Not what they wanted
Bobo asked for a oneshot of Emma breaking the curse at 10 and hiding from her parents in fear of rejection. Red ends up finding her and brings a distraught Emma home to her parents.
"Well she has to be somewhere in town!" Snow yelled, panicking. Deep down she knew Emma could quite easily have left Storybrooke, as young as she was, but that didn't bear thinking about. Emma was only ten years old. They had only just got her back. They couldn't lose her again.
"Snow, we will find her." Charming promised his wife, tenderly kissing her forehead. He wasn't about to lose Emma either. "All our friends are out there looking for her. I know you want to be out there, I do too, but the best place for us to be is here. There's a good chance Emma will come back home. If she does, she needs to see someone here to greet her." Snow wasn't convinced.
"What if she thinks we didn't even notice she was gone?" Snow asked, heartbroken. "Or that we didn't care?" Charming brushed the back of his hand against Snow's cheek.
"We will never let her think that." He reminded her. "Emma knows how loved she is." But as Snow and Charming were having that conversation, Emma felt far from loved. She felt scared, alone and trapped by her own fear. Emma had never had anything close to a proper family home since she was three years old. Now her proper family was suddenly back together. Emma was still so young, she didn't have the emotional intelligence to be able to handle it. So she did was came naturally to her: she ran. She didn't want to begin to allow herself to feel safe in her parents' home. It would only make it harder when they eventually gave up on her, like all the rest had done, and put her back into the system. Emma didn't really have a well thought out plan of where to go, though. All she knew was that she had to avoid any adult that would either take her back to her parents, or to social services. Right now, she was camping out between to large dumpsters behind Granny's. It kept her sheltered from the stiff breeze blowing through the town that night, as well as keeping her hidden from whatever might be lurking around after dark. Unfortunately for Emma, she hadn't taken into account her godmother's wolf hearing. Of course Red had been hunting for Emma ever since she found out she was missing. With her wolf senses, she was the one who located the missing girl first. She quickly contacted Emma's parents to let them know she had found their daughter before approaching Emma, making sure Emma wouldn't have space to run.
"Hey sweet pea." Red greeted her gently. Emma's eyes widened with horror. She quickly bolted upright and tried to slip under Red, but Red wasn't letting Emma go anywhere.
"Emma, I need you to calm down, honey. I can't let you leave. It's too dangerous." Red explained. Emma fought against her.
"Lemme go! I don't want to go back! They'll just give me away again!" Emma screamed. Red's heart broke for the little girl.
"Emma, your parents would never dream of giving you away again. They never wanted to in the first place. They're worried sick about you just now." Red told her. Emma didn't even know what to say. She was to exhausted, both physically and emotionally, to respond. Instead, she curled up in the foetal position on the ground and bawled. Red rubbed her back gently for a few minutes before deciding that Emma wasn't going to stop crying any time soon. She'd be better off doing it safely at home. So Red scooped the little girl up in her arms and let her cry on her shoulder all the way back to her home.
Both Snow and Charming were at the door to greet Red with Emma. They'd heard her crying from the second Red turned onto their street Emma was bawling so loudly.
"What happened, is she hurt?" Charming asked, alarmed. Red shook her head, passing Emma, still screaming, over to Snow.
"Just overwhelmed." Red (correctly) guessed. "I found her camped out by the dumpsters. She said she didn't want to come home because she thought you'd end up leaving her again." Red explained. She hated how hurt that made her best friends feel, but they needed to know in order to help Emma. Snow bit her lip as she nodded. Her poor baby.
"Thank you for finding her, Red." Charming told his friend. "We've got it from here." He assured her. Red nodded, giving them what she hoped to be an encouraging smile before leaving them to it. Snow and Charming then shared a brief look with each other before walking inside with Emma. They both knew now wasn't the time to talk through Emma's feelings with her. She was both exhausted and overwhelmed, as Red had said. Now was just the time to make Emma feel secure in her own home. So together, Emma's parents sat down with her on the couch. Snow held her daughter on her lap, gently swaying with her, just letting Emma cry it out. Eventually, Emma did fall into what looked to be a restless sleep. This gave Snow and Charming the privacy they needed to be allowed to cry themselves over how far off what they had wanted for their daughter life had taken them.
