Sorry this chapter has taken so long, I;ve been back at uni and had a few essays I had to write. I have an exam in a couple of days but after that the updates will be a lot quicker. There's a fair bit of Daddy!Charming in this one but in the next couple of chapter there'll be a fair bit more of mama!Snow. Please review to let me know what you think and if there's anything you'd like to see more of!

(Edited)

The clicking of the door shut, woke Emma from her slumber, however it wasn't for another minute or two that Emma realised that she wasn't in her own bed, she took some soothing breaths as she dredged up her memories of the previous night, before, finally, she opened her eyes. Her head had turned, slightly, to lean on her left shoulder as she slept. She looked towards the window which looked out onto the corridor, the florescent lights illuminated her room which meant it was night time, she had come into the hospital shortly before dinner, she squinted slightly at the clock on the wall in the corridor and made out that it was either eleven something, or five to something. She realised with a frown that the figure with their back to her using the payphone across from the window was Emma's mother. She felt her heart quicken with guilt at the fact that she was still there, before realising there was gentle breathing in her room too, meaning her father was there also. She made sure to keep still so she didn't alert him that she was awake, not just yet anyway, she took the way her mother's shoulders hung tiredly, she the guilt just built. Her parents should be at home with her little brother, she was an adult she shouldn't be taking up their time when they had an actual child to look after, she thought. She sighed quietly when she realised she was going to have to convince her parents to leave her, although she knew that when she had done that she'd be able to discharge herself without them there telling her to stay, she'd be out of the hospital and back at home by a few hours' time.

"You joining us in the land of the living, Em?" David's voice was gentle and cautious, but there was something in it which let Emma know he had known she was awake the entire time.

Emma turned her head to the other side, toward her father's voice, who was sat in a chair next to his daughter's bed. The Prince's clothes were already creased from the busy day but now his hair was tussled and had tracks from where he had been running his hand through it. Although his smile was kind, she could see the worry on his face, although she wasn't entirely sure why. She watched his concern grow before she realised she hadn't yet answered.
"Ye-"her voice broke as it tried to pass through the barrier of her throat, "Yeah." She tried again, she knew that if she ever wanted to get rid of her parents and be able to escape she'd have to convince them that she was fine, even if she felt like crying when she spoke- her words felt like sandpaper as they left her throat.

David stood up and passed her a glass of juice which was on the side table, just out of her sight, his movements were slower than usual, sluggish and obviously exhausted.

Emma started to wonder if he had moved at all while she was asleep, she drank some of her drink then passed it back to him, she wasn't used to having people around her to help her while she was in hospital, least of all her parents, but she liked not being lonely as she was when she was in them as a child. However all this only added to her feelings of guilt of Neal being without them, she looked down at her sheets and absentmindedly traced the patterns on them as she attempted to formulate a plan, although she figured she'd be only be able to make most of it up on the spot in accordance to her parents reactions. She kept her head down so that her father wouldn't see her face and figure out she was up to something. She wished that her mother would hurry up and re-enter the room. Almost as if she had a fairy godmother reading her thoughts, which in Storybrooke wouldn't be that unusual, her mom walked in.

*OUAT*

Mary Margret was slightly surprised, when she walked in, to see Emma awake. She had watched Emma as she slept restlessly for the past couple of hours, both she and David sat in relative silence watching their daughter's chest rise and fall took quickly and too shallowly, the machines beeping quietly, and nurses come in and out every half hour to take Emma's vitals. Although Ruby, and by extension Granny, had volunteered to look after Neal she had asked for Mary Margret to let her know how her would-have-been goddaughter was when she had the chance. She had gone to text Ruby only to find her phone was dead, she put it on charge and stepped out the room for ten minutes to the payphone.

She watched as Emma's head shot up and gave her a small smile, however Mary Margret couldn't help but notice how her husband was stood protectively next to the bed with his arms crossed, a frown on his face, as though he was waiting for Emma to do something.
"Hey Emma," she smiled softly "how are you feeling?" She gained a small smile and nod, as though to say she was fine, from Emma in return who then looked back down at her sheets.

Unbeknown to their daughter as she put her head down her parents heads went up and they looked to each other. In a fluid movement they both tilted their heads, Mary Margret pursed her lips, and David raised his eyebrows. They were now definitely aware that their daughter was up to something, it took only a look to each other for them to go through the possibilities it could be, until they struck gold.

Emma plastered an impressively convincing looking smile onto her face before she looked up. She swallowed twice to try and lubricate her throat yet she still sounded hoarse as she spoke. "I'm feeling, a lot better now. You two can go home. I'll discharge myself. I'll meet you back home." Despite intentionally speaking in short sentences she was still breathless by the time she finished speaking, however she smiled proudly having thought she managed to hide it well. There was no way they were going to be able to argue with her points-

"Absolutely not."
"No chance in hell."
Mary Margret and David said at the same time, their tone was united and firm which was paired with no nonsense looks on their faces.

Emma felt her mouth fall open, aghast, she was completely bewildered why her argument hadn't work, she look back and forth between her parents. She knew she should just leave it, that she should stay quiet and think of another way out. "B-Bu-"she stuttered, unable to let it drop.

"No, Emma." David's voice was sterner than Emma had ever heard it. He watched as Emma sank down in the bed, although he could see a hint of fear in her eyes he could also see her determination to get out of the hospital. He placed his hands on his hips looking and waited for her to look back at him before he began again. "You are nowhere near better. This is the first time you've managed to wake up for longer than five minutes, you can't even get to the end of your sentences without running out of breath, and you're still attached to machines giving you medicine and keeping you breathing. You will stay here until you're better and you will not be trying to find a doctor or nurse who you can pressure into releasing you."

Emma frowned as she looked down, she couldn't help but be embarrassed at her father reprimanding her as though she was a little kid, after all he was normally the one who would convince her to see it from their point of view, and the one who was willing to compromise. So to now have him lecture her was just downright confusing.

"And we're both staying with you tonight. No objections." Mary Margret added firmly, she watched as Emma furrowed her brows, no longer bothering to hide her confusion at her parent's concern. "Ruby is looking after Neal tonight and Henry's at Regina's. If you're in for longer, which Emma you might be, you father and I shall take it in turns to stay with you. We're not going to make you stay here by yourself, no matter your age you're our child; we wouldn't make Neal stay here alone, we're not going to make you stay here by yourself either. We're not leaving you." She explained softly, she took her eyes off Emma to share a loving smile with David, both of them full of love and worry for their daughter.

Emma felt tears sting her eyes but looked down before her parents could notice them. She couldn't help but remember all the times she had stayed in hospital alone, with only social workers visiting her for an hour or so in the day. She supposed that some foster parents must have stayed in hospital with their wards, but that was never her experience. In most cases that was when they'd hand her off to social services, they hadn't wanted to deal with a kid who kept getting sick. The only time anyone had stayed in with her overnight she was handcuffed to a bed, and the person was paid to make she didn't run away, and to escort her back to prison the next day. "I'm fine." She muttered to herself in empty protest, not meaning for her parents to hear.

"You are not fine, Emma." Mary Margret insisted sternly, she knew that Emma had simply argued that in order to keep up her not-needing-anyone façade. However she couldn't shake the fear she had when she had come to the hospital, to see her daughter as pale as a ghost, with wires attached to her, and a mask over her face. But most of all, to see her husband sat there helpless, he was her beacon of hope, the Prince of action unable to help. "And just when, exactly, were you planning of telling us that you have asthma?" She nodded at David, implying that he should take over, as she knew he needed the opportunity to talk to Emma about it.

Emma's eyes opened as wide as they could go, she hadn't realised that they had been told that. "Erm… I… I don't…" She tried to lie, however she was fully aware she looked like a kid who got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

"Do not lie to us, Emma Swan." David injected sharply. "You lived with your mother for about a year before the curse broke, you could have told her then, but you didn't. In fact, I'm willing to bet that's the reason you didn't let her go into the doctor's office with you- so that you could hide it-"

"But I didn't-!"

"I am not finished." He looked at her with disapproval. "As I was saying, we're willing to overlook that, despite how unsafe it was, because you didn't know who your mother and I were, and you definitely didn't trust us properly then. However when the curse had broken you still didn't tell us, you were living with us both and working with me, you trust us both now, yet you still actively chose to ignore it and not tell us. Throughout all of this you left a critical, life threatening illness untreated. What if you had had an asthma attack in the Enchanted Forest, or in Neverland? Or even while we were chasing a perp, what would you have done? Because I know for certain that you don't carry any inhalers, and your mother's never even seen any around the loft. We're very disappointed in you, Emma, this was very foolish."
He paused as he watched his lecture sink in, Emma's face turned a mixture of guilty and sad. He knew he was being hard on her, but this was what needed to be said, so he would say it.
"You also hid you cough for the past few weeks, we could have got you over the counter cough medicine, but by ignoring it you let it turn into a chest infection, which has quickly turned into pneumonia." He sighed as he sat down on the side of her bed. "Your oxygen was so low when I brought you in, Em. We can't lose you kiddo." He gently pressed a kiss on her temple and went to stand up.

When he tried to move, however, he felt Emma's hands latch onto his shirt, she had used him to pull herself up a little bit so that she could bury her head in her dad's chest. He quickly at back down, one of his hands cradled her head while the other rubbed circles onto her back. He could feel her body shaking with sobs, his body acted on habit as he gently rocked her back and forth as he normally did with his younger child as he hoped to calm her down and not aggravate her breathing. Eventually, he felt her lean fully against him and her breathing was no longer as erratic. David gently laid his daughter against the back of her hospital bed.

Emma's eyes fluttered open as her head touched the bed, "I'm sorry." She muttered.

David smiled gently as he wiped the tear tracks on her cheeks away. He moved towards the middle of the bed as Mary Margret came around to the same side, he watched as she changed the oxygen flow so that it would go through the mask instead of the nasal cannula.

Mary Margret smiled down at Emma as she took the pipes out of her nose. "It's okay baby, we forgive you. I'm going to put this mask on you so that you can breathe easier during the night." She gently place the strap around the back of Emma's head. "You can go to sleep, we're here, mom and dad are here." She brushed a golden curl out of her daughters face as she spoke softly letting her words drifts her daughter off to sleep.

She looked to her husband to see that Emma was holding his hand in her sleep, but when her eyes reached his face, she could see the guilt in it. Mary Margret gently took his other hand. "She needed to hear that, I don't think she'd ever realised how dangerous it is. You're an amazing father."

David gently kissed the top of Mary Margret's head. "You're an amazing mother too."

Eventually David and Mary Margret sat on either side of Emma's bed, dozing in and out of sleep in the uncomfortable hospital chairs, they were woken up by nurses coming in and out and by their worry for their daughter's health.