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He looked up from where he was playfully holding their box of favorite ornaments just out of Henry’s reach as the boy jumped and grabbed in their joking game of keepaway. At the expression on her face, Killian lowered the box and smiled back at her, his entire countenance lighting with the love he felt for her and her boy - that he could now see she returned. Henry grabbed it from his hands with a whoop of victory, charging toward the tree, and Killian made no move to stop him, only chuckled lightly and shook his head - as if he could no more than Emma believe that this bright, happy moment could possibly be real.

Emma laughed too as Henry handed her the box to set on the coffee table and they opened it  eagerly to unearth their treasures. Henry found the first of his own collection: a wooden book token labeled “Once Upon a Time” across the front in gold lettering. She and Graham had selected it the first holiday they’d spent together, as Henry’s interest in writing had begun to develop. She also ruffled Henry’s hair and sniffled just a bit when he reverently hung the ceramic ornament shaped and painted to look like a line of tall green pine trees with a wolf standing in the forefront. She didn’t even realize a tear had escaped to trail down her cheek until Killian reached her side and gently brushed it away with a steadying finger.

She grabbed his hand and clutched it tightly, pressing it to her chest in gratitude. After a moment, she reached into the box again and pulled out a familiar ornament next. Dangling from her fingers was the crystal swan Killian had gifted her the year before. Both of them focused on it for a moment, and even Henry went still, beaming at the both of them. As Judy Garland warbled from the stereo in the background about “the olden days, happy golden days of yore” Emma felt the emotion swelling inside. Though she did look back on some of the good times of the past fondly, she was even more looking forward to the days ahead.

She had often told Henry they were “almost there”, that they they had nearly found the life and family and place they belonged, but she now believed to the very depth of her being that place had at last been reached. Looping the ornament’s hanger over a high bough, Emma gazed at the sparkling bird as the tree lights glimmered off its surface. For the first time in her life, she knew with certainty that the coming new year would be bright and that the best was yet to come.

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