Summary: At only 9 years old, Emma Swan was abandoned by her junkie mother, Ingrid Fisher. Emma took her father's last name, not her mothers. Ingrid learned that her drug dealer boyfriend, Walsh, was hitting Emma, she dumped her instead of her boyfriend. Emma was thrown around the foster system for nearly a year, until she was placed with Mary Margaret and David Nolan.

Chapter 1

Walsh was really getting tired of this little girl getting between him and his girlfriend. Ingrid has money, at least she did, until her parents cut her off. But she still had ways of obscuring money though, that's what he loved about her. Her kid was another story. He saw Emma Swan as an ungrateful brat. One day, he just snapped.

"Walsh? Can you take me to the library?"

He kept his cool at first. "No Emma. I'm obviously busy." He said, going back to separating the drugs for his boss.

"Please Walsh. Mama's asleep again. I really, really wanna go. Raven's gonna be there!"

He was getting irritated, he pushed her back. "I said no Emma. I'm working."

"Please Walsh! It'll only take a few minutes."

He didn't know what happened. The next thing he knew, he had the child in a choke hold. He dropped her the second he realized it. "I said no!" He yelled. "If you tell your mother about this, you'll regret it." Tears were streaming down her face, but she merely nodded. He grabbed her upper arm and shoved her out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

The small girl went into her mother's bedroom and lied down next to her. When she woke up, her mother was awake. If she noticed the bruises on the nearly 9-year old's neck and arm, she didn't say anything.

It went on for months, it got to the point where her presence pissed Walsh off if Ingrid wasn't around. He started hurting her on a daily basis. One day, he was so focused on hitting the child, he didn't hear her mother come home from the store.

"Walsh! Get off of her!" She dropped the groceries and pulled her boyfriend off of her 9-year old daughter. When she got her boyfriend off of Emma, he went into the other room. "Are you okay?" Emma nodded, looking down. "How long has this been going on?" Emma shrugged. "I'm gonna go talk to him."

She walked into the other room, but before she talked to him, she needed a fix. "I want her gone. She goes, or I do." He said as soon as she walked in.

When she answered, she didn't even flinch. "Okay, I'll take her later." She held out her hand for the plate of drugs that Walsh had. He handed it to her, with a smile on his face. They were oblivious to the fact that the little girl was listening.

A few hours later Ingrid came out of the room, with a letter in her hand, the drugs wore off for the most part, so she's be able to drive alright. "Mommy?"

"Go get dressed Emma. We're leaving."

Emma nodded and came out of her room a few minutes later, dressed and ready to go. "Where are we going?"

"Someone's gonna watch you for mommy, alright?" Emma nodded and a few minutes later, the pulled up outside a hospital. "Okay Emma." She handed her daughter the letter. "Don't read this. I want you to go inside and give it to the nurse at the desk. Then I want you to sit in a chair." She told her. "I'll be back in a while." She lied.

"Okay mommy. I love you. See you later." She hugged her mother.

Ingrid broke the hug almost immediately. "Go on Emma."

"Bye mommy." Emma got out of the car and walked inside.

XXX

Emma walked up to the front desk at the hospital. "Hi..."

The nurse looked from her computer screen to the little girl in front of her. "Hello honey. Do you need something?"

She handed the nurse the a letter. "My mommy said to give this to you."

"Well, where is your mommy?"

Emma shrugged. "She'll be back later."

The nurse grabbed the letter and Emma sat in a waiting room chair. The nurse opened the first letter.

To whomever it may concern,

I am no longer able to take care of my child. I didn't know how to tell her. I told her I'd be back later, but I won't. It was a lie. I'm not mother material. We've survived for nine years, but I can't do it anymore. Tell her I'm sorry.

The nurse looked up to the innocent nine year old. "Oh my God. Poor girl." She went to her boss' office.

"Come in." The nurse walked in. "Patty? Are you alright?"

The nurse- Patty- sighed. "Nine year old girl just walked into the ER, alone, and gave me this." She handed the letters to her boss, she waited until the sat the letter down to continue. "Allison, what's the protocol here? As long as I've worked here, this has never happened."

"We call social services and tell the girl the truth. Can you do it, or do you want me to?"

Patty sighed. "I can tell the girl."

"Alright. I'll give social services a call."

Patty walked out of the room at back to where Emma was, she lead her to a private room and sat down next to her. "Hi there. My name is Patty."

"I'm Emma… what did the note say?"

The woman sighed. "Honey, your mommy's not coming back. She wrote it in the letter."

"It's because of what Walsh did, isn't it?"

"Who's Walsh? What'd he do?"

Emma looked down. "Mommy's boyfriend. Mommy doesn't want me no more 'cause Walsh hurt me. He told me not to tell mommy, but mommy came home and he was hurting me." She sighed. "When mommy went to go talk to Walsh, I heard them talking. Walsh said he'd leave if mommy didn't make me go." She sniffled, not bothering wiping her tears. "When I peaked in the room, mommy took the grown up candy and fell asleep."

The nurse was appalled. "Did he hurt you today Emma?" The little girl nodded. "Can you show me?" She reluctantly lifted up her shirt and showed the nurse both recent bruises and bruised that were weeks old, then she took her jacket off, revealing the handprints on her arms. "Thank you honey. I'm gonna go get a doctor, for a quick check up."

Emma was checked out by a doctor, she had no permanent damage. About an hour later, a social worker and police officer showed up asking her questions and for an address to her house. She told them the truth. "Dudley street in Roxbury."

A couple hours later, the social worker took her to a place called an orphanage. She didn't really understand. "I'm not an orphan. I have a mommy. Only my daddy's dead, not my mommy."

"But she doesn't want you anymore." One of the kids told her.

XXX

Emma sat there in her bed at the orphanage hoping that it was all a joke. That her mommy was just playing with her. That her mommy was breaking up with meanie Walsh and coming to pick her up later. But deep down, she knew it was the truth. Her mommy doesn't love her. No one does. She's all alone.

XXX

Mary Margaret and David Nolan were lying in bed side-by-side, they'd just received heartbreaking news that she has a very low chance of conception last week, but Mary Margaret stayed optimistic. She's not one to accept defeat. And it's not like there's only one way to have a child. She turned to face her husband, with a small smile. "What if we adopt?"

"What?"

She smiled at him. "Come on David. It's not like there's only one way to have a child. We can adopt a child. There are all sorts of kids out there without parents." The more she talked about it, the more she wanted to do it. "I don't even care how old the child is David. I just want to be a mom."

David smiled. "And I want to be a dad. I always have. We're gonna be parents Mary Margaret. No matter how long it takes Mare. We're gonna do this." The shared a passionate, happy kiss.