What a way to start a weekend. Here's to a better finish for Emma. But maybe not Regina. :/ Things will start looking up soon.

Enjoy!

The Weekend

Emma woke up to the sound of running water. The soft blankets folded around her suggested a bed. Her bed. She pinpointed the sound coming from her bathroom and she figured August had gotten up early to take a shower. She felt so dirty. Her body, her mind, her heart, all of her needed to be thoroughly cleansed.

Her eyes were heavy as she forced them open, and she felt like she had only been asleep for five minutes. Unrested and dirty. Is this what her life had become?

"Rise and shine, sunshine." Emma picked her head up off the bed and saw August standing in only a towel in the doorway of her bedroom. The water from the shower traced down the muscles on his chest and dripped from his dark curly hair mopped on top of his head. She swore if he was not her brother, she would be all over him. He was most definitely the most beautiful man she had ever seen.

"God, how long have I been out?" She propped herself up on her elbows squinting at the sunshine breaking through her bedroom window. "I feel like shit."

"You slept through the night. You looked like you hadn't slept that good in months." He walked over to her closet where she had some of his clothes in case he decided to stay a few days when he visited. He grabbed a couple of things and headed out, but turned back to her before leaving.

"I'll change in Henry's room. Why don't you take a shower and get cleaned up. I'll get breakfast started." He smiled and winked at her before closing the door behind him.

She sighed and let her head fall back between her shoulders. She forced herself out of bed and sat on the edge for a minute collecting her thoughts. Yesterday was a blur. A big blob of blur that she was never going to be able to make sense of any time soon. Her throbbing temples proved that she was in way over her head.

She had never taken a more enjoyable shower in her life. The water seemed to wash away everything that she wanted to forget. Everything of the last few months, the last few years, pretty much everything she had experienced since she was a child bouncing around foster homes. Thank goodness her weekend had not been totally wasted away yet. She is going to quite enjoy spending the weekend with Henry and August. Something she hadn't gotten to do in some time, seeing as Henry was busy with basketball almost every weekend, and when he wasn't he slept through most of it. And August was here to protect her like always.

When she came out of her room she could hear the boys in the kitchen. Henry's room was empty and the TV was on in the living room playing some sort of weird cartoon that Henry liked to watch. She could smell pancakes and chocolate wafting from the kitchen and her mouth instantly started to water.

"Pancakes, my favorite!" She spoke as she inhaled the chocolate scent filling the room.

"Morning, Mom!" Henry pulled his head out of the fridge carrying a bottle of orange juice and a rather large bottle of syrup. His hair was damp from his morning shower and Emma noticed just how handsome he was becoming.

"Hey, kid! How are you this morning?" She ruffled his hair, and kissed his forehead. He wiped it off embarrassingly.

"I'm fine. You didn't tell me Uncle August was coming." He took a chug of orange juice straight from the jug and leaned up against the counter.

"Well it seems he didn't tell anyone he was coming." She teased, opening a cabinet and handing Henry a glass with a raised eyebrow.

"Mm.. Sorry." He avoided her eye contact.

"I like to make an entrance." He nudged Henry and winked at Emma. She felt a little pressure off her shoulders with him here. She finally didn't have to make her own breakfast and he was someone else for Henry to confide in. A male figure for him to look up too. She was just thankful that August was an amazing role model. Henry needed a man in his life to help show him the ropes about things. She did her best to paint a decent picture of his father for him, but there was only so much she could stomach to exaggerate. She completely trusted August with Henry. Anyone who had done as much for her as he did deserved all the respect in the world.

"How did you sleep?" August asked, probably just putting up appearances for Henry, knowing he was probably curious since he was already asleep by the time they got home.

"Pretty well actually. Better than I have in a while." She admitted.

"Yeah, Mom doesn't really sleep that much. She's always waking up in the middle of the night."

"How do you even know that?" She asked, a little stunned and a little curious.

"The walls are paper thin, Mom. I can hear you walking around." He added.

"And what may I ask are you doing awake at that time?" She crossed her arms looking down at him.

He bit his lip and shifted his eyes down to his hands realizing he had given away his late night spells.

"We'll talk about this later." She headed over to the coffee maker where August had so graciously made a pot and poured her a cup. "Hey, Henry, why don't you go watch some cartoons while I talk to Uncle August." She patted him on the back and watched him run out of the room. When she was sure he was out of earshot she turned to August who was pouring more pancake mix onto the skillet.

"Thank you." She said quietly, hoping that Henry's comment about the walls being paper thin didn't mean he could hear their conversation. He was probably too busy watching his cartoons though.

"You don't have to thank me." He admitted quietly.

"Yes I do. All of this, yesterday… If you weren't here, there would have been nobody to look after Henry. And I don't even know if I would have made it home last night." She crossed her arms over her stomach, a little self-conscious talking about this with him. But she was right. If she hadn't left that dock, Henry would have been alone all night, and she would have woken up salt covered from the misty morning.

"August, how do I get myself into these situations? Can't a girl just get a break for once?" Her voice was muffled towards the floor.

August laughed out loud and Emma looked up at him her eyebrows pushed together, and wondered what could have possibly been so funny about what she had said.

"I don't find that very funny." She said with a little attitude.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm not laughing at you." He shook his head.

She lifted an eyebrow and threw one of her kitchen towels at him. He quickly shielded his face and laughed.

"Here, pancakes are done." He slid a plate in front of her. She grabbed the syrup that had already been put out by Henry. He swears up and down that he will never eat a pancake if it isn't completely drowning in syrup.

"Henry, you better hurry before the pancakes are gone!" Emma shouted. She heard the rumble of feet toward the kitchen as Henry came sliding in.

He slid in through the door way on his socks almost falling over but caught himself on the bar. "Where is the syrup?"

They sat together at the dining room table and ate quietly. August cracked a couple jokes to keep Henry occupied and Emma laughed a little at a few that were actually kind of funny. For the most part, the meal was pretty civil. This was the first Saturday morning in a while that Emma could remember Henry not having a game or sleep over or anything else. Maybe they could do something fun today. Since August was here, she figured Henry would be more inclined to hang out with them, since it's totally not cool to hang out with just your mom on the weekends and still be considered part of the cool group at school.

"So what do you boys want to do today?" Emma leaned back in her chair, surprised that she was hungry enough to eat all of her pancakes. The boys copied her and Henry suddenly let out a huge belch.

"Henry!" Emma yelled out. August let one out of his own, which was about twice as loud as Henry's. "You are no help at all!" She took a swing for his arm but he moved out of the way quickly and she missed him.

"Sorry. You're just jealous that you can't burp like us men can." He smiled at Henry.

"Yeah!" Henry agreed, sticking his tongue out at Emma.

"Oh no. You are not sucking me into this game. You may could fool me when we were kids, but not anymore." She stood up collecting their plates and headed into the kitchen.

After rinsing off the dishes and loading them in the dishwasher she returned to the living room. Henry and August had made themselves comfortable on the couch and were happily watching some cartoon about turtles. She walked over and stood in front of the TV, the two boys immediately reacting to the loss of vision.

"Moooom! Move I'm trying to watch the show!" His head ducked around her trying to find the screen.

"That was the best part!" August played along. Emma stood there eyeing them both. When they both accepted their defeat and sat back in a huff she proceeded.

"You didn't answer my question at the table. What are we going to do today? We have a whole free weekend and I think we deserve a much needed fun couple of days. So lets' hear some ideas." Emma stepped over to the coffee table and sat down in front of the two of them. They all thought for a moment, wondering what could be fun to do in little old Storybrooke.

Henry had the first idea. "Let's go camping!" he said excitedly, sitting up on the couch.

"That's actually not a bad idea." August agreed, looking at Emma for the final vote. She thought for a moment about it. She hadn't been camping in a while and she actually knew a great place that David told her about once that was great for camping and had a pond nearby for fishing.

"Camping it is!" She slapped her knees and rose up from the coffee table.

"Yes!" Henry held up his hand to August who instinctively finished the high five.

August followed Emma to her room. "This should be really fun!" He picked up his bags he had put in there the night before and tossed them on her unmade bed.

"I sure hope so." Emma chuckled turning into the bathroom. "We'll probably need to run by the store and get some fishing poles. There is a tent and a couple sleeping bags in my closet if you want to grab them. And if you can think of anything you want to eat tonight then we can grab that at the store too." She hollered behind the half closed bathroom door.

"You got it. Burger and hot dogs sound like a pretty good dinner."

"Burgers and Hot dogs!" Henry yelled from his room. Paper thin walls. Got it.

When Regina returned home after her and Emma's argument at the dock, there was no hiding that she was upset. Daniel knew something was wrong the minute she stepped through the door and after weeks of her coming home late and him losing the energy to wait for her, he decided to confront the issue.

"Regina, we need to talk." He commanded as she entered the house.

"Can this wait till tomorrow, I'm really not in the mood for anymore talking tonight." She walked by him, but was immediately pulled back by a heavy hand around her forearm. He had a firm grip on her, and she could smell the booze seeping from his pores. He had been drinking, and by the strength of the odor, drinking a lot.

"You're drunk. Let's just talk in the morning." She tried to pull away from him but his grip was too strong. "Daniel, let go of me." She pulled harder, but he was persistent. Red flags were flying all over the place. He had never acted like this before, and his eyes looked as if they were hazed over. It was like Daniel was gone and had been replaced by something else, something wrong. Her skin rose at the sudden worry about what he was planning on doing.

"We need to talk." He demanded again through his teeth.

"Not until you calm down." She finally ripped her arm free from his grasp. By the amount of pain in her arm, she was sure it was going to bruise tomorrow. She straightened out her shirt and headed upstairs toward the bedroom. She glanced into the living room to find it littered with bottles of beer. She hated that he drank. And she hated that he didn't even have the good sense to hide it from her.

When she reached her bedroom, he was hot on her heels.

"If you don't tell me what's going on, then…"

"Then what, Daniel?" She snapped around. "What are you going to do? Are you going to drink some more? Because that seems to be solving all of our problems." She watched as every muscles in his toned body tightened up, his fists curling into balls. Her mind told her to take a step back, just in case he went on a rage and she happened to be the target, but her pride kept her in place. His face turned a terrible shade of red, and she was sure he was going to spontaneously combust right there in front of her.

She knew he wouldn't hurt her, but in that moment she had some serious second thoughts. He was a trained killer and could probably snap her in two if he really tried. But she knew he wouldn't, and his slow color change back to normal allowed her to breathe a little better than she was.

They stared at each other for a moment, neither knowing what to say or what questions to ask.

"Do you want a divorce?" Daniel split the silence with the lightning bolt of a question. Regina's answer came quicker than they both anticipated.

"Yes." A single tear fell down her cheek as she stood her ground. His body went soft. She was sure he had hoped she would say no in hopes of trying to fix things. But she couldn't. There was nothing fixable about this situation. The healthiest thing for both of them was just to get away from each other as quickly as possible. The thing was, it's not that they didn't love each other anymore, because Regina was sure she could never stop loving him, but they just weren't the same people they were when they got married. They both had ghosts in the closet that were growing too big for the space they shared. The space that no longer seemed like a home but more like a prison, keeping them from anything good in the world.

Daniel did not say a word when he left the room. She heard him grab his keys and head out the door and his car pull away from the driveway. Her last bit of strength depleted entirely, her body fell to the floor in a heap of a crying mess. She never in her wildest dreams ever thought of herself as divorcing her husband. She was an army wife, and that's exactly what she had wanted to be before all of this. But this… this was not what she wanted. She did not want to watch her husband walk out of their own house, never knowing if she would ever see him again or if they would ever speak or if they would ever come to terms with what had happened between them. No. Honestly, she imagined herself on the water, in a boat, watching the sun set on the ocean's horizon. She could feel the waves rocking the boat and the cool salty air biting at her cheeks. That's what she imagined in that very moment, as she lay on the floor in the middle of her room, feeling like a complete stranger in her own house.

Before she knew it, she was falling into her own imagination. The place where, for so many nights, had given her solitude and peace. A place that she hoped one day she would never have to leave. A place where the things she wanted most were in reach and she felt complete. However now, there seemed to be something missing. Daniel was gone. She was alone. But no one is ever really alone, are they?

"Seriously, August, hands down that might have been the best burgers I have ever eaten in my entire life." Emma licked her fingers as she chewed the last bite of her second burger and swallowed it. She needed this. It turned out to be a wonderfully cool night, with a nice breeze coming in from the east and the fire just big enough to knock off the chill but not be uncomfortably hot.

"Yeah, you should have been a cook Uncle August." Henry chimed in expressing his contempt with the food.

"Maybe I was in another life." He joked, flipping another burger on the grill.

"Where did you learn to cook so well anyway?" Emma leaned back gazing up at the glowing face above the grill.

"Well, I happen to remember a little someone who couldn't cook for herself all those years ago." He shot a glance toward her. "So I did what I had to do." He finished. He sat down next to Henry by the fire, and leaned in real close like he was telling him a secret. Emma's eyes darted back and forth between both of them. Henry laughed at what August was keeping from her. She wanted to laugh, but was mildly curious at what he was saying.

"Care to share with the group?" Emma questioned them. August pulled back and the two boys looked at each other and then back at Emma, and then simultaneously answered.

"No." They shared another high five as Emma rolled her eyes in a huff.

"Look what you are doing to my son. Turning him against me." Emma protested. August shrugged, and she tried to be serious but her laugh was too strong. And for a moment, everything was good. Everything was right. Emma was happy, Henry was happy, and she had August. She felt like this was where she was supposed to be.

Henry let out a huge yawn and stretched his hands way up in the air.

"Looks like it's bed time for all of us I think." Emma rose and took his plate and August's to the trash. Thankfully August had put the tent up not long after they had gotten to the camp site so they didn't have to worry about trying to put it up in the middle of the night, which Emma had experienced before and preferred not to experience again.

"I got the fire if you'll get the bug lanterns from the truck." August got up from his seat in front of the fire and poured some left over water on the flames. Henry immediately pushed himself into the tent, passing out quickly while Emma and August finished up tying everything down. When they had finished, August headed to the tent to check on Henry and then came back out after making sure he was covered and he had a bug catcher near him.

"Looks like Henry is out for the count." He approached Emma where she was standing just outside the campsite. Emma wiped a stray tear from her face hoping August didn't notice, and if he did, he didn't act like it. They stood there for a moment in silence and darkness. The last of the coals glowed behind them and their shadows joined with the moonless night around them.

"Why haven't you had any kids yet?" Emma broke the silence. She heard August heave out a sigh and kick the dirt below them. She was curious why he never settled down with a wife and had a few kids. He was always so good around Henry and he was more than attractive enough to find a good girl. Maybe he was a little rough around the edges but he was probably the best man Emma had ever known.

"I never really had the opportunity I guess." He shoved his hands in his pockets and Emma could feel the tension between them grow.

"You had plenty of opportunities. What was her name… um… Stacy, Jessica, Julia, oh wait was it Mackenzie?" She teased.

He snickered a little. "No. There was only one girl in my life back then and she needed me more than them."

"August please don't tell me you never got married because you were too busy taking care of me. I am not worth all of that, trust me." Emma was trying to be sentimental, but she really did hope he wasn't throwing away his life because of her.

"You needed me whether you knew it or not. But that's not the only reason why I haven't settled down. I guess I don't want to be a screw up father, you know." He swayed back and forth on his feet, a little uneasy by the conversation.

"What?" Emma quietly shouted and glanced back at the tent, hoping her burst didn't disturb Henry. "Are you kidding me? Look at the way you are around Henry. He loves you to death. And I know you love him too." She was all seriousness now. How could he think he couldn't be a good father after the way he acts around Henry.

"Henry is different." August tried to push the thought away. "He's easy, because you are a good mother."

"That kid thinks you hung the moon, August. Me? I just put food on the table and make sure he makes it to basketball practice and he has presents under the tree at Christmas. He adores you." She was on the verge of tears. She didn't really know why, but she just hated that August felt he was a terrible person, and didn't think he was good enough to raise his own child.

August shook his head and shrugged.

"Seriously!" Emma continued. "I will be hearing about this weekend for a month. He's going to ask me every night when you are going to come back, and in a couple weeks he is going to be complaining that he misses you and that you cook better than I do, and that he is going to starve himself until you come back and make him more chocolate chip pancakes." That one made him laugh.

"What about you?" August asked quietly after their laughter was carried away.

"What about me?" She asked puzzled.

"Would you miss me?"

"What kind of question is that?" She was a little put off by the question. Of course she would miss him, he was her brother, even if not by blood, and he took care of her better than anyone else in her life.

"It's just a question." He admitted softly.

"August you have protected me my whole life. Even when I may not have realized I needed your help, it didn't matter because you were there. We have been through things that no two people should ever have to go through. And because of you, I am here, with a wonderful kid and we have an opportunity to have lives. I have Henry, and now it's your turn to finally get what you want. You could never be a terrible father, August, and I can tell by the way you look at Henry that you want to steal him away in the night. You deserve to be happy." Emma spoke almost anxiously realizing she had wanted to say all this to him for a long time, but just never found the right time. This was definitely the right time. He needed to stop worrying about her and have a life, have a family.

"Well if I deserve a happy ending, so do you."

"Yeah that doesn't seem to be my forte. I'll stick with Henry." She didn't like the attention being turned toward her. This was her moment to help him, not the other way around like always.

"Not just Henry. You need someone else you can connect with and someone to love you more deeply than a child."

"Well if there is someone out there like that for me than I must be doing something wrong. Seems like everywhere I look I come up with a dead end." She admitted. That truth was hard for her to swallow though. After Henry's father, all of her relationship possibilities had gone from great to terrible almost as quickly as she could move on. This last one putting the cherry on top of a wonderfully disgusting stretch of relationship. It was a good relationship while it lasted. Better than Emma ever could have imagined or experienced, but thinking about the last few months, she felt like she had been through hell and back. Before all of this it was some of the happiest times Emma had had since college.

"I think you have already found it. You just need to learn how to fight for it." At that, August left Emma's side and headed toward the tent.

"What? You can't leave me with that advice! What am I supposed… ugh!" She kicked the dirt and placed her hands on her hips dramatically, cursing the night sky as she tried to make sense of this. It was obvious who he was talking about, but fighting for her seemed like old news by now. She was too late for fighting. After yesterday at the dock, there was no way in hell Regina would want to even give her a chance. Emma pretty much proved to herself and Regina that she was bat shit crazy.

Maybe she was overanalyzing their situation. She had never really thought about how Regina felt about it all. I mean after all that time thinking your husband was dead, only to find out after you had moved on that he was still alive? She had never considered what that could do to a person. Maybe she was being selfish. But she had the right for at least an explanation, and a civil conversation about how to continue with their relationship, which she got neither of. She just felt used, and she was tired of feeling used.

She sighed and took a quick sweep of the sky hoping there would be some answer among the stars. She figured Monday was coming up faster than she liked and now was not the time to fret over anything but having a great time with August and Henry. Tomorrow was a new day with people she loved with all her heart, and she wasn't going to waste it on worrying about the week. Tomorrow had to be a great day.