AN: Thanks for the incredible response to this new Snowing story! I'm really excited about this one and blending the worlds of Once and Manifest. And it seems my readers are too. I did not classify this as a crossover, because that's not really what it is. This is a Manifest type story with mostly Once characters. I have kept a couple Manifest characters and a few minor ones may pop up. The notable Manifest characters I have kept so far are Vance and Olive as Snowing's daughter. You also do not have to worry about any love triangles for Snowing. That's not my thing and this will always be a Snowing story.
Another thing to note is that I've taken some liberties with the relationships as well. Most notably, Emma and David are siblings and they grew up with Mary Margaret, so Emma and Mary Margaret are very close as well. Due to Robert being a drunk after Ruth dies, David and Mary Margaret pretty much raised Emma while raising themselves. Another thing to note, Henry is in the place of Cal here as Snowing's son and Emma's nephew. Most everything else will become clear as you read. I hope you enjoy this new story and join me on another journey. This one will update on Monday nights. Chapter 2 tonight and and then this one will go to bi-weekly updates on Monday nights. Please leave a review and give feedback! It is much appreciated and here are individual responses to reviews:
Ghostwriter: Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.
Grace5231973: Me too, I'm glad she went home with her father too. Yep, she may have what it takes to save Henry. Yeah, unfortunately, Killian moved on, because their meeting here was kind of cute. You know Gold, he may not know why this family is important exactly, but he has a feeling they are and knows it will something to watch. Glad you're enjoying it! You probably do, but I won't spoil it yet. :)
Jennifer Baratta: Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Number Ten: Yeah, but he thought she was dead, so it happens. What's happening to Emma comes from what happens in Manifest with the passengers. They're called Callings. Cora was not really what I would call loving, but yeah she's less evil here...for now. Glad you're enjoying it.
Guest: Thanks, glad you like it. There is a lot of potential and it's going to be a fun story. :)
Sexystarwarslover: Glad you love it! He is for certain, the best TV dad ever. Yep, Gold is onto something. Yes, Regina is a doctor. Yeah, as usual, Cora is the worst. Yep, Regina's research may save Henry. No, Margaret only needs David, her Prince Charming. Yep, that's when Killian and Emma met. Unfortunately, the plane happened and he moved on. I love Graham too and maybe he won't die here. Yep, the plane saved Henry, that's pretty clear now and Margaret has her family back so she's all in with the Callings. :)
AnonSnowing: I know, I like Vance so I had to keep him and him interacting with Gold is just funny I think. Yep, Cora and Leopold. Regina and Margaret have no idea they're step-sisters now. They never explained how they got the research. My guess is whatever happened to the plane is responsible for somehow transmitting her research to the hospital. Yep, Emma had a calling and it's starting. Yep, there might be someone else out there for Emma. *wink*. I know, that was a heartbreaking scene for Margaret, but David helped her realize that maybe this had to happen so they could save Henry. Glad you're enjoying the Nolan family. :)
Lightning in a Bottle
Chapter 4: All Things Work Together For Good
Emma idly shopped for a few items in the store and picked up some essentials. Her attention was caught though when she heard his voice on a television playing nearby. She looked up to see Detective Killian Rogers giving a statement to the press about two missing girls. It seemed that her ex had made quite a name for himself while she was gone.
After paying for her items, she rode the bus back to her brother and sister-in-law's house and while the kids were playing a game, she managed to get his attention. She pointed to the backyard and he followed her, before she collapsed onto the swing.
"What's up?" he asked.
"Something happened today," she replied.
"Okay...what's going on Em?" he asked.
"This is going to sound crazy...but I kept hearing this voice. I was on a bus and it was my voice telling us to slow down. I tried to ignore it, but it just got louder then. And...when I screamed at the bus driver, he stopped, just in time for a little boy to run out in front of the bus," she explained. She saw her brother straighten his shoulders and she could almost see the gears turning in his head as he tried to process what she was telling him.
"You've always had good instincts when it comes to helping people. That's why you became a cop," he reasoned.
"This wasn't instinct, David," she protested.
"Even if it wasn't...keep it to yourself," he urged.
"I tell you and MM everything," she reminded him.
"You know I'm not talking about MM…" he said, as he leaned closer.
"But if the NSA hears that a passenger is hearing voices in their head...we'll all end up in some government lab somewhere," he warned. She wanted to refute that claim, but knew he was right. They were being closely watched; of that she knew wholeheartedly.
"You coming inside for dinner?" he asked.
"Uh...no I think I need some air. I'm going to take a walk," she replied. He sighed.
"Em…" he started to protest, but she forced a smile.
"I'm fine...save me some?" she asked. He rolled his eyes and then nodded.
After a nice, quiet family dinner together, they cleaned up the kitchen and then sat curled together on the couch, watching the kids play a board game at the table nearby.
"I never thought I'd have this again…" Margaret gushed, as she cuddled against him and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
"I can't imagine what you've been through. If I had lost you...for five years, I think I would have lost my mind," he admitted. Her eyes sparkled like emeralds, as she gazed into his eyes and then kissed him tenderly. He kissed her back and felt the familiar passion that was always so strong between them lick at his every nerve.
"Hey Mom...do you still have my dinosaur Lego set?" Henry asked curiously.
"Sure sweetie...I think we packed most of that stuff away in the closet," Margaret answered.
"You kept it all? And Dad's stuff too?" he asked. She looked down a little shyly.
"Well...some people said I should pack it away or give it to Goodwill, but Ollie said we shouldn't. She said that you and daddy were out there somewhere and even though I had my doubts...I wanted so badly to believe her," she said, as she stood up and hugged him.
"Some people said it was unhealthy, but I left your room exactly like it was. Most of the toys are just packed away," she said, as he took her hand and pulled her toward the stairs.
"Can we get them out?" he asked. She chuckled.
"Of course we can," she replied, as she was happy to let him practically drag her up the stairs. David looked on happily, as he saw his daughter putting the game away.
"So...Mom says you're still playing soccer," he mentioned. She nodded and shrugged.
"Yeah...I have a game tomorrow," she replied.
"I'd love to come if that's okay with you," he said. She smiled.
"I know I'm kind of attracting a lot of attention right now so I'll stay away if that makes it weird for you…" he stammered, but she came over to him.
"Screw 'em dad…" she said and he looked surprised, but then probably shouldn't have. She was a teenager now and he chuckled.
"Okay...then I'll be there," he said, as they shared a hug.
"Thanks for never giving up on us, peanut," he whispered to her. She sniffed and snuggled deeper into his embrace.
"They said I was crazy and they pushed mom into sending me to therapy," she confessed.
"I'm so sorry that happened to you," he said.
"It's okay...therapy helped a lot and I stopped telling people that I thought Henry was alive after a while. I moved on...sort of I guess," she replied.
"Good...I'd want you to be happy if we really were gone," he told her. She nodded.
"Mom didn't move on though...people even got pretty pushy about it. I heard them say it wasn't normal," she confessed. He sighed.
"Well...your Mom and I have never really been normal. People have always had a hard time understanding our bond. It was always us against the world and looks like it still is...all of us though. We'll figure all this out together," he promised, as he kissed her hair.
What he said was true and it had really always been that way.
When Ruth died, David was only twelve and stepped up when his father didn't. Margaret had seriously been his rock and the bond they already shared deepened even more in a way that just didn't happen too often. They didn't often discuss the mystical feel it had, because most kids already thought they were weird, but they had always drawn strength from that bond and it had developed into a deep, all encompassing love that was very true and beyond incredible.
Even when life threatened to get in their way, they had refused to allow it and always joined hands to walk through it together. They adopted Ruth's mantra and favorite Bible verse into their lives and had never let go of it.
All Things Work Together For Good
They had done this when facing all adversity. They had done so on the playground and both had gotten into enough dust ups protecting and defending each other against mean kids or bullies.
They had done so when Eva died and then Ruth died just two years later. At both funerals, others around their families had tried to pull them apart or even expressed to their remaining parents that their closeness was inappropriate for their age. Leopold was never around to be concerned enough about Margaret, until she was older and by then she had told her absentee father where he could go. And neither Ruth or Robert, to his credit, had never been shy about defending them either. They considered Margaret as their own and even through all his struggles, that had never changed for Robert.
They had faced and navigated High School much the same way. Again, they were the weird kids, though they had a decent sized group of friends and other misfits they congregated with. Even among the misfits they stood out as an oddity and teachers viewed their closeness as inappropriate and frowned upon it. But even with all of that working against them and society constantly trying to conform them to its parameters, they defied everything that should have and would have torn most apart.
By college, Robert was in rehab and getting sober, while they found a freedom in college. They were no longer looked at as being weird for their close, loving relationship. They excelled in their classes, as they went to get their teaching degrees together. All the bad and uninspiring teachers they had drove them into that profession. They wanted to help kids navigate the difficulties in life. They had each other, but knew a lot of kids weren't as lucky as they were.
It came as no surprise to anyone that they were ready to get married during their second year and Robert, likely in his guilt and overcompensation, had thrown them a giant wedding. He stated that he knew that this would be their only marriage and that it should be celebrated as the true, real life fairy tale that it was. They appreciated his enthusiasm and let him do this for them, in honor of Ruth, because they all knew she would have relished the day they got married and knew she was there in spirit.
Their paths in the education profession diverted in a bit. Margaret always knew that she wanted to focus on early education and knew she'd likely go on to teach at the elementary level. David, being extremely gifted in mathematics, stayed in school an extra year to get his Master's degree. Upon graduating, he started in teaching advanced math at the high school level, but eventually became an associate professor at the University level.
The twins had come along five years later, much to their incredible joy and even through all the years and Henry's cancer, their love had weathered every storm and they had come out the other side loving each other even more. And he knew it would overcome this too.
"Come on...let's go see how many toys your brother has managed to find already," he said. They shared a smile and went upstairs.
Emma wandered the streets, not really paying attention to where she was going and as she rounded another corner, she heard the voice again. But it was saying something different this time.
"Set them free…"
She stopped and saw two dogs locked behind a fence and heard the voice again. By now, she was really freaked out and so ignored the voice's command this time, before hurrying back home.
She was in heaven. Pure, sweet heaven, as he made love to her again. She couldn't get enough, not that she had ever been able to. But five years was far too long to
suffer through without his touch. She had thought this was lost to her. She thought she'd never feel him kiss her again. She thought she'd never feel his hands on her body again. She thought she'd never feel him inside her again.
After, they held each other and cuddled, exchanging soft kisses and soulful gazes.
"What are you thinking?" he asked, as he caressed her face.
"Mmm...that five years is too long. A day is too long for me…" she gushed, as she pressed a kiss to his bare chest.
"I'm never leaving your side again...I promise, for more than a few hours anyway," he promised.
"Then you're going to put your resume out there?" she asked curiously. He nodded.
"I need a job...I mean, we'll be okay for a while I think. We still have some of Mom's money left, right?" he asked. She nodded.
"Yes...the life insurance I got for you is mostly gone, but I paid off the house when I was finally able to pull myself together," she replied. He caressed her face.
"You're amazing...I don't know how you did it," he mentioned.
"I didn't for a while...I was a mess. Your father really came through. He lost his kids and didn't touch a drop. He pretty much took care of Olive, the house, me, the bills around here for like six months and never complained. I couldn't have done it without him," she admitted. He smiled.
"Yeah...dad I need to talk and I need to thank him for taking care of the most precious things to me," he said tearfully. She leaned in and kissed him again, but he pulled away suddenly when he heard a voice.
"David…?" she asked, as she saw him put a hand to his temple.
"Baby...what is it?" she questioned, as he heard it again.
"Set them free…" the voice, his own voice, insisted.
"It's crazy…" he said, not sure how to tell her.
"The plane you were on disappeared for five and half years and then came back. Obviously there is something bigger going on here and if embracing it is my price for getting you back...then I'm all in," she promised. He looked at her and nearly broke down in tears. God she was amazing and he was so lucky. Not many other people would react that way.
"Okay...earlier Emma said that she heard a voice on the bus. It told her to slow down and it was so insistent that she yelled at the bus driver. Before he could give her hell for making him slam on the brakes...a little kid ran out in front of the bus," he explained. She gasped.
"She saved the little boy?" she asked. He nodded.
"I told her to keep it to herself, except you. You know if the government thinks passengers are hearing voices that they'll lock us up in some lab," he replied. She nodded.
"And you just heard something?" she asked. He nodded.
"It said...set them free," he replied and he watched her get up and start putting her clothes on.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"It said set them free so let's go find them," she replied and he looked at her incredulously.
"David...whatever this is…" she said, pausing for a moment.
"It brought you and Henry back to me and if the price of that is doing something for it in return? Then I told you that I'm in. I may not be hearing the voices too, but we're doing this together," she replied and he couldn't help but grin brightly at her.
"Most wives would look at their husbands and tell them they're crazy after what I just told you," he said.
"I'm not most wives and you're not most husbands," she replied, as he started getting dressed.
"We've never been normal, baby...and this is just par for the course," she added, as he kissed her soundly.
"We were holding hands on the playground at eight. You were picking flowers for me at ten and all the rest of my life after that," she added.
"Snowdrops…" he said fondly.
"Only snowdrops," she agreed.
"We had our first kiss at twelve after your Mom died and endured no less than fifteen lectures about how we were too young and we didn't understand love, but that was, crap, as Emma would say," she said passionately.
"Definitely...I knew I was in love with you then," he said.
"We made love for the first time when we were sixteen and endured the glare of every teacher in High School for our closeness that no one else could understand," she replied, as she slipped her arms around his neck.
"I've always felt you in my soul...and that never left me, even when you were gone," she said, as her voice choked a bit. He kissed her tenderly.
"You remember when the study hall teacher caught us making out in the janitor's closet?" he joked. She laughed.
"Which time? And it was worth the detention," she teased, as they melted into each other again, until he heard the voice.
"You heard it again…" she said and he wasn't surprised that she could still read him like a book.
"Yeah...it's not going away," he lamented.
"Come on...Olive will be fine here with Henry for a bit," she insisted, as she led him out. Yes...he was certainly the luckiest man on the planet, he was positive of that.
Not long after she had left the scene with those dogs, the voice returned to plague her. She gave up on sleep, got dressed, and took a bus back to the fence where the dogs were locked up.
"Set them free," the voice told her. She groaned and put her hands on her head. She jumped though, as there were suddenly headlights on her. She squinted, as the car stopped and the doors opened. She was surprised and relieved to find her brother and sister-in-law there.
"Guys...what are you doing?" she asked.
"Set them free," David said, with a note of frustration in his voice.
"I told him that we had to find what this voice is trying to tell you to do," Margaret said. She looked at her in surprise and he shrugged.
"I know...her first reaction to me hearing voices in my head is that we should follow the voices and not that I might be crazy," he joked.
"You are not crazy...and neither are you, Emma. But this...it means something. I'm not hearing anything...but I feel it," she explained.
"You both came back to me...and there is something out there that had to help you do that. All things work together for good," she added. Emma and David exchanged a glance.
"You're a lucky bastard, you know that, right?" Emma asked. He grinned and looked at his wife fondly, before hugging her close to his side.
"Trust me...I know," he agreed. Margaret looked at him with a dreamy stare and then at Emma, before hugging the blonde.
"This has to be so hard…" she fretted and Emma shrugged.
"Killian and I...we're not you guys and I don't think we were ever going to be," she replied.
"That just means that your true love is still out there for you," Margaret promised.
"Yeah...let's not talk about that now," Emma deflected, as her brother heard the voice again.
"Set them free," Emma said. He nodded with uncertainty and got a crowbar out of the car.
"For the record...this is a felony," he said wearily, as they broke the lock. The dogs, instead of attacking, ran off down the street. Curiously though, the voice stopped.
"What the hell was the point of that?" David wondered.
"Dunno...but the voice stopped," Emma replied.
"Then I suggest we go home for now," Margaret said. Emma raised an eyebrow.
"For now?" she asked.
"I think we all know that whatever this is...it's not over," Margaret reasoned. They agreed and got back into the car, as David drove them home.