Alright lovely peeps, here's the latest update. This chapter is going to set up a character and a slight problem that may arise. I tried keeping it light because the next few chapters are going to head into a little darker territory. As always, love the reviews. 3A

Warning: Emma has a slight panic attack this chapter. She also hurts herself, just a little. Read at your own discretion.

XX XX

Emma woke up before the sun's rays hit her face. At first she was disoriented, like she'd been for the last four mornings, but then she remembered where she was. She remembered that she had parents now. She wasn't sure what that meant, but she wanted to make sure that she didn't mess anything up. It'd been the same for the past four days, she would sit in her bed and wait for Snow or David to come into her room to "wake" her up. Now that they were really her parents were things different? Emma got out of bed and tiptoed to the door. She put her ear to the door to see if she could hear anything. After a few moments she realized that no one was outside so she slowly opened her door. She stopped in front of Snow and David's door, she listened for their voices.

"You think so?" Snow's muffled voice could be heard.

"Snow, look at me. This is going to take time, but I'm sure eventually she'll warm up to the idea. We don't want to freak her out on her first official day. So, how about we wait and see what today brings." Emma could hear David kiss Snow, he did that an awful lot. Emma wondered if this is how regular people acted or if David and Snow were the exception. She'd never seen two people so in love before. Suddenly, Emma heard David's footsteps coming closer. She backed away a little so that it looked like she was just emerging from her room. "Hey princess, how did you sleep?"

Emma rubbed her eyes for emphasis, "Pretty good. I like my bed, it's really fluffy. How did you guys sleep?"

Snow came out of the room pulling on her cardigan, "We slept well. How about you get changed and I'll make us some breakfast?"

"What are we going to have?" Emma was hoping Snow didn't make those healthy oatmeal pancakes again, she liked pancakes but not when they were so healthy.

David walked over and kissed the top of Emma's head, "How about I make my super special pancakes without any oatmeal," he leaned down and whispered in Emma's ear, "and with lots of chocolate chips."

Emma beamed up at him. "That sounds fantastic! I'll be down soon." She turned around and headed back into her room.

"You promised her chocolate in the morning? David, really?" Snow stood with her hands on her hips.

David grinned and began walking down the stairs, "It's her first day as our official daughter, I thought I'd make it memorable. Besides, she'll never tell you that she doesn't like your healthy oatmeal pancakes."

"She loved my pancakes."

David turned around as he entered the kitchen, "Of course she did dear. That's why she put half the bottle of syrup on it and actually drank all of her milk."

Snow tried to swat David playfully, but he was too quick and made his way into the kitchen. Snow went to her bag and started going through her papers for the day, "I don't want to go to school today, is that bad?"

David thought for a moment, "No, I don't think so. I don't want to go to work either. How about this weekend, we do whatever we want. No responsibilities. We don't even have to plan anything, we'll just go."

"I like that idea." Snow stood on her tiptoes and kissed David. "You come up with some good ideas, my charming prince."

"Anything for you my dear."

XX XX

After a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes the family headed out for the day. Emma was slightly nervous because she had never had to worry about parents before. She didn't know how she was supposed to act at school, what were her parents going to expect of her? Emma started fidgeting in the backseat. "Um, can I ask a question?"

"Of course sweetie."

"Uh, what am I supposed to do at school?"

"What do you mean princess?"

Emma shifted in her seat, "Well, I've never had parents before. I don't know what you want me to do. I don't want to mess up."

Snow turned around in her seat so that she could see Emma, "Listen to me Emma and listen very closely." Snow waited until Emma was looking into her eyes. "You don't have to do anything differently, you need to act like you. If for some reason you do something that we don't like we'll talk to you about it. We won't ever leave you because of a mistake you might make. Don't stress about what you might do."

"I… I don't know how... to…" Emma's chest began constricting.

Snow reached back and grabbed Emma's hand, "Look at me. Breath with me baby. It's ok." Snow turned to David, "David pull over, I need to get in the back."

David pulled the car over and Snow let go of Emma's hand. Snow climbed into the backseat and wrapped her arms around Emma.

"I… can't…" Emma tried to talk, but was having trouble breathing.

"Emma, baby, listen to my heart and feel my chest going in and out. It's ok baby. I'm right here." Snow held Emma's head so that it rested onto her chest. Emma slowly began to catch her breath again. "Ok sweetie, you're doing so good. Now listen to me, you are perfect. You are everything we've always wanted. There is no need to worry about who you think you have to be. We love you so much."

Emma quickly snapped her head up toward Snow, "You love me?"

"Princess, we love you more than you will ever know." David squeezed Emma's hand.

"No one's ever said that to me before."

"Well, get used to it." Snow kissed the top of Emma's head. "Now, do you feel better?"

Emma quickly sat up off of Snow, just realizing what had happened, "I'm sorry. I won't do it again." She held on to her left hand and began angrily rubbing her nail across her palm. Emma was trying to distract herself so that she didn't cry.

"Emma, sweetie. You have nothing to be sorry about. You had a panic attack, it happens to a lot of people."

Emma's hands stopped, "It does?"

"It does and it's nothing to be ashamed about." Snow smiled at Emma and then got back into the front seat.

"We ready girls?" David tried to lighten the mood as he turned on the radio a little louder.

XX XX

School was good for Emma, she did all of her worksheets and even decided to make a few friends on the playground. Usually, she would just sit on a bench and watch the other kids. The kids stopped asking her if she wanted to play after the second week of her declining to play. She actually had a good day and she was so excited to tell her parents. She ran across the hall when the bell rang. "Guess what!?" Emma was a little overenthusiastic and didn't realize how loud she yelled.

Snow jumped, almost falling, "Oh my goodness! You scared the dickens out of me Emma." Snow's heart was still beating pretty quickly, but she saw the smile fad from Emma's face and knew that she had to change the subject. "What happened that has got you so excited?" She tried to make her voice sounds as happy and excited as possible so that Emma might sense that she really wanted to know.

"Umm, well." Emma all the sudden became shy. "I had a good day at school."

Snow cleaned off a corner of her desk and set a chair next to hers, "Well, why don't you come over here and tell me all about it. I have to pack up some of these papers while you tell me."

Emma walked over and sat in the offered chair, "I did really good in class today." She was very tentative, trying not to get over excited again, "I finished all of my worksheets on time and I didn't even need to ask for help. It was a review day." She started getting excited again and was sitting on her knees, "I even helped my new friend Lilly. I've never helped anyone before. I always need the help." Snow had finished packing up and was staring right at a very excited Emma. "Also, I made new friends. I never did before because I always thought that I was going to go away, but you said that we'd stay here so I tried making some friends. My favorite friend is Lilly, she's really shy and she likes to draw. I had so much fun today. I didn't worry about doing anything wrong like you said and it worked." Emma let out a big breath as she finished.

Snow was smiling from ear to ear, "I'm so glad that you had a good day and I'm also glad that you made some friends. Now, do you have any homework Daddy…" Snow froze, they hadn't used mom or dad since they met Emma. They didn't want to scare her. "I mean David will be here in about 20 minutes. If we get your homework out of the way you won't have to do it when we get home."

Emma pulled out her folder from school and placed a few sheets of paper on the desk. She looked up at Snow, "Do you want me to call you mom and dad?"

"Honey, I want you to call us whatever feels most comfortable. We are your mom and dad and that will never change, but we want it to be up to you. We want you to decide when or even if you call us mom and dad. I slipped earlier, we've been trying to remember not to refer to ourselves as mom and dad." Snow turned her chair and held Emma's face in her hands, "I'm sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable, that's the last thing that I want to do."

Emma shrugged her shoulders and looked away from Snow, "I just need some time to think about it," her head snapped back toward Snow, "if that's ok with you."

"That's perfectly fine with me." Snow rubbed circles on Emma's back, "Now, what do we have here. Oh, math, reading, and what is this?"

Emma held up the paper, "This is going to be my favorite assignment. We have to draw what we think we are going to look like when we are one hundred years old. Tomorrow is the 100th day of school. That's the longest I've ever been at one school. Also, I think it'll be really funny to draw an old lady. Do you think my hair will still be blonde when I'm that old?"

Snow marveled at her daughter. She had just given her daughter something monumental to think about and then Emma let it slip that she had never been at one school very long. Now she wanted to know if her hair was going to be blonde when she was old. Oh, how fascinating is the brain of a child. "You know what honey, I think your hair is magical and it will be blonde when you get to be 100."

XX XX

David picked Emma and Snow up outside the school and drove them all home. Emma went to the back yard and began playing with all the boxes they had from moving. She started piling them up to make a castle.

Snow turned sharply, looking worried, "David, Emma said she made a friend today. She said her name is Lilly. I feel like that name should ring a bell. Do we know a Lilly?"

"She was Emma's friend when she was little."

"I remember that part, but there's more. She was someone in Storybook."

"Storybrooke."

"Oh yeah, in Storybrooke. She was someone's daughter."

"Was it Rumple's?"

"Rumple doesn't have a daughter, he has a son, Neal. We have to get Emma to meet him when she's 17. No it was someone evil that we came into contact when Emma was a baby. I just can't remember."

Snow and David sat in silence for a few moments. David was the first to stand, "Maleficent. I remember now. Lilly was all about getting revenge on us and Mal helped calm her."

"Why couldn't I remember, I've been trying to think about it for the last hour. Do you think that we're forgetting or that I'm just stressed? It was after I accidentally called you daddy to Emma."

David's eyes got big, "How did she take it?"

"In stride, like she always does. She said she needs to think about it. I don't expect her to start calling us Mom and Dad any time soon. It took her a good two years before she stayed calling us Mom and Dad."

"She did let it slip when we all thought we were going to die."

Snow playfully punched David in the arm, "Not funny."

"See we're not losing our memory, you were just stressed." David pulled Snow into a kiss.

Snow pulled away slightly, "I'll trust you for now, but if anything else like this happens we need to think up a contingency plan. We can't leave all of our friends cursed forever."

"Sounds like a plan to me." David continued kissing Snow.

Dinner was exciting for the family because Emma got to retell her day to David and then David got to tell the family all about the animals that he saved. After dinner the family sat around the t.v. and watched Cinderella. Snow figured they'd start with a different princess than Snow White to slowly ease Emma into the fairy tale world.

XX XX

After the movie Snow got Emma up and headed toward the bathroom. "Ok honey, I think it's time you took a bath. What do you think?"

"I think that I took a bath three days ago and I'm still clean, so maybe I can wait until tomorrow." Emma smiled her most charming smile at Snow.

"Ha. That charming smile won't work on me little girl. How about I make you a deal? If you can take a shower or bath every night I will read you a bedtime story."

"No matter how late it is?"

"No matter how late it is. But you have to take your shower or bath without complaining and you have to make sure you're fully clean."

Emma extended her hand, "Deal."

"Deal. Now how about I go get you some pjs and you hop in the shower." Snow began walking away.

"If I hop I'll slip." Emma whispered to herself, or so she thought.

"Then maybe you should very carefully step into the shower, but I think hop in the shower sounds a little better." Snow tickled the sides of Emma's stomach where she knew she was ticklish.

Emma let out a loud giggle, "Ok. Ok. I give up. I'll hop in the shower!"

"Good girl." Snow kissed the top of Emma's head and went to get her some pajamas.

Emma took her time and made sure she was properly cleaned. She got out of the shower to find her clothes neatly folded on the counter. After she had dried off and gotten dressed she emerged from the bathroom feeling fresh and clean. She walked to her bedroom and as promised Snow was sitting on her bed with a big story book. What she hadn't expected was for David to be there sitting next to Snow.

"Hey princess, all clean?" David stood up and helped Emma climb on the bed.

"I'm so clean, I might blind you with my shininess." Emma jumped and spun around.

Snow pulled Emma toward her, "You smell very good. How about I brush your hair while David starts the story? He does better voices anyway."

"Yay!"

David began the story while Snow brushed out Emma's tangled curls. As David neared the middle of the story Snow was finishing her second french braid. Emma was beginning to nod off so Snow slid her under the covers.

Emma's eyes opened quickly, "Wait. I don't want to go to sleep yet. I need to tell you something."

David stopped reading, "Ok. What is it?"

"It's kinda hard for me to say things out loud sometimes."

"That's ok baby, take your time."

"Remember earlier when you asked me if I had any homework and then you said that word of who you guys are?"

Snow understood where Emma was going with her question. "You mean when I called David your daddy?"

"Yeah," Emma looked down at her hands and then back up at her parents. "I think it would be nice if you called each other that. I don't know if I can call you that yet, but I want to one day. I'm just not ready. It still feels like a dream sometimes."

Snow bent forward and kissed Emma's forehead, "Of course that's ok baby."

"And princess, never be scared to talk to us. If something is hard for you to tell us, we'll try to help you. I'm really good at charades, if it has to come to that." David stroked the side of Emma's cheek.

"What's charades?"

"Oh, it's a really fun game. Maybe we can play it this weekend. You can't say anything!" David's eyes shone with excitement.

"Are you really good at it?"

David grinned. Snow elbowed him in the stomach, "Your dad thinks he's the best at charades, but I have a feeling that you're going to be able to beat him fairly easy."

"Your mom's just jealous because she's no good at it. She always gets out for talking."

Emma started laughing. Snow put on a mock sad face, "Just so you know… I do not always get out for talking, just sometimes."

"I can't wait to play!"

"I can't either, but for tonight how about we finish up this story princess? I want to find out what happens to Alice, don't you?" David opened the story book back up.

"Yes!" Emma snuggled into her covers. After a few moments she slowly took her arm out of the covers and laid it really close to Snow's hand.

Snow understood this was Emma's way of asking for affection without actually asking. Snow quietly enveloped her daughter's hand into her own.