The next few chapters should be more on the happy side, so you can look forward to that, at least. I've had a phenomenally bad week, so I've been writing up a storm and there will be more to come on all three of my stories soon. I would love reviews!

David tapped his fingers nervously on the bar he was leaning against outside the school. Regina had decided it was best to talk to Henry sooner rather than later and had sent David to pick him up when the school day ended. It was true that Henry had had less than 24 hours away from them, but Regina was already getting antsy about having Henry in Emma's care. As angry as he had been and as much as his words had hurt, she still didn't like the idea of him spending any more time with his biological mother than he had to. It was bad enough that he was constantly sneaking out to meet her.

David had no idea what he was going to say to Henry. The only thing he did know was that this wasn't going to go well. If Henry was angry with Regina, he was positively furious with David. David had been the one that was supposed to be on his side from the beginning, and with the influence of the curse removed, he most certainly was not meant to be enjoying time spent with the Evil Queen. There was much more reason for Henry to be angry with David.

And that was the reason David was here. He knew that with him being the only one knowing the true reason behind Henry's outburst, he had to be the one to talk to him.

What was he going to do? How could he explain to Henry that he'd started to fall for the one woman he wasn't supposed to when he'd only just begun to grasp the idea himself? He needed some way to show Henry that the Evil Queen wasn't the only side of Regina; there was so much more. A part of him was still worried what would happen to her when the curse was broken. Would she revert to her old self; terrorizing the people of the town and trying to kill him? He didn't think so, but then, he didn't think he would ever find himself in a relationship with her, either, and look where that had ended up.

He looked up when a shrill bell sounded, ending the school day and releasing hundreds of kids from inside. They poured out excitedly, all running to meet parents, join friends, go play in the park. It didn't take long for him to spot Henry. He was alone; the only child not laughing or smiling. He had his head down and was walking slowly, kicking debris on the ground as he went.

David waited until Henry was close before calling his name.

Henry's head snapped up and he immediately met his gaze. He stopped walking and stood up a little straighter, the only thing giving away his nervousness being the way he tugged on the straps of his backpack. "What are you doing here?"

David pushed off the bar but didn't move any closer to Henry. He didn't want him to feel like he was trapping him.

"I was hoping we could talk?" He tilted his head at his grandson in question.

There was a moment where David didn't think Henry was going to answer, but he finally nodded. "Fine."

"Alright. Come on." Henry allowed David to place a hand on his shoulder and guide him away from the school.

They walked for a few minutes in silence until they finally came to a bench away from everyone else; a place they could have a relatively private conversation.

David sat on one side and Henry lowered himself slowly to sit hesitantly on the other side.

"Listen," David finally started. "I know that you feel betrayed. I know that you're angry with me."

"You're helping my mom! You're helping the Evil Queen!" Henry burst. He looked up at David angrily for a split second before looking back down at the ground.

"No," David told him. "I'm not helping her do anything."

"But you're not helping me break the curse anymore. That's helping her."

"Buddy, I-"

"No! You were supposed to be getting information from her; ideas on ways to convince Emma that the curse was real so that she could break it. You were supposed to be pretending to like her. But now, you're protecting her. You..." He stumbled over his words and paused for a moment. David could tell that he really didn't want to say it aloud, and that he was afraid of what it meant.

"You love her."

"I...Henry, I...it's complicated."

"I just don't get it," Henry breathed. He twisted his hands together in his lap and his brows knitted together in troubled thought.

David was about to try and explain everything, but he didn't get the chance. Henry spoke first.

"I get it. I understand now."

"You do?" David was surprised by the sudden calm that had replaced the anger in Henry's words. When he looked up, rather than the look of betrayal that had been on his face before, there was a look of sympathy.

"My mom cast some kind of spell on you. She had to have. She did something to you to make you think that you loved her."

"Henry…" David sighed heavily. "You know that's not true. There's no magic here."

"She must have kept some somehow." Henry suddenly looked brighter at the prospect that David's behavior could all be explained away. "She did this to you, I know it. We should look in her vault – maybe there's something in there. We can figure out how to free you from her spell, and then you can start helping me again."

David shook his head. "I'm not under any spell. I still want to help Emma break the curse, and I'll do my best to help you, but I'm not going to use Regina to do it. We'll find some other way. Your mom is not the villain you think she is." He held his hand up when Henry opened his mouth to interrupt. "She was, back in the Enchanted Forest. Believe me, I know better than most the evil she was capable of back in our homeland. But that's not who she is here. She's a woman who wanted a chance to start fresh, the mayor of a small town, and most importantly, she's your mother. You can't keep treating her like the Evil Queen; it hurts her."

"That's the spell talking," Henry said exasperatedly. "She's tricking you into thinking that she's changed, but she really hasn't. Once we break it, you'll remember the truth again."

"It's killing her to think that her only child hates her. I know that's not true, Henry. I understand that you're just trying to protect yourself from getting hurt, but I can promise you that your mom really does love you. Can you work on being a little more cautious of her feelings and what you say to her?"

"She's just acting like it hurts her so that you'll feel sorry for her. She's the Evil Queen; nothing hurts her. You—"

"Stop!"

Henry jumped a little, not having expected David to yell at him.

"I'm sorry, I just hate to hear you saying things like that. Whether or not I'm under a spell, you talking like that about your mom absolutely hurts her. You can say that she's faking it, but I've seen her when she thinks no one is looking, and Henry, what I see is a broken woman who can't take much more. If it makes you happy, you can think that I'm under some kind of spell, but can you please just promise me one thing?"

Henry narrowed his eyes at David, not sure he wanted to agree to something before he knew what it was. But David was still someone he trusted, even if he was being tricked by his mom. Finally, he nodded.

"Next time you talk to your mom, forget for a minute that she was ever the Evil Queen, that there's a curse or a town full of fairy tale characters, or that you ever found the book that led you to discovering all of it. Just see your mom; the woman who raised you your entire life. Look at her; really look at her. Then tell me if she's just pretending. Can you do that? Please?"

Henry scowled slightly. "Fine. But it's not going to change anything."

"As long as you try, that's all that I'm asking."

"Alright." Henry stood and straightened his backpack. "Can we go home now? I'm kind of hungry."

Shaking his head and chuckling, David started for the truck, Henry close on his heels. "You're always hungry."


When Regina heard the sound of the front door opening, she moved to the foyer to see Henry bouncing in after David.

"Why don't you go put all of your homework upstairs and then come down and we can all have an after school snack?" he suggested, to which Henry grinned and kicked his shoes off, bounding up the stairs.

"It went well, I take it?" Regina asked, moving closer to David.

"Ahhh, not exactly," David said, scrubbing a hand across his jaw uncomfortably.

"What do you mean? He's back here, he seems happy. What part of it didn't go well?"

David grimaced, wishing he had something better to tell her. "He thinks you have me under some kind of spell."

Regina looked down, tears pricking her eyes, and nodded briskly. "I see."

Not sure what to say, but wanting to lighten the mood, he added. "Well, if you think about it, he's not entirely wrong."

Regina's head snapped up. "What?!"

He smiled at her disarmingly and moved so that he could cup her face in his hands. "You do have me under a spell, and I have to say – I'm quite enjoying it."

Understanding now what he'd meant, she leaned her face into his hands and closed her eyes, a smile ghosting her lips. "Me, too."

He leaned down then and kissed her, moving his hands around to thread his fingers into her hair as he brought her closer to him.

Henry chose that moment to come down the stairs and he glanced at them and frowned. "Ewww. I get it – you're dating now, but do you have to kiss in front of me?"

David broke away from Regina, who was smiling, and playfully pushed Henry toward the kitchen. "We weren't kissing in front of you. You're the one who walked in."

"It's not my fault. I told you, I'm hungry!"

Regina chuckled as she followed behind the bickering pair. Her smile widened when David turned around to wink at her. Henry may not be on board with their relationship, but she knew that as long as David was around, everything would be okay.