Superhero geek

JRocks asked for a oneshot of Emma being a huge nerd with a collection of Marvel and DC comic books and watches all the shows. When Snowing ask why she has them, she explains that after Henry's birth and being in prison, she wasn't in a good place. She sought solace in comics and the good guys had problems, but always won. So Emma had hope she would find happiness and not always darkness.

Despite their brave faces, Snow and Charming still weren't sure about this whole Emma moving out thing. It was different when she was the Dark One. It would have been difficult to play happy families under those circumstances. But now that things were back to normal, they had kind of assumed that Emma would move back in. It appeared not. Emma liked having her own space, and assumed her parents would like having more room, especially with Neal around now. They thought they would find a bigger place together. Apparently not.

Now they were left clearing out what was left of Emma's room. It was Snow that came across them first. She was reaching right under Emma's bed when she pulled out this box that was filled to the brim with comic books.

"Oh, are these Henry's?" She asked. Emma looked over and suddenly went bright pink.

"Ah, no actually. They're mine." She admitted. Henry looked over too.

"Woh! Mom, I didn't know you had all these! Awesome!" He said, looking through his mom's collection.

"I didn't know you were into comics." Charming commented. Emma's face went pinker.

"Oh you know. I'm not that big a fan."

"Our recording schedule being the complete list of DC's TV shows says otherwise." Henry piped up as he flicked through a Wonder Woman comic. "Then there's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D too. Can't see why you watch that though." He said, screwing his face up in disgust. "Marvel should stick to movies. There's a couple of old pictures of her at conventions too…"

"Ok, why don't you take that box downstairs with the others." Emma said, ushering her son out of the room before he could do her street cred (or her ego) any more damage. Snow and Charming looked at Emma, both clearly amused at how flustered she was getting over being caught as a comic book geek.

"Like you said, it's not that big a deal." Snow told her. "So you like comic books? Everyone's a nerd about something." Snow pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess." Emma said, still feeling embarrassed. "I was never into them as a kid. Didn't see the appeal in grown men walking around in tights with their underwear showing and pointless capes flapping behind them." Emma explained. "It was only when I was an adult I got into superheroes and stuff. I was pretty low after Henry was born. I'd done the one thing I'd promised myself I'd never do. I put my child into the system that failed me. Add on top of that I still had a couple more months in that hellhole and…yeah, things weren't great for me." Emma explained. Snow and Charming felt their daughter's pain. It must have been awful for her. They both wished they could have been there for her. "The prison I was in was minimum security. They had a library. Not well stocked, granted, but it still gave some escapism. While I waited for the woman who worked there to check if the book I wanted was in stock, I found myself reading a Batman comic. I was hooked. Here was this guy who lost his parents and must have been in an unimaginable amount of pain. Yet there he was, protecting Gotham from the Joker or whoever else sprung up to try and destroy his city. I cancelled my order for the book and took a stack of comics back to my bunk instead. Sure, some of the other inmates teased me, but I didn't care. I found my thing. These heroes gave me hope. If they could be filled with pain and still make it out alright, still save the day, then maybe one day I could too." Emma explained with a small smile. "Then, not long after I got back on my feet once I was out, the Spider-Man movie came out. That got me hooked on the Media side of things. I rented the first series of Smallville from Blockbuster and that was that." Emma gave a little laugh. "Maybe that's what got me to become a bail bondsperson. It's kinda the same thing…maybe." Emma joked. Snow and Charming came over and wrapped Emma in a protective hug.

"Then you became the Saviour." Charming told her. "You became your own hero, and we couldn't be prouder." He told her. Emma just allowed herself to have this moment with her parents. Yeah, she guessed she did become her own hero.