Chapter 25 –
Poor Emma is going to have a long recovery ahead of her!
After a moment Charming and Snow headed down to the cafeteria to grab a coffee. They hadn't realized how late it was when all was said and done and the exhaustion was starting to catch up to them.
As they were headed to the cafeteria the thoughts of what could have been began to flood their mind. What if that man had hit her before she crossed the town line? What if he had taken her? They never would have found her.
They knew they were both thinking it but neither of them had the heart to verbalize it to the other knowing that speaking it would be worse than thinking it.
Once they arrived at the cafeteria they got their coffee and headed right back to Emma's room. They knew Doctor Wale had told them he would page them but they wanted to be able to be back with their little girl as soon as possible.
In order to kill the time they started talking about how they would manage having Emma live at the loft with all of her injuries.
"We could take her room and give her ours, that way she doesn't have to worry about stairs and frankly neither do I. When the curse first broke and she was on crutches I nearly had a heart attack every time she even got close to the stairs" Snow said while sipping her coffee
"That's a good idea! But the only thing that worries me is if someone were to try and break in she would be an open target. What if we put her in the living room for now and she can move back upstairs after her leg heals?" Charming chimed in. He really didn't like making Emma vulnerable and he also liked being closer to Emma if she were to need them.
"Okay let's do that. That's also a lot less moving to do! And, this may sound silly, but I want to put a baby gate up in front of the stairs to try and keep Emma from trying to go up them. They are a lot steeper at my loft then they were at the house and it would be a much harder fall" Snow said thinking of her poor daughter injuring herself more.
"You know she is going to hate that" Charming said chuckling at the reaction they would get from Emma.
"I don't care how much she hates it, it's for her own good" Snow chimed in very serious about her request.
"Okay, okay! I'll go pick one up first thing tomorrow morning" Charming said putting his arm around his wife
"Charming how did this happen? How did we end up in the hospital with our daughter literally having to be put back together?" Snow said laying her head on Charming's shoulder
"I don't know Snow. Personally I blame you, I mean, you were the one who was running through the woods as a wanted criminal stealing things and almost getting yourself killed when we first met…" Charming said starting to chuckle
Snow punched his arm "HEY! I had my reasons! And I'm being serious her Charming, why does she keep putting herself in danger and how can we stop it?"
"I don't know that we can Snow. I mean, selflessness runs in her blood as does being a hero. What we can do is try and create more boundaries but so far that hasn't helped either. I think it's time we taught her how to defend herself"
"Knowing how to defend herself wouldn't have helped today"
"That is true"
"I don't want to constantly worry about her. Can we make grumpy her personal bodyguard? I mean, I've watched the news from this land and they have this person called a president who is basically a King and him and his whole family have bodyguards so since she is part of the royal family we could make a case!" Snow said getting very excited at the possibility
"As much as I like your idea you know that would put a riff between us and her because she would never forgive us for it."
Snow sighed and curled up next to charming moving her head to his lap.
"If she mentions anything about getting her license I may explode" Snow said flatly
"Oh I totally agree! She needs to fully heal from all of this before we even think about putting her into a death machine" David said being overcome by the fear of his daughter behind the wheel
Right then Doctor Wale exited the room. The couple immediately rose to their feet.
"Oh, Hello. Well she's all set and she did great. As far as recovery goes she needs to be in bed laying down for the next week if not two weeks. After a week I'd like her to come back and we'll reevaluate everything and take new X-rays to see how she's healing and determine how to go from there. With her leg she can't put any weight on her leg for the next month and I would recommend getting her a wheel chair because she didn't only break her leg but she messed up her hip pretty badly and crutches will only agitate that."
"Thank you for taking such good care of our girl" Charming said putting his arm around Snow.
"Of Course. Here are the prescriptions for her pain killers and I also wrote her a prescription for a muscle relaxer because the muscles around her ribs are going to begin to tighten up and we need them to be relaxed until the ribs begin to heal."
"Okay, we will get them filled as soon as possible" Snow said taking the prescriptions and putting them in her purse
"Alright, the nurse will be in in a few minutes to get her discharged and then the three of you will be free to go home. Feel free to call me if there are any questions"
"Thank you Doctor" Said David as they headed into Emma's room.
Emma was just starting to come to when they walked in. They could see the bulge in her shirt from where they had wrapped her ribs and her leg had a purple cast on it. Her wrist also had a wrap on it and a sling was around her neck so that it didn't hang.
"Hey" Emma said seeing her parents walk in
"Hey baby, how are you feeling?" David said brushing her face with his hand
"I feel great" Emma said. Obviously the drugs were working
"Good!" Snow said trying to contain her laughter at Emma's drugged state
"You guys ready to go?" Emma asked as a great big grin grew across her face
"We will get going in a few minutes honey, we have to wait for the nurse" David said
"Nonsense! I'll go find her" Emma said trying to sit up
"No, no, Princess I can go find her, you just lay here" David said now trying to hold back he own laughter at his daughter's antics
"You know dad, if I'm a princess, that makes you a king and it makes mom a queen. We need a castle!" Emma said delighted with herself
"You're right Emma, we do need a castle, how about we build one here in storybrook?" Snow asked trying to keep the conversation going so that Emma would stay still. She knew her daughter couldn't feel it now but she would in a little bit once the meds wore off a bit.
"YES! Let's do it! I'll call August and have him and his dad start it today! And we can have a dungeon made for Regina and Rumple stiltskin!" Emma said enthusiastically
David had to turn away as the laughter he was trying so desperately to contain was starting to find it's way out of his mouth and he didn't want Emma to get mad not knowing how she would react in her drugged state.
David was saved by the nurse coming in.
"Well Hello Ms Emma how are we doing?" She asked
"I'm Great! We're going to build a castle!" Emma told her
"Well that sounds like a fun project! But make sure you are just overseeing because you're not ready for work just yet!" The nurse played along
"Oh no! I'm a princess, I just point and order people" Emma said very seriously
"Of course your majesty!" The nurse said with a little giggle. "Alright, well Emma is all set to go, the drugs in her system should last her till tomorrow morning when you're able to get her prescriptions filled. The dosing instructions will be on the bottle. Doctor Wale said he talked to you about her restrictions so if you can help me, we'll get her in this wheelchair and get you on your way!"
"Sounds good! Charming can you just pick her up?" Snow said looking at her husband.
"Give me one moment" Said the nurse. "I need to unhook her from a few of these machines"
They watched as the nurse made quick work of all the tubes and equipment and it was only a short time before they were on their way to the main door. Thankfully David hadn't moved his car so it was all ready for them to load Emma in.
They laid her in the back seat and strapped her in as best they could.
Before Snow headed to get her car she and charming shared one last moment together and both felt the shared relief that their daughter was back safe with them and that, although she was bruised and broken, she was still with them.