I JUST WANT TO SAY THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO READ/REVIEWED THE FIRST CHAPTER. YOUR SUPPORT IS THE REASON I'M ADDING MORE CHAPTERS!

DON'T OWN IT. AVRIL LAVIGNE OWNS "MY HAPPY ENDING"

You were everything, everything that I wanted

We were meant to be supposed to be but we lost it

All of the memories so close to me just fade away

All this time you were pretending

So much for my happy ending

Snow and Emma go through their usual routine of making hot cocoa –with cinnamon on top- but each and a mug to their 'true loves' before grabbing one for themselves. They all sit in a slightly comfortable yet awkward silence sipping them before James breaks the quiet.

"Do you have any pictures from when you were younger?" Normally, Emma would've thought this to be pretty nervy of someone to ask, but she takes it for what it is: a father trying to get to know the daughter he just met.

"Not really." She smiles sadly, and hopes he drops it. But he doesn't, and he's still looking at her with questioning eyes. She sighs and relents. "I had a toy camera from when I was really young. When I changed foster houses for the first time, it got lost. The only other thing I have that takes pictures is my phone, but I don't take them. Actually, I have a few… They only have Henry in it. He goes from minutes old to ten." She looks at her son.

"Can I see them?" He asks.

"Uh, sure." Emma's completely caught off guard by the question, and slowly walks to the kitchen table where her phone is.

"You haven't gotten a new phone in ten years?" Henry is amazed by this. "Hey, I was pretty cute."

"It was the only thing I had left of you until 6 months ago." Emma says and looks down at her hands. All of this emotion was starting to scare her. Her head kept telling her to make up some excuse to get out, and jump in her car and never take her foot off the gas until she was in Los Angeles. Her heart, though, begs for another hug. Henry finishes processing her words and looks up at her, eyes full of curiosity.

"Kid, just cause I gave you up for adoption didn't mean I stopped thinking about you." She adds in a voice barely audible, "Or loving you." He smiles, because it's the second time he's heard it today from his mom –and perhaps it's the only time someone truly means it.

"Me too." He hands her phone back to her, and wraps his arms around her. This time, Emma doesn't tense, she just embraces him right back, loving the feeling of his head against her stomach.

"Thank you." Emma mouths to her mother. For a moment puzzlement covers Snow's face, then it passes. She understand what Emma's thanking her for.

"It's pretty hard not to love Henry." She says. Now it's James's turn to be confused, but only for a split second. As David Nolan, he probably wouldn't have picked up on his girls' way of saying things without ever voicing them. Now, he immediately knows what happened. He gets the sense Emma doesn't realize how noble he truly is. At the same time, though, he thinks she does. She remembers him carrying her to the wardrobe, remembers the heart-wrenching decision he and Snow had to make.

"Just like you." He says, giving Emma the smile he did when he first held her. They all see her shift uncomfortably, and he hides a frown.

"Emma, you're perfect." Snow says. "You're everything we wanted, even if we missed 28 years. I think I speak for Charming when I say we wouldn't trade who you are and what we have to go back and prevent the curse, even if you would." Emma blushes from the compliments, and decides she has to say something.

"I-I wouldn't trade it, either." She offers a weary smile. "I wouldn't have Henry." She's pretty sure, again, that her parents can read between the lines. "The curse, I mean, it sucked. The aftermath sucks. But… I still don't want anything any different. I might have been miserable before, but the happiness I feel now more than compensates for it."

"But it wasn't supposed to happen this way! This isn't how it's supposed to be!" They all knew Snow would start getting angry at some point. They were all happy to blame Regina, too. "All I wanted was to be with my family, but I had to lose that!"

"But we found each other." Emma says quietly, trying to calm the woman. "Family always finds each other." She gives Henry a glance, and his grin grows wider.

"She has some nerve to erase our memories, too!" Snow continues and stands up, not content to sit. "Our life here was fake!" Her voice rises an octave with each word, and suddenly she's fighting tears again. James gets up and wraps her in a hug, and she stifles a sob in his shirt.

"She didn't win." Henry says. "Her happy ending got taken away, and everyone got theirs back. Our lives haven't been perfect, but I don't think anybody's is." It's those pearls of wisdom that make Emma surge with pride.

"You're right, Kid." They sit in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before James speaks.

"We should move to my house. Kathryn, I'm assuming, is with Frederick and probably won't come home. No offense, Snow, but this place is a little cramped for 4."

"I totally agree." Snow says, voice nasally and eyes swollen and red. To James, though, she seems more beautiful. Snow and Henry go upstairs to pack things up, but James stays to be with his daughter. He takes a seat beside her, and she pretends not to notice. Maybe she's being a little bit of a bitch, and maybe it's wrong, but this is all just so much for her. She stares at the wall in front of her as if it's the most fascinating thing, willing herself not to cry. It breaks her father's heart to see her so torn. Filling silence is something he's good at, and now he can finally say the right things.

"When I first saw you, here in Storybrooke, something sparked inside me. I spent every waking moment trying to figure out what." He pauses. This isn't helping Emma's cause. "And when I remembered… God, it just… There's no words to describe it." His own eyes are growing moist as he recalls the bittersweet moment, but he doesn't care. "I recognized you immediately. You have your mother's wild hair, her eyes, her personality. You have my hair color, though, and forehead. Not that foreheads are very important. I knew you were my daughter, but I just couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe the sweet, innocent infant I held in my arms was now this strong, independent, and kind woman. As soon as I wrapped my arms around you, though… it just made sense." She finally looks at him, and their eyes meet, both feeling tears roll down their cheeks.

"I see why Mom married you." She says it without thinking, automatically wiping her eyes. It takes a few seconds for her to realize what she said, but James' grin only confirms it. From the doorway, Snow says,

"I told you you have my chin."