Before you'd get confused I jumped a little in time - this chapter happens after Emma and Snow got home from the Enchanted Forest. (Hopefully we'll see their second reunion in today's ep.) So basically this takes place after ep 9, even if we haven't seen it yet ;)
I hope you'll enjoy this last chapter :)
Snow entered the small apartment and went straight to her bedroom. She knew exactly what she was looking for, but when she looked at the shelf it was standing on last time she had seen it, she froze. It was gone. Snow was just about to search through the whole room when she heard a cough behind her. Emma came in, smiling and holding the object Snow was looking for in her hand.
"I believe this is what you wanted to find in here." She handed over the picture. "David put it on the kitchen table, so Henry could look at it all the time. You stormed in here so quickly, you probably didn't even notice it." Emma winked at the brunette.
"I just… I…" Snow wasn't sure what to say, but Emma gave her a reassuring look.
"I get it." She glanced at the picture too. "Do you remember when we took this?"
Snow nodded. "How could I forget?"
Emma sighed and a sad smile appeared on her face. "Then you also remember the part when you said you didn't feel home here without something personal after you got back? Well… I didn't say it back then because it was a bit weird feeling like that, but… I felt the same way when you were in jail." She talked to the picture, not daring to look her mother in the eyes. Still, after all this time and all those things they'd been through together, Emma felt shy and uncomfortable talking directly about her feelings with Snow. She guessed it was because she wasn't used to someone like her. Someone who actually cared so much about her.
Emma cleared her throat. "When I got home after a long day, seeing you behind bars, dealing with Regina… This place…" She looked around. "… it just didn't feel like home… not without you."
Emma felt a gentle hand touching her chin and carefully forcing her to look up. She met Snow's eyes. Her mother was most definitely on the edge of crying, but she held herself together. Emma was grateful for that. The brunette's voice was full of love. "From now on we won't need this." Snow lifted the picture, still not taking her eyes off the blonde. "We will stay together, no matter what. I won't leave you, ever again, I promise."
Emma nodded and felt like if her mother was to say anything else she'd burst into tears herself. And she really really wanted to avoid that. Fortunately, Snow lightened the mood. "But! We're still keeping the picture! I had to make a lot of effort to take it!" She winked at Emma and they both laughed. Emma felt relieved, yet there was another thing she wanted to discuss.
"There's also… well, a kinda complicated thing." Snow gave her a puzzled look and waited for further explanation. Emma took a deep breath. "Okay, here's the thing. Are you Mary Margaret?" Snow nodded, still not sure what Emma was aiming at. "But you're Snow as well." The brunette felt the question mark at the end of the sentence, so she nodded again. "I'm sorry, but then I don't really know where that puts us. I mean…"
Emma felt the need to express something she didn't quite understand, which simply made her mumble. "During this crazy adventure we had in that other world, you acted like my mother… But hey! I get it! I do, really, but… It was like… Mary Margaret had disappeared… completlely." She wasn't certain she made her point, but the brunette seemed to understand what she was aiming at.
"It's hard to say. I still have both parts, though. Snow and Mary Margaret." She explained seeing Emma's wrinkled face. "But it's more like… The Mary Margaret part of me stayed where it was during those 28 years. It's a still, constant kind of personality, you know? Snow is… more complicated. She's impulsive and it's more like waves of emotions. That's why I've been so motherly lately…" She blushed a little and gave Emma a pale smile. "I wanted to make up for the lost time so quickly, I guess I suppressed my best-friend-part, so the mother-me could fully be in charge." Snow looked at her with a confused look. "I don't know whether I'm making sense or not. But she's still in here, if that's what you wanted to ask. Mary Margaret is still part of me." She gave her a reassuring look.
Emma said a quiet thank you and without actually thinking about what she was doing, she gave her mother a tight hug. Emma knew Snow had already given up a lot of things for her, but was still not used to that. Having her best friend and her mother in one person was more than she could've ever wished for, having someone who'd do anything and everything to protect and take care of her. And she understood with surprise that if she could, she'd do the same, or even more for her mother as well. Just being in her presence, she somehow felt happiness and energy flowing in her veins and the thought that her mother wouldn't go anywhere - neither of her parents would -, that they'd stay with her made Emma feel a kind of love she'd never felt before. She felt complete.
They had truly became the family Emma always hoped she'd have and knew she'd never have the chance to have. But somehow, someway… She had found her family.
No. They found me.
Like they always would.
So, as I've said, this is the last part of the story. Many-many thanks for those who kept reading it, and just know that you guys always made my day with your reviews!:) Thank you so much!
oldmcpiper deserves a huge thank you as always, being the best beta ever! :)
