I decided to break this chapter up into two parts. The first part came out a little more emotional that I had originally intended. But I felt that the content in this chapter needed to happen. Enjoy...Thank you again to all of my readers and reviewers. You are GREAT! Thank you for boosting the reviews over 100! Please Review!

Chapter 19 - Family Night Part 1

I was exhausted though I didn't want to admit it. I lagged behind as I followed Mary Margaret into the loft. What I really wanted to do was go haul King George into the station and grill him for answers. Instead, I flopped down on the couch to wait for David to return from pushing Zeke over the town line. I watched my little brother toddle around the room in his walker. My mother had made a beeline for the kitchen. I heard her pull some items out of the refrigerator and set them on the counter. My guess was she was getting ready to make dinner. Every minute or so she would glance up to check on my brother, but her gaze would always shift to me.

It surprised when I saw her walking in my direction when a cup of hot chocolate in each of her hands. I hadn't realized that she was making it; I just assumed that she was focused on dinner. "Are you ok, honey?" she held one cup out in my direction.

I sat up and accepted the hot drink. My mother and I always had our serious talks over a cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon. I didn't answer her question though, I didn't feel like talking. Or at least I didn't think that I felt like talking. I didn't know that the words were actually coming out of my mouth until I heard her response to the question that I thought was only jumping around inside my head, "why didn't Dad let me go with him?" I sounded like a 10 year old that was upset that Daddy didn't take me to the ballgame.

"Oh, honey," she sat down next to me. I turned my head to look at her. She pushed her lips into a thin line and tilted her head to the side. "This was something that he needed to do. Just him and…Mr. Cooper…obviously."

I felt the concern that was building in the pit of my stomach, "what was he going to do?" I couldn't hide the twinge of fear that was in my voice.

She reached up to brush the hair out of my eyes and tucked a couple of stray strands behind my ear, "Nothing, sweetheart. He was only taking him to the town line and ensuring his departure."

"That's the part that I'm worried about…ensuring his departure…from the town or from the world." It wasn't a question. Just a statement of what was weighing on my mind. I finally had a father who loved me and wanted me; I didn't want to lose him over something that happened almost sixteen years ago.

"Emma…" my mother started, but I cut her off. I knew that she was going to try to convince me that David just drove the man to the town line and said 'see ya later.' But I knew my father better than that; I knew that there would be nothing less than fists involved.

"No, don't Emma me." My words were sharp and biting, "You know him as well as I do, better than I do, actually. And you know that I'm his 'little princess'…his 'baby girl'…" yes I put the air quotes around the pet names to help prove my point. "And this whole damn town knows what would happen if anyone were to touch one hair on the head of David Nolan's only daughter…and it wouldn't be pretty."

She tried to hide the slight smile that curved her lips. I knew why she was smiling; this was the first time that I had ever admitted out loud that I was the 'little princess' or 'baby girl' to either of them. It didn't matter that the admission was dripping with sarcasm; it didn't make it any less true. In her eyes, I had just cemented what they had worked so hard to achieve; and that was me being able to accept them as and let them be my parents. That I was opening my heart and finally letting them in; and with that came the two way street of worry; they worried about me and I worried about them. We had finally made the complete parent/child relationship that we all had always wanted.

"I'm going to upstairs to lie down," I announced. I didn't want to think about it anymore. Instead I thought about Henry's book, which I knew was upstairs in his room. If nothing else, I could do some family research using the book while I waited. Hopefully that would take my mind off of the myriad of things that had ran through my head that my father could have been doing to like run him over with the truck, give him to the fisherman to use as bait, or make him a slave laborer to the dwarfs in the mines. Wow, I was letting my emotions run away with my imagination.

Mary Margaret didn't stop me like I thought that she would do. She just ran her hand down my arm starting at my shoulder and gave me a gentle smile, "Ok, sweetheart. One of us will be up when dinner is ready." I smiled back at her before I stood up and walked away.

I sat on my bed thumbing through Henry's book, but I wasn't really focusing on it. I couldn't. Instead I kept glancing over at the clock wondering what was taking my father so long. It had been over an hour. The town line is not that far away. The longer it took, the more I imagined the worst. Every bad scenario that could possibly enter my brain did enter my brain.

Finally, I heard the apartment door open. The sound of the door was followed by muffled voices downstairs then footsteps rushing up the steps. "Hi, Mom!"

I looked up to see Henry poking his head into my room. I couldn't help but to smile at his face. The epitome of a sight for sore eyes, "Hey Kid, what are you doing here?" It wasn't my week to have him, but I wasn't complaining.

"Gramps picked me up from school…he said that he cleared it with Mom. He said something about family game night after dinner." He shrugged as he explained his reason for being at the loft. I just furrowed my brow at him in confusion, as he continued to talk; "I don't have any homework so Grams said that I could play video games until dinner. Is that ok?"

"Uh…yeah…yeah…that's fine." I hesitated when I answered him. Suddenly I was unsure of anything that was going on in the house. An impromptu family game night and my mother willing allowing Henry to play video games instead of some kind of brain stimulating activity; something was off.

"Mom? Are you ok?" Henry's question pulled me from my reverie.

"Oh, yeah, kid, fine. I was just thinking about something. Go ahead, play your game."

"Ok," He left my room as fast as he entered. Well his head left as fast has his head entered, since he never fully stepped into my room. Anyway, I didn't care; my kid was here for the night; that was all that mattered.

I could hear my parents talking downstairs. I was straining to listen from my bed, if I was a betting person, I would have put money on the fact that David was telling Mary Margaret what happened on his way to the town line with Zeke. What little that I could hear was interrupted with the sudden noises of Henry's video game. I didn't care if he played his game, but I really didn't want to hear it. I got up exited my room to close his door. On my way back to my room, through the balcony railing, I caught a glimpse of my parents snuggled against one another on the couch. I quietly inched my way closer to the railing staying far enough away that I could see them and they couldn't see me, but close enough that I could hear them talk.

My father had his arm wrapped around my mother's shoulders holding her close to his chest. "I think that your game night idea is just what this family needs tonight. We all just need a night to unwind, especially Emma," he praised my mother. So this game night thing was her idea. I guess I couldn't blame her for trying to bring something good to an otherwise horrible day.

Her head was resting on his chest close to his shoulder. I watched as he pushed his lips down onto the top of her head. She closed her eyes at the touch. "She's worried about you?" My mother told him.

"Me? Why?" He pulled back slightly when my mother lifted her head to look at him.

"She's afraid that you did something that you're going to regret. Or worse; something that is inevitably going to make you leave her."

"She told you that?" he questioned.

"Not exactly, I had to read between the lines a little." I listened intently as my mother explained to my father everything that she got out of five minute conversation before I came upstairs. "She referred to herself as your 'little princess' and 'baby girl.'" I laughed quietly when Mary Margaret used the air quotes just as I had earlier. "She was worried about what you were going to do to him." She paused to watch his face as he took in what she was saying to him. I continued to watch and listen. "Charming, she is finally starting to open her heart and let us in. But somewhere deep inside she's still afraid that she is going to lose us again. We can't do that to her."

"We won't," he responded quickly. He pulled my mother's body close to him again. He leaned his head onto hers. I watched him take a deep breath and breathe in her scent. After a long moment he started talking again, "I didn't do anything. To Zeke…" he clarified. "I thought about it. I thought about everything that he did to her. I thought about everything that he said. I came close, but I didn't. I took him to the town line, and helped him across, albeit with my fist, but I helped him across, nonetheless. But I did think about it."

"Oh, Charming," she reached up and took his face into her hands, pulling his lips to hers.

"He nearly killed her, Snow," he said through tears that were starting to fall from his eyes. If he was trying to hold the tears back, he was failing. He started to cry a little harder. My mother wrapped her arms tightly around him, "He nearly killed my baby, Snow."

"David," she just held him tighter. My heart was breaking for my parents, particularly my father. It was just like him to hold it all in until I wasn't around. He never wanted to show me the hurt that he felt; he only ever wanted to be strong for me.

"No, Snow…" he hiccupped as the tears fell in steady stream. "I put her in the hands of that monster. I loved her so much, I wanted to save her, I wanted to make sure that she was safe, that should would have good future and be a good person. And I put her in the hands that monster. My baby, Snow; my little princess. She nearly died because of what I did." He held my mother so tight and just cried into her shoulder. She soothingly rubbed circles on his back, she just let him have his minute to let it all out. All of the anger and contempt that he was holding in just came pouring out.

"Charming, no, you can't do this to yourself. No, no, no…" She used the pads of her thumbs to wipe away his tears. It took everything that I had to resist the urge to run to my dad. I knew why I couldn't, he was holding it in so that I wouldn't see him break down. But he needed this moment with my mom. I was reminded yet again how they just continued to put me first. I continued to stand there and watch my mother talk my father down. "Charming, our daughter is a remarkable human being. She is beautiful, caring, and a good person. She has bright future that includes us. She told me this, and now I'm telling you, she is okay. She really is okay. She survived, and she is better for it."

"How can she even stand to look at me, Snow? Why doesn't she hate me?" His emotions were causing him to be irrational.

"Because you are her father and she loves you. She loves you so very much; I see it every time she looks at you. Every time she comes down those stairs or through that door, when she only see me, she asks 'where's dad'…even if she already knows the answer." I smiled through my own tears. My mother was right; I had even asked it this morning on my way out.

I heard him chuckle a little, "She does the same thing to me about you."

"See…" Their conversation was halted by the oven timer going off. My mother gave him one last kiss before she pushed herself from the couch to address oven. I quietly tiptoed back to my room to grab a tissue. I wanted to give my father a couple of minutes to recompose himself before he saw me.

I waited for about ten minutes before I finally descended the stairs for dinner. I stood on the second step from the bottom for a minute and just watch my father as he set the table. My mother was busy preparing the rest of the salad. When his hands were finally empty, I hurried to him and nearly launched myself into his arms. "I love you, Dad." I whispered, "Don't you ever doubt that."

He held me as tightly as I was holding him. I felt him move his hand to the back of my head to cradle it; like he always did. "You heard?"

I simply nodded. He gave me a kiss to my head, "It's done. He's gone…across the town line with only a few bruises to his face and ego. The rest of this night is family night, okay? We'll deal with everything else tomorrow. Got it?" I nodded my head. All of my life I dreamed of having a Dad to hold me and tell me that everything was going to be ok. I used to think that parents like that didn't exist; that it was just another movie fabrication. I have never been so happy to be proven wrong.