This was a prompt submitted to me by Codi: Snow finds Emma curled up asleep with her baby blanket. Emma wakes up embarrassed.
Growing up alone, Emma's baby blanket was all she had sometimes. There was even a point when she had been sent to a new foster home with nothing but the blanket. To her, it was also a tiny bit of hope. While she always felt abandoned by her biological parents, she thought that they must have loved her at some point. The blanket was very beautiful and carefully stitched together. Clearly, it had been given to her out of nothing but love. Maybe somewhere, out there, they were looking for her. The hope disappeared as she got older, only to return when she broke the curse. Her parents had asked Granny to make the blanket because they did love her. It only made it that much more precious.
Emma had stopped publicly sleeping with the blanket when she was 10 years old and experienced a not so great reaction. After that she'd keep it on her pillow and when she got her own place, she kept it draped over her couch. Now that she was living with her parents, she wasn't afraid to keep it folded neatly at the foot of her bed. She only cuddled with it when she was truly stressed or scared. As of late, both were happening.
Between taking on the darkness, losing it, going to the Underworld and coming back, realizing all the mistakes she had made by doing so, she was drained. She needed comfort that she didn't feel anyone could provide. After their return from the Underworld, Emma had moved back in without much questioning it. Her parents were insisting she get more rest to make up for all the sleep she had lost over the past few months. She seemed to be hibernation mode. She would sleep for most of the day, only coming down to eat a ton of food before going back up to her room to rest. She knew Henry was safe with Regina and that her father could handle the station for the time being.
One day after settling Neal down for a nap, Snow decided to head up and check on her daughter. She found her curled up on the bed, snoring lightly. It was a sight that relieved her mother. She had a feeling that a few more days of being in this weird sleep cycle, she'd be back to normal. Though, she'd be tempted to ask her to take more naps. If not every day, at least a few times a week. She couldn't keep burning out the way that she had.
She walked around the bed to make sure that she was warm enough and found her baby blanket clutched in her hands. Snow's hand went over her mouth as her heart melted. She had always been touched that Emma had kept her baby blanket all these years, but had assumed she'd never get to really see her hold it. She understood, her daughter was an adult. However, in this moment, it seemed so sweet. She took a picture, merely to send it to her husband and then bent down, kissing the top of Emma's head.
Emma's eyes flickered open on the movement, blinking a bit and lazily smiling up at her mom. She felt a familiar fabric in her arms and instantly sat up, dropping it onto the floor.
"Mom…I…I can explain," she stammered, trying to wake up fully.
Snow shook her head, gently placing a hand on Emma's cheek. "Sweetheart, it's fine."
"No, it's not. I'm not a child, I'm 30-years-old. I shouldn't be cuddled up with my blanket."
"You've had a rough time lately, your blanket serves comfort to you. It's perfectly fine to need it. Heck, even if you didn't, I know plenty of adults that still have comfort items," she said. Emma gnawed on her lip. Having her mom's reaction was an unexpected game to what she was used to. Snow could tell her daughter was thinking about something. "What is it, baby?"
Emma sighed. "It's just…I would sleep holding my blanket for a long time as a kid, longer than most of my foster siblings would with their comfort items. I got sent to a new home and the parents seemed nice enough at first. Then on my first night, the mom saw me laying down to cuddle with my blanket. She made a face and told me I was too old to sleep with it. husband agreed and they made me keep it under my pillow. I guess their son had been attached to his own blanket and didn't want my "bad influence"."
Snow felt her muscles tightened. This was by far one of the tamer stories Emma had told her of her childhood, but it still got under her skin. How could someone be so mean to a child? Apparently, they had done the same to their own, taking away his. Growing up, she had a similar experience with a nanny taking away her favorite teddy bear when she was "too old". She had insisted that she would never do the same to her children and hated that she wasn't there to stop it from happening to Emma.
She bent down, picking the blanket up off the floor. "Emma, there is nothing wrong with needing your blanket. You can hold it whenever you need to. I'm sorry you had people that made you feel wrong. Your father and I had this made especially for you, it means the world to me that you still have it." She settled it into her arms.
Emma ran her fingers over the purple ribbon and then looked up at her mom. "You sure?"
"I'm sure." She kissed the top of her head. "You still look exhausted. How about you go back to sleep for a bit? I'll have mac and cheese waiting for you when you wake up."
Emma nodded and curled back up, holding her blanket tightly to her chest. Snow stood there watching her drift back to sleep as she stroked her hair. If anyone tried to take Emma's blanket from her again, they'd have to deal with her.
So, this was actually the last prompt on my list! Make sure you keep sending them in for July Jamboree. You can send them in on here or my Tumblrs: just-an-outlaw and justanoutlawfanfiction.