Author's Note: It never fails to blow my mind how awesome you all are. Thank you so much for all your reviews, follows, favorites, and words of encouragement. You guys are seriously the best readers a writer could ask for. I sincerely hope you've all enjoyed this story. :)
Once again, the bird cavalry showed up to shadow the family as they made their way down the same winding path through the trees they'd followed the day before. Shadow the family or protect them, Emma wasn't sure which. She shook her head but didn't bother calling attention to it. This was what her life had come to now. A flock of birds flying from one tree to to another after her family was considered a normal occurrence.
Any minute now, she thought, I'm going to wake up back in my old apartment in Boston and wonder what the hell I ate before I fell asleep to give me dreams this freakin' weird.
Although her life had certainly become more bizarre than she could have ever imagined, the thought of everything after Henry knocked on her door being a dream made her unimaginably sad. She had a family now, the family she'd long ago convinced herself she would never have. It may have been an unconventional family but it was hers and she didn't want to let it go.
She shook her head again, this time to shake herself back to the present. They'd been walking for a while and she suddenly realized she was getting thirsty. "Hey, kid," she called to Henry, who was a few paces ahead of her on the trail. "Hold up. I'm lightening your load."
Henry paused in his tracks, slipping one strap of his backpack off his shoulder. Just as Emma caught up to him, he dug out a bottle of water and handed it to her with a smile.
"Thanks," she said before twisting off the cap and downing a large gulp.
"You're welcome," he said, resisting an amused grin. After he hooked the strap over his shoulder again and readjusted the weight of the backpack, he and Emma resumed their walk down the trail. For a long moment, he watched her cast quick glances over her shoulder and up at the trees every few seconds. "Are the birds creeping you out?"
"A little," she admitted softly.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Snow, who had been walking ahead of them hand-in-hand with David, said. She tugged her husband to a stop, turned to face the trees, and looked up at the birds perched in the branches overhead.
All at once, loud chirping filled the warm air, as if in answer or apology to whatever Snow had silently communicated. Then, one by one, they flew off in the direction they had come. "I didn't say anything because that creeps me out more than the birds following us does," Emma replied, failing to hide the little smile curled on her lips.
Snow grinned at her before stepping forward and playfully taking her daughter's hand in her own. "And just what is wrong with being able to communicate with our fine feathered friends, hmm?"
"There are so many things wrong with that sentence that I don't even know where to begin," Emma quipped, making both Snow and Henry giggle.
Henry quickened his pace to catch up with his grandfather, leaving Snow and Emma on their own. They walked down the path hand-in-hand for a minute or two before Emma slipped her hand free. To fill the comfortable silence, David had once again decided to identify various animal tracks and plants.
Emma noted with amusement that Henry seemed to be eating it all up. Maybe they'd have to continue this nature walk stuff.
Of course, if they did, she would have to send the kid on nature walks with either his grandfather or his grandmother. Even after all her time in the Enchanted Forest, the only plant Emma knew for sure how to identify was poison ivy. In the Forest, she'd learned to identify by sight which berries she could eat and which plants never to go near, but she didn't remember all their names.
Emma heard the brook before she saw it. It wasn't until they rounded a curve in the path that the water came into view. Henry took off towards it in a run. Emma tensed and started to go after him, but Snow grabbed her hand to hold her in place. "I've got him," she murmured to her daughter.
Before Emma had a chance to protest, Snow quickened her pace and caught up with Henry at the water's edge. Henry excitedly plopped down on the bank and pulled off his sneakers and socks. Emma sighed, mostly in relief that someone was with her kid but also partly in frustration.
"What's the matter?" David asked her softly.
"Nothing, really," she shrugged. "It's just that I kind of feel like I should be running after my own kid, you know?"
David looked her over before returning his gaze ahead of them at his wife and grandson. "I think she's trying to tell you that you don't have to do everything on your own anymore. Family does mean added responsibility, but it's shared responsibility." He turned his head and gave Emma a little smile. "Granted, it's a clumsy way of trying to tell you that, but I think that's what she's doing."
His words from the previous night about the whole family reconnection thing not being effortless for them, either, came back to her. With anything that wasn't effortless, there were bound to be a few awkward moments, a few lessons that didn't come out the way they were intended. Was this simply one of them? Even if it wasn't, the whole notion of shared responsibility was so foreign to Emma that she didn't think she knew how to translate it into a language she understood.
David must have been able to gather as much from her body language because his smile grew kinder even as sadness flickered into his eyes. "I know this is all hard for you, Emma. I know letting people in doesn't come easily, and I know that your trust has to be earned. Unconditional love is something you've never had." His voice broke a little on that last sentence but he swallowed the lump that had begun to form in his throat and continued. "Until now. We love you, Emma, and we love Henry. You both mean to the world to us. I know it's going to take time, but I want you know that you can trust us."
"I do know," Emma assured him in a whisper because dammit, she was choking up now, too, and a whisper was the only thing she could manage.
He smiled at her but before things could become awkward, they both turned their attention back to Henry and Snow ahead of them. Henry dipped first his big toe and then his whole foot into the brook. The water must have been cold because he shivered as if he'd gotten a sudden chill before stepping in with his left foot. After giving himself a moment to get used to the temperature, he began wading forward.
"Be careful," Emma called when he skidded on a wet rock underfoot. "We have a change of socks but not a whole change of clothes."
He laughed before nodding at her to let her know he understood.
Emma smiled to herself as she watched her mother walk along the bank next to Henry, who was babbling on and on about who knew what. Out of her peripheral vision, she caught her father staring at her as if trying to determine whether or not he'd pushed her too hard.
He had pushed but not overly so. She swallowed hard and decided to take a chance, to let him know she was okay and that she was trying. "When I was lost in the woods that night, I wished my parents would find me. Not Mr. and Mrs. Browne but my real parents. You and her, I guess. It was the first time in over a year that I'd wished for my real parents."
He didn't say anything. When she glanced over at him, she could tell that he was simply trying to find the correct words. "Emma," he said after a moment, "I hope you know we wish we could have been there for you."
"I do," she assured him. She finally drew to a stop on the path and turned to face her father. "And I do understand that you put me in that wardrobe to save me. She would have killed me, wouldn't she? Regina, I mean. Regina would have killed me."
David swallowed hard and reached out to cup her face in his hands, much in the same way Snow had when the curse first broke. To her credit, Emma didn't flinch or pull away. "Yes, Emma. I believe she would have."
Emma gave him a little smile as he dropped his hands back down to his sides. "See? You saved me. And if you hadn't sent me here, I wouldn't have Henry. Don't get me wrong, it sucked beyond words when I didn't know. I wondered every day why my parents didn't want me, but now? Now I know that I was wanted and that I was loved ..."
She trailed off and dropped her gaze to her feet, the emotion becoming far too strong for her comfort. David lifted her chin with his finger and looked at her with such strong love in his watery eyes that tears immediately welled in hers. "You, my darling daughter, would have been cherished."
Before Emma's tears had a chance to spill over, Henry's voice filtered down to them through the trees. "Mom? Gramps? Where'd you guys go? I think I've figured it out! The water leads to the toll bridge!"
They both snickered, Henry's voice easing the emotional tension between them. David smiled at her. "We'd better catch up with him."
Emma nodded in agreement with a smile of her own. As they started walking down the path, Emma slipped her hand into her father's. His hand tightened around hers without a moment's hesitation, making Emma's smile grow wider.
This family thing was still awkward and still in transition. However, slowly but surely they were settling into a rhythm and a routine. With a little smile, Emma realized that this routine and this rhythm was exactly what she'd been missing her entire life.