A/N: OH MY GOD IM SO INCREDIBLY SORRY. Im so bad at updating fics. I'm really ashamed of my progress with this one. Thanks if you're still reading this. Just to catch you up, in the previous chapter, Emma had a Haloween party with her best friends, she learned she had to get glasses, and we left our heroes in Storybrooke where David was preparing to propose to Katherine.
2 years later: Valentine's Day
It was February of 1992. Emma would be turning 9 at the end of the year. Today was Valentine's day. She sat in her desk at school, arranged into a table with Lilly, Tamara, Anna, and Kelly. They laughed together, eating heart shaped cookies and reading valentines from their classmates. Their backpacks and coats were slung over the backs of their chairs, ready for them to go home.
Five minutes later, the bell rang. Emma quickly threw on her coat and backpack, and sprinted outside. Snow was waiting for her in the schoolyard, her arms open wide. Emma ran into them .
"Happy Valentine's Day Mommy!" she exclaimed.
"Happy Valentine's Day baby" Snow replied. She kissed Emma on the head. "Ready to go home?"
"Yes!" Emma squealed. Emma loved every holiday. She and her mother always had little parties, sometimes for all of their friends, and sometimes just for them. Emma loved Valentine's day the best. It was just her and Snow the entire night, eating candy and having fun.
Snow grabbed Emma's hand and together, they walked home.
That night, boxes of chocolate and all kinds of candy littered the apartment. Emma and Snow sat on the couch, exchanging and eating sweethearts. Emma picked one out of the bowl and handed it to her mother.
"What does it say?" She asked excitedly, bouncing up and down.
"It says "I love you"" Snow replied, smiling.
"I do love you Mommy!" Snow popped the candy into her mouth, and Emma giggled.
"Okay my turn" Snow said. She handed a candy to Emma.
"This one says 2 cute!" the little princess read aloud. Emma smiled and ate the sweetheart.
"Well that's because you are" Snow said. Then, she jumped on top of her daughter, tickling her. The two laughed uncontrollably. Once they had calmed down, Snow glanced at the clock.
"Alright Missy" she said. "Bedtime"
"But I don't want to go to bed" Emma whined.
"But going to bed means it's time for your favorite part of Valentine's day"
"Storytime!" Emma exclaimed. She jumped off of the couch and ran to the bathroom to brush her teeth.
Ten minutes later, Emma sat tucked into bed, while Snow told her the story of her and Charming's wedding. But it wasn't the story of the fancy ceremony. Snow told her princess of the first wedding, the small one all their own, more special than anything she could have imagined.
"And then, we both drank the water from the cup, to represent our eternal love." Snow didn't use the storybook to tell this tale. It was too special for that.
"And then…" Emma said, leaning forward in her bed. She knew what came next, but it still remained her favorite part of this story, and of every story.
"And then, we shared a true love's kiss, and we were married, and no one else had to know." Emma smiled.
"I love this story" she said.
"I know you do" She kissed Emma on the head and turned out the light
"Goodnight my little princess" she said as she walked out of the room.
"Goodnight Mommy" Emma said. "I love you."
"I love you too" Snow said. She closed the door to Emma's room and stood in the hallway.
Staring into space, she remembered her wedding, the happiest day of her life. When things seemed bleak, she just thought of that day, and remembered that the love she and her husband shared, could not be touched by anything, not even death. As Lancelot had said, it was eternal. In times of trouble, thinking of her wedding, and her first wedded kiss, gave her hope.
Snow felt a tear come to her eye. Clutching her wedding ring, she looked up.
"Oh Charming" she muttered. "Wherever you are, I will find you. I will always find you"
That same day in Storybrooke, Maine, another Valentine's Day celebration was under way.
"Do you Katherine King, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to love and cherish, for better or worse, till death do you part?"
"I do" Katherine said, dressed in white from head to toe, and staring into her love's eyes.
"And do you, David Nolan, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and cherish, for better or worse, till death do you part?"
"I do" David said. He smiled at his bride, looking at nothing else but her.
"Then by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride"
The newlyweds' lips met, the two of them smiling, now joined together in eternal love.
The crowd cheered, for everyone loved to see true love prevail.
Mother's Day
Emma woke up the Sunday morning of Mother's Day that year. Smiling, she jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen.
Emma grabbed the pancake mix and other ingredients from the pantry and fridge, then brought her step stool up to the counter. She began to place everything into a bowl and mix it all together. Emma, being Emma, added chocolate chips.
Next, Emma placed a pan onto the stove, and managed to make the pancakes without starting a fire. She placed a plate containing two of them on a tray, additionally preparing two mugs of hot chocolate with cinnamon, and placing one onto the tray.
Emma poured a glass of orange juice for her mother, and a glass of apple for herself. After adding a banana and a muffin, Emma felt her mom's breakfast was ready.
Now came the tricky part: getting the breakfast to Snow's bed. Emma was an independent child, and didn't want any help. Besides, she wanted to surprise her mother. Carefully, she climbed onto the step stool and grabbed the tray with both hands. It was heavier than she expected. Not giving up, she stepped off of the step stool and began to carry the tray to her mother's room.
Emma was walking along, and doing well, until she failed to see the bump in the carpet. In an instant, Emma had tripped, and the entire breakfast spilt to the floor.
Snow was sleeping in her bed when she heard the crash. Always alert, she rushed out of her room and found Emma on the floor, crying, covered in orange juice and pancakes. Luckily, the scalding hot chocolate had only hit the carpet. Snow ran to her daughter and knelt down.
"Emma baby what happened?" she asked.
"I…wanted…to m-make you b-breakfast" Emma sniffed.
"Sweetie you should have asked me for help. You could've gotten hurt!"
"I…I just wanted to...su…surprise you. Like other kids get to do" Snow couldn't help but smile and chuckle a little.
"Emma, you didn't have to. You make me happy just by being with me every day." she said.
"Really?" Emma asked, still crying.
"Really" Snow said. "I'll tell you what. We'll get you cleaned up, and then we can make more breakfast together."
"Okay" Emma said finally smiling. Snow helped her off of the floor, and the duo got everything done together.
Later that afternoon, Emma and Snow sat together on Snow's bed, eating cookies.
"Oooh Mommy!" Emma exclaimed "I made a present for you in school on Friday!" She reached behind her and pulled out a package wrapped in tissue paper.
The front of the card was covered in drawings of flowers, hearts, and princess crowns. Snow opened the card, where Emma had written a message
Dear Mommy,
Thank you for always being there for me. We always have so much fun and I wouldn't want anyone else to be my Mommy. Thank you for trying so hard and being the best Mommy you can for me, even though I know you miss Daddy. I love you so so so much. You are my favorite person.
Lots of Love- Emma
Snow felt a tear come to her eye. She looked to the other side of the card, where Emma had written a poem.
"We're working on poetry in class" Emma said excitedly.
Makes me cookies
Only loves me
Most beautiful lady in the world
Makes me happy
Yes! She is the best
Snow laughed and cried at the same time.
"Thank you Emma" she said. "I love it"
"And now you have to open the present!" Emma bounced up and down on the bed.
Snow peeled away the tissue paper to reveal a wooden frame painted pink. Inside was a hand drawn picture of three people hugging in a field.
"The teacher told us to draw a picture of our families, so I drew you, me and Daddy hugging. And look how happy we are together!"
Soon Snow was crying again. She put the frame down and opened her arms.
"Thank you Emma. I love all of this so much"
"You're welcome!" Emma squealed, falling into her mother's arms. They squeezed each other tightly.
"I love you Mommy" Emma whispered.
"I love you too" Snow said, not ever wanting to let go of her daughter.
Father's Day
That July, Father's day rolled around. The day was always a bittersweet occasion for Snow and Emma.
The time was always hard to get through. All over, TV shows, store catalogs, commercials; they were all filled with pictures and stories of wonderful fathers and smiling children.
Emma felt like crying whenever she saw one of these things. She knew she had a father who loved her, Snow had made sure of that, but she only wished she could tell him how much she loved him.
The morning of the holiday that year, she walked into her mother's room, her face downcast. Snow was already awake, unable to sleep the night before. This was consistent every year. As soon as Emma entered the room, her heart broke. It killed her to see her daughter like this. Immediately, she patted the spot on the bed next to her. Emma hurried up.
"Mommy" she said. "When do you think I'll finally get to meet Daddy?" Snow sighed
"I told you sweetie, Rumplestiltsken told us that you would break the curse when you were 28"
"But that's so far away" Snow tried not to cry.
"I know" she said. "Come on. Let's get some breakfast and then I can tell you some of your favorite stories about your Daddy"
"And some new ones?" Emma begged. "Pleeeease. I think I'm big enough now"
Snow sighed again and chuckled, marveling at how her daughter continued to push for what she wanted. As much as she knew she needed to sometimes, she could never bring herself to deny Emma anything.
"Ok." she conceded. "Maybe" Emma gave a little cheer. "Now go get dressed" She kissed Emma on the head before the little princess jumped off of the bed and ran to her room.
Snow smiled and squeezed her wedding ring. These were the days that she most remembered that life wasn't perfect, but, as she heard her daughter dancing around her room, she knew that it was pretty wonderful.
That night, Emma and Snow were cuddled up on her bed once again, Emma in a light pink nightgown. Snow held the story book in front of them, once again reading Emma's favorite story.
"…true love proved more powerful than any curse. A pulse of pure love shuttered out and engulfed the land, waking up Snow White and bringing light to the darkness" Emma smiled, humming a sound of satisfaction
"Mommy" she urged. "You promised me a new story" Snow was hesitant. She had hoped to avoid the promise. She wasn't sure that Emma should hear the stories she had withheld yet.
"Emma…" she began.
"You promised!" Emma shouted. "I want to know more about my Daddy!" Snow sighed, thinking for a moment of what she could tell Emma.
"Okay okay. Would you like hear about the time your Daddy and I defeated Medusa?"
"Is it an adventure story?" Emma asked, beaming
"Yes" Snow laughed. "It most definitely is"
"Then I wanna hear it!" Emma bounced up and down on the bed.
Snow turned to the page in the book where she knew the story was, she had read over the thing many times. She took a deep breath, and began to tell Emma the tale.
Later that night, Emma was in her room, preparing to go to sleep. She knelt by the edge of her bed, her hands folded in prayer. Her eyes were squeezed shut tightly.
"Daddy" she said aloud. "It's me, your Emmy. If you can hear me in your dreams or something, like through true love magic, I wanted to say happy Father's Day. And I want you to know that I love you. And I'm gonna find you one day when I'm a grown up."
Snow watched silently in the door way, tears rolling down her cheeks as Emma proceeded to tell her father about all of her accomplishments in the past year. Hopefully, someday, they would all be together.
In Storybrooke, David Nolan woke with a start. For some reason, he had dreamed about a little girl with a head full of blonde curls.
In the dream, she was dancing around a child's bedroom, then riding a bike, and baking a pie with some woman. Why was he dreaming about this kid? As if he wasn't crazy enough, he was sure he had heard the words "I love you Daddy" at some point.
"What's wrong?" Kathryn said from next to him.
"Nothing" David lied.
He lied back down on his pillow, trying to go back to sleep, and to ignore the inexplicable aching in his chest, and the tear rolling down his cheek.
Christmas
"Mommy Mommy Mommy wake up Santa came!" Snow laughed, used to her alarm sound every Christmas morning.
She opened her eyes to see Emma's eyes wide and bright despite it being, she looked at her clock, 5:45 in the morning! That was a new record. It wasn't even light out yet.
"Alright just give me a second" she said. Emma bounced up and down as she always did. Snow was surprised her mattress springs hadn't broken yet.
She didn't care about the early hour. She had been awaiting this day perhaps even more than her daughter. She had a very special gift for her this year, and she couldn't wait to see her face when she opened it.
Emma bounded out of the room. Snow laughed, climbed out of bed and put on her bathrobe. When she entered the living room, she found Emma sitting as close to the tree as possible, clearly eager to open her presents.
Nine years and Emma had never changed. Snow was grateful, and she made sure to cherish every moment. She knew this would not last forever. The years would travel by quickly.
Now she could only smile and enjoy the sight of her little princess eagerly tearing away brightly colored wrapping paper.
Not a while after, all of the presents under the tree had been opened. Wrapping paper and bows were everywhere. Emma was already racing to open up a new Barbie Doll.
"Emma" Snow said. "I have something else for you. I think you'll really like it." She handed Emma a large manila envelope. She reached for it eagerly.
"Wait" Snow said, pulling it back. "You have to be careful with this. I can't replace what's inside. So don't rip into it."
"Okay" Emma chirped. She grabbed the envelope and opened it. Snow watched with wide eyes as she pulled out the paper inside. A few seconds and….
"EEEEEEEEEEEE" Emma squealed. She jumped up from her seat and ran to Snow, wrapping her arms around her. Snow laughed.
"Oh I love you Mommy! I love you, I love you, I love you!" Emma took a second to catch her breath. "We're really going to Disney World?" she asked.
"Yes" Snow said. "We'll go for a few days when your school is on break in February"
"WOOOOO!" Emma began to run around the living room. "I'M SO EXCITED"
Snow smiled. In all this time, nothing had ever made her happier than to put a smile on Emma's face.
A/N: Well hoped you liked it! I shouldn't say this, but maybe chapters will be coming more quickly now, as Emma's growing up and we're getting closer to the heart of the story. The next chapter will take place in Disney World and I'm so excited! Bye!