Thank you to everyone who continues to read this story.

I do not own these characters or their setting. All I claim authorship to are the words written here.

Chapter 18 A Good Man

Snow sat on a small bench in the bathroom. She had suffered from morning sickness until the wee hours of the morning. She had showered and gotten dressed and that made her feel a little better. Still, she was not relishing facing the day. She had to go to the school and meet with other teachers and the principle. They were facing the first post curse school year and they had no idea how to proceed. Some of the children had been in the same class for 28 years. A few others had somehow managed to advance through the system. There were a few who had come from the outside world and had not been affected by the curse. Henry was one of them and Snow planned on taking him with her in the hopes that he would be able to provide insight into how to Advance his classmates. They needed to come up with some type of system to test the abilities of the students and they needed to come up with it fast.

When Snow left the safety of the bathroom the first thing that she experienced was the overwhelming smell of breakfast cooking. The scent of eggs, coffee and burnt toast permeated the air and made her feel like rushing back into the bathroom and setting up permanent residence.

Henry and Emma were sitting at the table finishing up breakfast and her husband was putting the finishing touches on a plate of food. She sat down gingerly and looked at the plate that he had proudly placed in front of her and had to rush back to the bathroom. To make things worse, when she came back from throwing up, he wanted to kiss her!

"Don't touch me." She stated weakly.

He seemed genuinely perplexed and momentarily hurt. "Alright." He agreed reluctantly.

Emma had gotten up and prepared her mother a cup of tea and a piece of dry toast. Her father gave her a worried look.

"She has morning sickness." Emma informed him.

He gave his wife a worried look and asked her in a sympathetic tone, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"How about never touching me again?" She snapped.

He grinned nervously, "Isn't that a little extreme, dear?" He asked.

"I don't think so, dear," She answered sarcastically, "Since your repeated touching of me is the reason I only got two hours of sleep last night!" She sobbed.

"What does she mean?" Henry asked innocently, "Are they going to break up?" He sounded worried.

Emma gave her parents a hostile look.

"No one is breaking up." She assured him. "What is the plan for today?" She asked trying to change the subject.

"I would just as soon crawl into bed and spend the day under the covers." Snow insisted, "But I have to go to school and meet with other teachers and try and come up with a plan to continue to educate the children of this town. Henry, you are coming with me." She insisted. "I will probably spend most of the day in the teachers restroom bent over the toilet though!"

Charming pushed back his uneaten breakfast.

"I was going to go to the cabin and work on the expansion and renovation, but if you would rather I went to school with you and Henry, I can do that instead." He gave his wife a worried look.

"So you can hold my hand while I throw up?" She asked. "I think I can manage without you." She insisted sarcastically.

Henry gave his grandfather a pleading look, "Can I go to the cabin with you?" He begged.

"We really could use your help since you are one of the few children in the school system that has advanced." Snow told him. "It won't be that bad." She promised.

"Okay, then go get ready to go with your grandmother, kid." Emma informed him.

Henry ran upstairs.

Emma addressed her parents. "I need to go take a shower and get to the station."

"I need to get going as well." Charming informed them. He wasn't sure what time Jasmine would show up at the cabin and he didn't want to miss her.

He leaned over to kiss Snow, but she pushed him away.

"Do I have morning breath?" He asked.

"You smell like coffee and suddenly the smell of it makes me want to puke. I am banning it in this house!" She grimaced. "Plus, what part of never touching me again did you misunderstand?" She asked sarcastically.

He kissed her on the forehead. "I love you too, honey. I will see you later" He called out as he left out the door.

Snow sipped her tea and tried to nibble on her toast.

The morning quickly warmed up and Charming had stripped off his over shirt and hung it on a peg. He was busy hammering a beam into place and he didn't hear Jasmine drive up.

"Very nice!" She stated clearly admiring his well-toned muscles that were outlined by his undershirt.

"Jasmine, I didn't see you drive up." He smiled at her. He reached for his over shirt, but she stopped him and instead took him by the arm and led him over to a stack of blocks. She was wearing a short, purple suite that showed off a slender figure. The color off set her exotic complexion. He also noticed that the length of the skirt showcased her legs.

"As promised I brought coffee and pastries." She handed him a bag from the diner. He found that he was hungry. The morning sickness discussion at the breakfast table had ruined his appetite and he hadn't had a chance to grab anything else to eat and he probably wouldn't get to have lunch since he was supposed to go riding with Emma. Jasmine's hand was still resting on his arm.

"The coffee is good. It doesn't taste like the one they serve at Granny's." He took a long sip.

"It is my one special blend." She informed him.

"Snow has banned coffee at our place. So, I need to savior it where I can get it." She told her.

"Well, you know what they say? When something is forbidden, it just makes it all the tastier." She gave him a sultry look.

Marco had been watching her ever since she had arrived and he decided the situation was ripe for interruption. He stuck his head out the door.

"I am going to start on the woodwork in the nursery." He informed Charming.

"Whatever you think is important. I trust your judgment." The prince informed him causally.

Marco just shook his head and reluctantly left them alone.

"Do you have any ideas on how you would like to approach your campaign?" She asked.

"I haven't even decided if I am going to run." He informed her. "I really think that my wife would make a better Mayor." He took another sip of the coffee.

Jasmine shook her head sadly, "I am afraid that I have to disagree with you. I can give you a list of reasons why your wife is ill-suited to run against Mayor Mills.

"Such as?" He asked defensively.

"Well, for one thing, many people think of her as nothing more than a spoiled Princess who was unable to get along with her stepmother." She waved a well-manicured finger in front of his face.

"That is my wife you are talking about!" He replied in an accusing voice. "Snow is the kindest and most generous person I know she is beautiful inside and out, and that stepmother she supposedly could not get along with, tried to kill her repeatedly!"

"That stepmother would be her political opposition. Her supposed sweet disposition does not change the fact that she and Regina have a past. One that Madam Mayor would take great pleasure in running through the winger if it would help her get re-elected." Jasmine pointed out.

"You have a point." Charming conceded.

"You on the other hand, are viewed as a man of the people who has an uncomplicated past. There is very little that you have done that could be used to fling mud at your champagne. This town needs your leadership!" She insisted boldly.

"I have to talk to my family about running for mayor. Which reminds me, I am supposed to meet my daughter to go horse back in 20 minutes. We will have to continue this discussion another time." He informed her.

"I have a better idea. I can come along. I love horses and we can go over some strategy ideas I have that will surely get you elected. I can take some candid photos of you bonding with your daughter. It will be great publicity." She smiled broadly.

He looked at her as if she had lost her mind. "If I decide to do this, we are not going to use my family for publicity! I am going to spend a few hours bonding with my daughter and we are going to do it alone. Do we have an understanding?" He seethed.

She was momentarily stunned, but quickly recovered. "Of course, you are the boss." She gave him a smile.

He reached for his over shirt and put it on. He was about to button it, but she stopped him.

"Let me help you with that." She started to slowly fasten the buttons.

"Excuse me, am I interrupting anything?" A voice called sarcastically from the porch.

Charming looked up and was surprised to see his daughter standing in the doorway.

"Emma! I thought we were meeting at the stables" He ginned warmly.

"A friend was coming this way and I decided to surprise you. I thought you would be surprised." She stated stoically.

"I am surprised." He admitted.

"I can see that." She replied sarcastically. "We can ride over together if you are ready and then you can drop me back in town later."

Emma frowned when she noticed that Jasmine still had her hands on his shirt.

"I'm ready." He told her. He stepped towards Emma and finished buttoning his shirt. "Jasmine, I will call you when I make a decision about running for Mayor." He called back as he led Emma outside.

Emma was quite after they got in his truck. Finally she turned to her father and asked, "Do you think Jasmine is pretty?"

"I guess she could be considered pretty in an exotic kind of way. Why do you ask?" Her father inquired.

"She was blatantly flirting with you and I was just wondering if you were attracted to her as well."

"Emma, she is trying to help me." He insisted defensively.

"More likely she is trying to help herself into your pants! She was undressing you!" Emma snorted.

"Emma, that is not true and even if it was, I am not about to cheat on Snow when she is pregnant."

"Then it is a good thing that the election is over before she has the baby!" She shot back.

"Maybe going out riding together is a bad idea. Why don't I drop you off in town? We can do this some other day. " He said sadly.

"Then you can rush back to your meeting with your election manger?" It was an accusation plan and simple.

"No!" He protested. "There is not now, nor will ever there be anything between Jasmine and myself! She was not undressing me. She was helping me put in my over shirt. I was never undressed."

"Did Mary Margaret know you were meeting her this morning?" Emma asked.

"No, but that is only because she was a little preoccupied this morning." He defended.

"So, you just arranged the meeting this morning?" She gave him a disbelieving look.

"No, Jasmine texted me last night and we arranged to meet today. Your mother and I were preoccupied last night so I did not get around to mentioning it to her. I asked her to marry me again and she turned me down." He sighed

"I know, she told me about it. She said that she needed to think about it. I tried to convince her that she should do it because it is something that is important to you. I think you just need to give her time to get used to the idea." Emma shrugged.

"I want her to do it because it is important to her. Emma, I looked it up and do you know that my name will not appear on the baby's birth certificate unless you mother and I have the same last name?" He asked in a defeated tone.

"I am not going to get in the middle of this. The two of you are going to have to solve the problem yourselves. You may want to mention that to her though." She suggested.

"Your mother can be so stubborn." He sighed

"You are both dealing with a lot of changes right now. I do have a word of advice. I have met women like Jasmine before and they are usually more than willing to offer a soft shoulder to cry on when a couple is going through the kind of changes you and Mary Margaret are facing. But if you think you have problems now, they are nothing compared to what you would be dealing with if you do turn to her for support." Emma glared at him.

"Emma, I thought we were making progress towards you trusting me?" he sighed.

"We are, it is just hard for me to trust, especially men. I have been screwed over far too many times and I don't want that to happen to Mary Margaret."

"I would never hurt your mother. For the record, any decision I make about running for Mayor is going to happen after I discuss the matter with Snow. That is how we do it, Emma!"

He came to a fork in the road and hesitated. Either he could go left and end up at the stables or he go right and take Emma back to town.

"Okay then, let's go horseback riding." Emma stated firmly.

Snow wanted to bang her head against a desk in frustration. Half of the morning had passed and they had not started to formulate a plan on how to progress the students who would be starting school in less than a month. Of course it did not help matters that she had spent half the morning in the restroom throwing up. She hoped that she would be past the worst of the morning sickness by the time that school started.

"The fact remains that we must find a way to test the abilities of the students before they return to school." She reminded the assembled group with a sigh.

She wished that they were sitting around the round table in her palace where she could see and read all of their faces. She also wished that Charming was at her side. For some reason, the system they had used in the Enchanted Forest always seemed to get results. Everyone had a voice, but in the end he always came to a fair conclusion and people listened to him. It might have had something to do with a fear that he would run him through with his sword, but results were still results. Anything would have been better than the back and forth that had been going on all morning.

"We are open to suggestions." The Principle answered.

"We could always place the children in the grade they were in last year and see how they progress." One teacher suggested.

Snow sighed, "Those children have been in the same grade for 29 years. I think they deserve to advance." She stated sadly.

"Then we are back to the problem of how to measure what they have learned in those 29 years." Another teacher pointed out.

"Why not just give them the end of the year test for each grade?" Henry asked from the back of the room.

"Because, the teachers did not save those tests they gave the students at the end of each year." The principle informed him sarcastically.

"I have taken many of those tests and I still have my copies." Henry replied.

"You saved your end of the years evaluations?" Snow asked.

"They are all in a box underneath my bed at the Mayor's house." He told her.

"If we can go over those tests, we may be able to come up with an evaluation tool. We need to break for lunch and then meet back here and formulate a plan." The principle informed them.

Snow turned to her grandson, beaming. "I think you earned lunch Granny's." She smiled at him. In that moment he reminded her so much of his grandfather it made her heart soar. It was exactly the type of solution Charming would have come up with if he had been there. The first thing she was going to do when she saw her husband was to tell him how proud she was of him and the second thing she was going to do was accept his marriage proposal, because a good man only came along twice every 30 years and when he did, he was worth marrying twice as well.