Cursed names
EvilRegal13 asked for a oneshot of Snow and Charming finding out the Swans changed Emma's name.
Belated happy birthday to Sof! :)
Snow and Charming were practically bouncing up and down on the couch. Now that there was time, Emma had promised to show them her box of memories. Neither was able to contain their grins when Emma came into the room and put the box on the table in front of them.
"It's not much." She warned them, sitting in the space between them. Charming reached out and put his hand over Emma's.
"It's more than we could ever have hoped for." He said sincerely. Emma smiled nervously, waiting for them to look. Snow reached out first and pulled out an old picture. She gasped, her eyes watering up. It was a very old picture of Emma- she can't have been over two years old. Charming leaned over eagerly to look, having a similar reaction to Snow.
"Yeah, that was back when I was with the Swans." Emma explained. She looked at the picture of her, grinning cheekily up at the camera. She was standing on the beach, bucket and spade in hand. "It was taken at their summer place…I can't remember where it is though." Charming could see faintly that there was writing on the back.
"Maybe this'll tell us." He said, flipping the picture over. But what was written just confused Snow and Charming.
Olivia, 20 months, Miami. "Olivia?" Charming said, confused. "Emma, there's no denying that's you, but why does it say Olivia?"
"Oh, I forgot about all that." Emma said. "They didn't ever call me Emma. I don't know why, I guess they just had their own name picked out and wanted to use that instead or something. But they never officially changed it. So when they stuck me back in the system people started calling me Emma again because it was on my paperwork." Emma explained. "It was confusing at the time. I can only really remember a little of it. Guess I just accepted I was now Emma. For a while I thought every time I moved I had to get a new name." Emma smiled, but Snow and Charming didn't join her.
"They tried to change your name." Snow said quietly. "They sent you back, did they not even think about how confusing that would be?" Of course Snow- along with Charming- also cared that some strangers tried to change their baby's name. Was Emma not good enough? In their eyes it was much nicer than Olivia. (AN, no offence to any Olivia's out there!)
"No, I guess they didn't. But it doesn't matter now. It did have one advantage. If I had to give a fake name quickly Olivia always came straight to my mind. Why don't we think of it as my 'cursed name'?" Emma suggested. "When I left the Swans sure it was sad, but it set me off on my journey back to you guys." Snow and Charming's hearts melted at the statement.
"I think that's a great idea." Snow said, wrapping an arm around her daughter.
"Me too." Charming agreed, kissing her temple. Maybe Emma would find out if the Swans were still alive. See if she could send them a letter. Thank them for their selfishness of giving her up. Because if they hadn't, she wouldn't have found her real parents, who would never give her up for anything.