Too much coffee
loboselina asked for a oneshot of Emma having insomnia and has been drinking coffee to try and keep herself away during the day. A vicious cycle starts, as it means she then can't sleep at night. Snow and Charming intervene when they realise what she's doing.
"Does Emma seem awful jittery to you lately?" Charming asked Snow one afternoon. "All throughout her shift today she's not been able to stop moving around. It's like she's got ants in her pants." Charming explained, keeping his voice down so Emma couldn't hear him. Snow knew what he meant.
"It's probably because she having an extra coffee with her breakfast right now. She said she doesn't have time to have one over lunch right now so she is making up for it early. I didn't think it was a great idea, but she insisted…what?" Snow asked him, noticing the horrified look Charming was giving her.
"Emma's having two cups of coffee at lunch. She told me she doesn't had time to have any at breakfast so is making up for lost caffeine." He explained. Now Snow understood. Emma had lied to them both and was doubled up both times.
"I thought I heard someone moving around a lot upstairs last night." Snow commented. "I put it down to Emma just rolling over in her bed. I've become such a light sleeper since Neal. Come to think about it, it's happened over the last couple of weeks." Snow added with a frown. Charming began to put the pieces together.
"She's obviously not sleeping at night, so is having extra coffee to keep herself up." He stated. "The problem being, that stops her sleeping at night." Charming looked through to the living room where Emma was playing with her baby brother. "Come on," he said to Snow "we need to get her to cut this out before she does some serious damage." Snow agreed, and so went with Charming through to the living room. Emma looked up to smile at her parents in greeting, but her smile faded at their stern expressions.
"Well…hi there." Emma said, not sure exactly what to say to them. Snow reached down and picked Neal up herself. Emma knew she had obviously done something pretty wrong to have this strong a reaction. "What's wrong guys."
"We know about how much coffee you're really drinking." Charming told her. "Did you really think we would never work it out?" Emma shifted uncomfortably.
"I had hoped you wouldn't." She admitted quietly.
"Emma." Snow sighed. "What were you thinking? Don't you know how much damage that amount of caffeine could do to your heart?"
"I need it right now." Emma protested. "I'm not sleeping well at night. I couldn't put in a day's shift without them." Charming bent down so he and Emma were eye level.
"Yes, but because you're drinking so much coffee during the day, you're preventing yourself from getting any rest at night. You're caught in a cycle, sweetheart." He pointed out. Emma stayed silent, knowing he was right. "So, here's what's going to happen next. You're going to have a bit of a detox. No coffee at all for a week unless it's decaf. No arguments." Charming said quickly when he could see Emma gearing up to argue. "You will also spend two days at home from the station since you'll likely sleep most of those two days like you said. When you can have coffee again it's one cup a day and no more. It's for your own good, honey." Emma pouted and Charming couldn't help but laugh at how little she looked when she acted like this. "Sorry honey, but that's not going to work. We're putting our foot down on this one. Any rule breaking will result in a complete ban on coffee for a whole month. Got it?" Emma grumbled something incoherent in response. Charming kissed her forehead. "I'll take that as a yes."
