Happy Little Ending
by misscam
Disclaimer: Not my characters, just my words.
Author's Note: Set some undetermined time after 2x03.
II
Emma has never believed in happily ever after and happy endings.
She believes in happy, in sad, in miserable, in lost, in anger – all emotions capable of defining a moment, but not the entirety of time thereafter. Infinity is too far for just happily alone.
After all, she's too used to one emotion never quite being alone. The joy of seeing the face of the son she had just given birth to along with the pain of knowing he'd be better off without her; the sadness of knowing what she envisioned for Henry hadn't come true coupled with the anger that it hadn't, despite her sacrifice; the sensation of being lost that had clung to her all her life being followed like a shadow by the safety she finds in just herself.
And now, being pulled into a reunion four-way hug with her parents and her son, she wonders why such a happy moment also comes with so much tangible fear, as if the two emotions are dancing a tango together and won't let go. They're reunited in Storybrooke again. This should be nothing but happy.
Henry is oblivious, nothing but joy radiating from him like a minor sun, and has since she and Mary Margaret walked through the door. David is a bit harder to read, face hidden against Mary Margaret's shoulder, but his grip on Emma's arm is gentle but stronger than steel at the same time. Mary Margaret – her mother –can tell, Emma is sure. Their time together in the enchanted forest aside, the wistful look on Mary Margaret's face she knew well enough already; it appeared often enough before the curse was broken, after all.
But then it often seemed meek, and there is nothing meek in her mother. Kind, yes. Tender, yes. Compassionate, very much so. But the Mary Margaret she came to know is not her mother, that's Snow White.
That's another thing. How do you handle being friends with a meek but kind woman only to become the daughter of a determined and headstrong princess? That doesn't come with a manual, she's pretty sure.
It is Henry who pulls away first, beaming as he looks at them all carefully untangle themselves.
"Gramps and I were working on a plan to save you," he says excitedly to her, and Emma has to catch herself the affection in his voice. For his grandfather, her father, the man she only knows as a fairy tale ideal or the man that was more like a lost puppy. "We were going to find you."
"He always does," Mary Margaret says, looking at David while putting a hand on Henry's shoulder and squeezing lightly.
Happy family, Emma thinks. Fairytale family. Minus her. For a moment they all feel so distant to her she might as well still be stuck in another land. Henry and Prince Charming and Snow White all feeling at home in the happiness of being together, the fairytale of it, but she can't.
Not when it can end. Not when it will end, because nothing ever stays. She's never known anything to stay or linger and it frightens her how much she would like this to last. This isn't just a fairy tale. This is also life, for all the dragons and fairies and dwarfs and Prince Charming and Snow White it currently contains.
Life doesn't have ever after.
When she turns away slightly, she can see the flash of hurt on both David and Mary Margaret's faces, the confusion on Henry's and then, as she looks towards the door, the mirror of her own fear in Regina's.
II
Regina believed in happy endings once. Once upon a time, a time so distant it almost feels like it belonged to someone else. Not because of the years passed, not mainly. Because of the distance of emotions between then and now, almost like an abyss. A young girl in love wanting nothing but it to a woman who could only see love as an obstacle and want nothing but to curse it.
Until Henry at least. She has to believe that, has to remind herself of that, has to dig her fingers into her palm as she watches the happy reunion of the Charming family that includes her son Henry. Another heart for Snow White's collection. Oh, she never takes them. They always give them willingly. As Regina herself once almost was willing to, to love Snow White the little girl who was willing to keep a secret.
Even in love, Snow White always won. Wins again, because here she has her little family, her Charming, her grandson and her daughter. Always wins.
Strangely enough Emma doesn't seem all that happy, Regina notices. The expression on Emma's face is almost an echo of the distance she herself feels at the moment and as their eyes meet, it becomes a mirror.
"Mom?" Henry asks, and not for the first time Regina finds herself wondering just who he is addressing.
"Yes, honey," she says hurriedly, because as long as she answers to it, the name will be true. Henry's mother. She is, and she will continue to be, whatever else people may call her.
Henry looks at her for a moment, then he smiles. "You brought Emma and Mary Margaret back."
"She helped," Emma cuts in icily. "A little."
"But she helped," Snow says more softly, and even Charming looks a little impressed at that. He has been somewhat willing to consider her change, though she hasn't been sure how much he has really believed it. Some days she isn't sure how much she believes it herself.
"Thank you," Henry says and she steps towards him, resisting the urge to magic everyone else away. They come with him. For now at least.
"Will you come home now?" she asks, trying to keep it a genuine question and not an order or a plea.
Henry looks at Charming, at Snow White, at Emma, then at her again. "I'll come home if I can spend some nights here. I want to spend time with Emma and Mary Margaret and Gramps too."
"Fine," Emma says, as if she gets a say. Perhaps to Henry she does, because he smiles at her approval. So. They still share him. He is still also Emma's, and Snow and Charming's by extension.
"Yes," Regina agrees, trying to make the word sound cheerful and failing. At least it is something. At home she can at least work on winning his heart, taking it away from Snow's collection, having it be hers.
"Wait," Snow White says and Regina feels her fists ball almost involuntarily. "Regina, we have to talk."
Charming seems to pick up something from the brief glance Snow gives him, putting a hand on Henry's shoulder. "Come on Henry, let us go outside and show your mother how well you handle a sword."
"What do you want?" Regina asks icily as the others leave the room, but Snow's expression doesn't change; it still seems more pity than anything else.
"Cora is alive," Snow says and Regina doesn't feel anything for a moment, just the strangest sense of vertigo as the abyss of years suddenly becomes a closing crack and she's the little girl terrified of her mother again.
No. No, no, no.
She might not believe in happy endings anymore, at least those that are happy to her, but she doesn't need belief when Henry is at stake. She will not let Cora touch her son. No.
Maybe she can't win but she can make her mother lose; it may not be a happy ending, but for the daughter of Cora, that's not a terrible one either.
II
Snow didn't believe in happy endings. Not with her mother dying young, her stepmother actively trying to kill her, her being forced to flee and live away from everything she had known. Even in love, for a long time she seemed to chase it more than hold it; Charming and her constantly having to find each other rather than actually be together.
Mary Margaret was almost desperate to want to believe in happy endings, Snow remembers. That the universe would resolve it all for her and all she had to do was wait for them. Snow didn't believe; she just made them anyway.
Happy endings for her were always unhappy ones for Regina, as vice versa would have been true also. But perhaps this time they've found an unhappy end they both want to prevent and one happy end they both want; Cora the common factor of both.
"My mother," Regina says, sounding strangely young before she seems to steel herself. "She was in our land?"
"Yes," Snow confirms. "She was still there last I saw her, but you know as well as I do that she is never satisfied with status quo."
"She'll come for me," Regina says distantly.
"She will," Snow agrees. "We'll have to stop her."
"We?" Regina echoes. "Wouldn't my mother and I killing each other solve all your problems? Make your happy little ending complete?"
Perhaps once she would have thought that, Snow considers. She wouldn't quite grieve for Regina's death, she knows that. Not when remembering all that has been done, why she's lost 28 years with her daughter and how she lost her home and almost lost Charming. No. No tears for Regina specifically, just a more general sadness that someone could become so lost to darkness.
"It wouldn't make a very happy ending for Henry," she says after a beat. That is true enough. What would, she isn't quite sure, but that can be figured out as they go.
Regina looks at her oddly, as if trying to sort out a puzzle and finding the pieces not cut the way she expected. Snow knows the feeling. She's still trying to puzzle out her daughter.
"Cora knows about Henry," Snow goes on, and for a moment Regina looks every bit the Evil Queen again, rage making her eyes dark.
"You told her about Henry?!"
"Yes," Snow lies easily, trying to keep her face blank. What is one more when Regina already lays all the crimes of the kingdom at her door? No need to know it was Emma.
Regina still seems to catch something in her face, because she goes very still. "No, I think not. It was your daughter, wasn't it? You have finally got it through your thick head what my mother is capable of. But your family seems to have a habit of blurting out important information to my mother with no thought for the consequences!"
"She didn't know!" Snow says passionately. "You can't blame her for not knowing your mother when Cora misrepresented herself."
"You would say that, wouldn't you?" Regina says bitterly and Snow has to close her eyes against all the ghosts seeming to fill her vision. Yes. Perhaps she would say that. Is not realizing the consequences of something any defense when you still cause them? Clearly not to Regina.
"Be that as it may," Snow says as calmly as she can manage, biting back a few choice replies about realizing the consequences of something and still doing it. "We will help you protect him from her. I promise that, Regina."
Regina doesn't quite nod, as if that would be more civil than she can muster, but her shoulder do fall a little and a moment later she walks out and Snow can exhale, feeling as if she's been holding her breath far too long.
She was half expecting Regina to curse her or otherwise lash out at her again, she realises. She wonders how long it will take not to fear that, or if that is even possible. Too much hurt and bad blood and poisoned apples between them. But there is Henry too, and Henry is a good thing.
So this can't be the storybook happy ending Mary Margaret would have wanted, Snow thinks. Henry loves Regina as a mom, Regina is trying to love at all, Emma loves Henry as a son and Mary Margaret as a friend and is trying to adapt to Snow as a parent, Charming will love his family but find it hard not to resent Regina for what she did to the woman he loves... Too messy, too complicated, too unresolved and nothing just waiting will fix.
But Snow – Snow can work on it. Will work on it.
II
Charming has always had faith, in happy endings as well as everything else. Perhaps it stems from the steady believes of his mother, perhaps it simply comes from needing the confidence of it to hold onto, since so much else was taken from him. His actual identity. His mother. His beloved, and more than once.
Still, he had faith. Had to, or he wouldn't have anything else.
When Regina comes out to join them outside, Charming takes the opportunity to slip away as Henry eagerly demonstrates a few sword moves to both Emma and Regina. Snow is still inside, just looking at him as he walks over and wraps her in his arms.
"I missed you," he says, and she smiles as she rests her head against his chest.
"You seem to have handled things well here while we were gone."
"I still missed you."
She tilts her head up, her fingers brushing against his cheek as she looks at him. As always, just looking at her makes everything else feel distant.
"Did you make any progress with Emma?" he asks gently.
"Yes," she replies with a slight, wonderful smile smile, and he can feel the longing in her as strongly as his own – and the loss. The loss that will always be no matter what they have now. "I did. And there's the matter of our land. We have a lot to talk about."
"Yes," he agrees. "A lot has happened here while you were gone."
"A lot happened there," she replies. He can see that from the look in her eyes and the slight exhaustion in her face and he knows she can probably read him as well.
"We will talk about it," he says, and she seems to catch the implied 'but not right now' since she leans forward and kisses him eagerly, almost hungrily. He lifts her up as she digs her fingers a little into the cloth of his t-shirt, and her legs lock themselves around his hips.
This always felt right, he remembers. Even to poor confused David, kissing Mary Margaret was always right. It was everything else that was wrong, that he made wrong.
She makes an impatient noise at the back of her throat, one he remembers so well and yet haven't heard in so long and he can feel his own breath turn a little ragged as she keeps kissing him.
When he finally pulls away a little, she rests her forehead against his, face still so close to his he can feel her breath brush his lips.
"Snow," he says, enjoying the sound of her name. It does remind him that for all the complications of their lives (being a grandfather when he's barely had time to feel like a father, for one!) there has always been something so simple too.
"Charming," she counters softly, kissing him as she puts her arms around him and slide down on her own feet again. Just in time as it turns out, Emma and Regina and Henry walking in a moment after. Even if they still get a good look, at least it's a somewhat more decent good look.
Henry beams, Emma averts her eyes and Regina looks like she's swallowed something unpleasant, he notes. Good. Another incentive to kiss his wife often and thoroughly – it brings them plenty of pleasure and Regina none. He was demonstrably takes Snow's hand in his as well, giving Regina a pointed look.
"Come on, Henry," Regina says after a moment. "Get your things."
"No!" Henry protests, and for a moment Charming sees the flash of hurt and Regina's face and feels for her. Just a moment, but he's had a few of those moments since Regina announced her determination to redeem herself to Henry. What she has done cannot be forgiven, but maybe, maybe he can learn to tolerate her. If Snow can. If his daughter can. If Henry wants it.
Evil isn't born, evil is made, he remembers Rumpelstiltskin telling him once. Maybe it can therefore also be unmade. Maybe.
"Can't you stay here tonight?" Henry asks Regina, then looking at Emma and then Snow. "Can't she sleep over? Can't we all sleep here? Just tonight?"
Charming and Emma both look at Snow, who nods faintly. Not the ideal house guest, he supposes, but if it will appease Regina and Henry both he can live with it. Besides, the desire to have Henry's love may be all that holds Regina from the Evil Queen again and he can keep an eye on her here too. He has underestimated Regina's desire for vengeance before; he won't again.
"Sure we can, kid," it is Emma who finally answers after a glance at him too. "David, could you help me find some blankets and cushions?"
"Of course," he says, giving Snow's hand a light squeeze before letting it go. Still David and Mary Margaret to Emma, even as he's 'Gramps' to Henry. He wonders how long it will be before his daughter can call him dad, or even his real name to start with.
It will happen eventually, he doesn't doubt. He has faith.
II
Henry knows happy endings are true.
He can't remember exactly when he came to that decision. Maybe it was something Mary Margaret said about them. Maybe it was with David's faith in them these last weeks. Maybe it was Regina's desperate measures to fight them, making them seem so powerful. Maybe it was what Emma was willing to give up to give him them.
Maybe he has just always known, as if he was born with the knowledge and refuses to let it go.
Okay, so his adoptive mother is the Evil Queen trying to reform herself and his birth-mother has been looking for something for so long she finds it hard to stop searching even when she's found it. Okay, so his grandparents are as old as his one mother and are Prince Charming and Snow White to boot. Happy endings need something to overcome or it would just be happy all the while, no ending about it.
It's already started. Regina helped get his mom and grandma back, just as she said she would. Emma and Regina managed to overcome mutual dislike enough to be civil to each other during dinner, and he caught Emma letting herself be hugged by David in the hallway, Mary Margaret watching from the doorway with teary eyes.
And they're all here, all together, all sleeping except him. Regina and Emma are sleeping on the floor, him between them with equal distance, every now and then one of them inching closer and the other soon following. David and Mary Margaret are sleeping in Mary Margaret's bed entangled in each other, as if after all the separation they can't get close enough or hold on enough. Every now and then David seems to wake, as if he needs to check they're all still there to feel sure.
Henry knows the feeling. He has been holding Emma's hand ever since she fell asleep, while Regina's hand rests on his shoulder. Almost makes a bridge out of him that way.
When Emma stirs slightly, he quickly closes his eyes. He can hear her soft sigh, and feel her thumb slowly caress the back of the hand he still has in hers. Almost at the same time he feels Regina's hand grip his shoulder more tightly and he knows they are both awake.
For a while neither says anything and he can just imagine both regarding the other (as much as is possible in the dark).
"I told Henry I want to redeem myself," Regina finally says.
"Got your work cut out for you, then," Emma says, but for Emma, the tone is almost non-hostile. "I met your mother. Interesting woman."
"You shouldn't have told him about Henry. She will use him. She uses everyone. You don't know what she's capable of."
"I know what youare capable of."
"What I was," Regina says with conviction and Henry thinks about Evil Queens and happy endings. They never come together in all the stories he's read. "My mother taught me everything I know."
"That explains a few things," Emma observes and Henry has to wonder why fairy tales never seem to discuss where Evil Queens actually come from. Maybe it's not very happy to think they come from someone's daughter.
Regina ignores the remark. "She still didn't teach me everything she knows. If my mother does something... If I die protecting him, will you take care of my son?"
"Of course," Emma says softly, as if Regina's words are softening her. He knows the feeling. "He's my son too. David and Mary Margaret... Snow and Charming... I mean, my parents will love him too. We'll take care of him. But I wouldn't count you out yet."
"Optimism from you, Miss Swan?"
"Perhaps," Emma says distantly, then seems to catch herself. "I don't believe in happy endings."
"I did," Regina says. "I learned not to."
"Henry does, though."
"Henry does."
He does, Henry agrees quietly as the two go back to sleep. Two mothers who do seem to love him, royal grandparents that doesn't so much do true love's kiss as true love's making out, a family that will protect each other to the death and dwarfs and fairies and Red Riding Hood for family friends living in a small Maine town. He can be happy with that. He can make something out of that. He's already started.
Happy endings don't have to be perfect, after all. All they take is being happy with how it ends and this is his story now, not just a book to read from. Not just a fairytale; a life too. And happy endings are true for fairy tales; they can be for life too. Will be true. Have to be.
Henry refuses to think otherwise, listening to his whole family sleep around him; it makes him happier than anything else he knows.
(A happy little ending; the larger ones remains to be seen.)
FIN