Drawing on the walls
FullTimeOncer asked for a oneshot of Neal (aged 4) drawing on the walls whilst the rest of his family are out the room. When they see it, Emma gets upset because it brings up a bad memory of her doing the same thing and getting told off.
It was a common stage for children to go through as they developed their mark-making skills. Snow and Charming both knew that. Still, Neal had never shown any signs of wanting to scribble on anything other than paper. Still, it was a rooky error for both of them (and Emma) leaving Neal colouring in with his marker pens as they got dinner prepared and set the table. When they came back into the living room, Neal had drawn a nice family portrait of all four of them right on the nice cream coloured wall. He seemed very pleased with himself. His parents, less so. Emma's reaction was different from that of her parents. She completely froze. Logically, she knew that her parents were excellent parents and would never use aggression with discipline for Neal. However, all Emma had to go on was her own experience. She still vividly remembered drawing on the wall of the first foster family she had after leaving the Swan's. She had done it a couple of times with the Swan's and there was never a big reaction. When she done it with Ms Baker- her foster mother- all Hell broke loose. The woman- who towered over the tiny Emma- turned a violent shade of purple as she screamed in the little girl's face about how bad she was before grabbing Emma's arm, hauling her up to her room and screaming that she would be having no dinner. That was the first night Emma had arrived. She quickly learned after that that things were not like the Swan's anymore.
"Neal Leopold Nolan." Snow said sternly, walking over to Neal with her hands on her hips. Emma thought she was going to throw up looking at Neal beginning to realise he had done something he wasn't supposed to. "Do we draw on walls, young man?" Snow asked him. Neal shook his head. "No? What do we draw on?"
"Paper." Neal answered quietly.
"Exactly." Charming added, coming and crouching beside Neal. "You know you're not supposed to draw on walls. So, I think you're going to have to help me clean it up. Then I think you'll be missing your ice cream tonight." Charming told him. Neal nodded, looking at the floor. "You can do better than that bud. Go get me a cloth from the bathroom please." Charming asked him. Neal walked past Emma to get the cloth. Emma still felt nauseous. "You ok, Em?" Charming asked, clocking her. "You don't look so good." Emma snapped out of it.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm ok." Emma croaked. She could see her parents still watching her, waiting on a better explanation. "It's just…I did the same thing with the first foster family I had after the Swans. The woman…yeah, she wasn't as fair with her punishment." Emma said, awkwardly rubbing her arm. Snow and Charming immediately understood. Charming came over and kissed the top of Emma's head.
"If it would do any good, I'd go find that woman tonight and tell her exactly what I think, but would it help you?" He asked. Emma shook her head. No, some things were better left in the past. "I thought not." Charming said quietly, pulling Emma closer to him. "We love you, Em. Never forget that."
"I won't." Emma promised both him and her mom. She didn't want to find any of the people who wronged her in her childhood now. What was the point? She was happy, she had a family. That was good enough for her.
