Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Snow hadn’t believed it at first, despite all of the overwhelming evidence against her disbelief, since she had first gotten her periods she had been like clockwork, other than when she was pregnant.

She took 9 tests, all of them were positive.

So she went to the hospital, her husband went with her though she hadn’t told him why, just in case she was right. But the doctor confirmed it: she was pregnant.

Both parents were completely and totally over the moon, if a little shocked, and they’d be lying if they said that they had thought of Emma right, but that was understandable, they were in shock and beyond excited about their incoming arrival.

But they decided against telling their daughter or grandson right away for two reasons: 1) They wanted to be able to bond with Emma before everything changed, if that made them selfish then it was a label they were willing to accept, not a long time mind just a couple of weeks. 2) Before she had gotten pregnant with Emma, Snow had suffered two miscarriages, she wasn’t sure if it was down to George’s original curse or just a coincidence, they didn’t want to chance it this time.

So they gave themselves three weeks, just until they had the 12 week scan, when the chances of losing the baby were significantly lowered. Their scan happened to coincide with Emma and Henry going to New York to help Gold find his son, they had wanted to tell their daughter and grandson in person, so that bought them a little more time.

While they were gone they couldn’t resist trying to find any of their old things in Gold’s store. They found a couple of things, some unisex baby clothes they had bought for Emma, they wouldn’t dress their baby in them, not just cause they’d look a bit ridiculous in Storybrooke, but because they were Emma’s. This baby wasn’t a replacement for the life they would have had with their daughter, they would be their second child, they were both very clear on that, so clear they hadn’t needed to actually say it out loud. They found some other of their old things they had missed, and some of Emma’s things they would give her when the moment was right.
Their best find was David’s mother’s necklace, they both shed a few tears when they saw that, they knew how much Ruth would have loved Emma and this new baby too.
“East to west.” David’s eyes clouded over with tears. “Another girl.”
Snow looked up at his beaming smile, gender didn’t matter to either of them, they would be happy with two girls, but David had always had a terrible sense of direction. “North to south,” she corrected, “David, we’re having a boy.”

When Emma and Henry got back from New York they weren’t talking, or Henry was barely talking to Emma, who was clearly very upset about the whole thing. Her ex, Henry’s father was back, if they had a choice now would not be when they told them. But Snow was showing and having to wear loose clothing out to avoid showing, the first trimester was over, Emma needed to know.

They waited until the day after the pair got back, Henry had decided to spend time with both Neal and Regina, and made it clear that he didn’t want to spend time with Emma.

“Kid, just wait a moment.” David managed to stop him before he walked out of the door.

“They’re my mom and my dad, I get to see them, I want to see them .”

“I get that you’re upset with your mother,” David hated to admit that he understood, but he also understood his daughter’s side, “but me and Snow need to talk to you two for a moment.” He led him to the kitchen table and Snow came down the stairs with Emma following her and led her to the table too. Emma looked hopeful at Henry, but when he blanked her her face just fell.

“We have something we need to tell you both, we would have told you earlier but we wanted to make sure…” Snow said looking from Henry to Emma. “But now we are, and everything’s fine-”

“-Are you sick?” Emma interrupted her brows furrowed as she looked at Snow. She turned her head to look at David. “Are you?”

Snow reached across the table and took hold of Emma’s hand, she could see how worried both Emma and Henry were, it was touching especially as Emma hadn’t bonded with this version of her and her husband yet. “We’re not sick, honey, we’re both well, very very well in fact.”

David reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out the ultrasound, one of many, many, copies, he loved that this world had this technology, he also wished that he could have had scan pictures of his daughter. He placed the photo on the table and pushed across the table to his daughter and grandson. “You’re going to have a little brother,” he beamed at Emma then gave a small chuckle looking at Henry, “and you’re going to have a a little uncle.”

“What!” Henry’s chair scraped back as he stood up, his eyes were wide with excitement. “You’re having a baby?”

David and Snow both stood up with him, no longer trying to hide their smiles. “Yeah, you ready to teach your uncle some fancy sword moves?" 

“You are not putting any swords near my baby,” Snow told her husband firmly, “I don’t care that they’re wooden.”

“What are you going to call him? You could give him my name as a middle name, I wouldn’t recommend the name George, and don’t name him after the dwarves.” Henry began to chatter.

Emma forced a smile on her face before her parents could look at her, if they were going to look at her, she seemed to have been forgotten in the excitement. But Henry was happy, that was a good thing, right? She stood up slowly. “Woah guys, that’s huge! Congrats!” She wrapped her mom in a big hug, then let David pull her in for a hug too. With her face against his shoulder she allowed her smile to drop before she had to put it back on. “When are you due?” She asked before Snow could cotton on.

After that conversation every single conversation since seemed to turn into talking about the baby. Emma could be adding some candy to the grocery list and Snow would say that she was thinking the baby would be the opposite and be really healthy, she knew , or she and David would be at the station and trying to tell him something and he would be really distracted, only a second later he would be showing her yet another toy or piece of furniture he had bought. To top that off Henry was still barely speaking to her, he hated her for lying to him, instead he was spending time with Regina and Neal. It was almost too much to bare. But she didn’t know that it was only about to get worse, much worse.

Henry was spending the night at the house Neal was renting, or more aptly he had been given by his father, and she couldn’t stand a whole night of just hearing about her parents second chance to get it right (they hadn’t called it that but she knew it was what they meant) so she spent her night in her room. She had realised Henry had left his storybook at the loft so decided to give it a read, perhaps that would make him proud, or she could persuade him to talk to her about it. She had read about her parents and grandparents and all the people she knew and truth be told it was fairly interesting she was even starting to feel more like David and Snow were her parents. She had reached her father introducing her mother to his mother, who got hit, then they had a small wedding. She thought that it was really nice,and she liked the sound of Ruth, but she was confused about George’s curse on Snow- perhaps it was creative licensing? But then Ruth was talking about how much David wanted to be a father, her cheeks blushed and she had never felt closer to him.

“He always wanted a son.”

Emma’s throat went dry. “And now he’s getting one.” She said quietly. She closed the book without reading anymore. She flicked off her lamp, led down on her bed, and bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from crying too loudly. Yet another thing to add to the pile which was threatening to overwhelm her.

Emma was stood next to the loft stairs as the baby shower -come- celebration sort of party went on around her. The downstairs of the loft was swarming with people yet she had never felt so alone. Other than her mom not telling her to eat the food yet because people would be coming soon her parents had been too busy to talk to her that day.

Henry hadn’t even said hi to her when he came in, instead he went to talk to her parents, when she tried to talk to him again he blanked her, deciding instead to talk to everyone else. Regina and Neal were talking on the couch, Emma watched Regina opened up her locket and Neal leant closer to her chest to look at the picture of Henry inside of it. Emma half listened to Regina talking about Henry, the bits she could overhear anyway, but with Henry so mad at her she didn’t feel like she was entitled to that knowledge. She looked at her son as he walked over and squeezed in the small gap between Neal and Regina and felt a pang of pain in her heart. He looked so happy with them. Neal passed him a drink and she heard the automatic words, “Thanks dad”, and she wanted to cry, she was Emma to Henry, she hadn’t raised him, and she had been the one who had given him up.

She took some steps closer to the large crowd that surrounded her parents, she was biting her cheek to stop from crying, and for some reason she just wanted her parents, she wanted to talk about everything with Henry but most of all she wanted a hug. She couldn’t get very close but she could see Snow sat in the brand new rocking chair, David was sat on its arm, his hand resting on her tummy with protective pride. Close to them were a few new or expectant moms, Snow seemed so excited, and so right in her place there that Emma couldn’t bring herself to say anything or even to move closer. She didn’t want to stress her mom out, what if she went into labour? She was due anytime after all. Emma hated herself for dreading the day the baby was born.

“I’ll get Emma to tell me his name then.”

David chuckled at Ruby’s attempt to force them to tell her their son’s name. “She doesn’t know.” A smug smile came across his face.

Ruby’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open, just a little, then she frowned a little in confusion. After all during the curse Snow had told Emma everything. “She doesn’t know?”

“Of course not.”

Emma hated how her father sounded so cavalier about that. She had asked a couple of times, she had figured they would tell her sooner or later, but it was later now and David was acting as though they didn’t care about telling her at all. Like she didn’t deserve to know as she wasn’t part of their family.

Emma was stuck where she stood, as though she was watching something on the tv, no one even noticed her there.

Snow was passed little Alexandra and she cuddled her close with a big smile on her face. “I can’t wait until he’s this age, she’s just so interested in everyone and the world.” David was smiling in agreement and watching the 18 month old looking around. “I would love a girl.” Snow said, misspeaking without realising, no one corrected her, then she laughed carelessly. “After this one of course.”

“One of each!” One of the new moms said happily and plenty of people agreed with her.

David leant down and pressed a kiss to the top of his wife’s head. “However many you want, my love.”

Emma moved away as everyone laughed and made jeering comments. She raced up the stairs and not a single person followed her, or even noticed.

Her room was full of baby gifts and some brand new furniture for the baby which were being stored in her room as they needed the space. She sat on her old and slightly rusted bed, her parents’- no Snow and David’s words, were going through her mind. David didn’t want his oldest to be a girl, Snow wanted her next one to be a daughter, and neither of them counted her as their child. She was simply a sacrificial lamb, a saviour who was useless now she had done her job, a test run child for them to work out all their mistakes. In her eyes the biggest mistake they had made was having her in the first place.

The only positive of the party was that she could finally cry loudly without anyone knowing, not that they would care in the first place.

Emma waited until everyone in Storybrooke was fast asleep before she packed up her things, loaded them into her car, and drove out of the town.

She did not leave a note.

No one would have cared to read it anyway.

Chapter Text

“You need to sit down.”

“I can throw a few part poppers in the trash.”

“Please? Emma’s birth was scary and uneventful enough, I want this one to go to plan.” David’s voice had become calm yet pleading, his big blue eyes widened, and Snow actually did as she was told. His mind went back to Emma’s birth, at least in Storybrooke they had actual medical equipment and help, but from that his mind went to Emma. He knew how stressed and upset she was about Henry, he’d even had a little chat with the boy, he’d reacted to it pretty well so David was sure Henry would actually start to talk to her a little. He dumped the paper streamers into the trash. “Did you, er, see Emma much today?” He looked across at his wife trying to hide his guilt, he had been so wrapped up in the party that he could barely remember seeing her, let alone speaking.

Snow paused her repacking of the hospital bag. “I think I saw her chatting to some women?” She guessed, her expression mirrored David’s. “But she wasn’t here later on, she doesn’t really like parties, she was probably just in her room or on the fire escape.”

David rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah…” His eyes glanced to the stairs leading to his daughter’s room, he could go up and check on her… but the loft was a state it was late and he didn’t want Snow to try and clean it up. He would check on her the next day.  

Snow woke to pain. She remembered the pain only too well, it felt like yesterday that she had started slow labour with her daughter. She could tell she had a while to go, so she got out of bed, and made herself a cup of tea.

When David woke up she told him that today was the day, she could see both panic and excitement in his eyes, but quickly told him the contractions were very far apart, she just had a feeling.

“I’m going to check on Em, she might be sick.” David decided, stepping out of the bathroom having gotten ready for the day, he kept checking on his wife but was worried about not having seen or heard his daughter in… a while? He felt worse having not known even how long ago he saw her.

Snow frowned in worry too. “Take some aspirin, she might be sick or have a migraine.” She wanted to go see her but she wasn’t sure if going up those unstable stairs would be a good idea.

He started up the stairs as the front door opened.

Snow smiled at her grandson. “Hi Henry, are you okay? Have you eaten breakfast yet?”

Henry’s serious face was broken by a small smile at his grandma. “I came to talk to Emma.” He sighed gently. “Gramps said maybe I should listen to her side…”

Snow dropped a kiss onto the top of his head. “I think that’s a very good idea.”

“Emma!”

David’s bellow practically shook the loft.

His feet came pounding down the stairs. He ignored his wife and grandson as he raced around the lower level, looking in the bathroom, under his and Snow’s bed, in the closet, everywhere he could think of. He eventually came to a stop. “She’s not here.”

David looked as lost as Snow felt. “She’s gone out? To the store?”

David spared a quick glance at Henry. “Her stuff’s all gone, her blanket, everything.”

“She left.”

Henry’s voice would have broken David’s heart if he could feel it at the moment. He looked at his grandson, his energy reinvigorated. “We’re going to find her. We always find her, and we will again.”

The three of them searched the town.

When they couldn’t find her they enlisted others to help - Regina, Ruby, Neal, Belle, Thomas, Abigail, Fredrick, anyone they knew. But to no avail.

“Curse!” The shout rattled through the woods, making them all stop, and it was clear who it was shouting it. “CURSE!” His shout was louder this time. And this time they could see the blue mist creeping over the town.

At that moment Snow let out a groan in pain.

“Snow!” Both David and Regina shouted rushing to her.

“I can hold on, until we’ve found Emma, I need Emma.”

Regina shook her head. “Snow this baby is coming now, we will find Emma, but right now you and David need to be in the hospital.” She insisted, magicking them there.

Snow felt like she was being torn apart, (had childbirth always been this painful?),but that wasn’t why she was crying. “David I want my daughter. I want my baby!”

“I promise I will find her.” He swore. “But right now you need to push.”

“David there’s a curse, another curse, I need to know where my babies are.”

He too was reminded of the last time Snow had been in labour, with another curse, the only retrospectively good thing about that one was that they hadn’t had one of their children missing then. “We will, we’re not going to be cursed I promise, but Snow you need to push.”
He wanted to be with his wife and unborn son, but he also wanted to find Emma, what if she was injured or sick, or someone had taken her? He needed his little girl too. He also wondered if he could ground her for disappearing, despite her age, at least that way he could make sure she was always at his side.

Snow’s body overtook her mind and she started to push.

Thirty minutes later the couple had a baby boy. They held him close and kissed his head.

And the blue mist had nearly covered the town.

“I need to go find Emma.” David said tearing himself away from his wife and newborn.

“Get Emma.” Snow insister, ordered, and those were her last words before the mist overtook the town completely.

The mist cleared. And the town of Storybrooke was no longer in the Land Without Magic.

Chapter Text

It took Emma two weeks of living in her crappy run down apartment again to finally calm down and to miss her home. Seriously miss it.

Maybe she could cope with constantly being forgotten or hated? She thought, eating some ramen and sitting on a patched up bean bag she couldn’t remember buying, it was possible it had been left in the apartment by the previous residents.

Or maybe she had been overreacting. Maybe she was losing her mind and had imagined all of the slights.

Even if she went back she had just disappeared for two weeks (so far), Henry would hate her even more now, her parent wouldn’t want her, during the curse when Emma had run away Mary Margaret had shouted at her, would she again? Would they even have noticed her gone? Maybe they would hate her for suddenly leaving and chuck her out again.

She didn’t care anymore, she could put up being hated, she’d live in her car if she had to, just to be close to her family.

It took her two more weeks to buck up enough courage to get in her car and drive to the small town in Maine.

As soon as she got there she nearly crashed her car, she was reading a new road sign which was clearly a joke with loads of made up places on it when she was about to collide with another car, she quickly slammed on the brakes to stop from crashing.

They didn’t actually crash but she watched the doors of the big suv open. She groaned and reached into the glove compartment for her details. The door of the big was pulled open making Emma jump.

It was her dad.

Tears were in his eyes and her mother stood behind him sobbing.

They looked different, their hair, their builds. She should have probably checked that they weren’t evil-ly magicked up.

But they were her mom and dad.

She let him pull her out of the car, and felt him wrap his arms around her, his hand held the back of her head. She allowed herself to sink her head into his shoulder. She didn’t allow herself to cry, but her body did that anyway. The hug was a month late, but it almost seemed worth the wait. Her mom joined in the hug and she cried harder.

It had only been a month that Emma had been missing them, this time, but it felt a lot longer.

Eventually Snow tugged her out of his arms and just into hers. She still smelt exactly the same, Emma realised, though she wasn’t sure why she thought that. At least hugs were easier without the bump in the way, she thought briefly.

“Oh my baby.” Snow choked out. “I missed you so much.”

Her mom sounded completely and utterly broken. “I’m sorry.” Emma sniffled as she cried. “I’m sorry I left, I was going to come home sooner but I thought you all hated me cause I had been gone a month.” Her mom hugged her tighter, David joined in again, their crying started up again this time louder.

They eventually managed to let go of Emma, well mostly, Snow was holding onto Emma’s hand and David was running circles onto her back.

“We need to talk Em-“

“-I’m sorry I left.” Emma interrupted her father. “I really am I just… everything with the new baby and Henry and you and Snow and Neal and everything was just…” she trailed off. “But I’ll try harder, I… please just don’t kick me out!”

“ Emma, we aren’t kicking you out, we never would. We just need to explain.” He looked at Snow, she had always been so much better than him at words, but it was clear that she couldn’t say what needed to be said. “When you left we searched for you, everywhere, as we were searching there was a mist- a magical one, your mom went into labour, she had Jacob, but then we got sent to the Enchanted Forest.” She was frowning and looking in confusion as though she couldn’t believe it. He cupped her cheeks forcing her to look at him. “Emma you were gone for a month, but we were gone for a lot longer.”

“A year?” She breathed out not wanting it to be true.

“Ten.”

Chapter Text

Emma had never felt more like a little kid then when she sat in the back of her parents car, her mind was racing as the tried to explain the United Realms and the pocket time zone they lived in- years ahead of the world Emma had been in hours before. Mostly they kept repeating how sorry they were, Emma hadn’t said why it was that she felt the need to run and they didn’t ask, they just kept apologising, and telling her how hard they looked for her.

There was a booster seat in the seat beside hers, she figured it was her brother’s- Jacob, she reminded herself. She had known about him, but she expected to have to get used to a screaming and crying baby, but a ten year old, like Henry had been when he had met him.
Her parents had told her that too, that Henry had gone to explore a version of the Enchanted Forest when he had turned 18, 3 years earlier in her parent’s lives, that place had yet another timezone, and Henry was now married, and his wife was expecting their first child.

David kept looking in the rearview mirror. Everytime he looked away he worried that when he looked back she wouldn’t be there. He had spent the last decade wondering what had happened, what had made her go, that only increase now that she was there. He knew something had caused her to go, she hadn’t just left on a whim… and now she just looked so lost. He drove past the turning for the loft, and he saw her looking even more lost. “We’ve been back in Storybrooke for two weeks,” he admitted, he spoke quietly so had to turn down the music, “we found out what year it was out there, for you. And we’ve been trying to get out of the town, but the barrier only came down tonight, we were on our way to go look for you.”

“But you left your kid-”

“-They’re with Ruby.” Snow soothed. “We’re going to head back there now,” she sent a look to David who shrugged in return, “to our new house, it’s by the water. Henry said that you told him you liked to go watch the water, it calmed you, we’ve always liked the water too.”

They had more to tell Emma, so much more, and things they needed to ask. But they couldn’t think past their shock at finally having their daughter.

The house was huge, on a hill with a little walkway leading down to the beach, it was perfectly idyllic. It was dark but Emma could see a few different kind of bikes across the front yard, different sizes, probably something which had appeared as a side effect from whatever brought her parents back to Maine.

They got out of the car, and Emma was flanked on either side by David and Snow, they led her to the door and David opened it.

“You didn’t lock it?” Emma thought about the many, many, locks on her apartment door.

David paused. “Of course.”

There was pain in his voice but Emma didn’t ask why.

“The kiddos’ are in bed. Oh my god, Emma!” Ruby exclaimed rushing over to Emma as soon as David and Snow led her into the living room. “It’s so good to see you!” She wrapped her arms around her and hugged her tightly.

Emma hadn’t been hugged this much, at all, in the past month. She wondered how long people would be happy to see her, how long she would be welcome, especially by her parents.

Ruby leant back but kept her hands on Emma’s shoulders. “What the hell happened, we were all so worried, your parents-”

“Rubes, it’s getting late.” David interjected. “Thanks for babysitting.” He gave her a look and Ruby laid off. “We’ll see you again soon.” He gave her a hug and watched Snow hug her and show her out.
David smiled softly at his daughter, he wanted to hold her, to hug her like he would any of his children, but they hadn’t had that sort of relationship, he had basically only just met her. Then he lost her again only this time he was fully aware of the massive loss.

Snow walked back in. “Emma, I think we need to talk.”

“Can it wait?” Emma interrupted her heart racing at Snow’s words. ‘We need to talk’ was always a dangerous thing to hear. She was just so overwhelmed with new information and feelings. She looked at David her eyes wide and begging. “I’m really tired, please?”

David may not have known Emma for that long, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t wrapped around her little finger. “Sure, kid.” Snow was giving him a look but he ignored it. “We have a room for you upstairs, but we don’t have a bed in it yet, we’ll get you one tomorrow, but for now your on the couch, unless you want to bunk in with your mommyyyy- mom, sorry habit.” He rambled but Snow at least seemed to be happy about that last idea.

“I’m good with the couch.” She said quietly. She watched her parents as they moved around the room, Snow pulled out a couple of blankets from an chest, Emma rooted through her own backpack to find something to sleep in, some joggers and one of David’s very old sweaters she had stolen a month, or ten years, before. Snow showed her to the downstairs bathroom for her to change, the house was barely lit but Snow promised her a tour in the day time, after their talk. When she went back to the living room David had got her a couple of pillows and a duvet. She sat down on the couch sinking into the cushions, it was much better that her broken beanbag.

“Do you want a drink, or something to eat? I can find you some candy or chocolate, oh! I could make you some hot chocolate, with cinnamon of course.”

David took hold of Snow’s hand and squeezed it gently.

Snow may have looked a little older than she had last seen her but she was still just as hopeful as when Emma had broken the curse and met them for the first time. “I’m good.” She sat still for a moment, she remembered the same awkward experience when she would go to a new foster home, she led down instead ready to end the awkwardness.

“Da- David, Snow? Thanks.” They smiled at her but even in the dark she could see the sadness in their eyes when she called them by their names. It had only been a month that she had been apart from them, it had been a beyond painful and lonely month, but they had been apart from her for ten years- ten years of them imagining her turning up, ten years of them imagining getting back to her, and ten years of them being called mommy and daddy by their son. She was more a stranger to them now than she had been during the curse. She led back and shut her eyes pretending to be about to fall asleep. She heard the door click closed behind them.

She opened her eyes after a little while. She noticed a photo frame on the coffee table. She leant forward and picked it up, she guessed it would be nice to be able to see what her little brother looked like, maybe she could figure out a little about him before she met him. If she impressed him and made him want her to stick around then he could convince his parents, their parents, but then she hadn’t been able convince her own son that she was worth anything, he hadn’t wanted her around so she had left, and now she had missed out on his entire childhood.

But the photo inside of the frame wasn’t one containing her brother, it was her and her parents, when her and her mom had got back from the Enchanted Forest themselves. Her, her mom, and her dad all stood together beaming. She couldn’t help but wish she could turn the hands of time back to that moment. She placed the frame so that it was facing her and let herself fall asleep.

Emma opened her eyes hearing whispers.

“Jakey, is that her?”

“Shh Ben, you’ve got to be quieter, mommy and daddy told us when she came we had to wait to meet her.”

“I don’t want to wait.”

Emma opened her eyes just enough to peak at the two children in the room with her. One was clearly older, he had black messy hair and looked a little younger that Henry- well the Henry who had come to her Boston door years before. He had on a slightly serious face, the same one which sometimes found its place upon David’s face, she couldn’t see his eyes but they were the same as David’s too, it was clear who he was. Jacob.

“She’s really our sister?” The little boy beside him asked.

The boy also had dark hair which flicked off into curls from sleep. She couldn’t stop herself from properly opening her eyes to look at him when her sleepy brain

“She’s awake!” The boy, Benjamin, shouted.

Emma was speechless, they hadn’t mentioned having two sons not just one.

Soon two pairs of footsteps came racing down the stairs, Snow and David immediately looked guilty having seen that Emma had been woken.

“I’m so sorry Emma, we told them that when we found you they had to wait until we introduced them to you.” Snow looked down at Jacob and Benjamin who were smiling sheepishly, ever like their father. “I guess that they were too excited.” She sent her daughter a look, begging her to give her time to properly explain not mentioning Ben to her.

“Sorry mommy.” Ben and Jake chimed, clearly this was habit to them, an old family joke, one Emma was not a part of.

“It’s okay Mary Mar- Snow.” Emma said with an easy smile. She looked at the four of them stood together, Jake leaning against David who had his hand on Snow’s back who had her hands on Ben’s shoulders, they were instantly recognisable as a family. She felt her stomach in her throat but she forced herself to smile, just like she had before Jake was born, just like she had in so many care and foster homes.

“Hey Emma, we know all about you mommy and daddy tell us all about your adventures and how you’re the saviour and you-”

“Jacob.” Snow placed her hand on his head, her voice loving but firm. “It’s the middle of the night and I think that we all need to get some sleep. Maybe you two can get to know Emma a little tomorrow?” She picked up her sleepy youngest in her arms and kissed the side of his head. She looked  “Come on babies, mommy will get you upstairs and back to sleep.” Jake led the way but Snow paused for a second looking at Emma. “We’ll talk in the morning, baby, I love you.”

Emma didn’t say anything back as Snow carried the five year old out.

David waited until Snow and the boys had left the room before he spoke. “Emma, I’m sorry we didn’t tell you about you having two brothers, we were going to but we’ve been in shock, we wanted to tell you properl-”

“-It’s not a big deal.” She interrupted then shrugged and smiled as though she believed her words. “I’ll see you guys in the morning.”

David frowned, he hesitated for a moment, but he wasn’t going to be able to win her over, not right now. “Okay,” he said softly, “okay, I’ll see you in the morning, kid, I love you.”

“Night David.”

David mostly managed to hide his sigh before he walked out of the room, leaving her alone once again.

They had two sons. David had wanted sons, and both seemed to be the mirror of Snow, and both were obviously so close to them. Emma was the stranger sleeping on their couch.

She reached into her backpack and pulled out her baby blanket. She hid it under the duvet but cuddled it to her chest. She shut her eyes and tears spilled out of them. She made sure not to make a noise as she cried herself to sleep.

Bonus pic- The Charmings Faceclaims :

Chapter Text

For the first time in her life she was the first one awake. She could see the downstairs properly for the first time, with the help of the morning sun, it was now that she realised just how many frames of family photos, and single photos and paintings of her brothers there were around. Two of them.

It would have been much less of a shock if they had come out and just said it. They claimed to have spent so much time trying to get to her, but all around were real photos of the last ten years where they had just been living as a happy family. They had been so, so happy.

She just kept thinking back to the past month where she had just been curled up on her beanbag, unable to do absolutely anything, truly depressed without her family and knowing they just wanted a son.

Now they had two, and not having their daughter didn’t seem to dampen their spirits in the slightest.

David and Snow were both awake next, and they cornered Emma into sitting down at the kitchen table to talk, like they had when announcing Snow was pregnant.

“Emma, we know that this will come as a bit of a shock to you, Jacob and Benjamin.” Snow said gently. “We weren’t hiding having two sons, you having two brothers, I mean we kind of were but we didn’t mean to, we…”

“We were just so happy to see you Em.” David took hold of Snow’s hand. “We were in shock, we didn’t expect to see you there right then, we were ready to go and find you. We fought to try and get back here, I promise you, we wanted to find you. We love you like we love Jacob and Benjamin.”

“We told them all about you.” Snow told her, but she wasn’t sure if the information was going in. ”Emma, why… why did you leave? We were finally about to be a family, and then you left.”

Emma sucked in her breath. They had already been a family, or at least she had thought that they had been, but… evidently they hadn’t. She looked at David who was looking in agreement with Snow. “I just… I needed some space, I got caught up seeing some friends in Boston for a month, I didn’t know there was going to be a curse.”

Snow and David frowned and tried not to sigh. David felt an alarm or something going on inside of him. She wasn’t telling the truth. “If you need to talk it through, or anything, anything anytime you can talk to us.” He told her, it was so hard not to push her, at least with his sons he knew exactly what to do to get them to talk, exactly how to help them. He hated it but he didn’t know Emma, he didn’t know how to talk to her, he didn’t know how to help her.

“The boys are a lot like you.” Snow started, her voice was positive and light, hoping the past issues were magically solved. She and David started to tell Emma about the boys, pointing out the ways they were like Emma, and the ways in which they were different, they found themselves bragging about them but they couldn’t help that. They adored them, they were their world, and although they hated to admit it or to even think it- they loved how easy and simple everything was with the kids.They just hoped that soon everything would be easier with Emma, she was already their world too, they didn’t realise it but Emma did not believe that at all.

When the boys came down and stared at Emma in wonder Emma took the opportunity to go and take a shower instead.

“She’s overwhelmed.” Snow noted quietly as they watched her go.

“I know… perhaps we should give her some space?” He frowned at his own suggestion. He didn’t want her out of his sight, but they had learnt to always do best for their kids. “We’ll try and distract the boys, they’ll spam her with questions and then…”

“She might run.” Snow whispered in agreement, the weight of the past ten years was evident in her voice, and in her eyes.

She tried spending time with her parents a few times, but when she did Snow just showed her both of the boys’ many photo albums, and David told her all about the town how much better it was and all about the surrounding kind ins and towns and how they had United. There was nothing real about it, so instead she started to spend her days exploring the town. Anything to get away from the tense atmosphere.

The ‘castle’ which Emma had first talked to Henry on, which was torn down during the curse, had been rebuilt. Emma remembered the ‘castle’ being the first place she had properly talked to Henry on, angrily pointed out that he had had a good childhood where he had been loved, that she had been unwanted and pushed or thrown away, the only difference between now and then was that was on of the moments which made Emma want to stay, but right now she felt herself being pushed further and further away from her parents, she tried not to think of it, but it was the only thing on her mind. Now she sat on it and watched as a man walked closer, her was a little shorter than her father, he looked… familiar, but she couldn’t place him… until he smiled, the one he inherited from his grandfather, her father.

“Henry.”

“Hey Emma.” He looked at her, she was completely frozen in place, she was clearly in shock. He had had a lot of mixed feelings about his birth mother over the past couple of decades, in a way he was glad he was only meeting her now, his parents and grandparents had lived ten years for his birth mother’s one month, but he had been gone for longer in a different realm. Once he had been angry, so angry, but now he felt more at peace with her. He looked at her, she looked so young and lost there, they were practically the same age now. He wrapped his arms around her before taking a seat beside her.

“Your castle’s back.” Emma broke the silence.

“Yeah, I think my mom did it as an apology for breaking up the first one.”

Emma thought about the word he just used. Apology. But how could she apologise for missing his entire life? “Henry, I’m… I’m so, so sorry - for everything. I, I’m sorry I left you, I should have talked to you, I should have…” She swallowed deeply.

“Emma I… I get it, I get that sometimes you need to just leave, I get it, I had to leave for a while when I was a kid too, eighteen, I needed some space, to explore.”

“But mine wasn’t that, mine was… well it doesn’t matter why-” she felt like a teenager trying to explain why she shouldn’t be in trouble based on a technicality.

“-It does.” He told her firmly. “I know it was a bit my fault.” He looked down at his legs which nearly touched the wood-chip ground. “I was pissed at you for not telling me about my dad being, well my dad, and my mom wasn’t evil anymore so I wanted to spend time with her at home. I was really horrible to you. I don’t remember you smiling at all, not after we got back from New York, not properly.”

Emma was so surprised by this, if she was him she’d still be piss, hell she was still pissed at her own parents, it took her a second to realise that her son, her little eleven year old, was a man, a man who was clearly more mature than she was. “You were just a kid.” She said almost wistfully. “I was the adult, I left. You weren’t the reason I wasn’t smiling.”

Henry paused, looking Emma over, he looked so much like his father. He placed his hand on hers. “It’s okay, Emma, I forgive you for- for everything. Let’s just start again, I want you in my life, in my daughter’s life.”

Emma’s heart fluttered and for a second she was truly happy. She nodded her head eagerly. “So, tell me everything.”

Henry told her all about the life that she had missed. About getting sent to the Enchanted Forest, him Regina and Neal living in a castle together, the name of his plan to get them together, their wedding- god, that was weird- that they had adopted two kids a few years ago. His adventures around different realms, meeting Ella, and Tiana, and a good version of the pirate she had met on her own trip to a different Enchanted Forest, helping save his daughter. His wedding. The house on the lake they lived in. Everything.

Henry heard a beep and felt a vibration, he pulled out his phone and let out a puff of laughter.

Emma smiled too, looking eager to be in on the joke, to know something about her son, to just share one moment. “What is it?”

“Oh, it’s Ella, asking me to bring home some beignets, she’s been craving them her whole pregnancy.” He chuckled. “Our friend Tiana makes the best in town, you’d like them, they’re like doughnuts covered in sugar.”

“Better than chocolate frosted doughnuts?”

Henry paused for a second before giving a nostalgic laugh and a slight shaking his head in answer. “This baby is craving sweet stuff, I keep telling Ella she’ll have a sweet tooth like me- though Ella manages to get me to eat things that aren’t frosted doughnuts- hey I even like chimera!”

Emma pulled a face at the mention of the food. But for a moment she remembered her moms cravings with Jacob, her being so proud when she was craving healthy food, she had always wanted Emma to eat healthier. “That’s gross.” She said instead.

They talked for a little while, but Henry left to get his wife her treat and then went home, leaving Emma sat alone on the kids castle.

Emma met Neal by chance, she had taken to walking around the bits of Storybrooke she knew, it seemed to be the only thing that hadn’t changed in the past month/decade. The park near Henry’s castle was one of her favourites, and the beach near her water, anywhere she couldn’t see her parents house.

She sat on the castle, the same spot she had when she was speaking to Henry a few days before, and when he was ten. She was still avoiding being at her parents house, especially when it was just them and her there, she just couldn’t. So instead she was sat on the castle playing a game on her phone when an eight year old popped up next to her, he looked over her shoulder at the game. She didn’t know what to say or do.

“I like playing that game too.”

Emma smiled at who seemed to be the only ally she had found in the town. “It’s cool,” she agreed, “I’m not sure how to get past the troll though.”

“That’s easy,” the eight year old replied, “you just need to get more people to join you- it’s just team work, easy.”

Emma had never even thought of that solution. Huh, story of her life. “Thanks, er, kid.”

“Rowan.” He supplied then nodded to the younger boy beside him. “This is my little brother, Ash.”

Emma smiled softly at them, they reminded her a bit of Snow and David’s sons- her little brothers, they were probably around a similar age, she didn’t actually know.

“Hey Emma.”

Emma jumped at the voice, the man had appeared as quickly as the two kids had, he had salt and pepper hair in some trendy style, and there were laughter lines marking his face, but he was the same man who had gifted her her Bug once. Neal.

“I see you’ve met my sons.”

The pair of adults sat down on one of the benches surrounding the play area, Emma watched as Neal kept a close eyes on the two kids, it reminded her of how she had seen Snow and David looking at the boys when they weren’t looking.

“Regina and I went to Neverland, we had heard about some trouble there, I used to live there, before I met you, I felt… I felt like I owed it to people still stuck there. The kids. Anyway, we found those two brothers, they were a couple of years younger than they are now, two of the youngest ones there.” He looked back up into Emma’s eyes. He shrugged his shoulders. “We fell in love with them.”

“I’m happy for you.” She told him, and she meant it, it was just weird seeing him and her moms step mom…. ew. “The kids seem cool.” She felt like he was evaluating her for a second. Clearly this was a Cassidy boy thing.

“Yeah, they are pretty cool. They’re good kids. Mischievous, they make me think of Henry, y’know when he was younger, mostly from stories Regina told me about him.”

Emma had maybe a couple of those stories, maybe , she wasn’t really sure, she had only known him as an eleven year old. “I didn’t mean to leave him, I didn’t want to, I swear.”

“Hen told us.” They sounded like such a perfect little family, Emma was happy for them all, but envious, Neal had allowed himself to be part of a family, yet here she was, debating running her again. She listened to him for a while, he may be a fair bit older now but he was clearly so full of energy, he told her about raising Henry in the Enchanted Forest, his life with Regina, he gushed about her, and about his boys, all three of them, he clearly adored them all. He was a good dad. Henry had been right when he was eleven, she shouldn’t have kept him from that, hell maybe he and Regina would have gotten together quicker.

“So, how you dealing with that whole thing?”

His question caught her by surprise, she had almost felt zoned out, kind of wishing she could just go back to playing the game on her phone. “‘That whole thing’?”

“Family.” He said plainly, maybe years ago he would have been teasing her more, but now she seemed so much more immature, had she always been like this? “Your family, being around you again, it’s all new.”

“You realise I had them for like ten months before you guys got sucked up into another curse, right?” She raised her eyebrow, she wasn’t talking to anyone about her feelings, and although Neal was there clearly offering she didn’t want to talk about how mommy and daddy didn’t love her, no thank you.

Neal persevered. “Yeah, you did, but not ‘The Charmings 2.4 kids ideal family’ version.”

Emma looked back at Neal’s kids who were happily waving at their dad. “I don’t think you can have point four of a child.” She quipped back instead.

Much to Emma’s surprise, she actually got along with her little brothers, when she could that was.

While her parents constantly seemed fake, as though they had on some clown masks on or something, and they didn’t trust her around the boys. Whenever she was in the room with just them her parents would appear, often to distract the boys away from her. Jacob seemed to have noticed this, she realised that he started to sneak into her room, often it was to sit at her desk and read a book while she was doing something. Once Jake realised that she liked Marvel and superheroes he started to talk them with her. He mentioned sometimes what their life had been like, before she had come back around. Ben didn’t seem to know why he had to sneak into his sister’s room but he did it anyway, he would take some toys, he had great fun trying to educate his sister in how to sword fight and all about Spiderman, the latter she knew a lot about, and the former she claimed she had done so well she had fought a dragon, be he wasn’t sure it that was just a story or not.The kids talked to her about her magic, which she had no idea how to use, and about their school and kindergarten, both begging their big sister to take them one day, she said she would but she didn’t think there was a chance while her parents were acting how… well, while her parents didn’t want her anywhere near her siblings, their kids.

A week went on and Emma just kept feeling more and more pushed out of the family. Her parents seemed to always fall silent when she would enter a room, they would hurry the boys out of her immediate vicinity whenever she came near them and either Snow or David would stay with her instead. She seemed to only be trusted to be alone in her bare bedroom, she found herself levitating between hiding in there and exploring the United Realms. She had bumped into plenty of people she had known in Storybrooke, many were nice, some blamed her for being in the Enchanted Forest for ten years when they didn’t want to, and many didn’t remember her even slightly. She had bumped into Regina fairly early on, she had apologised, and Regina accepted it - the awkwardness was more on Emma’s side than Regina’s, who informed Emma that she and the Charmings’ were friends now.

She typically headed to the Charming Family home around the same time each evening, she had come home later than usual one day and her mom had been on the verge of a breakdown, she may not be getting along with her parents at the moment, but she would never intentionally hurt them, in fact that was why she was putting herself through this hell. Only this day when she went back to the house as though it was just a usual day.

“Hey Em.”

Emma’s eyes widened seeing Ruby there, there was no other sound in the house that she could hear, that was highly unusual, had something bad happened? “Hi Ruby?”

“Did you forget? Or did your mom forget to tell you that I was going to come and hang out with you while they do their weekly horse riding and dinner out thing?”

“No.” Emma said quickly, covering up for her parents. “I was the one who forgot.” She gave a self deprecating look at her, and Ruby fell for it. “Hey, I’m pretty tired, I’ll probably just fall asleep watching some tv, maybe we could hang out another night?”

“Nah, it’s alright, I need to talk to Snow later anyway so I may as well stick around.”

That was when Emma knew that she was being babysat.

She wasn’t even trusted to sit in the house alone.

And she wasn’t invited.

A few hours later there was a joyful ruckus as David, Snow, Jacob, and Benjamin came through the door. As soon as the boys saw their Auntie Ruby they ran over to give her a big hug. Snow went too, smiling and giving her best friend a hug, immediately talking.

Emma would have thought that she was invisible if it hadn’t been for David talking to her.

“Hey, Em, you been up to much?”

Emma felt like screaming, or punching someone, her heart just sank. The fact that they didn’t really care was just so casual, David asked about her as though she was someone in the queue for the bus, Snow just ignored her. “Nothin’ much.” She mumbled, before suddenly deciding to be brave, and to take a chance. “What were you guys up to?”

“Oh y’know, just our usual,” Benny ran into his legs distracting him as he was speaking, he lifted him into his arms, “family outing.” He didn’t even realise the words out of his mouth and who he was saying it to. He was distracted but that was no excuse, he would look back on it and know how much he fucked up. He would want to punch himself. But right now he didn’t even notice it. He was just grinning at his youngest.

Emma swolled deeply and felt her eyes sting with tears. “Cool.” She had to mumble to stop her voice from breaking.

“Emmy, will you come too? Please? You can come with us next time, we get to have ice cream after dinner if we’ve been good.”

Emma looked up at her little baby brother in his father's arms, his big blue eyes begging her. But her eyes flickered behind him, at David and Snow who were sharing a look.

They didn’t want her to go.

It was a family outing, and she was not their family, evidentially.

Her go to easy smile appeared on her face. “Oh, yeah, sorry kid: me and horses don’t really get along, but you looked like you have fun.”

There was a beat of silence, each of the people in the room struck by a different feeling, thought, or understanding.

“Okay Benny-Boy, Bath time then bed.”

David grinned, he moved Ben to his back, keeping up the high spirit.

Emma did not look at anyone as she stood up. “I’m wiped, I’ll see you all later.”

She left.

Emma led in her bed that night. She had tried, she had been trying so so hard, hadn’t she?

But she felt like she was suffocating, she was drowning alive, she was just… She was done.

She had to leave,but  she just couldn’t, she was just so fucking terrified. She had left for twenty-eight days last time, and she had missed ten years. What if she left for a few days to clear her head and when she came back they didn’t even know who she was. Or they were dead.

But she just… she needed to gasp a few breaths of air before allowing herself to drown again.

She packed her bags ready to go live in her car for a couple of days, she’d send a text to them, not just disappear like last time.

She made it to the hallway.

“You’re leaving?”

Emma jumped. She turned around and saw her brother Jacob, who she wished she could still blame for things but she couldn’t bring herself to. He probably should have been angry or accusing, but he looked sad, as though she didn’t understand why should couldn’t do something, sympathetic, a look he used on his little brother. “I’m, I’m not-“

“You are. Why…” he paused looking even sadder. “Why don’t you want to stay? Why won’t you be part of our family…?”

“It’s not you Jake, I like you, I swear.” Tears clouded her eyes and she began to get worked up. “You’re, I like you, you’re my- m-maybe one day we would be able to be like proper brother and sister but…”

“But now you’re running away, again. ”

David’s deep voice made both Emma and Jacob jump this time. He and Snow were stood behind them, David’s arms crossed over his chest, he looked angry to Emma, which only stirred up feelings of anger inside of her.

“Why is it so hard for you to just be a part of this family?” David was at a complete loss. Everytime she seemed to actually get close to staying put she would suddenly to a runner in the opposite direction. He was getting old, he would always find his family no matter what or who, but he was getting exhausted having to constantly chase after her.

Emma scoffed loudly, her bag dropped out of her hand, making a thump noise on the wooden floor. “You honestly don’t know why? How you consider that it’s because you don’t give a single shit about me and you’d be happier with me out of the way. Fuck you.”

“ Hey , do not use that sort of language around my kids- my son .”

Snow clutched David’s arm, trying to cool him, before quickly wrapping her arms around Jacob, he hadn’t seen any of them fighting before.

“That’s just the thing, isn’t it David , I’m not your kid. I may as well been grown in a test tube because you clearly want nothing to do with me. You don’t care, at all, about me. You ever considered how much it hurts to know that my dad doesn’t love me ?” Tears spilled out of her eyes as she shouted. It hurt to say the thoughts which were going around her head, it just made them real, made them remember that they didn’t want her. “ There’s no place for me here.” Her voice broke and she had to force herself to become angry again instead of bursting into tears. “You don’t trust me, you don’t trust me around your kids, you don’t trust me in your house without a friggin’ babysitter! You just don’t trust-”

“You’re right!” David bellowed, his heart was breaking but he was not in control of his anger, he couldn’t walk on eggshells around Emma anymore. He just about managed to keep himself from bellowing again. The corners of his view blurred with tears. His voice broke. He loved her so much it psychically hurt but she was right. “You’re right. I don’t trust you.”

Chapter Text

“ I don’t trust you .”

David’s confession sucked the air out of the room.

David and Emma stood on opposite sides of the hallway as though about to have a shootout.

Snow was trying her best not to cry as two of the people she loved most in the world look as though they absolutely hated each other… She could still see a hint of love in David’s eyes at least, Emma just looked… she looked like she had lost her whole world, and if Snow didn’t do something now them perhaps they all would.

What was she meant to do when the people she loved most in the world tour each other apart?  She took shaky breaths. “Do not do your shouting here , both of you go downstairs while I put Jake to bed, then we are talking this through, truthfully, for once.” Snow’s voice was hard, and firm, not brokering any form of arguments.

“No, I’m tired.” Emma may have started this whole argument but she didn’t want it now, she would rather run away for a couple of days then come back and fake it, than just completely be kicked out of the house and the family forever.

“Emma, you could be completely asleep and I’d insist on doing this now.” Snow said sharply, she watched Emma wince that, but Snow was just as tired and fed up as the rest of them. “Go downstairs, and do not even think about running away now, or you will regret it .”

David and Emma watched Snow lead Jake back to his room, but neither one budged, David kept expecting Emma to go down to the living room, but she didn’t.

“Just do as you’re told.” His voice was both begging and commanding, he just sounded exhausted.

Emma dragged her feet down the stairs, then into the living room, David stared her down until she sat on the couch. They sat in tense silence which wasn’t changed when Snow joined them.

“We need to talk-”

“- No . We don’t. David said enough for both of you.”

“I can’t bloody win!” David threw his arms up in exhaustion. “I lie to you, you hate me, I tell you the truth and-”

“And you tell me that you- You don’t trust me!” And that you don’t love me , she thought, it was all she could think.

“Do not raise your voice to me!”

“ David .”

“No Snow. You’re right, Emma, I don’t trust you .” He told her fiercely, his head pounded with anger, anger as fierce as his love. “I don’t trust that you won’t do exactly what I fear you will- What you were just about to do! Every single day I look at my phone a few times an hour watching, terrified that the one time I don’t is going to be the time that you just leave, and for some reason I will be powerless to stop it and powerless to go and find you. Your mom and I both check to make sure you’re actually in your room when we go to bed at night, and when we wake up in the morning, not to mention all the times your mother thinks that I’m asleep and she sneaks out of bed to check on you, to make sure that your there, that you’re not just a dream, hell to make sure that you’re alive!” He gestured to Snow when he talked about her. “I don’t trust you because I’m scared one day I’m going to wake up and find you gone, y’know why? Because when I woke up ten years ago I went to check on you and make sure that you were okay and you were gone. And I haven’t been able to sleep since. I thought you had been kidnapped, or captured, or… I don’t know! You were gone! It took us five years to realise what everyone else had already figured: You had run away without so much as a note.”

“That’s not-”

“Emma, you’re the one who left.” Snow spoke up, her voice wasn’t quite as loud as her husband and daughters’, but it was clear that she was just as angry. “We were the ones who spent every single day trying to find a way back to you, because we knew that you couldn’t find a way from wherever you were, but that didn’t stop us from hoping that one day we’d get word from our nights that there was some… some wild, and beautiful girl wearing a red leather jacket and driving in some strange yellow metal contraption driving around the courtyard. For five years we thought you had been taken, and we hoped it wasn’t true, but we were terrified that you were dead . We raised your brother terrified that he could be taken too, and when we realised that you hadn’t been we continued to raise both of them still scared they would be taken, but also scared that we were going to screw up and make them leave. We saw Henry every week, and every week we had to make sure that he knew that you didn’t leave him because you hated him - he asked us that question every single week . You left the town: your job, your friends, your son, you left us!”

“I met you guys, as you guys, ‘my parents’ or whatever, a year ago! You make out that we actually know each other-”

“You’re the one who wasn’t giving us a chance. I knew you for a year when I was cursed, you were my best friend, you were more than that to me! I loved you then just as I loved you when the curse broke and I realised why I felt so strongly for you. I love you. And you left without a single word, like you nearly did under the curse, like you swore to me that you would never do. ” Snow’s voice was fierce and truthful. “I thought we were finally about to be a family.”

Emma’s blood turned cold. “And I thought that we already were.”

They all sat in silence, trying to keep their tempers, trying not to say something, accidentally or on purpose, which would destroy their family for once and all.

Snow gave a small sigh. Her voice was calm again. She had been trained in diplomacy from childhood, she knew how to do this. “Emma, we know that since you came back we might have been acting differently-”

“-No.” Emma didn’t raise her head or her voice, she sat on the couch trying to take up as little space as possible, staring down at the rug.

David’s eyebrow shot up automatically then he dropped his head letting out a sigh as he did. She had to argue every little point. “No?”

“No.” She confirmed.

David looked back up at Emma, his daughter,  in his anger he had almost forgotten that. And he hated himself for that, he just had to hope Emma hadn’t seen that. “Em-?”

“You guys started acting differently when me and Henry got back from New York, about a year ago, you told me you were about to have a new baby and then you completely forgot I even existed.” She looked up at David and Snow, their eyes were wide with shock, then they both frowned in confusion, trying to remember eleven or so years into their past, seeing if she was telling the truth. “And I thought that it was on me, that I was just jealous, but it’s not, because I’m here with you now, and you don’t want me.” Her voice was breaking and she was powerless to stop tears from falling. “I get it, you didn’t raise me, I’m not yours , you both made that clear, it’s not blood that makes a family. There’s no place for me here .” Her voice went high as she was trying not to break entirely. She allowed a few more tears to fall before standing up and clearing her throat. “I’m gonna go to my car- for- for a little while.”

David quickly stood up. “No, Emma.”

“I just told you where I was going I know you don’t trust me but-”

“Emma, you’re wrong, you’re right that I don’t trust you not to leave, because it’s the thing which gives me nightmares constantly , but you’re wrong about you not being family.” She was shaking her head, and it broke his heart that she didn’t believe him. “Emma, please , please believe me: I love you more than anything.” She was still shaking her head and he quickly wrapped her up in his arms, she struggled so he held her tighter, his hand went to the back of her head. “I love you. You are one of the most important people in my life, your mother, your brothers, and you are so beyond important to me, I would do absolutely anything for you.” She calmed in his arms and he could tell that even if she didn’t necessarily believe him she was at least listening which had to be a start. “I know I haven’t solved everything by telling you that, me or your mother, but I promise to you that if you give us time, and if you talk to us about everything that’s gone wrong then we will be able to fix things, we’ll be able to fix what we’ve done wrong.”

Emma was quiet for a little while. David had loosened his hold just a little, enough for her to move out of it, if she wanted to. “But you don’t trust me.” she mumbled against him.

David frowned, and when he looked at his wife his eyes were wide, and somewhat lost. She had absolutely no sort of idea about how families were meant to run, no sort of sense of the morals and devotion and just how families in general were meant to work. Snow looked just as saddened by that, and just as guilty that when they had known her they hadn’t accounted within their words and actions that she had spent her whole life with a disfunction view on families, maybe if they had made sure to constantly remember that then they wouldn’t have fucked up as parents.
“Emma, you can earn back my trust, no matter what you do or say you will always be able to earn back my trust.”

Snow pulled Emma out of David’s arms and into her own. “ Stay .” She commanded. “Please, just promise us you’re going to stay, and keep your promise.” Her husband and daughter had been doing most shouting but she felt just as strongly. She was just as scared as David. And she was trying just as hard to think of as many things she had done or said eleven/ twelve years ago which made which had put all of this into progress.
Her throat felt dry when she remembered how much she remembered being pregnant with Jacob so clearly, every little detail, but in her memories Emma was always busy or not home or up in her room, and she hadn’t realised that a single thing was wrong, Henry had blamed himself for Emma leaving for ten years and she and David had too but more in a general sort of way, now she knew that there were many, many, reasons why it was her fault.
Most of all she just didn’t check, not enough, not properly , she didn’t check that Emma had really been okay, and she didn’t even remember about it until Emma said about it ten years later.

Snow and David had plenty of faults as parents, a lot less than other parents, but their biggest faults were with Emma despite being parents to her for the shortest amount of time. And above all their biggest faults came down to two things which had happened when the first curse had broken:
1. She had simply moved on with their lives, as though it was a brand new start and as though they didn’t have to work through Emma’s past feeling for them, and her past in regards to pseudo-families
2. David had subconsciously been waiting for a baby, that was his part as a father, the connection, so he had held his breath waiting for the baby to appear despite how much he loved and adored Emma.
Because of this when they had known they were pregnant with Jacob they were overjoyed and were completely focused on getting to raise one of their babies without losing this one, they had lost their oldest baby in return.

She felt Emma nod her agreement against her. “I love you, you’re my family, even when I couldn’t remember your father or you, you were my family. I’m so, so sorry baby.” She whispered. “I love you.”

She eventually let her go and they heard Emma go up the stairs towards her bedroom, true to her promise to stick around, for the time being at least.

Chapter Text

The crying was what woke them up.

David hesitated for half a second, he had woken up thinking he had head crying plenty of times before, before the boys had been born and even now that they don’t often wake up crying. He had used to wake up in the loft, thinking that he heard a baby crying, it had always been a dream or his imagination, he always went to stand in her doorway to watch his little girl.

This time it really was Emma.

David practically fell out of bed and he ran out, with Snow following close behind, he ran the to the next room beside theirs, Emma’s room, as fast as he possibly could. He stopped in the doorway, his eyes on his girl. Emma was curled up on the floor a white blanket of some kind was in her clutches, and the storybook Henry used to carry everywhere was open beside her. “Emma!” He called alarmed. “Emmy, are you okay? Did you fall?” His eyes were wide, his eyebrows up, and his mouth slightly open in alarm. He managed to break through the imaginary barrier and enter the room. He and Snow crouched down next to Emma, Snow placed the back of her palm on Emma’s forehead checking to see if she had a temperature, and David scanned her with his eyes to evaluate if she was injured.

“I’m not sick.” Emma managed to croak out, she hadn’t meant for them to hear her, she didn’t like showing people weakness. “Sorry, go back to bed.”

Snow frowned at Emma’s whimpering. “No, we’re here Emma.” Her hand went to Emma’s hair, so wild and wavy from trying to sleep, it reminded her of her own hair before Emma had been born, she was growing it out a little now, but it was nowhere near as long as Emma’s blonde curls. David’s hair was darker right now but she knew they when the summer sun hit it its true light blonde nature shone through. She stroked her hand through it, Emma clearly wasn’t ill or injured, despite David’s panic. “We’re staying here, you need us, so we’re staying.”

“You were sleeping. I woke you. I’m sorry.” Her voice sounded so quiet and young, she felt that too, she hadn’t woke them ever before and didn’t want to now.

“Hey,” David’s voice was low and soothing, “don’t apologise, it’s okay.” He took in the scene of her lying there, she clearly hadn’t fallen, it was as though she had wanted to curl up under the bed but hadn’t made it there. “What happened Kiddo?” He frowned. “You were… reading the story book?”

Emma paused and then slowly nodded.
Truth be told she had been looking through it without knowing why, part was probably trying to remember why she was upset with them, and partially because she felt so alone since going back to her room and reading about them was a way to be close to her parents.
“Yeah.” She whispered.

David was so confused, he was an avid reader, much like his wife and grandson, but he was confused about what could possibly be in that book to upset her. He lifted it up and started to read the pages by the light of the lamp Emma had left on.

Snow eyes, however, were on something else. The white blanket in Emma’s hands which she hadn’t seen since Emma had moved in, when she was cursed and didn’t know what it was. She reached out and touched it, the wool was just as soft as she remembered, and she was sure that if she sniffed it the blanket would smell the same.

Emma pulled it slightly away from Snow. “I don’t want it to break.”

“It won’t, Granny had the fairies and a local witch make sure that the wool was enchanted, it won’t ever break and can always go back to its original colour. Plus your father and I both kissed it, we were told it would always keep you safe.”

“I…. I didn’t know that.” Her blanket was such an important part of her that even thinking about her parents (and Granny) being the reason why it existed in the first place, especially as it probably should have been completely worn and filled with holes. She went to tell Snow how important it was to her but Snow beat her and started to talk again.

“The ribbons were me.”

“What?” Emma wasn’t sure if she said what she thought that she had.

Snow looked up from the blanket to Emma. Her hands held the blanket. “Granny knitted it as a surprise for us but I wanted it to be extra special, I thought I would be going through with you, that David and I both would, but we wanted there to be something special about it, something which we both had when when we were babies, a tie to the Enchanted Forest for all of us. So I added the purple ribbon. And once I let your father know what I was planning on naming you,” she chuckled a little at that looking back down at the blanket and it was clear that there was a story behind that, “I stitched it on there. After I had you, in all the madness, when I realised you’d be on your own I was glad I’d made it. I thought that as long as you had it with you, you would know that we cared enough to make this for you, to name you.” Tears had come to her eyes and when she looked up she saw tears rolling down Emma’s cheeks. “Emma, I’m…” She shook her head unsure what to do or say, the nagging voice in her head reminded her that she knew how to comfort her two sons, it was second nature, but she had no idea what

“This is all I had of you for 28 years, I thought you didn’t want me, then I found out that you did. When I left, I was angry at you, I thought that you didn’t want me again, only this time it was worse because I knew what I was missing out on, and I thought I was just a test run for your kid, for Jacob, and I felt bad for just leaving Henry but I thought he would hate me, and if I came back I would have had to see that so I stayed away. And now I’m back and you don’t want me to stay. I’m not part of your lives.” Emma rambled clearly very worked up. She only stopped when she felt Snow, her mom, pull her into a firm but loving hug. Beyond loving, somehow, as though Emma could physically feel the true love she only just fully realised that they shared. “I’m sorry.” She whispered against her mom’s shoulder.

Snow’s hand stroked Emma’s golden curls. “I’m sorry too, honey.” She whispered back. There was a lot to unpack there, and it was late, but Snow had to try. “I understand why you were angry, baby, I understand why you might still be angry. Jacob wasn’t planned honey, he was a surprise, a very happy surprise, just like you were. I would never have changed having him, or Benjamin, like I wouldn’t have changed ever having you… But I wish that we had been able to spend time together, just us three, without me constantly talking about being pregnant and having a baby. I had a tough… a tough pregnancy with you and… and I miscarried a couple of times before you. You were our little rainbow baby.” She kissed the top of her head. Her voice grew even more loving and protective. “ Never say that we don’t want you because we do. We cannot survive without you in our family. Emma, we nearly didn’t survive without you.” She remembered the days and nights she and David couldn’t get out of bed, the anguish and desperation, and the arguments. “We love you and you’re not leaving our sight again. Ever. I’m serious, we’re going to be overprotective hover parents to the point where you’re begging us for some privacy, until...” She trailed off, Emma had seemed happier than she had seen her in an entire lifetime, she didn’t want to ruin that. Her heart broke as Emma pulled out of the hug, Snow wanted that hug to last forever.

“You trust me.” Emma continued sounding quite calm. “I... I understand.” It hurt but she did. Emma cuddled close to her mom again, somewhat sheepishly, but she needed it. “I’m sorry I didn’t come back quicker.”

“We’re sorry we couldn’t get back to you sooner too, but we can’t think about that, we have to move on and be positive and cherish the time we do have.”

David had been too distracted to properly join in with his girls’ conversation, he heard Emma saying that her blanket had helped her through a lot, he would talk to her about that

“Emma.” David’s voice was commanding as though he was trying to hold back some anger. “Emma, is this what upset you?”

Emma pulled out of the hug she had been in, but she leant against her mom,wanting, needing , to stay close. She felt like she had no choice but to nod.

“Emma this isn’t true, I promise, this isn’t….  I never said this.” He insisted, he hastily sat back on the floor next to Emma, the story book in his lap, facing his daughter and staring at her. Begging her to believe him. “Emma, we’ve met the author of the story book, he lied about a lot of things in here - this most of all. I didn’t want a son, my mother never said that, I never said that, I just wanted a child, children, I just… I didn’t…” He clenched his fists in anger. “ I want you, no matter what realm we live in, no matter who I am, my job, how many siblings you have - nothing matters - I have and will always want you, you’re my baby girl.” He knew that Emma running away hadn’t entirely been down to the book and what it claimed he had written. He watched her look down away from his eyes.  “I’m sorry that even when I had you with me I didn’t show you that kid. I promise that I’ll make it up to you. I’ll be the father you deserve, just give me a chance, another chance.”

When Emma looked up she was biting her lip in an effort to make sure she didn’t cry. She could tell he was being honest with her. She had never had a father growing up, not a proper one, she had never even thought that she would be able to find her biological one, even less than she thought she’d be able to find her biological mother. But here he was: he had found her, she had found him, he apologised and promised and she believed him.

It was so clear how much he loved and missed her, as clear as it was how much Snow loved and had missed her…. as much as she loved and missed them.

She was powerless to stop the tears which rolled down her cheeks as she tried desperately to think of what to say, how to apologise and what for, how to promise, how to do anything but she was at a total loss.

Suddenly his hands were cupping her cheeks his thumbs brushing the tears away.

“Hey, hey, hey.” He said soothingly. He did not say there was nothing to cry about because that was not strictly true, in his experience. “Can I, can I give you a hug?” He didn’t have to ask with his sons, he always already knew if they were comfortable to do so, he knew everything about them and next to nothing about his daughter. So he asked.

Emma nodded her head quickly, hoping he wouldn’t be able to see her starting to cry properly. “Yeah.” Even her voice sounded watery.

David quickly wrapped her in his arms. His hand cupped the back of her head, as she hid against his chest, the two held on for dear life.

A mere ten minutes later David realised that Emma had been leaning heavily against him for quite some time. He looked down and when he looked up at his wife there was a brilliant smile on his face. “She’s fast asleep.” He told her quietly. There was something so normal about the whole thing that it made them have to stifle laughter.

David adjusted his arms and stood from the ground. Emma was light, much too light, scarily so. And he was reminded of racing to take her to the nursery, a memory which often had the power to scare him even to move. But today he could deal with it, this time he actually had Emma there, she was safe. Snow rolled down the bedding and David gently and reluctantly placed her down. He watched Snow climb into the bed beside her, draping her arm over her daughters body. David dropped a quick kiss onto Snow then Emma’s heads before tucking them in.

He grabbed a spare blanket and pull the armchair closer, he rested his feet up on Emma’s bed and switched off the bedside lamp.

The three were all fast asleep within the hour.

Chapter Text

It was hard going but the Charmings started to come together more as a family.

Snow and David weren’t lying when they had told Emma that they would be hover parents, at least one of them always seemed to be not more than a few feet away from her, and despite her token protests it was clear that Emma didn’t really mind.

Emma was starting to feel a little more at home, her parents stopped trying to give her space and she should have hated it but she didn’t. Her brothers were a big part of forcing her to do family things like trips to the park and movie nights.

Jacob adored books, Emma quickly learnt, his room was filled with them, he had so many that he had to sneak them in to avoid his parents reminding him to not just keep buying them but to also read them. Emma had already snuck in seven books for him. There were so many reasons why they shouldn’t have gotten along, the least of all being the fact they were complete opposites in their likes and dislikes and personalities, the most of all being that everything surrounding Jacobs conception and birth was a large reason why she had run away from her family. But they got along well. Jacob was clearly a copy of Snow, while both boys had dark hair and their fathers eyes Jacob looked so much like Snow one could be mistaken for thinking he had only one parent, a male clone.

He had clearly taken it upon himself to look after Emma, as though he was the older sibling, and Emma just went along with it. He recommended her books he thought were cool, and Emma red cheeked was force to admit that reading wasn’t necessarily her strong suit, her dyslexia and adhd making it especially hard to read and concentrate. The next day she found a middle school book on the desk in her room, and Jake must have told their mother because there was a selection of aids to help her with reading and concentrating, even thon main character in the book had dyslexia and adhd. She started to read it, for Jake, and because she found she was interested in the plot.

Benjamin was beloved by everyone, and it was understandable why, he was selfless, kind, and true. He was five years old and the living embodiment of the optimism and hope her parents were so often motivated by. He brought sunshine into every room he was in,  He was full of energy and when he wasn’t in kindergarten he spent time running about the garden, easily convincing Emma to join him, he had inherited the wooden swords which had been Henry’s, and David was more than happy to teach the two of them moves, both of them pretending that he was doing it for Ben’s sake not Emma’s.

It was weird for Emma, after a month straight of silence in her rundown apartment to suddenly be in a home where people were around and the home was full of love and life, it was a big change. Plus as the United Realms was on a different time zone, by a matter of years, so she had that to get used to as well. Her family were helping to update her to 2018, mostly through news, technology, tv shows, movies and things, there were a lot of movies sometimes with just Snow or with the boys, but also with David.

She had started to spend a lot of time with David he had told her that he was sticking around, that he would be a better father to her, and it was so clear they he was trying. He apparently just so happened to have time off of work, Emma realised that as a royal family her parents could afford not to work they just chose to, nevertheless Emma could tell he had deliberately taken time off to be there with her.
And for the first time Emma was able to get to know her dad and he got to know her, they got along well, and were alike, and it quickly became apparent that he was fiercely protective over her in the same way he was over his sons, but somehow he was even more protective over her. And for some reason she quite liked that, there was something comforting about it, and he wasn’t doing it just to prove that he could he seemed to be doing it because he wanted to.

One thing about living in the United Realms meant that there were a fair few meetings which David and Snow had to attend as representatives, despite their kingdom being split between several of them, in the month Emma had been there she had been made to attend two meetings along with her brothers, and they were the most boring things she had ever had to attend.

So when the next one came merely a week after the last both David and Snow dreaded telling their kids that they would be going with them.

They entered the living room together, a united front, and they saw the three kids on the couch together, watching the tv talking excitedly about something. Snow placed her hand on his chest to stop him, they both looked at their kids, they may be all different ages but right then they all looked the same, sat there excited about something.

Snow went onto her tiptoes to kiss her husband before leading the way in.

“Here, I’ll type it faster.” Jake held out his hand and when Emma handed him the phone he started to type.

Snow walked to the couch with a smile on her face, she lifted Ben up and quickly sat the five year old back on her lap, looking over her other son’s shoulder as David settled beside Emma on Jakes other side. “What are we looking at?” She asked them clearly more interested in her kids than whatever Jacob was trying to find on the website for the Hyperion Heights movie theatre.

“A movie.” All three of the Charming children answered.

David shared a look with his wife and rolled his eyes a little making his wife giggle quietly. “ What movie?” He clarified a little.

“A superhero one, we saw it advertised on the tv.” Emma told him her eyes on her phone in her brother’s hand. “We’re just…” She trailed off as her brother brought up the trailer.

“We’re seeing if it’s playing in the city.” Benjamin finished where his sister was too anxious to. Noise filled the room as the trailer began.

“I can’t see.” David complained before grinning and copying the action Snow had done with Ben, only David lifted Emma onto his lap. “That’s better.”

Emma twisted to look at him trying to hold a smile back. “Seriously?” She didn’t move from his lap though, just how Ben hadn’t moved from their mother’s.

“Seriously.” He smirked, when she turned back to look at the screen he smiled fully, he liked how close they had started to become in the past few weeks.

The movie wasn’t really David and Snow’s sort of thing, though they had seen many like them and probably would see many more after this one, they preferred rom-coms or action movies themselves so this movie wouldn’t be their number one choice. It was undoubtedly a kids movie but all three, especially Emma , seemed so excited at the trailer.

“When’s it out?” Snow asked when the video finished playing.

Jake scrolled down the page and beamed. “It’s already out! Can we go tonight? It’s not a school night, and we’ve all been really good, even Em.”

Ben joined in his brother’s excitement. “Yeah! Let’s go!”

“Please?”

This word surprised Snow and David, Emma hadn’t asked for a single thing in the past couple of weeks, especially not to go and see some movie, they would have said yes on the spot if not for the meeting they had to attend.

“Why don’t we go tomorrow?” Snow suggested in a light and happy tone.

“I have my swim meet.” Jacob pointed out.

“You said I can go to auntie Gina and uncle Neal’s house.” Ben added.

“Can’t we go tonight?” Emma pouted, wondering why her parents were so against it, and secretly worried they were sick of spending so much time with her.

David’s arms were already wrapped around her waist but he squeezed her gently, realising that she sounded sad and possibly a little worried. “We would kid, honestly we really want to…” He looked helplessly at his wife, he had found that he had an awfully hard time saying no to Emma, she hadn’t seemed to notice it yet, he had but sadly this was the one time that he wasn’t able to just give in.

“Guys, we have to go to a meeting tonight,” Snow told them sympathetically, “Which means that you guys have to come too.”

All three of them made noises of discontent followed with one of the following:
“Why?”
“Do we have to?”
“Noooo.”

“Come on guys. Regina and Neal said they’d set up the games console in one of the rooms, you guys don’t even have to sit in there, boys you could teach your sister some of the games she hadn’t tried, we’ll go and see the movie tomorrow night or the day after.”

None of the kids sounded even remotely happy at this attempt at a compromise.

David and Snow shared looks as their kids looked really down, they didn’t spoil them, but they wanted to try and make them happy as much as possible. The last ten years had felt as though they were just searching for a way to find Emma, they made the most of their time with Jacob and Ben then, but now they could finally have all three kids together. They wanted to do things like go to the movies with their kids instead of some meeting.

“I could take them… we could go together, like as a brothers sister outing thing, it’ll be better than the meeting.”

All of the Charmings looked a little surprised at that. Ben and Jake quickly looked excited and as Snow and David stayed quiet and Emma started to look like she regretted offering so enthusiastically.

David and Snow shared a silent conversation, then agreed that Emma could take the boys.

They made sure they knew the time for the viewing, and as their meeting started before the movie did they gave their kids money for food at a diner or somewhere, they were as worried as they ever had when they had left Jake or Ben for the first time. They triple checked what time the movie finished and knew they’d be getting back a little after the kids would, they waved them off as Emma drove of, and were already counting down the minutes.

All was going smoothly until they were collecting their tickets, when booking it online she had pressed the wrong time.

She swore lowly under her breath she had no idea what she should do, she debated what to do, she could always ring her parents and ask? She figured.

“Y’know we’ll only be back half an hour later.” Jake figured out. “And mom and dad won’t be back then, it’s not even a school night. Come on Em.”

Emma was easily convinced. Jacob had a point. So they got milkshakes and went to the later showing of the movie.

Emma was practically vibrating with nerves as they exited the movie theatre, she switched on her phone and had about twenty missed calls from her mom and dad, and numerous texts, she didn’t even bother to try and read them, instead she quickly sent a text saying that they would be back in ten minutes then turned her phone quickly off.

David had been pacing the room since Emma had sent the text, both he and Snow had been seconds away from going out and searching for them when Emma had sent them the text. Now Snow was sat down, her lips were thin in frustration and anger, David almost felt bad for his kids.

“Emma Ruth Charming! What time do you call this?” David had his arms crossed over his chest and was wearing a stern and disappointed look, he also looked something else… worried? For all of them?

Emma felt like a little kid with him talking to her like that but she couldn’t help but be distracted. “Emma who?”

“I… I meant Emma Ruth Char- Swan .”

“I… I meant the Ruth part…” She said quietly; partially because she knew she was still in trouble, and partially because she was sort of admitting that she liked the change in the last name.

Dammit, did she not realise that he was trying to be mad at her? A feat he found hard enough because she was Emma and he was wrapped around her finger. He looked at her not sure what to say, to continue telling her off, to explain….

“It was your grandmother’s name.” He told her softly, his voice touched by love and by pain.
He suddenly remembered his kids were in trouble and forced himself to look stern again. “All three of you, including you two Jake and Ben, you two know that you’re meant to be home at certain times for bedtime.” He levelled them with his best dad look and was proud when they looked down ashamed. David looked back at Snow having a small silent conversation.

“Both of you no Wii tomorrow.” Snow told them. “Next time you need to remember your bedtimes and say to Emma that you should be home,” she saw Neal not looking happy but she knew it was because she had called it bedtime, “and that me and daddy worry about you all a lot.” To their credit both boys looked ashamed at that, even Emma did, but they would speak to her separately. “Come on, I’ll take you both up to bed while Daddy and Emma talk.” She gave Emma a quick one armed hug to show she wasn’t mad at her. “I’ll talk to you later, sweetheart.” She told her both lovingly and firmly, she was just as worried about Emma but she and David wanted to talk to her separately.

“Emma you should have thought about ringing us when you found out you’d be going to the later showing.” David started. He had been so worried about all three of his kids. She was stood fidgeting in front of him, looking down at the floor, she looked like she was Jake’s age, at most. He stopped what he was saying and sighed gently. “Em, do you know why your mother and I are so worried?”

Emma frowned she had been expecting a lecture. “...’Cause I didn’t tell you where Jake and Ben were.” He frowned at her then and she felt bad, like she had failed to answer a question in class or something, she wasn’t sure what to say. “....and, me?”

“We were very worried about all three of you, you included .” He stressed to her. “Emma you’re our child. I know we used to be the same age and that was a little unusual, but we were your parents then, and we’re your parents here, you get that right?”

Emma bit her lip. She had been thinking of them as mom and dad in her head but hadn’t been brave enough to say it outloud. “I get it.” She said softly, unable to stop herself from asking the next question. “Am I in trouble?”

David took a step closer to his daughter and pulled her into his arms. “Emma, I love you so much.” He swore quietly.

There was a pregnant pause. “I know.” She mumbled against him. “I… Me too.”

David’s face split in half with a smile. “Good.” He dropped a kiss to the top of her head which he was cradling, he felt her hands on the back of his shirt, clutching onto him. “And yeah, you’re in a little bit of trouble, you’ve got to stay with your mother and I, until we feel more comfortable about you being apart from us.” He wasn’t sure if he was being dramatic or not, it was what both he and Snow had agreed upon while they had been waiting for them to return home, he didn’t really care if he was being dramatic, he didn’t want to lose his baby again.

If Emma was completely against the punishment she didn’t say so to him, in fact she just stayed in his hold, only leaving it to eventually go to bed.

Emma was still awake when Snow went to her room. Emma had started to add some bits to make it more more homely, things that has used to be in the loft, and things which Snow had bought her. She spotted the latest edition on the room, a frame which had a picture taken the week before - a selfie David had taken with all of them in: Snow, David, Jake, Ben, and Emma in the centre. She realised that Emma was looking at it, in the light of the bedside light, her eyes flickering sleepily.

Snow walked into the room and led on the other side of the bed, she was met with a memory of Emma doing it a decade before, climbing into her bed at the loft with her to comfort her. Emma turned over to look at her. “Hey honey.” She gently brushed her hand across Emma’s cheek. “Daddy said he spoke to you.” She internally cringed waiting for Emma to complain about the word choice, but Emma either didn’t notice, or didn’t care.

“Yeah… He said I’ve gotta stay with you two all the time.”

Snow looked at her carefully. “I think it might be best… a lot’s changed, and some things haven’t…”

Emma paused for a moment, she looked up at her mom with a smile with a little bit of humour in it. “Is this your way of calling me immature?”

Snow couldn’t help but smile at Emma raising her eyebrow, to try and make her laugh, she definitely inherited the Charming genes. “Maybe not so directly.” She joked. “We love you so much and we want to make sure you’re safe… We just need a little time to trust you to be responsible.” She told her gently. Her daughter smiled at her a little, and they were quiet for a few minutes. “I’ve missed you a lot, these past ten years…”

“A month… for me.” Emma corrected but she looked as though she had said it was a hundred years. “I’ve missed you too.”

They were both quiet. Snow pushed a stray hair behind her ear. “What was it like?”

Emma shrugged her shoulders.

“Where did you go?”

“Boston. I squatted in my old apartment again, like I used to… It’s a bit more run down than when Henry found me.”

Snow frowned. “That doesn’t sound very safe.”

“I didn’t really care.” She realised how worried Snow looked. “I got more locks, lots of them, no one broke it- other than me I guess.”

Snow remembered the fear when she was a bandit, it was more than likely Emma had been feeling that way, and she hated it. “You’re home now, that’s what matters.” She paused for a moment. “Do you miss the loft?”

Emma shrugged awkwardly. “It was my first home, I guess, and I was living there like three months ago.” She felt her mom stroke her hair and sighed contently. “I like here too, we can see the beach…. And it’s our family’s home.”

Snow pressed a kiss to her daughter’s forehead, she supposed now they looked a lot more like mother and daughter, their age difference looks wise seemed enough, she could have had Emma when she was a teenager. No matter what they looked like Emma was always going to be her baby girl. “I like it too, we made it about six months before we managed to get back here to you, it’s new to us too.” She tried to assure her. She watched Emma’s eyes flutter open and shut a few times. “I’m sorry I messed up-”

“-You didn’t-”

“-I did honey.” Her voice was loving but firm. “I became obsessed with being pregnant and with Jacob, I put things in your room for him without even asking, and I… I basically forgot about you, I’m so, so sorry.” She pulled her properly into her arms and felt her daughter wrap her arms around her in return. “I can’t go back in time and fix that, and we can’t go back to just being friends, but I want to really work on being a good mom to you. I want to be your mom .”

“You’re already my mom.” Emma mumbled, she didn’t move away from her, in fact she cuddled closer.

“Well, now I’m going to act like it.” She swore. She rubbed Emma’s back as they led there cuddling. “I’m going to be your mommy, and you’re going to have me and daddy, and you’re always going to have us.”

Emma gave a yawn and snuggled closer automatically, a small smirk appeared on her face, amused. “I really scared you, by being late, huh?”

An identical smirk appeared on Snow’s face. “Why do you think you’re grounded to stay with your mommy and daddy?”

Emma didn’t argue, instead she fell asleep cuddled with her mom, something she had dreamed about in the rundown squat in Boston when she was completely alone.

She was not alone an

Chapter Text

Emma slurped the chocolate milk at the bottom of her cereal, she heard Ben laughing and looked up a little sheepishly, she hadn’t really meant to and could see Jake smirking at her behaviour, her cheeks blushed a little but she smiled at her brothers, it was often hard to see the age difference between the three, and their night of bonding at the movies (and getting into trouble after) and watching Jake’s swim meet the day before, had only gone further to cement their bond.

David walked into the kitchen with a yawn, it was sunday morning and the smell of Snow cooking breakfast, (a rare sight considering David tended to cook the breakfasts at the weekend), had arisen him. He was starting to get used to seeing all three kids at the round breakfast table at the same time, he remembered that Emma had never liked mornings before, and she still wasn’t a chirpy morning person, but most weekends she was awake before he or Snow, playing with Jake and Ben, or watching cartoons, or something of the like, clearly happy. He automatically dropped kissed onto the tops of all of the three kids heads before going to kiss his wife. He and Snow handed out plates of food and filled cups with juice before settling at the table with coffee and their own plates of food.

As they ate they listened to their kids talking, debating which superhero was best, Jake and Emma were rather impassioned whereas Ben just kept saying how cool all the Spidermen were from the movie.

“Remember we have the meal at Regina and Neal’s tonight.” Snow took a sip of her coffee after she reminded her husband.

“Meal?” Emma asked, suddenly out of the discussion/argument, her head tilted to the side like a confused golden retriever.

“Yeah, kid,” David had taken to calling her that, “Ben’s going early to play with Ash and Rowan, Mom and Jake are going out shopping for new clothes so you’re coming with me to drop him off and then you can keep me company driving around, I need to drop things off with people who couldn’t make the United Realms meeting the other night.”

Emma pulled a face at the idea of a shopping trip for clothes, her brother had hit his first growth spurt and needed an entire new wardrobe, her mom had rather unsubtly snuck some new clothes into Emma’s wardrobe, Emma was just grateful she hadn’t had to go. “I’d rather go with you than look at clothes.”

Snow rolled her eyes but smiled all the same at her daughter who was clearly trying to play it cool and not show that she wanted to spend time with David, David knew, however, and he tried to hide a beaming grin. “We’ll meet you both here before we go to Regina’s, I know there’s a lot of people you need to see so it’ll probably take all day.”

“I still think we should have skipped too, we could have gone to see the movie with the kids.” David grumbled, how he hated the boring meetings, nothing important ever seemed to get done, and they had to fight so hard against the more negative ‘rulers’ of the different kingdoms.

“We could go see the movie again.” Emma suggested, sitting up a little straighter, a bright smile on her face.

Snow and David were never huge fans of that genre but with a quick glance at each other they knew they didn’t want to disappoint their daughter who was clearly trying to help them coming up with a solution. “That sounds good to me, kiddo.” David smiled standing up to clear the table.

Once David and Emma dropped Ben off for his playdate they set off driving.

“So, you explored before, when we- when you first got back, what was your favourite part?”

“Erm… I like the beignets, that food truck Henry’s friend owns, I didn’t really get too far, I ran out of- the subway was too expensive. “

David frowned, signaling their turn, he caught on to what it was Emma was saying. He knew that Emma’s car had finally given up on itself by the second week Emma was there, he would have offered to get it repaired but truthfully the car was a death trap and he was convinced Emma had never actually passed her drivers test. “We’ll sort that out for you, and the subcard, when you’re done being grounded.” He hesitated. “Why didn’t you just ask up- I get why you didn’t then, we weren’t in a good place, but after then, instead of walking all the way into the city, anything could have happened to you Em.”

Emma shrugged her shoulders. “I- I guess I didn’t think…”

David was starting to feel happier and happier that Emma wasn’t protesting being by either his or Snow’s side all the time, he was terrified both of losing her again, and the general ‘new parent’ worry that he had experienced with both Jacob and Benjamin. He glanced to her and saw she was biting her lip in a worried way but it took him a moment to realise that  she was worried that he was really mad at her. “I’m not mad, kid,” he clarified and assured, “I’m just worried about you.”

“I’m- I’m really sorry… I didn’t think about… I’m really sorry D- David.”

He reached over to squeeze her hand and give her a reassuring smile as they pulled up to some lights. “It’s okay, you’re forgiven, and I know you haven’t done it in a while, it’s just I worry about you, like I do Jake and Ben, you’re my kids.” Apparently that worked as she nodded her head though she looked a little guilty still. “We can change that today anyway, lots of people didn’t show and your mother volunteered me to deliver the minutes to them.” He heard Emma laugh at that and knew that it was just because she knew that he didn’t really mind, that there wasn’t tension like that between her parents, that things weren’t going to split up their family. “So, we’ve got to go around the city first then drive to the other kingdoms, a couple we won't be able to get to by car so we’ll hop on the subway, and before we go to Regina and Neal’s we can swing round to Tiana’s and grab the beignets your mom ordered.”

He started to drive again as the light switched but Emma stayed quiet. He knew that his wife would have asked Emma straight away, but he generally gave his kids more space unless they needed to talk, and it was quite clear about what Emma needed to talk about. “So… it must be weird seeing Neal again after so long, especially with us all going to his and Regina’s for a meal....”

Emma shrugged her shoulders as she tried to word what she was feeling. “It’s weird but like not like that… He’s really old now.”

David let out a chuckle, Neal had matured a lot even in the past ten years, and had gotten physically older, he was a dad to three kids and nearly a grandpa, whereas Emma was… well she was Emma, who was more than happy to play with legos and watch cartoons and used her brothers as an excuse to do so, Emma who was immature but they didn’t mind in fact they were trying to let her be more so, Emma who had to be convinced ,strongly, to eat vegetables. Hell, Henry was even a couple of years physically, and a few decades mentally, older than her.
“Yeah, I guess he is, that must be weird.”

“Yeah…. Are you sure-” she stopped and started again “Should I really go, I could stay home, or something-”

“-No Em.” David said firmly. He glanced across at her and she was pouting, clearly a pout she and Ben both shared, he would have sighed at her doing so but he knew she was just worried. “You’re coming with us, I promise it won’t be as bad as you think it’ll be, and I’m sure that most the time the boys will just be wanting to show you how to play some video games… you’ll probably be kept busy by them, it’ll be a lot of help, normally they’re trying to teach me how to play them.”

“I guess I can help out with them.” She said nonchalantly, but she felt a lot more comfortable and settled, her dad had given her an escape, maybe she could even convince David to join in playing the video games, not that she needed her parents around, of course.

“Thanks kid.” He chuckled.

The two spent most of the day driving around and visiting new places, including the harder to get to ones, the entire time he kept making sure she was with him and okay, it was just as stressful as making sure Jake and Ben didn’t wander off, though at least if Jake did it they knew he would be found as the nearest bookstore.

Emma stuck close to her dad’s side as they dropped of the minutes and David talked to them all. She didn’t know any of the people but they clearly saw David as an old friend, at least they stopped for food at lunch in some place which luckily didn’t serve chimera.

The last thing on their list was collecting some beignets to the dinner party, at least Emma had met Tiana through buying them herself, and Henry clearly talking about Emma over the years of friendship with Tiana. David was obviously close to her too, the two cracking inside jokes, and tried to make sure Emma didn’t feel out of place. She even gave Emma a free beignet ‘to try’, David grinned, Tiana had been doing that for the boys for years.

Emma wolfed down the food and was accepted the one of the boxes Tatiana passed to her while David took another heavier one filled with something Tiana was giving to Snow…. Emma wasn’t exactly listening truth be told. She smiled and said goodbye when David did so.

“Huh, I was wondering where those went,” he nodded to the wooden swords as he placed the bakery boxes in the trunk, “we must have left them the last time we played with Benny.” He made a mental note to get them out and put the wooden swords back in the garage, by the time he had made the note and looked at his daughter staring at them. He was about to ask her if she was okay when she blurted out-

“Can we play with them?” Emma was surprised to hear her own words coming out of her mouth. She tried to make it sound less like she was a kid “I mean you teach me how to-... can we play, please?” She gave up with a sigh.

David’s heart melted, he also felt a surge of pride, Emma was finally starting to ask for things she wanted, they were really making progress with her, and she was finally starting to see her place in their family and this new world, she was getting to relax and be herself, and to catch up on all of the many things she had missed out on in the last twenty-nine years, even if that meant allowing herself to act as immature as she felt. He gave her a warm smile. “I would love to,” he checked his watch, “we still have some time before we have to go to dinner, come on, we’ll go to the park and play there.”

Emma beamed. “Thanks D- David.” The truth was she had been referring to both him and Snow as mom and dad in her mind, and had called them mommy and daddy when talking to Ben, or sometimes Jake (for his benefit of course) she just wasn’t sure when or how to call David or Snow those names.

They started off gently, David showing her how to parry, and helping show her the best way to stand and move, but eventually it was clear that she was practically vibrating with energy and excitement. So they started to run around, David wasn’t as young as he had been so many years ago when he first started teaching Henry how to sword fight, but the years had been good to him, he jumped on the benches and picnic tables, twirling and partying as Emma thrusted.

It was all going well until Emma decided to copy her dad, she wouldn’t admit it but she thought his jumping on and off of the the benches looked so cool, so she jumped onto one, heard her dad tell her to be careful, but she wasn’t going to be thrown off by that, she ran across it ready hit him with her sword, but she flew too far, landed on the pavement.

David ran straight over to her, she was quiet, he crouched down beside her. “Emma, are you okay?”

Then she burst into tears.

He sat her up and pulled her into a hug. “It’s okay, it’s okay Em, what hurts?”

“My knees.” She tried to stop crying but it hurt.

David pulled away and looked down at her knees. He winced in sympathy, her jeans were completely ripped open at both knees. He could see they were both grazed and were bleeding a fair bit, but he had a feeling that once he cleaned them up they wouldn’t be as bad as they looked. “Oh, Em.” He kissed the top of her head then helped her stand up.

“Come on, let’s get your legs all sorted, I have a first aid box in the trunk.” He started to walk with his arm around her but could hear her crying quietly from the pain and it broke him. He came to a stop and bent down in front of Emma a little. “Come on, kiddo, I’ll give you a ride.”

“I don’t wanna hurt you.” She said, her voice watery.

“You won’t hurt me, you barely weigh anything, and I’m not that old and I’m pretty strong, come on.”

She climbed on, wrapping her arms around his neck, and David gave her a piggyback back to the car, holding the wooden swords as he did. He opened up the trunk and sat her so that her legs were hanging down.

David grabbed the first aid box he kept in the trunk. “Okay let’s clean this up.” He frowned as he didn’t even need to get her to roll up her jeans because the rips were so massive. “I think you’re going to need some new jeans.” He grabbed an alcohol wipe and cleaned his hands with it before pressing some gauze onto the pads of her knees to stop the bleeding. He sigh gently as he waited, he tilted her chin up and noticed a scuff on it which would need cleaning, she looked really upset and a little shaken by having fallen over. “No more going on benches like that, I think, okay?”

“I was just tryna do what you did.” She mumbled trying to look down but he nudged her chin up again.

“Em,” he sighed again, “I’ve been doing that for years, I was trained how to, it’s different, it’ll take time so until you’ve had more practice just stick to staying on the ground, okay buddy?” He felt a rush of relief when she nodded her head.

“This is going to sting.” He warned and winced in sympathy as he removed some bits of gravel from each knee and cleaned all the blood up. He wondered if he would be overreacting to get her to knee pad protectors. Probably. Though that wasn’t a guarantee that he wouldn’t get them anyway.

Emma pouted as it was cleaned and hissed in pain. “Jake gets to go on the benches.” She pointed out somewhat grumpily.

She knew the boys grew up in the Enchanted Forest and when the United Realms were formed (not in the planet they were on now) her family had moved to Storybrooke and both boys had grown up in the United Realms with aspects of both life. They had played with swords since they could walk, in the woody forests of the Enchanted Forest, the streets of Storybrooke, and every kingdom and city in between.

It wasn’t fair. None of it was.

“Uh huh.” David wiped the scrape on her chin. He then leant back a bit to look at her clearly. “He’s been sword fighting for a lot longer.”

Emma knew that and wanted to cry but what David said next surprised her.

“So, me and you can have more of these sword practices so you get good enough to be able to, okay?” She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “Emma, what’s wrong, are you okay?”

“Yeah… my knees just hurt.” It wasn’t the entire truth but it also wasn’t a lie they were sore.

“Okay sunshine.” His tone was the same soothing one he had been talking to her in since she had gotten hurt. He added some ointment to her knees and chin. He reached back into the first aid box and saw the marvel bandaids he had gotten for the boys, he had some others he had as he used his car for work and he doubted that Rogers or someone would accept one of the kid ones if he offered them. He picked up the comic book ones. “These will help.” He knew they wouldn’t help with the pain but it normally worked on the other kids, it was worth a shot.

“Thanks daddy.” Emma sniffled.

David froze for a second, he had a sudden overwhelming urge to pull her into a hug and never let go, or to cry, she had outright called him daddy. He had thought that it would never happen when they were first reunited, and since then he had been waiting and hoping that she might actually call him dad or daddy, he began wondering if she ever would say it to his face and not just to Jake and Ben when she thought they couldn’t hear.

But he couldn’t pull her into a hug, everything with Emma had to be done carefully, if he acted like this was huge now then he would scare her off, and that was the last thing he wanted.

“No problem, kiddo.” He said, not looking at her so that she couldn’t see how emotional he felt, he schooled his face as he put everything away then smiled at his daughter. “Okay all done.”

“Can we play again?” She asked still sniffling a little at her knees but the band aids must have been mediciated or something cause they seemed a whole lot less painful.

David sighed. “Em, you just got hurt, I think we should probably head back now.”

“Pleeease?” She begged. “Just a little longer, I won’t get hurt again, I wanna try and win, please?”

Some would call David a pushover, and his wife later did, but they couldn’t see the puppy dog eyes Emma was giving him, that combined with her calling him ‘Daddy’ (possibly without realising or meaning to he reminded himself) when he was sorting her injury out... “I guess we could play a little longer, only a little while though, we really should be heading to meet your mommy.”

He helped her off of the trunk and back into the park before he handed her one of the swords. “Carefully this time, okay?”

“Okay.” She said, her sore knees forgotten.

They started to play again, David realised that Emma and Ben were also alike in how much energy they had, how hyper they were, he began to realise that like with Ben he would have had to tire her out by doing things like this if she was younger, perhaps he still would.

He tired before she did, plus he was worrying about her hurting herself, he kept telling her to slow down but he was having just as much fun as she was.

“Em, slow down!” He called as she ran off but she didn’t stop. “Emma, Em- Watch out for that-!”

But it was too late, Emma had fallen completely into the muddy stream.

David ran over and helped fish her out. “Emma, are you okay, did you hurt yourself again?”

Emma was a little in shock but managed to shake her head. “I’m- I’m okay.”

“This is why you need to listen when I tell you to slow down, baby.” He took his jacket off and wrapped it around her. He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Come on, let’s go now, we can come back again another time.” He fished the other sword out of the water and wrapped his arm around his daughter, she leant against him as they walked.

They had just made it into the car when David’s phone started to ring. He picked it up and flinched seeing the time and that his wife was the one calling. “Hey Snow…”

“ Where are you guys, we’re about to leave, are you at least on your way to Regina’s?”

“We’re on our way now… Before you leave the house can you get Emma some clean clothes, like an entire outfit…?”

“ WHAT?!”

Emma could hear her mother’s voice it was so loud with concern, despite David not having it on loudspeaker.

“ Is she okay? What happened? Where are you?”

“She’s okay I promise, we were just playing with Ben’s swords and lost track of time, Emma fell and hurt her knee but I patched it up… then she kind of fell into a muddy stream…”

Emma closed her eyes and shrank into herself a little, David had turn on the heat in the car for her and she still had her his jacket wrapped around her, her knee ached and she was wet and cold but for some reason she still felt comfortable, safe… taken care of by her dad, it was nice.

He looked across at her and saw she had her eyes closed, but he was pretty sure that she was still awake, it was cute how she was all snuggled up. “Your mommy’s going to bring clothes to Regina’s, you can take a shower and get changed there, Regina and Neal won’t mind.”

“Awh, do I have to? I can just wait to shower at home.” She turned her big green eyes to him.

“Those aren’t going to work this time, Emma, you need to or you’ll get sick, then your mommy and I will fuss over you even more than we do, your mom’s already going to freak out about your legs… I wouldn’t chance it.”

Emma sighed but didn’t complain.

Regina opened the door to the pair, the rest of the Charmings were already there, and Snow was at her side switching between glaring at David and looking worriedly at Emma as they stepped inside. “David-!”

“-It’s not dad’s fault mom.” Emma said quickly, giving her mom the same puppy dog eyes she had given David earlier, she didn’t even mean to do it. “I didn’t slow down when he told me to… I just wanted to play sword fight for a little while… it was fun…” Her voice was lowered and she was aware of Regina there too, but mostly she was worried her dad was in trouble.

“It’s okay Emma.” Both Snow and David said at the same time.

The shared a look with each other her mom’s glaring and frustration disappeared. “Come on, let’s get you into the shower before we eat.” Snow led her up the stairs as Regina led David into the kitchen to get him a drink and talk about how much Emma had changed.

Snow waited outside of the bathroom as Emma sorted herself out, she knew it wasn’t strictly necessary, but she was worried about her daughter so she didn’t care that she was being an overprotective mama bear. Plus her daughter had finally called her mom for the first time, she kept replaying that in her mind, she thought she always would just like she did with Ben and Jake’s first words.

Emma came out of the room in new clothes, freshly showered, her hair curled from the steam, and a frown on her face.

“What’s wrong, honey?”

“The band aid daddy put on my knee came off.”

Snow bit her lip to stop herself from smiling. “I’m sure he’ll be able to find you a new one at home.” She wrapped an arm around her shoulders leading Emma towards the stairs. “Did you have a good day with your daddy?”

“Yeah.” She grinned. But the grin faltered. “I… I accidentally called him daddy before, when he was helping me… but he didn’t say anything.”

Snow stopped walking and turned her daughter to her. “And now you’re worried that you shouldn’t have said it?” Emma nodded. “Emma, the only reason your dad wouldn’t have reacted to that is so that you didn’t feel awkward or like you wouldn’t want to say it again. I know he’s over the moon about it, we both are, if you want to call us mommy and daddy we’ll be over the moon, or mom and dad, it’s okay.” She couldn’t stand the distance any longer and pulled Emma into a hug, truthfully she had been a little anxious all day, she hadn’t been apart from her for more than a few hours at a time, she knew Emma was safe with David but had been worried when she had turned up with grazed knees and having fallen into a stream.

Emma led her head against her mom’s chest, breathing in the scent of the laundry detergent and perfume and the smell of her mom, it was one of the most comforting things in the world, other than David and her blanket. “I… I wanna call you that, the names, I just… I didn’t know if you wanted me to.” She nearly let out a whine when Snow pulled her back so that she was no longer being cuddled and instead had to look her in the eyes.

“Of course we want you to, why wouldn’t we?”

“I…” Emma shrugged. “I ran away for a month, for ten years… I didn’t…”

“Honey, we forgive you, we understand why you ran, you’ve apologised and we’ve apologised to our part in it too, it’s in the past.”

“But… you don’t trust me.”

Snow’s heart broke, she could see Emma wasn’t resentful, she just looked like she felt guilty. “Honey, we trust you, we’re always going to worry about losing you because we have twice, that’s never going to change. We trust you but… it’s like how we are with Benjamin, we trust him but we still worry about him and are around him a lot to make sure he’s okay.”

Emma managed a smile through relief and trying to lighten a serious sounding conversation. “Y’know I’m not actually 5, right?” She tried to joke.

Her mom gave her a look which told her that she wasn’t quite able to believe that. “Uh huh.” She smiled as Emma pulled her tongue out at her. “Come on, let’s get you something to drink before the boys show you their game, you never drink enough, I think Regina has soda though.”

Emma smiled as she was led back downstairs, her mom fussing over her was nice, just like David having been fussing over her was nice, she wasn’t sure why it surprised her that she liked being looked after and cared about, she guessed she wasn’t used to it.  “Thanks mommy.”

Snow beamed.

Emma felt a little awkward, suddenly being in the kitchen with her mom and dad, Neal, and Regina, and the fact that she felt so out of place with them. She felt her dad rub her back subtly and comfortingly though she was sure that Neal and Regina both noticed it. They were clearly trying to make Emma feel at ease, telling stories as they drank their pre-dinner drinks, but it felt like she was a little kid hearing about her parents lives before her. Apparently David had saved some lady from a tower one day, David was trying to play off that it wasn’t a big deal, but apparently Neal had been there and it had been dangerous. She was trying to think of this Neal and the one she had been with some 12 years before (her time) as completely separate people. It was surprisingly easy, she found, mostly because he was now so much older than her, and had been born even before her parents, so she just stood listening.

“Em!”

Emma looked up from her soda to see Jake and one of Regina and Neal’s sons, Ash, grinning at her.

“Em, Ash and Rowan have the new Spider-Man game!”

“Cool.” Emma grinned and followed her brother to go and play video games.

Emma felt herself being nudged. She let out a whine. But she was shook again, this time her name was called too, she let out another little whine.

“Come on Em, wakey wakey.”

Emma forced her eyes open and was met with her father’s face smiling at her. She felt slowed down and all she wanted to do was go back to sleep. “Huh, Daddy?” She yawned and went to lay down again but was stopped by David.

“You can go to sleep soon, Em,” he helped sit her up properly, “just wait until we’re at home, I don’t think you really want to sleep on Neal and Regina’s couch tonight.” He chuckled as she looked confused. “I think you and Ben must have been up too early this morning, you both fell asleep at the same time.” She still looked pretty clueless and out of it but he just smiled at her anyway, luckily between the video games and dinner Emma had become more comfortable in the Cassidy-Mills house, she even fell asleep at the same time as Benjamin as a movie played on the screen.

It was rather adorable. As was her sleepily calling him daddy, Snow had explained everything to him about what she and Emma had talked about earlier, he felt bad that he had upset her but he knew that there was probably no right choice on how to react in that situation.

“Come on.” He helped her up and half carried his out of it daughter back to the car, Snow was carrying Ben, and Jake was probably the most awake out of their kids, no doubt both he and Snow would need to carry Emma and Ben into the house while Jake could stay up a little while.

He looked over at Snow, catching her eye, they shared a smile, after so many years their family seemed complete, and for once they were all at peace.

Chapter Text

“Em, come on! We’re going to be late!”

David sighed as a vague noise was called back, he moved from the bottom of the stairs back to the kitchen, the boys were both dressed ready for school and preschool and eating cereal, Snow was going over her lesson plan while nursing a cup of tea. He sighed again as he walked in and picked up his coffee again. “She might be going back to her old sleeping habits.”

“Is she even awake?”

“Yeah, she called back to say she was up before, and I heard her fumbling around, I guess she didn’t get much sleep after taking a nap at Regina and Neal’s.” He topped up his mug with coffee from the coffee pot and added more sugar and milk into it. “Jakey, did you remember to put your homework in your backpack?”

“Erm…. no-“

“Honey, you left it on the coffee table, I put it in your backpack this morning.” Mary ticked something off in her notebook then placed her hand on David’s arm. “Don’t worry, she’ll be down soon, I can hear her now, and don’t worry she’ll be fine with you today.”

David hummed, uncertain. “Yeah, I guess… I just worry about having the kid at the station, even if I’m just doing paperwork.”

“She’s got my old tablet, and I’ve got loads of movies and games on there, all you need to do is feed and water her and she’ll be okay.” She joked, standing on her tiptoes to kiss her husband.

“Emmy they’re being gross!” Ben called announcing his sisters arrival.

David rolled his eyes sharing a look with his wife. “Remember the days before we had kids?”

“Barely.” She pecked him on the lips again before turning to look at her daughter. Emma was leaning against the doorway yawning. “Honey sit down you need breakfast before you go to work with your father.”

Emma practically fell into the closest place to her, between her brothers, resting her head on her hand as she did. A glass of juice was placed in front of her by her father who kissed her hair before looking at her with narrowed eyes. “Em, were you up all night playing on your phone?”

“No.” Emma grimaced as it came out as a whine and David’s eyes narrowed, as did Snow’s as she placed a bowl of cereal in front of her.

“Uh huh.” David clearly didn’t believe her, and neither did Snow.

“Emma, you need your sleep, if you can’t sleep you could try and read some of the books Jake leant you, or you can come wake one of us, playing on your phone is a no.” It had been a while since the boys had crawled into bed with the two of them, but they knew they could if they needed to, it was important that Emma knew she was allowed to just as much as her brothers.

“I wasn’t playing on my phone!” Great, Emma thought, another whine.

David opened his mouth but Snow placed her hand on his arm to stop him. “Okay honey,” she said in her most calming voice instead, “eat your cereal, if your tired later you can take a nap or go to bed a bit earlier.”

Emma was too tired to argue with that, instead she kept her head ducked down, and nodded as she stirred the cereal around the bowl. It wasn’t her favourite one, they had run out of that, and her mom had said she’d have to wait for more, mostly because Emma had just ate the marshmallows out of it and left the rest of the cereal marshmallow-less. She forced herself to have a few spoonfuls, stirring it to make the milk change to chocolate milk, only half listening to everyone chatting.

“Come on, Ems, I know they’re not your favourites, but eat some more.” Snow managed, just, to stop herself from sighing. “I can make you some fruit salad or oatmeal instead?” That worked, Emma shovelled three more mouthfuls of the cereal into herself before pushing the bowl away from her. “Okay, boys grab your coats please, have you both got everything you need in your bags?” The boys scrambled down from the table Ben diving to grab some felt tips he was insisting on taking, while Jake grabbed his coat and put it on then threw Ben’s to his little brother.

Emma felt her mom’s hand on her back and looked up.

“Honey I packed you some things in your bag to take with you to your father’s work, my tablets in there and your headphones, and your phone.” It didn’t cross her mind that Emma actually hadn’t had her phone with her the night before because Snow had it charging. “There’s some snacks and juice in there too, I’ll see you at lunch time, okay?”

“Yea-” her voice came out all weird, she cleared her throat, “yeah, okay. Wait, lunch?”

“Yes, honey, lunch.” Snow kissed the top of her head. No sleep and Emma clearly didn’t mix well. “Remember, me, you, and daddy are going to Granny’s for lunch?” She kissed the top of her head again and pulled her into a hug which Emma returned. Over Emma’s head Snow mouthed “Make her take a nap” to David who nodded and grabbed both his and Emma’s bags.

“We’ll see you at lunch, babe.” He leant over Emma to kiss his wife before helping Emma stand up. “Come on, kiddo.” He left Emma saying goodbye to her mom to grab his keys and to say bye to his sons who were starting to try and persuade their dad that they should go to Granny’s too. “Boys, your school won’t let you leave during lunch, me and your mom made your lunches, anyway, you have done loads of things with us your sister hasn’t, it’s her turn to do something with just the two of us.” He gave them both his dad look and they pouted but stopped complaining and went to say goodbye to their sister.

At the station David set Emma up at an empty desk next to his own, it was different than the one the pair of them had worked at in Storybrooke, when Ben had turned three David had wanted something a little more exciting, when Hyperion Heights was added to the United Realms it was perfect. Weaver had gone, finally able to be at peace, so David had his old desk, in the room with Rogers, whom he got along with very well. He passed Emma her backpack and started to get settled himself. He replied to emails before glancing back at Emma she was half curled up on the desk chair. He sighed to himself, she really needed to sleep more at night so she wasn’t like this during the day. He walked over to her and perched himself on the desk examining her with his eyes. She was hiding something, that much was clear.

Emma looked up at her father, the fluorescent lights burnt not just her eyes but her whole head, he moved his head as he settled so that it was blocking the glare of the light, giving her a touch of relief.

“How’s your knee after yesterday, buddy?”

Emma shrugged her shoulders, she truly hadn’t thought about it. “The bandaid made it better.” She mumbled, yawning between her words, she rubbed her eyes and shifted in her seat again.

“Uh huh… You sure I don’t need to check it?” She shook her head so he nodded his. “Okay… what’s wrong baby? Are you tired.”

Emma shrugged her shoulders, she was tired but she didn’t think that that was the big problem, if anything the big problem was that absolutely everything in her body was aching and in pain and exhausted, was that a thing? “Y- Yeah.” She tried her best to clear her throat without coughing. “Yeah, I’m a bit tired a guess.”

He went to brush his hand through her hair but she ducked it as she looked through her backpack pulling out her mom’s old tablet. He frowned a little but when she looked at him all sleepy he smiled gently at her. “Why don’t you go sit on the couch? You can watch a movie or something.”

Emma, for once, did as she was told. She walked over to the couch between her dad’s desk and detective Roger’s desk, she curled up on it, keeping her coat on, it was only once she settled that she remembered her stuff on her dad’s desk. She groaned, David looked amused, he had clearly noticed. “Daddy, please?” She whined, she didn’t want to have to move again, she shot him puppy dog eyes as she asked.

David chuckled but grabbed the backpack and walked over to her. Rogers walked in and hid his chuckle too as he settled at his own desk. David crouched down beside his daughter. “Emmy, you sure that you’re feeling okay?”

“Mmhmm, yeah, yeah I’m fine.”

David frowned. “I’m not so sure, you’re just tired, right? You can tell me if something’s wrong.” He was wondering if someone had said something to her to upset her, or perhaps she had a nightmare, or just hadn’t slept at all.

“ ‘m okay.” She took the tablet out of his hand and flicked through the movies her mom had downloaded onto it.

David sighed and rooted in the backpack, he passed her a bottle of juice, and the pair of headphones. “Use these, okay? Me and Rogers need to get some work done.” He watched her plug them in and sort it out. “You want your coat off?” Emma shook her head quickly. He frowned again. “Okay… if you’re sure… Let me know if you need anything, okay?” She nodded but he was fairly certain she was lying that she would let him know.

He walked over to talk to Rogers as Emma started to watch a movie.

“You’re so wrapped around her little finger.”

“Pfft no I’m no- okay, yeah, I guess I am.” He chuckled sheepishly.

Rogers chuckled. “I don’t blame you, I still am with Ali, and she’s engaged and and adult and everything.”

“Yeah…” David trailed off as he looked over at Emma she was now curled up in a tight ball watching something on the screen. Something was going on with the kid.

“Is she okay?” Rogers asked frowning as he looked at David, he was clearly worried, he remembered how worried he would get about Alice when she was younger- hell, he still got worried about her now.

“I… I don’t know.” He sighed. “I don’t think she is but I’m not sure what’s going on… I don’t know, maybe I’m just always going to be worried about her…” He didn’t say that it was because he had lost her for nearly forty years in total, but Rogers understood, but it was also because she acted a lot like Ben rather than Jake who had been born an old man in how mature he was.

“Probably, mate.” Rogers wasn’t the best at helping him feel better, but he was clearly trying, so David didn’t say anything other than smile as though the other detective had helped him, then went back to his desk to start on the first file of paperwork from his last case.

After five minutes he glanced up and saw Emma asleep, he covered her with his jacket, then went back to work.

Emma continued like that throughout the morning, every so often she’d wake and have a sip of juice or press play on a movie or a tv show or cartoon which Ben and Jake had watched when they last used their mom’s ipad, but she would be asleep again before the intro played.

David walked over and crouched in front of the couch Emma was asleep, he was really worried about her now, she looked as pale as snow, or Snow. He went to place the back of his hand on her head but she made a noise of protest and turned her head before he could touch her. He sighed. “Em, Emmy,” he called gently, “come on Emma time to wake up.” She woke slowly and he helped her sit up. “Hey sunshine. It’s lunch time, we’ve gotta meet mommy, can you wake a bit more for me Emmy?”

She rubbed her eyes and tried to wake up as much as she could.

“You feeling okay Emma?” He reached out again and again she moved her head so he couldn’t feel for her temperature. He sighed.

“I’m fine.” She mumbled. Her voice was speaking to the opposite.

“I don’t think that you are.” He reached again and yet again she turned her head, this time it was clearly on purpose. “Emma Ruth Charming , let me feel your temperature.”

“No.” Emma whined and tried to hide her face against the arm of the couch. “You’re not even a thermometer.” Her mumbling made it sound a little more like ‘fern-nom-eater’ than what she was trying to say.

David heard Rogers snigger and he turned around to glare at him. The other detective held his hands up in a surrender gesture but he was still smirking. He turned back to his daughter. “Okay, sunshine, I won’t try again, but you get your coat on, we don’t want to be late meeting mommy.” He grabbed some files and his and Emma’s backpacks and helped her up.

“You don’t need me this afternoon, do you, not here anyway?” David asked Rogers.

“Of course not, you look after the kid, take some days off if you need them.” He remembered all of the times Alice had gotten sick when they were both in the tower together. It had terrified him. Looking at David he had a feeling that he was feeling exactly how he always felt. “I hope you feel better Emma.”

“Mmhmm… ‘m not sick.”

“Sure you’re not kiddo.” David wrapped his arm around his daughter and led her out.

David and Emma found a booth at Granny’s, ten years on Emma was certain that Granny hadn’t aged, David sat beside Emma, effectively trapping her in. David ordered for all three of them as they waited for Snow, who arrived at the same time as the drinks. Snow leant down to kiss her husband, she took a sup of the ice tea in front of her like it was a life line, before smiling at her daughter. Her smile faltered. “Emma, sweetie, are you okay?”

“ ‘m fine.” She was slumped against her father. “Sleepy.”

David raised his eyebrows at his wife, who clearly wasn’t won over or happy with their daughter’s answer. “She’s sick, and she wont let me feel for her temperature.”

“No-”

“Emma.” Snow combined her mom look with her disappointed and stern teacher voice. “Let daddy take your temperature.”

“But…” Emma whined, David’s ‘cold’ hand touched her forehead and this time she didn’t dare pull away, she shivered a little and looked down away from her parents with a small pout on her face at being forced to withstand her parents’ fussing.

“Emma.” David gasped. “You’re burning up.”

“No, your hand’s just cold.”

Snow didn’t think that she actually believed that, David’s hads were normally pretty warm, she moved Emma’s milkshakes out of the way before reaching across the table to feel her head too. “Emma!” She gasped. “Your father’s right, you’re burning up.”

“I’m not.” She whined sinking down in the booth, closer to her dad, who wrapped his arm around her and cuddled her closer.

Snow and David had learnt a lot raising Emma’s brothers, most importantly when the boys were toddlers not to bother to argue with the kids about things like this, there was no point when she was clearly unwell and whingy. They shared a look, a look of concern for their sick daughter, but they also shared a small smile, Emma had been sweet the day before but her sick was whiny yes but she was also being rather adorable, like a little kid younger than either of her brothers.

“I won’t be able to get anyone to cover this afternoon.”

“I’ve already decided to take this afternoon off, she’s been napping all morning on the couch in my office, she can do that at home.”

“Home? But we just got here.”

“It’s okay honey,” Snow soothed, “we’ll still have lunch now, then we’ll head to the store before I have to get back to work, you and your daddy can go home and watch movies or cartoons.”

“I-... I watch the cartoons for Ben.”

David stroked Emma’s hair and let her cuddle closer.

“Emma, you can watch cartoons for yourself,” Snow assured her, “it’s okay.”

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to watching them with you, kiddo.”

Lunch seemed to drag on as Snow and David tried to get Emma to eat as much as possible, as she struggled through a grilled cheese and a bowl of soup she admitted that her throat hurt, luckily the cool chocolate milkshake seemed to help a little.

Ruby, who part owned the diner nowadays, came by with the receipt for her friends to pay. “What’s wrong with my goddaughter?”

“She’s feeling a little under the weather.” Snow told her giving her a calm look which told her not to worry too much.

They paid up and started to head out, Emma was leaning heavily against her father, but Ruby stopped them as they headed out of the door. She pulled Emma into a quick hug, then passed her the milkshake cup. “Chocolate brownie, with extra chocolate, and extra ice cream, it should help your throat.”

“Thanks Ruby.” Emma croaked sipping the shake.

“Thanks Rubes.”

“Thank you, Ruby.” Snow gave her a quick hug before they headed out.

It was half four by the time Snow came home with the boys, Ben had been playing soccer with other five year olds, while Jacob had been at swim practice at school, and Snow had been marking work and setting a lesson plan for the next day, having found a substitute so she could be home.

“Daddy! Daddy!” Ben ran into the living room, Jake followed his little brother, Snow sighed at the coats and backpacks which had been dumped in the entranceway but she followed her sons.

“Hey buddy.” David said quietly, he hugged Ben, then did the same to Jake. “Hey sport, how were both of your days?”

“I beat my record at swimming!”

“And I made a home for bugs at the school garden!” Ben announced his smile overtook his face but it quickly turned to a frown when he realised Emma’s head was on a pillow on David’s lap and she was fast asleep. “Why’s Emmy sleeping? Did she need a nap? Even I don’t have lots of naps, I’m big.”

“Emma’s not feeling too well, so she needs lots of naps.”

“She’ll be okay,” Snow promised the boys, “you both go hang your coats up and put your bags on the bench please, and bring me any notes or letters from your teachers, and your homework books please.”

The boys left to do as they were told and Snow took in the scene in front of her: Emma’s head on the pillow on David’s head, she was covered in a throw from the couch, her coat, and David’s jacket. The bag from the pharmacy store was on the coffee table, boxes of medicine, vicks vapour rub, and a couple of other bits spilling out, next to Emma’s finished cup of milkshake and half a cup of orange liquid which Snow realised was the energy drink. David had some files of paperwork on the side table next to where he sat, within reach, and on the tv one of the kids cartoon channels played.

Snow perched on the side of the couch, she felt Emma’s head, then stroked her hair, she still had a fever. “How’s she been.”

“Clingy,” David decided, “and fussy, I just about got her to swallow the medicine and have some drink and she fell asleep. She keeps waking up every now and again, to cry about not feeling well or to tell me she’s fine…. Babe, I’m worried.”

“I know.” She half whispered. “Me too.” She looked up at her husband and took his hand. “Let’s try not to overreact, I don’t want her to freak out if we do, and this is probably just the flu, we’ll keep and eye on her. I have tomorrow off, and friday.”

“I can take all week off.” He assured her. He ducked his head down and kissed his wife. “She’s kind of adorable when she’s sick, and cuddly, I’ve not been able to move.”

Snow let out a little laugh and her daughter stirred. Soon Emma was led looking up at her, blinking her eyes sleepily, as though trying to decide if she was really there. “Hey honey, how you feeling, daddy said you’ve been sleepy.”

“... Bad dream.” She mumbled, tears filled her eyes without her consent.

“Oh sweetheart.” Snow pulled her up into a cuddle. “What happened?”

“I left again… but I came back and I couldn’t get in, it was locked.” She sniffled and buried her head against her mom’s shoulder. “‘m sorry I left ‘gain.”

“It’s okay.” She rocked side to side as she spoke, trying to soothe her. “It’s okay, it’s just a dream, you didn’t leave again. And we’d never lock the door when you’re not here.”

“We didn’t lock it while you were away, in case you found us, we wanted you to be able to just come home.” David added. He stretched his legs and kissed his wife then the top of his daughter’s head. “I’ll check see where the boys have got to, and get some dinner started for us all, coffee?”

“Please.” Snow took David’s place on the couch and Emma cuddled close to her.

“Mommy?”

“Yes?” Her heart skipped a beat again, still not used to Emma starting to call her that, it made her want to smile and she probably would have had she not been so worried.

“Everything hurts.”

“Oh, my baby.” She cuddled her closer and rocked her a little.

David leant down and whispered to his wife. “She could do with some more medicine, but she’s a bit of a pain taking it, do you need my help.”

“I’ve got it babe. Thank you.”

The next few days and Emma continued as she had been, Snow had taken a day off, and David had been able to take the whole week off to look after her, but the medicine and rest didn’t seem to do much at all.

David was in bed, flicking through facebook on his phone, as Snow finished getting ready for bed in the en-suite.

“We should take her to the doctor tomorrow.” Snow called through, spitting the toothpaste into the sink and rinsing her mouth with water. She rinsed the brush and put it in its place. “Did you hear me?”

“Yeah, I’m just thinking about what a pain she’s going to be” David sighed, his wife chuckled understandingly, making him laugh a little too. “She’s getting pretty creative at getting out of taking it, especially for a sick kid.”

“She tried to trick the thermometer earlier, she put it on the popsicle when I was getting her a drink.” Snow climbed into bed beside her husband and was immediately wrapped up in his arms.

“How come I’m not surprised?” He chuckled.

“She didn’t realise that the popsicle made it seem like she had hypothermia or something, I made her do it again, she whined when I insisted on watching her that time, she said it wasn’t fair that I wasn’t giving her the opportunity to cheat, she was too out of it to get why I was laughing so much at that.” She laughed again as she quoted her daughter, David let out a big laugh.

Their bedroom door suddenly flung open.

“Benjamin!” Snow sat up in surprised, her youngest seemed so worried as he ran towards them.

“Benny Boy, what’s wrong?” David was already getting out of bed, quickly checking his son over, was he hurt, or was he ill too?

“Emmy’s been sick, she’s really poorly, and coughing, Jakey said to get you, she won’t wake up.”

Snow and David race out of the room, Ben following them, straight to Emma’s room.

Emma eventually woke up in a hospital bed, medicine in an iv was helping with how much pain she was in, and the iv with fluids was irritating her hand but it was making her feel better, so she only let out a little whine as Snow stopped her from moving her hand. Wait. Snow was there, her mom, and David, her dad… they were both there.

“You’re both here.” Her voice sounded gravelly as it tore through her throat but came out barely above a whisper.

“Of course we are sunshine.” David gently squeezed her hand giving her a weak smile.

“Where else would we be?” Snow brushed her hand through her golden curls.

“B-But Jakey and Benny-...”

“Ruby and Mulan are looking after them, they’re fine just very worried about their sister, you need us more right now.” She watched tears fill Emma’s eyes and carefully brought her into a hug, she didn’t know what was making Emma cry, probably just feeling so ill. “You have a chest infection, and a throat infection, and a ear infection, and you’re dehydrated, it explains why you were hurting so much. I’m sorry we didn’t bring you here sooner, we didn’t realise how ill you were. We didn’t want to overreact, but next time we’re getting you checked out as soon as you even have a sniffle.”

David moved to sit on the side of the bed so he could join in on the cuddle, he rubbed his daughter’s back out of worry and wanting to soothe her, and rubbed his wife’s back telling her not to blame herself and to calm down, Emma would be fine now, they got her to the hospital in time. “Me and mommy are going to stay with you here tonight, then you’re going to be fussed over until you’re bored of us and all better… you really scared us there, sunshine.”

Emma knew she should probably protest, it’s what she would have done a few months ago, when she had come back, or a few months before that when she had left, she wouldn’t have even let them hug her like this then, let alone feel comfortable enough to call them mommy and daddy and to relax enough to be able to act the way she did with zero judgement.

Instead she cuddled closer to her parents, thinking of when she had been practically ignored by them, she knew they hadn’t done it to be mean, nevertheless they had learnt from their mistakes, and it felt nice to be fussed over, and cared for, she knew they they loved her just as much as they loved Jacob or Benjamin. And she loved all of them just as much, and just as fiercely, and that would never change.

She swore to herself, in that moment, that she would never run away ever again, she had a home and a family, she would never leave them, and she knew they would never leave her either.

And with that in mind she allowed her eyes to close and she fell asleep while in her parents’ arms.