AN: Warning: This one deals with some sensitive subject matter with mentions and elusion to sexual abuse, past and present. There is nothing graphic, but consider yourself warned.

A couple of notes: The United Realms came into the existence when Emma and Neal were eight to comply with canon. David and August are still Sheriff and Deputy in Storybrooke, though David is also lead Knight in Regina's court. He and Snow retain their royal titles in her court as Prince and Princess respectively.

When David and August discover that a boy in their town is a possible victim of molestation, it brings up a long buried memory for David that he never told anyone and opens a wound that his family had no ideas about. Inspired by a recent L&O SVU episode. Emma and Neal are nine here.

Perfectly Charmings

Buried Scars

It started with a really peculiar case of a child harming himself. It was an alarming thing and Archie was immediately called into counsel the young boy. It was especially alarming for Neal, for this boy was one of his friends on his little league team and he was understandably upset by this.

Snow and David had sat him down to talk with him, as Neal didn't understand why his friend had sliced his wrist on purpose. They didn't know either, but knew it could be a multitude of things, including abuse. Neal's friend Tommy came from a good home though and there had never been any signs of abuse there. They both knew that didn't mean something wasn't going on, but Tommy's parents endured all of David and his deputy August's questioning. There had been no hostility from them and only sorrow at why their son had tried to do this. Tommy had been such a happy child one day and in the next, all that had changed. He became depressed and despondent, but neither David nor August found any signs that his home life could be responsible for the change. So let they handed the case over to Archie and Tommy was in therapy, which they all knew was the best thing for him. Tommy was troubled by something and they were confident that Archie could help him.

Unfortunately, it didn't end there. A couple other boys on Neal's team began to act out and there was a clear shift in their demeanors. It was more subtle though than it was with Tommy and the parents had chalked it up to a phase that their boys were going through. Until David happened to make it to one of Neal's practices. He never missed a game, but sometimes his duties at the Sheriff's station didn't always guarantee that he made it to practice.

What he saw could have been nothing had he not had an experience in his own childhood that mirrored this. An experience that he had buried so deeply that not another soul alive knew about it. But seeing coach Ted's hand linger on his son's shoulder brought the memories crashing back; memories that he had thought banished from his memory and he stormed up to the coach with a piercing azure gaze.

"Sheriff…" Ted said, surprised by his presence and it didn't go unnoticed at how quickly he removed his hand from Neal's shoulder.

"Dad!" Neal called excitedly, as he hugged him. David hugged him back fiercely and kissed his head.

"I thought you had patrol?" Neal asked. So that explained it. Ted had only been confident enough to move in on Neal when he was sure his father, the Sheriff, wouldn't be present.

"Everything was pretty quiet, so I got done early," David replied, as he gave Ted a look that told the man that he wouldn't be missing practices from then on.

That's when he began his investigation into coach Ted. He started by telling Archie that he suspected sexual abuse, but that it wasn't happening at home for Tommy. The psychiatrist had his suspicions too, but had yet to get Tommy to admit the abuse and it wasn't something that could be forced. So he stopped by Regina's office next.

"The town Census didn't offer much information on Coach Ted, other than he was a villager back in our land. I just wondered if you might have a bit more insight on who he was," David asked.

"Well...he's one that chose to keep his curse name even after it broke. Here he's Ted Logan and back home he grew up on the Zearing farm. Ted started coaching part time after the curse broke," Regina replied. David's head snapped up.

"What?" he questioned.

"The Zearing farm...did you know it?" she asked.

"It was only the largest, most successful farm in our area. They employed farm hands from all our the villages around us. They...they tried to buy us out once," he replied, as he got really quiet.

"David…" Regina said.

"I have to go," he replied quickly, as he hurried out. But being a victim of abuse herself, Regina knew something was off and immediately started digging into the records she had on the Zearing farm from their homeland. And just a little bit of research yielded startling results that made her pick up the phone.

"Snow...it's Regina. I think your husband needs you right now,"

When Snow got to the station, she saw her husband staring into the interrogation room with piercing eyes. She recognized Neal's coach as the man in the room and felt the bad feeling in the pit of her stomach intensify, as she watched August interrogate him.

"David…" she called and he turned to her. His expression nearly broke her half heart, for she had never seen him so lost. Gently, she put her arms around him and leaned her head against his shoulder. They didn't need words, as usual, and he took the comfort in her. For once she didn't push, because she knew he would finally talk when he was ready. They didn't have secrets anymore and this was just one that she knew he had buried so deeply that he never expected it to surface again. But now that it had...he would tell her.

"When I was nine...old man Zearing's wife passed away. He had two sons and a daughter. I remember Gary...he was the oldest. He was a teenager when his mother died," David said, indicating the coach in the interrogation room.

"A few months after she died, his father started to take an interest in my mother. They started seeing each other. He told me that if he married my mother, then we'd all be one big happy family. That Mom and I wouldn't struggle anymore and that we'd always have enough to eat. It sounded like a pretty great thing to me," he said, as she saw tears gathering in his eyes.

"He started spending a lot of time at our farm and one night, he came up into the loft where I slept," he confessed. Snow's heart broke for him.

"He got into bed with me and started touching me. He said that this was how father's showed their son's how much they loved them. And since I didn't have a father, I didn't know that wasn't true," he said dejectedly. She squeezed his hand.

"But I got lucky, because my Mom came up and caught him that first night, before he...before he could go any further," he continued.

"I'd never seen her so mad...I thought she was going to kill him. Instead, she chased him out and told him if he ever set foot on our farm again that she'd tell everyone what he was and what he tried to do to me. It would have ruined him, so he never set foot on our farm again. Looks like his son is a chip off the old block though," he said bitterly.

"Oh Charming…" she said, as she put her arms around him and held him.

"I buried it and moved on...but I know it stuck with me. It was why I used to think I'd never be more than a scared shepherd boy. I probably would have ended up a slave to Bo Peep if it hadn't been for Anna. She finally managed to get me to believe that I didn't have to be someone's victim," he confessed.

"And then you saw Ted put his hand on Neal's shoulder…" she realized. He nodded.

"It all came crashing back and it felt like it was happening all over again, except to my son and I have never been more terrified than I was when I realized what had happened to Neal's friends," he added, as he sniffed.

"It could have been Neal...or Emma even…" he cried, as Snow hugged him fiercely.

"But you recognized it and stopped it. He's not going to hurt any children ever again," she assured, as August came out. David wiped his tears.

"He's refusing to talk and says he wants a lawyer," he said.

"Figures. He doesn't think he's doing anything wrong, because his father probably did it to him," David replied.

"Can we arrest his father?" August asked. David shook his head.

"Old man Zearing is dead...he died before the curse. He was found beaten to death in the field shortly before I left the farm to replace my brother. The story always was that he crossed Bo Peep, but maybe someone else knew what he was and decided to stop him for good," David replied, as he looked at the man through the window.

"I doubt we'll ever know and he can have his lawyer. But we have victims and now that we can promise that they'll be safe...I think with Archie's help, they'll finally tell us what he did," he replied.

In the end, Tommy and the other boys confessed what the coach had done to them and he was sentenced. The United Realms Justice system sentenced him to life in prison and he would never be a threat again. He had left a scar on these boys though, just like his father had left a scar on David, though not nearly as severe as these young boys had. But David was confident that with Ted going to prison that it was a cycle that would finally be broken. And while the scars would always be there for everyone effected, they would heal in time with love.