AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thank you to all my reviewers. To those who reviewed hoping Neal will forgive his father, he will, but it will be a gradual process. Things have hit Neal all at once and he needs time to process everything. They both have several issues to deal with, but underneath it all Neal still loves his father, and in the coming chapters I intend to show some of the inner conflict Neal has regarding his father. Originally, I intended this chapter to be Emma and Neal, but instead it turned into Emma and Snow. Don't worry next chapter will be mainly Emma/Neal fluff with some of their concerns about the future thrown in. Then we'll get to the Michelle-Amelia-Ruby chapter.
Emma sits in silence as her mother drives her to the town council meeting. She has a lot on her mind. She still can't believe all that's happened to her this past day. In the space of less than twenty-four hours, she learned that she is pregnant, that the woman who has become the best friend she ever had is in fact her mother and Snow White, which makes her a princess. Not to mention that the residents of this town are actually cursed citizens of another world, and she supposedly has some special magical powers that are supposed to break the curse and send everyone back home.
She can't quite wrap her head around that. She never thought of herself as someone special and now she is supposed to be the savior of an entire world. She still can't believe that she has magical powers, even after she used them several times to wake up her parents and stop the nightmares of her friend Regina.
That's another thing she's having trouble believing, that the nice, sweet woman who has spent so much time helping her and Neal study could ever be evil enough to curse an entire world. When they told Neal who she really is, he got very quiet again. Emma worries about how he is handling things. Her parents turned out to be great, but she knows Neal has major issues with his father that he needs to work out. She can tell that Neal blames himself for his father creating the curse that took her away from her parents and it is going to take some time before she can convince him otherwise.
"Still thinking about Regina?" her mother asks, and she's startled to realize that while she was reflecting on matters they had arrived at town hall. "Or are you worried about Neal?"
"Both," Emma replies. "Regina has been such a good friend to me in this world, to think she could be evil makes me wonder if anyone else's personality was altered so much."
Snow pauses a moment before answering, "From what I know of the people in our world, everyone here has pretty much the same personality as they did there. Even Regina's personality is the same it's just from her time before she was molded into the evil queen."
Emma flinches.
"What is it?" Snow asks in concern.
"It was Neal's father who molded her into the evil queen, wasn't it?" Emma asks. "So he could use her to cast the curse that brought us all to this world, so he could find his son?"
"Yes," Snow answers.
At her confirmation, Emma frowns again. "I'm worried about how Neal is handling all this," she says. "When we told him that Regina was the evil queen, did you see how quiet he got?"
"Yes," Snow says. "Rumplestiltskin did a lot of unforgivable things, but he told me his only goal since he let his son go was to find him and make things right between them."
"That may have been his intention, but I don't think this curse helped things," Emma says. "I could see the look in his eyes as he told me what his father had done." She shakes her head. "He blames himself for what happened to me and all the other people in this town. I think it's going to take a long time before he can forgive his father, both for abandoning him and for all the evil things he's done since."
Snow is silent for a moment, considering her daughter's words. "You may be right," she says quietly. "But when I talked to him about it, for the first time I saw him as a man, not a monster. I saw how he truly loves his son and while he may not have gone about it in a way I approve of, he only wanted to find his son."
Snow pauses as Emma absorbs her words. "In any case, it will be up to Neal to work out his issues with his father," she says. "All you can do is be there for him and support him."
"I will," Emma says.
"But for right now we have to focus on the town budget meeting," Snow says. "I have outlines for the town's projected finances for the next five years. Hopefully we'll be back in our land before then, but until we restore everyone's memories we need to carry on with business as usual."
"Right," Emma replies. "I just hope my presentation goes okay. I've never been good with public speaking."
"You'll be great," Snow reassures her. "According to the schedule, your presentation won't be until tomorrow. I'll help you go over it when we get home tonight."
"Home?" Emma asks. "Your home or my home?"
Snow quickly realizes her mistake. "I meant you could come over to my house tonight," she says. "You and Neal can come over for dinner as often as you want. I don't want to push you it's just that we lost so much time."
"I understand you wanting to spend more time with me," Emma says. "Perhaps we can split the difference? Half the time we can have dinner at your place, and half the time you can come over to our place."
"That sounds great," Snow says and then frowns. "But I thought you said you couldn't cook."
"I can't," Emma admits. "But I talked to Amelia and she volunteered to give me some lessons. Cooking is a skill I'll need, right?"
"Well actually," Snow replies, "once we're back in our world, you'll have servants to attend to your needs. Barring any unforeseen circumstances you won't really need to cook."
"Servants?" Emma asks, surprised. Although she quickly realizes she shouldn't be. She'll have a lot to get used to now that she knows she's a princess. "There's so much I need to learn about being a princess."
"Don't worry about it," Snow says gently. "There will be plenty of time for you to learn all you need to know."
"Thanks," Emma says.
Snow checks her watch. "But right now we need to focus on the town council meeting, we're about to be late," she says.
"Okay, mom," Emma says smiling.
Once again, Snow feels that warm feeling she gets when Emma calls her mom. "Just remember until the curse is broken..."
"I have to refer to you as Mary," Emma says. "I remember."
They walk into the town council meeting where Emma sees a large crowd of people gathered. They've broken into several different groups, most of whom are deep in conversation, probably discussing their priorities for the town. Several of them turn at the sound of the door opening and most go quiet upon seeing the two of them.
Emma quickly realizes that a lot of them are staring at her and wonders why. She doesn't think her magic powers have awakened their true memories. So far the only times she used them were to help people she cared about, to awaken her friend's husband (who turned out to be her father), to ease Regina's dreams, and to restore her mother's memories. She figures that the memories of her friends like Amelia, Michelle, Granny, Ruby, and Isabella would awaken first. She quickly amends the last one though, since according to Snow, Isabella has already regained her real memories.
"Is it true?" one of the men asks. "Is Mr. Gold really Neal's father?"
Ah, Emma thinks in slight relief. That's what this is about.
"Now is not the time to go into that," Snow says coming to her defense.
"Ms. Swan," a voice says. "Sidney Glass, Storybrooke Daily Mirror. I would like to ask you a few questions. How did you feel when you learned your boyfriend is actually the son of the richest person in town? Do you expect people to believe that he really had no idea he was in town before you decided to move here?"
Sidney launches into a series of questions that Emma can't fully follow, but which become increasingly leading as he tries to make Emma and Neal out to be some sort of con artists. His line of questioning makes Emma furious. Despite the fact that before they moved to Storybrooke, they had been con artists since moving here they haven't broken one single law.
"I'd like to ask a few questions myself," Emma says calmly. "How exactly did you learn Neal was Mr. Gold's father so fast? Despite your insinuations, they only found out themselves a few hours before your article went to print. I'm not a science expert, but I would think that to get a DNA test done that fast, even if you had a friend in a lab you would have had to find out at practically the same time the two of them did."
"Well I..." Sidney says, stammering, not used to people calling him out.
"And another thing," Emma says. "How did you get DNA samples from both Neal and Mr. Gold? I know Neal didn't give you permission to access his medical records and I doubt that Mr. Gold did either."
"Um..." Sidney says, starting to become nervous. "The people have a right to know."
"They do," Emma says. "But I took a journalism course in school and the first amendment doesn't give reporters a blanket immunity to break any laws they want in pursuit of a story. And I doubt this is the first time you've broken laws to get juicy gossip."
"Yeah," one of the men says. "Your printing the sealed juvenile record of my son definitely violated the law."
"And you had no right to break into my house and take documents about my company's finances out of my safe," another adds.
A lot of the others stand up and start yelling at Sidney, as if it honestly never occurred to them to challenge him before. Emma wonders if that was because of the curse.
"Well if you'll excuse me, I have other stories to research," Sidney replies and then runs out of the meeting chamber as fast as he can.
Snow feels a small jolt of satisfaction at seeing the man get his comeuppance since he was the one who actually murdered her father, despite the fact that it was at Regina's urging.
"Order, everyone," Snow says, trying to restore calm in the room. After a few minutes, she finally gets everyone to settle down. "Take your seats please and we'll begin."
Emma looks around and recognizes most of the people in the room since they had all stopped by the mayor's office at some point during the last month or so. She idly wonders what fairy tale characters they are, if they are kings and queens of their own kingdoms or advisors to her mother. She sees Ashley's stepmother, who looks furious upon seeing her, and then looks away from her. From her attitude and the fact that she has two daughters of her own, Emma can make an educated guess that Ashley is Cinderella. Then, she hears her mother start to speak bringing her out of her reflections.
"Good morning distinguished members of Storybrooke," Mary begins. "I am pleased to see all of you here today. As you all know it was just over a year ago, that my husband was attacked and my daughter was…" her voice falters. Now that she knows the truth, reading this part of the speech prepared last week feels like a lie. No one kidnapped her daughter, she sent her away for her own safety. Still, in a way, it is true. The curse ripped her daughter from her life and even though she now has her back, she can never get back the years they lost.
She quickly recovers and skips to the next part. "I nearly fell apart because of the attack. It was only through your support that I was able to carry on," she continues. "The emotional support I received from so many of you truly helped me endure. There was a point I considered resigning my office, but helping to run the town gave me a sense of purpose and helped dull the pain in my heart, though nothing could ever erase it completely."
"We have made great strides in the last year and our town is finally back in the black," Snow says. "Ruby has been handling her job as sheriff admirably."
"Oh really?" a man sneers. "What about the recent attacks on town hall and the sheriff's office? They're the direct result of Ruby's incompetence. We need a man in that position."
Snow quickly puts a check on her anger. The man was a rich duke and one of King George's most devious supporters. The things he did to the citizens in their old world resulted in her and Charming, sentencing him to twenty years in the dungeons. "Ruby has been doing an excellent job as sheriff," Snow says. "Just as good as David, even working alone, she continued the policies my husband implemented and violent crime is down to almost nothing. We've had no murders in our town in the past year, and very few robberies. The only major crimes were committed by Roger and his gang, who kept getting off on technicalities."
"The attack on town hall was the exception to the norm," Snow continues. "No police force can prevent every single crime. But Roger was quickly apprehended and due to Ruby's bravery and the timely intervention of our new deputy, no one was seriously injured."
The man quickly realizes that the mayor's words have begun to sway the crowd in her favor. "But what about the attack on the sheriff's station?" he asks. "Can you say that was handled well?"
"I can," Snow says calmly. "If you recall, Ruby, Neal, and volunteer Michelle quickly captured all the gunmen with no loss of innocent life. Now if there's nothing else, let's get on with the state of the town's finances."
Emma watches her mother speaking to the town council for the first time and it amazes her. Various members, who Emma can tell from their tone and mannerisms are bitter enemies of her mother, interrupt her several times. Yet she doesn't miss a beat or give any sign that they irritate her at all, responding to their criticisms with ease. Seeing her speak brings up Emma's own feelings of inadequacy again. How can she ever expect to live up to her mother's expectations and be a princess of a kingdom the size of New York State? She will never be as elegant or confident as this woman before her is.
The schedule calls for her to deliver her presentation on updating the town's power grid tomorrow and she is certain she will blow it. She quickly pushes these thoughts aside. For the first time in a long time, maybe ever, she has people who believe in her and love her without question and she is determined not to let them down. She will become a woman worthy of being a princess.