Emma awoke from her deep slumber moaning at the sharp pain in her stomach. She twisted and turned to try to find a comfortable sleeping position but could not find any way to sleep that lessened the terrible pain.

"Shit," she said.

She attempted to slow her breathing to calm herself down, but nothing was working. The slow breaths did nothing to numb the pain.

Emma moaned as she tried desperately to soothe herself, but the pain was only growing stronger. It felt like a knife was stabbing her in the stomach and twisting at every movement she tried to make. She didn't want to wake her mother, but she felt as though she may have no other option. This was starting to get bad. Emma had never experienced anything this painful before, not even when she was in labor with Henry.

I can't wake her, thought Emma. She'll think I'm weak.

No, she understands. She knows I'm strong, right?

This hurts so badly.

Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop.

The words became a mantra in her head. She finally decided it was time to wake up her mother. She tried to sit up, but found that it only exacerbated the pain. She attempted to push through it and let out a scream.

Snow awoke with a start. She heard a scream… Emma? What was wrong with her daughter?

She quickly crawled out of bed and frantically ran up the stairs to Emma's room only to find her daughter sitting up in bed, gritting her teeth with her arms wrapped around her stomach. She let out a few whimpers, and Snow was at her side in an instant.

"Shhh," Snow coaxed. "It's alright. You're going to be alright, Emma"

Snow rubbed soothing circles on her back as Emma continued to grit her teeth in pain.

"What hurts?"

"My stomach," said Emma through her teeth, trying not to let another cry escape her lips. "It feels like someone is stabbing me. I don't know how long I can take this."

"You're going to be okay, Emma. Just breathe. Can you do that for me? Try to breathe."

Emma closed her eyes and once again tried to take a slow, deep breath. As she inhaled, a pain even worse than before tore through her stomach. She screamed again.

"Okay. It's okay, Emma. It's going to be okay. We need to get you to the hospital, alright?"

Emma shook her head. "No," she said with the little defiance she had left in her. "I can't go to the hospital. I just can't. I'm not that sick. It doesn't hurt that bad."

A few seconds later, Charming ran into the room. "What's going on?" he asked as he ran to Emma's side next to Snow.

"She said her stomach feels like she's being stabbed. Charming, she's in a lot of pain right now."

Charming saw the concerned look on his wife's face. She was clearly scared. No, she was terrified. What mother wouldn't be? Her strong daughter who was always able to hide her pain, no matter how intense was screaming in agony. For Emma to scream it had to be absolutely terrible. Both Snow and Charming knew it.

"Okay," said Charming with conviction. "Emma, we're going to take you to the hospital, okay?"

Emma shook her head again and started to argue, but another pain ripped through her stomach as she let out a wail.

Charming immediately scooped his daughter into his arms. Snow draped the blanket over her and grabbed an extra change of clothes for Emma as they made their way down to the car.

Charming carefully laid Emma down in the backseat. Snow opened the door closest to her head and sat in the back with her, laying Emma's head on her lap as she stroked Emma softly and pushed the now sweaty hair away from her face. Emma moaned softly and twisted her face as the pains continued to tear through her stomach.

Charming climbed into the front seat of the car and looked back at his wife and daughter. He saw that Snow had tears in her eyes as she watched Emma writhe in pain. "It'll be okay," he said, looking at Emma. "It'll be okay." His gaze moved to meet Snow's eyes. She looked so broken and hopeless. He turned around, put the keys in the ignition, and started the car.

"It'll be okay."