The importance of time
Prisky0731 asked for a oneshot of Emma snapping at Neal and Snowing worrying that something is wrong.
"For Heaven's sake Neal would you keep your sticky hands off of my jeans!" Snow and Charming turned round when they heard Emma shouting at her little brother. When she felt her parents staring at her Emma looked up. "What?" She snapped. "They're brand new and I don't particularly want lollipop stickiness coating them." Neal's little bottom lip quivered as he took his toy cars and- with his head hunched over- moved to the other side of the room away from Emma. She was scary when she was mad.
"Buddy, why don't you go put those cars away in your room and wash your hands for dinner?" Charming suggested gently. Neal nodded and quickly left for upstairs. "What was that about Emma?" Charming asked his daughter as soon as Neal was out of earshot. "You never snap at him like that. I know you said your jeans are new but I don't think that's what that was really about, was it?"
"I'm fine." Emma replied, clearly not fine.
"Emma, please be honest with us." Snow said gently. "We can't help fix things if you won't talk to us."
"Oh like you really care." Emma spat. "You keep saying that you do, but when it comes for actions to replace words you don't follow through. I know that you're both very busy right now, but the odd 'hey Emma, how are you doing today?' wouldn't go amiss." Snow and Charming could hear the bitterness ringing loud and clear in her voice.
"Well we're sorry that you feel that way." Charming said calmly. "But as your mother said we can't actually help if we don't know how you're feeling- so why didn't you tell us you were feeling like this before you got to this stage?" Charming asked Emma.
"What's the point in trying to talk to you about how I feel? You always say that you care and that you want me to talk to you but the reality is you won't make time for me to do it. My problems don't actually matter unless their impacting on you." Emma finished her rant and stormed out of the room and out of the house.
"Leave her." Charming said as Snow got up to follow after her. "If we go after her now all we'll do is make her madder. She needs time to come home on her own terms."
"But I don't like the thought of her being out there alone when she's vulnerable." Snow said helplessly. Charming got up and took his wife into his arms.
"She'll be alright." Charming promised Snow. "We just have to be patient with her. And then when she's back, we can sort it out."
It would take time and much patience from both sides, but they would eventually come back to a place where both were happy with their relationship- but only when time and equal compromises were shared.