Degree

EmmaAthena2013 asked for a oneshot of Emma trying to hide that she is taking an online college course for a degree in criminal justice from her parents. When they do find out they try and help her.

Guest who asked for Emma falling asleep in Granny's: that request has already been covered. CaptainswanFan that request has also been too closely covered.

Also, there seems to be a bit of a review war bubbling up. Thanks to folks for defending me, but everyone stay nice and calm :)

P.s. Sorry these have taken so long. A) I was at a wedding and b) the rest of my weekend was spent watching season 3 of Orange Is The New Black, my other major fandom.

It had taken them weeks to notice, but Emma had always been good at being subtle. But eventually the tiredness made Emma begin to slip up. She could only pump so much coffee into her system to keep up with her heavy workload. Her alarm was set for five am every morning. She would quickly shower and shove some Weetabix mashed with milk down her throat and whip out her laptop to do her latest assignment, whatever it was. She would leave for work with her dad at eight o'clock. Emma worked through most of her lunch break and then for most of the evening when she got home.

Eventually it was the early rises that got Emma caught out. Snow and Charming were woken particularly early one Thursday early in April by a teething Neal and found her sitting on the couch working. Knowing there was no out, Emma admitted defeat and explained everything to both of them, that she was working towards her Bachelor's Degree in criminal justice online with the Open University. She told them why she didn't tell them in the first place: she was worried she would fail and disappointment them. It didn't take long for her parents to convince Emma (well, more lecture her) that they could never be anything but proud of her- especially for attempting a Degree with her workload as great as it already was. But of course now that they knew, they could help her. It wasn't quite helping her with her elementary school homework, but it was close enough to the milestone for the parents. They were able to read over papers and essays for her to check for little spelling or grammar errors. Charming had also put his foot down on Emma working an hour less each day and taking at least half of her lunch break to relax. Their help made the whole process a lot easier for Emma to deal with. And needless to say the day her graduation certificate arrived through the letter box, they were the proudest parents alive.