I have not been able to find a fanfic about Emma's childhood. I tried to make this follow this little details that we know about what happened to her and I'm going to try to incorporate details and people that made Emma the way she is now.

Emma Swan got her last name from her first foster family. Marsha and Gavin Swan took her in when she was about 10 weeks old. Marsha was unable to have her own children and fell in love with Emma at the orphanage. Even though she would not be able to remember it, Emma had a normal first three years of life. Her foster parents held her when she cried and even recorded her first steps. Everything was perfect until one day Marsha found out that she was pregnant. Having her own child was always a dream for Marsha and even though she loved Emma very much, she knew she would not be able to give her as much attention as she would give her own child. So Marsha and Gavin made the decision to put Emma in the foster system. Thinking that she would have a better life that way. Boy were they wrong.

At three years old Emma found herself riding in the back seat of her car with her social worker Rachel. Rachel promised that her new family would be just as nice as her other one. Rachel was wrong. When they got to the house the door was unlocked and a teenage boy could be heard screaming through the door. Emma refused to get out of the car seat. Now Rachel knew that this probably was not the best home for a little girl, but nobody was in the mood to adopt a three year old. Especially because they believed there was probably something wrong with her, the reason why her other family gave her up. "Come on Emma please get out of the car." Rachel pleaded. Tears streamed down Emma's face but she finally gave in. Rachel lifted her up from the chair and grabbed a bag of her things. Normally she would have let Emma walk into the house, but the girl was holding on for dear life. She let her hold on a little bit longer while she rang the door bell to the already open house.

"Come in" somebody shouted from deep inside. Rachel braced herself as she pushed the door open revealing a disgusting home. "I'm in the kitchen." The voice which according to the papers belonged to Karen, Emma's new mother. On her way to what she guessed was the kitchen she passed an old man asleep on the couch. Two boys about the age of ten watching spongebob at full volume. The teenage boy sat smoking on the stair case. Karen seemed to be making some sort of dinner in the kitchen. "Is this the girl."

"Yes this is Emma." Rachel tightened her grip on the her. "You know if this is inconvenient for you I can drop her off some other time".

"No this is fine for me." She reached her arms out for the girl. "Come on Hanna."

"Her name is Emma."

"Oh well what ever. So you said the check was already on its way right?"

"Yes, but I'm not really sure this is going to be a good fit."

"Beggars can't be chooser. Come here baby." Rachel put Emma on the floor and the girl started to cry.

She knelt down to say goodbye, "Listen Emma, I'm going to get you out of here. As soon as I can." Rachel whispered. Emma reached for her again, but she couldn't do anything about it. "This is bag of her things. She is potty trained. Really likes Elmo."

"Okay great. Close the door on your way out." As Rachel left the room she heard Emma's screams echo throughout the house.

After that day Rachel worked very hard to find a proper home for Emma. In a week she had found a family much better suited than Karen and gladly went to recuse the girl. She knew that Karen was not going to be willing to give up the check that came with Emma without a fight, so she brought her boyfriend for reinforcements.

"If it takes longer than 30 minutes ring the doorbell." She told Steve. "Also you should be driving, so worse case senario I jump in the car and we drive away before putting Emma in the back."

"Relax Rach its not going to be that bad."

"You did not see the look on her face. Like I had given up on her." When they arrived to the house she saw that teenage boy smoking outside.

"Hi I'm Emma's social worker. Is your mother around?"

"Who is Emma." He asked.

"The little girl I dropped off here about a week ago. Blonde hair, three years old."

"Hanna. Yeah please tell me you are taking that little shit away. She has not stopped crying since you dropped her off."

"Yeah well maybe because her name is Emma." Rachel raises her voice and Steve sense that something is wrong.

"Rach." Rachel turns to look at him and she knows that its no use to argue.

"Anyways can I speak to Karen."

"Yeah, doors open." She goes inside sees Emma sitting on the floor in tears.

"Emma." The girl turns at her name. One of which she hadn't heard all weak. Rachel quickly picks up the girl and holds Emma on her hip. Emma rests her blonde head on her shoulder, finally feeling a bit of safety. Karen comes down the stairs relieved that 'Hanna' had finally stopped crying.

"What are you doing here?"

"Sorry but we found a better home for her."

"You can't take her away, she is my baby."

"Please, you have only had her a week. You won't even miss her."

"Yes I will."

"Oh I'm not talking about the check she came with. Now can I please go pack her bags."

"No, you can't I need her. She is happy here."

"So that's why I found her crying on the floor."

"You can't do this."

"Yes I can actually. I need her bag."

"Fine. I want another kid though."

"I'll be sure to put in a good word for you amongst the other social workers." Karen goes into the kitchen and retrieves Emma's unopened bag almost throwing it at Rachel. Rachel grabs it out of her hand before she can do so. "Her name is Emma by the way." Rachel calls as she runs out the door.

The next family Emma ended up in were not actually that bad. Catherine her foster mother was a little distant at times, but she never hurt Emma. They put Emma in a good preschool and for the most part she was content. That was until John, Catherine's husband, decided to sleep with his secretary. One day John picked Emma up from preschool and was greeted by a very pissed Catherine. As they walked through the door Catherine gave Emma a fudgesical and told her to go play outside. At the time Emma was 5 years old, chocolate could pretty much bribe her into doing anything. So she sat on the front porch eating her ice cream and watching her foster parents fight. About an hour later John came outside. "Hey Em its time to go back inside now." John scooped her up and carried her inside, careful that she didn't walk on any of the broken glass.

"I told you to get out of my house." Catherine screamed. She would have thrown another plate if Emma wasn't in the way.

"Mommy?" Emma asked clearly scared. Catherine took Emma out of John's arms. "Say goodbye baby." She said to her. Catherine took Emma upstairs and started to pack her bags. She waited until John left the house to call the foster system. "Rachel I'm sorry, but I can't take care of her right now."

"Are you planning on getting her back in the future?"

"Yes." She said as she watched Emma play with one of her dolls. "She's my baby."

"Well you have to understand that we will have to find her a new home for her to stay in. That she may not be able to ever live with you again. Are you willing to give her up."

Emma did not understand why Catherine was crying during the car ride. She tired to ask where they were going but it only made her cry harder. When they finally got there Catherine carried Emma out of the car. Emma thought that was weird because she usually made her walk. She was rolling a suitcase behind her, something Emma vaguely recognized from before. "I'm so sorry baby. I'm sorry." She whispered into Emma's hair as they walked into the building.

Rachel recognized Emma and tried to convince Catherine that she should keep her. She was just mad and acting irrationally, when really she was fully capable of taking care of the child by herself. "Are you sure you want to do this? I mean its not like Emma is that hard to take care of."

"I've already made up by mind." She places Emma on floor and gets down to her level. "Emma you've made me very happy these past two years. I just want you to know that. You didn't do anything wrong. I'm sorry I have to go." Emma gives her a hug and Catherine starts to sob. She gets up and walks away fast before she can change her mind. Emma starts to cry too.

She looks at Rachel and asks, "Where am I going to go?"

Emma ended up in more horrible foster homes. Rachel tried her best to find a nice family, but there just weren't any more. Emma hated every second she spent inside many of those homes and school would be her only escape. She changed houses so often and school districts that she never really made any friends. Emma Swan spent most of her time alone. The only person she could call a friend was Rachel. Her only problem was that she only came to visit when things were getting really bad. She came to pick Emma up one night when she was 7. The home Emma lived in wasn't that bad. The family really did not care about her at all, but they gave her food and took her to school. Emma spent a lot of time watching the small TV they put in her tiny room. She had two older brothers who she sometimes played with, but mostly the family didn't want anything to do with her. Her main purpose was to serve as some extra money. They picked her because they figured she wouldn't cause much trouble, or eat very much. Both of which were right. So it was a surprise when they called Rachel to pick her up. "So what exactly did she do?" Rachel asked trying to understand the situation.

"Okay truth is she really didn't do anything. She actually never does anything. We would love to keep having her stay, but we are moving."

"Where are you moving to?"

"My mother's. She lives in a two bedroom house so obviously we don't want to bring another kid with us."

"Well I'm sorry you have to move."

"Yeah so am I, but we can't afford this place anymore."

"Thanks for taking good care of her. At least you didn't just drop her off because you had a fight with your husband."

"Damn people do that?"

"You would be surprised with the type of people you meet in the system."

"Wow, well I'm sorry I won't be seeing any more of you." She smiled down at Emma. Who was already holding Rachel's hand.

"Thank you." She said, she would give the woman a hug, but she felt no attachment to the family. After the boys said goodbye she sat in Rachel's car feeling nothing.

"Hey sweetie, you okay?"

"Yeah. I didn't really like them anyway."

"Were they mean to you?"

"No, but they just didn't really care."

"I'm sure they were just busy."

"I don't want another family."

"I'm sorry Emma, but you have to live somewhere."

"What if this is a bad one."

"You just have to believe that this one is better. Anyway you only have to do this for 11 more years."

"That's a long time. I'm not even 11 years old!" Emma started to cry and Rachel didn't know how to comfort her.

At 8 years old Emma learned how to take care of herself. The family she was living with were pretty big drinkers and often were found passed out on the floor. Emma slowly started to collect any extra money she found while they were drinking. She also saved the three dollars they gave her every day for lunch. By the time she had completely planned her escape she had around 300 dollars. With that money she planned on buying a train ticket and getting far away from Maine. Being only 8 she had not figured out what she would do once she got there, or how she would survive. She still had hope that a nice family would adopt her, but of course she knew that would probably never happen.

Emma packed the few belongings she cared about in her backpack. She went to the kitchen and grabbed some snacks that she could carry and headed out the back door. The family didn't even notice she had left. Emma underestimated the cold and was freezing before she was even a quarter of the way to the train station. She saw the glow of the lights coming from a big building and realized that it was a church. She figured nobody would mind if she went inside to warm up so she did. Nobody noticed as she sat down in the back. Emma put her backpack on the seat and rested her head on it. She told herself that she would just stay there until she was warm enough, but she ended up falling asleep.

She was waken by the minister who was very concern as to why she was there all alone. She tried to lie her way out and tell them that her mother had just went to get the car, but he didn't believe her. Instead he called the police. "How did you know I was lying?" Emma asked.

"Well I figured most mothers would not leave a little girl by herself this late at night."

"Yeah I probably should have come up with something better."

"Why did you lie in the first place."

"I didn't want to go back." The minister could tell that Emma was upset and because he felt bad decided to try to cheer her up.

"Another way I can tell when people are lying is because of their voice. Sometimes people's voices change when they lie. They also try to avoid looking into your eyes. Or they move around and seem very uncomfortable."

"The family I live with lies a lot." Emma said, the minster wanted to help but the police arrived before he could do anything.

"Emma we couldn't contact your foster family, but we did reach your social worker. She is going to meet us at the station. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah. I guess so." She said as she grabbed her backpack. "Thanks for waiting with me." She told the minster as she dejectedly walked to the car.

Okay so I figure this chapter is long enough. My plan for this story is to continue writing short little things about what went wrong at each family and then maybe going into detail for Emma's high school years. So hopefully that sounds good to you. I'm sorry if there are any grammar and spelling mistakes because my proof reading skills are horrible. Anyway it would be really awesome if you could write a review to tell me what you think about this story.