink in for a while. Not judge so fast and hard."

"I believe she did realize she overreacted before I spoke to her. She said she just lost her daughter, and that it was her own fault. She really regrets freaking out about this, and all that she has said or insinuated."

"Then why didn't she come here, to tell me?"

"She wasn't sure if you would want to see her, and I failed to convince her to come with me looking for you." He gave his daughter an apologetic smile.

"We were worried about you, you know. I called Granny's B&B last night three times to check if you were there. After that I figured that you must have gone to Regina and Henry since you spent the night before here as well."

"She did however ask me to tell you that she is truly sorry, and that she hopes that she will get the chance to tell you in person. That's is also why I may invite both you and Regina to dinner tonight at 7. She doesn't only wish to apologize to you, but also to Regina because of the things she said about her. O, and Henry is invited as well of course."

Regina raised an eyebrow when she heard that Snow White herself wanted to apologize to her. She would not want to miss that for the world. But she was mostly considering accepting the invitation for Emma. She honestly wanted Emma and her mother to make things right. She hated that Emma was hurting.

Emma was surprised to hear her mother wanted to apologize to both her and Regina too. She figured her mother must truly regret her words.

Regina took Emma's hand and squeezed it softly. Emma knew that meant that Regina and Henry would be going with her to this dinner if she accepted the invitation. So she did.

"Okay, dad. Tell mom that Henry, Regina and I will join you guys for dinner."

"Great, David then rose from his chair again. I will go home and tell her, so she can start with the preparations."

As he made his way back to the front door, Emma and Regina followed. Emma went to get her dads coat, leaving Regina alone with David for a moment.

He now looked Regina straight in the eyes. "Regina?"

"Yes, David?"

"You should know that if you hurt my daughter, I will destroy you, if it's the last thing I do…"

He then started to smile at the woman who was looking at him incredulously. Then he put his left hand on her right shoulder and said "It's my job as a father to strike some fear in the person who is dating his daughter, you know", and then winked at her.

Regina now understood what just happened. She received fair warning to discourage her from breaking Emma's heart, like some teenage boy who was taking someone's daughter on a date.

She smirked at the taught, "The insolence of the Shepard to treat me like this, but I can appreciate the fact that he wants no harm to befall his daughter".

"I wouldn't dream of it David; I wouldn't dream of it."

Then Emma returned with David's coat and after he put it on and said goodbye to his daughter and Regina, he left.

A/N: Aw, David, you're the man!

Up next: the rest of the afternoon and dinner :)