I probably shouldn't be starting a new story, but this will be a short multichapter. Just something that I had floating around in my brain and when I wrote it down, it didn't seem too bad. What do you think. This is a different kind of take on A Christmas Carol, but is it worth continuing?


Chapter 1

The sounds were so loud. The red and blue flashing lights were so bright. I heard their voices. I tried to call out to them. I wanted to tell them that it was all ok.

"I don't give a rats ass! But you sure as hell better…" I heard a woman's voice yell. It was my Emma. Her voice was full of worry and anger. "Don't you dare puke in my cruiser either…"

Why couldn't I see anything? I heard my daughter's voice mixed among other voices. Where was she? Why was everything so loud and bright? I felt someone take my hand into theirs. The person used their other hand to run their fingers through my short raven hair. "Mom?" It was my Emma again. Her voice was now quivering with fear. I could tell that she was holding back tears and trying to stay strong. What was going on? Why was Emma so afraid? Why was my body numb?

"Can she hear me?" whomever she asked must have nodded because I continued to hear her voice. "Mom…Dad is going to ride with you. I have some things to take care of but then I'll meet you guys at the hospital, ok?" I tried to answer her but only a weak sound escaped from my throat. I could tell that Emma was no longer able to hold back the tears. Why was she crying? What was wrong with my daughter?

"Dad…" her voice was so loud when she summoned her father. I felt a jerk and a sudden fall. The movement pulled my hand from the grasp of my daughter's. "Be careful with her, you idiot."

"Emma!" I could now hear his voice too.

"Dad. I'm taking this asshole in to the station. I'll call Regina then meet you at the hospital." She still had that panicked quiver in her voice.

"Emma, let Thomas take him in and book him."

"No…" her response was sharp and offended. "I don't want any mistakes on this."

"That is the exact reason we should let Thomas book him. You are too close to this." I imagined the stern fatherly glare that I was sure that he gave Emma. To be matched only by Emma's own look of steel. The look that said 'I'm doing this and you're not going to stop me.'

"Ok, be careful." I knew that he would relent.

"Always am." I wanted to smile at her reply. That wasn't the first time that I heard her utter those words to her father. I felt a gentle kiss being laid upon my forehead. "Hang in there, Mom. I love you." That was when my world went black.


I sat up in my bed. It was still pitch black outside. But the room wasn't as dark as usual. There was a window to the left that looked out into a hallway. It was what was allowing light to give a dull illumination to the room. I looked to my right, where was charming? Where was the other half of my full size bed? The wall of windows on to the right was how I gauged the late hour of the night. I looked around the bedroom; no correction; hospital room. Why was I in the hospital? I felt fine. A little tired maybe, but I'm the mother of a toddler. Tired comes with the territory.

I looked around the hospital room. I frowned when I saw my daughter curled up on the chair that sat in the corner. Her head was leaning at an angle that was sure to make her neck stiff in the morning. But yet she still looked so beautiful. I hated to wake her, but I knew that if I didn't get her to at least shift to ease her neck she would make Grumpy seem pleasant when she awoke.

"Emma" I called out to her in a loud whisper. "Emma, honey, wake up." I looked around, specifically into the hallway to see of anyone was close by. I was trying to determine if I would disturb anybody if I talked a little louder.

"Emma…" I said in my full voice. She still didn't move. My first thought was to throw something at her so that I didn't have to get out of bed, but I couldn't find anything soft enough. I could only imagine the string of curse words she would hurl at me if something hard, or wet, hit her. However, I did chuckle at the thought.

"Emma, honey…" I tried one more time with no success. I let go of a heavy sigh before I finally gave up. I swung my legs to the side of my bed and pushed myself to my feet. I thought that maybe, once I stood, I would understand why I was in the hospital, but no. Still felt fine.

I padded across the room toward my daughter. I stood there for a minute and just took in how peaceful she looked. Her long blonde curls hung down over her shoulders. Both of her legs were hanging over the arm of the chair and she had a hospital blanket draped over her lap. It looked like a nurse had brought it in for her once she was already asleep. My heart ached a little when I noticed that her boots were still on her feet, I knew that she couldn't have been comfortable, which meant that she was only asleep because exhaustion took over.

I crouched down in front of her, "Emma, honey, wake up. You need to shift so that you don't hurt your neck." She didn't move. She didn't even grunt. Something was not right. "Emma…" I reached out to give her knee a little shake. I gasped when my hand seemingly went through her. I quickly pulled my hand back in panic. "Emma, wake up" I yelled. What was going on? What was happening to my daughter?

"Help" I turned toward the door, in a world with magic, my daughter was disappearing. "Somebody, help me" my panic turned to screams. Why was no one coming to help? I spun on my heal thinking of the call button. I hurried to the hospital bed franticly looking for the device. I needed to get someone to my daughter right away. Why couldn't I find that damn call button?

"The other side," I whispered to myself. I leaned over the bed to reach for the cable that was tethered to the button. But it was soon forgotten when I looked down at the mattress. My hand flew to my mouth as I screamed a scream that was sure to get the attention of everyone in the hospital. But no one came in response. My breathing turned to hyperventilation. I looked back at my daughter, realizing why my hand went through her knee. She wasn't disappearing. Tears rolled down my cheeks as turned back to look at my tattered body that was lying on the hospital bed.

My face was bruised and swollen. It was barely recognizable. Stitches hid among my hairline. My arm laid next to my side wrapped in a plaster cast. I didn't dare try to lift the blanket to assess the damage to my body that lay beneath. No my daughter wasn't disappearing, I was? I was letting go of this life to move onto the next.

I was pulled from my shock when I heard Emma finally shift in the chair. I looked over to her. Her eyes were open and she reached up to rub her neck. "Shit," I heard her mumbled as she rubbed the muscle through the pain. I watched as she pushed herself up on the chair. She reached for her phone, I'm guessing to check the time. With a grunt she put the phone back on the table next to her chair.

She swung her head from side to side in an attempt to crack her neck. I cringed when I heard a loud pop, but relaxed when I heard a relieved sigh escape her lips. After a short stretch of her arms, she lifted herself from the chair and made her way to my bedside. She pushed of couple of strands of hair from my forehead.

"I hope you're comfortable in there, because on the outside, you look like shit." Leave it my daughter to put things so eloquently into words.

"Emma!" I chastised her expecting her to turn around with an apology. But she didn't flinch. She didn't hear me. She didn't see me either. She only saw my battered shell on the bed.

"I made Dad take Neal home. Little bro just didn't understand why Mommy was still here. I tried to explain it to him, but I think that I just made things worse. " I watched her closely as she sat down on my bed and took my hand into hers. She looked shattered. She was trying so hard but she was barely holding it together. Her eyes were puffy, her movements were slow. She looked like she hadn't slept in weeks. In weeks…weeks? Still here? Wait, how long had I been in the hospital?

"I don't know how to do it, Mom." My heart broke at Emma's confession. "I don't know how to give Dad hope. I don't know how to tell Henry that everything is going to be ok. I don't know convince Neal that Mommy will be home soon when I'm not sure that I believe it all myself." I wanted to so badly to pull her into a hug. I wanted to tell her, to show her, that she had it in her to do all of those things. But she couldn't hear me. I wanted to wipe away the tear that rolled down her cheek.

"Excuse me," Emma hastily wiped her tears at the sound of the nurse coming into the room. "I'm sorry, but I need to check her vitals."

"No, of course…" Emma moved from the bed and back to the chair as the nurse wrote down her findings in the chart. "You should go home, sheriff, you need to rest as well."

"No, I promised my Dad that I would stay here. He took my little brother home. He'll stay tomorrow night. I…um…I don't want my mom to be alone."

"I understand…I would do the same if it were me." They nurse gave my daughter an understanding smile, which to my surprise, Emma returned. "I'll put an order in for a breakfast tray to be sent up."

"Thank you, but I'll be fine. I'm sure that my Dad will bring me something in the morning." Emma rubbed her eyes and covered herself again with the blanket.

"Maybe just some coffee then," the nurse ended. It amused me that Emma did not decline the coffee. She loved her hot drinks…coffee…hot chocolate. Although I was a little surprised that she didn't ask for hot chocolate instead, but then again, that was our thing. We had hot chocolate together every night.


"Emma," My attention was pulled to my daughter by the sound of his voice. Charming had come through the door holding Neal in his arms. The small boy looked so adorable dressed in his flannel shirt, overalls, and a small pair of golden work boots. His little arms reached out for his older sister and their father gently shook her shoulder to wake her. My heart melted as his older sister instantly reached for him just the same. She even had a small smile on her face.

"Any change?" I stood in the corner and watched my children and their father interact with each other. Emma had Neal on her lap with her arms wrapped around him as she reached to retie his boot. Charming had crossed the room to my bedside and planted a kiss on my swollen lips.

"No," her small smile faded away. "There hasn't been any change in two weeks."

There it was; the answer to my question. It had been two weeks that I had been in the hospital. I couldn't remember what had happened but I could tell that the situation was taking a toll on my family.

"I brought you a bear claw. Granny packed it for you when I went for the hot chocolate."

"Thanks, what about you?"

"What about me?" he didn't look at her.

"Dad…" he finally turned to face her.

"Emma…I'm fine" he curled his lips into smile. I recognized that smile immediately. There was a special crookedness to his charming grin whenever he looked at his children, specifically Emma. The smile that he reserved for Neal showed his teeth just a little bit more. "Granny took care of Neal and I this morning too."

She gave him a sideways look that clearly said that she didn't believe that he ate anything. But she let it drop. "Did you get any sleep last night?" She stood from the chair and crossed the room to stand beside her father with Neal perched on her hip. Charming snaked his arm around his daughter's waist and pulled her close to him.

"Yeah, actually, I did. I put Neal in bed with me, and we kept each other company until we both fell asleep. Right, little guy?" Neal giggled as Charming reach up to tickle his belly.

Emma nuzzled her nose into the side of Neal's head and gave him a quick kiss, "Did Daddy sleep with you last night?" She smiled when he nodded enthusiastically. I hid my grin behind my hand. Emma was taking Neal's word over her father's.

"Good morning, Charming family," everyone turned their attention to Dr. Whale as he entered my room. Charming eyed him suspiciously as the doctor read over my chart and jotted down some notes. "Well, I see that things are status quo, this morning." Dr. Whale placed the chart back on its hook then checked some of the settings on the monitors. "Things are looking the same, but I would like to speak with both of you in my office. Meet me there in ten minutes?"

Father and daughter looked at each other; panic was definitely in each of their eyes. But it was Emma that finally answered, "ok. We'll be there in a bit."


I followed my family to Dr. Whale's office. I stood in the corner behind the door while Emma and David occupied the two chairs in front of his desk. Neal sat in Emma's lap, his attention was held with a game that he was playing on Emma's phone. I made a special note of the fact that Neal hadn't left his sister's side since their father brought him into my hospital room.

"Emma, David…thank you for meeting with me," Dr. Whale said as he entered the room and moved to sit behind his desk. He had a file in his hand that he quickly perused before he began to speak. "I've been reviewing Snow's case. And although there hasn't been any decline, there hasn't been any real improvement either. She is not on life support but she is in a coma, which her body is using to heal itself, unfortunately, I can't give you a time table on how long she is going to be in the coma. It is not medically induced, so it isn't something that we can attempt to bring her out of."

"Cut to the chase, Whale. What are you trying to say?" Charming was quickly losing his patience, if he even walked into the office with any. Emma placed a calming hand on his arm then gave the doctor a looked that urged him to continue.

"What I'm saying is that it is time for you two to resume your normal activity."

"What? You want us to forget about her and just move on like she's dead?"

"Dad…" Emma admonished.

"What?" he didn't take his glare off of Whale.

"That's not what he is saying." Charming finally moved his eyes to his daughter. "Mom has been in a coma for two weeks, there hasn't been a change. One of us has been here 24/7. He is simply suggesting that we need to live our lives while Mom is healing."

Charming dropped his face to his hands. He rubbed his eyes a bit before he lifted his head up and away from Emma. He used his fist to hold his chin up. From my vantage point I could see the tears glistening in his eyes. He was trying so hard to not let them fall in front of his children. Neal picked up on his father's despair and crawled from Emma's lap to his, forcing him to look back toward the group. As the little boy wrapped his arms around his father's neck, Emma rubbed her hand up and down her father's back. "It isn't good for us to spend every waking moment here, it isn't good for Neal. We need to get back to our lives."

"Why is this so easy for you?" The tears were definitely falling now when he yelled at Emma.

"This is anything but easy…" she yelled back. "But we both have children to think about here. We have a town to think about, remember we are the Sheriffs here. I want nothing more than to take Mom home and have everything back to normal, but that isn't our life at the moment."

With one last squeeze to Neal, he stood and handed the toddler back to his sister.

"Dad?" Emma stood as she accepted the boy into her arms.

"Take him to your place. I want to spend a little more time with your mother." He paused to give each of his children a tender kiss on their foreheads. "I'll be home later." On those final words, Charming left the office leaving Emma, Neal, and Whale standing in uncomfortable silence. I looked at my babies once more and wished that I could pull them both into the strong motherly hug that they both needed. I was grateful that Neal had Emma, but they both needed their mother.

When they finally left, I followed my husband back to my hospital room. I was torn on which direction to go, but gut reaction was to follow Charming. I couldn't help but wonder why this was happening. Why was I in the position to watch my family go through this hardship? Was I supposed to learn something from this? What was the point? I loved my family with my whole heart, I didn't want to leave them, but yet I couldn't help but feel, that I was being forced to make a decision on whether I was to live or die.

I wished for someone to please give me a sign; to tell me what I was supposed to learn from this.