Author's Note: As always, thanks so much for reading and reviewing! This is a little bit of a filler chapter with some family time for Emma, Henry and Mia and then a good breakthrough for Emma and Mia. The author's note at the end has a spoiler for this so if you don't want to know what's coming up, don't read it!

Chapter 22

After dinner they watched a movie on Netflix on Emma's laptop. Emma sat in the middle of the couch with a kid on each side of her, and her laptop open in her lap. Henry's feet were on the coffee table and he was sprawled out on her right side, leaning into her and resting his head casually on her shoulder. Mia was curled up on her left side with her feet underneath her, peering over Emma's shoulder at the computer screen. They were watching one of the newer Marvel movies – it had been Henry's choice, but Mia had quickly agreed. The girl admitted that she hadn't read any of the comics – something Henry was already planning to change. It was a semi-normal family moment – one of the only they'd really had since coming to Storybrooke. It had been a lot of time away from Henry and Mia, and secrets and lies when she was actually with them. It made Emma miss New York.

Oh, she knew things wouldn't have been easy with her daughter no matter where they were…it wouldn't change the fact that she gave the girl up, and the girl went through hell in the system. Emma would still feel guilty, and Mia would still be angry. The kid probably wouldn't have listened to her in any zip code. But at least if the girl ran off in New York, she would have gone to Central Park or the library or somewhere like that…not the wicked witch's house.

Emma was actually relieved both kids knew everything now, although she didn't love how Mia found out. She didn't like lying to her kids, and she hoped knowing who Zelena really was would make Mia stay the hell away from her. She glanced at the girl in question and wrapped an arm around her thin shoulders, pulling her daughter into her side. It took a second for Mia to relax against her, but she did after a moment, even resting her head on Emma's shoulder like Henry was.

Mia fell asleep like that before the movie ended. The girl's weight became dead weight, her head lolled on Emma's shoulder, and her breathing evened out. The poor kid had to be exhausted after the day she'd had.

Henry glanced over at his sister. "Is she asleep?"

"Yes," Emma whispered.

"But she's okay, right? Zelena really didn't hurt her?" Henry asked anxiously.

"Right." Emma glanced at her son. "You were worried about her?"

"Duh. She's my sister."

Emma chuckled softly. "She is definitely your twin. You don't remember any of this, but you ran away a couple times yourself."

Henry turned to her with wide eyes. "I did?"

"You ran away from Regina to find me. You were ten, and you hopped a bus out of town and went all the way to Boston alone." Emma arched an eyebrow and gave him a look of disapproval.

Henry shrugged. "It was for a good cause…to find you," he said, offering her a sheepish grin.

Emma cracked a smile. "I'm glad you found me."

"Me, too," Henry mumbled sleepily.

Emma nudged his shoulder. "Okay, kid, time for bed."

"But the movie's not over," Henry protested weakly.

"The avengers win," Emma told him, knowing he'd already read the comic and seen the movie.

"Good always wins," Henry mumbled as he stood up.

Emma watched him trudge into the bathroom and then turned to Mia. After waking her – or at least trying to, Emma maneuvered the half-asleep kid over to the bed. Once Mia flopped down on top of the bed, Emma pulled the covers up over her.

"Good night, Mom," Henry told her as he got into the other bed.

Emma kissed the top of his head and tucked him in. "Good night, kid. I love you."

Mia suddenly found herself back in Zelena's farmhouse. Emma burst into the farmhouse, demanding that the redheaded woman give her Henry's book.

"Why would I give it to you?" Zelena said in a slightly mocking tone. "You're the savior, and I'm wicked."

"It's my son's book. I'm not leaving without it," Emma told her.

"Perhaps you won't be leaving at all," Zelena mused.

The redheaded woman disappeared and reappeared right behind Emma.

"Emma!" Mia cried, but her birth mother didn't act like she heard her.

A ball of something – energy maybe – appeared in Zelena's right hand, and she raised her hand as if to throw it at Emma.

"Emma!" Mia yelled.

Emma still didn't act like she heard her, but she must have sensed Zelena's presence behind her because she whipped around. Her eyes widened in fear when she saw Zelena.

Emma raised her own hands in a defensive pose. Mia held her breath as she waited, reminding herself that her birth mother had magic, too. The woman could take care of herself…couldn't she?

Emma looked at her hands in surprise…almost like she was wondering why she didn't have a strange ball of energy of her own. What was she doing? If Emma didn't do something, and fast-

It was too late. Zelena's ball of energy hit Emma squarely in the chest. Mia watched in horror as her birth mother cried out and fell to the ground.

"NO!" Mia screamed as she ran over to the blonde woman. She could hear Zelena almost cackling in the background. She dropped to her knees next to Emma and leaned over her, shaking her a little. "Emma? Emma! Emma!"

Mia yelled her birth mother's name over and over again, sounding more desperate every time, but Emma just lied there motionlessly. The green eyes that normally looked at Mia with so much understanding were completely lifeless.

Her birth mother – her mom – was dead.

"Mia!"

Someone was calling her name…someone who sounded almost as desperate as Mia felt. It almost sounded like Emma.

It took Mia several long seconds to wake up from the nightmare, and even longer to realize that it was a nightmare. Emma wasn't dead. Emma was standing over her, looking at her with eyes filled with concern and maybe even fear.

"Emma?" Mia asked in a small voice. She needed to hear her mother's voice.

"Kid," Emma breathed. "You're okay."

Mia struggled into a sitting position with the covers tangled around her feet. She was breathing heavily as she came down from the panic and fear that had risen in her. She reached out for Emma instinctively, putting a hand on the woman's wrist and squeezing once – not hard, but enough to know her birth mother was there and real.

Emma glanced at the hand that was wrapped around her wrist in surprise. The woman hesitated for a second and then spoke. "Scoot over."

Mia blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Scoot over," Emma repeated.

Mia obeyed without really thinking. Emma climbed into bed next to her.

Emma woke up in the middle of the night because she heard crying – or yelling – or maybe both. She wasn't sure. She was still half-asleep.

After a moment, she realized that it was both, and it was Mia. Her daughter was crying out in her sleep…another nightmare then. Emma hoped the man who gave her daughter nightmares was locked up in maximum-security prison. Trey Gilbert deserved it. Actually, he deserved far worse than prison.

Emma glanced at Henry's bed and was surprised to see that he'd slept through all the crying and yelling. The bed he was sleeping in was only maybe two or three feet away from Mia's bed, separated only by the nightstand in the middle of the two queen beds. It was a pretty typical layout for a hotel room with two beds.

As Emma stumbled over to Mia's bed in the dark, she realized the girl wasn't just crying out…she was crying out for her. Her own name came out of the girl's mouth in an almost strangled sound. At first she wondered if she heard right, but she didn't have to wonder for long…the girl cried out for her again, over and over again.

That was new. Mia didn't come to her for help – or at least she hadn't in the few weeks she'd been living with Emma. The kid let Emma help her…some of the time, not all the time, but she didn't actually ask for help ever.

Emma's heart hurt for her daughter, knowing that she hadn't been there to protect her when Trey was hurting her. No one had. Her kid had been alone with that sick bastard.

Emma had been saving her son from Pan while Trey was hurting her daughter. Nothing Emma could do now would change that. She didn't know how to make things better for the girl, or if she even could. Sure, she could wake her up from her nightmare, but it wasn't just a nightmare…it had really happened to the little girl.

Emma had woken the kid up from nightmares before – a couple of times, but this time was different, and not just because the kid was crying out for her. Mia always cried out almost desperately, but the girl's cries had never been filled with grief like this. Something was just…different...wrong even.

The kid was also harder to wake up than she had ever been before. It was like she was stuck in the nightmare and couldn't wake. It almost reminded Emma of the nightmares Mary Margaret had described being stuck in from the sleeping curse, and that scared the hell out of Emma.

Finally the girl's eyes flew open and met Emma's. The girl looked surprised to see her even though she'd been calling for her.

"Emma?"

Emma almost sighed in relief. The kid was finally awake. "Kid…you're okay." She was trying to reassure herself of the fact almost as much as she was trying to calm Mia down.

Mia sat up in the bed, her breaths coming in harsh gasps. She reached out and grabbed Emma's wrist, startling Emma. Her hand tightened for a brief moment and then relaxed slowly.

Emma didn't know what to do. She had tried to get Mia to talk about her nightmares before, but Mia would not talk to her about Trey…not now that she knew Emma was her mother. Emma didn't quite understand why it was easier for Mia to talk to her about Trey when she was just some random person and not her mother, but it was for some reason.

Her daughter clearly wanted her in that moment, but Emma didn't know what she wanted her to do exactly. Well, she knew her daughter probably wouldn't want to talk about it with her, even if talking would help. What did the girl want then? Emma knew that she had always just wanted to feel like she wasn't alone when she woke up from a nightmare in the middle of the night as a kid…she felt scared and alone, and wanted so badly to have parents whose bed she could sleep in for the rest of the night, but none of her foster parents had allowed her in their bedroom, even when she was pretty young.

"Scoot over," Emma said gently after a moment's thought.

Mia looked confused. "What?"

"Scoot over."

Mia did, and Emma climbed into the queen bed next to her. She looped an arm around the girl's shoulders, and pulled her daughter into her side, hoping the tense girl would relax against her like she had when they were watching the movie.

Mia almost melted in her arms, burying her head in Emma's shoulder. Emma could feel the girl's shuddered breathing against her neck. The girl's fingers curled tightly around the bottom of Emma's tank top.

"That was one heck of a nightmare." Emma offered the kid a sympathetic smile before realizing that Mia couldn't actually see her with the way her face was buried in Emma's shoulder. "It seemed like it was a bit worse than normal."

"Yeah," Mia admitted, murmuring the word quietly into Emma's shoulder.

Really? That was all the kid was going to give her?

"You said my name."

Mia's head snapped up and she pulled back just enough to look at her with wide eyes. "I – I did?"

"Uh-huh."

Mia bit her bottom lip and looked down. Emma waited a few seconds to see if the girl would say anything, but realized after a moment that she wasn't going to.

"Did I kill Trey?" Emma asked hopefully, trying to keep her tone light…almost joking.

Mia blinked in confusion. "It wasn't about Trey."

Emma frowned. "What was it about then?"

Mia considered her answer carefully. "Zelena."

Emma's frown deepened. She knew Zelena's show of magic had scared her daughter, but she didn't think it would give the kid nightmares. She sighed. "I wish you had listened to me and stayed away from her."

"I'm sorry."

"I know," Emma told her, combing her fingers gently through her daughter's hair…it was tangled from sleep.

Mia let out a soft sigh and rested her head on Emma's shoulder again. "You have magic, right?" The girl murmured after a few seconds. "Like Zelena?"

Emma looked down at the girl in surprise. "Not exactly like Zelena. I have light magic."

"Oh." There was something in Mia's voice that Emma didn't understand. "Can you throw balls of energy?"

"What? Did Zelena-"

"No. I mean, not actually, but in my dream she did."

"You don't have to worry about that because she's not going to get within throwing distance of you," Emma told her.

"She didn't throw it at me. She threw it at you," Mia mumbled into her shoulder. "In my dream…it killed you."

Oh. Oh. That was why the girl was crying out for her. "Oh, kid. I'm right here. And I'm fine."

"Yeah, now."

"Zelena has magic, but I have magic, too. If she comes at me, I'm not going down without a fight," Emma told her. "I will fight like hell against her because I have something to fight for – my family…you and Henry."

"But what if you lose?" Mia almost whispered.

Emma inhaled sharply. She didn't want to think about that…she didn't want her kid to think about that. Instead of answering, she said, "You know, dreams are your subconscious at work."

"Okay, Dr. Phil," Mia said sarcastically.

Emma shot her a look and pressed on. "When I found you in the woods, you thought you'd screwed up so bad that I would just give up on you."

Mia lowered her gaze, avoiding eye contact.

"You didn't. You couldn't. No matter what you do, you are a part of this family, and families stick together. But I don't know…maybe you were so afraid you'd be alone again that you dreamed you were," Emma mused.

"Maybe," Mia muttered with heavy doubt in her voice. "I'm okay now. You can go back to sleep. I'm sorry I woke you up."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Emma told her.

After several long seconds, Mia looked up at her. "Aren't you going back to the couch?"

"No," Emma said, "I'm staying right here."

Emma ignored her daughter's half-hearted protest and slid down until she was lying down with her head on the pillow instead of sitting up in the bed. She kept an arm wrapped around Mia's shoulders, pulling her daughter down with her so the girl was lying next to her.

Mia wriggled around a little to get comfortable. She fell asleep before Emma did, and Emma just lie awake, watching her daughter sleep for a little while. She couldn't get her mind to shut off. She didn't know how to help her daughter, and it was killing her.

The poor kid had nightmares almost every night…nightmares where she relived all the crap she'd gone through in the system and now nightmares about losing her.

Emma decided that if Mia wouldn't talk to Archie, she was going to, damn it. Maybe he could help her find a way to help her daughter.

Author's Note: Here's a question I'd love to hear your thoughts on. Mia is going to slip off at some point to talk to Zelena again. It won't be in the next chapter, but it will be in one of the next few. She will have a reason for doing it, and it will be a pretty good one. Do you think Henry would cover for her if he understood her reason for doing it? Do you think he would tell on her if he thought there was any chance she could get hurt? I can't decide how he would react, and I'm trying to keep him in character.