Chapter one
Snow White smiled broadly while hanging forward on the crib's railing.
She'd won, Neal was asleep after an hour of fussing and, as triumphant as she felt, she now found herself awake at 4 am. It was too late to go to sleep but too early to wake her husband up. He would be up soon for a long shift at the station, so it would just be cruel.
The desire to touch Neal had the rational part of her tired mind retreat from the crib and wring her hands together.
A thought for an alternative source of distraction popped into her mind and she couldn't help herself and began making her way quietly up the stairs.
Snow was sure that her eldest child would not be happy if she ever found out about this, but figured that she was at least entitled to do it once, so continued upwards before she could change her mind.
Before now, she would have reminded herself that her daughter was a grown woman and that she couldn't look at her for no reason. On this occasion, she didn't want to risk waking Neal out of sheer boredom, so push straight through the door to reveal the saviour snuggled in many blankets.
She watched Emma's peaceful face for a moment before furrowing her brow as her eyes moved to her shoulders, waiting for them to move.
Her eyes widened as she counted to thirty and nothing happened.
Rushing forward, unable to make any sound as her shaking hand touched the pale face, but it recoiled when she felt how cold her child was.
While taking heavy breaths, she retreated, all but running towards the door.
In her panicked haze, she didn't notice Emma grunt and turn to face the other way.
Snow's feet pounded the stairs and she then flew across the room to punch in three numbers into her phone.
"Emergency services, what seems to be the issue?" the operator asked in an annoyingly calm voice.
The royal swallowed hard and said, "Emma isn't breathing!"
There was a moment of silence before the reply, "Do you know what could have caused that?"
"No!" Snow shrieked and Neal proceeded to wail.
Snow instinctively looked at him, but determined quickly what was more important and turned her full attention to the phone, she needed her husband to wake up anyway.
"I don't know, just send an ambulance!"
She got a squeak in response and, taking that as assent, hung up the phone.
Snow was about to rush back up the stairs, but someone asked sleepily, "What happened?"
Looking around, she saw David padding over to the crib, trying to calm their son, but to no avail.
"Emma…I went up to her room…to check on her," David looked as though he was going to question this, but Snow ploughed ahead, "She wasn't breathing, David!"
The man could only appear stunned and it, at last, occurred to Snow that the saviour would be needing CPR if she had any chance of coming back from this, so she whipped around to run back upstairs.
Her mouth fell open at the sight that met her when she did.
Emma Swan was coming down, rubbing at her eyes. As soon as she reached the last step, she removed her hands to look between her parents with confusion written across her features.
This turned into a questioning look when she noticed her distressed brother. Neither of them reacted, so she approached the crib and muttered a spell that instantly calmed the boy.
"What's with all the shouting?"
Snow and David exchanged a look before the female of the pair rushed forward to engulf their daughter in a bone-crushing hug.
Emma's eyes widened and she searched her father for any sign that her mother had finally snapped, but he looked more relieved than confused.
She was about to question this but was stopped short by the sound of a frantic knock at the door.
Snow reluctantly removed herself from Emma and went to yank it open to reveal two paramedics with a gurney behind them.
Their readiness to rush into the apartment was stemmed by the saviour's apparent health, extending to the ability to breathe.
"Is this some kind of joke?" one of them spat while trying to regain his breath.
Snow shook her head and shouted, "You said she wasn't breathing!"
Emma's eyes went wide, but managed to gather herself enough to announce, "It was a misunderstanding!"
The paramedic narrowed his eyes, clearly still very much pissed.
"You're either breathing or not! You do know that wasting emergency services' time is against the law, Sheriff Swan?"
Emma pinched the bridge of her nose as if making a decision before she came up to the two men and placed a hand on his arm.
She smiled charmingly at him and said, "It was just a misunderstanding."
He opened his mouth to argue, but he instead got a faraway look about him and replied, "You're really pretty."
Snow furrowed her brow, glad to see that David was as utterly confused as she felt.
"Go back to work and never tell anyone about this," Emma commanded, making eye contact with the other paramedic, causing a similar dopey smile.
The man nodded eagerly and Emma closed the door in their faces and then looked between her parents cautiously.
When neither of them could say anything, she sighed and said, "I really didn't want you to find out this way."
Snow inspected her, paying particular attention to her steady breathing, which appeared not to have picked up despite her nerves, "Why weren't you breathing five minutes ago?"
Emma's eyes fluttered closed in frustration before she opened them and said, "I had a long day and…I forgot to."
"You forgot…to breathe?" Charming asked slowly.
Emma nodded, waiting for a follow-up question, but got nothing but expectant looks so she explained, "When I was twenty-two…I died."
Snow laughed nervously and asked, "Are you saying that you're a vampire?"
"That is exactly what I'm saying," Emma deadpanned, sighing at their blank expressions, "You don't believe me? You're friends with a werewolf?"
"Vampires are an urban legend," Snow argued.
Emma crossed her arms, maybe thinking of a way out of this before she thought better of it and used the one piece of irrefutable proof that she had: her fangs.
She kept her mouth open, waiting for a reaction right up until she got one.
Snow White fainted.
Emma rolled her eyes and waved her hand to poof the woman over to the bed and then looked to her father who was torn between addressing the revelation and making sure that his wife was okay.
"So…you're dead?" was all that Prince Charming could think to say.
Emma shrugged and replied, "Technically, I guess."
Her father blinked and nodded, though he was visibly pale.
Emma rocked on her heels but sighed and said, "I'll give you guys a chance to…think this all over."
"Emma…" the man said weakly.
The saviour turned to look at her father, somewhere between cautious and hopeful.
He ran his hand over his face and asked, "Where are you going?"
Emma smiled weakly and said, "I'm not running away, I promise. Text me when mom wakes up?"
He nodded as the door's lock clicked.
My daughter is a vampire, he thought while standing stock still before he shook himself out of it and approached the bed to join his wife.
He just hoped that he could find a way to stop her from freaking out again once she woke up and remembered that their little girl was a creature of the night.