#procharming family

[cianmarsfanfiction]

Emma Swan de-aged fic

Set in a season 4A AU/ end of 3B. The time portal has some adverse reactions on Emma after she managed to get home to her family. Now that Emma has finally accepted her parents entirely how will both she and her parents deal when Emma gets turned into a 5 year old?

Fanfiction [X] AO3 [X]

Emma looked around her room which was now mostly free from the mess which had been littered around since before her brother was born. Although she and Henry had technically moved back into the loft once Henry had regained his memories it was only now, that she had come back from the past, that she was unpacking the stuff they had brought with them: after all, up until the day before, she hadn't been planning on sticking around.

She fell onto the bed and pulled her laptop over to her and opened up her email account so she could finish emailing someone who was sending her and Henry's stuff to Storybrooke, there wasn't much she needed, mainly just personal things. Content of when they would arrive Emma shut the laptop, before she had completely infuriated Regina by bringing Robin's ex-wife back to life and the present Regina had told her how to have things sent so that they were sent into the town, it was the same way the town got many of its supplies.

Emma massaged her sinuses as she thought about the whole situation with Regina, she winced as pain shot through her face, she had been feeling ill since she had been in the Enchanted Forest however she was sure it was just a side effect from Back to the Future-ing it. She would be fine.

But this situation with Regina, that she really needed to fix, so she dragged herself off of her bed and walked around the wall to Henry's side of the room and grabbed one of his jackets. He had gone with Regina from Neal's naming ceremony the previous night, Emma had tried to follow Regina too but had been stopped by Mary Margret and David, who had insisted that it was best that she left Regina alone for a little while.

She grabbed her boots and headed down the stairs.

David heard Emma's footsteps on the steps, as he sat with Neal in his arms on the couch, Neal had fallen asleep but David couldn't quite bring himself to put him down, not quite yet. He looked over to his daughter and expected to see her finally accepting that she was ill, he had only just stopped Mary Margret from dragging Emma to the doctors when she had heard the first cough that morning, they both had to wrestle with their newly heightened parental urges and not pushing Emma too far after she had finally fully accepted them as her family.

"You finished unpacking?" He asked her with a smile, but inside he was trying not to freak out that she seemed to have grown paler in the past couple of hours, he had to hope that it was just the lighting.

"Yeah," she placed Henry's jacket on the table as she sat down and pulled her boots on, "I just have some things being sent here from New York, and then I'll be officially back." She absentmindedly scratched at the skin on her arm which had been itchy all day.

"I'm glad you're back," he stood up slowly and carefully placed Neal in the Moses-basket and covered him with a blanket, "we all are, especially your little brother."

"He tell you that, did he?" Emma laughed.

"Yeah, I speak baby, didn't you know?" He walked over to the kitchen table and saw that she was getting ready to go somewhere. "Where are you going?" he asked hesitantly part of him didn't want to hear her answer.

Emma sighed. "Henry forgot his jacket."

"Em."

"I need to sort this out." She continued to scratch her arm.

"No, Emma." David said firmly he noted her almost shocked look at his tone. "Look, kiddo, please just trust your mom and me: Regina needs space, just give it to her, and before you know it she'll be back to normal." He watched Mary Margret walk into the kitchen from their room where she had been napping he sent her a smile which was only part relief at having someone there to back him up.

"But it's my fault-" Emma tried to tell her father but she was suddenly interrupted by her mother who she hadn't even noticed.

"-No, Emma, it's not your fault. You met someone who was going to be killed and you saved them, it was the right thing to do, and it was the exact thing that we would have expected you to do." Mary Margret walked around so she could see Emma's face. "Emma, are you feeling okay?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "I'm fine." She dropped Henry's jacket back onto the table but she continued to move to the door.

"Em-"

"I'm not going to talk to Regina." She told them in a frustrated voice as she continued to move to the door. "I just need some fresh air." She forced herself not to slam the door, purely on Neal's account, she needed to sort everything out with Regina however she was sure that her parents will somehow manage to stop her: knowing them they'd have Leroy or someone keeping an eye out. She could have kicked herself when she realised that she had left without her jacket, it was way too cold to be out in a t-shirt, but there was no way she was going to go back in there it would be way too awkward.

David stood open mouthed as he stared at the door. Had they pushed her too far? Rationally he knew that she was just frustrated at the situation, and wrongly frustrated at herself, but another part of him worried that they had messed up straight after they had made everything good. "Should we- Are we going to go after her? No, wait, you should stay here with the baby and I'll go after her-"

"-David, no." Mary Margret placed her hand on her arm to stop him from going anywhere. "She's not going to Regina's."

"How to you know?"

"I can just tell, she wasn't lying, she just needs to take a few moments to clear her head." Despite her words she also looked fretfully at the door. "We'll give her an hour then if she's not back we'll go out and find her."

"Make it forty-five minutes," he told her, "I don't like how ill she's starting to look."

"Maybe she's just tired from her trip to the past." Mary Margret said hopefully, but neither parent had taken their eyes from the door, just yet. "She'll probably just sit in her car for a while."

*OUAT*

True to her word, Emma didn't go to Regina's, but nor had she picked up the keys to her car.

She walked around the town, as she did so she started to feel sicker and sicker, she practically had to fight to keep her eyes open. She hadn't been sick before she had gone, or if she had she hadn't noticed it, it was most likely due to the time travel.

Which left her with rather limited options: Regina was out as she currently hated her, Blue who would probably call her parents but she wanted to figure out what was going on with her first and she didn't want to worry them, so that left her with her last choice - Gold.

She needed to find out if she was ill from travelling, but the more she thought about it the more the memories of the past worried her, she pushed her fears of some Enchanted Forest plague from her mind but she decided to continue to walk to Gold's shop; she wanted to make sure they could handle another portal to the past should one arise, and anything which might come out of it.

*OUAT*

The forty-five minutes ticked by slowly for Mary Margret and David, they were only distracted by Neal waking up and demanding to be fed, but while that happened, David continued to pace the floor.

The clock struck six and Emma wasn't home yet.

"I'm going to look for her." David announced, he stood up and started to make his way to the door, ready to grab his jacket and pull on his shoes.

"I'm coming too." Mary Margret was already dressing Neal in his snowsuit when David looked back at her.

"Mary-"

"-David. This is the second time in twenty-four hours my daughter has gone missing but this time I am not just going to sit around and wait."

David knew that it was pointless to argue with her plus he saw where she was coming from. He nodded and passed her over her jacket while she placed Neal, who was wide awake but quiet, into his car seat. Mary Margret grabbed the keys to her station wagon and the three Charmings left the loft.

*OUAT*

Gold's shop was locked when Emma got there, but she could see a light in the back so she knew that the Dark One was there, she didn't bother to knock on the door as she was sure it would be redundant, she may have forgotten to take her car keys with her when she left the loft but she had remembered her lock picking equipment.

The bell rang when she entered the shop, as she moved towards the back of the shop she held her hands out to steady herself as she fought vertigo.

"We're closed." Gold's voice shouted through the shop, but Emma continued to walk to the back.

"Rumple." Belle scolded when she saw Emma. "Emma, are you okay? You look ill."

"What do you want Miss Swan?" Gold looked bored. "You heroes may have forgotten but I am not at your beck and call like some performing monkey."

"I need your help." Emma started to stumble but managed to stop herself despite that Belle walked over to her with a worried look on her face. "I need to know what you know about portals to the past."

"I already told you that nobody knows anything about those." He would have kicked her out already had Belle not been there.

"But you can make some assumptions." Emma guessed.

"Anyone with half a brain can make assumptions." He sighed, so much for a quiet evening in with his new wife. "You're clearly ill and I'm guessing you got ill when you were back in time to the Enchanted Forest, you clearly caught something from there. Now, I am clearly not a doctor or one of those insufferable nuns, nor one of your parents, I suggest you go bother one of them to get you well and leave me and-"

"-I'm fine." Emma interrupted. "It's just a cold and that's not what I'm here for. I want to know what you know about time portals in case one gets opened again, I barely got back here at all, if one opens again I need to be able understand it."

"Emma, are you sure? You really don't look well." Belle worried. "Do you want me to ring your parents, you really look like you should be at home."

"I'm fine, Belle." But as she spoke she lifted her hand to cover her eyes as nausea and dizziness flooded her body. She suddenly felt as though she was on fire. Perhaps she wasn't as well as she had claimed. She felt a tingling in her fingers which slowly spread.

Gold and Belle covered their eyes as a blinding light filled the room, the light came from Emma, but it wasn't the usual light which was associated with Emma's magic. There was something about this magic which was different.

*OUAT*

David and Mary Margret continued to drive around the town, the longer they drove the more their anxiety grew, but they couldn't even catch a glimpse of their daughter. They had checked at the station, Granny's, they'd asked everyone they had come across, they had even checked in with Doc and Doctor Whale in the hope that Emma had realised that she was sick and had gone to one of them.

"David, I'm getting really worried. Where is she?" Mary Margret glanced back at the backseat to make sure that Neal was still fine, he of course was, he had drifted off to sleep a short while ago.

"I'm not sure, Mary Margret," he kept his eyes on the road as he spoke to her he squinted through the darkness looking for Emma, "but we will find her."

Mary Margret opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by the ringing of her cell phone, her hands shot forward to pluck it from where it was laying on the dashboard of the station wagon. Her face changed from hope to disappointment when she saw it was Belle calling her, not Emma.

"Belle, is everything okay?"

David could hear Belle's voice over the phone. "Mary Margret, you and David need to get to Gold's, it's Emma."

"It's Emma? Belle is she okay?"

"She's… she's safe, it's a bit hard to explain over the phone, but she's okay."

Mary Margret shared a look with David to see if he had heard the conversation, judging from nod he gave her and the worried and confused look he had on his face, he had. "We'll be there in five minutes."

*OUAT*

Belle pressed the red phone icon on her cell and placed it down on the counter. She walked back over to where Emma was sat glaring at Gold.

"What the hell happened?" Emma demanded.

Gold rolled his eyes, he had already explained what he presumed had happened twice, he didn't see how stating what had happened a third time would help. He took in the child who sat before him. "Well, Miss Swan, I thought your present situation would be abundantly clear to you: the time portal must have had some adverse effects on you."

"I'VE TURNED INTO A BLOODY FIVE YEAR OLD." Emma shouted at the man. "Turn me back."

"I've already told you that I can't."

The look on Emma's face made it clear that she didn't believe him, but Belle could tell that despite her husband's track record, he was telling the truth. "Rumple, why don't you go check in the back to see if there's any clothes that would better fit Emma." She shot him a pointed look, and he left the room in search of something which he could just as easily magic up, Belle walked over and crouched beside Emma. "I just got off the phone with your parents, they're on their way, they'll probably be here any minute."

Emma's scowl changed into a look of worry. "Do they know what happened?"

Belle shook her head. "No, I thought it would be easier to explain to them when they got here."

Emma didn't want them to see her like this, bar the first few minutes of her life, they had only known her as an adult; a strong, independent, and, admittedly, a pretty kickass adult. But what was her other option? Stay in the store with Gold and Belle until Gold would change her back? And that was if he was lying about not being able to change her back, if not what would she have to turn herself back? Would she be able to?