Sweat dripped down her lower back and beads of it formed on her forehead. A combination of rock and pop music blasted through her earbuds on her usual workout playlist while her ponytail swished side to side with every stride she took.

Every weekend Emma had a ritual. She ran a mile every morning on weekdays and two miles on Saturdays and Sundays. The weekend runs were around the more scenic parts of the city, along the beach and park and local shops that garnered a small amount of foot traffic, while on the weekdays she only stuck to the neighborhood and maybe, if it didn't add up to a mile, she did a short lap around the duck pond at the park.

That particular Saturday, she weaved from one trail to the next at the park and had a good flow going, good momentum. She paced herself well and though she panted as she ran, her breathing was normal for her speed. It was a nice run on a nice day and she felt calm, healthy, good.

"Emma!"

The blonde whipped her head to the side and spotted the cause for her distraction. She puffed out a heavy sigh and pulled out her earbuds as she slowed her run.

"Henry," she breathlessly greeted with a hint of surprise in her voice.

He smiled at her from a bench on a cement pathway a small, grassy hill away from the one Emma jogged bseide. He was with his mother, of course, and as soon as he saw Emma he bolted from Regina's side.

Regina wasn't too pleased, but Emma wasn't all that thrilled either. She agreed to be a decent human being if he came around, but she did not agree to have her private and personal time invaded by a kid. She wasn't a mom and it wasn't what she signed up for. So why did she have to suffer like she had?

"You run," he asked.

"Uh, yeah," Emma replied and looked down at Henry who stood in front of her then over at Regina who was still on the bench, her eyes fixated on the two of them. "It's exercise. Gets the blood pumping and keeps you healthy and fit."

"So you run a lot?"

"Every day."

"Like my mom does yoga every day."

Emma nodded.

"I still think you should join her. And maybe she should go running with you. It would give you two time to talk and get to know each other."

"Henry," Emma warningly said.

"Be friends," Henry added and disregarded Emma's attempt to quiet him.

"I'm telling you, it's not gonna work."

"Bu you haven't even tried. Come on," Henry said and took Emma's hand.

The kid tugged her along, over the two hills, and brought her to Regina.

"Hey, Mom, can Emma hang out with us," he asked.

"What? Kid, I haven't even finished my run. I'm also really sweaty. I probably smell."

"Probably," Regina asked with a raised brow and, after a few seconds, a grin. "I only wish I had deodorant or some car fresheners to dangle from your ears in my purse."

"Mom, don't be mean. You really don't smell, Emma. Not too much, anyway."

Regina chuckled and Emma rolled her eyes with a smile.

"Ha, ha. Very funny. Yeah, laugh it up, but you know," Emma trailed off as she reached down and pulled the small towel she carried with her out of the waistband of her running shorts. She dabbed her sweat-slicked face, chest, and arms with it then rubbed it against Regina's neck and chest.

"Ooh. Oh!"

Regina tried to swat her away, but Emma just moved the towel somewhere else and flicked her wrist to tickle Regina's face with it at a quick pace like a mop wiped across a floor. She made sure the brunette shared every piece of evidence of her morning's accomplishments with her.

Henry laughed as he watched.

"I'm not the only one that stinks now," Emma finally said.

"Get your filthy sweat towel off of me," Regina demanded.

Emma chuckled and Henry beamed at them. She ruffled the towel through Regina's hair a little before she relented and tucked the towel back into her shorts.

Regina smacked Emma's arm and Emma just continued to laugh.

"See why we can't be friends," Emma asked Henry. "Your mom doesn't know how to relax."

Regina and Henry had been in town for almost two weeks at that point. Henry had come over to Emma's house almost every day since they moved in and Henry controlled most of the conversation. He rarely talked about himself and seemed to make it his mission to convince Emma she should be Regina's friend. He never really said why he wanted them to be friends, but he kept trying to find what little things the two women had in common. Still was, apparently.

She barely knew either one of them, but they didn't know her either. All she knew about her neighbors were that Henry was persistent and Regina always wore impeccable pantsuits and black skirts. Her hair might also have only stopped at her shoulders and she never wore it in an up-do, but figuratively speaking the other woman never let her hair down. She was a stickler for order and therefore seemed to lack even a single fun bone in her entire body.

Since the three of them rarely spent any time together and hardly knew each other, Emma had already started to tease and play with Regina like they were friends just as Henry wanted, or at least on the path to friendship. It wasn't quite the case, but instead it was just Emma not taking kindly to being made fun of for the after effects of her morning run. The way she reacted was just her style, too. It was a bold move to force a sweat towel in a near-stranger's face like they at least knew more about each other than their names and Emma was a bold person. She either made people uncomfortable or she pushed them enough in just the right way to get them to loosen up like her, expand their comfort zone. It was all part of her charm.

Regina fluffed up her hair and scrunched up her face with disgust as she felt dampness wherever Emma had dragged her towel across her.

"I should really go," Emma said to both of them. "Enjoy the rest of your day. I'll be getting back to my run."

Henry frowned and Emma waved at them before she started to jog away. At almost the last minute, before she was too far away from them, Emma turned to face mother and son and jogged backward so she could leave Regina with a few parting words.

"I'm still kind of into that whole 'yoga partners' thing. You know, if you think you can handle it," Emma teased.

Regina rolled her eyes and scoffed.

After Emma conquered all the trails at the park that she wanted to that day, she took a detour on her way back home. Once a week she took the same detour at the end of her runs and jogged the short distance from the park to another neighborhood she knew very well. Ruby Lucas' neighborhood.

She jogged up to the pathway that led to the front door then stopped. She took a deep breath to calm her heartrate and blotted the towel against her face before she stepped forward onto the pathway. Emma walked up to the door and rang the bell then stuck the towel back into her shorts while she waited.

Ruby answered the door with a smile, her brown hair long and free from a ponytail unlike Emma's, and stood in a red shirt that hugged her breasts and flat stomach with a pair of tight, dark-washed jeans and knee-high black boots. She wore her signature tan belt with a silver, wolf buckle and her makeup was simple but always made her look stunning. She had a natural beauty Emma would kill to have and she was well in shape. It wasn't that long ago when she used to run with Emma on weekends, but family came first with Ruby ever since her mother left her to be raised by her grandmother at the tender age of seven. Because of that, Ruby had family related matters to handle on her time off from work when she would usually go running with Emma and because Ruby had been abandoned by her mother, Emma and Ruby easily connected and instantly became best friends.

"Ruby, who is it," a familiar and brusque voice called out from the kitchen.

Emma grinned when she heard her.

"It's just Emma, Granny," Ruby yelled back with an annoyed expression on her face.

"Oh," Granny said as she appeared with a large rolling pin in her hands in the hall just outside of the kitchen and in full view of the foyer where Emma and Ruby stood.

The woman had gray hair and wasn't at all in shape. She wasn't unhealthy overweight, but she had more fat than muscle and definitely couldn't outrun anyone. She'd make it to the end of the block then keel over, huffing and puffing while she attempted to catch her erratic and shallow breath. That had less to do with her weight, however, and more to do with her age.

"What the hell are you holding that for," Ruby asked as she looked from her grandmother to the rolling pin. "You weren't even baking!"

"I thought there might be trouble," Granny argued. "I was just being prepared."

Emma laughed.

"And you thought a rolling pin would stop trouble," the blonde asked.

"Why don't you come over here and let me show you just what kind of damage this rolling pin can do, Girl," Granny threatened with a raised eyebrow.

Emma laughed harder and Ruby smirked. A moment later, Granny smiled and winked at Emma before she lowered the rolling pin.

"Nice to see you, Emma," Granny properly greeted her. "Are you staying for breakfast? I've got quiche in the oven."

"Uh, sure," Emma perked up then looked to Ruby for permission.

Ruby sighed and shook her head with a smile, amused.

"Of course you'd agree to stay after the promise of free food," Ruby said then stepped aside and motioned toward the general interior of the house. "Come on in."

"Thanks, Rubes," Emma said with a smug smile and walked inside. Ruby closed the door behind her and Emma headed toward the kitchen. "Mm, smells good."

"It is good," Granny said before she disappeared into the kitchen and Emma and Ruby followed after her. "My cooking is always good."

"No arguments here," Emma assured as she and Ruby entered the kitchen.

Emma plopped down into one of two chairs at the island counter and Ruby gracefully settled into the chair beside her.

Granny had come to live with Ruby a couple months prior due to her weakening health. Her heart and her bones weren't as strong as they used to be twenty years ago and while her reflexes were still sharp, they somehow weren't sharp enough when it came to saving herself from a slip-and-fall event. That was exactly what had happened that brought Granny to Ruby's house. Granny detested assisted living and loathed nursing homes. She insisted she didn't need to be placed in either and Ruby tried to convince her that while she didn't need a nursing home, assisted living might actually be good for her. Granny was stubborn, though, and instead Ruby had come up with the solution to let her live in the house with her until she absolutely needed more care than Ruby could provide.

Granny, when she was still on her own in a small townhouse nearby, wasn't clumsy, but she occasionally experienced vertigo. More recently and somewhat frequently, Granny became too dizzy to stand and even when she had something to reach out and help her catch herself before she fell, those more-brittle-than-not bones of hers made it almost impossible for her to hold herself upright. Whenever Ruby went to visit her, she often saw signs of pain and then saw the bruises that had brought on that pain. There weren't always a lot of bruises, but they were big bruises and they were usually in the worst places like her hips, shins, and arms. Granny didn't need protecting from other people as long as she had a weapon—like a rolling pin—but she apparently needed protection from herself.

"So," Emma started to say while Granny opened the oven and checked the progress of the quiche. "How's your love life been since you took her in?"

"Uh, you mean my sex life," Ruby asked. "Belle loves Granny. She doesn't mind that she's staying with me. She actually thinks it's sweet."

"Which means you definitely don't have a problem getting laid with Granny around. Apparently it means you get laid more now that she's here."

"You do know this kitchen is small and I can hear you, right," Granny asked as she shut the oven and turned around to face the younger women. "Besides, even if this kitchen wasn't small, my hearing is still as impressive as it ever was."

Emma grinned and Ruby's cheeks turned a rosy shade of pink.

"That lovely girl Belle takes her out places," Granny continued. "And if they do anything, they know not to do it here."

Ruby's cheeks tinted further to a full on embarrassed shade of red. She looked down at the counter space and tried not to grin or laugh. It was funny, but to have her grandmother talk about her sex life so freely was just awkward.

Emma chuckled.

Ruby glared at her friend then took a moment before she decided to ask, "How's your love life, Emma?"

Granny immediately laughed. There was no joke in Ruby's question, but Granny already found it amusing. It didn't take long to understand why.

"She hasn't had a dry spell since she quit being a bail bondsperson slash bounty hunter," Granny said. "She probably just got some last night. How right am I?"

"Um, actually, you're not right this time."

"What," both Granny and Ruby asked with slack jaws.

"I have this new neighbor and she's got this kid."

"Whoa, wait. Back it up, Semi-Stud," Ruby interrupted. "She?"

"Yeah, there's this woman who just moved in next door with her kid. He's always hanging around my place when he's not at school so I haven't really been getting out there."

"So this woman's got a son?"

"Yeah, he's like ten or something. Kind of dorky looking, like a nerd or something if you ask me."

"But this woman," Granny cut in, "how is she?"

Emma's eyebrows shot up toward her hairline. "You almost sound like you're interested."

"Please," Granny shook her head. "I don't feel that way about women and I haven't been with a man since my dear husband passed years ago. You know that. I just like to live a little vicariously through you two. Even if it means hearing about lady loving, which is not something I myself would do but don't mind at all that you two do. Now what's she like?"

"Prickly," Emma replied. "She's so uptight. I haven't seen her smile once and the kid swears she and I could make good friends."

"So her kid wants you to befriend her," Ruby asked. "Why won't you? You're neighbors, right? Is she not up to your standards? If she's not me or you don't want to bang her you just don't think about being friends with another woman?"

"Oh come on, Ruby, you know that's not true. I'm friends with Belle and I don't want to sleep with her. And it's not about looks with me. Well, not entirely. Yeah, I've got a type, but I'll pretty much sleep with any woman."

Ruby rolled her eyes.

"Okay, first off, Belle doesn't count because she's my girlfriend so you better not want to sleep with her. Secondly, yeah, you'll sleep with many a woman. Fine, you don't discriminate, but that's sex. That's not friendship."

"I just…I don't know. She's…weird. Like, she's too guarded and she seems so cold and distant. You, you're warm and fun and you actually do shit. I swear all Regina does is work and look after her kid and maybe eat and sleep, but nothing else. How can you be friends with someone so absolutely different than you?"

"Uh, duh! Opposites attract," Ruby argued.

"Yeah, yeah," Emma brushed it off. "She's…well, she's actually really hot, but she's not even a little fun. I can't see myself talking and hanging out with a stick in the mud."

"But how do you know she's not fun," Granny piped up again just as the oven beeped. She turned and slipped on oven mitts then pulled open the oven and grabbed the quiche. She set it down on the cooling rack she had set up on the island and said, "You don't hardly know her from what it sounds like. You probably only see her when she leaves for work and when she gets home. How could you possibly know what she does or doesn't do that might constitute as fun?"

"Because she never leaves her house unless it's for work," Emma answered. "Except for today, but she was at the park with her kid. That's not fun, that's just being a mom."

That time Ruby's eyebrows jumped toward her hairline. "Wait, she was at the park today? While you were running?"

"Yeah, her kid dragged me over to the bench they were sitting at when he saw me. We talked for a few seconds, she told me I smelled, so I rubbed my dirty towel all over her."

"Is that what you kids call what you do," Granny asked, genuinely curious. Ruby snorted in response.

"Yeah, Em, what kind of euphemism is that?"

"It's not a euphemism! I wiped my towel over myself and made it all sweaty just so I could make her kind of sweaty so she smelled too."

"Oh boy," Granny said and rid herself of the oven mitts as she placed them back in their rightful drawer.

"Okay, maybe you two can't be friends," Ruby agreed. "She probably sees you as an adult child. You'd probably have a better relationship with her son than you would with her."

"I'd agree with you on that except that we both know how I feel about kids."

"But it's not like he's a baby. He can take care of himself for the most part. I just thought you didn't like them when they were overly dependent."

Emma shrugged.

"I just don't like kids in general. The more dependent they are, the more I don't like them, but just…kids. They're so young and impressionable and it's weird. I live in the adult world. I don't want to have to lower the rating of how I live my life just so they don't see the wrong thing or get the wrong idea about something. I don't want to field their questions all day and I don't like making sacrifices just because it's better for them if I give something up."

"Oh, honey, let's face it," Granny said and leaned over on her elbows on the island. "You just don't want the responsibility or accountability that comes with children."

"Maybe not, but everything else is true, too," Emma stated. "Plus, we all know I'd be horrible with kids. They may be brutally honest, but they can't handle the kind of truths I know. The truths most adults know. There's a child's honesty and then there's my tactless self. I don't want to sugarcoat anything because this life, this world, isn't full of rainbows and unicorns and sweetness and I wouldn't lie, even to a kid, about that because people shouldn't expect a freaking fairy tale happy ending."

"You should know better than anyone there are plenty of unicorns around here," Ruby joked and suggestively raised her eyebrows with a smirk.

Emma rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do, and you're just bitter and cynical."

"Can you blame me?"

Ruby shook her head and answered, "Of course not, but you shouldn't live under a rain cloud because of your past, Eeyore."

Emma scoffed and punched Ruby in the arm.

"Ow," Ruby frowned and rubbed where Emma hit her. "That's probably gonna leave a bruise."

"Good," Emma smiled.

Ruby pursed her lips and looked deviously at Emma before she punched her in return.

Emma feigned a gasp then tried to hit Ruby again when Granny cut in.

"Girls, don't make me pull you two apart."

"What are you gonna do, Granny? Beat us with your rolling pin," Ruby asked through her laughter as she and Emma playfully and less aggressively smacked and slapped each other.

"Or maybe I'll find a new use for my favorite spatula," Granny said as she pulled the mentioned spatula out of the drawer on her side of the island. She swatted it gently against her hand in warning and raised an eyebrow that said, Give me a reason.

Emma and Ruby both pulled their hands away from each other and settled down. Emma cleared her throat and Ruby ran a hand through her hair to fix it even though it didn't need much fixing. They kept their hands to themselves and Granny proudly grinned before she put the spatula back into the drawer and retrieve a pie cutter.

"Wow, Ruby," Emma said slightly under her breath even though she knew Granny could hear her. "We're in our late twenties and your grandmother almost spanked us with a spatula."

Ruby tried and failed to hold back a chuckle then replied, "If she wasn't my Granny I'd say that's kinky."

Emma cupped a hand over her own mouth and laughed into it, unsuccessful to stifle the laughter.

Granny used the pie cutter to divvy up the quiche into eight, triangular pieces then used it to lift a slice and place it on one of the two plates on the countertop. She served the plate to Emma then turned and retrieved a third plate while Ruby helped herself to a slice when Granny's back was turned. When Granny faced them again, she gave Ruby a knowing look and Ruby just smiled at her like she'd done nothing wrong and pulled her plate closer to her.

Granny handed them each a fork then served herself before she shooed the younger women out of the kitchen and into the dining room straight across the hall.

Henry knew better than to eavesdrop, but he was a curious boy. He listened in while his mom was on the phone, yet again, with his grandfather. Just before they moved to the new city, he'd overheard his mom call him once a day and talk to him about everything. Sometimes everything was just a run-down of her boring day and sometimes everything was a moment or a thing that reminded Regina of something that had happened in her past. Henry knew he really shouldn't listen in on such personal conversations, but he couldn't help himself. His mother had a lot of good days, but for the last few months she'd had a lot of bad ones as well.

"Do you think you could visit tomorrow," Henry heard Regina ask as he sat on the stairs and listened to his mother who paced in the living room as she talked to her father. "I'd really like you to see the house and I know Henry would love to see you, as would I."

Henry frowned at the tone of his mother's voice. She sounded desperate and pleading as she spoke to his grandfather and it worried him to hear her so anxious, like his grandfather's presence could make all the difference and possibly save her from her not-so-happy thoughts. He wasn't sure how his mother felt or what drove her to sound so desperate on the phone, but he could imagine she was thoroughly upset about something with the way she sounded and it worried him.

"It would have been our twelfth anniversary today," Regina told her father. "That is if we'd ever gotten married."

Henry's eyes widened, shocked. He never knew his mother had been engaged. He hadn't known his mother to even date anyone let alone be involved enough with someone to have an anniversary. That would definitely explain her recent sadness.

"If she hadn't pushed him away," Regina started again, "maybe we could've been together. If we'd been together, maybe he'd still be alive. I know he would've loved Henry."

So his mother had been almost married to a guy one time and he was dead. He never knew his father and Regina never talked about him, dodged every question about it, so maybe that was why. She loved his father then she lost him and it was just too painful to talk about.

Even if his grandfather visited them the next day, it still wouldn't be soon enough. Regina needed comfort and company right away and Henry wasn't sure he could give her the kind she needed. If she was asking for her father she probably needed an adult. She needed someone she could talk to, not someone she withheld the truth from because maybe it was better or easier if Henry never knew. Maybe she was trying to protect him if the man his mother talked about was indeed his father. That part really didn't matter, though, because Regina needed something right away and while Henry started to head the rest of the way down the stairs to give her a hug, she needed more than her son. He wanted to be enough for her in her time of need, but it didn't seem right for a mother to solely lean on her son when she needed a shoulder to cry on.

While Regina started to wrap up her phone call, Henry wrapped his arms around her waist and gave her a light squeeze.

"Oh," Regina breathed out as she brought a hand around Henry's back, the phone still in her other hand. "Henry."

He closed his eyes and hugged her a little tighter. He felt more than heard her sigh before she rested her chin on the crown of his head. He didn't want her to be alone that night, even if the day had a certain significance to her that probably shouldn't be tainted by what he was about to do. He had to do it, though. He had to do something. It was all he could really do to help aside from giving her a hug and pretending he didn't know as much as he did.

"What are you doing, sweetheart? Is everything okay," Regina asked before he pulled out of the embrace.

He shook his head and said, "I'm okay. I just wanted to give you a hug."

He would never tell her he'd listened to her phone call and he'd never admit that he knew she was sad. He knew she did her best to mask her pain in front of him. She prided herself on looking stronger than she might actually be because she had to be Henry's rock when he needed her, not the other way around. It was her selflessness that drove Henry to do what he did next. For his mother.

"Thank you," Regina gave him a watery smile, obviously on the verge of tears though she held them back for the moment.

Henry smiled at her then walked back over to the stairs to allow his mother some privacy to finish her conversation with his grandfather. He went up to his room, didn't stop and wait on the stairs to keep listening, and then slipped out his window and walked along the roof until he hesitated at the edge. He took a deep breath then reached out for the sturdy branch of the tree that grew over the rooftop in the backyard. He swung forward and latched onto the branch with both his arms and legs like a koala bear. He shimmed down the branch toward the trunk then climbed down the rest of the way until he jumped off the tree and landed on his feet in the yard. He brushed himself off then jogged around the side of the house that ran alongside the fence that separated their yard from the neighbor's. He slipped around the fence near the front of the house then hurriedly made his way up the small, steep steps in front of the neighbor's house.

He rang the bell then looked around nervously as if he was going to be caught at any moment. It took a minute, but sooner rather than later the door opened and Emma appeared in the doorway with her head cocked and a less than pleased expression on her face.

"Kid, what are you doing here," she tiredly asked like he was the last thing she needed today.

"Come over for dinner," he blurted out. "It'll be ready in half an hour. Ring the bell around then and don't tell my mom I invited you."

Emma stepped back from the door and her shocked, wide eyes blinked several times as confusion and disbelief overtook her features. "What?"

"Please," Henry whined with a screwed up look on his face. "I know it's strange to just ask like this, but it's important."

With that, Henry dashed away and disappeared behind the fence as he went back the way he came. As he left Emma's porch he heard her call out after him.

"Wait. Kid! What the hell?!"

Henry climbed up the tree and snuck back into his room, his momentary escape gone unnoticed by his mother as he heard clanging and other movement downstairs through his closed bedroom door. He wasn't sure Emma would actually listen to him, but he hoped she showed up. He also hoped Regina wouldn't mind if the blonde intruded on a day that was supposed to have been special for his mother once upon a time.