Chapter 22

Hello Oncers! I hope you all had a great week and you enjoyed the episode yesterday! I am beyond excited for the musical episode!

Here is another chapter. Just be warned there is some talk of abuse of a child so if that bothers you you may want to skip part of this chapter.

As always, please let me know what you think and what you want to see. Your reviews keep me writing!

Enjoy!


Mary and David made their way to the living room to try and give Emma and Killian some space to talk to Zoe.

"David, we need to handle this delicately which, so far, you haven't"

"I know. I feel bad that I upset her it's just…I need them to grasp the gravity of this situation." He said turning toward her on the couch

"I know" She said, placing a gentle hand on his leg "But there are ways to do that, while also be sensitive to their feelings. They are all just scared"

"Frankly…so am I"

"What?" She was a bit confused. He hadn't voiced any concerns about this situation since they had returned to Florida.

"Seeing how this is all effecting her and how her natural instinct is to run, I'm worried that she is going to try and run and end up running into trouble"

"Honey, you know that Emma and Killian are going to keep her safe. I know that the thought of something happening to this girl is not a thought I want to entertain so let's not let ourselves go there" She said placing a gentle hand on his cheek. She went in to give him a kiss when she heard

"Mom, Dad, we have a problem"

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Emma and Killian went to walk into Zoe's room when Emma put a hand on Killian's chest "How do we handle this?"

"Like we have every other issue, we'll be honest with her and try to explain things the best we can. Swan, she knows that she can lean on us"

"Does she? Because she tried to sneak out this morning which I can only attribute to my parents coming to town"

"Aye, but you and I have both seen that, the more we repeatedly tell her we love her and are there for her, the more and more it sinks in"

Emma leaned in and kissed him "I love you"

"I love you too. Now, this isn't going to be easy, but I know we can do this" He said placing a gentle hand on her cheek. She smiled at him and took a deep breath before reaching over and gripping the door knob. They turned into the room, expecting to see Zoe sprawled out on the bed only to find an open window and no Zoe.

"Mom, Dad, We have a problem" Both Mary and David made a B-line for the bedroom where Killian and Emma were standing and saw the same sight

"How did she do that?" David asked confused "Didn't you guys put alarms on the windows too?"

"Aye mate…DANG IT!" Killian let out throwing his hands in the air before running one through his hair "I'm an idiot. She disarmed the alarm system this morning but I never rearmed it so she had a perfect get a way"

"Hey, It's okay" Emma said immediately framing his face with her hands and looking into his eyes "We're going to find her. Let's throw on some clothes and get moving, she couldn't have gotten that far" Killian nodded along with David and Mary and they all immediately went into action to get out and find Zoe.

XXXX

Zoe made her way down the sidewalk trying to pull her hoodie up around her face to conceal her identity. She knew that everyone was going to be upset when they realized she had snuck out of the window but she had to get out of there. Ever since David and Mary had shown up the night before she had been having flashbacks of the night when all of this started.

She could see the panicked look on the woman's face as the man shouted at her, just inches away from her face. The look of hate on the man's face was something that Zoe had never seen before, and hoped to never see again. She replayed the moment over and over. Why didn't she run? Why didn't she go after the man? Instead she just yelled at him. What good was that going to do? She could have gotten herself killed!

The man's face was always in her mind's eye and she was constantly scanning face to see if they matched, praying each time that they wouldn't. She still didn't know what she would do if she ever saw him again. Standing in the station looking at him through the glass made her stomach feel like it was jumping up into her throat even though, in that moment she knew he couldn't see her, she was still terrified of him.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she ran into a young man standing in front of her.

"Oh, I'm sorry"

"Elizabeth?" Zoe's head immediately shot up and searched the face in front of her and immediately started to move away when he gripped onto her upper arm.

"Please don't leave. I'm not going to hurt you"

"I'm sorry, I'm not the person you're looking for" Zoe said trying to walk away again, but the young man wouldn't let her go.

"Elizabeth, please. I just want to talk to you"

"I'm not Elizabeth!" Zoe yelled before wrenching her arm away from the boy and taking off down the road with him yelling out after her. Zoe ran and ran until she ended up on the waterfront where she fell down to her knee's and the tears began to fall.

The young man who had stopped her was at one time her foster brother from her past. His father had been an alcoholic and would get violent from time to time. He always took it out on his son so when Emma came to live with them he went into self-preservation mode and would always try and hide himself so that Emma would be the one who received the beating instead of him. Emma hated him for that as he would watch from afar as his father took out his anger on her. Honestly, she wasn't ready to face him again, especially if she didn't know what he wanted.

She stayed on the beach for what felt like eternity allowing the tears and emotions to flow when she heard a voice calling her name

"ZOE?" She immediately looked up and saw her parents and her grandparents all making their way quickly toward her. She tried to wipe off her face as much as she could but she knew that her face would give away her endless tears

"ZOE! Oh my gosh what happened? What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Emma said taking her face into her hands and looking Zoe over to see if she could find any visible injuries

"Mom, I'm fine"

"Like Heck you are. What is going on?" Emma pleaded with her. She knew that, even if Zoe was okay physically that she was most certainly okay emotionally.

"Lass, what is going on? Why are you crying?" Killian said coming and sitting next to her

"I said I'm fine" Zoe protested not liking all the attention they were drawing to her.

"No, you're not" Came the voice of her grandfather who came and sat on her other side with her grandmother. "Zoe, you may not be physically hurt but there is obviously something wrong. We're you're family kid. We want to be there for you" he said putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I'ts really not a big deal guys. I'm sorry I ran away, let's go home" She said trying to get up but was immediately stopped by the four adults

"You know Zoe, you remind me a lot of Emma when she was younger" Mary said trying to come at things with a different approach

"Yea?" Zoe said a bit sarcastic. She was not liking being out numbered"

"She used to always find her way to the beach when she was upset or when she needed to think. She always said that the water helped to calm her down"

"Aye, that's what drew her to me. I used to race sail boats. It's actually how we met" Killian said with a wink

"It's true. I loved how the rhythm of the waves helped me to even out my breathing and help me to calm down and focus" Emma said with a small smile to her mom for helping them change topic.

"What would happen when she came out here?" Zoe asked, a bit curious if her mom had ever gotten in trouble

"Oh she got grounded a few times" David said giving Emma a side look with a slight smirk

"Only a couple of times" Emma defended herself

"But other than that, she would be able to work through some things and have time to think before she talked to me and David. It helped us a lot when we realized that Emma was someone who needed space before she could talk about things. When we realized that, we were able to communicate better"

"And I stopped getting grounded" Emma said with a chuckle.

"Zoe let a small smile come to her face watching Emma's banter with her parents.

"Love, what we are trying to say, is that, we want to be able to give you whatever space you need. We just need to communicate before you climb out of a window" He said giving her his dad look

"You really scared us kid. It's not cool walking in your room and finding it empty" Emma added

"Your parents just want to keep you safe sweetheart" Mary said leaning in and putting a hand on Zoe's leg.

"And I'm just starting to get used to this whole being a grandpa thing" David added ruffling her hair a bit.

"I just needed to clear my head" Zoe said looking into her lap

"What is going on in that pretty little head of yours" Killian asked wrapping his arm around Zoe and pulling her close.

"It's nothing, it's all just a lot" Zoe said. She didn't want to tell them that the same young man that had approached them in the mall parking lot had found her again. She wasn't supposed to be out here for that very reason and she knew that they would be freaked out.

"That's why you have them" David said pointing at Emma and Killian. "If I can tell you one thing Zoe, it's that Emma and Killian genuinely love you and want the best for you…They love you"

"He's right" Emma chimed in. They hadn't necessarily come out and said it but her dad was right, they did love Emma.

Everyone sat in a comfortable silence for a little bit listening to the waves hit the beach when the chill outside finally became apparent.

"Alright. How about we all head back to the house and make some hot chocolate?" Mary said getting up and brushing off the sand from her jeans.

"Sounds good to me" Killian said following suite before reaching down and lending a hand to his wife and daughter to help them get up. They then all turned and headed back to the house.

They all knew that this wasn't over and they were going to have to address the situation again at home, but they were all enjoying the moment of solitude and feeling like a real family.