A/N: Thank you to anyone and everyone who has reviewed, favourited, followed or taken time to read the first chapter…I love you all! This chapter is the one which first germinated the idea for this story. A conversation between Snow and Charming about having another child…then I thought about other conversations I wanted to see and voila! Fic was born.
The next part might take a bit longer in coming than this one…It involves Hook and I want to get his character right since I've never written him before.
As always, any feedback is much appreciated…Enjoy!
Disclaimer: OUAT and all of its characters belong to ABC…all I own is an intense sense of disappointment that I missed seeing the OUAT costumes at Disneyland when I was there last November!
Spring
It was official.
He'd lost his wife.
He'd searched nearly every damn room in the castle and asked every person who'd crossed his path whether they had seen her, but he'd had no luck.
If he wasn't so sure that she wouldn't leave the castle without telling him, he'd be on the verge of sending out search parties. But he knew she was here somewhere. They'd been entirely unwilling to be physically separated for any length of time since they had returned. Half of their family had already been lost to them…they wouldn't lose each other too.
Sighing, he scrubbed his hand over his face and decided to check their bedchambers one more time in case she had returned there. It was strange, but walking through the stone corridors of their once and present home still felt unnerving even now, a few months after they'd decided it was the best place to restart their lives in the Enchanted Forest. He'd once wanted nothing more to return here, but now all he could think about was how it was…empty, despite the many people residing within its walls.
Reaching the corridor which led to their rooms, he started to turn towards the right before a soft sound made him pause. Looking over his shoulder, he saw something out of place.
It was open.
The door to the nursery was open.
The room was the only one in the entire castle which remained strictly off-limits. Snow hadn't been able to bring herself to even set one foot within and he had only entered once. The destroyed furniture, broken toys and burnt-out shell of the wardrobe had been too much to take so soon after saying goodbye to the person who should have called the room hers.
Anger suffusing his veins, he marched towards the open door ready to berate whoever had expressly ignored his and Snow's wishes only to come to a screeching halt.
His wife was sitting on the floor, cradling a large plush stuffed lamb. He remembered picking the toy out at a local market. Snow had insisted their child should have a toy which represented his own childhood and Charming hadn't been able to resist.
"Snow?"
She jumped, whipping her head around in response. He only needed a tiny glimpse of her red-rimmed eyes to know that she had been crying. Without delay, he sunk to his knees beside her and wrapped his arm around her slightly shaking shoulders.
"What's wrong?"
She twisted slightly and buried her head against his chest. He ran his fingers along the length of her hair in a soothing motion, a part of him privately glad her hair was once again long. She didn't reply and that raised his level of concern.
If this was merely missing their daughter and grandson, he knew she would have no hesitation in voicing it.
"Sn…
"I'm pregnant."
The words were muffled against the fabric of his tunic but he understood them all the same.
Pregnant.
This was the second time in his life he'd heard those words spill from Snow's lips but the emotions which accompanied them this time were much more complex. They hadn't discussed their plans for another child since returning, other events and the raw loss of their firstborn sweeping any inkling of expanding their family under the rug.
"I know we didn't plan this…not now, not after…" Snow lapsed into silence, before pulling away from his chest so she could look into his eyes, "Charming, how can we do this? How can we…"
She didn't finish her question but he had never needed words to know what lay in his wife's heart. How could they have another child when they'd given up Emma for the second time? It was something he had grappled with even back when Snow had first expressed her desire to try again all those months ago in the Echo Cave and as such, he knew what he needed to say.
"We can do this," he said softly, raising a hand to wipe the stray tears along her cheek, "We can do this because we're going to live the philosophy we've always lived by, the one we told Emma to hold on to. We're going to live for the moments, for the joy this baby will bring."
"I don't know if I can," Snow whispered, eyes falling to the lamb still clutched in her arms, "Especially not here, not back in the place where we were meant to raise her. In Storybrooke it was different, I could pretend it was different but here…"
"This isn't replacing her," Charming said firmly, easily seeing into the truth behind Snow's words, "Yes, we will get to have experiences with this child we never got to have with her, but that also works the other way around. All the memories we have with Emma are unique and can't be repeated. Except for maybe this child one day walking in on us in an intimate moment because Emma would be the first to say that happened far too often for her liking."
His last words had their desired effect, a small smile and laugh his reward. Even with the slight humour at the end, he had meant every word. One child could never replace another…and that had never been their intent even when they'd planned for a second. They had always known, from before Snow had even become pregnant with Emma that they had wanted more than one child. The loneliness both had felt growing up as an only child was one they did not wish their own to feel. And while a part of their recent desire for a child had been the craving to experience all the years of childhood they had missed, it had never diminished what Emma meant to them.
"You're right," Snow finally agreed, her shoulders seemingly slumping with the relief of her fears being soothed away, "We can do this…we're having another child."
"We're having another child," Charming echoed, leaning forward to press a chaste, loving kiss against his wife's lips.
They sat in silence for a moment, foreheads resting together as they absorbed the enormity of what was to come. They were going to be parents again. It was scary, thrilling, joyful and amazing all in one.
"This baby…he or she…they'll never know their big sister or their nephew."
Snow's tone was wistful.
"Emma would probably be the most protective big sister in all the realms…and the coolest. I can see her as the type to slip her sibling treats before dinner or teaching them how to sneak out when they were older," he mused, easily able to picture it in his mind.
"And Henry would be the official story-teller…no-one else would be able to read them a bedtime story but him I'm sure," Snow added, her eyes unfocused as she too pictured the scenario she wished could come true.
"They'll know them Snow. Our child might never get to meet them but they'll know them. We'll make sure of that."
Charming's voice was full of conviction. The future might be uncertain but that was not. They would make sure their child knew about their brave, forthright and strong older sister and their selfless, loving, belief-filled nephew.
Neither of them would have it any other way.
