Day Thirteen

Candle

The snow continued to fall slowly today. Emma watched from her window. in the window sil was one of the many candles Mary Margaret's house had hidden. Neither Emma or Snow White knew why the school teacher colected so many candles, be they left overs from their sales to randomly shaped candles from places Mary Margaret had never been. Emma looked sighed, her breath flickering the flame and placing fog upon the window.

"Emma?" Snow asked. She and David were placing Mary Margaret's decorations around the house, along with a few the couple had bought in town in the past week. "You haven't helped us at all with putting this up." She raised a string of lights to indicate her point.

"I guess since I already helped Regina and Henry, I thought I would let you two do it here." the sheriff said.

"Regina... yeah-" David said.

"But we are your family, too" Snow said, cutting David off.

Emma turned away from the window to look at the couple. She felt just as disconnected from them now as she had as a child still hoping they would come and get her fro whichever foster home she was in, telling her it was all some big mistake and that they always wanted her. "I don't know how much I feel that," she said softly. "Maybe next year we will both have the family we always dreamed of."

"What are you talking about?"

"What you said back there... in Neverland. Your wanting a baby. Maybe this time next year I will have sibling and..." Emma looked away again at the window, thoughts of Regina's tree going up and Emma's inability to figure out which branch to put her new swan ornament on coming easily to her.

David dropped the fake present box that was going to be placed near the fireplace, and hurried to Emma's side. He looked quickly over to Snow before he brought Emma into his chest. Emma never resisted the comfort that David handed her so freely, his large hand on the back of her neck and making her feel safe each and every time. "I already have the family I've always wanted. And if or when another child comes along, well I will be estatic but not more of a proud father than I already am do you understand me?" He kissed the blonde of her hair as Snow walked up to them.

"Have you been carrying that around all this time?"

There was the mufling of Emma's voice in David's shirt. When he released her slightly but not letting her out of the hug, she lifted her head a little and said, "It was stupid to feel that way. I'm a grown woman who had a son to save and a home to get back to and what was there to say-"

"Emma! If it hurt you- If I..." Snow shook her head, a tear falling down her face at the thought of it. "If I hurt you by saying that, I am so, so sorry. I didn't realize how they may have some out, and after all that you had been through... I am so sorry Emma. Of course I don't want to replace you. I just-"

"You want to raise a child. Believe me, I get it. I want to raise mine, too."

"With Regina," David said. Emma looked up at David when she heard the tone in his voice, which was nothing more than a soft guess stating that he needed no confirmation, as he already knew he was right.

"Yeah," Emma said, looking from David to Snow. She tightened her grip on her father quickly and then backed out of his embrace as the man easily let go.

"As you said, you're a grown woman, and Regina, well... We all have so much to talk about after all that has happened, but it is the holidays and if you have found happiness there at Regina's house then... Not that you were asking or needed it, but you have my blessing."

"Erm, thanks Mmmom," Emma said. It was still strange to her calling her 'Mom' when she was used to calling her Mary Margaret, but not as strange calling David 'Dad'. Maybe she was just a daddy's girl.

Snow smiled at this, wiping her face and gesturing for Emma to come into her arms. As Emma accepted the hug, Snow apologized again, murmuring how much she loved her and how happy she was that she got to finally know her after all of that time. She told her how proud of her she was for finding them as she always knew she would, and how brave she had been to live her hard life and to move through two magical realms relatively unscathed. Emma backed away after a moment more of this, and went to the tree. "Can I put the angel up?"

"Of course," Snow said. She smiled brightly as she took David's hand and joined her at the tree.