Thank you to all of my loyal readers.

Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me. They are the property of ABC and Disney.

Chapter 8: Tender Loving Care

Charming gave his wife a serious look.

"I thought we were past that?" Pain clearly showed on his face. He took her hands in his and she did not pull away. "What kind of a man would possibly even consider leaving his pregnant wife?"

"That is exactly my point. Before we knew I was pregnant, we were having problems, then we found out that I was having a baby and suddenly everything was fine." She gave him a sad look.

He stared at her in complete shock.

"You think I stayed with you because you were pregnant?" The look on her face was breaking his heart.

"After we were married you were fixated on the curse and I had a kingdom to run and at times it was not easy. I was frustrated because I could see that Regina was driving you to distraction and it nearly killed me to see that she could still hurt you so much. Then you disappeared for a week and I nearly lost my mind because I was sure Regina had kidnapped you and our unborn child!"

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He had not thought about those desperate days in such a long time.

"Charming, I was gone for 3 days!" She exclaimed.

"It seemed like you were gone for a week." He whispered with yearning in his voice. "You never even told me where you went."

"You never asked." She stated simply.

"I was so happy to have you back that I really did not care at the time where you had been." He shrugged sadly.

"I went to the dwarf's old cottage. It was empty of course since they were living in the palace with us. The first day I was there I missed you so much that all I did was cry. The second day I couldn't eat because I missed you so much. That night I couldn't sleep, I missed you so much. Then I came home."

"Snow, why didn't you tell me?" His eyes were brimming with tears.

"I know you were unhappy with me, but I could not help it." Again she started to cry.

"I was unhappy only because you were unhappy. But I never could have left you; even before we found out we were having Emma. You are my life, Snow. I miss you when you leave the room for 5 minutes. I simply could never live without you." He gave her a loving look.

"I was not unhappy all of the time." She admitted.

"Are you sure you were only gone for 3 days."

"Positive, I missed you too much."

"I guess it is a good thing that I only imprisoned Regina for 1 day."

"You imprisoned Regina?"

"Only for 12 hours. I put her in a cell right next to the Dark One. I figured if anyone could get her to confess it would be him and it would take him less than a day. By the end of the first day, she was begging to be let out and still denying that she knew anything about your whereabouts. I let her go!"

Snow smiled through her tears.

He reached up and dried the tears with his thumb.

"Why are you thinking about this now?" He asked with tender concern in his voice.

"I do not know. I have felt like I was on such an emotional roller coaster this past week. Ever since the curse was broken I have been wondering what would have happened if Emma and I had come through together and had to wait 28 years to break the curse."

"I guess you would have found me for a change. Then I would have remembered you and I would have been deliriously happy to be with you again. That is how I have felt every minute of every day since the curse was broken." He leaned in and gave her and long, intense kiss in an attempt to prove his point.

"Never doubt that I love you more than life itself. I chose you and I will always choose you" He whispered to her. "Now can we go see our daughter, who is second in my esteem only to you, my love?"

"Of course." She answered and followed him out of the courthouse.

Emma was hanging up her phone when she saw her mother walk in. Ruby was setting their food on the counter.

Her father followed about 5 minutes later. He was putting his cell phone in his pocket. His wife gave him, a puzzled look, but he didn't volunteer information about who he had been talking to on the phone.

"Perfect timing!" Emma exclaimed and indicated the food on the counter.

Snow gave her daughter a weak smile and sat down on one of the stools. Charming looked over at the table.

"Is something wrong with the table?" He indicated with his head. There was a smirk on his face.

"Don't be a smartass! I can still dump your butt in jail anytime I feel like it." She glared at him. She looked over at her mother who had started to eat. A look of worry crossed her face.

"What did you do to her?" She glared at her father.

"Nothing!" His eyes were wide with innocence.

"I would believe you except for the fact that I recognize that look on her face. It is her look that says, "David has just sent me through the emotional ringer." She gave him a dirty look and went back to the counter.

"What happened?" She asked her mother.

Snow shook her head, "Nothing really. We found out that David owns the cabin. We can start renovating as soon as possible."

"Did he do something to you? Because I can hurt him!" Emma promised. She turned to her father. "I had them put pickles on your sandwich."

"You would not be that cruel." He responded casually.

"Emma, be a dear and stop threatening your father." She said softly.

"It took her longer than normal to come to your defense. You had to have done something!" Emma accused.

I didn't," He insisted and then he looked to his wife for confirmation. "Did I do something?"

"No! I'm tired that is all. Emma, are you going to finish your sandwich?" She asked nonchalantly.

Snow had finished everything that she had ordered and she was still hungry? Emma looked at her mother in amazement.

"I was planning on it!" Emma grabbed her sandwich and looked at her mother with concern growing in her eyes.

Charming sat down on a stool next to his wife and gingerly took a bite of half of his sandwich. When he was sure it was and pickle free. He placed the uneaten half on his wife's plate. She gave him an affectionate look and his heart melted.

"I am very much in love with you, I hope you know that, Snow?" He gave her a comforting smile.

She leaned her head on his shoulder as she ate half of his grilled cheese sandwich.

"I do." She assured him affectionately.

"The Child Welfare Council is meeting as we speak," Emma informed her parents.

"Who is on the Council?" Charming asked.

Emma ticked off the names, "of Mother Superior from the school and convent, Archie Hopper, his friend Marco and Jefferson."

Charming repeated the names as he knew then from the Enchanted Forest, "The Blue Fairly, and Jiminy, Geppetto." They all owed him or Snow in one way or the other, so that was positive. "Who is Jefferson?"

"He is the guy who kidnaped me and tied me up and held me captive in order to persuade Emma to make him a magic hat." Snow reminded her husband, "He is quite mad."

"He thinks she is the Mad Hatter." Emma remarked dryly.

"Is he on our side though?" Charming asked with concern showing on his face.

"He hates Regina because she separated him from his daughter, so I doubt he would side with her in a custody battle." Emma shrugged.

Emma noticed that Ruby was talking to a wormy looking young man who was pointing in their direction. He was now making his way over to the trio.

"I wonder what is going on?" Emma asked.

"I think we are about to find out." Charming replied.

The man looked at 3 envelopes in his hand.

"Emma Swan? David Nolan? Mary Margaret Blanchard?"

"We sometimes go by those names," Snow admitted.

He handed them each an envelope addressed to them with the City of Storybrooke seal on the front.

"This can't be good!" Emma lamented.

They each tore into their respective envelope.

"A restraining order from Regina?" Charming asked.

"Demanding that we stay away from her and Henry when he is in her presence!" Emma read hers out loud.

"Signed by Judge Spencer of course! I wish the dragon had digested him!" Snow snapped.

"So he is holding a grudge because you let a dragon nearly eat him?" Emma stared at them in disbelief.

"In our world there were 3 types of people," Charming stated, "Those who were with us, those who were against us and those we never met." He said this in a manner that indicated that he expected no other explanation was necessary.

"It must have been nice to live in a world where everything was so black and white." Emma stated sarcastically.

Her cell phone rang and she looked down at the caller ID.

"It's Dr. Hopper. It must be about Henry." She answered the phone, but had to step outside to get a better signal.

Charming and Snow waited breathlessly for her to return with news. Snow reached for her husband's hand and held on to it tightly.

Emma came back a few minutes later, but her face was completely unreadable. He parents waited in anticipation.

"Well, what did they decide?" Her mother asked eagerly.

A smile spread across Emma's face, "The board decided to give me primary custody. Regina can have supervised visits to be determined at a later date. I have to meet the council members at Regina's house in 20 minutes!" She looked down at the restraining order. "I wonder if all of it invalidates this?"

"We can figure that out later!" Her mother said as she gave her a hug. "Go get Henry!" She shooed her out the door. Then turned to her husband. "Do you want to split a banana split?" She asked him eagerly.

He was still hungry, he had given her half of his sandwich after all. He was not sure how she could eat anything else.

"Let's order to go. I want to be home when Henry and Emma get back." He informed her.

The first thing Snow did when they got back home was to kick off her shoes. She looked down at them and wondered how her shoes had gotten to be half a size too small. "My feet are killing me and I really need to take a shower. Then I just want to fall into bed." She headed upstairs.

"What should I do with the ice cream?" Charming asked concerned that banana split was going to start to drip.

"Put it in freezer. I am not really hungry for it anymore," She frowned. "You can join me in the shower though." She sly suggested.

"Sorry, Emma and Henry will be home soon and I would rather not start something we can't finish." He shrugged and went to the kitchen to put the ice cream in the freezer.

She looked after him in disbelieve.

"Since when?" She asked out loud in a miffed voice.

She went into the bathroom. Her bathroom had both a shower and a claw footed tub. That tub had been one of the things that made her pick that particular apartment. She had fallen in love with the tub. Once the curse was broken she had realized that she loved that tub so much because she had one just like it in the palace she and Charming had shared there had been similar tub.

She ignored the tub and turned on the shower. She looked at herself in the mirror and started to sob. A week ago her husband could hardly keep his hands off of her. Now, he wasn't interested in her at all. Soon he would become so dedicated to solving other people's problems that he would stop making time for them. Little romantic gestures like sharing his sandwich would fall by the wayside. Also, there had been that mysterious phone call he had made before he came into the diner. It reminded her of when David would call her out of the blue. Maybe her husband was setting up a romantic encounter with another woman? She swallowed a sob. Well, she was not Mary Margaret, if some other woman had designs are her husband, she was going to fight for him. But what if he didn't want her to fight for him?

"Sharing his grilled cheese may be the last romantic thing he ever does for me!" She cried out loud and stepped into the shower and let the water cascade over her.

Unbeknownst to Snow, her husband had an extremely romantic gesture planed. He just needed help from some of their friends. 7 friends to be exact. He waited until he heard her turn on the water for the shower. He knew he had time because she was well known for taking extremely long showers. He picked up the phone and hit redial.

"Guys, I am ready if you are. She just got in the shower so that gives us plenty of time."

A couple of minutes later there was a soft knock on the door. He opened it and saw 6 of the 7 dwarfs carrying white boxes about the size of file boxes. Sneezy was holding a small gold box.

Grumpy had a scowl on his face, "Why we have to put in all the work to make you look good is beyond my understanding!"

"Snow has had a hard week, she really needs some TLC to cheer her up." Charming explained.

"We have all had a hard week," Grumpy reminded him.

"Snow feels things so much deeper though." He sighed.

"Don't we know it!" Bashful nodded. "You did not have to live with her during the 'Prince James is marrying another woman,' phase!"

Charming winched at the thought.

"At least the two of you are living together. The 7 of us are all living in different places." Grumpy huffed.

"We have always lived together!" Happy lamented.

"I am working on that," Charming promised. "I think I might have found you a house."

"It doesn't have to be big!" Doc commented.

"We like cozy!" Sleepy added.

"I will keep that in mind." He grinned. He really did love these guys. Mostly because they loved Snow; But they were also friends who could be counted on to come through.

"Where do you want the boxes?" Dopey asked.

"Upstairs in the bedroom, if you can manage." Charming indicated.

"We gave Sneezy the box of candy to carry, we didn't want an incident similar to what happened at the wedding!" Grumpy glared at his brother.

"I'm allergic to daisies!" He protested.

Charming smiled, "Well daisies are Snow's favorite flower, so we there really is no other choice in the matter. "Do you guys mind hanging the banner for Henry and letting yourselves out?"

"Of course, your majesty!" Grumpy grumbled.

Doc elbowed him in the side.

"We would be happy to do that," Grumpy corrected himself.

The 7 brothers filed upstairs. Charming went into the downstairs bathroom to take a quick shower. He much preferred the bathroom that he had been sharing with Snow. The one with both the tub and the shower. David and Mary Margaret had a few adventures in that tub. Some of which he wouldn't mind recreating with his wife. He quickly showered and slipped on one of two robes that he kept in the bathroom. He had discovered very quickly the awkwardness that came from living with an adult daughter and had started to stash clothes in different parts of the apartment. Once upstairs he could hear that the shower in the other bathroom had stopped, but he could still hear Snow singing to herself so he knew she was still in there.

He slipped on a pair of lounge pants and a blue t-shirt that complimented his eyes. He had looked for his black silk pJ's but he figured that his wife had pilfered them again. Not that he minded, he thought they looked much better on her anyway. He rearranged a few things in the bedroom and stood in the doorway of the room to wait for her.

She seemed startled to see him standing there. Indeed she was wearing his nightwear and he thought she looked incredibly sexy. The black silk against the white of her skin and the red of her lips was just stunning.

She saw her husband standing there leaning against the doorframe. His hair was still wet from the shower, the t-shirt he was wearing made the blue in his eyes sparkle like sapphires. He made her heart melt like butter. She had heard some of the girls that she taught refer to a boy as "hot." She had never been able to grasp what that meant. Now she understood, her husband was hot! Just looking at him sent a warm glow through her body.

He was staring at her in the pajamas.

"I guess what they say about once a thief, always a thief is true?" He grinned.

"The ring did end up being mine, so it was less a situation of theft and more pre-ownership. As for the pajamas I wear them when I want to feel close to you." She smiled.

"I wasn't talking about the ring or the pj's. I was talking about how the first time we met, you stole my heart and every time I look at you, you steal all over again."

He pulled her against him. "You don't have to wear my clothes to feel close to me." He whispered.

She opened the door and was rendered speechless. Every flat surface in the bedroom was covered with vases of white daises mixed with white roses. It was such a romantic gesture that it brought tears to her eyes. Tears of joy rather than the tears of doubt she had been shedding.

"How did you manage this?" She asked giving him an loving smile.

"I had some help from our friends." He admitted. "Snow, I want you to feel surrounded by love. Not just by me, but by everyone in your life." He gave her and affectionate look.

She sat crossed legged on the bed and opened the box of candy. It was all dark chocolate, which was her favorite. He sat behind her and rubbed her shoulders. She relaxed in his arms and allowed him to knead away some of the tension she had been carrying for such a long time.

She picked up one of the candies, "I wonder if this is caramel?" She took a bite and was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was her favorite.

Charming leaned his head on her shoulder and whispered in her ear, "I will let you in on a secret, they are all caramel."

She turned in his arms until she could kiss him. It was a loving, slow kiss. He could taste the sweet and salty remains of the chocolate on her lips. It was sublime and sultry all at the same time.

The door blew open and Henry thrust himself into the room, the moment was shattered.

"I told you to knock first!" Emma exclaimed a full 30 seconds too late.

"Ewe! They are kissing!" Henry lamented.

Charming laughed, After the things you read in that storybook, this bothers you?"

"I didn't think of you as my grandparents then." He shrugged.

Emma looked around the room at all of the flowers. Charming braced himself for a negative comment from her along the lines of an exploding flower shop.

"Nice!" Was all she said. It wasn't sarcastic or pointed. It was a simple, positive reaction.

"The welcome home banner was cool!" Henry exclaimed.

Snow gave her husband a questioning look. "You had time to hang a banner? No wonder you didn't have time to, um help me wash my hair."

He gave her an amused grin, "Next time!" He promised.

"Right!" Emma turned to Henry. "There is a Granny burger waiting downstairs for you kid. Then you need to shower and get ready for bed." She turned to her parents, "You two might want to get a lock for this door."

"Henry, there is a banana split in the freezer with you name on it," Charming informed him.

Emma ushered him out the door. Snow gave her husband a pout.

"I can not believe that you gave away my banana split!" She frowned.

"Snow, it had all melted together into a frozen disaster. Only a 10 year old would want to eat what I put in the freezer."

She continued to sulk.

"Besides, dearest I have something for you that is far better than a banana split." He gave her an enigmatic smile.

"Will it require a lock on the door?" She asked excitedly.

"Maybe, it depends on how appreciative you can be." He teased.

"Oh I can be very appreciative given the right incentive. Is it jewelry?"

"You are not really the jewelry type." He reminded her.

"True!" She shrugged. "Tell me what it is before I perish from curiosity!" She demanded.

"I am going to give you what every woman wants from her husband after a long hard day. I am going to give you a foot rub! What do you think of that?" He asked with pride in his voice.

"I think I am the luckiest woman on the planet!" She fell into his arms.

Next: Emma and Snow bond over motherhood.