Some curses don't end

A guest asked for a oneshot of a young teen Emma being fostered by MM before she breaks the curse.

Not getting to raise their daughter until now was one thing. Having to know exactly what had happened to her in her fourteen miserable years…that was quite another.

Mary Margaret hadn't known what to think when the normally reclusive Mr Gold had approached her about a girl in Boston who needed a home. She just didn't understand. He never cared about anyone other than himself, and she told him as much. All he had replied to her with was that he was impatient for something to change in this town, and he thought Mary Margaret taking this girl in might be the difference required. She couldn't go down to Boston to pick her up, her car was in the garage, but if she called the number Gold promised he would personally have her brought to town. He then showed her a picture of the young girl. Mary Margaret didn't know what it was, but something about her made it impossible for the school teacher to say no to. She had to have this girl with her, and she had to have her now. So Mary Margaret agreed, and within the week Emma Swan was at her new foster home.

Mary Margaret knew from Emma's file that some…shyness, was to be expected. She hadn't had an easy life. She'd been brought back into the system so young from being abandoned as a baby, and had been passed around more times than Mary Margaret cared to count. She just hoped she would be the last home Emma would have to go to.

Emma hadn't expected to be around for long. She didn't seem to last anywhere for more than a few months. She felt oddly attached to this one though. There just seemed to be something familiar about Mary Margaret. Something calming. She had even given her a new book. Mary Margaret had said she had always found fairytales interesting, and hoped Emma might too. Emma thought fairy stories were for little kids, but took it to be polite. Only when she started flicking through the pages did she see it; the blanket. Her blanket. After that, Emma began to read the book more carefully and all the pieces began to fit together. That's why Mary Margaret seemed so familiar, she was her mother, her real mother.

Emma had to be careful though, if Mary Margaret thought for a second she was taking these stories seriously she might think Emma was crazy and send her back. Emma didn't think she would be able to take that. Not only that, but the Evil Queen was the mayor, and she was not happy about Emma's presence one bit. She was trying everything she could to have her sent back to Boston, but Mary Margaret was fighting tooth and nail to stop her. Some things never changed, Snow White and the Evil Queen were still in a raging battle. One thing was missing though, her dad. Emma didn't know what had happened to him once he'd got stabbed. For a while, she got distraught, thinking he had died. But then Mary Margaret brought her on her hospital rounds and she saw him lying there. He wasn't dead, but he was in a coma. It was when she had gone in to see him, gently kissed his forehead, that the curse had become undone. The Evil Queen's fake memories melted away from everyone's minds, and their true selves were restored. There was just one problem: this was already Emma's true self. Everyone else may get a second chance, may get to begin again from where they were when the Evil Queen cast her curse (all be it in a different location). Not Emma. Emma had aged fourteen years, had missed out on the life she had deserved with loving parents. That could never be brought back.