Sorry this has taken so long I've been ill. The contents of this chapter were originally only going to be half a chapter long but the word count kept growing so I've split the chapter in half, the second half will be posted on Friday as I'm still writing it. Hopefully the layout of this chapter is better, thank you to the comment I got which helped with this! There is mention of child abuse in this chapter (particularly in the first lot of italics and in the last section), however nothing is explictly shown. Thank you very much for all the reviews, they are, as always, greatly appreciated. I hope you enjoy!

Emma was starting to get used to waking up with the gentle beeping of machines, however when she opened her eyes and sat up the beeping stopped, in fact, there were no machines. She was still in a hospital room, but not hers. Everything in the room was starched white, almost blindingly so. The only thing in the room was the hospital bed: there were no windows, but on the wall opposite her were three doors. "Well, that's not creepy at all." She pushed herself to the floor and turned towards the doors, the floor was like a sheet of ice under her feet, she turned back to the bed to see if there were some shoes underneath it, only to find the bed gone. "Okay, this must be a dream... probably." She tried to reassure herself, but this room wouldn't exactly be the weirdest thing to happen in her life. She walked over to the doors. She almost expected her parents to walk through one of the doors at any moment and explain to her that she was better but they had to move her to a different room, in fact she wished that would happen, yet as she waited she became aware that there was no noise other than her own breathing. She felt drawn to one of the doors, it creaked as she pushed it open. The only thing behind it was darkness, there was no shadows of objects, no noises, or smells, it was what Emma expected a black hole to be like. The darkness suddenly engulfed her, invisible roots pulled her through the door, which slammed shut behind her.

Emma wondered, briefly, if she were back in the Enchanted Forest- more specifically back up the beanstalk. The room in which she was suddenly cast into appeared to be a bedroom, however the flimsy metal bed with its slightly stained mattress didn't look quite big enough to be in the home of Anton and his kin. Perhaps, then, it was she who had changed, she looked down at her hands trying to discern some difference between the ones she usually saw, it took her a few seconds to realise that her flower tattoo was gone. Her eyes darted around the suddenly familiar room, with its cracked plaster walls, and threadbare carpet. A white blanket with a purple ribbon lay on the mattress. She walked towards the bed to grab her blanket, she didn't want it to be in this place, she didn't ever want to be in this place. In her haste she forgot about the loose floorboards in the room and the interpretive dance you had to do to avoid them creaking.
"What are you doing out of bed?" a voice screeched followed by the clicking of high heels ascending the stairs.

Emma grabbed her blanket and dived under the bed, an old habit, but she knew she was only delaying the inevitable. Despite her thirty years she felt as though she were six again. Two stilettoed feet appeared, slowly, through the gap between the floor and the bed, so slow they could be mistaken for a predator stalking their prey- which Emma supposed was rather fitting. She pushed herself as far back as possible waiting to come in contact with the wall, she couldn't help but wish that her parents were there, which was the same wish she had made all those years before. She didn't, however, come into contact with the wall, she turned her head towards it, or at least where it should be. Instead of stopping at the wall, the wall the gap under the bed kept extending further and further. Emma crawled commando style through it, unable to bare another second in that room with that woman. She crawled for what was either seconds or hours in the pitch black. Her chest started to feel tight, whether it was because of claustrophobia or the panic from being in that room, she was not sure. She wished she could be anywhere else, preferably back in the loft with her family. "Where's this taking me? Narnia?" she grumbled quietly to herself unable to shake the sense of foreboding she felt. As soon as she spoke a door grew from the ground, identical to the one she had been dragged through in the first place... "No. No, no, no, no!"

"Emma!" A voice shook inside her head…

*OUAT*

David had woken up to hear Emma's machines beeping like mad, he recognised the way she was turning her head from side to side as a sign of her having a nightmare. He tried to calm her down to no avail, he heard the nurses enter the room, their shoes clicking on the floor as they rushed in. It was then that Emma's magic acted, she put up a force field, which stopped the nurses being able to do anything other than heighten the oxygen pressure on the wall. For whatever reason, David was still able to touch her, he tried desperately to wake her up. Still asleep, she made a strangled whimper, he looked down so see a red burst of magic burning a spiral onto her skin. "EMMA!" he yelled fiercely as he shook her shoulder slightly. The red light disappeared, the force field fell, and he could see that she was starting to wake up.

"Emma, come on kiddo, wake up." David called as he watched her shoot her eyes open and jump slightly. "It's okay princess." He soothed, he knew that if she were fully awake she would have protested the nickname, especially in front of the nurses. When he looked down at her petrified face it took all he had not to pull her into his arms. Instead, he gently held her hand and muttered soothing words, hoping to keep her calm, while the nurses were finally able to their work. He watched as a nurse was finally able to take her temperature, the result of which had them shake their head and administer Emma more medicine through the I.V, another pressed a cold compress onto her head, Emma flinched at the contact. David nodded to the nurse, who passed him the compress, he smiled at his daughter, and gently put it on her head. He felt both proud and worried to see that the only person in the room Emma didn't seem scared of was himself.

The nebuliser treatment eventually started to work, her breathing eased slightly, yet Emma continued to cling onto his hand. He kept speaking soft assurances to her as she began to relax, however whatever her nightmare was about had left her terrified, her eyes were almost comically wide as she forced herself to stay awake, despite her clear exhaustion, he watched the nurse treat and gently wrap Emma's arm up. He wasn't sure if her magic had acted maliciously to her, or if it was trying to wake her up from her nightmare, but he couldn't let it hurt his daughter again if that meant having to out the magic cuff on her then so be it. One of the nurses, Claire he thought, brought him out of his head by kindly tapped his shoulder, and informed him that she'd be back in forty-five minutes to do her 'obs' again.

"Do you want to talk about your nightmare, kiddo?" David asked her quietly. He watched as she shook her head adamantly, "Are you sure? I think it'll help you." He felt helpless as he watched Emma shake her head again. She was normally hesitant to share the contents of her nightmares with them at first, but nine times out of ten she would do so the second time they asked. But this time she didn't want to talk and he couldn't even calm her down enough to sleep by making her some hot chocolate or by lighting a candle next to her bed. He watched her finally lean back against the bed, but he could see that she was still forcing herself to stay awake.

Emma lifted her hand up to pull the mask off of her face, she didn't want the sensation of it being on her skin to make her feel claustrophobic, she didn't want to feel anything relating to her dream. And she definitely didn't want to talk about it, she just wanted to forget it ever happened. She felt her father's hand carefully stop her from moving it.

"Sorry Em, you have to keep that on while it gives you your medicine, you can still speak to me through it if you want though." He smiled as she nodded. "It's late, kiddo, how about you get some more sleep?" he brushed his hand against the side of her cheek. Suddenly, she sat upright, he watched dumbstruck as she started to push the blankets back and start to climb out of bed. He placed his hand on her shoulder, stopping her from moving any further. "Emma, what are you doing?"

"I want to go home." She begged, slightly muffled by the mask. "I don't want to sleep." She could feel a tear roll down her cheek but hoped her father wouldn't see.

David brushed the tear away before it could hit the mask. "I know you do, kiddo, I'm sorry but you're still too poorly to go. I promise you that as soon as you're allowed to go, I'll take you straight home, I don't want you to be stuck in here anymore than you do." He sighed sympathetically. "If you're not sleeping, I won't either, how about I read some more of your book to you?" he watched her nod at him. "Emma, you're not allowed out of this bed, okay?" he figured that now, more than ever, she'd be planning an escape home, which worried him to no end.

"Okay." She said defeatedly, too exhausted to argue. She begrudgingly laid back, but then moved over to the side of the bed, she hoped her father would take the hint and sit on it next to her. At least then, if her eyes did happen to close, she would know where he was.

David grabbed the book and sat beside Emma, his shoulder gently bumped against hers as he did so. As he started to read he felt Emma move closer to him, he placed one of his arms around her not faltering in his reading as he did so. He knew from experience with his other child that sometimes his voice would send him gently to sleep, judging from how she had fallen asleep earlier on that night, Emma was the same, he only hoped that it would work this time too. Sure enough only five minutes later he felt her move her head to rest against his chest. He looked down to see her eyes shut and he lowered his voice to read a few more sentences. Once he was sure she was asleep he closed the book and dipped his hand into his pocket to retrieve his phone. He quickly fired off a text to his wife asking her to bring one of the cuffs with her in the morning, but assured her that he had everything 'under control' and he'd explain in person to her. He put his phone back in his pocket, his movement jostled Emma slight, who made a displeased grunt and moved closer to him. He smiled fondly down at her, he settled back against the bed, and rubbed pacifying circles on her back. Before he knew it, he too was falling asleep.

*OUAT*

When David woke up, several hours later, he was relieved to see Emma still asleep on his chest her hand wrapped tightly onto his shirt, he pressed a kiss onto his daughter's head. Still half asleep, he took his phone out of his pocket without even looking at the time, he had a text off of Mary Margret asking him, or rather demanding to be told, what had happened the previous night. He quickly fired off a text letting her know that Emma had a nightmare which caused her to use magic and she had worsened because of it. After he hit send he looked up to see Whale stood in the doorway smirking at the scene which lay before him. David quickly lifted a finger to his mouth and watched Whale quirk his head towards the door, indicating he'd talk to him outside. He smoothly moved Emma to lay back against the bed and pried her hand away from his shirt, before going to join the doctor in the hallway.

David's eyes caught sight of the clock and did a double take, it was later than he expected, he realised that his wife would be arriving at the hospital within the hour, at which point they'd have to get Emma to wear the cuff. He smiled politely at the doctor wanting to start the conversation, he hoped he'd be able to get changed before Emma woke up, if not he'd wait for Mary Margret to get there; he wasn't inclined to leave Emma alone, especially not after the previous night.

"I thought it'd be best to talk out here," Whale began, "the nurses told me what happened with Emma last night, it must have been hard to see her like that."

David was rather surprised to see how sympathetic the doctor was being, despite his occupation, the doctor was better known for his fast quips and sarcastic nature. At least since after the curse had broke, the pre-curse opinions on him were a lot unkinder. David could only nod, to say it was hard to see that happen was an understatement, even to say he was terrified would be totally downplaying it.

"From what the nurses told me her temperature rose during the night, it's the body's natural way of fighting the illness, I can only guess that this caused Emma to have a nightmare." Whale explained. "But it was using her magic which made her breathing worse, up until then it was improving. If it continued to do so I'd be happy to send her home on Thursday and see her at a follow up appointment. Is there any way you can stop her from using her magic, one of those magic cuffs or something?"

"Yeah, Mary Margret and I are already on it, she's bringing a cuff with her this morning." David said confidently.

Whale nodded contently, "I'm starting my rounds now, but I'll see a few patients before I see Emma, I don't want to be the one to wake the beast."

"Don't call my daughter a beast." David replied protectively to the doctor's retreating back

*OUAT*

"Emma Ruth Swan!" David shouted alarmed. He had walked into the room to see Emma's hands outstretched, red magic was curling and swirling around them like smoke or water. At his voice the swirls hung, then dispersed, into the air. Emma sheepishly lowed her hands a guilty look on her pale face. "Emma. I told you that you're not allowed to leave this bed, considering how guilty you're looking, I'm going to presume you remember that I told you that last night, using your magic to send you home counts as leaving the bed." He said sternly, he noticed that she had taken off the oxygen mask so busied himself by putting the nasal cannula on her while he waited for her to speak.

"I wasn't going to leave the bed." Emma stressed, yet she could not reach his eyes, instead she looked down at her hands, twisting them in her lap.

"Emma." His one word demanded an explanation, immediately.

"I wasn't going to leave the bed, I was going to transport it to the loft, properly this time. I was even going to take the machines so you and mom can't complain at me." She explained slightly grumpily. She hadn't wanted to leave her father, but the nightmare was still so fresh in her mind, she couldn't stand to be in the hospital.

"Emma." David sighed in a disappointed tone, before he continued softly. "Is this about what happened in your nightmare?"

"I can only remember a little bit." Emma shrugged. She hoped that because she hadn't outright denied it, her father would accept what she was saying.

If David wasn't her father, he may have just believed her, yet he could tell she was omitting the truth. The slight fear in her eyes had him thinking that she remembered more of it than she was saying. He sat on the side of her bed and looked at her seriously. "Ems, getting around what your mother and I tell you not to do, on a technicality, is still doing it and is still wrong. Now, I hope that's all out of your system, as your mother's bringing in a cuff to stop your magic for a while- "

"What!" Emma interrupted angrily "I didn't even use it!"

"Yes," David continued calmly "but you were going to. Emma, even if you hadn't of used magic just then, your mother was still going to bring it in with her. Kiddo, your magic hurt you last night while you had that nightmare, it didn't just burn you, it made your breathing worse. The nurses couldn't even treat you as you had a force field or something up. I can't let that happen again, so you're going to have to wear the cuff, just while you're here."

Emma's argument was stopped by her mother entering the room. She couldn't help but feel happy at seeing her, especially after missing seeing her the previous evening. "Mom." She beamed at her.

Mary Margret chuckled to herself as she walked further into the room, she thought it was funny how Emma had changed so quickly from clearly not being happy to being joyful, simply by seeing her. She had to admit, she was worried about Emma when she read David's text that morning, she noticed the gel burn patch on Emma's arm but a quick look from David told her he'd explain it fully to her soon. So, instead, she smiled at her daughter. "Hey sweetheart." She gently wrapped her in a hug, which Emma returned. "I'm sorry I missed you last night, Neal had to go to bed, and you were so peaceful."

"It's okay mom." Emma promised as she pulled away from her.

Mary Margret kissed her daughter's head before she turned to her husband, "Good morning Charming"

David smiled at the nickname "Good morning bandit." He teased as he drew her into a kiss. He could feel her lips curling into a smile as they kissed. He heard a groan from his daughter, and couldn't stop his laughter from escaping when he saw Emma sat with a disgusted look on her face.

"Do you guys really have to do that? You wouldn't like it if I did that in front of you."

"That's cause you're my little girl." David teased mischievously.

Emma raised an eyebrow. "You're like five years older than me." But then she grinned mischievously back at her father. "Unless you're finally willing to admit you're actually in your sixties…"

"The years during the curse don't count!" he protested with a smile on his face.

Mary Margret, at least, had the decency to look slightly guilty at her and David's actions. "So, what were you two talking about before I walked in?" she asked changing the topic.

David stopped smiling "We were talking about Emma's nightmare: her magic tried to protect her, but it made her very ill, and it burnt her arm." He turned to Emma with a sympathetic look on his face. "Em, I know you can remember your dream. I'm not going to force you to tell me it, although I do think you should: it'd do you the world of good to talk about it with your mother and I. Talk to us, we might be able to figure out a way to help you. You're not alone anymore, princess, you don't have to deal with it by yourself."

Emma stared back at her mother and father, who wore such love and understanding on their faces, but couldn't quite bring herself to tell them the truth. "Please." She begged "I don't want to talk about it.

Mary Margret and David watched as their daughter was so scared by her dream that she pled with puppy dog eyes, they would both do anything to stop her feeling that way.

*OUAT*

Mary Margret fished the magic cuff out the bag she brought with her when she saw David enter the room, freshly showered and changed into clean clothes, he was followed closely by Dr. Whale.

David narrowed his eyes jokily at his wife "Oh I see how it is, I have to deal with a moody Emma as well, while we get her to wear that." He muttered to her as they walked back towards their daughter's bed.

Whale stood off to the side of the room, giving the family privacy, while he waited for the cuff to be placed on.

Emma rolled her eyes at the cuff, "Come on guys, is this really necessary?" she crossed her arms, over her chest defiantly. She figured that she was probably fighting a losing battle, but she wasn't going to give in without a fight. She knew that once the cuff came off she'd feel extremely tired for a couple of days, but then again she was already feeling very tired.

"Yes, it's necessary. Anyway we already warned you that if you used your magic on purpose to get out of the hospital you'd have to wear it, and what did you do this morning?" he chided, he saw his wife look at him confused but he shook his head, as if to say he'd tell her later.

"Emma, it's just while you're so ill, your magic is hurting you and making your breathing worse. So for those reasons: it needs to be on while you're here." Mary Margret told her, not unkindly. She gazed at her daughter, hoping that Emma would be able to tell that they weren't lying, that they would remove the cuff while they were home.

Emma sat silently on the bed, she kept her arms crossed, and showed no signs of giving in. She glared at the doctor as he walked forward to the bed.

"Your magic is like a hole in a bag of sand – it's draining you. And it's draining you so much that it's delaying how quickly you're recovering, which, when you have asthma, especially untreated asthma, is very dangerous."

"Em," David said quietly, "Whale said that if you keep improving, you'll be able to come home in two days. We don't want your magic to delay that.

Emma held out her wrist to her mother, but made sure to continue looking extremely unhappy. "Can I at least take a shower today?" she asked Whale venomously.

"Emma." Mary Margret scolded sharply. She fastened the cuff while giving her a warning look.

Whale chuckled, possibly to wind Emma up even more. "I'll unhook you from the machines once I've checked you over. You'll have to be quick though. I can have a nurse help you if you want?"

"No!" she said quickly.

Whale finally finished checking Emma over, he looked at her burn which must have magically healed during the night leaving only a small red mark, and he had noted that despite the previous night's set back the antibiotics appeared to be working. He unhooked her from the machines before he turned to David and Mary Margret. "If you let a nurse know when she's out, they'll be able to put her I.V back in, hopefully by tomorrow we'll be able to take her off the oxygen."

"Emma, I can help you." Mary Margret said as she watched Emma grab some clothes and head towards the en-suite with one of the hospitals towels. "I don't think that you're up to doing this by yourself yet."

"What? No! I'm an adult, I can shower by myself, thanks." She watched as her mother raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced. "I'll be quick, I promise." She sighed.

David subtly interlocked his hand with his wife's as he moved to stand at her side, he squeezed gently, an understanding flowed between the two. "Okay Emma, we'll see you in ten minutes." He gave her a look which told her that he had no qualms in letting her mother help her if she took any longer.

*OUAT*

Mary Margret and David sat down to speak in private while their daughter was in the shower, David told his wife fully of the events the previous night and that morning, they paused only briefly while a nurse brought in Emma's breakfast of cereal and some toast, although they doubted Emma would be able to eat it all.

"I'm just worried that she's going to run away from the hospital-"

"-Even without her magic." Mary Margret finished. "I know, I am too. We'll just have to keep her distracted."

"It's bad that we still have to distract her from doing dangerous things when she's thirty. Although, with us as parents, is it really surprising?" David laughed. "Go on then, what do you have in mind?"

"Well, I was thinking that we could bring Henry and Neal here for the afternoon, they both miss us all being together…" she trailed off.

David tenderly took his wife's hand "I know; I miss us all being together too." He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it. "We'll all be home and together before you know it."

She smiled at him, she was always surprised at how he knew what she was thinking, even after everything they had been through together. Her heart skipped a beat as he kissed her hand. "I love you." She muttered quietly, not even fully aware that she was saying it. She watched his eyes light up and a smile spread on his face as he echoed the sentiment back to her. She could see parts of him in Emma and Neal, they too had the sparkle in their eyes, and she was certain that Neal had also inherited his father's smile just like Emma had. But there was always part of her which longed to know what her daughter was like when she was younger: what her favourite toys to play with were, if she cried a lot when she was a baby, her favourite subject in school, and what gave her nightmares. She felt her husband squeeze her hand, anchoring her to the present.

He could tell what his wife was thinking by the look in her eye as she stared into space, a look which was all too often on his own face, yet something he wasn't sure that he would be able to fix. He gently squeezed her hand, and watched as she plastered on a fake smile, obviously unwilling to talk about it, so he played along. "What I really want to know," he said with mock seriousness, "is why you thought your argument of her needing help Em shower would work?" he couldn't stop a smirk from appearing on his face no matter how much he tried. "You realise she's just like you? And that argument, my love, would never work on you."

Mary Margret looked at her husband in confusion for a second, she had always thought that Emma was more like David than she, not that she minded that of course, she loved seeing how alike the father and daughter were. "Well, I still think that she's just like you."

"Uh huh, well, she definitely got her ability to try escape things from you…" David said, having way too much fun teasing his wife.

"I'm not that bad!" She protested.

"You do remember our honeymoon?"

"I remember parts of it." she said in a sultry voice before she pulled him into a kiss. She, of course, knew what he was referring to, but decided to distract him rather than prove him right.

"Urgh. Guys." Emma whined, having walked out of the bathroom to hear her father's last sentence. "Do you have to talk about that?" she started walking towards them.

David stood up to meet her, holding his arms out to shepherd her back to bed, an eyebrow raised at her trying to avoid lying in bed. Once she was finally sat back on it, he helped her get hooked back up to all the machines he could, before he spoke again. "Don't worry kiddo, I wasn't talking about what you think we were." He said as he pressed the button for a nurse to come in and put the I.V back in her arm. He saw her sceptical look but could also see how worn out she was from even the simple task of taking a shower. "We'll tell you about it after you've finished your breakfast, if you'd like?"

"About...?" She questioned as she accepted her breakfast tray off of her mother.

"About how your mother got me turned to stone on our honeymoon." He watched as Emma's eyes widened, he shook his head with a smile, she clearly hadn't read all of Henry's book yet.

"I made it up to you." Snow muttered so their daughter couldn't hear.

"Okay." Emma smiled. She thought that hearing the stories from her parents was much better than listening to them in some book, but she had noticed the look her parent's had just shared and, frankly, she didn't want to know what it was about. "But please keep it PG, please, for the sake of your poor, sick child?"

*OUAT*

Emma sat on the couch in the loft surrounded by her parents, son, and little brother. They had finally managed to find some animated film, which had captivated Neal's attention with its bright colours, and which her parents hadn't vetoed – like they had the films which were based on their, or their friends', lives. As her family were laughing at one of the jokes, Emma heard a bang on the window. She turned her head to look, worried that a bird had flown into the window. She saw nothing, she turned around to ask if anyone else had heard anything, to find herself alone in the loft. She stood up calling for her parents. But as she turned around in search for them the furniture disappeared. The loft, her home, was completely bare, so alien to her without the photo frames and toys. She ran toward her parent's bedroom, to find a clue as to where her family was. As she ran past the stairs, the floor fell from under her feet.

The scene changed to her hospital room. 'No, wait' she thought, 'it's a different room.' She couldn't shake the sense of familiarity. Her right arm felt heavy and sent shooting pains up to her shoulder, she looked down expecting to see her I.V caught on something, instead she saw a pink cast on her arm. She glanced around, a symbol on the curtain confirmed her suspicions, she was in Minnesota. In 1989. The result of her stay with the lady in the high heels. She didn't have to look in the mirror to know that a broken arm was not the only injury.

The door opened, or at least she presumed it did, it was more the fact she became aware of people in her room, than seeing or hearing the movement of the door. Her parents! But they were not in their usual attire, they were in their Enchanted Forest clothing, her mother all in white with long hair, and her father complete with a red cape, as if they were on a quest for something. She tried to call for them but her voice died in her throat.

"No, this isn't our daughter." Her mother told the faceless nurse. She looked straight through Emma, just like she had when Emma had gone back in time to the Enchanted Forest. She couldn't help but feel this was worse, this time she knew that she had a daughter, but it wasn't her.

"We'll find her Snow, we'll always find her." Her father put an arm around her mother and led her out of the room.

She tried to speak, to climb out of the too big bed, to tell them it was her, she was their Emma, their daughter. To get them to save her from what she knew was to come in her imminent future. But she could not move. She was paralysed, destined to only watch. By the time she could call out to them again, they were long gone…

*OUAT*

David and Mary Margret were sat on the couch in Emma's room in silence, Mary Margret was resting with her back against her husband's chest, she absent-mindedly drew circles on his wrist, her eyelids heavy as she felt his heartbeat vibrate through her chest. They were both exhausted: between looking after Neal, and looking after, and worrying about, Emma they barely got any sleep. Emma would not be the only one relieved to get out of the hospital. David stared at his daughter, watching as her expression contorted from peaceful to one synonymous to having a nightmare. He gently moved his wife off of him, he had hoped not to disturb her too much, however as soon as he stood up and started towards their daughter's bed Mary Margret was on her feet.
He stood on one side of the bed while Mary Margret stood on the other. He stroked Emma's cheek with the back of his fingers, while his wife drew circles on her hand much like she had just been doing to her husband, in the hopes that it would calm Emma down.

Emma started to turn her head from side to side in distress, her eyes were scrunched closed, and her breathing was starting to become panicked. "Dad… Mom!" she cried out, her voice cracking slightly.

David and Mary Margret shared a look, it was time to wake her up. "Em," David called "It's time to wake up kiddo." He gently shook her shoulder.

"Emma, wake up sweetheart, it's just a bad dream." Mary Margret called when her husband's attempt was unsuccessful.

Emma gasped and shot forward, her eyes wide as they darted around the room still half asleep. she stared at her parents in confusion trying to discern if she was still asleep or not.

"You're safe, baby, you're safe. We're here." Mary Margret soothed.

"Mom? Dad?"

It broke David's heart to hear the uncertainty in Emma's voice, the timid tone reminded him of when she saw them for the first time when the first curse broke. "It's okay, princess, it was just a nightmare."

As soon as he had finished the sentence, Emma burst into tears, she threw herself forward to bury her head in her father's shoulder, she pulled her mother into the hug straight after. Both parents sat down on the bed right away so that Emma wouldn't be in pain by having to stretch to reach them. David held her head close to him and Mary Margret stroked circles on her back until, eventually, her sobs subsided.

"Emma." Mary Margret paused to share a look with David, who took his hand off of Emma's head so that she would turn towards her head towards her mother. "Do you want to talk about it, Emma?"

Emma bit her lip and shrugged in response, she wouldn't even know where to start.

"Was it the same dream as last night, Em?" David asked kindly, he could tell that she just needed a push to talk about it, he leant back further so that Emma was no longer resting against his chest, but took hold of one of her hands as Mary Margret did the same.

Emma frowned "Kind of." She paused for a moment her parents silence egged her on. "It was a memory. Well, part of it was, there were other parts too."

"A bad memory?" Mary Margret asked though she made it sound like a statement.

Emma nodded slowly, she let out a calming breath before she spoke again. "Last night I dreamt about a home I was in when I was six."

"It wasn't a good one?" Mary Margret rubbed her thumb up and down on Emma's hand.

Emma shook her head unwaveringly.

"It's okay, kiddo, you can tell us." David comforted with a squeeze of his hand.

"I was with a lady, she had a teenage daughter but she was hardly ever in the house. She was really strict, especially with me, and especially when she'd been out with her friends…"

"Did she… hurt you?" David had to fight to keep the anger out of his voice when he spoke. Emma had alluded to abuse in her past: she had mentioned, in passing, of neglect, and that she had run away from a few of them, but she had never outright told them and they hadn't wanted to push her. But when they realised how shaken up she was from her dream of it, they knew she needed to talk about it.

Emma nodded. "She didn't in my dream though, I got away, you woke me up." she quickly added, as though it would reassure them.

David squeezed her hand protectively. He could only hope that one day she would realise she didn't have to protect them from her past, it was their job to protect her, not the other way around. "You said that happened in your dream last night, what happened in your one just now, kiddo?" he added the moniker to keep her calm.

She looked from her father to her mother whilst she tried to decide on whether to tell them the full story, specifically the bit which included them, her mother looked her in the eye and gave her an encouraging smile and nod. What the hell, Emma thought, she was too tired to try to avoid telling them, part of her just wanted, needed, to tell them: to let them help her. "We were at home, all of us, I think I might have been ill because we were watching a film. I heard something on the window, like a bird or something, I turned to see if I could see anything and when I turned back… you were all gone. Then I was in hospital, not this one though, it was the one I ended up in after that lady's house." She paused for a moment, daring herself to look up at her parents' faces. She wasn't sure what it was she expected to see, perhaps it was the faces of people from her past: pity, anger, disbelief… but all she saw was love and something that was not quite pity, more sorrow, or regret. She braved to carry on. "I had a broken arm and ribs, some bruises, and I was pretty malnourished, I wasn't in that house for that long before I got out, it could have been worse, I guess. I was in my hospital room, alone like I normally was, then you two came in." she took a breath, "You were in your fairy tale clothes, you were looking for me, but you… when you saw me, you said I wasn't your daughter." She finished quietly, her head fell down so that her chin was resting on her chest. Less than a second later, she felt two pairs of hands pulling her towards them, as she breathed in her father's aftershave and her mother's perfume she buried her head in her father's shoulder, sobs raking through her body.

"It's okay, baby, let it out." Mary Margret soothed, she felt Emma place her arm around her waist and cling onto her t-shirt almost as if she were scared she was going to leave her. She shared a look with her husband, she couldn't help but feel that she was at least responsible for this, she was the one who told David to put her in the wardrobe. Rationally she knew that had they not sent Emma to this land she would have been killed, or stuck as a baby, Regina would have done anything to ensure she didn't break the curse. She could just about see tears rolling silently down David's face as tears formed in her own eyes. He understandingly draped his left arm around her shoulders and pulled her tight against his side, his other hand cradled Emma's head. Mary Margret placed a tender kiss on her husband's hand, her free arm snaked around his waist, as she tried to give him comfort. She started to rub circles onto Emma's back, she smiled to herself as she saw Emma relax under her touch. Her eyes flickered up as David pressed a kiss to the side of her head, then watched as he did the same to the top of their daughter's head.

David wasn't sure how long they sat like that for. Emma sat sagged against him, her breathing had calmed down considerably, so much so that if he had not known any better he'd say that she was asleep. His anger and guilt had dissipated slightly while he sat there and forced himself to calm down, to not try to cross the town line and hunt down anyone who had ever made his daughter so afraid. He glanced at the clock to see it was almost time to collect Neal and Henry and bring them to the hospital. He placed a gently kiss onto the top of Emma's head again before he turned his head to his wife. "I'll go grab the lunch and our lunch time visitors." He said in a low voice, although he doubted Emma would notice that he was saying anything, she was clearly exhausted, both emotionally and physically. But before he could start to move Emma off of him, Mary Margret leant up and pressed a kiss to his lips.

"She's practically attached to you, I'll go grab them, you just stay and keep our daughter safe." She said with a smile, her voice was barely above a whisper. David looked as though he was about to argue with her. "Seriously: stay. She needs her daddy" she whispered into his ear. She pressed a kiss on her daughter's head just like her husband had done a minute before, then gently moved Emma's arm from around her. As she moved Emma turned her head to face her, her eyes were wide in questioning. "I'm just going to go grab us all some lunch, sweetie, you stay with your father." She let her thumb trace where the tears had dried under her red rimmed eyes, while Emma stared at her trying to figure out if she was telling the truth, after a minute or so Emma nodded to her. Mary Margret smiled as she saw Emma watching her start to get ready to go, David noticed this and wordlessly manoeuvred the two of them so they were leant against the head of the bed, Emma still cuddled into his side but now clearly able to see where her mother was. Once she had gathered her things and some dirty laundry to drop off at home she dropped another kiss on Emma's head and promised her husband and daughter that she'd be back soon.