Hi all - Here's Chapter 4. Hope you like it.

Chapter 4 – Love

I watched my family for what felt like hours. For the first time since my spirit woke in the hospital I saw my husband interact with his children. Henry had returned with the food from Granny's, Emma made them all hot chocolate, and Charming sat on the floor to play matchbox cars with Neal. Every couple of minutes Emma would look over her shoulder and smile at her father and little brother.

The family talked about a lot that night. I felt a huge weight being lifted from my shoulders when Emma's tough love was finally able to pull her father from the depression that he had fallen into after my accident. I watched as they played some board games together. It was funny to see Emma pout when Neal would win. I knew that she was doing it for his benefit and he got a charge out of it every time.

"That's it, I quit." She announced when he pulled ahead of her again during a rousing game of Chutes and Ladders. I could tell that she had picked up on the same thing as I when Neal tried so hard to stifle a yawn. He was tired but he wouldn't quit playing the game willingly. If she stopped playing it would be the catalyst that was needed to move him in the direction of going to bed.

"Mom? You can't quit just because Neal is winning…" Henry began to play along. Oh, he was a smart young man. I couldn't be more proud to call him my grandson.

"Nope. He's beat me what? Five times?" She sat back with a very fake huff and crossed her arms in front of her chest. They all laughed when Neal giggled at his sister's antics. Charming was sitting there with a huge grin on his face loving every minute of it, "he's too good for me," Emma finished.

"Memma, you just have to let Mommy teach you how to count again. You was doing it wrong and falling down the chutes." His little hands reached to the spinner and with his index finger he quickly counted the numbers from 1 to 6 as he pointed to each number.

"Is that how you are supposed to count?" He bit the side of his lip at her question and quickly nodded his blond head. "Why didn't you tell me sooner Neal?"

He abruptly stopped when he heard her next question. His eyes widened as he looked at her. After a long beat he whispered, "Daddy was 'upposed to tell you." He moved his eyes to their father at the same time he pulled Emma's shirt to get her to lean to his level to whisper the next part in her ear.

Emma tried her best to not smirk at whatever Neal had said in her ear. "Oh, I didn't notice," she said through her smile. "Do you want me to tell him?"

Whatever it was, Neal wanted Emma to be the one to break the news to their father. He quickly crawled from his chair and onto her lap, "he won't yell at you," he said as he grabbed her arms and wrapped them around his waist.

"Don't be so sure of that, Kid," Charming wagged a finger in their direction. "I'm her Daddy too; I reserve the right to yell at both of you." I had to laugh when Neal's eyes became huge like saucers and he wiggled his small body closer to Emma's chest. I wasn't sure if he was trying to protect her or melt into her to hide himself. "Come on, I can take," he said in a much gentler tone.

"You can't count either." Emma blurted out with a laugh.

"What?" Charming put his hand on his chest in mock hurt. He shifted his eyes from Emma to Neal then back to Emma when she continued to speak.

"Actually, you're worse than I am. At least I count in the right order; I just don't go high enough. You, on the other hand, were all over the place…skipping numbers…"

"Hmph…" he huffed. He sat back in a pout and crossed his arms in front of his chest just as his daughter had done no so long ago. Sometimes I wondered how they didn't see how much alike they really were.

"It's ok, Daddy. Mommy's a teacher. She'll make sure that you and Memma know how to count again." Oh, my little boy, I don't think that he could get much sweeter.

David shot the little boy a smirk, doing his best to hold in a laugh and act like Neal had offended him with his observation. "Come here, you." Charming shouted catching the boy off guard. In one swift motion, David had jumped up and swiped Neal from Emma's lap and swung Neal high above his head. When he pulled the toddler back to his chest, he gave him a little tickle on the belly before setting him done to stand on the floor. "Tell your sister good night, the runoff get in PJ's and brush your teeth."

"Tubby first?" Neal called out as his little feet carried him to the bathroom first.

"Oh, I forgot about tubby time." Charming followed Neal to the bathroom.

Emma rose from the table and gathered the mugs that were lying around from their hot chocolate. She carried them into the kitchen calling to Henry on her way, "Hey Kid, get your stuff together. Regina should be here any minute."

At first he didn't respond to his mother, he just stuffed his comic books into his book bag and retreated up the stairs to gather his clothes. I thought about how much a good kid he turned out to be; he never argued and had a heart of gold. Although when he turned, I could see that he was eyeing up his mother to ask her something. "Hey Mom," he laid his bag of clothes on the bar stool next to the one that he sat on. Emma was on the other side of the island; washing the dishes from the nights festivities.

"mmhmm…" she didn't even look up.

Henry quickly looked around the apartment before he spoke. "Is Grandma going to be ok?" A lump instantly formed in my throat. Emma was looking at him now; the mug that she was washing was discarded into the water. Henry was so worried about me, but given the state that his grandpa was in when they arrived, he was afraid to ask while he was in earshot. I looked to Emma. I was trying to read her face. I wasn't looking for the answer that she was going to give Henry, I was looking for the answer that, in her heart, she believed to be true. I didn't miss that she also looked around to get a location on her father before she spoke.

"Honestly, Henry, I don't know." I held my breath, I wanted to hear what she really thought but at the same time was I terrified to know what was swirling around in her head. Whatever it was, I knew that it would be honest. Emma vowed that she would never lie to Henry again after she had lied to him about his father. "I'm trying really hard to have hope, you know?" the teen nodded. "It's been so hard taking care of Neal while I watched your grandpa spiral out of control. There wasn't really time for the reality of the situation to fully sink in, until now. I'll be honest; I'm scared; it's been almost a month. But I'm not going to give up on her. And neither should you."

"I won't, Mom." I wanted to reach out and hug them both. Emma needed a hug from her mother; she needed me to tell her it would all be ok. No, I shook my head at my own thought. She needed Charming to tell her everything would be okay and she needed to tell Henry. That was way it worked with a parent and child, regardless of their age.

Emma gave him a knowing smile but left the rest of that conversation for another time. Or was it the knock on the door that pulled her thoughts in a different direction. "Come in, Regina" she called out, but then turned her attention to Henry, "Go get your stuff." The boy obliged and ran from the room.

"The snow out there is ridiculous." Regina complained as she entered the apartment. She shook her hands then ran her gloved fingers through her hair to shake off the snow.

"Really, I didn't know they were calling for anything tonight…Hot chocolate?" Emma offered to the other woman as she approached the island.

"Yeah well, I guess they were wrong, looks like we're going to have a white Christmas." Emma lifted a mug in Regina's direction to prompt an answer on the hot drink. "No thanks, I just had some coffee. Where's Henry?"

As if right on queue the boy yelled down from the loft, "Mom have you seen my book?"

Emma pointed to room above them and rolled her eyes, "I'll be back, it will be easier if I just go up there."

Like mother like son I thought as she made her way up the stairs. Emma was constantly searching for things when she lived with us. "I wish that I had a quarter for every time that I heard the words 'Mom, have you seen…' come out of her mouth on any given day."

"What?" I froze when Regina looked up from the phone that she was checking when Emma retreated and looked directly at me. "Snow…" she looked around the room for any other human being. "When did you get home from the hospital?" She put her brow together in confusion, "when did you wake up and why didn't anyone tell me?"

"You can see me?" The words came out of my mouth in slow motion. How was this happening? Did Regina truly see me standing there? I put my hand up and waved it in front of her eyes.

"Put your hand down. Yes I can see you, your standing right in front of me. Why didn't your idiot husband tell you that you came out of the coma? And came home for that matter," she used her hand to gesture around the apartment in an effort to help prove her point.

I shrugged my shoulders, I didn't have an explained other than, "Because I didn't."

"So now I'm seeing ghosts? Great…" she used the tips of her fingers to rub her eyes. She inhaled and exhaled sharply before she pulled her hands away from her face and looked to me again.

"No, not a ghost. I'm not dead. My spirit just sort of separated from my body. I've been following Charming and Emma around for weeks. Why can you see me and they can't?" I had no idea how to handle this change of events. Regina could see me and talk to me, but no one else, unless they were an actual dead person.

"I have absolutely no idea what is going on right now, but you would do yourself a bit of good to get back to your body and wake up." Regina held her hands out from her body. I wasn't sure if she was trying to stabilize herself to stop the world from spinning.

"Don't you think I would if I could? Watching Charming fall into a depression and then Emma blowing up on him, they need me here. I don't understand why I have had to watch them all these weeks. It has been killing me."

"It sounds to me like you chose to follow them and watch them. And, I figured it damn near killed David too; Emma was getting pretty frustrated with him." I noticed that she looked to the loft when she spoke Emma's name. Was she afraid of Emma's reaction of her talking about the circumstances of the past couple of weeks? Emma's voice was louder, she must have moved closer to the railing but I was unable to see her.

"She went off on him earlier." I explained to my step mother, "And as much as I hate to admit it, her subtle as a chainsaw approached snapped him out of it."

"Don't leave them, Snow. They love you. They need you in their life. Maybe this was all more of enlightenment."

"What do you mean by that?" Now I was curious, what in the world is this meant to enlighten.

"Maybe this isn't about you, but rather, them." I cocked my head to the side in a manner that begged her to continue. "Maybe they needed to be reminded that with family comes unconditional love and hope. Those three things are very powerful and when you are on the verge of losing one you risk losing the others."

It was like a brick smacked me in the head right between the eyes. How did I not see any of that? Charming's fear of losing me was leading to him losing hope causing him to push Emma and Neal away. He wasn't doing it to be mean or because he didn't love them, he just didn't know how to handle me not being in his life, possibly forever. He didn't want his feelings of misery to bleed over to his children, so he sunk into a shell of himself. This was one of those times when I thanked the god's for my daughter's stubbornness.

"So why can you see me and they can't? And why did I separate from my body to follow them?" Those were still burning questions that I needed to have answered.

"I guess because I've been there. I lost love, and then lost all hope, and finally I lost my family. I let my loss consume me. I let it turn me into a maniacal monster. Not only did I have no love for any person other than myself and Henry, but didn't even know how to show my love to Henry until Emma showed up. That doesn't mean that I didn't love him, but I had a lot of learning to do. I pushed that boy straight to her."

"Ok. But why me? Why did I have to witness all of this?"

"Well, I think that your subconscious was having you take a step back and look at it from an outsider's point of view." Confusion plagued my features, "Sometimes we are too close to something and we don't see what we really have until we don't have it anymore. Sure, your intention is to never leave your family, but maybe, just maybe taking a step back was giving you a greater appreciation of what you have now and what you have accomplished. Look at Emma, after all these years, she came back to you and accepted you into her life. She loves you and wants to be with you."

"Are you suggesting that I was taking Emma for granted?"

"No. I'm not saying that at all. Emma is an incredibly strong, independent, and loving person. You should be very proud."

"I am…but I can't take any credit for the person that she became."

"Why not?"

"I gave her up. I left her to fend for herself in this world. And yes, I did it to give Emma her best chance, but I didn't raise her."

"Snow…Emma became the woman that she is because you and charming did what was best for her. It may have been the hardest thing that you have had to do and it was certainly no picnic for her, but oh…I don't even want to think about the spoiled brat she would be if you two had raised her."

"She would have been spoiled, wouldn't she?"

"There's no doubt, you two spoil her now as it is and she's a thirty year old woman."

"We do not…" I crossed my arms in offence to her statement.

"Oh really, ask your husband about his morning stops on the way to the station." I raised an eyebrow at her and made a mental note to ask him that specific question. "My point is, she deserves it. And so do you. Come back and enjoy your family, Snow."

"You're a part of that family, you know. "

"Thank you." Regina said with a genuine smile; a smile that I'm not sure that I had ever seen as a kid.

"You're welcome…" I responded as I gave her a Cheshire cat grin.

"What? What's that look?"

"I think Emma should start calling you grandma…" My grin turned to a huge smile. I didn't have much to lightheartedly tease Regina about, but I did have that.

"Now you're pushing it." She warned. She dipped her head down and raise her brows, giving me her signature 'don't mess with me' look.

"What? Technically, it's true." I sang.

"Step-Grandmother…and no."

"We found it!" Henry announced as he barreled down the staircase. He had his book in one hand and was flinging his backpack over his shoulder with the other hand. He nearly hit Emma in the face with the straps as she followed him too closely.

"Yeah, it took forever, it was lodge underneath his bed behind a pile of clothes and shoes that he needs to put away." She put a strong emphasis on the 'needs to put away part.'

"I'm sure there's a pile under Emma's bed as well." I mumbled. "Oh well, I'll get it all when I get home from the hospital…" I said full of hope that I would be getting home from the hospital again.

"There's that spoiling thing again," Regina whispered to me over her shoulder. I had to laugh at the look on Emma's face.

"What?" Emma asked as she looked around to see if there was someone else to whom Regina was possibly talking.

"Huh? Oh nothing."

"Who were you talking to while we were upstairs?"

"Oh, no one. I was uh…reading an email and speaking my thoughts aloud as I responded. Ready to go Henry? What did you need the book for anyway? You haven't read it in weeks."

"Oh, I promised Roland that I would bring it to read him some of the stories." Regina gave him a proud approving nod as she wrapped her arm around his shoulders to lead him to the door. "Bye Mom," he turned to call over his right shoulder to Emma.

"Bye, kid. Love you" she responded as she went to resume her activity of washing the dishes; a task that she never completed.

"Love you, too." The teen called out.

"I love you too…" another little boy yelled as he darted out of the bathroom in his one piece footy pajamas. I had to shake my head and laugh at his animated demeanor. I may have been biased but my kids were adorable…at any age.

"I love you tooooooo…" Emma sang out to her little brother. She dried her hands while he ran straight for her legs. She put the towel down just in enough time to put her hands down to his level and lift him over her head in one sweeping lift. A motion that made him giggle to no end. "Are you all ready for bed?" she asked as she perched him on her hip.

"Oh, I hope so…" Both Emma and I tried to stifle a laugh at the soaked Charming as he emerged from the bathroom.

"What happened to you?" She couldn't hold the laugh in any longer. I could tell by the look on her face that the laugh was not so much about the fact that Charming was all wet, but more about the fact that she was glad that it was him this time and not her. "I took a bath, isn't it obvious? And I think I got Neal clean too?"

"Did you do that to daddy?" Neal, who had laid his head on Emma's shoulder, shyly nodded and giggled into the side of Emma's neck. "High five, kid!" Emma praised holding up her free palm to the little boy. He quickly lifted his head from her shoulder, slapped her hand with his, and laid his head back in its comfortable position.

"Hey, you two, I'm your father. You're supposed to love me, not gang up on me…" The way he stood there with an offended look on his face was priceless. He looked as adorable as they did.

"I believe in the sibling handbook there is a chapter on ganging up on your parents. But the rule is one parent at a time. Never gang up on both parents at once, unless the kids outnumber the parents. Right, Neal?"

"Yep…" he answered with a little bounce.

"See?" she gave him her best innocent smile. David, briefly crossed his arms in a pout. It warmed my heart to see him finally interacting with them and being their father.

"Fine," he said as he reached for Neal, "Come here you, time for bed." The toddler let go of his sister's neck and reached for his father. He quickly resumed the same hold on the man. "I'll be right back."

Emma nodded while she washed the last plate and laid it in the strainer then wiped the counter dry. She stopped only long enough to her father say a cute goodnight to her a little brother. Although we really couldn't hear what he was saying it still brought a warm smile to her face. I watched as she finished and moved toward her winter coat that she unceremoniously threw on the arm of the couch.

She slipped it over her arms then reached back to lift her blond curls out from the binds of the wool. She only turned when she heard her father, "Where you going?" he asked as he came down the staircase.

"Home, you good here?"

"No…" he answered too quickly. The concern mounted quickly on her face. "I mean, yeah, I'm good, but please don't go."

"Dad…" she started but he put up his hand to cut her off.

"I would really like it if you stayed the night, please? It's been a tough couple of weeks, to say the least, and I really want my kids here with me."

"Ok…" I was shocked, I could have swore that by the look on her face she was going to argue, but she didn't instead she pulled her phone from her pocket. "Let me call Killian and let him know that I'm staying here tonight."

David nodded, but then I was even more shocked by what came from his mouth next. "Why don't you tell him to come over too."

And apparently so was Emma, "Umm…really? You really want him to come here for the night?" It was funny how she pointed from the door to the middle of room.

"Yeah, that way I know you are all safe?"

She knitted her brow and cocked her head to the side, her face was full of skepticism, "Where's my father? What did you do with him?"

"Enough Emma," he pulled the phone from her hand and brought up the contact hitting the send button, "I know what goes on in your home," he lifted the phone to his ear, "I just choose to believe that it doesn't happen. And I know that it won't happen here, right? Killian…"

She laughed and shook her head. As her father talked to her boyfriend on the phone, she slowly peeled away her wool coat and, again, hung it unceremoniously on the arm of the couch. I did a little gleeful clap when, while still on the phone, he pointed from Emma to the coat to the hook by the door. Emma rolled her eyes but lifted the coat and hung it on the hook. "I thought you were Dad, not Mom," she grumbled.

He ended the call and shook the phone in her direction, "It is my mission to make this place look perfect for when your mother get's home." Emma smiled at him, he finally had his hope back, "which is why we are going out tomorrow to get a Christmas tree. Ok?"

She nodded. She had the smile of a child plastered on her face. "Ok."

"Thank you," he smiled back at her, "I don't think I could have handled any of this without you. You've been my rock, kiddo." He pulled her into a tight hug and kissed the side of her head.

"Dad?" she said as she held him just as tight.

"mmhmm…"

"You know that unconditional love thing?" She waited for him to nod before she continued. "It goes both ways."

He pulled back from her but held her face in his hands, "I love you, kid."

"I love you too, Dad."

He pulled her forehead to his lips for another gentle kiss then release his hold on her to turn to the staircase, "Now you wait for Killian, I'm going upstairs to snuggle in with your brother, you two sleep in my bed."

"You're bed?"

"Yeah, it's easier than moving Neal. Plus I know that if you two are in my bed, you won't be making any tacos," he said over his shoulder with sly smirk.

A look of horror crossed her face, "Ew, Dad…"

"Exactly…" he ran up the stairs leaving his daughter alone to ponder his words. She stood there with a look of disgust on her face. I would say that he was effective in his plan. I, too, left her to stand in living room as I followed my husband up the stairs for the night.