After the last chapter I was asked why August and Neal were in Oz? They were actually in Neverland which borders Oz. The two realms share the waters of the fountain of youth and healing spring that keeps everyone in Neverland young. The spring keeps August from turning back into wood and Neal is there because he can avoid responsibility by hiding out there. Hook runs it a little like the Wild West where there are few rules or consequences. Another thing that readers have been wondering about is where or not the Snowing baby has magic and that question will be explored in this chapter. Together Emma and her brother may just make up the most powerful entity in all the realms.
Chapter 31: You Found Us.
Emma sat on the other side of the desk from her father in the mayor's office. A pile of papers was in front of them. She had been helping him to establish himself as mayor. The phone rang and she answered it, but she was more than an acting secretary.
"Hello Regina, what can we do for you?" Emma asked as she pressed a button to put the call on speaker.
"The hovel you gave me to live in simply will not do." Regina insisted forcefully.
The house belonged to the mayor and now that she was no longer the head of Storybrooke government they had found her a nice cottage by the edge of the woods.
"It is simply too small." She continued.
"Gee, it is much larger than the loft that you gave Snow when you cast the Curse." Charming replied sarcastically. "It is much nicer than a room at Granny's." He continued.
"It is not as if Granny would rent her a room!" Emma chimed in with her two cents.
"Why can't I have my mansion back? It is not as if you and Snow are going to live in it, Charming." She replied sardonically.
"True, but I placed the dwarfs in the mansion because there are 7 of them and I have been having a hard time finding a place for them to live all together." Charming calmly informed the former mayor.
"Let them live in the cottage. They are used to living in squalor. If I can't have the mansion I want to live in the house that I gave the Nolans!" She demanded.
Emma rubbed the bridge of her nose.
"Abigale and Fredrick are living in that house." Charming replied.
"Regina you cursed these people. None of them want you as their neighbor and none of them want to rent you a room. You are lucky you are not living in a tent in the woods." Emma replied.
"I would die before I lived in the woods!" Regina replied in horror.
"The woods were good enough for Snow when you banished her from her father's Castle!" Charming reminded her. "If something else opens up I will let you know, but for now the cottage will have to do. It has 3 bedrooms, indoor plumbing and electricity." He shouted.
Emma reached over and disconnected the call.
"I love indoor plumbing!" Her father replied gleefully.
Emma made a face "Seriously?" She asked in a horrified voice.
"The Enchanted Forest was not all that modern." He shrugged.
"Speaking of indoor plumbing, Marco sent an update on the cabin renovations. Once they starting working, they were able to make quick progress." Emma informed her father.
He smiled. "Good, I would like it ready for your mother when she returns. Tell him not to finish the nursery though. Snow should be the one to do that."
There was a noticeable silence at his mention of the new home he and his wife had planned together.
"Emma, what is it." He asked with concern in his voice.
"It is good to hear you talk positively about getting them back." She tried to keep the hesitation out of her voice.
"Of course we will get them back. Now that we know where they are, we will get them back soon. Something else is going on though. I can hear it in your voice. What is it?" Her father prodded
"I just kind of like the idea of all of us living together in the loft." She admitted.
"There is room for you and Henry in the new house." Charming reminded her, "I just thought the two of you had decided to stay in the loft until the lese is up at the end of the year. I thought that is what you wanted?" Her father asked with uncertainty.
Emma had thought that was she wanted. The idea of moving in with her parents and their new baby hadn't held much appeal. But now she wasn't sure. She had gotten to know her father better while helping him in his role as mayor and she actually was staring to like him.
"We don't have to decide that today." Her father replied gently. "What else is on the agenda for the rest of the afternoon?" He asked.
Emma skimmed through a proposal that was sitting on her side of the desk..
"I have the plan that Ashley drew up for the daycare center." She informed him.
His eyesight had yet to be restored. He could make out shapes, but nothing more. Emma had spent the last 5 days working very closely with her father in order to help him establish himself as mayor.
"Would you like me to read it to you?" She asked.
He shook his head, "No, as long as you have read it and think it is sound I trust your judgment." He admitted.
"She has some good ideas and we should be able to find money in the budget to get it up and running. Regina was spending a lot of money on henchmen."
"I would still like to run the proposal by your mother first and get her input." No sooner had he said that than a frustrated frown crossed his face.
Emma knew that he was frustrated by the fact that she hadn't left for Boston to look for her mother. She had tried to explain that Boston was a big place and she couldn't just go there and start tearing it apart looking for her mother. She had tried to contact several people that she knew in the area, but no one had gotten back to her yet. To Charming it meant another 5 days that he was apart from his wife. Emma was even reluctant to admit it to herself, but she was enjoying spending time helping her father. She had even gotten used to calling him, "Dad".
"I am sorry this is taking so long. I want to find Mary Margaret too you know? But if I went over there blind it could take me weeks or months to find them. I would kind of like to see her again before my brother is born." She stated in a matter of fact way. She waited for a reaction from her father, but his face had become so hard to read especially since he wore shades to cover his mostly useless eyes.
Emma sighed and went back to reading reports.
Sometime later, when she was engrossed in a park beautification proposal, her phone chimed indicating that she had a text message. She glanced at the number and let out a gasp.
"What is it?" Her father asked.
Emma scrolled through the text.
"It is a reply from one of my contacts. His name is Chad Murphy and he is a detective on the Boston police force. He wants me to have dinner with him tonight. I really think he could help me find them." She stated with marked hesitation in her voice. This was not unnoticed by her father.
"Am I sensing some doubt on your part?" He asked.
"We have a history. I had an affair with him. It was one of the longest and most serious adult relationships I ever had." She replied simply.
"I take it the relationship ended badly?" He asked.
"I found out he had been hiding the fact that he was a married man from me and I ended things." Emma snapped. "I felt so stupid." She replied sadly.
Her father sighed. It partly explained why she was so hard on Mary Margaret when she was having the affair with David Nolan. It explained why she was so hard on both of them.
"If it is too painful for you to meet with this man, we will simply find another way." He reached a hand out to where he thought her arm must be and gave her a reassuring squeeze.
Emma shook her head in the negative, which of course her father couldn't see.
"No, this is the best chance we have had in days of finding them, besides any feelings that I had for Chad Murphy died a long time ago. " Emma replied. "He wants me to meet him at 6:00 tonight. That barely gives me enough time to go home and change clothes."
Charming sighed, "I guess it is every father's nightmare." He replied wistfully.
A tender look crossed Emma's face.
"What is that?" She asked quietly.
"It is a father's curse to deal with multiple suitors for my beautiful, extraordinary daughter." He gave her a proud smile.
"I don't know about that." Emma replied with an blush on her cheeks. "Dad, are you going to be okay while I am gone?"
Not many people knew that he had lost his sight. They had been able to hide his predicament with the sunglasses and by limiting his time spent in the public eye. So far, they had been able to keep the knowledge of his blindness limited to a small circle of friends.
"I'll be fine. I'll have Red come in and help me while you are gone. Emma, I don't know how I would have made it through the past two weeks, never mind the past few days without your help." He stated with feeling.
Emma reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone.
"I'll wait with you until ruby gets here. I want you to keep my phone while I'm gone. I can get a disposable phone in Boston and I'll call you and give you the number. I need to know that I can get a hold of you if I need to and I don't trust that relic that you call a phone."
She passed the phone across to him.
"I want you to take something too." He reached into his shirt and pulled out the wedding ring that he had been wearing on a chain around his neck ever since Snow was taken.
He handed it to Emma. She held it in the palm of her hand. Until Aladdin had brought it into the pawn shop after he had found it in the alley Emma had never seen it anywhere except on one of her mother's fingers. She knew what it meant to him and parting with it had to be extremely difficult. It was all he had left of his wife. It was his last remaining connection to the woman he loved.
"I think you should hold onto it." Emma insisted.
"No, this ring will lead you to your mother." Her father responded. His belief was unwavering. "This ring has never failed to help me find her."
"Gold said that it has no magic powers outside of Storybrooke. It can't be enchanted to track her location." Emma reminded him.
"I don't care what he said. He is forgetting that love is the most powerful magic of all and the second most powerful magic is faith. True Love follows this ring and I have faith that it will help you find her." He replied with confidence in his voice.
Emma reached across and hugged her father, which caught him off guard because he literally did not see it coming.
"I may not be have time to stop by here on my way out of town. Is there anything you need before I go?" She asked as she put the chain with the ring around her neck.
"I need you to find my wife. I need her." He stated simply.
"I need him. I need Charming." Snow said out loud to no one in particular.
The door to her room opened and the nurse, whose name she had learned was Cynthia entered the room.
"Who are you talking to?" Cynthia asked.
Snow looked alarmed.
"I was talking to the baby." She stated truthfully. "You must think that is crazy."
"A lot of pregnant women do that. There is even proof that the child can hear and will recognize the voice of his mother after he is born." Cynthia shrugged.
Snow smiled, "That is a nice thought." She hoped that the child would know his father as well.
Cynthia started to check her blood pressure.
"Have you thought about what you would like to do after the baby is born?" She asked.
Snow frowned. She trusted Cynthia to a certain extent, but there was so much that she couldn't tell her.
"Not really." Snow admitted. She figured that her and Charming would live in the new house and Emma and Henry would join them when Emma was comfortable with the idea. However, the last thing she had heard construction had completely stopped on the renovation of the cabin while Charming concentrated on running for mayor. For all she knew, it was going to be the 5 of them living in the cramped space of the loft. Which part of her loved the idea of, but it just wasn't practical. Of course she couldn't tell the nurse any of this.
Cynthia made some notes in the file that she was keeping on Mary Margret's pregnancy.
"Good news!" She replied. "Your blood pressure is great and I think that you will be able to go outside for a walk tomorrow."
"You have been so good to me, Cynthia. Will you go with me tomorrow?" Snow asked. If Cynthia went with her she figured could just slip away from the nurse, but if George insisted on going with her she would probably have to fight to get away.
"I will see what I can do." She gave her a genuine smile.
Emma tugged at the hem of her dress, which only made it plunge in front. She had to rely on fashion advice from Henry and Ruby to pick out an outfit for her dinner with Chad. Henry had suggested she borrow something from his grandmother's closet or as ruby had referred to it, "The sister Mary Margaret collection." Emma decided that she was going to have to introduce her mother to online shopping. Ruby had tried to lend one of her outfits. Since Emma didn't want to be picked up for street walking, they had settled on one of her more conservative outfits left over from her bail bond date nights. Still, it felt a little too short and too plunging for dinner with a man whose heart she had broken over a year earlier. She spotted Chad already sitting at a table. He was just as gorgeous as she remembered with short, brown wavy hair and hazel eyes. At one time Emma had spent hour each day dreaming about what their children would look like. That was before she had found out that he was hiding a secret wife. For someone who did not open up to trust easily his lie had been a deal breaker.
Emma took a deep breath and headed for his table. Chad stood and Emma realized that she had forgotten how tall he was.
"Emma, you look wonderful!" He tried to kiss her, but she tilted her head so his lips landed on her cheek.
"Thank you for meeting me here." She gave him a smile.
"It was my pleasure to see you again." He pulled out her chair for her. "Sit down and tell me what you have been up to for the past year."
They were halfway through their entrees by the time she was able to honor that request. He dropped his fork and gave her a stunned look.
"You don't believe a word I have just told you?" Emma sighed sadly.
"I have to admit it is a little hard to believe that a child you gave up 10 years earlier arrived on your doorstep and asked you to go to a town named Storybrooke and help rescue your parents who were victims of a curse. Now your mother, who is pregnant, is being held somewhere here in Boston by the adoptive father of your father's twin?"
"Try living it." Emma said under her breath. "I should probably go now. Sorry I wasted your time." She tried to stand up but he placed a hand on her arm to stop her.
"Wait, I said it was hard to believe, it is not impossible to believe your story. Emma you are the most leveled headed person I know. So it you are telling me that you are the daughter of Prince Charming and Cinderella I am inclined to believe you are telling the truth." He stated firmly.
"I am the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White. I mentioned that several times in the last hour. Thomas is Cinderella's Prince and they have a daughter named Alexandria." She pointed out dryly.
His face fell. "I figured that you had just made a mistake. You don't look like you could be the daughter of Snow White. Doesn't she have dark hair?" He quizzed her.
"I get my coloring from my father." She snapped.
"Do you have a picture of your mother?" He asked.
Emma rolled her eyes. "You still don't believe that she is Snow White?"
"If I have a picture of her it will make it easier for me to issue a BOL for her." He returned smoothly.
Emma almost blushed. A Be on the Lookout was standard procedure in missing persons cases.
She reached for her purse, "I have a picture of her in my phone." She replied then she realized that she had left the phone in Storybrooke. "I have a picture of her in my phone, which I left with Dad in Storybrooke. I can describe her for a sketch artist though" Emma promised.
A slightly salacious smile crossed Chad's face and it made Emma uncomfortable.
"I have an idea, how about we get the rest of dinner to go and then we head over to my place for a night cap and then we can go to the station tomorrow and you can talk to a sketch artist?"
Emma looked at him with eyes filled with fury. She could not believe that he was actually suggesting that she spend the night with him.
"How about we have the rest of our dinner wrapped up and then we can go over to the station tonight and I can talk to a sketch artist?" She seethed. "By the way, how is your wife Cindy?" She added for extra sting.
Chad frowned. "We are divorced." He admitted sadly.
Emma's face fell. "I am sorry to hear that." Emma stated quietly.
"I am sorry it had to happen as well, but maybe it was for the best. I couldn't get over you Emma. I have spent the last year thinking about you." He admitted with feeling in his voice.
I hope I didn't give you the wrong impression by coming here tonight. I really need your help, but that is the only reason I am here. "
They had the rest of their dinner packed up and Emma followed him to the station. She had driven the patrol car from Storybrooke and she could see the surprise on his face when he saw the car. It was as if a part of him had not fully believed her until he saw the town name splashed across the vehicle. Emma knew how he felt, she found herself disbelieving her own life at least twice a day. Chad left her in the squad room while he went to find a police artist. It turned out that one was not necessary. Emma was looking at the bulletin board that held the images of perpetrators of current cases when she saw the mug shot of her mother staring her in the face. Chad came back with an older man holding a set of pencils and a pad of paper. Emma thought he looked a little like Norman Rockwell or at least like the self portrait of Rockwell she had seen once on a school field trip.
"You can give a description to Fred and he will draw a picture of your mother for distribution." Chad promised.
Emma pointed to the mug shot and stated excitedly, "I don't have to give you a description that is her in that mug shot. Wait a minute, why is there a mug shot of my mother on the wall of a Boston police station?"
He looked at a number and typed it into a computer.
"It says here that your mother is a jewel thief." Chad informed her.
Emma burst out laughing. "That is how my parents first met. She stole my father's family jewels!"
Fred blushed and Chad tried to hide a grin. Emma turned red when she realized what she had just said.
"It was an engagement ring." She mumbled meekly.
"That was what I always loved about you, Swan. You always wore your Freudian Slip on the outside." Chad beamed at her.
If he only knew the truth about her parents, Emma thought to herself, he would know that it wasn't far from the truth.
"If you don't need me I would like to get back to my nap." Fred announced and slipped off. Emma
"Does the report say where she is being held?" Emma asked with enthusiasm in her voice. "Is she here?" She asked hopefully.
"The report indicates that she is being held in a secure, confidential location for her own safety. We would have to ask the detective in charge of the case. It states that Detective Rodriguez is coordinating with District Attorney Spencer. Does that name mean anything to you? " Chad asked.
Emma gritted her teeth. "That is the name that King George uses in this world. He is no more a DA than your or I are a millionaire. He uses that title to abuse power." She stated angrily. "Can we talk to Detective Rodriguez?" Emma asked.
Chad keyed in something on the computer and shook his head in the negative. "He just got off a double shift and I am not going to call him back tonight. He will be back at the station at 7:00 am. You can speak to him then." He stated firmly.
Emma realized she wasn't going to be able to get her way that evening. The unions had strict rules about calling off duty detectives into work unless the situation was dire.
"I'll be here at 6:55 tomorrow morning." Emma stated firmly.
"Try and get some rest. Your mother isn't going anywhere." He promised. "Do you have somewhere to stay tonight? You can crash on my couch. No strings attached." He vowed.
Emma shook her head in the negative, "I have some place to stay." Before she left she had done a little digging and found out that apartment David Nolan had planned on moving into when he tried to leave Storybrooke did actually exist and so she planned on staying there.
She quickly wrote down the number of the disposable phone she had bought and gave it to Chad.
When Emma arrived at the apartment she was surprised to see that some of her father's things had been sent ahead. Some of his clothes were in boxes and there and there were basic toiletries in a box marked "bathroom." She hadn't packed anything to sleep in but she found one of his t shirts and clean pair of shorts in one of the boxes and she threw them on. She firmly believed that father would have never made it to Boston because the Curse prevented anyone from leaving Storybrooke. However, if she hadn't saved Henry and broken the Curse Emma wondered what would have happened to David and Mary Margaret. They had reached an impasse in their relationship. Mary Margaret had been unable to forgive David for not standing by her while she was in jail. He had chosen to leave rather than fight for the woman he loved. They didn't know it at the time but Mary Margaret was already pregnant again. Emma couldn't imagine the two of them raising a child together under their cursed personalities. It was hard to reconcile the man who had planned on living in the apartment in Boston with the man she had gotten to know over the past few weeks. He had lost his wife and future child, he had found out that his mother had tricked the woman he loved and he had lost his eyesight. Yet, he didn't give up and he fought on to make the town a better place for his people, but more importantly for his family. He had made sure that the cabin renovations were nearly complete because he had faith that Emma would bring back his family. Emma was exhausted and it was only a few hours before she had to be back at the police station, but she found herself going through some of the boxes. She rationalized that she had to make sure that there was nothing that her father might need back in Storybrooke. She opened a box and found a large stuffed tiger. She gasped when she realized that she recognized it from one of the drawings in Henry's book. It had been one of the toys in her nursery in the Enchanted Forest. Many of those items had ended up in Gold's shop. Even under the Curse David had connected with the stuffed toy and it had been one of the few items he had packed up and sent to the apartment in Boston.
The last thing that Emma did was call her cell phone in Storybrooke and leave an update for her father and then she fell asleep clutching the stuffed tiger.
True to her word, Emma was at the station a few hours after her head hit the pillow. She paced nervously in the squad room waiting for Chad to locate Detective Rodriguez. She pulled the chain that held the ring out of her shirt and was absentminded playing with it.
"Hey, where did you get that ring?" A voice behind her asked. Emma turned and saw a man about her father's age, only shorter with dark hair and dark eyes. He couldn't take those dark eyes off of the ring.
"You must be detective Rodriguez." Emma stated firmly.
"That ring looks just like one that I had made up as a tracking device." He gave her a suspicious look.
"Emma is the person I told you about who is looking into the Mary Margaret Blanchard case. She is a bail bondsperson."
"I hadn't heard anything about Mary Margaret being a bail jumper. DA Spencer would have mentioned that." He stated.
"What exactly did DA Spencer tell you?" Emma asked.
The detective ran a hand through his hair.
"He told me that she was jewel thief who had gotten herself into trouble. He said that she needed protection. She is hidden away in a safe house that I don't even know the location. He asked me to make a tracking device that looked a lot like that ring. He said it was a family heirloom." Rodriguez admitted.
"The family jewels your mother stole from your father" Chad asked in a fit of laughter.
Emma gave him a scathing look, "Shut up!" She demanded. She was not in the mood.
"If it is a tracking device then we can use it to find out where he is keeping her!" Emma stated.
"We can find the location of the ring using any computer." He admitted.
Emma looked down at the ring and realized her father had been right; the ring was going to lead her to her mother.
Snow buttoned up her jacket and got ready for her walk. There was a metal ink blotter on her desk and she slipped it into her pocket. The nurse stood in the doorway.
"Are you ready?" She asked.
Snow shook her head in the affirmative.
"If you get anxious or anything about being outside let me know." She said gently as she led Snow outside.
Snow blinked at the bright light, but she felt instantly better once she was outdoors breathing in the crisp fall air. As they got closer to the park she started to relax. They took a path that lead around a small lake. Families were gathered together enjoying picnic lunches and each other's company. Snow watches them and she realizes that she misses her family, she misses her home. When she was on the run in the woods living as a bandit and being a wanted woman she had never known what it meant to have a home. The first few weeks after the Curse had broken she had missed the Enchanted Forest so much that she thought her heart would crack into a million pieces. Now she realized that a tiny loft in Storybrooke living with Charming, Emma, Henry and the new baby was home.
"Mary Margaret," the nurse interrupts her thoughts, "I have been thinking about your child."
Snow tried to keep her emotions hidden, but she realizes that a statement that begins that way cannot possibly end well.
"I feel as if the two of us have grown close these past few weeks. I know I have grown fond of you and your baby and if you decide not to keep the child I would like to adopt him." The nurse continued.
A puzzled look crosses Snow's face. Why does everyone want her and Charming's child? She wondered. Well, she was not going to stand for it. She fingered the ink blotter in her pocket. She liked Cindy and she would try not to hit her too hard, just enough to stun her. Kind of the way she had attacked her beloved Charming the first time she met him. Only this time she would make sure that her aim was better. Only Snow never got the chance to hit the nurse because so many things happened at once in the 30 seconds that followed. King George came along another path and saw that she had a weapon. He grabbed her by the wrist and forced her to drop the metal weapon.
"I should have known you would try something!" He practically yelled the words. What followed her probably the most horrific words any expectant mother could ever hear. "I am taking you to a clinic this moment and taking that baby out of you." He stated in a crazed voice.
A look of fear and shock crossed the nurse's face as she realized that she had been aiding a maniac.
"Have you lost your mind?" bellowed at the man that she knew only as DA Spencer. She looked around for the weapon that Snow had dropped and saw it lying near a bush. She made a grab for it as George started to drag Snow towards the edge of the park. All the time Snow was kicking and lunging at George trying to get out of his grip. Then Snow saw the most wonderful sight she had seen in weeks, Emma along with a tall man were running towards her and George. Emma reached them first and grabbed ahold of the other arm of her mother. As Emma made contact with her mother she screamed, "Get your hands off of our mother!" At that moment George felt an electrical surge travel from Snow and Emma through his body. It blew him several feet up in the air and he landed with a thud on the ground. Later when Emma was questioned she couldn't remember exactly what happened or what she had used the words, "Our mother." All Emma and Snow knew was that some kind of force had traveled between Snow, or more likely the baby and Emma and it had knocked George off of his feet. Snow insisted that it had to be love because that was the most powerful magic and the only type of magic that could exist outside of Storybrooke.
Snow pulled her daughter into a tight embrace.
"You found us!" She blubbered through tears.
"Did you ever doubt I would?" Emma found herself answering almost automatically.
"How did you find us?" Snow asked.
Emma turned slightly in her mother's embrace. "I will tell you all about it later."
The Nurse was kneeling over George taking his pulse.
"Is he alive?" Snow asked.
"He has a pulse." She looked up at Snow with a puzzled look on her face and then saw Emma.
"Emma, I should have guessed that you would be involved." The nurse stated.
The man who had been with Emma had come running skidded to a stop by the group.
"You know each other?" Snow asked.
Emma indicated the man who had just arrived.
"She is his ex-wife." Emma replied.
This explained nothing as far as Snow was concerned.
"And she was his mistress." The nurse replied sarcastically.
"I need to sit down." Snow exclaimed and plopped down on the curb.
Chad looked over at the unconscious form of King George. "Should we call an ambulance for him?" He asked.
Snow let out a breath of air. "He always ends up being fine. I am sure he will be fine this time." She shrugged.
"Was he trying to steal your baby?" Cynthia asked in horror as the truth dawned on her.
"Yes he was." Snow stated simply.
Chad had stepped away to call the paramedics and Cynthia went back to check on George.
"Whatever that was, did it come from the baby?" Emma indicated George.
"I think is came from both of you." Snow answered simply.
"I need to sit down." Emma replied and eased down on the curb beside her mother. She leaned her head on her mother's shoulder as Snow stroked her daughter's hair.
They could hear sirens in the distance, but neither of them cared. The latest ordeal had come to an end. Emma looked down at the ever expanding baby bump on her mother's stomach. She feared for her unborn brother. If he was that powerful even before he was born, what would the future hold for him? How many people would come after him? There had to be other True Love babies in the world, and as far as she knew they didn't knock men off their feet or break curses. What made the children of Snow White and Prince Charming so special?
"We should call dad and let him know that I found you and you are okay." Emma informed her mother as she pulled out the cell phone.
Snow was struck by Emma's casual use of the term, "Dad." Something major had to have happened in order to change the relationship of two of the most stubborn people she knew and loved.
"What exactly happened while I was gone?" Snow asked with a look of surprise on her face.
Emma let out a breath. Where did she begin?
Writers note: I am working on an update to my other story, "The Princess and the Toad." So, look for that in the coming days. As always, thank you for reading.