As the chestnut stallion quickened his stride into a trot, Daniel sat up on his bare back, and the four-year-old girl perched on the saddle in front of him tightened her grip on his hands over the reins. She frowned and looked up at him with big brown eyes.

"Too bouncy, Daddy."

"When we go faster it will feel less bouncy, Lenora Gail," Daniel promised. He glanced at his father-in-law's large house, placed about the same distance away from the stable as his own home was. The house was empty. Henry was probably off at work for the day.

"Faster, Daddy, faster!"

"Okay, baby," said Daniel. He smoothed back her dark curls. "Hang on tight!"

Back at the house, Regina was sitting in her rocking chair cradling her one-year-old son as he whimpered incessantly because of an upset stomach.

"Do you want me to take him, M'lady?" asked the maid as she hung up the last of the wash. "Your husband took little girl out for a ride on Sylvester, and I think the twins are in the barn."

Regina shot up from the chair. "The barn? I specifically told them not to get the horses out until I was ready!"

"Well, maybe they're just playing outside," offered the maid helpfully.

"Would you mind holding Noah for a moment?" asked Regina

"Not at all." The maid took the baby and Regina marched outside and into the barn where here two eight-year-olds were opening a sack of grain.

"Henry! Helena! Get out of there right now!"

"We aren't getting the horses out, Mama," said her daughter.

"Daddy asked us to feed them!" called her son.

"Oh," said Regina. "Alright. Did he tell you which ones get hay and which ones get grain?"

"The pony only gets grain, the black mare only gets hay, and the rest get both," said Henry.

"Mama, can we ride the pony?" asked Helena.

Regina thought about it for a moment. "Maybe while your baby brother is taking his nap you can each ride in the arena for a little while."

"Grandpa said he'd teach me how to go over a jump soon," said Henry.

Helena pouted. "What about me?"

Henry smirked and put a hand on his hip. "Only men are supposed to learn how to jump."

"I'm sure you can jump too, Helena. Your grandfather taught me how to jump, too."

Helena beamed with satisfaction. "Is it true that you and Daddy decided to get married in here?" asked Henry.

"Yes," said Regina. "We met for the first time in this barn. We talked for the first time in this barn." She didn't tell them what else they'd done for the first time in that barn.

"Is it true that Grandpa's name is Henry too and I was named after him?" asked Henry as he dumped a bucket of grain into a horse's stall.

Regina smiled. "Yes. And your father's father is named Noah."

"What was Daddy's mother's name?" asked Helena.

"Gail," replied Regina. Before either of her children could ask the next question, she replied, "My mother's name was Cora, and she wasn't a good person."

"Oh." Helena bit her fingernail. "No wonder you never talk about her."

"I assumed she was dead," mumbled Henry as he tossed a flake of hay into another stall.

"She is," said Regina bitterly.

"Did she die in a fire like Daddy's parents?" asked Helena.

"No. She got into a fight with a terrible, powerful man."

Two pairs of skeptic brown eyes starred up at Regina. "Finish feeding the horses and come on back to the house," she instructed. "It's time for your chores." Both children let out an exaggerated groan. "Be good and maybe we can invite grandpa over for dinner later."

"Having to be good is annoying," Henry whispered thinking his mother couldn't hear him.

"They have no idea," muttered Regina on her way back into the house.

A/N: A few days before Regina would have met Snow White, Cora backed out on a deal she'd made with Rumpelstiltskin. He ripped her heart out and discovered it was already black anyway. Then he crushed it. Regina told her father about Daniel immediately, they got married a few years later, and had four kids. The twins came first, three years later they decided they wanted another one, and Noah was an oops baby. The two girls look more like Regina and the two boys look more like Daniel except that all four babies have Daniel's eyes and all but Noah have pitch black hair. Lenora is the only one with curls and Noah basically looks like Daniel's clone. And acts like it. The twins are more like Daniel personality wise but also very mischevious sometimes because there are two of them and feed off of each other when doing something they know their parents won't approve of. Lenora, ironically, is the most like Regina but is very much a daddy's girl, following him around anytime she can get away with it and always wanting to do things the way he does. And of course, Henry the first is the most loving doting grandfather ever, especially because he is the only living grandparent.

Related: it is slightly possible that I am becoming too obsessed with this pairing.