The tent came down with far less difficulty than it went up, a fact which made both David and Snow let out soft breaths of relief. David was clearly thrilled that he wouldn't have to rely on his daughter to swoop in and save the day like the previous night. Snow, on the other hand, was simply relieved for Emma's sake that the process was relatively stress-free.
She'd kept a watchful eye on her daughter throughout the entire cleanup process. Emma had been fine while rolling up the sleeping bags and taking everything out of the tent. As the morning wore on, however, she'd grown quiet and tense.
With her heart breaking for her baby girl, Snow helped her husband repack the tent in its bag while Emma and Henry started bringing the rest of the camping gear up to the apartment.
It only took two trips to clear the yard of their gear. Emma hadn't said a word aside from a couple of monosyllabic answers to questions, so Snow told her she could head upstairs to change if she wanted. She apparently wanted – though it was a toss-up whether she really wanted to change or just needed a moment alone – because she gave Snow a grateful smile and slipped up to the loft.
Henry hooked his backpack with his change of clothes over his shoulder and took over the bathroom for a shower not long after Emma went upstairs, leaving David and Snow alone to talk. "How's she holding up?" David murmured softly so Emma wouldn't be able to hear him from the loft.
"She's trying to hide it but she's getting nervous."
David cast a pained glance at the metal staircase to the loft before nodding and meeting his wife's gentle gaze. "How are you holding up?"
And all at once, all the emotion Snow had been holding back for her daughter's sake came spilling out. "Thirty-two hours. She was scared and alone and without food and water for thirty-two hours. She was only seven! Those hours must have felt like an eternity to her. And that was only one incident! Our little girl had to deal with so much, David. Just … so much."
He immediately wrapped his arms around her. The second he pulled her towards him, she collapsed against his chest. The tears were coming fast and furious now, soaking his T-shirt. "I never wanted this for her. I never wanted ..."
"Shh," he murmured, squeezing her tightly and running one hand up and down her back. "She knows we didn't want this life for her. She knows we would give anything to be the ones who'd raised her, to have loved her the way she deserves."
Snow swallowed hard, trying to collect herself. After taking a moment to just stand in her husband's arms, she pulled away and wiped her eyes. She didn't want Emma to know she'd been crying, which in and of itself made a small smile pull at her lips. If Emma had been crying, she would be doing the same thing as Snow was now so as not to let anyone else know. "I know she knows, but like she once said to us, knowing doesn't change what she went through."
"Snow ..."
"No, David. She and I talked back when I was just Mary Margaret, remember? She didn't open up a lot but she told me enough. All those people who were supposed to help her … none of them cared enough. They looked at her and didn't think about her at all; they only thought about what they could get from her."
David looked down and swallowed hard at that, making Snow wince. She hadn't wanted to hurt her husband but she needed him to understand. "And now, knowing that she spent thirty-two hours wandering through the woods, hungry and thirsty? Wondering if anyone even cared enough to go looking for her? She was seven years old, David, and she didn't have the support system to believe that anyone was looking for her. Can you imagine? All those hours, not knowing if she would ever be found, not knowing if anyone even wanted to find her ..."
From the look in Charming's eye, Snow could tell that he longed to pull her back into a tight and comforting hug but knew doing so would only make her start crying again. Instead, he latched onto her hands and squeezed tightly. "Snow, don't do this to yourself. We did what we had to do. You know as well as I do that sending her through that wardrobe was her best chance … her only chance. Do you really believe that Regina would have let her live if she'd caught her?"
It was Snow's turn to swallow hard as she shook her head. No, she did not at all believe that Regina would have let baby Emma live if she'd arrived in time to stop her from going through the wardrobe. Even if Emma had been cursed with the rest of them, Regina wouldn't have wanted to take the chance that the prophecy would play out as it was supposed to – with Emma somehow breaking the curse after twenty-eight years.
"People in this world were beyond cruel to her," Charming continued. "Believe me, there are more than a few of them I would track down if I could leave Storybrooke. But nothing can be done about it now. No matter how much we might want to, we can't rewind time, but you know what? Our baby survived it all, and she's a hell of a lot stronger for it."
"I know," she nodded, running her thumbs up and down his hands. "I just wish we'd been the ones to give her that strength. I wish she'd learned to be strong in a positive way and not because she had to be strong just to survive. I wish she could have grown up the way she was supposed to grow up." She sniffled. "The curse hurt us all but she was probably its biggest victim. It took our happy endings from us but it took everything from her."
"And yet, in the end, look what it gave all of us," he said, darting his eyes to the loft before refocusing on his wife's face.
In an instant, she understood: Emma wouldn't be Emma without her time alone in this world. If they hadn't sent her through the wardrobe and given her a life outside of the curse, she wouldn't have had Henry. Those missing twenty-eight years of their daughter's life were certainly painful to come to terms with, but they wouldn't have their family without them.
Snow smiled up at her husband, swallowing the rest of her tears. She wasn't okay with everything, not by a long shot, but he'd given her some sorely needed perspective.
She'd calmed down just in time, too, because the sound of Emma's soft footsteps on the metal staircase startled both David and Snow back to the present. He let go of her hands as they backed away from each other almost guiltily, causing Emma to give them a teasing side-eye. "If I'm interrupting something, let me know and I'll go back upstairs until you're ready. I hope I'm not, though, because … ew."
Leave it to Emma to unknowingly inject some much-needed humor into an uncomfortable situation. Snow and David both chuckled. "No, you're not interrupting anything," Snow replied.
"Thank God," Emma jokingly muttered. She paused, her brow wrinkling in concern when she spotted the red rimming her mother's eyes. "Is everything okay?"
"Everything's fine," Snow assured her. She reached out, lightly taking her daughter's hand in her own. "We were just talking."
Emma raised her eyebrows, her disbelief obvious. "If you say so."
There was a brief moment of awkward silence, with Emma knowing something more had been going on between her parents but also knowing neither of them wanted to share it with her. Eventually, David said, "You know, I was thinking instead of a scavenger hunt, maybe we could play a bingo type game."
A groan escaped Emma's lips. "What is it with you people and bingo? Bingo is awful. As I believe I've mentioned before, bingo is a game for small children and the elderly."
"Aw, come on, Emma," he teased, winking at Snow, "you didn't mind bingo all that much."
Snow had to muffle a snicker with a faked cough at the annoyed glare Emma shot her father. "Were you at the table with us that night? No bingo. If we're playing hiking trail bingo during this trip, let me know now and I'll just stay here and … I don't know, clean or something."
"Wow," David said, choking back a snicker of his own. "That's quite the serious threat. I guess hiking trail bingo is a no."
Emma started to smile, seemingly forgetting for a moment that she was supposed to be acting stern. She quickly wiped the smile off her face and gave a curt nod instead to keep up appearances. "Damn straight hiking trail bingo is a no."
They fell silent as Henry stepped out of the bathroom, freshly showered, changed, and running his fingers through damp, towel-dried hair. "Bathroom's free!" he hollered on his way up the stairs to put his pajamas and towel in the hamper.
"I guess that means it's my turn," David said, giving his wife and daughter a smile. Then he winked and raised his voice so Henry could hear him as he headed towards the bedroom to grab a change of clothes. "Just as long as Henry didn't use up all the hot water!"
From the mischievous giggle that filtered down from the loft, Snow gathered that her husband would be taking a very quick and rather tepid shower.
Left alone with her mother, Emma turned to her and asked softly, "Seriously, is everything okay?"
"Everything's fine," Snow assured her with a gentle smile. "The more important question is, are you okay? With the second hike, I mean. Because we can easily think of something else to do if–"
"No, no, you don't have to think of anything else to do," Emma interrupted. "I'm okay with it." She hesitated a brief moment before adding, "Well, once we find the brook, I'll be okay with it."
Snow's smile grew wider as she gripped her daughter's hands in her own. She had no idea whether or not Emma realized how big of a step she'd just taken by admitting that she wasn't a hundred percent okay with their choice of activity for the day. Snow knew how big of a step it was, though, and that was all that mattered. "We won't let Henry out of our sight, Emma."
Emma nodded, beginning to squirm uncomfortably under her mother's gaze.
Before she had a chance to think better of it, she tightened her hands around Emma's and said, "We won't let you out of our sight, either."
With those words, the step Emma had taken grew even bigger. Instead of pulling away or making some kind of sarcastic joke to take focus off the emotion, Emma squeezed her mother's hands back and murmured, "Thank you."