Emma couldn't help but smile as Regina stepped into the elevator behind her. Of course her wife would ride with her to the council meeting that they were both late for. Emma blamed Regina's sexiness on the fact that they were late.
The doors closed and Emma started taking deep breaths. She hated being enclosed like this, especially when her enclosure was also moving.
Regina glanced over and saw Emma slowing down her breathing. She reached out for Emma's hand, but was stopped as the elevator jerked to a stop. Emma's eyes snapped open, and she grabbed the railing of the elevator with a white-knuckled grip.
Regina mentally cursed as the lights shut off and Emma whimpered. Glancing over, Regina saw Emma slowly sliding down to the floor, curling into a ball and rocking herself. Her breathing was getting faster, and Regina knew that she had to intervene before Emma hurt herself.
Regina knelt in front of Emma. "Emma look at me," Regina said. "I promise that it's okay. You're safe. Just look at me." Regina reached out a hand, but Emma shrank away from her touch. Regina's heart broke even more. What was going on in Emma's head?
Emma held back tears as she was once again forced to leave another foster home. This one had just found out that they were going to be having a baby, and no longer wanted the burden of caring for other children.
"Don't you worry Emma," her social worker said. "You'll find your forever family someday. But first, here is your new home!"
Emma looked out the window and groaned. There were already so many kids at this house. How would anyone notice her and adopt her here? "Why this one?" Emma asked.
"They were the first to offer to take you in," the social worker said. "They're a very nice family. You'll be happy here." Emma just nodded. That's what she said at every house.
Getting out of the car, Emma grabbed her suitcase and followed the social worker up to the front door of the house. The door opened to reveal a very friendly looking woman with a toddler on her hip.
"You must be Emma," she said. "My name's Marie." She smiled kindly at Emma, and Emma immediately liked her.
"I leave you in good hands," the social worker said before leaving. Emma didn't even say goodbye. She hated her social worker and her optimism.
"This house is a very nice place," Marie said. "But we do have some ground rules. First, you must be respectful to all of the other children in the house. Second, you will have chores to complete. Fail to complete them and you lose dessert. Lastly, stay away from Charlie. He has some, uh, issues that we can't control."
Emma nodded. The rules sounded fair. And if someone had uncontrollable issues, why would she even go near them? "Got it," she said. Marie smiled and led her to an upstairs bedroom.
"This is the last one we have," Marie apologized. "It's not very much, but when one of the older kiddos leave, everyone will move up in room size."
Emma just smiled at her. "This is the nicest room that I've had so far," she said. "I'll be okay."
Marie frowned at the fact that the tiny room was the nicest Emma had ever had, but blew it off. If Emma wanted to talk about it, she would.
"I'll let you get settled then," Marie said. She hoisted the toddler higher one her hip before leaving the room. Emma began unpacking her suitcase, putting her tiny amount of belongings into various drawers and cabinets.
Suddenly the door opened again. Emma turned around and saw a boy staring at her. "Hi," she said. "I'm Emma."
The boy stared at her. "I'm Charlie," he said. Emma's stomach did a flip. Wasn't he the one that she was supposed to stay away from?
"I should probably finish unpacking," Emma said. She turned back to her suitcase, and was roughly picked up from behind.
"Hey! Put me down!" Emma shouted. "Somebody help me!"
Charlie put his hand over her mouth. He dragged her to his room down the hall. Still holding tightly to her, he opened a large trunk in his room. Emma screamed as he threw her in and slammed the lid shut. "Welcome to the house," Charlie sneered.
Emma screamed at the top of her lungs as Charlie left the room and shut the door. She wasn't found until 3 hours later.
Regina didn't know what to do. Emma was completely lost in her own thoughts and wasn't responding. "Emma, please come back to me," Regina pleaded. She reached out and hesitantly grabbed Emma's hand in her own.
Emma winced and went to pull away, but Regina held on tighter. "Look at me Emma," she said in what Emma called her "mom tone".
Emma blinked a couple times before finally making eye contact with Regina. "Regina?" she whimpered.
Regina brushed some of Emma's hair away from her face. "Hey there," Regina said softly. "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."
"Regina," Emma pleaded. "Please let me out." Regina's heart broke again. She wrapped Emma in a hug.
"I'll try," Regina said. "But I have to stand up okay? I promise I'll be right back." She waited until Emma nodded before standing up. Emma still held tightly to her hand, so she pulled out her phone, hoping that she had at least a little signal.
"Regina?" Snow's voice said. "Why are you calling me? Where are you? The meeting is about to start."
"Emma and I are trapped in the elevator," Regina said. She heard Snow gasp, and knew that it wasn't for her, but for Emma.
"I'll get the dwarves and we'll be there as soon as possible," Snow said.
"Good," Regina said. "Hurry, please. And bring a doctor with you. Emma isn't doing the best with the situation." Before Snow could say anything more, Regina hung up and crouched back down in front of Emma.
"There's a rescue team on the way," Regina said. She rubbed her hands up and down Emma's arms, hoping to calm her down.
"How soon?" Emma asked. "I need to get out. Really bad."
"I know, I know," Regina soothed. "They said that they'll get here ASAP."
"That could be hours!" Emma said. She sounded hysterical, and her panic came back at full force.
Regina wrapped her in a hug again. "Shhh," she said, rocking them back and forth. "Why don't you tell me why you're so scared of enclosed places, hmm? I never noticed until now."
"You weren't supposed to," Emma said. "There was this one foster home that I went to that had this messed up kid in it. On my first day there, he locked me in a trunk in his room for 3 hours. I've been scared of enclosed spaces ever since. Especially in the dark."
Regina kissed her forehead, and sighed in relief when the lights came back on. She looked over at Emma, and wiped the tear tracks off of her cheeks, hoping to save her some dignity when the doors opened.
"Emma!" Snow said when the doors opened. "Are you okay? Regina requested a doctor, so we didn't know what to think!"
Emma slightly smiled at her mother's hysterics. "I'm fine, mom," she said. "Just really tired. I'd like to go home." She looked over at Regina, who nodded and took her hand before poofing them to their bedroom, pajamas and all.
Emma climbed into bed and snuggled under the covers. Regina sat down next to her and began running her fingers through Emma's hair. "As long as I'm around, you will never face something like that ever again," Regina whispered.
Emma smiled before falling into an exhausted, but peaceful, sleep.
No one has reviewed so far and I'm running out of ideas! Please review with anything! Except sex scenes. I'll do them if I have to, but I would like to stay away from those. Lots of love to you all!
I'm also thinking of doing a "guest writer" type thing. If anyone is interested, or if you know someone who might be, PM me! Okay I'm done rambling. :)