Drowning her sorrows
snoopykid asked for a oneshot of *6x01 spoilers!* the pressures of Emma's tremors and visions becoming too much, leading to her starting to abuse alcohol. Snowing and Regina find her in an angry rage wishing Henry had never found her so she wouldn't be in fear of losing her family because of her issues.
Just as a head's up to everyone, if you request things specifically with people like Hook or Regina, they will be in the fic, but I keep them in the background as much as possible. These chapters are always focused on the core Charming family.
Emma knew that she was going to die. That was a sentence Emma wouldn't wish upon her worst enemy. It had driven her to distraction. She was no longer able to focus on anything other than the visions, and what exactly they might bring. The only way Emma had found of blocking out that pain was through drinking. She would drink until she could hardly remember her own name, and that at least dulled the pain until the next day where she would drink some more.
Emma's loved ones were incredibly worried about her. They'd never known Emma to be in such a bad place before. Snow had gone round the previous day to find Emma passed out on the couch, a bottle of whisky in her hand.
Now Snow had brought Charming and Regina round too and it seemed vodka was Emma's tipple of choice today. At least this time she was awake, if still not in the greatest state.
"What are you all doing here?" Emma slurred.
"We're here because we care, Emma." Charming answered her. "We don't know what's gotten into you…" Emma laughed manically at that.
"What's gotten into me? Wouldn't you all like to know, because you all care so much." Emma spat. She was swaying on the spot, and the others were worried she was going to come crashing down. "If y'all cared about me so much, you would have left me be. I was just fine on my own when Henry found me. I was making it work. I was doing great in bail bonds. They had a swanky office in Burlington in Vermont. They had called me a few weeks before about sending me to Wisconsin to do some recruitment and training. I was gonna get a massive pay rise. I could have been happy. I could be living in some mansion in LA or maybe Miami by some Florida beach. Instead, here I am in good ol' Storybrooke. That way I would have never have broken the damn curse and I would never had had to deal with all this." Emma held a fist to her chest. "All these feelings…suck!" Emma burst into tears, falling to her knees. Snow turned to Regina.
"Make sure Henry doesn't come near here." She said quietly. "We'll take care of this." Regina nodded, going off to make sure Henry didn't have to see any of this. Meanwhile, Snow and Charming got Emma onto the couch so she was at least off the floor.
"Well I'm glad you broke the curse." Snow told her. "I'm glad we found our daughter and our grandson. I'm glad you gave us the opportunity to expand our family and get to know you. Feelings can hurt, Emma, there's no getting away from that. But was what you had before really better than this? Having a whole family who love you?"
"Sometimes it feels that way." Emma said honestly. "Feeling nothing can be better than feeling like complete crap."
"Well, we can guarantee you're gonna be feeling pretty crap in the morning." Charming said, grimacing. "Emma, drowning your sorrows in alcohol never really works. You're just avoiding the problem. There's no point in talking about it today, you're not in the right frame of mind, but tomorrow, we're going to sort this out, yeah?" Emma shook her head. She knew her parents were trying to tell her to sleep it off.
"I can't sleep." She told them. "I won't be able to."
"Yes you will." Snow assured her. Charming and Snow got Emma into her bedroom and under the covers. They sat on the other side of Emma's bed.
"We're right here." Charming assured her. "Nobody's going to hurt you. Whatever your problems are that you're running from, we'll sort them tomorrow. Tonight, sleep. Your body needs some downtime. We're here, Em. Everything's going to be ok." Emma's whole head was spinning, so she had no choice but to close her eyes and allow sleep to take her over. Snow and Charming looked over her, worried. They had never known Emma to react so badly, so whatever this problem was, it was a bad one. There probably wasn't going to be a quick fix. They just hoped Emma was ready to hear that.
