This chapter is for KatDee with the prompt: "Please make an Ava centric one. Preferably one where she seem to question her status in the family because she's not biologically related to anyone of them but of course Mama Regina would be there to talk her out of her insecurities."

I know I said that I wouldn't do Swan-Mills anymore, but they've been gone for awhile and I thought that I'd give you guys a treat since I missed yesterday.

"Something's wrong with Ava," Regina said, walking into Emma's office.

Emma jumped at the sudden appearance of her wife. "Hello to you too. What do you mean there's something wrong with Ava?"

"I was dropping her off at school this morning and once she got out of the car with Henry and Lola she went her own separate way," Regina said. "As if she wasn't related to them."

Emma sighed. "Oh."

"Oh?" Regina asked. "That's all you're going to say about this?"

"Regina, calm down," Emma said. She pointed to the chair across from her. "Sit."

Regina looked at Emma in surprise. Emma never ordered her around. Slowly, she walked over and sat in the chair.

Emma leaned back in hers. "I had been hoping that we would have been able to avoid this issue, but I guess not."

"What issue?" Regina asked.

"Ava feels like the odd duck of the family," Emma said. "She doesn't feel like she belongs, and that Henry and Lola would be happy on their own without her there."

"No way," Regina said. "They love her."

"But she doesn't see it that way," Emma said. "All she sees is that Henry and Lola are biologically related to us. Ava isn't."

"Henry is only biologically related to you," Regina said in confusion.

Emma sighed. "That's beside the point. The point is that both Henry and Lola are blood related. Ava is on the outside with no ties to us whatsoever."

"So what do we do?" Regina asked.

"Talk to her I guess," Emma said. "All we can do is tell her that blood doesn't matter and that she's our daughter no matter what."

"Okay," Regina said. She got up, but stopped at the door and turned back to Emma. "You're not an odd duck either you know."

Emma smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. "I know."

Regina knocked gently on Ava's door. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah," Ava said, closing her book and setting it off to the side. "What's up?"

"You know that blood relations don't mean anything, right?" Regina asked, sitting down on the edge of Ava's bed.

Ava sighed. "I guess."

"Ava," Regina said. "I don't love you any less because you're not related to me by blood."

"I know," Ava said quietly.

"Henry isn't even related to me," Regina said. "He's Emma's son. The only one of you three that I'm actually related to is Lola. Families aren't always straightforward. But we still love each other anyway and we make it work."

"But I'm still the odd one," Ava said. "I'm broken. Henry and Lola both grew up being loved and in a family."

"You are not broken," Regina said firmly. "You are anything but broken. Sometimes, you're the glue that holds our sanity together. Without you, this family would have killed each other by now."

Ava laughed. "I doubt that. But I get your point."

Regina pulled Ava to her and hugged her tightly. "Sometimes the odd ducks are the most special. Keep that in mind."

Ava hugged Regina back. "I will."

"Crisis averted?" Emma asked.

Regina nodded. "Our family can go back to its normal dysfunctional ways."

Emma laughed. "Sounds about right."

"So," Regina said. "About being an odd duck."

"You're not an odd duck," Emma said. "If anything, you're the most normal duck in this family."

"I wasn't talking about me," Regina said gently.

Emma winced. "Let's not talk about that."

"We're talking about it," Regina said. "Because I can tell that for every problem that you know how to deal with for Ava, you've dealt with yourself."

Emma shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal."

"No?" Regina asked. "Then let me guess. You feel like an odd duck because your parents having a new little family started and you don't fit into it. You missed out on being the child in their lives and now it appears that they've moved on without you and you're the daughter that doesn't quite fit into the picture."

Emma took a shaky breath. "That's not-"

"Don't say it's not true," Regina said. "We both know it is."

Emma sighed. "Okay fine. It's true. I don't fit into the perfect little life that they have now and I feel like an odd duck."

Regina pulled Emma in for a hug. "It's their loss."

Emma smiled. "That's debatable."

"No it's not," Regina said. "They're missing out on the cutest duck I've ever seen."

Emma burst out laughing. Regina smiled at the sound. If she could get Emma laughing, things didn't seem quite so bad.

"I love you," Emma said.

"I love you too," Regina said. "My little odd duck."