Dark One's Daughter *Book One*

True North

💛 Edited--01.07.2020 💛

I was in a good mood this morning. Despite the call I'd got from Emma last night warning me about Golds threat. Pushing Mr Gold and his stupid threats to the back of my mind, I got up and got ready.

I decided to go and see Mary Margaret and see if she wanted to hang out.

When I got there I didn't bother knocking and just entered. To say I was confused would be an understatement; There were two random kids sitting at Mary Margaret's table eating her food.

I looked round for Mary Margaret and found her talking to Emma.

"Why are there two kids eating your food?" I whispered.

"They have no parents. Emma found them shoplifting and then living in a deserted house," Mary Margaret explained.

"Bless them," I muttered sadly.

"Do you know of them?" Emma asked me.

"No, I've never seen them before," I answered.

"Mary Margaret?"

"I mean, I've seen them at school but I had no idea. None of us did."

Emma looked at their file and read aloud.

"Ava and Nicholas Zimmer. Said their mother was a woman named Dorrie Zimmer. She died a few years ago," Emma read, looking at us for confirmation.

"Never heard of their mother," I said while Mary Margaret shook her head confused.

"No one seems to know her or remember her," Emma said.

"And the father?" Mary Margaret asked.

"There isn't one--at least not one that they know."

"What does, uh, what does social services say?" Mary Margaret asked.

Emma tilted her head to the side guiltily and looked down.

"You didn't report them," I muttered.

"I report them, I can't help them, they go back into the system," Emma defended.

"The system that's supposed to help," Mary Margaret said.

"Yeah, says the women who wasn't in it for 16 years," Emma snapped.

"Ok, Emma calm down. We get it. We have no idea what it's like but this system may be better now than when you were in it," I urgently whispered.

"Do you know what happens? They get thrown into homes where they are a meal ticket. Nothing more. These families get paid for these kids and as soon as they become too much work, they get tossed out and it all starts over again," Emma says still angry, but trying to not cause too much of a scene.

"They're not all like that," Mary Margaret adds sympathetically.

"All the ones I was in."

"What, we're just going to adopt them?" I asked sarcastically.

"I want to look for their father. They don't know him. He may not know they even exist."

"And you think if he knows he'll want them?" I realised.

"I don't know but what I do know is it's hard enough finding foster families to take one kid that isn't theirs, let alone two. It's their best shot or-" Emma began but was interrupted by a small voice.

"We're gonna be separated?" Ava asked.

"No. That's not gonna happen," Emma promised.

Mary Margaret and I looked at each other. Yes that was the cruel reality, but I don't think Emma should have made that promise unless she was 100% sure the father would want them.