As David comes home and the Swan family plots, things between him and Mary Margaret tumble further and further, and with everyone pulling them in different directions, David finally makes a decision on what he wants to do.
***
Emma watched David make the rounds inside the Nolan house with trepidation on his face, though he worked hard to try and conceal it. "Now I know why Lucius has tried so hard to ram into my skull that masks can be important," she murmured to Newt.
Harry giggled from her other side, but Newt chuckled as he leaned against the staircase rail. "Theseus has them, too."
"Uncle Theseus did amazing at Hogwarts," Harry nodded in agreement.
Queenie made her way through the throng of people with a small smile on her face, Henry bounding after her. "Henry was telling me more about David's situation," she told them as she sat on the bench.
"Oh?" Emma raised an eyebrow, adjusting her seat and patting the bench next to her. "What are we working with, Henry?"
"OK," Henry plopped down next to her, and Harry inclined his head to hear better. "You know why he doesn't remember? The curse isn't working on him yet."
Emma frowned. "But David has amnesia."
"Which is preventing the curse from replacing his fairy tale story with fake memories," Henry nodded.
"Ah," Queenie nodded and crossed one leg over the other. "That explains the leak."
"The leak?" Emma blinked at her in surprise.
"That's what I'm calling what happened," Queenie nodded. "A few of the fairy tale memories 'leaking' through the amnesia. They're fighting in his head."
"So the fake stories are preventing everyone from remembering who they really are," Harry deduced.
"Exactly!" Henry grinned. "And now is our chance to help him. We just have to get him to remember that he's - "
"He's Prince Charming," Emma finished. And my father, she added silently, still . . . not sure how she felt about that detail.
"We just have to jog his memory by getting him and Ms. Blanchard together," Henry finished.
Harry blinked. "But we tried that already."
"And it woke him up," Henry pointed out smugly.
Newt laughed and ruffled Henry's hair. "Good point, lad!"
"Hey!" The voice made the family look up, and David smiled tentatively at them as he joined them. "You're the ones who saved me, right?"
"Oh!" Emma jumped to her feet, smiling and nodding as Henry did the same. "Yeah, I guess."
"And, uh . . . " David looked around sheepishly. "You're also the only ones I know here."
"You can hide with us!" Harry chirped with a grin.
"Fantastic," David sighed in relief, then he brightened when someone arrived with a food tray. "Thank you," he said, taking a toothpick and stabbing it into a carrot.
Henry watched with interest as David twirled the toothpick, then he asked, "So, you ever use a sword?"
David let out a startled laugh, looking at Henry in surprise. "I'm sorry?"
"Mum knows!" Harry grinned.
"Harry!" Emma blushed.
"So does Uncle Newt," Harry pointed, making the man blink. "Well, he's usually better with knives." He tilted his head in consideration. "Must be a family thing."
YOU ARE READING
Operation Cobra (Book Two of The Savior Fables)
Fanfiction"It was the kind of small-town with nothing to look at - unless you knew where to look. After all, it's a town no-one knows exists." In which it's time for the small, sleepy town in Nowhere, Maine to wake from its twenty-eight-year nap. When Emma Sw...
