Clean Break

A/N: Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy fluff ;).

Chapter Six

"Please Emma?"

"Nope."

"Oh come on, what could it hurt?"

Mary Margaret was pleading at Emma with her brown puppy dog eyes, but the blonde ignored her and resolutely dug into her fruit loops.

After a few weeks, living at the B&B was getting expensive so Emma had had to seek out another living arrangement. Wanting to avoid both the creepy landlord Mr Gold and the commitment of a lease (she preferred to be able to blow out of town if and when it became necessary), Emma had moved into the spare room in the schoolteacher's apartment. Having grown up in foster homes and spent time sharing a cell, Emma had vowed never to live with another person again if at all possible. But things were working out here better than she expected. Mary Margaret was always looking after the young blonde and her presence was somehow comforting without being obtrusive. Plus Emma had her job, another thing going well for her in Storybrooke, but the main reason was that she wasn't ready to leave Henry yet.

"Pleeeease, for me? What else are you going to do?"

Mary Margaret was trying to convince Emma into coming to Storybrooke's Annual Picnic Day on Saturday. Apparently it was a favourite event of the community ("Everyone loves it!") and the whole town usually turned up. There would be stalls and games and plenty of people.

"I have a busy schedule that day."

"Like what, sleep till noon?"

"For starters. My plans are still in the draft stages."

"Well, it might do you good to meet some new people. You've been in Storybrooke two months and you hardly know anyone."

Emma dropped her spoon in mock indignation. "That's not true! I know you and Ruby. And that grumpy janitor at your school, Elroy."

Mary Margaret gave her the look. "Leroy."

"Fine!" Emma said in a long-suffering way. She couldn't explain her reluctance in going - wasn't she always complaining that there was nothing to do in Storybrooke? When she agreed Mary Margaret's face lit up in excitement.

"I'm going to be pretty busy looking after the kids and managing activities on the day. There's still so much to do and we haven't organised anyone for the official opening since the mayor's unavailable this year."

The last part was said offhand but it surprised Emma. "Regina's not going? Isn't attending these kind of dork fests part of her job?"

"I guess it's too much now that she has Henry." Mary Margaret shrugged and took a sip of her tea.

"Huh." Emma wasn't convinced by that explanation.

Henry had finally settled into a good routine and was doing much better these days. Lately his favourite pastime was grabbing anything within reach, particularly Emma's long blonde locks which he liked to tangle in his tiny fist and refuse to let go. Regina thought it was really amusing, laughing heartily at Emma's pained cries of Ow!, ...that was until Henry discovered the brunette's earrings and necklaces were just as fun to yank.

"Oh my god, you should've seen what he did the other day..."

Emma launched into yet another tale of the growing baby's antics to Mary Margaret's willing ears. All the younger woman could talk about when they were at home was something adorable Henry did or something Regina said. Emma described the little boy in such loving terms that it made Mary Margaret worry if the teen was becoming too attached. She was especially animated when she related times that the three of them spent together.

"...so I gave him the lid for the pot as well, and it's hilarious because Regina hates all the noise but she would never say anything when it comes to Henry. So I told her I'd get him a real drum kit for his birthday..."

"And?"

"She threatened to run me out of town."

Regina leant against the nursery door with a smile on her face, watching the scene on the floor in front of her. Emma Swan was sitting crossed-legged with Henry sitting up across from her (by himself! She remembered with pride the first time last week that her little boy managed to sit and stay up without assistance). The pair were surrounded by a selection of coloured blocks and were both wearing pirate hats folded out of newspaper.

Ever since the day they'd held Henry in the shower, the mayor had relaxed a little in her treatment of Ms Swan. Letting her access the bedrooms upstairs had felt like a breach of privacy at first. But little by little she'd come to realise how much help the blonde teen was. Trying to keep the house in order and run the town while taking on the role of sole carer of a young child had been too much all at once. During the day sometimes Regina even allowed Emma to help with Henry, although she preferred to tend him herself as much as her work would allow. Emma had taken a shine to her extra duties.

"Arghhh! You think you can defeat ME, Pirate Henry? I think not! ha ha ha ha HA!" Emma was playing the part and putting on a deep gruff voice. She put a rectangular block in the baby's hand which he promptly used to knock down one of the stacks of blocks.

"Ah! Ah! Ah!" The baby repeated it over and over in his gurgly nonsense language.

"Oh is that so? We'll see about that!" said Emma.

Regina knelt down on the floor near Henry, demurely crossing her legs underneath her tailored skirt. She bent over to place a kiss in her son's soft brown hair.

"Want to join us, Madam Mayor? We've got an opening for the part of Pirate Wench."

Regina rolled her eyes good naturedly. "No thank you. But I am pleased to see you've found someone your own level to interact with."

Emma returned the sentiment with an obnoxious look of her own. "Har har. Yeah well, Henry is a great conversationalist. Aren't you?" She reached over to poke him in the tummy making him giggle and squeal.

Regina held out her phone, the reason she'd come up to the nursery. "Ms Swan, did you text me from inside the house?"

Emma shook her head nonchalantly. "Nope. Must've been Henry."

"I see. Then why is it a photo of Henry?" asked the mayor, her tone amused. She held up the phone screen which showed Henry in his current outfit of pirate hat and a t-shirt (not purchased by her) that had a pair of sunglasses and the words 'COOL DUDE' on it.

"Henry! I told you to stop using my phone for taking selfies!" The baby was oblivious to Emma's mock chastising. He looked at her with wide brown eyes while innocently sucking on a block.

Regina pressed her phone and read out the text that accompanied the photo message. "It says:

Hi Mommy, I know you're working really hard on boring town budgets right now, but can we please go to Picnic Day on Saturday? It's gonna be really fun. Love Henry."

The mayor raised her eyes significantly and read the postscript. "PS. Emma is awesome."

"See? He's really clever, recognising my awesomeness, what can I say?" said Emma.

"You spelled 'awesome' wrong. My son can spell better than that."

"Whatever. So are you coming? To Picnic Day?"

Regina lifted Henry into her arms and swiveled him to face her. He immediately tried to stuff his fingers into her mouth and she pretended to bite them playfully. "I suppose I am. How could I say no to an invitation from a handsome young prince?"