That night, they were trying to decide who got what room. Holly said she would like to sleep in the loft- it reminded her of her grandmother's house. Jack took his old room, and after they were both asleep, James and Ella now had to decide who would sleep where.

"Ella, you take the bed, it will be more comfortable. I'll sleep in a chair in the other room with my son." It was the doubt she had that he could actually help his child that convinced her to say the next thing that came out of her mouth.

"James, I doubt you know exactly how to care for your son. Stay in here, and bring Matthew too." He looked hurt, but in a funny way, and they both grinned. Ella was already in a nightgown, and she left the room to get Matthew while James changed.

When he opened the door, she was standing with the cradle, and they set it in the room near the dresser. Ella got into the bed, and patted the place next to her. James blushed as he came a little closer.

"You're sure this won't be awkward for you or anything?" Ella shook her head, though inside she doubted herself. Would it be awkward? This "sleeping together" was very, very different from the type that married couples did. That was her only reassurance.

He sat down slowly; making sure it was alright, before lying down and blowing out the candle. It was dark and still as death, and although it had been a long, stressful day for both of them, neither could sleep.

Ella spoke first.

"James?" He turned over to look at her.

"Yes?" Her hands worried the covers before she answered.

"Do you think everything's going to be okay? After what Holly said today, that made me think, but after everything's that's happened, what's going to become of us? What is Matthew going to call me, how are we supposed to explain to him, what does the future of our little group hold?" 'Family' was the word she avoided like the plague, and James could tell that.

He put a comforting arm around her in the dark. "Everything will be fine. There are sure to be some struggles, but we'll get through this. And with Matthew, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. I wish I could tell you the future, but I can't. We'll just have to wait and see." He paused before asking a question himself. "Ella, how old are you?"

"I'm five- and twenty, what about you?"

"Nine- and twenty. Now, we both need to get some sleep. Goodnight." She whispered it back, and soon, he was snoring lightly, dead to the world after such a long day.

But Ella was slower to fall into sleep. Though she was tired, her mind was churning. And she noticed that the Baker had kept his arm around her, and she snuggled into his side, grateful for the warmth and comfort it offered. When she fell asleep, she didn't know, but she was out like a candle quicker than she thought.

"Aden, what are you doing?" She was watching her husband kiss another woman, the same one who had asked for her shoe to have a child. A witch dropped from the sky.

"You'll never be happy, ever! He was never a faithful husband, you should have known that!"

Looking at her face, she cried, "Mother?" And indeed it was. Not her horrible stepmother, but her real mother, the one she had known and loved as a small child. "Mother, what have I done to deserve this? Have I wronged you?" Then a giant's foot stepped on them all, except for her. The Baker appeared with his son.

"Why didn't you stop your husband? You are the Princess are you not? Now my wife is dead, I blame you." His baby was in her arms now, and as much as she tried, she couldn't sooth it. Her stepsisters appeared,

"You'd be a horrible Mother, Cinderella! No wonder the Prince left you!" As she ran after them to explain, she found herself falling, and landed in a dark wood, with crows everywhere that began to peck her eyes out. She cried tears of blood, dropping the baby when the Baker and his wife appeared again, shouting at her for dropping their baby. Rapunzel's tower fell down on them all, and she floated above her body, all of them crushed by the tower. Aden stood off, looking as if he had pushed the tower over.

"Now my horrid wife it dead!" Everyone she knew appeared once more, and began chasing her, shouting curses and lies at her.

"Ella!" She heard the voice of the Baker far off. "Ella…"

"Ella, wake up, your dreaming!" She bolted awake, sweating and crying, sitting straight up with James next to her. "Are you alright?" She fell down, burying her face in the pillow. "It was only a dream, honey, it was only a dream. You're okay sweet, everything's okay." The Baker rubbed her back soothingly. Had he just called her honey, and sweet? Oh well. She turned over, panting still from the nightmare.

"It was terrible. Mother, Charisse, Aden, you, everyone was there, and I dropped the baby, so my stepsisters said I was a terrible mother, and my eyes got pecked out by crows and the tower fell on me…"

He shushed her, "Honey you're ranting. Just take a deep breathe, it was all a dream that will never, ever happen. Everything's alright, I promise." She buried her face in his chest, weeping. He held her there, stroking her hair and whispering comfort words in her ear as if she was a child. But she couldn't help herself; would she never get a good night's sleep again?

It was still dark when Ella woke up yet again, but decided that, since the edges of the horizon were tinged gray, she should get up. James must have already been up as well, since the bed next to her was empty. And although the house was chilly in the October air, she forced herself out of the bed, pulling her nightgown (well, Jack's Mother's nightgown) over her head. She had her drawers on, and was reaching for her corset when the door to the bedroom opened. Her first instinct was that it must be Holly, having a nightmare, but a started noise was made, and it sounded like James. She quickly crossed her arms over her breasts.

"Don't you knock?"

"I've kind of fallen out of the habit. Usually, I didn't have to." Why wouldn't he just go away, she was almost naked here? She didn't want to know why he hadn't knocked, she just wished he had. This was hardly decent attire to be in around a man who she wasn't in any romantic relationship with. "So if your wife was half undressed..." Wait, it would have been his wife. So, the object of clothing wouldn't have exactly mattered.

She kept one arm over her chest, reaching for the corset. Whether James stayed or not, she had to be dressed properly. She could lace it up about halfway, and the she ran into a problem. At the castle, the maids could help her get dressed, and even at home, the birds could finish lacing her up. As much as she tried, her arms just wouldn't stretch enough to finish putting the ties through the stays. She heard James come up behind her, taking the laces in his hands.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm helping you get dressed. No woman could get this thing tied by herself."

As much as she didn't want his help, she knew it would be close to impossible to get into it by herself. So she let him lace it up, feeling much too close to him for her comfort level. He pulled it tight, too tight, underestimating how small her waist was.

"Ow! Not so tight please." He let her take a breath, and adjusted it from there. Once he was done helping her, she all but ordered him from the room. "Thank you for your help James, but could you please leave? I'm really not comfortable with us being around each other when I'm… semi-clothed." He nodded.

"Sure, I made raisin bread for breakfast. You wouldn't happen to know how to milk a cow, would you?" She laughed, he was so helpless.

"Of course I do, I'll be out in a minute." He nodded again and left. She pulled on the rest of her clothing and went into the main room.

A wonderfully delicious smell filled the room, a fire was going, and the oven was too, so the house was starting to warm. How nice it was to not have to bake the bread herself, to have some help with the chores.

She went and milked the cow, fed the animals, and weeded the garden before the children were up. It was a delightful scene to come into. Two children sitting at the table in a warm home, eating breakfast while the Mother and Father... no, she thought. We are neither 'Mother' nor 'Father', except for James and Matthew. That was when the baby started to cry, and Ella rushed into the other room to get him.

"Poor thing, you're probably starving. Good thing I milked the cow." Once he was fed, he was much more tolerable, and Holly fawned over how cute he was. James watched from behind, proud of his son at even this young age, wishing his wife was here with him.

The day passed quickly. James baked more bread, taking it to his destroyed home. People still came to buy it, but he gave them directions to his new house- they could buy it there. Although many people had died, they still were not afraid to go into the woods.

Ella spent the day cleaning the house top to bottom. She scrubbed the floor, the sink, the entire kitchen, did laundry and began construction on new clothes for everyone from the ones she'd found, and almost every other chore she could think of.

Although it would have been nice to have help, she let Jack and Holly run and play, even though Jack was five-and ten and no child anymore, and Holly at three-and ten wasn't much of one either. Occasionally, she'd stop and look out the window at them. Even having lost so much, they could still laugh and play. She'd wish her own late childhood could have been like theirs.