A/N: It's starting to come together; we're into the back half. The blind witch is just fucking everywhere let me tell ya.
Baby Emma flashback chapter. Aka: a big reveal.
….
18 years ago…
Snow White hated secrets.
She'd never been able to keep them. No matter how she tried if it was considered a secret it just came tumbling out of her in one way or another. She vowed from a young age to live her life in a truthful manner and always speak her mind. There was no room for secrets in her life.
True love was a powerful force. Upon meeting her future husband and father of her child Snow knew she had found it. Not long after the young princess married her true love, her father the King, passed away and Snow and Charming took over rule of the White Kingdom. It wasn't long after that Snow found out she was pregnant with her first child.
With each day that went by and Snow's belly grew rounder Charming grew more and more concerned.
The Blind witch was the most powerful witch in the realm and had an appetite for babies and children that fueled her reign of terror. It was common knowledge that she had a deal with the Dark One who brought her children to consume, and with their flesh she ate their tiny innocent souls and her power grew.
It was a dark time in the Enchanted Forest , and the blind witch's appetite combined with the high probability of infant death during birth caused a great and earned fear to plague the people. Charming had escaped the witch as a boy. He had stumbled upon her sugar cottage with his twin brother, and under the drawing magic they had entered unwittingly.
The witch was always willing to make a deal, and thus is came that Charming accepted as did many others: he would sacrifice his first born child in place. His brother, however, did not make the deal and was eaten by the witch.
Years past, as though Charming grieved the loss of his twin, he moved on and met Snow finding himself on the threshold of becoming King. In the back of his mind, the deal he had made always troubled him, but there was nothing that could be done.
When Snow shared the news of her pregnancy with the entire realm, he couldn't bring himself to tell his wife that the witch would come for the child, until right before the birth. The Queen couldn't accept the idea of losing her precious baby to the most hated and fear evil in the lands.
The plan was hastily put into place to send the baby away directly after the moment of birth. The child would be raised and protected by the werewolves that Snow was close friends with. The witch had many enemies, but she feared only the wolves as they were the only creatures whom could and would eat her just as she preyed on the most innocent and vulnerable of all.
The plan went awry, when the powerful and loyal werewolf Red was transporting the child to the wolf den. She was shot by poachers and the baby was left behind to die in the woods. When Snow received the tragic news, in grief for her noble friend Red, she outlawed the hunting of wolves throughout the Enchanted Forest. Then she ordered every knight in the realm to search for her child. She couldn't shake the feeling that her baby girl still lived. Her child was special, she had felt a stirring of light in her womb since the moment of conception.
Gepetto and his boy, Pinocchio came forward with the news that they had taken the baby to fairy orphanage when they had discovered her in the woods. The relief Snow felt was short lived. She knew there was no way then to escape the witch.
Therein lay the problem.
If the baby was retrieved the witch would come. The witch had undoubtedly heard that Charming's baby was alive and she would come for what she was due. Snow with much heartache and remorse agreed that she would have to do the right thing and give her baby up to the blind witch.
She was a leader of the people. The people who had been terrorized by the witch for years and years, but the King and Queen didn't plan on giving their girl up without a fight. They enlisted all of the sorcerers in the land to help aid them in binding the witch. The baby would be bait and then they would strike and wage a war against the dark magic she harnessed. The legend held that if the witch was killed all of the souls she had eaten would be released.
The Charming's only solace came from the hope that their daughter would be the Savior of the innocents. The plan was set in motion when Charming himself went to orphanage to rescue baby Emma.
No one could blame a protective father for what he did. Anyone would put their child first. There at the orphanage lying on the dirt floor were two newborn baby girls. Both had bald heads and chubby cheeks and looked almost identical to one another. A tiny band woven from lilacs was attached to Emma's wrist and bore her name. The blanket she'd arrived in had to be destroyed because it had been covered in dangerous werewolf blood.
Even without a band to tell her name Charming would always know his daughter.
He did what he thought was right. He left Emma at the orphanage, and took the other baby girl: an unclaimed orphan that wouldn't be missed by anyone. The King took the baby girl and as he ripped away the tiny flower band that said the name she had been bestowed he saw a tiny star on the inside of her wrist. The crumpled flower wreath that used to read "Lily" was left crushed and broken in the dirt.
He had to ensure that Emma lived, but he never stopped to think about the life that might await her.
When he returned to the castle with baby 'Emma' there was a quiet celebration and naming ceremony, but those close to the King and Queen remained somber and vigilant. Snow wouldn't allow herself to see the child. She cried alone locked in her chambers. She couldn't bear to get attached. There was no serum or medicine that could calm her.
They waited. They waited for the blind witch to come lay claim on the new princess. The magical bindings and the most powerful of dark and light magic practitioners crouched in the corners of the palace and lay in plain sight cloaked in invisibility spells.
The witch came in a whirl of nauseating smoke that smelled of death. Her wild hair was crowned with a wreath of babies' bones. She smiled in a way that struck fear in the heart of the bravest men. A quiet fell over the palace. A harsh darkness ran like fire through the kingdom.
Charming held out the baby and looked the witch in her sightless eyes. She tittered and her mouth water from the smell of newborn flesh. She sniffed again. Her smile fell. In a rueful fit of anger she bellowed, "This is not your first born child! I will have her. I will have the one I am owed."
And with that, she was gone, the scent of sulfur and decomposition the only sign remaining that she had appeared at all. The sorcerers left the palace slowly, fearing she would return. But after days and nights of waiting it was apparent the witch would not come back.
Snow had to see her baby. She was beautiful with dark eyes and the slightest fuzz of dark hair. "Emma" she cooed to the baby. She tamped down on the feeling that something wasn't right. She should be a natural at mothering, but her baby always felt cold and heavy at her breast. She blamed herself for the long separation at birth. In time she grew to love her and knew she would be the Kingdom's greatest treasure.
The Queen was so happy to have her daughter back she didn't question much. The news that the witch rejected the princess spread throughout the kingdom, and Charming lied stating he had conceived a child with his previous betrothed: Abigail, but the baby was still born, and thus not a viable morsel for the witch.
The betrayal hurt Snow, but she understood that the past could not be changed, and true love had won out. True love had brought her family together.
Charming kept his secret from the people of his Kingdom, his wife and even from his stolen daughter without disruption for 18 years….
