Chapter 13: Leaked Revelations
Mary Margaret looked at Emma with curiosity in her eyes.
"I'm pretty sure that celery is chopped unless you want to add them as dust particles to the salad."
Emma looked down at the cutting board to see how thin she had sliced the celery sticks.
"Hey, it's going to be okay."
"Are you sure about that," asked Emma, "because I'm not."
"Well hey you managed to make it through staying a couple nights at Neal's apartment. This is just dinner."
"Then why does it feel so much formal than that?"
"Maybe because of how you feel about him." Mary Margaret saw her daughter shrug off that comment, "And it's not like he's going to stay here with us."
"Actually he is," Henry said coming down the stairs.
Emma dropped her knife on the counter. "What?"
"Yeah," said Henry, "When I invited him for dinner I thought I'd invite him to stay with us for a little while."
Emma's head was spinning. She didn't know what question to ask first.
"Wha…why…why would you do that?" Emma asked her very coy son. "I told Neal that there was a bed and breakfast in town."
Henry took a seat at the counter top. "I know, I just thought it might be fun since he did let us stay with him for a while. I thought he might like to stay with us."
"And you didn't think to run it by me first," Emma said crossing her arms.
"I didn't think you'd mind," Henry said as if inviting his father was really no big deal.
It really was though. It was one thing to share a single bedroom apartment with three people but a whole other to share a two bedroom with five. Okay so maybe it wasn't as bad as it sounded but Emma had been ready to have Neal keep some distance. She had to retreat to her office to escape but even that hadn't been enough since he caught the tail end of a very awkward conversation between herself and her parents.
"Of course why wouldn't I mind," Emma said some sarcasm slipping in, "It's not like I'm not still angry with him. It's not like I'm struggling with the fact that the man came back into my life after eleven years and oh yeah it's not like he sent me to jail or anything!"
Henry looked at his mom. This was so unlike her. It was a different change. Henry wasn't sure whether to like it or be amused by it.
"Are you still in love with dad?"
"Henry," said Mary Margaret.
Emma looked down. "I am not in love with Neal."
"Yes you are," Henry said as if it were fact. "You have the same look on your face that Mary Margaret has when she talks about David. I'm eleven but I'm not stupid. I do know what love looks like."
Emma looked up at her son, this time clearly amused by him. "A little too much I think. Now come on kid, let's drop this subject and go set the table."
"Fine," said Henry taking some plates from the counter.
It only took a couple minutes but by then there was a knock on the door. It opened right away.
"Look who I found walking down the street," David said as he and Neal entered.
Henry smiled at both his grandpa and his dad.
"You came," Henry said.
Neal walked over to Henry and placed a hand on his boy's shoulder. "Of course I did. You didn't doubt me did you?"
"No," said Henry.
"Good," Neal said to his son. He looked up and nodded, "Emma."
Emma nodded back, "Neal."
The rest of the evening was spent at the dinner table and making small talk. Emma had tried to act interested but it was hard when she knew that Neal wouldn't be going to find a place of his own for the night.
The five of them now sat with cups of hot cocoa in front of them. Neal and David were the only ones without the cinnamon and whipped cream, preferring theirs plain.
"Emma I'm curious," said Neal, "You never did tell me how you turned your life around."
"Sure I did," Emma said. "At your apartment remember."
"Right the bail bonds man thing," said Neal.
"Bail bonds person," Emma corrected.
"Right," said Neal. "Still you could've gotten into anything. Hell you could've continued stealing."
"And risk getting thrown back in prison, no thanks."
"So what I did helped," Neal said with a smile.
"Helped how? None of it would have happened if you had just stuck around."
"Exactly," Neal shot back. "If I hadn't done what I did we wouldn't be here right now."
"Maybe we would."
"No," Neal said, "We wouldn't."
Emma bit her lip and nodded, "That's right because you didn't care about me, all you cared about was running away from magic."
"Hey, I'm here now. I'm past all that."
"Really," asked Emma, "because in the past few days you've really had a hard time with all of this. Hell you compared me to your father just because I was magical."
"Emma I didn't mean it."
"And what about you?"
"What about me?"
"How did you get your life together?"
Neal looked away from Emma, "I didn't want to go through what I put you through. I thought I could do better."
"We could've done better together. It's what we planned remember?"
"Yeah I remember."
Emma shook her head and saw the few looks she was getting from her parents and Henry. "It doesn't matter now I guess. So um…so how's Tamara? Will she be coming to Storybrooke soon?"
Henry took a sip of his hot chocolate. "Tamara's never coming," he said casually.
"What does he mean by that," Emma asked Neal.
It was Henry who answered, "Neal's not getting married. She broke up with him."
Emma and Neal looked at Henry and then back at each other.
"I was going to tell you," said Neal.
Emma placed her napkin on the table. She could feel her emotions start to get the best of her and though she felt like she was somehow abandoning Henry, she needed to escape. She needed to breathe again since the words and the room felt like they were suffocating her.
"I need some air," she said her voice slightly breaking.
She didn't wait for an answer. Instead she grabbed her red jacket that had been hanging on the coat rack for months. She hadn't worn the jacket in a long while but right now she needed her armor. She opened the door and took off.
"Emma," Neal called out as he stood up. "Emma wait," he said to her.
Neal didn't wait on anyone else either. The only thing that mattered to him at the moment was finding Emma and talking to her.