I have wanted to do my own Charming family one shot series for a while but wanted mine to be different than other people's. Today, I got a pretty good idea (at least in my mind it is). They're all going to be AU, meaning while they will have the characters and the family, outside their backstories for most of them (I'll specify if they're not for whatever reason), they won't be based on the events in the show after Emma came to Storybrooke. Some may be AU of one of them going through the wardrobe with her, her being raised in the EF, them just being regular people in Storybrooke, etc. I'm going to try to keep ships out of this and keep them to one shots only. This is mainly a way for me to get the million different little AU plot bunnies I have for this family but don't have enough ideas/time for it to be multi-chapter. However, I will take prompts for new ones. Anyway, hope you all will enjoy them and let me know what you think, which ones you want to see in the future. I can't promise how long all of these will be.

For the first one, I'm sort of basing it off the pilot of Supernatural. Snow went through the wardrobe while she was still pregnant with Emma and found August. She raised both kids while they tried to locate their family. Emma got fed up with them telling her the story and took off. Now that they've found Storybrooke, Snow tracks Emma down to convince her to come with them.

Emma let out a long sigh as she climbed out of her bug, adjusting her purse over her shoulder. It had been a long day and all she wanted to do was make some cocoa (maybe sneak some brandy in there), eat her cupcake, soak in a tub and go to bed. She had to be back into the precinct early the next morning. She would never regret getting her criminal justice degree, but no one warned her the hours would still wear on her 6 years in. She headed inside to her apartment and threw her jacket onto the chair beside her blanket and dug through the bag the nice man at the corner store had stocked her items in. She pulled out her cupcake and stuck in the candle, fumbling to find a lighter. Once she lit the wick, she let out another sigh.

Her one wish? That she could be reunited with her mom and brother again. Or at least the ones that she had once been able to put up with. The three of them had constantly been on the move as a kid, trying to track down Emma's long lost birth father that according to her mother had been "cursed" along with August's father and the rest of the "kingdom". As a little girl, she thought the story was cool and exciting. But as she got older, she told them they could drop the act. She understood, sometimes dads just walked away. That Mary Margaret had adopted August and didn't want him to feel like he had been abandoned. She told them over and over again that they could drop the act, that they could just settle down.

But they didn't listen, they kept insisting it was real. So, they would move. Too often for Emma to ever really make many friends, settle down, have roots. Yes, she had them but they just seemed so delusional. She didn't mean for it to happen, but by her 16th birthday, she resented them. She hated them, but loved them at the same time. It all came to a head when her mother got a "lead" about California. Emma was nearing the end of her senior year and she told them they could go, but she wasn't. She took off for Massachusetts where she would go to college, make something of herself. She had barely spoken to either of them since. She missed them, more than anything. But she couldn't do it anymore. She couldn't feed their delusions.

Her father had walked out on her mother, he wasn't Prince Charming. August's father had abandoned him on the side of the road, he wasn't Geppetto. And Emma definitely was no savior.

Closing her eyes, she blew out the candle and suddenly heard rapid knocking on her door. Raising an eyebrow, she headed to the door, opening it. She nearly slammed it shut when she saw who was on the other side.

"Emma, wait," Mary Margaret said, holding out her hand. She looked older, age clearly catching up with her along with the stress. Emma wanted to pull her into a hug, she looked so tired. But then she remembered what letting her mother back in meant. The lies, the delusions…

"What are you doing here?" Emma asked, trying to keep her heart closed out.

Mary Margaret looked over her daughter, a smile on her face. She looked so good. The mother had worried so much about her. "Just let me in…we need to talk."

Emma wanted to really shut the door and go back to her cupcake, but she remembered her wish. "Alright, fine. Come in." She stepped aside and watched her mother come in.

"Happy birthday," Mary Margaret said, going to give her a hug, but Emma wouldn't allow it.

"Where's August?"

"He's already on his way to the next place," she explained. "I told him I would handle this."

Emma rolled her eyes. August always sent her a postcard whenever they moved again, in case she wanted to join them. "So, you're a currier now? Personally delivering the cards?"

"Emma," Mary Margaret gave her a weary look.

"I never show up. In the past 10 years, I have never once gone to help you guys."

"I know."

"Then why are you here now?"

"Because this is it," Mary Margaret told her. "We have confirmation, this is where your father is."

Emma groaned. "Mom! Come on! Haven't you caught on by now? He doesn't want to be found. You have spent 28 years doing this and for what?"

"I know you don't believe anymore," Mary Margaret told her softly. "But this is really it. If you just come with me to Storybrooke…"

"Storybrooke?" Emma moved closer and looked into her mother's eyes. Mary Margaret shifted, uncomfortably.

"What are you doing?"

"Checking to see if your pupils are dilated and if you're on drugs."

"Emma Ruth!" Mary Margaret chastised.

"Well come on! All you've ever done was go on and on about how you're Snow White and August is really Pinocchio, that we're all from a faraway land. Now, you're expecting me to believe there's really a place called Storybrooke?"

"It's in Maine," her mother continued, as if she hadn't just accused her of being a junkie. "We know that Regina is there…"

"Right, the Evil Queen," Emma dropped into her arm chair, knowing she would need more than just Brandy laced hot chocolate after this conversation.

Mary Margaret's eyes drifted to the baby blanket that hung off of it. She smiled and moved closer, grabbing hold of it. "You still have this."

"The one sane thing I have left," she told her.

Mary Margaret sighed. She knew that maybe she had screwed up when it came to telling Emma the story. She didn't stress about her being the savior, she didn't want her to feel pressured. But she told her the truth, always. Emma had believed it as a little girl. What kid wouldn't want to believe that their parents were Snow White and Prince Charming? That they were a princess? She wasn't sure exactly when Emma stopped believing, probably around the start of junior high. Emma knew better than to tell anyone the story, so it wasn't that other kids told her she was crazy. But it came with Emma connecting the dots. She had long stopped believing in Santa and the Tooth Fairy, so if they weren't real…how could her mother and brother's story be? After that, Emma constantly told her to just stop, to let them stay settled.

But she couldn't. Mary Margaret as Snow had promised she would find her husband. It took her 28 years but she finally had. It had broken her heart when Emma chose not to move with them after she graduated. She almost gave up, almost moved to just be closer to her. David would not want her to lose her relationship with Emma at the expense of finding him. But August had convinced her to keep going, to keep searching. She tried to stay in contact, but Emma hadn't wanted to. Anytime she visited, Emma clearly wasn't comfortable and eventually asked her to just stop. She respected it, as hard as it was. But she couldn't, not anymore. She was sure she could find a way to break the curse but that wasn't the point. Finding David didn't mean a thing if they couldn't be a family.

"Please," Mary Margaret said, kneeling in front of Emma.

"I have a life," Emma told her. "I can't just give it up to go on a wild goose chase."

"I am so proud of you, what you've done for yourself." Her mother looked around the apartment, it was nicer than some of the ones they had to live in over the years. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't think this was the real deal."

Emma shut her eyes. A part of her wanted to believe her mom, indulge her one last time, but she couldn't. She had gotten out of the game 10 years ago and she wasn't going back. "I can't. I'm sorry, Mom." She got up and headed for the kitchen. "I know it's hard for you to accept, but my father doesn't want us, he doesn't want you or me. I wish it wasn't the case, for both of us, but it is."

Mary Margaret had to think, fast. "A week."

Emma turned around, confused. "Huh?"

"Just come with me for a week. It's all I ask. If you still don't believe me, if nothing can be done, I'll understand." Mary Margaret swallowed, hard, not wanting to say what came next, but she had to. "I won't…I won't bother you about it again. I'll give up. I'll even come back here with you and we can work on everything." She did really want to work on their relationship and knew that finding David wouldn't magically make it better, but they could work on it anywhere.

Emma looked into her mother's eyes and saw that look, the same she had seen over the years. The one filled with desperation and hope, the one she had grown to hate. She understood her mom's side, as insane as she found it. She didn't want to believe that her true love had really walked out on her. She could also tell when her mom was being serious, not just when she believed her own delusions. She meant what she said, if this "Storybrooke" was a bust, it would finally be over. Maybe she could get her mother back…

"Alright."

Mary Margaret smiled. "Seriously?"

Emma nodded. "One week, that's it," she said. Suddenly, her mother's arms were being thrown around her. "Oh." She reluctantly returned the hug, she couldn't deny that she had missed her mother's hugs…

"You won't regret this, Emma," Mary Margaret whispered. "I promise."

Emma rested her chin on her mother's shoulder. "I hope not."

Let me know what you think? The next one will be a completely different AU that I got an idea for, but of course I do take prompts for ones you guys want to see.