Chapter 11 –
Today is the day of the town meeting. Will Snow and Charming still make Emma go or will they let her stay home since her accident last night? PLEASE REVIEW!
Emma woke up feeling terrible. Her ankle was throbbing along with her head.
She swung her feet over to the side of the bed but her crutches were nowhere to be found. Her parents must have moved them in an attempt to keep her in bed.
It was still strange to consider David and Mary Margret her parents but it was starting to grow on her.
Emma decided that she didn't care if she wasn't supposed to walk on her ankle or not, she was going to get down stairs by herself. However, she underestimated how bad she had sprained her ankle.
As soon as Emma went to take a step she immediately fell to the ground with a thud.
Within seconds she could hear her parents running to her room. There was nothing she could do to make this situation look like anything but what it was, a jailbreak.
David came busting in the door immediately scanning the room to find his daughter crumpled on the floor looking as helpless as he had ever seen her. It took everything in him to not burst out laughing at his little girl sitting on the floor with her arms folded.
"I'm going to guess that you tried to walk?" David asked his daughter
"Maybe…" Emma said barely making eye contact with David.
"Lets get you back up on the bed shall we?" David asked as he reached down and scooped his daughter up into his arms and placed her on her bed.
"Where are my crutches?" Emma asked, slightly annoyed that they were nowhere to be found this morning
"We left them outside your door because we knew that you would try and get yourself down the stairs and we didn't want you to bust your head open." David said as he checked to make sure her splint was properly in place.
"I wouldn't have fallen down the stairs," Emma said rolling her eyes.
"You're little stunt this morning doesn't support your claim Em," David said slightly laughing at the memory of Emma on the floor.
"I only ended up on the floor because I didn't have my crutches" Emma fought back feeling that David's assessment was inaccurate.
"Well let's get you down stairs and I'll get you set up on the couch and then I'll make some breakfast for all of us how does that sound?" David said
"Alright, but where are my crutches?" Emma asked hating feeling helpless.
"I'll bring them down stairs after I get you set up on the couch," David said not wanting a repeat of this morning.
"But how am I going to get down stairs?" Emma asked confused by the whole situation.
"I'll carry you down there!" David exclaimed as he stood up and grabbed Emma up in his arms.
"Dad…" Emma stopped herself, she had never called David dad before.
"It's okay if you want to call me Dad Emma. I am your dad after all" David was so overwhelmed with joy when he heard Emma call him dad but he knew that he couldn't push it with her.
"I think I might try it out, if you don't care," Emma said sheepishly
"It's perfectly fine with me" David beamed and kissed Emma's head. "Now let's get you down stairs shall we?"
Emma couldn't help but smile, even though she would never admit it, she loved having her parents dote on her. She had never had anyone who cared for her enough to do that before.
Once they got down stairs Snow had already come down and began to make breakfast. "Well good morning you two!" she said as she saw David carrying their daughter down the stairs. "Emma are you okay after your fall?" She asked.
"How did you know I fell?" Emma asked confused how her mother had known she had fell since she hadn't come in the room.
"I figured that you tried to walk without your crutches. Was I right?" Snow asked with a slight smile in her voice that told the pair she didn't necessarily need an answer.
"Yep! We've got a stubborn one Snow" David said as he kissed her head before heading to the couch.
David sat Emma on the couch and propped her leg before he went to the bathroom to grab more gauze and ointment to re-bandage Emma's arm.
Emma felt a little uncomfortable as her father began to unwrap the gauze because this would be the first time he would see the cuts from last night along with the scars from her cuts she had done when she was in foster care.
David did all he could to not look shocked but his heart broke as he began to see the cuts and scars that covered his daughters arm. "It's okay Emma" he said trying to reassure her that she didn't need to worry.
"I'm sorry" Emma said under her breath.
David stopped cleaning the cuts and looked at Emma. "You don't have to be sorry Emma. We love you scars and all. The only thing we ask is that you talk to us when you're upset. We hate that you feel you need to hurt yourself."
Emma was fighting off tears and simply shook her head yes before David leaned up and wrapped her in his arms coddling her head in his hand.
After a moment David released his daughter and wiped a tear off of her cheek before returning to finish wrapping up her arm.
Once he was done he kissed the top of her head and handed her the remote before joining his wife in the kitchen to help finish up breakfast.
_OUAT_
Once breakfast was done David helped Emma use her crutches to get to the kitchen table and propped her leg on a chair.
"Emma how are you feeling this morning?" Snow asked
"I'm sore but I'm okay" Emma said taking a bite of her French toast.
"Good! Just make sure that you take it easy today, you only need to be using your crutches when necessary. Otherwise you need to keep it propped and iced if you want to start walking on it next week" Snow reminded her daughter hoping that the incentive or walking would keep her on the couch.
Emma took a sip of her hot chocolate with cinnamon and decided now was a better time then ever to bring up her staying home during the town meeting this afternoon. Just as she was about to bring it up the phone rang and David left the table.
"Hey Leroy….yea….we'll be there….thanks for reserving that for us….see you then" David said as he hung up the phone.
"Leroy reserved the town hall for 1pm for the town meeting and he and the dwarfs are spreading the word so that everyone knows." David said walking back to the table.
"About that," Emma interrupted "Is it okay if I stay home from that today? I mean, it would be a lot for me to go there with my ankle how it is" Emma was trying to be logical so that her parents would at least try and see it from her point of view.
"Emma, we talked about this" Snow replied in a warning tone.
"I know we did but that was before I hurt my ankle" Emma reminded her mother.
"Emma, we already made our decision about this." David chimed in in his no nonsense tone. "We also made our decision on your punishment for sneaking out last night. We warned you yesterday afternoon that if you snuck out again you would be punished but you went ahead and snuck out again."
"Dad, Mom I'm so sorry! I promise that I won't do it again and I mean it this time!" Emma pleaded. She also knew that her calling them Mom and Dad would throw them off their game.
"Emma, as much as I love hearing you call me Dad that doesn't change our decision. For the next two weeks you don't have any friends over and you don't go to any friends house. You are only permitted to go to school and come straight home and that is it." David said sternly, hating that he had to punish Emma.
Snow was still a little shocked that she had heard Emma call her mom and her heart was melting but she knew she had to back charming up in this decision no matter how much she wanted to take it all back.
"And you are going to the town meeting today not as a punishment but as a protection for you. Like we told you, we don't know where Regina is and it is our job as your parents to keep you safe and right now that means we can't leave you alone in case she tries to hurt you." David reiterated trying to make Emma understand.
Emma slumped in her chair and crossed her arms across her body. She understood why her parents wanted her to go with them but that did not change the fact that she didn't want to go.
Snow got up and started clearing the table with David's help before he turned to Emma and helped her get up to her room so she could get ready. He just hoped that Emma had some of the fight taken out of her after last night.
_OUAT_
After helping Emma upstairs David came back down to help Snow finish up the last of the dishes. Snow turned around to make sure that Emma was safely upstairs before she allowed a girlish grin to spread all over her face.
"She called me mom!" she exclaimed, trying not to let her voice travel up to Emma's room.
"She called me Dad this morning! But the little brat was using that to try and get us to change our minds" David said with a smirk knowing that his daughter never would have called them mom and dad in that moment had she not been trying to manipulate them.
"I was so glad that you were the one who stayed strong on that one because I was ready to give in to her!" Snow said walking over and wrapping her arms around Charming's waist.
"Oh I know! I saw the look on your face! But I almost gave in too but if I have learned anything about Emma, it's that if you give an inch she will take a mile," Charming smiled at Snow.
"She gets that from you, you know" Charming said smirking looking down at his wife in his arms.
"You take that back!" Snow exclaimed.
"No way! Her stubbornness is all you!" Charming teased
"Alright, alright. Well I think it's time we head up stairs and get ready for this meeting." Snow said, reluctant to leave this moment.
"I guess you're right," Charming said kissing the top of Snow's head and the two headed up to their room.
