Chapter 2
David woke up to whimpering and immediately figured it was Neal. He was about to get up when he felt someone squeeze his hand and move on the other side of the bed. "Emma." David said softly, when he came to the realization that it wasn't Neal, but Emma.
Emma was tossing and turning as she moaned. David gently stroked her cheek to try to calm her down. He figured she was having some kind of nightmare. Normally, it worked to gently stroke her cheek and murmur comforting words to her, but this time she wouldn't calm down.
"Emma, sweetie, it's okay Dad's here." David continued to try to comfort Emma.
Emma whimpered again which was like a knife through his heart.
"Shhh. Daddy's here, you're okay. You're safe." David tried again.
"Daddy..." Emma murmured in her sleep before calming down completely and settling into a peaceful sleep.
"That's it, baby, Daddy's here." David said with a smile before kissing Emma's forehead and then settling back down in bed.
After a few moments of silence, he felt Emma shift closer to him so he wrapped his arm around her giving her a little more reassurance that she wasn't alone. "Sweet dreams, princess."
****OUAT****
Emma slowly woke up feeling relaxed, but feeling terrible as well. She opened her eyes to see that she was embarrassingly close to her father. He was still asleep and she realized that this was her only chance to get to work. There was tons to do and she had a feeling her father wouldn't be letting her work today especially if he thought she was sick. She wasn't sick, just tired, but she wasn't letting that stop her, but her father could stop her if he was awake.
She tried to get up, but her father's grip on her was tighter than she realized. "Crap." She whispered.
After a couple more tries, Emma managed to get out of her father's grip and get out of bed. She quickly got ready and slipped out of the door.
As soon as she left the apartment she felt like maybe she shouldn't have gotten out of bed because she felt weak and tired, but there was too much to do to take a day off. She made her way to the station and started on her big stack of paperwork.
It had really started to pile up because David hadn't been able to help as much with helping Snow with Baby Neal. Also because most of Emma's time had been spent cleaning up after the wicked witch and dealing with the weird occurrence of freak winter storms in September. Not to mention learning how to control and use her magic from Rumple which took a lot of time and energy from her.
She had just been busy with work, her magic, taking care of Henry, and every once in a while babysitting Neal to give her parents a break. But maybe today she could get some of it done.
****OUAT****
David woke up and found that Emma wasn't still sleeping. "Emma?"
David got up and quickly glanced around the apartment to see that it was empty. He ran upstairs to see if she had just went back to her room, but found it empty as well. "That little..." David started as he realized she went into work.
****OUAT****
Emma's phone vibrated and she grabbed it to answer, but when she saw who it was she set it back down on the table. "Oh dear."
She let it go to voicemail and continued to work on the paperwork.
A minute later her phone vibrated again and she sighed as she saw it was her father again. This time she sent it straight to voicemail. She knew what he wanted, but she wasn't going home because she was not sick, thank you very much.
The station's phone rang and Emma answered it without thinking about it. "Hello, this is Emma." Emma answered in a croaky voice.
"Emma, you shouldn't be at work..." David started, but Emma hung up without thinking about what she was doing.
"Oh...he isn't going to like that." Emma said to herself with a grimace.
A second later her phone vibrated again. "Seriously? A little overprotective, are we?" Emma said in an annoyed voice as she ignored his call once again.
A minute later, her phone vibrated with a voicemail. "Oh dear."
She reluctantly started to listen to the voicemail left by her dad. "Emma, first, stop ignoring my phone calls. Second, stay put because I'm coming to get you. You need to be home in bed, not out working. I'll be there soon."
Emma cringed as she put her phone down. She heard a tinge of frustration in his voice and when he said 'stay put' it was in his no nonsense voice that scared her a little if she was to be honest. But she couldn't just stay put like he asked, she would rather run from her problems than face them, especially an upset father.
The station phone rang and she checked the caller id to make sure that it wasn't her Dad, but saw it wasn't him so she answered. "Hello?"
"Emma? This is Leroy. Some of the dwarfs spotted some trees and a pond completely frozen over on the northeast section of the woods. We thought you might want to check it out." Grumpy said quickly in a worried voice.
"Ok, I'll go check it out." Emma said with a frown at the weird occurrence as she hung up.
Emma got up grabbed her coat, her phone, and her keys before heading out of the station. She cringed at the thought of her Dad finding out she had left the station, but then again how would he know she actually listened to his message. She jumped in the car and quickly backed up to head to the woods. This way she would at least avoid him for a little bit, but she hated the thought of him catching up with her after all this.
Emma headed out the woods to check it out while David drove to the station.
"Emma, let's go..." David started as he walked into the station to see that the station was empty. "Really? I ask her to stay put and what does she do, she leaves." David sighed before heading out of the station to Granny's to see if anybody has seen her.
"Hey Granny, have you seen Emma today?" David asked as he got to the counter.
"She came in around 9 for a hot chocolate, but I haven't seem her since. You know she isn't looking so good, she hasn't for the last few days." Granny told David.
"That's why I'm trying to find her...wait, last couple of days? Why didn't we see that?" David said mostly to himself.
"Hey, David. I know where she was headed, I called her to let her know that some of the dwarfs found a section of the forest frozen over in the northern section of the forest. I assumed both of you would go together." Grumpy told David.
"She went alone? Her sense of direction in the woods is a little off." David said with worry.
"Yeah, that's why I figured she had you come with her." Grumpy explained.
David nodded. "Well I'm going go head out there and see if I can find her."
"Ok. Just be careful, it looks like a storm is coming." Grumpy said as he looked out the window.
"Ok, can you and the dwarfs watch out for her. Let me know if you see her." David said before he left the diner.
****OUAT****
She had been walking in the woods for over an hour trying to find the stupid frozen over pond and trees, but so far she just found snow. It was getting colder out as well and she wished that she had brought her winter coat.
Maybe I should just head back to the car and drive a little farther. If I only I could remember which way the car is... Dad is going to kill me if I get lost out here. He already is going to kill me for not just staying at the station. It really is starting to get cold and is it snowing?
Maybe I should just call Dad? Hmmm. No, I can't do that. No. I'll try to get back to the car. I might be able to find this pond still without help.
****OUAT****
Okay, maybe I'm lost. I have been trying to get back to the car for who knows how long and I'm nowhere close to the car or the frozen pond. Although, I can hardly see anything because of the freaking winter storm that decided to drop out of nowhere. Emma's thoughts were interrupted with a round of coughs.
Emma grabbed her phone thinking that it was about time she called her Dad to come find her. She dialed her Dad's number and waited for the lecture he was sure to give her.
"Emma! Where are you? Are you okay?" David asked frantically through the phone.
"I'm fine Dad. I just got lost in the woods...I may need you to come find me." Emma started to explain, but then another round of coughs hit her. She expected to hear another round of questions and worry, but all she heard was silence. "Dad?"
Emma looked at her phone to see that it had died. "Really?"
Emma decided that all she could do was keep looking for her car, but she was so turned around she didn't know which way to head. She really hoped her Dad would just find her that was supposed to be what he is good at. But how could he in this storm? You can hardly see 10 feet ahead of you. I'll just keep walking, but I can't really feel my feet anymore let alone my legs. I'm not sure how much longer I can keep going.
****OUAT****
She had been walking and walking, but she couldn't go on any longer so she sat down by a fallen tree. I can't fall asleep. I know that sitting down isn't a good idea, but I can't move any more.
Emma started coughing again. "Please find me, Dad." Emma said after she regained her breath and closed her eyes.
****OUAT****
"Emma!" David called. He had been searching for almost two hours for his daughter. He had found her car, but no sign of Emma. Her tracks were covered by a foot of snow and he just had to guess which way she must have gone.
When Emma had called him, he had been so relieved to hear that she was okay even though she was lost because he could figure out where she was from her surroundings. But when her phone died, he was back where he started.
He was beyond worried about his daughter by now. It had dropped twenty degrees and it had been snowing like crazy. Not to mention that for some reason the temperature was still dropping and Emma didn't have her winter coat with her. Plus the fact that Emma was sick and had been sick for a while was worrying him as well.
"Emma!" David yelled again as he came across a fallen tree. "Emma!"
"D..Dad?"
"Emma!" David called as he knelt down by Emma and took her into his arms. The first thing he realized was that she was freezing. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah...just cold.." Emma answered through chattering teeth.
"Come on, we need to get back to the truck." David said as he stood up and waited for Emma to stand up.
"I...I don't think I can get up." Emma said before starting to cough again.
David knelt down again by Emma and rubbed her back as she coughed. "I'll help you." David said once she stopped coughing.
Emma nodded, not trusting her voice.
"Come on." David said as he grabbed Emma under the arms to pull her to her feet. Once she was on her feet she was unstable whether that was from being dizzy or stiff, he wasn't sure, but he kept holding on to her. "You're freezing, here." David said as he held on to Emma with one hand while taking off his coat with the other.
"Dad, I'm fine. I can't really feel anything right now anyway." Emma said seriously.
"Emma, that doesn't really make me feel better." David said after a moment of panic. He quickly put his coat on her before draping one of her arms over his shoulders while he put his arm around her waist pulling her closer to him so that he could support most of her weight. "Are you okay?"
"Besides being half-frozen, yeah I'm fine." Emma said sarcastically.
David smiled despite the situation. "Ok, well let's get you to the truck."
"You know where to go?" Emma mumbled in awe at her father's sense of direction.
"Yes, sweetie." David replied as they began to walk. Emma was already having trouble walking although they just began. David was hoping that she could make it to the truck, but at the rate they were going he may end up having to carry her.
Emma wasn't even sure how she was walking and she kept accidentally closing her eyes. It didn't seem to make a difference because either way she couldn't see because of the freak winter storm. She wondered how her father was figuring out where to go in the storm.
"Emma, stay awake. We should almost be there and once I get you home you can sleep." David said as they continued on.
Emma began coughing again and couldn't stop tears from streaming down her face as she tried to breathe.
David stopped and rubbed Emma's back as she caught her breath. "There you go. Small breaths."
"I'm okay now." Emma spurted out in between breaths. They started walking again, but then Emma's legs gave out on her.
"Whoa... it's okay, I've got you." David said as he continued to hold Emma up so she wouldn't fall.
"Can't...go on." Emma mumbled.
David slipped one arm under her knees and then picked her up in his arms. "Don't fall asleep, okay?" David said.
"Hmm."
"Emma. I mean it. You can't sleep yet." David said sternly.
"But Daddy..." Emma mumbled in a whiny voice.
David had to smile at hearing her call him Daddy, but it also worried him that maybe she was out of it and sicker than he thought. "Emma. Why don't you tell me why you decided to go to work today when you were sick?"
"I wasn't sick." Emma mumbled into her father's chest.
"I beg to differ." David said with a sigh. "Ok then let's talk about you ignoring my calls and hanging up on me."
"I'd rather not." Emma mumbled.
David chuckled at Emma's response. "I wonder why." David said to himself.
Emma smiled and closed her eyes. Maybe she would get away with it after all.
"Ut uh. No falling asleep and this conversation isn't over. I don't appreciate that you were ignoring my calls and disobeying me." David said.
Emma moaned. "I didn't."
"Ah yes, you did. I told you to stay at the station and you didn't." David responded.
"I didn't listen to the voicemail so I didn't know to 'stay put.'" Emma lied.
"How did you know I said to 'stay put?'" David caught on to her lie.
Emma groaned. "Guessed?"
"More like you lied." David concluded with a smirk.
"Oh there's the truck." Emma interrupted.
David looked up from Emma's face to see the cars and sighed in relief.
"Meet you back home?" Emma said as they got to the truck.
"You are not driving. You can't even walk plus your car can't even drive through this much snow." David said firmly.
David let Emma down making sure to keep one arm around her as he opened the door. Then he picked Emma up again and put her in the car. "There you go." David said as he buckled her in.
Emma nodded, but then closed her eyes as he shut the door.
David got in and quickly turned the car on to get the heat going. He really wished he had blankets in the truck like Snow had suggested. "Hey, do you have blankets in your car?"
"No." Emma said tiredly. Snow had bugged her about doing that, but she never felt like actually putting blankets in her car.
"You should really listen to your mother." David said.
"You should too." Emma chuckled, but then started to cough again.
David looked at Emma with concern wishing she wasn't so cold and sick. He turned on the heat on high, but it would take some time before the truck heated up. He started driving once Emma stopped coughing. He could tell that she wasn't going to be able to stay up any longer now that she was in the truck. He was just glad that he had found her and now she was safe with him.
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