I've spent ages with this idea and figured I'd try it out.

Let me know what you think and I'll try and keep my updates regular(ish)

The screaming that filled the castle that night was the most agonising sound that David had ever heard. He'd faced a dragon having never have fought a day in his life, he'd heard men scream and die from the fire it breathed and yet, the sound of his wife screaming in such agony trumped it all. Gripping his wife's hand, he pushed the hair from her forehead, his hand coming away slick with sweat.

"I can't have this baby now," Snow cried, breathless and panting from the pain. Her knuckles were white from her grip on David's hand, her face red and scrunched in agony. "Regina will be on her way!" she gasped as the pain increased once more.

"It's okay," David said, kissing Snow's forehead. "Doc, do something," he said, looking up at the dwarf on the opposite side of the canopy bed, his round glasses falling down his nose. "It's all going to be okay. Just hold on." He said with a half-forced smile, looking at the fear in his wife's green eyes. Her nightgown was hoisted up above her knees, her legs propped up on bed, her black hair falling down over her shoulders and her reddened face. And yet, David knew she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. "We have to get her out of here." David demanded to the dwarf who, to his credit, stood his ground against the worried prince.

"It's too late," Doc replied pitifully, trying to keep his voice steady as he looked at his prince. "We can't move her."

"She's going to find us!" Snow said, her voice turning to a scream as the pain doubled in her body. She'd been stabbed, she'd been starving, she'd been close to death when she lived in the forest, but nothing compared to this pain. "She's going to ruin everything. She's going to take our baby!"

"I am not going to let that happen." David said boldly, gripping Snow's hand as encouragingly as she could manage. "We're going to be a family." Despite her pain, Snow smiled, her green eyes still terrified, but David saw the hope in him, a hope he was glad was finally being restored in him.

"It's time to start pushing, your majesty." Doc said, moving to stand at the end of the bed, passing David the rag already sodden with Snow's sweat.

Over half an hour later and the screaming had stopped, the air instead having been filled with the high-pitched cries that warmed the heart of anyone who could hear it. The cries of the baby princess as she filled her lungs with oxygen for the first time.

"We did it," Snow said, exhausted, as she held her new-born baby in her arms, the soft baby blanket stitched with her child's name – Emma.

"She's beautiful." David said, his arm around his wife as he sat beside her, one hand cradling the head of his first born, the small child screaming away.

"That she is." Said a voice and David felt the hope fizzling away from him like embers coated in water, the glow slowly receding into blackness.

"Regina," Snow breathed, gripping subconsciously tighter onto the now silent child in her arms. She heard the sharp scrape as Charming drew his sword but it fell on death ears as Regina's menacing laugh echoed around the royal bedroom, bouncing off the stone walls and filling Snow with more dread than she thought imaginable. "You can't hurt us, the curse failed, why can't you just leave us be." Snow pleaded, not having noticed how Doc was unconscious on the ground, her eyes not looking away from the black-clad queen in front of her.

"Rumplestiltskin may have protected you from harm, but your child-" Regina said, opening her arms, and with a cloud of purple smoke, Snow felt the weight leave her arms as her baby – Emma – appeared in Regina's. "Well she's just as vulnerable as can be expected."

"Give back our daughter!" David demanded, moving towards Regina, sword held poised and ready. But with a flick of her wrist he was immobilised, standing with his sword raised and wide eyes.

"I promised to destroy your happiness, and what better way to do so than to take away the one thing that could have brought it." Regina said, her voice as elegant and chilling as it ever was.

"You can't hurt a child." Snow said, sitting up straight despite the horrific pain still circulating her body. "Even you are not that evil." But the quiver in her voice was enough to show her uncertainty. She dared not move, afraid that the slightest movement would be enough to provoke Regina into doing even the most unforgivable.

"Oh, I'm not going to hurt her," Regina said with a smirk, her purple painted lips tilting up at one end. "I'm going to curse her. Your precious daughter will never have a home."

"That's not possible." Snow replied, lifting herself up to try and stand, but her arms could barely hold her up, wobbling as she lent on them. "Emma will always have a home with us."

"Your daughter will never settle in a home. She'll never be loved and she will never be happy." With a sneer-like smile, Regina looked at the wriggling bundle in her arms. Moving the baby blanket, she placed a delicate kiss on the child's forehead, a haze of purple light spreading through the baby's skin like water, washing through the child's body until it landed above her heart. "Your child will forever be alone." And with another burst of purple smoke the child was gone and Regina along with her, leaving Snow White distraught as she fell against the pillows.

"She's gone," Snow sobbed, clenching her eyes closed as she gripped a hold of the bed post, her nails biting into the wood as she came undone. Charming was at her side in an instant, tears falling down his own cheeks as he wrapped his wife in her arms. "Our baby's gone."

"She will find us." David said, kissing his wife's hair. "She will always find us." The two didn't move from that spot all night. They didn't sleep. They didn't speak. They simply lay beside one another, holding onto the one thing they had left, crying into the night as lights flared outside the window, hundreds of lanterns illuminated the blackness of the sky as the celebrated the birth of the princess they didn't know was already lost.

18 Years later:

"Somebody help me – AH!" the girl cried as she tumbled out of the forest, the skirts of her dress snagging against the brambles and the branches. She was no older than eighteen, her golden hair falling down her shoulders in soft curls beneath her hood. "Please! Anyone!" she cried out, leaning against the nearest tree as she clutching her large, protruding stomach.

"Is there somebody there?" a voice replied and the girls eyes flew open, wide and green and afraid.

"Over here!" the girl called back, pushing herself painfully into a standing position. "Please, I'm over here."

"Dear God. Red!" the voice called as it stepped into view. The girl looked into the face of the old woman, her glasses perched on her nose, a crossbow held firmly in her grip.

"Granny?" another voice called, a younger voice, as the girl moved towards the forest, a lantern in her hand and a long red cloak wrapped around her shoulders. "Oh my," the girl said, dropping the only source of light on the ground as she raced towards the pregnant girl, helping her to stand and supporting her weight as best she could. "It's okay, we can help you. What's your name?" The woman – Red – asked, beginning to help the girl down the path towards what was clearly a small village, the windows of homes still lit by the fires burning in their hearths. Despite her agony, the girl knew she was just outside the border of Snow White's Kingdom.

"Leia," the girl lied. She didn't know why, there really wasn't any point in not telling them, but it was an instinct by now. Don't trust anyone. The silver pendant that hung around her neck told her that. Emma Swan was not the type of girl who was willing to trust again, a lesson best learned by the agonising pain emanating from her stomach. "My names Lei-AH!" she cried out again, stumbling slightly.

"Granny, we need to get her back to the cottage." Red said, the old woman nodding in agreement, her crossbow still held tight.

Emma barely remembered the journey. The pain was clouding her thoughts so she could barely even see straight. But before she knew it she was laid down, propped up by slightly firm pillows, her dress notched up as she screamed into the dimly lit room.

"You're almost there, Leia," The old woman said, kneeling down at the foot of the bed. Emma was gripping the sheets so tight her knuckles were white. The lanterns were blazing furiously, the flames rising a dying with every pained breath she took.

After what felt like a life time of pushing and reassuring comments from the brunette beside her, the sounds of a child's cry broke through the room.

"Leia, it's a boy," Red breathed, her voice sounding almost proud as she held the girl's hand, watching as Granny wrapped the small boy in any manner of blankets they'd managed to procure.

"Can I see him?" Emma said, sitting up as much as she could, the exhaustion that was sweeping through her making her body ache.

"Even better. You can hold him." Granny said, before placing the small, wriggling bundle into his mother's arms. Whatever Emma thought she was going to feel when this little boy landed in her arms, hope wasn't it. Regret, fear and disappointment, maybe. But certainly not hope.

"Henry," Emma breathed, holding onto the small boy tight enough not to hurt him, but enough to ensure he didn't disappear.

"What a lovely name." Granny said, watching the young girl, barely older than eighteen, as she held her child for the first time. Her blonde hair was sticking to her face with sweat, her skin reddened. "Where's the father?" she asked, far from subtly, and Emma felt her grip on the bundle tighten slightly.

"He's gone," she replied blandly, focusing on the little boy, her happy ending as his cries died down, leaving him looking up at her with tiny blue eyes.

"Do you have anywhere to stay?" the old woman asked.

"Yes," Emma said, a little quicker than was necessary. "My home is only a few villages over. I was on my way to visit a friend when he decided he was ready." Emma said, breathless as she hugged the boy tightly. Red and Granny shared a look, clearly not sure whether to believe the young girl they'd only just met or not.

"Well, you need to rest." Granny said, moving about the room to collect cleaner blankets and other necessities. "You'll stay here tonight. Red, fetch some water and a fresh nightgown."

"That's very kind of you." Emma said, still not taking her eyes off of her new born son.

"You get your rest, and we'll make sure you're fit before you travel again." She smiled at the two women, the kindness they were showing her. As promised, Red returned with a clean nightgown and a pitcher of water that she laid on the bedside table. Granny brought in an old, wooden crib that she claimed had once been Red's a baby and left mother and son to it, leaving her with the promise of breakfast in the morning.

But when Granny came to see the young girl and her child the next day, she found them already gone, the night gown and the crib untouched from the night before.

Four Years Later:

"Henry?" Emma said, shaking her son's shoulder delicately to wake him from his sleep. "kid, we've got to go." She said, watching as her son began blinking the sleep from his eyes, sitting up slightly in the make-shift bed Emma had made for him in the barn.

"Where are we going, Mama?" he asked with a yawn, standing up with the help of Emma's outstretched hand.

"We just need to get going if we're ever going to make it to Arendelle." She said with a smile as she wrapped Henry's cloak around his shoulders before retrieving her own from the floor and brushing the straw from it, having let Henry use it to soften his 'bed'. Once they were both ready, Emma took her son's hand and together they snuck out of the barn they'd spent the last night in before the farmer could ever realise they were there.

Emma had spent years like this, running and hiding and sleeping in places like barns – or taverns when the money was right – for just the night. The night she left the village when Henry had been born, she promised herself she'd settle down, find a home and raise Henry like a proper mother should, but it just hadn't played out that way. She'd never been anywhere longer than a month.

She'd tried, but no one was willing to rent out a home to her for some strange reason, they'd always pick someone one else, or decide they wanted to keep the home, leaving Emma and her young son out on the streets. She'd managed of course. She may never have had a home, but she and her son always had a place to sleep, and that was never going to change. All that mattered now was getting her son and herself out of the Enchanted Forest before the Queen payed another of her visits.

It had started when she was a child. Whatever orphanage she wound up in the Queen would come and visit. She'd ask Emma if she was happy where she was, if she felt at home. Whenever Emma had said yes, she'd quickly found herself moved somewhere else or placed with a family she despised. More than once she'd run away, just for the queen to be waiting for her around the corner. Things changed when she met Henry's father – Baelfire. The Queen seemed to leave her and her thief lover alone, letting them scurry through the forest like the rats they no doubt were, but Emma hadn't minded. She'd felt happy and loved when she was with him, enough that she gave him everything she had to offer. Her love, her compassion, her virtue, and yet it wasn't enough. He left her, abandoned her alone in the forest with a pregnancy she never thought possible. He'd run away from her, just like everyone else in her life. Emma Swan had always been alone. Abandoned.

She'd promised Henry she'd be different, that she'd turn herself around, stop stealing and start earning. But she'd failed, and now her son was feeling the brunt of it. It shouldn't be long now until Emma's face would be plastered over every tree in the enchanted forest. And so she was going to run, to secure passage for her and her son to Arendelle and make a new start under the reign of Queen Elsa. Ice and a Frozen kingdom aside, Emma had heard she was a kind ruler, and that was all she really needed right now.

"Mama, I'm hungry," Henry said as they reached the road, finally able to pull the hoods down on their cloaks without the fear of being caught out by farmers or tavern owners she'd skipped out on paying.

"I think I've got just the thing," she said, smiling down at her son as she opened her satchel. There were very few things inside of it, a small morsel of food, a canteen of water, a dagger and a flyer she'd been given in a village about Prince Léopold's coming of age. With the true heir of Snow White's Kingdom (A place Emma had never set foot) still missing they were left with their other child, a son, but that never stopped the lanterns flying every year to symbolise the birth of the lost princess, and the wish that the kingdoms true ruler would be able to return home. "Here you go," She said, passing the single, small roll of bread to her son and watching his wide smile as he began eating it happily, Emma's own stomach churning with hunger. But she'd much rather her son's belly was close to full even if it meant she'd never eat again.

By the time Emma and Henry reached the docks night had fallen once more and the two were wrapping their cloaks tighter as they made their way across the wooden planks. Emma had long since picked Henry up, carrying him through the damp, salt smelling streets. Henry was a curious boy, he was always wandering off, chasing butterflies, talking to strangers on the road and the like. Here was the last place she wanted to lose her son.

It didn't take long for her to find the ship's captain; he was waiting for her after all. She'd secured her passage on a delivery ship, one that was trading lumber with Arendelle in exchange for something that was really of no interest to Emma at all.

The Captain greeted Emma with a smile before showing both her and Henry aboard, leading them into the living quarters of the ship. It wasn't much, a few bunks set into the walls with thin mats and scratchy blankets, but Emma didn't mind. She'd been in much worse scenario's and frankly she just wanted to get out of this Kingdom and as far away from the Evil Queen as possible, she didn't care much as to where. So long as she had Henry by her side.

"Mama, can we go see the captain?" Henry asked excitedly, looking up at his mother expectedly with his big brown eyes. With Baelfire's eyes. Smiling down at the small boy she couldn't help but feel her heart lighten. Four years ago Emma thought her world was ending. She was abandoned and alone in the forest with a baby on the way with no way to support him. She'd even considered leaving him in the wooden crib at Granny' cottage in the small village she'd given birth in – but she couldn't. Now this small boy was her life. With his tattered white shirt that had long ago stopped being white and his scuffed and sewn up brown trousers tucked into his slightly worn boots, he was everything to her. She could never deny him anything.

"Of course," she said with a soft smile, watching Henry beaming up at her. She wrapped his cloak back around his shoulders before lifting him to sit on her hip. He was growing so fast that soon she wouldn't be able to carry him like this. Soon he was going to realise just how little they had. Ascending the steps with a wobble, Emma stepped out onto the deck of the ship. The chilling air hit her first and she felt her grip on her son tightening. She could hear the waves as they lapped against the ship, the light sea spray touching her skin.

"Leia," A voice called and Emma turned to see the Captain, Edward his name was, standing at the helm, beaming down at her through the lantern light. Call it insecurity, call is precaution, but whenever Emma met people she was asking for help from she never gave a real name. She Didn't want to risk the Evil Queen being able to track her, so an alias would had to do, the same one she'd given Red and her grandmother four years ago. "Can I be of any assistance?" he asked and Emma was slightly shocked by the formality. People usually swore at her from a distance.

"Actually," she said, making her way up the steps as Henry's wide eyes took in everything he could see "My son wanted to come and see you." She said and the captain smiled at the small boy with his wide brown eyes.

"And what can I do for you, my boy?" he asked, and Henry grinned widely.

"Can I have go?" he asked boldly, looking at the large wooden wheel that controlled the ship with curiosity. Clearly the real reason he'd wanted to come up to the deck was already forgotten.

"I'm afraid you're too small to captain this vessel," The captain replied and Henry's tiny face fell. "But," he continued, reaching into the satchel he had crossing over his chest and bringing out a small, brass telescope and pulling it to its full length before passing it Henry. "You can help me navigate it." Grasping the instrument eagerly with his chubby hands, Emma helped him hold the telescope so he could look out at the horizon, his mouth hanging open slightly in wonder.

"Mama! Mama, look!" The little boy shrieked, pointing to the horizon, his eyes still pressed against the rim of the telescope, a bright smile cracking his face.

"What is it Henry?" Emma asked, trying to keep the laugh from her voice as she heard the sheer excitement in her son's.

"The lights!" he replied, bouncing slightly in her grip. Following his gaze she turned to her left, looking out at the kingdom she was so fast to run away from. Sure enough, she could see the tiny, twinkling lights as they floated into the sky. Just one or two to begin with, rising lazily into the darkness to mingle with the stars. Not long after they were hundreds – perhaps thousands – of them, all gliding silently through the air, climbing higher and higher into the cloudless night.

"The Princesses birthday." The captain breathed out, bowing his head slightly in respect. "Wherever she is, I hope she is safe." He said and Emma nodded her agreement, thinking just how lucky that girl was to have a family missing her so much, enough that even twenty-two years late they still honoured her. What Emma wouldn't do for a love like that. But she had Henry, and they were off to start a new life together and all of that trumped a little light show any day.