Hello everyone! This is based off a prompt that was requested on tumblr.
Prompt: Regina enchants Emma's necklace so it can make one wish, and she wishes for something big.
Out of all the people in world, the last person Emma expected to get a gift from was Regina.
Sure, they have amended all their problems with each other and are almost even close now, but that doesn't really mean they were on gift giving terms by any means. Emma certainly wasn't planning anything. But at one in the afternoon on Christmas Eve Regina came into the Sheriff station with a look of uncertainty and almost nervousness. With it being Christmas Eve there hadn't been much going on for the sheriff besides a small despute over a frozen pie at the market. So the second she heard footsteps she was on alert for whoever was going to come in. When she saw Regina's anxious exterior she got worried for a moment.
"What's wrong? Is something wrong with Henry?" Emma questioned, trying to keep her exterior cool while she began to upset herself with all the thoughts of what could be wrong.
"No, Henry is fine. I came here for you actually," Regina informed her, staying put in her spot a few feet away from the desk where Emma sat. Emma instantly became more relaxed.
"Oh, okay. What's up?" Emma asked, a quizzical expression on her face.
"I know you haven't been having the easiest time the past few months, with losing loved ones and fighting for the whole town. And God knows I wasn't that much of a help," Regina began.
"Regina that isn't your fault, I completely understand why you-"
"That's beside the point, Emma." Regina interjected. "The point is that I felt the least I could do is give you a gift."
"Oh Regina, you really don't have to," Emma began, but the look Regina gave her told her to not continue on.
"Don't bother, just accept what I can give. The gift I want to give you is a wish. I made it so you can wish for anything you want, no magical limitations, even the regulars like love and resurrection don't apply. You're able to wish for truly anything. It's also not like a genie's, you can say what ever you want and it won't get twisted around. I just need an object of sentimental value to you to enchant to actually give it to you." Regina began to walk around the room, eyeing the different objects that laid around the room, knowing Emma kept a hold on all of her old things. This was before she remember the chain that hung around her neck, and when she did she turned and moved closer to where Emma continued to sit.
"What about that?" She said, pointing to the swan necklace. Emma immediately looked down at it and grasped it.
"Well maybe, as long as this won't ruin it," Emma replied as she looked back up at Regina who was now behind the desk as well.
"It will be fine, once you make your wish it'll go back to normal." Regina assured her.
Emma was reluctant, this was her one thing left that was from Neal and if anything were to happen to it it would've crushed her. But after a moment she decided to put her faith in Regina based upon the fact that this was her attempt at doing something good. In her new found faith, Emma unclasped the necklace from around her neck and handed it to Regina. Regina took it in one hand and with a puff of purple smoke it was done. She handed it back to Emma who examined it for a moment, noticing that it was slightly glowing now and shocked her a little when it first touched her.
"You can wear it still, just don't say or think 'I wish' until you actually make your wish, otherwise it will grant whatever wish you said. You can either say it mentally or aloud, either way will work,"
"How did you do this? I mean it's bending some pretty big rules of magic," Emma asked as she toyed with the necklace in her hand.
"I found the enchantment for it while I was going through my mother's old things. It claims to do all the things I told you, but my mother's word was not always trustworthy." She informed her, Emma nodded. They stayed in silence for a moment before Regina spoke up again.
"Well I guess I should be going," Regina said as she was about to walk away. Before she could even take a step Emma stood up and grabbed her hand. Regina drew her attention back to Emma.
"Regina wait. Thank you for the gift, I really appreciate it. I know this time has been hard for you too, and on that basis I haven't really helped much either. And the fact that you even thought to give this to me means so much to me. I am so happy we could be at a place like this." Emma told her, squeezing her hand slightly. Regina looked at her for a moment, unsure of what to do or say.
"You're welcome. And for the record, I know it wasn't your fault either. I know you were just doing the right thing. And I honestly don't blame you for anything. I'm just glad we can be... friends." Hearing these words made Emma smile. She let go of Regina's hand and pulled her into a hug. Regina stiffened for moment, startled by the sudden embrace, before she became more relaxed and returned it.
Three hours after Regina left Emma began to go through the motions of the events of the night. She locked up the station and went home to the loft where she helped her mother finish cooking. Once that was done she got dressed for the night, taking off the necklace just in case. She greeted guests as they started to arrive, taking coats and engaging in small talk. Her mother invited anyone who was close to family, which besides her, her brother, Henry, and her father meant Regina, Belle, Ruby, Granny, and the dwarves.
Killian, however, declined her invitation. Their current situation was rocky to say the least. Emma realized that jumping into this relationship a few days after Neal died was a way to cover up how she felt. Elsa had told Emma that she needed to love herself in order to help herself. Emma realized that that meant that she needed to be honest with herself and others about her feelings. So later that night after she talked to Elsa she stayed up until three in the morning discussing her feelings on everything with her mother over hot chocolate with cinnamon. Snow held her during the parts where she cried and talked through the rough parts with her. In the end Emma knew the relationship she started just days after the man she loved for over a decade died was not a true one. It wasn't fair to herself or to him. And the next morning she met him at the docks to tell him. She said it wasn't realistic for her to be involved with anyone when she has all these emotions for someone else who isn't even there anymore that she hasn't worked out yet. He said he understood but he seemed bitter. Emma said nothing about it, knowing it was better to just let it go. She invited him to Christmas anyways because she knew he didn't have anywhere else to go. Yet he still declined and in all honesty, Emma didn't mind at all.
As the group sat down for the meal and began to pass the food around, Emma's mind started to wonder what it would've been like if nothing had happened to Neal and he was here. She knows that he would've been who she would've chosen. They would've gone Christmas shopping for Henry together, decorated the tree together, watched Christmas movies just the three of them. Maybe all that madness with his father wouldn't have happened. She'd hope she would've opened up to the idea of getting an apartment together. Start the life they promised they would twelve years ago.
But they didn't. He didn't make it long enough to.
She tried to shake all these thoughts because it was starting to upset her, and that's the last thing she needed on Christmas. So she jumped into the dinner conversation, keeping herself busy. The dwarves argued, her mother and Ruby went on about inside jokes with Regina chiming in every so often, her father and Henry were playing some type of game, she just couldn't tell what, Granny talked to Belle and Emma could tell she was trying to keep her mind off of the events of the previous days before. Emma jumped in where she could and when she was addressed, but for the most part listened to everyone else.
Once everyone left it was just her, her parents, her brother, and Henry again. She got to keep him for the night with the promise of bringing him to Regina's the next day where they would join again for the Christmas Day meal.
Once Henry went to bed her and her parents took out all the gifts and arranged them around the tree. When that task was finished they said goodnight and went to their rooms.
Emma sat in her room on her bed, clutching her necklace. She had thought about this all night and decided that there was only one thing she truly wanted, and with Regina's promise of no rules apply, she decided to go for it. At this point the worst thing that could happen is that it doesn't work and she wasted her gift on nothing, which didn't really scare her at all really. What did scare her is the possibility of it working.
Regina had told her to either think it or say it a loud. So with her hand gripping the pendant of the necklace she thought it, I wish for Neal to be alive and well again.
The necklace shocked her and she let go of it and looked down at it, it no longer had to the slight glow. She looked up again and sighed, beginning to take the necklace off while doing so. She put it down on her nightstand and got under the covers of her bed and went to sleep.
The next morning Emma was violently woken up by Henry who was shaking her and telling her to wake up.
"Henry? What's going on? Is something wrong?" She asked in a groggy voice as she opened her eyes to see her son standing over her.
"Mom, there's someone who's been banging on the door for five minutes and grandma and grandpa left a note saying they went out to get supplies for breakfast that we didn't have and took the baby with them and I'm sure it's not them at the door and I didn't know what to do so I woke you up." Henry was talking a mile a minute in a frantic tone. Emma immediately got up when she heard all of this.
"Okay Henry, stay in here and lock the door until I say you can come out. I'm going to see what's going on," Emma instructed as she put on a sweatshirt. Henry nodded and sat on the bed. She opened one of her draws and pulled out her gun that she uses for work and shoved it into her sweatshirt pocket before opening the door to go downstairs.
Once in the hallway she heard the loud banging on the door. She quickly but quietly creeked down the stairs and moved quickly to the door. She pulled her gun out and held it out, prepared to use it before unlocking the door and opening it. She jumped in the doorway ready to face whoever was there, but when she saw who it was she froze.
"Jesus Christ Emma watch it!" Neal exclaimed, holding his hands up. Emma's eyes were wide as she lowered her gun, putting it down on the same table next to the door.
"Neal?" She said in a faint whisper as she took a step forward into the hallway where he stood. He dropped his hands. "Yeah," he responded, unsure of what to do.
She reached out and touched his shoulder, her hand running down his arm then up to his face, lightly touching his cheek. He stayed perfectly still while she touched him.
"I can't believe it worked." She said, caressing his cheek. He almost leaned into it before he remember what was happening.
"Emma, what's going on? How am I here? Didn't I... well die? I couldn't find my father so I came here." He questioned as he put his hand over the one she had on his cheek, gently pulling off but letting her hold his hand when she grabbed onto it. She was afraid that if she broke contact that he'd disappear.
"Hold on, let's go inside." She said, turning around and leading him inside before closing the door behind them. She pulled him over to the couch in front of the tree and they sat down. He looked around the room, noting the tree with all the presents under it.
"It's Christmas," he stated. She nodded.
"Yes, it's been a while."
"Yeah so could you maybe explain that?" He asked, staring at her as he waited to hear what she had to say. She was nervous. She felt now that what she did was extremely selfish
"Alright, so here's the thing. You did die. And then there was a lot of stuff that happened that I can explain later, but they're not relevant right now. Yesterday Regina came to me and gave me a gift which is one wish that could be absolutely anything, it could even bend the rules of magic, but that was questionable. So I could not think of anything but you and I wasn't even sure if it was going to work but I went for it and wished for you to come back." She looked at his nervously, unable to read his expression.
"So you were able to make a wish for anything in the whole world, and you wished for me? Why?" She took a moment to answer this, figuring that if there was ever a time to let everything out it was now.
"Well, I just missed you. There is always something happening in this town but during all the craziness I always thought of you and what we could be doing if you were still there. I told you that I have always loved you and I always will and that stood true with you gone. Now I feel like it was selfish to wish for you back, but I just felt like I needed you here for even just a little while." She breathed out and made her best effort to hold back the tears that tried to make their way out. Letting her walls down was always exhausting for her. The knots in her stomach tightened as he sat there and didn't say anything for a few moments.
It was agonizing for her before he finally put his hands on her cheeks and kissed her, pulling her closer to him as he did so. Her eyes widened in confusion at first before responding back. She closed her eyes and put her hands on the back of his head in an attempt to pull him closer as she kissed back, taking in all the emotions of their first kiss in 13 years.
After a minute or so they pulled away, leaning their foreheads against each other's as they catches their breath.
"What was that for?" Emma was the first to break the silence. Neal broke the contact of their foreheads by sitting up and taking her hands in his.
"You could've wished for anything you wanted in the whole world with no limitations, and yet you still wished for me. And why? I mean you said why, but it still baffles me that out of everything ever, you wanted me." She felt flustered, unsure of what exactly to say. For her, it crucial to have him right there with her.
"It's what I've always wanted, for thirteen years you're what I've always wanted. You question it so much but to me it wasn't much of a question at all. We have so much shit to work through but it doesn't even matter as long as you're here to work through it with." She confessed. The other two times she's confessed her feelings there was always someone's life on the line, to be able to say it without any impending doom felt different. Knowing there was the possibility of a future beyond this made it all different.
Neal listened as she let it all out, gently rubbing the back of her hand with his thumb as she spoke. He was about to say something before he was interrupted by a harsh voice from upstairs.
"Mom?" Henry shouted down the hall. They could hear him slowly coming down the hallway.
"Shit, Henry," Emma said as she let go of Neal's hands and got up, running upstairs to stop him from coming down. She thought that seeing your supposedly dead father sitting in your living room with no warning at all wasn't the best way to go with this.
"Henry?" She called out when she reached the top of the stairs, turning towards the hall to see him standing there. He sighed in relief as she walked towards him.
"Are you okay? You didn't come back for a long time, I was getting worried." Henry asked. She gave him a small smile.
"Yeah kid, I'm fine. I actually kind of got a surprise for you."
"Wait, what?" He questioned, giving her a confused look.
"Here's the thing kid, your mom — Regina — gave me a gift. It was one wish, and I kind of wished for something big and it's downstairs." She explained. The confused look stayed on his face but she didn't address it as she said "come on kid," and led him back downstairs.
Henry stopped dead in his tracks when he reached the bottom of the steps and looked up, seeing his father sitting on the couch. His mother stood next to him and he gave her a side glance.
"Dad?" Henry questioned cautiously, unsure of how this could even be real.
"Hey buddy," Neal greeted him with a grin as he got up and walked over to them. Henry's eyes were wide as he looked back and forth between his parents.
"Is this real? Is it really you? Is this what you wished for mom?" Henry sputtered question after question out at lightning speed. Neal reached out and put his hands on his shoulders which immediately stopped him.
"Whoa slow down buddy, give us a chance to answer. Yeah, it's really me. Yeah, your mom did kind of wish for me I guess. Okay?" Neal told him. Henry looked at him with wonder, he couldn't believe his father was here.
"So you're staying? You won't leave us again?" Henry asked.
"Yes Henry, I'm staying." Neal told him, taking his hands off of his shoulders. Henry stayed still for a moment before he wraps his arms tightly around Neal. Neal wrapped his arms around Henry, resting his head on top of Henry's. Emma faced softened as she watched.
"Please don't go again, dad. I've thought you were dead twice, I don't need a third time." Henry said, holding onto Neal.
"I won't buddy, I'll try my best." Henry let go of him and took a step back, nodding his head.
"I love you, kid," Neal ruffled Henry's hair.
"I love you too dad. Now can we have breakfast?" Henry asked eagerly, looking back and forth between his parents. Between the possible burglary and the resurrection of his father he got pretty hungry.
Neal and Emma laughed. "Yeah kid, we can have breakfast now," Emma told him, putting her arm around his shoulder and walking to the kitchen with him, Neal following behind them.
Neal sat down at the counter and just as Emma was going to let go of Henry so he could do the same, he stopped her. "Wait mom, before we eat, can I talk to you alone for a minute?"
"Uh yeah, sure kid," Emma said warily. As they walked into her parent's room she looked back at Neal who just shrugged.
"What's up kid?" Emma asked once Henry had stopped, deciding they were a good distance away.
"I just wanted to say thanks mom, for bringing dad back I mean. It's kind of the best christmas present ever."
Emma smiled. "I'm so glad you're happy Henry. I know you missed him."
He nodded. "Yeah, I did," he admitted. She put her hands on the sides of his head to pull him closer, kissing the top of his head.
"I love you kid," she said as she let go of him. "Now go sit down for breakfast." She told him. He nodded and made his way into the kitchen, sitting down next to Neal.
Emma stayed behind for a minute and watched him go. She watched the two of them start to talk and laugh. She smiled and knew in that moment that she had made the right choice.
"Mom? Are you coming?" Henry called out.
"Yeah kid, I'm coming." Emma answered as she walked back to the kitchen, joining her boys.