Author's Note: Check previous chapters for disclaimers.

Tears streamed down Erin's face, the stress of everything was building up to be unbearable for her. The more she thought, the bigger the migraine pounding inside the back of her head became. Her caramel curls sprawled across the pillow, the rooms was spinning, like a tornado swirling out of control, destroying absolutely everything in it's path. Closing her eyes didn't stop the pain, no matter how much she willed it to dull, even if was just slightly.

Erin didn't legally have a driver's licence, yes, she knew how to drive a car, a manual. But that was only because in one of her afternoons alone with her brother, she managed to manipulate him into teaching her. A few of the local post boxes suffered because of these actions, nevertheless no one was hurt. Rumplestiltskin and his granddaughter had a special connection, he had taught her about breaking into houses using a bobby pin, well more than she was able to learn from the internet and from observation of her older brother and parents. Emma may or may not have taken Erin on too many stakeouts and investigations than she possibly should have. It was in her blood to break in and out of places, she had the natural talent and skills to get out of most situations if need be. If all of those skills failed, there was always magic, so that Erin could always get out of trouble or a situation, but apparently the current situation she had managed to get herself into doesn't apply to that rule. If there was anything that her father had learnt from his grandfather in his time in Neverland, it was to not get yourself into a situation that you couldn't get yourself out of, well Erin had definitely not taken that route this one time. How can you get out of a situation when all the odds are turned against you? When someone has so many influences in their lives, both light and dark, all one could really learn is to deal with problems as they come and to be inventive.

The young woman felt as if the whole world was watching her intensely, constantly checking on her, to see whether or not she'd broken into a thousand tiny little fragile pieces yet and honestly, she was quite close, chipping away at the seams. Yes having a big family has it's positives, for example the amount of presents given at Christmas and her birthday, or if someone or something was causing the adolescent grief, there was not much that couldn't be done to cause that grief to simply disappear, or to manifest itself in a way that would fix the problem. Yes, more people knew the reasoning behind her ailments and changing behaviour, but that didn't make it any easier acting towards those who didn't. The burden wasn't lifted off her shoulders, to Erin, it only continued to get heavier. Yes they knew, but at what cost? The pride, the trust that they had in her? Oh and the disappointment, that was worst of all.

Eventually the mind-numbing migraine took over Erin's head, pushing all thoughts out of her head, forcing her to attempt the act of sleep. There was no sound from outside the door, Erin was unable to hear if there were any hushed whispered conversations between her parents. As she drifted to the land of nod, images began to start swirling around in her mind. Beer and the bug and lots and lots of screaming followed by the young woman's entire family surrounding her. At the beginning none of these sequences made sense, there was just flashing between the images, like a slideshow put on half a second per slide on constant repeat.

However as the time progressed in her sleep, the pictures slowed down to depict a scene, not one that you would expect a sixteen year old girl to have. Dream Erin was driving the bug, hotwired, before accidently driving it into the Leaving Storybrooke sign. The scene the flashed to bright lights, and people talking rapidly about her, before it flashed again to those same lights, but there was no movement, no anything except for an empty hospital room, with the obvious exception of a hospital bed, other furniture and a one A4 page, handwritten note. Gingerly, the dream version of herself picked up the note and began to read it.

"Erin,

When you were born, many things changed, and those things can never return back to the way they were. In some instances, things were better before you came along, we were free of the burden of a child 24/7. We have never told you this, but seeing as you stole and then totalled the car and given your impending situation, we have decided that we need to part ways. Remember that this is all your own fault, and had you not have had a sex life or been the good little girl that we wanted, then none of this would happen. We're both in agreement on this, and no one would miss you. We've paid your hospital bill this once, but from now on you're on your own, whether you leave town or stay is completely up to you, although, it would probably be easier for you to leave, so that we never have to see each other again. It's not just a fact of your impending situation, what could have been or that you stole the car; you killed William Herman, you killed your love and everyone blames you. As soon as you're cleared, you should leave, and never return.

Remember, this is all your fault.

Goodbye Erin,

Neal Cassidy and Emma Swan-Cassidy

Before even being able to take into account the message of the note, there were tears streaming down her face and then doctors came to clear her from the hospital, and she was on her own. She hadn't had time to process whether or not there was another person in the car with her, but the screaming made sense, it wasn't her.

Erin's nightmare, if she could've woken herself up, honestly she would have, but it continued to show her on the street, with no money, no phone, and no one to go to as every person she went to shut her out before she could say anything. Back in the living room, hushed whispers continued between the two parents of the adolescent.

"Should we go and check on her?" Neal asked in a break from their conversation.

"No, just let her sleep." Emma replied, rolling her eyes.

"What's going on?" He asked once again, having almost gotten nowhere except he now knew that Erin was stressed, even though he could pick up on that already.

Emma sighed and looked at her husband. "She'll tell you, she doesn't want me to tell you, and apparently there are many different levels of complexity to the issue." She replied.

Neal looked completely and utterly perplexed by what he was hearing his wife say. "So you do know then." He raised his eyebrows as he continued to speak in a hushed whisper.

"Maybe." She replied in the same tone before standing up and moving over to Erin's bedroom.

As her mother creeped over to the door, many different thoughts were running through Emma's head. 'Why Erin?' 'She's not alright, if Neal notices that something's wrong, then something is wrong.' 'My sixteen year old daughter has a "friends with benefits" arrangement' were just some of the many thoughts looming around the blonde's head. Emma shook her head, completely aware of her husband staring at her, admiring her, whilst also being concerned for his little princess. It seemed like it was just yesterday when Erin was begging to play dolls, or learning how to swordfight, now she was pregnant, and failing school. Why does everything have to change so quickly? Emma thought before turning the doorknob and entering the room, before quickly closing the door behind her once more.

Erin shook violently in her sleep, her face glistened with fresh tears and sweat and she was mumbling "no" over and over again. The caramel brunette was completely oblivious to her mother's presence, and continued to be terrified by her subconscious. They were her fears, the deepest, most painful fears and ideas that she could muster. Losing her family, killing her absolute best friend in the universe, losing the trust of everyone that she'd built up over her entire sixteen years of life? Her family and friends meant the universe to her, without them she'd be completely and utterly lost. Emma took one look at her baby girl, and moved over to her bed, watching her before gently shaking Erin.

It didn't take that long to awaken Erin, however when Emma did, the reaction wasn't what she expected. "Mommy…" Erin whispered timidly, before hugging her tightly, like she used to when she was a little girl. Emma returned the hug with no objections, and then looked at her sixteen year old, only being able to see the four year old who'd had nightmares and that vulnerability that often wasn't seen by anyone often.

Authors Note: I am so sorry that the last update of this didn't work, I have no idea what went on, because when I put the document into doc manager it was fine! For those of you that got to this chapter last time, I'm sorry, and here is the new chapter, without any issues. I'm still sorry about my lack of updates, but another chapter (that hopefully works) will be up this week, and I am also looking into writing some other stories on both accounts. Thank you, your reviews keep me going and I would like to provide a shout out to justices, who pointed out the problem so that I could fix it this morning as soon as possible for you.

I haven't really been able to do any updating because I had a French exchange student, my Grandfather died (Think of Henry/Charming Relationship, and that was basically it), exams and work experience. This year hasn't really been all that good thus far, but hopefully it will get better. Thank you for reading, and your thoughts are definitely appreciated.