Because I met you

1

Emma Swan is a very private girl. Her life certainly hadn't been pleasant: she was left at the side of the road, minutes after her birth. She has always been in the foster system and in too many foster homes to count. Nearly all of the homes had been bad. After her last foster home, two nice people had decided to take her in.

~
Emma sighed as she took her bag with all of her belongings and went to exit the car. She put the bag over her shoulder and winced. The bruises she had gotten from her last foster home still hurt. She looked at the building in front of her and her social worker, Riley, opened the door. As Emma walked inside, she felt the wounds on her ankles opening a little. It hurt and she gritted her teeth. Riley and she walked up a few stairs before Riley stopped in front of a green door. She knocked and it opened almost immediately. "Hi!! You're Emma, right? I'm Mary Margaret and this is my husband David," the brunette, who had opened the door, said. Next to her stood a blonde man who smiled kindly. Emma just stood next to Riley awkwardly. "Why don't you come in?" David asked. He stepped aside and Emma walked in, Riley following her. Emma pursed her lips together at the feeling of the wounds opening even more. "Can I take off my shoes?" she asked. "Of course," Mary said. Emma put off her shoes as fast as she could and pulled her socks down a little, so they weren't touching her wounds. As she sighed in relief, Mary and David gasped. They looked at each other for a moment and shook their head. 'This is it,' Emma thought bitterly, 'they've already decided that I'm weird and stupid and broken and they're gonna send me back.' "If you're gonna send me back, just say it already," Emma said, looking up at the ceiling to stop the tears from welling up in her eyes. Mary and David looked at her, a little shocked. "Of course we're not gonna send you back, you just got here," David said. Emma looked confused. "You're not?" Mary shook her head. "No," she said. "Then why did you shake your head at each other?" Emma asked. "We were curious as to how you got those wounds, but decided not to ask and let you tell us if you want that," David said gently. "Oh," Emma said, feeling a little dumb. Mary turned to the bathroom. "I'll grab some bandages for your wounds, why don't you all sit down?"

After Emma's wounds were cared for, a chat and a look around the loft, Riley left and Mary Margaret led Emma upstairs. "This will be your room, do you like it?" she said. Emma looked around the room, her eyes widened at the sight. The room wasn't big, but bigger than she ever had. It was light and cozy, made you feel at home. "I love it, thank you," Emma said. Mary just smiled. "I'll leave you alone for now, just relax and stuff. I'll call you when dinner is ready, okay?" Emma nodded.
After Mary left, she took another look around the room. Slowly, she made her way over to the bed. Her experiences with beds weren't the best. Her foster fathers often tied her there and did other things with her. Sighing and shuddering at the memories, Emma sat on the floor. Her experiences with small rooms weren't good either. In some foster homes, when she did something wrong, she got forced into a small space and they left her there for days without food and water. This was why she was claustrophobic. She had gotten more beatings in a home than a person got in their life. Emma shuddered once more and just opened her bag with all of her belongings. She put it on the floor next to the bed, not thinking she would stay very long here. No one wanted her, it wouldn't take long for Mary and David to realise that.
"Emma!" Mary called from downstairs. Emma flinched. In the homes, they called her down, then yelled at her and hit her. "Dinner's ready, you coming?" Mary called. Emma got back to reality with those words. 'This home is safe, these people are safe,' she told herself in thought. She came downstairs to a table full of food with David and Mary sitting on either side of the table. "Hi, take a seat," David said. Emma hesitated. Then she sat next to Mary, her experiences with women were mostly the beatings and she preferred that over what men had done to her.
She waited, not knowing if David and Mary wanted to pray or anything like that. "Let's eat, shall we," David said, breaking the silence. Emma gently took some food and put it on her plate. "You can take more if you want," Mary said. Emma immediately grabbed more and started eating the food like she hadn't seen some in days. That was partly true; in the homes she'd gotten just a little. Mary and David ate slower while observing her. Emma did look very skinny, a little skinnier than what was healthy.
They all ate in silence, Mary and David spoke to Emma sometimes, not knowing what to say either.
"Hey Em, because you're seventeen and not finished with your education, you have to go to school," Mary started. "There is a school in this town, Storybrooke High. Is it okay if you're going there?" Emma couldn't believe her ears. Mary and David were so sweet. Other foster parents would just shake her awake one day, pull her out of bed by her hair and snapped at her that she needed to get dressed and go to school. She often was late because she didn't know where the school was. "Yes, that's okay with me. Thank you," she said.