Chapter Ten

"What happened at the library today?" Snow asked, as she entered the loft after work that day, Henry in tow. David hadn't finished his shift yet, and Emma and Regina were on the couch – Regina, reading a book and Emma flipping absently through channels on the TV, her legs flung over one arm of the couch. Tink had gone home for the day, and Granny was at the table, feeding Neal his bottle.

Emma shrugged but didn't look up. "A magical accident. Apparently, I have a knack for them, or something," she said, sounding completely uninterested.

"It was you?" Snow asked, surprised.

"Yeah, why?" Emma said, finally turning to face her mother. The silent warning in Emma's eyes was apparently lost on Snow, as she continued to talk.

"Everyone said it was Regina," Snow said, "I just assumed, because of the fire…" she let her voice trail off as Regina turned to look at her with wide, scared eyes.

"Why? Why would fire make you assume it was me?" Regina asked.

"Nothing, honey, nothing," Snow stammered.

"Maybe we should-" Henry started, before Snow cut him off.

"No. It's fine. Not now," she warned.

"What the hell are you not telling us?" Emma demanded, as she stood. "There is something fucked up going on here, and we deserve to know what it is."

"Emma! Language!" Snow gasped, as if her young daughter's profanity still shocked her.

Emma rolled her eyes. "I'll watch my fucking language when you tell me what the fuck is going on!" Emma shouted, just as her father entered the loft.

Snow gaped in disbelief, as David walked up to Emma. "You will not speak to your mother like that. Go to your room!"

"What?" Emma laughed. "You cannot be serious!"

"Now, Emma," David said, sternly.

"You're not my fucking parents!" Emma cried, "and this is bullshit!"

David took another step towards Emma, and she ducked, raising her hands to block her face. The movement stopped David dead in his tracks, as the colour drained from his face. "Emma, I wasn't going to hit you," he said, softer.

Snow rushed over, in an attempt to hug her daughter, but Emma stepped back. She held her hands up, defensively, to warn her mother to not come closer, and sniffled as her lip started to quiver. She took a deep breath to calm herself. "You can't punish me for asking a simple question! It's not fair!"

"Ask the question in a respectful manner and perhaps we would consider answering you," David said, calmly.

"We would like to know what's going on here. Those… people… in the library. They were calling Regina evil and saying horrible things. We – she deserves to know why," Emma said, as calmly as she could manage, as she tried to avoid meeting the eyes of either of her parents.

"She's not ready," Snow said, softly, looking towards Regina. For her part, Regina just sat, and stared, in silence. She couldn't imagine speaking to her own parents the way Emma was now, and she wasn't sure she even wanted to know why the people had called her evil before. She feared she really wasn't ready for the answer.

"We're not fucking children!" Emma shouted, before turning to stomp up the stairs. David wasn't sure if she was just trying to get away from them, or if she was aware that she wasn't about to get away with swearing again.

Snow let out an exasperated sigh and shook her head. "What are we going to do? We're not cut out for this."

"You'll be fine," Granny said, as she stood and handed Neal to David, before putting a reassuring hand on Snow's shoulder. "She's a teenager and she hates the world. She likely hasn't learned how to express herself properly at this point, and she lets her anger out in all the wrong ways. You know this isn't how she is forever, just try to remember that."

Snow nodded, slowly, as she wiped a tear from her eye. "Thank you," she whispered.

Granny smiled. "You've all seen Ruby. Just imagine what she put me through! But she came around, and so will Emma. Giver her time," the old woman said, as she patted Snow's shoulder once more, before heading home for the day.

"Should I go talk to her?" Henry asked, looking at his grandparents with wide eyes.

David eyed the stairs for a moment, and then shook his head. "Let her come down when she's ready."

"I'm sorry," Regina said, as she stood to walk over to Snow. "This is all my fault. I shouldn't have gotten so upset over what those people said, and then Emma wouldn't have felt the need to protect me."

Snow shook her head. "You are not responsible for someone else's actions," she said, "Emma makes her own choices, and so do you. And, for the record, she always protects you, even when you don't want or need it. Apparently, it's innate. Now, would you like to help me get dinner started?"

Regina smiled and nodded, following Snow into the kitchen. David set about getting Neal changed, while Henry headed into the other room to start on homework.

"I knew you, before," Snow said, as she started to pull ingredients for chicken stew from the fridge, "in the Enchanted Forest. When you were eighteen."

"Really?" Regina asked, smiling. "Is that why Mr. Gold asked you if I looked the same?"

Snow nodded. "Yes. And you do. It's like déjà vu whenever I look at you now. I was ten and I worshiped you."

Regina let out a small laugh of disbelief. "Me? Why?"

"You saved my life," Snow said, simply. "My horse took off and was about to throw me, and you rose up and saved me."

Regina smiled. "So, I'm not evil then?"

Snow took in a deep breath. "You… made some mistakes in your life, Regina. You made some terrible choices. But, you atoned for them. No, you're not evil."

"Then why do the people think that?"

"We'll talk about it later," Snow said, "but don't worry about what those people say. You're safe here with David and me, no matter what people think or say to you, okay? And so is Emma, regardless of what she thinks of us."

"You really love her, don't you?" Regina asked.

Snow nodded. "Yes, of course. She's my daughter. I missed raising her, but… I never knew how much she resented me at this age."

"She doesn't as an adult?"

"No. Well, I don't think so. If she does, she's not nearly this vocal about it. We've had rough patches, but things are generally good."

"I think Granny's right. She'll come around," Regina said, smiling.

Upstairs, Emma lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She was already regretting her outburst, but it was so hard to control her temper and her mouth. She tried to remember what it was like to be herself at fourteen, before she started acting out. It seemed like a lifetime ago, and she wondered if that Emma was lost to her, forever.

She had been so full of hope then, but she had to wonder how much rejection and disappointment one person was expected to endure before they just snapped? And how was she supposed to accept these parents who wanted to parent her now, but ditched her on the side of the road like she was trash sixteen years ago?

Even in this home with them, they had their new baby and they had Regina. What did they need her for?

She got up and crept part way down the stairs, quiet enough that no one seemed to notice. She sat down and watched her mother and Regina in the kitchen, talking and smiling. She knew that could be her, but something was standing in the way.

She shook her head. That couldn't be her. Every time she got close to something like this, something would happen and she'd lose it all. Her walls were her only protection, and she wasn't about to drop them now. Not for these people. But maybe for Regina… maybe.

As she watched Snow, she didn't notice David approaching until he was on the third stair. She didn't move, but just watched him as he kept climbing, until he sat down beside her.

"You know, she'd love it if you joined her," he said, looking over at Snow and Regina.

Emma shrugged and shook her head. "Cooking's not really my thing. Plus, I thought I was in trouble?"

David smiled. "I'd let you off the hook if you gave cooking a try," he suggested.

"And if I don't?"

"I'll still let you off the hook if you sit and talk with me."

Emma sighed. "Okay," she reluctantly agreed.

"You know, you and I are actually kind of close, when you're an adult," David informed her.

Emma let a little smile creep on to her lips. "I always figured I might have been a daddy's girl. You know, if I had a dad."

"You do, Emma. I'm right here," David insisted.

"Yeah. You are. But where were you the last sixteen years?" Emma asked, turning to him with solemn eyes. "I needed you."

"I know, Emma. I want you to know, your mother and I, we would have never given you up, if we'd had any other option. We wanted you so much, and we loved you. We still love you. We gave you up, to give you your best chance."

Emma shook her head and looked away. "You thought my best chance was on the side of the interstate, alone?"

"It was better than the other option, trust me. And you weren't alone, August was with you," David said,

"Who's August?"

"The boy who the newspaper said found you. He didn't find you, he was with you. He was there to protect you," David explained.

"Protect me?" Emma laughed, turning back to David. "He was a kid! I didn't need him, I needed you!"

"I know. Emma, I know. I would give anything to change what happened, believe me. Your mother and I, neither of us will ever forgive ourselves for missing out on you growing up, even though it was really out of our control. And no matter how much you test us right now, trust me, we're happy to get a chance to experience you at this age."

"My magical mishap is not some sort of second chance, for you to alleviate your guilt, or whatever. Being here now, it doesn't change anything. It doesn't change all the shit I've been through. It doesn't take away all the nights I cried myself to sleep, or all the families who didn't want me, just like my family didn't want me. You can claim you did all you want, but your actions tell a different story. Tell my mother I won't be down for dinner!" Emma spat, as she stood and stomped back upstairs.

She flopped herself back down on her bed and buried her face in her arms, trying to hold back the tears threatening to fall. She had sworn to herself on her fifteenth birthday, that it was the last time she would cry over people who didn't want her. She wasn't about to break that promise to herself now.

Let Regina play house with them. Soon enough, this would all be over, and she would magically grow up. If her adult self had made peace with these people, then so be it, but she didn't see a real need to do so now. She had gotten by so far without them, she didn't need them now.

She sighed and sat back up on the bed, stretching out her fingers and remembering the magic from earlier. She thought she could feel it again, just below the tips of her fingers, but she couldn't seem to make anything happen. She wished she had brought that book with her.

Then she got an idea. She slid her hand between the mattress and box spring, and felt to make sure Regina's keys to the city were still safely tucked away where she had hidden them. Tonight, she would go back to the library and get that book back, whether Regina cared to accompany her or not.

She wanted to feel that magic again. She wanted to feel strong. Screw her parents' rules and screw the lousy people of this town, and screw Tinker Bell's notion that Emma's teenage angst would make her magic dangerous. Since when did she take advice from a fairy?

"God, this place is ridiculous," Emma sighed, as she placed a hand on her now growling stomach. She decided she would also need to find food while she was out, because she was damned if she was going to go down to dinner now. Snow looked like the lecturing type, and they both would probably expect an apology.

She didn't owe them shit.

In the next chapter: budding teenage Swan Queen romance in the clock tower ;) lol