A/N: This idea spanned from paelmoon's head cannon. I can't find the original post anymore but I did drop her blog in a link there, you should go and check it out. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy. As of right now there is no expectation of continuing this particular story but there may be others in this universe but I make no promises :)
The leathers Emma still wore as she made her way through the castle were heavy. It amazed her still that something could be so heavy but when war called the White Knight was expected to fight and she would have had it no other way for she did it to protect her family. A smile crawled onto her face as she thought of her family, her wife and children. She approached the doors to the chambers she shared with her wife and carefully eased the door open, expecting everyone within the castle, especially in this room to be sleeping. Instead as she pushed the door open a smoky voice drifted to meet her ears, "So the son of the Savior and the Evil Queen brought his birth mother back to the cursed town of Storybrooke, Maine and set about the beginning of the breaking of the Queen's curse."
"Mommy," a small voice said, "why did the White Knight take so long to break the curse?"
Emma fought to hold in her snort, "Because the White Knight was very stubborn and she grew up in a world where fairytales were just stories told to children to teach them life lessons."
"But she was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming," a second similar but clearly distinct, at least to Emma's ear, voice said.
The owner of the smoky voice chuckled and Emma knew why, "Yes, my darlings, she was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming but she had also been separated from her parents since she was only hours old because of the Queen's curse."
"But, Mommy," a third voice said.
"Ssh," a much deeper voice said, "let Mom tell the story and then you can ask all your questions."
Grumbles met the words for a few moments before, "Okay, Henry," chorused from the room.
Emma could hear rustling pages, "Now where was I?"
"The White Knight had just gotten to Storybrooke," a voice supplied.
"Right you are," the smoky voice said. A throat cleared, "And so the Savior stayed in Storybrooke for her son. From that moment forward the White Knight and the Evil Queen were pitted against one another. At least they were until the White Knight saved their son with true love's kiss and broke the curse. From there on the only person who stood between the Queen and certain death was the White Knight. A promise had been made to their son that the Queen would be safe and the White Knight was determined to make it so, though it caused her to be forcefully taken to the old land where circumstances were horrible and the Queen's mother, a woman far worse than the Queen –"
"Hey!"
"Hush, Mother," the smoky voice said, "a woman far worse than the Queen stood between Snow White and the White Knight's return to their family."
"Did the Queen's mother kill the White Knight?"
"I most certainly did not," a haughty voice said.
Emma moved into the room, no one was looking at the door, all eyes focused on the chair before the fire that sat at an angle so no one could see the door, "It wasn't for a lack of trying," she said, alerting the crowd within the rooms she shared with her wife that she was present.
"Mama!" the six small children on the floor shouted before flooding to Emma and wrapping around any part of her body that they could reach.
"Auntie Em," another set of voices called and she looked down on the two little blondes that stood just behind her own children. "Are Mom and Dad home as well?"
Emma nodded, "Downstairs in their room."
Before anymore could be said the two children raced from the room and Emma could hear them barrel down the stairs. "Mama," Analise, Emma's oldest daughter, said excitedly, "Mommy was telling us the story of the White Knight and the Evil Queen."
Emma grinned tilting her head so that she could catch her wife's eyes over their children's heads, "So I heard," she tickled the little girl and then her twin sister, "I also heard you and Annie interrupting every five seconds, as usual."
Annie crossed her arms, "Jamie was to, Mama."
Emma chuckled, "Oh I know, darling, and if your brother hadn't intervened the three of you would have roped Jayden, Cassie and Brenna into it." A smoky laugh drew Emma's full attention and she stood up from the crouched position she had taken to speak with the "little people" as she had fondly nicknamed her three sets of twins. She placed a kiss upon each one's forehead and then moved to the high-backed chair where her wife sat, reaching up to kiss Henry's cheek as she passed him where he stood at his mother's side, "And how is my Queen tonight?" she questioned as she dropped to a knee at her wife's feet and kissed her hand.
"Much better now," the dark haired woman in the chair said even as she leaned forward and brushed her lips across Emma's, her swollen belly taking up the space between them.
When they pulled away Emma ran her hands across her wife's stomach, "I've missed so much," she whispered for when she left her wife had yet to even be showing.
"You had to go," her wife said quietly, "after all who else would protect the Evil Queen from the wrath of Snow White but her White Knight."
Emma brushed her thumb across Regina's cheek, "I will always protect you, my Queen."
"Alright enough with the mushiness," a voice demanded behind Emma, "the children are present, but more importantly I am."
"Hello to you too, Cora," Emma said even as she rose from her wife's side. "I'm going to change," she said to her wife, "why don't you finish the story for the kids and then once they're in bed we'll go and meet with Red, Victor, Rumple and Belle to discuss what happened."
Regina nodded, "Of course, darling," she grabbed Emma's hand before the blonde could move away and kissed it, "It's good to have you home."
Emma smiled, "It's good to be home."
Moving into the other room Emma heard Regina's next words, "Henry, go help your Ma with her leathers otherwise it will take her an hour just to get out of them."
Regina knew Emma would have a tunic on under her leathers and felt safe in sending Henry in to help, she also knew that her wife would share details of what happened during the battle with their son as he helped her. Inside the bedroom she and Regina shared Emma sank down onto the bed as Henry entered the room, only he and Regina truly knew how much battles like the one she had been in the past six months truly affected her. "Are you alright, Ma?"
Emma looked up at him, her oldest at twenty-one, she and Regina had knighted him three years before but Emma asked him to stay behind and protect his mother and siblings, not to mention his Nana and Granny while she and the rest were away. The army of the White Knight and Evil Queen was large and growing by the day but the army of the White Kingdom was bigger. She held out her hand to him and he sank onto the bed beside her, "Your Grandfather was hurt this time," she said quietly.
"How badly?" he asked, voice soft and gravely.
A tear trickled down Emma's cheek, "Pretty badly," she dashed the tear away with a hand, "I always tell our men not to engage Snow or James directly but if they are attacked they are to defend themselves no matter who it's against." She shook her head, "He went after Claudia and all she did was defend herself. She's been beating herself up since we left the troops cleaning up," she looked to her son, "you should go and talk to her tonight after the council meets."
He nodded, "How long do you think we have this time?"
Emma shrugged, "If I'm lucky until after the baby is born, if I'm not I won't get to see your brother born."
"Only a few months?"
"Your Grandmother is ready for blood it would seem," she said, "she attacked Red on the battlefield yesterday."
"Grandma attacked Red?" Henry questioned and Emma nodded, "She's not ever gonna give up is she?"
Emma looked at her son, wishing that he had not known the turmoil of their family's dysfunctionality for most of the years she had known him. "I don't think she ever will, no, Henry. She's got a lot of hate in her heart and because of that hate she is becoming exactly what she has always fought against."
"The Evil Queen," he said quietly.
"I'm afraid so, yes," Emma responded just as quietly before standing and beginning to remove her leathers, a feat she was much better at than Regina gave her credit for. Once she was rid of them, without Henry's help because he sat staring at the floor she moved back to him, "I will try to save her, Henry, just as I saved your mother but if she doesn't want to save herself, like your Mom and Nana did there will be nothing I can do."
He looked up at her and there were tears in his eyes, "What if you can't save her?"
Emma had thought on that for more time than she cared to admit. What if there was no way to save her mother? Her father? Or her baby sister, the one she'd never met? She shook her head, "I don't know, Henry."
"What do we do?"
"For now," Emma said as she laced up the sleeves of her tunic more to battle the drafty castle, or maybe it was to battle the chill in her bones at the double meaning behind Henry's question, "we go and listen to the last of your Mom's story and then your Mom, Cora, you and I all head down to the council room and we," she took in a deep breath, "we come up with a plan."
He nodded, "Let's go hear a story then," he said and stood but Emma knew, she knew he was making a plan on how to save at least some part of their family, hopefully all of their family.
"Let's," she said and slipped and arm through his as they made their way back into the other room.