Part 2 for you. This had started off as a one shot, but I keep coming up with ideas. So hope you don't mind it turning more into a story. I should have started it as a new one ... Ah well. Hope you like this chapter
Now that they had decided to actually do something together David didn't know where to start. There had been lots of things that he wished he could teach Emma, but what could he pick for now.
"Well, I had heard that you have some experience, but I always wanted to make sure that you could sword fight. To know that you could defend yourself was important."
Emma like the sound of that, it could be fun. "Ok but how do we go about it?"
"I don't want to use real swords that for sure, Henry has some wooden ones that will work well." David cringed at the thought of Emma fighting with real swords, even though it had already happened, still didn't mean he had to like it.
"Really we have to use toys?" she thought he could treat her like an adult, just a little bit today.
"Yes, because I do not want to face your mother if you get hurt using real ones." That was a scary thought, and an experience he didn't need.
Emma pondered this a little bit; she could see his point "Fair enough, I'll go get them, meet you at the car."
Once they were ready David drove out to the forest, somewhere quite for them to be. He was happier being in the open, always the farm boy and he wanted to bring Emma to a place, that he felt, was close to her real home as possible.
Emma watched David get out the car; he took a deep breath in whilst closing his eyes. Almost as if he could finally breathe.
"You like it out here don't you?" she enquired.
"Yes, how much of Henry's book have you read?" not knowing how much he needed to explain to her.
Emma laughed, "before the curse hardly any, but once I knew it was real, I sat up for hours reading it. Henry got really annoyed because I wouldn't give it back."
"Then you know that I didn't grow up in a castle, as a prince." He was worried talking about this, David didn't want her to think that he had been a fraud, that he had no choice at the time. After he met Snow, it got even more complicated.
"Sure, you did it to save your mother, didn't you? it must have been hard." Emma answered him softly.
He was surprised that she got that, just from reading the book. The only other person to truly understand what had happened was Snow.
Emma started to frown slightly thinking about the book.
"What's wrong Emma?" David was learning quickly when it came to her facial expressions, it helped that most of them were like Snow's so he had some advantage.
"When Henry first found me, and told me about the book, I thought I was humouring him, pretending that I believed, it was wrong of me, especially since it turned out to be true. There were some pages in it that he was adamant that Regina couldn't see. I ripped them out and threw them on the fire, before reading them. I just wish now that I had at least read it." Emma was staring at the ground, playing with some loose rubble beneath her feet. Would she ever get over the guilt of not believing her son, it had nearly cost him his life.
"Do you know what they were about?" David tried to rack his memory about his old life, that he thought the Henry would deem dangerous if Regina knew about it.
"They were about me and when I was born." Emma's foot was still playing with the rock.
David tried gulping back his emotion. Never had he been so conflicted about one certain day. On one hand it was one of his happiest memories, when he was handed a very tiny Emma. He could still remember what it was like having her in his arm, even her baby smell. But he also remembered with every nerve of his body, what it was like placing her in that wardrobe, hearing Snow's heart retching crying down the halls and saying goodbye to his daughter, only being able to hold her for less than 5 minutes.
Emma was starting to worry about how quite David had been, was that the wrong thing to bring up. Just as she was about to say something he seemed to snap out of it.
David thought that this was not the time to be thinking of times like that. He was here with Emma, and by some miracle she wanted to celebrate Father's Day.
"So, the best way to hold the sword." Handing the wooden stick to her and demonstrating the basics of sword fighting, before they moved on to more complicated manoeuvres.
After a couple of hours, in which Emma realized what she had done previously had been very wrong, they collapsed on a patch of grass, leaning up against a tree.
"Haven't done that in a while. Must be getting old." David laughed; he wishes he had thought to bring some sort of drink or food for them. He really had forgotten how tiring it was.
"You can't say that, it means I am too." The irony of the fact that she said that to her father was not lost on her.
"You did good Kid, picked it up well. I'm proud of you."
"Thanks." It was a first for Emma, someone had said that they were proud of her. It was even better the fact that it was her own father saying it.
David decided to push it a little further. "and not just for today."
Emma, who had been avoiding eye contact with him, brought her head up quickly, a small smile making a way on to her face. "Sure, what's not to be proud of the teenage pregnancy, or the police record." She tried making a joke of it, but seriously her life was hardly proud worthy
"How about surviving the life you had, and coming out of it strong and good hearted to the core. The teen pregnancy, well that means we have Henry in our lives. That most certainly is nothing to be ashamed of." David meant every word he said, sure if he had been around hearing that she was having a baby at 18 would have been very hard for him to swallow. Not to mention he would have quite happily picked up his sword to the guy who was responsible for it. And it wouldn't have been a wooden sword either. Though all that would have disappeared the first time he had held his Grandson.
He thought that Emma would like to change the subject, and whilst they had been practising something had been on his mind. He was sitting close enough to her, he nudge his elbow to her.
"So, what is this about you fighting a dragon?" When Snow told him about this, he almost had a coronary, but he had to think that she was safe here now.
"Ah that." The smile that had been creeping on her face whilst he had been talking broke into a large grin. "That had been fun."
"Fun? You have been spending too much time with Henry."
"Sure it had been scary at the time, seeing it rise in front of me. I thought I was seeing things, or that Granny had slipped something extra in her Hot Chocolate. I didn't really have time to panic so I just reacted. Focusing on getting that golden egg, and getting back to Henry as soon as I could."
"Wait. Golden Egg?" David was having flashback to another time, similar situation. Except this time he was trying to get that damn egg into the dragon.
"Yeah, Gold said to save Henry. He needed the thing that was inside it."
"Damn Gold." David went to say more than that, but remember Emma was present. He still tried being gentlemanly, even if he had heard worse existing her own mouth.
"Well yeah, but what did he do this time?" The way things had gone for her, Gold always seemed to be behind it.
"It was me, on Rumplestiltskin request, that put the egg there in the first place." He was angry that the imp, had Emma of all people to remove it.
"Seriously, why is it always him, and what else could he have planned that we don't know about." She had enough; Emma just wanted her family and some peace in their lives. Hadn't they gone through enough. But the more she thought about it, the more she was convinced something else was a drift in their future, and she would bet every last cent she had, it was going to involve Regina and/or Gold.
David put a hand on her shoulder, "That is why we do things like this; we prepare ourselves the best we can and have faith that in the end good will win."
Emma had worked herself up now; she was ready for another go at the sword. Jumping back up, going into the stance position that he had taught her "Come on the old man, show me more."
"Hey less of the old thank you very much. I do believe I look quite good to have a 28 year old daughter and an 11 year old grandson." He stood opposite her in the same position. "I will teach you more but there is one rule I will set down."
"Really, aren't I a little too old to be set rules by my parents, it be curfews next." Emma rolled her eyes at him.
"Don't tempt me. This rule is that you do not go off fighting dragons again. I don't care who asks you or what the circumstances are. Dragons major no! Ok."
Emma thought about this, "I can live with that. Don't really fancy going up against one again."
David breathed a sigh of relief, it was irrational, how many dragons to you come across in Storybrook after all. But he felt better hearing those words.
After a few more hours hunger got the best of both of them. So they decided to more on to Granny's, because let's face it, neither of them was very good at cooking and Granny's was the only place really to eat.