The conversation was a serious one, but Emma had to smile. There was no way around it. If everyone had an attitude like Belle's, this place would be a whole lot easier to take. Hell, this world would be easier to take. And Emma might not hate herself every time she woke up.
"It is a bit of an adventure, isn't it?" she asked with a lopsided grin. "And sweetheart, it's only getting started. You look pretty young. What, sixteen, seventeen?" If only she'd had herself half as together as Belle did when she was that age. But Disney hadn't raised Emma. Frankly, Disney had screwed Emma over and big time. But she never faulted that. Her choices, fictional though they may have been, were all her own. "Things will get easier here from day to day. But you'll run into things you won't understand, things that'll scare you. And it's how you face those that make the difference."
Where had that woman been when Henry had needed her? Where was the sage advice six months or ten years ago? She had no other explanation other than that Lawrence had changed her. And she wasn't sure if it was for the better yet or not.
"Some people are only here for a short while. Others? They've been here for years. But yes, time stays the same back home. When you return, nothing will have changed and your life will continue on." She gave a little shrug and a half-hearted nod. "And, if all goes right, you'll still get a happily ever after." Did she even believe in that nonsense? After everything she'd seen, the things she'd done, and the things she knew she'd do in her future, both here and Storybrook, she really didn't know.