Panicked
A guest asked for a oneshot of Emma getting pregnant as a teenager, but ends up having an abortion. Snowing find out about the pregnancy, but not the abortion. Trigger warning for heavy discussions of abortion.
Neither Snow nor Charming could believe Emma told them herself. The fact that they had to hear it from Ella, who assumed they already knew since she overheard Ella discussing the pregnancy with Alex. She was quite embarrassed to find out that she was wrong. That, in fact, Emma's parents didn't know they were to be expecting a grandchild. They gave Emma a week to come clean herself. After finding out from Ella, they did notice a distance between her and them that hadn't been there previously. Emma seemed to permanently have red, heavy, circles under her eyes. Was she that worried that she was crying almost every day? Surely she knew her parents would support her through this?
After the week was up, Snow and Charming called Emma into the living room to sort this out once and for all.
"Emma, before we begin, is there anything you want to tell us?" Charming asked his daughter, giving her one last opportunity to tell them in her own words. Emma, however, clearly didn't want to take it. She shook her head, continuing to look at the floor. Charming sighed, looking over to Snow. He guessed it was time for plan b then.
"Emma, I'll cut to the chase. We bumped into Ella not too long ago. She congratulated us on our unborn grandchild. An unborn grandchild we didn't know we should be expecting." Snow told her. Emma, why didn't you tell us you're pregnant?" Snow asked. Emma stayed silent.
"Emma, come on, talk to us." Charming pleaded with her. This wasn't like Emma at all. "Were you worried we'd be mad? That we wouldn't support you and the baby? Because Emma, sure, this is a big surprise but it is what it is and we'll deal with it…"
"There's nothing to deal with, alright?" Emma snapped. Charming and Snow were taken aback. They waited for Emma to explain. She curled her knees closer to her chest.
"I…I'm not having a baby." Emma said quietly. Snow and Charming were confused.
"But, Ella told us…"
"Ella told you that I was pregnant. She was right. I was pregnant. I'm not anymore." Emma explained. She quickly wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "I wasn't ready to have a baby. It was all too much. The dad wanted nothing to do with me when I told him. I panicked. I knew I wasn't going to raise the baby and I didn't want to risk them getting put into the system. What if it all went wrong? What if all my stress affected them before they were even born? I didn't know what else to do…so I…I…" Emma couldn't even say it. She burst into tears. Snow and Charming didn't know how to feel. They went from preparing themselves to be grandparents to knowing their unborn grandchild would never come in a week. Both of them felt a little hollow. Neither knew how to respond to Emma's anguished sobs. What exactly could they say to make her feel any better after this? Snow did the only thing she could under the circumstances. She worked on instinct, and gathered Emma into her arms, holding her tightly. There would be no quick fix to this. No, the whole family was going to have to heal the hard way.
