Chapter 26: Male Bonding

Emma stood in the doorway of the diner and watched Jefferson for a minute. Red was flirting with him and Emma found herself growing jealous. They meant nothing to each other; they weren't married or even dating. What had happened between them the day before had been a fling. She had no claim on him what so ever. So why was she upset at the idea of him paying attention to another woman? Fortunately, Red was kept hopping. Most of the mob that had attacked Charming had decided to stay for breakfast. Public lynching clearly worked up an appetite, and Granny was nowhere to be seen.

Emma took a deep breath and slid back into the booth. The instant she did, it was as if the saucy waitress completely disappeared. Jefferson's full attention became transfixed on Emma.

"Hi!" He stated simply, giving her a wide grin.

"Hi" She replied.

"You said on the phone that you needed to talk to me?" He asked hopeful.

"Yes." She replied.

She wondered why it was so difficult for her to ask him for a favor. She knew the answer. She hated to ask anyone for help and especially him after what had happened between them.

He noticed her hesitation.

"Is this about what happened between us yesterday?" He asked with hesitation in his voice.

Emma's eyes grew wide, "It's not about that!" She protested. Then she noticed the slight look of disappointment that registered on his face. "Not that I don't think we need to talk about that. I think we do need to talk about it, but not now." There was a hint of apology in her voice.

"When you are ready to talk about it, that's what we'll do. I have always been an open book to you Emma. I have never hidden my intentions of played games. You know exactly where I stand." He insisted.

"That makes this all the harder because I need to ask you for a favor." She bit her lower lip.

He leaned back against the seat of the booth in a casual manner. "This is not just about my feelings for you, Emma. I owe your whole family a debt for helping me work out the situation with Grace and her other family. If it is something I can help you with, consider it done. " He vowed.

"King George took Mary Margaret outside of the town boundary. He also took two rings that will allow him to realm jump. We think he plans on using them after she has the baby to take my brother to another realm. I can go after them, but if he decides to use the rings I need to have access to a third ring that the Blue Fairy thinks is presently in Oz. Can you get me there and back?"

"Yes, I can. By you I expect you mean you and your father?" He asked hesitantly.

"Is he going to try and choke me again?" Jefferson asked with a sly grin.

"As long as you are doing us a favor, I think he can control his temper." She promised.

"So, I take it he doesn't know about what happened between us yesterday." Jefferson gave her a perplexed look.

Emma had just taken a bite of cold scrambled egg and nearly spit it out.

"He most certainly does not! I want to keep it that way!" She blurted out.

"As I said before, the ball is entirely in your court, Emma." He promised.

Fortunately, they were spared any further discussion on the subject by the arrival of Granny. Red looked absolutely relieved to see her grandmother.

"I just got back from voting. The polls were a bitch. Regina showed up to cast her vote just before I got there and she turned it into a media circus!" Granny announced.

Emma groaned loudly.

"What did I miss?" Granny asked.

Red took her aside and was clearly explaining to her what had happened between the town's people and Charming. She was taking and waving her arms and pointing at various customers.

"You have to be kidding me!" Granny replied angrily.

She marched to the middle of the room and declared loudly, "I was just made aware of an incident that took place here this morning. It seems some of you had a few choice words for our Prince; A man who has always been nothing less than an honest, forthright and capable leader. Anyone who has a problem with him is not welcome here!" She looked directly at Grumpy and his cohorts. "Do I need to go get my crossbow?" She asked accusingly.

Emma burst into applause.

Charming opened the door to the loft and found Henry waiting with the newspaper in his hand.

"Care to explain these?" The boy asked.

"Not really. Where did you find that?" As far as Charming knew Emma had put the paper in the recycling bin.

"I was looking for the chess hints. They happen to be on the back of this section." Henry admitted.

Charming had been teaching his grandson to play chess and he knew that the boy looked forward to reading the chess strategies printed in the newspaper. He had failed to realized what section they were in that day.

Charming took a deep breath. "You know that King George took your Granma?" He asked.

"Of course, I was there yesterday when you were at Mr. Gold's shop." Henry reminded him.

"So, you know that what it says there isn't true, right?" Charming gave him a serious look.

"Of course it isn't true. Gran never would have left of her own free will. She loves us." Henry stated simply.

"Not everyone feels the same way. Some people believe what is written there." His grandfather acknowledged sadly.

"How could they?" Henry gave him a perplexed look.

"Sometimes it is just easier for people to believe the worst about a situation than it is for them to have to think for themselves. I thought that I had friends in this town, but maybe they were always more Snow's friends than mine." Charming reluctantly admitted.

"But the pictures are true?" Henry asked.

"Yes they are and I am so sorry about them. Not because there is anything wrong with what we are doing, but it is not something that people should see." Charming stated with great feeling.

"What are you doing?" Henry asked quickly.

"I guess we were going to have to talk about this sooner or later. Henry, I believe that love is the most important thing in the world. I really think that our life journeys are about love. Now I love you and your mom and the new baby, but your Granma and I share a very special type of love and what we are doing there is expressing that love."

If he hoped maybe they could leave it at that. He was hoping for too much.

"You are talking about sex?" Henry asked.

Stunned Charming asked, "What do you know about that?"

"We are starting to learn about it this year in school." Henry shrugged.

Charming figured that Snow had dodged a major bullet by not having to teach her grandchild sex ed for all those years they were under the Curse.

"What exactly have you learned?" He gave his grandson an amused look.

"Without it there would be no True Love babies!" Henry replied proudly.

Charming laughed.

"Exactly, without it there would be no True Love babies." He gave his grandson a serious look. "The most important thing is that is has to be about love and mutual respect. Do you understand what I am saying?"

Henry shrugged, "I guess I understand why you would have to have a lot of respect for the other person. You have to see the other person naked and you would have to really be in love and respect the person so as not to laugh when you saw them naked."

Charming could have corrected him and pointed out how he thought Snow's naked body was the most beautiful site in the world, but he decided something were better left unsaid, especially when dealing with an 11 year old boy. Instead he told his grandson, "If you have any other questions you can always come to me and ask."

Henry thought for a moment before asking, "Is it fun?"

Charming had no idea how to answer that question so he finally settled on saying, "Everything I do with your Grandmother is always fun."

"Really, because the way she is sitting on your lap looks kind of uncomfortable."

Charming didn't know whether to laugh, cry or leap out of the top floor window. He had been in some uncomfortable situations in his life, but this talk took the cake. Instead he decided to change the subject.

"Why don't you go upstairs and set up the chess board and we will have a lesson?" Charming finally asked.

Henry eagerly ran up the stairs. Charming sat on the couch, too stunned to move for several minutes. Emma came in the door with a serious look on her face which turned to worry.

"Now what happened?" She asked with grave concern in her voice.

"Henry saw the pictures in the paper." He reluctantly informed her.

"What did you tell him?" Emma asked in a shocked voice

"I have no idea. Words just kind of spilled out. Some of it he learned in school." He put his head in his hands. "It was brutal!" He admitted.

Henry came down the stairs, "The chess board is set up. Hi mom!" He ran back upstairs.

Emma looked after her son.

"He seems okay. You look more traumatized than he does. I guess you said the right things, but you kind of deserved this." She shrugged.

"I don't know what you are talking about?" Her father protested.

"If you don't want your sex life to be made public, the two of you need to stop doing it in public places!" Her voice raised a few notches.

"That loft was not a public place. I pay the rent and I bought that computer!" He protested.

"What about Gold's shop, the clinic, on top of Whale's car? Not to mention the time I walked in on the two of you in the stables for pity's sake! Those were all very public places!" She snapped.

"I paid for any damage we did in those places." He countered.

"What about the damage done to me and Henry." She protested, "This is starting to affect him now."

Her father looked remorseful. "I know and that is one of the reasons we wanted to renovate the cabin so that we could all have some space and privacy. I ran into Gepetto after I left Granny's. He is willing to start working on the cabin renovation again."

Emma looked stunned. "Why now?" She asked.

"I want it ready for when we get back Snow and the baby." He stated simply.

The color drained from Emma's face, "Of course you would want to start over with her and your new family there." She stated hoping to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

Charming gave her a stunned look and then realized how it must have sounded to her.

"Emma, that's not what I meant at all. Of course you and Henry are our family and you will both always be a part of our lives."

"You don't have to explain and besides it all might be a moot point if you win the election! Graham told me once that the Mayor's mansion comes with the position." She stated in a matter of fact tone.

He shook his head, "I doubt your mother would ever want to live where Regina had lived for 29 years. Besides, there is no way I am getting elected as mayor now." He added.

"I don't know about that. After I went back to talk to Jefferson, Granny made a pretty impassioned speech in your defense. She threatened to bring out the crossbow." Emma grinned.

"How did things go with Jefferson?" Her father asked.

"Okay I guess. He is going to take us to Oz." Emma promised.

"When do we leave?" Asked eagerly and for the first time in the past 24 hours she saw an old familiar spark light up his eyes.

"In a few hours, he needs to clear it with Grace's other family and make sure she can stay with them. We need to find someone to take care of Henry as well. He is going to want to stay with Regina."

"Under no circumstances will he stay with her! Not after we just found out about her part in getting those pictures published." Her father was determined that Henry not be alone with Regina.

"Did he ask where the pictures came from?" Emma asked cautiously.

"No and we can't tell him that those cameras where Regina's idea, but we can't let him stay with her either." Charming added.

"You want to tell him or should I?" Emma asked with hesitation in her voice.

"I already had one uncomfortable talk with him today. This one is all yours." Charming gave her a supportive grin.

"Gee, thanks dad!" She said it with her voice full of sarcasm.

"It's part of being a parent." He gave her an approving pat on the shoulder.

"Henry, can you come down here?" Emma called up the stairs.

Henry stopped at the top of the stairs.

"Hey Gramps, are we going to play chess or should I just play the computer?" He called down.

"In a minute," Emma answered. "David and I are going to go look for the 3rd ring."

Henry ran down the stairs, "Where are you going? Can I come too?" He asked eagerly.

Emma took a deep breath. "We are going to Oz and Jefferson thinks it is too dangerous for Grace to go, so we are going want you to stay here as well." Emma responded.

"Can I stay with Regina?" He asked.

Emma exchanged a look with her father. "No, Henry we don't know how long we will be gone and we can't you with her indefinitely." Charming answered.

"Why not, she has been trying real hard to be a better person and it isn't as if she could take me anywhere. She can't cross the town line."

"We don't know that she didn't have something to do with Mary Margaret's disappearance." Emma insisted. "The timing of it right before the election was rather convenient."

"She wasn't involved. You questioned Mr. Gold while you were holding the dagger. He couldn't lie to you and he never said that she was involved." Henry pleaded.

She might not have been responsible for Snow being kidnapped, but she led an attack against her." Charming admitted.

Emma gave him an alarmed look. "When was this?" She snapped.

"Two nights ago, at the open house Regina got a group of the parents all keyed up and convinced them to ambush Snow and encourage her to not return to her teaching job after she has the baby." He told them.

"This was the night of your dinner. See Henry, she may claim that she is trying to be a better person, but she is incapable of change. Emma informed him with sadness in voice.

Snow had lost track of the hours that she had been locked in the room. She ate when she was given food because she knew that she had to keep up her strength. She listened to King George go on and on about his diabolical plan when he deigned to pay her a visit and she slept in short bursts. Her rest was always fitful because she always had the same dream. She was having it now.

She sat at a table in a small windowless room alone until Charming came in the room and sat down across from her and asked the same question.

"Snow, where's my mother?" His eyes were as cold as steel and they drilled a hole in her heart.

"We looked for her together. She is gone, Charming!" she pleaded.

"No, you are lying to me. You took away my mother and now you will know how it feels to lose the one you love the most. A child appeared in his arms and then he turned and gave the child to King George.

"He will never forgive you." King George always informed her.

Then the two men and the child were swallowed in darkness. Just like that, her whole world was swallowed in darkness.

She always awoke feeling empty, broken hearted and guilty. Because she did know where his mother was and she had been partially responsible for their separation. It had been a mutual agreement between the two women, and they had done it for his protection. But, Snow had kept the secret from the man she loved more than life. If he ever found out she had kept the whereabouts of his mother from him there was a good chance he would never forgive her. She was sure that would not find out. After all, what were the chances that Charming would ever travel to the Land of Oz?