Flashbacks

Torie714 asked for a oneshot of Snowing helping Emma deal with flashbacks from a bad situation in a foster home.

Becoming new parents is always a huge learning curve. Whether it be first time parents, or adding a new child to a family, each child has slightly different needs, different fears. Snow and Charming found that was no different for them in Emma's case. Yes, Emma was much older than a newborn, but she still had different needs and fears that her parents had to understand how to support her through. Emma had quite a traumatic childhood. As much as Snow and Charming tried to remind themselves that they put Emma through the wardrobe for her own good, all they could see was the harm they had done. Particularly with sudden loud noises. It became clear pretty quickly after the curse broke that loud noises upset Emma. Even if she tried to hide it. They hadn't been able to get much information out of Emma about exactly what made her upset. Just that it was flashbacks from a particularly difficult stage in her childhood. Snow and Charming had to piece together for themselves signs that Emma was entering an episode. They could see the way it made her eyes dart back and forth. The way it made her shrink into the closest corner so her back was to nobody. What she really needed after one of these episodes was for someone to (gently) bring her back into reality. So when a car backfired during a trip to Granny's, Snow and Charming weren't surprised to see the tell-tale signs of Emma having an episode.

"Emma," Charming said, taking her hands. "Emma, sweetie, can you tell me five things around you that you can see?" He asked her. Emma felt fuzzy. Like her head was underwater. She focused. She understood what her dad was asking her. After a moment. She was able to give a coherent answer. Together, Snow and Charming then went through the list of questions that followed. Afterwards, Emma was back in the moment, the episode behind her. Nobody knew when the next one would be, Snow and Charming were still working out patterns and triggers for themselves. It didn't matter how long it took though. They would keep going for as long as Emma needed them. They would walk her through this.