Jumping in Together.
By hjbau.
Summary: This is a short one shot showing Emma and Snow waking up in the Enchanted Forest after falling through the hat portal. They meet Mulan and Aurora and Snow is very protective of Emma.
Timeline: Season 2, deleted scene in the Enchanted Forest, after Ep 201.
Disclaimer: Once Upon A Time is the property of ABC Studios & Kitsis/Horowitz. No copyright infringement intended.
Rating: K.
Genre: Family, suspense.
Her mind foggy, her body stiff, Emma slowly comes awake. Her head is pounding and realizing that she is lying on the cold hard ground, she attempts to sit up. As she shifts, she feels something heavy on her arm. Emma slowly opens her eyes, wincing as the sunlight causes the ache in her head to increase. She looks over to her left trying to see what has her arm pinned to find Mary Margaret lying beside her, unconscious, her head on Emma's arm.
Emma stops as her eyes fall on Mary Margaret and she takes a moment to really look at her face, seeing the similarities in the lines of their chin and the shape of their eyes. Similarities she had in the past dismissed even after Henry's insistence that the two of them were, in fact, mother and daughter. It had been too crazy to consider. Emma has now reconsidered her definition of crazy. The world is crazy.
She glances away, noticing for the first time that Mary Margaret's hand is tightly clutching her jacket, seemingly unwilling to let go of her even after losing consciousness. Emma smiles slightly before looking back at Mary Margaret.
Emma takes a moment to watch the other woman before slowly moving her hand, the one not trapped under Mary Margaret's head. She stops, briefly touching the hand clutching her jacket before continuing to reach towards Mary Margaret, letting her finger brush lightly over her chin, again looking, seeing, taking her in. Mary Margaret. Snow White. Her mother.
Mary Margaret's head shifts on Emma's arm at her touch and Emma stills her hand, but continues taking the moment to search her mother's face.
One moment Emma is watching her mother and in the next she becomes very aware of the world around her, the ground, the rubble and, more importantly, voices. Voices of two people, two women, near them. As a matter of fact, two women standing almost on top of them. Emma is not sure how she had missed that.
"What do you think it is, Mulan?" says a woman.
"I have no idea," responds the other.
"We should keep it. It may be some sort of magic."
Mulan. There are two women and one of them is called Mulan. Emma drags her eyes away from her mother to squint into the light above her, trying to get a look at the women. A wave of dizziness hits her at the motion, so she briefly closes her eyes, allowing her head a moment to settle, before reopening them.
Only then are her eyes able to finally focus on the two women standing over her and Mary Margaret, one in a full length purple dress, the other wearing full on armor, sword and all. They are holding a gun. Emma moves her hand to the small of her back, searching for her backup gun, the one she took from the Sheriff's station earlier in the day and comes up empty. They are holding her gun.
The Sheriff's station. Storybrooke. Henry. The Curse. The poisoned turnover. Henry dead. Life ending. True love's kiss. Life returned. The Purple haze. Magic. Her parents. Her mother. The wraith. The hat.
Then screaming as she was pulled, sucked, into a black void. Falling. Alone. And fear. Complete and overwhelming fear and anguish that she was going to die. To be lost in nothingness. To lose Henry, Mary Margaret, and David right after she found them. After all this time.
Then suddenly Mary Margaret was there in the darkness, clutching at her, grappling, trying to pull Emma close as they both fell into darkness. Together though. No longer alone. She hadn't been left this time. Emma had felt relief. She had felt her fear recede. Impossible in light of their current free fall into darkness and yet not impossible in light of her mother beside her. With her. This time they would go together.
Emma looks and sees the same feeling reflected in her mother's eyes. Absolute relief at finding Emma. Even here in the void, in the darkness. Relief. And after a few tense moments Mary Margaret was finally able to get a solid hold on Emma's jacket, pulling her in close. She wrapped her other arm around Emma and pulled her in tight to her chest, holding on to her with everything she had.
"I'm not losing you again," Mary Margaret said with absolute conviction, right in Emma's ear, and gripped her even tighter.
Emma had turned her head then, looking back over her shoulder in wonder, staring into her mother's eyes. Seeing love and determination and strength. Emma was amazed. Then everything stopped. The world stopped as they both hit the ground, hard, and Emma's head fell back, thumping against the ground and she saw white and then nothing.
Emma blinks as her thoughts return to the two women in front of her and more specifically to the one in armor holding her gun in her hand. Emma tries to sit up, causing her to remember the arm trapped under Mary Margaret's head, and she stops, but the movement was enough to gain the attention of the women above them. The sword comes out.
"Don't move," the armored women threatens and Emma goes still, knowing she means it.
"Aurora, tie her up."
Aurora. That name is familiar as well. Sleeping Beauty. Her mother is Snow White and this is Sleeping Beauty. And if the one in purple is Aurora then the other, and Emma sees it now with the armor and the sword, must be Mulan. The world is crazy. Mulan tucks Emma's gun into her belt while Aurora moves towards her with a tie for her hands.
"Wait, no. We haven't done anything," says Emma.
"Haven't done anything?" says Aurora, incredulous as she moves in closer. "My Phillip is dead because of you and your wraith. You should be lucky we didn't kill you where you lay."
"Our wraith? No, we were just trying to get rid of it, to stop it from killing someone else."
"And it killed Phillip!"
"Enough!" says Mulan. "Enough talking! Aurora, tie her up."
Aurora leans down, grabbing Emma's free hand and Emma immediately begins struggling, shoving her away, using her feet to knock Aurora back, causing her to fall to the ground. The sword comes up again. Closer this time. In her face.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you. It is not too late to kill you where you lay."
Mulan then grabs Emma and yanks her to her feet causing Emma's arm to unceremoniously be pulled from under Mary Margaret's head. The other woman's head drops hard to the ground and Mary Margaret groans, really starting to move around for the first time.
"Mary Margaret, wake up!" Emma hisses and the sword is pressed against her chest as Mulan's grip on her arm tightens. The world spins as another wave of dizziness hits her and Emma clutches her head. She sways, trying to keep to her feet as her head pounds in her ears.
"Aurora, tie her hands before the other one wakes up!"
"Mary Margaret!" Emma cries, louder this time and Mary Margaret moves again, clutching beside her, trying to find Emma.
"Quickly!" says Mulan.
Aurora comes quickly back to her feet and moves towards them, grabbing Emma's hands none to gently this time. She pulls them together in front of her and starts tying them tightly, so tight it hurts. Emma tries again to shove her back, all the while calling Mary Margaret's name. This causes Mulan to grip her hard and bring the sword to Emma's throat. Emma stills and stands there and just sways, trying to blink away the dizziness, as she has her hands tied in front of her by Sleeping Beauty. And what with the sword and the dizziness, Emma is unable to do anything but simply stay upright as the world blurs around her. She must have hit her head harder then she thought.
"Be still," orders Mulan, her eyes on Mary Margaret as Mary Margaret continues groaning and trying to locate Emma next to her. "Or we will not be so gentle."
"Wait," Emma says as the dizziness finally begins to recede and the world stops tilting. "We didn't have anything to do with the wraith. It was going to kill someone in our world. We thought this world was gone and it would be sent into a void. That was what we were told. We were lied to."
"Well that matters not, you will both pay for what you have done," says Mulan, her voice cold.
Snow White hears her daughter's voice; she hears cries of worry and fear, and she groans, finally managing to sit up and open her eyes. She looks immediately towards her daughter.
"Mary Margaret!" Emma yells, relief at seeing her mother awake and with her eyes open.
Snow's eyes come into focus as she sits on the ground and she sees Emma being held captive, a sword held lightly against her by a woman in armor while another woman ties her wrists.
Emma sees the look on Mary Margaret's face go from confusion to anger and fierce fierce protectiveness. Mary Margaret goes completely still and her eyes harden as she glares at the woman holding her. It is nothing less then the look of a mother lioness when someone threatens her cub. A look that offers violence, that offers death. Mary Margaret's jaw clenches and she almost growls.
There is a beat, where Snow White waits, staring at her daughter and the woman with the sword. She looks down, searching for a weapon, something, anything, and notices the broken broomstick from the fight with the wraith resting on the ground under her hand. She looks back at Emma and in one motion, is suddenly up, brandishing the broomstick as if it's a broadsword.
Emma watches in shock as Mary Margaret, Snow White, knocks Aurora to the ground hard with her shoulder and swings the broomstick at Mulan. Mulan immediately releases Emma, shoving her towards Mary Margaret, giving her the room to take a step back to block the other woman's thrusts.
With her hands tied in front of her, Emma hits the ground hard, unable to control her fall, and her breath is knocked from her body. Her mother, immediately steps over her, standing on top of her, placing herself and her broomstick between Emma and Mulan and her sword.
"Who are you?" says Mary Margaret forcefully, her eyes never leaving the other woman.
Mulan's answer is to swing her sword fast and confident. Emma can tell that Mulan knows what she is doing. Surprisingly, so does Mary Margaret as she dances out of her way, thrusting and blocking, seemingly trying to attack the other woman's wrist, no doubt hoping Mulan will lose hold of her sword. Emma watches in shock, knowing nothing of swordplay, but it seems the two women, as they hit and dance, are evenly matched. Mary Margaret is certainly holding her own and if they had both had swords then maybe, just maybe, they would have gotten out of this. But a broomstick is no sword and with one solid hit it splinters and Mary Margaret is left with nothing but the broken half of a broom handle.
"Mary Margaret!" yells Emma.
"Emma, get up. Run!"
"No!"
Mulan's eyes shift momentarily to Emma and then Mary Margaret is once again thrusting with that half a stick and surprisingly, impossibly, so quickly that Emma isn't sure what happened, Mulan loses her grip on her sword and it falls to the ground behind her. Then suddenly Aurora is there shoving Mary Margaret with all her strength, causing her to pitch forward towards the sword. Mulan spins away and Emma sees the danger as the woman steps towards her and she is hauled quickly to her feet. A knife is pulled from somewhere under Mulan's cloak as she locks her arm around Emma's neck and presses the knife against her throat.
Snow rises, sword in hand, victorious for a moment before she turns and sees her opponent with a knife at her daughter's throat. Her face goes white as a flash of intense fear courses through ever fiber of her being. Snow takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself, trying to mask her fear as she raises the sword and settles her stance, hardening her expression.
"Let her go or I'll -"
"It seems to me that you are not the one to be making threats," says Mulan, her voice dark and menacing. "Now drop that sword and throw it over here or I will cut her throat."
Mary Margaret's eyes blaze with anger at these words and Emma sees violence again and death, Mulan's death, there in her mother's eyes. Mary Margaret's grip on the sword tightens. She then briefly glances at Emma and Emma sees worry and love and again fierce fierce protectiveness and Emma is amazed by it, overwhelmed by it. Mary Margaret then looks back at Mulan, face again hard as steel, and once again she almost growls.
"If you hurt her, you will die."
Emma hears Mulan's breath hitch at the intensity she hears in Mary Margaret's voice and the promise of violence in her eyes and Mulan hesitates. She hesitates and she and Mary Margaret both stand there, squaring off, staring one another down.
"Drop the sword. Now," Mulan repeats.
"Mary Margaret, don't -"
The knife suddenly presses hard into Emma's neck and she hisses, immediately going still and quiet. Mary Margaret's face goes from blazing anger to intense fear in a heart beat and she rings her hand, the one not holding the sword, and for the first time seems more like the woman Emma knew and not the warrior princess, not the woman of legend, not Snow White.
And yet she is still her, just Snow White the mother, a mother afraid for her child, Emma's mother. Emma is once again overwhelmed by this and is completely unable to comprehend how this moment is making her feel and the distraction of the knife is enough that she doesn't have to try.
"Stop! Stop, please. Don't," says Mary Margaret and she throws the sword at Mulan's feet. "Here. Don't hurt her. I'll do anything. Please."
Emma feels Mulan relax and the knife eases, but still stays firmly pressed to her throat.
"Kneel."
Snow feels anger wash over her at this order and she locks her knees, not wanting to kneel, not wanting to lose the advantage of mobility and the possibility of escape it grants.
The knife again presses, harder this time, into Emma's neck and again Emma hisses.
"Stop! Stop, okay. Please, don't hurt her," says Snow, putting her hands up and falling heavily to her knees.
"Aurora, tie her up," says Mulan, never looking away from Snow White as their eyes shoot daggers at one another, Snow willing the other woman to drop dead on the spot.
"Hands in front," orders Mulan.
Aurora moves slowly, hesitantly, towards Snow who obeys, putting her hands together in front of her. She turns her gaze to Aurora who almost trips when she sees the intensity in that gaze suddenly focused on her.
"Why are you doing this? Who are you?" says Snow, looking away from Aurora and back to Mulan.
"You sent the wraith and it killed our prince," answers Mulan coldly as Aurora comes to stand in front of Snow, grabbing hold of her wrists.
"That is not true!" says Snow before taking a deep breath, calming her voice, when Mulan tenses and Emma squirms. "I am sorry about your prince, but we were told this world was gone and that the wraith would be sent into a void. We did not intend to harm anyone."
"Well," says Aurora, her voice full of anger as she pulls the rope tighter causing Snow White to clench her jaw and look back towards her. Aurora double checks the knots, making sure they're tight before looking at Snow. "Someone was harmed."
Aurora steps back, looking towards Mulan and nods her head. Mulan releases her hold on Emma's neck, removing the knife, and Emma sighs in relief. She feels a hand on her back and suddenly Mulan shoves her head long into Mary Margaret who comes up on one knee trying to catch her. Emma slams into her and they both hit the ground hard.
"Was that really necessary?!" yells Snow, glaring at Mulan.
Snow White's eyes then leave the two women and everything else is momentarily forgotten as she turns towards her daughter, seeing her and nothing else, and her face softens as her eyes find Emma's.
"Emma, are you alright?"
Snow then reaches her hands towards Emma's neck, tipping her chin up, her fingers trailing over skin, checking carefully for a wound. Her eyes harden again as she finds a wide red mark, but luckily, at least luckily for Mulan, no cut and no blood. Still her jaw clenches as anger blazes through her.
Emma sees it, the violence, the anger, the death once again finding its way into her mother's eyes and she raises her hands, grabbing hold of Mary Margaret's, pulling them away from her neck. Emma lowers her head, meeting her mother's eyes.
"I'm fine, Mary Margaret," Emma says quietly, soothingly.
Snow's eyes soften again and she squeezes Emma's hands, trying to smile reassuring.
"Emma."
Emma smiles and squeezes her hands in return as Snow's gaze again drops to the mark on Emma's neck.
"What happened, Mary Margaret? How are you here?"
Mary Margaret looks back up at her and Emma again sees love and determination in her mother's eyes.
"I jumped in after you," Mary Margaret answers simply.
Emma is shocked. No one has ever done anything like that for her.
"But w-why? That's crazy."
"Maybe," Mary Margaret says, nodding her head and then she smiles briefly before squarely meeting Emma's gaze, "But at least we're together."
Emma is overwhelmed. She watches Mary Margaret closely for a moment, searching her mother's face, trying to understand what she just said. A part of Emma does not believe what she's hearing, together, though the facts speak for themselves. Her mother is here, with her, in this world. She clearly jumped into the hat, into the void, jumped into nothingness, to follow after Emma. To follow her into darkness without a second thought.
Emma is confused, so very confused, because no one has ever done anything like that for her. No one has ever risked their life for her, been willing to die for her. And yet Emma feels happiness, intense happiness, at what Mary Margaret has just said.
At least we're together.
Emma doesn't show it though because she doesn't know how to show it, but finally after a moment, hesitantly, gives a slight smile in return because that is all she is able to do.
Together. We're together. Emma takes a deep breath and squeezes Mary Margaret's hands. Mary Margaret looking at her with such love and affection that Emma is once again overwhelmed, but returns the squeeze and the smile. Mary Margaret then helps Emma to her feet as Mulan orders the two of them up and Mary Margaret, Snow White, her mother, without a thought, steps in front of her, protectively, and Emma, overwhelmed by this moment and amazed by this woman that is her mother, lets her.