I know, look at me starting another series when I have so many others. But this one has been itching to get out. I did a similar set of one-shots in my one-shot series Once Upon a Snowing. But I did some modifying here and realized this was one verse that I really wanted to flesh out. I will accept past, present, and future prompts for this verse as well.

This series was inspired by Findingtallahasee's story Our Own Kind of Family where Snow escapes the curse and raises Emma and August. Only in mine, unfortunately, they weren't able to find Storybrooke until Emma and August are adults.

This is also a verse where Leopold and Cora were evil. Cora used his heart to cast the curse, but was livid when she arrived to find that Snow had escaped with Emma. Instead, she decides to punish David in her place. Regina and Snow are step-sisters in this and love each other.

The Curse lasts twenty years in this verse.

Warning, there is mentions of abuse and alluding to male rape. Cora traps David in an abusive marriage to Kathryn Nolan in Storybrooke. I'm not bashing Kathryn though. Keep in mind that Cora has cursed her to be this way. When Snow, Emma, and August arrive in Storybrooke, she is horrified to discover what her husband's fate has been. And even though she is much older than he is now, she sets out to get him back.

Can she do it? And more importantly, when the curse breaks, will it return the years lost to her?

A Darker Curse

Snow sobbed almost uncontrollably, as he led her to the nursery.

"I can't do this...I need you!" she cried. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly.

"I know...but you know we must. Your father and step-mother will kill our baby if you stay. You'll go through the wardrobe and be safe from the curse," Charming promised.

"But what about you? How can I leave you?" she protested.

"It won't be forever...you'll find me and save me as I did you," he promised, as he pressed his forehead against hers.

"This isn't fair...we're supposed to be a family," Snow sobbed. Tears slipped down his cheeks as well.

"I know, my love. But as long as you and Emma are safe, then there will be an end to curse and we'll be reunited," he said, as he kissed her again, this time deeply and passionately.

"I love you," she sniffed.

"And I love you. When you share an eternal love like we do...there is nothing that can keep us apart, not forever," he promised, as he lifted her into the wardrobe.

"I'll find you!" she promised. He smiled and gave her one last fleeting kiss, before closing the doors.

"I know you will, my darling," he whispered, as he heard the Black Knights storm into the nursery with Cora following.

"Where is she?" the Evil Queen demanded. He smirked smugly.

"She's gone...far away from here where you and your evil husband can't hurt her or our daughter," Charming replied. Cora smirked.

"So you think that you've won?" she questioned. His smirk widened.

"I know we have. Snow will return and she'll find me. Then our daughter will break your curse," he said confidently.

"Yes...but the question is what kind of man will you be when she does find you?" Cora cooed and he frowned.

"If you're going to kill me...then do it. It's not going to stop Snow and daughter from defeating you," he said bravely. But she only laughed at him.

"Oh, I'm not going to kill you...that's too easy. But I am going to see that when your wife does find you again...you're going to be a shell of the man you are now. I daresay...she'll barely recognize you," Cora threatened. He swallowed thickly and refused to let her words scare him.

"Do whatever you will...nothing can destroy our love," he responded. She smirked.

"We shall see…" she cooed, as the dark smoke swept over them.

Twenty Years later

They were here. They had finally found the place the curse had taken everyone, after years of coming up with nothing. Twenty long years spent without her husband. Snow

had come to this world with nothing, heart brokenly leaving Charming behind to face the curse. She had been livid to find out that Charming could have come with her when she found little Pinocchio waiting for her when she came through. She wasn't angry at the little boy, of course, but at the people that were supposed to be her friends.

She understood why Geppetto had done it, wanting to protect his child, but the years without Charming had been hard and lonely. But she took him in like her own and it wasn't long until August, the name they had decided on for him, was calling her Mom.

Upon coming to this land, they found a homeless shelter where Emma was born and she had spent a few years there, as she had no documentation. Once she got the required documents, she found a job as a waitress. It was hard and for a long time, they had almost nothing.

Eventually, she managed to get a very small apartment for her and her kids. She waitressed, often taking double shifts, while Emma and August went to school.

August was a very good boy and helped her a lot with Emma. He always felt guilty though, for he had unknowingly heard his Mom crying in her room at night after she thought they were asleep. She should have had her husband here with her instead of him. It made him very angry with his father and he questioned just how much Geppetto could really love him if he had sent him away and separated a family in doing so.

Snow was so good to him though and even when he insisted she should hate him, she instead took him in her arms and held him close.

"You're my son, Auggie and I love you as much as I love Emmy," Snow promised.

"But David should be here with you. He's missing Emma growing up because of what my dad did," a preteen August argued.

"None of that is your fault, do you understand?" she asked. He nodded.

"I miss David fiercely, but we're going to find him again and then all four of us will be a family," she replied.

"But...what if he doesn't want me?" August asked.

"He will...I know my husband. He'll love you, because I love you and Emma loves you. He has the biggest heart of anyone I've ever known," she promised.

And that made August wonder if someday he might call David dad the way Emma already did, even though she had never met him. August remembered how much he looked up to and admired the Prince when he was a little boy.

From that day on, it became August's mission to find the place where the curse had taken everyone and keep belief alive in Emma, which during her teen years wasn't always easy.

But despite the influences in this world that were there to destroy her belief, they kept it alive in her. Emma and August were both rocks for Snow or Mary, as that was the name she had taken in this strange land.

Emma was so much like Charming that it made her both elated and ache at the same time. Emma believed and though she tried to make sure her daughter didn't see her cry, Emma knew how hard it was for her mother. And though Snow had never wanted Emma to feel the burden of responsibility, her daughter was ready to fight the Queen for what she had done to them.

Her daughter would soon experience her own heartache with love though, albeit a bit differently than she did when she met Neal Cassidy. She fell hard and was ready to abandon her family to run off with him. That's when August did some digging on Neal Cassidy and discovered the truth. That he was really Baelfire...son of Rumpelstiltskin.

Three Years Ago

"So...why did you want to meet here? Has Emma's big brother come to scare me away?" Neal asked.

"Not exactly...Baelfire," August replied. The other man's face went ashen, as he heard that name for the first time in many years.

"How…" Neal started to say.

"Because we're from there too. Our Mom...she's really Snow White and there was a curse. Your father orchestrated it to bring everyone to this world so he could find you. Emma's father and Snow's husband is trapped with everyone else now," August explained.

"And what does that have to do with me?" Neal questioned.

"Emma is the product of true love...the Savior. It's her destiny to break the curse and I want my Mom to be reunited with her husband. I hate that she cries herself to sleep at night, because my own father lied to her and stole his place in the wardrobe to put me there," August continued.

"You want me to get involved in this too?" Neal asked in disbelief.

"Tell Emma the truth of who you are and then help us find them," August pleaded.

"No way...don't you get it? I don't want anything to do with my father! I have been running for centuries, trying to escape all that...crap!" Neal growled.

"You can't take Emma away from us! She's all my Mom has of her husband right now...please Emma deserves to find the rest of her family! We have to save them all from the Evil Queen," August pleaded. To anyone else, August would have sounded insane, but Neal knew it was all true. His father had ruined more lives in his quest to find him. But he wasn't about to let him win...he was far too angry with him still.

"Then she has to do it without me…" Neal muttered.

"That's going to break Emma's heart," August argued.

"I know...but I can't deal with my father. Now that I know he's here, I have to disappear," Neal said.

"Look...I get being angry with your father. I'm angry with mine! I want nothing to do with mine either, but that's no reason to make other people suffer. And you love Emma," August pleaded.

"You're right...that's why I'm letting Emma go. It's for the best," Neal said.

So despite August trying to convince Neal to join them, he left that day with only a voicemail to Emma, breaking it off with her. She was heartbroken, but there was little time for that when they found out she was pregnant. He had tried to find Neal after that and tell him, but the former was true to his word and had disappeared.

A few months later, their family grew by one when little David Henry Swan was born. Emma insisted naming him after her father, which made Snow cry, and she had suggested Henry as a middle name. Henry had been her step-sister, Regina's father. And despite her own father's evil and her step-mother Cora's cruelty, Henry had always been kind to her, before Cora killed him, in front of them, no less.

Now that they were finally here, in front of a diner named Granny's, Snow could hardly believe it.

The years touched Snow gently, much to her thankfulness and she had decided to use the available advantages in this realm, keeping her hair dyed black to hide the gray.

So when they stepped into Storybrooke on their first day and found that no one had aged in twenty-eight years, Snow was glad that time had been kind to her, especially when they stepped into Granny's Diner that morning.

"Hi...can I help you?" her best friend, who hadn't changed at all, asked. Though the attire she was wearing was nothing that Red would have ever been caught dead in.

"Three hot chocolates with cinnamon to start us, please," Emma answered for her mother, who was too stunned, as she looked around the diner, finding people she loved. But these people whom had been her friends only gave her blank stares in return.

"Mom...are you going to be okay?" Emma whispered.

"Mmm...I'll be fine, honey," she answered automatically, as her two-year-old grandson looked around curiously.

"I don't see him...but I'm sure he's around somewhere, Mom," August murmured to her. She squeezed his hand in response.

"I…" she started to say, as the bell chimed behind them.

"David...the usual?" Ruby asked flirtatiously.

"Sure...thanks Ruby," he replied in a voice she hadn't heard in twenty years. Her knees went weak and her mouth felt like a desert, as she turned around and let her eyes soak him up.

Gods...the man hadn't changed. This David seemed a unsure and less confident that her Charming. There was also a timidness and a sadness in his eyes that alarmed her, but it was him...her David, her Prince Charming.

Emma didn't miss the captivation on his face when he looked at her mother and it made her excited. This was him...her father, the man her mother had pined for her entire life. She could see her features in him and her obvious coloring that came from him.

"Hi...I'm August Swan," her son said, taking the initiative that seemed to escape Snow.

"David...nice to meet you," he said, a bit shyly. They gathered that this place just didn't get strangers.

"What a coincidence...that's my nephew's name here," August said, gesturing to the toddler in his sister's arms. He smiled and Snow felt her breath catch. She had seen that smile in her daughter so many times, but seeing it on him once again made her want to cry in joy.

"He's adorable...you're lucky," David said, with a sadness in his voice and he realized that he may have sounded awkward.

"To have a child, I mean," he clarified. They smiled, assuring that they knew what he meant.

"Are you new in town?" he asked. They nodded.

"Yes...this is my sister Emma and you met little David. And this is our Mom...Mary," August introduced, trying to snap their mother out of her daze.

"Mary…" he uttered.

"It's nice to meet you David," she finally managed, as they shook hands and they both felt the spark between them.

"Yeah…I'm sorry, but have we met before?" he asked.

"It certainly feels like it," she replied, as they remained captivated by each other. Of course, that's when their moment was shattered.

"What the hell is this?" Cora snapped, as she entered the diner with Regina behind her. Regina had the same look of fear in her eyes that everyone else did when the Mayor got angry.

"Cora…" Mary uttered. The Mayor's eyes widened slightly, as the woman she had hoped she was rid of forever was before her again...twenty years older. A smirk marred her cold features.

"Well, well, I wondered when you'd show up," Cora said coldly, as she looked at David.

"David, I think Kathryn is waiting for you," she urged. Snow watched her husband look away from the cold stare of the Mayor. Everyone cowered before her, just like she wanted. This was her happy ending, after all.

"Of course...it was nice to meet you," he said, giving her a longing look, as he left the diner. Cora laughed.

"This...this has made my day. Snow White has come to find her husband, only to find that he's twenty years her junior now," Regina joked.

"Shut the hell up," Emma growled.

"And who the hell are you?" Cora snapped.

"Oh I think you know exactly who I am, Madam Mayor," Emma growled. The slight widening of Cora's irises were the only indication of her worry, as she put on a mask of indifference.

"If you think you stand a chance against me in my own town, you're delusional. As delusional as your over the hill mother is if she thinks she has a chance with David here. He's a married man," Regina goaded and Snow felt her heart break, as Cora's coffee was delivered to her promptly.

"Have a lovely day, dear," she goaded, as she left. Emma felt her own heart crack at the broken look on her mother's face.

"I'll get some cocoas…" August suggested, as Emma led her mother out of the diner.

"Mom…" she said.

"He's married…" Mary cried.

"Yes he is, Mom. He's married to you," Emma insisted.

"Whatever farce of a marriage Cora has forced him into here means nothing compared to what he has with you," Emma implored.

"Honey…" Mary protested.

"No Mom...you've told me about him my whole life. He's not himself under the curse and I may be the Savior, but only you can get him back! Did you see the way he was looking at you? No happily married man looks at another woman like that," Emma insisted.

"It doesn't matter...he's still so young and I'm old," Mary said, as she broke down in tears. Emma pulled her into a hug.

"No...no, you listen to me, Mom. You are so beautiful...and you have been wronged in a way no one should ever be wronged. She's stole everything from you...from us. And now, we are here to take it back," Emma said passionately.

"You sound just like him," she choked back a sob.

"So you've told me and I'd really like to meet him...the real him. He's yours Mom...you need take him back," Emma insisted. Snow sniffed and wiped her tears away, drawing strength from her baby. That same strength she had once drawn from Charming.

"He won't care that you're older...hell, he doesn't even care as he is now. I could tell…" August insisted, as he came out of the diner with little David and a tray of drinks. Snow wiped her tears and Emma hugged her again.

"You're right…" Snow said finally, as Emma saw the fire return to her mother's eyes.

"I'm going to get my husband back," Snow decided. Emma smiled.

"You are...he couldn't keep his eyes off you. You're still hot, Mom," Emma said, nudging her playfully. Snow smirked. And she knew all the moves that would work on her Charming, even as he was now.

"I'm going to seduce your father," Snow announced, as she hooked her arm on her daughter's.

"Okaaay...not something we need hear," August complained.

"Cora is going down," Snow said. Emma smirked. She loved that her mother was also her best friend.

"Hell yeah she is. Oh, and I was looking in the paper. There's an empty loft for rent. Seems perfect for the four of us...eventually five, even if it's a bit small," Emma said, as she handed the paper to her mother. She nodded and then heard a voice behind them.

"Snow…" Regina called. She turned to find her step-sister there.

"Regina? You're awake?" she asked in disbelief. The other woman nodded and hugged her.

"I wasn't until just now. When you told me what you were going to name your daughter back in our land, I sort of put myself in a magical trance and imprinted her name in my head so that when I heard it...I would wake up," she explained.

"I've missed you…" Snow cried.

"I've missed you...even if I didn't know it," Regina replied.

"Is it true? Is David really married?" she asked tearfully. She nodded.

"There's something you have to know though. When my mother found out you escaped the curse, she decided to punish your husband for it. David is in an abusive marriage," Regina said, hating that she had to deliver that news.

"What do you mean?" Snow asked. The look on her face was devastating.

"He's married to Abigail...Kathryn here and my mother cursed her to be as cruel as she is. It's not really her fault either...but David is barely a shell of himself now. He's completely under her control. Most of the time, I think it's verbal and emotional abuse...but there have been a few physical incidents...and obviously he is forced to be with her in...that way," Regina said, averting her eyes. She couldn't handle the look in Snow's eyes at that moment. She had never seen her more broken and it was everything her cruel mother had ever hoped for.

"Oh Gods…" she cried.

"This is my fault…" August realized, as Emma took her son. But Snow shook her head.

"No...this is not your fault, Auggie. Please don't blame yourself...I need you as much as I need Emma now," Snow cried. He softened and hugged her tightly.

"I'm not going anywhere, Mom. I promise...and we'll save David too," he promised. Snow nodded and took comfort in her children. Saving her husband was imperative now more than ever, for there was no telling what Cora would encourage the cursed Abigail to do to him...