Famous Fairytale
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Chapter 13
Emma's POV
I didn't care if it was raining, I didn't care if I ended up lost in these woods forever, I just wanted to get away; I wanted to get away from all the lies. The rain was heavy, I could barely see where I was going, but it didn't matter. In the end it was always better to be alone.
Snow White's POV
Red was with myself and Charming as Red desperately tried to pick up Emma's sent. "Damn it, I'm sorry Snow but all this rain is blocking out my senses" she grumbled in frustration. I placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and gave her a sad smile when she looked at me.
"It's not your fault Red, thanks for being out here with us" I said gratefully.
"Of course I'm here, I care about Emma to Snow" Red replied over the heavy rain. We were all completely soaked, but I didn't care. All I cared about was finding Emma. We continued our searching as we called out for Emma.
Emma's POV
I couldn't understand it, why was it that every time I grew attached to someone they always threw me away. Why was it that I could never find a family to love me? I was walking along a river deep into the forest and could see the heavy rapids flowing as tears fell from my eyes. I was so sick and tired of being lied to.
"Well, well, well, look what we have here boys" Peter and the boys had jumped down from the trees and circled around me.
I glared dangerously at the leader of the lost boys. "Out of my way Pan" I warned.
"What's the matter Emma, didn't you miss me?" He asked. He was leaning way to close to my face as he gave me that cocky smile.
I desperately pushed the boy back but he grabs my wrist harshly and his eyes began to darken. "You are mine Emma, do not treat me with disrespect" He threatened.
"I don't belong to anyone!" I yelled over the rain.
He just smiles as he leans closely to my ear. "Be grateful Emma, no one else will love you like I do" he mocked. He begins to suck on my ear lobe which causes me to shiver in fear.
"Let Go!" I screams.
Pan becomes irritated. "You want me to let you go? Fine, I'll let you go" He easily gives me a light shove causing me to lose my balance and fall into river. Pan and the boys smirked at me just before turning away and leaving me to my death.
Snow White's POV
I wasn't sure how much time had passed, but it was getting harder and harder to see very far ahead with all this rain.
"Emma!" I screamed. I was becoming desperate with worry for the girl. Suddenly the three of us were frozen in fear as a horrifying scream pierced right through our hearts. I was the first to dash off in the direction with Red and Charming right behind me.
When we found ourselves deeper into the forest my eyes widen in pure terror as I saw Emma fall right into the river. "EMMA!" I cried. Without even thinking I quickly dived into the river, not caring about the danger.
"SNOW!" Red and Charming yelled out in horror.
Emma had gotten far ahead of me because of the strong currents taking her away from me. I wasn't about to let some river steal this child from me. I had already lost one child; I wasn't going to lose another! Emma was desperately trying to keep her head above the unforgiving water as I desperately tried to swim faster to her. "Emma hold on!" I yelled, panic flowing through my voice.
"Snow help!" she cried. She had finally seen me trying to get to her, when she cried out to me, something inside my veins pushed me to swim harder. My eyes became determined and just as I saw her getting pulled under the deep water I quickly held my breath just before diving under the water to find her. I was desperately looking all over, just to find some kind of sign of the girl. It was hard to see but soon enough I was able to see Emma falling down to the bottom of the river with her eyes closed. I was instantly swimming over to her and wrapped her up in my arms. I gave a powerful push from the bottom of the river and swam my way back up to the surface. I gasped as air finally reached my lungs while I tried to fight against the currents with Emma in one arm.
"Snow!" Charming yelled.
It was becoming harder and harder to stay above water, Emma was still knocked out and I feared she may have already swallowed too much water. I soon see both Charming and Red jumping into the water and swimming over to me and Emma. Red took hold of Emma as she swam back to land. I'm sure that wolf strength of hers really helped against these damn currents. Meanwhile Charming helped me get back to land, I had used up so much energy while trying to save Emma so I was grateful for her his help. When we all made it to land Red had gently placed Emma down. I quickly crawled over to her and soon found she had indeed swallowed too much water. Right away I started to do CPR on her, as I was doing this I kept begging Emma to wake up. "Come on Emma, please come back to me!" I cried. I gave her mouth to mouth and did everything I could to help her come back. Finally she is soon coughing out the water that had filled her lungs. I sighed in relief; I had never been so terrified; the thought of losing Emma had nearly frozen my heart forever.
"Oh Emma!" Tears flowed down my eyes as I brought Emma into my arms, I had never been as grateful as I was in that moment. I didn't care that I was freezing cold from the river and the rain; I never wanted to let this child go again. My face was buried into her neck as I cried my tears of joy and relief. I was surprised to feel Emma wrap her arms around, I was so worried she would try and push me away, but she didn't. I could feel hot tears as she buried her head against my chest and cried loudly. Time passed when I finally regained composure and slightly pulled away so that I good look at the girl. Her eyes were red from crying as she looked down; she seemed to be afraid to look at me.
"Snow we should get Emma inside" Charming stated over the rain.
I nodded and stood myself up, I helped pull Emma off the ground and she cried out in pain. Charming was at our side instantly kneeling down to the girl.
"Emma what's wrong?" He asked worried, my eyes wide with fear. Then suddenly that was when we all saw it, her hand was covering a spot on her stomach, blood was flowing out, she must have hit against a rock or something in the water. Charming wasted no time in lifting Emma into her arms as he carried her like a precious object that could break any minute. The three of us ran back for the mansion.
Emma was shaking so badly ever since we left the river when we finally made it back to the mansion. "Dr. Whale!" Red shouted. Whale had instantly come downstairs when he heard her shouts and guided us up to his room.
"Red, Snow, you need to get Emma out of those clothes, we have to try and warm her up as quickly as possible. Once Emma is out of those clothes and taken care of, I want all of you to change as well" He ordered.
We wasted no time. Charming was out the door along with Whale, giving us the space we needed. Once Emma was out of her wet clothes and dried up Red and I wrapped her up in warm thick blankets while leaving her wound visible for Dr. Whale. It was just under her belly where it looked like she was scratched by rock, thankfully it didn't look like it was too deep of a wound. Dr. Whale knocked on the door a few minutes later and I opened it for him once I made sure Emma was covered securely under the blankets.
"Once I have her wound taken care of you can bring Emma downstairs to the fireplace in order to help her warm up better" Dr. Whale explained.
I nodded and stepped outside with Red in tow, I found Charming already changed into dry clothes. He had on simple blue jeans, and a white button down collared shirt. I wanted to hug him, I wanted him to just hold me in his arms, but I knew I needed to change myself. Red placed a comforting hand on my shoulder and the two of us headed to my room. It didn't take us long to change, we both threw on jeans, and Red was wearing my red sweater, while I wore a light blue sweater. When we were both changed we made our way back to Dr. Whale's medical room and waited outside the halls with Charming. This time I gladly let him pull me into his warm embrace and I sighed from exhaustion.
Not much longer did Dr. Whale finally come out of the room.
"How's Emma?" Charming quickly asked.
"Emma is going to be just fine. Thankfully the wound wasn't deep, she doesn't even need stitches, her bandages will have to be changed every few hours, but other than that she will have to take it easy for a while. She was lucky that the wound didn't do any more damage to her bruised ribs" He explained.
"Thank you Dr. Whale" Charming replied.
Charming, Red, and I made our way into the room to find Emma completely wrapped up in the blanket sitting on the exam bed.
"Emma sweetie are you ok?" I asked. Carefully walking up to her.
She is still shaking, but not nearly as bad as when we first brought her in. She nods and doesn't allow our eyes to meet. "I'm sorry" she whispers softly. Her voice held fear and sadness, it made my heart shatter into a million pieces.
"Oh no, honey you have nothing to be sorry for" I comforted.
She shakes her head. "When, when you said you wanted to talk, I, I was afraid" she explained, still not looking up at me.
"Afraid of what dear?" I asked curiously.
"That…that you would throw me out" she explained.
"Why would you think that?" Charming asks.
"Because every time a family said we had to talk, it always meant they didn't want me anymore" Her voice was so tiny and she sounded so ashamed that I just couldn't stop myself. I brought her back into arms carefully so as not to hurt her.
"Emma I would never just throw you out, do you understand" My tone was serious as I spoke to this precious child I held in my arms.
I heard Emma sobbed and could tell she was trying to fight back her tears. I pulled back away and gave her a warm and gentle smile as I gently whipped away a few fallen tears. She looks at me skeptically for a minute but finally nods. I pull away and walk over to Red.
"Emma I'm going to carry you downstairs to the living room with the fireplace all right" Charming spoke gently. She nods and he carefully lifts her up bridal style in her arms as she rest her head against his chest comfortably. Red and I were right behind Charming as he made his way downstairs. Charming carefully placed Emma on the couch and went over to get the fireplace started. I was instantly sitting next to Emma and wrapped an arm around her in hopes of helping her get warm.
"Would you like anything to eat or drink Emma?" Red asked.
Emma shakes her head. "No thank you" She snuggled in closer to my embrace and I stared at her sadly.
"Emma! Emma!" It was Henry running into the living room, with Regina right behind him.
"Is everything all right?" Regina asked concerned.
I nodded. "She somehow ended up in the river and the currents were strong, thankfully I was able to get her out with Charming and Red's help. Dr. Whale said she'll be alright, she got a small cut from when she fell in but it didn't do any damage to her bruised ribs thankfully, she just needs to get warmed up" I explained. Charming had finally got the fire started and took a seat next to me on the couch.
"How did you possible in up in the river?" Regina questioned as she stared at Emma.
I glanced at Emma as her eyes looked down at the floor, I was also curious to how she ended up in there. But with all the chaos I hadn't really had the chance to ask Emma what happened.
"I tripped and fell" she mumbled quietly.
"You're lying" Regina stated. Her tone sounded cold and irritated.
"Regina" I warned. I didn't need Regina scaring the poor girl.
"You can't always be all sweet and cheery Snow. Emma is obviously not stupid enough to accidently trip and fall into a dangerous river during a storm like this. What really happened Emma?" She tried to sound a little gentler at the end, but I could tell Regina wanted the truth just as much as I did.
"It doesn't matter" she grumbled annoyed.
I pulled away shocked at her words. "Of course it matters Emma! Do you have any idea how sick and worried we all were when you took off like that? If we had been just a few seconds too late we could have lost you!" I practically yelled. I didn't mean for my voice to sound so angry, but I had nearly lost Emma and it just brought back so many painful thoughts.
She finally looks up at me with angry green eyes. "Why do you care!?" she screams. "In less than two weeks I'll be gone anyway, so why do you care!? Just because you got me out of that house do really think history won't repeat itself? Do you have any idea how many homes I have been in? Do you have any idea how many times I have been left to die? So why do you care if you hadn't made it in time? Nobody has ever cared before, so why should you!?" she yelled furiously.
My heart broke as her words hit me like bullets. Everyone was stunned into silence, just how many times did she nearly lose her life? How could anyone be so cruel to this child, she has been so sweet and kind, I wanted to tear the people from her past apart.
"Emma if anything happened to you I would have never been able to forgive myself, the reason I care is because you are important to me Emma" I answered honestly. She still didn't look like she believed in my words. "Let me tell you what Charming and I were going to talk to you about before you took off on us" I said carefully. Emma's eyes widen in pure terror, before she could try to get away from me once again I quickly wrapped my arms around her. Her body went completely stiff in my arms. "Emma, Charming and I want to adopt you" I quickly let it out before she could even think about trying to escape my grasp.
Everyone gasped at the news. "Snow is that true?" Red asked stunned.
I smiled and turn to look at my best friend. "Yes, Charming and I have been talking and we've both just fallen in love with Emma so much. We want to make sure we know that she will never be abused again, and the only way to do that is if we adopt her ourselves" I explained.
"So this means Emma will be part of our family!?" Henry asked excitedly, he looked like he could bust from joy.
"If she wants to be a part of it" Charming smiled proudly.
I turned back to see Emma and the color on her face had completely drained, I frowned, she looked practically as white as me and not in a good way. "Emma?" I asked concerned.
"I can't" she whimpered. She sounded so tiny and small, it killed me inside.
"Why can't you?" I asked carefully.
"I'm not immortal, I'm not a fairytale character. I'm just a kid that nobody wanted, you'll get tired of me eventually" she explained sadly.
"Listen to me Emma, I would never get tired of you. Those people who were lucky enough to have you in their lives were complete fools for letting you go. I promise that if you let Charming and I adopt you, you will always be safe here, you will always be loved no matter what" I spoke seriously.
"Pan" She finally replied, after a long silence.
"What?" I asked.
"Pan, he pushed me in the river. He…he also kissed me the first night I was here, I pushed him away, but he was mad. He was going to tell you all that I was just some foster kid. I was afraid, afraid that I would be sent back home before I even had a chance to start liking it here" she explained.
"That little brat did what!?" Charming yelled as he stood up, his face filled with rage. Emma flinched and I gave Charming a warning gaze. "Sorry Emma, I didn't mean to yell" I could tell he felt bad for frightening the child; Charming would never want Emma to be afraid of him.
"Don't tell me that happened when you took Henry to play with the boys?" Regina questioned. Regina looked like she was having an inner battle with herself; I could see that she wanted to throw one of her fireballs at something. Emma only nodded in silence.
"That's why you were shaking when we left!?" Henry asked. Again Emma only nodded.
"I say we kill him" Regina suggested, her eyes becoming nearly as dark as the evil queen that still lays deep within her. Although Regina was technically no longer evil, that didn't mean she was completely free from the old darkness, it would always be a part of her, she was just better at controlling it than she ever was in the past so many years ago.
"Regina we can't kill him" I said.
"So are we just going to let him get away with forcing himself onto Emma and practically killing her?" She asked furiously.
"Of course not!" Red replied irritated. "He has to be punished, but we don't kill people Regina" she added.
Regina huffed in annoyance as she folded her arms over her chest and turned her head to face the other way.
"So what do you suggest we do with him and the boys?" Charming asked.
"We will need some kind of spell" I said. "We'll send Pan and the lost boys back to Neverland where they can never leave this time, they will be trapped there forever" I explained.
"Are you sure about this Snow?" Charming asked.
My eyes became cold as I stared off into nothing particular. "Pan and those boys nearly killed Emma, I won't let them live here peacefully and torment her whenever they please. I promised Emma that she would always be safe here and I plan to keep that promise" My eyes soften when I turn to look at the girl beside me and I gave her a gentle smile. She looked confused and scared, but I wrapped an arm around her and brought her close to me. At first she was hesitant but she gave me a small beautiful smile as she rested her head against my shoulder.
"If it's a spell you need then I can help you with that dear" Regina grinned. And for just a moment it felt like I was staring at the evil queen again.
"When should we do this?" Charming asked.
"Unfortunately casting a spell like this will take a lot of energy, it'll probably take me a few days to gather up the ingredients" Regina explained. "Meanwhile will just have to make sure Pan and the boys aren't anywhere near Emma, at least not left alone with her even for a minute" she added.
"Is this really ok?" Emma asked, suddenly speaking up in her quiet voice.
"What do you mean sweetheart?" I asked.
"Isn't Pan and the lost boys your family? Won't his fans get mad that they can never see him again?" she asked scared.
"Pan is indeed family, but he has crossed the line far too many times. He simply refuses to change his ways, and those boys will always follow him. As for his fans, if they finally learn what kind of person Pan really is and learn that he could care less about his fans than I doubt they will miss him for too long. Pan has always been cocky towards his fans, he would sleep with many of them and pay them to keep their mouth shut" Red explained with disgust.
"I can really stay?" Emma asked.
I smiled as I looked at the beautiful child next to me. "Only if you want to" I answered. "But Charming and I would be so honored to have you as part of our family" I said honestly. Without any warning I suddenly felt Emma's arms wrapped around my neck as she buried her face against my neck. I easily wrapped my arms around her, wishing for this peaceful moment to never end.
"Welcome to the family Emma" Charming said proudly.
To Be Continued!