Prompt:
Prompt for Advent calender: Snow talks to Emma about she and Charming having another baby
"Emma?"
Mary Margaret's voice is hesitant, reminding Emma more of the woman she knew in Storybrooke than the fairytale princess/bandit she's slowly getting to know now. Strangely, Emma finds she is happy about that, happy that there is something of the friend she came to consider family even before the curse broke that remains.
She was very fond of that friend.
But she has also come to love her mother.
"Yeah?" she replies, and Mary Margaret sits down on the couch next to her. David has taken Henry out for ice cream, and in such a way that Emma suspects he was deliberately giving Mary Margaret and her some time to talk. Her father isn't exactly subtle, after all. Much like herself.
"Emma," Mary Margaret says again, taking her hand. "David and I, we... We're having a baby."
Emma just nods automatically, feeling slightly dizzy for a moment. She has been expecting this moment to come, yet she realizes she wasn't quite ready for it.
"Congratulations," she says after a moment, realizing Mary Margaret is waiting for her reaction.
Mary Margaret is watching her intently, squeezing her hand lightly. "Emma, we're not looking to replace you, we're not..."
"It's fine, you know," Emma cuts in, trying to give a reassuring smile. "I get it. You missed out on raising a child. I remember what you said in the Echo Cave."
Mary Margaret winces slightly. "Not exactly how I wanted to you to find out."
"It helped us save Neal, and through Neal we got our way home and saved Henry," Emma says, very firmly not thinking about that moment in the cave or the moments after. "that's all that matters."
"No," Mary Margaret says firmly, and that is all Snow White, Emma thinks. "You matter a great deal to us, Emma."
"I know," Emma manages to say. She does know. She's seen it enough times now. They support her, they love her, they keep trying to find ways to make her happy. They want so very much for her to be happy. "I suppose I would probably have had siblings even if you had raised me."
Mary Margaret nods, her eyes bright with tears. "You would have had several. But you would have always been our firstborn. You always will be."
"The big sister," Emma says, realizing to her horror that her own eyes are teary too. She tries to blink the tears away, but they seem to linger. "So what will I be a big sister to, a boy or a girl?"
"We don't know yet," Mary Margaret says, managing a smile. "We were hoping you would come with us to the ultrasound appointment."
Emma remembers hers, listening to the faint heartbeat of a child she already knew she had to give up. She didn't want to know the sex, as that would make it easier to picture what she was giving up.
But this child, this child can have everything she couldn't give Henry, everything her parents wanted to give her. This child can be different.
"Okay," Emma says and Mary Margaret's smile widens. "I suppose that comes with the big sister territory."
"You're going to be a wonderful sister," Mary Margaret says, pulling her into a hug. "Just like you're an amazing mother."
Emma feels a strange combination of awkward and proud. That her parents love her, that she has come to accept and learn to trust. But that they're also proud of her, so very proud, that she is still learning to deal with.
"You are too, you know," she whispers, and Mary Margaret makes a choked sob. "You'll be an amazing mother for this child, just as you are for me."
"When you let me," Mary Margaret jokes weakly, but she is beaming when Emma pulls back to look at her. "You can have another child too, you know. Henry will understand."
"I know," Emma says quietly. She thinks of her loving son who will love being a big brother, and love being a big brother figure to his uncle or aunt. She thinks of the men in her life, and of second chances. "I'll settle for big sister for now. Besides, David would probably kill anyone who knocked me up and I'd hate to have to arrest my own father."
Mary Margaret laughs softly. "He might resort to simple bodily grievous harm if you reminded him he would get to be gramps to another kid that way."
Emma cracks a smile at that, thinking of her father and Henry. Yeah, she could definitely see David enjoy getting to be grandfather to more than one kid.
"Emma," Mary Margaret says, squeezing her hand again. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
Emma thinks of a ruined nursery in another land, her nursery, and all the things that have been lost to them all.
"No," she says, and Mary Margaret's face falls. "I will never be okay with what we lost. But I will be better than okay with having a brother and sister. I'll be happy with it."
Mary Margaret pulls her into another hug, and Emma lets her head rest on her mother's shoulder. They sit like that until David returns with Henry, and rather than interrupting, David simply joins in and hugs them both. Henry too, joins the embrace.
Her family, Emma thinks. Her son, her mother, her father and her sister or brother on the way. Her growing family that might grow even more.
"Why are we hugging?" Henry asks, nuzzling his head against Emma's shoulder. David and Mary Margaret both laugh and link hands across Emma's back.
"It's a family thing, kid" Emma says; it is, after all.
