Oh WOW, the response to this story was INSANE. Thank you all SO much for enjoying this and your words of encouragement. I've decided to make this story a series of one shots, various moments in Emma's life interacting with her family, and other people as well, but its going to be focused mainly on the Charming family. If there is anything you would like me to write about, I'm more than happy to take request, I'm sure there a many little things people will like to see, that we probably won't get to see on the show, so I'm up for suggestions :)
She walks into empty apartment, sighing in relief when she toes off her boots, putting it between Henry's small sneakers and David much larger ones. With a yawn, Emma slips out of her coat hanging it on the coat rack. The apartment is in silence, and for the first time in weeks she's home alone. Emma breathes in deeply soaking up the sheer silence of the room, almost thankful that her mother mentioned taking Henry to Granny's after school and David offered to close up the sheriff's office for her.
So now she has the house to herself and Emma just wants to sit on the couch and enjoy the silence for a few moments. This past week has been even more hectic than normal, David getting her up to speed on all the things happening the past few months, the reality that she's now responsible for a 10 year old boy and although, the usual sparring with Regina is nonexistent, Emma can't help but feel unease at the total lack of contact from the other woman. She knows David said Regina was giving Henry his space, but the woman was never one for her word. Emma stretches out on the couch yawning lightly, she should be doing something productive, like cleaning her and Henry's room (who knew a 10 year old could have so much crap?) but all she wanted to do was rest. Emma's eyes were just about to flutter closed when the front door slammed open unexpectedly, and she groans, her silent solitude shattered.
"Henry, your boots!" Snow calls out with a slight edge to it, at her mother's tone, Emma sits up curiously, watching as her son, looks at Emma sheepishly, as he hurriedly toes off his boots, the melted snow gathering on the floor, he drops his school bag at the door, along with his mittens. But before either woman can reprimand him for that, he goes running to the back of the kitchen, towards the bathroom, calling out that he really needs to go.
"Henry!" Both Snow and Emma call out at the same time, the bathroom door slams shut.
Snow sighs, shaking out her own hat and coat, while picking up Henry's forgotten stuff. Emma looks at her mother with concern, its obvious Snow has had better days, "Everything okay?"
"Twenty screaming children, locked inside because of the small blizzard and I forgot how much energy 10 year olds have, especially after having two cups of hot chocolate." Snow says tiredly as she flops down on the sofa next to Emma, "That and usually, after they have their quota of sugar, once 3 o'clock hits, I don't have to deal with the aftermath of it."
"Two cups?" Emma says incredulously.
Snow shrugs sheepishly, "It was a small cup, I didn't see the harm in it, then."
"What did you guys do then? He looks like he literally bounced all the way here." Emma says, eyeing the bathroom door wearily, she's still getting used to living with a 10 year old.
Don't get her wrong, she loves her son, and would go to the end of the earth for him, but the last time she's been in the company of a ten year old for more than a few hours a day was when she was ten. Suffice to say she's still adjusting to some of the quirks of having a 10 year old.
"He wanted to see his horse, but its too cold out for him to be at the stables." Snow says matter-of-factly, she releases a small yawn, just as the door to the bathroom opened, "So we walked home from Granny's."
Henry came running through the small room, skidding in his socks as he plopped in the middle of Emma and Snow, as he looks across at his grandmother, "But Grandma, its not even snowing anymore."
"I think your boots tell a different story kid." Emma chimes in, already seeing the exhaustion filter across her mother's features, it looks like she's not the only one to have had a long day.
Henry grins sheepishly as he shifts his body to lay his head on Emma's shoulder looking up at her curiously, Emma can tell that the sugar is still buzzing through his system by the way his feet keep hitting against the small coffee table in front of them, like he just can't sit still for a moment ,"Did you fight any dragons today?"
Emma laughs, knowing he's teasing, but also part of him actually wishes something "exciting" like that would happen. Despite how scary her and Snow's journey in the other world was, Henry still seems pretty disappointed at the fact that he hasn't gotten to see a real castle yet.
"You don't think one dragon, a giant and that evil woman wasn't cool enough?" Emma jokes, seeing the twinkle in Henry's eyes and she knows she's about to tell the tail of the dragon once again.
"I wanna learn how to fight a dragon." Henry says despondently.
Emma looks over her son's head at her mother, who has her own tilted towards them and is smiling despite her exhaustion. She pats Henry's leg halfheartedly, "I think this family has seen enough mythical creatures to last us a long, long time."
"But it would be so cool!" Henry insists sitting up, so he can face his grandmother, "You think Gramps would let me learn to fight with a real sword?"
"No!" Both Emma and Snow say simultaneously, Emma ruffles Henry's hair affectionately, "How about you stick to those wooden swords till your older."
Henry pouts, but instead of protesting, her turns back to his grandmother, poking her in the side, when he notices she now has her eyes closed, "Grandma."
"She's sleeping." Snow whispers, her eyes still shut, Emma bites her lip in amusement, watching as Henry rolls his eyes and proceeds to poke Snow continuously, until the older woman opens one of her eyes peering up at Henry questioningly.
"Can you teach me how to me how to use a bow an arrow?" On seeing his grandmother's apprehensive expression, he quickly continues, "Not like a real one, we can get those rubber arrows in the toy store."
"I'd love to Henry but you have to promise…."But she trails off when the front door slams open, all three of them turn towards the sound.
Snow sitting up in alert when no one came through, Emma puts her hand over Henry, watching the door as well, but immediately relaxes when she hears David voice. Everyone is still on edge, especially since Gold and Regina both have gone missing. David finally walks into small apartment, a balancing two bags in one hand, while the other grasps what looks to be napkins as well as another bag.
"I bought dinner." He's says cheerily, not even sounding a bit frazzled as he looks.
"Gramps!" Henry calls out excitedly, leaping off of the chair, and swiping his forgotten wooden sword, "Grandma said she'd teach me how to use a bow and arrow."
Before David can comment though, Henry runs towards hi grandfather his sword pointing at him, "En garde!"
"Henry no!" Emma calls out, watching in horror as the bags of food get thrown in the air, David swiping the sword from Henry with ease, and catching the bags simultaneously in the crook of his arm, as he points the tip of the sword to Henry's chest.
David is grinning with merit, as Henry pouts despondently, "You nearly had me there kid, good try though."
"Next time remember not to warn him. It defeats the purpose of the element of surprise." Snow says helpfully, smiling at the two brightly.
Emma looks at the three in disbelief, her son just tried to ambush her father, and her parents are just giving him pointers on how to do it better next time. "No, no. New rule, no sword fighting in house. Kid you don't attack your grandfather, with a sword, especially if he doesn't know."
Snow looks at Emma in amusement, but says nothing, as David chuckles, putting the food on the kitchen island, "It's okay Emma. Trust me I've battled far things worse than a 10 year old, while holding dinner. I've held far more precious things than tonight's dinner, while fighting."
At his words, Emma cheeks redden in embarrassment, unsure how she's suppose to respond to that. She knows that he's referring to her as the precious thing he speaks of. Her mother, ever the attentive one smiles but quickly intervenes.
"Emma's right, no sword fighting in the apartment, this place is small enough as it is, we don't need any injuries." She laughs when Henry pouts, ruffling her hair as she passes by him, to give David a brief kiss in greeting before she continues, "But, you and I, will look to see if there are any arrows in the store, I'll teach you how to make your own bow though."
"Really?" Henry asks excitedly, literally bouncing around his grandmother.
Emma grins, hot cocoa aside, she doesn't think she's ever seen Henry this happy since she's moved to Storybrooke, and a small part of her is so grateful to her parents, for helping in making her kid so happy. "What's with the fascination in learning all these things kid? I really don't think you'll need it in Maine."
"I wanna know where I'm from." Henry says as he slips on one of the stools at the island, spinning around, to talk to Emma's parents who are standing in the kitchen, getting out the utensils for dinner, and Emma who is still sitting on the couch, "And when we go back, I'll be prepared."
At his words Emma exchanges a look with Snow and David, she gets off the couch and moves to stand in front of Henry, "Henry, we aren't going back to the Enchanted forest. There is nothing to go back too."
Henry looks at her crestfallen, and the turns around to look at David and Snow, "But I thought you guys were going to go back and rebuild the kingdom? Like you did before?"
"Sweetie, it's a little bit more complicated than that," Snows says, "We have still have to figure out why no one can leave Storybrooke, before we can send the entire kingdom back. Magic is…"
"Unpredictable here. I know, I just thought it would be cool to live in a castle." Henry said sadly.
Emma frowns watching as his shoulders slump and he rests his cheek on the counter, his eyes closed, "Well, we might not be living in castle for a while. How about tomorrow, you introduce me to this horse of yours?"
"Really?" Henry says perking up, "Cool, maybe with you there, he'll finally let me ride him."
"We can see." Emma says with a smile, ruffling Henry's hair, "Now go pick up your mittens and coat off the floor and put your school bag away."
Henry groans, but slides off the stool nonetheless and quickly gather his things and heads up the stairs, dragging his feet as he goes. Emma rolls her eyes all too use to the dramatics, seeing as she's learned it's a daily occurrence with Henry, "Don't forget to change out of your uniform."
She doesn't get a response, but she knows he heard, she looks back at her parents to see Snow smirking at her, "You picked up the nagging parent role, quickly."
"I learned from the best." Emma teases, causing Snow to laugh.
"Fair enough." Snow says warmly, not at all deterred by Emma's comment, she places grabs a nearby spoon, and begins dishing out the rice and looks at Emma curiously, "Would you be so against the idea of going back to the Enchanted Forest?"
Emma bites her lips in thought, "I never thought it was an option, do you guys think it is?"
Snow and David share a look, and Emma is still in amazement at their ability to carry out entire conversations without saying a word, and David looks at her seriously, "Our goal, is to figure out how to break the bond that forces everyone to remain here, and we have no idea what that entails. None of us belong here, so there may be a slight chance that once that bond is broken, we might all be sent back. No one truly knows how all this works."
"Are you okay, with that possibility?" Snow asks, looking at her closely, "Living in the our castle, granted it has a lot of work that needs to be done."
"Honestly, the thought never entered my mind, from the moment we ended up in that world, or sole purpose was to get out. To live there, never seemed like an option. I mean sure I thought about it when we went to the castle, but you know shape shifting evil witches were kind of distracting."
"Emma." Snow calls out, seeing right through Emma's tactic to avoid the question.
Emma shrugs sheepishly, "I really don't know, but I just know that, where the three of you go, that's where I'm going. So be it Maine, the Enchanted Forest, hell the freaking Bahamas that's where I'll be."
Emma's beam at her words, and she shifts uncomfortably at their stares, knowing how much they needed to hear that, but she sighs in relief when she hears the light footsteps coming from the stairs indicating Henry was back. For the first time in her life, she has to factor in other people's opinions on making decisions in her life, and surprisingly she finds herself okay with it, it was never a doubt in her mind she wouldn't be where her family is, and she finds herself welcoming this new way of thinking and making decisions. For once in her life she's not alone, and she has three other people who will be there with her every step of the way, and Emma finds herself embracing this more and more.
Someone asked if I will be bringing in Neal, and yes that's my plan, but right now I'm hoping to focus on Emma with her parents and Henry, is there anything in particular you would like to see next?
