The comfortable silence continued until thankfully, Charming started to shuffle from his spot on the sofa and his eyes slowly flickered open.
"Mal?" He whispered hoarsely, his hand reaching out blindly for that of the dragon.
"I'm here, David," Mal assured him as she reached out to take hold of his flailing hand. Instantly, Charming's face warmed up as if just the feel of Maleficent's skin was enough to strengthen him, his ashen pallor regained some vitality. It was almost as if dragon's fire was breathed into his very skin. "Don't try to move, you're still healing."
"I'm okay," he croaked as he gently started to sit up, ignoring Mal's suggestion. He gripped her hand tightly, but she didn't wince.
"She told you so," Emma said as she raised her eyebrow at her father, it was definitely a habit she had picked up from the Mayor, but it was no less effective.
Due to their close age, she got away with treating him like a child sometimes. It was a strange dynamic between the two of them as they easily floated between friends, colleagues, father and daughter, and even similarly to mother and son, and it never phased them. They had grown so close over the past year, really since Neverland but especially since she had returned from New York, and she absolutely adored it. It was just easy.
"I'm fine," Charming insisted, his voice still a little croaky so Emma flicked her wrist and conjured a glass of water. She passed it to him and he sipped it slowly. Emma and Maleficent allowed him to finish the glass before they spoke.
"What happened?" Emma asked after she'd taken the empty glass away from her father.
"Is that pizza?" Charming countered before picking up the final slice in the box and taking a bite despite the fact that it was cold.
Maleficent rolled her eyes. "You and food, I swear. It seems that's something you and our daughter have in common."
Charming chuckled before wincingly slightly.
The older dragon raised her eyebrow and shot him a look that said I told you so, instead of actually saying it aloud as Emma had but Charming just stuck his tongue out. Emma expected Maleficent to react to something so childish, but she just chuckled at his antics. Proving again that she was used to his behaviour.
"I'll go get some more," Emma said and she started to stand up.
"No," Charming called quickly. "Don't leave. This slice is fine, but maybe you could just warm it up?"
Emma rolled her eyes but sat back down as her father requested. She waved her hand over the slice to reheat it as her father had requested. While she was using her magic, she decided to arrange for some drinks and conjured up a teapot and three mugs. Automatically, two were filled with tea, milk and two sugars but the final was empty.
Turning to Maleficent, Emma bit her lip. "I don't know how you take your tea…"
Maleficent's smiled warmly and waved her hand. The teapot rose once more and poured into the final mug. Half a teaspoon of sugar was added but no milk.
"Now I know," Emma said, executing a nod as if trying to store it in her long-term memory like she had her father's preference. All she needed to do now was forget how Snow took hers, which was with far too much sugar, she noted now that the former Princess must have been trying to sweeten herself up in any way she could.
Now everyone had their drinks, Maleficent lifting Charming's up so that he didn't have to bend over, Emma turned back to her father. "Are you sure you're alright?"
Charming nodded as he took another bite of the pizza and took a sip of his tea. He sighed and grinned at the taste; Emma was always able to make it spot on for him, in fact he wasn't even sure that she'd ever even asked for his preference. "I'm feeling much better than I was. I have my girls, food and pizza. What could be better?"
At that, Emma raised her eyebrow. "I'm sure a lot of things could be better than this. What happened, Dad? You took ages and I know Ashley only lives down the road. What did Snow and Lily do?"
For a moment, Charming didn't respond. He just finished the slice of pizza. "Can you get Regina and Henry? I don't want to explain it over again and they should hear it first-hand too."
Emma nodded and stood up now that her father had actually allowed her to vacate the room however momentarily. She entered the dining room but found it empty, so she picked up one of the leftover boxes of pizza so that her father could eat some more before she headed to the living room where everyone had decided to go instead.
Henry and Ruby were entertaining Neal on the rug with some toys that Regina and Elsa had conjured up. Emma quickly glanced over at her brother, checking on him, but there was no need to worry; Emma could see he was thoroughly enjoying himself with the ice figurines. As hard as he smashed them on the floor, they didn't break due to Elsa's magic, but he was determined. His brow was furrowed with as much concentration as an almost one year old could muster as he slammed the figurine up and down.
As Emma walked in, everyone, including Neal who was still holding an ice figurine in his hand, turned towards her. They all looked worried but ready to accept the news. However, there was an almost palpable release of tension when they noticed that Emma didn't look upset or panicked meaning that Charming must be okay.
"Hen, Gina, can we borrow you?" Emma asked. "Dad's woken up."
Henry nodded and stood up. Neal started to crawl after his nephew which made the women laugh before Ruby gently pulled him back as Elsa got on the floor beside them. As he realised that Henry was leaving and he couldn't go with him, Neal started to tear up.
"It's okay, Neal," Elsa cooed as she flicked her wrist, producing another ice figurine, one that looked remarkably like Henry. "Henry is still with us."
The toddler eyed the figurine before flashing a gummy smile at the Ice Queen. He grabbed the miniature frozen Henry happily and continued playing with Ruby.
Regina stood up and made her way over to her family at the door. She slipped her hand into Emma's naturally. "Is he alright?"
Emma nodded. "He seems to be. I'll give him some more pizza and then he can tell us what happened."
At that, Regina chuckled. "You Charmings really do love your food."
Emma winked and laughed as they followed Henry who had now walked into the study ahead of them. "You bet."
When they arrived, they saw that Charming was now sitting up beside Maleficent who had moved to sit beside him. Her hand was still firmly in his. Henry was sitting on the opposite sofa at the edge to allow his mothers to sit beside him. Usually Henry never hesitated to sit beside his grandfather as the two bonded over the manly things that Regina had deemed too dangerous like sword fighting, but this time, he'd opted to sit opposite to allow Maleficent to sit beside her partner.
As Emma entered holding the pizza box, Charming's eyes lit up. "Is that more pizza?"
"Yep," Emma said with a chuckle in her voice. She flicked her wrist to reheat the pizza before passing it over to Charming to take another piece. He licked his lips and grinned happily as he took another bite.
"Can you tell us what's going on?" Henry asked.
He'd been sitting in the living room anxiously to hear an update about his grandfather, so much so that he was subconsciously kicking the sofa which was driving everyone slowly around the bend. It had then been Regina who suggested he distracted Neal who was now very much awake and pulling on Ruby's hair. The wolf had taken over holding him after Regina's arms started to grow tired after taking him back from Belle.
Swallowing, Charming nodded and placed his half-eaten pizza slice back in the box before he started his story. His jokey manner faded almost immediately as he grew serious.
"I had hoped to get to Ashley's before Snow could arrive," he began. "I knew it was a mistake telling her where Neal was, but she was worried and as his mother, I thought she had a right to know, but I regret that now. By the time I arrived at Ashley's, I was too late."
Flashback
As Charming approached Ashely's house, the only thoughts he had were to collect his son and to spend the rest of the evening catching up with the woman revealed to be his True Love and their daughter along with caring for his son. He saw no reason to believe that wouldn't be the case as Snow and Lily had disappeared. From how Snow had ignored Neal's presence the day before, leaving him in the apartment on his own, he hadn't thought she'd consider the child a priority now. If he were truly honest, Snow had never really been so keen on their son; she had wanted a true fresh start, complete with another daughter. So really, Neal was a bit of a let-down and Emma, Charming, Regina, and even Elsa and Belle had pretty much been taking turns to raise him. So, in Charming's opinion, Snow would not be interested now.
However, that all came shattering down not even thirty seconds after Ashley opened the front door once he had knocked. Her brow furrowed in confusion at the former shepherd's presence.
"David? What are you doing here?" She asked. "Snow and her friend came to get Neal about five minutes ago. I thought you'd know she was coming to get him."
Panic filled Charming's veins in seconds. "Where have they gone?" He demanded.
"Home, they said," Ashley replied, her voice shaking with fear at the sudden flip in Charming's personality. She had known David a long time, he was always pretty even keeled, something had to be terribly wrong. This was emphasised by her husband joining them at the door in seconds at hearing the tone.
"What's going on?" He asked, his eyes flicking between his wife and Charming.
"I have to go," Charming said without apologising to Ashley for his behaviour or explaining what was going on to Sean. He had more pressing things to worry about, he could apologise later when he knew his son was safe. Instead, he ran from the front door, all the way back to the apartment, hoping to a god he didn't believe in that Snow had meant it when she said she was going home when she said so to Ashley. He didn't want to have to search all of Storybrooke, and if he did have to, he would have to enlist all of his family and friends from Regina's, by which point it would most likely be too late.
As he reached the familiar apartment block, he threw the main door open and took the stairs two at a time, shooting up the stairs in record time. His hand was on the handle braced to open it as he overheard what was being said on the other side of the door which made him pause.
"We don't want their influences, do we, Neal?" Lily was cooing to the baby. "Mother and I will raise you how you should be raised. You'll be as dark as us. You'll be our weapon against the pure ones."
Pure anger replaced the blood that pumped around his body. The amount of times he had stood up for Lily against the other members of Operation Dots was uncountable and every time someone had told him that she would ruin everything had fallen on deaf ears. Until then, he had only had the mantra that it was his fault that Lily was as she was because he hadn't been there for her, but hearing the evil words which spewed from her mouth was enough to change his mind completely; from this day on, he was done with his oldest daughter.
Without waiting any longer to hear what Snow would say in response to Lily's comments, he burst through the front door to see that Lily and Snow were hovering above Neal as he played on his mat. Neal's back was to them so he wouldn't see what was going on if things got out of hand. He hoped they wouldn't, but he could no longer predict Lily's mood swings, nor Snow's mindset.
"Get away from my son!" Charming cried as he rushed forward but Lily strode in front of the infant, blocking his path.
Snow looked up and gazed at him as if Christmas had come early. He used to love the way she looked at him as it made him feel important but now it just made him sick because it was sheer obsession. Snow had never loved him. She had loved the idea of being in love with him. It wasn't True Love's Kiss that woke her from Regina's curse. He had learnt that it was her love of being saved by a prince that had woken her. Any prince could have broken that curse. It was one of many lies she had told him.
Slowly, Snow rose to her feet and started making her way towards Charming, but before she could speak, Lily got there first. Her reaction was nothing like her mother's. She looked furious at the audacity he had of walking into his own home. It was as if his presence had flipped the switch in her personality this time.
"You signed away your rights to him when you chose them," Lily spat as she crossed her arms. "You promised me a family, but I saw you go with them. You will always choose Emma over me and you will always choose Maleficent over Mother. What's to say you won't choose them over Neal too?"
"Why do you care?" Charming snapped, his patience more than lost. "You refused to believe that Snow was even your mother and even before we knew the truth, you were working with her. Why?"
"I don't need to tell you anything, daddy dearest," Lily replied with a nasty smirk. "As it turns out, Snow is my mother and we're making up for lost time. I told you I always wanted a family with my parents and this is it right here." She motioned to the four of them in the room. "My mother, father and little brother. This is where we belong, but you chose them."
The disgust in Lily's voice as she spoke about Emma and Maleficent only fuelled Charming's anger, he felt close to losing it, a rarity. Not just because he was angry at them, but partially the fury was because he now blatantly preferred one daughter over the other. He had never wanted to turn into King George who had always preferred James. Yet it was easy to do when Lily was as dark as they come and Emma was just like him.
Snow finally stepped forward from where she had been standing behind Lily. "Have you really chosen them?" Her voice was timid, she spoke like a child that had just been told they couldn't have any more cake. "You promised me you'd never leave me, Charming. You promised you'd always find me."
Charming inhaled sharply. He was done with Snow and it was time he faced the music.
"I am leaving you, Snow," Charming confirmed, feeling brave. "I don't love you anymore and you know you don't love me."
The sadness on Snow's face suddenly twisted into something ugly as her face became a visage of fury. Her eyes turned almost into flames. With speed Charming didn't know Snow possessed, she picked up her bow and notched an arrow, ready to fly at a second's notice at him.
"You're not leaving me!" She cried. She pulled her arm back, ready to loose the arrow. "If I can't have you, no one can!"
There was a look of determination in her eyes that Charming had never seen in all the years he had known her and for the first time in Snow's presence, he feared for his life. He truly thought she was going to launch the arrow and he swallowed nervously. Glancing over, he saw that Neal was still none the wiser to what was happening which was a blessing and he believed that that view of his son would be his final view.
However, as suddenly as the bow was ready, it was back on the floor. Snow dropped it and burst into tears. "I can't do it. I can't kill the man I love!"
Charming breathed out a sigh of relief but it was too early to celebrate as Lily uncrossed her arms and flung her hands by her sides, both full of conjured fire. It was only then that he finally noticed that she was no longer wearing the cuff that now laid abandoned on the kitchen table, but it was too far away for him to reach for it without being noticed.
"Then I'll do it!" She hissed, although there seemed to a frisson of pain shooting through her as she channelled the magic, her body bowing slightly from the effort. "I'll defend your honour and kill him for you, Mother."
The look of pure evil shone in her eyes and she now longer resembled her father. She was the epitome of evil. Her body seemed to shake with the darkness that had taken over her. Her eyes deepened from red to black and her face grew pale as if a monster was taking over her.
Lily threw her arms out and Charming was magically forced across the room, crashing into the ladder. He felt his head hit the cold metal, the thrumming through his skull confirmed it, but when Neal started to cry at the sudden sound, he knew he couldn't concentrate on it. His son needed him despite his head injury. He was starting to wish that he'd taken up Elsa's offer to accompany him, but he had declined as he hadn't thought he'd need magical back up to do a mundane task. In fact, he rather wished that any of the others, even those without magic were here to back him up.
Adrenaline pumping through his veins, he shot back to his feet, ignoring the wooziness and the slightly blurry vision. Despite that, he registered that Lily had changed her tactic and was now hurling fireballs at him, however, they were diminishing rapidly in size until they were no bigger than a golf ball as she was unable to gather enough power to make them larger.
Charming managed to duck the first fireball that was launched at him and he threw his shoulder back just in time to dodge the second. However, he wasn't so lucky with the third which brushed his forearm, burning it instantly. He gasped out in pain and quickly hit it with his palm to put out the flame, but it was too late to stop the burns from forming. There was a deep red gash on his lightly tanned skin.
He knew he needed to get out of there and fast, but the pain was worsening by the second. He could feel the blood dripping from his head from hitting it on the ladder but all he cared about was his son who was still crying. He couldn't leave Neal with them. Lily was too focussed on attacking him and Snow was torn between egging their daughter on and wanting to save her husband that she'd characteristically completely forgotten the existence of their son.
With the final bit of his strength, Charming shot towards the table and picked up the cuff. With the luck of the fairies on his side, he managed to weave through the onslaught of fireballs, which were getting smaller by the second, to get close enough to his daughter to slip the cuff securely around her wrist. As soon as it made contact, the fireballs stopped and she screeched with frustration but Charming pushed passed her, knocking her into Snow and the two tumbled to the ground like bowling skittles. He rushed over to his son and picked him up as carefully as he could with his burnt arm before running from the building and towards the Mansion as quickly as his injuries would allow. If he could get back to his family, they would be fine, he chanted to himself as he pushed his way toward Regina's.
End of flashback
When Charming finished his story, the small audience just stared at him with their mouths open in shock at the particulars of his tale. Lily had become Snow's knight in shining armour at the drop of a hat and had completely changed her opinion on the woman. It was confusing to say the least.
"Thank god Snow didn't let go of the arrow," Maleficent murmured as she squeezed Charming's hand as he hadn't let go. Even at times when he'd gotten frustrated and gripped harder, turning both of their knuckles white, she hadn't released his grasp to show that she was there for him no matter what.
"And you managed to get Neal out of there with him unharmed," Emma added. She had been so relieved to see that her brother was in one piece after everything her father had told them had happened. Despite how much she sometimes struggled with his name, she loved her brother fiercely and would protect him to the ends of the earth. After all, she had had a large part in raising him up to this point. "I could kill them both for what they did."
Charming nodded. "I know. I dread to think what would have happened if I let them keep him. I can't let her near him again."
"We'll conjure a repelling spell," Regina assured him. "She won't get within two metres of him without being flung back over and over again. Neither of them will. But I'll need help to make it as powerful as we can and Emma needs to rest after, you know, turning into a dragon today." She turned to Emma with a small smile on her face.
"I'll help in the morning," she promised.
"I will too," Mal added.
Charming turned to her, his eyebrows high with surprise that she would willingly help Snow's son.
"He's your son too," she said as if she'd heard his silent thought. "I'll more than happily help him."
"I love you," Charming gushed as if he couldn't hold it back. He pulled Maleficent close and kissed her lightly.
"Gross," Henry commented and pulled a face.
"Ignore him," Emma said when Mal blushed at the comment. "Teenagers."
Henry rolled his eyes at his mother's interjection before returning the conversation about Snow, no longer freaked out at the sight of his grandfather and his newfound grandmother kissing. "Can't you arrest her for neglect? I mean, she literally left Neal on his own. He's not even one yet. Thank god he can't walk yet to hurt himself."
Emma shook her head. "I'm not having her locked up at the station with us. She'd drive us insane, and I imagine I'd have to arrest one of us for her murder. For now, we'll cast the spell in the morning so that she can't get anywhere near him. That's the safest bet for everyone right now."
"What I don't get is why she's suddenly became like this," Henry said with a sigh. "She used to be normal. I never thought I'd say it, but I think I preferred Mary Margaret, the goody two shoes. At least she was stable, if a little too perky now that I think about it."
"I wouldn't say Snow was ever normal," Regina replied. "But I'm not sure why either. Mother always said she was a wrong one and as much as it infuriates me to admit this, it turns out she was right."
"So, what do we do?" Henry asked. He glanced between his mothers, worrying his lip as was a habit he'd picked up from Emma. "How do we stop Snow and get rid of Lily quickly?"
Emma sighed. "There's only one thing we can do, Kid, whether we like it or not. We allow the prophecy to be fulfilled. Sooner rather than later. There's nothing else for it."
"But if you lose, that'll solve nothing!" Henry cried, panic thick in his voice. There was nothing worse he could imagine than a life without one of his two mothers now that he had them both back.
"Then we'd better hope I don't!" Emma replied as she reached out to stroke her son's hair. "Do you believe in me, Henry?"
Henry's eyes widened in complete shock that his mother would ask such a thing. "Of course, I do!"
"Then I'll be absolutely fine, Kid," Emma assured him. "You have the heart of the Truest Believer. As long as you're on my side, there's no way I can lose."
After hearing those words, Henry shot into his mother's arms just as she opened them wide and hugged her close. Emma rested her chin on his head and continued to stroke his hair softly. She adored holding her son close. As he was getting older, his hugs were becoming less frequent but whenever he allowed them, she soaked up the happiness that always bubbled up. However, as she looked over the top of her son's head, she mirrored the worried looks that reflected back at her.
Charming, Mal and Regina all exchanged glances as the same thought ran through their minds as it did in Emma's. It didn't matter what Emma said to Henry. Even with the amount of belief he had in her and despite the fact that he did have the heart of the Truest Believer, the prophecy could still go against her as it had been written years ago. She could only hope that it did go their way as she wasn't ready to give up her family, not when it had finally been completed. As she looked around the room, she met the eyes of her parents and her girlfriend. She had too much to lose. She had to win for them if not for herself. No, she would win; there was no other possible outcome.