Chapter 9

You all can thank ATrueOncer for the quick update! They asked that I not make you all wait! lol!

To answer a few questions

ATrueOncer - Zoe isn't mad at Emma as much as she is scared. She realized how much she had let them in and started to panic and push them away

Oncer4life11 - She was in such a state of shock when she first came there and now that some of the fog has cleared and the reality of Heidi coming to light so in a way she's felling like "What did I just do?" and is trying "undo" the closeness because she's scared (I based her a lot off of Emma in the show).

So without further interruption..here is the next chapter!


A few minutes later the repair man left and it was time to have a talk as a family.

"Alright Zoe…"

"Stop Calling Me That!" Zoe screamed. Killian and Emma were in total shock

"Alright love, we won't call you that anymore. Would you like us to call you Elizabeth while we're at home?"

"I want you two to stop acting like this is normal! I'm not your kid okay? I'm sorry you lost your own kid but you can't project that on me!"

"Sweetheart" Emma said trying to jump in

"STOP!" Zoe screamed before an uncomfortable silence fell on the room. No one knew what to say. Zoe felt out of control and Killian and Emma were at a loss as in what they could do to regain control of the situation. Finally, Zoe got up and went to her room slamming the door. At that moment, Emma burst into tears. Killian immediately rushed to her side.

"Please don't cry love. This is all new, for all of us. We just need some…"

"Time? Really Killian? In the span of 24 hours we have gone from a teenage girl who allowed us to care for her to a raging teenager who won't even talk to us!"

"I know Swan, I know this is hard but this girl has gone through a traumatic experience. Last night she felt safe and now she doesn't. We have to find out what about us or our home is making her feel that way. We can do it" He said taking her face into his hands before kissing her forehead

"You know it's me she doesn't feel safe with right?"

"Why would you say that?"

"Killian, she let you sit with her as she fell asleep. She listens to you when you tell her to do something. You did so well last night and this morning helping her to calm down and bringing things back to center. I just stood there with no idea on how to handle it"

"Well in all fairness Swan, you are an only child, I have an older sibling. I know what an older brother is supposed to be and what they aren't. I know that Zoe is supposed to be our daughter but I don't think she's ready for that. So, I treat her like Liam treated me. Like a younger sibling."

"How did I get so lucky to marry such a brilliant man?" Emma said taking his face in her hands

"You forgot devilishly handsome" He replied before closing the space between them and planting a kiss on her lips. They continued to kiss for a moment before Emma finally pulled away.

"As much as I would like to continue this, we need to decide how we are going to handle this situation. She is really mad at us for…well I don't know what we did but it was something"

"Aye, that was a strange outburst that she had there. I think that we need to leave her alone for a bit"

"Killian, if we are going to be her parents for a minimum of 4 years when she turns 18…again…we can't just let her get away with blowing up like that"

"You are correct, but in this situation, we are all still learning how to live together. Once the relationship is there, we will have more leverage to have those conversations"

"Killian…"

"Emma I know this is hard. I want to go into that room and get to the bottom of it too, but I also know that we are only going to damage this relationship further if we don't give the girl some space"

"We are really going to have to work on being on the same page. I really think we need to talk to her"

"Alright love, we talk to her. But we have to make sure that we are both calm and that we are going in there with the desire to simply find out what is wrong and we don't push, we let her talk"

"Killian…Alright…fine…let's go talk to her" and with that they both headed toward the small bedroom.


Zoe slammed the door and turned the fan on as high as it would go before bursting into tears. She felt completely out of control. She felt like she was watching someone else live her life and she had no way to stop it. It felt like the whole world had just imploded on her and she was incapable of putting it back together. She felt vulnerable and needy and she didn't know how to even begin to understand this family that seemed to want to be there to protect and care about her…it was all just too good to be true.

All the emotions flooded through her at rapid speed and she began to gasp for air because of how hard she was crying. Normally she would run at times like these. She would run until she felt calm and could think straight. Being in this room with no way of escape made her begin to feel claustrophobic. She began to hyperventilate but caught herself before she passed out. She didn't want Emma and Killian to panic if they walked in and saw her like that. She grabbed her inhaler and took it. Slowly but surely the room began to come in clear and she was able to start thinking clearly.

She then grabbed the small pad of paper and pen that were on the night stand and began to write down a pro's and con's list.

Pro's. I have two people who say they care about me. I don't have to tell anyone about my past. I get my own room and I don't have to compete with other kids for attention or even food.

Con's. I can't leave without someone being with me. I lose all of the privileges of being an adult. I can't take care of Heidi and I can't contact her to let her know I'm okay or know if she's okay.

She looked at the lists in front of her and realized there were just as many reason that this situation was a benefit as it was a curse. She really felt bad about Heidi. Even though they weren't related by blood, she was the closest she had ever had to family. She kept replaying the sound of Heidi screaming over and over again in her head. As much as she wanted things to work out with Killian and Emma, she had to help Heidi.

She got up and began to throw her few belongings into her bag when the door opened.