Fever

A guest asked for a oneshot of little Emma becoming sick but putting up a fuss when her parents try and take her to the hospital…I hope you don't mind, I've used some creative license to change hospital to Doc and set it in the Enchanted Forest!

Emma lay shivering under her quilt. She felt freezing but mommy and daddy said she had a temperature. She had a cool cloth on her head to try and bring it down, but it was doing no good. Snow sighed, feeling her daughter's fevered cheek. She and Charming had one of their eye conversations, with her letting him know it was time to take Emma to Doc. She was sick and needed some medicine. Doc had injured his leg whilst mining, so couldn't make house calls just now. He still took patients, but they had to travel to the dwarves' cottage.

"Don't worry baby." Charming gently assured his daughter. "Doc will know how to make you all better."

"When he coming?" Emma murmured weakly. Doc always had a special potion that made her feel much better.

"No honey, we have to go to Doc's house. Do you remember that he hurt his leg? Because of that he can't travel, so we need to take you to see him." Emma didn't like that idea one bit. She didn't want to leave her bed. She already felt too cold under the nice warm quilt. Plus, travelling over the bumpy forest road might make her sick and she hated being sick. She shook her head.

"No." She complained. "Too cold. Don't wanna go."

"You can't get better if you don't see Doc baby. Daddy will carry you with the quilt wrapped around you, that sound ok?" Snow tried to bargain. Emma shook her head again.

"Still might be sick. Don't like being sick. It's icky."

"Honey we know it's icky but you won't feel well until we take you to see Doc." Charming explained, bending down and picking her up. As soon as he had her off the bed Emma started to scream in protest. Snow and Charming did their best to comfort her but Emma wouldn't calm down. It only got worse when they were in the carriage on the way there. They had her lying on the bench with her head in Snow's lap and Charming driving as steadily as possible but Emma still wasn't happy. It was going to be a long journey.

"Here we are." Doc said, holding out a spoonful of purple liquid to the now sniffling princess who was sitting in her father's lap. "This should help your temperature return to normal, Princess Emma." He assured her. Emma opened her mouth and allowed Doc to feed her the potion. Charming rubbed soothing circles on her back and gently rocked her for a few minutes. It didn't take long for Emma to fall asleep. Snow leaned over and felt her forehead. She sighed in relief.

"Already nearly back to normal. Thank you Doc, we owe you big time."

"Not at all." Doc said warmly. "I wouldn't want the little Princess feeling unwell. I'm just glad she's able to rest now."

"Yeah, she didn't sleep well last night." Charming whispered, as he carefully stood up with Emma to carry her back to the carriage. He and Snow didn't sleep well either with Emma being sick. Looked like it was going to be family nap time when they all got home.