So instead of writing an incredibly important uni presentation thats due in, in about 24 hours I wrote thins instead. it was going to be fully fluff but apparently my brain automatically creates angst, but theres a fluffy end. Anyway I'm rambling so I hope you enjoy this, and feel free to submit prompts - I will try get to them at some point.
'YOU COULD HAVE DIED CHARMING!' Emma heard her mother screech from downstairs.
Emma and Charming had barely been home that week. A hunter by the name of Clayton had been targeting people with magical abilities and people such as Red who possessed forms of magical blood. He had thought he could sacrifice them to fuel a portal back to his own realm.
Emma had set a trap for Clayton using herself as bait, much to Charming's ignorance. By the time Charming had realised what Emma was up to he was almost too late – If Emma hadn't used her magic to quickly move Clayton's gun Charming wouldn't have been alive. By the time they got back to the loft David had realised how scared Snow would have been to realised how close to death Emma had been. As soon as they got through the door it became apparent to the pair that Snow had however, found out how close Charming had come to death. Emma tried to tell her mother the truth but had been order, much to her discontent, to go up to her room and leave them to 'discuss matters'.
Half an hour after arriving home, Emma could still hear their 'discussion'.
'I was fine Snow, I can look after myself.' Charming responded heatedly
'Oh so would you have fine to have Emma see you be shot? OR WORSE!'
'I wasn't going to be Snow. Anyway I'm not exactly the only one to have done something stupid to protect our family.'
'What the hell is that meant to mean?'
'Well you were fine to leave all of us after killing Cora. Hell, if Regina hadn't of decided to not kill you - WE wouldn't even be having this conversation. Let alone have Neal. Emma would have come home to see the person who was both her best friend and her mother not there. So I think in the history of our family, my stepping in the save E- to save our town, and our friends, isn't the stupidest.'
Emma groaned internally, her dad had to bring that up didn't he. Emma listened carefully to try hear her mother's response but could only her mumbling followed by the front door being slammed.
Emma tiptoed down the stairs, curious to know which parent had left and anxious to try rectify her mistakes. As she soundlessly descended, she realised how much like a child she felt. She shook her head to clear this thought and looked towards the single silhouette behind the curtain guarding her parents' room. She pulled back the curtain to see her father piling some blankets and pillows into his arms.
'That well, huh?' she joked uncharacteristically timidly. She seemed to sink into herself, as if to protect herself from harm, waiting for her father to shout or blame her like so many pseudo-fathers had in the past.
Charming turned his head to Emma, his eyes kind as he took Emma in, smiling reassuringly at her. He nodded his head at the blankets, 'The joys of arguing with your mother', he smiled sardonically and started to walk towards the couch.
'I'm sorry.' Emma said quietly, stopping Charming from walking out the room.
'Your mom and I's disagreement isn't your fault Emma.' He frowned.
'-But if I tell her the truth, you'll be-'
'No, Emma.' Charming interrupted firmly. 'Do you know how close we came to losing you today?'
'….Well, I don't know, I mean he wasn't particularly good, most his traps didn't work, I don't know how he got Jane and Tarzan…' Emma rambled.
'The traps didn't work as I managed to trigger them so they wouldn't go off on you if you reached them. That's why it took me so long to get to you. Then when he was about to … well I managed to knock him a bit so he wouldn't hit you. You knew what he was doing, you shouldn't have gone out, especially without telling me and us setting up a plan. Together. '
Emma looked down, ashamed she really had caused the fight despite what her father said, if she hadn't of acted so rashly none of this would have happened. She'd almost got her father killed!
'Emma, you still saved me.' He reassured. 'But this fight is between your mother and I, it's not your fault. On saying that,' Charming paused waiting for Emma to look up at him again. 'You acted with complete disregard for your own safety and own life. I'm not going to let that slip. You're now on desk duty or patrol with me until I can trust you to be out on patrol again by yourself.'
'What! I'm not a kid! You can't just-'
'I know you're not a child.' He responded calmly. 'But as we're both sheriff and as I am still technically presiding royalty, and also as your father regardless of your age, I can. So you shan't be out on patrol until I said otherwise. Got it?'
Emma sighed and crossed her arms over her chest petulantly, but did not argue.
Charming started to turn before stopping and looking back at a still sulking Emma. 'And Emma? Promise me you won't get involved in your mom and I's fight.' He waited to see Emma nod before he turned off and headed to the living room. He did not, however, see Emma smile and uncross her fingers.
A few days later Emma was sat in the station, her father seemed to still be serious about her staying on desk duty – no matter how small the call out was. So there she was, sat behind a wall of paperwork when the station phone rung. She quickly picked it up, hoping it was something exciting that couldn't wait until her father came back.
'Sheriff Swan speaking.'
Emma hung up the phone and sighed, of course it was just her luck to have a cat stuck up a tree down Main Street. She sat staring at her keys for a moment, 'Well' she thought to herself, 'They didn't say what type of cat it was… It could easily be a really big dangerous cat, so really this could be an emergency that can't possibly wait 'til dad gets back…' She grabbed her keys and wrote a quick note telling her dad there was an emergency so she had to go.
'Shit' Emma muttered as she lay stuck on a branch. Her arms were bleeding from cuts caused by the housecat which had abandoned Emma by jumping down.
She heard someone chuckle from below her.
'You okay there Em?' Asked Red with laughter in her voice.
'Yeah, y'know just hanging out.' She paused. 'I may be stuck...'
'You by any chance tell your dad you were here?'
'Of course why?'
'Because, he's currently speeding down Main Street. Oh and full disclosure your mother was right behind me so she'll be here in a minute. You want a hand down?'
'On second thoughts I might just stay up here…'
Red chuckled, 'Sorry kid, you have to face them anyway so I may as well give you a hand.' And started to climb up the tree to retrieve her would-be goddaughter.
'Emma?! What on earth are you doing up a tree?' came her mother's confused and slightly concerned voice from below.
Emma felt her face burn as she heard her dad's truck pull up. Red bit her lip and tried not to laugh at Emma's reaction as she helped her down.
'Emma. What was the emergency?' Charming asked crossing his arms as he stood next to Snow and Neal's pram with a stern expression on his face.
Emma looked down as she scuffed her shoes on the pavement, knowing if she answered she would be in much more trouble than she already was.
'Emma?' her mom demanded sternly.
Emma slowly looked up 'I erm… I was rescuing a… a cat…' She muttered.
Charming sighed and pinched his nose.
Snow looked between her husband and daughter. 'Does one of you want to tell me what's going on?'
Charming turned to his wife, 'Emma was meant to be on desk duty, because – well that doesn't matter she was meant to be a desk duty' he turned his head to give Emma a disappointed look, 'I was out on call and came back to the station to a note saying that there was an emergency that was time sensitive that Emma went out to on Main Street.'
'Emma!' Snow exclaimed. 'Do you know how much that would have scared your father to come back to? You're coming back to the loft with Neal and I so we can clean up your arms and you can take a sick day.'
'But- !'
'Emma this is not up for discussion.' Charming demanded. He nodded at Snow as if to thank her for her help, and Snow nodded back coldly as if they had both suddenly remembered their shunning of the other.
A few hours later Emma managed to escape the loft and her mother's glares by claiming she had already promised to pick Henry up from school.
'So what you up to?' Henry smiled as he sat in the bug.
'Okay you know how grams and gramps have been arguing, or not even like talking to each other?' She paused as henry nodded. 'Well, I have a plan. When they were erm-'
'Telling you off?' Henry offered with a smug grin.
'I wouldn't have called it that but fine. Anyway, when they were they actually bothered to speak to each other. So all I need to do is to do something to make them go way overprotective and then trick them into talking about their own problems. And I even have a name for it – the parent trap. Get it? Like the movie.'
'It sounds like a good plan, except the name. It should be called operation penguin though.'
Emma shook her head, not even bothering to ask about the name connection. She pulled into a parking space next to the store.
Twenty minutes later Emma was dropping Henry off at Regina's for the weekend.
'Okay so you're actually going to try withstand the wrath of Grams after you attack her and Gramps with food dyed water balloons? Please get someone to video it for me.' Henry joked wiping laughter tears from his eyes.
'You know you could always help me?' Emma offered hopefully.
'Yeah, no thanks. I quite like living.'
Emma was pulling into the car park when she heard her phone buzz. She looked down to see that her mother was calling her. She slammed on the brakes as quickly as she could, when she looked up and saw she almost collided with her dad's car. As she the water balloons, which had been lying on the backseat, flew through the air and hit Emma.
'Emma!' Charming cried as he flew out of his car.
'I'm fine.' She assured trying to wipe the water from her eyes.
Charming took her in with his eyes, as if expecting her to be lying about any injuries, she seemed fine although he found it hard to tell due to the dye that was sinking into her skin, hair, and clothes. He looked at from Emma to her car, confused – judging from her mood earlier Snow wouldn't have been likely to have let Emma out of her sight. And then there was the fact that her bug looked like a student's art studio.
He nodded towards the building, 'Upstairs.' He said simply.
By the time a now soaked Emma had made it up to the loft she was freezing and her head was pounding from bumping t slightly.
'Emma where have you been I've been call-'Snow had her back to the front door but turned to face the door when she heard it shut 'Emma! What happened?'
'That's what I'd like to know also.' Charming said crossing his arms ad nodding towards a chair at the table indicating it would be good plan for Emma to sit down and start talking.
Emma sat down at the table, realising the serious look on her dad's face. Snow walked over and sat down next to her husband, both facing Emma.
'Emma what are you covered in? I thought you were going to take Henry to Regina's? What took you so long?' Snow asked confused.
'Food dye. And I did, I just had to go get some stuff first.'
Charming sighed. 'What stuff Emma? And what for? Your mother and I would like the whole truth please.'
'Me and Henry had a plan, well I had a plan – I just needed him as an excuse to get out of the loft. I needed to get food dye and water balloons.' She looked down at her hand in her lap and started fidgeting. 'I was going to use them on you two.' She muttered.
'On us?' Snow echoed surprised. 'Why?'
Emma looked up at her parents faces, expecting to see angry glares. But instead she saw the faces of two of the people she loved most in the world, looking confused and concerned. The two who shared true love yet had barely talked in days, and she took a shaky breath.
'You two have barely been talking, the only time you do is to try keep up appearances around me or Henry, or to make sure someone's there to pick up Neal or take him to Granny's. But you talked early when you were both telling me off, so I thought if I did something that would get you to try scold me – I could get you both to talk.' She looked at their faces again and saw the confusion and concern had increased but had also added sadness now. 'But when I was about to park I glanced down at my phone for a split second then when I looked up I realised I was about to crash into dad's car so I slammed on the breaks. The water balloons exploded over me.'
'Emma.' Her mother sighed sadly. 'I'm sorry sweetheart, are you hurt at all?'
'My head hurts a little, but there's more to the story.' She took a long intake of breath. 'Dad and I didn't tell you the truth about our run in with Clayton the other day.'
Emma went on to explain how hard it had been to trap Clayton, and what he had been doing. She told her parents how she had decided to set a trap for him, and what the plan was. The she explained to her mother that her dad had realised she was gone and went to try stop her getting caught. Then she explained how it had gone wrong, and that she had almost got both her father and herself killed. As she was explaining Charming sat staring at his hands much like his daughter had moments before.
Snow sat in silence trying to digest the information, then nodded once. 'Emma.' She spoke softly. 'You should go shower to get all that dye off you, then you need to put an icepack on your head.'
Emma obliged, realising her mother was planning to speak to Charming in her absence. She made for the upstairs shower, stopping as she reached the first step, 'Mom, don't blame dad for not telling you. When Clayton almost shot m, it terrified him- he didn't want you to feel that scared.' Snow nodded reassuringly and watched her daughter ascend the stairs.
'Snow, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have lied to you, it's just I almost let her down. Again. I didn't want you to know how close we came to losing her.'
'Charming you listen to me.' Snow said not unkindly. 'You have never let her down. She adores you, and is so, so grateful that you're always there for her – especially when she needs it. But please next time just tell me. I'd rather be scared about what could have happened, than angry about a lie.'
Charming chuckled slightly, 'Deal. I'm so sorry about what I said when we were arguing. I should never have said those things, what happened with Cora was not your fault and I had no right in bringing it up. That's part of the reason I stayed away, despite being apart from you breaking my heart, I was disgusted in myself.'
By the time Emma went down the stairs almost an hour later her parents were snuggled on the couch. Charming smiled as her heard her approach, then stood up to grab an ice pack for her.
'Come sit down sweetie.' Snow said, moving so Emma could sit between her parents 'Thank you for trying to get your father and I to talk again, even if I don't approve of your methods.'
'So that means I'm off the hook, right?' Emma asked hopefully.
Charming walked back over to where his girls sat with a now wide awake Neal and an ice pack. 'In your dreams princess' He said with laughter in his voice as he passed Neal to Snow, and the icepack to Emma. 'You're in a whole world of trouble. It does mean though, that we can all sit and watch movies tonight.' He smiled 'If you want that is.'
'That depends on whether you two will finally watch Harry Potter with me.' She teased.
'Hey! I watched them with you!' Snow said, remembering a movie marathon Emma had made her partake in during the first curse.
'You fell asleep during it, so it doesn't count.'
Charming chuckled as he placed the DVD into the player, then grabbed a blanket to cover his family with, and sat back down. He was slightly surprised that as soon as he sat down, Emma snuggled down so she was as close as possible to both her parents, whilst holding her brother's hand.
The Charmings sat in a content silence as music filled the loft.
