Vestibular hyperacusis
Torie714 asked for a oneshot of Emma having an inner ear issue that causes her to fall down the stairs whilst watching Neal. She asks him not to tell their parents, but he does anyway because he's worried.
Neal hasn't meant to cause any harm to his sister. He didn't even know it was his fault. He didn't understand at all. All he'd tried to do was put his CD on. He was only five years old. His motor skills weren't as refined as they might be. So when he went to turn the volume up a little, he turned it up a lot. It only lasted for a couple of seconds before he got it down again, but those couple of seconds were all it took.
It had gotten more tolerable over the years. To begin with, any noise above a speaking level was intolerable for Emma. Now, she could deal with a much wider range of volumes without any kind of effect. Particularly if she had some warning that a loud noise was coming. It gave her time to either move to a more comfortable distance or at the very least cover her ears. When Neal turned the volume up on his CD, he caught Emma by surprise. She felt the loud music vibrate through her ears and then her whole body. She became weak at the knees, unable to support herself, and went crashing to the bottom of the stairs. Neal was horrified.
"I'm sorry, Emma!" He said, truly upset at the thought of hurting his big sister. "Do you have an owie?"
"I'm alright buddy." Emma grunted, hoisting herself up to a sitting position against the banister. "Your CD just caught me off guard, that's all. It was an accident. I don't have any owies. I'll be ok." She promised her little brother, pulling him into a hug. She felt Neal squirm away.
"Should we call mommy and daddy?" He asked her. Emma frowned. That was the last thing she wanted happening. "I think we should keep this between us, Neal. We don't want mom and dad worrying when I'm ok." Emma told him. Neal accepted this, but had a weird feeling in his tummy. He didn't like not telling mommy and daddy things.
The weird feeling faded as the day went on and Emma really did seem ok, but it came straight back when his parents came home. Snow and Charming noticed almost immediately that there was something up with Neal. He was being very quiet and not able to look at them properly.
"Neal buddy, what's the matter?" Charming asked him. Neal shook his head. He didn't want Emma to be mad at him either. Charming crouched down and made Neal look at him. "You know that we don't keep secrets in this family. We always tell the truth, even if it might get us into trouble. We'll still get into less trouble than if we hid something." Charming reminded his son. Neal nodded. He did know this, but it didn't make him feel less worried that Emma would be mad at him for telling.
"Emma fell down the stairs because I gave her a fright." Neal told his dad. Charming tried to hide his worried reaction from his son.
"All the stairs?" He asked. Neal nodded. "How did you give her a fright?"
"I didn't mean to! I was putting my CD on and I accidentally turned the volume up too high." Neal said before crying. Charming picked Neal up, rubbing his back until he calmed down. "You did the right thing telling me Neal. Try to be more careful from now on, but from what you've said I don't think you did anything to try and hurt your sister. Can you stay in here and play while I talk to her?" He asked. Neal nodded glumly.
"Emma will be angry with me for telling you. She asked me not to." Neal explained. Charming squeezed his son's shoulder.
"You did the right thing. Emma won't be mad at you. You know she loves you too much to be mad when you did the right thing." Charming told his son. He then went and found Snow, filling her in on the whole story. Together, they confronted Emma.
"Emma, I'm not going to beat around the bush. Neal told me everything." Charming said honestly. Emma sighed. She shouldn't have expected him to keep a secret from their parents. He was only little, after all, and he must have got a bit of a fright.
"What I don't understand Emma is how Neal turning his volume up too loud caused you to fall down the stairs." Snow said gently. "We'll get to the fall in a moment, but could you explain that first?" she asked. Emma knew there was no point in holding back now.
"It's an inner-ear thing I've had since I was a kid. It's a lot better than it was, that's why I've not had any serious episodes since we met. Well, until today. Basically, if I get caught off guard by loud noises, everything kinda gets a bit…wobbly. I lose my balance and stuff. Really, it's no big deal." Emma said, trying to defuse the situation.
"Well it kind of is if it means you can fall downstairs. What if you'd been badly hurt?" Charming asked.
"But I wasn't." Emma reminded him.
"That remains to be seen." Snow said. Emma arched her eyebrow. "Oh, you thought you'd just fall down the stairs and we'd let it go? Oh no, grab your coat. We're going to get you checked over to be safe." Snow told her, leaving no room for discussion. Emma rolled her eyes, but by now knew there was no point in arguing.
In a few minutes, the whole family were on the way to Storybrooke General. Neal was fidgeting nervously in his carseat, still worried Emma was angry. Emma could see this, and felt awful. She was supposed to be the big sister. Encouraging him to keep a secret from their parents when he must have been scared wasn't the right thing to do. She gently tapped his shoulder. He turned round, still looking worried. Emma smiled at him.
"I'm proud of you. Even when Emma was being silly and telling you not to tell mommy and daddy that I'd hurt myself, you didn't listen and did it anyway. You did the right thing, Neal. You're such a clever boy." Emma praised him. Neal relaxed against his car seat, now extra glad he'd told his parents. He'd always do the right thing, especially if it was for his favourite sister.
