Pacifier

Padfoot asked for a oneshot of Emma having a pacifier (dummy for those of us this side of the big pond) hidden in the house that relaxes her. Her parents find it. Emma is embarrassed but explains why she has it. Her parents are accepting. (You only had to request once lol).

"Must we clean it out?" Emma groaned. "We could be watching some garbage reality show…"

"Or, we could be thinking of those less fortunate than ourselves and be getting rid of all the clothes you never use." Snow responded. "Your dad's not complaining."

"Because dad knows better." Charming muttered so Emma could only just hear him. She smirked behind Snow's back. Snow pretended not to notice either of them. She wanted Emma's old room at their house cleared out and the bags taken to the charity shop by that evening.

Snow knew that her daughter had a knack for hiding things away in little nooks and crannies so she didn't have to properly tidy them away. So whilst Snow was clearing out Emma's room, she made sure to check what was lurking around her bed. Her hand grasped around something that just fit into her fist. It had something soft and rubbery attached to something more hard and plastic. Curious, Snow pulled it out.

"Huh, that's odd." Snow said. "How did one of Neal's pacifiers get through here?" Emma's eyes widened. Her cheeks began to flush pink.

"He must have spit it out one day." She said quickly. She reached out her hand for it. "I'll go throw it away…"

"No, that's not Neal's." Charming said, now that he got a good look at the pacifier. "It's yellow and has a flower on it." Snow was about to say that maybe, somehow, one of Alex's pacifiers had ended up here on a playdate, when she saw that Emma was clearly about to hyperventilate.

"Woh, Emma, what's wrong?" Snow asked. She took Emma's hand and got her sitting down on the bed.

"Ok, ok. It's mine." Emma admitted. "I've had it since I was little, probably since I left the Swans house in Billings up in Montana. I had loved my paci. It reminded me of home. It became as much a comfort item to me as my blanket…but people quickly became less understanding about the pacifier compared to the blanket." Emma glanced up to gauge how weirded out by this her parents were, but to her surprise, they seemed pretty calm. They didn't look disgusted or embarrassed. They just looked like they were listening. "It's not like I use it a lot. I don't even use it when I'm upset anymore, not really. Only when I start to bite the skin off my lip. It distracts me." Emma explained. Snow slipped her hand into Emma's.

"And that's ok." Snow explained. "I just wish you had explained all this sooner. You're probably more hygienic biting the skin at this stage than sucking on this manky thing. Let me get this washed for you and you can take it back to your place. I'll guess you've been looking for it and worried you had lost it. Like you would be if it was your blanket." Snow got up and took the pacifier from Emma. Emma blinked.

"So…you guys aren't freaked out or anything?" She asked, thinking it was too good to be true.

"Of course not." Charming said with a slight laugh. "Emma, it's not that big a deal. So you suck on a pacifier every now and then to save yourself from getting a nasty infection? I can think of worse things you might do." He reached over and kissed the side of Emma's head. Snow smiled from the doorway before she went downstairs to disinfect Emma's pacifier. It didn't bother Snow or Charming at all. So what if Emma used a pacifier now and again? They dared anyone to tease Emma for it and hear what they had to say about that.