Disclaimer: Once Upon A Time belongs to ABC.

Guys I think I have a problem. I can't stop writing these OUAT oneshots. I CAN'T. I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS. "She doesn't even go here!" ...So now that we have the Mean Girls reference out of the way, here's this story about things as requested by Gimelh.

EDIT: I've added a second chapter. WHAT? Yeah I know.

"Snow?"

Snow didn't move from where she sat on her bed, leaning against the headboard with her knees drawn up to her chin.

David approached her slowly, having just come home from the sheriff station. Emma was on the night shift, so she had just left after tucking Henry in upstairs. Snow was staring at something at the end of the bed, her eyebrows drawn down seriously. David looked where she was staring and was surprised to see an old cardboard box.

"Snow, what's wrong?" he asked gently. She still didn't say anything, so he sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her waist. She glanced at him, but otherwise didn't move. He frowned, concerned, and looked back at the box. "What's in the box?"

Snow took a deep breath. He looked over at her, loosening his grip on her waist as she sat up a bit and stretched her legs out in front of her. He felt her joints creaking a bit and wondered how long she had been sitting like that. After another long silence, she sighed.

"Our daughter's life is in that box," Snow said quietly.

David suddenly felt like there wasn't quite enough air for him to breathe. He turned slowly and settled his eyes on the box again. It was then that he noticed the corner of a blanket hanging over the edge. He inhaled sharply at the sight of it, and he suddenly understood why Snow had been sitting there in silence, staring at this innocent-looking box.

"Is that…" he began breathlessly, and he reached forward hesitantly. Snow watched him in silence as he gently removed the blanket and held it in his hands. He was breathing hard, like he'd just run all the way home from the station, as he stared at it. Such a simple thing, just a white knitted blanket with a violet ribbon around the edge and a name stitched along the bottom in the same color. But it was a powerful thing, too. This was the blanket his baby was wrapped in when he placed her in the enchanted wardrobe and sent her away from them. "She kept it. I can't… I can't believe she kept it…"

"Emma caught me staring at it while I was cleaning a few days ago. She told me it was all she had of us," Snow whispered, and David tore his eyes from the blanket to look at his wife. Her bright green eyes were wet with tears. "She just brought the whole box down before she left for work."

Both of them returned their gazes to the box at the end of the bed. "Did she say what else is in it?" David asked, his voice low and halting.

Snow shrugged a bit. "Newspaper clippings," she murmured. "School photos. Things she kept that she thought would help her…" Her voice caught. David took her hand wordlessly and she laced her fingers through his. "Things she thought would help her find us."

David let out a shaky breath. Snow reached over and ran her fingers over the name embroidered into the blanket, which David still clutched in his hand.

"I feel so guilty, David," Snow whispered suddenly, and David could hear the pain in her voice. She wouldn't meet his eyes, she just stared at the blanket. "I know we had to send her through, I know there was no alternative. I know that. But…" Her voice broke and she squeezed his hand hard.

"But you still wish there was some way we could have been there for her," David finished for her. She met his eyes, tears running down her cheeks, and in that moment she knew he was feeling exactly what she was. He laid the blanket in her lap and reached up, gently wiping away her tears with his thumb. "I carry that guilt with me too, Snow. No matter what we do, no matter what anyone does…" He squeezed his eyes shut briefly. "Our baby grew up alone."

Snow swallowed hard, and David could see she was struggling to keep from crying. He let go of her hand and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into an urgent embrace. She clenched her fists in the fabric of his shirt and let out a sob, the sound muffled against his shoulder. He just held her tighter, burying his face in her hair and letting his own tears fall.

He didn't know how long they sat together like that, David gently rocking them back and forth as Snow sobbed into his chest. But eventually Snow's tears quieted, and without a word she took his face in her hands and pulled his lips to hers. She did this sometimes, felt the need to be close to him when she was faced with the reality they were in. He knew the feeling, so he ran his hands up her back and leaned into her. She sighed into his mouth, running one hand up the back of his head to press his lips harder to hers. She tilted her head eagerly, parting her lips to allow him in, and he couldn't help but chuckle a bit. She was always so impatient.

When they eventually parted to breathe, her lips were red and swollen, her cheeks flushed, and her eyelids lowered drowsily.

"Charming," she said softly. She didn't say anything more, just stated his name. David smiled. He always loved the way she said the name she had given him. There was so much in those two syllables. Others called him Charming, but it never sounded the same as when she did. Whether she laughed his name or cried it or called it out when they were in bed together or shouted it when he was in danger, there was so much there. Affection, possession, desire, fondness, but most of all, love.

He mentioned it to her once, back in their land, and asked if he should make up a name for her. But she had just laughed and said she heard all those things when he just called her Snow.

"Snow," he replied gently. She let out a slow breath to steady herself and turned her gaze back to the box. David looked as well, feeling her hands slide down his chest and settle on the blanket in her lap between them.

"Are you ready?" she whispered, eyes never leaving the box.

"I've been ready since she was born," he replied just as quietly. He loosened his hold on her and she reached for the box, dragging it carefully toward them. They sat side by side on the bed, both eager to see what else was inside but terrified at the same time.

Snow swallowed hard and reached in first, pulling out an old manila envelope. "Emma used to look at this before the Curse was broken," she whispered, glancing at David. He nodded for her to open it, and a folder slid out. With another deep breath, Snow opened the folder to find it was full of newspaper clippings and foster care records. Snow covered her mouth with a hand as they both read the headlines, calling them deadbeat parents. Apparently it was a big story when a baby was found by a little boy on the side of the highway, and there were articles following "baby Emma" up until the first time she was adopted.

David's eyes were drawn to a photo paper-clipped to the right side of the folder. It was a little girl with long blonde hair in braids, looking at the camera with bright, sad blue eyes. Snow looked at it as well, and he heard her sniffle a bit.

"She looked just like I did at that age," she whispered wonderingly. She reached out and touched the picture with her fingertips softly as though she was afraid it would dissolve. Then she let out a teary laugh. "Except her hair and her eyes. That's all you, Charming."

David laughed and wiped his eyes. He reached into the box next, pulling out thick brown folder. They paged through it together, finding report cards and school photos. Snow couldn't help but cry a bit over the pictures, seeing Emma age year by year.

They poured over the box for at least an hour, finding records of every foster home, every orphanage, every adopted family, every school, every visit to the doctor and the dentist. And then there were the things Emma had saved. There wasn't much, just a few small things from her childhood she was unwilling to part with.

There was a teddy bear, very similar to the one Snow had found in the ruins of the nursery back home, which David held in his hands and stared at for a long time. There were a few slightly crumpled drawings from when she was quite young, pictures of ponies and flowers and castles drawn with crayons or finger paints. There was one birthday card, given to her by a friend when she turned twelve. That made Snow cry all over again.

But the last thing they found in the box was the one that surprised them the most. Snow drew out the final item and held it up for David to see. They both stared at it in silence for a long time.

It was a book. Grimm's Fairy Tales.

Snow and David finally met each other's eyes. Snow couldn't seem to decide how she felt about the worn old book in her hands. She looked a bit sad, a bit surprised, a bit hopeful. David took the book from her gently and opened the cover. On the inside was a sticker that read "This book belongs to" with a line beneath it. Scrawled on the line in blue marker was "Emma," written in letters that suggested she had been very young when she wrote them.

One page in the book was dog-eared to save the place. David swallowed hard and turned to that page. He and Snow both gasped.

"Snow White," Snow breathed. She looked at David, her eyes wide. "The only page she saved was the story of Snow White."

David shook his head slowly, confused. "What… I mean… does this mean something?" he whispered.

"I don't know," Snow replied lowly. "Maybe… maybe she just felt a connection to us somehow…"

"How is that even possible?" David asked, more to himself than to Snow.

Snow took the book from his hands and leafed through it quickly. She closed it and stared at the cover. No pictures, just the title, much like Henry's book. She sighed.

"I just don't know," she said softly. Then she shook herself a bit and glanced at her husband. "We should ask her about it tomorrow."

"Definitely," David nodded. They both stared at the book again for a short while. Then David took Snow's hand again. "You said she kept the blanket because it was all she had of us." Snow met his eyes and nodded, a bit confused. "Well maybe… maybe she kept this book all these years for the same reason."

Snow exhaled heavily, tears filling her eyes again as she smiled at her husband. "Charming," she whispered, her breath catching in her chest. She didn't say anything more, but he understood.

"Snow," he replied fondly. He leaned forward and gave her a soft, lingering kiss. When he pulled away, her eyes were closed contentedly, so he smiled and started carefully packing everything back into the box. Snow's eyes fluttered open and she watched him.

"How about we go through all of this again tomorrow…" he began quietly. He turned and met her eyes. "With Emma?"

Snow just gave him an ardent smile in response. So he finished with the box and pushed it back to the end of their bed, and before he knew it Snow was pulling him back to her for a long, slow kiss. David smiled against her lips.

"Thanks, Charming," she murmured against his mouth.

David pulled back a bit and looked at her. "For what?" he asked quietly.

She grinned at him. "For doing this with me," she whispered, glancing at the box.

"Why wouldn't I?" he laughed lightly. "She's our daughter."

Snow closed her eyes at the sound of those words.

"Yes," she sighed, a smile on her lips. "She is."