It's today. Today is it.

Mal puts her crown on for probably the last time before it goes to the museum to wait for Zach to find a bride. Her hair is already done. Her dress is a slightly different version of the one she wore to Ben's coronation over twenty years ago. In the bathroom, Ben is dabbing on cologne and messing with his hair. He stops when he sees her and pulls her towards the mirror. It's somewhat a tradition for Ben to do her makeup for all these fancy royal events and has been ever since she and Evie stopped living together. He brushes powder over her eyelids and cups her face as he finishes her eyeliner and mascara. She still blushes when he picks up a tube of lipstick and drags his fingers along the underside of her jaw before sliding an even coat over her mouth. More than twenty years and it's still a sensual act. He smirks as he does her bottom lip, pausing to let his gaze flick to hers. She squirms a little and he laughs.

"Care to kiss this all off of me?" She asks with a sigh.

"Not right now," he rolls his eyes as he slides a hand around her back and pulls her flush against his side. "Are you ready now?"

She examines their reflections. He's wearing a very similar suit to the one he was coronated in as well. She tries to remember what they both looked like when he was first crowned and compares them now. Her hair is less vibrant. She's getting older now, and the purple doesn't grow in as strong. There are smile lines around her mouth. Her hips are wider and her skin is much, much softer. Both age and not fighting as much have softened her. Ben is taller. He finished his growth spurt after sixteen. He has muscles in his jaw that he didn't have before from clenching it during meetings. They both have this light in their eyes that must have sunk in at some point during their marriage and subsequent raising of three children. It's something reflected in both their irises that tells the world they love each other and they love what they've chosen to do and they love each of their children on top of all of that.

"Where's Zach?" Ben finally asks, leaning his head on hers.

"I think in his room," Mal parts from his side. "I'll go get him."

She wanders back through their home and past the living room to go find Zach's bedroom. His door is open, and she's not all that surprised to find him sitting on his bed and reading through his very old, well-loved dictionary.

He looks up when she enters and smiles. "Hi mom," he whispers. Mal smiles like it's the first time he ever said that word to her and sits down beside him for a hug. He towers over her, just a little bit shorter than Ben is now, and Mal mourns the days he could fit in both of her hands.

"Hi baby," she whispers against his shoulder. He chuckles at the old, still annoying nickname. On days like today, when they're alone, it's not as annoying. Only endearing. "You ready for today?"

"I guess," Zach sighs and leans back against the wall. "I'm just kinda… taking it all in."

He looks like her. No one can deny it. Her face is hidden underneath all of that hair he inherited from Ben. He's her son and he has her mouth and eyes and nose and everything. It somehow seems masculine even though she knows she has a very feminine face.

He exhales as he looks around the room. Mal sees his gaze land on the bookshelf that they built together, her him and Ben. His eyes drift to his diploma, framed on the wall, and to the pictures of their family and his friends and girls he thinks are pretty taped up behind his desk. They skim all the journals he's gone through over the years and his mouth twists into a chuckle at the one lone composition notebook. He reaches for the guitar leaning against his headboard and strums the chords softly, looking for something to fill the room.

"I didn't feel like I was growing up that fast, but now I'm confused at what happened to all the time," he exhales and glances over at her. He blinks in surprise for a few moments as if he doesn't recognize her. Mal touches her hair self-consciously.

"It goes by fast," she nods. "Of course, you went a bit faster than Belle and Tyler, but they're still growing fast too."

Zach's mouth turns into a little smile that she's seen all too many times in the mirror and captured by nosy cameramen. "Thank you," he whispers and puts her hand on top of his. "For everything. I mean, Dad helped a lot, but you were always my favorite parent."

Mal almost jumps back in shock. "Really?" She gasps and wipes hurriedly at the tears filling her eyes. "Why? I thought that Ben… Dad would have been your favorite. I mean, he's so smart and patient…"

Zach shakes his head and reaches on his headboard for something hidden behind his pillows. He pulls out an origami action figure. A beast. On his blue coat is written the year Zach received him, at age seven. "Well, Dad did know a lot, and I couldn't always talk about what I was learning to you, but you were there for the real stuff. You drove me to school and you made us snacks and you skipped meetings when we were sick…and when I was little I remember that even if Dad was the one tucking me in, you'd still come in and kiss my forehead." He gives her this sheepish, shy smile that isn't quite hers, but she could still imagine herself doing it. "I always pretended I was asleep."

He puts the action figure back down in its protected spot and keeps talking. "You carried us inside when we pretended to be asleep in the car and let us fall asleep on you during movies. You made me do things I hated because you knew it'd teach me patience and hard work and you fixed things when I didn't do them quite right… Mom, I love you. You were the one person I knew would love me and keep me safe no matter what."

Mal feels a bit embarrassed to be crying as hard as she is over this. She wipes furiously at her eyes, knowing she'll have to get Ben to redo all her makeup. "Don't you think I'm an idiot?" She asks, hiccupping. "I'm never going to be as smart as you are."

"What? No! I could never think you were an idiot! To be honest when I was a preteen I just assumed you knew everything because you always had the answers I needed when I went to ask you stuff and you always knew how to say things so that it helped."

"But I don't know about cells and DNA and the spiral things!"

"Who cares? You knew about how to get girls to like me and how to keep me safe and I'm pretty sure that if I had needed to hide a body, you would have known how to help with that too. I mean, Mom, we didn't need security around if you were going with us because the guards knew you'd keep us safe! Do you know how annoying it was to have to take two guards for every person when Dad took us somewhere without you? Of course not! You didn't need them. We knew you'd protect us."

Mal waves her hands at her eyes frantically. "You really think I'm a good mom?" she gasps, trying to stay her tears. "Because I've seriously been thinking all these years that you were going to grow up and accept the fact I know nothing about math and science and just cease to talk to me."

"Mom, I would never do that!" Zach wraps his arms around her and buries his face in her shoulder. "You're the most important person in my life. When I grow up, I want to find someone just like you."

Mal sobs unashamedly, kissing Zach's head and drawing little patterns on his back until her tears calm down. When all is silent again, she hears Zach take a breath and whisper: "It sucks that I'm too tall for hugs like these." He ducks out from under her arm and instead picks her up so he can hug her to his chest, almost exactly like his dad does when she needs extra comfort. She kisses his cheek and hugs him around his neck for several minutes before there's a knock at the door and they both look over to see Ben standing and waiting for them.

Ben rolls his eyes. "You've ruined your makeup," he reprimands softly.

Mal hiccups and wipes her eyes. "I bet," she mumbles.

"The carriage is ready to take you down to the cathedral, Zach," Ben calls. "We'll be taking the fast way in the family car."

"Okay," Zach sighs and sets Mal back down on the bed. He gives her one last hug and a kiss on the cheek. "I love you, Mom," he says.

"I love you too, Zach," Mal replies, wiping tears off of her cheeks.

Zach shakes his dad's hand and they exchange hugs and 'I love you's before Zach leaves the room and Ben helps Mal stand back up.

She looks around the room one last time. She remembers bringing him home to this room. Remembers taking down the crib. Remembers guiding him through his first books. There's the guitar in the corner she made him play and the sheets she picked out for him. There's the bookcase she put up and the journals she made him write. This room is his but the fingerprints of all her hard work are all over it.

Ben fixes her makeup and then Belle's. Mal helps Tyler with his tie and his wild hair. They get in the car and head over to the cathedral together, arriving twenty minutes before Zach will. The car feels empty without her oldest reading in the back or passenger seat. His girlfriend is in the carriage with him – they picked her up on the way. Live TV is rolling, cell phones are out as her son comes down the road. He helps her out, they come up to the doors where Ben and Mal wait, and Mal can't help but think everything about this day is perfect.

Nothing about it is easy, but everything is perfect.

And when she watches Ben's old crown go down on Zach's head, she wouldn't have her life go any other way.