Henry is bouncing on the balls of his feet as he stands at the door with his coat on as I descend the stairs, I give him a quick smile then go to the oven to get the two foil wrapped pies that I made earlier and grab my bag and walk over to Henry to wait for Emma to hurry her ass up and get downstairs. Henry looks curiously at the pies and the quickly asks,

"Mum. Why two pies?"

I give a small smile and then sigh.

"Because our tradition is apple pie but I'm pretty sure Snow won't want to eat anything apple related coming from me, and I wasn't sure if you would either."

I take a deep breath as to not lose myself in self-pity and hatred in front of my son. As I do that he hastily jumps in,

"Of course I want apple, we always have apple pie plus pumpkin pie is disgusting… and mum you've changed and I know you would never intentionally hurt me."

He gives a big smile, that makes my worry a little less. We both stand in comfortable silence for 5 minutes, until we both get sick of waiting for Emma and we both give out a frustrated grunt. Henry turns to me and then winks and my brain clicks to just go along with whatever scheme he has buliding in his head. He then stands on his tippy toes and whispers in my ear. I laugh, nod my head, pick up my bag and a pie while Henry picks up the other and then we quietly leave the house as not alert Emma of our leaving without her.

Once outside Henry and I start giggling, and I feel so young and immature but it feels good laughing with my son. We continue walking to the charming residents, just nattering to each other has we look at everyones christmas lights. As we reach the charming's door Henry turns to me,

"Shouldn't we wait for Emma?"

I give him a look that clearly says but it was your idea and he understands immediately,

"Yes I know it was my idea but well..."

I sigh and try to keep the pained look of my face as I realise my son still doesn't quite trust that I won't try something around Snow. I just shake my head and knock the door. Charming answers the door and Henry immediately shoots a,

"Hey Grandad!"

Charming smiles and says while giving Henry an affectionate pat on the head.

"Hey pal."

Then Henry quickly ducks through the door and runs straight into the apartment, I'm about to tell him of for running but instead and affectionate smile comes to my face. Charming steps to the side and holds the door open wider.

"Come on in Regina"

"Thanks Charming"

I step past him and he closes the door looking perplexed,

"Where's Emma?"

An involuntary chuckle escape my lips. That I'm guessing could sound menacing that I gather from the grimace on his face.

"She shouldn't be much later."

I walk over to the island to but the pie down, where Henry put the other pie, and I do Snow walks over.

"Regina, Hi."

"Hello Snow."

She then looks at the bench and gives a confused look,

"Why two pies."

I hold my head a bit higher to meet her eyes.

"Ones apple, ones pumpkin."

She gives a small smile and sighs

"Thanks"

I just shrug the thanks off and go to sit with my son.

an: I dont think this will be done before christmas. oppsie.