Author's Note: At long last, the consequences of Emma's actions are revealed.
A/N 2: I appreciate every follow, every favorite, and I hope this bit of update can, in some small way, return the love.
Chapter summary: Emma finds herself back in her parents' castle after preventing Cora from taking Daniel's heart in the Mills stables. However, times have changed - again. This time she's 18, the curse was never cast, and Regina is married to Daniel, the White stablemaster.
Taking the Reins
Chapter 5 (aka "The Path Untravailed")
Emma's head was spinning. She sat in the middle of her bed in White Castle. Her chest hurt, her toes were bare under a sleeping gown far too frilly for it to have been her choice. And her mother was grinning at her like a fool. What had happened to Regina?
But she bit back that first question on her tongue and instead she asked, "What's tonight?"
Snow, her face full of unfettered joy, lifted her skirts and flounced onto the side of Emma's bed. She only vaguely noted, as her mother tugged her hands from Emma's lap to her own, that the fluffy-as-a-cloud duvet was a creamy pink rather than the lavender Emma had favored as a compromise in the face of her mother's insistence that she have the girlish room she had been denied growing up in the foster system.
"Tonight my baby girl becomes the lady she was always meant to be," Snow gushed. A cherubic smile dimpled both cheeks.
"Snow, I thought we already -" Emma cut herself off at the sight of her mother's abruptly shattered expression. The lips as red as the reddest roses had pulled into a frown.
"I thought we had gotten past this," Snow said.
"I'm never going to be all right with a party, Mom," Emma said, moderating her voice to conciliation.
"But it's your birthday. So many people from across all the realms are coming to see the Crown Princess Emma all grown up."
Snow's palms cupped Emma's cheeks, guiding her forward with tender insistence. Emma felt the downward tug and then soft lips brushing against her forehead. "I'll send in Johanna to help you get ready."
Emma harrumphed. Snow's palms cupped her cheeks, guiding her forward with tender insistence. Emma felt the downward tug and then soft lips brushing against her forehead. "I'll send in Johanna to help you get ready."
Before Emma could say another word, Snow was on her feet and moving out the door. While Emma, flummoxed by her mother's behavior, looked around herself without really seeing anything, a blond, heavy set woman in servants' dress, moved into the room and firmly shut the door behind her.
"Shall we start with a bath, Princess Emma?"
Emma blinked and gave a distracted nod. She jumped at the clap of thick hands that preceded the arrival of a semi-constant stream of boys bearing yokes of steaming buckets. Johanna guided them back out when the large sitting basin in the room was full. The humidity in the vast space had risen considerably. "Here, dear. I won't pin up your hair since you likely wish to wash it as well."
Emma stripped and slid into the comforting grasp of the warm water, dousing her head and scrubbing at her hair with Johanna's help. "So, who's getting Henry ready? He got his own, whatchacallit? Butler?"
"Henry, princess?"
"Yeah. Unless he's getting out of this. Though I can't imagine he doesn't want the whole treatment. He did want to come here after all."
Johanna's expression turned puzzled. "Yer right, of course, princess. Now, let me jus' comb it into a braid and I'll leave you to soak."
Emma took the looking glass Johanna handed her and watched the intricate process as the older woman efficiently combed and twisted and used cloth ties to pull her hair into a braid which would, undoubtedly, leave her hair in a profusion of curls for the night's festivities once it was dry and loose.
"Not bad. You've done this before," she commented.
"All your life, princess. It's been my pleasure. Now, I'll leave you to bathe in peace."
Emma watched the older woman let herself out before leaning back spreading her arms across the top of the basin. She glanced down her body, her breasts resting on the water. She frowned as her gaze flowed to her belly. A light hand confirmed that it's not the refraction of the water. There's no stretch marks from Henry. Only the perfect plain of a taut, young, virginal belly. Damn it. She splashed upright.
She needed to find Regina. Now.
Hurriedly she scrubbed her legs and body until she prickled all over with sensation, the liveliness countering the languid feeling of the perfectly heated muscle-relaxing bath.
After stepping from the water, she scrubbed herself dry and pulled on a set of dungarees and a plain linen shirt - apparently she'd hidden them under her bed. She'd never made any bones about her preferred clothing. Then she remembered her belly. Her entire life never happened as it had.
Time to find Regina.
She looked around once in the corridor. The room across, Henry's in another life, was open and it's emptiness hit her. She remembered how Henry had delayed her meetup with Regina the other day by coming out to the stables both before and after his studies. She'd resented him a bit then. God, how she missed him now.
She likely needed a horse to find Regina, so... "Stables it is." Emma hurried through the castle corridors ignoring the askance looks of the many servants, footmen, and soldiers whom she passed.
The courtyard bustled with a market. Emma slipped a cloak off a merchant's table when he was looking the other way before someone could remark on the princess's presence. She hadn't seen this many people since they first arrived after the whirlwind trip from Storybrooke. Nix that. This was ten times more people. She only recognized a handful of faces, and the dark and cocoa-skinned turban and sheik-garbed sprinkled throughout was proof of her mother's "from all the realms" claim. Wow. She hurried down the path toward the stables, following her nose as usual.
She stumbled into the stable door, skipping her steps to avoid a pile of horse dung.
"My apologies, I was just coming to clean up." A male voice erupted behind Emma, spinning her in place with surprise. As a result she started to fall. Strong hands caught her around the waist and a metal pitchfork bounced off the wooden stable door before clattering to the ground. "I'm sorry I startled you..." Emma's head tossed again, causing her cloak hood to fall from her head. Shock registered in blue eyes. "Princess Emma?"
Emma focused on the man holding her and gasped. "I'm sorry, I didn't see where I was going."
"Are you alright?" He pulled the two of them upright and stepped back. "Did you need a horse?"
"I... I'm not sure. Just getting away from the castle for a while seemed like a good idea. You…" She looked at him closely. He was dark, a little older than she had encountered, but... "You're Daniel, right?" Emma felt the furrow deepening in her brow. This was the dark-haired man who had been Regina's childhood love. Emma had spent a lengthy amount of time in the man's presence, after all, convinced him to take Regina away, and saved his heart from Cora's evil grasp.
"A pleasure to serve the house of White, princess." Daniel acknowledged her identification with a deep bow followed by an even warmer smile.
Emma had a million questions, and not a clue how to ask any of them without sounding like she was out of her mind. If Daniel was here, older, did this mean she had successfully changed history for Regina as well? Had there been a curse at all? How long had she been living with her parents? "I..." She shook herself. "Thanks. You...doing well...your...wife?" She winced. But she was desperate for news of Regina.
Daniel beamed. "We are both well in body, Princess. I will tell her you asked after her."
"She's coming tonight?" Emma asked eagerly.
"She...begs your family's pardon, but fears she would be poor company." That came too quickly; his wife apparently didn't like to go out, at all.
"Please bring her to the festivities," Emma encouraged. "It has been a long time since we have seen one another," she ventured.
He bowed. "I will tell her it is your wish to have her present, Princess."
Emma nodded and started away from the stables.
"Princess, did you not want to ride?"
"It can wait. I just wanted to check on a few things."
He straightened quickly. "I hope you have found all as you wished."
"I hope so, too." Emma left Daniel with his consternation and returned to the castle. Entering the antechamber off from the throne room, she paused, hidden in the shadows, at the sound of her mother's voice.
"Emma was asking about whom?"
"A... Henry?" Johanna hesitated over the name, clearly unfamiliar with it. She went on quickly to Snow, "She seemed to think he was here, getting ready for the party. Is he one of the guests? Someone your daughter is fond of?"
"If he is, I've never met him. The only Henry I know of is Lord Henry, and he… he should be in his dotage."
Emma frowned. Dotage? She recalled that Snow had used that term before to refer to an old, ailing man who had fallen to his knees upon meeting Emma when they first returned to the Enchanted Forest. Emma smacked her forehead. Of course, Regina's father. They all thought she meant Regina's father. Not her son. Regina's son. Our son. Emma winced.
"The Princess seemed concerned that he should be getting ready? Perhaps she met him somewhere?"
"During one of her many escapades away from here, you mean?" Snow sighed, sounding like that minor mention was testing the last of her patience. Emma peeked around the edge of the wall to see the back of her mother, hand to her head, pacing. The woman stopped moving abruptly, turned back to Johanna, then sighed again. "He's a minor lord of the southern kingdom. I'll send a messenger to ask if he has all that he requires. If nothing else, it's a gesture of goodwill, I suppose."
Emma held herself still and silent watching Johanna follow Snow out on her self-appointed task. She wondered if she should follow and find out about this 'Henry' they thought she had spoken of. Looking out off the balcony Emma scanned the inner and outer baileys and the land beyond the castle's high walls. The land was lusher than she remembered. The greens more green, the trees looking older and more full. Before, she recalled she could see all the way through the sparse foliage to the shores of Lake Nostos. Beyond that lay the land of Regina's exile.
Now though Emma could barely discern the farthest shore of the lake because the land was so thick with impenetrable foliage.
"Emma?"
She turned to see her father entering the room. "David," she sighed in relief. He gave her the same frown Snow had.
"Where did you hear that name?" he asked, his expression becoming more alarmed than frustrated.
It was Emma's turn to frown. "You told me. All about this twin, and how you ha..." David crossed quickly to her, looking around them in clear fear.
His hand came up to her head and the other clamped over her mouth. His expression still seemed more scared than angry which is the only reason Emma didn't immediately flip him onto his back.
"I haven't told anyone that," he hissed low through clenched teeth. "Not even your mother."
Emma blinked as his hands bit into her shoulder and her jaw. Warily she nodded. He let her loose as if his hands were burning. He stared at them clenching and unclenching. "OK," she drew out the sounds hesitantly.
Her father looked around once more, his expression still deeply troubled. "It can't come out, Emma. It can't. Do you understand?"
Emma frowned. "But you always say family.."
"Has no secrets. I know." His head dropped and his chin pressed to his chest. "This is life and death," he said. "Yours and your mother's."
"OK. I won't say anything. Was there something you needed to see me about?"
"Tonight's your first ball. I thought maybe you'd like me to show you how to dance?"
She shook her head, recalling working through the basics with Henry under the instruction of Henry's tutor. "I got that..." She trailed off. No Henry here. "Um…"
"You don't want me to..." He trailed off.
"Da...d," she recovered quickly. "It's not that…"
"It is. It's because of what you learned about me, isn't it?" He sat on the edge of the throne dais, looking up at her with his arms resting across his upraised knees.
Emma sighed and held out her hands. "I learned something about me," she said gently. "You can show me, all right?"
He stood, taking her hand. He still looked worried as she placed her palms in both of his. "Emma, I know this doesn't look good. But I've become a good leader."
They moved around the open space, twirls and steps. For a moment even Emma forgot. "I did learn everything about court life. Born to this life or not, I am so proud to be your father."
"I don't care about that," she stated with emphatic honesty. "I don't want to be a princess, and certainly not queen."
Though he almost certainly spoke about the dancing, Emma heard a note of emphasis as David said, "You're a natural. Just like your mother."
She considered her situation. "Would you tell me again, how you and Mom met?" Something was clearly rotten in the state of Denmark... Well, the Enchanted Forest, she amended. Maybe she could figure out where it had gone awry.
"I was all set to marry Midas's daughter Abigail." Emma nodded; she knew this part. After all, it formed the basis for Regina putting them together to keep David away from Mary Margaret in Storybrooke.
"Snow and her father were among the visiting royals for the festivities." Emma frowned even as David's head fell back looking up at the ceiling in his reminisce, his face upturned in a goofy smile. He laughed, brought his gaze back to her, then went on with his tale. "I fell in love with your mom at first sight."
That wasn't the way the story went, Emma thought. Leopold should have already been dead; Snow on the run from a vengeful queen. "What of Snow's stepmother?"
"Snow only ever had one mother, Eva. Leopold never remarried."
"He didn't?"
David shook his head. "You say that like you've never heard this story before?"
"Yeah, yeah, sorry, just got confused on the details. All these ball preparations must be messing with my head."
"You want to go for a ride? Clear it a bit? You always liked riding," he said, adding gingerly, "with me."
"I was just out at the stables. Tell me about the...stablemaster? Daniel? How'd he come to work here?"
"Stablemaster? Oh, the...Daniel?" David gave her a puzzled look. "He ..." He frowned. "He's been here as long as I've known your mom."
"He's married, right?"
"Yes, though I don't... recall..." He tipped his head in another direction. "Wait. I have met his wife, but you know? I can't recall her name. She keeps their home, doesn't come to the castle much. Why do you ask?"
"I just wondered if he was happy. If they're happy."
Her father's expression changed to worry. "I knew you'd wake up to the men around you eventually, Emma, but another woman's husband…?" He shook his head. "You'll find someone your own age at the ball. I promise."
He pulled her into his body on the next turn. Emma felt the bigness of his hand settle comfortingly around the back of her head. She laughed weakly, pained by the familiarity. She knew now that this wasn't the timeline she had left. Somehow she had been kicked back into an altered past. In the wake of her choice to intervene for Regina, it might just be her future... She hoped Daniel convinced his wife to attend the ball, so Emma could be sure it was indeed for Good.
"Hey, hey, no crying," her father murmured in her ear as he let her pull back from his embrace. He brushed a thumb at the tear slipping down her left cheek. "You're beautiful, and every man there tonight will press your mother and I for your betrothal."
Emma accepted another kiss to her temple from her father, and watched him stride out of the throne room, no doubt in search of her mother. She hurried to her chambers, a sort of anticipatory anxiety nipping at her heels.
Next, the ball...