CHAPTER 34

Emma pulled up to her parent's apartment building. She had had to navigate around the yellow police tape. She got out and began to tear it down. There was nothing more to collect and plenty of evidence and witnesses already. Henry stood on the sidewalk with his eyes rimmed in red staring at everything else but the street ahead of him.

Emma looked across to the diner. Ruby and Granny had arrived and were setting up. She really needed some time alone with her parents for this next part but she wasn't sure if she and Henry would be welcomed by them. They had obviously chosen Regina's side. Or so it seemed to Emma.

Emma finally cleared up the police tape and made a note to look up what could be used to clean up the blood stains in the street. She put her hand on Henry's shoulder as she led him upstairs. "Come on. Let's go."

Emma walked into the house and sent Henry upstairs. She'd asked him if he was hungry and was actually happy when he said no. She sent him off knowing that it was best for him not to have to witness what came next. She took a seat on the sofa and waited.

Her mother was first to pull back the curtains that divided their room from the rest of the apartment. "Emma, good morning," Snow chirped as if it was any ordinary morning.

Emma blinked slowly though to say she was surprised would be a lie. Her parents had a really bad problem of turning situations into something different than the way they presented to everyone else. She used to not think too closely about it. Like Henry, she just thought it was part of what made them good, nice people. And she didn't have too much experience with genuinely nice people.

But now in the light of day, she was beginning to see it as something else. She understood that she'd been looking in terms of black and white just as Henry had. Something else for her to be ashamed and embarrassed of herself for.

She didn't believe her parents were bad. Just naïve and obliviously selfish. Maybe a little too much in love with their legends as anyone else would be if they were constantly heaped with praise. Except you needed to temper that praise with common sense. And that's something her parents seemed to lack.

Her parents were no longer royalty. And her father never really was at all. He'd only pretended to be. Regina said oftentimes how spoiled and selfish her Mother was and unfortunately Emma had to agree with her. She had no idea what her Father's problem was though.

Neither one of them seemed to understand reality too well though. They still talked about the good old days and getting back home to the Enchanted Forest. Emma didn't even like camping and she couldn't imagine anything worse than being stuck with no indoor plumbing or electricity. As long as they were just talking she could smile and nod. Maybe just smiling and nodding at things was a part of the problem with her parents. They seemed to have a hard time understanding the difference between people agreeing with them and people just going along with them. They weren't stupid just oblivious.

"Good morning," Emma looked past her Mother. "Is David up?"

Snow pursed her lips together, "No, not yet. He had a hard night."

"I'd imagine so."

Snow ignored her caustic tone and went into the kitchen. She began making coffee and took out things for breakfast.

Emma walked over to the counter and leaned on it. "Henry had a rough night too. I'm going to take him over to Granny's to get some breakfast later. We went over to the hospital to check in and see how Jana was first." Emma waited for Snow to respond in anyway. It irked her that her parents had never even bothered to ask how the child was.

What she got was silence as her mother piddled around the kitchen making breakfast as if it was any other ordinary day. "Snow?"

Her mother smiled over at her as she beat together batter for waffles. "Yes honey?"

"Aren't you going to ask how she is?"

Snow's face fell for a second as she stilled beating the batter. "How who is?"

"The child your husband let my child run over with a truck."

Snow stopped what she was doing and dropped the bowlful of batter onto the counter. She walked over to the other side of the counter and confronted Emma. She dropped her voice down to a guttural whisper. "Your Father has had enough upset. Do not bring this up in front of him and upset him anymore."

Snow turned and flounced back to the batter. Emma stared in open mouthed shock. She couldn't believe what she'd just seen and heard. Her mother was acting as if what happened yesterday was an inconvenience to her.

"That child could have died! She was still in critical condition when I left last night. For all you know she could be dead right this very minute."

Snow's head swung around. "Emma! Keep your voice down!" she chastised in a loud whisper.

David walked out from behind the curtains. "What's going on?"

"Nothing darling." Snow went to him and gave him a kiss. "I'm making your favorites for breakfast. Sausage, eggs, waffles, and a side of bacon," Snow winked at her husband.

Emma jiggled her leg while taking in the two of them. This was completely ridiculous. "We were talking about your part in what happened yesterday. Putting Henry behind the wheel of a car, driving around pedestrians, and collapsing while a little girl was fighting for her life."

Her father's ashen face almost made Emma give pause. Almost. But even he never bothered to ask how she was even though Emma waited.

"Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes, honey," Snow handed him a cup of coffee.

"Regina had to go and swallow the curse that was on the well again. The same one that made her sick for 2 weeks after she swallowed it to save me and Snow," Emma paused but still got no reaction out of those two. "She did it to save her child's life. She needed to buy her some time so that her body could kick in and start to heal itself."

Emma slammed her hand down on the counter. Her parents jumped and frowned in her direction then Snow went back to making breakfast while David continued to stare into his coffee. "Regina went into a coma. She almost died trying to save her daughter's life. And then I woke her up with true love's kiss."

This finally got a reaction out of them. They both gasped loudly.

Snow put her hand to her mouth. "Oh my God Emma, you didn't. Why would you?"

Emma just gaped at her. Was she for real?

"I think it's best that you stay away from that family. Let them have their peace," David finally piped in. He stood and took a long swig of his coffee.

"I wasn't asking for your damned permission!" They were honestly oblivious to anything that wasn't all about how great they were. No wonder they were in such a hurry for her to take Henry. That way he'd keep feeding them compliments on how good and perfect they were.

Emma turned to her Dad, "I need your gun and your badge."

"What?" Snow looked up from the waffles she was plating.

Emma swallowed. "I said, I need your gun and badge."

David stared at her for a moment. Then he stood and retrieved them from the nightstand. Snow stood watching with her eyes widened but at least she was silent.

After David brought them over to Emma and handed them over, she nodded with tears in her eyes. She tucked the gun into her back and pocketed the badge. "I'm afraid you're under arrest."

At this Snow's mouth dropped. But David looked at his daughter with tired, bleary eyes. He nodded his head then lowered it. He began walking to the door.

"Emma! What in the hell do you think you're doing? That's your father!"

Emma looked at Snow, "And he put my child behind the wheel and almost killed another."

"That was an accident."

"No, it was reckless and stupid. He was so busy trying to earn brownie points he didn't bother thinking if what he was doing was right or wrong. And a child almost died because of it. This is not the Enchanted Forest. You're not royalty here anymore. You have to live in this world and face the same consequences as everyone else."

"Emma - ," Snow began to continue to protest.

But David stepped over to her and wrapped her in his arms. "She's right," he kissed his wife and gave her a sad small smile. "This is the right thing to do Snow. I'll be fine."

Emma shrugged, "This is still Storybrooke. I'm sure we can get him out on bail before the day is over. The faster I get him over to the jail and put in the paperwork, the faster they courts can process it and he'll be back home."

"Don't worry. I'll be fine," David told his wife as he walked out in front of Emma.

She walked him over to the jail and put him inside a cell. Before she shut the door he turned and looked at her. He put his arms around his daughter and hugged her as she sagged against him. She had been prepared to do this but that didn't make it any easier.

"You're doing the right thing. And I'm proud of you. Never doubt that," her father whispered into her hair as he used his thumb to wipe her tears away. "I love you Emma. And I always will."

She nodded and backed away from him. She shut the door of the cell. "I love you too," she whispered. She hurried to her desk to get started on the paperwork so that his bail could be set.

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Regina grinned across at her eldest daughter.

"Well Mom, she's going to be okay," Papa Pope told her as he sat back after examining Jana. "We'll keep her a little while longer just to keep an eye on things. But by tomorrow she'll be able to go home." He smiled at the family and left them to themselves.

Jana smiled tiredly at her Mom. Brissa who'd been sitting at the end of the bed quietly climbed up closer to her sister and got underneath the blankets with her. She began playing with the remote control.

Regina smoothed back her daughter's hair from her forehead and gave her a kiss. "Hear that?" She had thought after seeing her daughter two days ago, there was no way she'd ever hear those words. Now they were one step closer to them all walking out of there.

Jana was still tired but she was functioning just fine. She seemed to have no ill effects from the accident,"Then we can leave?"

Regina knew her daughter wasn't just talking about the hospital. She wanted to leave Storybrooke altogether. She wavered for a second while Henry and then surprisingly Emma flashed through her mind. She still didn't want to think about the impact of Emma waking her up with true love's kiss. She had enough things to worry about and that just wasn't a priority for her. She needed to concentrate on her children first. She smiled and nodded, "Yes."