RUNAWAY BRIDE

The big day had come. All the townsfolk had gathered to see them. The flowers tied to the long benches carefully arranged one behind the other over the green hill had all blossomed overnight, and now everything around them smelled of lilies. Henry couldn't stop smiling as he walked in front of her. Snow was beaming, waiting for her at the end of the short walk that also separated her from her future husband. Neal Cassidy. Baelfire. Father of her son. The one that could have been a pervert. The one that one day disappeared, and that she found eleven years later.

The one she had never stopped loving.

Neal Cassidy. The man she used to rob convenience stores with, shower with in motel rooms before housekeeping, the one she would buy doughnuts for… the one that bought her bagels, the one that hated mayo.

Belle looked delighted, so did Rumplestiltskin. By her side, her father seemed on the verge of tears. For some reason, she could feel the weight of the diamond in the engagement ring Neal had bought her, even though she was no longer wearing it.

She raised her eyes to his smiling face, and frowned. It was all wrong.

Emma Swan.

He would finally marry Emma Swan. The woman he had disgraced in so many ways… the woman who was entitled to hate him for the rest of her life.

Yet, she had let him back in. And now, he wondered what he would have done with his life if she hadn't.

Because, clearly, there was no other person in the world who made him as happy as she did.

Now he thought: what if he had taken an alternative route that night to fence the watches? Would August have found him regardless? Or would he have gotten the money… taken Emma to Tallahassee, found out she was pregnant, and with August finding him or not, stood by her side, raised their child with her, brought her to Maine when the time was right…

No point wondering. Things were as they were. And now, they would get married. They would get a fresh new start.

The only thing that bothered him was that frown… What was on her mind? And why… why was she taking a step back now that she had finally reached him in the altar?

"Emma?" he asked.

"I can't."

Her eyes darted around, her lip trembling. She was panicking, he could tell.

"Emma, baby..."

"I'm sorry…" she whispered, shaking her head as she took several steps backwards, until she was far enough to turn on her heels and run.

Run.

"No no no no…" she muttered, getting rid of her high heels and holding her dress up to her knees.

"Emma!"

She knew Neal was chasing after her, but there was no way she would stop and let herself be dragged back to that joke.

That was not her life. That was not his, either.

"NO!" she yelled, still not turning around.

"Emma, wait!"

She saw the two horses that their family had probably prepared for their "post-wedding" parade. Seriously, what had she been thinking when she agreed to all that? Her world was made of pizza, cars, coffee machines and cable TV. Horses with flowers around their necks? Not so much. Crowns, long dresses, diamonds? Royalty? Being a princess, walking around with a sword?

"I don't want this, Neal!"

She didn't. She wanted him, but not that circus. She wanted her family, she wanted to start afresh… but not by denying who she was, even if that was not all rainbows and roses. Even if there was a lot of hurt, a lot of hardness.

She didn't want to be Princess Emma.

She wanted to be Emma Swan.

Though she had never been much of a horse rider, she thought it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot. Desperate times call for desperate measures. She held the saddle and tried to get her foot on the stirrup, but her stupid long dress kept getting in the way.

"Emma, stop!"

Neal had finally caught up with her, and was pulling her down.

"What are you doing?" he asked, still trying to catch his breath.

"What are we doing?" she corrected, trying to break loose from his grip. "Neal, look at us!"

He did, and for a moment his eyes were completely lost.

"Well," he muttered, after clearing his throat. "You look good in that dress, so obviously the problem is with my suit?"

He wrinkled his forehead in an attempt to make her smile, but clearly she was having none of it.

"Emma, I'm… I'm sorry… If you had told me you didn't want a party…"

"The party is not the problem, Neal," she replied, her lips curling downwards as she stared at him. "Now it is a party, now it is me wearing a diamond, and a dress, and a… tiara," she hissed, tearing the crystal thingy away from her hair, "and then going away on a horse, and all these people throwing what? Rose petals on us? Offering us gold? Their newborn children, their futures, their… lives?" she ranted on, "and then, then asking when we are going to have another child, Neal, I don't even know if I want to have another child, all of this, all of this is too much and I-"

"Emma…"

"…I don't want any of this, we don't need any of this… I know we were born here and all, and I know our parents-"

"Emma," he repeated, this time grabbing her shoulders. "It's fine."

"I love you, Neal. I do," she whispered, her hands resting on his arms. "But this is not what I had in mind… all I wanted… was to be with you, is that… is it that hard?"

He pulled her into a hug and waited for her to calm down.

"The one thing that I always loved…" she whispered, her hands clutching the fabric of his jacket, "is that I wasn't a princess when I was with you. Or a hero, or… the Savior," she paused, and raised her eyes to his. "I was just… me. And all of this…"

Her sentence was cut short when he pressed his lips against hers.

It was true. It was the most absolute truth. The two of them had met and fallen in love when they were nothing but two rudderless ships trying to find a way in life. He was not the Son of the Dark One, she was not The Savior. They were already connected in ways that neither of them could have dreamt of – he was the reason a curse was created, she was the key to break it – but the truth was that, together, they brought out the best in each other. Their dreams were simple. Their projects, much less ambitious than saving the world. Still, life was full of surprises… And things had not happened as they had expected.

"You're right," he whispered. "You're so right."

"We don't need any of this, do we?" she replied, her forehead resting against his as she spoke. "We have each other. We have Henry," she reached out for the chain around her neck. "I have my swan pendant…"

"The bug."

"It's enough."

"I love you," he said, catching her face in his hands to look at her eyes.

"I love you too," she answered with a smile, the smile that belonged to him, the smile no other person could elicit from her.

Her eyes caught a glimpse of a familiar face walking past them, and she held Neal's hand as she raised her other arm to draw the passerby's attention.

"Hey, excuse me!"

The woman turned her head, and walked towards them.

"You're a nun, aren't you?" Emma asked. "I think I've seen you before…"

"Well, yes… I am a nun, and…" the woman said, "… a fairy. You can call me Nova."

"Can you celebrate weddings?"

"Emma…" Neal muttered, raising his eyebrows.

"I… I can…" Nova replied, "but I thought Mother Superior…"

"Well, there was a change of plans…" Emma explained. "Can you celebrate ours?"

"Are you sure?" he whispered, squeezing her hand in his and trying to get her to look at him.

"Do you have the rings?" the fairy asked. "The certificate?"

"I have the rings," Neal said, searching his pocket for the two wedding bands. "But the certificate…"

"We can get the certificate later," Emma replied.

Before he knew, the two of them were saying their vows before the very young, very kind-looking fairy, slipping rings onto each other's fingers and sharing their first kiss as husband and wife. When the quick-fire wedding ceremony was done, Nova excused herself and went her way, and he was left with a very happy Emma Swan staring at her finger with a dreamy expression on her face.

"I guess our parents are going to be kinda mad that we got married in secret," he said, hugging her from behind and pressing soft kisses between her neck and shoulder.

"Las Vegas style…" she replied, with a smirk.

"Something tells me you had it all planned…"

"Just think about it…" she said, turning around to look at him. "Another story to tell our grandkids."

He closed his eyes as he pressed his forehead against hers, and smiled. So now it was official. He was Emma's husband. And she was talking about their grandkids…

Suddenly, growing old never sounded so attractive.

"Now what?" he asked.

"Care to go for a ride?"

"In the bug? Or in one of these?"

He tilted his head towards the horses.

"Can you ride a horse?"

"Hell yeah!"

"Oh really?"

"Always the look of disbelief…" he muttered, as he placed his foot on the stirrup, easily lifting himself up and settling on the saddle. "Here," he said, stretching his arm so that his wife could grab his hand. "Come forth, princess of punk."

So, he had married a rebel. She needed time to get used to everything that was going on in her life. If it was hard for him, who had spent at least 14 years of his life in a completely different land, to come back home and adapt to their new lifestyle, he could only imagine how surreal the whole thing was for Emma, who had spent her whole life unaware of magic, unaware of being a princess, or a hero, or a Savior.

Obviously, nothing changed the fact that she was all of those things. And a daughter, loved by her parents. A mother, too. Now, a wife. No wonder she had freaked out.

But he would stay by her side, and help her in that insane transition… He would help her come to terms with that new reality, even if all he could do was take her for a ride after running away from their own wedding ceremony.

He loved that woman, and she was right.

It had nothing to do with her being a princess.

"You ready?" he asked, as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Ready!"

And off they rode, running away together as they had done so many times in the past…until their silhouettes were no longer visible in the horizon.