The Role of Daddy Charming--A birthday gift for @jrob64
The Role of Daddy Charming
Rating: PG
Relationship: Daddy Charming and Captain Swan
Summary: 4x2 “deleted scene”. David Nolan had played many roles in his life, but by far the one he's found most important was that of “dad”. The fact that he hadn’t been able to be there for Emma throughout the first 28 years of her life was one of his greatest regrets, so when he noticed the infamous Captain Hook’s interest in his daughter–and even more concerning, her returning that interest–he was determined to intervene. That is, of course, until she was trapped behind an ice wall, and David saw just how deeply and sincerely Killian Jones truly loved her.
Also posted here: ao3
Tagging a few people who may be interested (Let me know if you want to be added or taken off the list): @sailormew4 @annaamell @flslp87 @emmateo26 @bethacaciakay
@ultraluckycatnd @effulgent-mind @ilovemesomekillianjones @brooke-to-broch
@missgymgirl @galadriel26 @the-lady-of-misthaven @charmingturkeysandwich
@jennjenn615 @laschatzi @kimmy46 @snowbellewells @iamanneenigma
@daxx04 @nickillian @gillie @britishguyslover @ginnyjinxedandhanshotritafirst
@kmomof4 @linda8084 @golfgirld @captain-swan-coffee @searchingwardrobes
@hollyethecurious @laughswaytoomuch @allyourdarlingswans @winterbaby89 @facesiousbutton82
@therooksshiningknight @lfh1226-linda @tiganasummertree @jrob64 @anmylica
@booksteaandtoomuchtv @i-will-sing-no-requiem @bluewildcatfanatic @laianely
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It's finally done! I'm sorry your birthday gift is 11 days late @jrob64, but I hope you've at least enjoyed the little snippets I posted on discord as I wrote this! Happy belated birthday!
And without further ado....
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Throughout his life, David Nolan had played many roles. He’d been a son, a brother, a shepherd, a prince, a vet tech, a sheriff’s deputy, but by far, the roles he took most seriously were his roles as husband and father.
If there’s one thing he’d known all his life, it was that he wanted to be a better father than he’d had. He wanted to be present in his children’s lives. He’d vowed never to abandon them.
And so it was the greatest regret of his life that he’d done just that mere minutes after his daughter was born.
Granted, he was forced into the action; it was necessary to protect Emma and give her her best chance. Still, the shame and heartbreak of that decision had haunted him for the past twenty-nine years.
Surprisingly, during the first curse he’d felt it still, even if he hadn’t known what it was. More often than he cared to recall, he’d had vague dreams of the black knights, of the wardrobe, of being ripped from someone vitally important to him. The gloom and near despair of those dreams hung over him like a thundercloud. He’d woken feeling–knowing–that he wasn’t enough, that he’d failed at the most important task of his life.
Once he’d regained his memories and once he realized Emma was back in his life, he’d vowed to make up for lost time, to be the father she’d always needed, to protect her at all costs.
And so it was, when he sat at his kitchen table silently sipping his coffee and staring sightlessly out the window on the morning after the incident at the ice wall, he felt relief…but also helplessness. He’d almost lost her. Again.
Snow came up behind him, wrapped an arm around his shoulder and kissed his cheek before taking a seat next to him.
“That’s quite the bleak look on your face,” she whispered. Elsa was, after all, presumably still asleep behind the curtain they’d draped in front of the sofa to give her a bit of privacy. “Yesterday really shook you up, didn’t it?”
He blew out a long breath. “She came this close to freezing to death on my watch, Snow.”
She took his hand and squeezed it. “But she didn’t. From all I’ve heard, you were magnificent. Took charge and found a way to save her.”
He chuckled humorlessly. “I was terrified, but Killian…Killian was, if anything, even worse. Never seen a man so completely panicked.”
“He loves her,” she said simply, a radiant smile on her face. “I wouldn’t have believed it when we first met him in the Enchanted Forest, but he’s a good man, and he truly loves her.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to get that impression,” David agreed. “Did you know I gave him that ‘What are your intentions with my daughter?’ speech yesterday before…well…everything?”
“Really? What did he say?”
“First he gave me hell for being old-fashioned, and then he told me he wouldn’t risk his life for someone he considered loot. And if there was still any doubt in my mind before the ice wall incident, his reaction removed it. Whatever else I could say about him, I know he loves her.”
Snow sipped her coffee. “Maybe you should tell him that. Give him your blessing, if you will.”
David grimaced. He may be–grudgingly–willing to admit it to his wife in the privacy of their own kitchen, but admitting it to Hook’s face…well, he wasn’t sure. “Yeah, maybe when I see him again,” he hedged.
“Perfect,” Snow said. “You’ll probably have the opportunity any minute, whenever Emma and Hook get up.”
“What?!”
“He stayed the night with her,” Snow said with a grin. “You didn’t know?”
As if to confirm Snow’s statements, Emma and Killian emerged together from the loft. David felt his innate protective dad instincts flared to life. If Hook had taken advantage of Emma in her vulnerable post-nearly-freezing-to-death state…
“Remember what we just talked about. He loves her,” Snow murmured only loud enough for him to hear.
David let out a long breath. She was right. Reacting badly now would likely only make things worse. “Fine,” he murmured back.
“Morning!” Snow called sunnily to the couple entering the kitchen, as well as Elsa who had just emerged from behind her curtain. “Anyone want breakfast?”
“Thanks, but I’ve got to get to the station,” Emma said, “I’m sure the phones were blowing up last night with calls about the ice wall.”
“I also must decline,” Killian said, scratching behind his ear. “I should…get back to Granny’s.”
“See you later for lunch?” Emma asked, looking up at Hook with an open–and what David thought was rather nauseatingly besotted–look. At his answer in the affirmative, she headed out.
Snow nudged David, and he rolled his eyes. No time like the present, he supposed. “Let me give you a lift back to town, Hook,” he said, “I’m headed that direction anyway.”
Hook gave him a wary look, and for a moment, David hoped he was about to decline the offer.
No such luck.
“I’d appreciate it, mate.”
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The first minute of their drive was passed in silence. Killian side-eyed David uncomfortably, wondering when the questions–or probably more precisely, the accusations–would start.
His first inclination was to rile the man up further with sly grins and insinuations about what went on in the Charming’s loft the night before–after all his dashing rapscallion persona was a clock he’d worn as a shield for more years than he could count–but he quickly dismissed it.
This was Swan’s father. If he truly wished to have a relationship with her–and he did; he wished for a relationship lasting roughly in the neighborhood of forever–it wouldn’t do to antagonize her father. There was also the fact that he genuinely liked the man, and so…
“You know nothing…untoward…happened last night,” Killian said.
David glanced at him before turning back to the road with a grimace. “Didn’t ask. Don’t want to know.”
“Nevertheless,” Killian continued, “Your daughter and I certainly have more respect for you and Snow than to…engage in certain activities…underneath your very nose, not to mention the fact that her lad slept not ten feet from us.”
“Like I said, I didn’t ask,” David repeated, although Killian noted the way the other man’s face relaxed slightly at the reassurance.
“She was still cold,” Killian continued, somehow feeling the need to continue his justification. “She asked for me to hold her, and I couldn’t refuse. After coming so bloody close to losing her…”
David pulled into a parking spot in front of Granny’s but didn’t yet kill the engine. The look he gave Killian this time was sympathetic, understanding. “Almost losing the woman you love does things to a man.”
“Aye,” Killian agreed. “It was the same feeling of dread, of helplessness, as when the Crocodile crushed Milah’s heart in front of me. If it had happened again….”
David placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. “It didn’t,” he said firmly. “I’ve been trying to remind myself of that all day. It didn’t. You didn’t lose your love and I didn’t lose my daughter.”
There was a long silence, in which Killian wondered if he ought to simply exit the vehicle. He’d just reached for the door handle to do so when David spoke again, this time looking determinedly out the front window, rather than at him.
“There is….something I wanted to talk to you about.”
“Aye?”
“That conversation we started to have yesterday, right before everything went to hell…” he continued, “look, I think I was wrong to ever question your intentions.”
“There’s no need to–” Killian began.
“I think there is,” David replied, finally turning toward to him. “It’s been obvious for a while that you love Emma, and it’s not a love that’s going away anytime soon.”
“It’s not a love that’s going away ever,” Killian said firmly.
“Yeah, I’m inclined to believe that” David said. “Anyway, if there ever had been any question about your feelings and intentions, yesterday got rid of them. I saw how willing you were to do anything to save her. I supposed what I’m trying to say is…I apologize for ever doubting you.”
Killian’s eyes widened. Of all the things he’d expected the prince to say to him “I apologize” was rather far down on the list. “Apology accepted, although it is wholly unnecessary. As someone who does truly love her, I’m pleased she has a father who cares enough to be a touch over-protective.”
David gave a quick, decisive nod. “I won’t be old fashioned enough to give you my blessing,” he said, “but…I won’t oppose your relationship.”
“That means a great deal to me,” Killian said, “and I know it would mean a lot to Swan as well.”
“Yeah, well,” David said, “just so we’re clear, if you ever hurt her, I’ll run you through with my sword.”
Killian nodded. “Mate, if I ever hurt her, I’d let you do it with my own.”
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Later that night, Emma was vegging on the couch when her dad finally made it home. After tossing his jacket onto the coat rack, he joined her, gave her a quick hug and kissed the top of her head. She was slowly but surely getting used to this casual affection from her parents, and it always gave her such a warm, fuzzy, loved feeling.
“Crazy day, huh?” he asked wryly.
Emma chuckled. “I guess that depends on what you’re comparing it to. For Storybrooke it was ho hum.”
It had certainly been a busy day. As she’d expected, they’d had more calls than she could count about the ice wall and the snow monster–or whatever it had been–that had crashed through the town yesterday. While she and her dad had both been working, they’d been so busy with calls and patrols, they’d barely had a chance to exchange a word all day.
“I guess you’re right about that,” David laughed. “Any day that doesn’t involve a new villain, monster or crisis is a win around here.”
They lapsed into silence for several moments before Emma spoke again, “Killian told me about your conversation this morning.”
David gave her a wary look. “Before you say anything, I do know you’re a grown woman who can make her own decisions.”
She grinned. “That’s what Killian said at lunch when I started ranting about you treating me like a teenager. Nothing happened last night, by the way.”
“I know. Killian told me.”
“Dad,” she said, and her heart turned over at the joy on his face at her use of the word. “I just….I just want to thank you for, you know, caring and doing whatever you had to to save me.”
“No thanks necessary,” he said. “You’re my daughter. I’m always, always going to do everything in my power to help you, no matter the situation.”
She felt the tears come to her eyes. “I think I’m finally starting to realize that. Sorry it’s taken so long. It’s just…I’m not used to having a dad, someone in my corner no matter what.”
Pain came into his eyes at that, and Emma realized how her words had come across. “I’m not blaming you,” she said quickly. “I know you did what you had to to give me my best chance.”
“Still,” David said, “I wish more than anything that I’d been able to be the father you needed and deserved from the beginning.”
“I wish that too,” she murmured, almost under her breath, “but the past is the past. You’re here now, and that means everything.”
“And I always will be,” David vowed with a decisive nod.
They lapsed into another silence, broken only by a few soft whimpers from baby Neal as Mary Margaret worked to put him down for the night–or at least as much of the night as he was willing to sleep at any one stretch.
“You know, I wasn’t the only one working frantically to save you last night,” David said slowly.
Emma felt her heart stutter and then soar as she thought of the man to whom her father was referring. “I know. Killian told me he’d been worried about me too.”
David blew out a long breath. “Worried is an understatement. He was absolutely frantic. Emma, that man loves you.”
Emma felt the butterflies, that swooping half-excited, half-terrified feeling one gets when she falls head over heels. She would have to be blind not to see that Killian had fallen in love with her, and she had the sneaking suspicion that somewhere along the way she’d fallen in love with him as well. Was she ready to admit it? She wasn’t sure. That level of vulnerability was scary as hell.
“Yeah, maybe so,” she hedged, trying to make her voice as even as possible, “and I…I…appreciate it.”
David gave her a long look. “Emma, I know it’s hard for you to trust. I know it’s hard for you to let yourself believe, and I will have your back one hundred percent whatever you do, but for what it’s worth, I’d give him a chance if I were you.”
“So does that mean you think he’s good enough for me?” Emma teased, uncomfortably aware of the momentous nature of the topic at hand and feeling the need to lighten the mood..
David chuckled. “You’re my daughter. No one’s good enough for you, but I suppose if you have to be with someone, he’ll do.”
