Hello everyone! Thank you all for the amazing reviews and responses for this new story! So glad you are all enjoying it. Ok so this is the next chapter and i hope you think it is just as good as the first! Tell me what you think please and i will hopefully update soon. Love Rouge xxx

Chapter 2

Emma lay awake that night in the hotel room with regina thinking about Tia, meeting her for the first time was so surreal. The little girl hadn't spoken, she had hardly shown her face and even when she did she blushed, painfully shy and embarrassed. But instantly emma felt love towards the child...her child, she couldn't believe how instant it was. She understood how it could happen with your own biological child which is why she refused to look at henry when he was born. She couldn't bare to make the pain of giving him up even worse by seeing her baby, seeing her child's face as she handed him over. She knew that if she had seen him she would have wanted to keep him and that wouldn't have been fair on henry. But to have these feelings already for Tia, feeling protective of her and so much love for her felt strange to emma but she liked it.

Emma knew Tia must have been scared meeting them today, especially because of what had happened to her at the hands of her father, just thinking about that made Emma's blood boil. She knew what it was like to go through something like that but not at two years old...never should a parent ever think to harm their child especially at as young as two years old. Feeling Regina's hand brush against hers in bed made her start to calm down, regina was the only one who had that power over her as emma did over regina.

Emma looked to her side where regina lay, she knew the brunette was thinking about the same things as she was and she gently took her hand, linking their fingers. Emma saw Regina's smile appear and the brunette turned gently to face emma.

"What are you thinking about?" Emma asked

"Today, with Tia...she was so lovely. I cant believe in a few days we will be taking her home with us" Regina said quietly, keeping hold of Emma's hand.

"I know. Do you think we will be able to help her be less shy and quiet?" Emma asked

"I think if anyone can help her with that, you can dear" regina replied with a smirk "henry is so excited" she recalled from their phone call with their son earlier "i miss him"

"We will be home with him soon baby, and Tia will be with us too" emma reassured, pulling regina in for a cuddle.

"I know, and he is happy staying with your parents while we are here"

"Yeah they love having him over, he is fine baby he told you that himself, stop worrying he understands" the blonde stroked through her brunettes hair knowing that helped her relax and feel better. "Come on time for sleep, we want to be well rested for seeing Tia tomorrow"

Regina nodded gently feeling exhausted from the drive here and the emotional meeting with Tia. She snuggled up with emma just as they did every night and both women easily fell asleep.

The following day the two mothers arrived promptly at the care home after lunch to visit their daughter hoping to make some progress today with her. Moira had greeted them once again and showed them back to Tia's room and told them that Jackie was with her but they were welcome to go in. Regina knocked gently holding Emma's hand and entered when Jackie instructed to.

"Hey, look who's here Tia" Jackie said gently as she and Tia played on her floor with the dolls like yesterday. As Tia saw Regina and Emma she quickly crawled over to Jackie but didn't hide behind her this time. "Remember Regina and Emma?" Jackie asked and Tia nodded gently.

Regina and Emma kneeled down on the floor too, not too far from them and smiled gently. "Hi Tia" Emma spoke softly like she did yesterday knowing Tia didn't like loud noises. "How are you?"

"We're ok aren't we Tia?" jackie encouraged stroking Tia's back gently as she sucked her thumb and rubbed her eyes with her fist. Jackie continued "We had a bit of a bad night last night, bad dreams...but we are ok now aren't we?" To Tia as she cuddled her doll.

"Oh dear, bad dreams can be really scary sometimes cant they Tia? Don't worry you'll be ok, they are only dreams dear" Regina said gently with a reassuring smile.

"We read the book you gave her, didn't we Tia? We liked it a lot didn't we? All the pictures and your new room" Jackie smiled as Tia nodded gently again "She really liked her room"

"Your brother helped decorate it for you, henry, do you remember him from your book?" Emma asked gently

"She was a little unsure at first but she seemed to be ok with the thought of a brother" Jackie informed the two mothers "he is only young after all" she smiled

"Henry will help us to look after you" Regina said "Henry is really nice, happy and funny dear he is really excited to meet you"

Emma could see this wasn't exactly getting them far with the little girl and decided on a slightly different approach to try and show her they were to be trusted. She gently moved slightly closer to Tia and Jackie. The little girl watched a little unsure of Emma's movements but stayed close to Jackie until Emma was close to her.

"Who is this Tia?" Emma asked gesturing to the doll in the little girls arms. Emma remembered being in the system and being the eldest at some of her homes, sometimes the new little children didn't speak or were scared too, so being the eldest she had taken on the role of caring for some of the younger children and developed little techniques to reassure them. When Tia didn't answer emma, the blonde mother looked to Jackie who told her that Tia called her little doll Rosie. "Rosie? Thats a nice name isn't it? Do you think it would be ok if i asked Rosie some questions now?" Emma asked gently.

She could see Tia thinking about the question, enjoying the focus being on Rosie instead of her she slowly released her grip on the little doll and extended her arm with the doll out to Emma. "Thank you" Emma said as she took hold of the doll. She was a soft doll, with blonde hair down her back and she was wearing a pink, flowery party dress. "She is very pretty isn't she? Well Rosie, how are you?" Emma asked the doll gaining Tia's attention as Emma brought the doll to her ear pretending to hear her whispers.

"Oh really? You had bad dreams too, like Tia? Oh what a shame...but yes you are very brave you're right" Emma said pretending to hear the dolls whispers. "Yes Tia is too" emma said with a smile. Tia watched in amazement at emma talking to her doll, her eyes widened a little as she stopped sucking her thumb becoming a little more comfortable.

"Well since we are going to be taking you and Tia to live with us why don't we get to know each other a little more? Me and regina are going to look after you and Tia and protect you both ok?" Emma looked to see that Tia was still watching and listening "So lets start off with something easy shall we? Well...my favourite colour is yellow and Regina's is red...whats yours?"

Regina watched the scene before her with a smile and watched Tia to see her reactions, Emma looked around the small room to see most things were pink. "Is your favourite colour pink Rosie?" Tia gently nodded at Emma to confirm the answer.

"It is your favourite colour Rosie? What about Tia's favourite colour? Its pink too!?" Emma asked waving the doll around as if she was talking to her and a small smile appeared on Tia's face as regina held her breath seeing the sight.

Regina shuffled closer to Emma.

"I bet you like flowers too huh? And dresses? Your dress is really pretty" Emma made the doll move as if she was twirling making Tia stroke over her own similar little dress.

"Ok so my favourite food is pizza, and Regina says her favourite food is Lasagna or apple pie...which is true she makes amazing, yummy food but i know secretly she loves pizza too" Emma whispers with a smirk and Tia smiled more. "Whats yours Rosie?" Emma motions the doll again close to her ear. "Oh i cant hear you Rosie? No i cant hear you?"

"Is it pizza too?" Emma asked and Tia gently shook her head. "No? Ok what about pasta, is that your favourite food Rosie?" Tia shook her head again with a smile liking this new game. "Oh no, its not sprouts is it?" Emma stuck out her tongue pulling a disgusted face which made Regina, Jackie and to Emma's amazement...Tia, giggle. Regina held Emma's hand as she moved next to her.

"Nuggets" came a quiet sound amongst the giggles and all three adults looked to Tia

"Rosie's favourite food is nuggets?" Emma asked trying to not make it seem like a massive deal that finally Tia had spoken to them, and then Tia nodded.

"Like nuggets" she spoke softly, if anyone else was talking you wouldn't have been able to hear her it was that soft, but regina felt her heart swell with love at hearing her. Emma felt very accomplished and proud at the achievement of making Tia feel comfortable enough to share something with them.

"Oh well chicken nuggets are really tasty too!" Emma smiled

They had been talking with Rosie the doll and Tia for well over an hour now and had discussed favourite animals, Tia's being "horsies" which Regina had been very excited about as horses were her favourite animal too. They had also talked about favourite disney films and although Tia couldn't remember or seem to say any names, Jackie informed them that Tia had recently been shown "frozen" and seemed to really enjoy it. Tia had started to answer more questions herself in her limited speech as she was so young and also uneducated and she started to gain more trust in Regina and Emma.

She had shuffled closer to them and held her hands out for Rosie which Emma granted straight away, returning the doll to her rightful place. Both women watched as the doll received cuddles from the little girl before she gently reached out and tapped her little hand twice against Emma's knee. Emma froze in shock at receiving acknowledgment from the two year old which they had been told about by Moira the previous day. Tia tapped people she came into contact with as a way of telling herself they were really there as well as comforting herself and letting the individual know that she wanted to let them in.

Emma smiled at the sweet little girl before her as she reached out and tapped Regina's leg twice too just as he had done Emma's. Regina smiled feeling overwhelmed at their progress in the last few hours but as they smiled at their new daughter there was a bang of a door outside that caused the little girl to jump in fright at the noise.

"Oh that was a bit loud wasn't it?" Regina spoke softly to the startled two year old. "You are ok though, it was just a loud door" however, as she spoke the newest member of the helpers team for the children came barging into the room.

He was a tall, older man in his early 30's with a casual look of a plain white t-shirt and denim jeans. "Oh" he said as he spotted the three women and the child before him "wrong room, sorry i'm new".

As Tia caught sight of him she let out a terrified scream that was very impressive for a two year old and both Regina and Emma knew that she had had lots of practice with that scream. The three adults jumped into action as Jackie quickly tried to push the man out of the room explaining about Tia's condition, Tia crawled quickly under her bed still screaming and whimpering clutching tight to her little doll. The two mothers quickly followed her crouching down by the bed trying to calm her telling her she was ok.

When the man was gone and the door closed Jackie quickly grabbed a blanket and turned on a little stereo that was positioned in the corner of the room. Emma shuffled back to let jackie closer to their terrified, screaming child who was now lay in a foetal position under her bed. She reached under the bed and covered the child in the blanket telling her that she was safe. It broke their hearts to hear her so upset and frightened and Emma looked over to Regina who was sat holding the small, silver necklace around her neck shaped into a tree inside a small circle. This told emma that she was having flashbacks about her own past..."Tia's screams must be triggering her memories" Emma thought and she quickly moved seeing Jackie with Tia and cuddled regina close to her.

Emma knew regina well enough to recognise the signs and she knew that the necklace she was holding brought comfort to her as it was a gift from her father. Emma cuddled Regina and stroked through her hair gently whispering into her ear that Emma was there with her and that everything was going to be ok. A few minutes later Tia had stopped screaming but was still upset and under her bed, emma watched jackie as she comforted the child and hummed along with the music on the stereo to her. Regina had recovered too, she was still in Emma's arms and still holding her precious necklace but she was ok, calmer. The flashbacks of her mistreatment had stopped and she concentrated on Tia.

"Come on Tia, its ok now, the man is gone and he wasn't gong to hurt you, he just got lost thats all" she tried to explain before turning to Emma and Regina. "Its important not to touch her until she makes contact with you to do so, until she gives you permission" Jackie informed "the blanket makes her feel comforted and the music helps her calm down and recognise it is ok, but its best to wait until she is ready to come out". The two mothers took note but wanting the crying to stop and were feeling helpless that they couldn't comfort her.

They waited, and took turns to whisper comforting things to the little girl trying to get her to come out. On Regina's third try, and half an hour later, Tia began to move and crawl forward slowly, Regina shuffled backwards to give her the space she needed and she crawled out clutching the blanket and her doll. Her eyes were big and red her face tear stained but regina smiled very gently at her anyway.

Tia's hand tapped Regina's leg twice as she sniffled before she reached her little arms out, clawing at the air and whispered accompanied with a sniffle "cuggle"

Regina looked to Jackie who smiled and nodded gently so regina very carefully scooped the little toddler up in her arms and cuddled her gently. Tia snuggled into her arms sniffling as she allowed regina to comfort her.

Jackie, emma and regina all teared up at the sight as Emma held regina close. Seeing Tia finally open up like this showed that she was getting ready for a new home. She was trusting regina and emma to take care of her and as they both looked at her as regina very lightly brushed Tia's tears away and emma held regina close from behind, they knew that they wouldn't let her down.