A/N: It has been so long since I've wriiten fanfiction but my roommate has been listening to "The Only Exception" by Paramore on repeat for the past six hours and I thought it was the perfect song for Captain Swan, and well, it inspired this.

Disclaimer: The only thing I own is student loan debt, a very recent writing for film and television diploma, and a golden bagel for being a geek (no really, my school gave out golden bagels as awards).

Chapter One

"When I was younger I saw my daddy cry"

Emma drummed her fingers along the table in the bar while Mary Margaret continued to cry to her and Ruby for her latest fight with David. Emma loved her sister in law, she really did, but sometimes she just couldn't handle the relationship drama.

If there's one thing Emma Swan really wasn't good at it was relationships. She can't help but shudder and take another gulp of her whisky, cringing as it burned its way down her throat, as she thinks of her last relationship. She should have known that dating Neil was never going to end well but she was eighteen and in love.

"I just don't understand why he won't accept me," Mary Margaret weeped, pulling Emma back into the current issue at hand. Emma and Ruby had been trying to console the woman for hours and Emma was at the point where she wasn't really sure what Mary Margaret was going on about anymore.

"David?" Emma asked, hoping that no one was realizing she had zoned out.

"No, Spencer!" she cried back.

Emma sighed. Albert Spencer was a tough man. He hadn't always been, when he and his wife Ruth had adopted Emma when she was seven, he had actually been quite kind and caring. Emma had never really had a family that cared about her before. She was left on the side of a road at only a day old and her luck never really got better after that. The one family that had chosen to really take her in was the Swans, and even they had given her back once they got pregnant with a child of their own. It wasn't until Albert and Ruth took her in, that she had a family. They had two boys of their own, David and James, but they were more than willing to accept the little girl like she was one of their own.

Emma finally belonged and everything seemed like a perfect fairy tale... until the accident. When Emma was fifteen and the boys were eighteen the three of them were out on a boat when it started unexpectedly storming even though the forecast said it was supposed to be clear all day. They were too far out to get back to shore before the worst of the storm hit and when the boat capsized not everyone made it out alive.

Right from the day of James' funeral Spencer's attitude had changed. Emma saw him cry for the first time and after that he had become cold, hard. He blamed David and Emma for James' death and could barely look at them anymore. It caused a lot of tension between him and Ruth and their marriage couldn't handle it. After the divorce Emma chose to live with Ruth and David, who was living in a college dorm, supported her decision.

Ruth had died only a couple years later from cancer. David had drowned himself in his work as he had just started at the local sheriff's station but Emma spun out of control making bad decision after bad decision, one of which being Neil.

Even though that had been years ago now and Emma was twenty-eight and David, thirty-one, Spencer still blamed them and still openly judged their every decision. The latest one that he disapproved of was the woman that David had married only months ago, Mary Margaret Blanchard. Emma had tried to tell the sweet woman not to take it seriously but sometimes it was hard not too. Mary Margaret had tried to convince David to finally stand up to his father but David still struggled with that, hence David and Mary Margaret's latest argument.

"It's okay," Ruby consoled, "David loves you. When he finally gets his head out of his ass and realizes how much this is hurting you, he'll talk to Spencer about how he treats you." Ruby gave Emma a look that let her know she believed that about as much as Emma did but it seemed to make Mary Margaret feel better.

"I guess you're right," the upset brunette admitted. "I'm probably overreacting. I know how much David cares about me, he wouldn't have married me otherwise. It really doesn't matter if his asshole of a father likes me or not."

Both Ruby and Emma were a bit taken aback by the harsh language from their usually soft spoken friend, but they got over it quickly. "Hear hear!" Ruby agreed, raising her glass. Mary Margaret did the same, allowing their glasses to clink.

Emma smiled sadly, happy to see her friend feeling a bit better. She just wished she could shake her own melancholy feelings. It had been ten years since she gave up... Well, that was something she tried not to think about very often, but today of all days she was going to allow herself to be a little down.

Mary Margaret hadn't even noticed the blonde's poor mood, but Ruby was far more observant. "Are you okay?" Ruby asked quietly when Mary Margaret was distracted by drunkenly going on about David.

"I'm fine," she lied. It's a good thing that Ruby wasn't as good at telling when people are lying as Emma is. Ruby nodded and let Emma be.

"I'm going to go find the bathroom," Emma told them, getting up from the table. She didn't really need to use the washroom but she certainly needed some air.

She barely made it outside before the panic hit. What was she doing with her life? She wasn't paying attention to where she was going as she collided with a hard body.

"Sorry," she mumbled quietly, looking up to see the bluest eyes she had ever seen.

"It's quite alright, love."