I'm glad you like my take on the Charming White Gold Swan clan. I've come to just adore anything with Charming and Gold together. All of their scenes from Season 1 are fantastic. This story should be a couple chapters. I hope you like it.
Chapter 1: Christmas with the Charmings
"Why do we even have to go?" Rumplestiltskin complained as he drove down the highway with his family on Christmas Eve. The man behind the wheel complaining was known by many names. He was born with the name Rumplestiltskin. To some he was known as the Dark One. To his in-laws he was just Gold, a name give to him as the result of a curse. The younger generation tended to call him Uncle Rum, even though their family history was much too complicated to define a title. To his wife, he was simply Rum.
To look at the couple, they appeared very mismatched. He was a distinguished looking older gentleman who radiated a type of menacing air. The type of man people avoided when entering a room. His wife Belle, on the other hand, was as sweet as she appeared. Always ready to lend a hand to anyone in need, she was highly involved in the community unlike her curmudgeonly husband. When she first appeared in Storybrooke immediately after the now infamous curse broke, many of the residence were convinced the old sorcerer had cast a spell on the lovely young beauty. It was whispered about by many that he enslaved her as part of a deal in the old world that would follow her forever. Little did the townspeople know at the time was that the only magic that bound the two together was True Love. True Love, something that everyone yearned for but most never achieved. To think that the villainous imp and the young beauty found that elusive link was unthinkable, but true none the less.
"You know we have to go, Rum," his wife, Belle, said in an exasperated tone next to him. "They're expecting us and Rose wants to play with the kids."
"Rose," Gold asked his daughter as he looked at her in the rearview mirror, "You don't want to go to the Charmings' do you?"
"Yes, Papa, I do want to go," five year old Rose answered from her car seat behind him. "Leo promised me a rematch at sword fighting and then we're going to play his new video game."
"See, you're outnumbered," Belle said as she watched the snow falling softly outside from her passenger side window as they continued down the road. "Besides, you have brand new grandbabies to see. You can't miss their first Christmas."
"No I can't," Gold replied. He continued with a note of pride in his voice, "They are quite beautiful, take after their grandfather, they do"
"Yes, they do," Belle said. Because she couldn't resist teasing him a bit she added, "Charming is quite a handsome man. Those babies are going to be heartbreakers one day."
"Oh, so that's the way the wind blows," Gold said with a tone of mock hurt. "Talk about heartbreakers, my own wife admiring my arch nemesis."
Smacking her husband lightly on the shoulder, Belle commented, "I don't know why you two go at each other so much. If you didn't argue like an old married couple, you two would be best of friends."
"Let's just settle for polite adversaries," he supplied.
"Whatever it is, you will get along and be nice," she admonished her husband.
A short time later, the Gold family bundled against the cold and snow and made their way towards the front door. They were soon ushered into the welcomed warmth of the house by Emma, the Charmings' daughter.
"Hello, dearie," Gold greeted his son's partner and mother of his grandchildren.
"I see you guys made it okay." Emma commented to the family as she took Gold's coat from him. "The snow is really starting to come down now."
"Nothing too bad," replied Belle as she assisted young Rose out of her coat and hung it in the nearby hall closet before her daughter took off in search of her the other children. "We have presents and food in the car," she added.
"HENRY," Emma turned and shouted into the house. A teenage boy soon appeared from the room to their left.
"What is it?" he asked his mother.
"Belle said there's stuff in the car that needs to be carried in. Go bring it in for them, okay," she asked.
Handing the car keys to his grandson after greeting him with a hug, Gold turned back toward Emma and asked after the babies.
"They're doing fine." Emma replied. "They're sleeping in their basinets in the living room right now. Bae and David are in there watching television."
Watching Gold walk toward room in question, Belle and Emma headed toward to kitchen where Snow and the children were currently residing. Although not new, the Charmings' home felt open and airy.
"Why did you leave the babies in the living room with the men?" Belle asked as she sat at the island separating the kitchen from the family room.
"Leo and Meg were getting too noisy so we put babies in there with the guys. And I needed a break," Emma answered, enjoying just relaxing without having to get up to check on her newborns. "Between the group of them, they know what to do if one of them wakes up."
"Where do you want this?" Henry asked as he walked into the room carrying a covered dish.
"Just set it on the counter," Snow told her grandson before he disappeared once again out of the room. Turning back to others, she said, "You didn't have to make anything."
"Of course I did," Belle replied as she rubbed the slight bulge in her midsection. "Sooner than you can blink I'm not going to want to do anything until this baby is born."
"Are you going to find out what you're having?" Snow asked her friend.
"I have an appointment with the doctor in two weeks and we'll find out then. Rum says we're having another girl, but I'd like to talk to the doctor before I start fixing up the nursery."
"You know he's right," Emma commented in an exasperating manner. "That man is always right."
"I know," Belle laughingly replied. "You'd think I'd get used to it after all these years, but it still frustrates me tremendously. And Rose is turning out frightfully the same way."
"I can see Meg is going to be just like me," Snow volunteered. "It scared the heck out of me. She's only three and I can already see glimpses of it."
"Emma has just had the twins and I'm starting to show," Belle commented. " Any announcement from you in the near future?"
"I told you I'm done," Snow answered her inquiry, shivering as if a sharp chill entered the room. Lowering her voice, she continued, "David went and got a little snip-snip."
"How did you get him to agree to that?" Emma asked, realizing, after the words came out of her mouth, that the question wasn't one a person usually asked their mother.
Looking over at the children playing on the other side of the room she carefully worded her answer in case any little ears were listening, "I told him that unless he did it we weren't…playing any games, anymore."
"Well," Belle commented as she rubbed her growing abdomen. "We didn't plan for this one. I thought Rose was it for us."
Taking in her friend's raised eyebrows, Belle continued, "All right, we didn't plan for Rose, either." The others chuckled as she explained, "Between the curses, my age, his age, it just wasn't something we were planning on happening. He was so concentrated on the situation with Bae that it just sort of happened."
"Would you like me to get you a book so you guys don't have anymore accidents in the future? They have ones with pictures, you know." Snow teased, knowing of her friend's love of books. Everyone in Storybrooke credited Belle, with Gold's money footing the bill, for reopening the town library after the curse was lifted. Although she cut down her time there after she had Rose, Belle still volunteered at the place she considered her baby.
"I think I've figured it out by now, but thanks" she joked.
Abruptly changing the subject, Emma blurted, "Bae's going to propose tonight."
Snow looked at Belle before turning to her daughter and asking, "Why do you think that, dear?"
"Oh, come on," Emma responded. "He's brought it up throughout the pregnancy, he and Henry are whispering behind my back, and it's Christmas. It's like the guy thing to do to propose at Christmas."
"And if he does?" Belle tentatively asked.
"Will you say yes?" Snow questioned.
Looking at the two women who had somehow become her closest friends through the years, she said, "A few months ago when he first started making noises about getting married, I was against it. I kept asking him why should we mess everything up when we were finally working. Then we found out we were having twins." Emma paused as she tried to collect her thoughts. "But it was Henry that changed my mind."
"How?" Snow asked her daughter as she reached out to grab her hand.
"Neither one of us was in any condition to raise a baby all those years ago," she explained. "It would have been a disaster if we had even tried. But in spite of everything that boy has gone through, he's turned out wonderfully. I mean, how many teenagers would be excited over their parents having twins. He deserves for his parents to be finally married. So do the twins."
"So you're doing it for the children?" Belle asked.
"Yes…no" Emma vacillated. "I want to for me, too. I used to think a piece of paper and some words spoken didn't mean anything, but there might be something to it. Plus, I'm sick of introducing him as 'my partner' or 'Henry's father' to people.
Belle laughed, "It does get cumbersome to explain that you are my husband's son's children's mother. And just think, I get to be your mother-in-law." Gasping in surprise, Belle looked at her friend and asked, "You're not going to hate me, are you? I see on television all the time about people hating their mothers-in-law in this world."
"Oh, God," Emma exclaimed as she stood up from her perch on the stool, "We are one screwed up family, aren't we."
Coming up behind her daughter, Snow reached around and hugged her. "But the key word is we're family."
Two hours later, after ingesting too much food and indulging in too much eggnog, the whole group assembled in the living room to celebrate Christmas Eve by the exchanging of gifts. Although the living room was large, with the addition of the huge Christmas tree and the profusion of presents, there wasn't much room left to maneuver about. The adults gathered around the various chairs and sofas while the children were relegated to the floor. Thankfully, they didn't seem to mind being too busy wrapped up in playing with the toys they'd opened only minutes earlier. Everyone was sitting back and relaxing, except for Snow, who was attempting to wrangle the discarded wrapping paper into a garbage bag.
"How about next year we don't give out presents," Snow said as she looked towards the kids playing in the corner. A round of "no's" echoed from the trio.
"Well, we're not quite done with this year's gifts, yet," Bae said as he signaled for Henry to pull out one more gift from beneath the tree.
"Who is that for?" David asked as he rocked his newborn granddaughter in his arms.
Smiling, Henry walked toward Emma carrying a rectangular package that appeared to be a clothing box tied with a bow. Emma's immediately thought to herself that the boys believed they were clever trying to throw her off their scent, but she could see through their little charade. She knew there was probably a ring box somewhere in layers of tissue paper inside the package. So when Henry lowered the package onto her lap, Emma was confused at the solid weight of the gift.
Kissing her briefly on the cheek and sitting back, Henry said, "This is for you, mom."
Emma was really confused now. Why were they giving her a gift tonight? "I thought we were going to exchange gifts in the morning?" Emma wondered aloud as she lifted the box, trying to guess it's contents.
"Go on, open it." Belle said as she held Emma's infant son, mirroring David on the other end of the sofa.
Looking at Henry and Bae questioningly, Emma unraveled the ribbon and tore the paper from the package, revealing a box. Lifting the lid, Emma gazed down in confusion at the object before her.
"Why are you giving me Henry's storybook?" Emma asked as she lifted the book from its box.
"Turn to the bookmark," Bae requested as he pointed to the ribbon marking a spot near the end of the book.
"I've read this book before. Many times. Why do you want to me to read it again?" Emma questioned as she sat on the lounge sandwiched between her son and partner.
"Just do it, Emma," Henry eagerly pleaded.
"Okay," Emma conceded as she opened the book. "Should I read aloud, too?"
"Just look at the damn book," Bae said, clearly getting frustrated by her questions and comments. The rest of the room, with the exception of the children who were occupied on the floor, waited on tenterhooks as Emma began to silently read.
"How?" she questioned, holding her hand against her heart as she raised her head from the book.
"August," Bae answered. "He added the rest of your parents' story back and then included the rest. Henry and I thought it was fitting that your…no, our story belonged in the book, too. The reason for the curse and the savior. Sort of like coming full circle, isn't it?"
"But where is the rest?" Emma answered as she flipped the pages around looking at the where the story abruptly left off. "It just ends mid-paragraph?"
"That depends on you?" he responded as Henry handed him another box. Pulling out a large sheet that appeared to be the missing page from the book, Bae handed it over to Emma. As she read the additional passage, tears silently began to fall from her eyes . When she told her mother and Belle she was expecting a proposal, she hadn't given Bae enough credit. For this she was not prepared. This was unexpected.
Emma was so engrossed in reading the inevitable ending to the current chapter of their story that she didn't notice the velvet box Bae had pulled out and held open before her. "I've been carrying it around for months now. Never knowing the right time to ask."
Bae took the ring out the box and pulled Emma's hand out as he slipped the ring on her finger. "Emma, we've gone through everything backwards, it seems." Ignoring the cough from her father on the sofa, he continued, "Through all the fallouts, secrets, lies and misunderstandings, there has always been something between us. Some link, some spark that never died. In spite of, and also because of, all of our history, I'm before you now asking you to be my wife. To face whatever challenges and surprises lay ahead together. We're a family now, nothing can change that. Even if you say no, I know we'll be together the rest of our lives. But this ring is my pledge to you."
"Of course, I'll marry you," Emma cried as she placed her hands on Bae's face and kissed him before everyone.
A cheer rang out around the room as everyone offered their congratulations at once. In the chaos of the moment, the twins let out a collective howl, unhappy that their slumber was being disturbed despite the joyous celebration going on around them.
"You'd think they'd be happier to hear the news that they'll soon be legitimate," Gold commented, earning a rather disapproving look from his wife. Becoming serious, he said, "Congratulations, Son. You deserve all the happiness that is possible."
"Thanks, Pop," Bae answered as he held pulled both his teenage son and future wife into a hug. "We all do."
Looks like we've got a wedding to plan. But don't look for a long engagement. I have a feeling the wedding will happen as soon as they can get it organized. Maybe a nice New Year's Eve ceremony.