**I don't know who you are Guest Reviewer but this is the second time I've had a request for a David Emma story. Oddly enough though I already had a subject I wanted to delve in to with these two. I mean I know in a couple of my fics I've done a few Father Daughter moments but I'm guessing oh Guest reader that you were looking for something similar to my story "One Up" where it was mostly just about these two characters... right?
Now... I can't help if this story is just a tad similar to others I have written. I'm partial to certain themes and topics. :)
but here we go...
Timeline for now is right after the episode "The Miller's Daughter" 2X16 **
Here's The Thing
The brunette lay in bed, facing away, in her own little world while David is left to sit wide awake and worry about her. He spares a glance over to her every so often but cannot manage to let himself fall asleep. He sits up and stares out in to the dark living room. He did not know how things were going to change but it was evident she would remain closed off for some time.
She had not done much talking to anyone since they left the scene of Gold's shop just hours ago. Things took an ugly turn once Regina put Cora's newly cursed heart back in to her body. Gold survived his poisoned wound and Cora was gone all because Regina believed Mary Margaret when she said Cora could not truly love without her heart. Desperate to experience the Love of her mother, something Snow White related to, Regina became the pawn in a messy scheme simply because she longed to experience that type of Love.
David sees the overhead light in the kitchen turn on and a figure moving about the room. Since he does not seem to be getting any sleep he decides to get up and investigate. "Emma?" David calls to her as he sees her sitting at the kitchen table. "It's the middle of the night... are you alright?" He asks.
She sighs. "Huh? Yeah... yeah I'm fine." She says groggily. "Henry is up there talking in his sleep. It's amazing how he's so willing to talk to me like that but not when he's awake. I just needed a bigger room to fill my crazy thoughts with." She says with a quiet laugh.
"Hmmm. You need an ear to air out those crazy thoughts?" He says with a small grin and a silly shake of his head to accompany the question.
Emma purses her lips, blinks a few times to fight off the sleep, and scoots up to the table to rest her arms on it as he pulls out a chair to sit across from her. "I guess today has just been a bit too exciting for me." She says with a grim quirk of her lips.
"Yeah. I hear ya... things have been crazy for the past couple of days actually. You and Henry left town and just when we thought things were going to be quiet for a while all hell broke loose. There was an angry giant in town, a pirate with his invisible ship that brought to us Cora and her chaos. Nonstop action in what used to be a really boring town... at least that's how I remember it. Then again I spent most of twenty eight years in a coma." He says with a quiet chuckle as he leans forward and smiles.
Emma smiles back through tired eyes. "Lucky you. Honestly I don't think you missed much." He nods and tries not to let his laughter escape him for fear he'll wake either Mary Margaret or Henry.
She sighs again and shuts her eyes as she leans back in the chair. "I was not expecting things to blow up the way they did. We went to New York with Gold and things seemed fine. I was there to do one thing... help Gold find his son, but I totally did not anticipate his son being... Neal." At this she cringes and puts her hand to her forehead to shade her eyes.
"Quite the surprise for everyone I'm guessing?" David suggests. "He gets under your skin doesn't he?"
Emma pulls away her hand that had been shading her eyes to give him a questioning look. "Why do you say that?"
"Back at the shop today before I walked in to check on you when I asked if everything was okay. It most definitely was NOT okay." He says with a knowing nod to make his point.
"Yeah. It's just being with him... I felt like a teenager again. He just jumped right back in to being his same old immature self." She lets out a breathy laugh. "He was basically harassing me before you walked in... making fun of the fact that I have magic." She says with a roll of her eyes. "It was ridiculous."
Even though the apartment was sparsely lit it was evident, at least to David, that Emma was blushing. "You're so much like your mother." He says out of nowhere.
Emma gapes her mouth at the sudden change of subject. "What?" She asks with a furrow of her brow.
"When I first met Mary Margaret... Snow..." he starts to say thoughtfully, "She was very much like you are now. Very strong willed, self assured, or someone you might call... thick headed." He chuckles after this.
"Gee thanks." Emma says with a smile trying not to let this offend her.
He leans his elbows on the table, clasps his hands together, and then nods his head. Since his wife was not talking to him tonight he might as well take advantage of his time with Emma. So he started to recount aloud, "I was betrothed to princess Abigail when I met your Mother. Actually we were en route to my father's... well... King George's kingdom when your Mother set up an ambush and robbed me." He says meeting eyes with Emma.
"She robbed you?" She asks with a raised eyebrow in disbelief. "Snow White was a thief?"
"Yes, yes she was. She stole my jewels, my money, and... she stole my heart." He says with a thoughtful smile.
"Seriously?" She says trying to suppress a giggle. "Could you be anymore cheesy?"
"What can I say? It's the truth." He says with a shrug of his shoulders. "She stole from me and I had to get my engagement ring back. I didn't want just any thief to have it. It was my Mother's after all. I caught up to her right away. I took her down from her horse and that was when I first realized that she was a girl... oh excuse me... a woman. She was very quick to point that out to me when I called her a girl." He says widening his eyes for an exaggerated effect. "She... well she bested me." He says with a frown and a sigh at having to fess up to this.
"Oh, ho, ho... Nice!" Emma says nothing but impressed.
"Yes, your mother was able to subdue me and I will never again underestimate her in a physical fight." He says trying to defend himself. "I did manage to find her though. Actually I was amazed at how easily I was able to do that but then again it's just what we do. We always..."
"Find each other... " Emma finishes while rolling her eyes. " I know, I know." She says with a tilt of her head waiting for him to continue.
He shakes his head at her with a smile. "So much like your mother." He teases and she only rolls her eyes at him once more. "By the time I had caught up to her she had already sold my jewels to some trolls and the ring was among those items but we came to an agreement. Well... okay... it was more like I blackmailed her." He admits.
"Oh... so is that why she calls you Charming?" She asks playfully.
His only response is to shake his head while Emma quietly chuckles. He continues with his story. "I agreed not to turn her over to Regina, who had a bounty on her, in exchange for her help in getting my Mother's ring back. Our journey took us through the woods. We shared some small talk here and there, and the more I got to know her the more I felt like I had known her my whole life. I saved her once, she saved me once, and soon our little adventure was over. When it was time for us to go our separate ways I actually regretted letting her go. I had fallen for her right then and there but because of the life I had assumed as Prince James I had a royal obligation and that betrothal to honor. So I left... but not before I watched her put on my Mother's ring." He says with a smile at the memory.
"She put on the ring?" Emma asks confused. "Is that when you proposed to her?"
"No. She put it on right before handing it over to me. I watched her looking at it on her hand and it felt like my heart leapt out of my chest. It was the strangest thing. I almost told her not to take it off..." He says awkwardly at the admission, "Which is completely crazy as I had just met her, but then as she walked away I felt like a part of me left with her."
"Oh my God you are such a freaking romantic." She says with a huge smile on her face.
"Yes well the point of my story here, which you keep validating with every interruption you make..." he says quite chastising, "Is that you are a lot like your mother when I first met her. She did not believe in True Love or First kiss or Happy endings. She did not believe in Love at first sight. She was as skeptic about Love as you seem to be."
"Oh please... give me a freaking break." She says rolling her eyes and a huge smile spreads on her face.
"She was so sure that the stories about True Love were simply that... stories. She even shared with me how she was only stealing from the Queen in the hopes to save enough to escape to a place that was isolated where she could never get hurt. Now what I failed to ask her was why she was expecting to get hurt when she was so adamant about True Love not existing." He says with a tilt of his head and a smug quirk of his lip. Emma just shoots him a skeptical look of her own simply not impressed with his gloating.
Unfazed by this he continues. "I saw the way she looked at me when I saved her. I heard the astonishment in her voice as she whispered You Saved Me. She might deny it to the very end but I know that on that day her perceptions of Love had changed. I mean that was only the beginning and anytime I saw her after that we were always fighting to be together but the point is she was a skeptic much like you are now about the nature of Love."
He takes a moment to gauge Emma's expression. She seems quite content with the findings of this story but he simply needs to ask. "So now tell me... when I suggested that Neal gets under your skin why did you blush not a moment later at the thought of him?" He says as a satisfied grin spreads across his face.
Emma only gawks completely thrown, yet again, at how easily he changes the subject on her.
**I have an idea of where to go with this but I need a break here to put it together because right now it's only a mess of ideas and words. Of course if I get bored with this I might stop but for now it's looking to be a at least few more chapters long. Reviews might help me make up my mind. We'll see. ;) **
