Weapons aren't toys
A guest asked for a oneshot of Snow teaching an adult Emma how to shoot a bow and arrow but makes her start out with rubber ones since she's never done it before. Emma finds them babyish and sneaks Snow's real ones, wondering how hard it could possibly be. She ends up in hospital and gets a stern, yet loving, lecture from Snow.
"This is ridiculous." Emma grumbled as she looked at the horrendous looking bow with its suction cup arrows. "Neal could use these and he's not even a year old." Emma whined. Snow just raised an eyebrow.
"Well, you're the one who wants to learn how to do it. You start with wooden swords when learning how to swordfight. In archery, since we have the luxury of them, you're starting with a fake bow. End of discussion." Snow told her. "You can either come and practice with these until I think you're safe enough to use a real bow. Or, we put everything back and you don't learn at all." Emma sighed. That didn't feel like much of a choice.
"We drive straight to your target zone in the forest and straight back. Nobody sees me with these." Emma insisted. Snow smiled.
"Deal. Now come on. The more you learn today, the less time you'll have to spend using that thing." Snow tried to encourage her. Emma slumped behind her mom. She always thought her mom looked so cool with her bow and arrow, she was just going to look stupid. Didn't her mom trust her? Obviously, now wasn't the time, but Emma would prove to her mom that she could use a real bow and arrows without poking her eye out.
That time came three days later. Emma came round to her parents' house to hand in some DVDs she had borrowed. Nobody was home. Emma smiled to herself. She knew where her mom kept her archery equipment. Emma was sure her mom wouldn't mind her borrowing them. So Emma took her bow and a quiver full of arrows and drove off to the target spot.
Damn. That string was tighter than it looked. Emma had a fair amount of upper body strength, but after firing just a couple of arrows (that both missed the target completely) Emma was finding the fingers she was using to pull back the string were aching. By the third shot, she was really struggling to pull it back properly. Emma tilted the bow to the ground to try and alter her grip, hoping that would help. She had her tongue between her teeth as she struggled to pull the string back properly. Just then, a bird took off from a branch in the tree Emma was standing below. A small twig fell and landed on Emma's shoulder. This gave her a fright. Emma gasped, letting the arrow string go, releasing the arrow in the bow…that promptly went right through her foot. Emma's face went green. The pain was excruciating. She tried to walk at an awkward angle to at least be able to sit in her car, but even that was too much. Hopping created a weird, stabbing pain and Emma was worried the arrow would catch on something and rip through more of her foot. She tried once to pull it out, that was not going to work, she quickly decided. Emma sighed. There was only one way for it. She pulled out her phone.
"Ambulance, please." She sighed down the phone after dialling nine-one-one.
Two hours later, and Emma was lying in a hospital bed, the arrow freshly removed from her foot, the bow and the rest of the quiver sitting by her bed. She felt so foolish. How could she have been stupid enough to aim a loaded bow at her foot?! Emma was only made to feel worse when the curtain was pulled back and her parents stepped inside. The look they both gave her made Emma feel about four years old.
"I explicitly told you not to use that until I thought you could handle it." Snow said, pointing at her bow. "Emma, what were you thinking?"
"I know it was stupid now." Emma admitted. "I'm gonna have the scar to prove it."
"Let's just be grateful it was just your foot." Charming pointed out. "Emma, you could have given yourself a serious injury with that thing. Your mom's bow is a weapon, not a toy. She was teaching you properly and slowly for a reason." Charming added. "Plus, what if someone else had surprised you? You could have hurt them. What if Henry had come to find you?" Emma hadn't thought about that. She looked down, feeling dreadful.
"I know it was stupid." She said quietly. "I'm sorry." Snow sat on the edge of Emma's bed with a sigh.
"What are we going to do with you?" She asked, gently poking Emma's leg. "How is your foot?"
"Sore." Emma admitted. "I'm just glad they numbed it before taking the arrow out." Snow and Charming grimaced. They bet she was.
"We spoke to Whale before coming in here. He says you've to be off that foot for at least a fortnight. We'll drive you back to your place. Your mom will come round every day with Neal so you've got someone there until you're better." Charming explained.
"Oh, you don't have to do that." Emma began, but Charming cut her off.
"Yes, we do, Emma. Yes, what you did was silly, but that doesn't mean we've suddenly stopped caring." He told her. "Just, please, no more playing around with weapons?" Emma smiled.
"I think that sounds fair."
