CaptainSwan in College

Story Time

Okay, loves, time for the first flashback chapter! It was requested, so I'm starting with a chapter about Mia talking to her kids about her parents. Enjoy, and please leave any other requests so I can try to get those done for you. Later, loves!

*Mia's POV*

"Mom?" My seven year old daughter Emma got my attention one summer day as I was making dessert for that night. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, sweetie," I half smiled, wiping my hands on my apron and going to the fridge as she sat down at the counter. "What is it?"

"It's about grandpa," she said quietly and I looked up at the mention of my dad. "Why aren't we supposed to ask him about grandma?"

"I knew you'd ask me this eventually," I sighed, leaning back on the other side of the counter. "It's just really hard for him most of the time to talk about her. Even when I was a kid, when Liam and Arabella asked about her, I usually had to answer. He just... can't."

"But why?" she prodded. "No one else's grandparents are like that, why is he so different?"

"Well," I thought for a moment. "Have I ever told you their whole story?" She shook her head and I sighed. "Come on then, I have to show you some things." She followed me to the living room and I went to get their scrapbook from the closet before sitting with her on the sofa. "Now, grandpa doesn't know I have this, so don't tell him or he'll yell at me. It's very important to him."

"What is it?" She inquired, scooting closer and gasping a bit when I opened it. "Is that grandma? She looks just like you!"

"Yeah, that's my mom," I smiled a bit sadly, already getting tears in my eyes as I looked at the picture of her on my dad's back with her arms around his neck as he held her legs up on his waist, both of them grinning like total idiots. "Her name was Emma Swan when they met in college. I've never even heard of a couple more in love than they were, they had the closest thing to a fairytale I think anyone gets in the real world."

"You named me after her?" she asked quietly and I nodded at bit, wiping my tears before they could drip onto the pages. She stopped me on their wedding picture, the one my uncle had caught of them sitting at their table with her on his lap and their arms around each other while their foreheads rested together. "They look so happy, I've never seen grandpa smile like that."

"I haven't seen him like that since I was twelve years old," I sighed, flipping on their wedding video and watching it for a bit with her as tears slid down my cheeks. "She was an amazing woman, she would have loved you so much."

"Mia?" I heard my dad call and my head snapped up, seeing him coming down the stairs and panicking when he froze with his eyes on the TV. I saw the tears in his eyes as he quickly turned on his heel and I rushed up after him.

"Daddy!" I called after him, catching his hand to stop him before he got in my mom's car. "I'm so sorry, I didn't realize how late it was. Emma started asking about you and mom and I just-" I stopped when he pulled me into his arms, holding onto him just as tight as he was clinging to me. I sighed, just laying my head on his chest and letting him cry. "I'm so sorry, daddy. I miss her too, all the time."

"I know you do, my little butterfly," he sighed, cradling my head like he did when I was little and making me smile a bit at the old nickname my mom used to call me. He pulled away and sighed, putting his hands on my cheeks as he wiped my tears with his thumbs. "I'm sorry, princess, you know I don't handle talking about your mom very well. You and Emma just look so much like her, it makes me ache sometimes."

"I know, daddy," I said quietly, reaching up to wipe his tears as well. "You know, I haven't seen you really smile since she died? Please just come watch the video with us and talk to her, no one knew mom like you did."

"Aye, that's true," he smiled a bit, more tears slipping down his face. "We would have been together forty years today, you know."

"I know," I smiled, taking off the necklace I'd been wearing as long as I could remember and closing his hand around it. "And I know in your heart you're still that lovesick teenager when it comes to mom. It's been forty years and you're still with her, I think it's time you have this back."

"Mia, no," he said sternly, trying to give it back but I held his fist closed around it. "Your mother gave this to you when you were three years old, when it was just the three of us. I already have her wedding ring around my neck, she'd want you to keep it."

"But, daddy-" I started but was cut off when Emma came running outside.

"I'm sorry, grandpa, I didn't mean to," she apologized quickly, tear tracks on her cheeks. "I just wanted to know about grandma, please don't be mad at me."

"Oh, I'm not mad at you, little love," he assured her, picking her up and sitting her on his hip as he wiped her tears. "I could never be mad at you. I'm just a bit... over sensitive when it comes to your grandma, especially today."

"What's today?" she asked him quietly, holding onto his shirt tightly. "Why does grandma make you sad?"

"Today is our anniversary," he told her as we walked back inside, sitting down with her in his lap just as the vows started on the video. "I met your grandma forty years ago today, and married her five years later." His eyes moved to the screen and I saw them shining with tears once again, a small smile on his lips as he watched them exchange their vows. "Nothing about your grandma has ever made me sad, except the fact that she's not here anymore. She was the light of my life in so many ways, the way I love her is... completely undescribable and utterly consuming."

"She's pretty," Emma noted quietly and his smile grew a bit. "Was she nice?"

"She was perfect," he sighed as his tears leaked out, his eyes glued to the screen and following my mother's every move. "Beyond beautiful, unfailingly kind, wonderfully sassy... absolutely perfect."

"You miss her, huh?" she asked, leaning on his chest when he just hugged her close and wrapped his other arm around me. "Thank you for telling me about her."

"You're welcome, little love," he said as he kissed her forehead, looking at the ring in his hand and taking a breath before putting the chain over her head. "I suppose it's only right that this go to you next. I gave it to your grandma when we got together to let her know how much I loved her, and she let your mom have it when she was little, so now it's your turn."

"Thank you," she said with surprised excitement as she watched it sparkle. By this time I was crying uncontrollably, watching them as he finally opened up about mom a bit.  "It's so pretty."

"Indeed it is," he smiled a bit. "I just ask that you be careful with it, if you please. It's very special in this family."

"I will," she promised him, cuddling into him as she examined it carefully. He kissed my forehead and held me close to his side, both of us watching the two of them laughing and dancing together on the screen. He hadn't opened up this much about mom in years and it was somehow even harder, making me miss her more. Dad told me once that I got that from my mom, my need to not talk about things and hide inside myself, but I'd never seen that part of her. She had always just been my mom, the woman who loved us with everything she was and was almost sickeningly in love with my dad. I missed her every single day. The entire family would be here soon to celebrate Bella's birthday and mom and dad's anniversary, but for now we were happy to sit together and reminisce about the woman who had been gone for twenty years now but never left our hearts.

Oh wow, much crying. I hope you liked it, and again, please leave requests. I seriously love this story so I'll take any opportunity to do more with it. Later, loves!