Emma never really considered the position she was in as 'suffering'. Yes, there'd been some bad times, and she'd gone without more often than not. But it had taught her a great deal about survival and how to manage on her own. Looking back now, it had formed her into the adult she was and had shaped the choices she'd made.
Both the good ones and the bad. She didn't need a protector. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. That didn't mean it hadn't been nice to have someone so insistent on helping. Which was how she'd gotten so wrapped up in the first place.
"Most of the homes didn't really care," she admitted, her eyes focused on her baby girl. Aislinn would never know that sort of loneliness. Even if something did happen to Emma, she had a father (and fortunately, not the biological one), two incredible godparents, loving grandparents, and a big brother who would do anything for her. To say nothing of the other friends in Emma's life who would take care of her. She'd be fine.
She considered Belle's words. It sounded like the opposite of anything she'd want, really, but she'd been to the other version's world. The one where she'd grown up as the much loved Princess Emma, expected to rule the kingdom one day with some handsome prince or another at her side. She would've survived it. And been a hell of a lot less cynical for it, too.
"It doesn't sound so bad," she confessed quietly. "I think I'd have done all right there. But...if I had..." She hesitated. "There'd be no Henry. And everything that came after him. Yeah, some of it was pretty terrible, but looking back on it, I don't know that I'd have changed anything."
Sometimes it was the only reason she could look back on her past and smile. Even in Lawrence. Oh, she'd come a long way since those early morning hours in July. But it didn't mean she didn't have her share of regrets. Fortunately, the dark haired, blue eyed baby on the floor was the one thing that reminded her why her life had to go the way it had.