A/N: Takes place between episodes 9 and 10 of Season 2.

For Snow White to see steam rising from a frothing bathtub, to slip in and feel the exact moment when the water would engulf her leg, leaving her skin reddened from the sensation—that was magic. With a whispered giggle, she leaned her head back against the wall and soaked. Of course she'd bathed since she and Emma returned from the Enchanted Forest, yesterday, in fact. But everything had been such a whirlwind and now was a moment for her to be alone, not Snow or Mary Margaret, but just herself, soaked in memories.

That's how it all had to be processed, she'd decided. Let them flood over her so she could reach out and clutch whichever one she'd wanted to and examine it the way a jeweler might examine every facet of a diamond. There had simply been no time before.

"Mary Margaret?"

Blinking, she hunched over until the point of her chin hit the bubbles. She could hear Henry walking in and throwing his hulk of a backpack onto the table. Before she could answer him, the door clicked and the knob turned.

"Sorry!" he sputtered.

She couldn't be angry, not with his blushing face downcast. He stumbled over the threshold on his backward waltz out of the bathroom. Once the door slammed, she sighed and reached for her towel.

"How was school?" she asked the door.

"Well, I kind of had a question for you."

Snow patted some lotion over her arms and legs and smiled a self-indulgent smile at how smart she'd been to have brought her change of clothes into the bathroom, folded and waiting for her on the toilet seat.

"Ask away." Ask away, Henry, my grandchild, she thought.

"We have to make a family tree and...it's going to be a lot of branches."

Laughing, she opened the door and nodded. It hadn't been so long ago that Henry had been her student, that maybe he'd gone home and asked Regina for help on a project Mary Margaret Blanchard herself had assigned. She knew, not because she was an over-protective grandmother but because she'd spent the hours after school with him when he struggled with function tables no one at home had spared the time to help him understand, he'd been granted a second chance at a stable family. They all had.

"Well, let's get the poster board and the construction paper out."

"All right, and that's as far back as I know," Snow said, spreading her hands over the tree made of brown and green construction paper. It hurt to see King Leopold and Queen Eva, her father and mother, reduced to names, birth dates, and death dates, but there was still something so, so warm about their names and the names of their parents and grandparents arranged with her own, with Charming, with Emma, with Henry's names. "Our family."

"Thanks." Henry grinned at her. He felt it, too. He had to. Snow would never put much stock into things like bloodlines and social classes...she was married to a shepherd, after all, a better prince than the "best" of bloodlines could have produced, but there was something to lineage and heritage. Roots.

"You'll have to show your mom when she gets back," Snow said, patting his arm. His eyes still on the tree, Henry's face fell with a sigh. "What's wrong?"

"It's just...this is great. It really is. But, there's so much missing." They'd purposely concentrated only on Emma's line so as not to leave half the tree empty, but Snow had a feeling he still saw too much blank space. "My m...Emma, Mom, she told me a little bit about my dad, but he's dead, and, and I don't think I could ask her for more. It was hard for her to talk about him the first time." He ran his fingers over his name. "Who were any of them? What were they like? Am I like them? Were they good? Were they bad?"

"Henry," she heard herself saying, taking hold of his hand. "You know, the longer I've had to think about it, I'm not sure anyone is all good or all bad. Some people, maybe, but not many. Maybe one day you'll find out more about them."

Henry leaned his head down on her arm and gave her the half-hug most eleven-year-old boys tend to give, but still with affection. From the corner of her eye, Snow spied the bell he'd given her at her "charges dropped" party, the first thing he'd ever given her. It was simple, just a brass bell with a wooden handle and a red ribbon tied around it, but she loved it.

"And you know what?" she added. "No matter what, you have a long list of people who will love you."