Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time, I only own this plot, the OC's, nor do I make any profit from writing Fanfiction. I also do not own any references that you recognise.
Emma and Erin remained there for a few moments, neither one talking, Emma trying to comfort her daughter by stroking her daughter's completely mattered braid and holding her close. After a few moments, Erin pulled away slightly. "Mommy, you won't send me away, will you?" She asked, chewing on her lip, as she attempted to calm down and stop crying.
Emma shook her head gently. "No Kid, we won't send you away." She replied.
Erin nodded quietly, the awkwardness of the encounter rising through the lack of words being said. "Thank you…" She whispered as she continued to hug her mother. Her mind wandered slightly, over the ever fading details of the dream. "No one's dead either?" She asked in a smaller voice than the whisper.
Emma pulled back slightly this time and studied her daughter's face. She gently shook her head. "No one's dead, as far as I'm aware at least…"
The sixteen year old looked up with fear in her eyes. "No, don't say that…" She said as tears threatened to recommence rolling down her face again.
"That was a joke…" Her mother replied, as she started to gently stoke her back, attempting to console her.
Seconds turned into minutes, as Erin began to cry and her mother continued the attempt to console the young woman. On the outside of the bedroom Neal sat there awkwardly as he heard his daughter crying. He battled with the decision of whether to barge into the room to try and sort out whatever the problem was or whether he should continue to sit on the couch and question what was going on with his baby girl. He knew something was wrong, he was actually quite perceptive, and not as unintelligent as certain people may have been led to believe. He eventually looked at the clock in the living room once more, before deciding to grab the opportunity in front of him. Mr-Rumplestiltskin's-son walked over to the door, opening it, before walking into his daughter's bedroom.
The scene in the bedroom was not what one could call a normal occurrence in the Swan-Cassidy household. There was a sobbing sixteen year old, who was almost as tough as her mother most of the time, who was embracing her mother, yet no coherent words being exchanged (as there usually would be). Emma sat on her daughter's colourful bedspread, rubbing her daughter's back in circles, just like when Erin had been a young child, after had have woken from a nightmare, or someone was causing terror in town that she had happened to witness (sometimes despite their best efforts to completely avoid those situations).Within the following few seconds, the scene changed, adding Neal into the picture, wrapping his arms around his two girls, making an Erin sandwich of sorts.
The next day, Erin attempted to block the events out of her mind, as if she'd never channelled that vulnerable little girl that still existed beneath her defences. Her walls were built back up and the defences surrounding those walls were strong. Even on the weekend Emma still sometimes had to work, which gave Erin the opportunity to either: A.) Spend awkward time with her father and attempt not to let anything slip, B.) Spend what possible time there was with Will or C.) To spend time with her maternal grandparents. Ordinarily, she would've had a choice in the matter, but everything had changed, and apparently she'd been booked in with option C, without her knowledge.
By the time that the sixteen year old had bothered to get out of the bed, her mother was gone, and her father, was probably still sleeping. In all honesty, she had absolutely no idea. She combed through her hair thoroughly, attempting to get all the knots out without screaming loudly, which ended up taking about ten minutes, just to comb it through. By the end of it, her energy supply was diminishing quickly, and she could not be bothered to do anything more with her caramel coloured locks, so she let them hang freely, framing her face and falling gracefully down to her mid back with a slight curl. Swiftly moving over to the dresser, she unchanged and looked in the mirror, as she did so, she chewed on her lip. The adolescent shook her head and moved to put her favourite pair of jeans on, with a free flowing shirt to hide visual signs.
Her clothes had always been a snug fit, not so snug that she went a size down, but generally they fit perfectly, (if she went the next size up, in most cases she would be swimming in fabric). As the woman attempted to put her jeans on, she got up to her hips, then up to her waist, nothing seemed wrong, yet. She tried to button up her pants in the mirror, and failed. She tried again and again, but they wouldn't do up. It would've had to be about a centimetre out from fitting. She inwardly cursed, she'd tried so hard to completely avoid this from happening, and in reality, this was what started to make it all become real to her. It wasn't obvious, she didn't think anyone would be able to tell by her physical appearance, not yet at least, however that self-confidence created by the walls she'd built began to crumble, as the walls started to show their cracks. Erin had no choice, all of her pairs of jeans were the same fit, she was going to have to wear track pants instead, which would require an excuse to give her "aunt" when she arrived. (If she was even there this time that is.) There were no issues with the sweatpants, she was able to find a plain black pair and then throw her loose fitting black cotton t-shirt with long sleeves.
Erin grabbed her boots and her handbag gently, taking her phone off the charger, enabling her to just simply slip it into the bag, before sliding out of the bedroom. To her surprise, Neal was awake and walking around idly, doing things in a sequence that did not make sense to Erin. He turned the television on, and then walked back into his and Emma's bedroom, then he moved to the kitchen, grabbed a banana and then walked into the living room again. He glanced at his daughter and nodded, it was as if he'd only just woken up and was still adjusting to the light of day. Erin looked back at her father before walking into the kitchen, before deciding that it would be easier for her to go straight to her grandparents, and she may have even gotten pancakes, or waffles.
Shutting the door behind her, she walked outside to the garage to find no car, she sighed quietly, and started up the road to walk around the corner to her maternal grandparents' home. It took about five minutes for the caramel brunette to arrive at the building, before climbing up the staircase to the door of the flat. Erin had a master key for the majority of all stores and then keys to the homes of all of her family, and honorary family, (if there was anyone left that she was not actually related to.) As she moved to grab the keys out of her large light brown leather hobo style handbag, the door opened, and then Nicole attempted to suffocate Erin in what one may deem as a bone crushing hug.
After what seemed like forever to Erin at least, Nicole released and walked the two of them inside the flat, shutting the door behind them. Before Nicole could question Erin on anything, or even open her mouth, David and Snow walked in. Erin smiled at her grandparents, and waved. In a strange spinning maneuverer, she managed to detach herself from her aunt, and dumped her handbag onto the couch before leaning against said couch. When Erin was a baby, she somehow contracted the nickname Monkey, while Nicole became Nic or Nicki and Jade became Golden Child or Goldilocks. To this day, Erin still had no idea how she received the name, maybe she'd made a monkey face one day, or maybe because there was no irony in who she was and where she came from, maybe because there were three at once, and she was the youngest everyone sort of forgot, or maybe it was because her name was quite hard to shorten. She did not know why, but it never bothered her anyway.
"Hi!" She said overly enthusiastically, as she attempted to make sure that no one suspected anything.
Nicole raised her eyebrows at Erin and attempted to stifle her giggling. David hugged Erin, and kissed her hair. "Hey monkey." He smiled. He sent Nicole a look of confusion and rolled his eyes.
As Erin returned the hug, Snow looked at her granddaughter and observed her. "You look better than you did a few weeks ago." She observed. "I mean-"
David chuckled, before interrupting. "Which equates to 'hi Monkey'." He grinned at his wife.
Nicole continued to try to stifle her giggling, yet she failed miserably. "Wow…" She commented sarcastically, before she was able to stop herself. She looked like she was about to say something else when she forced her mouth closed at her mother's stare.
Erin nodded and laughed. "Hi Gran." She replied, continuing her hug with her grandfather.
Snow smiled and walked to the kitchen. "David's going to make pancakes." She announced, smiling sweetly at her husband.
"Yes dear…" He replied, before kissing the top of Erin's head again and moving towards the kitchen. "Guess I'm paying for that one." He whispered to Nicole and Erin, who in turn burst out laughing.
"Nicole's going to help." Snow also said, which wiped the giant grin off of Nicole's face.
"But Mom…" Nicole whined. "That means cleaning the dishes, and I hate doing that…"
Snow continued to smile sweetly and nodded. "Have fun." She replied, laughing softly, before moving over to her granddaughter.
Erin laughed at her aunt and grandfather's antics and remained in her current spot. "Naww, diddums…" She said to Nicole, who raised her eyebrows suggestively and looked at her mother, before poking her tongue out in the maturest way possible.
David and Snow laughed in unison, something that probably could have been seen as creepy had it have been any other couple, (and the fact that the two of them shared the one heart had a couple of small side-effects. Snow nodded, and turned towards Erin, "while those two are making breakfast," Nicole shot her mother a death glare. "I want to show you my new handbag."
Erin looked at her grandmother, then at her aunt, nodding simply. It was a far more direct approach for taking her away than Snow had ever taken with her before, which deeply concerned her. Thoughts of excuses and fake stories began to swirl in her head once more, trying to prepare her for what she thought was coming…
Author's Note: I felt the need to redo the disclaimer for the tenth chapter! I am calling Snow, Snow instead of Mary Margaret because of who she is, and I don't like to call her Mary Margaret. Apologies for not updating sooner, but I tried, and my parents left me and my movements for the next few days are quite strange. I'm on my phone wifi trying to upload this. I want to continue to thank you for your ongoing support and so I attempted to include some Snowing feels. I've started writing the next chapter so hopefully I'll put that up next week! Thank you!