Hey guys, this chapter's mainly focused on Mary Margret, but there's some major Daddy Charming coming up in the one. I'm not too sure about this chapter but it has some important things in it so it's needed. Let me know anything you want to see next in the reviews or anything you wanna see in the general future (as always I have like 0 idea where I'm taking this).
Feel free to follow me on twitter loboselinaff or tumblr (ouat: loboselinafanfiction normal: loboselinaistrash)
I'll have another update for you all in a couple of days!
I hope you enjoy!
Mary Margret closed the door behind Blue's back, her mouth was agape as she stared at the green wood, then she leant her head forward and let it rest on the cold door. How could there be a chance that Emma would be stuck as a child? They had to find a way... there was always a way, and they would find it. She heard the creak of footsteps on the floor and she jumped and turned and was relieved to see that it was just David stood there with Neal in his arms, she plastered a smile onto her face, but David knew her too well.
"Mary Margret, what's wrong?" he walked over to her and placed his hand on her cheek, Neal cooed in his father's arms, but David kept his attention on his wife.
Mary Margret's eyes darted toward her bedroom. "Is Emma asleep?"
"Yes," he said and Mary Margret opened her mouth to explain however he felt the need to add, "but she's tossing and turning, if you need to say something she shouldn't hear we should probably talk about it later." He hoped that she would shrug it off and tell him what was on her mind but instead she nodded.
"I'll tell you later." She promised. "It's probably best she doesn't hear it." She saw his worried look. "It's nothing we have to worry about just yet."
David frowned but didn't push it. "So, it looks like Emma's going to be like this for a while to come." he said as he too turned his head to look towards the bedroom. "I never thought that this would even be possible, let alone actually happen..." His tone was full of wonder before he added quietly, "...Is it bad that I can't quite enjoy it?"
Mary Margret smiled at his forlorn face. "I'm glad that you said that. I've dreamt of being able to look after her as a child, but now that she's like this, I just wish that she was back to being our Emma." She felt awful saying it, and kept her voice low so that if Emma woke she wouldn't hear, but she felt slightly better that David understood what she was feeling. She yet again forced a smile onto her face. "But we should probably try to make the most of it." She pressed a kiss to his lips then looked over at the clock. "Speaking of which I'm going to go run some errands."
"Errands?" David raised his eyebrow.
"Emma will need some clothes." She said as she pulled on her jacket.
"Any chance to do some shopping, hey buddy?" David laughed to his son.
"And Blue suggested that we get hold of Emma's medical records up to and around the age she is now-"
"- are you sure we should-"
"-that's what I thought. But I'll ask Whale to write a list without all of the details so we can know without invading Emma's privacy."
David nodded in agreement but continued to think, there was a reason why more detailed explanations behind things were kept on file, they could need to know something and it was possible that a simple list could lead them to draw worse conclusions. "You could ask Whale for a longer file version and we'll talk to Emma about us reading it, we won't insist and we can give her the opportunity to tell us anything she wants to by herself, but we may need to know about it should anything happen."
Without knowing about what Blue had said David had made perfect sense. Mary Margret felt pride on behalf of her husband but she still felt torn, like she was betraying her daughter's trust if she got the file, so she simply nodded doubtful Whale would even entertain giving Mary Margret Emma's file anyway. She moved towards the table and picked up Neal's carseat.
"Mary Margret," David sighed quietly, "Neal can stay with me." He followed her over to the table and placed his spare hand on her shoulder. "I know you're anxious about leaving him, now more than ever, but he will be perfectly fine with me."
Mary Margret gave a slightly frustrated sigh but she saw where David was coming from. "David, of course I trust you with him, I know that he would be in no safer hands. I'm just worried about Emma waking up and not feeling well, she might need you and Neal might at the same time, but if that happens Emma won't let you know what she needs. I would take Emma with me but- what?" she asked when David's face softened with love.
"Our children are very lucky to have a mom who puts them first." He pressed a kiss to her lips. "And I'm so blessed to be married to you." He looked at the clock and saw the time, luckily the stores in Storybrooke were open later in wintertime, it was only quarter past seven so there was plenty of time for Mary Margret to get around "Perhaps you should ask Ruby to go with you," he suggested, "I'm sure that she'll find about what happened soon anyway, it's probably better sooner than later."
"Plus it might make me less likely to have a breakdown in the store." Mary Margret joked as she plucked Neal from David's arms and fastened him securely into the seat.
"Yeah, save that for later and we'll have a breakdown together." He smirked back. He bent down and pressed a kiss to Neal's forehead. "While you're gone I'll get some dinner made, Emma may not want to eat but she'll need to."
"That sounds perfect." She picked Neal's carseat and his changing bag up and was walked to the door by David. "I'll see you soon. Let me know if you or Emma need anything."
"Of course. Ring me if you need me." He opened the door for her. "Oh, perhaps you could drop by the pharmacy and get some medicine for Emma, I doubt we have any suitable for Emma's age range." He suggested as he thought about the last time Henry had been ill and had finished the medicine.
"That's a good point," she paused in the doorway and pressed yet another kiss to his lips, "I'll see if there's anything else which will make her feel more comfortable as well. Look after her."
David saw her looking slightly sadly back at the loft and he realised how hard it was for her to leave Emma when she was ill, now more than ever. He promised her that Emma would be fine and stood on the stairs and watched as she and Neal descended the stairs.
*OUAT*
Mary Margret walked out of the pharmacy with Neal in his pram and her cell phone pressed to her ear, she had already rang Ruby and briefly explained the situation, she had managed to convince her best friend that she wasn't mad (it was just the situation which was) and the waitress had eagerly accepted the invitation and was waiting to be picked up at the diner once Mary Margret had visited the hospital. The dialling tone rang through her ear as she reached her car again. She struggled to keep hold of the phone as she detached the carseat from the pram.
"David, hi, yes everything's fine. Is Emma still asleep? Good." She pressed the phone between her head and her shoulder as she pulled the door open. "Could you check to see what size clothes she wears, I'm not sure how you can do it without waking her up… That's a good idea, can you check what shoe size she is then too?" She strapped Neal's carseat into the car as David read out the labels from Emma's raincoat and wellington boots. She noticed Archie walking Pongo down the street towards her but she was too focused on David's words, and Neal, and hoping that the breaks on the pram wouldn't, for whatever reason, suddenly fail and the pram would roll down the street with the bags from the pharmacy, to notice the slightly concerned but understanding look on his face. "Thank you, honey, I'm going to the hospital now, I'll shoot you a text to let you know when I've picked Ruby up. I love you too."
She tested the straps to make sure that Neal was secure and her eyes drifted to the carseat Emma had been gifted, she was still lost in her thoughts of her daughter when she closed the car door, she turned around and jumped at the sight of Archie stood next to her.
"I'm sorry, Mary Margret, I didn't mean to scare you." He apologised.
"Oh not a problem," she shrugged off, conscious of the time she placed the bag of pharmaceuticals on the ground and struggled to fold up the pram, "is everything okay Archie?"
"Oh yes, I'm quite well, how are you?" He couldn't stop his tone turning into one he used in therapy sessions. He eyed the children's calpol in the bag. "Is Neal well?"
"Neal's fine." Mary Margret answered confused. She finally managed to click the pram down. "Aha!" she cheered in victory and picked the pram up and placed it inside the trunk of her car.
"You know it would be perfectly natural to be worried over his health, especially after everything you went through during his and Emma's births, but if you do feel more anxious about his safety and health I should hope that you'd feel comfortable talking to me about it."
Mary Margret was taken aback for a moment, where was this coming from? But then she saw him nod his head to the medicines in the bag. "Oh no, Archie, those aren't for Neal. They're for Emma."
"Is Henry unwell?" he asked though the medicine seemed a little young for Henry to be taking.
Mary Margret sighed inwardly she knew she would be explaining this story over and over again. "No, when Emma was in the Enchanted Forest she fell ill, and when she came through the portal she suffered some side effects." Archie's head tilted sideways as he tried to put together her words but was coming up short. "Emma's magic reacted with the portal and turned her into a five year old, with her own mind, but she caught Saltbourne flu while she was there, so the medicine is to keep her temperature down."
"Oh!" Archie's mouth hung open for a couple of seconds in shock. "I…Is she alright?" He bent down to pick up the bag and passed it to Mary Margret who placed it beside the pram in the trunk. "Other than the flu."
Mary Margret gently shut the trunk as she thought. "She's very quiet." She told him "But I don't know if that's just because she's feeling ill or… I just don't know." She sighed shakily. "She's not acting like Emma. And we just have to hope that her magic will slowly sort itself out."
He smiled sympathetically. "What is it that you're worried about, other than her health and how she'll turn back, of course?"
Mary Margret faltered, what was she worried about? She watched her breath turn to smoke in the frozen air in front of her as she tried to rearrange her thoughts.
"She's only just accepted us as her parents." She told him honestly, before they had been separated for a year they had been on their way but that year without magic, without them, had made Emma distance them. "I'm scared that she's going to push us away, whether she does it now or when she changes back... if she can change back."
She wasn't sure how she had basically ended up in a therapy session in the middle of the darkened street, but Archie was one of her oldest friends and most trusted advisors, and she needed to talk to someone preferably David, but Archie would do for the time being.
"Has she pushed you away yet?" he asked her.
She shook her head. "If anything she seems to be needing us to be closer to her, Blue and Doc came to check her over and she was acting like a shy child, she relaxed a bit when I sat next to her." She felt a sense of pride when she told him that.
"Then I wouldn't worry too much about it," he suggested, "she clearly is still contented enough to seek comfort from you, and David too?" Mary Margret nodded her head and Archie was glad to see that she was looking slightly more relaxed. "Then I would suggest trying to go ahead as normally as possible, though there will of course be things Emma won't be able to do, she may take her frustrations out on you but try not to take it to heart." He advised.
"Henry doesn't know yet," she blurted out, "we're going to tell him tomorrow, and Regina though I'm not sure that she'll be as sympathetic to Emma."
"He's a very mature and strong young man, I'm sure that he'll be able to handle what has happened. And she might not be," he had of course heard about what had happened between Regina and Emma, "but she would do anything for Henry."
"She would." Mary Margret smiled. "Thank you, Archie, I'm sorry for distracting you from your walk." She glanced down at Pongo who had be sat patiently at their feet while the two spoke.
"There's no need to apologise, I'm glad I could help." He bowed his head slightly towards her. "If you need to talk anything else through, or anyone else in your family, feel free to come to my office." He told her before bidding her goodbye.
*OUAT*
Mary Margret was glad to see that Whale was still there when she got to the hospital, the hospital was fairly quiet for once as even a magical town in Maine was not protected from Friday nights though it was still early so she might have been jinxing it , anyway, no emergencies had come up so the two had time to talk.
Whale led Mary Margret into his office, he hadn't heard of any emergencies in the town and although Mary Margret had asked him to look over Emma's medical file in preparation Emma was nowhere to be seen, so as he offered her a seat and she carefully soothed Neal in her arms he was at a loss as to what was going on.
"Mary Margret is-"
"-Have you heard of Saltbourne flu?" Mar Margret interrupted, she had tried to figure out how best to tell the doctor what happened to Emma, and had finally decided that it was best to start at the start, so to speak.
Whale thought back to the leather volumes of medical texts he had read in his youth and then had reread when the first curse had broken. "It's a flu from Misthaven, it's like this world's flu with a few added side effects, such as painful rashes. But everyone in this town is protected from it, anyone who wasn't already immunised was given a vaccination during the curse, Regina made sure of it."
"Not everyone," Mary Margret shook her head, "not Emma."
"When she moved here Regina made sure I sent her out a letter, in case she somehow got it, and that tipped Henry off even more about the curse she…. She didn't turn up, did she?"
"She threw the letter straight into the trash. But when she went back to the past she managed to catch it."
"Well, I should be able to put together some medicine for her." He stood up ready to go and make the medicine.
"Doc has already given her some." She told him, making him sit down, just as confused as he had been earlier. "The problem is her magic lost some of it's immunity to other types of magic when she got ill, and when she got back in the portal it had a few side effects, one which didn't start until earlier this evening, the time portal was still a time portal but only to her…" Whale continued to stare blankly. "Emma's mind stayed the same but her body changed back to her five year old self."
Whale sat forward with his elbows resting on his desk, his mouth opened and shut for a few seconds, before it just hung open. He thought about all the possibilities. Emma had unwillingly and unwittingly done what he had never been able to, she had practically regenerated while managing to keep her own mind, he had been able to reanimate flesh but he not without dire side effects. "Is she okay?" he asked instead, he doubted he would have been able to harness the magic, and after the failures he had faced he didn't really want to.
"She should be. But that's why I wanted to have a copy of her childhood medical records, Blue warned that she could still be affected by any illnesses, or other things, that occurred during her childhood."
"Of course." He had already left the large file Emma's medical records in his office when one of the nurses had first relayed Mary Margret's to him.
Whale was not normally serous or sombre but as he flicked through the file, reviewing Emma's medical history, he was. There were plenty of medical reports in the file, most of them were rather detailed because she had been under the care of the state, it seemed that she had spent time in hospital every couple of months from the time she was 'discovered' by August until she gave birth to Henry, the longest gap was when she was about sixteen when he presumed she had been with Neal.
"I need you to write me a shortened list from her records." She requested. She knew that she and David had talked about it and had said a longer file would be helpful, but she still wasn't sure, if they needed they could get it at a later date, with Emma's foreknowledge and permission.
Whale nodded slowly. "You know the longer file would probably be more beneficial in this case, magic can be temperamental, it would be better for you to be prepared." He knew that patient-doctor confidentiality was important, but in this circumstance there was no precedent, parents of children had a right to their medical records but if Emma's mind was still her own should Mary Margret still get it? But could they tell that Emma's mind would always be her own? Were her emotions matured or were they susceptible to quick changes like a child's were? She had all her memories but was she still completely an adult? But his internal ethical debate was almost redundant when Mary Margret spoke again.
"I'm sure it would be, but I'm not going to invade into my daughter's past without her permission, I would only do so if it were an emergency and I would tell her – but it's not at that level yet. It's up to Emma to tell David and myself about her past." She insisted.
Whale smiled gently at her, she might be making the right or wrong decision only time would tell, but she was continuing to be morally upstanding and he couldn't discredit her for that. "I'll write out a list for you, but I'll also give you a copy of her complete file-"
"-I-"
"-I know that you won't look through it without Emma's permission so I feel confident in giving it to you." He told her. "It saves you having to ask for it later if Emma wants you to see it. Anyway, there may be things in there that Emma has forgotten about but needs to remember."
Mary Margret couldn't help but think that that sounded rather ominous. She just nodded and glanced at the clock again as Whale started to write down a list of Emma's past, and possibly present, ailments, when and where they occurred, and how they were treated.
Once Whale had finished writing the smaller file up, leaving out almost all of the details which he was sure would break Mary Margret and David's hearts when or if they read them in the big file, he passed both files to her.
"If she has any trouble with any of these or anything else either bring her to the hospital or if need be I'll do a house visit. Oh, and make sure she stays hydrated and warm so she can heal from the flu faster." He added as the heater in his office faltered momentarily and the air turned frozen.
He refrained from picking up his phone to call Blue until after Mary Margret had left his office with Neal in tow, he didn't want to recreate any of his experiments, but his scientific mind was deeply interested in how this could have happened.
*OUAT*
Mary Margret pulled into the parent and child parking spot in front of the store.
After leaving the hospital, she tucked both of the files securely into Neal's changing bag, and went to pick Ruby up from Granny's. Although she had explained to Ruby what had happened earlier, she found herself explaining it again in person though discussing it with her best friend felt more natural than talking to Blue, or even Archie about it. But Mary Margret hadn't told her Blue's departing remark, she would tell her at some point, but she needed to tell David first, and then they would have to figure out what to tell Emma. Was there any point in scaring her unnecessarily? At least Mary Margret wouldn't have to decide on that one by herself.
Once Ruby had got her mind fully around what had happened, and made sure that Emma was safe from the magic and the flu, she had become giddy at the prospect of being able to go shopping for her would be goddaughter. Ruby carefully rocked Neal in her arms, as Mary Margret put up the pram, despite the werewolf's best effort the pram had resisted her efforts. The more the two talked the more Mary Margret was being encouraged to look on bright side, Emma wasn't in danger, and the town was quiet so they would be able to focus on being a family no matter what age Emma was.
"So what do we need to get?"
"I made a list." She held up the list she had written as she had sat waiting for Ruby to walk out of the diner.
"Of course you did, Frosty." Ruby smirked trust Mary Margret to keep her cool head even now. "Your mommy's going to finally get your big sister to wear all pink and flowery outfits." She laughed to Neal as she passed him to Mary Margret.
"Your auntie Ruby thinks she's funny." Mary Margret cooed to her son as she placed him carefully into the pram. Ruby held out her hand to be passed the list and Mary Margret handed it over. The two walked into the store and Mary Margret led them straight to the children's section where she had been a couple of short weeks before with David, buying their other child clothes, Ruby had grabbed a cart on the way.
"Four long tops." Ruby read from the list as they reached the girls clothes. "Wait, I thought you said she'd turned five, won't size three to four be too small?" she asked when she read off the size Mary Margret had jotted on the list.
"I told you Ruby," she smiled at her friend's concern, "she's really small for her age." She looked over at the section at toddler's clothes and found that most of the tops were extremely girly, which although she was sure would look adorable on Emma wouldn't be what she felt comfortable in.
Ruby managed to hunt out a few sweaters which would be perfect for the winter weather as Mary Margret found four long sleeve tops, they all had different things on them but Ruby and she were quickly discovering that there wasn't a large selection of clothes in the size which didn't have cartoons, bright colours, and sequins.
They picked out another four t-shirts, two knitted dresses complete with tights, they found jeans and leggings, Mary Margret picked some underwear, socks, and vests while Ruby disappeared around the corner.
"Look what I found!" Ruby announced as she came back a pair of grey sweatpants in one hand and a set of a hat, a scarf, and gloves which styled like a fox.
"Those are adorable." She smiled and picked up a navy coat she had been looking at and placed it into the cart. They walked through a couple more aisles and found a couple of hoodies and a couple of plaid shirts which were similar to the ones Emma, and David, usually wore.
"And that's everything." Ruby announced as she placed a pair of sneakers onto the pile, it may have seemed like a lot of clothes on the list, but it really just the essentials.
Mary Margret looked down at the clothes and knew that she was missing something. "Pyjamas!" she announced as the thought came into her mind, she hadn't even thought of them while she was writing the list, or she had and had forgotten to write them down – she blamed baby brain.
Once in the pyjama isle they picked up a pair of slippers and three pairs of pyjamas, staying way clear of all the Disney princess ones, Mary Margret refrained from asking a member of staff why they even had any at all. They finished paying just in time for Neal to wake up again crying demanding a feed, but it would be easier for Mary Margret to just wait until they got back to the loft, so she gently rocked him as Ruby stacked the bags up in the trunk.
