Author's Note: You all are once again the best readers ever. Thanks for following along on this random bit of silliness/family bonding! I hope you've enjoyed. (And also, I did indeed find The Woman in Black to be ridiculously creepy. Which is awesome, if you like that kind of thing - and I do. I just wasn't prepared for it because, y'know, PG-13. ;))

After The Woman in Black was over, the only thing anyone in the living room could do was just sit and process. Emma recovered her voice first. "Um, the next time? I'm watching this stuff before I show it to any of you."

There was another beat of silence, and then Henry turned to her, eyes sparkling and an excited grin tugging at his lips. "That? Was awesome."

The kid may have thought it was awesome, but if Emma had had any idea it was that … intense, she wouldn't have plunked her entire family down in front of it. That was only rated PG-13? Holy crap.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught her parents sharing a loving smile. Well, at least they weren't traumatized but why were they smiling?

And then it struck her: she'd inadvertently allowed them another first. This was her first real scary movie with her parents. The two Poltergeist movies didn't exactly count because she'd seen them before, but this one? This one was brand-new for all of them.

Wasn't that some kind of childhood rite of passage? She vaguely remembered kids in her classes at school talking about watching scary movies with their parents.

She was drawn from her reverie when Henry stood, collected the empty ice cream bowls, and took them to the kitchen. His action seemed to spur Killian into action. He glanced over his shoulder at Emma, still seated between her parents on the sofa, but to her surprise, he simply gave her a smile, stood, and joined Henry in the kitchen. The two of them began to wash the dishes that had built up over the course of the afternoon. Emma watched them a moment, thinking that Killian was managing to wash quite well with only one hand.

She shook herself back to the present once she realized she'd been staring at him. Her parents exchanged another smile, this one full of wisdom. Crap, they'd caught her staring. "I'm, um, sorry about the movie, guys," she said, partly to divert their attention. "I didn't know–"

"It's perfectly all right, Emma," Snow assured her, smiling. Her gaze drifted from Emma's and locked on her husband's, who gave her an encouraging little nod. Snow returned the nod, took a deep breath, and refocused on her daughter. "Actually, it was more than all right. The content of movie didn't matter. The content of none of the movies mattered, really. What mattered was the time. Thank you for allowing us this opportunity."

Well, then.

Emma hadn't been expecting that, and as such, she was not at all prepared for it. An instinct that had been ingrained in her from lifelong experience burbled in her stomach, making her want to shut it down and run. But there was another instinct fighting to be heard, too, one that was becoming increasingly more powerful.

She had a family now. She had a family who would do anything for her, a family who would follow her to hell and back if it meant keeping her by their sides.

This new instinct was telling her she couldn't run. And more importantly, she didn't want to.

Before she had the chance to chicken out, Emma leaned into her mother's arms for a hug. Snow's soft but clearly surprised gasp filled her ear, which, for some reason she couldn't determine, only made her snuggle closer. Snow's arms encircled her, holding her tightly and making her feel … safe.

Emma felt her father's arm slip over her shoulders as he shifted closer. Clearly he didn't want to miss out on a family snuggle. Emma turned towards him slightly, making the group hug a little less awkward. And for a long beat, Emma just allowed herself to be held in her parents' arms.

They only broke apart when little Neal gurgled from his nest in David's other arm. "All right, squirt," Emma said, chuckling softly, "we'll pay attention to you, too."

But before Emma could lavish any more attention on her baby brother, Henry cried from the kitchen, "Gramma!"

"What's the matter, Henry?" Snow asked, sitting up straight as if suddenly on alert.

"Nothing's the matter. It stopped raining!"

A glance out the window proved the kid correct. The rain had indeed stopped and the sun was peeking out through the clouds, which weren't nearly as dark as before.

"Do you think we can do weapons lessons now?" Henry asked, his tone basically pleading.

Emma was hesitant. "Kid, it's all wet–"

"Sure," her parents said in unison.

Emma gaped at them. They wanted to traipse outside while everything was still soaking wet just to do weapons lessons with her and Henry? After exchanging a slightly nervous glance with his wife, David refocused on his daughter and added, "If you want to, of course."

Oh God, she did. She really, really did.

"I do," she answered, much to her parents' relief. "I just … didn't think you'd want to bring the squirt outside."

"Since there was thunder, it shouldn't be chilly out," Snow replied, smiling gently at her daughter. "We can bundle him up and keep him dry as can be."

A touched smile pulled at Emma's mouth. She really needed to get used to the idea that people would actually want to spend time with her, didn't she? "Thank you," she whispered.

"You're very welcome, kiddo," David said, brushing a thumb along her cheek. Then her parents both stood to get her brother ready for the trip outside.

Emma stood as well, heading to the kitchen. She shooed Henry upstairs to get ready and then took his place at the sink with Killian. "Are you up for weapons lessons?" she asked him.

"Aye, love," he said softly, handing her one of the ice cream bowls to dry. When their eyes met, he smirked at her. "I told you a pirate knew his skies. It cleared up after all."

"Yeah, five and a half hours after you said it would."

"Still cleared up, didn't it?" he teased. When she playfully rolled her eyes, he smiled. After a moment, though, his smiled turned slightly concerned. "Are you sure you're all right, though, love? This afternoon has been … difficult for you."

"I'm all right," she confirmed. She was more than all right, actually. That little girl inside her, the one who'd made herself known in Neverland, didn't feel quite as lost anymore, anyway.

From the gentle smile on Killian's face, Emma gathered that he knew that. He really could read her like a book, couldn't he? "I'm glad for that, Swan. It's wonderful to find your place in the world, isn't it?"

And in that moment, Emma got it. She wasn't the only one who'd found their place in the world.

They'd all allowed Killian to join in on their new little family tradition as well. He'd been just as lost as she had but he, too, was finding home. He'd found it with her … and now he was finding it with her family.

"It is," Emma replied, smiling at her pirate. She glanced over her shoulder at her parents and baby brother and then up at the metal staircase, where her son was descending laden with everything they needed for their weapons lessons.

She met Killian's smiling gaze with her own. "It really is."