I don't own these characters; Disney/ABC does.

18: Suffering is Optional

Downtown Storybrooke had seen better days as far as structural damage was concerned, but Emma was sure this was the best day for the people. Well, the people who made it. The "villains" helped out the regular citizens, digging them out from debris, freeing them from tight spaces, and using magic to heal injuries. Unfortunately, some people were actually gone forever, but even with that, the villains were supportive, comforting people where necessary.

"Oh, so you didn't die," Nuri said as Emma and Regina made their way back to the heart of the disaster.

"It takes a lot more than a devil to kill us," Regina replied right before Henry hit her almost full force. Regina coughed on impact, but returned the hug immediately.

"We need to put this kid in football," Emma said as Henry yanked her into the embrace. He squeezed her with a force a little kid should not possess. Peering over him, she could see her parents approaching with the rest of the Royal Council behind them. She was not in the mood for those people, especially not while there was death and devastation around them.

"Emma!" Snow grinned, but wisely remained a couple of feet away. She seemed happy Emma had not died, but that was not enough for Emma right now. David smiled at her, but she did not react.

"What the hell was that thing? Did you stop it?" Kathryn asked.

"We definitely stopped it. No clue what it was beyond what Regina told me." Emma motioned to Regina, hoping she would take over the explanation.

"It was a devil called the chernabog. Question is how did it get here?" Regina asked, but they all could take a guess.

Emma scanned the crowd and spotted Gold with no problem, even though he was as disheveled as everyone else. He stood out in a crowd no matter what. Emma took off after him, easily blocking his path. It barely took two seconds for everyone else to crowd around him. Gold stared around them, as if trying to figure out his escape route.

"Why'd you do it, Gold?" Emma folded her arms across her chest. She gave him her meanest, iciest glare. This was serious. People were dead.

"Me?" He pressed his hand to his chest, knocking white dust off of himself. His clothes were torn and there were claw marks through his cheek and blood pouring from his side. "Why the hell would I unleash a devil that would likely devour me first?" It looked like it had tried to devour him.

Regina held up a finger. "He makes a point."

"But, I bet you know how it got here," Emma said.

"It was locked away in a protected urn in my shop," Gold replied. "And when I say locked away, I mean in a steel box under the floorboards in an iron safe. All of which had multiple locks, both key and combination."

"Then how the hell did it…?" Emma knew exactly what happened. Her head snapped away from Gold and locked on her target. She moved faster than she ever would have thought possible and tackled Neal. She punched him in the side for good measure. Again, people were dead. "You son of a bitch! What the hell did you do you bastard?"

"Hey!" Neal groaned and tried to squirm away.

She was not so easy to get away from, especially after she slugged him in the ribs a couple of times. He cried out and curled into himself with each hit, but she was not bothered by it. He was lucky she punched him rather than putting her gun in his mouth at this point.

"Yeah, hey! What did you do?" Emma grabbed him by the shoulders and slammed his head into the ground.

"Get the hell off of me! This is fucking police brutality!"

"You haven't seen brutality, you piece of shit. I'll get the hell off of you, so I can put my damn cuffs on you." Emma reached behind her, managed to get her cuffs, and cuffed him while he squirmed more. She pulled him to his feet and resisted the urge to punch him in the stomach.

"You can't arrest me! I didn't do anything! You can't prove I did anything!" Neal glared at her. Funny how now all of sudden rights mattered to him.

"You're the only one with access! You unleashed a demon to what? Kill your dad and Regina?" Emma yanked him about. No one would fault her if she slugged him in the stomach, right? Instead, she yanked him enough for him to trip and fall. Piece of shit is lucky I don't beat the brakes off of his ass!

Henry pushed to the front of the crowd. "You tried to kill my mom?" He glared at Neal as he struggled back to his feet.

Neal gaped at Henry for a long moment. "No! You got it all wrong! I didn't unleash the damn thing. I got it for someone. I didn't know what the hell it was, but he said it would subdue all the bad guys, get rid of all the evil. I was trying to be a hero, like you." He stared at Emma with these big, wet eyes, like he spoke the truth.

"By killing innocent people?" Emma could not believe what she was hearing. How was that heroic?

"They're not innocent! They're just like my dad!" Neal huffed and looked at his father with such hatred.

Gold's face fell. For once, his eyes showed emotion, glistening with unshed tears, and he was crushed. "Bae, I thought you forgave me." His voice even trembled. If Emma did not know him, she might even feel sorry for him. But, she knew enough about him to think he should feel lucky Neal did not want to personally shove him off of a cliff.

Neal glowered at Gold as if he was the devil among them. He probably was not wrong. "I forgive you for being a coward, but that doesn't discount you're a monster. Everything I hear about you only proves that. Every single person in this damn town has a horror story involving you. Everyone! I've seen the horrible things you do and you've just kept on doing them. I know you've been plotting even now, trying to figure out how you'll get out of taking responsibility for all the shit you've done here. You didn't change when you lost me. You just got worse and used me as an excuse, like you were doing before!"

Gold's chin wobbled and he seemed like he was on the verge of tears. "I had to get you back…"

"Well, I tried to get you back and you chose the damn dagger! Do you even get how much you destroyed? How many people you hurt? Do you even give a fuck?" It was a good question, even if Neal asked, but then again, maybe he was the best person to ask it. Gold either did not know or did not care. Maybe it was both.

"This is a cluster fuck. Who did you give the urn to after you stole it?" Emma asked, as she still had a murderer to catch then.

"I don't know his name," Neal said.

Emma frowned. "Call me crazy, but I don't believe you." She looked at Regina. "You good to handle the clean up while me and Ruby talk to this idiot?"

"Regina is not in charge! You put her back in those irons now!" Matilda said and the rest of the Council made noises of agreement.

Emma snorted, rolling her eyes. "Even if I knew where those damn irons are, Regina's never wearing them again. And what I said stands. Now, I have a mass murderer to find."

Emma was off, letting Ruby drag Neal along since she had werewolf strength. Neal tried to yank away, but got nowhere. After Ruby let him fall on his face twice, he wisely stopped struggling.

"Why the hell would you do this dumb shit? You want your dad dead that bad?" Emma asked.

Neal shook his head. "My dad died a long time ago. That monster's just going to keep destroying lives. He used to kill people in front of me, Emma. In front of his kid and go about the day like it was no big deal. I know he's still like that. I can see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. Look at how he treats Belle. He uses people and sucks them dry. He needs to be stopped."

Emma could not call him a liar there. "And, what, everybody else is collateral damage?"

"I didn't think anyone else would be in danger. I definitely didn't think anyone else would die. He's the greatest evil in town. In the world probably. Damn thing would've gotten full off of him," Neal said.

Emma only groaned. She would hold her other questions for him when he was in the hot box. This was a serious matter, after all. For now, they needed to find the asshole who unleashed the chernabog and get that person in jail as soon as possible. Of course it turned out to be a noble bastard with the same lofty desires of being a hero and punishing the villains, even if it meant killing the whole damn town. Fucking asshole. He pretended not to know why he was even being arrested and was certain he would be out immediately.

"You're never getting out," Emma said. After all, people were dead.

-8-8-8-8-

The town called an emergency Town Hall meeting as soon as everyone was accounted for, even though everything was not fixed up just yet. It was then they learned nine people had died, five of those were so-called villains, but the meeting was called to order. Everyone felt the meeting was necessary and there would be no delay. Not the Council. The town. The citizens of Storybrooke were ready for a change.

Regina stood in the back, off to the side with Henry. Emma was still dealing with Neal and the chernabog mess. Regina could only wonder how this would end. She put it out of her mind that Neal had no problem with possibly killing her in his efforts to stop Rumple. He was not the first person to think her death would solve problems. Hell, she had considered that herself several times in her life.

"People, we need to settle down!" Nuri bellowed over the din without much luck.

A shrill whistle went off and that quieted people down. Everyone turned to the source of the noise. A tiny woman, who was an elf in the Old World, and an English teacher in Storybrooke had the whistle dangling from her lips.

"That's how you do it, muscles," she told Nuri with a wink.

Nuri cleared his throat. "Yes, thank you." He scanned the crowd. "Fellow denizens of Storybrooke, it's time for us to band together and stand up for what we want, what we need, and what we deserve! We deserve a fair government that works for all of us, that protects all of us, and that follows the rules while also enforcing just rules equally!" There were cheers.

"You don't have that power," Edmund Kent said.

Nuri threw his hands out. "We have that power! We are in a place that gives us that power! You can't upend our lives anymore!" The crowd roared.

"We won't be collared like the Queen!" someone yelled. There were more cheers.

"We won't stand for more sanctioned violence!"

"We won't stand for corruption!"

"We won't stand for being pushed around and mistreated!"

"We won't stand for old status being a reason for anything!"

"This will not be another Enchanted Forest!"

Regina would love to see these people pull this off. For every person who wanted to stay in Storybrooke and enjoy the New World, there was someone who wanted to go back to the Enchanted Forest, or at least make Storybrooke as close to the Enchanted Forest as much they could. She was not sure if there was even a happy medium for them, but they owed it to everyone to try.

"You can't just change things," Maurice said.

Morgan moved, like wafting smoke, gesturing to the Council. "It's funny how it worked for you."

"We didn't just change things. We're meant to be in charge!" Wesley puffed out his chest and beat it with his fist, like a gorilla.

Nuri stepped to him and snorted through his nose, breathing out tiny flames and smoke. He towered over Wesley, looking down on the former king in a way that had to be poetic justice. "You put yourselves in charge during a time of crisis, but proved you can't handle the power. We're putting things right. Your Council has done nothing for this town. You put your own people in positions of power," Nuri said.

Wesley did not back down. "Like Regina did with you? With the other villains?" He pointed to a cluster of so-called villains by the wall.

Bianca exploded on that and she threw her hands up as she stepped out of the crowd. "We're not villains! Some of us were cursed back in the Enchanted Forest and no one cared to help us then and now you're trying to say we're villains. We're all trying to live our lives! We have things to live for and don't act like you're just coming after us. We've seen what you've done to people from low status back in the Enchanted Forest! No more!" The crowd bellowed and raised their hands up with her.

"For all us being villains, I saw a lot more of us trying to help out there than you, which explains why we lost members of our community while you lot still breathe," Melanie added. There were mumbled agreements there. It was probably hard for the townspeople to stomach the idea that villains made the ultimate sacrifice to help them.

"Hey, we helped, too!" David stepped up, pointing to himself. Blood ruined his shirt from his left shoulder down his arm. Knowing him, he was injured and probably had not gotten looked at yet. He looked worse for wear compared to the rest of the Council. So, he probably helped because that was who he was, but most of the Council probably saved their own skins and that was it.

"You're supposed to help! Heroes don't get credit for doing what they're supposed to!" Adan roared, stepping by Nuri. He was even taller than Nuri.

"Villains shouldn't get credit for suddenly being decent people!" Snow said as she went to stand by her husband. She was covered in dust, hair a mess, and blood coming down the side of her head.

"But, you all want to act like we're not decent people and therefore don't deserve decent treatment," Morgan pointed out.

Regina patted Henry's shoulder. "Let's go. This doesn't concern us." Again, she was not sure how they would work this out, but however it went, it would not affect them much.

"Don't you want to see who wins?" Henry asked.

"This sort of thing will take more time than we'll be willing to stand here." She was not sure how long, but there was no way there would be an answer now, especially not with the argument it seemed to be devolving into.

Henry sighed, shoulders slumping. "I guess I'll find out what happens later then."

Regina felt that would be best, especially since she was not sure how calm the meeting would remain. She and Henry eased out of the meeting, but could hear the shouting even as they hit the sidewalk. Regina was tempted to check on Emma, but decided to let her work. She and Henry walked toward their home.

"Want to talk about your father?" Regina asked. She could not imagine what sort of blow that was. Henry wanted to believe in that man so hard and then he went and did this. The betrayal probably gutted Henry.

Henry let loose a breath and rubbed his face. "I don't even know what to think there. Was Gold such a bad dad?"

"I think it more has to do with Gold being a bad person. It sounds like he was a good dad when he was a dad, but we both know that parenting takes work all the time. Gold, as the Dark One, probably didn't know how to be a parent all the time, or even most of the time. Your father must have witnessed his father do some awful things. Maybe he thought this was the best way to stop those awful things. He wanted to save people."

"Heroes don't kill people."

Regina was not sure what to say to that. There were so many different answers. "Well, Henry, Neal is from some place where heroes sometimes did kill people, if it means saving more people. It seems like your father wanted to save people."

Henry gave her a small smile. "Thanks for standing up for my dad."

Regina shook her head. "I just want you to be happy." She might never like Neal, but Henry deserved a chance to work out Neal on his own. Besides, when she stopped and thought about it, she understood Henry more than she liked. How many times had she jumped at a chance to bond with her mother?

Henry scratched the top of his head and his face scrunched up. He had a question, but it took him a minute to get it out. "Can Emma really arrest him for trying to kill Gold?"

"If she has the evidence, which she really does since he said it in front of everyone. He might be in luck. There's no prosecutors in town anymore." The Royal Council fired them all. "I'm not even sure what happened to the judges, but they're gone as well."

"Really? Is everywhere like my school?"

"Very much." Some places were much worse than his school.

He let out a long breath from the side of his mouth. "It'll get better, right?"

"Perhaps." It seemed like there was a fifty-fifty chance.

"I hope school doesn't get messed up again."

"You know we'll do our best to make things work out." Not that Regina knew what she could do. Still, she would not let the town fall apart around Henry. She would not let it get this dangerous ever again and she knew Emma felt the same.

He nodded. They got home and were not sure what to do with themselves. They ended up sitting on the sofa and reading at opposite ends of the couch. The quiet was interrupted by a simple text. Emma let her know "don't bother to cook."

"I hope that doesn't mean she's not coming home," Regina said as she put her phone down.

Henry looked up from his book. "Hmm?"

"Emma told me not to make dinner."

"She's probably gonna get takeout. She wouldn't tell you not to feed me and we all know you wouldn't let me or Emma go without dinner."

That made sense. "True. Will any place be open? Everyone is probably still arguing and we didn't fix some buildings." Magic could handle a lot, but it would have been impossible to correct so much destruction in a short time between the chernabog being defeated and the Town Hall meeting being called.

Henry waved that off. "Emma knows takeout."

Regina laughed at that. It seemed like something that would fall into Emma's expertise. Emma showed up a few minutes later with a bucket of fried chicken, biscuits, coleslaw, mash potatoes, corn on the cob, and a half gallon of sweet tea that was probably more sweet than tea. She laid it all out on the coffee table.

Regina frowned. "Emma." This was highly inappropriate. Dinner was to be eaten at the table.

"I needed some serious comfort food and I know you didn't have chicken for this," Emma said.

"I could've gone to the store," Regina replied.

Emma shook her head. "It was destroyed."

"I could've fixed it."

"I know. I told them I'd ask you to stop by tomorrow."

Regina chuckled. "I suppose. Do we have to eat this in the living room?"

"I think it works. It's cool to eat in front of the TV sometime, even if the TV isn't on," Emma said.

Regina did not have a counter for that. This seemed to be something Emma needed and it did not hurt any of them to eat in their own living room. But, there needed to be plates at the very least. She went to the kitchen for plates and glasses.

Emma laughed. "It was killing you, wasn't it?" She winked at Regina.

"I need some semblance of civility." Regina placed a plate and a glass in front of each of them as they gathered around the coffee table. Henry eased onto the floor, leaving Regina and Emma a chance to sit next to each other on the sofa. "As you well know, outside is chaos, so inside we all like a little order."

There was another laugh from Emma. "You know, I was thinking, wanna be a deputy? We make a pretty good team." She smiled at Regina. Regina would not be able to resist, but was saved from answering right away.

"So, what's happening with my dad?" Henry asked as he loaded pieces of chicken on his plate. Regina made sure he got some corn and some coleslaw, even enough it appeared to be more mayonnaise than anything else.

Emma glanced at him. "Nothing right now. I'm holding him until I can get him in front of a judge or somebody. I'm sorry, Henry. I know he was trying to be a hero, but he went about it the wrong way." She reached over and put her hand on his.

Henry nodded and flipped his hand to hold Emma's. "The real wrong way. People died."

Emma sighed and her shoulders fell, along with her head, and she took her hand away. "I know."

Henry dropped his head and looked at Emma through his eyelashes. "Do you think he'll go to jail?"

With a heavy sigh, Emma rubbed her face with both hands and then sat up straight, as if she were trying to be strong. Strong for their son. "I don't know. I don't know how this place works anymore."

Regina reached over and rubbed Emma's knee. "We know how this place…" She motioned around them. "We know how this house works and that's the best start."

"Yeah." Emma and Henry nodded. For now, it would have to be enough for them.

"Home is our safe haven," Regina said.

"You bet it is," Emma replied as she put an arm around Regina's waist.

Home was enough. The outside world would probably always be crazy. They could not control that, but they could control the house and how they treated each other. So, they had a nice dinner and just loved each other.

-8-8-8-8-

Emma was not sure what to expect when she stepped outside, but the town was not on fire, so that was a good thing. The sky was clear for the most part and the few clouds out seemed very natural. She did not hear any screaming, yelling, or anything. So, it was not the end of the world, but she was not sure if things were as calm as it seemed.

Henry was going to stay home for a couple of days until she and Regina could determine how the town was. They had advised other parents to do the same with their children, but schools were still open like before, just in case. For the people who were out, they seemed to be trying to clean up, not just the mess from the chernabog, but the mess of the town in general. So far, so good.

Arriving at the station, she found everything the way she left it. It was good to see her prisoners still in their cells. Ruby was chatting away another redhead.

"Hey, Emma. Have you met Morgana yet? Well, she goes by Morgan here, but anyway. Did you know we assumed she was dead in the Old World," Ruby said.

Emma tilted her head. "You look familiar."

"Doctor performing life saving procedures on your baby mama," Morgan replied with a grin.

Emma narrowed her gaze on Morgan. "And why would you save my baby mama?" She did not mean to be suspicious, but anything involving Regina right now got her hackles up.

Morgan put her hands up and laughed. "Funny you ask that and not what I'm doing here."

Emma yelped and waved her hands. "Hey, both of those things are equally important." After all, Morgan could have been trying to use saving Regina's life to get a favor from her or from Regina.

"Yeah, if you're in love with Regina," Morgan replied.

"Oh!" Ruby laughed. "She nailed you!" Ruby had the nerve to do finger guns at Emma.

Morgan smiled at her. "To answer both questions, I know Regina from the Old World and like her enough to help. For a short while, I sort of adopted her, witch to witch, but also both of us were looking for something the other could provide. A sort of parental guidance and a child to dote upon. But, she was already married to Leopold and there was no way he'd let her get away and Rumple was already whispering in her ear, poisoning her against any and everyone, myself included. I didn't think it was fair for Ruby to watch a man who tried to kill her as collateral damage." She motioned to Ruby.

"I wasn't trying to kill her!" Neal banged on the cell door.

"Yeah, you weren't trying to kill everybody, but still managed to put us all at risk," Ruby said, gnashing her teeth at him. "You don't know anyone's past here. You don't know what some of us have done, even though we still like to believe we're good fucking people."

"It was only supposed to kill the villains. We were doing a good deed," the stupid noble, Reginald of the all the names, said. He had been defending himself more than they needed to hear, especially once he learned he was not going to get out like he first assumed.

"Killing good people isn't a good dead. The villains who died did a good deed. They saved people. The other people who died were good people. The people who put themselves on the line to make sure other people got to safety were the real heroes and those are good people. We're all just trying to be good people," Ruby replied with a growl.

"I don't tell myself that lie anymore, but I still didn't want to die by the chernabog. Supposedly, it rips your energy from your body and devours that before devouring you, all of which sounds messy. It seems like a very unpleasant way to die," Morgan said.

Ruby nodded. "Definitely does. I don't want to die anytime soon, but death by summoned devil seems especially harsh. I doubt anyone deserved that."

Morgan folded her hands in her lap. "Good thing for us Regina and Emma saved the day." She smiled at Emma.

"Good in the sense that we didn't die or good in the sense of viva la resistance?" Emma asked.

Morgan shrugged. "Why not both?"

Emma did not see anything wrong with that. "How is the revolution going?"

"The Council won't be cowed by these villains!" Reginald barked. The ladies all rolled their eyes.

"They have to comply or go to war. The Council doesn't want that, not with a good chunk of the citizenry being with us and definitely not with magic being around, especially with Regina tapping into that goddess power. It won't be pretty. We all know if she can stun a chernabog, she is not to be fucked with," Morgan replied.

"Do we all know that? Because I feel like I didn't know that." Emma pressed her hand to her chest. She had not talked to Regina about that yet. It seemed pretty inconsequential considering everything else.

"I only knew it as a rumor. Supposedly that was why she was the chosen one to cast Dark Curse," Ruby said.

Morgan nodded. "That is why the Dark One hunted her and fed her to the darkness. He groomed her to be his creature because he needed her power to use the Curse."

"That's why he needs to be stopped!" Neal snarled as he hit the bars again.

"Yeah, but you don't need to kill all of us in the damn process. Do you understand people died yesterday? There's blood on your hands, even if all you did was hand the urn to that idiot," Ruby said as she nodded toward Reginald.

Emma was glad they escaped the day with no war, but Neal definitely did not understand the consequences of his stupid decision. Dealing with him for the day was very unpleasant. He refused to accept responsibility for the people who died. Reginald remained proud of the fact that five "villains" died. Never mind the fact that they died trying to save people and never mind the fact that four other people lost their lives and doubly never mind the fact that dozens of people were injured.

Emma needed some lawyers to materialize soon. She did not want to have to deal with them for much longer. She also wanted them to be charged with murder. Reginald was responsible for murder and Neal was at the least an accessory to murder.

After a long day of trying to sort things out, Ruby shooed Emma out of the door. Emma did not put up much of a struggle. Emma let out a long sigh when she crossed the threshold into the house. The place smelled like absolute heaven in the form of apple pie. She could not get to the dining room fast enough.

"Tell me there's a slice for me," Emma said as she flopped down next to Henry, who had a mouthful of pie.

Regina eased a slice with a scoop of ice cream in front of Emma. Emma was ready to cry and she had not even tasted it yet. Of course, it was as good as expected. What was unexpected was a knock at the door.

"You expecting someone?" Emma asked Regina.

Regina shrugged. "A lynch mob?"

"Not funny, especially since people think there might still be a war." Emma got up. "Both of you stay here." She went to the door and glanced out of the glass to the side. Her parents were at the door. She was not sure if she should open it. They collared Regina, after all.

"We come in peace," Snow said loud enough to be heard clearly.

Emma sighed and opened the door. Snow and David stood before, hunched over, faces drawn with lines under their eyes. They looked defeated. It did not bring Emma any joy, not that she thought it would. These were her parents. She wanted happiness for them, like she wished they wanted for her.

Emma motioned for them to come in. "Want some pie? It's apple." Okay, maybe she wanted to bother them a little.

Snow yelped and David glared. Emma held her hands up in surrender. She pointed to the living room as Regina and Henry stepped over to the scene. For a moment, everyone stood there, looking at each other and then they all seemed to agree to move at the same time. Everyone relocated to the living room, where pie awaited. Neither Snow nor David objected or said anything about the pie. Something was up.

"Is it safe to assume the Royal Council was disbanded?" Regina asked, barely containing her smugness.

"Could you not look so gleeful about it?" Snow scowled.

"Well, it was a poor idea. Storybrooke isn't the Enchanted Forest and it can't be run by committee when the committee has so many different agendas and still like to pretend they're running their kingdom when there is no kingdom," Regina replied.

"Look outside isn't on fire and the town looks like it's still in one piece, so what happened?" Emma asked.

"As Regina said, the Council was disbanded. We didn't want to divide the town," Snow said. Emma managed to hold in a laugh as Snow continued. "But, that's not why we're here."

"Then why are you here?" Emma asked.

Snow sighed and David's shoulders dropped. They took each other's hands. Emma was not sure why, but her stomach dropped into her feet and she took Regina's hand. Regina gave her a supportive squeeze.

"We're focusing on what matters," David replied, staring at her.

Emma fought the urge to roll her eyes. "And that is?" She was not sure what mattered to them. David and Snow glanced at each other before turning back to Emma.

"We've been ignoring you, Emma. We haven't meant it, but we had a lot of excuses for why and we know it's not right," Snow said.

"Why? Why are you ignoring me? Do I matter so little to you? Was I just here to break the Curse?" Emma asked. It felt like that. She was a means to an end and nothing more. She wanted parents, they wanted a savior, and even that did not seem like a good thing from her end.

"Of course not!" David shook his head. "You're our daughter." He motioned between him and Snow.

"We just don't know what that means," Snow said, her voice small.

"Excuse me?" Emma was one false move away from throwing them out.

David took a deep breath and his mouth trembled before he managed to speak. "You don't really need us, Emma. You're a grown woman. You're independent, successful, a hero, and even with a family of your own. You don't need us and we don't know what to do…" His voice cracked and tears already fell from Snow's eyes. He licked his lips and swallowed hard. "It's hard to come to grips that our baby girl doesn't need us and we've been so lost on what to do."

Emma could not believe what she was hearing. "What are you talking about? You're my parents. Of course I need you! You're parents!" What the hell was wrong with them?

A sob escaped Snow and she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "It doesn't seem like you need us for anything. Yes, there were pockets when we were stuck in the Enchanted Forest, but you adapted, adjusted. You're flexible to the point you can survive all of these new things that come at you. We don't adjust that quickly. We didn't even help in Neverland."

"Hell, I almost died and sidetracked the whole mission. Because of me, you almost lost Henry," David said.

Snow jumped, pointing to herself. "And we lost Henry in the first place! We've actually been a burden to you. You do everything without us. I thought in the Enchanted Forest, maybe you'd need us, but when we saw you in Neverland with Regina, it was clear. We can't do anything for you and we thought if we could at least help you find your Happy Ending, we'd mean something to you."

Regina rubbed her head and she looked pained, as she often did when in the same room with Snow and David. "That's not how parenting works."

"At all," Emma said, her face frozen in disbelief. "If I thought like you guys, I'd have left Henry the second we stepped off of the Jolly Roger. Just because I can do things without you doesn't mean I want to. Henry can do his homework without me, but he still asks for me to help just to be with me. He doesn't need us to watch movies with him, but he asks us to. He has friends he could play Dungeons and Dragons with, but he asks us. Hell, he taught us, so we could all play together. Support isn't about what you can do for some as much just being there."

"It's not just me making an effort with them," Henry said. "Mom cooks breakfast and dinner every single day and we eat as a family. Emma plays video games with me. Me and Mom just spent the day on the couch reading. We all make an effort to be with each other."

"Because we all need each other, emotionally, spiritually," Regina said.

"We have to be available to each other. We're not using each other. Family doesn't use each other and they don't ignore each other if they feel they're useless," Emma said. It was strange for her to be giving a family talk, but she felt like she knew so much now.

Henry tilted his head and his face scrunched up, like he just realized something. "Wait, wait, wait, you noticed Mom was the only help Emma needed in Neverland? Did you guys give Mom to Emma because you knew they were on their way to being family?"

Emma never would have thought of that, but Henry was onto something. Her parents just admitted to noticing Emma and Regina in Neverland. How weird was this? They were trying to help again, but did it in such a crazy way. Was it because they were from the Enchanted Forest? Or was there just something genuinely wrong with her parents?

Snow gave an awkward half-smile. "We knew Regina could and would be there for Emma, for you. She showed that in Neverland." She looked at Regina and smiled through her tears. "Thank you."

"You're thanking me? You sit here and you know how necessary parents are, as you both have lost them, and you left Emma drifting in the wind with me?" Regina's brow was wrinkled, like she did not know what was going on.

"We thought the best thing we could do was step away. Yes, we've both lost parents, but I also know how a parent can hurt you by doing the wrong thing," David replied.

Snow looked at Regina. "You know it, too. We didn't want to hurt her."

"You didn't support me, so yeah, that hurt," Emma pointed out.

"We were still trying to do what was best for the town, but we see how even that was a mistake. You were right about so much," Snow said. And that was huge. Snow never admitted she was wrong, even when it was glaringly obvious. "At least you had Regina and Henry with you."

"Regina, Henry, and Ruby."

Snow smiled. "Yes, Ruby's always good to have by your side. For you, Regina appears to be the same."

Emma hated how she melted on the inside as her parents acknowledged Regina being good for her. She wanted to be angry with them, but she knew it would not do any good. She did not want to accept their apology just yet, though.

"I appreciate you both coming here. I'm happy you talked to me finally, but I'm not sure I'm ready to accept you now. I mean, you gave Regina to me. Yeah, it was to take care of me, but you gave her to me, knowing I wouldn't like it, knowing it wasn't the right way to do things," Emma said. But, there was a pain in her heart. It would hurt to be without them, but it might hurt to be with them as well.

Regina nodded, but patted Emma's knee. "They did do that, but I've been trying my best to take care of you, so let me take care of this."

Emma looked at her. "What do you want to do?"

Regina pinned Snow and David with a hard look. "You're staying for dinner and a board game after. There won't be any talk about the government, the Curse, heroics, or forgiveness. Any other subjects are welcomed. You have to understand you're not off the hook for anything you've done, but this is an open attempt. If all goes well, you'll come back tomorrow for more of the same. At some point, we'll teach you how to play D&D."

Emma smiled, happy Regina took charge there. She brought Regina's hand to her lips and kissed her knuckles. If her parents had a problem with her being with Regina in the open they would have to deal with it, but they did not even flinch. With luck they were on their way to healing and maybe the town was as well.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: the town without the Council.