Just a little post-ep for "And Straight On Til Morning" to help me deal with overwhelming barrage of feels.

I do not own Once Upon A Time

Snow blinked quickly as she awoke. She couldn't tell what might have awakened her save for a slight, but nonetheless present, feeling that something was wrong. Turning to the side and spotting Emma's empty bunk, she allowed a small smile to grace her face. Maternal instinct. Slipping quietly out of bed, careful not to wake Charming who, finally free of the sleeping curse induced nightmares, was sleeping peacefully beside her, she grabbed her coat and shoes from near the door and stepped quietly up to the deck.

She quickly spotted Emma leant against the side of the ship staring out at the dark night and it didn't take much of Snow's maternal instinct to realise what she was thinking about.

"He's going to be alright you know."

Emma must have heard her come out on deck because she didn't seem at all startled by the sudden interruption of her thoughts and merely continued to gaze broodingly at the ocean.

"We'll find him."

Emma had tried to be optimistic, she really had. They had a ship, they outnumbered Greg and Tamara and they were at least in the same world as Henry was now, so there was hope. But, in the middle of the night, looking out across the seemingly vast ocean of a world she didn't know while her son was miles away with people capable of torture and murder, optimism didn't come easily and Emma was left with a sense of emptiness and despair.

"How can you be so sure?"

There were so many emotions tied up in that one little question that it took Snow a moment to decide which to respond to. Emma was at once incredulous, doubtful, terrified and, what Snow eventually decided to address, desperate for comfort and reassurance.

"Because that's what this family does, we find each other. We have crossed realms more than once already to reunite our family and we will do it as many more times as we need to to keep us together. We always find each other."

"Don't you ever get tired of looking?" Emma asked her dejectedly.

"I am always tired of looking," Snow admitted. "But this is the hand we've been dealt, and it's awful and you can cry about it and scream that it's not fair if you want to because it's not fair. It's not fair that one little girl should have to suffer so much. All we can really do though, is to do our best with what we've got and you just have to have some hope and faith. We will find him."

At this point, Snow felt as though she was reassuring herself as much as her daughter. She had always had hope and faith in the past and that, along with a healthy dose of courage and determination, which she knew that Emma had in spades, had always fared her well. It was true what she had said, they had crossed realms before to reunite their family and she knew that they would do whatever it took to bring Henry back. And yet, the thought of her little grandson out there all alone was enough to shake the most unwavering of faith.

"But what. . .what if they. . ." Emma choked back a sob as the weight of the concern she was unable to voice hung in the air for a few moments. Snow placed a comforting hand on Emma's shoulder before she finally spoke.

"If they wanted to kill him, they could have done that just fine in Storybrooke. There has to be a reason why they'd bring him all the way to Neverland."

Emma nodded, at last slightly comforted by Snow's words as she knew they were true.

"I'm just. . ." Emma turned to look at her mother and took a deep breath. " I'm just so scared."

Taking in Emma's red-ringed, watery eyes and tear stained cheeks, Snow couldn't help but reach out and consolingly caress her daughter's cheek. "Oh my baby. . ." she whispered, her voice full of pain.

Just weeks before, the gesture and the words would have made Emma recoil in terror but now she found herself leaning into Snow's touch and her head eventually came to rest on her mother's shoulder. Snow wrapped an arm around her daughter, and for a few moments they stood in silence.

"You called me Mom," Snow finally said, and Emma flinched slightly.

She had been calling Snow and David 'Mom' and 'Dad' in her head for weeks, seeing how it sounded, how it felt, but she'd never said the words out loud, even in private. They were just too deep, too personal and she wasn't sure that she was ready to say them. But in the mines, death had seemed inevitable and Emma had been terrified. Of death itself, but mostly of the knowledge that Henry would be alone, just like she had been. It was that thought that had made her really realise that she wasn't alone anymore. It may have taken twenty-eight years too long, but she finally had a family. She had parents who had risked and lost so much for her and loved her more than she had ever imagined anyone could love. She had not wanted them to die without knowing how she felt. Without knowing that, despite how hard everything had been and how much they all had suffered, they were her parents. They were her Mom and Dad. And she loved them.

She didn't regret saying it, not really. She just hadn't imagined that Snow would have the chance to get over emotional about it and the thought of that concerned her slightly. A long silence followed Snow's comment before Emma finally broke it.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well, that can't be all you're going to say about it. You're. . .you like to talk about things like this. Like a lot."

Snow chuckled slightly. "I do, but I don't want to spoil it by going on about it and making you uncomfortable," She paused briefly. "I'd waited my entire life to hear those words."

There were another few seconds of silence as Emma wrestled with her feelings. The emotional walls that had been so strong when she first arrived in Storybrooke had been determinedly chipped away at by almost everyone she'd met, but enough remained that she was wary of revealing too much about how she felt. However, Snow had always, even before they knew she was her mother, had an uncanny ability to push those walls even further and to make Emma divulge far more than she'd ever intended and, in the middle of the night with her mother's arm wrapped around her shoulders providing much need comfort, Emma found that the emotions she'd been so prudent with revealing seemed far less daunting than they had in the past.

"I'd hoped my entire life to say them." Emma's voice was so soft that it was almost a whisper, but the significance of her words was as clear as day and Snow both smiled and cried to hear them. She place a soft kiss to Emma's temple and then wrapped her other arm tightly around her daughter, unwilling to let go of her again. They stood locked in this embrace for what felt like an eternity, the only sounds the beating of the sea against the boat and Emma's occasional sniffle, before Snow pulled back from the hug, though leaving one arm securely round her daughter's shoulders.

"Okay, it's late and we have a long day ahead of us, I think it's bedtime now."

"But Mom!" Emma protested, in only a slightly joking tone.

Snow smiled at her as she began to guide her daughter back towards the stairs leading below deck. "You know, occasionally I'm almost glad we missed your teenage years, I'm sure you were quite the little hell raiser."

"I would have turned your hair grey," Emma assured her mother.

Snow laughed. "I don't doubt it."

As they reached the cabin door, Snow pressed another kiss to Emma's temple. "Goodnight Emma honey," she said softly.

"Goodnight," Emma replied, opening the door.

Snow hesitated for an instant. "Emma?"

Emma turned back round to face her. "Yeah?"

"I love you."

The pause that followed this deceleration was long, and Snow found herself fearing that she may have overstepped Emma's fragile emotional boundaries. Finally, Emma responded, a smile on her face.

"Yeah Mom, I love you too."

Well, there we go. I hope you enjoyed this little tribute to an amazing a episode and the fact I'm almost through with exams for this year. There will probably be a 'Dad' companion piece soon and, now that I've finally got some time to write again, I'm planning a rather ambitious rewrite of what happened post-Fairytale Land 'The Stable Boy', called 'If Evil Wasn't Made.' It might be a while before I get it posted, but if you like StableQueen, Good Regina and Mini Snow then keep your eyes out for it.