Snow and Charming followed Emma in a shocked silence.
"Did she ever speak of any of this to you?" Charming asked her. After all, Mary Margaret had been Emma's best friend in Storybrooke before the curse broken.
"She never talked about it much," Snow admitted sadly. "I usually didn't push the issue. I mean, I know that growing up in the system can be difficult, but I never imagined…"
"The worst part is how she is taking it," Charming commented. "She was barely phased. Like she's used to it happening all the time."
Snow took Charming's hand for her own comfort as they walked behind their daughter. She wished she could transfer some of her warmth to her. Without her jacket, Emma was shivering dramatically.
Eventually Emma made her way to a vacant lot where a number of homeless men were gathered around a few bins burning with warm fire. Emma walked towards them. As she approached, one of the men looked up and saw her coming.
"Hey Emma," the man called, waving from where he stood over a fire burning in a trash bin. The man was middle aged with one crossed eye and a short, graying beard.
"Hey, Ben," she returned as she came up and stood next to him and warmed her hands.
"Did he get out the belt again?" he asked casually.
"It was the gun this time," she told him.
"Damn," Ben said, although he did not seem to react very strongly. "What you got there?"
"It's really not bad," she shrugged.
"Let me see," he persisted. She turned her face to allow him to inspect her injury. He took her chin and lifted it a bit. The tenderness of the bruise, turning a brief shade of blue on her cheek, made her wince ever-so-slightly.
"Ah, that's not too bad, there," he said encouragingly. "The bleeding's stopped, so that's good. You staying the night? I think it's going to be a cold one, but I'm sure we could find some way to keep each other warm."
He slid his hand behind her hips.
"Seriously?" Charming seethed.
"None of that," Emma told him firmly, and he backed off with an acquiescing smile. She leaned further over the licking flames. "They turned the heat off in our house, but it will still probably be warmer than out here. I'm surprised it took them this long, I've seen the warnings in the mail for a couple months now. I'll probably sneak back in sometime after dark. He's probably passed out already as it is, but just to be safe."
"Have you eaten?" Ben asked. "I don't have much tonight, but there's half a can of beans…"
"I'm not very hungry," Emma said. "But thanks."
"No problem."
"I think he might send me away this time," she said softly, almost in a whisper, as if she was talking to herself or afraid someone might hear her.
"Do you want to be sent away?" Ben asked.
Emma thought for a moment.
"I don't know," she said. "I mean I don't like living with him, but he's definitely not the worst I've had. The foster family I had in Tucson had fifteen of us and kept us all in the basement. They only let us come out when the agent was coming to check up on us, and then they told us that if we didn't tell her we were happy, we wouldn't get food for a week."
Snow pulled her hand to her mouth to stifle a sad noise she felt coming from deep down inside of her heart.
"What if I get sent to another place like that? This place isn't much, but I've only got one more year before I'm out of the system. Might as well last it out if I can."
"And then where will you go?" Ben asked. "When you're of the system?"
"Away," was all Emma answered.
"Do you think you'll stay in school?" Ben asked her, looking over the barrel and sniffing deeply. Emma pondered the question.
"I don't know," Emma said. "I like school most of the time, but every year I fall further and further behind because I can't do my homework. Like right now, I have an essay do tomorrow on a book called 'Catcher in the Rye'. And I really liked the book. The character, Holden, runs away from his boarding school and lives in New York all on his own. But I can't write the essay because I don't have any of my school supplies. And even if I hadn't been run out this evening, the power's out the house, so how am I supposed to write an essay with no light?"
"Maybe your teacher would let you hand it in tomorrow?"
"All the teachers already think I'm lazy and stupid because this happens all the time."
"You're not stupid, Emma," Ben assured her. "You're one of the smartest people I know."
Emma smiled in spite of herself.
"Thanks, Ben," she said.
After that, the two just stood in silence leaning over the orange glow of the fire.