Seeing in real time

A guest asked for a oneshot of Emma seeing the night she was born. She sees her dad taking her to the wardrobe and her mom mourning after she said goodbye to Emma as a newborn. Hope you don't mind me changing it from time travel, it just seems that's this month's fad lol.

Guest: I think I've written everything I can for that miniseries.

"Ok, now focus on the dreamcatcher." Regina told her. "You've done this once with Pongo, you shouldn't find it too difficult to repeat the same magic for yourself."

"Yes, but I was retrieving memories Pongo actually knew he had. I'm trying to get memories I don't." Emma said through gritted teeth as she focused. Retrieving memories from others and displaying them in the dreamcatcher had proved too easy for the Saviour. Regina decided to advance her training. She was now meant to retrieve unknown memories from herself. As they were unknown, Emma wouldn't know what she was looking for. Focusing in on that would come with time. For now, it was a case of getting memories from a time Emma was too young to still remember, or, from when she was asleep. Emma put all her brain power into it, and then, images began to flash on the dreamcatcher.

"You're doing it! Keep focused." Regina told her. Emma did her best. Regina peered curiously over her shoulder. She winced. She knew this night well. She said nothing, too ashamed of her past misdeeds. Emma did her best to maintain the spell as she watched the hologram like images on the dreamcatcher. She gasped. Everything was taken from her viewpoint. She could hear herself screaming. Through her own bleary vision, Emma saw her father. She knew where they were. They were in her parents' castle. This was the night she was born. Emma saw herself being tilted towards her mother.

"Goodbye, Emma." She heard her mother say as a kiss was pressed against her forehead. Emma almost felt like she felt it there and then. Then her father took her, sprinting off with his sword towards the wardrobe that would take her to this realm. Through it all, she heard her mother's anguished sobs. She had never heard her mother cry like that before. They really didn't want to give her up. They really were giving Emma her best chance.

Emma continued to watch as her father rushed with her towards her nursery. She saw the two dark knights approach them both and begin their fight. She saw the way her father shifted her in his arm so she was as safe as possible. She heard the tear in his shirt and his skin as a sword went through his shoulder. Yet he soldiered on. He had a job to do. He fought with her all the way to the wardrobe. He placed her inside and, like her mother, he left her with a parting kiss and an instruction to find them. Then the wardrobe doors were closed and everything went black.

The images faded from the dreamcatcher, the memory was over. Emma stared at the netting for a few moments, unsure what to say. She knew this had been what had happened to her, but seeing it felt completely different. Her poor parents. They went through so much. Emma finally understood. They lost just as much through their separation as she did.