Time Will Tell

Chapter Twenty-Five

Emma tentatively treks down the stairs with a nervous Regina following closely behind. All her mind can focus on is the clicking of her girlfriend's heels on each step as they descend the extravagant staircase because her true thoughts of what's to come are coming in all distorted. She peeks out from her long lashes to find her mother already scolding her with those angry eyes narrowing, creating a sweat to break along her spine. Snow has her arms folded across her chest with her foot obnoxiously tapping against the polished floorboards below.

"Are you running again?" Her mother accusingly interrogates, skipping right to the chase with her most stern voice and usually Emma wouldn't even bat an eye at the tone, but today her heart stutters in her chest.

She's a grown woman, so why does she feel like a fifteen-year-old all over again?

She takes the last step down the stairs and comes to stand directly in front of her mother. Snow might be smaller than she is, but in this moment, Emma feels like her mother is towering over her and this is when she realizes, all this nervous energy is stemming from the idea of disappointing her mother. Yes, she should be livid with her parents, but the little foster girl deep inside her heart is still begging for approval.

Regina decides to remain at the bottom of the stairs, not stepping closer, granting Emma and her mother some space. In all honesty though, Emma thinks that despite everything Regina and Snow have been through, the former queen is too nervous to come any closer.

"I'm not running," she firmly states before she mumbles, "well, technically I'm not. But I am calling off the wedding," she blurts out thanks to the nervous energy buzzing throughout her entire body.

Snow's shoulders slump, physically relaxing and abandoning her anger to offer her daughter some love and support. She grips Emma's biceps tightly while her curious eyes latch onto nervous green orbs blinking back at her.

"Are you alright, sweetie?"

"Yes. I'm more than alright," she truthfully admits.

"I bet you are..." Henry mumbles to himself, but everyone in the room hears him loud and clear. Emma and Regina pointedly glare at their son to shut his damn mouth while Snow tilts her head in confusion. Once Henry realizes that all eyes are on him, he clears his throat and squares his shoulders. "Don't you have something you would like to explain, moms?"

Regina steals a step forward, finding her confidence once again. "Snow, remember what happened all those years ago in the Enchanted Forest?" She cryptically asks, provoking Snow's hands to drop from her daughter. And Emma knows in that moment her mother knows exactly what Regina is referring to.

Snow anxiously straightens herself, tugging at her skirt and sweater to appear more confident, but really the action just expresses how nervous she truly is.

"So, you two..." her mother trails off, the words dying on the tip of her tongue as too many unwelcoming images flash across her mind. Her gaze immediately darts away from the couple, avoiding them completely.

"How could you keep that from me?" Emma implores, angrily crossing her arms across her chest as she stands just a little taller. "I'm your daughter. She is my one true love and you were going to watch me marry someone else today?" She explodes and she's starting to lose her temper again.

But then her mind drifts back to when she was alone in New York for that month and she realizes just how much she did miss her parents. She doesn't want to lose them again, but she also doesn't know how she's going to sort out her feelings and forgive them again.

"Emma, please, I thought if you didn't truly want to be with Hook, then you wouldn't have said yes to his proposal. I thought you were happy and I didn't want to confuse you or hurt you in anyway, but you are right, I still should have told you," Snow pauses as her eyes slides over to her former enemy. "Regina should have too..." she says before her eyes drift back, full of sorrow.

Emma sighs heavily because she doesn't want to sweep this under the rug, but she feels like she already had this conversation, with future Snow. Her arms fall to her sides in defeat because she has other, more important things to be focusing on, like a curse.

"Let's just say, I have already thought about all of this and I'm done arguing about it with everyone. What's done is done and all that matters now is that Regina and I end up together, despite everyone's best efforts," she bitterly quips.

"I am truly sorry, Emma," her mother confesses, holding onto her gaze, so Emma can inspect her with that superpower of hers and know she means it.

"Right now, we have more important things to worry about, like the Black Fairy and her curse," Regina chimes, reading Emma's mind.

"Hold on!" Henry hastily interrupts, "I still don't know what is going on here."

"Regina? Do you want to take this one?" Emma inquires, earning herself an overly dramatic eye roll.

"Henry, a long time ago when I was seventeen, I was told that Emma was my one true love. We can discuss all the details at another time, but for now, all you need to know is that your mother and I love each other very much."

Henry's eyes suspiciously shift back and forth between his mothers, trying to process the new information. But it isn't very long before a smile stretches across his face.

"I'm happy for both of you." Emma cups his cheek, her thumb lovingly caressing his face while Regina pulls him into a tight hug. However, he is quick to pull away with a very stern expression taking over his features. "Now, what's going on with the Black Fairy?"

"Why don't we all take a seat and explain everything," Regina suggests, gesturing toward the kitchen. "I could use a pot of coffee as well."

"I'm going to call Blue to come over, I have some unanswered questions," Emma concludes.

"And I'm going to call your father," Snow adds on.

Eventually, they all take a seat around Regina's dining room table. Together, Regina and Emma thoroughly explain the mirror and how it showed them their past and their future if they didn't accept their fate as True Loves. Then, they proceed to explain Black Fairy's curse, hoping that now they are at an advantage of what's to come.

"So, now that I won't be marrying Hook and I'm with Regina, there's one question," Emma questions, her curious eyes staring directly at Blue.

"And what is that, Emma?" The fairy politely asks.

"Will I still have to defeat the Black Fairy if I changed the course of events?"

"Sadly, I do not have an answer to that, only time will tell..."