When Henry came home, he found them curled up on the couch watching Star Wars, as if nothing had happened. But his mother stood up and smiled at him, and he ran into her arms. He was taller than she was now.

"I heard what happened," he said. "I'm sorry. I should have been there to protect you."

"It's okay," said Regina. "I'm fine. We're all fine."

A few moments later, Olivia spoke up: "Sit down, Mom, I can't see the movie!"

"You want to join us?" Regina asked, and Henry smiled.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world."

The next day, Olivia went back to school and found a whole classroom full of eager second-graders demanding to know every detail of what had happened. She sat down with Neal and Clarisse at lunch, and they talked about the Enchanted Forest Day the school was getting ready for. But in the few minutes before the bell rang, Clarisse asked:

"Is it true your mother let the guy go after he tried to hurt her?"

"Yeah, it's true."

"I heard my parents talking about it last night. My mom wanted to know if my dad would do that, and he said no, not if someone came after her or me."

Olivia shrugged. "He's like my Aunt Mal. She's not really a villain anymore, but if anyone tried to hurt Lily, she'd turn into a dragon and do really bad things to them. I think my mom would, too – she told him she'd rip his heart out if he tried to hurt us again. She's not Snow White."

Sometimes it was nice, having someone to talk about those things with. Someone who wouldn't judge, who also had family members that fell somewhere in the murky place in between good and evil.

It wasn't long before winter break, and it also wasn't long before the wedding. Regina had insisted on having it in winter.

"I don't want a big spectacle," she had said. "Just a private ceremony with our friends and family, and there's no point in waiting another six months for that."

"So eager to become Mrs. Locksley?"

"Mills-Locksley," she had corrected him. "And why not? We both know we're not going to change our minds."

So they gathered in the church the first week of winter vacation, with just a dozen or so guests. Roland was the ring bearer, dressed up in a suit for the first time in his life, and Olivia got to be the flower girl. Henry walked his mother down the aisle. She was wearing a simple off-white dress, with lace sleeves and a plunging neckline, and she carried a bouquet of white roses. Robin spotted the blue flowers braided into her hair, the string of pearls around her neck that he knew she had borrowed from Mary Margaret, the emerald ring that she had worn on her right hand as long as he had known her, and as for something new, there was the diamond ring he slipped onto her finger, which they had picked out together just a few weeks before.

"I do," he said softly, and so did she. There was nothing new about that. They had already been there for each other, for better or for worse, for far longer than they'd been married. And hopefully, it would be a long time before death did them part.

A few days later, Henry came into the living room with a freshly-bound book in his hands. He held it out to his mother and stepfather, smiling nervously.

"This is for you," he said. "It's a late wedding present. It's your story. Our family's story."

His stomach clenched nervously as they took it and looked through it, but smiles formed on their faces, and he even saw his mother reach up to wipe away a tear. He sat down and watched as they read it together, and he promised himself he would never tell them why he had started writing their story, their story in particular. If an author's pen could save a good man from a fate worse than death and a changed woman from suffering another heartbreak, the Merry Men from losing their friend and leader, a little boy from becoming an orphan, and a baby from losing her father, then it was worth it. They deserved their happy ending.