Chapter 12

Day 249

Mary Margaret gave Emma her bath and put a clean diaper on her, then dressed her in her little yellow sleeper with a white duck sewed on the chest. She held Emma's chubby hands and lifted her so she was standing on the change table being supported by Mary Margaret.

"All ready for bed sunshine?"

Emma smiled big for Mary Margaret.

Mary Margaret pulled Emma into her arms and squeezed her tight. "I love you Em." She ran her hand through Emma's blonde hair and kissed her forehead.

"Yabba-dabba-dooo!" Mary Margaret rolled her eyes. She could hear music coming from the tv from the living room, and the sounds of David's and August's voices singing along.

"Flintstones. Meet the Flintstones.
They're the modern stone age family.
From the town of Bedrock,
They're a page right out of history.

Let's ride with the family down the street.
Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet.

When you're with the Flintstones
Have a yabba dabba doo ti-"

David and August looked up. Mary Margaret was holding Emma on her hip and in her free hand she had the remote, she turned the sound on mute. She didn't look pleased. "August, have you finished your math homework?"

He thought about a for a moment. "Yes."

She raised her eyebrow. She could always tell when he was lying. "Are you sure?"

He nodded.

"Mrs. Wilson told me you're having a little trouble with math. Are you avoiding it?''

He shrugged.

"Would you like some help?"

He smiled slightly. "Really?"

She smiled. "I'd love to help you. You can always come to me if you need help."

He smiled wider. "I'd like that."

David smiled. "I can put Emma to bed." He stood up and took Emma from Mary Margaret. Mary Margaret walked with August to the kitchen table. She pulled a chair around so she could sit beside him.

August pulled out his math book, and turned to addition. "Why do the numbers have to get so big?"

"Well it's just like you. You grow everyday and so do numbers. Take your cars for instance, remember when your dad bought your first toy car? You were so excited. Then you got another one and another one, and your collection grew. That's just like numbers, they grow all the time."

"Oh okay I see."

"Let's look at the first question. 42+11. So you a trick is you can start on the right. What is 2+1?"

"Three?"

"Very good. So you can write a '3'."

August wrote a 3.

"Now, what is 4+1?"

"Five?"

She smiled. "There you go, now the numbers don't seem too big afterall, do they?"

He smiled back at her then wrote the '5'. "So that makes it 53?"

"Yes it does, good job August." She sideways hugged him. "Once you're done your homework, you and your Dad can watch one cartoon before bed."

He looked up at Mary Margaret smiling at her and he was happier than ever that he got to be part of their family.

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Day 250

Regina walked to Gold's shop. The passed few months had been dreadful. Not that she cared about having David and those two brats but it was the fact she let Mary Margaret win. Mary Margaret was happy now, and now she was losing her own child to them. Everything was backfiring. And now she made a shocking discovery and had to go see Mr. Gold. So she walked in.

"Well hello, deary. I see your baby bump is starting to show."

"I've discovered something."

"What is it you've discovered?"

"I'm pregnant."

"You just noticed?"

She shook her head. "That's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean?"

"I shouldn't be pregnant. It should be impossible with the curse."

He smirked.

"If time is frozen, a baby shouldn't be able to develop. So…"

"So?"

"Time must be moving now. That child being here is causing time to move. But I don't get it, the curse isn't broken nobody remembers."

"Good observation."

"Then what is going on?"

"Things are changing, deary."

"Then what, is the curse going to be broken?"

He shrugged. "We'll have to wait and see."

"Not if I have anything to do about it." She stormed out of the shop. It was a cool day, Regina walked down the street with her hands in her pockets, snuggling her chin into the collar of her coat. She walked by Granny's just as Graham walked out with a coffee and a donut in his hand.

"Regina… How is-"

"The baby? Fine. On my way to have an ultrasound."

"Can I come?"

She shrugged. "Up to you. David will be there. I can't do anything with this pregnancy without his authorization, that includes ultrasounds."

He shrugged. "I'd still like to be there."

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"Hi Mary Margaret." Mrs Wilson, August's teacher walked up to Mary Margaret. They were both supervising the students at recess.

"Hi Louise."

"I just wanted to tell you August did much better on his homework assignment. He aced it."

She smiled. "I helped him last night."

"That's great, as you know it's hard giving one on one to students when you have 20 of them in your class."

"Oh believe me I know, it is definitely hard."

"August seems much happier now with you and Mr. Mills."

She smiled and watched August play with a couple other boys. "I'm much happier too."

"Hey August, do you still think you're Pinocchio? Is your nose going to grow?" A boy chuckled.

"Yeah so do you still think Marco is your father?" Another boy laughed.

August looked at the boys. He wanted so badly to fit in. He missed his father so much, yet he was happy living with Emma's family. He decided to give it up. "No, I was wrong. David Mills is my Dad."

"Hmm, maybe he's cool after all, maybe he's not crazy." The kid grinned. "Want to play with us?"

August smiled. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Okay! What do you want to play?"

"Tag! You're it!" He hit August's arm and the two boys ran and August chased them. He was giggling really hard. He was finally making friends, he was fitting in. The other boys were fast so he ran faster when all of a sudden his left leg tightened right up and he fell to the ground crying. "Help me! Help me!"

Mary Margaret and Mrs. Wilson ran over to him. Mary Margaret kneeled down beside him. "August, what happened?"

His leg was straight and couldn't bend. He was grasping his thigh in pain. "It's really stiff, I can't move it!"

"Did you pull a muscle?" She lifted his pant leg and August's mouth drop.

"Oh no!"

"What's wrong?"

"I'm turning into wood!" He cried harder.

"What?" She held his arm. "I want you to try standing okay?" She helped him up. "Now can you walk on?"

He tried taking a few steps but he had such great a limp he fell again.

Mary Margaret. "I'm going to get his leg checked out. Please tell Mr. Barrie."

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Graham sat at Regina's side and David stood crossing his arms as the little grey figure appeared on the screen. The form of a baby's head and a tiny body stared back at them. David looked over at Regina and Graham as their eyes filled with tears. He felt so out of place and it just made him want to hold Emma. It was quite obvious that Graham was the father, Regina wasn't hiding it very well.

The ultrasound tech finished up and wiped the gel off of Regina's stomach and gave Regina a picture of the baby from the ultrasound. Regina sat up smiling at Graham and he smiled back at her. David slipped out of the room.

"Get me a chocolate bar from the vending machine. I'm craving chocolate!"

Graham smirked. "Alright, I'll be right back."

Regina sat up and grabbed her purse.

Graham found the vending machine and David was there getting some chocolate. "Hi there."

Graham just slightly smiled then put a dollar in the machine.

"I know you're the father."

"You do?"

He nodded. "Do you want this child?"

"More than anything."

"How come you haven't been fighting for it? It's almost Regina has some sort of control over you."

He shrugged. "Can't fight the court. They've given the baby to you."

"You know Mary Margaret and I have been talking it over, we think you'd make a great father."

"You do?"

"If we got a DNA test and showed the courts, they would probably give you custody."

He smiled. "That would be wonderful."

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"There's nothing wrong with his leg."

"But Dr. Whale, he's been crying in pain. He's limping and he keeps falling."

"I'm telling you there's nothing wrong with it."

"You think I'm lying? Look, it's all wood." August pointed at his leg. But Whale and Mary Margaret just saw the skin on his leg.

Whale shook his head. "If this is some kind of joke… This is a hospital, and it's a waste of my time." He left the room.

"August…"

"How can you not see it? You said you believed me about everything a few months ago…"

"Oh buddy…" She caressed his cheek but he pulled away.

"I want my father."

She nodded. "I'll go get him, he should still be here." She kissed his forehead then left to find David thinking that's who August meant.

She walked to the elevator but it was out of order so she took the stairs. She couldn't believe August about his leg turning to wood, but she believed him that there was something wrong with it, but she didn't know what to do. She was hoping David would.

She descended a few floors until she came to the floor where the ultrasound room was. She went to open the door and Regina was there.

"You!" She was angry.

"Ms. Mills…"

Regina closed the door. "I'm sick of this, you are always taking everything from me. Now you are going to take my child?"

"Ms. Mills…"

"This was supposed to be MY happy ending!"

Mary Margaret reached out to hold Regina's hand. "Please calm down, this isn't good for the baby."

"Don't tell me what is good for my baby. First Daniel and then my baby."

"Who's Daniel?"

"I've had enough. You always act so good and innocent."

"Do you hear that?" David looked towards the staircase.

"Yeah, what's that commotion?" Graham followed David to the door entitled 'Stairs'.

Regina pulled her hand away from Mary Margaret. "You are going to pay if it's the last thing I do." She started running down the stairs but lost her footing and tripped and fell to the bottom.

David and Graham opened the door and saw Regina lying at the bottom and Mary Margaret looking down at her with her mouth dropped.