Rockabye

Chapter Twenty

Snow pauses waiting for Emma to reply, but the blonde simply shifts her eyes back and forth in attempt to gauge her mother's reaction. Snow takes a deep breath and continues when she realizes her daughter needs more of an explanation.

"Emma, all of this was to find you and bring you home. Please tell me you understand why we captured Regina and held her hostage. I'm not saying you have to forgive us, but I just need to know you understand where we were all coming from," Snow implores with her dark green eyes expressing the sincerity in her words.

Emma nibbles on the flesh inside of her bottom lip, but not hard enough for anyone to notice the small nervous tick. Green eyes are locked onto green, both studying, assessing...wondering. Emma can't help but sympathize with her birth mother. She could only imagine how terrified the woman was, always having to keep one eye open when she sleeps and constantly peering over her shoulder waiting for someone to attack. She understands completely, but she just can't wrap her head around that vicious sorcerer being her Regina.

"I mean..." she pauses knowing her next choice of words will inevitably cause Regina pain. "I get it..." she clearly feels the way Regina's body stiffens next to her, but she keeps her eyes focused on her mother. "It's just...that's not who Regina is anymore. And I know that's probably really hard for you to understand, but this is who she is now. A woman willing to risk her life for my child, knowing it's all for me. A woman who saved my life and loves me with every beat of her heart." She hears the way Regina breathes out a sigh of relief and she blindly searches for the brunette's hand. She intertwines their fingers and squeezes with all her might. "I'm sure you'll never be able to forgive her and I'm sure those days will haunt you forever, but I love her and she's not going anywhere. We've lost each other too many times and I won't allow that to happen again."

Snow sharply sucks in a long breath through her nose and holds it for just a moment as her eyes take in the joined fingers of her enemy and daughter. She never in her wildest dreams expected something like this to occur, not once did she ever envision her daughter choosing her sworn enemy over her.

"If I have to forgive Regina in order to keep you in my life, then I forgive her," Snow confidently states before her husband rushes to her side.

"Snow-"

"No David, there's no room for discussion. I have waited twenty six years to meet my daughter, to get to know her, to finally be apart of her life and I will not allow anything or anyone to step in the way of that." Snow slightly turns to face her husband so he can see just how serious she is. "Our daughter loves this woman before us. We have to trust that our daughter is a good judge of character and that this woman isn't the same Regina we know of. She's in love with Regina, they are true love's which we witnessed with our very own eyes. There's no denying it or fighting against it. We either accept it or we lose our daughter and I'm not willing to give her up once again. Now are you going to fight me on this or can we agree?"

David seems painfully conflicted but he still nods his head, agreeing with his wife's decision regarding their daughter. "I'm not willing to lose our daughter again either," he finally confirms after a moment of silence.

"Good," Emma breathes but Regina is quickly cutting off the blonde from speaking anymore.

"Snow, even though you still infuriate me," Emma is quick to narrow her eyes at her loved one but Regina chooses to ignore her. "I am sorry about our past and I do hope we can move on because I'm staying with Emma."

"I accept your backhanded apology," Snow retorts with her most stern expression.

"Now," Emma exhales loudly as she slowly attempts to stand from the cold stone below her numb ass. "How the hell do we get out of this town without being murdered?" She bluntly asks while Regina helps her to her feet.