This is another what if story... The curse failed and Snow and Charming was able to raise Emma in the Enchanted Forest. Emma is growing up to be very stubborn and independent like her mother. Also Regina continues to plan for Snow White's suffering and knows that Emma is now the key to destroying her happy ending.
Just to let everyone know, I don't own Once Upon A Time ;)
Snow had spent the last hour looking all over the castle for her daughter. Where could she be, Snow thought as she searched the girls bed chamber for the third time. With no luck of finding Emma, Snow continued her search.
"Charming have you seen our daughter?" Snow asked as she walked into the castles large office where her husband was finishing with some paperwork.
"No sorry love, I havn't seen her since breakfast." he smiled then stopped to give Snow a quick kiss. After being married for years James still took every chance he could to steal a kiss from his adorable wife.
James noticed Snow was exhausted, obviously from walking the castle halls looking for Emma so he pulled her down into his lap. Straight away Snow relaxed in his arms and let her head rest on his chest. "I can't find her anywhere and I have searched the whole castle."
"Would you like me to help look for her?"
Snow moved her head to look at her husband as she spoke "Would you please? I have to start getting her ready for the ball tonight and knowing Emma it's going to take a very long time to just convince her to put her dress on."
James laughed at the memory of Emma getting ready for the last ball she had. Emma had refused to wear the purple dress Snow had gotten her, and in the end it took four hours and they ended up missing half the ball anyway. "Don't worry I will find her." James pulled Snow up with him as he stood and gave her another kiss, this time it lasted longer. Finally he pulled away "Besides I have a pretty good idea where she might be anyway."
Snow glared at James. "Charming is there something your not telling me?"
"I will go find our daughter and meet you in her room. You can figure out how to convince her to wear a dress." James reassured giving Snow his famous charming smile.
...
Emma raised her arms and lined up the arrow, she slowly pulled back the string on the bow until it touched the side of her cheek. She took in a slow breath of air and released her hold on the string, letting the arrow fly across the field. Emma smiled as the arrow hit the middle of the target that was marked out on the tree across from her then took a few steps further away from the target. She pulled out another arrow from over her shoulder and set it in the bow and took her aim again.
"Now what would your mother say if she new you were out here?" Came a voice from right behind Emma, making her jump.
"Dad! What are you doing hear?" Emma breathed trying to catch her breath from being startled.
"Looking for you." James' face went from being amused to disappointed in a matter of seconds and Emma noticed. "Emma what on earth are you doing out here in the forest? You know your not allowed to go beyond the castle wall unless you have a guard with you, it's dangerous. Do you have any idea what your mother would say..."
"Your not going to tell her are you?" Emma pleaded. "I just wanted to shoot some arrows and needed the space. I havn't gone too deep into the forest."
James sighed and walked over to Emma to kneel down infront of her. "Sweetie you know I can't lie to your mother. I know you only wanted to shoot some arrows but it's still very dangerous out here, you never know who's walking around here."
"You mean Regina?" Emma asked.
James tucked a loose blond curl behind Emma's ear then looked to meet her questioning gaze. "Yes Emma most likely Regina but there are many other people out there that are just as dangerous."
"Okay." Emma nodded. Although Emma had never met Regina she has heard enough bad stories from everyone in the kingdom about her. "But do you still have to tell mom I was here?"
"How about you get ready for tonight without any argument and I will try to keep it from her as long as I can?" James knew it wouldn't be very long until Snow finally forced him to tell her but he was hoping long enough to get Emma to the ball.
Emma weighed her options very carefully. If she agreed then she wouldn't have to sit though another one of her mothers long lecturers but if she didn't agree then she could try and get out of going to the ball tonight. She knew if she argued long enough then it would waste time like the last ball but sitting through another lecture would properly be worst than having to fake smile all night and wear a dress. "Okay" Emma finally agreed. "As long as you don't tell mom then I won't argue about getting ready."
James smiled at his daughter then stood up and offered her his hand. As soon as Emma grabbed hold of his hand James started to lead them back to the castle. "So how did you get passed the guards at the front gate anyway?" When Emma didn't reply he looked down at her to see she had the biggest smirk planted across her face and when she remained silent he took a metal note to remember to have more guards patrolling the castle wall.
When James and Emma arrived back, Snow was waiting for them in Emma's room fussing over the beading on the blue dress Emma is ment to wear tonight. Snow was pulled from deep thought when she heard James clear his throat at the door. Snow spun around to see Emma standing at his side with wide eyes. "That's the dress I have to wear?" She asked.
Snow forced her self not to smile at her daughters reaction to the dress. "Emma honey it's not that bad."
James gave Emma a nudge to remind her of their deal they made in the forest. "Your right." Emma forced a smile taking in the blue dress. "Thanks mom. I guess I'll go try it on."
Snow watched completely taken by surprise as Emma snatched the dress of the hanger and took it into her washroom to get changed. "What is that all about? How did you get her to agree to wear the dress so easily?"
"I guess I can be pretty persuasive at times." James told Snow walking over to wrap her in his arms.
"Charmings more like it." The two of them stood there finding comfort in each other before Snow pulled away to meet James' gaze. "Where was she?" Snow wondered and James' face softened. "I don't want to know do I?"
"Not right now no."And before Snow could question him again Emma came out from the washroom wearing her new dress. "Emma you look beautiful." Emma just let out a huff and stomped over to start brushing her hair. "I guess I will let you two finish getting ready while I go get washed up." As James turned to leave his two girls he planted a kiss on his wife's lips and whispered in her ear. "Good luck."
Snow swatted James on the arm as he left the room. She knew he was only joking but when it came to getting Emma ready she properly could use all the luck she could get.
Snow went over to where Emma was sitting infront of a mirror brushing her hair and offered to take the brush from her. "Here honey do you want some help? Emma handed her mother the brush and stared down at her dress, playing with some of the loose lace in her fingers. "Emma what's wrong?" Snow's voice was slightly worried.
Emma kept her eyes focused on her hands. "I hate dressing up."
"Oh sweetie I know but it's only for a few hours. The time will fly by and before you know it, it will all be over." Snow tried to reassure but Emma kept her head down. "Emma is something else wrong?"
"It's just.." Emma hesitated, "It's nothing, never mind."
Snow stopped pinning Emma's hair up and turned the girl to face her. "Honey you know you can tell me anything right? I will always be here for you no matter what."
"Even if I did something that would make you angry?" Emma said slowly looking up to see her mothers facial expression.
"Even if I'm upset with you Emma I will always love you." Snow cupped her daughters face in her hands and place a gentle kiss on top of her head. "Nothing you do could ever stop me from loving you."
...
Once the ball had ended and everyone was thanked for attending, James and Snow headed upstairs to their room. "Do you think most people noticed Emma slip out half way through the night?" Snow asked as they walked down the halls of the castle.
"I was planning on going to get her to greet everyone a goodbye but she has been very cooperative tonight I was afraid I would ruin everything."
"Oh which reminds me." Snow said in a curious voice pulling James into their room. "Where did you find her today?"
James positioned himself infront of the door ready to stop her from going and yelling at Emma. "She was out in the forest shooting her bow."
"She what!" Snow yelled stepping forward but only to be stopped by James' body.
"Snow clear your head before you go yelling at her." It never ended well when Snow and Emma got into arguments they were both too stubborn to see both sides of the story.
"Was she crazy! She knows she isn't allowed to go beyond the castle wall. It's dangerous, what was she thinking?" Snow rambled. James placed his hands on Snow's shoulders to calm her down and at his instant touch she relaxed and let out a heavy sigh. "How did she even get passed the guards?"
James gave Snow a look that said please-it's-Emma-the-girl-who-has-both-our-genes. "She didn't say exactly but I'm going to have extra guards at the front gate watching from now on."
"Well I'm going to go check on this daughter of ours to see that she really is in bed."
Snow stepped around and headed towards the door. "Snow go easy on her please, she didn't go too far away from the castle."
James watched as his wife turned back around to glare at him. "Is this why Emma got ready for tonight without a fuss." Everything was making more sense now. "Because she didn't want me to know she was out there."
"I told her I wouldn't keep it a secret from you but as long as you didn't know she agreed to no arguing about tonight. She was afraid you would get really upset with her. Snow please go easy on her, she knew it was wrong and I don't want to see either one of my girls upset tonight okay."
"Why do you have to be so dam charming." Snow smiled and planted a kiss on his lips before turning to leave the room once more.
…...…...
Emma watched from her balcony as the last of the guests from the ball drove away. She had already ditched the dress and changed into her sleep wear. When she heard her parents voices coming from down the hall Emma ran across her room over to her door to open it slightly, making sure not to make a sound. When she saw that her parents had entered their room, Emma opened her door fully to creep down to the kitchen to grab a snack. She only got to the end of the hallway before she heard her mothers voice, "She what!" Emma froze on the spot and then without thinking she was running back to her room closing the door shut and jumped onto her bed. She hid herself under the covers and pulled the thick blanket over her head and prepared herself for her mothers anger wave.
It felt like only a matter of seconds to Emma before there was a knock at her door then the door creaking open. "Emma?" Came her mothers voice. Emma felt the weight on the bed shift when Snow sat down so she pulled the blankets tighter over her head. "Emma honey I'm not going to yell at you."
"Why not? I disobeyed you and went behind your back." Emma muttered from under the covers.
"Well if I yell at you that's only going to make everyone upset and that's not going to get us anywhere." Emma slowly emerged from under the blankets and sat up to wait for Snow to continue. "Emma please don't just go off like that ever again. You don't realise how dangerous it is out there. What if something happened to you or you ran into someone. Honey if I don't know where you are, I can't make sure your safe. If you had just asked me I would have let you gone just as long as I knew. I know how responsible you are Em but that doesn't mean everyone else is the same. Please don't ever hide anything from me again."
Emma was shocked that Snow wasn't completely yelling at her but she threw her arms around her mothers neck and hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry."
Snow hugged her daughter back, glad that she got through to Emma. "Oh and one more thing, don't ever feel the need of not being able to tell me something because of how I might react. Like I told you earlier, I will still love you no matter what."
"I love you too mom."
Snow stood up from the bed and tucked Emma in then gave her a kiss on the head. "Goodnight sweetheart. Sweet dreams."
Let me know what you think.. If you wanna hear more..
I'm not sure how long I'm planing to make it but if you enjoy it I'm more than happy to continue to write.
Thanks for reading.
