A short one but it's fun, its heartwarming and its done so I thought you'd want it.
"Look who's here." Ava grinned as Connor and Emma walked in and took the final two seats at the table.
"I thought your parents had you on lockdown?" Ryan asked as he slipped his arm around Ava.
"George is in jail as of this afternoon." Emma explained. "I managed to convince them that they deserved a date night which translated into me having my own."
"Well we're glad to have you back." Kate hugged her friend before returning to Sam's side. "Triple dates are more fun."
"Where are the other three?" Emma asked.
"Peter couldn't come and Julia's spending the night with her sister for the first time since Paige went back to live with her real father." Kate explained.
"Isabelle's not in a relationship so…" Sam shrugged.
"She actually is." Kate and Emma said at the same time.
"What?" The guys all looked surprised.
"She's been spending a lot of time with Jack lately." Ava nodded.
"As in the beanstalk?" Connor raised an eyebrow.
"More the went down the hill kind." Kate corrected.
"Oh." Sam said. "Where's Jill."
"Didn't come over." Ava explained.
"Why didn't she bring him?" Ryan asked.
"They prefer to spend their time" Emma picked her words carefully. "Alone."
"Alone?" Sam raised his eyebrow causing Kate to nudge him. "Oh."
"Yea." Ava rolled her eyes. "She says she's going to enjoy being human while she can."
"Yea once we go back…" Ryan trailed off.
"What?" Emma glanced around the table noticing everyone getting really quiet. "What do you mean?"
"Well I mean if we go back home to the Enchanted Forest who knows what will happen." Ryan said slowly. "We could revert back to who we are. For most of us that's not an issue but Is was a fairy in our world."
"Yea but how would we ever get back?" Emma shifted uncomfortably.
"I don't know." Ava shrugged. "But don't you want to go home?"
"This world is my home." Emma insisted.
"But you're from that world." Kate pointed out.
"That doesn't make it my home." Emma picked at a piece of bread.
Ava was about to speak up but the waitress coming to take their dinner order interrupted her. Once all their orders had been taken Ava turned back to Emma. "Em don't you want to see the world we're from? The world you were supposed to grow up in?"
"I don't know." Emma shook her head. "It's… I… There's no point in talking about something that we don't know will ever happen. Travel between worlds is extraordinarily difficult. A curse had to be created to get us here in the first place."
"She has a valid point." Sam agreed.
There was an uncomfortable silence at the table for a few minutes. "Can we just talk about something else?" Emma asked.
"Of course." Connor squeezed Emma's shoulder comfortingly.
"So the weapon's training is going really well." Ryan did his best to shift the conversation topic, wrapping his arms around Ava.
"Yea how did you find the girl in this town with the most dead on aim? It's serendipitous." Sam smiled.
"Serendipitous?" Ava raised an eyebrow at Sam.
"He likes English." Kate shrugged. "But he's right. It's perfect. You guys can pillage Storybrooke now and steal from the rich a give to the poor. You could even live in the woods."
"You're very funny you know that?" Ava said flatly.
"I'm aware." Kate grinned as the waitress brought over their food.
"Anyway Emma has some pretty impressive aim too." Ava pointed out.
"Not as good as Av's." Emma countered.
"Yea but I've had years I of practice." Ava pointed out. "You just learned which is incredible. You have a lot of natural talent."
"What she's really good at is the sword. " Sam added. "Connor my friend if I where you I'd be scared. She seems to have inherited her father's ability to wield a sword. She could kill you."
"Yea how are you so good for never having used anything like a sword before?" Kate asked.
"I don't know." Emma admitted. "I mean after you kill an enchanted dragon with one everything else doesn't seem as hard."
"Wait you killed a dragon?" Sam froze mid bite.
"Yea." Emma said slowly.
"When?" Ryan asked, clearly shocked.
"The day the curse broke." Emma said nonchalantly.
"She did it to save me." Connor added.
"Yea and it was pointless." Emma shook her head. "It did nothing for you. It only helped Gold further one of his schemes."
"But you saved me anyway." Connor grinned. "With true love."
"Yea." Emma rolled we eyes but she kissed him anyway
"Wait, back up, I'm still stuck on the fact that you killed a dragon." Sam seemed bewildered.
"Maleficent actually." Emma said casually.
"Wait like the sorceress?" Kate clarified.
"That'd be the one." Emma nodded.
" Damn you haven't even really lived in our world and you're still more of a badass than the rest if us." Ryan was clearly impressed.
"What can I say?" Emma joked. "I'm awesome"
"It's in her genes." Connor added.
"Yea apparently so is getting myself imprisoned and having mortal enemies that will do anything to kill me." Emma shook her head. "Lucky me."
"Well now that one of those enemies is behind bars." Ava smiled. "Why don't we all hang out tomorrow night? With the other three freaks as well. Your parents will let you out of their site won't they?"
"Yea." Emma laughed. "They're still on edge but they're trying not to be overbearing."
"That's got to be hard for them." Connor mused.
"You're telling me." Emma rolled her eyes.
"Wait Connor didn't you spend the other day with her dad?" Ryan asked.
"He did." Ava grinned.
"With the King?" Ryan tried to hold back his smirk. "And how did that go? He can't be thrilled with you dating his daughter."
"I mean what dad would be?" Connor asked. "It was all right. Once we got passed the initial awkwardness and the threats and my implied death if I crossed him again we managed to get along pretty well."
"Man, dating up." Ryan joked. "Your father must be so proud."
"Well he's grateful one of his kids isn't dating someone who's on a most wanted list." Connor jabbed back good-naturedly.
"Touche." Ryan grinned.
"Father's are a hard one." Sam sympathized. "Especially when that father is a king."
"I thought Kate's dad loved you?" Emma raised an eyebrow.
"He did." Kate said slowly.
"What he became king and suddenly you're not good enough for her?" Ava asked.
"Well you're not the only one dating a criminal." Kate looked at Ava.
"I'd like to point out neither of us have records in this world." Ryan spoke up.
"We are so screwed up." Emma whispered to Connor as their friends bickered.
"You can say that again." Connor wrapped his arms around Emma. "At least we have each other."
"It's good no one is normal in this group or they would be running for the hills." Emma's comment caused Connor to chuckle quietly.
"Anyway her father did like me…" Sam emphasized.
"Did?" Emma's interest in the conversation was suddenly piqued.
"Yea…" Kate said uncomfortably.
"Her Dad came into her room last night and I was in there." Sam said slowly.
"So?" Ava asked. "He knows you guys are dating."
"Yea well we weren't exactly dressed for visitors." Kate said slowly.
"No." Ava gasped, trying unsuccessfully to hold back a laugh. "Oh my God he must be so traumatized."
"I know I would be." Ryan shook his head. "How did he take it?"
"I thought I was going to die in her room." Sam shook his head.
"Then how are you two out tonight?" Connor asked, confused.
"He didn't really know how to handle it." Kate admitted. "I kind of left tonight before he had a chance to say no. I'm sure once he's recovered from the shock I'll be dead."
"Guess you don't have to wear that purity ring anymore." Emma didn't look at Kate knowing she was getting a glare.
"As if it were ever a purity ring." Ava added. "Sorry babe but we all know it was a lie for your parents."
"I think I broke his heart." Kate said woefully.
"Speaking of parents. Em aren't those yours?" Ava pointed to the other side of the restaurant.
Emma nearly choked on her water at the sight of Mary Margaret and David sharing a passionate kiss. When they pulled apart she got a better view. Mary Margaret had clearly channeled her inner Snow and somehow turned her school-teacher pixie cut into something that looked stylish and modern. The emerald green sleeveless chiffon dress she wore was unlike anything Emma had seen her in before. While it had a higher neckline it more than compensated with the amount of leg and back it showed. David managed to somehow look laid back and put together with a simple dark t-shirt under a tailored navy blazer he had matched with white pants.
"Is that a pocket square?" Connor raised his eyebrow.
"I think so." Emma said slowly.
"God your parents are so hot." Kate said in awe.
"Shut up." Emma glared.
"What?" Kate shrugged. "I'm sorry that your parents are the hottest out of all of ours. They're like, the same age as when they had you which is young and very attractive."
"She is the fairest of them all." Sam pointed out. He looked confused for a second. "Which I guess makes you…"
"Don't say it." Emma shook her head. She glanced back over at her parents who were staring lovingly at one another, talking to some of their friends. "I think I'm going to vomit." Suddenly they were kissing again. Emma dropped the bread she had been eating. "Nope, I know it. I've got to get out of here."
"Why?" Kate teased. "I think it's cute."
"I am literally going to kill you." Emma said seriously.
"Yea Ems." Ryan turned his attention away from her parents. "I wouldn't go home tonight if I were you. I wouldn't want to walk in on that."
"You guys are literally disgusting." She pulled out a twenty and left it on the table as her friends laughed.
"Take your money back." Connor shook his head as he replaced her money with his own.
"Come on, we're leaving." Emma insisted.
"You are no fun." Ava sighed.
"You wouldn't be saying that if it was your father making out with someone else.
"Where are we going?" Kate raised an eyebrow.
"The overlook?" Emma suggested. "And then we're spending the night at your house."
"Sounds good to me." Kate agreed.
"Shouldn't you ask your parents if that's ok first?" Sam asked.
"I don't ask them when you spend the night do I?" Kate asked causing everyone to laugh.
"I think that's the problem." Ava whispered under her breath eliciting another round of laughs from her side of the table.
"Fair enough." Sam shrugged as he left money for Kate and himself. "Let's go."
Emma was sitting at the table trying to finish up the last of her make up homework in math. Ever since the curse had lifted Mr. Dane had seen it fit to challenge her more as she was now his best friends daughter. That meant on top of her sophomore math she was also doing the work of a senior.
"What are you up to?" Mary Margaret asked as she walked into the kitchen.
"You know." Emma shrugged. "Logarithm fun."
"I don't even know what that means." Mary Margaret said as she poured herself a glass of water.
"Count yourself lucky." Emma didn't look up as she finished the problem. "You don't want to."
"Are you having trouble?" Mary Margaret asked, a hint of concern in her voice.
"No." Emma shook her head. "They're just a pain in my ass." She glanced up when she realized what she had said. "Sorry."
"It's fine." Mary Margaret waved her off.
"Anyway I'm done with them. I can do them, they just take forever because Mr. Dane wants us to be able to appreciate and understand what the calculator does. Which means we get to do them long hand." Emma rolled her eyes. "Each problem takes an entire page. It's destroying the forests."
"When did you become such an environmentalist?" Mary Margaret raised an eyebrow as she sat down at the table.
"When I got assigned these problems." Emma said simply.
Mary Margaret tried to suppress a grin. "I thought you liked school."
"I do but no one in their right mind would like this." Emma answered.
"I'll make sure to let Eric know." Mary Margaret shifted, nervous about what she had to say next. "So, I read the last entry in your journal."
"Yea?" Emma said slowly, suddenly uncomfortable with the topic of conversation.
"You're still angry." Mary Margaret's voice was quiet, almost pained. "Why?"
"I don't know. It's hard to explain." Emma sighed.
"Emma the decisions we made were to save your life." Mary Margaret said gently.
"I know but..." Emma looked her mother in the eyes. "You have to understand from my point of view. I know you did what you did to save my life but I grew up without you, without my parents. That's not something that's easy to forgive."
"If I had another choice Emma you have to know I would have taken it." Mary Margaret said.
"You did have another choice." Emma said somewhat coldly. "You just chose not to take it."
"What choice?" Mary Margaret was genuinely confused.
"The choice to come with me." Emma said in frustration. "The choice to not send me with a seven year old boy who had no business having that responsibility thrust upon him. He left me after a few weeks. Not that I really blame him. He was so young and thrust into an awful life, a life I lived. Hell if I had the shot I would have run away too. I'm not mad at him, but I feel my real parents would not have left me to fend for myself. You could have chosen me but you know." Emma looked away bitterly. "Snow White and Prince Charming together forever."
"What are you talking about Emma?" Mary Margaret looked taken aback.
"August," Emma snapped. "Or Pinocchio, whatever his name is. The little boy you sent through with me."
"Emma we didn't send anyone with you." Mary Margaret said slowly. "The portal only took one."
"It took two Mary Margaret." Emma shook her head. "August is Pinocchio, just grown up."
"It took two?" Emma could see the pain and devastation on Mary Margaret's face. It surprised her. But there was something else, a quickly growing anger. "I should have seen it. That liar. He betrayed us, they lied to us. They kept us from being with you."
"Are you saying you didn't know?" Emma asked slowly.
"Oh sweetheart..." The anger disappeared from Mary Margaret's face and was immediately replaced with a sorrow and a love so strong it almost pained Emma to look at her mother. "Is that what you've thought all this time. That we abandoned you? That we chose to send you away so we could stay together?"
"Kind of." Emma mumbled.
"No baby, no." Mary Margaret quickly took Emma's hand into her own. "That couldn't be farther from the truth. We were told the wardrobe could only take one. I was supposed to go in while I was pregnant with you. We were supposed to be together. But you came early and..." Mary Margaret sighed. "We sent you because we thought it was the only way you would survive. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I felt like my heart was being ripped from me when I watched your father walk out that door with you. Sweetheart you have to know, if we had known… if we had known I could have been with you this entire time I would have been in that wardrobe in a heartbeat. I would have done anything for you, even be separated from your father for 16 years, that's how much we love you."
Emma was in shock. This revelation changed so much. To know that someone had wanted to choose her over everything else, had been willing to give up the love of their life to protect her because they loved her so much, well that was something she had never experienced before. "Well I guess that changes things a little bit."
"Yea, I can understand your anger now." Mary Margaret gave a small smile. "I mean I'm furious. I want to kill Gepetto for what he did."
"Yea well..." Emma shrugged, not wanting to get to comfortable. "You guys will move on"
"What do you mean?" Mary Margaret asked.
"I mean lets face it. I'm the one who really got screwed in this situation. The time we lost I can never get back." Emma glanced down. "But you can always have another kid. Another shot at your picture perfect family."
"Is that what you really think your father and I want?" Mary Margaret asked sadly.
"It's what I would do." Emma didn't look up.
"Emma." Mary Margaret tilted her daughter's chin up so they were looking eye to eye. "Have I ever told you the story if how you were even possible?"
"What do you mean?" Emma asked.
"I've told you we have a lot of enemies in our world. Enemies that would do anything to destroy our family, including our chance to have you." Mary Margaret started. "Emma your grandfather, he poisoned me, cursed me so that I may never have a child."
"Oh yea." Emma nodded. "I've heard this one. It was in that book. The waters from Lake Nostos, they healed you. They allowed you to have children."
"Yes that's true." Mary Margaret nodded. "But the curse was a very powerful one Emma. One that could not be completely removed by a few drops of water. The waters only healed me partially, enough to have one child. Enough to have you. You are the only child your father and I will ever have, and I wouldn't trade that for the world. You are wonderful and amazing and strong and smart and beautiful. I couldn't have dreamed a more amazing daughter. I will never regret anything about you. You are our miracle." Emma looked away, tears in her eyes. Mary Margaret rubbed her hand. "What is it?"
"I'm just not used to someone talking about me like that..." Emma shook her head. "To someone loving me as much as you guys do."
"Well get used to it." Mary Margaret smiled. "We're family and that's what we do. We love each other even when we want to kill each other. But most of all we never give up on one another. We will always find each other."
"That's kind of our family thing huh?" Emma asked.
"It sure is. And you seem to have inherited that trait from us too." Mary Margaret added. "You found us in vast and unknown world."
"I'm sorry." Emma suddenly said.
"For what?" Mary Margaret asked.
"For being such a brat about all of this." Emma explained. "For pushing you guys away when all you wanted to do was help me.
"Emma you do not owe me an apology." Mary Margaret shook her head. "You have suffered so much your entire life and you thought your father and I cared more about being with each other than being with you. I can't blame you for your anger. And as for the pushing us away? It's ok. That's what being a parent is, being there for your child when they tell you you're the last thing they want. Especially when they let you know you're the last thing they want. I know you have a lot of anger and a lot of pain. I know it will take some time to work though. But we will work through it, together. Because that's what families do."
"How can you be so sure everything will be fine?" Emma asked.
"Because I have faith." Mary Margaret assured her daughter. "I know I love you and your father very much. I know id do anything for you. We have a very powerful kind of love in our family. It somehow helps us beat all the odds."
Emma nodded. "You know I don't blame August, or Gepetto for that matter. He was just trying to save his son. He did for August what you did for me."
"You can forgive him…" Mary Margaret said sadly. "But not me?"
"I've been angry at you for my entire life." Emma explained. "I was angry at him for like five seconds. The situations are a little different"
"Do you even want to forgive me?" Mary Margaret asked, fear in her voice.
Emma hesitated, unsure of how to answer. She took a deep breath. "I do. I just don't know how." Emma could see her mother struggling for what to say next. Emma spoke up, saving her the trouble. "There are a few things that I do know. That I have some amazing friends. That I have an awesome aunt that would do anything for me. That I live in a town surrounded by people who love you and somehow that's reason enough for them to love me. That I have Connor, a boy who loves me, who I love. And who I'm angry at and confused about because he is now two people and I only feel in love with the part that betrayed me. And then there's you and David. And I know that you love me very very much… And I know that I love you."
"Emma." Mary Margaret put her hand to her mouth, tears in her eyes.
"I have for a while now." Emma continued. "I just didn't know how to admit it, to myself or to you."
"Sweetheart." Mary Margaret seemed lost for words.
"You're not going to cry are you?" Emma joked.
"I think that ship has sailed." Mary Margaret let out a small laugh. She pulled her daughter into a hug, kissing her head. "You want to know something?"
"What?" Emma asked.
Mary Margaret laid her head on her daughter's, enjoying this perfect moment in her life. "You are the greatest gift this life will ever give me."
