So I've been getting a ton of requests to make a sequel, and instead of making a whole other story, I decided to add on to this one. But everything from this chapter on will technically be a sequel to the first twenty-eight chapters. I hope you like it!


TWO YEARS LATER

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Emma, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Emma called back feebly.

"Em, please open the door."

"Never."

"I have a key."

"This door has a key?"

His laughter alleviated some of her anxiety. But there was still plenty left.

"All the doors in the palace do. It's the same key. Don't you have one?"

"What do you think?"

"I'm going to use it," Will said. "Unless you'd like to be reasonable and just open the door."

"No reasonable people in here," Emma mumbled.

She knew she should let Will into her room. She knew his presence might calm her down a bit. But he wouldn't understand why she was so afraid to go make a speech in front of the whole kingdom. He didn't have crippling stage-fright. Or, at least, she didn't think he did.

"Go away," she called.

"I don't think you mean that."

"I don't."

The doorknob jiggled slightly, and the door itself swung open. Emma stopped pacing her room as Will stood in the doorway, smirking knowingly at her. She had to admit, the whole loose-button-down-and-fitted-pants thing was working for him. Every guy in the Enchanted Forest dressed like he was about to go horseback riding in the 1940's, and the women all wore dresses. Which Emma no longer minded so much; the palace seamstress had made her plenty that weren't horrifically girly and frilly. Those ones were reserved for fancy dinners with other kingdoms' rulers and her parents' parties.

"I'm nervous," she said, struggling to take a deep breath. "I hate talking in front of people."

"This is important," he said. "You've never addressed your kingdom before alone, and as their future queen, with your parents out visiting Ariel and Eric . . ."

"I know, I know," she said. "I just wish this problem would have waited to present itself until after they came back."

"This has been going on for a while," Will said. "You know that."

Emma sighed. She'd heard some mentions of it, in her parents' conversations that she wasn't meant to be listening to. The problem facing the Enchanted Forest now was that its fairy dust, and therefore its magic, was being stolen. And no one knew who was behind it.

"This is a major problem," Will said. "Without the fairy dust and its magic, we can't heal people. We can't defend our borders against ogres and trolls. We can't do anything, really."

"So how is pointing this out to everyone going to help?"

"Someone might know some information," Will suggested. "Isn't that what your parents mentioned in their letter from earlier today?"

"Yeah, yeah." Emma lowered her gaze to her feet, then glanced back up at Will hopefully. "Are you sure you don't want to give the speech for me?"

He smiled, and approached her. Easily, as he'd done countless times since they'd met two years ago, he took her face in his hands and, bending down slightly, leaned in to kiss her.

She hadn't really been in the mood, but she also wouldn't dream of objecting.

Will was so familiar to her now, the surprising softness of his lips, the way his blue-green eyes lit up whenever he saw her, how he spent hours and hours in the library every day, sometimes until four or five in the morning. Once she'd joined him, and they'd ended up passed out in the corner by the mystery books, only to be discovered by some palace guard early that afternoon. He'd sworn not to say anything to anyone, but Emma still panicked when he and Charming were in the same room. Not that they'd done anything, but her father may get the wrong idea. He could be a little overprotective.

Will pulled away slightly, still gently cupping her face, and said, "Less nervous?"

"No," Emma laughed. "But that was nice of you."

"Come on," he said, stepping away and extending his hand out to her. "The kingdom's residents are expecting you."

Emma gripped his hand and let him lead her out of the room and down the corridor towards the tower of the palace from which she'd be addressing the kingdom. Her own hand was clammy, and she was practically shaking from nerves. To think she'd been nervous about giving a presentation on The Scarlet Letter in English a few years ago. There would be hundreds and hundreds of people watching her today.

She had the sudden, fleeting thought that she wished her parents were there. Snow would know exactly what to tell her to make her feel better about this, and Charming would probably try and fail to say something reassuring, but she'd appreciate the gesture.

But for now, she had Will. And Will was more than enough.

She loved him. She was sure of that. And he loved her; he told her often. She'd had a few boyfriends in high school back in Boston, sure, but none of them had been remotely serious. She took hers and Will's relationship seriously. She wanted it to last.

"Hello, Princess," said one of the guards outside the doors leading to the tower. Both guards bowed their heads slightly to her. "How are you feeling?"

"All right," she said, plastering a smile on her face. "How are you two?"

"A bit cold," he said. "Keeping these doors open and all. It's nearly forty degrees outside."

Emma laughed. "Of all things to bring back here, you took a thermometer?"

The guard shrugged. "It was the only thing I had on me when we were brought back to the Enchanted Forest."

Emma didn't inquire further.

"I'll wait for you back here," Will said. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Emma said, shivering; it was freezing. She'd slipped a coat on over her dress, but what she really needed was a space heater installed in it. She leaned over to give him a quick peck on the lips, and then headed through the doors. The guards both followed her.

There was a long, winding stone staircase that led up to the tower's balcony. As she climbed higher, Emma could hear the crowd below. Her stomach turned.

She reached the top and pushed open the heavy wooden door that led out onto the balcony overlooking the lawn at the side of the palace, where it seemed the whole kingdom had gathered. She gasped.

"Not to worry, Princess," one of the guards said. "You're just delivering information."

"Yeah," Emma swallowed. "No big deal."

She hadn't even considered how serious the information truly was; without magic, everyone in the Enchanted Forest would basically be screwed. They used it for everything; it was like their technology. Hardly anyone had their own magic like she and Rumpel did; they would all need fairy dust.

Emma pulled her cloak more tightly around herself and approached the ledge. She knew no one would see her yet, since they were all buried deep in their own conversations. She would have to rely on her own magic to get their attention.

Her voice shook as she, imaging it louder, as if she were speaking into a high-powered microphone, said, "Hello, people of the Enchanted Forest!"

The magic worked; her voice carried out across the field, and everyone turned to look at her immediately. She wanted to sink down into the freezing stone ground.

But these people were depending on her, and the sake of the kingdom depended on her, and disappearing wasn't an option.

"As you all know," Emma said, clearing her throat, and forcing herself to remember to concentrate on keeping her voice amplified, "My mother and father are visiting friends in another kingdom at the moment, so I will be delivering some news to you today."

There was some mumbling in the crowd. Emma continued. "The Enchanted Forest is facing a major problem. Our fairies' dust is being stolen, and if we let this continue much longer, there won't be any left to use."

The crowd erupted into a storm of rage and confused shouting, mostly asking who was taking it.

"I'm so sorry," Emma said, "That we don't know who is behind the thievery. Obviously the fairies have been extremely careful in caring for the dust, but whoever is taking it is powerful and sneaky. Impossible to catch. My parents called this announcement to request that if anyone knows anything of the subject, you please report it to us at the palace. At any time."

"The King and Queen will bring whatever news they have to you as soon as they receive it," Emma promised the crowd, which had begun to grow louder again. "Thank you all." With that, she cleared her throat, and turned back to head down into the palace.

"Well done, Princess," said one of the guards. "You were very, uh, loud."

Emma's throat felt dry and scratchy. Her head spun. She'd barely spoken for two minutes, but at least she'd done it.

She'd barely entered the palace corridor again, grateful for the warmth that hit her from all the fires burning in the palace, when she was ambushed with a massive bear hug.

By her parents.

"We missed you so much!" Snow exclaimed, and Emma would have responded, but she could barely breathe.

"We're sorry we were gone for so long," Charming added. "But it's practically a two-day journey there and back."

Emma tried to mumble something like, "It's okay," in response, but found she couldn't really speak.

They released her and, after finally exhaling, she said, "I missed you guys, too."

"Wonderful speech," Charming said. "Well, not really a speech. It was very short. But I'm proud of you for doing it."

Emma laughed. "It really wasn't anything."

"Oh, we have so much to tell you about our visit," Snow said, linking her arm through Emma's and starting to guide her down the corridor. Emma wondered briefly where Will had gone, but reminded herself that she shouldn't be thinking about him all the time. She should focus on her parents now. She was, after all, genuinely excited to see them after their two-week stay with Ariel and Eric. "They have the cutest daughter, Melody . . . she's half mermaid, you know . . ."


That evening, Emma was heading down to the Grand dining room to meet her parents for dinner. They'd decided to throw a big feast and invite some of their friends, like Ruby and Granny and Hook, to celebrate their return. Everyone in the Enchanted Forest was big on parties and celebrations. She still hadn't seen Will since that morning, which she found quite odd.

Until she passed Charming's study.

The door was cracked open a bit, and she wouldn't have stopped beside it had she not heard Will's voice, something she definitely didn't expect to hear coming from her father's study.

"Thank you, Charming," Will was saying. "I really, truly am grateful."

"I have no doubt you are," Charming said. There was a strange tone to his voice, almost like he was trying to keep something out of it, like suspicion or excitement. Emma had never been great at reading peoples' emotions, though she was an exceptional human lie detector.

"And I appreciate you discussing this with me," Charming said. "You seem like a very well-adjusted young man. Much different from the Peter Pan I'd heard about before the curse happened."

"Thank you," Will said. "I'll take that as a compliment."

There were footsteps towards the door, and Emma froze. Her heart was pounding; she decided to run back off to the corridors with hers and her parents' rooms.

If she was right in what she assumed they were discussing, she needed to talk to someone. Specifically, Snow.