"I'm going to meet my parents." Her voice was particularly lofty and soft as if she couldn't quite process it herself. She stood in front of the length mirror that was cracked in the upper right and had a layering of dust over it, over analyzing her appearance. Her porcelain hands came to her sides and flattened the muscle tee that rested awkwardly upon her small fame.
He, her savior, her love came up from behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his head of gingery hair upon her shoulder nuzzling into her neck. "You know they're the epitome of magic and magic is-
"Malevolent. Unnatural." She recited from memory squirming out of his grasp. "You don't need to remind me, Bash."
David Nolan found himself staring once again at the photograph of his wife and daughter, an aching sensation formed once more in the pit of his stomach. It'd been nearly two months since he'd last laid eyes upon them, mere hours after he'd been reunited with them before they were sucked away into a spiraling purple vortex into the unknown. His thoughts of pity were interrupted by two loud knocks upon the door. Henry, his grandson, who'd been previously occupied by his handheld game dashed off the sofa calling out I'll get it! as he opened the door to reveal a girl perhaps in her late teens with wavy blackish hair, pale skin and eyes the same shade of blue as his own. She appeared to be mystified by the sight of the pajama clad eleven-year-old who happily greeted her at the door.
"Who are you?" Henry demanded bluntly.
The girl opened her mouth and then shut it, shuffling upon her feet and nervously tucking strains of loose hair behind her ears. Licking her lips she recollected herself, "my name is Sera Wyatt I'm looking for David Nolan er Prince Charming." Her hands collapsed around her the one shoulder strap of her backpack as she offered Henry a small smile.
David strided forward and placed a hand upon Henry's shoulder. "I'm David Nolan. How can I help you?"
Sera looked positively dumbstruck as her mouth gaped open and she stared wide-eyed up at him slightly resembling a fish. "Uhm…uh…..I'myourdaugther." comes rushing out of her mouth in a jumbled up one word mess.
"I'm sorry?"
"I'm your daughter." She squeezed her eyes shut trying not to watch his reaction for fear of rejection.
"Huh 'scuse me?" He uttered out.
Before the girl could answer Ruby and Doc came dashing through the apartment, panting and out of breathe.
"She's telling the truth David!" Ruby called out in-between pants of breath. Doc trailed behind her, wheezing and blotchy red. "Doc confirmed. Snow gave birth to Emma's twin sister as you were carrying Emma to the wardrobe. She didn't escape the curse."
David felt himself spinning. He had another daughter? He didn't notice that Sera had knelt to the ground and had pulled out a wrinkled old newspaper out of a manila folder and was offering it to him with a gentle smile and a pleading look to her eyes. One he'd seen upon Snow many a times. "Snow was pregnant with twins but how…what…how are you not still a baby?"
She thrust the article clipping once more. Its headlines dated to the summer of nineteen ninety four, and proclaimed FOUR-YEAR-OLD CHILD FOUND WONDERING STREETS: DAZED AND CONFUSED. His eyes couldn't focus on the tiny letters, he found them wondering to the black and white picture of a toddler clutching a tiny teddy bear sitting upon a park bench with a blanket draped over her, her eyes wide and blank.
"Blue thinks she aged slowly because of the same reason Emma could break the curse." Ruby offered softly.
"The Mayor, Gina, gave me the bear," Sera cut in wistfully. "Right before she told me my parents were waiting for me just outside of the town line."
David's nostrils flared, anger searing up inside of his core. Ruby and Henry immediately gripped tightly onto his arms to prevent him from moving forward. I'm going to make her pay. Dreading and feeling as though he might know the answer already he looked to his child and asked, "what happened after this? Did you grow up in the foster system too?"
"I was adopted by the Wyatt family….they're all dead now." There was bitterness to her voice as she said this. Perhaps she had not grieved properly for their loss, her hands going up to a golden locket around her neck. "it was about two months ago that I woke up with this massive headache, at first, I thought maybe I'd had a…," she stopped herself when she realized she was in fact talking to her biological father who didn't need to know about her particularly liking of hard liquor and Mike's Hard Lemonade. "I remembered Storybrooke, Gina, the nuns, me leaving and I had to come find you." She stood upon her tip toes, looking beyond David's shoulder in search of her biological mother, the woman Ruby had told her she resembled so closely but to no avail. "Whose he?" She pointed to the kid who'd answered the doors who'd been silent during the whole exchange.
David smirked in spite of himself. "Your nephew, Henry."
A/N: I own nothing except for the original characters. This was set during the middle of season 2 and will explore the "Home Office" in a different manner. Let me know what you think and if it's worth continuing.
