Captain Swan - Set My Soul On Fire

Chapter 8

"Dad, stop!" Emma laughs as she swats her father's hand away from the pan. "It's not ready yet."

He pouts and pulls his hand away, his hands resting on Emma's shoulders as she stirs the sauce. "But it smells delicious. I can't just have a taste, you know, to sample it?"

"No!" Emma and her mother say in unison.

"Not until dinner's ready." Mary Margaret gives him a quick kiss on the lips, then points to the kitchen door. "Now leave so we can finish making dinner."

He's still pouting, but he kisses the side of Emma's head and sighs as he removes his hands from her shoulders and reluctantly leaves the kitchen.

Mary Margaret shakes her head as she turns on the faucet to rinse some dishes they had dirtied while they had prepared the lasagna. "Your father is so impatient."

"What's new?" Emma agrees with a laugh, but she can't deny she loves spending time with her family like this. She loves cooking with her mom because it's one of the things they get to do together that doesn't involve church or school. It's really handy having a teacher as a mom because she's always willing to help with homework, but most of the time neither of them wants to think about school.

Emma had sent in a bunch of college applications to appease her parents, but she already knows she's going to Storybrooke University since they have a police academy training program. She can get her associate's degree there and take the required testing the following fall. By then, her baby will be two years old and she'll have plenty of time to get in shape again after the pregnancy. SU also has a really great athletic facility and computer lab, they have campus daycare and family housing available to full-time students with children. Luckily, she and Killian don't have to be married to qualify as a family in the state they live in; they only have to be eighteen and full-time students permanently living together. Not that she's opposed to marriage; she can definitely see that happening somewhere down the road. But, she and Killian have enough on their plate as it is without having to also plan a wedding. And she doesn't want to get married just because she's pregnant. She doesn't want a shotgun wedding. Once they turn eighteen and get admitted into SU, they can apply for family housing.

There are also many jobs they could get close to, or on campus. The university has an Aviation program and offers night classes, so when they're not working, one of them can stay with the baby while the other one goes to school.

It's still weird thinking about that. Their baby.

She's about ten weeks pregnant and even though she knows she's too early to really show yet, apart from a small baby bump, she's still paranoid about it. Luckily, for a good majority of her pregnancy, it will be cold outside, which means Emma will be wearing lots of baggy sweaters. She's thought about telling her parents, but she's not ready yet. She sees how happy they are and how proud they are of her; she doesn't want to disappoint them. But she knows she has to tell them soon. If she doesn't, they'll figure it out on their own, eventually.

She'll tell them soon, though. It helps that she and Killian have some sort of a plan now. She and Killian both decided SU would be the best choice, and it would be a huge plus that they'd be staying in Storybrooke, close to their families.