Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any of the characters involved in the show. ABC is the rightful owner.

A/N: At last, here it is, like I promised. The sequel to Sunshine and Rain. I played around with many ideas and have a rough idea of what I want to do with this story. With that being said, I hope everyone enjoys the first chapter and I thank you for the support ahead of time.

Calm Before The Storm

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine...you make me happy when skies are gray...you'll never know, dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away.

Emma Swan-Stiltskin, as she liked to think of herself, sang quietly to the baby in her arms, lulling her to sleep. Mary's belly was freshly filled, the bottle almost empty on the table. Her tiny head, covered with faint blonde fuzz, nestled over Emma's breast.

When she was sure the baby was sound asleep, Emma tossed aside the blue-and-white quilt on her lap and slowly rose from the rocking chair. She was careful not to jostle Mary too much or else it would be another twenty minutes of putting her to sleep. Carrying the baby to the handmade white crib, Emma placed Mary beside her twin, Isabelle. Together the twins snoozed, both on their backs with their heads almost touching. The same could be said of their hands, the little balled fists seeking each other out.

For a long string of heartbeats, Emma lingered by the crib and memorized every detail of her little girls. She sometimes liked to think of them as her "miracle babies." After losing Morraine, she had longed deeply for another child to share with her husband and to fill the gap in her heart. Her prayers were answered with not one, but two beautiful girls. She considered it nothing short of a miracle.

A light breeze kissed the skin of her cheek. Emma turned to the open balcony doors and the wide forest beyond it.

The nursery offered a breathtaking view of the Enchanted Forest. There were clusters of trees and sprawling hills for miles. Bigger than Storybrooke, the people she had gotten to know and fight for were spread across the entire land. It was with great relief that everyone returned to the world they called home, but with it came a new set of challenges.

More than half the people in this land were forced to rebuild their homes, cottages and castles alike, ravaged as they were by the curse. The soil was dry and barren, requiring seemingly endless periods of nurturing and failing before it could produce anything. The winter was expected to be harsh, especially on those that lacked the comfort, security, and shelter of so-called royals. As Rumpel often put it, there was a fine line between life and death for those who were stuck living like peasants.

He had been in that boat once.

Emma did her best to help out, but she had her children to care for and she didn't want to depend too heavily on her magic to solve problems. She didn't want to risk paying a price she could not afford. Every few weeks, they would travel by carriage through the Enchanted Forest and she would lend assistance to the people of this land while heading for her parents' castle.

It was nearly fall now. The trees would begin to shed their leaves and she could pick out the small village at the bottom of the mountain. Smoke curled in the air from one of the chimneys and if she went there she might hear the sounds of daily business transactions in the market and young children playing.

Everyone hoped to find peace here. The worst was supposed to be over.

Or was it?

It might have been a trick of her imagination, but she swore the hairs on the nape of her neck rose. The air shifted, crackling with electricity, and she strained her ears to catch a footfall on the floorboards. One foot, maybe two feet away.

Someone was standing very close behind her.

Someone trying hard not to be heard.

Instinctively, Emma pulled out the delicate knife she kept hidden in her blouse and had the shiny silver blade pressed to the intruder's neck before he could utter a syllable. A pearl of red blood squeezed out of his throat.

"That's three times this week," he groaned, more out of frustration for losing their game than by shedding blood. The game where he liked to take her by surprise and she managed to outsmart him now and again. His brown eyes shined as magnificently as the blade, the specks of gold visible in the bright afternoon sunlight. "I'm starting to think I've lost my touch."

Emma grinned like the cat that's been given the cream. She lowered the blade from his neck and stowed it away in its special spot. Then he took her in his arms and kissed her passionately, as if it was the first and last time.

"You haven't lost your touch. I just know you too well," she teased between kisses. Even if he no longer possessed magic in his veins, their kiss still had the power to make her weak in the knees and to heal her heart. His breath quickened when his lips moved to her jaw and then her neck, her name lost in his moans. "Not too much noise. I just put the twins down for their nap."

Her husband reluctantly stifled his moans and lifted his head from the spot he was suckling on her neck.

"The fact that you are carrying that blade proves you haven't found peace yet," he said solemnly, tucking a piece of blonde hair behind her ear. It seemed that everyone had moved on except her. She was holding her breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Nothing had ever been easy or peaceful in her life, even less so since she put down roots in Storybrooke.

"Excuse me for being cautious," she said, harsher than she intended. To her regret, he winced. Taking her hands in his, he brought them to his lips.

"It's alright to be cautious. You and I both know the future can be unpredictable. There is a point, however, when you stop living and you start fearing the future for no valid reason. Until something happens...try to be happy."

He bent his head to kiss her forehead and accompanied her in looking out over the Enchanted Forest. Deep down, she knew he was right. Living in fear of what may come wasn't living at all. It wasn't fair to her husband or her children. Everything would be alright. There was no reason to be afraid.

Then why did this feel like the calm before the storm?

"Do you think Henry and Bae will bring anything back from their camping trip?" Rumpel asked, none-too-subtly changing the subject.

It was Henry's way of bonding with Bae lately: taking afternoon-long trips into the woods and learning how to hunt, fish, shoot an arrow from a bow, survive. It was like a camping trip to Henry. Occasionally, Charming would go with them and let Henry handle his sword. It was part of his early training to become a knight for Charming and Snow's personal guard.

"If they do, you'll probably be the first to know," she replied, taking comfort in the feel of Rumpel's arms wrapping around her waist. His lips brushed the lobe of her ear.

"That's not true. The one Henry will run to first to share his acheivement is you. You're his mother," he said.

Emma sensed that Henry's relationship with Rumpel was growing stronger than Rumpel let on. Just last night at dinner, Henry asked for the butter and did that strange arm-flourish Rumpel used to do. Next he'll giggle like an imp. Yikes.

"I think it's something he would be proud to share with you." Rumpel buried his nose in her head of curls.

"Why don't we bet on it? Say, the last piece of that chocolate cream pie from dinner," he suggested. Emma playfully rolled her eyes. Knowing her husband had a sweet tooth like a child, she usually left the last piece of dessert for him anyway.

"Deal," she agreed. She turned in his arms, her hands running up his back as she sealed the deal with a kiss. On cue, the doors of the castle burst open downstairs and she heard the sound of feet running up the stairs.

"Dad! Mom! You won't believe what we did!" Henry's excited shouts rang down the halls. She would have to find him before he found them and woke the twins.

"I swear I didn't kill Bambi," Bae added half-jokingly. Emma gazed up into Rumpel's eyes and cocked an eyebrow, silently passing on the message I told you so.

"Don't worry. I'll save the last piece for you," she promised, patting his chest reassuringly. The tip of his tongue darted out over the bottom of his lip and she wondered if he could taste that pie already. He looked like she just vowed to give him her kidney.

"You're too good to me...and hazardous to my diet." She raised her chin to claim his mouth again, but the sudden ear-splitting shriek of one of the twins split the air. Emma moaned and let her head fall to Rumpel's shoulder. "I'll get her."

"No, no, I've got it," she insisted and went to check on Mary. "You go get your dessert and entertain the boys."

Rumpel proved to be a decent father with the way he handled the twins, always delicate and devoted, but she also wanted to give him a chance to be with Henry and Bae. Emma bent over the crib to examine Mary, whose face was red and scrunched up in anger. She scooped her up and took ahold of the baby's hand.

"Rumpel," she called out. Luckily, he had only just reached the threshold. When she glanced up, she felt the concern wash over her. "Mary's hand is frozen."

There was a slight draft throughout the castle and the balcony doors were open, but it wasn't that cold. She always made sure to bundle up the babies in their baby blankets during their nap. When Emma traced Mary's clenched fist, it was like someone had held it down in ice water.

Rumpel hurried to her side and felt it for himself. Then, with furrowed brows, he reached into the crib to touch Isabelle's hand. Isabelle remained snoozing and her hand was warmer than Mary's.

How peculiar.

With ease, Rumpel pried open Mary's fist and found a white layer of frost coating her fingers and palm. It melted away as any snow would, but it should not have been there at all. Once Emma might have worried that her magic had slipped her control, but she had practiced too much with it since tapping into it.

"What could have caused that? She was just sound asleep and holding her sister's hand..." Emma was helpless to puzzle it out. She looked from Mary to Isabelle, one upset and red as a tomato, the other oblivious to the world.

The wheels spun in Rumpel's head. He put two fingers in Isabelle's fist and closed his eyes, falling into deep concentration. When he pulled back his fingers, there was a dusting of frost on the tips. It melted quickly, until there was only a teardrop to prove it had been there at all.

Emma flashed back to the night she birthed the twins, when the candles in the castle went out for a moment when Isabelle came into the world.

"Isn't it obvious, dear?" Despite his newfound discovery, Rumpel appeared grim. The teardrop slid over his finger, leaving a wet trail on his skin. "Isabelle did it."

...