Hey guys, between now and the 25th of December I will be posting a series of oneshots from prompts on a challenge I have made. If you want to do your own please let me know so I can give it a read, and if you have a prompt you really want to see let me know in the reviews!
post/168053077709/charmingfamilychristmas-12-days-of-charming
I hope you enjoy!
Emma had been stabbed with the sword by Gideon, light had filled Main Street, and time had stopped. David and Snow thought that they would never breathe again, they didn't even know what they were feeling, they felt nothing. It did not seem real.
They saw Emma's dead body lying on the road. Snow had just kept thinking they would have to move her, Emma hated the cold, they needed to get her somewhere warm. Emma was not dead, her heart had battled with what she had just seen, there was no reality or realm where she would watch her daughter die, or outlive her.
David's heart stopped beating. He took one shaky breath, he could hear his heart beating again:
Once.
Twice.
Then he ran towards his daughter.
Henry had reached Emma first, then David and Snow, Killian and Regina reaching her only a few seconds later. David crouched down at the same time as Henry, his wife fell upon her knees next to their daughter.
Henry shook his head in disbelief, willing her to get up, she did not.
David took hold of Emma's hand, it was cold but no more so than it had been when her heart had still beaten, she was just cold from the autumn air. She never wore gloves, he remembered, despite Snow always telling her to.
Snow's hand shook as it made its way to cup her cheek. Her eyes were shut, she might have been sleeping.
Snow's hand touched Emma's cheek at the same time that David kissed her hand and Henry kissed her forehead.
A wall of light so bright that they had to shield their eyes hit them.
When the light died they looked back at Emma. But the woman they had known had gone. She was replaced with a child, who had just turned four, draped in Emma's t-shirt. She rubbed her eyes with her fists as she woke up.
She looked up at her shocked looking parents.
"Mommy? Daddy?"
A lot had changed since the faceoff between Emma and Gideon had left them both deaged. David and Snow were now raising two toddlers, Emma and Neal being four and one and a half respectively, and both perfect mixes of their parents.
Snow had been planning on returning to teaching before their lives had completely changed, but that had been put on hold a little while, Emma's memories weren't of being raised by them, but instead having been in foster care until going to be fostered (and breaking the curse) in Storybrooke by David and Snow. In Emma's fake memories David and Snow had been married during the curse, and with baby Neal, they knew that they had something missing but didn't know they had a daughter. That had been one of the hardest things they had to do over the past couple of months, to have Emma wiped of some of the good memories they had all had together, and had made it hard for her to realise she could rely on them.
Within a month they had packed up the loft and had moved to a house Henry had helped them choose, it was not the farm they had been looking at purchasing before Emma had died and then come back, but Snow and David had both agreed that two toddlers was more than enough to be getting on with for the time being.
Another thing which had changed was for the first time ever the town was without curses, villains, or drama.
For the first time the town would be celebrating Christmas.
David and Snow had grown up with having two very different Christmases, or Yuletide celebrations as they were known, in the Enchanted Forest, but it had been one of the many things they had discussed before Emma was born, so knew how they would have celebrated it in the Enchanted Forest. But they were not in the Enchanted Forest, so they were feeling rather unprepared.
This would be the first Christmas their family had, and they wanted it to be perfect.
One evening, after Snow and David had settled their babies down in their beds, Snow and David were relaxing on the couch. The living room was lit with candles on the mantle of the fireplace, a burning fire, and the light from the television. On the screen played a romantic comedy which Snow had insisted upon her and her husband watching.
David had had other ideas, and had quickly managed to distract her from the movie, soon enough she was straddling him as they made out. One of David's hands rested upon her hip, while the other trailed up her body, brushing over various scars, ones he had kissed a hundred times over the years. Soon his hands were undoing her bra and trying to pull her sweater off as she left a love bite on his neck.
"Shit." David suddenly breathed out.
"What? What's wrong?" Snow asked alarmed that her husband was hurt, that she might have hurt him.
David threw his head back cursing at himself his hands returned to his wife's hips as he sighed. "The advent calendars."
"The advent calendars?" Snow frowned confused. Her eyes suddenly went wide. "Shit." She breathed out just how David had. "The advent calendars."
They had been out shopping in the nearest town to Storybrooke one day when Emma had spotted the advent calendars which filled part of one of the Christmas aisles. They were simple calendars, only a couple of dollars, chocolate behind each of the cardboard doors which had a picture of the dogs from the cartoon Paw Patrol printed upon it. They had smiled at it, and shown Emma the wooden advent calendars which were also on sale and explained that she could pick any candy to put in the doors, but Emma loved the cartoon and loved the much cheaper advent calendar. David and Snow had smiled and decided to get it, and the Mickey Mouse one Neal fell in love with, the next time that the kids weren't with one of them, wanting the kids to wake up with a surprise.
But the kids had always been with them.
"We forgot the calendars." David looked at his watch, the date on the watch face read the 30th of November, and it had already gone seven.
"We could…." Snow tried to think of a way to make it better. "We could get them tomorrow? We could take Em and Neal with us, make it into a trip."
David bit his lip, it was a little tender from where his wife was nibbling it mere minutes before, though he certainly did not regret that. "We told Emma that you get to eat the chocolate as soon as you wake up… She'll be disappointed… I guess we could make a day of it, tell her that it could start the next day."
Snow could see he was trying to make himself okay with that idea, but she could see the disappointment he felt in himself in his eyes, she understood because she felt it too. They wanted everything to be perfect for their first Christmas. She leant down and drew him into a long kiss. She felt him kissing her back and the rest of his body reacting to the kiss, his warm hands making their way back over her cold skin. She drew back and smiled as he made a noise of complaint. "Go." She told him, he looked confused for a half second, then he just looked surprised.
"Are you sure?" He asked, but he knew that if she said no and he stayed, he would be thinking about it all night.
"Go." She repeated firmly. "Go before the stores close, then you can come back, and I'll be here… if you bring me back one too I'll give you a reward." She started to move off of his lap but his hands went to her back and he flipped them around. She was suddenly led on her back on the couch, David leaning over her, grinning at having surprised her.
"I will see you soon." He kissed her lips. "With calendars in hand." He kissed her again. And again… and again….
David eventually managed to pull himself away from his wife and drove to the store in Storybrooke where he had last seen the calendars. He grabbed a basket on his way into the Dark Star Pharmacy and quickly walked over to the advent calendars. There were exactly three types of calendars left. He walked around the store past the groceries and down the aisles where loads of Christmas stuff was piled up. There was no sign of any more calendars, he returned to the three calendars. He looked over at Tom Clarke, Sneezy, at the counter.
"You don't have any more advent calendars?"
"Just what you see there, they sold out fast, you should have gotten them earlier."
"Fuck." David muttered under his breath but clearly Tom heard him.
"I hope you aren't using that sort of language in front of my niece and nephew."
David just rolled his eyes, he had known all of the dwarfs a long time, and he always seemed to be having to gain their approval, they were very protective of Snow and the kids, kind of like shorter, magic-less, and much more masculine versions of Regina.
Tom raise his eyebrow and his eyes narrowed on David. "You didn't forget to get my niece her one, did you? She's been on about them since she saw them."
David paused for a half second. He knew that if he told Tom the truth he would never hear the end of it from his surrogate brothers-in-law. "No," he said breezily, "I forgot mine, but if I don't have one then the kids might feel bad for me, I don't want that."
"Ah." Tom nodded understandably. "You could try the store outside of town." He offered, not wanting his niece and nephew to feel bad.
David nodded his head and dashed towards the door. "Thanks Tom." He called over his shoulder, though the dwarf had been little help, as he left to drive as fast as he legally could to the other store before it shut.
David got to the store outside of Storybrooke, the next town over, in record time. He snatched up a basket as he raced in, then he raced towards the Christmas aisle, wanting to get out of the store soon so the employees could close up and go home.
The shelves had depleted since he had last been in there but he soon spotted the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse calendar his son had been besotted with. He grinned as he placed it into his basket, he was certain this was going to be easy. He glanced around looking for the Paw Patrol advent calendar, but he could not see it. He saw a calendar his wife would not mind, but he knew it wasn't her favourite. He glanced at his watch and knew he'd have to hurry. He spotted a shop assistant and hurried over to him.
"Excuse me," he said politely capturing the attention of the young man's attention, he wondered if it officially made him old to think of people in their early twenties as young, "do you have any more of the Paw Patrol calendars?"
The young man glanced up at the handsome prince, though he did not know that he was a prince particularly one from a fairy tale there was something fundamentally powerful and different about the man, he managed to tear his eyes away from David and scan the shelves. He looked back at David. "Sorry, I think we'll be getting more of them in tomorrow."
"No worries." David smiled gratefully. "I should have remembered earlier." He picked up one for himself and placed it beside Neal's in the basket. As he looked back at the shelf he saw that the advent calendar which had been behind his own was his wife's. David beamed as he picked up the calendar full of strawberry and white chocolate chocolates and placed it into his basket. He knew that Snow wasn't expecting one, but that she would love it, she was going to be so happy.
His smile faltered, the only one without an advent calendar was Emma, he would have felt bad if it was Neal he couldn't find the Mickey Mouse one for, but Neal was much younger and would have been just as happy with a different one. He could get Emma some other one, but there was nothing she loved as much as she loved that show, she kept telling David that she was going to puppies just like them who would all have special jobs like them.
He thought for a moment before coming up with an idea. He quickly took the calendars to the checkout and paid before driving back to Storybrooke.
"I need a favour." David said when Regina opened the door of her house.
"Some people start with a "Hello" or an "Excuse me."" She pointed out. "Anyway, do I look like Gold?"
David tried his hardest not to roll his eyes and only because he wanted, needed, something. "I need a favour." He repeated. "It's for Emma." He added when she looked like she was about to slam the door, he knew that Regina had a soft spot for Emma, as soon as Emma knew that Regina was her step-grandmother she started to call her 'Grandma' and was putty in Emma's hand from that moment on.
"Are you going to tell me what you need or am I going to die of old age first?"
"Snow and I found this advent calendar Emma fell in love with." He started.
"The dog one, right?" She interrupted. "Emma showed it me at the pharmacy- wait, did you not get it for her? She loved it!"
David tried not to sigh at how little Snow's weird family (or as close to a family she had) trusted him. "I know! And Snow and I were going to get it for her, but we wanted it to be a surprise so she woke up tomorrow and it was there, but there hasn't been a moment that we haven't all been together… it's been hard trying to get her to fully trust us again, that one of us or both aren't going to leave her… and then we forgot."
Regina sighed, for once not at him, but because she remembered how hard it had been to do things to surprise a toddler Henry. She waved her hand and the exact Paw Patrol calendar, which had been on Emma's mind since she saw it, appeared in David's hands.
"Thank you, Regina." David said wholeheartedly. "This will mean the world to her."
Regina nodded, but for once she gave him a genuine and sympathetic smile to go along with it. "It's okay. I know that other things get in the way… Just ask Henry to teach you how to order things online to be delivered here next time." She told him getting rid of the mood which was turning too close to feelings than either were comfortable with unless it was a moment of life and death. "And tell Snow White that not everyone needs to see what you two get up to when your children are sleeping."
He felt her eyes on his neck and remembered that Snow had been leaving her mark there before his little shopping trip. "I'll tell her to leave them in places where only she sees." He shot back, he turned around and called goodbye back over his shoulder when it looked like she was about to throw a fire ball at his head.
The next morning David smiled as he helped Emma down the stairs and into the kitchen of their new house, Snow carried Neal behind them.
"Daddy!" Emma shouted in surprise as she saw the Paw Patrol calendar stood up beside her parents' and little brother's on the kitchen table. She ran over to it with a beaming smile before she looked back at her parents who were grinning at her. "Is that one for me?"
David knew that she was still getting used to receiving things so he walked over to her and lifted her into his arms so she could see it better. "Yep. This one is just for my Emmy."
Emma grinned at him and watched as he picked it up. "Can I open it?"
"You can open door number one now." He told her over Neal shouting 'Mickey' repeatedly. "And then you can have number two tomorrow when you wake up."
Emma was helped by David to find the number one and when she opened she pulled out her first chocolate. "It's a present!" She told them happily, holding it up in the air. "Mommy, mommy, look! I have a present."
"That's very good sweetie!" Snow grinned she wasn't looking at the present but at her daughter who seemed to be overjoyed by the simple small chocolate just because it was a special shape. She also noticed how the small blonde kept glancing at the picture on the calendar with love, she hadn't stopping grinning from the moment she had seen it. "You can eat it now baby."
Emma wasted no time in doing what she had been told.
Snow leant down and kissed him, he had told her the story of trying to find the calendar the night before, as well as Regina's response to the hickey. She had then given him many more leading from his jawline down, and down, and down… He would be wearing turtleneck sweaters around Snow's family, he decided, though he certainly didn't mind.
"Can I have another now?" Emma asked making her parents break apart.
David chuckled, he had a feeling she would be asking that every morning for the next twenty four days. "Sorry, princess, you have to wait for tomorrow."
"Aww." Emma pouted before suddenly smiling again. "Can I help you find your one?"
"Of course you can." David grinned. Their life was a little mad at times, and he missed the adult version of his daughter just as much as the one sat on his lap starting to sing a song she had made up about Christmas, but he was truly happy, and so were his family, and that was all that mattered.