#Neal and Emma play Mario Kart

[lilacmoon83]

Perfectly Charmings

Boris Yeltsin requested a prompt of 9-year old Emma beating Neal at video games. Neal is decidedly more practiced at the game than Emma and is a bit annoyed. I’m not much of a gamer, so I hope this turned out okay. Mario is about the only video games I ever liked so I used a bit of personal experience in this one.

Perfectly Charmings

Game On

Neal’s tongue poked out of the corner of his mouth, as his fingers fiddled with the game control and he maneuvered the go cart on the screen along the rainbow colored track. His character’s cart was hit yet again with a turtle shell, sending him into a tumble, as his sister giggled. He clenched his teeth, trying not to get mad. Every other track, he could easily beat Emma. Video games were something he and Henry used to do together. But since Henry left to find his own story, he started teaching Emma to play. She had a bit of a shorter attention span than he did, but loved Mario Kart. And her favorite track was the one he loathed: Rainbow Road. It was the only one she could actually beat him on, so of course she wanted to do this one all the time. As his character was sent into another tumble, hers sailed past his over the finish line and he finally dragged himself there in fourth place. He hated Rainbow Road. Emma whooped and cheered, as she was victorious.

“I beat you again, Nealy!” she declared.

“Only because Rainbow Road is cursed!” he shot back.

“Na uh, I’m just better at it than you,” she said in a sing song voice. Neal rolled his eyes. Little sisters could be so annoying.

“Well, then prove it! I challenge you to a rematch on any other track but this one,” he challenged.

“Rainbow Road or no deal,” she retorted. Neal rolled his eyes again.

“You know you two, it’s a beautiful day out. I think that’s enough video games for today,” Snow interrupted, as she observed them from the kitchen.

“Anything’s better than more Rainbow Road,” Neal muttered.

“Okay Mom…can we go ride bikes?” Emma asked. Snow smiled.

“Of course, but be back in an hour. We’re going to Nana Regina’s for dinner,” she reminded, as she watched them hurry out the door. Wilby followed, as he usually did, as unofficial protector the Charming children. Snow smiled, as she saw her husband pull in the driveway and their children tackle him with hugs. Neal laughed, as they wrestled and he climbed on his father. Emma tackled him too and he hugged them both, dropping kisses on their heads, before they took off on their bikes. They didn’t worry too much about their safety these days, as Storybrooke was fairly peaceful and Wilby was with them. Storybrooke still had it’s troublemakers that kept David and his deputies busy. But overall, their little town had become an ideal and wonderful place to raise a family.

She stepped out onto the porch and he greeted her with a kiss.

“Hey handsome,” she purred.

“Hey yourself, beautiful,” he purred back, as their lips met again, this time with much more heat.

“I see you managed to get the munchkins to play outside for a change,” he mentioned. She smirked playfully.

“Why Charming, are you implying that I have ulterior motives?” she asked playfully.

“How long do we have?” he asked in return, as their lips met again.

“About an hour,” she answered and he lifted her off her feet, before hurrying inside.

“Charming!” she giggled.

“I have a lot of things I want to do in an hour,” he said slyly.

“Mmm…me too,” she hummed, as they kissed again, while clumsily making their way to the bedroom. It may have been the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, but as working parents with two rambunctious nine and ten-year-olds, they took advantage of all possible alone time…

[thejollyroger-writer]

For the tropes: Can I have a combination of 41 and 47, as in one hears the other confessing they've been in love with them for years (extra super bonus if it's Emma overhearing Killian).

Love, Baseball, and Other Things

This is the first half of a two-shot that came to mind paired with a request from @welllpthisishappening, which will be following this up… soon. (Also, Saira, notice that I decided not to include a Cubs slur with this one, specifically for you.) 

Unbetaed, because I’m a big mess

Part One:

Emma Swan was very good at her job. No one in the entire Philadelphia Police Department would argue with that — in fact, many of them even call her up when they need her to work her magic in the less-legal senses of investigation, even more so now that her brother is the captain of one of the precincts.

She’s good at tracking people down, good at learning all the dark secrets in their past. She’s good at marathoning television shows on the weekend, a good soccer player, can swing a bat pretty well (she might even fill in for David on the precinct’s softball team), good at Mario Kart, and even pretty decent at air hockey.

What she’s not good at is relationships. She’s really only been with one, with her son’s father since her first year of college, but the moment Neal heard she was pregnant, she hasn’t heard a word from him. Though she’s not as surprised anymore as she was when it happened.

But that’s another thing she’s good at: being a mother. And she would do anything to make her son happy, has lived by that for the past ten years of his life.

Which is how she ends up here as often as possible, sitting along the third base line at Citizen’s Bank Park as the sun disappears over the side of the stadium, though it doesn’t fail to blind her. Because if there’s one thing Henry loves more than anything, it’s baseball.

And if there’s one thing Emma loves more than anything, it’s Killian Jones, startoff pitcher for the Phillies, and her brother’s best friend. Though nobody in the world knows that — and she plans to keep it that way.

–/– 

Killian Jones is very good at his job. No one in the entire greater Philadelphia area would argue with that — it’s part of why they pay him so damn much. He loves the game, loves his teammates, and, perhaps the best part, he loves the city of Philadelphia and all it holds for him.

He’s got a beautiful curveball, an impressive fast, and one of the most raved-about sliders in the entire league. He runs one of the fastest miles in the game, still has time to play pick-up soccer with his old college buddies, and is learning how to play Mario Kart during his weekend at David’s house with his found family.

What he’s not good at is relationships. He’s only really been in one, during college, but since she was killed in a car accident, he hasn’t ever attempted another. He’s too broken from the loss of her to hope to give a part of his heart away again, if only for the worry that they would be taken from him the way Milah was. 

Or, that’s what he thought.

She always told him to follow his dreams, so even though he went to school for writing and journalism, he went back to the first love of his life, the thing that brought happiness in his childhood that was pretty devoid of it in other places: baseball.

What he never expected was to fall in love with his best friend’s sister along the way — though as it stands, he doesn’t plan on telling anyone in the near future.

Or, that’s what he thought.

It certainly wasn’t the best game of his career. It was still early in the season, the cool April air doing more to calm his nerves than the sweltering heat he lives with for most of the season, but that apparently meant nothing for his statistics. He allowed more runs than the past two games combined, including three inside-the-park home runs that were certainly going to plummet his numbers.

But when ruby Lucas, Philly’s MLB-affiliated journalist, finds him after the game to ask him what the hell went wrong, he certainly does not tell her about the blonde sitting behind the third-base dugout who stole his attention far before the game even started. He was absolutely not going to tell Emma’s best friend that he was completely and totally enamored by her mere presence in the stadium, not to mention that he’s absolutely in love with her.

(Though when Ruby’s eyes raise to the seats behind him, where he knows she and her son are still sitting, he has a feeling she might already know, though it’s a feeling he decides to push to the back of his mind and not focus on, especially not during an interview with MLB network.)

He finishes his interview with her, blaming nerves and the talent of the team for his slip-ups — the Cubs might not be the best team right now, but they certainly aren’t the worst. They’re pretty far from it, actually.

When he turns around after the interview, though, Emma and Henry are gone, having finished their customary helmets full of soft serve. He feels a pang in his heart — usually they wait for him to finish and he lets Henry run around the bases to exert some of the energy gained from his sugar consumption. But that does not seem to be the case today, and, trying his best to suppress the frown that he knows took over his face, he turns back to his team, only to find Robin, his best friend and second-baseman barreling towards him.

“Oi, Jones, what the hell happened out there?”

“Come on, Locksley,” Killian tries, pulling his best smile to his face. “A man’s not allowed to just have a shit day?”

“Not when that man was on the path to being the best pitcher in the entire fucking league.”

Okay, he thinks. Robin has a point.

“I guess I’m just nervous about my brother flying over to visit me.” It’s not a lie — far from it, actually. His brother is coming to visit him, their schedules allowing it for the first time in a few years — he could just have to travel to a few different cities while he’s visiting, but a British Naval Captain can afford to do that.

Robin’s gruff expression fades as he reaches to clap him on the shoulder. I guess we can choose to forgive you this time around, but you’re on thin ice.”

“Damn right he is,” Victor Whale, the first-base coach says, punching Killian’s arm as they start to head towards the locker room.

“Thin fucking ice,” Will Scarlett, right field, yells from behind him.

The berating continues through the locker room, his whole team taunting him (and each other, to be fair) about their 6-2 loss. But after the rest of the team leaves, talking about getting a pint somewhere, Killian turns down their offer, giving the excuse of needing to straighten his house before his brother’s flight lands in the morning.

(Though, the few of them that have been to Killian’s Old City apartment know just how meticulous he is, the face that he can’t stand when anything is not where it belongs, even with his grueling game and travel schedule. It’s a downright lie, and the look in Robin’s eye tells Killian that he’s sure of it.)

Which, he’s assuming, is why he sticks around when everyone else leaves, leaving only him and Killian in the room.

“When are you going to ask her out, mate?” Robin says, sitting down on the bench in the middle of the room.

“Rob, I can’t. I don’t have the time for a relationship, especially for a woman with a son.”

“You’re completely head-over-heels in love with her, Killian.”

“I definitely am not,” he retorts, but Robin has no time for him, practically yelling back in his face.

“Admit it, Jones, you’re absolutely in love with Emma Swan.”

Hanging his head in defeat, he scrubs his face with his hand, hitching his bag back up on the other shoulder.

“Fine, fine, yes, okay? I’ll admit it. Happy?”

The smile that covers Robin’s face is all the answer he needs.

—/—

How Henry convinced Emma to buy him another hot dog when all he’s done since they got to the stadium is eat, Emma may never know. The man working behind the counter wasn’t too happy about it, either, but the smile covering Henry’s face makes up for it.

She still wants to find Killian, hoping that he lets Henry run around the bases to let off some of the pent-off energy even though she’s sure that he’s already on his way out of the stadium. Hopefully he won’t care, will still let her boy do a lap, and when she turns the corner towards the exit from the locker room, smiling at Leroy, the security guard, and sees most of the team leaving the room, she almost turns around.

But she doesn’t see Killian in the crowd, would recognize his dark hair and his gait in any crowd, so she heads towards the room, passing Will Scarlett who is at the end of the line of baseball players.

“He’s inside still, love,” Will says, smiling at her when she does not need to ask the question on the tip of her tongue.

She returns the smile and heads towards the door to the locker room, which she starts to push open.

But what she hears stops her in her tracks, the door barely cracked open.

“Admit it, Jones, you’re absolutely in love with Emma Swan.”

She recognizes the voice: Robin, Killian’s best friend. She feels her heart fall on the floor in front of her (okay, maybe not), and her breath stops in her throat, especially when she hears Killian’s response.

“Fine, fine, yes, okay? I’ll admit it. Happy?”

Hoping they’re not right behind the door, she turns on her heel and reaches out to grab Henry’s hand, rushing back down the hallway as fast as she can.

“Mom, but I thought —” Henry tries, but when Emma turns to him, the words stop falling from his mouth.

“I have something to do at home that I forgot about,” she says quickly, pulling him along the corridor and turning the corner as she hears the locker room door close behind her.

[dani-ellie03]

Fic: Wednesday’s Child (23/23)

Title: Wednesday’s Child Summary: The next time Emma Swan wanted magical help, she was on her own. Because now they were stuck with a pint-sized savior who clearly had an attitude problem and a terrified but pretending not to be pre-pirate. Spoilers: If you’re current, we’re good. Rating/Warning: PG-13, mostly for safety. Family angst/fluff, as per usual. Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time and its characters were created by Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC. I’m just borrowing them but I’ll put them back when I’m finished! Author’s Note: So, um, this ended up a lot longer than I anticipated. Little Emma and Little Killian were just too much fun! Oops! Thank you to everyone who’s read, commented on, liked, and reblogged this little tale of mine! You all are amazing. :)

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At ff.net and below.

Tagging @shealivedarnit

—–

All Emma Swan had wanted to do was give her parents a simple little anniversary gift.

Okay, so maybe her home movie idea hadn't exactly been simple – more like next to impossible, as it turned out – but honestly, in all her imaginings of worst case scenarios, some minor bouts of irritation between here and Regina were the extent of it. The years of magic and magical research alongside Regina had taught her that the two of them had a rather tenuous working relationship. Frustrations easily built between them but they could just as easily let said frustrations go enough to push forward with the project.

Never in a million years had Emma thought that a potion could go so horribly wrong. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined the potion blowing up in her face, accidentally transforming her husband and herself into small children. One wrong ingredient and a simple memory extraction had become their own personal magical DeLorean.

Emma was mortified.

Neither she nor Killian remembered the potion going poof. As far as they were concerned, one minute they were adults and the next they were rugrats. Which was all well and good but that also meant Emma had no idea what they'd done wrong. Hopefully Regina knew because spending two days as a ten-year-old was not a mistake Emma intended on repeating any time soon, thank you very much.

"And Regina never said specifically what the wrong ingredient was?" Killian was asking her parents.

"No, she didn't," Snow replied.

"And we didn't ask because we kind of had bigger things going on," David added, a teasing lilt in his voice. "Well, littler things. You know what I mean."

Emma gave him a sheepish smile. Yeah, she did know what he meant. She couldn't even imagine how they must have felt to be presented with a couple of ten-year-olds in place of two grown adults.

Before anyone could say anything further, what sounded like a herd of elephants bounded down the stairs. Said herd revealed itself a moment later to be Henry, holding a freshly changed baby Neal, and Wilby, who trotted along at the kid's side. The second Henry's gaze landed on Emma and Killian, a grin broke out on his face and he ran at them full force.

In less than a second, savior and pirate found themselves crushed in a hug with a teenager, baby, and dog. "Oh, I'm so glad you're back!" Henry exclaimed, his voice choked with emotion. "I mean, don't get me wrong. You guys were really fun when you were little but I missed you so much."

"We missed you, too, lad," Killian murmured into his hair. "Thank you for being such a wonderful playmate."

Even the squirt was happy to see them. Neal babbled at a frantic pace, waving his fingers through Emma's hair and giving little squeals of delight. The memory playing with him and making him laugh the day before hit Emma square in the chest. Her tiny baby brother had loved her in her kid form and he loved her now, recognizing his big sister in any incarnation. "And we missed you, too, squirt," Emma said around the lump in her throat as she lifted her brother from her kid's arms.

Her parents got a loving chuckle out of that one.

But it was Wilby – sweet, loyal Wilby who'd clung to her side the entire time she was little – happily pawing at her legs that made her lose it.

The tears seemed to arise from every emotion. Joy that she'd finally found people who would stick by her. Anger at those in her life who hadn't. Pure, unadulterated love for her family. Sorrow for the lonely little girl she'd once been. Happiness that the lonely little girl had finally gotten a taste of what she should have had. Sympathy for the frightened little boy Killian was. Delight that he now had some happy childhood memories, too. Pride for the way her entire family had come together to include him.

And Killian … the memories came back to her now, the way the two of them were drawn to each other even as children. The way she protected him and the way he took care of her. The way they comforted each other and encouraged each other.

Even as children, they shared True Love.

The emotions were far too much for someone who'd been ten years old a minute ago.

"Oh, sweetheart," Snow murmured as she and David joined the group hug. Another memory pushed its way to the surface: Emma telling her parents that she liked their pet names for her. Kiddo from David and sweetheart from Mary Margaret were the first pet names ten-year-old Emma could remember being called and she'd adored the idea that these two people cared about her enough to have special names for her.

The six of them plus Wilby stayed in the hug, sharing love and comfort, until Emma's tears stopped falling. "I'm sorry," she said sheepishly when everyone separated, sniffling back the last of their tears. "I've got kid emotion and adult emotion running through me at the same time and I guess I'm still a little all over the place."

"You don't have to apologize, kiddo," David said around an emotional tremor in his own voice. He smiled gently, drying Emma's cheeks with the sides of his thumbs. "It's perfectly all right."

Emotions settled, Henry asked, "So you do remember everything, right? How do the memories feel to you?"

Sensing that Emma wasn't quite up to answering just yet, Killian took up the gauntlet. "Sometimes they feel like they were only yesterday – because, well, they were – but other times they feel like they were ages ago."

Emma nodded in agreement. "It's weird. They're vivid because they just happened but they also have a faded edge to them as if they'd happened when I was really ten."

"Aye. So yes, lad, we do remember and we can't thank you all enough for taking such good care of us."

"It was our pleasure," Snow assured them. "Thank you for giving us such a wonderful opportunity."

Emotion threatened to overtake Emma again so she did what she did best: deflected it with a joke. "So what you're saying is we need to make magical screw-ups more often."

Just as she'd hoped, everyone laughed. "If more magical oopses mean we get more Mario Kart time, then yeah, you do," a cheeky Henry replied.

Though the mood in the room had been lightened, Emma still felt the need to go splash some cool water on her face. She excused herself to do just that and headed upstairs to the bathroom. On her way down the hall, she passed the room she and Killian had stayed in, the one that still looked like the loft in the tiny apartment she'd shared with her family.

She stood at the door a moment, taking in the detritus of life with children. A pair of socks lay on the floor next to Emma's bed and books covered Killian's nightstand. The mini planetarium Henry had given them still sat on the bed where Killian had slept. The dresser drawers were filled with tiny clothes.

It amazed her how quickly her ten-year-old self had felt comfortable in this room. She couldn't possibly have recognized the furniture but on some level, had she known that she'd belonged here?

"Emma? Are you all right?"

Emma jumped at the sound of her mother's voice. "Yeah, I'm fine," she said, turning around to face Snow.

Snow gave her such a knowing, motherly look that Emma's heart caught in her chest. "No, you're not. What's going on?"

"No, I really am. I was just thinking … this room, well, the apartment with you, it's the first home I ever had." The touched sparkle in her mother's eye gave her the courage to continue. "And now it's the first home little me remembers, too."

Yep, that totally did it. Tears welled in Snow's eyes as she wrapped her arms around her little girl in a hug. "I'm so glad we got the chance to know you."

"I'm glad I got the chance to know you," Emma murmured. "And I'm sorry you had to let me go."

Snow pulled out of the hug and held Emma at arm's length. Her love was etched on her face and her voice was strong and sure. "I'm not. You, Emma Swan, are my baby. You always will be, no matter how old you are."

At that, Emma felt another rush of emotion: pride and comfort and joy at being somebody's baby.

Once their emotions were back under control, Snow and Emma headed back downstairs. Emma met Killian's gaze across the living room and he instantly gravitated towards her. "You all right, love?" he murmured, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"Yeah," she replied as she leaned into him and rested her head against his shoulder. "Are you?"

"Aye. Your family gave me the chance to know what being in a family felt like. Those are memories I will treasure for the rest of my days."

That they were.

"And I would just like to point out," Killian continued, shifting his voice to reflect a gentle teasing, "that even though we didn't know each other at all, we still made quite the team."

"Yeah, we did, didn't we?" Emma mused. "We must have felt it even then, our True Love. We were just too young to recognize it for what it was."

Killian beamed at her before pressing a kiss to the side of her head.

The kitchen was finally clean and David emerged into the living room. "I don't know about anyone else but we've got all day and I don't feel like going anywhere. Who's up for another day of hanging out?"

"Does that mean more Mario Kart?" Henry asked, making everyone chuckle.

"I'm up for it if you are, kid," Emma shrugged.

Everyone was cool with that. After all the togetherness of the past couple of days, it seemed none of them wanted to give it up.

Emma did think, though, that she probably should thank Regina and Zelena for their hard work in fixing her little screw-up. Regina had dropped off the stuff Emma and Killian had left in the vault when she'd dropped off the books to Henry so while Henry set up the video game, Emma went off in search of her phone.

Her unread messages were plentiful but one in particular from Zelena stood out: it was a picture of her and Killian, ten years old and curled up practically on top of each other, sound asleep in a pile of blankets. "All right, what the hell is this?" she asked, holding her phone out for everyone to see.

Snow, David, and Henry all giggled. "Zelena did say she sent it to you," David said. "Guess she wasn't kidding."

"Aww, we look adorable," Killian murmured. While he was mostly teasing his wife, the tenderness of his tone indicated the truth of his words.

"Okay, but really?" Emma huffed. "Did we really need pictorial evidence of my magical oops?"

"Then I suppose I shouldn't tell you about the pictures I managed to take on my phone, either," Snow laughed.

"Ooh, you have more?" Henry asked, oblivious to the furious blush coloring his mother's cheeks. "I want to see!"

Of course, Snow couldn't help but grab her phone and show off said pictures.

Though she was thoroughly mortified, Emma crowded in with everyone to flick through her mother's pictures. And as candid photo after candid photo of video games and art projects and children playing together went by, she was struck by how relaxed and happy she and Killian seemed. The overwhelming love the family shared was evident in every frame.

So, okay, maybe she did have to make magical screw-ups more often. In trying to give her parents a gift, it turned out that Emma and Killian had given everyone a gift. Her parents had gotten to know the little girl they should have known while the lost little boy and the lost little girl finally had what every child should have: the love of a family.

[cianmarsfanfiction]

Kiddo Chapter 17. FF.net

The adults exited the bedroom with David leading the way Neal snuggled in his arms, David and Mary Margaret had agreed to not tell Emma, on account of there being no other choice, though it was with heavy hearts... or heart considering they only had one half of one heart each.  

“Coffee or tea Regina?” Mary Margaret offered pleasantly.

“Tea, please, I’ll help you.”

“Daddy’s going to have some coffee, isn’t he,” David lifted Neal close to his face and pressed a kiss to his cheek, “he is.” He continued to coo at his son. “because daddy has to keep up with his troublemakers, doesn’t he?” As though on cue he walked out of the bedroom into the kitchen and found Emma and Henry already in there. “Look, buddy, there’s two troublemakers now.” Emma was sat on Henry’s shoulders and was reaching both of her arms up to grab the cookie jar from the shelf.

Emma froze and slowly looked at him while biting her lip. “Oops…?”

David had to force himself not to laugh at Emma’s face, while Henry was looking slightly abashed, Emma really did look like a little kid with her hand caught in the cookie jar. He turned back to Mary Margaret to share a brief amused look as he put Neal into her arms. He walked over to his daughter and grandson, and swooped Emma into his arms, taking the cookie jar from Emma and placing it down on the counter in one swift movement. He looked at her with one eyebrow raised, but he couldn’t hide the amusement on his face.

“Whoops?” Emma offered again, this time from in David’s arms.

David chuckled and rolled his eyes playfully. “You need to be careful with your arm, no more using it.” He gave her a long look reminding her of their conversation not too long ago until she sighed. He scooped out three cookies from the jar and passed them a cookie each, keeping one for himself.

“Honestly, David, you’re as bad as the kids.” Mary Margaret chided but she had a smile on her face. She walked into the kitchen with Regina following behind her, she noticed Regina was trying to hide a smile herself.

Regina shooed David, Emma, and Henry out of the kitchen. “Mary Margaret and I are going to make apple pie for desert, while whoever is the most mature of the three of you can babysit… that’s probably Henry.”

“Let’s play Mario Kart!” Emma suddenly decided, her face lit up at the idea of being able to play the video game against Henry and her father, it also stopped David from being about to bite back at Regina.

“Em,” David reminded her gently, “you can’t hold the controller with your broken arm.” His heart broke at seeing her face fall. He sighed internally and tried to figure out a way to make her smile again. “…But me and you could go on the same team? We’ll easily beat Henry that way.” He watched her smile slowly appear.

She thought it through for a couple of minutes. “You could steer and I’ll do the boxes.” She smiled fully.

Henry smiled at the pair, he could see that his grandparents were really going out of their way to make sure that Emma was comfortable, not that he expected anything different from them. “I’ll set it all up.” He announced as he sped to the living room.

David shared a smile with Mary Margaret, he nipped back into the kitchen with Emma still in his arms, he pressed a kiss to the top of Neal’s head, then kissed his wife.

“Ew, come on guys!” Emma protested with a whine despite finding them sweet really. “Children present! Do you really have to scar us for life?”

“You notice how she only ever calls herself a child when it’s advantageous to her?” David smirked and didn’t even wait for Mary Margaret to reply when he ducked down to quickly and loudly kiss his wife, purely to wind Emma up.

Emma threw her head against David’s chest, hiding her face against it, and groaned loudly. “Daaaaaaaad!” She protested but didn’t move her head from where it was tucked even as the noise quickly stopped.

“David.” Mary Margaret chastised but there was laughter in her voice which even Emma could hear the muffled version of.

David chuckled and started to walk out of the kitchen with Emma in his arms. He ran his hand through her curls which had only been made messier during her nap. “Em, it’s safe, you can come out now.” He grinned down at her as she looked up at him with a playful glare and a pout, he couldn’t resist but to press a kiss on top of the golden ringlets he had just been stroking. “Come on, let’s go show Henry how it’s done.”

~OUAT~

Henry had set up the controllers in the steering wheel accessories, and the game was ready for them to pick which characters they wanted to be, he had already selected Mario as he always did. He watched David settle down onto the couch beside him, leaning against a cushion with Emma in his lap, Henry held out the control to his grandfather when he realised that his mother wouldn’t be able to take it with her one good hand and once David had tucked a throw over his and Emma’s laps Henry was free of it. “You’re going down old man.”

David looked down at Emma with one eyebrow raised. “Do you remember when he was just a nice little boy who wanted to just be taught how to fight with wooden swords? Now he’s just a sassy teenager.”

Emma laughed at David’s overly dramatic tone, he sounded as though he was trying too hard to be in a high school production of a Shakespearian play. “A sassy teenager who’s going to lose.” She corrected.

Henry chuckled and rubbed the back of his head before smoothing his hair down again. “Sure I am, mom, sure I am.”

“Which one do you want to be kiddo?” David asked his daughter, he held the Wii remote so that Emma could press the plus shaped button to choose which one she wanted.

Emma pressed the button until she got to the character she always chose. She heard David chuckle quietly and looked up at him confused. “What’s funny.”

David smirked good naturedly. “Well, if I knew that you were going to pick Toad yet again I’d have just pressed it straight away.”

“Yeah, Gramps, why didn’t you just assume it and press it straight away?” A smirk appeared on Henry’s face which was a perfect copy of the one his father used to pull.

Emma rolled her eyes at the pair of them nevertheless she pressed the button to pick the red toad. “Dad,” She pouted up at him, “you’re meant to be on my team.”

He took the remote back and flicked their character so they were on the red team, he knew that Emma tended to pick the red team. He had figured it was her favourite colour but after their conversation, he started to wonder if her favourite colour was still yellow like when she was younger, or if that really was her favourite colour when she was however old she had been acting, if not when had it changed?

Henry pressed the buttons to choose his kart and waited while David and Emma decided which to use. He watched them as they talked and Emma kept trying to take the remote from him which David kept lifting it up just out of her reach. He was glad that his mom was looking better, from being ill anyway, it was still weird for him to see her looking like a little kid – one even younger than Roland…. But she looked happy, and he figured she was probably an even happier when she was unaware that she wasn’t always just a kid. He still wanted his mom, she was his mom after all…. but if his other mom couldn’t find anything, if there wasn’t any safe way for her to turn back into an adult again he would be cool with it. He heard the noise as David and Emma finally picked a bike – Emma had clearly thought that it was enough to just be quick while David had tried to tell her that a combination of all the parts were important. Henry turned his attention back to the screen and grinned when he realised his grandfather had given in and his mother had won the fight.

“Mushroom-“

“I know mom.” Henry said with laughter in his voice, he had already pressed the button and the music as the racetrack was shown on the screen played. “You didn’t even have to tell me, you always want to play the mushroom cup… though even that won’t work to your advantage, I’m still just better than you at video games.”

“I taught you how to play them!” Emma protested.

Although Emma couldn’t see him, David smiled sympathetically down at her, he knew that she and Henry were only bantering as they usually did but now that Emma physically looked and sounded like a toddler her words came out in a whine they sounded slightly like they weren’t true because of it – as though Emma was Henry’s younger sister, not his mother. His mind was about to drift back to the morning and Regina’s warning, or fear, that Emma would be such a young child permanently. Henry would lose one of his mothers, they would lose one version of Emma, but would gain another version of Emma who they could raise alongside their other child and give her a happy and safe childhood.  But there was no time to think about that, the game was about to start and Emma hadn’t tried to take hold of the steering wheel yet, it took David a moment to see why, Emma was right handed as was the steering wheel accessory, she wouldn’t be able to press the buttons to release the boxes as she had been planning on doing. He quickly hit pause before the game could start and Emma looked up at him surprised that he was waiting to find a way which would mean she could play too, he hated that she clearly still wasn’t used to having people wanting to spend time with her and want her to be part of the fun no matter what. He gently took hold of her left hand and guided it to the left side of the steering wheel. “Here, you take that side, I’ll take this one.” He told her and smiled when her tiny hand gripped onto left side. “Just let me know when to fire at Henry’s team, you’re much better at this than I am.” If truth be told she was, the Wii had originally been bought when the curse had broken and they needed a way to bond with each other, Mary Margaret had deemed it was at least slightly healthier than other games consoles. He didn’t expect Emma’s hand-eye coordination to be up to the level she was when she was an adult, but he figured she could still boss him about – very much her mother’s daughter.

The three of them started to play. The first race David and Emma lost, it had taken them two laps to get used to playing together and by then Henry’s team had won. But the next lap they were ready, they quickly started to race through the farm style lap, the two falling back into their usual dynamic of working together, David followed Emma’s directions leading him to take shortcuts to make them fly through the air, and they swerved past the cows perfectly. As they used the ramp during their last lap Henry was right on their tail, David was surprised when suddenly Emma turned the wheel to make them knock Henry off as they started to fly, apparently it surprised Henry too.

“Hey! No fair!” He protested though it was clear that he was amused by it.

“All is fair in love, and war, and Mario Kart.” Emma retorted without missing a beat. She and David sped over the finishing line, beating Henry’s team easily.

“Yes!” David and Emma cheered triumphantly at the same time. David held an open hand in front of her and Emma obliged in giving him a high five.

“I’m so going to beat you two this time.” Henry growled playfully.

“In your dreams, kid.” David laughed him off as though he had just claimed that he would beat his grandfather in a sword fight.

Emma had a similar laugh to her father, but coming from someone the size of a three year old it sounded a looked a lot more adorable, as though she was a toddler copying her father. “Yeah, Henry, you know this next course is mine.”

Henry rolled his eyes but he didn’t even try to argue that bit, although he had his natural ability with video games which seemed to come with being a teenager, his mom loved the Mushroom Gorge track to the extent he was pretty sure that she would even be able to do it with her one arm and blindfolded while putting barely any effort into it.

The three started to race once again, David and Emma speeding off as soon as the screen told them to go, they raced towards the first set of the bouncing mushrooms and David led Emma in turning the wheel ever so slightly to knock Henry off of the mushroom.

“Hey! Grandpa!” He had expected it from his mother, but for his grandfather to lead the sabotage of his race was rare.

David chuckled. “Sorry, Henry, but me and your mom are gonna win.”

Emma, at a contrast to Henry, was beaming. “Dad, next time we jump, flip the control up.”

“What? Why?” David asked somewhat distractedly.

“Just trust me.”

Sure enough the next time they jumped on one of the mushrooms, they flipped up the control, the control vibrated slightly and their avatar did a trick in the air, when they landed their bike got a boost edging them way in front of all of Henry’s team. Emma pulled the wheel up, David copying her so they would skid off the track, though he wasn’t sure why she was doing it. Emma and David did a wheelie over the line as Henry turned the corner of the last stretch.

“Yes!” Emma threw her arms into the air in celebration, she winced a little at the heaviness of the cast on her arm, a dull ache, soothed by medicine already taken, vibrated through it but it wasn’t quite pain it was just uncomfortable. David’s hand carefully took hold of the cast and gently tugged it down so that it was lying in her lap instead, she rolled her eyes, she wouldn’t admit it but it did feel a little better.

“Careful of your arm, kiddo.” David gently reminded her, he knew that he had only just reminded her of it, but he was sure that she wasn’t doing it to be insolent she had just forgotten.

The points came up on the screen for each team, Emma and David were ahead but if Henry’s team won the next race he would win, Henry noticed this and leant forward his elbows were on his knees and he stared at screen intently. Emma, on the other hand, stayed leant backwards, comfortable using her father as a cushion.

The race began, the three of the playing, they trash talked each other as they raced through Toad’s Factory, they swerve to grab the object boxes and avoid being squished into the ground, they zigzagged to the arrows to speed their way through the mud, and they eventually launched themselves off of the ramp. They repeated this three times. In the final lap, Henry’s and David and Emma’s vehicles were head to head as they jumped off of the ramp for the last time, Henry landed slightly in front of them and Emma pulled the steering wheel accidently slowing them down. David desperately tried to steer them onto the right track and speed up. Henry crossed over the line first and erupted into a cheer.

Emma sighed, she let go of the steering wheel and slouched down a little bit, she tried to plaster on a fake smile so not to be a sore loser, but she was doing a bad job. She normally didn’t mind so much she didn’t get why it was bothering her so much. She noticed her dad staring at her with an amused look on his face. “I let the kid win.”

David chuckled and couldn’t even bother to hide his amusement anymore. A mock serious look appeared on his face, his brows lowered and his lips narrowed to a thin line though the corners were slightly pulled up, he nodded his head. “Of course you did, kiddo, of course you did.”

Henry watched his mom and grandpa’s conversation while laughing slightly, his face was completely lit up with amusement and joy, his mom wasn’t usual a sore loser (his grandma on the other hand was) and it was hilarious to him. He gave her a cheeky smile. “It’s okay mom, I can teach you how to actual play the game if you want, that way you might actually stand a chance at winning.”

Emma grabbed a cushion from the seat beside her and tried to throw it at her son, but it was too heavy for her to gain trajectory, it flopped pathetically onto the floor and Henry fled from the room laughing loudly.

~OUAT~

Mary Margaret walked past Henry, who was still laughing loudly as he headed into the kitchen to grab a drink, she shook her head and smiled fondly as she headed towards the living room, she was glad to see him smiling and that he could get to spend some time with his mom as his mom. Her fond smile stayed on her face as she reached the den. Emma was still sat on David’s lap, the pair were laughing at something and it took her a moment to realise that David was tickling their daughter, Emma’s laughter filled the room better than any music at any ball she had ever been to. Mary Margaret slowed her walking by a fraction so she could take in the sight, she was slightly surprised that Emma hadn’t objected to the hooded lion sweatshirt she was still wearing, she either hadn’t noticed it or didn’t care. How could she and David lie to her? No not lie, she had to remind herself they wouldn’t lie to her, but they would be keeping something important from her even for a little while. She had to shake the thought from her mind, if it was for Emma’s health they would keep it from her, even at the possibility of her being less than happy at them. She just hoped she understood. Mary Margaret walked over and sat beside David and Emma, smiling broadly at them, David must have noticed the look in her eyes as his smile turned both comforting and sympathetic it was clearly on his mind too.

Emma didn’t notice, she did however take advantage of David’s distraction to wiggle off of his lap and sat in the small gap between her two parents, she beamed proudly at having been able to escape David’s tickling.

Mary Margaret tucked one of Emma’s curls behind her ear, smiling lovingly at her, her thumb brushed her cheek as she did so, her skin was baby soft and as paled as Mary Margaret’s was. She stroked the back of her fingers against the cheek, she was still warm, but it wasn’t hot enough to be classed as a fever any more. The medicine for her arm pain would take care of it anyway.

Emma smiled up at her mom, as the fingers were brushed against her cheek, she leant her head against them in response. She watched her mom’s smile get bigger. “Mom?”

Mary Margaret brushed another invisible strand of hair behind her ear. “Yeah baby?”

“What’s for dinner? It’s not something healthy, is it?”

David and Mary Margaret laughed at the whine in her voice. The laughter was still evident in Mary Margaret’s voice when she answered her. “Well, I can always find you something healthy to eat.” She offered, “but otherwise I suppose takeout pizza will have to do.”  

Emma’s face lit up despite the teasing in her mom’s answer. It was very rare they would have actual takeout pizza. In her excitement she quickly bounced closer to her mom, and wrapped her arms around her, Mary Margaret responded in like by gently squeezing her daughter. “That sounds good to me, mom.”

David chuckled at the pair of them. He grabbed his wallet to get some money out of it to pay for the pizza, he had figured out that that was what his wife had originally been going to get money from her purse, but he didn’t want to interrupt her and Emma’s hug.

~OUAT~

The family all crowded into the living room to eat the pizza when it arrived. Regina was sat in an armchair, she ate her pizza with a knife and fork, and split her time between watching the movie and smiling at Neal who was sat in his bouncy chair next to the couch. Emma sat in between her parents on the couch, although the pizza was in boxes on the coffee table for everyone to help themselves to slices, Emma’s was cut into smaller pieces so it was easier for her to eat. “I still can’t believe you two haven’t seen this.” She commented to her parents, her mouth was full of the cheesy goodness, and she had sauce around her mouth.

Mary Margaret had been splitting her attention between her kids, food, and The Mummy movie they had on. She managed to restrain herself from wiping Emma’s mouth, judging from the smirk on David’s face he knew it was killing her not to, she rolled her eyes playfully at her daughter. “Well, you’ve only just made us watch it, I was stuck with a VCR and movies from pre-1983.” She reminded her. “I didn’t even own a DVD player until you moved in.”

Emma smiled back, she had forgotten about that, it felt as though she had been in Storybrooke forever not how long she really had been. “Well, you’ve missed out.”

“Me and mom used to watch this when I was little,” Henry mused he said mom the way he always did when he meant Regina, he smiled over at his adoptive mother, “it was the only slightly scary movie I was allowed to watch.”

Regina grinned back, she knew that before the curse there was problems with her parenting style partially due to the anxiety of the curse possibly being broken, but there was plenty of good times too. She chuckled slightly in answer to his comment. “You still ended up sleeping in my bed most times because you were scared that Imhotep would be in your room.”

The entire family laughed good naturedly, finding Henry cute instead of laughing at his expense, both Mary Margaret and Regina could remember Henry as a small boy, though of course the boy’s grandmother’s memories were from afar.

Emma looked at the grinning boy, her and Henry’s fake memories from New York had faded they were now more like memories of a distant dream, but she could still slightly see the young boy in her teenager’s face. “I went to see this movie too,” she felt her parents’ eyes upon her so she continued, “I went to the movie theatre to watch it. I ended up sleeping with all of the lights on.” The lights had been the ones in her bug, she had been sixteen and had only recently run away, stolen the car, and met Neal; the pair had snuck into the movie theatre to watch it, it was a good memory for Emma now she was at peace with her past with Neal, but she didn’t tell her family the details of it.

Emma felt as though her parents were watching her, but she whenever she glanced in their directions they were looking at the screen or would comfortingly smile at her, she didn’t that anything was necessary wrong her parents were just acting weird. But she knew that her parents would tell her if something was actually wrong.  

~OUAT~

The family carried on eating and watching the movie, every so often one of them would make a comment, but mostly they were just captivated in the movie. Emma found herself associating Rick and Evie with her parents, the banter was the same as her parents had every day which also seemed to end up in kissing which Emma made a big deal about but she found it sweet even if she did prefer it happen far away from her, plus like the characters her mother and father hadn’t exactly been fond of each other when they had first met, that was putting it mildly she supposed. Somehow the movie meant more to her now, as though she had been able to know what her parents were like, before she had actually known them. Emma was the first to finish, only eating two slices of pizza, which didn’t seem like much but considering she was only just better from the flu and was so small it was quite an achievement. She leant forward so she could put her plate onto the coffee table.

David grabbed hold of the back of Emma’s sweatshirt as Emma leant forward to stop her from falling face first from the couch, he lowered his arm to help her lower herself down then pulled her back up in a crane like manner. When she sat back up she had her phone now in her hands too, and was grinning at David, David shook his head but couldn’t keep the smile from his face. “Trouble.” He chided playfully as he grabbed another slice of pizza.

Emma just stuck her tongue out at him and settled back in between him and Mary Margaret. She tried to unlock her phone to search the web to find out the actor who played Rick, she knew his face and was sure she had seen him in other things but just couldn’t quite remember his name or what those things had been. She placed her thumb on the home button for it to read it and unlock, her eyes were on the screen when she felt her phone vibrate and read ‘try again’, after the third time that happened the numbers appeared on the screen and she was told to use her touch I.D or to enter her passcode. She growled in frustration and slowly entered the numbers, she did it wrong the first time and growled again, she concentrated hard the next time and finally unlocked her phone. She brought up google and the keypad automatically appeared and Emma looked at the letters and found herself feeling a bit lost. They were familiar enough that she knew how to spell everything she wanted to search out, but it felt as though she really needed to concentrate on it, like it was in slow motion or something… like she had just learnt it. It didn’t seem as though she should be as impacted with it as she was, but it made it slow, it was frustrating and worrying and she found herself huffing and mumbling in frustration under her breath.

Her mumbling and noises were always quiet enough that they didn’t disrupt Henry or Regina, but her parents heard her, David and Mary Margaret shared a look above Emma’s head. They could see her taking her time and deleting letters as she concentrated, growing more frustrated by the nanosecond. It made sense, their looks said, after all they were warned that she would start to become more childish something which would only increase. “She’s going to notice something’s wrong with her reading and writing.”, David’s look said, “How are we going to be able to keep what’s going on from her?” His eyes flickered down forlorn upon Emma’s white blonde hair, but she was too distracted to notice her father looking at her.

Mary Margaret bit her lip for a half second, she had no idea how they were going to keep it from her either, how could they? She sent David a sympathetic yet encouraging smile. She engaged in their silent conversation once more. “It’s going to be one of the hardest things we’ve ever had to do, but if it makes it even a little bit safer for Emma, it’s worth it.”

David nodded his head, but like Mary Margaret he knew it would be hard, and wondered how long they’d be able to keep it up. He glanced down at Emma again and saw how frustrated she still was and could see the worried crease between her eyebrows, he glanced up at Mary Margaret who just shook her head and swiped the phone from Emma’s hands.

Mary Margaret made sure to keep her voice bright and cheerful as Emma looked up at her in surprise at her phone’s sudden disappearance. “Why don’t you just watch your movie.”

Emma pulled her knees up to her chest, her mom had clearly caught her, a quick glance up at her dad made her realise he had seen too. The girl sized woman sighed. “I just wanted to figure out what I had seen him in.” She mumbled. She felt David’s hand rubbing circles onto her back as she watched Mary Margaret stand up and place her phone in one of the drawers of one of the many cabinets of different sizes and styles which filled the room, though she didn’t see which one it was exactly, and at that moment it didn’t really matter. She just focused on hoping her fast beating heart wouldn’t give her worry away to her father, she didn’t look at him as she knew her face would betray her worry over her sudden reading difficulties, she took a minute to recompose herself.

“George of the jungle?” Regina suggested after a brief pause, where only the movie filled the silence, and David, Mary Margaret, and Emma pretended that they were all absolutely fine.

Emma looked up with a small fake smile and nodded though looked confused, she hadn’t expected Regina to have seen that movie, even if it were the one which she had .  

“Henry had a time of about four months when he would only watch that movie, on repeat.” She laughed as Henry rolled his eyes playfully. “Until he decided to jump from the landing of the stairs in an attempt to become like his hero.”

“It was totally worth the broken arm.“ Henry laughed along with the rest of his family, he did notice that Emma’s laugh was slightly fake, which was what she had been hoping for.

~OUAT~

As the night wore on, it was clear to the others that Emma was starting to tire, she didn’t even want to eat any of the pie Mary Margaret and Regina made. Emma leant against her mother as they watched the end of the movie, she rubbed her eyes with her fist, and the corners of her mouth tugged up into a smile as her mom dropped a kiss onto the top of her head.

Regina cleared her throat and looked over at the rest of her weirdly put together family, she could see the resemblance between Emma and Henry when he was around her size, and although she’d never admit it to anyone (not even Robin or Henry), Emma did look rather adorable in that hooded sweatshirt Henry had a similar tiger one when he was little. “Well, Henry and I should go, Henry has school tomorrow and I told Robin we’d be home in time to say goodnight to Roland.”

“Yeah, I promised to read him a story from my book.” Henry grinned, he liked having Roland around and being like a big brother to him, the younger kid had seemed to attach himself to Henry straight away. Henry also got along with Robin, who, despite having to try and work out everything with Regina and Marian, had been making sure to bond with Henry too – clearly he was clearly planning on being around for a long while.  

Emma smiled at Henry, she was glad that he got along with Robin and Roland, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t going to miss him when he was gone, but she also didn’t want him to see her like that… it was probably hardest for him, at least she could spend much needed time with her parents. David and Snow stood up to say goodbye to Regina and Emma found herself suddenly being hugged by Henry.

“I love you mom. You’ll be fine.” He assured her, because he knew that his grandparents would never let anything bad happen to her, and he would have a part in her life even if she did change. He resolved to try and help Regina search for a way to help Emma, he could look through his book, maybe even talk to people who would have any clue – like Jefferson or if it came down to it Blue.

“I love you too, kid.” Emma squeezed him back and reassured him with her own words. “I know I will be. Hey, once this is over, we’ll go and get sundaes.”

Henry beamed back at her. “Good, chocolate ones with extra toppings, we probably shouldn’t tell grandma or she’ll make us eat every green vegetable she can name for like a week afterwards.”

Emma chuckled at that. “You’re right.” She held out her hand to shake on the promise of sundaes.

~OUAT~

Mary Margaret closed the door behind Regina, after she had warned David and herself again to try and keep it from Emma, at least until she could research it some more, even just a couple of days could be beneficial. She walked over to David as he was tucking their son into his crib, she watched him kiss two of his fingers then press them to Neal’s head, she couldn’t help but smile at what an amazing father he was to Neal and Emma, no matter their daughters age. She carefully stroked her finger down Neal’s cheek and smiled softly as he moved his head close to her touch but stayed fast asleep. She looked up and saw her husband smiling just as softly at her, she felt him duck his head slightly and kiss the top of her head, she leant against his side and the pair just watched their son sleeping peacefully for a minute. But eventually she had to break the silence. “We need to talk to Emma, about the pullups, she doesn’t remember any of what happened last night or this morning, she doesn’t remember agreeing to wear them… even if she could remember that we would have to talk to her again as it wasn’t this Emma who agreed.”

David sighed at the inevitable. “I know.” And he did, he also knew how hard this was going to be, much harder than convincing the child Emma that she needed them. “We’ll just explain that it’ll be better for her, I hate seeing her being terrified when she wakes up and feels like she has to try and change her bed covers before we see.”

“Not to mention the nightmares, their impact only seems worse when she has to go through all that hassle.” Mary Margaret agreed, they were so clearly psyching themselves up, but they also knew that they needed to do so as this was going to be a hard task to complete.

David nodded his head at his wife and gently squeezed her hand. They both walked over to the table where Emma was putting one of the walkie talkies.

Emma had to stand on her tiptoes with the packet in the air to be able to even nudge the box onto the table, and that was by using her sore arm too, she turned and saw her parents looking at her. “Henry left his one here.” Her own walkie talkie was still on the coffee table, she didn’t want to put them both together in the off chance that someone would put both of the walkie talkies into the box and Emma would be left without one for a short amount of time, in which she could have been talking to Henry in.

“You have to be careful with your arm, kiddo.” David reminded her gently, he watched Mary Margaret pick her up and sit her down on her lap at the head of the table, he took a seat beside them.

Emma looked at her dad then tilted her head back up at her mom. A deep sense of worry filled her, out of habit, she knew the tension of a hard conversation too well. “Guys? What’s going on?”

“You’re not in trouble, Em.” David promised her, he took hold of her hand which was resting on table and took hold of it, and gently squeezed it. “I promise.”

Mary Margaret hummed her agreement with David’s statement. “We wanted to talk to you, honey, about the accidents you’ve been having at night.” She felt Emma’s entire body tense so she rubbed circles against her stomach. “You’re not in trouble, baby, we’ve just been noticing how hard this is on you, and that it’s making you wake up really distressed-“

“-And pretty out of it, because it makes your nightmares worse.” David added. He figured he could play the night before off as her being out of it, for the time being, he wasn’t completely lying as she had been rather out of it but he was still planning on apologising when it was at least slightly safer for Emma to know the truth. “Do you remember me finding you last night?” He watched her shake her head with a frown. “You were huddled, soaking wet, between the machines in the laundry room while still half asleep.”

“Sorry,” Emma apologised straight away, she didn’t like how this conversation was going, it was so similar to others she had had when she was younger and had caused too much hassle for foster carers so was being sent back to a home, “I didn’t mean to wake you up, I promise I won’t again.” She stared at her father, then mother, then father again, willing them to believe her. Visions of what felt like a million different ‘homes’ flickered through her head, black trash bags of her handful of belongings as care kids weren’t given suitcases, it was only the bags she had gained when she was twelve which marked the passage in time in her head, she hadn’t gained many belongings within the sixteen years in the care system, maybe a few books here and there. Then there was always a file, a thick file her social worker carried, her file. It only got bigger, full of medical reports, teachers’ reports, and police reports. It was passed around as she moved, full of pictures of injuries which she looked disgusted at whenever she looked at them, partially at the injuries themselves partially at the knowledge of the pity they would reward her should any of those whom she loved ever saw them.

David sighed. “No, Em, you’re not supposed to try and deal with this by yourself I’d much rather you woke me up. I’m telling you because it’s dangerous for you. You’re being woken up because you had an accident, then when you’re heading down the stairs without even realising it to try and deal with it on your own, you could get hurt by falling down the stairs.”

“Or if you fall asleep between the machines and we go up we might think you’re missing, and that would scare us, more than you could imagine.” Mary Margaret added. She knew Emma well enough to know that she was probably panicking and it was important to get to the point before she had a panic attack. “We’ve come up with a solution, of sorts, we know this will be hard for you, but it really is for the best.” She reached for the shopping bag which had been left on the table, the other one with the Dory pullups had been hidden in the closet belonging to the downstairs bedroom, and pulled out the packet of the plainer packet of pull ups.

There was a beat of silence.

“You’ve got to be fucking shitting me.” Emma said with her usual linguistic eloquence. Her mouth hung open when she wasn’t speaking. She knew her mother wasn’t a fan of her cursing, normally pointing out that she wasn’t a sailor so there was no reason why her language should match one, but Mary Margaret clearly decided that now wasn’t the time to get into that one.

The silence remained.

Emma studied David’s face and saw he was being serious. She half turned around so she could examine her mother’s face, desperately hoping that her mother would tell her that she had a magic solution she had only just thought of, she would have thought her parents were playing a particularly cruel joke on her but that simply wasn’t who her parents were. There was clearly no fix all solution as Mary Margaret gave her a tight lipped sympathetic look.

“No.” Emma breathed out. “No.” She repeated louder. She pulled her hand from David’s hold and managed to climb down from her mom’s lap one-handedly. “No!’ She shouted, shocking not just her parents but herself, but she just repeated it a couple more times. She felt the fire of her anger fill her tiny body. It was overwhelming, suffocating, uncontrollable. She was not in control of her body as she stomped her feet then carried on stomping them away from the table to the living room. As she stomped she carried on shouting “No!” though sometimes she threw in a “I don’t want to!” She kicked the television stand, pain seared in her foot but she couldn’t stop, she kicked a side table where a vase was precariously heading closer to the edge. Her shouts had taken on a sobbing tone and she only absently heard her brother’s cries. She felt a pair of big hands lift her up by her waist and place her down a few feet away from where she had been stood. She pulled herself from where David’s hands were barely holding her, she dropped to the floor, lying flat on her front her feet kicked the ground, and she cried loudly weaving ‘No.’ into the sobs every now and again, though the word had lost all its meaning.

David and Mary Margaret had been watching Emma in shock as she moved to the living room and started to tantrum, they understood why she was feeling angry and upset, but they knew that she would normally have protested something by using more than five words so this was clearly in part due to her toddler emotions. Somehow they could tell that Emma was still in her adult mind, though that was probably only because of their natural parenting instincts, it made them feel even worse for having to hide Emma’s possible fate from her. Neal started to cry at the noise having woke him up. Mary Margaret sighed, barely audible above the shouting and sobbing and kicking, she stood up and headed to the crib to soothe the baby.

David stood up too, and headed over to watch Emma play out her tantrum, not planning on interfering unless Emma was in danger of hurting herself, he saw the vase edging closer to her and decided to step in, he wasn’t prepared to let the vase to fall on or near his daughter, and wasn’t too keen on her possibly hurting her foot by kicking all the solid furniture. He picked her up, barely off the ground, and felt her struggling in his hold. He placed her feet back onto the floor and crouched in front of her, though she clearly didn’t really see him as she threw herself onto the ground, he stayed crouched next to her feeling helpless. It felt as though he and Mary Margaret had been thrown into parenting head first. They had been parents, of course, for about three decades but they had only known it for a couple of years and that definitely hadn’t been in a conventional way. But all of a sudden they had a new born son and a daughter who was sometimes a toddler and sometimes an adult who acted like a toddler. David watched his daughter kicking the ground and cry. He rubbed circles onto her back, at first she tensed at them, but eventually he felt her back muscles relax. A few more minutes later and her feet stopped kicking, a few more passed and David became aware that she was no longer shouting no and was just crying, he gave it one minute more before he chanced picking her up. She did not resist. He held her to his chest and felt her burying her head against his chest, her hand grabbed onto David’s open plaid shirt and held onto it so her knuckles turned white. He sighed in sympathy for his daughter, he made sure that her yellow casted arm was against him in a way which meant she wasn’t about to hurt it, then he cradled the back of her head with his hand, as he always did, while she cried. He stood up with her, and rocked slightly side to side in a natural attempt to soothe her, he made gentle shushes to encourage her to calm. He looked across at Mary Margaret and saw she was doing the same with Neal. They shared a bittersweet smile but didn’t talk as their babies cried.

Neal stopped first and fell asleep, and after a while Emma was simply sniffling into David’s chest, his shirt and t-shirt were drenched by her tears and running nose, but he did not mind.

Mary Margaret walked over to David and Emma and placed her hand on Emma’s back, rubbing gentle circles onto it as she shared a look with David, they could tell that although it was the pullups which started this all off, Emma’s reaction was a combination of all the things which had happened recently, the loss of some of her reading skills had clearly been weighing on her mind. David sat down on the chair Mary Margaret had previously been sat in with Emma, but this time Emma was with him instead. She stayed cuddled to his chest, clinging on and sniffling, so David held her close to him and continued to rock himself and his daughter as Mary Margaret rubbed her back from the chair to David’s left.

Eventually the sniffling died down and her grip on his shirt loosened, David would have thought that she had fallen asleep against him, but Emma mumbled, her voice was so quiet it would have been hard to hear ordinarily, but now her words were distorted entirely by being spoken while pressed as close as possible to David’s chest. He gently pulled her away from him and sat her sideways onto his lap, she was facing Mary Margaret and he could see her face too, he wiped stray tears from her bright red cheek and sighed internally at how miserable she looked, he wanted to just wrap her in blankets, cuddle her close, and never let go. He didn’t have to look at Mary Margaret to know that she felt the same. “What did you say kiddo?” He asked her, so softly that he became aware only after he had spoken that it was said in the same way which he would have spoken to a small child, though he would argue that he had spoken to her like that before even as an adult.

Emma bit the corner of her lip until she tasted the faint hint of blood. She looked at her mom then at her dad, her eyes were somehow even bigger than usual, but she looked down when she spoke, too embarrassed and desperate to face looking at either of them as she tried to bargain. “I can… I can clean up any mess myself, and I’ll try really hard, I promise,” her words were spilling out of her, stumbling over one another as they rushed out, dripping with desperation, “you won’t have to know, I can keep it secret, I promise.”

Mary Margaret watched Emma’s despairing rambling come to a stop, as David pressed a firm kiss to the top of her head, as though David had broken a curse with a true love’s kiss. Mary Margaret reached across and stroked her hand down Emma’s tiny, hot cheek. “Sweetie, we don’t mind having to change your bedsheets, you shouldn’t have to change them, you should never have had to do that.” She paused as Emma looked from her to David, when she looked back her bottom lip was jutted out still but there was also a look on her face which showed Mary Margaret that Emma was believing of her mother’s statement. “If there was another way which we thought would help you as much as this will, we would take that in a heartbeat, but this is the best way. This is the best thing for you, baby.”

“It’s not fair.” Emma’s bottom lip wobbled and before she knew it she was crying once again. This crying was different. This crying was barely audible, as though Emma didn’t want them or anyone else to hear, it was one which Emma had learned to do at a very young age. It was the cry of a child who had learnt not to be heard or face the consequences.

Mary Margaret and David’s shared heart broke. They knew, yet again, that this wasn’t just about Emma having to use pullups during the night time, this was everything. This was Emma having been sent back in time and ending up as a toddler size child as a result, this was having to concentrate with all of her might to remember how to spell ‘how’, this was all the emotions which seemed to constantly be bubbling under the surface of her skin, this was the memories of her past behind her eyelids whenever she shut her eyes.

“It’s not.” Mary Margaret’s agreement was barely above a whisper, a shared statement which Mary Margaret yet again voiced on behalf of herself and David, and she meant everything Emma did, and more. She meant having to keep something from Emma, Emma having nightmares because she had grown up neglected and abused, Emma having had to grow up without them, Mary Margaret having to tell David to put Emma into the wardrobe in the stray hope that their new born baby who hadn’t even been given the opportunity to feed would not be killed, David having to put the baby into the wardrobe. And the fact that there was a possibility that they would be able to raise Emma and give her a happy childhood, but if that happened it was because they had lost the adult version of Emma, and so far, they had no way to stop that happening.

Emma resumed her position against David’s chest as she resumed her crying.

Mary Margaret rubbed Emma’s back, and David rocked her in his arms, trying to soothe her the best they could. The parents had tears in their eyes, they hadn’t needed a shared heart to feel the same when it came to their kids, particularly Emma.

Eventually Emma stopped crying but she stayed cuddled close to David. By now her medicine had worn off and her broken arm was starting to hurt once more, she held it instinctively towards her chest, she felt David rocking her and her mom rubbing her back making soothing shushing noises and gently assuring her that everything would be okay, Emma didn’t want this moment to end. “Okay.” Emma reluctantly agreed, finally, and she did not have to say what it was she was agreeing to.

David smiled softly at his daughter, he dropped another kiss to the top of Emma’s head, he could see his own small smile reflected on Mary Margaret’s face. “Good girl.” He squeezed her tight for a half second as Mary Margaret grabbed one of the pull ups. “Why don’t you let your mom go help you get changed and I’ll make some hot chocolates,” he saw her open her mouth and he smirked, “yes with cinnamon. You can take some medicine for your arm then we can all have our drinks and watch a movie.”

A small smile appeared on Emma’s face, it was barely visual, but it was there nonetheless. “Okay.” She agreed. “So long as we get cookies too.”

David smirked, he was never one to turn down cookies, whether they were for Emma or himself. “Deal.” He placed her into Mary Margaret’s arms and watched his wife carry his daughter up the stairs before setting about making the hot chocolates.

~OUAT~

Emma woke in the early hours, she had been having a bad dream, not up to the level of her previous nightmares, but bad enough that she didn’t want to go back to sleep in her room. She had dreamt that she had been living in the loft with her parents and brother, then suddenly Petunia, one of her old social workers, had turned up and taken her from the home, now when she shut her eyes all she could see was that huge file and hear the knock at the door. She shook her head to try and rid herself of the memory of the dream, it didn’t work, but it did spur her into action. Her bedroom was fairly light from the lamp which had been left on, so she was able to see as she put on the child size dressing gown her mom had bought her along with a pair of slippers. She grabbed her blanket and a flashlight which was on top of one of her bedside tables. She noticed her walkie talkie had found its way up to Emma’s room, no doubt put there by Mary Margaret, Emma placed it into her dressing gown pocket, finding comfort in its presence.

She walked down the stairs with her things, finding her way with the help of the flashlight, there had been a lamp left on in the kitchen but the loft was still rather dark, winter was close so the dark and cold had settled onto the town in a way it never had before Emma had moved there. She walked past the table on her way to the couch, she remembered that Henry had left his walkie talkie there, she knew it would be a while before her parents woke up so perhaps she could busy herself by texting him to let him know that he had left it… perhaps that way she could figure out why her literary skills had been playing up earlier, she hoped that it was just a one time thing, if not she had no idea what to do.

She placed her blanket down on the couch as she searched for her phone, she didn’t bother to turn on any lamps as she searched the tops of tables and usual cupboards and cabinets, she had no idea why the curse had equipped her mother with so many of them, they matched the higgledy piggled style of the loft, but it made searching a whole lot harder. She sighed and put the flashlight into her other pocket, it pointed up illuminating the room and shining around as she moved.

She looked at some of the more unusual cupboards. Eventually she got to one she couldn’t remember her mom ever using, it was in the style of a trunk like the ones people used to travel with in the olden days, or in Harry Potter, except it was upright and had drawers. She opened it up and shined her flashlight into it, not expecting much, then the light flickered to a big file, just like the one in her dream.

Her heart skipped a beat. No. It couldn’t be.

She placed the flashlight down on the ground so she could pick the file up. She grabbed it and sat on the ground, maybe it was all a misunderstanding, she hoped, but then she saw that her name was on the front. She flicked it open and found pages and pages full of numerous doctor’s notes and scans, x-rays, and results of other tests. She tried to read some of them as her mind raced with memories of files almost identical to this one appearing whenever she was about to be moved, often to some place much worse, because she had become too much bother. But she hadn’t… had she? Her eyes filled with tears which only made trying to read the typed writing even harder, the handwritten notes were near impossible, the file was too hard to hold and so all of the pages fell out of the manila folder along with photos of various injuries at various ages.

She picked up her flashlight, she wanted to know what was going on, to shout, to demand answers from her parents, hope for any reason which would wash away the worry she was being sent away. There was the only too familiar worry that she had done something which had made Mary Margaret and David decide that she was too much hassle, it didn’t take long before her mind drew its conclusions, after all they had a new born baby now that was a lot of work and stress, then all of a sudden she had been turned into the size of a toddler and seemed to be having the troubles of one too. She was too much for them to handle anymore. They didn’t sign up for this. The curse had broken, and she was twenty-eight, they wanted to stay in her life with her as an adult, an actual adult not an adult who couldn’t even work as she was the size of a three year old.

Her flashlight flashed back into the drawer and she spotted a familiar yellow fabric. It was only when she pulled it out that she realised that it was the same lion from the dream she had had earlier on. If her mind had been spinning before it was on a carousel now, one which was spinning out of control, she had thought that it had been a dream but now she wasn’t so sure. She had no idea what was going on. She tried to remember the morning or even the night before, David had said that she had woken up after a nightmare and gone to the laundry room, she couldn’t remember a second of it. But then she had a strange feeling that she had had a bad dream within that dream of her where she was a toddler with her parents… unless….

Could she be…. Was she…

She had been a child that morning without remembering it… she was turning into a child again.

She had no idea what she could do to stop it.

In her dream she had been happy, not a dream it had been real, with her parents and brother she had been happy.

She thought that they had all been happy. But evidently not.

She was too much for her parents to handle. They hadn’t signed up for this, they had her file, and were just waiting for her to be taken away. She would be gone by the end of the week.

She was not going to wait that long. She didn’t want to say goodbye to them, it would hurt too much. She’d find her own way to a different place, she’d run away, as she always did.

She was fighting tears as she placed the flashlight into her dressing gown pocket and grabbed her blanket. She didn’t want to leave, she didn’t want to leave the loft it was the first home she had ever known, and she didn’t want to leave her family they were her only one. But she clearly wasn’t making them happy, her being there, and she would do anything to make them happy or even to make them smile.  

She walked to the door and was thankful that it was not locked. She managed to reach the door handle, she opened the door shivering as the hot air from the loft rushed out, she took a step into the hallway.

She looked back into the loft, she wanted her mom or dad to suddenly wake up, and rush to stop her to tell her that they love her, or for Neal to cry and wake them up, to stop her from having to run away. She needed, desperately needed in a way that she had never needed anything before, an explanation which wasn’t the same as she assumed and feared.

The loft was silent.

Emma closed the door of her one and only home behind her as she set off into the frozen night.

[dani-ellie03]

Fic: Wednesday’s Child (19/?)

Title: Wednesday’s Child Summary: The next time Emma Swan wanted magical help, she was on her own. Because now they were stuck with a pint-sized savior who clearly had an attitude problem and a terrified but pretending not to be pre-pirate. Spoilers: If you’re current, we’re good. Rating/Warning: PG-13, mostly for safety. Family angst/fluff, as per usual. Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time and its characters were created by Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC. I’m just borrowing them but I’ll put them back when I’m finished! Author’s Note: Shoutout to @fezfanatic and @stark-park, for reasons. ;) Also,  please have your toothbrush handy because wow, this is sugary. Oops? O:)

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{1} {2} {3} {4} {5} {6} {7} {8} {9} {10} {11} {12} {13} {14} {15} {16} {17} {18}

At ff.net and below.

Tagging @shealivedarnit (If anyone else wants to be tagged, let me know!)

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Since Killian and Henry were having fun playing Super Mario Kart and Emma was perfectly content cuddled up between her parents with her baby brother on her lap, Snow saw no reason to break up the little party. A tiny voice that seemed to come from the elementary school teacher side of her tried to insist that the children should not have been spending so much time in front of the television. However, the bright grin on Killian's face and the amusement and pride in Emma's eyes as she watched Killian start to actually give Henry a run for his money silenced that voice. Besides, if this truly was the children's last night as children, they should spend it doing something they enjoyed.

"You could race, too, if you want, Emma," Charming reminded her after a long beat of silence. "You don't have to stay up here with us and Neal."

"Nah, that's okay. I like watching the boys race." She looked up at Charming somewhat shyly. "And I like sitting up here with you guys and Neal."

Snow's heart practically lifted straight out of her chest. The amount of progress they'd made with their little girl in such a short time was nothing short of a miracle. Could Emma have somehow unconsciously understood that she belonged here? That she was finally with people who loved her with all they had? The day before and even this morning, she kept saying they were different. She must have felt the effects of their love and attention, the love and attention she'd craved her entire life and had never received.

"We like sitting up here with you, too, kiddo," Charming assured her with a touched smile. Then he swiped the tip of his index finger down her nose, making her giggle.

Seven o'clock came far too soon for Snow's tastes. A large part of her wished she could stay on the couch with her husband and babies until morning but the more responsible part of her knew that if Neal was to go down without a fight, she needed to start him on his bedtime routine now. "All right, little prince, it's night-night time," she murmured as she extended her arms to take the baby from his sister's lap.

Neal let out a rather displeased whine, drawing surprised looks from the rest of the family. The baby's insistence startled the boys so much that both their pixelated racers fell off the track.

Well, then. There went trying to get him down without a fight. Having so many people to play with didn't help; the poor baby clearly didn't want to miss any of the fun.

That being said, it was indeed his bedtime so Snow lifted him off Emma's lap despite his fussing. "Shh, you'll see everyone in the morning. Everyone say good night."

"Good night!" came the chorus of soothing voices, all attempting to calm the baby.

As Snow headed out of the room with Neal on her hip, he stretched his hand out to Emma. At once, big sister responded to her baby brother's call, pushing herself from the sofa and sidling up to Snow. "I could help you get him in his crib for the night, if that's okay."

It was more than okay. In fact, it was the most perfect thing Snow could imagine. "Of course it's okay, sweetheart. Thank you very much."

"Yes, and while you two settle the little guy," Charming added as he stood up as well, "Henry, Killian, and I can clean up down here and get everything set up for movie night. We can pop the popcorn and pile the bed with blankets so we'll be good to go once the little prince is down."

Snow sent her wonderful husband a bright smile. Splitting the tasks would certainly help a great deal. "That works for me," she agreed, her smile growing when Emma nodded beside her.

"Works for us, too," Henry said after exchanging a glance with Killian and receiving a nod in response to his silent question.

"I just have one question," Killian spoke up.

"What is it?" Charming asked.

"What's a movie?"

They all exchanged an amused grin. "Something you've got to see to believe," Emma chuckled.

With the family's plans now settled, Snow carried Neal up the stairs with Emma one step ahead of her. As soon as Neal realized that Emma was coming, too, he'd stopped fussing. That didn't mean, however, that he was suddenly happy that bedtime had rolled around. The second his crib came into view, he started to whine again.

Snow jiggled him in her arms in an effort to settle him but before any words of comfort could come out of her mouth, Emma addressed her baby brother. "It's okay, Neal. We're going to change you into your PJs and read a story and it's going to be so much fun." Belatedly, she looked up at Snow to make sure she'd gotten the baby's bedtime routine correct.

"That's exactly right, Neal," Snow replied with a wink to her little girl, who let out a soft breath of relief. "We're going to have a ball."

For such a young child, Emma was a fantastic help getting Neal ready for bed. She picked out a pair of pajamas for him and brought over a fresh diaper and the container of wipes without Snow having to ask her. While Snow changed Neal, Emma crouched in front of the little bookshelf to pick out a book to read. Somehow, Snow wasn't surprised when Emma finally decided on Goodnight Moon.

"You do more than just play with the babies at your group homes, don't you," she said softly.

It wasn't a question but Emma nodded anyway. "I don't have to do the bedtime stuff at the good homes but some of the bad ones … I try to take care of the babies and the little kids. Nobody should just be put in bed and left in the dark but especially not the little kids."

A telltale tickling rose in the back of Snow's throat and she coughed to ease it. No, she was not going to cry. She was not going to imagine her little girl – her sweet, wonderful little girl – alone in the dark. She was not going to imagine her little girl with no one to comfort her after she awoke crying from a nightmare. She was not going to imagine her little girl putting herself to bed and feeling utterly alone.

Instead, she focused on the little girl in front of her, the girl who, at ten years old, tried so hard to make sure no other child felt as alone as she had felt. "You're an amazing little girl, Emma Swan."

A teary-eyed Emma ran up to her mother and threw her arms around her waist. In an instant, Snow dropped to her knees so she could properly hug her little girl while also holding her baby boy. "I'm so glad I'm here," Emma whispered into her ear.

"I'm so glad you're here, too, sweetheart. We all are."

Neal chose that exact moment to let out a happy babble, making both mother and daughter laugh. "See?" Snow teased, sniffling back the tears of joy. "Neal agrees."

Emma held the hug a beat longer and then pulled away, wiping her eyes. "All right, squirt, I get it. Now let's read a bedtime story, huh?"

After settling the baby in his crib, Snow eased down on the rocking chair with Emma at her feet. She read Goodnight Moon to both her babies while once again thinking that this was how it should have been all their lives.

It took one and a half runs through Goodnight Moon for Neal to finally close his eyes. After Snow let her voice trail off, she and Emma waited a couple of minutes before pushing themselves to their feet. "Good night, little prince," Snow whispered before pressing a kiss to her fingertips, which she then ghosted across her baby boy's little forehead.

"Good night, squirt," Emma added, her voice the same whisper as Snow's. "See you in the morning."

Snow switched on the baby monitor, picked up the receiver, and walked her little girl out of the room, leaving the door open a crack.

By the time she and Emma entered the master bedroom, the boys had gotten everything ready. On the dresser sat two large bowls of freshly made popcorn gleaming with melted butter. They'd poured glasses of water for everyone, the better to quench the thirst created by the salty popcorn. The bed was piled with some of the blankets used in the fort, which Charming assured her had been dismantled and the rest of linens used in its construction put away.

"I'm bummed about that, by the way," Killian interjected, using a word Henry had clearly taught him and making the adults chuckle.

Wilby had even settled on one of the blankets while patiently awaiting Emma's return. The only things left to do were choose a movie and get comfortable.

The movie choice mostly came down to Emma. Henry was fine with whatever the kids wanted and Killian obviously didn't know any of them. When Emma seemed to have trouble deciding between Mary Poppins and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Charming told her to pick both of them.

"Both? Really?"

The excitement on her little face melted her parents' shared heart. "Of course, kiddo," Charming assured her. "I think a movie night this big calls for more than one movie, don't you?"

"I definitely do," she grinned.

"I still don't know what a movie is," Killian reminded everyone. He'd slid Honey, I Shrunk the Kids from Emma's hand and read the synopsis on the back of the sleeve. "I take it it's a story of some kind?"

"It's kind of like a play," Snow explained. Hopefully her own experiences in both worlds would help her to explain the concept of a motion picture to a little boy from the Enchanted Forest. "It's a story being acted out by real people but they're not going to be right in front of us like they would be at a play. They're going to be on the television."

The poor boy still looked a little confused but he nodded anyway. "Thank you."

Something told Snow that the boy would have many more questions before the night was over, especially once they got to "Jolly Holiday" in Mary Poppins.

With the movies chosen and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids in the VCR, the family all piled onto the bed. Snow and Charming climbed under the covers and were surprised when both Emma and Killian settled on top of the covers in between them. Hiding a grin, Henry handed each child a blanket, a pillow to prop up against the headboard with the adults, and a bowl of popcorn before lying down the long way at their feet. After everyone had settled, Wilby made himself comfortable in the empty space between the children's feet and Henry's back.

Thank heavens she and Charming had sprung for the king bed!

As the movie started, Snow made a point of watching Killian out of the corner of her eye. The sheer wonder on the boy's face struck her as utterly adorable. It was clear he was bursting with questions, not only about the mechanics of how the movie was playing on the television but also all the technology in the movie (outdated though it now may have been) but he was also drawn in by the story and didn't want to break the flow by asking his questions.

He finally broke his self-imposed silence with a gasp when the titular kids shrank. "I understand that this is just a story and those people are simply portraying the characters in the story but how did the people who made the story make the actors that little?"

Henry turned around and gave him a comforting smile. "They're not really little. It's a trick. They built really big pieces of furniture and other really big things to make the kids look really little. Kind of like how if Neal held something, it would look really big but if you held the same thing, it would look smaller."

"Perspective," the boy nodded. "It looks so real, though."

"That's what makes it a trick."

Emma didn't say a word but tucked herself further into Snow's side. A touched Snow wrapped her arm around Emma's shoulders and the bright smile that lit the little girl's face indicated how pleased she was with this entire evening.

Once again, everyone settled down and the rest of the movie played in silence. Towards the end, Snow felt more than saw poor Emma fighting a losing battle with sleep. Smiling, she tightened her arm around her little girl's shoulders, inviting her to snuggle even closer. Her little girl did so and finally let herself relax.

When the movie was over, Snow turned her head to ask the rest of the family if they wanted to put in Mary Poppins only to realize that she'd lost Killian and Charming, too. Even Wilby was out like a light.

Henry must have expected conversation to kick up as the credits rolled because he turned around at the absence of voices. The grin that split his face warmed Snow's already full heart. "I guess one movie was enough."

"Yes, I guess so," Snow chuckled.

Henry slid off the bed, stopped the tape, hit rewind, and switched off the television. After gathering the empty glasses, he slipped the popcorn bowls off the children's laps. "Do you want me to help you move them?"

Snow's heart skipped a beat. No, she didn't want Henry to help her move them. She didn't want to move them at all. If this was the last night she had with them, she wanted them as close as possible, Emma's bed hog tendencies and all. "No, thank you," she said with a smile. "They can stay right here tonight."

Henry returned her smile and nodded in understanding. Once he'd packed up the detritus of movie night, he leaned in for a good night kiss. "Night, Gramma."

"Good night, Henry," she said, dropping a soft kiss on his cheek. "See you in the morning. Thank you for cleaning up tonight and for being so wonderful about their little accident the past couple of days."

"You're welcome. They're really fun and I'm glad we can help them while they're little."

Gods, Snow had the best family.

And now it was time to tuck the rest of that family in. She slid the pillows behind Emma and Killian flat, made sure the blankets were properly covering them, and then ensured Charming was snug and warm as well. Starting with Charming, she gave each of her sleeping family members a good night kiss. "Good night, my darlings. I love you."

And maybe it was just her imagination but she could have sworn all three of her family members smiled in their sleep, giving her their own unconscious good nights.

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Chapter Twenty

[dani-ellie03]

Fic: Wednesday’s Child (8/?)

Title: Wednesday’s Child Summary: The next time Emma Swan wanted magical help, she was on her own. Because now they were stuck with a pint-sized savior who clearly had an attitude problem and a terrified but pretending not to be pre-pirate. Spoilers: If you’re current, we’re good. Rating/Warning: PG-13, mostly for safety. Family angst/fluff, as per usual. Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time and its characters were created by Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC. I’m just borrowing them but I’ll put them back when I’m finished! Author’s Note: Daddy Charming/Mama Snow/wee Emma time ahoy! I couldn't help myself. O:)

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{1} {2} {3} {4} {5} {6} {7}

At ff.net and below.

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"I know it wasn't exactly the best idea to let them sit in front of the television this long," Snow murmured to her husband, "but look at them, Charming."

Oh, he was looking. He couldn't stop looking, his loving gaze taking in every single detail of the scene in front of him. Henry's barely concealed wonder as he played with his tiny mother and stepfather, the sheer pride on little Killian's face when he finally won a race, the amused smile brightening little Emma's eyes at the teasing conversation that had sprung up during the game.

"Sometimes it's all right to let children while away the afternoon in front of a video game," he agreed just as softly, "especially when it results in those expressions on their faces."

To everyone's surprise, Super Mario Kart had carried the children through the rest of the afternoon. Snow and Charming stayed in the living room with them, enjoying their spirited running commentary on the races. Even after Neal woke from his nap, Snow brought him downstairs to let him crawl around the living room and whichever child didn't have a controller in his or her hand at the moment played with the baby instead.

It was a relaxing afternoon filled with gentle togetherness, something both little Emma and little Killian sorely needed.

Dinnertime, however, was fast approaching. A reluctant Charming caught his wife's equally reluctant gaze. Neither of them wanted to leave the room but they would have four hungry children on their hands soon and dinner wouldn't cook itself.

As one, they stood. The memory of the way Emma balked at being left earlier, even for a few minutes, prompted Charming to announce their plans. "We're going to get dinner started."

"Sounds good to me," Henry said without looking away from the television.

Killian, who was currently trailing Henry by two spots in the third race in the circuit, looked over his shoulders at the adults just long enough to give them a pleasant, "All right!"

A soft smile tugged at Charming's lips. The boy was having too much fun to worry about the adults leaving the room, which, in all honesty, was just as it should be.

Emma, on the other hand, sat up a little straighter next to Wilby, her nervous gaze darting back and forth between Charming and Snow. The quiet panic on her face shattered Charming's heart. His poor little girl, so scared of being alone yet so hesitant to let anyone in.

Back when the first Curse broke, Charming had watched his baby girl struggle with the same issues. She hadn't wanted to be alone anymore but feared that anyone she let in would disappoint her as everyone else had. She'd been afraid of letting herself love and letting herself be loved because of the fear of that love going away.

It had taken every single paternal instinct Charming had in his body to let Emma learn to trust them and accept their love at her own pace when all he really wanted to do was wrap her in a crushing hug and never let her go.

It had been heartbreaking watching her struggle as an adult but it was soul-crushing watching her struggle as a child.

He wanted nothing more than to gather his little girl in his arms and hold her until she understood just how much she was loved. Just how much she was cherished. But for this little girl who'd been so hurt and so abandoned, it was too soon for that kind of contact. Once again, he had to let things unfold at her pace and let her come to them when she was ready to let them in.

That didn't mean, though, that he and Snow couldn't gently help the process along. "Would you like to help us, Emma?" he asked, trying to inject his voice with a nonchalant lilt.

Emma considered her options for a moment, her eyes once again darting between the adults. Snow smiled at the little girl in an effort to set her at ease. "We'd love the company."

That got her to smile a little bit. "Okay," she said as she pushed herself to her feet. Wilby lifted his head at her movement, readying himself to go with her if needed. She rubbed his head and whispered, "You can stay here with Killian and Henry. I'll be okay."

Talk about heart melting. When Charming looked over at Snow, he was sure the love shining in her eyes was mirrored in his own.

As the three of them headed to the kitchen, Charming reached down for Emma's hand. She took it without a second thought and some paternal instinct he didn't quite understand led him to start running his thumb along the back of her hand. She smiled up at him and for a few brief moments, he was walking on air.

Once in the kitchen, though, she let go of his hand and instead rested her elbows on the counter. "What are we going to have for dinner?"

"Hmm." Snow made a show of pretending to think over her menu options, making Emma giggle. "Does spaghetti sound good to you, sweetheart?"

Spaghetti was one of adult Emma's favorite meals; clearly Snow was banking on little Emma feeling the same. And if the smile on the girl's face was any indication, she did. "Spaghetti sounds great," she replied.

"All right, Miss Emma," Charming said as he hefted a stock pot into the sink to fill, "have you ever made spaghetti before?"

The girl sadly shook her head. That decided it, then. Both her culinary inexperience and her sadness were going to be remedied this very moment. "Would you like to learn?"

"Yes, please," she said, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

And so began another cooking lesson. After eliciting a promise that she would never try to cook unattended, Charming and Snow showed her how to prepare the meal, from heating the sauce through in a pot while the water boiled to seasoning the water to stirring the pasta to keep it from clumping together.

"You're doing great, kiddo," Charming said after she (very carefully) slid the frozen garlic knots in the oven to bake.

"Thanks."

Snow waited until she'd closed the oven door before taking a chance and lightly slinging her arm around her little girls shoulders for a beat. "One day, sweetheart, we'll have to teach you how to make spaghetti from scratch."

The girl blinked in confusion. "From scratch?"

"You've never had homemade pasta?" Snow asked. Emma shook her head. "Well, we definitely have to change that! It's actually not hard to make. All you need is eggs, flour, water, and some time."

"And a broom," Charming added, "because making homemade pasta can get messy."

"Messy like Killian's cookies?" Emma asked, a teasing smile on her lips.

"Exactly right, kiddo," Charming laughed. "You thought Killian's puff of flour was messy? Wait until you have to sweep up after making spaghetti. The flour gets everywhere and the dough is sticky." He gave an exaggerated wrinkle of his nose, once again making the girl giggle. "But it's fun."

"Could we make it tomorrow?"

"We'll see," Snow chuckled, her heart leaping for joy at the girl's enthusiasm.

Emma smiled and then let them show her how to tell by a quick taste test whether the pasta was done. Since adult Emma didn't like her pasta al dente, it was no surprise that little Emma didn't, either. "Some people really eat it like that?" she asked after trying an al dente noodle. "Spaghetti shouldn't be crunchy."

(The noodle wasn't exactly "crunchy" but Charming understood her point.)

When it came time to strain the pasta, Charming asked Emma to stand back so she wouldn't get burned. "And this is where you get a quick but nice facial," he teased as steam billowed up from the colander.

Emma chuckled and watched intently as he transferred the pasta from the colander to the serving bowl and tossed it with the now-heated sauce. It was as he was setting the serving bowl on the table that she spoke up again. "I like that you guys call me kiddo and sweetheart. No one's ever given me special names before."

It was a confession that seemed to come out of nowhere, startling Charming. Snow, however, didn't look as thrown. After a moment, Charming understood why. Adult Emma had a tendency do the same thing: wait until she was comfortable before saying what was really on her mind.

He crouched down in front of her and took her hands in his. Surprisingly, she didn't pull away. "I'm very sorry no one's ever given you a pet name before, Emma. You're a special little girl and I hope that someday you'll understand just how amazing you are."

She looked deep into his eyes, searching them the way she'd searched Snow's. Searching for signs that it was okay to let him in, too. Finally, she said, "It's okay. Things are different now, aren't they? You're different. You both are."

Different from the other adults she'd known in her life, Charming assumed, and he nodded. "Yes, kiddo, we are."

She smiled. "I can tell."

Once again, he wanted so badly to pull his little girl into a hug but something told him it was still too soon. Hell, it was breakthrough enough that she was letting him take her hands! He settled for giving her a watery smile in return. "I'm glad you can tell." Then, before the contact had a chance to make her uncomfortable, he released her hands and stood up straight.

When Emma grabbed the plates to set the table, Charming exchanged a tender glance over her head with his wife. Tears brimmed in her eyes, loving tears from observing the moment father and daughter connected, even if daughter was unaware of the true nature of their relationship.

Charming felt every inch of the depth of that connection he'd just shared with Emma. He'd gotten through to his baby girl and had let her know that she had nothing to fear from them. That they wouldn't leave her like everyone else had. That she was theirs forever. It was such a gravely important moment and yet one that left him lighter than air.

The three of them set the pasta, extra sauce, and garlic knots on the table and called for Henry and Killian to turn off the games and come to the dining room. The boys bounded into the room while Charming was pouring their drinks, Wilby on their heels. Henry passed Neal to Snow, who got him settled in his high chair as the kids took their seats at the table.

Though it shouldn't have surprised him, Charming's heart leaped in his chest when Wilby settled under the table at Emma's feet. The dog didn't typically join the family for dinner, which led Charming to believe that he was sticking close to Emma because he sensed she needed his presence. A lost lamb, physically different from those the dog usually tended but no different emotionally.

From the glistening of Snow's eyes, it was clear that she'd come to the same conclusion. He gave her a watery smile of his own and the two of them shook off the emotion for the children's sakes. "All right," Snow said, a tremor in her voice that Charming was sure only he could hear the only outward indication of her near tears, "everyone dig in."

Killian eyed the meal as if unsure what to make of it. Emma smiled at him to set him at ease. "It's spaghetti and garlic bread. You're going to love it."

"You're sure?" he asked her softly.

She nodded. "Totally sure."

At first poor Killian couldn't figure out how to get the long noodles on his fork but after observing Emma, he twirled his fork on the side of his plate to gather the spaghetti for easier eating. The second he popped the noodles into his mouth, his eyes brightened. "I like the food in this realm a lot!" he said after he swallowed, making everyone chuckle.

"We're glad you like it, buddy," Charming said.

"You have to try the bread, too," Emma said as she snagged a garlic knot from the serving platter and dropped it onto the edge of Killian's plate. "It's so good."

He took another tentative bite and then grinned. "This is really good!"

Emma smiled at him. "Told you."

As dinner continued and conversation sprung up, Charming took in every detail, his heart full. Just as Snow had said earlier, this time with Emma and Killian being little was good for everyone. It hadn't even been a full day yet and these two lonely and abandoned children were comfortably enjoying a family meal and having fun just being together.

With any luck, by the time Regina figured out how to return them to their adult selves, they would have more memories just like these to look back on, bright spots in otherwise hellish childhoods. These two children should know how it felt to have love and support and comfort. They deserved that much; every child deserved that much. And Charming vowed that he and Snow would show them exactly how living with a loving family truly felt.

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Chapter Nine