As promised, more Hace and family feels in this one. This chapter has a lot of cute, fun things in it, as well as a little surprise in the end ;)


It didn't take long for Henry's return to transform into a series of laughs and screams from the front lawn. Snowballs where whizzing from every direction- every once in a while someone would attempt to run across the middle ground, shooting more snowballs towards the opposing team.

Naturally, it had been Caroline who had started the outside war. They were finished looking through Henry's college pictures, and needed something to do. Roland had suggested a movie. So, with Tansformers playing in the living room, the extended family all splayed across the floor, wrapped in blankets and sipping hot cocoa. It was nice at first, the excitement of her big brother being home with them still running through her system, but it didn't take long before the nine year old to become bored. She had no idea what was happening in the movie, nor did she care. Everyone else seemed to be fairly into it- Caroline was old enough to know that movies were a chance for the couples within her family to cuddle with one another. Emma and Killian were both a few feet away from her, their backs against the couch, and a bowl of popcorn between them. Snow had her head on Charmimg's shoulder, Ruby was half asleep on Will's chest, and occasionally, her father's hand would trace along her mother's back. Grace hadn't left Henry's side for practically the entire night.

Two months- that was how long Henry had been gone for. As relaxing it was to sit back and watch a movie (even if she had no idea what it was about), Caroline wanted to do more interactive things with her brother. Before he left, the two of them would spend hours outside playing random games, always competing with one another for the fun of it. Since Roland almost always refused to do anything with her, sometimes she got lonely.

So, sitting next to her father, the second most competitive man she knew, Caroline quickly struck an idea as she remembered how her conversation went with Zelena at Granny's two days prior.

"Dad," Caroline whispered, tapping his shoulder lightly, "can I ask you something?"

Robin eventually tore his eyes from the screen in front of them and glanced down at her. "Shoot."

A sly but cautious glance fell upon his daughter's face. "Did you really used to be an outlaw like it says in the books?"

The question took a second to register in his mind; but when it did, his first response was to take an offense.

"Well of course I was- you know the stories are true." Robin told her, slightly shocked she would ask such a thing. He was a man of honor; there was a time in history when every single person in his village knew his name. His bravery and skilled excellence with his bow had served him well for many years, before he met Regina. After the series of events that took the fragile family to get where they were currently, Robin was perfectly content on putting the days of thievery behind him and becoming what he was best at- being a dad.

Caroline simply shrugged. "Well I know... But I've never seen you do any of that stuff- not even shoot a bow."

The shock continued to linger on his face. She was right; that was completely unacceptable. There was no possible way his daughter- or any of his children- could carry his last name without knowing what all it was worth.

"Sorry lass," came the voice of Killian beside them, "but the only thing your father excels in is feeding the fish every day down at the store."

His intrusion on their seemingly private conversation caused Robin to scowl.

"I don't remember asking you, pirate," he replied sourly, "and we both know I'm the best archer in this town."

By then, he had attracted some unwanted attention from his guests.

"Come again?" Snow demanded, the movie still playing in front of them, "I didn't practice archery for years in the Enchanted Forest for nothing."

A series of groans emitted from everyone still trying to watch the movie.

"Guys, let's focus on the movie," Roland persisted, already irritated with his family's short attention span.

"No, this is fun," Henry countered, "I missed this so much."

In that moment, Caroline knew she had made a mistake by asking a simple question.

Turning towards his wife, Robin drew in a deep breath- this was more than a point to prove to his daughter- this was a question of honor.

"Regina, where's my bow?"

She responded by a raise of an eyebrow and a stifled laugh. "Sweetheart, it broke, remember? Roland used it for the play he was in at the end of third grade."

Caroline caught a curse word under his breath.

"I- I don't need a bow to show you how good of an aim I have," Robin continued, causing Regina to cringe beside him, "I just need a target of some sort. Then you'll see how great your dad is."

Snow gave a small laugh as she reached for the remote, immediately pausing the movie to cut the background sound.

"You know, Locksley, if you need a target, you can always use me. That is, if you can manage to actually hit me."

"Mom!" Emma protested, knowing their night was going nowhere but south.

Her boyfriend put a hand on her shoulder, a devilish smile on his face. "I've been waiting so long for something like this to happen."

"So you'll fight alongside me, then?" Robin asked, causing an upheaval among his family members.

"Will someone please tell me what's going on?" Ruby asked, speaking for a few others in the room.

The outlaw then stood up in his place in front of the television, sending Snow a challenging look. "A snowball fight, that's what. What do you say Regina, will you be on my team?"

Glancing up at him, she formed a wary smile. "I do love you, but there aren't many chances in life where I can pelt you with snowballs."

He quickly shook away the initial shock and turned towards his brother. "Will?"

The man chuckled. "Sure. Why the hell not."

After everyone else got assigned to a side (some where more reluctant than others), they all made their way outside, where the snow was softly falling onto the already existing three to four feet on the ground.

And that was how the chaos had begun.

"Happy to be home?" Regina asked her son sarcastically, short breathed as she slumped behind the barricade of snow.

Henry skillfully avoided two or three snowballs headed in his direction before answering. "Oh yeah. I missed all my overly competitive fairytale family members," he joked, compacting a snowball of his own and chucking it towards his girlfriend on the other side. Grace dodged it successfully, not hesitating to send one right back to him.

"Well you know how your father gets when he's trying to prove a point," she said matter of factly, peeking around the side of the barricade to choose her next available target- Emma.

Gathering snow in her hands, she whipped around and prepared to launch the snowball in her direction, only to receive a blast of frozen rainwater square in the face.

As Regina wiped the snow off her skin, she heard Emma's victorious laugh from the other side of the yard.

"Hey!" She shouted, her natural queen instincts beginning to kick in. Years of her life had been spent conquering her enemies- she may had been a mother, but some things never changed.

Using her magic to enchant her snowball, Regina sent it whizzing in the savior's direction. Emma was quick to form a shield with her hands out in front of her, causing the snowball to disintegrate before her.

"We said no magic!" Robin demanded, pointing an accusing finger towards his wife and traveling it slowly towards the blonde.

Scooping up a quick snowball, Regina threw it towards him in a swift motion, taking pleasure in seeing it explode on his face and hair.

"Okay then, no magic."

She couldn't contain her competitiveness no matter how hard she tried- the game wasn't ending any time soon.

"Roland! I need another snowball!" He demanded, reaching his hand out as if it were the most important thing in the entire universe.

The fifteen year old sighed; his family was so embarrassing. He and his sister were behind their team's barrier, hurriedly making snowball after snowball as Will, Grace, and Robin kept hurdling them in their opponent's direction. Caroline was fine with this- she'd rather be protected by her teammates than pelted with snowballs. Hearing the unfamiliar sound of a crow, she directed her attention to the grey clouded sky, watching the strange black bird circle around them overhead. Her eyes squinted with confusion for a moment as the odd creature quickly flew away, almost as if it knew she were watching it. Though she was memorized for a second or two, Caroline quickly shook the thought out of her head- it was just a stray crow, nothing more.

But the girl was far from right. Once the crow landed on the ground, out of sight, feathers began to fly every witch way, the creature expanding in size and shifting form. Soon, the crow's feet were replaced by a pair of feet trudging in the snow, its wings melting down into arms and a beak withering away into normal facial features. Within seconds, the animal had transformed into an everyday man walking about on a late winter evening.

"I told you to wait in the car," he spoke, lowering his eyes down to a woman crouching behind a snow bank, binoculars in hand, her red hair pulled back into a bun to keep away from her face.

"I got bored," she replied blandly, in a light accent, not bothering to look away from the sight before her.

The man gave her an irritated glance. "Don't you think this is a tad suspicious? I mean you're out in plain sight-"

"I know what I'm doing, monkey," she sighed, lowering the binoculars and setting them down, picking up a clipboard and a pen.

"One more word from you and I'll turn you back into one. And I know you don't want that."

Walsh forced a scowl off his face. He hated how she treated him like a pet; he was the Wizard of Oz for Heaven's sake, not a monkey, not a playtoy, a once noble man who had made a life for himself in the Emerald City. He hated her- despised her, even. How he had wound up with her in another realm was beyond his understanding.

"They're acting like such fools," Zelena muttered, griping under her breath as she analyzed the names scribbled down on the paper. "Now who the hell is the younger blonde one?"

"Her name is Grace- the Mad Hatter's daughter- she's in a relationship with Henry Mills." Walsh replied as she wrote the name down on the next available space.

There were so many of them- it was confusing to her, just as much as the new realm was.

She picked up the binoculars once again, studying each person engaged in the pointless game of throwing balls of snow very closely- the more she knew about them, the more leverage she had against the woman that made her blood boil. An ample amount of time had been spent studying the woman with brunette hair and darkened features; she was her dear baby sister, the notorious evil queen. This was the first time she had seen her in person. Years and years had been spent on watching her as she grew, the pathetic waste of talent, the juvenile girl who had her life handed to her on a silver plate. Just thinking about her made her jaw clench tightly- seeing her in the flesh, rosy cheeked and roughly engaged in a game of child's play... That made the pit of her stomach ignite with a raging fire.

"My lady, you need to find a way to make contact with the girl again. You don't have much time-"

"I know what I'm doing," Zelena challenged, a smug smile on her face as she changed her view, now directed towards the nine year old in a puffy purple coat. "So sweet, so full of innocence," she mused, a delighted laugh escaping from her mouth.

"This is almost too easy."


Zelena's back! And yes, I brought Walsh into this story too, because obviously a Wicked Witch needs some sort of sidekick. My inspiration from his character came from Malificent (the Disney movie, not the Once character) so expect to see him in a lot of shapes and forms. We'll see more of them next chapter!