It's here! It's finally here! The 5th addition to our little Thanksgiving tale. Let's just say MM is in some hot water right now.
Thank you for all of the reviews! My gosh, you guys are great and I'm glad you all like Drunk David. He's become a favorite of mine as well. I'm sure Hook is enjoying him.
Disclaimer: I don't own a thing.
Chapter 5 of Turkey Season: Everybody's Here
"Henry, I really think you should tie your scarf tighter. It's pretty darn frigid, kid."
Henry rolled his eyes as Neal once again began to pester him about his scarf. First, it had been about buttoning up his jacket which he promptly obeyed and then it had been his scarf. Henry had ignored him, absolutely refusing because he hated the feeling of something wrapped around his neck. It was suffocating.
They turned the corner of the block adjacent to the loft and Henry paused, the blood draining from his face at the sight of Regina's parked car. Without thinking twice about it, he darted across the street and began to run up the block to the apartment with Neal yelling after him, something he ignored completely.
He burst through the door and paused at the bottom of the stairs, listening for voices but he didn't hear any. That fact was almost worse than the yelling he'd been expecting. He'd at least know they were alive then.
He took the stairs two at a time at a speed that almost wasn't human and when he reached the foyer he heard the door below him open. Neal.
Without thinking about it twice he shoved the door to the loft and winced when it swung open harder than he had intended. It banged against the living room wall causing Mary-Margaret to jump, nearly dropping the orange roses in her hands while everyone else looked up from their spots around the loft.
He stood still as he took in Regina and Emma frozen in the task of stretching a table cloth over the oak monstrosity that his grandma called a table, Regina's eyes lighting up in relief. There was some quiet folk music playing in the background that competed with the noise of the football game that his gramps and Hook were comfortably gathered around and he could only stare at the normalcy of the scene before him. Or in their case, abnormalcy.
"Hey squirt! We've been waiting for you!" David broke the silence with a goofy grin and the raise of an amber colored bottle. Hook smiled at him and raised his own bottle, ignoring the silent burp that broke out from the man behind him.
"Henry," Regina smiled and dropped her side of the tablecloth to walk toward him, her arms outstretched in want of a hug. Her advances faltered, however, when Neal came up behind Henry and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, his breathing somewhat loud as he caught his breath.
From his position in the room Henry was able to read everyone's reaction to Neal, Emma looking at him rather indifferently while Hook looked somewhat surprised…passive, but surprised. Regina stared at him wide eyed not sure what to expect while David was surprisingly calm. A bit too calm.
"Did you two have a good time?" Emma asked quickly, wiping her hands on the back of her pants before crossing her arms across her chest and stepping up beside Regina.
"Yep and it's about to get better," Neal answered causing Emma to raise a brow. He slowly began to take off his jacket and her eyes widened at what he was doing before narrowing on him.
"Whoa, whoa, what are you doing? You had your time with Henry now it's our time," Emma told him in a tone that wasn't so friendly, the wish to grab his coat and toss it at his face to send him out the door rather evident.
"Actually," Mary-Margaret stepped up beside Neal and took his coat, an apologetic smile crossing her face as she glanced back at Emma. "I invited him."
"You what?" Both Regina, Emma and even Henry asked in disbelief.
"Round…eight or ten!" David declared as he stood up from his seat in the living room, standing still as he gained control of the subtle sway taking over his body. "You want one, too, mate?" he asked Hook in a fake British accent much to the pirate's amusement.
"By all means," he waved at the man and David passed behind the melodrama playing out in his living room, sending Emma a dashing smile.
It was then that she understood that David had known what was going to be happening for quite some time. That explained the alcohol list and the drinks he'd been downing since his eyes had opened that morning. He was getting himself plastered so he wouldn't ever have to remember this night as everyone around him fought for their dignity. Oh yes, she was definitely coming up on his level.
"I invited Neal," Mary-Margaret explained once again, slowly and deliberately before glancing down at Henry. "I thought it'd be nice if we all had a Thanksgiving dinner…together."
"Seriously? Did it ever hit you that I don't know, maybe it would be less traumatizing to the kid if he didn't have to see how his parents disagree with each other and have an obvious…unfondness for each other?" Emma asked, her voice raising with each word as she fought for a word that wasn't exactly "hate". Unfondness would have to work.
"Well, it did but I kind of thought that with all of us being grown-ups we could sit down, stuff our faces with pie and get over it," Mary-Margaret threw back at her daughter, crossing her arms across her own chest in the same defiant manner Emma was currently advertising.
"That eventually would have happened but I wasn't counting on today…on freaking Thanksgiving!"
"I have to agree with what she said," Regina put her two cents in, earning herself a slight grin of appreciation from the blonde.
"Who wants a shot?" David called from the kitchen and they all turned to look at the man who raised two bottles of rum at the four adults.
There was a slight pause of silence before Regina waved her hand. "Make it a brandy."
"Give me a stiff one, David," Emma followed with her order while Neal just shook his head before fixing his ex with a look. She raised her brow in question, an annoyed look crossing over her face.
"What Neal? Don't you get all judgmental Mister Jack Daniels," she hissed at him with reference to a memory long ago lived in Portland. The smile on his face tilted right off as he glanced down at Henry who looked back and forth between the two of them with a confused look.
Mary-Margaret began to back away from the two of them, inching back toward the kitchen when Emma stopped her with a look.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"To the kitchen…to get the candlesticks," Mary-Margaret muttered and quickly turned to walk away from her. Emma took a step in pursuit but was stopped by Neal's hand on her arm. She glared up at him and he only smiled down at her.
"Thanks for the nice welcome, Emma," he grinned and she shot him a look doused in all levels of sarcasm. "I'm really looking forward to our time together."
"Yeah, why don't you take it and shove it up-"
Henry's eyes widened at where her words were going and she paused, rethinking her words, before wordlessly turning and going after her mother.
"David, I seriously…I don't know what to do."
"You got yourself into this mess," was all David said as he worked on the cork stopping the brandy. "You can get yourself out."
"You're not being very helpful," his wife said in a huff and he only laughed at her.
"I told you, I told you this wasn't going to go well but you were rather insistent so don't get all butt hurt when your plan isn't working quite as well as you intended," David said as he looked up toward her and focused on his bombshell of a daughter walking toward them with deliberate steps. "Here comes your funeral. Good luck."
Mary-Margaret shot him a scalding look as he turned away before turning around to face her daughter who was currently rounding the counter.
"I don't get it," Emma started, "You invited my ex, the man who broke my heart and punched my current boyfriend in the face only several weeks ago, to our family dinner? I could take Regina, I really could but this, this is crossing some serious boundary line. Did you ever take into account how this would make Killian feel?"
Mary-Margaret looked past Emma to the living room where the pirate sat, his gaze and smile on Henry as the boy came and sat next to Hook to settle in for the game. No. She hadn't thought of that.
"So do you have any other tricks up your sleeve? Any other people coming out of the woodwork to sit down to dinner with us tonight?"
Before Mary-Margaret could answer there was a timid knock at the door.
The room grew quiet as everyone looked at the door in question before finally focusing on the pixie haired woman who Emma was currently skewering with a look.
"Seriously? Who could that possibly be I wonder," Emma caustically said as she began to walk toward the door, grabbing her glass of something strong off of the counter on her way over. "Did you dig through my high school diary and find a list of all my exes and invite them over, too?"
She swung the door open then and nearly dropped her glass at the sight of Rumpelstiltskin and Belle on the other side of the door, the woman staring wide eyed into the living room while Rumpelstiltskin looked like he'd much rather be anywhere but where he was standing.
If someone dropped a pin in the room you could hear it save Mary-Margaret's groan as she dropped her face in her hands.
"Um, hi," Emma finally managed. "Did my scheming mother invite you two over as well?"
"Yes, yes she did," Belle said with a slight stammer as her eyes searched the room beyond Emma for the aforementioned Snow White.
"I did," Mary-Margaret confirmed as she rounded the refrigerator and stepped to the door beside Emma, fixing the two newest guests with a wide smile.
Emma looked back into the living room just in time to see Neal standing there with a shocked look on his face as he took in the sight of his father standing in the foyer and Emma couldn't help the wolfish smile that took over her mouth. The look on his face made the surprise at the door somewhat worth it.
"Kay, these are the rules," Emma whispered to Hook in a conspiring tone in the kitchen several minutes later. Mary-Margaret had done her best to make her guests feel welcome and was currently in a friendly conversation with Belle while Rumpelstiltskin was sitting rather stiffly in the living room beside Henry, Neal sitting in an uncomfortable position on the chair to block his view of his father.
David came up on her other side with an ice cube tray and shot her another one of those goofy grins he seemed rather fond of that day. "Let's hear the rules, my daughter," he stage whispered as his lips twitched in silent laughter.
"Anytime Rumpelstiltskin tries to talk to Neal, shot. Anytime Neal ignores Rumpel, shot. Anytime he actually skewers Rumpel with a look or a word, two shots," Emma began and watched as an amused look spread across her boyfriend's face.
"Anytime Regina gives us a sarcastic lashing of her tongue, shot," he offered already enjoying the idea of the game.
"Anytime Mary-Margaret tries to rescue someone, shot," David added.
"Anytime Belle reprimands Rumpel or tries to comfort him," Emma spoke up once again.
"Those are the rules?" Hook asked and Emma nodded.
"Those are the rules."
David didn't say anything as he poured their poisons into glasses, glasses they eventually raised in a toast to each other.
Regina came out of the bathroom just then, shooting a look toward Mary-Margaret as she rubbed her hands with lotion.
"God, Snow," she let out rather harshly. "Ever hear of a hand towel that didn't have a freakin bird on it?"
Mary-Margaret shot a searing look of her own toward Regina before turning back to Belle and Emma raised her glass to her lips. Hook and David followed suit and they set their glasses down for a refill.
"It's a good thing I can hold my liquor," Hook said from beside her while Emma smiled at the bottom of her glass.
"It's a good thing I can't."
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