Dreaming Out Loud

Uncomfortable Truths

Chapter 81: Uncomfortable Truths

As they told their story, Persephone, quietly observed Eli and Leopold. The former seemed to hang on every word Snow and David were saying. She supposed his interest was positive. He wanted to know their daughter and though she was leery of his judgement at the moment, she could understand wanting to get to know Snow and her husband. She remembered when she first came to Storybrooke and had to resist the urge to take her baby girl in her arms and never let her go. But it had been a bit easier for her since she had been able to become Snow's friend first. It eased the shock a bit later when her daughter discovered the truth of her identity. So while she was wary of his anger, she knew he deserved a fair shot with them both. It was the only way for her to figure out her feelings too, which were frustrating to a maddening level.

On one hand, she and Eli had a very torrid romance long ago, but it had been so short. They had only spent stolen moments together during a six month period. Granted, their union had given her the most precious thing she had ever been blessed with. Her little Snow. She knew Eli wanted them to just be one big happy family now that he was back, but she couldn't ignore that she wasn't even the same person that she was when they were together. And neither was he, for that matter. She had to start from scratch with him, but she realized that meant she needed to spend time with him again if she was going to figure out her confusing feelings.

And if that wasn't bad enough, there was Hades. And her feelings for him were perhaps even more maddening, if that was possible.

Long ago, when he had abducted her from her mother, he had actually been gentle with her. He hadn't immediately taken her either. He was too entranced by her to let her return to her mother, yet he didn't like her being unhappy either. He did his best to woo her and romance her. In some respects, it had worked. Their intimacy had been consensual at first and even after she berated him for tricking her into eating the pomegranate seeds, he had not been unkind to her. With Hades, she had the advantage of having spent centuries with him. She knew him very well. There had been a lot of bad times after she had an affair with Eli. Even before that, Hades had grown bitter and haggard. Running the Underworld was not an easy job and it could be depressing. It strained their marriage and then she sought comfort in someone else.

Before anger and bitterness had swelled in him, she had helped him rule the Underworld justly. But their marriage became strained when he became cruel to some of the Underworld's subjects and started giving unfair judgements to innocents. They had fought endlessly about it and the changes in him put miles between them. He started no longer caring about her happiness. He was unhappy with his situation and had taken it out on her. Those had been dark times and then she met Eli. She felt love and affection again, much like she had in the beginning with Hades, even if she hadn't been in love with him. But he had hurt her deeply and so she thought nothing of hurting him back by being with Eli. She had known what fire she was playing with and her feelings for Eli resembled love. But their time had been so short and over the years, as she looked back, she didn't know if she truly had been in love with Eli or in love with the idea of it and the freedom of it. Her pregnancy had changed all of that and suddenly, there was this tiny life that became the most important thing to her.

Before he was killed, Eli was all for running off together to raise their child and she had to admit, at the time, it was a very romantic notion. Over time, after his death, she wondered if he really would have gone through with it. Would he have abdicated his Throne for her and Snow? Would he have tried to get his court to accept her, because she was a Goddess? And thus their daughter? She knew it wouldn't have been an easy sell. By the time Snow was conceived, people didn't respect the Gods as they once had. Mortals were learning magic and saw that the Gods were as flawed as mortals were. Snow's existence would have been a scandal in his Kingdom and the royal court would have been unkind to her little one. She didn't know how Eli would have handled any of it either. She had hopes that he would stand and defend their child, but the pressures of running a Kingdom could have very well put a strain on their relationship, not to mention his relationship with Snow.