A/N: SURPRISE! A Lost & Found Update! Bet you didn't see that coming ;) lol

Chapter Twenty Four

In the weeks after starting grade three and making the track team, Emma seemed back to her old self again, smiling and happy and successfully convincing Regina to let the kittens stay 'just a few more days' over and over, to the point where Regina was starting to wonder if she'd ever be able to rehome them at all.

It was a Friday evening that everyone met up at Granny's to celebrate Emma's ninth birthday. Throwing parties every month seemed like overkill, as much as Emma would have liked it, and Regina and the Charmings decided that perhaps a monthly dinner out was the best option, for the time being. After all, the kid didn't need anymore toys or clothes or books, and she wasn't exactly great at making friends her own age, which made birthday party planning difficult enough on its own, without repeating the process month after month.

Emma hadn't exactly been fond of the idea, but she seemed excessively pouty at her birthday dinner, especially considering the massive ice cream sundae Ruby had made special for her.

"What's the matter, Little One?" Regina asked, frowning as Emma picked at the sprinkles on her ice cream. It wasn't like her to ever turn down sugary treats, and Regina suddenly worried that perhaps she wasn't feeling well.

Emma simply shrugged. "Nothing."

Regina raised an eyebrow, glancing at David, Snow and Henry, but all three of them looked just as confused as she was. "You know you can tell us anything, right?"

Emma nodded, but continued to pout.

"Is something wrong with your sundae?" Henry offered.

"No," Emma replied, pushing the dish away from her. "I'm just not hungry. You can have it."

Regina frowned as she placed the inside of her wrist on Emma's forehead, but found no indication of a fever in the mere seconds before Emma ducked her head away from Regina's touch.

"I'm not sick!" Emma insisted.

"Well, something's clearly wrong. Did something happen at school?"

Emma bit her lip and stared at the table before her, and Regina knew she was on the right track.

"Emma, honey, if something happened, you need to tell us," Snow piped up.

Emma let out an exasperated sigh, hunching her shoulders forward and keeping her eyes on the table. "The kids at school don't like me!" she finally blurted out.

"What are you talking about? I see you outside playing with your classmates every recess, Emma. They seem to like you just fine," Snow insisted.

"Well… one kid doesn't like me. His name's Dylan and he's always mean to me. He pulls my hair and he always teases me even when I tell him to cut it out!"

To Regina's surprise and Emma's horror, Snow actually smiled. "Oh, honey, he probably just has a little crush on you."

"Snow!" Regina gasped. "Don't tell her that!"

"Why? That's how little boys act when they like a little girl."

"Because, you're teaching her to equate abuse with affection and that's not okay."

"Regina, they're just little kids."

"Well, Henry never picked on little girls at that age."

Emma looked nervously between her mother and Regina, before locking eyes with Henry.

"Hey, Emma, let's go put some music on the jukebox," Henry suggested. Emma didn't hesitate sliding out of the booth to join Henry and leave the adults to deal with the tension they were creating at the table.

"Regina, what is with you today?" Snow asked the moment the children were out of earshot.

"What's with me? Your daughter just told you she's getting picked on in school and you're treating it like some sort of rite of passage she should be happy about!"

"I'm not… I'm just trying to make her feel better about a boy being mean to her."

"By letting her think it's his way of saying he likes her? Snow I know you are infuriatingly incapable of seeing bad in anything or anyone, but not everyone is good."

"Regina, we're talking about an eight year old boy here."

"No, we're not… not really. We're talking about Emma and how she's being treated badly by an eight year old boy, but it goes deeper than that… she's been treated poorly by so many people in her life, and with enough poor treatment, a person will eventually begin to believe they deserve it. It's up to us to make sure Emma knows she deserves better than that."

Snow pursed her lips and turned to David, who had been notably silent for the duration of the conversation. "David, can you go see if the kids need money for the jukebox?"

David nodded, quickly exiting the booth knowing full well that was his wife's less than subtle way of kicking him out to talk to Regina in private.

"What?" Regina asked, staring at Snow expectantly.

"Who are we really talking about here? Emma or you?"

"Emma!"

Snow raised an eyebrow, and Regina knew she was seeing right through her.

"Alright. Mostly Emma and maybe a little bit myself."

"Regina?" Snow prompted, when Regina didn't continue immediately.

"It's just… I see Emma getting this second chance and I wonder if we're doing enough to make the most of it. I think about what I would want someone to tell me or teach me if I had the chance to redo my childhood and… I just wonder if we're doing enough to make sure that Emma knows her value and her worth."

"I get that, Regina, I do… I look at Emma and I think of all that I did have growing up, and all that she missed out on. And I ask myself the same questions, but look at her," Snow said, smiling over to where David had Emma hoisted up so she could see the song selections on the jukebox. "She's smiling again. She's happy. And she knows how much we all love her. She grew up thinking she was nothing, that she didn't mean anything to anyone and she was alone in the world. She knows how much we all love her now."

Regina nodded as she watched Emma giggling as Henry pointed out a song selection to her. She was so carefree in the moment, but Regina still couldn't shake the worry that it wouldn't last - that she would still grow up guarded and a few short months wouldn't be enough to undo all the damage that had already been done.

All she wanted was to see the same smile on the adult Emma's face.

Regina let out a sigh, and turned her focus back to Snow. "How long can she hold on to that innocence, though? She's nine now… eight months from now she'll have aged to seventeen. She'll have memories of being pregnant with Henry in jail. Eight months, Snow… she's already been in Storybrooke for five. She told me it was going by too fast and she was right."

"I know," Snow agreed, placing a hand on Regina's. "But Regina, I don't think you'll lose her when she's back to her adult self again."

"I never said…"

"You didn't have to. We've all been watching the bond forming between the two of you, and of course you're going to worry about what will happen down the line… when Emma returns to normal, she'll still be my daughter, and David's daughter, Henry's mother and Neal's sister… and you're wondering where that leaves you."

Regina nodded. The thought hadn't really even been on her mind. She'd never voiced it or even let herself think about it, but somehow Snow was seeing even what she was hiding from herself. Damn that woman for knowing her too well.

"Mal just put this idea in my head… she made me question why I'm holding on to Emma so tightly and I just… I don't know."

"Regina, she adores you. Whatever your relationship with her becomes down the road, that kind of love just doesn't go away. There's bumpy roads ahead as as much as it pains me to admit it, she's going to keep on needing you, probably more than she needs me sometimes. Besides, you have her cat. You're never going to get rid of her."

At that, Regina had to laugh. "Fair enough… but Snow, I still stand by what I said earlier: don't teach her to see abuse as a sign of affection. It's… it's a very dangerous road to go down."

"Yes… you're right. And besides, she's too young to be dating anyway… especially since that little boy is going to stay little while she grows up… and, you know, that's just assuming she's interested in boys at all..."

Regina's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but before she could question Snow on what she meant by that, she was interrupted by Emma sliding back onto the bench seat beside her.

"You let it melt!" Emma cried, her eyes wide at the half melted sundae dripping onto the table.

"Well, I don't exactly have a refrigerator on me," Regina replied in defense.

"Gina," Emma said, shaking her head as she waved her hands over the ice cream and restored it to its frozen state.

"Did you teach her any magic that doesn't involve ice cream?" David laughed as he sat back down in his own seat.

Regina wanted to comeback with a snarky comeback, but instead she just smiled and wrapped her arms around Emma. "Are you happy again?"

"Mmm hmm," Emma replied through a mouthful of ice cream, nodding emphatically. "Can I fweep at your houf tonight?"

"Can you not talk with your mouth full?" Regina scolded.

Emma rolled her eyes and swallowed the ice cream. "I said, can I sleep at your house tonight?"

Regina glanced at Snow, who gave a small nod. "Yes, baby, of course you can."

"I might just punch that boy in the nose," Emma said, thoughtfully, as she climbed into Regina's bed.

"Oh, you're sleeping in here, are you?" Regina asked as she came out of her en suite in her pajamas.

"I gotta," Emma said, seriously. "Kitty Softpaws put all the babies in my bed and every time I put one back on the floor another one climbs up. Can't they move back into your closet?"

"No, absolutely not. I'm still finding kitten fur all over my clothes. I was thinking I need to call Emma Swan's dry cleaning services to clean all my outfits."

Emma shook her head quickly. "Nu-uh… they went outta business. Sorry."

"Of course they did," Regina smirked as she clicked off the light and crawled into bed next to Emma. "And I don't want to hear about you punching that boy in the nose."

"Then I won't tell you."

"Emma."

Emma smiled. "You can't be mad at me, it's my birthday."

"I could never be mad at you anyway."

"What were you and Mommy talking about when Henry took me to the jube box?"

"Jukebox. And nothing, Little One," Regina insisted, as she pulled Emma close to her in a hug. "What am I going to call you when you're not so little anymore?"

"Big One?" Emma offered.

"Just how big do you think you're going to get?"

Emma giggled. "Regular Size One?"

"I'm sure I'll think of something."

"Gina? Will you still love me when I'm as big as you?"

Regina smiled and hugged Emma closer. "Of course. I've already told you that I will."

"No, you only said you would love me 'til I'm eighty. You never said anything about how big."

"Oh. My mistake. Yes, Emma, I will love you when you're as big as me."

"Okay. I was just checking."

"I'll love you forever, baby girl."

"Love you forever ever ever ever…" Emma whispered, her voice trailing off as she succumbed to sleep.

Regina ran her fingers through Emma's hair as she slept. "I hope that's true."

To be continued….

I know that was a short one, but I thought up this chapter at work last night so I decided to bang it out quickly… AND with this chapter, Lost & Found officially becomes the first fanfic I've written that passed 100k words! I am so excited!

Thank you all so, so much for the support you've given me throughout this fic! There's still lots more to come… especially when we make it into the teenage years!

As always, you can find me on Tumblr as rowark-sq if you so desire… and I always love your feedback, on here or there… I'm a little stuck on ideas for the ages between 9 and 13/14 so if you have any ideas, feel free to shoot them my way and help be get past this roadblock in the story… some of the teenage scenes are already written, and I can't wait to get there!

Until next time…. muah!