Please come back home

A guest asked for a oneshot of Emma not going through Zelena's time portal and taking Henry to NYC as planned. After a few months, Snowing shows up at her apartment door and asks her to come back. A reminder that it was only this trip that convinced Emma to start calling them mom and dad.

It took weeks for Emma and Henry to assemble any new sense of normalcy. Henry still barely uttered a word to his mother. He was still angry with her for leaving Storybrooke. Emma was persevering through his teenaged angst. She felt she had done the right thing. Storybrooke was just far too dangerous for him, for both of them. Emma would have taken her parents and little brother with them, but people affected by the first curse still couldn't leave Storybrooke. The few times Emma had contacted her parents since moving, they always asked about when she was coming back to visit them. Each time, Emma changed the subject. She had no intention of going back any time soon. That's why Snow and Charming had to take matters into their own hands. If Emma wouldn't go to Storybrooke, they would have to go to New York. You can only imagine the look of sheer shock on Emma's face midway through a Wednesday when she opened the door expecting a delivery, and instead, finding her parents and Neal.

"Mary Margaret, David." Emma choked. "What are you guys doing here? How are you guys here?"

"Rumplestiltskin can be persuaded with a lot of help from Belle." Charming said casually. Emma winced. If one of her neighbours heard them, well, people talk.

"Come inside." She said. Snow and Charming didn't miss that Emma hardly looked at her little brother. They came in and sat on the couch. "Henry won't be home for a few hours, he's still at school. You're never going to get a chance like this again. Isn't there any tourist things you want to see?" She asked.

"Assuming that you'll never see us again, Emma?" Charming asked directly. Emma rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

"It's not like that." She sighed. "You have your life in Storybrooke, Henry and I have a life here. We can still facetime…"

"That's not good enough." Snow interrupted her. Emma stopped. It wasn't like her to speak so boldly. "Not for me. Not for either of us." Snow held Neal with one hand and entwined her free hand with Charming's. "Emma, we waited nearly three decades for you to come back to us. We realise that wait was worse for you than for us, but never the less, it was painful. We know us having another baby must have been a bit of a blow for you, but just because we have Neal doesn't mean that we love you any less. Neal cannot and will not replace the time we missed with you." Emma couldn't even look at her parents now. "We miss you and Henry so much that it hurts. We waited longer than most to become a family. It's like you said, it's kind of now or never for us. It won't be so easy to convince Rumplestiltskin to help us cross the border a second time. You and Henry can come back to Storybrooke fairly effortlessly." Snow reached out and placed her hand over Emma's. "You waited a long time for a family too. Are you really willing to throw it all away now?" Snow asked her. She felt Emma's hand tense under hers.

"Your right, this hasn't been easy for me." Emma said quietly. "I know Neal wasn't born to replace me, I'm not that petty. But the fact is, it hurts seeing him get everything I never got to have." Snow and Charming just stayed quiet and listened, this was Emma's chance to vent. This was her chance to say everything she should have said instead of running away to New York. "He'll have everything from you two. Routines, story time, family history, unconditional love. Do you know how rare it was for me to get any of that?" Emma blinked rapidly to stop herself from crying. Snow held tight to her hand, as if worried she might run again.

"We know it was difficult for you." She said quietly.

"We both do." Charming added, placing his hand on top of Snow's. "That's why we want a chance to give you everything you ever deserved. We want to give you a family. Please, give us the chance?" He asked her. Emma ran a hand through her hair, thinking. She had been rather rash moving off like that. "Your spot at the station's still open. You'll have a good job to come back to." Charming promised her.

"And you'll always have a home with us." Snow added, taking away another of the big concerns about moving back. Emma sighed.

"Maybe I acted a little quickly." She admitted. Snow and Charming smiled, but didn't get too excited, not yet. "Maybe…maybe I could come back. Just to test it out." Snow then couldn't help herself. She got up and flung her arms around Emma, feeling Charming joining them to create a group hug. Their baby girl was coming home.