Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to all of my loyal readers! Here is the next installment. Enjoy. And as always, please review and tell me what you think.

Chapter 14 – Paperwork

After my morning chat with my parents, my day started with one call after another. The first was a call from the school about two high school kids getting into a fight on the bus. Apparently, according to school policy, any fighting on school property was a reportable offense; which meant nothing to me except for paperwork.

The next call was about a shattered window at Sneezy's pharmacy. Apparently the snow plow kicked up a rock that flew into the window. In past couple of weeks the snow events had started to fade away to make way for spring, but there were a couple of squalls that came through leaving 2 or 3 inches on the road that needed to be plowed away. Again it didn't mean much to me accept for more paperwork. Paperwork that was necessary for insurance purposes. Without a police report, the insurance wouldn't pay for the replacement window.

The final call of the morning was a domestic call that led me to William Perry's home. Will Perry was this world's name for the boy or man, I guess, who cried wolf. Yeah, you guessed it, he was hearing strange growling sounds in his back yard and called to report a stray dog. So I had to hike around his five acres of wooded property looking for the stray dog, which I never found. So the call ended up just producing more paperwork. I stopped at Granny's to pick up a hot chocolate before I headed back to the station to fill out all of the damned paperwork that the morning created.

"Hey," I non-enthusiastically announced my presence to my father who was sitting at his desk reading the newspaper. I did a double take at him. Reading the paper, why I did take all of the calls this morning and he was sitting there reading the newspaper?

"Oh, hey," he looked up from the article he was reading to flash me a smile.

"Is there a reason that you didn't turn off the call forwarding to my phone?" I asked as I walked passed him. I didn't try very hard to hide my frustration at running around all over town today while he was reading the newspaper.

"Oh, sorry about that," he apologized as he got up to follow me into my office. "I got so involved with showing Zeke what I needed done, that I forgot to turn it off. I'm guessing that there were a couple of calls that came in?"

"Yeah, just a few." I let out an apologetic sigh, "It's fine. I just had to deal with Mr. Perry today." I didn't need to say anymore than that, he knew that Mr. Perry always put me in a foul mood. It seems that even in this world he liked to make false claims. The twist being that he was schizophrenic and genuinely believed that something was lurking in the shadows trying to get at him.

I tossed my notebook aside and set my hot chocolate down on the desk. I peeled away my jacket and hung it on the hook on the wall. "Speaking of Zeke," I sat down at my desk to begin my work, "where is he? He certainly wasn't in the wiring closet as I walked past…" I eyed my dad suspiciously, "…is there a different fuse box somewhere that he is replacing?" I think that my sarcasm was enough to make it known that I didn't believe, for one minute, David's fuse box excuse this morning.

"Emma, he's a plumber, why would he be changing a fuse box?" He reached down to move my drink so that he didn't knock it over as he perched himself on the corner of my desk.

"Ok, so if he's not changing a fuse box, then what is he doing?" I put my face down into my palms and rubbed my eyes for a couple of seconds before I reached for my drink and took a sip.

"I have him setting up a perimeter waterfall décor in the town meeting hall for your mother's party tonight." I nearly choked on my hot chocolate.

"I'm sorry," I finally cleared my mouth of the hot liquid. "Mom's what?" He couldn't really have been planning a party for my mother's birthday. Could he? The one day of the year that she would just as soon skip over.

"Her surprise party, tonight at the town meeting hall; I thought that I would outline the walls with thin streamed water fall. Zeke is finishing up the plumbing so once we fill it with water, it should be ready." I'm sure what he had in mind was going to be beautiful, but I couldn't get past the 'birthday party for my mother' part of the plan.

"And that lame ass excuse about a fuse box was the best that you could come up with?" He went to answer me but I waved my hand in his face to stop him, I wasn't done. "Never mind that; do you have a death wish?" He looked at me completely dumbfounded as I continued. "Do you lie awake at night trying to come up with your next bad idea?"

"Emma, I really think that together we can make her birthday a happy occasion. We can change it for her." I was listening to him; he was trying so hard to convince me to go along with his plan. I had to admit it sounded romantic and loving, but I had seen how adamant my mother had been in the past about not wanting to celebrate her birthday. "Think about it, Emma. In the past she only had heartbreak for her birthday, just the memory of her mother dying, nothing or no one else. But now she has you, me, your brother, and all of her friends. Things are different here; maybe her birthday can be different for her here too."

"Alright, alright." I conceded to him. "Maybe you're right. What do you need me to do?"

"Ah ha…" He stood from his chair, smiling from ear to ear. He wrapped his arm loosely around my neck and pulled my head to his lips giving me a light kiss. "You, my girl, won't be sorry."

"Yeah well, if she goes all ape shit, all bets are off and I'm throwing you under the bus." He smiled at me and gave me a wink that I had begun to notice that he reserved for only me. "Hey, shouldn't you be at Granny's right now?"

He looked down at his watch. "Yeah, I guess so…" He replied as he scrambled to get his coat. Before he left he lifted his arm and pointed a finger in my direction. "We still on for Gold's at 1:00?" I nodded. "Good. See you then, love you, princess."

I rolled my eyes at the name, "love you too." I called after him. I smiled to myself as I thought about his plan. His sincere love for my mother and her happiness was the driving force behind this party for her. And as much as I wanted to abide by her wishes that she made well known in years past, I believed that my father was onto something and that he was right. Together we could turn her birthday into a happy occasion. The thought of actually seeing my mother happy on her birthday carried me into the job that was lying on my desk waiting to be completed.

"Excuse me, Princess?" I was so wrapped up in my paperwork that I didn't hear Zeke enter the station room. He jumped back a bit when I looked up abruptly. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to interrupt you."

I threw my pen down on the desk. "No need to apologize Zeke." I gave him a gentle smile. He seemed like such a kind older man; a man who was just trying to make a good living and live a joyous life. "What can I do for you?"

"I was looking for the Prince. I finished the pipe work for tonight, filled it with water and tested it. I thought that maybe he would like to see it before he signed off on the scope of work."

"Oh, he went to lunch with my Mom." I thought about it for a minute. I didn't want to call or text him. I feared that pulling him away from their lunch date would only give my mother reason to be suspicious. "How about I take a look at it, if it meets my approval, I'll sign off on it."

The look of hesitation on his face was hard to miss. This was an older man set in his professional ways, David was the one who hired him and David was the one that he wanted to sign off on the work. "Don't worry about my Dad, I'll handle him." I assured him as I followed him across the street to the meeting hall.

"It's good to see that you have settled into your family and have accepted them into your life," I shot him a confounded look; his comment caught me a little off guard. I decidedly let the comment go, chalking it up to my royal status, there were so many people in Storybrooke who knew our family from the Enchanted Forest because my parents were their rulers. But just because people knew of them didn't necessarily mean that my parents knew all of their people. That would be like a famous celebrity knowing each of one of their fans; it was impossible. I followed him into the meeting hall. He flicked the switch to the water fall as we entered the room. It took my breath away, it was so beautiful. Each wall was lined so that it looked like the walls were made of water. Accent lights of different colors shined through the water giving it a rainbow effect.

"This is what my father had you doing for tonight?" I couldn't take my eyes off of it. It was perfect. The sound of the water was relaxing, the colors cascading through into the room was mesmerizing. The rest of the room was decorated to look like a grand ballroom in a castle. There was a stage to the left of the dance floor for the orchestra; each table was decorated with red linen and snow bell flowers as the center piece.

"Yes, you're highness. Of course I only did the piping and the water. Macro did everything else."

"Wow, my mom is going to love it." I loved it. I took the clipboard from Zeke's hand and I scribbled my name across the line. "I am sure that my Dad would approve. Speaking of my Dad…" I felt my phone buzz in my jeans pocket when my reminder alarm went off. "I need to go meet him, see you tonight?" I asked Zeke. I saw him nod a quick yes as I raced out the door and towards Mr. Gold's pawn shop.

I burst through the pawn shop door knowing that I was about 10 minutes late for meeting David. He had wanted to help me pick the perfect gift for my mother. "Sorry I'm late; Zeke wanted me to sign off on his scope of work for that job you had him doing."

David reached his arm out to me indicating that he wanted me to come to his side. When moved closer to him, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "He's done already? How's it look?"

"It is beautiful…I don't know, Dad, after seeing all that; you just might pull this party off."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence…" he chuckled. Once again he gave me that special wink that he had reserved just for me. "I had Belle pull a few items that I think that would be perfect for your mother."

I turned my attention to the items that were laid out on the show case. She had a myriad of items that she had picked out. Everything from jewelry to books, I looked through everything that she had suggested and talked with my father about each item. There was a locket that David thought would be perfect, especially if I could find a picture of myself when I was little. But considering that I had almost nothing like that, except for what may have been in the file that the snow queen had of my time with her. I passed on that idea.

There was a small jewelry box sitting there. It was a footed jewelry casket in the shape of chest. The silver that it was made from showed it's age in the patina that enveloped the piece. It was a beautiful antique. "That was mine," my father pointed to the old box. "That is the jewelry box that your mother used to hit me in the face…in the altered timeline."

I laughed as I reached up to turn his chin toward me so that I could see the scare, "Maybe that should be a gift from you, then," I suggested with a mischievous raise of my eyebrows.

"How much?" he turned to Belle.

I watched her smile as she slide the box toward my father, "I couldn't possibly make the rightful owner of the box pay for it." He thanked her with is charming smile.

I looked over some of the other items that were laid out, but none of them really jumped out at me. There wasn't anything there that really said happy birthday from a daughter to her mother. I pushed one of the books to the side so that I could get a better look at some of the items under the glass. That was when I found it. It was a beautiful crystal swan paper weight. It had the most intricate design and detail. The whole body was clear crystal but the beak had a yellow-gold tint to it. The culmen, which is the upper ridge of a swan's bill, was painted black, with two black pearls for eyes.

I pointed to the swan through the glass, "the swan," I looked to my dad, "that's the gift."

"It's perfect," he whispered. "A swan from her swan." I closed my eyes at his sentiment; I wanted to shoot him a remark about it being a corny dad joke. But instead, I liked the idea of it.

Belle unlocked the showcase and pulled the swan from its display. I lifted it ever so gently to admire the crafted weight as Belle exited to pull the inventory card. "It will make a lovely gift for your mother," she stated on her way back into the room. "Oh, and mysterious too. It says here that when matched with its emblem it has the power to remember what time has forgotten."

"Where's the emblem?" My father asked the question before I had a chance.

"I don't know," Belle shook her head. "There's no information on the card about the emblem, other than a picture of it." She turned the card for us to see, "it is not something that we have here, in the shop."

"We'll take it," my father said.

I touched my hand to his arm when he reached for his wallet, "what are you doing? This is from me."

"I only said that the gift was from you, I never said that you were going to pay for it. Emma picks, Dad pays. That is how it should have been when you were little and that is what I am making this day about. What should have been and what will be."

I watched him hand the cash over to Belle; I let him have it his way. We left the pawn shop with our gifts in hand and I finally understood what was going on his head. I admired everything that he was doing. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure how I had ever doubted his plan. He had every detail worked out. The evening was going to be nothing less than perfection.