A decade since she last seriously entertained the notion of being a mother, Emma found herself thrust into the role of foster mom for a pair of twins. While Emma brought the Zimmer twins to the police station, Graham dug up their birth certificates and their mother's death certificate. It all checked out the way Conner had told them. When Emma formally interviewed the twins, they confirmed Conner's story, including the part about Henry being involved.
Emma could already sense conflict with Regina when she got the news.
Storybrooke was too small to have its own DHS office, so those duties fell to the sheriff. But Graham had a homicide investigation on his hands, so he delegated the task to Emma. That first night, she brought the kids back home with her and gave them her bed while she slept on the couch. When she was a kid, if her social worker couldn't find a placement for her she'd end up sleeping in their office or in the break-room. Ava and Nicholas needed a real bed. The next morning, she woke up early to get them ready for school.
Mary outdid herself making a huge breakfast for their guests; tall stacks of pancakes with their choice of maple syrup or chocolate syrup; scrambled eggs and sausage and French toast; and a bowl of diced fresh fruit.
"Wow, I don't remember you doing all this for me when I first showed up," Emma joked.
Mary playfully rolled her eyes as she sat the twins down at the counter. They looked apprehensive at first, likely they thought the food was poisoned or something, but they did fill their plates and start eating.
"So, how long will you be staying with us?"
Nicholas shrugged, and Ava looked to Emma, "I guess that's up to her."
"I'm going to look for your biological father and hopefully he'll be cooperative. If not, you'll be fostered with someone. Maybe with me."
"Hmm," Mary squeaked.
Emma grimaced, "Mary, I-"
"Kids, keep eating," Mary interrupted. "I need to talk to Emma in private."
Emma followed Mary outside to the building corridor. "I know, I should have talked to you first before promising something like that, since this is technically your apartment. But they're so scared for being separated from each in foster case, I had to say something to calm them down."
"You're right, you should have talked to me first," Mary scolded. Her tone softened, "But that's not the main reason I'm worried. Do you think you can handle raising 10 year twins if it came to that?"
"I don't know," Emma admitted.
Mary gestured, "That's exactly the problem! You shouldn't have given them false hope."
Emma closed her eyes as the enormity of her mistake washed over her. "I'm gonna screw them up, aren't I?" she muttered, more to herself than to Mary.
"I get that you want to do the right thing, but you weren't thinking straight. Which is understandable, given your experiences, but still."
Emma opened her eyes, her face gone from contrition from hurt, "What do you mean, 'given my experiences'?"
"Well, you grew up in foster care, and that obviously had a negatively impact on you. So your first instinct was to try to keep the twins out of it by any means."
"Obviously," Emma repeated coolly.
"What?" Mary was confused by Emma's reaction.
Emma let out a short, bitter laugh, "You are the last person I expected to hear this from."
"Hear what from?" Mary blinked, "All I said was the maybe your personal experiences were clouding your judgement."
Emma scoffed, "You've never been in foster care, you have no idea what's it's like. Being brought into people's home because they want a paycheck for doing the bare minimum to take care of you. If you're lucky, they might even feel sorry for you, but don't expect them actually see you as family. Because the minute something goes wrong, you get kicked out. Passed around from house to house until you age out and end up on streets."
"I...Emma..." Mary stuttered. "I didn't realize you had to deal with all that. I wasn't trying to-"
"No, you didn't, but you thought you knew how it affected me?" Emma snapped. "Poor little Emma grew up without parents, so clearly she's too damaged and emotional to be trusted with anything."
"That's not fair," Mary crossed her arms, "You know I didn't mean it like that."
"Okay, then how did you mean it?" Emma challenged.
Mary opened her mouth, then closed it when she couldn't figure out how to explain herself.
"You know, save it," Emma looked away, now embarrassed by her outburst. Mary was right about her, but she'd bite off her own tongue before she admitted it. She hoped the twins hadn't heard their fight through the door.
"I just-"
Emma walked past Mary, swung the door open, and grabbed the twins' schoolbags. "We have to go; we're late."
Nicholas complained, "But we're not done eating."
But Emma was already halfway down the corridor. "Let's go."
Instead of going straight home, Mary made a stop at Granny's. The warm, homey atmosphere lightened her mood, something she desperately needed since her fight with Emma that morning had been bothering her all day. Inside, a few costumers nurses milkshakes and scarfed down onions rings as the ancient jukebox let out an old jazz sold she didn't know the name off.
Ruby sat at the counter feeding Ella a bottle. She had forgone make-up and tied her hair back in a practical ponytail. She looked paler than normal and eyes were rimmed with dark circles, but she looked happy with a baby in her arms. Ella wiggled the bottle out of her mouth, squeaked in displeasure, and made an angry face. Ruby giggled.
Mary set her bag down on the counter and climbed on a stool. "Hey. How's Ella?"
Ruby rolled her eyes, "She's mad at me because I accidentally woke her from her nap."
Mary reached out and stroked Ella's cheek.
"How've you been?" Ruby asked. "You looked really down when you walked in."
"Emma and I had a disagreement this morning and I don't know what to say to her," Mary admitted.
"What did you guys fight about?"
"She wouldn't want me talking about it," Mary replied. "At least not in detail. I said something, she took it the wrong way, and now we're not talking."
"That's always the worst," Ruby shook her head sympathetically.
"Have you and Ashley fought before? How to you keep the peace between you?"
"Ashley's not my girlfriend," Ruby said too quickly.
Mary raised an eyebrow, "I didn't say she was. Though, come to think of it, you two are raising a child together..."
"She likes Teddy," Ruby shrugged miserably. "Anyway, we're talking about you and Emma. Is she your girlfriend?"
"No!" Mary shuttered, strongly disgusted by the idea for reasons that weren't clear to her, "She's like, like a little sister to me. Or a daughter, even. She's...she's family. I don't want her to hate me, or think I don't care about her."
"So show her what she means to you," Ruby smiled. "Everybody has disagreements, what's important is that you're both willing to work things about between you. Someone like Emma needs to know you're not gonna bail on her the minute things get a little rough."
Mary smiled back, "Thanks Ruby. You're a little more insightful that people give you credit for."
Ella vomited up her milk all over Ruby's top.
"God, fuck!" Ruby cried in disgust.
Mary gasped, "You can't swear in front of a kid!"
"She's not gonna remember," Ruby scoffed as she went to the bathroom to clean herself.
Regina watched Henry push the last scraps of his meatloaf around on his plate. He hadn't said a word to her since she picked him up from from and in a way it made her miss the times he shouted at her. At least then he acknowledged her.
"So, did anything interesting happen at school today?" Regina asked as she wiped the corner of her mouth with a silk napkin.
Henry shrugged.
"Henry," Regina lowered her pitch, "In this house we answer in complete sentences."
His flickered up to her hers and he glowered for a moment before staring at his food again.
Regina tossed her napkin onto the table, "You're gonna have to talk to me eventually."
Henry dropped his fork and stated, "I'm done." He got up from table, walked past Regina without looking at her, and left his plate in the sink before he went upstairs to his room.
Regina watch him go with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Everything she did upset him. She had tried being lenient, being strict, indulging his hobbies, setting new boundaries. She remembered the day she brought him home with perfect clarity, how it seemed like her life was finally falling into place. Now it was falling apart. And it was all Emma Swan's fault. True, Henry had been shirking away from her for a while before Miss Swan showed up, but that was just from growing pains. Miss Swan and the change she brought with her had convinced him the storybook was right; that she was nothing but a monster to be fought and slain.
She raised him for 10 years; how could that mean so little to him?
Upstairs, Henry flopped onto his bed with a frustrated groan.
When he brought Emma to Storybrooke, he thought everything would be fixed. She'd break the curse and defeat the Evil Queen and become his new mom. So far he was zero-for-three. He knew she was the Savior; all the changes in town - Prince Charming waking up, Killian arriving in town, Ashley finally having her baby - pointed to Emma's presence weakening the curse. But she didn't believe in magic and things weren't changing enough.
He thought back to that morning when he saw her drop the Zimmer twins at school. Briefly, because the minute Regina noticed her in the school parking lot, she steered Henry away. Later, he found out that Emma was fostering them. He knew he should have been happy for Ava and Nicholas because they had a home now, but part of him - a large part - felt jealous. Emma chose them, not him, and he still had to go home with the Evil Queen at the end of the day. He hated the fact that he felt that way, but he couldn't help it.
If Emma did eventually break the curse and get rid of Regina, she wouldn't want him when she already had the twins. Where would that leave him?
Red walked down the thin dirt path between the shoulder high stalks of beige-gold wheat, humming to herself and spinning wool as she returned to the village. She held a large wicket basket on the crock of her elbow, full of supplies and medicine from the town 15 miles north of the village. She had left before dawn and arrived in the town at noon, so by now the sun was low in the sky. Red frowned as the sunset drew nearer; she was too far to reach home before dark, but too near to stop or turn back. She put the wool and the spindle in the basket. Red unsheathed the dagger Mayor Jackson lent her for trip and hoped she wouldn't need it.
When only a sliver of light remain in the sky and Red could see the tops of her neighbors' roofs, she heard a rustling the wheat somewhere to her left. She didn't pause to investigate; she moved faster and clutched the dagger. She remembered the wanted posters for various bandits she saw when she went into town.
Off in the distance, a distinctly animal growl echoed through the wheat. Red froze. A wild animal prowled through the wheat and it sounded close by. Perhaps if she stayed still, it wouldn't notice her; perhaps it would move on.
The rustling grow close. Another growl, louder this time.
Red run.
Instinct took over. She had to get out of there, she had to get to safely. Heavy footsteps followed after her, closer each second. Oh god, she was going to di-
The animal roared - a pained, high-pitched sound that send shivers down Red's spine - and fell to the ground with a such a great thud it almost knocked Red off her feet.
She stumbled a little, but did not stop and did not turn back. She heard nothing behind her but the whispering of wheat as she tore through it. She made it to Widow Lucas's cottage and collapsed against the door; out of breath, her legs feeling like they were on fire. She pushed her way inside and slammed it behind her, leaning against the frame as the basket slid from her arm onto the floor.
Widow Lucas jumped from her chair by the fireplace and set aside the cloth she had been knitting. "What happened?" she demanded. She held Red's face, flushed with exhaustion and wet with tears, in her hands.
"There-there was-an animal-I don't-I don't know what-" Red panted heavily between words.
"It's okay, just catch your breath. You're safe here," Widow Lucas assured her. She made Red lean against her so she could help Red into the chair she had just vacated. Then she got Red a cup of water.
After several moment passed and Red managed to calm down, she laughed bitterly, "I'm a magnet for animal attacks, aren't I?"
"You were attacked by an animal?" Widow Lucas's eyes widened in horror. "Where are you hurt?"
"It tried to attack me, but it didn't get to me. I'm alright...physically."
Widow Lucas shook her head. She forced Red to stand and inspected her for any cuts or bruises. When Widow Lucas was satisfied that Red wasn't hurt, she let her sit back down.
"First thing tomorrow morning, we need to go to Mayor Jackson and report this. We don't know if there are other dangerous animals around and the others needs to be warned."
Red nodded, "Right, of course."
Widow Lucas smoothed back Red's dark hair, which now stuck to her sweaty forehead. "You nearly gave me a heart attack. I don't know what I do if I lost you."
"You'd just go back to doing whatever you did before you found me," Red muttered.
"What?" Widow Lucas looked concerned, confused, and almost hurt. "Do you I could easily return to a life without you in it?"
Red didn't speak for minute. She thought back to the rumors of the new king, Alexander, her father's bastard son. According to gossip from traders and travelers, Queen Regina doted on him like a child with a new pet. All while thinking Rose Red had been killed by a wolf. "My mother did."
"I am not her," Widow Lucas said forcefully, "You have always been precious to me, and not just because you're a princess. I love you. Don't ever think you aren't worthy of that."
A single tear fell down Red's cheek. "I love too, Widow Lucas," she croaked.
"Enough of that. I might as well be your real grandmother. That's what you can me from now on."
Red nodded, "Okay...Granny."
Ruby flipped the sign on the front door of the diner to say "Sorry, We're Closed" and turned down the lights. She walked to the inn lobby where Ashley, despite her exhaustion, made funny face for Ella.
"Ready to call it a night?" Ruby smiled.
"More than ready," Ashley nodded as she placed Ella in Ruby's waiting arms.
Ruby cooed, "Hey sweetheart. Are you sleepy like your mommy?"
Granny came out of her office and saw the young women with the baby girl. She tilted her head fondly, "You know, part of my was afraid this would end terribly, but you two are actually really good with her."
Ruby rolled her eyes, "Thanks Granny. That's probably the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"Well don't get used to it," Granny replied with a grin.
"Was it someone you knew?" Mayor Jackson asked as Red handed him back his dagger, after she told him what happened to her the previous evening. He stood in the entryway of his house; Red and Granny stood in front of a small crowd of villagers at his doorstep.
Red blinked, "I told you, it was a wild animal."
Mayor Jackson looked at her like he thought she was a fool, "Perhaps, or perhaps it another werewolf? One of your old associates? A jilted lover, perhaps?"
His statement set of a wave of scandalized whispering through the crowd.
"No," Red cried indignantly. "I don't know. I've never met another werewolf and I don't even know if the thing that attacked was even a wolf. I never saw it."
"Werewolves only transform under a full moon," Granny added. "It attacked her before the sun went down."
Mayor Jackson shrugged, "That is true. You didn't see anything?"
"Only wheat," Red confirmed.
"Take us to the area where this happened," Mayor Jackson instructed her. Ruby did so.
She led them down the dirt road she had used and there, crumpling a patch in the blood-stained wheat, lay the corpse of a male lion. Some archer had stuck him in the eye with an arrow that had white feathers on end of its shaft. Blood had burst from the eye socket, covering that whole side of his face and mane.
Mayor Jackson knelt and inspected the arrow. "White feathers... I've heard this was Snow White's calling card." Red did her best not to look relieved and elated, especially when Mayor Jackson turned to her. He said, "But that doesn't make sense. Why would a father-killing traitor and bandit go out of her way to save your life?"
He chortled like he'd told a joke, but Red ignored him. Her sister was alive. Her sister was near.
Emma made dinner for Ava and Nicholas, helped them finish their homework, got them ready for bed, and tucked them. As she turned out the lights and descended the stairs, she felt that she should have read them a bedtime story too, but then decided that they were too old and too unfamiliar with her. It would have been awkward, she told herself. Still...
At the kitchen counter Mary nursed a mug of hot chocolate while she graded papers. When she heard Emma's footsteps, she lifted her head. "The kids are asleep?"
"Yeah, finally." Emma muttered.
They looked at each other for a moment, both unsure how to resolve their earlier conflict.
"They seem happy here; or at least, happier than they were before," Mary noted.
Emma nodded, "Right. Um, I didn't thank you earlier, for breakfast. You didn't have to do that. So, thanks."
"Don't worry about it, I wanted to," Mary said. She took this as a good sign and asked, "Do you want to talk about earlier?"
"No," Emma replied shortly. After a few seconds passed, she grimaced, "But we should."
Mary gestured to the stool beside hers. Emma sat down.
"I'm sorry for what I said," Mary began. "You trusted me not to judge you for your past, but I went and did it anyways."
Emma replied, "No, I'm sorry for getting defensive. I was scared that I was... too fucked up or something to know what was best for Ava and Nicky."
"Nicky? Look at you, you already have a nickname for him," Mary smiled.
Emma didn't smile. "Do you really think I can't do it? Raise them, if it comes to that? I never had good role models for parents, I wouldn't know what to do."
"Emma, you believed in Ashley when few people would. You should have some faith in yourself."
"Okay, but that was different."
"How?"
"Fostering an older kid isn't the same as having a baby. They had a whole other life before they met me; they don't know me as their mom. And, god forbid, if they emotional issues and need, like, therapy, I don't know if I'm equipped to help them. You were right," her voice began to break, despite her best efforts to remain calm, "I jumped into this without thinking. I'm making a horrible mistake."
"I won't go that far," Mary stopped Emma's self-pity train before it went off the rails. "Ava and Nicky shouldn't be split up. I didn't tell you this because I don't like bring it up, but I did have an older brother once. His name was Alexander. He passed away when we were teenagers and it was all my fault. I never forgave myself for what happened. And neither did our mother."
"Oh my god," Emma whispered. "Mary, I'm so sorry."
"So, you know what it's like to grow up in foster care and I know what it's like to lose a sibling," Mary stated as a few stray tears streaked down her cheek. "It's unbearable. Absolutely unbearable. Sometimes I still make two mugs for hot chocolate for the both of us, then I remember that he's not here anymore. I know you won't let the twins go through what we did, and I will do whatever it takes to help you."
