Title: Love is Strength

Disclaimer: Once Upon A Time and its characters belong to Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC. Not Mine!

Warning: K+ (Mentions some violence/kidnapping)

Author's Note: Chapter 29! So I struggled with this chapter so sorry for anything that is kind of rough! But I am pretty excited about the title! :) This is chapter is a little less serious than the last chapter, but I think it turned out kind of funny! Thanks for all the reviews, they keep me motivated! Enjoy! :)

Emma is the New Grumpy?

Throughout the rest of the night, Emma continued to fight the flu and her fever. Snow and Charming were with her through it all, giving her comfort and support. All three of them were exhausted from the long night and slept off and on throughout the next morning. Emma and Snow were still on the bed with Charming sleeping in the chair because he refused to be away from his sick daughter.

Charming could feel the sun shining on his face as he slowly woke up feeling sore and unfortunately, still tired from the long night. He stretched out his stiff muscles from sleeping in the chair and then looked over at his daughter to make sure she was all right. Both his daughter and wife were still sleeping, but his daughter was sleeping fitfully at best. He reached over to feel her forehead hoping that her fever would have gone done, but it was still hot. Fortunately, it didn't seem to be as hot as it was last night before they got her cool down, but it was still not where he would have like it.

Charming looked over at the clock and had to do a double take of it because it couldn't have read 12:00! He knew they had slept in, but 12:00? That was extremely late for any of them, but they all had needed the rest, especially Emma. Although, it was only about 4 hours ago that she had her last episode of throwing up. After awhile, she had nothing to throw up and was just dry heaving. It pained Charming to see his daughter so sick and exhausted. Hopefully, she had gotten through the rough patch and would be getting better now. It seemed like she was doing better since she hadn't woke up to throw up for longer than it normally had been.

She looked so young and vulnerable as she slept. She still was holding on to her baby blanket, which was one of the cutest things that Charming had ever seen. It made him happy, yet sad that all she seemed to have to comfort her through the last 28 years had been that blanket. He was happy that she had it, but she should have had her parents to comfort her, not just the blanket. That was just an ounce of what she would have had for comfort and love. He knows that there is nothing he can do about the past, but he is determined to comfort and love her now.

Charming decides that it is time to get going so he gets up to leave his girls to go take a shower. Before he leaves, he turns around to glance back at Emma to make sure she is still sleeping then quickly slips from the room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I thought I heard someone moving around in here." Snow said softly as she walked into the kitchen to see Charming making some breakfast and coffee.

"Well good morning, love." Charming said as he gave his a wife a peck on the cheek before he went to pour his coffee.

"Good morning, Charming. Did you get any sleep last night?" Snow asked in a worried tone.

"A little, but I am not the one we need to be worrying about it." Charming said blowing off her concern.

"I know, but the way you have been going without hardly any sleep, it is wonder that you aren't sick yet." Snow scolded her husband out of worry.

"Snow, I am fine." Charming said seriously.

"Wow, for second there I thought I was talking to our daughter." Snow chuckled at Charming's response. "You two are more alike then you realize. You both are horrible patients."

"I wouldn't say that I am horrible." Charming said in a mock, offended voice.

Snow just gave him a look that clearly said 'Seriously?'

"Okay, maybe I am, but you know you love me anyway." Charming said as he pulled his wife into a hug and kissed her to distract her from worrying about him.

"Don't think, I don't know what you are doing. I am going to have my eye on you." Snow said, as they broke apart.

"How's Emma?" Charming asked, changing the topic once again.

Snow shook her at Charming as he changed the topic, but then answered him anyway. "She is still sleeping, but not as restful as I would like. She still has a pretty high fever we will have to check it when she wakes up. I think I might go take shower while she is sleeping."

"Okay, love. I'll keep an eye on her." Charming said with a soft smile and then gave her another peck on the cheek.

Charming sat at one of the stools at the counter to eat his breakfast and drink his coffee while he read the newspaper. Every once in awhile he would glance over to look at his sleeping daughter to make sure she was still okay. As soon as Emma did wake up, he was going to try to get some food into her. He hated that she was dry heaving so much last night because she didn't have anything left to throw up so he was determined to get something in her. He knew this would be a challenge to get Emma to eat anything, but he was up for that challenge.

"Anything interesting in there?" Emma interrupted her father's reading with her hoarse voice.

"You should be in bed, Emma!" Charming admonished as he looked up to see his daughter walking into the kitchen rather unsteadily.

"I was in bed all day yesterday!" Emma practically whined. She was sick of being in bed and though she couldn't remember most of yesterday, she knew it wasn't a pleasant experience.

"You are too sick to be up. Now, back to bed." Charming said sternly as he walked over to Emma to steer her back to bed.

"I am fine." Emma said stubbornly as she refused to budge.

"As we speak, the color is draining from your face, you are anything, but fine." Charming claimed. As if to prove his point, Emma legs start to buckle and Charming had to catch her so that she wouldn't fall. "Bed. Now." Charming demanded leaving no room for an argument.

Emma was a little stunned by her father's voice because it automatically made her feel like she was Henry's age. She knew that was the end of that discussion as well. "Fine." Emma grumbled as she let her father lead her back to bed. She was feeling weak, but she wasn't going to give her father the satisfaction of knowing that he was right.

Charming a hid a smile at his daughter's typical stubborn self. The reason he didn't want her up and around was because he figured that Emma would be weak which she obviously just demonstrated how weak she really was with her little incident. "Sit." Charming said firmly, yet kindly.

Emma complied, but scowled at her father.

Charming just ignored her grumpiness and helped her get back into bed. Once Emma was settled into to bed, sitting up against the headboard, Charming felt Emma's forehead.

"Seriously? I am fine." Emma rolled her eyes at how overly protective her father was being.

"Are you ready to back that up?" Charming teased as he held up the thermometer. His daughter was in an exceptionally bad mood this morning and he was trying to lighten her mood a little.

"Of course!" Emma said, but had a bad feeling it wasn't going to be in her favor. She grabbed the thermometer from her father and put the tip of the thermometer under her tongue. If only her father wasn't watching her she could tamper with the reading.

"I'll be right back." Charming said as he patted her knee.

Emma smiled mischievously as he left the room, she took the thermometer out of her mouth as soon as he left and wrapped it in the blanket hoping that it would give a lower yet normal temperature. She wasn't above cheating when it came to a challenge.

"Emma Ruth Swan!" Charming scolded as he saw Emma with the thermometer wrapped up in the blanket instead of in her mouth.

"Busted." Emma said sheepishly as her father gave her a disapproving look.

"Give it to me." Charming took the thermometer and turned it off and back on before handing it back to her. "Did you really think I would fall for that?" Charming asked through a chuckle.

"Maybe." Emma said with a cheeky grin before she put the thermometer back in her mouth.

Charming shook his head, "What am I going to do with you?"

After about a minute of waiting, the thermometer beeped and Charming swiped it out of Emma's mouth before she could even reach for it.

Emma rolled her eyes, but asked, "What is it?"

"102.5. It's down, but not as much as it needs to be." Charming said with a sigh. He was grateful that it had at least gone down from where it had been yesterday, but it was still a high fever. "Now, how about some breakfast?"

Emma scrunched up her face; she was hungry, but not really feeling like throwing it all up.

"What's that face for?" Snow asked as she came into the room to see Emma's disgruntled look.

"I am not hungry." Emma told her mother.

"Well you have to eat something, especially after yesterday. Did you check her temperature yet?" Snow asked Charming.

Charming looked at his daughter; "Apparently your daughter has some tricks up her sleeve when it comes to getting her temperature taken."

"What does that mean?" Snow asked completely confused.

"I tried to trick him by taking the thermometer out of my mouth and wrapping it in the blanket, but he caught me." Emma said sheepishly.

"Emma!" Snow practically yelled.

"Thanks a lot, Dad!" Emma glared at her father.

"Might I remind you that you are one that told her!" Charming teased.

"That's because you were going to rat me out anyway!" Emma snapped.

"That's enough, Emma. Did you retake it?" Snow asked Charming.

As Snow looked over to Charming, Emma stuck her tongue out at her father and then smirked.

Charming just grinned as he saw Emma's childish actions when Snow turned her back towards her. "It was 102.5."

"It's better, but still high. We need to get some food into her." Snow replied.

"I'm right here, you know?" Emma said as she rolled her eyes.

"Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" Snow commented on Emma's not so sunny disposition.

Emma just glared at her mother. She was grumpy, but she hated being sick and normally had coffee when she first woke up. So yes, she was a bit grumpy this morning, but she had every right to be grumpy.

"We may just need to change your name to Grumpy." Charming joked.

"Seriously? That is the worst 'dad' joke, like ever!" Emma replied.

Charming just chuckled. He was so glad that she at least was up to joking around and being sarcastic. Although, she still had a way to go before she would be healthy again, he knew that she was getting better and not worse.

"We will be back, Emma, with your breakfast and medicine." Snow informed her daughter who just scowled at her.

"And don't even think about getting out of the bed, young lady." Charming said sternly.

"I won't." Emma reluctantly stated in a grumpy tone. She honestly didn't think she could make it very far if she tried to get out of bed. Getting out of bed had taken a lot out of her and arguing with her parents was a bit exhausting. Plus all the talking was irritating her already sore throat. It was however, a lot better than it had been at least she had a voice today. She didn't want to go back to the dry erase board.

Snow looked confused, but followed her husband out of the room.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What was that all about?" Snow asked when they got to the kitchen.

"She got out of bed before I knew she was awake and almost ended up on the floor because she is so weak from yesterday." Charming replied.

"She is just getting in all kinds of trouble with you today. You know at school they might call this a 'power struggle.'" Snow said slipping into teacher mode.

Charming chuckled at his wife's explanation. "You are doing the whole teacher thing again."

"I can't help it! I am so use to it from my cursed life. I don't know why you guys always have to make fun of me for it." Snow said with a frown.

"I know, honey. I actually think it is cute, but it also is funny." Charming teased.

Snow shook her head and then began to get breakfast for Emma. "Maybe her mood will improve with some breakfast."

"I doubt it. She is a force to be reckoned with. I have tried to improve her mood, but it hasn't helped." Charming said with a grin. "It might be a long day." Charming chuckled.

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