princehonorable | (no subject)

Since Graham had arrived, Charming's been eager to talk to him without Ruby around to see if they really were on the same page or if it's just hopeful thinking that has Charming believing that he's not alone. Still, even if Graham does remember, he's not sure he knows about the part where he might not know if he's dead. Everything has changed so much since those early days when even Charming had known nothing more than the fact that he was David Nolan, a man married to a wife he didn't love and in love with the local schoolteacher.

Regina couldn't control everything, not without their hearts. That thought makes him feel guilty as he thinks about how she had controlled Graham, all thanks to his heart.

Still, Charming needs to find out if Graham knows about the Enchanted Forest, so he starts his perusal of the hotel, searching it high to low. Eventually, it's the stables where he goes to look. He's been working there as a sort of stablehand whenever the frustration of not getting back to Neverland eats at him, but it's not a regular occurrence.

"Graham?" Charming calls out, when he hears footsteps near him. "Sheriff?"

And then, there's that last hopeful attempt.

"Huntsman?"

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Graham neither wanted nor sought the other man's pity, and so made to attempt to push further into the topic of what he had just admitted. Frankly, he was glad David left it as it was and did not prod at the confusion and frustration over the matter that Graham thought he needed a good deal more time to understand himself.

"I am too," he agreed, unable to stop the sigh that followed, though he would not forget to be grateful that Ruby was safe. That he stood not alone in a strange place, that he had an ally he knew could be trusted (as rare a thing as that was, to his mind). "Emma did break the Curse with time, didn't she?" As much as he hated the idea that Ruby might have to leave in order to remember what they had all lost, he could not deny that that might have been a strong possibility. "She is - as far as I am aware - the only one who holds the key to breaking the Curse."

"She broke the curse, yes," David agrees, his smile as bright as possible when discussing his daughter's ability and her incredible talent for being the saviour. "It didn't fix everything. In fact, I think we're all still struggling to come to terms with it. Emma included. She's nearly the same age as her parents. I'm a grandfather," he says, laughing at the madness of it. "She broke the curse, but there wasn't an immediate happy ending before us."

While he begrudged neither David nor Snow their happiness, having been witness for too long to the hatred Regina had nursed for the pair and the evil she had wreaked in her desire to destroy her step daughter, Graham did not smile then. He nodded, "I understand." Graham had little love of magic and less belief that it was the key to one's happiness, but even if it did not fix everything, breaking the Curse on Red was the least he owed her. "I don't expect a happy ending, David. I know better than to hope for that for me, but what matters is that Red be free of Regina's spell."