Chapter Text
She's fifteen when they send her to a doctor. Just a check-up, they said. She hadn't known what was wrong with her. (She still doesn't. but let's pretend that she does.) Words like delusional and crazy and please help us had flown out of these imposters mouths. These people who claim to be her parents.
Please..She had figured out long ago that she didn't have parents. These people didn't care.
No. Emma Swan was an orphan.
Delusional, they had called her. Unstable.
But she wasn't, was she?
Was she?
She had been sixteen when she had attacked her so-called mother. And so she had ben sixteen when they had admitted her to the mental hospital. She had been furious in the beginning. She had fought, struggled, broken rules and been disobedient.
It had earned her quite the number of days in isolation.
Not that she had cared.
Had she?
She's 18 when she finally considers the hospital her home. When she considers the other patients her friends and family.
She doesn't consider Mary Margaret and David her parents, though.
They had tried to convince her by DNA results, by birthmarks, by pictures of them together as she grew up. But she didn't believe them.
she was an orphan.
She was.
"Emma, you're late!" The now-nineteen years old blonde startled when her best friend barged into her room. She had no idea what time it was, except that it was late for well, something.
"Rubes, what are you talking about?"
Ruby raised an eyebrow. "You're late for your meds. Come on, everyone's already had them. Blue isn't going to be happy!"
Okay, so Blue (also known as Mother Superior) was someone that Emma didn't concider a friend. Nor family. Blue was a bitch. A too religious bitch who expected everyone to pray before any meal.
Not a chance.
They did it anyways.
Ruby and she always sat together during meals, seeing that they were best friends and keeping each other calm, the guards had let them. They had been worried at first, keeping a good eye on them. Of course they would. A delusional who thinks she's a werewolf and a delusional who's quite aggressive may cause some trouble.
Ruby dragged Emma by the arm back to the main hall where Blue was tapping her foot, clearly irritated that her schedule of today got messed up, even if only slightly. The woman was nothing if not punctual.
Giving an, albeit goofy, yet apologizing smile, Emma quickly took her meds and made her way over to where Ruby was already shuffling cards. She was hyper, the blonde noticed. The lanky brunette's leg wildly bouncing even though she's sitting and the constant moving of her bare feet.
Emma looked at her own sock-clad feet. Shoes weren't allowed inside. Neither were bare feet, since it was 'unhygienic', but Ruby was a special case. Werewolf, you see.
The blonde wiggled her toes before sitting down on the chaise opposite to Ruby, who quickly devided the cards and put a large stack in the middle.
"So." She said after a while, capturing Emma's attention. "How was your session with Hopper this morning?"
Emma huffed. "Same as always. Talking about my childhood." She rolled her eyes.
Ruby just nodded before laying down a card. Emma topped the card with her own, distracted.
"There's a new girl." Ruby said then. Emma's head snapped up.
"What?"
"You haven't heard? Apparently she's a real loony."
"You are too." Emma snarked.
"We all are. I'm just telling you what I've heard. Some say she murdered someone, because she's in isolation."
"She would be in prison had she murdered someone." Emma reasoned.
"Yeah.... She could have hurt someone, though. Or she might hurt someone. Remember Victor?"
They both cringed at the name.
Victor had been so convinced that he was a doctor, that he'd even performed a surgery on his sleeping roommate.
Roommates were forbidden ever since, and Victor had been put into a psych ward somewhere North of the country.
"..How long has she been here?"
Ruby shrugged. "Dunno. I heard she arrived yesterday. No one's seen her. Some claim they have, but I don't believe them."
Emma nodded and shuffled her cards.
"When will we see her?"
"Dunno." Ruby said again. Emma just sighed.
Later that day, Emma couldn't concentrate. Apparently, everyone was talking about this new patient. After all, it wasn't often that a newbie arrived.
She was supposed to be making homework, (because you still need education, Emma!), but her mind was far away from her literature essay. She could hear them talking. The patients and the nurses. She couldn't understand them. What were they saying? It didn't make any sense!
Trying to focus on her paper, she peered back at her laptop screen and flexed her fingers, exhaling slowly.
She could do this.
She could focus.
concentrate.
Finish her essay.
...
No she couldn't.
She angrily saved her progress before slamming her laptop shut, causing some patients to jump. She pretended not to notice as she made her way to her room.
"Emma, where are you going?" Kathryn, a younger, blonde nurse asked as she stopped the fuming girl.
"To my room. Lemme pass."
"It's recreation, Emma. You aren't allowed to go to your room now. You know that.. Why don't you tell me what's wrong, hm? "
Emma chuckled humorlessly.
"You're barely older than I am. I don't need to listen to you."
"Yes, you do." Kathryn said with a sigh. "Come on, let's get you back to the main hall."
"No. Let me go to my room. I'm going to sleep."
"You can go back to your room in about fourty minutes. But now, Emma Swan, you have to be in the main hall. Where everyone is."
Emma couldn't help herself.
"Except for the new girl." She snarked, ignoring the way Kathryn's eyes darkened a bit. "So, not 'everyone' is there. And neither will I be there. Now lemme go. I'm tired."
Kathryn reluctantly let the blonde pass, knowing that she'd likely have a fit if she would be kept from her room.
shaking her head, Kathryn made her way back to the hall.