"Well, he was in a hurry, wasn't he?"

David looked up. Snow was smiling as she hung her coat, the smile that meant I'm scheming, and you're going to help me. "All right," he sighed. "What are you thinking?"

"Henry and Grace," Snow said briskly, turning around. David blinked; once upon a time, she had played along, getting cute with him when he caught her being sneaky. "What are you thinking?" he'd ask, putting his hands on his hips, pretending sternness. "Nothing," she would giggle. He would wrap his arms around her and say, "Snow, I know you. Now what are you planning?" And then she'd smile and say, "You know me too well…"

Yeah, they didn't do that anymore.

"Henry and Grace?" he repeated, frowning. "What are you talking about?"

"David, please," she said impatiently, pulling out a chair. "You saw the way he zoomed past us, he was obviously going to see Grace."

"No, I meant, who is Grace?"

The look of disdain she gave him would have broken a lesser man.

"Jefferson's daughter," she said, as if it was ridiculous he should even ask. "He likes her."

"He does?" David frowned. "How do you know?"

"I'm a mother, I know these things," Snow said dismissively. David internally rolled his eyes. It was such a cop-out answer, and one that she used all the time.

"Okay," he said slowly, sitting down next to her. "What about it?"

Snow looked at him incredulously. "What about it?" she repeated.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"What about it?"

David stared at her, shaking his head slightly. "What do you want me to say?"

She scoffed. "Fine. I'll take care of it myself."

"Take care of what? What do you have to do with any of this?" he asked as she got up to make a cup of tea. "Snow, this is none of your business!"

Snow looked outraged. "He is my grandson, of course it's my business!" she snapped.

"What are you going to do?" David asked bewilderedly. "Ask her out for him? Date her for him? Propose to her for him? Snow, this is between Henry and Grace. I'm telling you, stay out of it."

"Who knows more about the power of true love than us?" Snow demanded, slamming down a spoon. "This is our area of expertise, David! Henry's never had a girlfriend before, we can help!"

"Listen to yourself!"David said, standing up. "The power of true love? Snow, he's fourteen, with a girl he kind of likes. That's not true love, that's being a teenage boy! He doesn't need you pressuring him, or making things…" He trailed off as Snow narrowed her eyes dangerously. She spoke through clenched teeth, her voice thick with unspoken threats.

"Making…things…what?"

David gulped, and took a steadying breath. "Making things…" He put out his hands in a reassuring gesture. "Don't get upset now."

"Making things what, David?" she said, louder.

"Making things…weird—I said, don't get upset!" he said as her eyes widened in rage. "It's just, you do have a tendency to do that. I just want to make sure you don't embarrass Henry. You know, I remember what it was like to be his age, and I can tell you with absolute certainty…he doesn't need anyone meddling in his business, however good their intentions."

"Meddling?" Snow looked offended, putting a hand on her heart. "Me?"

David looked at her sternly. "Snow…"

"That wasn't meddling!" she said, reading his mind. "That was….motherly concern."

When they had returned from Neverland, there had been a lot of emotional issues unresolved. Snow was still…miffed with David for lying to her about his fatal condition, even after Rumple had given him the treatment for the dream-shade poisoning. He had lied to her, she said, to keep from hurting her. And that meant that she could never completely trust that what he said, in case he might be trying to protect her again.

Basically, she was going to hold it over his head for the rest of his life.

But all that had taken a back-burner to Emma's emotional turmoil. They had missed the first twenty-eight years of her life, so Snow seemed to want to make up for it by smothering her and getting her hands into everything Emma had to deal with. Figuring out the Henry-Emma-Regina situation had been a nightmare.

Obviously, Regina wanted Henry to stay with her. She brought up some good points, to be fair: the loft was pretty cramped and Regina had tons of empty space; Henry had lived with her his entire life, there was no reason why he couldn't still spend time with Emma. But Emma pointed out that Neal would want to spend time with Henry, so Regina would have to be able to convince Neal of the same deal. It was at this point that Snow suggested Emma and Neal get remarried and Henry live with them.

That was the part of the evening that everyone had exchanged awkward looks and stopped speaking. Henry had carefully forced his hopeful look into a neutral one, while Emma and Neal suddenly became mutes with an extreme fascination in their shoes. David had never felt so humiliated on Snow's behalf as he did then. But in all honesty, no one was very surprised.

Snow made her feelings toward Hook very clear: she did not like him. She told him right to his face. On several occasions. Using phrases like, "extreme violent hatred" and "infected with God knows how many STDs". Needless to say, she was not happy about the pirate pursuing her daughter.

But Neal…

Snow pretty much proposed to Neal on Emma's behalf the minute they rescued him from the Echo Caves. She wanted Neal as her son-in-law almost as much as she wanted to rescue David from the dream-shade poisoning. And she wasn't shy about voicing those opinions.

For his part, David would have been happy with Emma staying single. Sure, he thought Neal was going to be a great father to Henry, and he was glad he was staying in Storybrooke. If Emma and Neal could reconcile their differences and decided to give it another go, he'd stand behind it. But if Emma had decided to give Hook a chance, he wouldn't have been entirely opposed to that either. He had proved himself to be a decent guy, and he and David had developed something almost close to friendship. The most important thing was his daughter's happiness. Whoever she chose, or didn't choose—all that mattered was Emma was happy.

Snow, on the other hand, berated Emma twenty times a day about even considering Hook. And if she wasn't bashing Hook, she was singing Neal's praises. She would follow Emma around, reading from flashcards on why Neal was the better choice. She had prepared speeches, complete with power-point slides. It got to the point where Emma was sneaking out of the loft, just to avoid hearing anymore.

During the almost-two years that passed, Snow had managed to tone it down. She still made passing remarks, referencing Neal's Christlike virtues, which made David and Emma exchange exasperated looks. But it had settled into almost comfortable sort-of nagging, the kind of thing mothers did. And that was how Snow justified her annoying, intrusive "concern" to herself.

David was not going to let her do that to Henry.

"You know what?" he said. "Let me talk to him."

Snow gave him a scoffing look. "You? You didn't even know who Grace was until I told you."

"Henry needs a guy to talk to." He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. "I can talk to him. Neal can talk to him. Hey, what the hell, maybe even—"

"That pirate drag queen is not talking to my grandson about this!" Snow said, flaring up. David closed his eyes.

"Okay. But promise me you'll let me handle this?"

Snow pursed her lips. "Well… if you think it's best," she muttered reluctantly. "But only if you tell me absolutely everything!" she added, pointing the spoon at him fiercely. David sighed.

"I will tell you everything," he said tiredly, nodding his head. "But you have to stay out of it."

"But not completely. Because you'll tell me every—"

"YES. YES, I WILL TELL YOU EVERYTHING."

Snow raised her eyebrows. "Well, all right, then."