Prompt: Goo Goo Dolls' "Let Love In"
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Character(s): Snow White, Emma Swan
Set after Season 2, Episode 3: "Lady of the Lake"
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The only way to feel again is
let love in.
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Snow White should have been able to tell that her daughter was nearing a breaking point, but she hadn't. She'd been so wrapped up in her own emotion, standing in the nursery where she should have spent years with her baby, that her grown-up baby's tension hadn't registered with her. She'd been so lost in the maybes and what ifs and what should have beens that she hadn't seen how hard Emma was fighting against her own barrage of maybes and what ifs and what should have beens.
They should have had so much. They should have had love and time and little-kid cuddles and teenage snits. They should have had everything, and Snow had missed it all. Emma's first words, first steps, first haircut, first Christmas, first everything. Her precious baby girl had grown up in the blink of an eye, and she'd grown up so utterly alone.
Emma was angry, and quite frankly, Snow couldn't blame her. Snow was angry, too. Angry with Regina for casting that horrible curse, angry with the world for what it took from her. But Emma's anger … that hurt the most because Emma's anger was directed at Snow.
Emma could have the subtlety of a Mack truck when she wanted. She hadn't come right out and said that she was angry, but she'd done everything but. She'd argued and disobeyed and outright defied instruction and tried, in every single possible way she could, to let Snow that she did not need her.
The only thing was that she did need her, whether she wanted to admit it or not. Snow knew Emma was a survivor, and she knew she'd get the hang of the Enchanted Forest way of life in her own time, but underneath all her bluster, Emma Swan was a hurt little girl who was lashing out at the only person she could. A hurt little girl who wanted to be comforted but didn't want to want to be comforted and didn't know how to ask for it even if she did.
All she had to do was wait for Emma to get it all out of her system. Once the righteous anger was gone, Emma would be able to feel what she wanted – and desperately needed – to feel. But not until then.
One thing having to survive on her own had taught her was patience, so Snow had decided to settle in for the wait.
And yet, the moment Emma let her wall down still took her by surprise. Emma admitted being angry and not understanding and then … then her baby girl admitted she wasn't used to someone putting her first, and Snow could not stop herself from stepping over and wrapping her in a hug.
And when Emma squeezed back, for the first time in years, everything felt right.
Emma had taken the first step. She'd let Snow in. And Snow was determined not to let her baby girl down again.
Now she sat against the trunk of a tree at the edge of their campsite on watch. Emma was supposed to be on watch, too, but she'd nodded off a little while ago and Snow hadn't had the heart to wake her. And when Emma had snuggled into her side, unconsciously seeking warmth and comfort … well, Snow's heart had pretty much exploded with joy.
“Mary Margaret?” a groggy voice asked, drawing her from her reverie.
She looked down to find Emma blearily blinking up at her in the firelight. “Shh,” she whispered. “Go back to sleep.”
“M'supposed to be on watch with you,” Emma murmured but her eyes were already sliding closed again.
“I've got it. Just go back to sleep.”
She started to shake her head in protest but eventually slumped further against her mother as sleep overtook her.
Snow smiled and, after taking a breath, chanced pressing a kiss on the top of her baby girl's head. “I love you, sweetheart.”
She would never be certain whether she really heard it or whether it was a trick of the wind against her ears, but she could have sworn she heard Emma whisper, “Love you, too.”
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