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DON'T OWN IT.

For the first time in a very long time, everyone slept well that night. Early in the morning, sunlight streamed through the windows, and birds chirped, waking Snow up. It took her a moment to realize there was a warm body next to her. Smiling, she rolled over and wrapped her arms around him.

"Good morning, my love." He flipped around and smiled up at him.

"Good morning." She said. A passionate kiss ensued. They finally broke apart, gazing into each other's eyes.

"What's on the agenda today?" He asked.

"Well," She sat up, elbows propped on knees, "I think I will go reacquaint myself with the forest. Maybe we can show Henry and Emma around." Snow said.

"I can't. Maybe this afternoon." James said, pulling on his pants.

"Why not?" Snow questioned.

"I have to go debrief the army." He replied.

"This soon?"

"We have no idea if the Evil Queen is still alive, and what plans she has to attack us." James said.

"You will be careful, won't you?"

"You know when you look at me with those big, beautiful eyes, I can never say 'no' to you."

"Oh, Charming!" Snow gushed. Suddenly, there was a loud crash from the kitchen. "Henry." She muttered. The two flew down the stairs to see what was going on.

"Sorry." Henry apologized.

"What were you doing?" James asked.

"I was trying to make a cake for Emma. It's her birthday." The 16 year old explained.

"Here," Snow laughed, "Let me help you."

"While you two work on that, I'll go debrief. Have fun." James turned to leave, but was blocked by Emma. "Oh, hi Darling." He smiled.

"I'm going with you." She said in a tone that made no room for argument. Still, James argued.

"I don't need you to be my body guard, Emma. Besides, your mother should teach you a think or two about being royal. Just focus on getting to know your son." James went to sidestep her, but she copied him.

"I said, I'm. Going. With you." This time, it was accompanied by a glare. After a moment of glaring right back at her, and seeing she wasn't going to back down, he finally said,

"Fine. Just… be careful." Smiling in triumph, she grabbed her red coat off the rack and went outside, waiting. James shook his head at his wife.

"And besides," she said, "I'm not really princess material. Dresses, and jewelry, and fancy talking and being overly nice aren't really my thing. And Henry, don't make a mess."

Once Snow and Henry were sure the two were out of earshot, she asked.

"What kind of cake do you want to make her?"

"Chocolate with white frosting." Henry declared after pondering the question for a moment.

"Do you want to write anything on it?"

"Happy Birthday, Emma/Mom!"

"I think we can do that."

It turned out to be a fairly difficult process. By the time they were done, Henry was covered in flour, and cake batter was everywhere.

"You can write Happy Birthday, Emma, and I'll write /Mom!" He said.

"Sounds like a plan."

OUAT OUAT OUAT OUAT OUAT OUAT OUAT

"I want to thank you all for showing up." James said, taking a seat in the debriefing room.

"What's she doing here?" Grumpy asked, grumpy as ever.

"You know, I'm not really sure." James looked at his daughter.

"I want to kill Regina." Emma said, stepping forward.

"Whoever has the shot is taking it." One person said.

"Too bad. She screwed up my son. There's no way in Hell she's getting away with that. She also took-" She cut herself off as she realized what she was saying.

"We will do everything we can to make sure you get to." James assured her.

"That's not fair!" One man yelled.

"I empathize with Emma. She's the reason Emma isn't-" He had to cut himself off, too. Emma raised an eyebrow at him, so he said, "Uh, I knew you'd end up like your mother- just not this much."

"Wait, wait, wait. Is she coming with us to the raid?"

"You got a problem with that, Shorty?" Emma fixed him with her best glare.

"Let's get going then, now that that's all settled." James clapped his hands together. "First thing's first; finding Rumplestilskin."

It took them many hours, but with Emma's 'finding people' ability, they eventually did.

"Hey, Rumple, get out here. Back to your cage." James said, drawing his sword.

"That is not happening." He said.

"You're too dangerous."

"Miss Swan, I believe we have a deal." Finally, the man in question came sauntering out, an air of cockiness around him.

"Yes we do." Emma stood up straighter in an attempt to hide her sudden anxiety over what the deal might be.

"Let me be free."

"That isn't going to happen." Emma relaxed. This was something she could fight.

"Do you know what happens when my deals get broken?" He asked. James stepped beside his daughter, despising the threat.

"I'm not afraid of you." She said.

"That's your first mistake." Rumplestilskin hissed. Unexpectedly, Emma pulled her concealed gun.

"Give it up, you can't win here." Emma said.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey can we make this a little less confrontational?" someone said. Preoccupied by the gun trained on him, Rumplestilskin didn't notice two men sneaking behind him. They whacked him on the head, effectively knocking him out.

"I think you'll be a very good Deputy." James said, patting her on the shoulder.

"Deputy?" She questioned.

"Graham is the Sheriff. It seems to work in that bad place, so we figure we'd take it here." James said. "I'm going to send some of you out to scout the Evil Queen's castle." He nodded to a dozen of them. "Report back at 0500."

"Yes, Sir!" They yelled unanimously, and scurried off to do their jobs.

It was sundown by the time James and Emma finally reached the castle. They stopped mid-laugh as they entered, their noses perking up.

"What are you cooking?" Emma asked, throwing her coat over a chair.

"Roast chicken with tarragon seasoning." Snow answered, giving her husband and daughter a kiss.

"Happy Birthday, Mom!" Henry came bursting into the room, carrying a present that was wrapped a lot neater than previous years.

"Hey, Kid, I thought I said no more celebrating birthdays? I feel old." Despite herself, she was smiling. "But thank you." Carefully, she unwrapped it, revealing Henry's fairtytale book.

"So you can know your parent's story. It's a lot different than Disney." Henry explained.

"Thank you." Emma gave him a watery smile, not sure why she was getting so emotional. He just had that effect on her.

"Happy Birthday, Emma." Graham said.

"Hey." She said, wrapping him in a hug.

"Come on. We all know you want more than just a hug." Graham said.

"You're very lucky I don't want to risk messing up your hair or your accent, or I'd have done something to you by now." She smirked, but relented and kissed him.

"Ew!" Henry yelled. "You really need to stop kissing my mom."

"I thought you were 16, Henry. Aren't you supposed to be more mature?" Graham teased.

"I am. I just can't imagine anyone kissing my mom. But I don't really need to imagine, do i?"

"Dinner's ready!" Snow called.

"We'll be right there." James said. "Let's go, Henry." The boy happily followed his grandfather.

Dinner went well, with the usual talk and stuff. Finally, Henry's face lit up as he realized it was the perfect time to bring out the cake. He shot up and went to the counter, and sang as he brought the cake over. As terrible and off-tune it was, Emma found herself crying over his sweetness.

"Henry, you have to stop making my cry." She sniffed. "Did you make this yourself?"

"Ms. Blanchard helped."

"He made quite a mess of himself." Snow said, smiling at him.

"Thank you." Emma said.

"Oh, and Emma, your room should be ready by the end of the week. I was thinking that tomorrow we could go looking for stuff to redecorate with." Snow said.

"Sounds like a plan." She smiled.

"You're going to be late to debriefing?" James asked.

"I thought I was Deputy."

"You are. But you also want to kill the Queen, which means you have to be here for debrief." James explained. Henry's bottom lip started quivering, and he abruptly excused himself.

"Oh, Henry, I'm sorry." James said.

"She may be the Evil Bitch, but she was still his mother." Emma shot daggers at him, then followed the kid.

Emma found him in Snow and James' room. She knocked on the door, and slowly opened it when he didn't answer.

"Henry…" She said, not knowing whether to cross the threshold or not.

"I'm fine." He lied.

"Henry, remember my super power? I know you're lying. And you know what else? I know what it's like to pretend you're fine, to pretend to be so tough when you're really not, when all you want to do is protect yourself and detaching is the only way. Henry, I don't want that to happen to you." Deciding it was safe, Emma took a seat next to him on the bed.

"I didn't realize how much I actually care for her." He explained.

"You know we're only doing this to protect you, right?"

"I know. Do you think…. Do you think that maybe you could put her in jail, like Rumplestilskin?" Henry asked.

"I don't know, Henry. I hate to say it, but she's a very powerful woman, and a very bad one. Bad and power don't mix very well." Emma said.

"Logically, I know she killed Sheriff Graham, sort of. I know she tried to run you out of town, and I know she isn't a very nice person. But at the same time, she's my mom, and I do care about her." Henry said.

"And that's all perfectly normal. Henry, I love you and only want to protect you. That woman is a threat to us, to what we have. I'm not taking any chances with you." Emma said.

"I know." Henry smiled.

"Good. Now that you're done the pity party, let's go eat some cake."

"I hope you like it." Henry hopped off the bed.

"I'm sure I will."

Later that night, Graham took Emma for a walk. Though it was well past twilight, there was a full moon and they were able to see each other clearly. Somewhere, a wolf howled. They had been walking for a few minutes when Emma noticed she couldn't hear her companion's footsteps. She glanced behind her, and saw Graham kneeling with a ring in one hand.

"Are you serious?" She asked, hopefully yet incredulously.

"Yes." Graham said. "I love you, Emma Swan. You are the love of my life, even though I'm not quite sure why yet. I feel as though you are the very reason I breathe, the very reason I am on this earth. Emma, I love you with every fiber of my being. I may not have truly known you long, as there was a 5 year gap in our love, but you are the one. Will you marry me?"

"Well, with that speech, it's pretty hard to say no." Emma quipped. Tears clouded her vision as she launched herself at the man. "Yes." They went into a long, fervent kiss. When they broke apart, she was startled to see relief on his face. "You thought I was going to say no." She frowned.

"You're not exactly the sappy romantic type. We also haven't been dating. You also have a serious trust issue, and a rather high wall. The last time you allowed a window in said wall, you got hurt. I did, too cause I died. But you get the point. The only reasons I had for you to say yes is because of my dashing good looks, or my sexy accent. Or my hair." Graham said.

"You're right. About all of that. You left one part out, though. I love you." With that, they kissed again.

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