Hi everyone! Thank you so much for still reading this story after the 5 year gap! and hello to all new readers and followers of this story :) Thank you for all the lovely reviews they made me smile so much. Hopefully this next chapter lives up to your expectations! My plan for the next chapter is a lot of fluff so keep reading :)

love Rouge xxx

Chapter 6

"You go baby, i'll stay here with Tia" Emma smiled with a gentle nod.

Regina smiled and made her way downstairs as quick as she could. "Henry?" She called out gently as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Mom!" Henry exclaimed as he appeared out of the living room and ran to the open arms of his mother, hugging her tightly.

"Oh Henry, I missed you" the brunette hugged him back and kissed his head lovingly.

"Missed you too mom" Henry smiled as he felt Regina's hand gently stroke through his hair as she held him close to her. Stroking through her loved ones hair always made her feel comfort and safe. Henry gently pulled away naturally after a few more moments, "where's Mama? And Tia? How is she doing?" He asked slightly concerned.

"They are both upstairs dear, Tia loves her new room, so far everything is going really well" Regina told him as she instinctively stroked through his hair again. "How has your week been? I hope you were good for your grandparents?" She asked

"Yes mom I was good" Henry said rolling his eyes slightly at his mother's question, "Oh it was so cool grandpa took me to the arcade, and then we went to see the new Marvel movie!" he replied excitedly.

"Wait…Isn't that the film that is rated high for violence? The film I said I didn't want you to see?" She frowned as she placed her hands on her hips looking at her son.

"Ummm…..maybe" Henry mumbled looking anywhere other than his mothers eyes realising his mistake "but it was really cool and I was fine, honest" he continued trying to get himself out of the hole he was digging for himself as he shuffled on the spot. "Grandma said it was ok….and grandpa wanted to see it too".

Regina rolled her eyes "of course she said it was ok, I will be having words with them both" she said.

"Hey kid!" Emma said from the top of the stairs interrupting their conversation, much to Henry's relief, "come up and meet your new sister" she smiled as she disappeared again back into Tia's room.

Regina and Henry climbed the stairs. "Remember dear, quietly, gently, no touching" she reminded her excited son who gave her a nod of understanding as they both entered the room.

Seeing Tia next to his mama, sat together playing with her teddies and smiling made Henry feel all warm inside and he smiled too. Tia looked very much like a part of their family with her blonde curls like Emma, and her pretty features that both mothers possessed, you wouldn't have known they weren't all related unless you were told.

"Tia?" Regina spoke very gently coming in with Henry, "this is your new big brother, Henry he has come to meet you".

Tia looked up and seeing Henry who she hadn't met before, gave her a little fright and she quickly crawled and hid behind Emma.

"Aww kid it's ok, Henry won't hurt you, he is nice like us" Emma gently encouraged as she reached behind her and stroked Tia's arm feeling her clinging to Emma's t-shirt "come and say hello". But Tia didn't move, she just gripped tighter to Emma's t-shirt with her face snuggled into the fabric and gave a soft whine.

Regina knelt down closer to them and Henry gently did the same, following his mother's lead, he wasn't really sure what the right thing to do was, but he didn't want to upset Tia, he wanted her to feel comfortable around him like she did his mother's.

"I…" Henry started quietly but stopped himself, looking to his mother's for encouragement and approval of his tone of voice and that he was allowed to speak. Once Emma nodded gently he continued "I made you a banner Tia" he spoke quietly as he unzipped his backpack and unrolled the banner. It was quite long and it was white, with pink swirled writing across it, accompanied by pink balloons and a picture of a little panda bear.

Both mother's smiled and gasped gently, Emma spoke first "oh look Tia, look what Henry has made for you, kid that's great"

Henry smiled at the praise "Thanks, grandma helped a little"

"And Tia's new friend mr Panda bear is on there too, I'm sure he would like that" Regina said as she noticed the picture of the panda that was included on the banner, she gently picked up the toy. "Oh yes, yes he really likes his picture next to Tia's name" she played, and Emma smirked feeling Tia move gently behind her back, but still clinging to Emma.

"Umm…yeah" Henry agreed as he realised that his mother's were using the teddies to communicate with Tia "He told me before Tia arrived that he wanted to be on the banner to surprise her, he also helped me pick out a present".

"Oh a present? You have a present for Tia? Well we will have to find her, I think she is hiding" Regina smiled gently

"Yeah" Henry agreed as he got a plastic bag out of his bag with the present in.

Emma felt Tia gently shuffling around behind her and realised she must be intrigued by the sound of the plastic, just as she was when herself and Regina brought the musical instruments to the orphanage. Emma gently took the bag from Henry and began to rustle it "I wonder what's inside" she said playfully just as a little blonde head slid around from her back sucking her thumb to have a peek. "If Tia is too shy to come and open it, i'll have it" she smirked as she took a pink and white gift bag out of the plastic bag.

Tia gently reached onto Emma's lap and stroked the ribbon that was tied around the handles of the gift bag. "Oh Tia, there you are!" Emma gasped playfully and the little girl smiled shyly as she tilted her head down and sucked her thumb. "Do you want to open your present off Henry?" She asked. When the little girl gently nodded and looked up at her again the blonde mother held the bag open for her to be able to reach inside. "Go on, see what it is baby" she encouraged, as Tia removed her thumb from her mouth and slowly reached inside the bag, she gently took out a small heap of blue fabric and frowned not knowing what it was.

Regina gently reached knowingly and unfolded the fabric, holding it up for her to see, it was a dress-up Elsa dress. Tia recognised it instantly from seeing the film in the orphanage and gasped, covering her mouth cutely as her eyes lit up "elwsa" she whispered pointing to the dress and bounced excitedly on her knees. Regina, Emma and Henry giggled gently watching her reaction, seeing her so happy and excited as she crawled over to Regina and Henry and tapped the dress twice, making sure she wasn't dreaming.

"Wow" Emma said "you can dress up like Queen Elsa now when we watch Frozen, what do you say to your big brother for the lovely present?" She asked gently.

Tia looked over at Henry for the first time properly and gave him a tiny smile "Ta" she said quietly.

"You're very welcome" Henry replied quietly, returning the smile "and look, here's your banner too" he said tapping the paper that was laid out on the floor.

Tia looked down and tapped the paper twice too, she looked at the writing and stroked the picture of the panda bear "pwetty" she nodded approvingly.

Henry smiled "It says welcome to your new home Tia!" He tapped out the words on the paper as he read it for her, "because you are part of our family now, and we are all going to look after you and keep you safe".

A few hours later everyone was hungry, they had all moved downstairs to the living room, Emma and Henry sat on the couch watching cartoons with Tia cuddled up on Emma's lap with Rosie, she held on to Emma's t-shirt comfortingly, with her head against the mothers chest and she sucked her thumb. Tia wasn't really paying attention to the television, she was just enjoying being close to Emma and feeling the vibrations against her little ear when Emma giggled at the cartoon. Henry sat at the furthest end of the couch away from the girls to give Tia some space, she had not gave him permission to touch her as she was still a little wary of him and he didn't want to make her feel afraid. He was also a little worried of being right next to her just incase he accidentally touched her. Regina was cooking dinner in the kitchen, chicken nuggets in honour of Tia's homecoming for the children and Emma, while Regina would have the healthier option of chicken salad with new potatoes.

"Time for dinner" Regina sang gently as she peeped around the living room door at her beautiful family.

"Great, i'm starving" Emma exclaimed enthusiastically as she turned the television off and carried Tia to the kitchen followed by Henry. Emma gently sat Tia in her high chair so that she was high enough to see over the table. "There we go kid, this is your new, special princess high chair to eat at" she smiled and wiped the tray in front of Tia to make sure it was clean, then took her own seat next to her.

Regina served the meals and drinks, then sat herself down on the other side of Tia, Henry sat on the other side of both mother's and opposite Tia.

"Nwuggets" Tia pointed happily at her plate and gave a small clap

"That's right sweetheart, especially for you" Regina smiled "be careful they are still a bit warm, blow on them first, good girl"

"Nuggets are yummy aren't they Tia? Can you say yummy?" Henry asked encouragingly as he started blowing on his and eating them.

"…y…yummy" Tia copied with a smile and picked up one of her own nuggets and blew on it as she had seen Henry do.

"Very good" Henry giggled

Regina smiled happily seeing Tia starting to settle in well and now eating her first cooked meal with no bother. Regina couldn't have asked for today to have gone any better. She took a moment to look at her children and her beautiful wife and mentally say a thankful prayer for being so blessed and lucky. Twelve years ago she would have never believed that this could be her life, that she could be so happy and be able to love so much. Emma and Henry were chatting at the table about who would win a fight between wolverine and spiderman, one of their many chats about superheroes that Regina had been witness to, sometimes they could go on like this for hours, but it made them happy and gave them something to bond over, so if they were happy, Regina was too. Emma was just voicing her opinion on why she was on wolverine's side when there was a little gasp from the end of the table and the sound of plastic hitting the floor.

Tia had reached and picked up her sippy cup of juice, as she went to drink from it, the top of the cup fell off as it hadn't been fastened properly, the juice spilt all down her dress and she had dropped the cup in shock, it fell to the floor with a small bang. She instantly started panicking and breathing fast, she brought her hands over her head and tried to make herself as small as she could whilst sat in the high chair and she started crying and shrieking. Regina quickly stood up and instinctively went to pick up her distressed baby girl to sooth her, luckily Emma was faster and grabbed her hands before she make contact "No Regina! She hasn't tapped you"

"What's wrong? What's happening?!" Regina asked panicking herself now and wanting to help her child.

Emma let go of Regina's hands and looked at Tia who was still crying and protecting her head with her hands as she tried to crawl up small. Her own experiences told Emma all she needed to know. She looked back up at Regina, her eyes flashed with an emotion Regina only saw at Emma's most vulnerable moments when she allowed her to…hurt, raw, agonising hurt "she's terrified" Emma whispered. Emma didn't want to know what had made her baby girl learn to be this terrified whenever she had a little accident. Both of her hands made tight fists instinctively.

Henry quickly raced upstairs, taking two stairs at a time to Tia's bedroom remembering what his mother's had told him about the first time they had seen Tia scared in the orphanage, he grabbed her blanket and ran back downstairs to the kitchen. "Here Tia, look it's your blanket" he said as he carefully placed it around her managing not to touch her.

Regina crouched down to the level of the high chair "shhhh shhhh" she gently said but close to Tia so that she could still hear Regina over her crying and wailing "it's ok Tia, you're safe sweetheart, no one is going to hurt you shhh"

"Music, her music" Emma said quickly "It's upstairs, her stereo"

"Shhh" Regina said again, trying to calm both Tia and Emma "it's ok" she said again but this time looking at Emma and she had an idea. Gently she started humming, she hummed the tune she used to calm Emma down when she was upset, the same tune that she hummed to henry and that her father used to sing to her when she was upset as a child. She clasped her necklace and hummed the familiar, relaxing tune as Emma and Henry fell silent listening too. Hearing it always helped Emma and no matter what she was feeling or what she was sad about she knew that after hearing the tune she would always feel like she could talk about it with Regina.

After two verses Tia started to quieten down, she had stopped shrieking and was only sniffling and breathing heavily now, she brought her head up slightly so she could see where the noise was coming from, she saw Regina smiling at her kindly. Tia's little face was red, her eyes puffy from the crying and her little nose was running too. She looked around her at the three faces and she waited some more for any signs that they were going to do something bad. She frowned gently not understanding why she wasn't feeling any pain and why she wasn't being shouted at for making a mess.

"It's ok kid" Emma repeated what Regina had said "no one is going to hurt you, you're safe here with us".

Tia sniffled more and slowly sat up in her high chair again listening to Regina's pretty humming, she rubbed her sore eyes gently and gave a small cough catching her breath as she snuggled into her blanket. She still looked back and forth between the three kind faces in front of her, no one else said a word for the next few minutes, they just all listened to Regina's song and waited for Tia to feel comfortable again.

Tia gently reached forward and tapped Regina's cheek as she was still knelt down at Tia's level, the brunette mother smiled and stopped humming as she stroked Tia's little hand. "Feeling better sweetheart?" She asked kindly. Tia nodded gently with a small sniffle and reached a hand over and tapped Emma's hand too.

"We're here…you're safe kid, we won't hurt you" Emma repeated again as she joined Regina on Tia's level and stroked her hair gently, she knew that Tia wanted the contact with the mothers because she gave her permission to touch her. "You just had a little accident, it's ok, accidents happen" she softly said.

Tia looked down at her stained dress and lifted the hem slowly.

"I think it's time for a bath" Regina smiled