Once Upon A Happy Beginning

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Family Dinner

Snow

Emma's coming for dinner tonight. That hasn't happened since the last disaster. She has Granny's on a Tuesday with Henry, and meets Regina and Zelena to discuss the curse, but other than that, her and Killian stay in the house. She phoned up a few hours ago and asked if we could do dinner. The whole family, she'd said -- even Hook. 

So that's what we're doing. 

My phone buzzes and I see some texts from my daughter: 

Emma: Be there in 10 x

Emma: Can you check Henry has done his homework? 

Emma: Want us to pick up anything from the shop? xx

I fire a quick text back asking her to pick up a bottle of red (for Regina, the rest of us mainly drank white. Or rum if you were one of the pirates.) and yell upstairs to my grandson. He replies with a quick "Yes, Grandma!" but the swift clicking that soon starts tells me that he's not quite finished with his homework yet. It does remind me that I probably need to set some more soon, my students were kind of let off when everything with Emma went down but they probably should receive some education. 

Charming is humming in the kitchen to the song we first danced too on our wedding day, all those years ago in the Enchanted Forest. A nice waltz called Someday My Prince Will Come. I'm not sure what he's cooking -- he said it was a new recipe he found. David has always been the chef in this family, since the end of the curse anyway. But even in the Enchanted Forest, sometimes I caught him sneaking into the kitchens to potter away, even though we had lots of cooks. I think he used to cook at home, when his Dad was out drinking, to help his mother out. 

Emma shows up almost exactly when she said she would. She arrived with Killian and Hook, which was a bizarre sight that I'm not quite used to. Their fashion sense is the only way I can tell them apart. Emma gave me a hug and then went to help her Dad in the kitchen, with Killian passing her the wine on the way to see Henry. Hook slumped on the seat opposite me in the living room.

"The Evil Queen... she spoke through the magic box.. told Emma she'd come at six."

"Regina? And it's called a cellphone. Don't worry about it though... you..." I nod towards the stairs, where my son-in-law is talking about Henry's homework with him upstairs, "still don't really get it." I check the time on my own phone before I realise that it's only a few minutes off six o'clock. 

"It's... very confusing." 

"Tell me about it." I say. It's not just confusing, it's awkward.

I mean I might have been more supportive of the captain when he first arrived in Storybrooke and my daughter's life than my husband ever was, but I mean I still think of him as Hook. I'm sat in front of Hook right now. My son-in-law is Killian. But for a long time, I saw Killian as Hook and not as much as being Killian. So, now, we've got two versions of him. The man that I know and love and cherish as a massive part of my family. And the one that's sat opposite me, and I know will betray us in the Enchanted Forest when he goes to help Cora. If that happens now. I don't know what's going to happen to Hook. Or to Killian, how long can he be in the same time period as his past self? I wouldn't want to bring my past self here. Granted she was nicer than Hook is, but it would be weird. 

My spiralling is interrupted when the doorbell rings. 

"That'll be Her Majesty," Hook says, taking another swig and moving to unlock the door. I glimpse through the hallway that he does a slightly staggered bow as she walks in, holding hands with Roland. Robin trails behind with his daughter on his shoulders. 

Zelena appears behind them in a puff of green smoke. "I really don't know why you insist on driving everywhere, sis."

"I second... her. Those land vessels seem pointless."

"Her? I'm Zelena? Seriously, one-hand? I've been helping rescue your child!"

Robin leans forward and speaks into Zelena's ear: "I'd wager that that one isn't Killian."

Zelena just waves a hand and says that its his daughter anyway. "I'm famished." Stepping slightly back into the hallway, she calls through to my husband: "Need a hand with the food there, David? We could speed things up and be done in a jiffy."

"No need," Emma says, coming through into the living room. "All done, with no magic necessary."

"Thank you, Auntie Emma." Roland says, running over to give her a hug. I see my daughter's eyes tear up slightly as she hugs him back. She tells him to go and thank Uncle David because he cooked it, and I see so much of a mother in her. More than a mother she is to Henry, but a mother to the child she lost. 

"Come on, lets sit down before it gets cold," Emma says, turning to follow Roland out the door. "I'll go and find where Henry has got my husband."

Charming gives me a kiss as I walk in, getting up from where he was sat talking to our little toddler, whose already in his chair. It used to be his high chair but the little table and restraints came off as he got too big for it - it's a wonder what those Swedes make now. IKEA could give Marco a run for his money. I bend down next to him whilst David pulls my chair out for me. "Are we about to have some of Daddy's food? Has Daddy cooked some chicken for us? Neal, can you tell Uncle Robin what noise a chicken makes?" 

Neal turns to Robin whose sat next to him and goes cluck-cluck, before he's lost in a whirlwind of moos and baas. He's been good at learning animal noises recently. It's quite fun. Henry taught us a song called Old MacDonald Had A Farm and Neal absolutely loves it. He's actually put down the sword he's been obsessed with because he wants to sing that. I'll have to get Henry to give us more of these nursery rhymes. 

Speaking of my grandson, him and the book come into the room next. He says a quick "thanks Grandpa" before going to sit next to Regina. My daughter follows, holding hands... hand and hook?... with Killian. He pulls her chair out, as my husband did for me, and then with a quick kiss to her hairline, and then another on her hand, takes the seat next to her.

 Charming puts one more bowl of roast potatoes on the table, and then he takes the seat at the head of the table next to me. Emma is at the other end, and for a moment I forget everyone else. Just me, my husband, and my children - the four of us as we could have, should have once had these family dinners, all those years ago. 

"Well," my son-in-law says, holding up his wine glass of rum, "to Dave's delicious food, and the first proper Swan-Jones-Charming-Mills-Locksley family dinner." 

We all raise our glasses and laugh slightly at our mismatched but perfect family. 

"And," Emma adds, one hand raising her Pinot Grigio, the other squeezing Killian's hook. "To a family dinner without Gold, because he stole our daughter. But in the spirit of this family, we are good at finding people. And Killian and I have an idea of how to find her."