Work Text:
Christmas Eve, 2051
“You will never give up on the idea of us celebrating Christmas, will you?”
Emma grinned over her shoulder from her position on the stepladder near the Christmas tree. It seemed to Regina that every year the tree got just a bit taller. Each year, they added new decorations until the branches looked as though they would crumble under the weight of holding them all.
Some people decorated their tree with expensive, store-bought ornaments, but in their home, every adornment was a memory.
A tiny silver elephant bearing the words Baby’s first Christmas was the first to catch her eye. Emma had given birth to Lianna a mere four days before Christmas of 2025 and Regina had presented it to her the next morning at the hospital.
There were ornaments made of popsicle sticks that their children had made in preschool. Trinkets they had picked up on their travels around the world. And of course, her favorite, the wooden ornament carved with their names that Emma had made their first Christmas together as a married couple.
“You would hate it if I did,” Emma teased, stretching up to hang the star on the top of the tree. Regina watched in alarm as the stepladder wobbled dangerously beneath her feet, but Emma attached the star safely and carefully stepped down.
“I wish you would be more careful. Or are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
Emma laughed and wrapped her arms tightly around her wife. “I’m not going anywhere,” she said, dipping her head to capture Regina’s lips in a soft kiss. Regina chuckled softly at the familiar refrain.
Emma wasn’t going anywhere. After thirty years of marriage, she finally believed it.
Thirty years, three children and two grandchildren.
All those decades of separation and longing and now Regina could barely even remember a time when she was not living the life she used to dream of.
“It’s not too late to go away for Christmas this year,” she reminded her. Emma screwed up her face in disgust and stepped out of her wife’s embrace.
“This again? I told you. We stay home for Christmas.”
“I know, my love. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just thought, perhaps this year…”
Her voice trailed off, and she shook her head sadly. This year, they needed the distraction. At least, she thought they did. Emma clearly disagreed.
“We have to be here this year more than ever,” Emma admonished. Regina nodded her assent and opened her arms for her wife to step into once more.
This year was to be their first Christmas alone in nearly three decades. Lianna, their oldest, was spending Christmas with her husband and two children at their home in Paris. Their middle child, Julian, was on a ski trip with his friends in Aspen. And Mala, their youngest…
Well, Mala wasn’t coming home. Regina was not sure where she was, but she was not in Boston.
She remembered the day she realized she was carrying Mala. Lianna had been carefully planned; the result of several trips to a clinic in New York. Julian had been a bright-eyed toddler when they stumbled upon him on one of their many trips out of the country when Lianna was eight years old. They brought him home a few months later and Regina had been certain their family was complete at last until three years later, when she had discovered that her spirit guide had not been joking when she had told her that true love was the strongest magic there was.
A mere nine months had passed in which she had barely even processed what was happening before she had been looking into a baby girl’s pale blue eyes. “Mala,” she had declared when she saw her. Emma had put her arm around her and agreed.
“Welcome to the world, Mala,” she had whispered softly.
“We can’t give up on her,” Emma insisted. Regina tightened her grip around her wife.
“I don’t want you to get your hopes up, Emma.”
“Where would we be if you had given up on me? On us? Come on Regina, you of all people know how important it is to have hope.”
“We have to give her time, Emma. She isn’t ready to come home yet.”
Six months earlier, Mala’s powers had emerged. Unable to postpone it any longer, Regina and Emma had called their two older children home and told all of them about their heritage. When the smoke had cleared, Lianna and Julian had come to terms with the truth, but Mala been another story entirely.
“We should have told them the truth from the very beginning.”
“We decided before Lianna was born that our children would lead a normal life. That they wouldn’t grow up in fear of the Fates or carrying our burdens.” If she sounded a touch less patient than she had intended, she could hardly be blamed for it. It wasn’t as though they had not had this conversation many times over the years.
“We lied to them. We’re lucky Mala was the only one that left us.”
“We did what we had to do,” she tried to soothe her, but it was too late. Emma was already caught up in the self-recrimination.
“Yeah, and then Mala woke up one day and realized she had magic. She was probably terrified. No wonder she ran away.”
“We couldn’t have predicted that was going to happen.”
“We couldn’t have predicted that your biological child would inherit your magic?” Emma snorted in disbelief. “Face it, Regina. We were idiots.”
She sighed, not entirely disagreeing with her, but unwilling to let past mistakes rule her thoughts. She had done that for too many years. Her own powers had developed at a much younger age than their daughter’s and when Mala had reached her fifth birthday without a sign that they were emerging, she had been certain they never would. Reminding Emma of that wouldn’t help, though. “She will come home when she is ready,” she repeated.
Emma shook her head. “She’s only fifteen, and she is out there in the world, alone. She is probably terrified.”
More likely, whatever poor soul tried to cross their daughter was left in terror. Regina was certain of very little in life, but Mala being able to take care of herself was one thing she never doubted. “She called Lianna just last week. She is ok.”
Thank the Fates for small favors, Mala still contacted Lianna occasionally, to let the family know she was all right. If not for that, Regina didn’t know how she would manage her own anxiety about the situation, let alone comfort Emma.
Emma picked up a piece of tinsel with a shaky hand and turned her back to wrap it around the tree. Personally, Regina thought tinsel was gaudy, but Lianna had fallen in love with the idea when she was five years old and since then the sparking strands of blue and silver had been wrapped around the tree every year. It was older now and looked worn out but the idea of throwing it away never crossed their minds. She watched in silence as Emma engaged in the task, reaching a hand out to help her when she saw her wife’s shoulders shake with the effort of trying to hide the tears on her face.
Instantly, she was at Emma’s side. “Emma, you wanted me to have hope, right?” She waited for Emma to nod before continuing. “How can I do that unless you do as well? She will come home. You’ll see.”
Emma nodded and picked up the tinsel once more. “You’re right. She will come home and when she does, everything will be perfect for her. Even if I have to stay up all night to make sure of it.”
“You know,” Regina said tentatively. “There are some advantages to having the house to ourselves for Christmas.” She moved behind her wife, pretending not to notice her stiffen when she wrapped her arms around her and moved her hair to the side to kiss her neck. It had been months since they had been intimate, and she would be lying if she continued to pretend it wasn’t getting to her.
“Regina,” Emma sighed when Regina’s lips brushed softly against her skin. Regina didn’t answer, continuing instead to plant kisses on her shoulders and neck. Emma didn’t protest when her wife turned her around to face her and only pushed her away when Regina’s lips landed on her throat and sucked softly. “Regina, stop.”
Regina stepped back. “I miss her too, but we know she’s ok. Can’t we just let that be enough for tonight?” For a moment, she thought Emma might agree but then she stepped back and turned around once more.
“We haven’t baked the cookies or made the eggnog yet,” she said, moving towards the kitchen. “Remember how Mala always used to sneak one off the plate we left out for Sa-Santa?” Her voice broke and her knees buckled, and Regina rushed over to catch when she broke down into sobs.
“Come here,” she whispered, wrapping her arms tightly around her. “It’s going to be all right.” She rocked Emma as she cried, holding her close to her until her sobs subsided.
“How?”
Truthfully, Regina did not know. “Maybe we should have told Julian to wait until after Christmas to take his trip or asked Lianna to come home this year,” she said doubtfully. Emma shook her head emphatically.
“They deserve to have their own lives. I’ll be ok.”
Regina waved her hand, and a plate of cookies appeared on the table by the fireplace. “Come on,” she urged. “Let’s just go to bed.”
---------------------------------------
“Do you think there is any chance she will come home for Christmas?” Emma whispered after they settled in bed. Regina shifted in the dark, suddenly sure that Emma would see the truth on her face even with the dim lighting.
“I think you outdid yourself this year. The house looks amazing.”
“You did most of it with your magic.”
“It was your vision, though,” she insisted.
“I guess. Good thing we had your magic to carry it out.”
Was she imagining a touch of bitterness in her wife’s voice? “Does it bother you?”
“Your magic? No, of course not. Why would you ask me that?”
“If not for the magic she inherited from me, she would still be here.”
“If not for your magic, she wouldn’t exist,” Emma pointed out. “We wouldn’t be together and we wouldn’t have three amazing children.”
“I suppose. You don’t resent it, then?”
“Resent it?” Emma rolled over on to her side to look at Regina’s face. “It’s a part of you. How could I resent a part of you?”
She could hear the tremble in her own voice when she responded. “If there was any way my magic could bring her to you for Christmas, I would.”
“I know.” Emma reached out hesitantly and stroked Regina’s arm. “I haven’t been a very good wife these last few months, have I?”
“What?” The idea seemed unfathomable to her. “Of course you have.”
“No, I haven’t. I fell apart when she left and you’ve spent the last six months trying to get through to me. I’ve seen it, I just didn’t know what to do about it.”
“You don’t have to do anything, Emma. Just don’t leave.”
“Never.” Emma stopped stroking her arm and rolled on top of her, straddling her. “That fear never goes away for you, does it?”
It didn’t, not entirely, anyway, but she didn’t really want to think about it just then. Not when her wife was sitting on top of her, and her face was closer to her own than it had been in months. She pulled Emma down for a deep kiss, gratified when her soulmate responded eagerly instead of pushing her away.
Emma slid down the length of Regina’s body, slowly pushing up her silk nightgown as she went. “I love you so much,” she whispered, gently kissing Regina’s legs as she shifted downwards. The desire that she had forced herself to bury for so long returned in a rush.
“Emma,” she hissed, when Emma’s fingers moved to roll her panties down her legs. The front door slammed downstairs just as her underwear hit the floor.
“Moms?” Julian’s distinctive voice rang through the house. Regina’s head fell back with a groan as Emma sat up in a hurry. “Been a while since we’ve been interrupted in this position, huh, babe?”
“Be quiet and get dressed,” she ordered, standing up to put her robe on. She hurried to the top of the stairs, letting her son catch her in a hug on her way down. “Julian! What are you doing here?”
“Would you believe I missed my flight?” His voice sounded serious, but she caught the twinkle in his eyes as he carried her the rest of the way down the stairs and set her gently on her feet. She grabbed him in another tight hug, never wanting to let go.
“This will mean the world to your mother. Thank you.”
He grinned at her impishly when she let him go so that he could hug Emma as well. “Wait until you see what I brought you guys for Christmas.”
“We don’t need anything now that you’re here,” Emma tried to protest, joining them downstairs, but he shook his head.
“Hold that thought. I spent most of the day at the airport, trying to get another flight to Aspen and you would not believe who I found hanging out there. I figured you wouldn’t mind putting them up for a day or two.”
He reached to open the door, but it was already flinging open. “Grandmas!” two little voices shouted. They stood, stunned, as their four-year-old twin grandsons ran into their arms.
“Where’s Henry?” Liam asked, squirming away from Emma’s embrace. “How come he’s never around?”
“He does tend to disappear at the strangest of times,” Regina agreed. “But I think you should check under the Christmas tree. It seems to be his favorite place to sleep these days.”
Sure enough, Henry the Eleventh was curled up under the tree, fast asleep. “He sleeps all the time,” Liam complained.
“Grandma?” She looked down to see Bryan tugging on her sleeve. Her grandchildren looked exactly alike, but she had no trouble telling them apart. Liam was the one that was sure to be running around and exploring while Bryan would be content to sit by her side as she read him a story. She loved them both more than she could have ever believed possible.
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Will Santa know where to find us, do you think?”
“Don’t you worry,” Lianna interjected. “Grandma Regina knows Santa personally and will make sure he gets the message. Isn’t that right, Mom?”
She agreed, her mind already filled with gifts she would conjure once the boys were asleep. Emma shepherded the twins into the kitchen for a snack as she turned to her daughter and son-in-law.
“There’s something else, Mom,” Lianna said quietly.
“What else could there possibly be? This is already shaping up to be the best Christmas I can imagine.”
“She showed up two days ago,” Lianna said, as though she hadn’t spoken. Regina’s heart stopped.
“Where is she?”
“In the car. She needed a few minutes before she came inside.”
“Is she ok?”
“Physically, yes. I think so. But, Mom, she is really afraid.”
Regina ignored her and moved to the door to encourage her youngest child to come inside. Lianna grabbed her by the arm. “Give her a few minutes. She is really afraid that you and Ma are mad at her.”
“But we’re not,” Regina protested. “We just want her to come home.”
“I know that but trust me. She will come inside when she’s ready.”
Though it went against every instinct in her body, Regina moved to join her wife and grandchildren in the kitchen. Should she say something to Emma? Deciding to let it be a surprise when Mala came inside at last, she pasted a smile on her face and sat at the table with her family.
They almost didn’t hear the front door open. Emma’s head snapped up. “What was that?”
“Merry Christmas, my love. I hope all your dreams come true.”
Emma’s eyes filled when Mala entered the kitchen. They both stood up and waited for her to approach. Julian walked over to his sister and put his arm around her shoulder, offering support as she faced her parents.
“Moms?” The voice that Regina had longed to hear for months sounded small and meek. She pushed the urge to rush over to her child deep inside and waited. “I’m sorry, Moms.”
The months of fear and anger melted away at the sound of the regret in her voice. What did it even matter anymore? It was Christmas Eve, and their family was together. Wasn’t that the only thing that really mattered?
Emma was the first to break. She grabbed Mala in a fierce hug, twirling her around. “Welcome home,” she said, grinning from ear to ear. Regina watched as Mala wandered around the house, taking in all the Christmas decorations. Her daughter finally relaxed when Bryan handed her a cookie and she sat down by the fireplace to eat it.
“It all looks amazing,” she said, her mouth full of cookies. Regina suppressed the urge to tell her not to talk with her mouth full and just enjoyed watching her eat. Mala looked far too skinny, and she would start rectifying that first thing in the morning.
“Your mother made sure everything was perfect in case you came home,” she explained. She didn’t clarify that most of it had been done with magic, but she could tell Mala understood what she wasn’t saying. Her daughter twisted her wrist, and they all watched the pale blue light that emerged from it.
“Can I touch it?” Bryan asked solemnly. The faint trace of magic disappeared immediately, and Mala shrank back.
“I can’t control it,” she said fearfully. Regina put a comforting hand on her back.
“You just did,” she said. She put her hand over Mala’s and waved the boys over. “Come here, boys.”
They had hidden magic from her children, and it had blown up in her face. She wouldn’t make the same mistake with her grandchildren. She turned her own wrist to allow the purple magic to emerge and waited for Mala to do the same. “Take a deep breath,” she said, demonstrating controlling her breathing for Mala to imitate.
The twins approached the dual magic sources and tentatively reached their hands out to touch them. She saw Mala tense up when Bryan’s fingers brushed the light but he didn’t flinch.
“It tingles,” he said, giggling a little.
“It does, doesn’t it?” Regina agreed. “Look, boys.” She closed her eyes and concentrated on placing an image into the energy emerging from her hands and smiled when they squealed at the sight of Santa riding his sleigh in the sky. As the boys laughed in delight, she turned to her daughter. “I’ll teach you,” she murmured, quietly enough not to be overheard by anyone else.
“Read us a story, Grandma!” Bryan begged. She agreed, and they all settled on the couches and floor as she pulled out The Night Before Christmas. To her surprise, the words looked blurry, and she had to pull the book further away from her face so she could see them.
“Are you squinting, babe?” Emma crowed. “You know what that means! It’s time for the glasses. Go and get them from your grandmother’s desk, Liam.”
Liam leaped to his feet to obey and returned with the case holding Regina’s glasses. “I hardly think I need these,” Regina protested.
“Put them on,” Emma ordered. She grinned at her wife before turning to the twins. “Did you know I bought your grandmother these glasses our very first Christmas together?”
“You bought her glasses?” Julian laughed. “Pretty lame, Mom.”
“Ask her what she gave me in return,” Emma said, smirking. Regina blushed, thinking of that first Christmas, so many years ago.
“Emma,” she said reproachfully. The kids all turned to look at her curiously.
“What did you give her, Mom?” Mala asked. Regina shook her head.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, come on! Tell us.”
“Yeah, Needle Butt. Tell them,” Emma teased.
“Needle Butt!” Liam shouted. Regina’s blush deepened and at last, Emma came to her rescue.
“She gave me a home,” she explained. There was a moment of silence before Julian spoke.
“Glasses and a place to live? I hope Santa has stepped up his game since then.”
“All right, enough.” Regina put an end to the teasing by flipping the book open once more. “Are we going to read this or not?” She put the glasses on, smiling to herself when the words on the page were clear enough to read. Silence fell once more than her voice rang through the room.
‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
She read slowly and dramatically, enjoying the way the boys listened attentively, even though they knew the story by heart. When she reached the end of the familiar tale, she fell quiet and let the boys finish it.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
The End