This is my first OUAT fanfic, but ever since I watched the preview for 'Lacey' one line has been on my mind and it kind of spawned into this story.
Emma POV
"Storybrooke isn't safe," I say sadly as I look up from the dining room table to look at David. "With Hook, Regina and whatever it was that August was trying to warn us about I just can't risk Henry's life. I think we need to leave."
"Emma, are you saying what I think you're saying?" Mary Margaret asks as she walks over to the table and stands next to her husband, placing a hand on his shoulder. I nod my head as I look up at my mother, a fact that was still hard for me to get my head around. This past year has been a whole head spinning affair.
"I have to get him out of here and somewhere safe." I say as I turn away from my parents, I don't want to see the pain I know is in their eyes at the thought of losing me and their grandson again.
"No, you can't leave! We can keep him safe together, as a family!" David states rising from his chair angrily, causing it to fall backwards to the floor with a resounding bang which echoes throughout the apartment.
"Please, don't make this decision any harder than it already is. Trust me I don't want to leave but I have to put my sons safety above everything." This was the absolute truth, I didn't want to leave now but I couldn't stay if it risked Henry he was my life, even if he currently had very little trust in me.
"No Emma, you are making a mistake! If you take him from Storybrooke he won't be any safer. How can you protect him in a world where you can't use magic?" Mary Margaret asks, tears forming in her eyes as she says the words.
"I can try," I sigh sadly.
"I won't let this happen. We have just gotten you back, we can't lose you again. If you leave we may never see each other again." David paces away from the table stopping in the kitchen he runs a hand through his short hair. "There has to be another way, what about Rumpelstiltskin? Surely he must be able to help after all we are family now." He bangs his hand on the counter and I watch the anguish on his face turn to determination as he decides to truly fight for his family, even if it means making a deal with the proverbial devil. I hate how much I know this is hurting them, it is literally tearing me up inside but what other option do I have. You can't fight something you can't see, I can never remember where I heard that buts it true.
"He can't protect us from something he doesn't understand, hell even I don't know what's going on. I have to do what's best, surely you of all people can understand that. Please you have to let me go dad." Tears start to slide slowly down my cheeks as I rise from my chair. David stands like he has just seen a ghost and it takes me a second or two to realise why the room is suddenly silent. Once I do I all but collapse back into my chair and raise a hand to my face as if to hide the shame of calling a man who is my age dad.
"Did you just...Did she just?" David says dumbfounded as he tries to understand what has just happened. I remove my hand from my face in time to see Mary Margaret nod before sadly grabbing her coat and leaving the apartment.
"Mary Margaret wait!" I shout as the door slams behind her, I bury my hands in hair as I groan in frustration. "What have I done?" I mumble hoping David doesn't hear.
"Well you just called me dad," he says and I can hear the smile in his words. I look up at him and shoot him a withering look. He cowers before recovering with a chuckle, "your mom used to look at me like that when we first met. You are so much like her." He moves, picks up his fallen chair and seats himself back on it. Reaching out across the table he takes one of my hands in his and I have to fight the temptation to pull away. Even though I called him dad it's still weird because to be honest I wasn't his biggest fan before the curse broke.
"I didn't mean to call you dad," I whisper.
"Don't, just don't. I have waited 28 years to hear you say that, please don't take it back."
"It doesn't change what I have to do," I sigh I still had to get Henry out of Storybrooke.
"I know, but you have something more important to do first." He stands from his chair and yanks me up with him pulling me in for a hug, "I love you Emma, but go talk to your mother. She needs you right now." I pull away from him and shuffle around awkwardly as I put my red leather jacket on.
"I'll be back with Mary Margaret soon." I smile shyly at David over my shoulder before opening the door.
"Take as long as you need." He says before I quietly pull the door closed. I run down the stairs that lead to the street and try to think of all the places Mary Margaret would go to be alone. I head straight to Granny's, after all that was where she went when she needed to think, or stalk David. I chuckle at the memory of her sat nursing a cup of coffee just to see him while they were cursed. Even then they were so in love.
I reach Granny's in under a minute, probably because I'm running, I burst through the door and the whole place turns to look me as if I'm crazy. I scan the room and don't see her, but seeing Ruby behind the bar I decide to ask her if she had been there. "Red, have you seen Mary...I mean Snow?" I ask, I have to remind myself constantly that I have to refer to her as Snow to most of the townsfolk.
"Sorry Emma, I haven't." She says with a sad smile, it's strange for me to know that for 3 nights a month this sweet, gorgeous woman, the one woman so close to Snow White that she was counted as family, turns into a potentially man eating wolf. Still that fact didn't make her a better liar.
"Ruby, please don't lie to me. I need to speak to her," I plead and for once I actually don't care if someone knows I'm weak. I watch as Ruby's eyes shoot to the door, she lets the breathe go she has been holding in and nods slowly.
"I find this knack of yours for knowing when people are lying to you rather annoying at the minute. I want to respect my friends privacy but she just looked so lost when she came in looking for Neal."
"Neal?" I say quietly, I start panicking as there are so many things he could tell her that I don't her to know. "Where did they go?"
"To the bed and breakfast I think," Red says with smile.
"Thanks Ruby, you're a good friend to her."
"I'm not just your mom's friend Emma, I'm your's as well." I smile and nod my agreement before waving quickly and racing out the door and to the bed and breakfast. I reach the door just as Neal is leaving, I notice him too late though and bump into him. He reaches out and grabs me by the top of my arms to stop me falling.
"Woah there Em, what's the rush?" He asks smiling as he releases his grip on my arms, I pretend not to notice the way his hands run down my arms before he moves them to his sides, or they way his pupils dilate as he looks at me. That part of my life is over, I take a deep breath and step back from him.
"Where's Mary Margaret?" I ask only slightly out of breath.
"She left about five minutes ago with the book." He says openly, that was one of the things I had loved about him eleven years ago.
"Do you know where she went?" Now I am starting to worry, "and by book do you mean the book?" I emphasise the the just so he knows what book I mean.
"Yes," he nods, "I mean the book, the stories of our world. And no I don't know where she went."
"Your world, not mine or Henry's." I state half heartedly as I think about where this stubborn woman could have gone.
"Despite what you think it is your world Em, you were born there. What happened between you and your mom, she seemed really sad?" Neal asks looking into my eyes.
"I said something and I think I hurt her."
"Is this about you and Henry leaving?"
"Yes...well no not really. But I am taking my son and getting him somewhere safe Neal and no-one is going to stop me." My words come out as more of a threat than I had initially intended.
"Hey, hey, he's our son and I'm in full agreement. However what if there is somewhere safer than out there." He says waving his hand to encompass the world as a whole.
"Look Neal, I can't have this conversation right now. I have to find Mary Margaret, but can you meet Henry from the school bus in an hour. Just tell him what happened and that I'll see him soon."
"How can I tell him something I don't understand myself," I hear him shout from behind me as I run away from him, having just had a brainwave as to Mary Margaret's possible whereabouts.
It takes me longer than I would have thought possible to get to the well, but when I get to the last few trees before it I slow to a walk and attempt to get my breath back. As I round the last tree and climb over the fallen log I smile to myself as I see Mary Margaret sat on the steps leading to the well.
"Never, ever make me try and find you again!" I state somewhat sharply as I sit down next to her. "Because no matter how hard you try to hide I will always find you." She chuckles slightly at that, but I notice that there is no mirth in it mostly because of the tears sliding down her cheeks.
"Your dad says that all the time." She says as she turns a page in the book, thats the only acknowledgement of my presence she has made. She hasn't even looked up at me.
"That's what families do, you told me that." I look at the page she is currently staring at. "That's me and dad isn't it?" I question already knowing the answer having read the book.
"Yes, right before he put you in the wardrobe. He died not long after this, I held him as he died."
"Yeah but he didn't die, he's still here."
"Only because of the damn curse, Regina wanted me to suffer and how could I suffer if my true love was dead. No he had to be here but not here." I slide an arm around her shoulder to provide some sort of comfort to her. "How come you could acknowledge him first?" She suddenly says as she slides away from me.
"What do you mean?" I ask slightly baffled.
"You called him dad." As soon as she says the words I know what this is about. "You called him dad but you won't call me mom." I raise from my perch on the steps of the well and begin to pace, something I now know I get from my father. I am trying to gather the thoughts racing through my head to make speech coherent when I see Mary Margaret rise and start to leave head down.
"Wait, Snow wait!" She stops and turns to me.
"See even now the closest you can get is Snow, do you know how much it hurts?"
"As much as having Henry call me Emma and not mom because I lied to him about Neal!" I state bluntly so she at least knows that I understand how she is feeling right now. "Please stay and talk to me."
"Henry finishes school soon," she says.
"Neal is meeting him at the bus stop, I have run around town looking for you the least you could do is stop being stubborn and hear me out." I say planting my hands on my hips so she knows how serious I am.
"Me stubborn? Have you looked in the mirror recently honey," she smiles as she sits back down on the steps.
"Yeah well it must be genetic," I shrug as I sit next to her. I just stare off into space, I convinced her to stay and hear me out but now I have no idea how to start.
"Start at the beginning," Mary Margaret says as she nudges me with her shoulder. Sometimes I wonder if this woman is psychic and has just never told anyone, nothing would surprise me anymore.
"It's easier with dad," is all I say.
"What do you mean it's easier with your father?" Mary Margaret turns to me with her head cocked to one side and her teacher look.
"You were my best friend, ever since I arrived in Storybrooke you were on my side and you didn't even know me."
"Of course I was you are my daughter, whose side was I going to be on?"
"That's just it, you didn't know I was your daughter until recently." She nods understandingly and waves for me to continue. "I'm not explaining this right." I sigh heavily and rub my hands over my face in frustration.
"You are doing fine, take as long as you need." She smiles encouragingly at me as I turn to look at her, I return her smile and take a deep breath.
"Right lets start again, before the curse broke you gave me somewhere to live. You helped me with Henry, hell sometimes I think that without you to be my sounding board and give me advice I never would have kept my son in my life. You convinced me to stay when I thought leaving was best for Henry."
"That's what friends do Em."
"Yeah but until you came into my life I had never had a true friend. Before you I had not trusted anyone for over eleven years, I was alone. Have I ever told you about the night Henry turned up at my door?" I watch as her faces gains a thoughtful mask before she shakes her head in the negative. "It was my 28th birthday, I had just got in from catching a bail jumper who made me rush in heels I might add. I stopped at a bakery on my way home and bought one, solitary cupcake. I had just blown out the candle and my doorbell rang, when I opened it there was this skinny, brown haired boy stood on the other side telling me I was his mother."
"I'll bet that wasn't what you expecting as your birthday present." Mary Margaret says trying to make a joke of it, I smile kindly at her finding I actually appreciate the attempt.
"Definitely, but it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me. Yes my life became this crazy whirlwind of Evil Queens, comatose princes, a wooden man and a woman who could become a wolf. But despite all of that I could never remember being as happy or as loved as I felt in this town and that was because of you and Henry." I pause to take a breath and see my friend watching me intently, I can see tears welling in her eyes and look away because if she starts to cry then I will and I am getting a little bit tired of always crying around this woman. "I said it came as a surprise to see Henry stood on my doorstep and trust me it was, but I had wished for it. Not him specifically but I didn't want to be alone on my birthday and I ended up with my son. Anyway I'm getting sidetracked."
"He turned up at yours and you drove him back here, back to Regina." Mary Margaret says nodding at me to continue.
"Right and I was ready to leave after but what you said about giving Henry that book," I gesture the book still in her arms, "to give him hope convinced me that I needed to stay and make sure he was safe. I have made a lot of bad decisions in my life but that was the best one I have ever made."
"No decision is a bad one if it led you here."
"Trust me there are bad decisions. Anyway after I decided to stay you let me move in with you when Regina made sure I could no longer stay at Granny's. Without even realising what was happening I came to love both you and Henry, it wasn't until Jefferson and you wanting to run that I realised I couldn't lose you. That's why I fought for you to stay, I couldn't lose you. You were, are my best friend and thats where all the problems stem from."
"What because I was your best friend?" Mary Margaret asks with a look of pure confusion, I reach over and grab a hold of her hand, the one thing I can do right now that seems right.
"No, because you are my best friend. Not long after I had accepted that I could trust you, Henry was poisoned by Regina and I was thrust into a world I couldn't believe existed because it meant I would lose my best friend. I had to fight a dragon, which by the way is so totally cool, then I ended up having to save my son with true loves kiss. That just doesn't happen to ordinary people."
"You are far from ordinary Emma, you are extraordinary." Mary Margaret says squeezing my hand.
"Well I wouldn't go that far," I shrug. "After Gold released magic and I heard you confirm what I had come to accept life became harder for me. Ever since that day I have had to reconcile the fact that my best friend whom I love dearly is in actual fact my mother who sent me through a wardrobe into another world." I feel a single tear fall at the thought.
"But honey that was done for your safety, if I could have done it any other way I would have I promise."
"I know, I guess a part of me always knew that from the moment I accepted the truth but it wasn't until I saw the nursery at your castle that I truly knew what you had given up. Seeing everything in that room, everything you had for me, it affected me more than you will ever know."
"So why does this mean you can't call me mom?"
"I didn't really like David before the curse broke because he broke your heart, therefore its easier for my mind to deal with the fact that he is my father. You though I loved before the curse broke and now knowing you are my mother I have to deal with that transition from best friend to mother and its hard." I smile sadly at my mom as she stares open mouthed at me.
"Oh Emma, why can't I be both. I can be your best friend and your mother, it doesn't matter either way I will want to protect you with every ounce of my being."
"I don't want to lose you, the thought scares me and I've never felt like that before. I love dad don't get me wrong but me and you have had this bond since I arrived."
"Why are you leaving then?!" She shouts as she leaps up from her seat dropping the book forgotten to the floor. "How can you leave if the thought of losing me scares you so much? There has to be some other option we are overlooking."
"There's not; I've gone over every option and this is all I can think of. You have to understand that I am only leaving to protect Henry." I answer as I lean down and pick up the book and place it carefully next to me, it had opened on the picture of Snow and Prince Charming's wedding day. I smile ruefully as I stare at the image. We are both silent as my mom paces and I watch her, suddenly I jump up remembering what Neal had said before I came here and I understand what he was hinting at as I look down at the book. The idea however is not one I'm totally sure he has thought about after all Tamara won't be able to follow. "There is another way," I say out loud without realising it.
"What was that?" Mary Margaret asks coming to a stop in front of me.
"There is another way and we can all be together." I state staring at her, I smile brightly and I know instinctively that my eyes are shining with unshed tears but I don't care. I have finally come up with an option that will give me everything I want my parents and my son.
"What do you mean there is another way?" She asks still thoroughly confused, I just smile enigmatically at her and move forward and hug her. She seems shocked at first but after half a second she wraps her arms around me and holds me tight to her. I turn my head on her shoulder so I can whisper in her ear.
"Don't worry about it, but I have a way we can all be together. Just trust me mom." I smile as I hear her sob slightly.
"You called me mom."
So that was that it is intended to be a one shot but who knows with these things. I wrote this mainly because I really, really want Emma to call Mary Maragret/Snow mom.