Healing

Now, I know a lot of you got upset when Charming kissing Emma didn't wake her up in chapter 156 "The ultimate sacrifice", so when a guest asked for a oneshot of Charming getting protective after seeing scars on Emma I saw a chance to maybe make up for it to some of you. So, here goes! Trigger warning of talks of abuse.

"Come on buddy, its ok." Emma tried to soothe her brother. "It'll heal soon."

"But what if it doesn't?" He whimpered.

"Well then you're left with a cool war wound." She told him. Charming watched his daughter comfort her little brother. It was sweet to see. Emma rolled up her sleeve and showed Neal her upper arm. "See, Emmy has war wounds too." Charming was paying more attention now. He didn't know Emma had any scars. As soon as he saw them his hands curled into fists. He knew what those little circle scars were. Someone had burned his daughter with cigarettes. Obviously his son didn't know and was intrigued with the marks. He reached a finger out and ran it over the little bumps.

"Woh, how'd you get these?" He asked in awe. Emma was uncomfortably aware of both her brother's innocence and her dad sitting quietly taking it all in.

"Um…I fell like you did." She lied. Thankfully her brother seemed to accept it. Her father, however, Emma wasn't so sure about.

"Neal, why don't you go let your mom check your cut out?" He told Neal. Neal nodded and walked away to find his mom. "I know those scars aren't because you fell." He stated when Neal was safely out of the room. "They're cigarette burns." Emma shrugged uncomfortably.

"It was a long time ago. Just another bad foster parent." That didn't make Charming feel better. Basically Emma had just told him she'd had this kind of abuse many times. Charming held his hand out.

"Let me see." Emma shuffled over and held her arm out. Charming gently touched the little scars. "Can you remember the name of the person who did this to you?" Charming asked her. "If you do I'll look them up, find them and show them what happens when someone hurts my daughter." He growled. Emma shook her head.

"I don't remember, sorry." She said, worried his rage was directed at her. Charming realised this and pulled her into a hug.

"Don't you be sorry. This isn't your fault." He assured her. Charming pulled back and took hold of Emma's arm again. He leaned forward and gently kissed each little scar. Emma gasped as a warm sensation flowed through her arm. Charming pulled away, alarmed, thinking that he'd hurt her. Both watched in shock as a glow rose up from Emma's skin and the scars faded away.

"You healed my scars." Emma said, flabbergasted. Emma looked up at her dad, who looked just as shocked as she did.

"True love's kiss." He said quietly. "You going into foster care- that was all part of the curse. True love's kiss heals any curse." Emma flung her arms around his neck.

"Thank you." She said emotionally. Charming smiled, kissing her cheek.

"You don't have to thank me." He told her. "It should never have happened in the first place. That was the least I could do." Charming held Emma close, now realising he could still help her with her past. He was her dad, it was his job to make her feel better. He wished he could kiss the mental scars better like he had just done the physical ones, but that didn't mean he couldn't help them heal.