David came out from the cabin to see his daughter sat on the deck, leaning up against the side of the ship.
"Hey Emzy," he greeted as he sat down next to her.
She turned to regard him with raised eyebrows. "Emzy?"
He smiled bashfully. "Yeah, it was my nickname for you before you were born."
Emma shook her head. "My name's Emma, you gave it to me so you can use it."
Her father smiled again. "Okay then Emma, are you okay?"
She glared at him. "Oh well, my son's been kidnapped and taken to Never Never Land by two psychopaths and his father is lying dead in God knows what magical land, so yeah, I'd say I'm just peachy," she spat venomously.
"Emma," her father responded, a hint of admonishment in his tone. "You know I didn't mean it like that."
Emma jumped to her feet and looked down at her father with fury clear in her face.
"Oh, you mean you'd rather hear about how I'm travelling to Peter Pan land aboard Captain Hook's God damned pirate ship while my mother, who I didn't know for twenty-eight years and who happens to be freaking Snow White, is being seasick in the cabin with her evil step-mother, the adoptive mother of the child I had with Rumplestiltskin's bloody son! And Prince Charming is sat here asking if I'm okay! Okay? How am I supposed to be okay? How could anyone be okay with all of this?"
"Emma," David said again, standing up and putting a hand on his daughter's arm. "I know that this is difficult and it's a lot to take and I'm sorry. I wish that I could make this easier on you, but all we can do now is to try and find Henry and after we've found him, then we can try and find some kind of normality."
"Some kind of normality?" Emma repeated. "That might actually sound plausible if you weren't Prince Charming."
David chuckled and Emma sighed, tears beginning to pool in her eyes.
"This is just. . .it's just too much. I mean, I didn't even have a chance to process the fairytale thing and having parents before I got thrown through a hat into a magical land and since then it's just seemed to be one battle after another. I haven't had time to think anything through and everything's moved so fast, and now suddenly you've gone from being Mary Margaret and David to being Mom and Dad and now we're here and. . . It's the first chance I've had to really think and I've barely managed to come to terms with having parents and now all of this. . . How am I ever supposed to be okay with any of this?" Emma turned to her father. "Why are you grinning? Can't you see I'm having a melt down here?"
David put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her head gently. "You called me Dad," he said, unable to shift the wide grin from his face.
"Seriously?" Emma complained, squirming away from him. "Out of everything I just said that is what you go with?"
"It was the happiest moment of my life."
Emma rolled her eyes, but allowed herself a little smile. "Of course it was."
"It was. I love you so much Emma, more than you could ever know."
Sighing, Emma moved back towards his side, leant her head against his shoulder and said quietly, "I love you too."
David looked down at her in wonder. Then he smiled and hugged her. "Scratch that, it was the second happiest moment of my life."
"Don't ruin this," Emma warned. "But what's the point of having a father if not for comfort when it feels like your heads going to explode?"
David laughed and kissed her again. "Your head won't explode Emma. I know that this is difficult, but you've handled it better than most people possibly could."
"I should think I have," Emma huffed. "I slayed a damned dragon."
"You slayed a dragon?" David asked in astonishment and Emma turned her head to look at him.
"Yeah, when I was trying to save Henry from the sleeping curse. Didn't I tell you?"
"A year ago? You fought a dragon a year ago and. . .what? That little bit of information just slipped your mind?"
Emma shrugged. "Well, like I said, we haven't really had time to think things through?"
"But a dragon?" David began to smile slightly. "You slayed it? With a sword?"
"Yes," Emma confimed, unable to keep an air of pride from her voice.
"With no sword training?"
"None."
David's smile widened.
"And all for some stupid egg that Gold stole from me," Emma continued.
"An egg?"
"Yes, a big metal one with powerful magic inside it."
"Maleficent," David exclaimed in surprise.
"Mala-who? Oh God, you don't mean like Sleeping Beauty do you?" Emma demanded, not feeling as though her brain could cope with any more fairy tale characters.
"Sleeping what?" David asked.
"Oh God, never mind," Emma said quickly. "What's Maleficent got to do with anything?"
"She was the dragon, a shape shifter. I put that egg inside of her years ago."
"You did?"
"It was part of a deal with Rumplestiltskin."
"Well, I got it out again. I threw the sword straight at her."
David beamed. "That's my girl."
Emma smiled back at him, taking more delight in her father's praise than she'd imagined she would.
"Oh," she said suddenly, and bit her lip feeling slightly sheepish. "It was your sword, Mr Gold told me, and I left it down in the mine. I'm sorry."
David smiled at her then kissed her again. "Don't worry about it, it's just a sword. See though, if you can handle Maleficent, you can handle anything. Even parents. Even parents who are Snow White and Prince Charming."
Emma laughed. "Maybe you're right."
David wrapped his other arm around his daughter and embraced her in a proper hug. "I know it's far from okay now, but it will be. All of the people on this ship have more than enough power to take on Greg and Tamara and whoever they might be working for. We will do whatever it takes to get Henry back, I promise you."
"I know," Emma said softly as she hugged him back. "I know Dad."
David beamed even more brightly than he'd done before. "And we'll protect you as well Emzy, I promise we will."
"Hey!" Emma protested, pulling away from him. "I thought we'd vetoed 'Emzy' already. I'm twenty-eight; Emzy is a three year old with pig tails."
David smirked and kissed her forehead. "I don't care if you're twenty-eight, you'll always be my little Emzy."
Emma scowled at him for a moment, but then she couldn't prevent a small smile from coming to her face. No one had ever given her an affectionate nickname before and she found that she liked the love that was conveyed in the little corruption of her given name.
"Fine," she conceded finally. "Call me Emzy if you have to, just not in front of anyone else. You are not going to turn this into an accepted nickname for me."
"I wouldn't dream of it," David assured her, pulling her back into a hug. "Emzy is a Dad nickname."
A Dad nickname. Emma repeated in her head, as she wrapped her arms around her father and lay her head on his shoulder. She liked the sound of that.
A/N: Well, this became far fluffier than I'd envisioned but I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please leave a review in the little box below.