Proving them right
FanOfMost asked for a oneshot of a chapter containing "Not again."
Snow and Charming understood that their daughter was an adventurous spirit. She took after both of them, how could she not be? But unlike them, Emma had the Evil Queen chasing after her at every opportunity. Emma was getting older now, and as such, getting fed up with the constant supervision placed upon her. She was sixteen now, and doing everything within her power to show everyone that she was competent enough to be by herself. This mainly resulted in running away. Snow and Charming were now very familiar with the "Emma's ran again" expression from their head guard. So when he came in that day with it plastered all over his face, he didn't need to say a word. Both parents knew what had happened.
"Not again." Charming sighed. This was the fourth time in two weeks!
"I'm afraid so, Your Highness." The guard said, grimacing. Neither Snow nor Charming blamed him, or anyone else. Emma was stealthy. She wasn't easy to stop sneaking out.
"Don't worry, I have a pretty good idea of where we'll find her." Charming told the guard. "We'll take it from here." The guard left, leaving Snow and Charming to find their daughter. Yes, Charming felt he knew exactly where Emma would be. After her last escape attempt, he had gone and tracked her route. He left their daughter a nice little surprise…
Charming and Snow followed along to the route Charming knew Emma had been using until they approached a large tree. Charming stopped Snow. He felt behind a vine in the tree until he found a rope. Gently, he lowered the rope. Out from the top of the tree came Emma in a net. At first, she looked petrified. When she saw her parents standing there, she looked furious.
"Really?" She hissed. "You trapped me in a net?!"
"Just be grateful it was my trap and not one of Regina's." Charming said calmly as he lowered Emma to the ground. Emma rolled her eyes.
"There was nothing to stop Regina finding me though, was there?"
"Actually, yes, there was." Charming told her as Emma reached the ground. She fumbled her way out of the net and waited for an explanation. "Blue enchanted the trap. I'm the only one who was able to let you out." He explained. "It both taught you a lesson and kept you safe until we could find you. We know you think you're all grown up Emma, but there's still a lot to learn." Emma scowled, stomping back towards the palace. Snow and Charming just looked at each other, following after her. They hoped she might learn a lesson from this. If not, well, there were plenty more traps where that came from.
