OKAY, SO I NEED TO APOLOGIZE IN CASE IT SEEMS LIKE I'M LOSING MY HANDLE ON THE STORY: I SWEAR, IT'S ONLY TEMPORARY, I'M JUST KIND OF LINING UP DOMINOES FOR THE NEXT ROUND OF STUFF THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. SO IF YOU'RE FEELING OVERWHELMED BY ALL THE EMOTIONS, DON'T WORRY-I'LL FIX IT.
REVIEWS ARE INSPIRING. PLEASE INSPIRE ME.
"Pass the salt."
Emma silently passed David the salt, then dropped her eyes back to her plate.
"Thank you."
It was one of the quietest dinners they'd had in a long time. Probably because neither Hook or Neal had come by that night, as they usually did. On a normal day, the two of them would show up, Hook loudly complaining about all the injustices in his life while Neal went over to talk to Henry; everyone would fight for ten minutes whether to stay in or go to Granny's for dinner, which usually involved a lot of harsh insults thrown between Snow and Hook; and wherever they ended up, the fighting and laughing and debating would continue on for at least a good hour after dinner.
But tonight, it was just David, Snow, Emma, and Henry. Neal and Regina had decided to get some sibling-bonding time, and Hook said he was too depressed to come over. It was tense, to say the least.
Emma, Snow, and David were still terrified by the prospect of Cora returning; that had been quite the bombshell Regina dropped on them that morning. David only hoped she would keep her word and hold off on resurrecting that woman.
On top of that, David and Emma were rather worried about Hook. He was not doing well, not at all: he seemed to be taking the break-up with Ruby much harder than usual—probably because this one seemed to be sticking. Normally, they were back together within an hour of breaking up, but it had been a few days by now. And Hook was still wearing the tie she had tied around his neck for him, even though Neal had demanded his tie back several times now.
As if that wasn't enough, Henry was still furious with Emma over the way she had cavalierly flirted with Graham right in front of him and Neal. David wasn't sure what was going on between Neal and Emma, but he was all too aware of what Henry had been hoping for. For the past few days, Henry had all but ignored Emma, only speaking to her in a cold, flat affect when he absolutely had to. Emma could barely get a word out of him, otherwise.
David combed his fork through his rice, searching for something—anything—to say. "So," he said, his voice echoing amongst the quiet scraping of forks against plates. "Who's excited to watch the Thanksgiving parade on Thursday?"
Henry glowered at his peas. "Yippee," he muttered.
"Oh, come on," Emma said, trying to sound cheerful. "It'll be fun."
Henry raised his eyes to hers, directing his glower at her instead of the peas. Emma's smile faltered.
"Henry," she said, looking at him pleadingly. "Please talk to me."
"Fine," Henry shrugged, tossing down his fork. He leaned back in his seat, folding his arms. "What do you want to talk about?"
Emma blinked; she hadn't been expecting that. "Why you're so angry with me, for starters. I mean, I don't know where this is coming from," she said desperately. "Is this because of Graham? Because Henry, you have to understand…"
She trailed off, seeing Henry's eyes narrow dangerously.
"Go on," he said coldly. "What do I have to understand?"
David and Snow exchanged a look across the table. Emma bit her lip anxiously, twirling her fork between her fingers.
"Look, kid, I know… I know you had your heart set on me and your dad getting back together, but I just don't see that happening." Emma looked at him sadly, shaking her head slightly. "I'm sorry."
Henry raised his eyebrows. "You don't see it happening?"
She shook her head again, her eyes not leaving his. "No."
"And when did you decide this? Because you may not have noticed, since I've been pretty much invisible for the past two years, but I've been here the whole time. And I've seen you two together, and it didn't look like you 'didn't see it happening' until very recently."
Oy, this is going to get ugly, David thought, taking a sip of water. Snow bit her lip, looking between Emma and Henry like it was a tennis match.
"Henry, adult relationships are complex—"
"Bull. Shit."
Emma frowned. "What?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I said—" Henry leaned forward, clearing his throat—"bullshit." He gave her a sarcastic smile. "Better?"
Emma slammed her fork down. "Drop the "
Henry stood up, knocking his chair back. "I'm saying, you're just doing what you always do and running off!" he shouted. "The minute it stops being easy, the minute you actually have to humble yourself and be vulnerable, you take off! I don't know what happened, but I know that Saturday morning, you were acting one way, and Saturday night, you and Graham were practically writing your fucking wedding vows in front of us!"
Emma looked stunned. "Henry!"
"Language!" Snow said scandalously.
David closed his eyes in exasperation. "Snow…"
"Where are you going?" Emma said shakily as Henry kicked the chair out of his way and snatched his coat off the rack. "Henry?"
"To Regina's," he growled, giving her a very ugly look as he tugged the door open. "At least she's not too wrapped up in her own love-life to give a damn about anyone else."
He slammed the door shut, making the pictures on the wall wobble dangerously. Snow hurried over to them worriedly while David snuck a sideways glance at Emma: she was staring numbly at the door, swaying slightly.
David sighed tiredly. "Emma, look…"
She flinched away from him. "I gotta go," she said in a low voice, crossing the room to get her coat.
"Emma, I think it would be best if you left Henry alone for now—"
"I'm not going to talk to Henry," Emma said flatly. "He hates me right, he's not going to let me near him."
"Then where are you going?" Snow asked, abandoning the pictures as Emma flung open the door.
"Out," she said shortly. And the door slammed a second time that night.
Snow stared at the door miserably for a few seconds, then slowly dragged her feet over to David and buried her head in his shoulder.
"Everything's such a mess right now," she said in a muffled voice.
"I know," David said, feeling the anxiety swell in his chest. "Remember back when we only had to deal with curses and monsters?"
"I miss those days," Snow wailed.
"Everyone got along so much better," David said wistfully. "We were all so focused on staying alive, we didn't worry about all this…drama and stuff. Everyone was just happy to be alive."
"And now everyone's determined to be miserable," Snow sighed. "Oh, my God, David…maybe we should just cancel Thanksgiving this year."