As always, thank you for reading.

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Chapter 17

Emma thanked Ruby for watching Henry and then when to check on her sleepy son. She went back to the kitchen and found her father sitting at the dining table.

"Emma, I am sorry about what happened at the stables tonight." He said sincerely.

"It was awkward, to say the least. I am mostly concerned that Henry will walk in and see something that he shouldn't see at age 12." She replied.

"Your mother and I talked about it and we plan on being more careful until we can complete the renovations on the cabin and all of us can have some more space and privacy." He promised.

Emma sighed and gave him a puzzled look.

"Why do you two do it though?" She asked.

Her father smiled, "Well when two people truly love each other, they express that love in a special way." He patted her hand.

She looked at him as if she thought he was crazy and then laughed, "Sorry, but you are about 12 years too late for that particular talk!" She gave him a sarcastic look. "What I mean is why is that you have to do it all the time!"

His face turned red and then he answered carefully, "We were apart for 28 years, I guess we are making up for lost time." He squirmed uncomfortable in the chair.

"You were in a coma for most of that time and Mary Margaret was hardly thinking about you for most of that time. So, you are going to have to come up with a new theory because neither of you was very aware of those 28 years." She insisted.

He thought about that for a moment, "That isn't exactly true. I was unconscious all that time but my mind was working. I had these recurring dreams about your mother and you. I must have relived every moment, hundreds of time, from the first time we met until you were born and I placed you in the wardrobe. When I woke up, the reality that I faced did not match what my mind remembered, so I was confused." He said with sincerity in his voice, there was also a glint of pain in his eyes.

"That is a convenient excuse for everything you did, but what about Mary Margaret, she wasn't confused was she?" Emma asked.

"Your mother was profoundly lonely. You should know that more than anyone since you lived with her for a year. She has described it to me as a feeling of emptiness that she found nearly impossible to fill. I think that is why she became a teacher. She was trying to fill that emptiness in her heart. Can you imagine feeling that way for 28 years, Emma? I think I was the lucky one because I was unconscious for most of that time."

Emma saw the full pain in his eyes, not regret because of the mistakes he had made as David Nolan, but empathy for what the woman he loved had gone through for 28 years.

"I hadn't considered what it must have been like for her." She reluctantly admitted.

"Now that your mother and I have found each other again can you really blame us for wanting to hang onto each other tightly?" He asked.

"When you put it that way, it makes sense." Emma agreed.

"Besides, we are at our sexual peak and we haven't been married that long so we are still in the honeymoon phase. We will probably tire of each other in 20 or 30 years. " He teased.

Emma groaned in frustration, "You were doing so well at convincing me and then you just had to add that last part." She rolled her eyes. "That reminds me though. I searched for records indicating that David Nolan was ever married. I could not find any proof that David and Kathryn were ever legally husband and wife."

A smile spread across his face. "That was fast."

"Some people in Boston owed me a favor or two." She shrugged.

"Thanks Emma. I am going to go propose to the woman I love, again." He grinned broadly. Then turned back to his daughter and said, "Happy Birthday again. I hope it was a good one."

"Last year I made a wish not to be alone and I got Henry at my front door. This year, I got a whole family and a horse. As birthdays go this one was pretty fierce!" She admitted.

"Fierce?" Her father asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"That means it was good." She told him. "I checked my schedule and I have some free time at noon tomorrow. If you would like to meet at the stables, we could go riding." She suggested hesitantly.

"I would like that very much. It would be fierce!" He answered with enthusiasm.

Emma frowned, "Yeah, just don't use words like that in public."

He laughed to himself as he headed to bed.

Snow had gone to check on Henry and found that he had fallen asleep looking at his new book that Regina had given him for his birthday. She also noticed that he was covering with the new bedspread that Emma had given him. It depicted scenes from the movie TRON, which was his absolute favorite movie. If there was any hope that her family and Regina could come to some kind of a peace accord, Henry represented that hope.

Snow leaned over and gave Henry a kiss on the forehead. She picked up the book and flipped open a random page. There in moving, living color was a depiction of the scene between her and Charming directly following their first encounter at the Troll Bridge. She had just tried on the ring in order to prove to her future husband that the ring was not meant for her.

For the first time, Snow was able to view the scene from an outside perspective. She saw how lovingly Charming gazed at her when she slipped the ring on her finger. She saw the look of hope in his eyes and then the devastating look of longing as they parted.

She took the book with her to their room and sat on the edge of the bed as she flipped through the pages. Her husband came in the room and sat down beside her.

"What are you looking at?" He asked.

"The book that Regina gave Henry for his birthday." She showed him the pages.

He stared at them in awe and then a look of fear crossed his face. "It is beautiful, but what is the catch. Is it going to explode or shoot out poisonous gas?" He turned the book over.

"No, it is perfectly safe." She assured him, "I don't think she would actually booby trap a present she gave Henry."

"How did she manage it though? There are things in this book that only you and I should know about." He gave her a puzzled look.

"The book I gave Henry had some of the same events, only it was not as magical as this book. Regina told us that she didn't create the book. She used some of the True Love potion and the book grew from that magic. Maybe that is how the book I gave Henry was created as well? Maybe it was not so much written as it was grown?" She wondered out loud.

"Kind of like our children?" He asked, "You add a few drops of true love and shake well and nine months later magic happens?" He teased.

"The way I remember it, the magic part occurs nine months earlier." She teased back.

"That makes me wonder about something. Just how detailed is this book?" He flipped past the pages depicting their wedding to the place where their wedding night would have been shown.

He sighed with relief, "Not that accurate." He said the relief could be heard in his voice.

"Every good magician knows when to keep secrets" She shyly informed him.

She flipped the pages back to their wedding day. Even though she had seen a picture of their wedding in the book she had given Henry, she had not realized at the time that she was looking at a self-portrait.

"Why didn't someone tell me how ridicules I looked on my wedding day?" She asked with shock in her voice.

Charming gave her a loving look, "You were beautiful." He said with feeling in his voice.

"My hair looks horrible. That is the first and last time I ever let Red give me a makeover! No wonder she told me that it was bad luck to look in a mirror on your wedding day!" She cringed.

Charming looked at the pictures in the magical book. All he saw was the woman he loved on one of the happiest days of her life. Just seeing the images of her that day took his breath away.

"Snow, you were radiant that day. When I first saw you I could not believe how lucky I was to have the most beautiful and graceful and wonderful woman on the planet agree to marry me that day." He told her truthfully.

She leaned her head on his shoulder, "I love you." She told him.

"I love you too." He replied. "In fact I love you so much and I love marrying you so much that I want to do it again." He said nervously.

"Do what again?" She asked puzzled.

"Get married." He repeated.

She gave him a questioning look, "Why would we want to do that? We are already married."

"I want to get married as David and Mary Margaret. I had Emma check to make sure that David and Kathryn were never legally married and they weren't. So, you and I can get married." He explained.

"Why?' She asked again.

"Do you remember when we got married?" He asked.

"Yes of course, it is in the book." She showed him the pages.

"I mean the part that is not in the book." He crossed his arms in defiance.

"Of course I remember." She said softly. A smile formed on her lips at the memory of those private vows made just between the two of them.

"Did you feel married after those vows?" He asked.

"Yes." She simply responded.

"Then why the second wedding, the one that is in all of the books?" He challenged.

"We had to be married in the Realm." She answered quickly.

He reached over and turned off his bedside light.

"Whether we like it or not Snow, this is now our Realm." He crossed his arms across his chest in a standoffish manner.

"I'll think about it." She replied softly as she reached over and turned off the lamp that was on her bedside table. She wrapped her arms around him in a loving embrace and leaned her head against his back. She felt him relax as he gave into her embrace. He tried not to be disappointed or feel rejected, but the truth of the matter was that he was a little stunned. He had expected her to jump at the idea of getting remarried. He felt that it was important, but he would go along with what she wanted. He fell into a fitful sleep. Snow felt as safe and warm and content as she always did when she slept in the arms of her husband and she slept soundly until about one in the morning when the nausea started. Emma heard someone up and found her mother kneeling on the floor in the bathroom with her head over the toilet bowl.

"I take it you are feeling the full effects of morning sickness?" Emma asked with a sympathetic look on her face.

Her mother nodded her head weakly, "Yes." She admitted before throwing up again.

Emma handed her a wet cloth for her face and ran got her a glass of water. Her mother sat down on the floor and drank the water.

"I think I am going to die." She said hoarsely.

"You are not going to do that." Emma promised.

"Then I think I am going to killing your father for getting me in this predicament." She insisted.

"You are not going to do that either." Emma informed her.

"He asked me to marry him again." She stated with feeling.

"I'll start collecting the rose petals." Emma said.

"You might want to wait on that. I told him I had to think about it." Snow said weakly.

"You will say yes though?" Emma asked a little surprised.

"I haven't decided. What is the point? We were married in our land. Everyone knows we are committed to each other. "Snow shrugged.

"True, but people renew their vows all the time." Emma pointed out.

"Really, why would they do that?" Snow asked.

"Lots of reasons, some of them are legal to make sure that the father's name appears on the birth certificate of a child." She looked down at her mother and an accusing manner. "To make sure that the man can make life and death decisions in case the woman is incapacitated or so she can make choices for him. Some people do it to mark special events like being together for 30 years or coming through a particular difficult period together. I thought it was a romantic gesture on David's part. He wants to commit to you and the child you are having together. He does so much for you. I think you should do it because it is something that he wants." Emma stated with conviction.

"I guess I could do it for him." Her mother agreed. "

Emma rewet the wash cloth and handed it to her mother. "Yeah, you could do it for him, but I think you should do it for both of you and for all of us. You keep saying that we need to act like a family. Maybe this is his way practicing what he preaches." Emma shrugged.