Chapter fifty seven

"What do you want for your birthday?" Emma asked the boy who was walking beside her as she wheeled her way back home. The saviour had finally stopped getting stares every time she went out in public, it was for this reason that she no longer felt the need to come up with excuses as to why she couldn't pick Henry up from school.

Henry tilted his head in concentration and replied, "with everything going on, I kind of forgot that it was nearly my birthday."

"So you don't want anything?"

His eyes widened and he shook his head, "that's not what I said."

Emma laughed and they rounded the corner to Mifflin Street, "so you need time to think about it?"

"How about a movie night with you and mom," he suggested.

"We did that two days ago and you could basically just ask any time for it, think bigger, kid."

"You could teach me magic," he tried.

"Think smaller."

"A horse," he suggested.

Emma paled and her son laughed at her, "your seriously still afraid?" he asked.

"Not so much, I have an excuse to not have lessons," she smirked.

Henry rolled his eyes and made his way up to the front door, a moment later, Emma had skilfully made her way up the ramp that Regina had created and went towards the living room.

"What time is mom home?" Henry asked as he fell onto the couch.

"She has to catch up on her work because she came with me to physio, so about six, which means you have to do your homework before dinner."

"I know what I want for my birthday," he suddenly announced.

"You have to do your homework, even on your birthday week, now go and do it," she insisted with a huge smile plastered across her face.

Henry pouted, but it soon became clear that his blonde mother wasn't going to change her mind and he stood from the couch mumbling about how unfair his life was.

Once he was gone, Emma managed to lift herself onto the couch and switched on the TV.

She couldn't help but think that everything was almost perfect, until she received a phone call a moment later.

David walked languidly into the sheriff's station.

Emma was out picking up Henry from school, and he couldn't stop himself from smiling at how different she was from the woman who had lain in bed in silence for days. He knew that the fact that it had been Regina who had helped with his daughter's healing process probably should have bothered him and it had for a couple days. But Snow had told him everything that had happened in the Enchanted Forest and he had seen for himself just how happy the blonde was when she was with her girlfriend and their son. Though this wasn't what he had expected to have happened when he placed his child in a wardrobe to protect her against the Evil Queen's Dark Curse, he no longer

resented the outcome. He was sure that given time, he would eventually come to accept it whole heartedly as it seemed his wife had.

For now, he had bigger issues, like the fact that the man he wanted to tear limb from limb was scheduled to get a trail tomorrow. Though he knew that Regina would do everything in her power to ensure that Neal got what he deserved, he was also very aware of the deception of the Dark One. If anyone could make it seem as though the man's actions were justified, it was Rumpelstiltskin and that worried him more than anything in the world.

Taking a seat at his desk, he pulled a file towards him. He gone over the case at lease twenty times, even if it was more than painful to read about the torture his child had gone through, he was aware that Neal going free would be far more painful.

He was about half way down the page when he realised that there was a distinct lack of sound. Granted, Neal was not the most vocal of prisoners, but David had at least been aware of his presence, usually his very presence irritated the prince and in this moment he felt nothing.

He snapped his head towards the cell to see it was completely empty.

He instantly jumped out of his seat and ran towards the bars which looked as though they had been forcibly pried open.

David ran his hand over the damage, completely unable to believe that it was possible for any human being to be capable of.

He strode over to the phone and prayed that she would answer and this could be put down to a simple misunderstanding.

"Hello," Regina's voice came through the device.

"What time was Neal going to be let out of his cell?"

There was pause on the over end of the line and she eventually said, "eight in the morning, why?"

David swallowed hard and replied, "he took the liberty of giving himself early release."

"What?" Regina growled.

"I came into the station and he's not here, it looks like he ripped the cell apart."

"Where's Emma?" she asked.

"She went to pick Henry up, she's probably back home by now," he said, though he imagined that they were each thinking the same thing. Neal never found out where the trigger was and would probably be making a second attempt at torturing it out of a certain blonde woman or brunette boy.

"Call Emma and inform her of what has happened."

"And what are you going to do?" he asked almost accusatorily.

"I'm going to protect your grandson."

Henry yawned and fell down onto his desk chair, simultaneously throwing his school bag on the wooden surface.

He dug his hand into it and pulled out a random book, taking the result as a sign that he should do his maths homework first, he threw the bag on the floor.

Pulling out a pencil, he looked blankly at some of the equations.

"Is that really what a hero such as yourself should be doing?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

Henry instantly swung around in his chair to see a blonde teen sitting on his bed.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Your great-grandfather."

A/N Hope you guys enjoyed. I'm sorry for the wait, just know that I am trying as hard as possible to write around my uni work :)

I would love to hear what you thought of the chapter XD