Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT.

Emma Swan was eighteen years old when she gave birth to twins: A boy and a girl. She had given birth to them in jail because she had attempted to steal prenatal vitamins from a drug store.

Emma considered it a stupid call on her watch, and because her jail sentence wasn't finished by the time they were born, she was only given two options: Have the father raise them or give them up for adoption.

She knew there was no way she would ever find their father again, so he was out of the question. The only option left was to give them up.

So, Emma had signed the adoption papers, and her babies would be soon picked up and brought to some town in Maine.

And she had only ten minutes to be with her newborns before they were taken from her.

Emma stared down at the two babies, the girl cradled in her right arm, the boy in her left. As soon as she met their innocent eyes, that was it. She wanted her babies.

But she couldn't have them, they weren't in her custody anymore.

The little girl played with one of Emma's golden curls, and the little boy was looking around the jail's hospital wing, which was where they were.

The little girl has her father's eyes, Emma noted.

Since she wouldn't be around for their lives, she tried to make one up in her head. Emma could just see it.

They wouldn't grow up in the foster system, like she did. They would have loving parents, they would bicker over which channel to watch on television, which movie to see at the cinema, but, hopefully, they would love each other.

Emma smiled slightly at the thought of what they would be like when they were teenagers.

She could just see her little boy, aged thirteen or fourteen, completely mortified that his twin sister had become beautiful, and now had boys chasing after her.

But of course, Emma hoped, her little girl wouldn't be in the same position as her. She hoped that her little girl wouldn't fall completely in love with the wrong guy, only to have him break her heart.

But she knew her little boy wouldn't let that happen. No, he wouldn't let his sister cry without punishing the cause of her tears.

The little babies she cradled in her arms were so small, so warm. She nearly cried at how adorable they were, and she'd never get to see how they grew.

Then, a nurse came in, pity clear in her eyes.

"It's time, Miss Swan," The nurse said sadly.

Emma nodded. She was giving them away so they could get their best chance. So they could have the life she never had, they very life she had fallen asleep as a child thinking about.

Gently, Emma placed the babies into the nurse's arms.

The twins, confused as to why they were being taken from their mother, began to cry.

"They'll get their best chance," Emma breathed out, and all she wanted were those babes in her arms again.

"The world is cruel, Miss Swan. No woman should be denied the right to raise her young. Are you sure there's no father in the picture?" The nurse's spanish accent reached her ears.

"I would be lying if I said yes," She choked out, as the little boy tried reaching one of his tiny, chubby fists out to Emma.

The nurse nodded sadly, but then left the room.

When the door shut, all the dams that Emma had built over the years, her cold exterior, all of it crumbled. Diminished.

She let the hot, salty tears flow freely down her face. Emma wanted her babies, and she had let them slip through her fingers.

During her life in the foster system, Emma Swan had received many things she didn't want. Broken dolls with missing limbs, unwanted leers from drunks…

But the one thing Emma wanted, she couldn't have.

Okay, I nearly cried while writing this. Heads up, the next chapter skips to the end of 'An Apple Red as Blood', and goes from there. Review?

-Rumours-ofWonderland