What the Heart Wants
By: theunknownvoice
Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or the song that Snow sings.
A/N: This pairing came out of the crazy season finale. I've always been a lover of weird pairings (Avatar fans remember Azula/Aang? Yeah, I'm twisted enough to think there could be a romance there.). I love the pairings on the show. There were a few times I wanted to deck David but that's only because any self-respecting woman would. So, please read and review.
"I gave my heart for hers."
Emma doesn't know. Of that Mary Margaret is thankful. David doesn't know either. It's a secret and Mary Margaret is rarely known for keeping one but this one doesn't belong to her alone. She keeps it close to her heart which beats as there were two in her chest.
Life is made of appointments. Mary Margaret has her schedule memorized and engraved deep within her heart. There's waking up and making breakfast for herself and Emma. Then there's leaving to get a coffee at Granny's at 7:15 to meet with David coincidently. She teaches her classes and does her grading. She volunteers at the hospital, now that David isn't there she feels like she can. She goes to the house cooks dinner and hangs out with Emma but every Friday at 9 she goes to the diner where Granny pours her a drink at the counter and she sits next to Graham.
That is her secret. That every Friday she spends drinking with the Sherriff while he tries to teach her to throw darts. She's decent but not as good as he is and they talk about their week. It's a weekly meeting of friends but Mary Margaret never tells anyone about it nor does she talk to Graham the rest of the week.
She never misses a Friday. Not once in all the time she has been in Storybrooke has she failed to meet Graham for drinks. This Friday is different though because he has come to see her that morning asking if he has hurt her.
"Graham?"
He's watching her from his end of the bar. They have never moved closer before but now he is sitting right next to her and she can feel his heat at her back.
"There are so many flashes now and I feel so broken. So empty."
It's barely a whisper but Mary Margaret grips his hand. "What's wrong Graham?"
He sees her now for the first time. For first time since Henry showed him the story book. His mind flashes quickly.
He wants to feel her touch again. His body had jerked awake when she checked his forehead. He knows she only does it out of concern but still he wants to know her touch again. It is bizarre but the part the flashes shows has shown him her. There is a feeling that he has in those flashes of raw want that is infecting him now.
"Graham has your fever gone down?"
His mouth is firm when he pushes it against hers tasting what he wants. A part of a secret part of him knows it is what he has always wanted.
He's been with the wolves since his parents left him to die. Every now and then he encounters people marching through the forest but this is the first time has found a little girl. She is lost and her face is wet from tears.
She sees him covered in the furs and her eyes widen.
"Please, I got separated from my father and stepmother. Our carriage stopped for a break and I wanted to take a walk because my legs were stiff. I told her that I was going to pick some flowers and my m—stepmother asked that I pick her a bouquet. I must have wandered too far because when I got back the carriage was gone."
"I'll take you back," he says.
His voice is croaky because he rarely uses it. Rarely finds time to speak to anyone except the wolves and even then it is mostly little noises and body language. She smiles at him the most beautiful smile he has ever seen before grabbing his hand. Her hands are tiny but the fit into his perfectly.
The forest is pitch black the trees hiding the moon from sight. She's scared because she grips him tighter and sings little songs to keep from screaming.
Her voice is perfect as the words echo. "There's a spark inside that we can all ignite. And all that's dark inside us will flicker into light."
He learns the tune and whistles along with her singing pulling her towards the woods. They are less than a mile from her castle. Once the moon lights the road though she starts talking to him. She asks hi his name but he gives her none nor does he ask for hers. She doesn't think him rude though because she continues talking to him. She tells him of her home and he talks of the woods. They are two children who are lonely. He thinks of taking her deeper into the woods and not letting her go back. Why shouldn't he?
The wolves would welcome her and he could take care of them both. She would be his responsibility. He would hunt for them and tend to her. She could sing for him and he could tell her the secrets of the woods. He's about to offer to her when they hear footsteps.
"Snow?"
He can see the castle and finds himself uncomfortable. She's safe now and he doesn't like people or towns. Humans cause pain. He wants to take her with him and protect but she let's go of his hand and runs forward. He can see the aging man with a golden crown on his head.
"Papa, come meet my friend papa," she calls sweetly to the man. "He found me and brought me home Papa."
When Snow turns to find him, he's gone. Like a shadow he has faded back into the woods. She remembers him but she does not speak of him ever again when she sees her stepmother's eyes too watchful of this story. Snow loves Regina but something deep inside her tells her not to speak of the boy again. Not to mention him. So she remembers him every night before she goes to bed and always whispers a thank you.
Years pass and with the king dead the queen can only think of eliminating one last pain in her side. Snow White needs to die and so sits on her throne and contemplates. She hears of the Huntsman only because of her mirror and sees that he knows no mercy. For one who has never been shown mercy, mercy cannot be taught. Once she starts inquiring many whisper to her of the man raised by wolves. He cares so little for people. They have impure hearts unlike him. He makes a deal with her even though his blood runs cold and he knows that this deal is not something he wants any part of. His family has been hunted on the verge of extinction. The wolves have fled to the most northern part of the forest where even the bravest of huntsman have no desire to tread.
He is a hunter though and hunters kill their prey.
The princess is beautiful but he tries to ignore that. He meets her decked out as a guard. Regina wants him to take her for a walk into the darkest part of the forest and murder her there. She smiles at him and it is so familiar.
"When I was a little girl the summer palace used to be my favorite place. The mountains surrounding it felt like a cradle. They always made me feel safe."
He can ignore her like he can ignore all humans but he can't because he is watching her every movement. The way her hands move and the simple sound of her voice as she talks to him. Until she offers him an apple worried that he is hungry or tired. It is him not offering him condolences that allows her to realize that he was been sent with purpose to kill her.
Yet the moment that he falls in love with her is the moment she attacks him. He can see the fight in her. Once when he was very little he watched a female wolf fight the alpha male. She quick and fast pushing her way past him and avoided his attentions. She snubbed him. The alpha hated her for it eventually fighting with her to prove himself the dominant one. It was a difficult fight but he won causing the female to roll over and expose her belly proving herself to be submissive.
Under the light of the moon the she-wolf and the alpha mated. The kissed and bit each other. Months later when there were pups, the boy had watched them still. Nothing had changed until hunters had killed the male. The female was frantic but she weaned her pups and then she abandoned them to the remainder of the pack
It was dark that night with no moon but he could hear the screams of men. He was only a small child but in the morning when he found her dead and the huntsman surrounding her with their throats ripped out, a familiar wolf skin used as a blanket, he did not question it.
He chased after Snow through the woods but she hasn't run far instead she is sitting on a rock scribbling out a letter. He is a hunter and she is prey. Cannot she not understand that he has been sent to kill her and he will not question? Not even if she smiles at him.
She admits her defeat.
"I cannot out run you. You know this forest better than I ever could. Just give her the letter and kill me quickly."
He should have never read her words or even looked at her. He cannot kill her. Not when he knows that she is brave and loyal. She has a pure heart and will not rob this world of that. Part of him the larger more wolf-like part wants to drag her into the forest with him. She needs to be hidden and he can teach to survive make her out to be his hunting partner. The part that is a man knows that the queen will find her. The queen found him in a shard of mirror. There is nowhere he can hide this woman, this princess.
He cannot kill her and so he lets her go. Instead he fashions her a whistle and tells her to run.
"I don't understand you're not going to kill me?"
"Run. Run."
She looks back at him once but he makes as if he will raise his bow. She does not need to think of him when her survival is not guaranteed. She must become a bandit, a theif even a hunter if need be to survive. She does not have time for regret. He kills the deer and tries to pass the heart as Snow's. It might buy him some time.
The queen sees through him. She rips his heart and puts it in her vault making him affectively her pet. He is in her bed and he is at her command. There's nothing he cannot do but cheer silently whenever Snow White escapes or wins a victory.
He is soulless or heartless and he is supposed to feel nothing yet when he sees the prince fight he cannot let him be killed. He cannot allow himself to put the arrow deep into the prince's heart for it will hurt her. It is his memory of her that makes his life, the life of a caged beast, something that he is capable of living with.
"Who the hell are you?" the prince demands.
"A friend."
"I don't know you."
"But I know Snow White."
"Is she ok?"
He measures this man as he answers the questions. This man loves Snow that is true but he will need help to rescue her. The Huntsman can buy him escape and stall for a while to keep Regina away from him. He can let him go but he cannot travel the pathways of the dark forest or even take him to where the queen is whispered of her meeting. The queen tells him secrets when he pleases her. It is much like bedding a piece of stone. He can make her respond but he is empty only another slave doing what he is told.
He explains what little he can and gives the prince the necessities to survive. Then the question is asked.
"You're not coming with me?"
He wants to. His heart screams from its box for him to go with this man. He needs Snow to be happy. He needs her to smile and for once he wishes that it was his fate to be the prince who rescues her but it isn't.
"I cannot. I gave up my heart so that the queen can spare Snow's. Don't let my sacrifice be in vain."
He is beaten for letting the prince go and later he hears of Snow's child. He can see her smiling down at the baby through the mirror. The genii pities him allowing him to watch the world that he was once part of. He watches Snow and sees her life with the prince. She is happy but sometimes when the moon is full she sits outside and looks at the night garden. Her walk starts in the garden and then towards the woods where if Charming could see her he would be upset. She sits there and tears fall down her perfect face.
"I will make your sacrifice worth it."
On the other side of the mirror he whispers, "I know you will."
The memories have flooded him just as he has kissed her.
"Graham, I don't…"
"I know," he says. "I have made a bit of a mess but please…"
"Graham, everyone saw you kiss Emma yesterday outside of the diner. You can't just kiss me in the diner. She's my friend Graham and…"
He wants the taste of her lips again. He wants to feel her pressed up against him for she is the one thing he has sacrificed himself for. The longing is strong as the part of him, the animal that has lied dormant, whispers the word: mate.
Mary Margaret, Snow White, the realities are wrapping around his head in a confusing.
Hunting for his heart with Emma, he avoids touching her. He doesn't kiss her or even say her name. After a while he pretends to admit that he is crazy. That there is a part of him that has been too stressed out because of his relationships and so he sends Emma home before approaching the crypt himself.
Regina is in there waiting for him. Her dark malevolent eyes peer into his forcing him look her in the face. The absolute hatred on her face but she laughs at him.
"Still trying to free yourself? "
"I know who I am and what you are."
She only smirks showing him the heart in her hand. The pain sears through her body. She squeezes harder.
"You will do what I tell you?"
"No."
She crushes his heart into pieces right before his eyes and feels the life pour out of him killing him. He's dead but he cannot move past. He is stuck watching as Emma finds him slumpt over his desk as if he has died of a heart attack. Being forced to watch your own funeral is hellish.
His funeral is brief. He would rather they have buried him in the woods instead of in an elaborate tomb. Regina's idea he is sure. Many are there out of obligation and leave before the burial. His casket is open and he can see her from his disembodied state.
Mary Margaret is weeping over him. Her tears falling over him, coating him like a wet blanket. Years of friendship in this world and the sacrifice he made in this one wash over him. He gasps for breath his body waking. Mary Margaret looks at him in horror.
His body convulses turning from man into wolf.
It is the first night that there is a moon that he turns back. Mary Margaret shrieks dropping the popcorn she had made to watch a movie.
"Snow?"
"Graham, I thought I was delusional. I thought that I had just found a dog not…"
He holds her. They talk for the entire night before dawn when he changes back. It becomes more and more difficult with Emma chasing leads. It is only when Mary Margaret is arrested though that Graham as the wolf heads to the cottage in the forest. His moonlit nights where he is human force him to walk around the town. He stays away from well lit places and haunts shadows. He reads the town paper and finally one night sneaks into the lock-up and sits across from the cell.
"Graham?"
"What gave it away?"
Mary Margaret is trying to desperately wipe sleep from her eyes.
"Have you been safe? Emma said that the dog ran away and I figured that Regina or someone else took you."
"No one but you knows about me Snow. Besides I'm not a dog. I'm a wolf."
"A wolf? Like a werewolf? Now I'm beginning to sound like Henry. Maybe I need an appointment with Dr. Hopper."
Graham smiles his teeth showing. "You would never be crazy."
"Says the object of my delusion."
He pulls out the sheriff's keys that are hidden under the desk. Opening the cell and crawling into the prison bed next to her.
"Graham?"
"You need to know that this is real."
He simply holds her that night pulling her closer rocking her body. Before dawn he covers her up and leaves her locking the door.
When Mary Margaret is acquitted she doesn't want to go to her own party. David Nolan is there waiting in the shadows and Mary Margaret does not want to talk to him. She does not want to speak to him but David still approaches.
I will always find you.
She shakes the image of David disappearing from her view.
"You never believed in me?" she asks.
David looks at her like she has stabbed him.
"The evidence was all there. I made a bad choice."
"I'll say. You chose not to believe in me. I believed in you even when everyone thought you did it. I told them you didn't but when it was my turn you walked away. You left me."
"Mary Margaret…."
"I would always believe you. I would always find you."
She walks away from him broken deep into the woods. For some reason she knows that if she lets her feet lead she will find what she is looking for. Deep in the woods she finds a cottage and Graham.
She trips over her own feet rushing towards him. Her lips are over his pushing harder until they are wrestling there on the forest floor. He doesn't whisper words or do much of anything except shred her clothing into bits pulling her closer.
They make love in the dirt in the woods. Her body slightly bruised. Love bites marking down his necks but she lays next to him sated. Far more sated than an one night stand with Dr. Whale could ever do.
"We're just like the wolves," Graham says softly. "Except I'm never letting you go."
She stares at him in wonder before she feels the memories pour over her. It is like a rush of an ocean washing away the world she has known.
"Snow?"
She only smiles kissing him once more.
At first Snow has reasoned that she and Charming can make it work again. But there are Mary Margaret's memories. Memories of pain and of Charming's inability to choose her. Mary Margaret had become a fallen woman because her prince wasn't gallant and she wasn't strong enough. Snow doesn't really like the flaws of Mary Margaret nor can she forgive Charming. James is torn between what is right and what is wrong. He is pushing himself against identity just like he had in her world when he had admitted to not having been the original prince. He had been lost and confused.
She lets him find himself. He is making friends in the town. He is becoming happy and she…
She does not speak even to herself of her love for the wolf that Graham becomes. She cares for her Huntsman. She loves him and her happy ending with Prince Charming has happened. There was a promise to each other that they had made to love and trust and protect each other forever. They had both tried but sometimes when they didn't think the other was watching they would sigh longingly and gaze out into the world. They had true love, yes but there are many types of true love. Friendship being one of them.
It doesn't bother her to know who she is but it does bother her when she realizes that Emma is her grown daughter. All these years and Regina has robbed her of raising her own child. Emma is a woman grown with a child of her own and Snow has only ever been her friend and roommate. She tries to tentatively build a bridge with her daughter but it comes crashing down the night that Emma catches her with Graham.
They are in the woods when Emma stumbles on them. She's angry especially after August had dragged her that well and tried to show her his leg. She still can make no sense of his words and maybe she is closing him out because she trusts him. He wants her to believe in the same stories that Henry does but Emma can't. Life is not a fairytale. Her heart has hardened and now he's avoiding her.
She doesn't have many friends and Mary Margaret has been distant. More distant since she pointed out that Emma is reverting. She doesn't know what to do. She's getting ready to leave town and the woods seems like a good place to run to for a moment.
She sees them near the lake moving within each other. Like to animals they mate in the dark shadows and Emma screams when she recognizes faces and voices.
Snow's tears pull him forwards forcing him back into his body. His kisses pulling her closer. He heard Emma's footsteps but he doesn't care. She could Regina for all he cares because he wants to make love to Snow here outside. He needs Snow to not cry because everything he has ever done has guaranteed her happiness because she is good and he wants part of that goodness for himself.
"Emma," Snow says seeing her friend's angry face.
"I mourned you and I trusted you!" Emma repeats.
She stubbles as she heads back towards the road. Snow struggles to move away from. Her daughter has caught her and while she does not know how Emma feels about Graham she can imagine the shock.
Graham will not let Snow up. He refuses and she can see there is fear legitimate that she will return to Prince Charming. That she will leave him and he will once again feel nothing for her heart now is the same as his.
"I'll come back. I will," Snow promises.
When she finds Emma, her daughter is at the hospital.
"What happened?" Snow asks.
"I tried to leave and Henry—"
Snow pulls her close but Emma pushes her away heading towards Regina. Instead Snow stays with her grandson reading to him and hoping.
When the curse breaks, Snows is the in the street weeping for Henry. His heart stopped while she was in the room with him. All she can think of is Regina's words: "Magic doesn't quite work the same here. It's unpredictable." Her heart is in pain just like it was on the day that evil queen crushed the Huntsman's heart but Graham lived. Perhaps Henry will too. Perhaps he can saved.
Charming comes towards her once the spell is broken. "Snow."
She feels it as he tries to kiss her. The happy ending that she had once fought so hard for is right in front of her but she won't go back. Her loves is no longer with Charming. Her heart does not seek to meet his beat. Instead her soul, her love, rests with the wolf who only becomes a man under the moon's light.
"Charming. It's good to see you."
"Snow?"
She will need to answer him. She can feel the explanation building. The words flowing forwards to tell him that she still cares for him but her heart belongs to another. Her eyes search the town square because she doesn't want to hurt James at this moment.
Graham is walking. His eyes are watching hers knowingly waiting for her to grab onto her prince. He turns away from her in that one instant just like when they were children and prepares to walk into the forest.
"No," she whispers.
"Snow?"
Charming is still looking at her with his loving eyes. His heart is still open to her but she does not need him. There is affection for him, caring but not need. She cannot answer him not now. Not when it will take more than a second instead she gives him a small sad smile and runs towards the woods.
Graham is not far sitting next to his wolf watching the water of the stream move. She pushes herself towards him once again.
"Wolves mate for life," Snow says softly, "and so do I."
He only smiles knowingly before pulling her into his arms and enjoying the night with her.
Snow White loves Prince Charming that is known. Snow White's soul, her life, her very being however belongs to the Huntsman. There could be no other person that could lay so thick a claim on her. Charming acknowledges that not all happy endings remain happy. He moves forward finding love with another, a quiet girl who he knew as a child. They run among the sheep and become shepherds of the field.
Emma lives with it.
Snow has a hard relationship with her daughter and an even more difficult one with Charming. In the Fairytale Land she thinks that maybe there would be enough magical crisises for them to bond together. Here they are still trying to find a way home. Still struggling to deal with the repercussions of free magic. Henry, however, is more loving and forgiving than Snow thinks a person should be.
"Emma's not mad," he says conspiratorially.
He's so careful eating the cookie that Snow has just baked. It is as if he savoring the moment with her.
"She's just confused," Henry continues. "She loves you and Charming both. She doesn't understand how that love could change because she can see that the two of you still care for each other. She likes Graham and Mary. They seem to make both of you happy but Emma…."
Henry doesn't need to say it because Snow can see that her daughter is unhappy.
"Thanks for the cookies Grandma," Henry smiles impishly. "I need to go meet my fiend Grace. We have a play date today. So I'll see you tonight."
Snow clutches onto her Huntsman's arm desperately. There is too little time for them to actually be together these days. Snow is still teaching school but most of her time is spent being dragged into war councils. Graham is still policing the town with Emma and when he is himself he roaming the woods with the wolves checking for anything dangerous. Some of the people in town of taken to trying to hunt the animals into extinction. Ruby helps him keep the forest safe but every now and then they are two late.
"Are you sure you alright with the pups?" Graham asks.
He's asked dozens of times and each time Snow has laughed.
"Of course. They need us until they are grown enough to make it on their own."
They pass by the Bed and Breakfast only to see Red frantically pacing.
"What's going on?" Snow asks.
"Emma is refusing to leave him and Gepetto and Jiminy are desperately trying to talk to her. She came here a couple of days ago right after the curse broke but…"
Graham looks at Ruby for more an explanation. His hackles rise and he can recognize the look of danger in Ruby's eyes.
"Well, well dearies, our very own Miss Swan is getting desperate. So desperate in fact that she's beginning to think of summoning me," Ruplestilskin says.
The dark-haired woman standing next to him is watching him in horror. "Why is she so desperate?" Belle asks.
The town has gotten colder in the last day or so and breath can be seen on the air. Belle is trying not to shiver or look at Snow's long white coat with longing. She needs to get her love in hand before he does something that she will not be able to forgive him for.
"The puppet. She's so foreign in this world and he's the only one she would ever let pull her strings. She needs him. Rather desperately, I might add. He understands her and like our dear young friend he believes in her. So sad."
"You will not make a deal with her," Snow says. "She is my daughter. I will help her and if a deal needs to be brokered I will be the one to do it."
"Whatever you say dear dear Snow White."
Granny doesn't stop them from marching upstairs. She can't not when Snow has such a determined look on her face and Graham is being dragged along for the ride. It's easy to find Emma, Graham knows her smell just like he knows Snow's but it is Snow who finds her daughter holding onto the puppet's lifeless hand.
"You said if I broke the curse August that I would save you," Emma says.
She has broken most of the items in the room but the typewriter is untouched as are his clothes and anything he brought with him. The furniture of the bedroom however has seen better days. Pieces of the desk are on the floor. The dresser has been toppled over. Only the bed is untouched because it is still holding a wooden body.
"I broke it. I did everything I could to destroy it and still you…"
There are tears small silent tears straining down Emma's face and then she is pulled into a warm embrace.
"It's alright little one," Snow says. "It's alright my little one."
Emma curls into her mother allowing for Snow to rub circles into her back.
"Has Gepetto or Jiminy been in here?" Graham asks carefully.
He had not known them in the other world nor had he known Pinocchio. His world had mostly consisted of the forest and the wolves. Until Snow he had never known what it meant to feel empty or even the pain of what it meant to love.
"No," Emma says pulling away from her mother. "He didn't want them to see him this way. He left in a letter for Granny downstairs. If something was to happen to him, she was just supposed to send his body to the undertaker and make sure it was closed casket. But I can't do that. He's not…He can't be…"
"Of course not," Snow says making Emma face her. "You would have felt it in your heart if he was dead."
They sit in silence as if at a wake. Hours pass and Emma refuses to move.
Snow goes into the hallway and walks down into the lobby. Her fingers dialed the number automatically.
"Hello."
"Sorry to wake you. It's just our princess needs her dad."
The phone drops and less than fifteen minutes later, Charming is there with Mary. The shepherdess smiles happily at Snow but Charming only runs up the flight of stairs. He holds Emma, their girl who is so much like him close. He whispers to her.
They eat in the room. Mary goes to Granny's dinner and brings them sandwiches. Graham sits shell shocked. Once perhaps he had thought he loved Emma. It was misguided but he cared for her. Part of him a rather large part wants to shake August awake because Emma is hurting. Emma who has become his best friend and one of only two people he trusts in this entire cursed town. She's aching and he can't do anything but watch her try to eat and her parents' try desperately to engage in her conversation.
He can still remember letting Charming go. Letting Snow White be happy because even then he had wanted her happiness. He had wanted that since that moonlit night when he saw a young girl wandering the dark forest scared and alone.
He's halfway out the door to make his own deal with Gold when Snow grabs his hand. She's fierce in pulling him close. Her scent hitching as she gazes at him pulling him closer until he is resting in her arms.
"Don't," she whispers. "It will only lead me to make a deal to keep you."
Instead they all sit in the room trying to make Emma smile or even move. She's stubborn in her will and her refusal to leave August. It's dark and they are still there waiting when Henry comes home from his play date.
It's been a long day and Jefferson let him and Grace learn to make hats today. He likes Jefferson but doesn't trust the hatter very much unless he is around Grace. Jefferson walks him upstairs, Grace's hand firmly dwarfed by his own.
Henry would've been fine alone but with Regina in power once more and Rumplestilskin trying to run the town, the Hatter won't take no for answer.
"I don't understand a lot about magic," Henry says.
"It's more difficult than it looks," Jefferson answers. "There are many different spells and worlds."
"Worlds?"
"Some that have magic and some that don't. There's a lot more than I thought out there."
Henry nods. The three of them find August's room in complete destruction. In the ruins of Emma's anger is a group eating sandwiches for dinner. Henry cries out when he sees the life-sized puppet. Grace follows him as the two children sit by the bed staring at August's lifeless eyes. Henry crying and Grace sitting next him her shoulders brushing his offering him a silent comfort.
Jefferson watches his eyes dissecting the room. He sees the tear streaks on Emma's cheeks. They have a tentative friendship formed mostly by their children's friendship. He sees the loss and part of him remembers because leaving Alice in Wonderland has scarred him more than anything else ever could. To watch the one you love best trapped because of what you failed to do.
He moves so quickly grabbing Emma's hand dragging her into the hallway.
"Jefferson, what the hell is your prob—"
He's merciless cutting her off. Forcing her to look him in the eyes as he backs her into a corner.
"Listen, I don't know why I actually care but there are few people here who give me a chance."
"That might be because you're a lunatic."
He smiles. "I'm mad. I admit it but you are my friend. I actually trust you."
"I need to get back in there."
"Why? The little wooden head isn't going to be moving anytime soon."
Her hand is barely an inch from his face when he catches it.
"I lost someone I loved."
"Grace, and you got her back."
"No, not Grace. Alice. I lost her in Wonderland. The baby came sooner leaving her trapped on the other side. I don't want your words of sorrow or regret. I've lived those words but I know one thing."
"And what's that?" Emma asks brokenly.
"That I truly loved Alice and perhaps because of that I can save her one day. Now the question is do you truly love the wooden boy? Just some tea for thought."
Emma looks at him understanding flashing through her eyes. Jefferson only smiles before entering the room and collecting Grace.
"Just remember you owe me tea if this works," Jefferson says leaving.
"Not a hat?" Emma asks.
"I'm done with hats."
Snow notices that there is a confidence in Emma's step that has been lacking for the entire day. Her golden daughter sits next to the bed and picks up Henry placing him firmly into Charming's arms.
"Look after Henry for a bit, Dad," Emma says. Henry stares at Emma his eyes meeting hers.
"Trust me," Emma says to the boy. "I saved you and I'll be damned if I don't save him too."
Emma's hands are shaking as she grabs August's wooden hands. August Wayne Both, A.W.B., a wooden boy. Emma wants to bash her own head in for not seeing the signs of the curse and for denying it. Even when he openly hinted at the curse, she had disregarded him. Only now did she realize that day in the woods he was trying to show he was turning back into wood.
"I'm so sorry," Emma whispers. "If this is right then we owe Jefferson. It's crazy but he's probably right."
She presses the small kiss onto his mouth only to feel his hand move.
"Try not to let that happen to me again," August says.
Emma smiles tears shining through her eyes before kissing him again.
"I won't if you won't."
"Deal."
There is celebrating and talk of other battles. Henry frantically calls Gepetto and Jiminy. Snow only smiles and tells them goodbye.
"I thought you'd stay for the party," Graham says as they walk home.
"No," Snows says smiling. "She's happy and I want her to feel happy without us being there. We're a stress towards her. She can forgive Charming but me….It's different. When I was just her best friend who feel in love with the man she beginning to have feelings for she could move forward. Now I'm her mother and you will one day be her stepfather. I can't give you up. Not even for my own child and that is always going to be a dividing point between us."
"And you don't regret it?"
"My heart is clear."
When they get home after hours of walking through the woods Emma is waiting on the doorstep with August who looks a little shaky but whole.
"Mom, can we talk?"
They walk into the house together leaving the two very different men standing on the porch.
"They'll be fine," August says knowingly.
"And you're sure of this how?" Graham asks.
"I have faith. Besides believing in Emma is what I'm good at."
Snow never tells Graham what the discussion consisted of. She never mentions not years later when she is cradling their own children back in their world. But the gist of it is always the same. Emma who had forgiven Graham and Charming had finally forgiven her mother.
After Emma and August leave Snow comes to him where he has been sitting with the wolves. She smiles at him putting herself into his lap.
"I love you," she whispers.
For once he lets his heart simply beat its rate matching hers.
The End