Happy Holidays, x_disturbed_x!
Title: On a Cold Winter's Night
Recipient: x_disturbed_x
Author: Anon
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Mary Margaret/David, Aurora/Mulan, Mr. Gold/Belle, Emma
Word Count: 3140
Warnings: Vague season three spoilers.
Summary: It's Christmas Eve in Storybrooke, and three couples have three conversations that have needed to be said for a while now.
Author's Notes: I kind of handwaved it to include Aurora and Mulan in Storybrooke, but this story incorporates four of your five prompts in some form or fashion...so I hope you enjoy! :)
It was a cold winter's night in Storybrooke. The wind whistled through the trees, and a light snow left everything dusted in a light coat of sparkling, shimmering white. Multi-colored lights twinkled in the distance.
It was Christmas Eve in Storybrooke.
And all through the town, loved ones were getting together...
Emma flew into Mary Margaret and David's apartment. “I came as soon as you called,” she said, taking off her scarf and winter coat and setting them on a chair. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Where's Henry?” Mary Margaret asked. “We were wanting to talk to both of you at the same time. Sit down. Tea?” She held out a porcelain tea cup with tea in it.
Emma gratefully took the cup from her, feeling the warmth of the tea against her hands. “He's with Regina tonight,” Emma said, as she sat down and folded her legs beneath her. “What's so important that it couldn't wait until Christmas dinner? Which is tomorrow, if you haven't forgotten.” She sipped at the hot tea.
“We didn't forget,” David said. “I - we - she has some news that we didn't think should wait for you to hear with everyone else tomorrow.”
“Oh? What's that? You know, the last time we went on a family vacation, it was to Neverland,” Emma said. She pressed her index finger to her lips and hummed. “And that didn't go over so well, so, I'm hoping that you're telling me that I'm getting a very belated pony instead of a family vacation to a lost ring of Hell.”
“Pony?” she asked. “What's this - oh. Oh. No. Not a pony.” She looked over at David and had him catch her gaze before she dipped her face low “I - we think it's better than that.” Her hand dropped to caress the faint swell of her stomach. “You're going to be a big sister, Emma.”
“I -” A mix of emotions fluttered against Emma's features, until it settled on pure, unadulterated shock. “What? I -”
“We knew this would be a shock to you,” David said, pulling Mary Margaret close to him and dropping his hands to cover hers. “You never got to know what family was like when you were growing up, and now that you're an adult, you're finally getting to -”
Emma shook her head, and felt the words tumble from her lips in torrents. “Don't tell me what I should be feeling right now. I grew up with nobody to call my own, bounced from foster home to foster home like some damn pinball. And now you're telling me that I'm going to have a brother or sister that's going to get to have the life I should have had? That's what's not fair.” She set the cup of tea against the saucer with a resounding clink and watched the tea slosh in the cup. “I'm just beginning to get used to this whole having-a-family thing.”
“We know,” Mary Margaret said. She got down on her knees and placed her hands over Emma's on the armrest. “We know. It's not easy for you.”
A few tears slid out of the corners of Emma's eyes and traversed their way down her cheeks. “I just wanted to get to know the two of you as my parents.”
“And we are your parents. We always will be your parents, no matter what. But this baby doesn't change that,” David said, crouching down next to Mary Margaret and looking Emma square in the eye. “We never got to be parents. You never got to be a daughter. And now we're learning how to work through that, and...now we get to raise a child, and you get to be a sister.”
“If you're suggesting that I play dolls with her, you know that's not going to happen, right?” Emma said, giving them a watery smile. “I was never the girl with a ton of Barbies. She'd be more likely to learn how to defend herself using a hairband.”
“You'd be the best big sister in the world,” Mary Margaret said, patting her daughter's hand.
Emma bit her lower lip and ran it through her teeth. “I -” She found herself incapable of words again. “I don't know if I know how to be, though.” She looked at her parents and blinked. “Can - can you excuse me?” she asked, as she stood up and made motions to walk toward the bathroom.
Mary Margaret looked down at the floor, and David threw his arm around her neck, and pulled her close. “Give her time,” he whispered, as she rocked into his side. “Give her time.”
“I know.”
Emma stared at herself in the bathroom mirror, through a veil of hair thrown haphazardly over her face. She had spent so much of her life searching for a family. She finally had a family. And now it was going to change, before she had even gotten a chance to fully enjoy all the benefits. She didn't know what it was like to be a big sister. She barely knew how to be a mother, and yet, there was Henry. She was slowly learning the ropes of what it was like to be part of a familial unit.
She turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on her face. She had to go back out there and present a happy face. Tonight and tomorrow - it was about family. And now, her family had grown by one more person, a person whom she hadn't even met yet, but would share so much of her life with.
She walked back out into the living room, and her parents looked up at her. “I'm okay,” she said, and for once, she actually believed what she was saying.
Mary Margaret and David walked over to her and wrapped their arms around her in a tight, three-person embrace, and Emma dared to let a few tears fall at the gesture.
“You're still our little girl, Emma,” Mary Margaret whispered, and Emma nodded her head.
She knew. In her heart of hearts, she knew that much to be true.
Meanwhile, in another part of Storybrooke, another knock came sharply at the door. Knock. Knock. The person on the other side of the door jiggled her leg nervously as she waited for the door to open.
Finally, it did. “Mulan -” Aurora said, seeing who was standing at the door, “I didn't expect to see you until tomorrow, at dinner. Come. Come in.”
Mulan walked into the apartment and looked at Aurora in the hazy light of the tableside lamp. She tilted her head to the side, as she looked at Aurora more intently. “I have something I've needed to say for a while. Is Phillip around?”
“What? No,” Aurora said. “Do you need to speak to him? I'm not sure when he'll be back - it's been a while, you know, and this land is unfamiliar to me.” She sat down in a dining chair and looked at Mulan.
“No, it's you I need to talk to,” Mulan said. She took the seat next to Aurora and sat down. “They say this time of year is to be with those that you love most.”
“This is true,” Aurora said. “It feels strange, to be in this world, not knowing many people. At least I have you. It feels right with you here.” She continued to look at Mulan, not breaking the eye contact they had made. “Is there something the matter?”
“I wish to tell you something,” Mulan said, “and I don't want you to be upset by my words.”
“Say what you will, and I will not be upset.”
Mulan cleared her throat, and darted out her tongue to lick at her lips. “They say this time of year is to be with those that you love most. And -” She exhaled sharply. “And you are the one that I love most.” Her shoulders sagged forward with the weight of the words off her. “Please, do not be upset, my princess.”
“How could I be upset?” Aurora said. Her right hand descended over her own breast, laying over her heart. “You said that you love me. That's something to be happy about, not upset.”
“But you have Phillip, and it was his kiss that saved you from your slumber, not my own. He is your True Love, and I am not,” Mulan said. “Please, if you're going to discard my words, do it fast, for I don't believe that my heart could take it if I could not love you as I do.”
“Oh, Mulan,” Aurora said, shaking her head. “You underestimate yourself so greatly.” She pursed her lips together, and there was a stark silence in the room. Finally, after a moment or so, she broke the silence, by saying, “And you know that I love you too, correct?”
“Not as I love you, I am sure of that,” Mulan said. She bowed her head. She refused to let Aurora see her emotions in the state that she was in. “I should probably go. I knew this would be a fruitless effort.” She made the effort to stand, but Aurora gently placed her hand over Mulan's and pushed her back down.
“There are many roads that true love can take,” Aurora said, her voice barely above a whisper as she spoke. “You cannot always choose the route yourself, but you must follow the path that your heart most desires.” She leaned in close to Mulan, and looked at her. “You are my best friend.”
“This I know.”
“And yet,” Aurora said, as she paused and nudged her finger under Mulan's chin. “I do love you, my warrior, in more ways than you can dare to dream.” She closed the gap between them and sealed her lips over Mulan's, kneading her lips against hers, daring her to react. As she broke the kiss and leaned against Mulan's forehead, a smile coursed across her face, and nearly at the same moment, so did a smile from Mulan.
“You mean it?” Mulan asked. She didn't tend to put her heart out there on her sleeve very often. More often than not, she was the one who steeled herself away from emotions.
“Of course I do.”
She knew this to be true. Aurora was not one to lie, not at all, and she knew that Aurora was honest and steadfast in her word. Of course she meant every word she said.
She kissed her again, her heart light and free.
Across town, Belle looked up from her book - a slender volume of Dickens' A Christmas Carol - at the sound of a loud groan from the other side of the room. “Are you okay, Rumpel?” she asked. “You sound distressed.”
“It's nothing to worry about, dearie,” he said. “Go on, go back to your book. I'll be fine.”
“No,” she said, with a definitive sort to her voice, and she set down her book on the end table. She stood up and walked over to him. She wrapped her arms around him, and looked at him. “Something's wrong.”
“Nothing's wrong.”
“The more you insist that nothing's wrong, the more I believe something is that you're just not telling me,” Belle said. “So come on. Out with it. Tell me what's wrong.”
“It's tomorrow,” he said. “It's hard - you know that I don't really have a family, or people who care about me. And everyone's acting like tomorrow is some major day for all that to happen.”
“David and Mary Margaret invited both of us to Christmas dinner at their place,” she said. “And you know that you always have me. I'm not leaving your side.”
“I feel as though they invited me out of obligation. They don't want me there.”
“Yes, they do want you, and no, it wasn't out of obligation.”
“They probably invited all of Storybrooke.”
“As far as I know, it's us, them, Regina, Emma, and Henry. There might be a couple of other people that I'm forgetting, but it's not going to be the entire town by any means.” She continued to hold him close against her, flush against her chest. “You know the story of A Christmas Carol?”
“That book you're reading? No. I had never heard of it until you started reading it.”
“A man with no family and no love in his heart except for material goods is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve. One to show him his past, how things used to be. One to show him his present, and how his actions affect those he's around, such as his employee. And one to show him his future, or how his actions are going to make him turn out to be.”
“And?”
“Well, I'm not done with the story yet,” she said, “but it doesn't look good for Mr. Scrooge.”
“So you are saying -”
“What I am saying,” she said, rocking him back and forth in her arms, “is that I don't want you to end up like him, miserable and alone. You have me. You're not spending this holiday season alone.” She took his hand in hers and walked him over to the window, where they looked out on the snow flurries. “Winter is the season of second chances. Everything gets buried under the snow.”
“And then it all comes back in the spring when it melts.”
“Only the hardiest of plants can survive the winter freeze,” she said. “They call them evergreens here. And I don't see you that way. Not at all.”
“I don't deserve you,” he said, as he slid his face into the crook of her neck. “You're everything that I'm not.”
“And that's why we're perfect for each other,” she said. “We balance each other out.”
“I know.” He took her by the hand and led her back to her chair. He kissed her softly and then sat her down. “Why don't you read me more of that story? You have me curious as to how Mr. Scrooge ends up.”
She sat down and opened the book back up. “'Spirit!' he cried, tight clutching at its robe, 'hear me. I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?'” she read aloud, running her finger along the page as she read.
He sat back and listened to her envelop him in the world, and was relaxed by her soothing voice.
After Emma left the apartment a little while later, her tea turned cold in the cup, David turned to Mary Margaret and smiled. “That went better than I thought.”
“How so?”
“Well, for one thing, she didn't storm out of here and threaten to never come back again, which I tend to take as a good sign.”
“She did have to excuse herself.”
“Yes, but she came back within a few minutes.”
“With a wet face. You know what that means, don't you? She was upset and trying to hide it from us.” She placed her hand over her stomach and looked at David. “I didn't want to make her upset.”
“And this is why we decided to tell her tonight, instead of waiting until tomorrow when we tell everyone else. Give her some time to process it.”
David kissed the side of her cheek. “You're going to be a great mother.”
“And you're going to be a great father.” She led him through to the bedroom, where she sat down on the bed. “Are you ready for this?”
“Parenthood, or Christmas? Because the answer is yes to both.”
She smiled as she leaned up to kiss him again, the father of her children. He was the love of her life. She knew that much for sure.
Christmas morning dawned bright and early, and the streets of Storybrooke gleamed white with freshly-fallen snow that had fallen overnight. A few citizens of Storybrooke made their way to David and Mary Margaret's, with dishes in tow. Belle had an apple tart, while Regina had a vegetable medley tucked under her arm.
When the last of the guests piled into the room, coats discarded to the side, they stood around and looked at each other. On top of the original list of guests that Belle had assumed, Aurora and Mulan stood in the corner holding hands and looking at each other out of the corners of their eyes. Aurora batted her eyelashes flirtatiously at Mulan. Ariel and Eric talked quietly amongst themselves. Henry petted Pongo while Mr. Hopper watched from across the room. Regina, Tinkerbell and Wendy talked in the other corner, while Wendy's brothers played with the dwarves. Granny and Ruby stood in the kitchen and helped Mary Margaret and Regina pull out the large turkey from the oven. Laughter and merriment filled the air.
And through all this, Mr. Gold and Belle stood off to the side and watched. “There's more people here than I thought there would be,” Belle said, “but it's still not all of Storybrooke, by any means.”
“Mr. Gold!” Mary Margaret said, leaving the kitchen and walking over to him, wiping a spoon against her apron. “You actually came.”
“Did you think I wouldn't?” he asked, laughing almost as if to himself. “I wouldn't miss Christmas dinner. Not after a story my Belle told me last night about a man who did not appreciate what he had.” He bowed his head to her. “Shall we be seated?”
Everyone piled around the table and jostled for position for the forks. As David stood poised to cut into the turkey, he turned to Mary Margaret. “Before we begin,” he said, “we have a little announcement to make.”
Mary Margaret cleared her throat. “In the spirit of family and togetherness, we would like to announce that next year, at this time, there will be a new guest at this dinner table.” At the mixture of expressions she received in return, she continued by saying, “because I'm pregnant.”
Belle broke the silence by raising her glass in the air. “A toast to the parents-to-be!” she said, and everyone else raised their glasses - some with wine, some with water, all with joy with their eyes. A murmur of assent rumbled through the crowd, and Emma reached over across the table and squeezed her mother's hand. She knew that everything was going to be okay.
As the plates of food were passed around the table and people began to dig into Christmas dinner, Mr. Gold looked at Belle and smiled. “I'm glad you had me come,” he said.
“I am too.”
“As they say, Merry Christmas, my Belle.”
“Merry Christmas,” she said, with a kiss and a pass of the vegetable bowl.
-fini-
Recipient: x_disturbed_x
Author: Anon
Rating: PG
Characters/Pairings: Mary Margaret/David, Aurora/Mulan, Mr. Gold/Belle, Emma
Word Count: 3140
Warnings: Vague season three spoilers.
Summary: It's Christmas Eve in Storybrooke, and three couples have three conversations that have needed to be said for a while now.
Author's Notes: I kind of handwaved it to include Aurora and Mulan in Storybrooke, but this story incorporates four of your five prompts in some form or fashion...so I hope you enjoy! :)
It was a cold winter's night in Storybrooke. The wind whistled through the trees, and a light snow left everything dusted in a light coat of sparkling, shimmering white. Multi-colored lights twinkled in the distance.
It was Christmas Eve in Storybrooke.
And all through the town, loved ones were getting together...
Emma flew into Mary Margaret and David's apartment. “I came as soon as you called,” she said, taking off her scarf and winter coat and setting them on a chair. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Where's Henry?” Mary Margaret asked. “We were wanting to talk to both of you at the same time. Sit down. Tea?” She held out a porcelain tea cup with tea in it.
Emma gratefully took the cup from her, feeling the warmth of the tea against her hands. “He's with Regina tonight,” Emma said, as she sat down and folded her legs beneath her. “What's so important that it couldn't wait until Christmas dinner? Which is tomorrow, if you haven't forgotten.” She sipped at the hot tea.
“We didn't forget,” David said. “I - we - she has some news that we didn't think should wait for you to hear with everyone else tomorrow.”
“Oh? What's that? You know, the last time we went on a family vacation, it was to Neverland,” Emma said. She pressed her index finger to her lips and hummed. “And that didn't go over so well, so, I'm hoping that you're telling me that I'm getting a very belated pony instead of a family vacation to a lost ring of Hell.”
“Pony?” she asked. “What's this - oh. Oh. No. Not a pony.” She looked over at David and had him catch her gaze before she dipped her face low “I - we think it's better than that.” Her hand dropped to caress the faint swell of her stomach. “You're going to be a big sister, Emma.”
“I -” A mix of emotions fluttered against Emma's features, until it settled on pure, unadulterated shock. “What? I -”
“We knew this would be a shock to you,” David said, pulling Mary Margaret close to him and dropping his hands to cover hers. “You never got to know what family was like when you were growing up, and now that you're an adult, you're finally getting to -”
Emma shook her head, and felt the words tumble from her lips in torrents. “Don't tell me what I should be feeling right now. I grew up with nobody to call my own, bounced from foster home to foster home like some damn pinball. And now you're telling me that I'm going to have a brother or sister that's going to get to have the life I should have had? That's what's not fair.” She set the cup of tea against the saucer with a resounding clink and watched the tea slosh in the cup. “I'm just beginning to get used to this whole having-a-family thing.”
“We know,” Mary Margaret said. She got down on her knees and placed her hands over Emma's on the armrest. “We know. It's not easy for you.”
A few tears slid out of the corners of Emma's eyes and traversed their way down her cheeks. “I just wanted to get to know the two of you as my parents.”
“And we are your parents. We always will be your parents, no matter what. But this baby doesn't change that,” David said, crouching down next to Mary Margaret and looking Emma square in the eye. “We never got to be parents. You never got to be a daughter. And now we're learning how to work through that, and...now we get to raise a child, and you get to be a sister.”
“If you're suggesting that I play dolls with her, you know that's not going to happen, right?” Emma said, giving them a watery smile. “I was never the girl with a ton of Barbies. She'd be more likely to learn how to defend herself using a hairband.”
“You'd be the best big sister in the world,” Mary Margaret said, patting her daughter's hand.
Emma bit her lower lip and ran it through her teeth. “I -” She found herself incapable of words again. “I don't know if I know how to be, though.” She looked at her parents and blinked. “Can - can you excuse me?” she asked, as she stood up and made motions to walk toward the bathroom.
Mary Margaret looked down at the floor, and David threw his arm around her neck, and pulled her close. “Give her time,” he whispered, as she rocked into his side. “Give her time.”
“I know.”
Emma stared at herself in the bathroom mirror, through a veil of hair thrown haphazardly over her face. She had spent so much of her life searching for a family. She finally had a family. And now it was going to change, before she had even gotten a chance to fully enjoy all the benefits. She didn't know what it was like to be a big sister. She barely knew how to be a mother, and yet, there was Henry. She was slowly learning the ropes of what it was like to be part of a familial unit.
She turned on the faucet and splashed cold water on her face. She had to go back out there and present a happy face. Tonight and tomorrow - it was about family. And now, her family had grown by one more person, a person whom she hadn't even met yet, but would share so much of her life with.
She walked back out into the living room, and her parents looked up at her. “I'm okay,” she said, and for once, she actually believed what she was saying.
Mary Margaret and David walked over to her and wrapped their arms around her in a tight, three-person embrace, and Emma dared to let a few tears fall at the gesture.
“You're still our little girl, Emma,” Mary Margaret whispered, and Emma nodded her head.
She knew. In her heart of hearts, she knew that much to be true.
Meanwhile, in another part of Storybrooke, another knock came sharply at the door. Knock. Knock. The person on the other side of the door jiggled her leg nervously as she waited for the door to open.
Finally, it did. “Mulan -” Aurora said, seeing who was standing at the door, “I didn't expect to see you until tomorrow, at dinner. Come. Come in.”
Mulan walked into the apartment and looked at Aurora in the hazy light of the tableside lamp. She tilted her head to the side, as she looked at Aurora more intently. “I have something I've needed to say for a while. Is Phillip around?”
“What? No,” Aurora said. “Do you need to speak to him? I'm not sure when he'll be back - it's been a while, you know, and this land is unfamiliar to me.” She sat down in a dining chair and looked at Mulan.
“No, it's you I need to talk to,” Mulan said. She took the seat next to Aurora and sat down. “They say this time of year is to be with those that you love most.”
“This is true,” Aurora said. “It feels strange, to be in this world, not knowing many people. At least I have you. It feels right with you here.” She continued to look at Mulan, not breaking the eye contact they had made. “Is there something the matter?”
“I wish to tell you something,” Mulan said, “and I don't want you to be upset by my words.”
“Say what you will, and I will not be upset.”
Mulan cleared her throat, and darted out her tongue to lick at her lips. “They say this time of year is to be with those that you love most. And -” She exhaled sharply. “And you are the one that I love most.” Her shoulders sagged forward with the weight of the words off her. “Please, do not be upset, my princess.”
“How could I be upset?” Aurora said. Her right hand descended over her own breast, laying over her heart. “You said that you love me. That's something to be happy about, not upset.”
“But you have Phillip, and it was his kiss that saved you from your slumber, not my own. He is your True Love, and I am not,” Mulan said. “Please, if you're going to discard my words, do it fast, for I don't believe that my heart could take it if I could not love you as I do.”
“Oh, Mulan,” Aurora said, shaking her head. “You underestimate yourself so greatly.” She pursed her lips together, and there was a stark silence in the room. Finally, after a moment or so, she broke the silence, by saying, “And you know that I love you too, correct?”
“Not as I love you, I am sure of that,” Mulan said. She bowed her head. She refused to let Aurora see her emotions in the state that she was in. “I should probably go. I knew this would be a fruitless effort.” She made the effort to stand, but Aurora gently placed her hand over Mulan's and pushed her back down.
“There are many roads that true love can take,” Aurora said, her voice barely above a whisper as she spoke. “You cannot always choose the route yourself, but you must follow the path that your heart most desires.” She leaned in close to Mulan, and looked at her. “You are my best friend.”
“This I know.”
“And yet,” Aurora said, as she paused and nudged her finger under Mulan's chin. “I do love you, my warrior, in more ways than you can dare to dream.” She closed the gap between them and sealed her lips over Mulan's, kneading her lips against hers, daring her to react. As she broke the kiss and leaned against Mulan's forehead, a smile coursed across her face, and nearly at the same moment, so did a smile from Mulan.
“You mean it?” Mulan asked. She didn't tend to put her heart out there on her sleeve very often. More often than not, she was the one who steeled herself away from emotions.
“Of course I do.”
She knew this to be true. Aurora was not one to lie, not at all, and she knew that Aurora was honest and steadfast in her word. Of course she meant every word she said.
She kissed her again, her heart light and free.
Across town, Belle looked up from her book - a slender volume of Dickens' A Christmas Carol - at the sound of a loud groan from the other side of the room. “Are you okay, Rumpel?” she asked. “You sound distressed.”
“It's nothing to worry about, dearie,” he said. “Go on, go back to your book. I'll be fine.”
“No,” she said, with a definitive sort to her voice, and she set down her book on the end table. She stood up and walked over to him. She wrapped her arms around him, and looked at him. “Something's wrong.”
“Nothing's wrong.”
“The more you insist that nothing's wrong, the more I believe something is that you're just not telling me,” Belle said. “So come on. Out with it. Tell me what's wrong.”
“It's tomorrow,” he said. “It's hard - you know that I don't really have a family, or people who care about me. And everyone's acting like tomorrow is some major day for all that to happen.”
“David and Mary Margaret invited both of us to Christmas dinner at their place,” she said. “And you know that you always have me. I'm not leaving your side.”
“I feel as though they invited me out of obligation. They don't want me there.”
“Yes, they do want you, and no, it wasn't out of obligation.”
“They probably invited all of Storybrooke.”
“As far as I know, it's us, them, Regina, Emma, and Henry. There might be a couple of other people that I'm forgetting, but it's not going to be the entire town by any means.” She continued to hold him close against her, flush against her chest. “You know the story of A Christmas Carol?”
“That book you're reading? No. I had never heard of it until you started reading it.”
“A man with no family and no love in his heart except for material goods is visited by three spirits on Christmas Eve. One to show him his past, how things used to be. One to show him his present, and how his actions affect those he's around, such as his employee. And one to show him his future, or how his actions are going to make him turn out to be.”
“And?”
“Well, I'm not done with the story yet,” she said, “but it doesn't look good for Mr. Scrooge.”
“So you are saying -”
“What I am saying,” she said, rocking him back and forth in her arms, “is that I don't want you to end up like him, miserable and alone. You have me. You're not spending this holiday season alone.” She took his hand in hers and walked him over to the window, where they looked out on the snow flurries. “Winter is the season of second chances. Everything gets buried under the snow.”
“And then it all comes back in the spring when it melts.”
“Only the hardiest of plants can survive the winter freeze,” she said. “They call them evergreens here. And I don't see you that way. Not at all.”
“I don't deserve you,” he said, as he slid his face into the crook of her neck. “You're everything that I'm not.”
“And that's why we're perfect for each other,” she said. “We balance each other out.”
“I know.” He took her by the hand and led her back to her chair. He kissed her softly and then sat her down. “Why don't you read me more of that story? You have me curious as to how Mr. Scrooge ends up.”
She sat down and opened the book back up. “'Spirit!' he cried, tight clutching at its robe, 'hear me. I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have been but for this intercourse. Why show me this, if I am past all hope?'” she read aloud, running her finger along the page as she read.
He sat back and listened to her envelop him in the world, and was relaxed by her soothing voice.
After Emma left the apartment a little while later, her tea turned cold in the cup, David turned to Mary Margaret and smiled. “That went better than I thought.”
“How so?”
“Well, for one thing, she didn't storm out of here and threaten to never come back again, which I tend to take as a good sign.”
“She did have to excuse herself.”
“Yes, but she came back within a few minutes.”
“With a wet face. You know what that means, don't you? She was upset and trying to hide it from us.” She placed her hand over her stomach and looked at David. “I didn't want to make her upset.”
“And this is why we decided to tell her tonight, instead of waiting until tomorrow when we tell everyone else. Give her some time to process it.”
David kissed the side of her cheek. “You're going to be a great mother.”
“And you're going to be a great father.” She led him through to the bedroom, where she sat down on the bed. “Are you ready for this?”
“Parenthood, or Christmas? Because the answer is yes to both.”
She smiled as she leaned up to kiss him again, the father of her children. He was the love of her life. She knew that much for sure.
Christmas morning dawned bright and early, and the streets of Storybrooke gleamed white with freshly-fallen snow that had fallen overnight. A few citizens of Storybrooke made their way to David and Mary Margaret's, with dishes in tow. Belle had an apple tart, while Regina had a vegetable medley tucked under her arm.
When the last of the guests piled into the room, coats discarded to the side, they stood around and looked at each other. On top of the original list of guests that Belle had assumed, Aurora and Mulan stood in the corner holding hands and looking at each other out of the corners of their eyes. Aurora batted her eyelashes flirtatiously at Mulan. Ariel and Eric talked quietly amongst themselves. Henry petted Pongo while Mr. Hopper watched from across the room. Regina, Tinkerbell and Wendy talked in the other corner, while Wendy's brothers played with the dwarves. Granny and Ruby stood in the kitchen and helped Mary Margaret and Regina pull out the large turkey from the oven. Laughter and merriment filled the air.
And through all this, Mr. Gold and Belle stood off to the side and watched. “There's more people here than I thought there would be,” Belle said, “but it's still not all of Storybrooke, by any means.”
“Mr. Gold!” Mary Margaret said, leaving the kitchen and walking over to him, wiping a spoon against her apron. “You actually came.”
“Did you think I wouldn't?” he asked, laughing almost as if to himself. “I wouldn't miss Christmas dinner. Not after a story my Belle told me last night about a man who did not appreciate what he had.” He bowed his head to her. “Shall we be seated?”
Everyone piled around the table and jostled for position for the forks. As David stood poised to cut into the turkey, he turned to Mary Margaret. “Before we begin,” he said, “we have a little announcement to make.”
Mary Margaret cleared her throat. “In the spirit of family and togetherness, we would like to announce that next year, at this time, there will be a new guest at this dinner table.” At the mixture of expressions she received in return, she continued by saying, “because I'm pregnant.”
Belle broke the silence by raising her glass in the air. “A toast to the parents-to-be!” she said, and everyone else raised their glasses - some with wine, some with water, all with joy with their eyes. A murmur of assent rumbled through the crowd, and Emma reached over across the table and squeezed her mother's hand. She knew that everything was going to be okay.
As the plates of food were passed around the table and people began to dig into Christmas dinner, Mr. Gold looked at Belle and smiled. “I'm glad you had me come,” he said.
“I am too.”
“As they say, Merry Christmas, my Belle.”
“Merry Christmas,” she said, with a kiss and a pass of the vegetable bowl.
-fini-