A (Deaf) Christmas to Remember

Chapter 4: December 11th

The next morning, Emma was woken up to the sound of Henry making a loud ruckus in the kitchen. Emma could hear pots and pans being banged against each together and she did her best to drown it out, begging for just a couple more minutes of sleep, but it never came.

She eventually reached to find her phone, which was hidden beneath their covers, and she saw that it said 7:09am. Emma's hand hit her face with a loud smack. Her slight irritation at Henry's antics had amplified the second her hand met her face with slightly more force then she intended. Now officially wide awake, she let out a heavy grunt as she forced herself off of the floor before she headed downstairs to see what Henry was up to.

"What the hell are you doing Henry?" Emma scraped the sleep out of her eyes and trudged into the kitchen, where Henry stood, oblivious to his mom's grumpy mood, his infamous grin staring back at her.

"Tryna make myself breakfast so you don't have too." As much as she wanted to be upset at her son for waking her up at such an ungodly hour, seeing him up out of his bed on his own, with no coddling from Emma, excited to do something for her, all of it made anger damn near impossible. He was just too cute. Emma ruffled her son's hair and took the bowl out of his hands, whisking his pancake concoction after she motioned for him to go sit down. Fifteen minutes later, the mother son duo were seated at the table eating pancakes and bacon, a nice treat from their usual cereal or oatmeal that they had been living off of since the tiresome move. After their breakfast and some much needed quiet time so Emma could fully wake up, she decided it would be a good idea to take Henry down to the park.

"Henry, today! If it starts snowing, we can't go!"

Henry barreled down the stairs and ran right up to his mother, who was holding his winter jacket out for him. He shoved his arms through the sleeves and stood completely still while Emma zipped him up, relieved that he didn't fight her on the jacket. He waited as she put his mittens and beanie on before taking her hand and carefully following her to the car.

The first thing Henry wanted to do when they got to the park was to go down the slide. Emma stopped him before he slid down the very-obviously-covered-in-snow slide. It might've only been a light layer from the night before, but the last thing she wanted was for her son to get pneumonia. They were living off of a teacher's salary for god's sake. She used her gloves to brush as much of the snow as she could down the slide before giving the go ahead. Emma smiled and watched as Henry laid on his stomach and slid down the slide, screaming and giggling the whole way down. Henry's screams and giggles filled the air as he thudded left and right going down the twisty slide.

"Emma?"

Emma turned around at the call of her name and scanned the few other people at the park for any sign of a familiar face. She almost started to give up and convinced herself she was hearing things when her eyes landed on a brunette with red streaks shining through.

"Ruby? Your hair!"

"Thought it was time for a change. You like?" As Emma walked up to the woman who was quickly wiggling herself into Emma's life, not to mention heart, the other woman gave her a quick spin, flaunting her new do.

"Of course!" It was definitely Ruby. The red was on brand seeing as it appeared to be her signature color. Emma had yet to see her in any color beside red. "You were right. This is a small town. What are you doing at the park so early?"