I decided to sequel my other Charming fic "Unfair" because I'm fond of parallel language and there is plenty of opportunity here. Dialogue spoken by characters aloud is not mine and is the property of ABC. Enjoyeth.
I never knew I could be this happy. I'd imagined this day a thousand and one times– before I knew of curses and wardrobes and my daughter's fate– and none of them were quite like this. I was happy and sad and I could feel every emotion in the human spectrum pulsating through my veins with each frantic beat of my heart. Speaking of my daughter... there she was.
When Charming had wrapped his arms around me to protect me from the swirling purple cloud– an impossible feat, but an instinctual action on his part– I was, for one fleeting moment, happy. The curse was broken. I could feel that in my bones. My husband had called out to me. My ears still rang with the sweet sounds and syllables that sounded a way only he could make them sound. When we reached each other I grasped at his arms and his shoulders, running my hands along smooth muscle contours I'd memorized long ago. When he kissed me, I kissed him back, tasting my tears because I was in the exact place I wanted to be; his strong, gentle, protective arms. Arms I thought I would never be able to remember again.
Then I remembered everyone else. With our hands tightly clasped, we started to make our way down Main Street. It was exactly the same as it had minutes before. Granny's OPEN sign still flashed. My car was still parked near the library. But it it looked different. At least to my new eyes. I'd seen all of this before, but I hadn't seen it like this. Charming squeezed my hand and I knew he was seeing what I was seeing and feeling the dichotomy between his memories and his eyes. It was strange.
Then we found Red. Ruby. And Granny... who was still 'Granny.' Red whispered my name and suddenly I was in my best friend's arms, wrapping my arms around her and matching her tears. I'd seen Ruby every day when I went in for morning coffee, but it had been a thousand lifetimes since I'd seen Red. She moved to give Charming a hug and I did the same for Granny.
"Your highness?"
The words I never thought I would hear again, spoken from a dear friend I never thought I would see again. I turned to see a normally grumpy Leroy smiling and standing with his six brothers, and I couldn't help but smile myself. They bowed low, sweeping their caps off, and straightened, and I ran to them with arms outstretched. They were like my own brothers– the brothers I'd never had. We'd been through so much before the curse, and now that the curse was broken– still a strange sentence to form in my mind– our bond was stronger.
"The curse? It's broken?" Leroy frowned.
"It would appear so," Charming said, putting his hands on his hips. I smiled and ducked my head. I liked it when he did that. It made him seem regal and haughty, two things my husband was not. Plus I just found it adorable.
"So what do we do now?" Ruby's voice was small and childlike, voicing the childlike question we had all formed in our minds but were too afraid to voice aloud. Ruby and Granny and the dwarves looked lost and a little dazed, not knowing really what to do next. But I knew exactly what I was going to do. What I had to do.
"Now..." I took a breath. The words that were poised at the tip of my tongue felt strange and unused, but none the less emotional. I had waited twenty eight years for this day and now that it was here... I didn't know how to feel. But I'd figure it out soon enough. "Now I find my daughter."
"So it's true...?"
The voice coming from behind came as if from a dream. A voice I'd heard a thousand times. A voice that had once calmed me down and quieted my tears. Made me smile. Grumbled uttered mutterings as a screwdriver poked and prodded at my toaster. I turned, slowly, and there she was.
Emma.
The name still lilted on my tongue and lingered on my lips. It still sounded sweet like springtime. I said it over and over in my head, afraid that if I opened my mouth to whisper it aloud, I would lose the fragile thread holding me together. Because my best friend was behind me. My husband was beside me. And my daughter, my Emma, was standing in front of me with my eyes and my chin and his lips and his strength. The peachy fuzz atop her head had grown and turned blonde. The little baby girl I'd once held in the crook of my arm was taller than me. I'd seen Emma Swan every day when I got up to go to work, but I hadn't seen my baby in 28 years.
I looked at her as if I'd never be able to see enough. I couldn't read the expression on her face, but that was okay. All that mattered was that we were here, in this moment, this moment that had finally come. I opened my mouth and choked back a noise that was half laughter, half sob, as we drew closer to one another. When I was close enough to count the stitches on her jacket, I couldn't resist the temptation any longer. I reached for her. She leaned forward slowly, almost cautiously, still staring with that unreadable expression. I put my gloved hands at the sides of her face for one brief moment before pulling her into my arms. Hungrily, eagerly, but gently. I put my hand on the back of her head and closed my eyes against the tears that were falling onto my coat collar. I felt Charming wrap his arms around us both. He put his own hand on the back of her head and I knew he was remembering back to the day she was born, when her head was small enough to fit into the palm of his hand. My family was together. I had my kingdom. I had my husband. I had my daughter. I forwent the fragile string holding me together and opened my mouth, whispering thickly through my tears and years worth of emotion caught in my mouth.
"You found us."
I didn't know what to feel. I'd imagined this day– back when my pigtails were wrapped in purple ribbon and I could count the scrapes on my knees and the number of teeth I had missing– but none of the scenarios I'd dreamt up as a child were remotely like this. Every little girl wants to be a princess. I just didn't think the universe was actually ironic enough to make that come true for me.
She was different. I knew that as soon as I walked up and saw her with Leroy and David. There was a different air to her. She carried herself more confidently, almost regally. I saw them bow to her and surround her in hugs and embraces and my mind couldn't process it. Just yesterday we'd gone out for coffee and pie and laughed about our love lives, and now she was standing taller and prouder while Leroy and some other guys bowed to her. It was weird. She said she wanted to find her daughter. Me. So I asked her if it was true.
When she turned around, I didn't know what to think. When she started to move towards me, I didn't know what to feel. I'd waited for this day since I first started making memories. I'd dreamt about it, daydreamed about it. I'd even written in my diary about it, until a kid down the hall from me stole it and I stopped keeping a diary. I'd counted down the days until I turned 12, because maybe that would be the year they'd finally come looking for me. Until I turned 16. 18. 21. Even after I stopped counting, I never really gave up hope, as much as I liked to tell myself that there was none left for me to hope with. I guess it paid off, then. There they were.
When she wrapped her arms around me, I didn't know what to feel. Normally I was a "hands off" kind of girl. The people I'd had to call "parents" through the years were less than affectionate and the kids I sometimes lived with were less than friendly. After bangs and bruises from older kids and twisted wrists and stern slaps from foster parents, I'd sworn off topical contact with other people. My personal space was mine, and sometimes it was all I had to comfort myself with. But this... here... It didn't feel violating, and it didn't make my skin crawl. It felt... familiar. I wondered shrewdly if that was just my brain filling in the gaps in my dreams, but it really did feel familiar. Like these were arms I had once known.
I didn't wrap my arms around her. I just stood there, feeling my carefully built walls begin to crumble. The day I had waited for was here. I suddenly wondered if I needed more time, but there would never be enough time in the world to process this. It was here whether I wanted it or not. And the fact that I did want it– desperately, primally, hungrily– spoke more than anything else. I wanted it so badly I couldn't feel anything else. And it was here. A living, breathing moment that was alive and holding me in her arms and a living, breathing moment that was holding me in his arms and I allowed myself to be that little girl again with purple ribbon pigtails and scraped knees. A little girl who put her teeth under her pillow and asked the tooth fairy if maybe this time she could put in a good word with whoever was in charge and bring me my parents.
I still didn't know how to feel. Beneath the mess of warm feelings on the surface of my heart, the anger and hurt and loneliness I'd felt for so long was still there like a festering sore. And the last thing I wanted was a big family discussion about my feelings. Hell, even the word "family" still felt weird on my tongue. But I was strangely calm in all of this. I knew I'd figure it out. Whatever "it" was. If I was anything, I was a tough girl for sure. I could handle stuff. At least now I knew I didn't have to face it alone.