It was good to be home. It was good to finally sleep in her own bed and have Lily sleep in her own crib and not worry about the pirate or Cora or what Rumpelstiltskin was going to do the next day to screw up the peace or when she'd see her son again…
It was the first good night's sleep Dagian felt like she had in over four hundred years. Finally she could go to sleep and not wonder when things were going to improve for them.
They had talked Regina out of using that curse. Bae was going to stay for a little bit longer. Dagian wasn't sure that was a good idea though…it was only going to be a matter of time until she tried again.
Dagian would hate being separated from her son and grandson but it would make it easier to know they were safer and away from all this insanity. If Dagian had it her way, she'd insisted that he take Lily with him until Regina was taken care of. It was something she'd have to talk to Rumpelstiltskin and Bae about.
Personally, Dagian wished they could pop Regina's head off, but Rumpelstiltskin wanted to be good for Bae and Belle. Dagian liked to think Bae would forgive them for getting rid of the woman that wanted to kill them and brainwash his son but probably not.
And Henry probably wouldn't either, but his view of things was still too black and white. Sometimes you had to strike first to keep from getting killed or to save others. Henry wouldn't understand that. He was still too much the boy.
"Have you heard from Regina?" Dagian asked as she sat next to Emma on the park bench. They both watched Henry and Bae practice sword fighting around the yard. The boy had dreams about becoming a knight, Dagian wasn't sure he really understood the sacrifices that a knight had to make. It wasn't all duels and jousts, it was dangerous work that overworked a man and paid too little in the end of things. The first men to die in a battle or a siege were the knights…it never failed.
"No," Emma took a sip of her coffee, "She's keeping her distance for now."
"Circling like the vulture she is," Dagian put her hand on the stroller and gently pushed it back and forth to ease Lily to sleep, "She should be locked up."
"And who would do that?"
"You could," Dagian pointed out, "You have magic."
Emma paled at that and turned away without saying anything. Dagian tilted her head and adjusted her position, "That terrifies you."
"Magic doesn't seem to have done several people a lot of good."
"Yours is different," Dagian quietly pointed out.
"I'm still trying to work through the fact that my parents are Snow White and Charming," Emma said, "And that my son's father is the son of Rumpelstiltskin. Magic is something I'm still working towards."
Dagian thought she understood, "Of course you're working through it. It's a lot to take in. Over a year ago, you just wanted to bring your son home and make sure he was okay. And now look at you. You've found your parents who didn't abandon you like you thought they did and they're the same age as you. You're a full time mom now and you're lying down roots for your son. You're baby's father is in the picture. You wake up one morning and realize your life is turned upside down as you're surrounded by people you don't know and who expect things out of you that you aren't sure you can give. And you don't feel like anyone understands you because no one's been through what you have, but you feel guilty because it's hard to accept this. You have to in order to function but it's hard. So you just go with it because you feel like you're in over your head and you force yourself to feel nothing because you don't want these people to know how hard it is to struggle to be good every day."
"Sometimes feeling nothing is an attractive option when what you feel sucks," Emma told her.
"Indeed," Dagian took another sip, "Gods, I know exactly how you feel. It's what I felt like when I first woke up here as well as other times."
"Sometimes I'm not sure I can do this," Emma told her quietly.
"That doubt is perfectly natural," Dagian told her, "Have you talked to your parents about it?"
"I'm not sure they would understand."
"We're not complete cardboard cut outs from the books of this world, Emma," Dagian explained to her, "We are still human. I think they'd understand if you talked to them about how much this scares you. You've been through a lot in a short amount of time. We're at a time of peace now…maybe it's time to release what you're bottling up before the next inevitable wave of drama hits. Which will probably stem from Regina finding out who Bae is."
Emma paled, "She won't like that."
"No, she won't," Dagian said, "And that could mean terrifying things for both our sons."