This is a fairly long chapter and the way I see it, one chapter closer to getting all of the Charming family back together.
All I claim are the words written here. The characters etc. belong to someone else.
Chapter 28: More Nuts in the Family Tree.
The bracelet tumbled to the floor and Snow expected to lose half of her identity as she returned to her Cursed persona of mild mannered Mary Margaret. Only that never happened. The bracelet hit the ground and she realized that she still remembered everything. She wanted to laugh out loud and gloat. She didn't need the bracelet to preserve her memory. Maybe she never needed it, or more likely maybe she only needed it while she actually crossed the town line. She noticed that George was staring at her and expecting her to react. She could gloat and throw it in his face that his plan had failed. The she remembered something that Charming had told her when they were fighting to take back the Kingdom.
"If there is even one little piece of information that you have and your enemy lacks, you can use that information to your advantage and turn the tables on them." Her beloved and given her that advice right before they had gone into a game changing battle and she realized that it might just work again.
She tried to muster up a bewildered look on her face and she tried to channel Mary Margaret's inner meekness.
"DA Spencer what are you doing here?" She asked bewildered. "Where am I?" She added for effect.
"Do you know who you are?" He asked simply.
"Of course, I am Mary Margaret Blanchard." She lied. "Does this have something to do with Mrs. Nolan's murder? Because I was sure I had been cleared of those charges." She made sure to add a measure of uncertainty to her voice.
"You were cleared of those charges." He agreed. "You are here for your own safety." He added sweetly.
Snow wanted to point out that she was not buying the load of sheep's dung he was shoveling her way, but she reminded herself that she needed to play along.
Instead of ramming his head through the wall, which is what she wanted to do, she looked down meekly at her growing stomach.
"Am I pregnant?" She asked with fake bewilderment showing in her eyes. "How did that happen?" She asked innocently.
George sighed. "This will be hard for you to hear. You have been through a lot and have suffered a great trauma and I fear you have blocked much of what happened from your memory." His face held insincere concern.
Snow steeled herself in preparation for whatever lies he intended to spin. Nothing could have prepared her for the outright evil that he perpetrated against her beloved Charming.
"Please tell me what happened." She demanded almost a little too forcefully. The sooner she found out what George was trying to pull the sooner she could start formulating a plan to defeat him.
"It all comes down to one very twisted and evil man." He admitted.
"No kidding!" Snow thought to herself.
"That man is David Nolan!" He seethed when he said the name.
Snow let out an audible gasp.
"David Nolan killed his wife, framed you and as a last despicable act he forced himself and left you with that bastard child you are carrying" He told her this with relish in his voice.
"No, he would never hurt me!" Snow stated with honest furry in her voice. "Besides, Katherine is alive!" She added.
Even by King George's standards the story was weak. Did he really expect even Mary Margaret to be that gullible?
"It is true that she was found alive, but that was only a ruse so that he and his partner could murder her later and make sure that no court could doubt your guilt." He stated forcefully.
"Who exactly was his partner" She asked trying not to roll her eyes.
"Emma Swan!" He stated simply.
"That is ridiculous. Emma is…" Snow had to stop herself.
"Emma is what exactly." He asked defensively.
She picked her words carefully, knowing that any mistake could give her advantage away.
"Emma is my roommate and my best friend. She loves me and so does David." She stated firmly.
"Never the less, they did hurt you by carrying on an affair behind your back and framing you for murder. We need the results from the DNA test to prove that David Nolan is that baby's father. Then we can prosecute him for attacking you. Will you allow me to collect the sample?" He asked.
Snow nodded weakly.
"Good, I will send the nurse back in." He left the room.
Snow wanted to scream. How dare he tell her such lies about her husband and their daughter? Snow sat down on the edge of the bed.
"He is a stone-hearted, evil bastard!" She stated to no one in particular. "Some people claim that evil is made not born, but that man is the exception to the rule. He is pure evil." She punched a pillow and looked up to see the nurse standing in the doorway.
The look of shock on the nurse's face gave way to one of compassion.
"District attorney Spencer just gave me a quick summary of the situation. I wish he had told me the whole story from the start." She stated.
Snow knew that she had to continue to play along. She didn't know this woman and she was not sure that she could trust her either.
"It has all come as a surprise to me as well." Snow admitted.
The nurse gave her a sympathetic look.
"It is good that you can get angry though. That is a positive step."
Snow nodded in agreement.
"I am certainly angry at the man who did this to me and he will get what is coming to him." She vowed as she thought of what she wanted to do to King George.
The nurse nodded, "Shall we get on with the test?" She asked.
Snow eyed the needle that the nurse was holding.
"Are you sure that the procedure is safe?" She asked with concern in her voice.
"It is absolutely 100% safe!" The woman promised.
"Afterwards, I wonder if you would do me a favor. I have a letter that I would like sent to my mother. She worries about me so much and I want to make sure that she knows I am alright. It does not give anyway anything about where I am or anything. I don't even know where I am to tell the truth."
It was all a lie, but Snow handed the woman the letter that she had written to Charming.
"Mary Margaret Blanchard?" She asked suspiciously.
"My mother and I have the same name." She lied again.
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt for me to drop it in the mail." The nurse shrugged and put the letter in her purse.
Snow hoped she wouldn't read it otherwise she might have to explain some of the more intimate things she had written to her husband. There were things in that letter that no woman would say to her mother.
"Another thing," Snow added. "I wonder if you might talk to DA Spencer about letting me go for a walk in the park later this week. I am feeling very cooped up and I am sure that exercise would be good for the baby."
The nurse smiled. "I will see what I can do." She promised as she left the room.
Snow sighed with relief. All she had to do was convince George that she really was obedient, meek Mary Margaret and that she needed to go for a walk. She had been out once, but he had used the replica of her wedding ring to track her. That was not going to happen a second time. If she could only convince him to let her outside she knew she could successfully escape this time.
Charming had spent the moments before his mother appeared studying the room for any possible way to escape with Emma. It all seemed pointless though because he stood face to face with the second most important woman in his life.
"I thought you were dead." Charming repeated.
"I am sorry about that," Ruth replied. "It was a necessary ruse though.
He eyed her unconvinced.
"You're Ruth?" Emma asked dumbfound.
Ruth eyed her suspiciously. "Yes, and you are not Snow White!" She accused.
"I'm Emma." She replied meekly, expecting it to mean nothing the older woman.
Ruth's faced brightened in recognition and she rushed to embrace Emma.
"You are my granddaughter!" She replied happily as she stroked Emma's hair.
Emma pulled back hesitantly. "How do you know who I am?" She asked.
"That is a very long story. We can discuss it over dinner. We dress for dinner here. Emma you can come with me and I will show you to a room." Ruth turned to address Charming.
"You look good son; you do not look a day over 30. Merlin will you show him to a room and find him something to wear for dinner?" She smiled at the wizard.
Emma gave her father a worried look, "I would rather stay with you, David." She answered.
He nodded his head in agreement. The woman standing in front of them looked like his mother, but he was not willing to risk the safety of his daughter.
"Don't be silly. You can't change clothes together. Emma will be fine son." Ruth promised.
Emma gave him a nod and was surprised when her father pulled her into an embrace, but then she felt him slip a dagger into her pocket. She quickly glanced at the floor and realized that he must have picked up one of the weapons when no one was looking. She realized that once again, he was giving her the gift of a best chance. She gave him a reassuring smile.
"I will see you soon." Emma promised her father as she allowed herself to be led away by the woman who claimed to be her grandmother.
Emma followed Ruth through a maze of stone corridors, but she did not allow herself to get disorientated. She prided herself on having a strong sense of direction. When she was younger, Emma had wondered where she got her sense of direction from. Now she realized that when your father lived by the motto "I will always find you," and your mother had lived as a bandit in the forest before you were even conceived, a strong sense of direction came naturally.
Ruth led her into a lavishly decorated bedroom. A four poster bed stood in the middle of the room. A huge wardrobe took up one whole wall and a vanity dresser took up space along another wall. There were boxes of jewels and drawers of gloves. Ruth opened the wardrobe and pulled out several brocade and gilded gowns. One of the dresses had so many buttons that Emma found her eyes crossing just looking at them.
She ran her hand over the silk bedspread.
"You sleep here?" Emma asked her grandmother.
Ruth laughed, "Merlin and I have a bedroom that we share several doors down. This is just my dressing chamber."
She watched amused as Emma tried to struggle into one of the dresses.
"You dress like this every night?" Emma asked in dismay.
"We have casual Fridays." Ruth shrugged.
"Let's pretend it is Friday." Emma replied dryly.
"You are so much like your father. He hated getting dressed up when he was little. Not that we had anything near as fancy when he was a boy. We were poor famers. I suppose your mother must had you attend a fancy ball or two?" She asked Emma.
"Not really." Emma replied simply.
Ruth picked up Emma's jacket and the dagger clattered to the floor.
Ruth looked at her with an expression of surprise tinged with sadness on her face.
"You don't trust me." She said sadly.
"Don't take it personally. I don't trust anyone the first time I meet them." Emma admitted truthfully.
"Would it help if I told you about the ring?" Ruth asked.
Emma was surprised. "You mean the portal ring? How did you know that we were looking for it?"
Ruth sighed, "Everyone comes to Oz looking for that ring. Its popularity has forced us to hide it well. I was actually thinking about the ring that your grandfather gave me and the one that no doubt your father gave to your mother when they were married." She smiled at Emma and laughed when the younger woman rolled her eyes.
"You are talking about The True Love ring." Emma replied with a note of cynicism in her voice.
"You don't believe in True Love, do you Emma?" Ruth asked.
"I believe that there are people around me that believe it exists. I have seen a lot of things in the past year that were hard to believe. Maybe I should start believing in love again." Emma sighed.
"I believe in it. I had it with your grandfather and I know that your father has it with your mother" She explained. "Maybe if you allowed yourself to believe in it you could solve whatever issue is keeping you from having a relationship with your father." Ruth gave Emma the type of look that only a grandmother could give. It was warm and nurturing, but firm.
Emma had never had a grandmother and she was surprised by the feelings that were being stirred in her.
"What makes you think that David and I need to work on our relationship?" Emma asked cautiously.
Ruth gave her a weary look. "The fact that you call him David is a big clue."
Ruth picked up the dagger and handed it to Emma.
"We may have a few issues." Emma admitted. "Maybe True Love is part of the problem. Maybe I just feel like my parents have each other, so why do they need me? Do you know what it is like to live in a house with two people who think their love is the be all and end all?" Emma placed her hand over her mouth and looked shocked. She wasn't even sure where her words had come from. She had just met this woman and suddenly she felt like sharing her innermost feelings.
Ruth smiled, "I don't know what that is like, but I would imagine that your father does. I am sure that he felt the same way about his father and me." She laughed.
Emma's eyes grew large. "I can't imagine anything like it. They are always touching each other. At breakfast I am afraid to look under the table because I am afraid of what is going on down there. They go at it like sex starved rabbits and the security camera at the dinner caught them in the act of something. I will not embarrass you with the details, but I caught them on the floor of the stables. I bet David never had to look at pictures of you and his father half naked on the front page of the town newspaper. To top it all off, my parents are having another baby and they are my age!"
Emma took a deep breath.
Ruth gave her a puzzled look.
"Emma, your mother must be in her 50's by now. How can she be pregnant?" Ruth asked her granddaughter.
Emma blinked in confusion.
"You don't know about the Curse?" Emma asked.
She filled her grandmother in on what had happened over the past 28 years.
"I was wondering why your father did not appear to be any older than the last time I saw him." Ruth sighed.
Emma gave her a cautious look," How do I put this delicately, you don't look like 28 years have passed and if the Curse did not affect this land you should have aged."
Ruth laughed, "How do you know that I wasn't a young woman the last time I saw your father?"
Emma sighed, "I saw a picture of you in Henry's storybook and you look exactly the same."
"We share a border with Neverland and there is a spring there that does wonders for your complexion." Ruth shrugged.
"You found The Fountain of Youth?" Emma asked disbelieving.
"Something like that…" Ruth admitted. "But tell me more about the Curse and what it has to do with your pregnant mother going missing?"
"The Curse, As I explained was supposed to create new identities for the inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest and take away their happy endings. Only it did not work out the way that Regina intended. Mary Margaret and David couldn't keep apart and despite the Curse, she ended up pregnant. Then king George kidnaped Mary Margret because he wants the baby. " Emma explained.
Ruth gave her a blank look, "I am confused. Who exactly is Mary Margaret?"
"My mother, you know her as Snow White. Mary Margaret was her name under the Curse."
Ruth mulled this information over for a moment. "My father kidnapped Snow White?" She asked with more than a hint of surprise in her voice.
"King George is your father?" Emma gave a startled cry.
Ruth shrugged, "I guess I don't resemble a Princess anymore. 30 years of working on a farm will do that to a woman. It must be hard for you to believe that I was ever a royal."
Emma shook her head, "No I knew you had been a princess. David told me that you were very much a royal until you met and fell in love with his father. He just failed to mention that King George was you father." Emma replied without even trying to hide her anger and disbelief.
"I don't think he knew. We tried to protect him as best we could. After we gave his brother James to my father, a decision I regretted every day of my life, we tried to protect your father from ever being touched by that life. The life I gave up freely to follow the path of True Love." Ruth informed her.
Emma gave her a look of disbelief. "That resolve lasted until uncle James went and got himself killed and then King George needed a replacement heir. Step up to the plate twin brother." There was more than a touch of sarcasm in her voice.
"Your father did that of his own free will to save me, the kingdom and our farm. Because that is the kind of man he is. He came to me after he broke off his engagement to King Midas' daughter. He wanted to return the wedding ring to me because he was convinced that he could never be with the woman he really loved. I encouraged him to go after her. I begged him to follow the path of True Love." Ruth declared all of this with passion in her voice.
"What a fat lot of good that did! Maybe you should have just left them alone!" Emma snapped back.
"We wouldn't be having this conversation if I had let them be because you never would have been born." Ruth pointed out. "Besides, when your father came to me to return the ring I could see that he was a changed man. All his life my son seemed to be missing something in his life and I don't mean riches or a father or any of those things. A fundamental part of your father was missing. I always thought it was because we had separated the twins. When he came back that day I realized that the person who had been missing from his life all along was your mother. Then I met your mother and she agreed to find one of the portal rings for me." Ruth Admitted.
"How could you send Snow on a quest?" Charming asked from the doorway.
Both Emma and Ruth turned to see Charming standing in the doorway. Emma notes that her father is no stranger to the fine, silk and brocaded tunic he is wearing. He doesn't act like the stiff collar and velvet breeches are causing him the least bit of discomfort. However, his face does turn bright red when he realizes that the women are staring at him.
"You look nice, Son." Ruth states with a smile.
Emma notices that her father is looking to her and it is clear that he is desperate for some reaction from his daughter.
"You clean up nicely." She states simple.
His face lights up with a beaming smile as he takes in the sight of his daughter.
"So do you. I only wish your mother was her to see you looking like a proper princess." He exclaims in a teasing manner. His words are tinged with sadness as well and Emma answers with only a nod of her head.
Charming enters the room and addresses his mother. "What were you saying about sending Snow on a quest?" He repeats his question.
"How long were you standing there?" Ruth asks.
"Long enough to learn that you kept your true identity from me mother and led me to believe that the presence of King George in our lives was a mere coincidence!" There was bitterness in his voice and it made Emma cringe because it reminded her of the way she had addressed him so many times since the Curse had broken. Maybe she had used the same tone with both of her parents, but mainly she had used it with her father.
"You are correct, Son." Ruth admitted. "It was not an accident that when King George wanted a son he came to me and it is not a coincidence that he now feels that he is owed your child as well." She sighed sadly.
Emma looked at her father and saw that he was stunned into silence. So, she asked the question she knew must be forming on his lips.
"If you knew what kind of monster King George was, how could you possibly give him your son, not once but twice?" Emma asked with pity in her eyes.
"He wasn't always a monster." Ruth insisted. "He was my father and he loved both me and my mother. Then she died and he changed. He became bitter and lonely. I found True Love and I thought I could use it to escape. Only love was not enough. We were poor and then I found out that I was having a child and I realized that we would barely be able to survive, just the three of us." Ruth replied with feeling in her voice.
"Only it did not end up being just the three of us because you had twins." Charming stated with hollowness in his voice. He refused to look at his mother.
"My father came to me and offered to take one of my boys, how could I refuse?" She snapped.
Emma rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, you gave George one of your sons in order to give him his best chance?" There was sarcasm in her voice.
Her father nearly sobbed and Emma regretted what she had said immediately.
Ruth looked her granddaughter right in the eyes and answered in a matter of fact tone.
"No, it had nothing to do with giving either of my boys there best chance. I gave way James for the purely selfish reason that I felt it was the best way to appease my father and get him to leave me alone. It worked for 25 years until James went and got himself killed." There was neither warmth nor coldness in her words. They were the simple truth. 'Why would you think my motive was anything but self-preservation?" Ruth asked.
Emma turned to her father and placed a reassuring hand on his arm.
"My parents gave me up in order to insure that I had my best chance and that is why I gave up my son Henry." Emma swallowed a lump in her throat. "I thought maybe it was a family trait." She stated hopefully.
"Your mother is much stronger than I ever was." Ruth answered. "I knew that from the first moment I met her. She found me because she wanted to know everything there was to know about my son. I knew immediately that she loved him deeply and I knew that she was fierce."
This caused Charming to smile.
"She is fierce and so loving." He admitted. He missed her desperately.
"Snow had been looking for one of the portal rings for some time," Ruth admitted.
Emma could see that this statement caught her father's interest. This was news to him.
"Snow wanted to flee the grasp of her step-mother and she felt like the ring could allow her to escape to safety once and for all." Ruth continued.
"She never told me," Charming humbled under his breath. He never knew that she had been that desperate to disappear.
"That is probably because once she met you and fell in love she no longer wished to drop off the face of the earth." Ruth shrugged.
Charming let out a sigh of relief.
"Snow no longer had need for a portal ring. However I knew that once you refused to marry Princess Abigail that my life would be in constant danger." Ruth stated firmly.
"Snow and I would have protected you." Her son promised.
"My father would have killed me eventually as an example. When Snow came to visit and I saw how much she loved you I knew she would find the ring for me. She is good, she found it in little more than a week and I had been searching for months. Once she brought me the ring, I was able to use it to escape here." Ruth finished.
The truth finally registered with Charming and a look of horror crossed his face.
"You had the portal ring, which gave you the power to escape to any one of a dozen realms. Only you didn't want to just escape. You wanted to completely disappear. Yo0u said something earlier about dropping off the face of the earth. Only you had a witness. Snow knew your plan and you couldn't have that could you Mother?" He asked angrily.
"It would put her in danger. George would have come after her as well." Ruth tried to defend her actions with little success.
"Snow was already on the run for her life, we both were. All you did was prevent us from being together." Charming brushed a tear from his eyes.
Emma looked between the two of them. "I don't understand." Emma stated.
Charming turned to his daughter. "When Snow told us about meeting my mother she said that she took the memory erasing potion that Rumplestilskin gave her because my mother told her that she had to forget my name in order to protect me."
Emma nodded her head, "I remember her telling us that." Emma agreed.
"Yes, she voluntarily drank the potion to protect you." Ruth insisted.
"No, that is not what happened." Charming stated angrily. "You tricked her into drinking it so she would forget your plan!" He accused. "I almost lost her to that potion!" He sobbed as he remembered how close Snow had come to giving into darkness and killing Regina.
"You didn't lose her, Son. I knew that the two of you would find each other and save each other no matter what because the love you shared was that strong." Ruth pointed out.
"He is right though!" Emma spoke with authority in her voice. "You convinced her to drink the stuff so that she would forget all about your escape plan. It had nothing to do with helping her to forget his name." She indicated her father. "I called him David and you didn't even blink. Yet you had no idea who Mary Margaret was. I had to explain that it was Snow White's Cursed name. She didn't need any explanation about the name David because it is both your Cursed name and your true name, isn't it?" She directed the question at her father.
"Yes, it is his birth name and no it doesn't hold any special power over Rumplestilskin or anyone else." Ruth sighed.
Charming looked shocked. At that moment a bell could be heard tolling in the distance.
"That will be the call to dinner." Ruth mentioned casually.
"I have suddenly lost my appetite." Charming stated flatly and turned and left the room.
Ruth looked disappointed. Emma wondered exactly what the older woman had expected to happen.
"I better get to the dining room. I can hold dinner for a short while. However, if we wait too long Merlin's blood sugar will drop and you don't want to see a wizard with low blood sugar."
Emma tried to give her grandmother a reassuring smile as she watched the woman leave.
Emma found her father standing alone on a large balcony overlooking the lake.
"Are you alright?" Emma asked with concern in her voice.
Her father looked up and gave her a sad smile.
"Times like this you probably wish you were still an orphan." He laughed sadly.
Emma shook her head. That wasn't even remotely true.
"What family tree doesn't have a few nuts?" She shrugged and gave her father a slight smile. Then her face became more serious. "Will you be able to forgive her?" Emma asked.
"Snow? There is nothing to forgive, she was tricked." He stated with feeling.
"I was talking about your mother, but how can you be so certain about the other part?" She asked.
"I will probably forgive my mother. After all, she is a part of me. As for Snow, how could I ever doubt her? It just isn't possible." He sighed sadly and got that wistful look on his face that Emma had been seeing too often in the past week.
"I miss her too, you know." Emma said softly.
"I wish she could see you all dressed up in palace finery." He teased.
Emma blushed, but she also did a half spin, twirling her skirt.
She reached into a pocket and pulled out her cell phone.
"Who says she can't see us both in our palace finery." Emma draped her arm around her father and held the phone out to take a picture of the two of them.
They took several more pictures, including one or two of each of them alone. Emma even got her father to smile in a couple of the photos. This was no small feat because she knew how miserable he was.
"So, your name is really David?" Emma asked sarcastically.
"My name is really David, but you can call me Dad." He gave her a quick wink.
"I might take you up on that." She admitted with less resistance than he had expected.
There were a couple of minutes of silence between them while they both stared at the lake.
Charming tried to hide a smile.
"So, you were in there with your grandmother for some time before I walked in. Did you find anything out about the portal ring?" Charming finally asked Emma.
"It's here, but we already knew that. It is hidden in a volcano. That is all I could find out. We need more information and the only way we are going to get it is by sitting down with them and asking." Emma encouraged.
Charming groaned. "You really want me to sit down and have dinner with my mother, who I just found out told me and the woman I love whooper of a lie, and her boyfriend or paramour or whatever the hell he is?" He shuddered.
"I say let's just go in there, get the information, get the ring and then get the hell out of this nuthouse!" Emma stated with a grin on her face.
"When you put it that way, how can I refuse?" Charming grinned and followed his daughter out of the room.