Hi, so here is the final chapter of this story!
This has been a fun little short story to write and I hope you all enjoy this, there are other OUAT stories on my list and in the works right now so I am not going to disappear, I hope you all have loved this story.
Thank you all so much for your kind reviews that have kept me going, Enjoy.
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.
And for the final time please read and review.
Unguarded Moments
Chapter 10-Family First
The final chapter-Emma and David wake up in Storybrooke and attempt to piece together their lives, post their adventure in the Enchanted Forest. Meanwhile new dangers are just across the horizon.
When Emma woke up her eyes were heavy and she had what she thought might be a brutal hangover only to realise that she'd had nothing to drink. There was a pause as she tried to move her eyelids and she forced them open with what she thought was an effort unlike anything she had every done before with the exception of childbirth. Once she opened her eyes however she felt the need to slam them shut again and pretend that she had not seen anything least of all her mother…her friend…her son's teacher once upon a time a long time ago (or so if felt) when in reality it was only a week or so ago.
She slammed them shut taking another deep breath. She was not prepared for this. David, her Dad had been bad enough and even then they had been bonded by a common desire to see their family, to get home to Henry and Mary Margaret and to stop whatever it was that Regina would have been planning. It had been the only way that she had managed to keep her shit together in the Enchanted Forest long enough for her to do any good.
She risked another peek. Her…mother…was apparently marking something for school. Emma supposed it was nice to know that somethings didn't change in a world that had changed overnight. She took a deep breathe and tried to pass it off as sleeping though she doubted she succeeded. Suddenly the courage that she had been gripping tightly with both hands during the Enchanted Forest disappeared. She had no idea how to deal with her mother. She'd had some idea about how to deal with her father but she had no idea how she was going to tackle this relationship. At best with David he had been before the curse had been someone that she had not liked all that much, he had hurt her friend and cost her more than she had admitted at the time.
Mary Margaret on the other hand was not what you would call a person she had not liked at all. She had been her friend and her companion, the first one in a long time, the first person in a long time that she had trusted. They had talked about more than boys and gossiped about more than Regina and Henry, Emma had told this woman about her life in the system and about her life in prison, when she was pregnant with Henry, even the few scant details she could bring herself to part with when it came to the topic of her child's father. All of this, this woman knew and she didn't know how to bring back her walls up when it came to her after letting them down brick by brick in front of her alter ego.
She didn't even know if she wanted to.
Emma sighed and wished she could turn over in her sleep so at least she didn't have to feel the woman's eyes on her for a second longer than it was essential but she had a feeling that even if she didn't turn away Mary Margaret…no…Snow White would still stare at her with those kind, wide eyes and just wait until she was going to talk.
She should have really just dragged Henry back into the car that night kicking and screaming if she had too. A kidnapping charge might have took care of all this turmoil or at least she would be somewhere away from this with her son.
And it was the image of Henry that forced her to open her eyes and sit up steadfastly ignoring (or at the very least doing what she knew to be an admirable job) the way her mother dropped her papers to the floor and beamed as if she had been waiting for this for a while.
Dimly she was aware that there was something nice about her mother (if that was what she was now) waiting by her bedside for her to wake up from her exhaustion and adrenaline crash. It was what real mothers did she remembered from the few friends in High School that she had stick around.
"Where's Henry?" she asked getting to the crux of the matter first and accepting the bottle of water that she almost downed in two gulps. She was thirsty, so thirsty and the water was so chilled and cold it almost hurt her teeth after all the lukewarm possibly infected river water she had drank on the way to the lake.
"He's in school. He didn't want to go but I made him, it's better for him to come home to a family that's had a chance to talk things through don't you think? Your err…your father went to…pick him up, he woke up an hour before you did and he was desperate to stretch his legs and get some time to be with his grandson so…yeah" she finished that little speech somewhat lamely and then waiting as if she was desperate to hear Emma's speech even if she knew it wasn't going to be nice and friendly. Emma paused, she wasn't sure weather or not she wanted to speak. She didn't know what she felt. Certainly she didn't know what to make of her father…her father who had once been the man who had hurt her friend wanting to spend time with her son.
"Regina?" Emma asked ignoring the question and the look of hurt on her mother's face as she took in the disinterest (or so it had appeared) on her face.
"In the wind. She claims she is trying to not use magic and the news that her mother was still alive shocked her and Gold and that was believable. Henry wants her to stop and she did in a way, she stopped Gold from destroying the portal and you and your father were able to come through. Maybe she's changed, I don't know. She does seem to love Henry if that's anything and she doesn't want to hurt him."
Emma took that in and then nodded.
She wanted to ask what had really happened back then, hear her mother's side of the story but the truth of the matter was that if she heard her mother's side of the story then she was going to have to hear Regina's side and Emma wasn't sure if she could do that without wrapping her hands around her throat and not letting go until the last threat to her son was dead. Gold was immaterial, Hook was immaterial, Regina was most certainly not.
Instead she decided to ask another question and it was a more pressing physical one rather than an emotional one, the emotional ones could wait. This one could not. After a week or so of barely surviving (though she suspected she had shed more than a few pounds in the process) she found that she was desperate to sink her teeth into something that wasn't part anything.
"Please tell me you got food cooking"
Mary Margaret laughed, her face transformed by a warmth that she had not seen for a long time. She paused taking it in and then had to look away when it became too much.
Baby steps and all.
"I've got some soup and some fresh bread and a load of butter on the stove ready for you when your Dad and your son get home. But first I thought you might like a shower and a change of clothes"
Emma nodded swinging her legs of the bed and standing up.
"Thank you" she said finally. "It might not be much but thank you, for keeping him safe"
And then she was up and out of bed before she could turn around and see her mother's smile the same as it had been when she had been her friend.
David came through the door of their house, their apartment to see his wife spooning soup into bowls.
"Your Mom just got out of the shower and she's upstairs" His wife said with a smile.
Henry gave a roar of approval mixed with glee and then shot up the stairs. David watched his wife close her eyes and then wince slightly and knew it was about the fact that her hardwood floors where being bashed about by a ten year old running around with his shoes on.
There was a pause where he stood there taking in the sight of his wife and she smiled back her eyes greedily roaming over her. The moment between the two of them lasted forever and seemed to stretch on forever before his daughter came down her wet hair wrapped up In a ponytail and dressed in a loose pair of leggings and blue jumper and fuzzy socks.
His wife began passing bowls around as Henry came down and Emma took three slices of bread and good chunk of butter and began eating with the gusto that came with someone who had not ate in the last week or so (or at least not ate food that she saw as food).
He took his bowl of his wife and noticed that she was in the same predicament that he had been in, in which when it came to his daughter she couldn't take her eyes of her. Their child who had survived so much…who had lived and lost so much without them there to guide her and she was able to stand there and eat and smile and listen to her son as if none of them had ever been parted as a family before. There was a pause where they both sat there and took in their daughter in all her incredible glory and then David turned back to his soup because if he was being honest with himself he was starving.
Henry went to bed straight after dinner claiming he was tired and wanted to do his homework in the privacy of the room that Emma had claimed when she had moved in. Apparently there was a bed on the floor but David suspected that Emma who had left her son not nearly seven hours after he had recovered from a magical poisoning wouldn't be letting him out of her sight anytime soon.
Emma turned back to her bread buttering another slice with all the gusto of someone who had (he suspected) grown up a system where food had not been some kind of priority for some people.
"Emma, do you want to talk?" His wife asked and David turned his face down to his soup and wondered weather or not that was the right way to take things with his daughter. Emma had been struggling to deal with the knowledge of what had happened to her life when she had seen magic for the first time. He had no idea how she was going to react to his wife and her hopeful approach that everything was going to be ok as long as they could keep an open and honest dialogue between them.
Emma put down her spoon and she took a breath. David found he was holding his.
"Not right now" she said finally. "I have a lot of questions and I have a lot of things that I need to say but right now all I want to say is that I am tired and I want to go to bed and that…" And then she turned to him so fast that he thought that she might gain whiplash. "Unguarded moments and all, thank you for helping me get through this…Dad…"
He had to look away at that. It was one of the first times that he had been called that name and though he was not a man to be overcome by an emotional moment he found he was blinking back tears.
"Your welcome kiddo" he said finally.
Emma nodded and said her goodnights but dithered by the stairs.
"Baby steps" was all she said and then she was gone.
His wife found his hand and her smile was glorious.
"It's been a good night Charming, let's go to bed"
And for this night he knew that his daughter was safe and that she was with his grandson and the threat was at bay for this golden night. So he linked his hand wit his wife and followed her to bed unable to stop the smile on his face.
Because Charming, David Nolan…was a husband, a father and a grandfather.
And for that night, all was good in the world.
And let me know what you thought, I hope you have enjoyed this story, see you soon.