Backup clause
Jackie asked for a oneshot of Emma being adopted by a rich couple and growing up to be a rich party girl (being generally reckless). She ends up losing her life, which breaks the curse. Snowing try to find her in town, but they find out what happened to her when they hear her story on the news.
This was like waking up after a giant, eighteen year daydream. One minute they were Mary Margaret and John Doe, asleep at the hospital. The next, they were Snow White and Prince Charming again. They were awake. They were all awake. There was only one problem: Emma wasn't in town.
"Snow, we must be missing something. Emma had to be the one to break the curse."
"Yes, but not for another ten years. Maybe there was another way we didn't know about." Snow said, even though she'd put forward this theory about thirty times already. It was a theory that wasn't that great either. It meant they would have been able to keep Emma. That still didn't tell them where their daughter was. Since they still couldn't leave town, it meant relying on other sources for information on where their daughter might be. Nothing could prepare them for the moment when they eventually found out the truth.
They weren't even focusing on the news. They didn't know they needed to. They were reading through some of the spellbooks in the library to see if any of them could help them find Emma. It was the sound of her name that caught Charming's attention.
"The identity of the teenage girl found in the ocean on Sunday has been confirmed. Emma Swan was eighteen years old and her death has been ruled as drug related. Sources close to Emma have told us she was struggling with painkiller addiction around the time of her death. She had recently been unenrolled from college. Police are looking for anyone who might have any information to come forward."
Charming froze on the spot. He turned his head slowly to face the TV. He was hoping it was just a coincidence. Emma was a relatively common name here. Surely there were plenty of girls their daughter's age with the same name? The fact she died right as the curse broke…that surely didn't mean anything? When he saw the picture displayed alongside the news report, there could be no denying the truth. The girl who drowned and died over the weekend was their daughter. Their Emma.
"No." Charming said quietly, his heart exploding in his chest. "NO!" Snow turned around to see what he was looking at and immediately understood. They might never have properly met their daughter, but there could be no denying this girl's resemblance to both of them. This was definitely their Emma, and she was definitely dead. It was the backup clause Rumplestiltskin had installed. Emma's death had broken the curse. There would be no happy reunion. They would never meet their child.
