Chapter Text
Sometimes dreams (nightmares) still hit Uma in the middle of the night, and she wakes up screaming. In those nights, Harry calms her down, and the only way she can go back to sleep is after he takes her to give a walk through Auradon and feeling the clean and cold air remind her that the Isle was left behind, far behind.
But this is not a dream. They’re really here, and Harry can't protect her this time. Uma can't help but think how stupid she was for trust Auradon. She must have known there was no happy ending for them. What their parents did…, what themselves did, made them disowned. No hope of redemption, no longing for justice for them.
And now Uma is back in this miserable place, and it hurts more than ever because now she had tasted freedom and knows how is the sound of a happy laughter and remembers the color of green in grass and trees, and the love, all that love.
It is worse because she believed, for a moment, that she would never come back here.
Standing in the middle of what used to be Ursula's fish and chips (and everything smells of dust, damp, hopelessness, and salt), she can't help but let a sob escape her. Harry is next to her in a second. He has followed her here even though Uma said that she had to do this alone, because it is not in his nature to be away from her. Gil and the crew members are in their old houses, trying to get out of their own daze.
Harry kisses her lips in an attempt to comfort her, as if he is trying to take her anguish away (and the kiss taste like first they had, the one that seems to be years and lives away, painful and desperate); but Uma sees his own pain drawn in his eyes. She thinks that, after all, she failed him. She couldn't get him a safe home.
In her arms, the little baby gurgles with joy at the sight of her parents, and Uma feels her heart break. I never meant to do this to you. I thought you would be safe. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. I didn't know how to protect you. The soft laughter from her daughter hurts her more than anything has ever hurt her, because Uma can't bear the thought that her little baby has to live in the same conditions she lived in.
Harry picks the baby up and lays her against his chest, cooing softly. And the memories begin to hit Uma, because she does not recognize herself nor the boy in front of her. Not here. Not when all she remembers are fights, plans, hurts, and threats. And the constant pain in her hands, and the raw flesh of her fingers. Will her mother still be here? She never went to Auradon. Uma didn't talk to her again after the barrier fell. Suddenly, she feels a terrible fear that Ursula may be lurking, hiding behind some table, or in the kitchen, and she can see the baby. Uma doesn't want her mother to ever see her.
She doesn't know if she will be able to protect her from Ursula.
Uma thinks she won't be able to.
But they are back on the Isle of the Lost. Sent back to where they really belong, according to the Fairy Godmother. And although Uma feels that her heart is so shattered that she will never be able to fix it, although the echo of her cries when she was a child seems to flow from the walls, she knows that she must take another step, and then another. Because even though she believes that she can’t protect her family, she must try. Just like when she was just a teenager and all she could do was try.
Uma wraps her arms around Harry and their little daughter, squares her shoulders, and stops crying. Harry holds her by the waist, whispering that everything is going to be okay, they’ll be okay, cause they’re together and, for a moment, the little family stands in the silence of a familiar place. Uma looks for hope and finds it, as always, in Harry's blue eyes.
The Isle of the Lost is in chaos. Uma is standing on the dock, waiting for Auradon's shipments to arrive, and she is not the only one. She panics because she can’t remember how to do this, it feels so bad to fight for crumbs again; but then she remembers Gil, the crew and Nerea, the little girl who waits for her and Harry, and she knows that she can’t come back empty-handed. She just can’t.
The ship is approaching, and Uma feels that someone pushes her; she turns on her heel to smash the face of whoever has dared to touch her (because that's what she must do here, because she must feel the blood on her knuckles again to earn a name), but she can't find the guy. Many of those who chose to stay on the Isle when the barrier fell are not happy that those who went to Auradon have returned.
Uma used to be the queen of the Isle, and as soon as they returned, the VK’s who lived in Auradon waited for her to take over, because even with so many years of living among princes and princesses, Uma never let them forget who she was.
Although apparently not everyone is satisfied with it.
She doesn't have much time to think about it, because in this moment she needs to fight tooth and nail to get what her family will need. She and Harry divided the list of items, and she can't deny that supplies have improved (now there are new things, and more of everything), so she gets what is necessary first and then she takes some things that she thinks she can negotiate or sell later. In the process, Uma receives several elbows, and she punches anyone who dares to get close, but when she reunites with Harry her heart has already stopped beating so fast and she can't help but sigh when she sees that he is okay. Harry is still strong, madness never left his eyes, but even when they were younger, Uma always feared something would happen to him in those supply fights. And it seems that the way they are distributed hasn't changed much since then.
"Let's go home, lass," says Harry, and Uma only can nod.
She hates the smell of stale air, the pain in her chest that the knowledge that she can’t go to the sea (the real one, the one that is blue and clear and more wonderful than all the stars in the sky) gives her, she hates with all her might having dreams taken away (again, and honestly, how many times can a person survive that?); but when they are back on the ship and Gil gives her the baby, and Uma takes her into her arms, she think that at least she has something good this time, something for which she has to keep moving.