After an uncomfortable two hour wait in the urgent care waiting room and another half hour while watching his mother get stitches, he finally got home. 9:24. He hadn't eaten yet, and quite frankly, he wasn't hungry. The blood had spoiled his appetite, yet his stomach still growled with hunger. Of course the moment he got home was the moment that Emma decided to remember that she left the laundry in the washing machines down stairs.

Doctors orders mandated that she couldn't do any extreme work or leave the house for a few days, so Henry told her that she would get it. One thing was the problem. As he stood in the with two washing machines full of damp clothes, he didn't know how the driers worked. He opened the door and shoved all the clothing into two dryers, one for dark clothes and one for white and shut the door.

Now what?

Wasn't it supposed to start or something?

He looked up to the set of controls that were across the top of the washing machine. "Where is the go button?" he mumbled, hovering his hand over each of the controls. This was way harder then he thought it would be.

"Henry? What are you doing down here?" A voice called from the entrance.

Henry turned his head to see Jake, their neighbor, standing in the doorway of the wash room with a hamper of his own. "Oh, hey Jake. I'm helping out mom by finishing the laundry, but I don't know how to start the dryer."

Jake put his laundry basket on the ground and walked over to Henry's dryers. He put his hand over the largest knob. "You turn this knob to about here and then push it in." Henry did the same on the other dryer. "Now press this button." The machine beeped and then started to rumble as it turned on. Henry repeated the task on the other dryer.

"Thanks Jake!" He said as he started to stroll out of the wash room.

"Why are you down here with out your mom?"

"Ummm." He said as he turned around slowly. "Well she got a cut and had to go get some stitches."

"What did she do?"

"She broke a glass and yeah..."

"Well, is she alright?"

"She is as okay as you can be when you have eleven stitches in her forehead."

"How did she get glass in her forehead?" Henry tried to come up with an explanation, but ended up just standing their with his mouth wide open. "I'll tell you what, why don't I come over and help making dinner or something."

"Oh well, I don't think mom will want you over..."

"No. She needs help and your stomach is growling, I can hear it from here."


Emma sat across the sofa with a bag of peas on her forehead. It hurt badly. She held Henry's book with her legs and let it rest on her stomach. Before he had left to take care of the laundry, he had made sure to show her the page where he thought this Mary-Margret woman came from. On this page was a small illustration of a girl in a red hood holding a basket of eggs talking to a woman in a white cloak.

The young girl wearing the red cloak entered the hut to collect eggs on the morning after the first night of the full moon. In her place, hidden by the cover of the hen's, Snow sat still trying not to move. If not for the crackling of a piece of straw under her feet might she had succeeded.

The young girl had, of course, heard the breaking of the straw and Snow could no longer stay hidden. "I'm sorry I can go!" She said quickly standing up, still holding the eggs she had intended to eat for breakfast.

She had instantly spotted the eggs in Snow's hands. "Are you steeling our eggs?"

"No." She stared down at her hands in sorrow at what she had done. Steeling is never a good thing. "Not a lot." She said in shame as she held the eggs out for the girl in the red cloak to take from her.

The girl in the red cloak, however, had compassion for poor snow. "Hey, hey, it's alright."

"Thank you." She said with gratitude as she brought the eggs back to herself. "It's just, last night there was something out there. It was howling, and then I heard it, and it was so cold, so..." She confessed with a grimace.

"Hey. Come on. Come with me." The girl said with a smile. Snow came out from her spot behind the hen's coop and followed her out. "Everyone calls me Red." She said with a smile.

"I'm Sn-" She suddenly stopped. Snow didn't know who Red was. It wasn't safe for her to tell her real name to her. "Frosty."

"Frosty? Really?"

"No. It's just, someone is looking for me, so..." Snow started.

"So you don't know or trust me yet." Snow looked up in confusion. She couldn't believe that Red was able to understand her so quickly. "Hey, I get it. I just need something to call you."

Snow took a moment to think of a name that might fit her. "Ummm, Ma-Margret. Oh no. " Not the name she wanted after all. "Uhh, Mary." Perfect. Mary.

How in the world did Henry make the connection between Mary-Margret and this woman, who just happened to be Snow White. If only she remembered the name of the man Mary-Margret kept looking at as they were talking. Maybe Henry could have come up with a face for him too. The way Mary-Margret blushing at as they talked about Henry. She was his teacher, but they were more friendly. And then something about Regina keeping him from seeing her and a blond woman with a baby. She couldn't really remember much about it. She must have hit her head harder than she thought.

From the other side of the apartment, she heard a key entering the lock at the front door. Must be Henry. The door swung open with a slam and she heard two pairs of footsteps. "Henry?"

"Hey mom. Ummm... Jake wanted to come over and see how you were doing."

Emma forced herself to sit up a little and look over the couch. She saw at the door Henry taking off his converse sneakers and Jake standing behind him. "Oh. Ummm, hi Jake. Sorry for the mess, wasn't expecting visitors." She started.

Jake looked around the apartment. There was not much out of place until her reached the kitchen floor where a pile of glass still laid on the ground and a small drip trail of blood followed Emma's previous path to the bathroom. "Would you like me to help?" He asked looking around for the broom.

"You don't have to..."

"I don't mind." Jake insisted as he took off his coat.

Emma sighed. "The broom is in the pantry off to the left." She heard Jake open the door and take out the broom. "Henry, please help him."

"Oh no, I can do this on my own. How about you grab something to eat, Henry?"

The rest of the glass shards were swept off the kitchen floor and a pot of water was put on the stove. Henry put back on his shoes and walked out the door with Jake's key to his house to get a packet of Ramen from his house.

Once the door shut, Jake stopped what he was doing and stood up. "So, what really did happen over here?"

"I fell on the ground and broke a glass. What's the big deal?"

Jake walked over to Emma's place on the couch. "Did you pass out again?"

"Wha- No of course not." Emma said confused.

"Your lying."

"What?"

"Tell if people are lying is your thing. The fact that I can tell you are lying is pretty pathetic." He said with a chuckle. Emma rolled her eyes and focused back on the ceiling. "Did you tell the doctor about your black out?"

"No."

"You really should."

"Why do you even care?" Jake suddenly gripped Emma's face and pressed his lips onto her's. Her eyes suddenly flew open in both shock from the kiss and pain from her stitches. She pushed him off of her and sat back into her chair. "Don't. Touch. Me."

"I am just concerned-"

"Get out."

"But-"

"I SAID-"

Henry suddenly walked in on the scene. "Mom. Jake. Is everything alright?" He said freezing at the door way.

Emma tried to force a smile. "Of course. Finish making your soup. Jake was just on his way out." She shot Jake a glaze that sent a shiver down his spine. He got up and put his coat back on. "Bye Henry."

"Have a good night Jake." Henry called as the door shut.

Emma finally relaxed again, wiping her sleeve on her lips to get off all of Jake that lingered. What would even prompt him to do that?


One of the things that Regina missed most about this realm was the food. Yes, she did not have to buy or cook it in the Enchanted Forest, but something about the food here was better. Everything was slightly different. She had gotten a particular taste for foreign foods, especially Italian. She had wanted her chefs to duplicate the delicious meals she had tried here, but they were never right. They never tasted the way they did here. So tonight she had allowed herself to indulge in a fancy Italian dinner and a few glasses of her favorite red wine.

Now walking home, she took in the sights of the cities. The tall buildings would have scared her years ago seemed average after her trip to adopt Henry. The amount of people in the streets made her uncomfortable. And all the cars filling the streets made taking a taxi seem hopeless. The displays in the shop windows were meant to catch the eyes of the people passing by. Beautiful dresses and fine shoes caught her eye, but she resisted the urge of entering any store until one thing caught her eye.

The bright blue wrappings of an Apollo Bar.

She had many memories of Apollo Bars. They have always been Henry's favorite candy. They made excellent bribes for good grades and stocking suffers for Christmas. When they would go to the drug store and pick up the latest comic, he would often put on that sweet face even she could sometimes not resist. He had liked them so much that she learned how to duplicate the chocolate and wrapper almost flawlessly.

Without second thought, she walked into the doors of the candy store and grabbed two of the candy bars off of the front display and purchased them. Once leaving, she felt stupid for making such a silly purchase. Why buy something you can just make out of thin air?

But she found the answer after pulling back the foil wrappings and biting into the top square. It was so much different than her chocolate. It was sweeter. The taste was different in a way she could not pin point. For once she left it at, the original recipe is better than her magical one.

The taste brought back many memories, but mostly brought back her memories of he ate the little squares of chocolate and smile. She smiled at the pleasant memories and took another square. The smell brought back the memories of him growing up. They used to sit at the kitchen table and she would read allowed his new comic books while he ate a small part of the chocolate very slowly to make it last.

Yes this chocolate was good.


A/N Emma isn't feeling the love either. Neither is her forehead. At least Regina ended her day with a bit of happiness.