She didn't dream often, so when she found herself standing in a room - a nursery, she could tell - with a tall, blonde man (was he a prince?), she found herself unable to move.

But then, someone else entered the room. It was a mirror image of herself, dressed to the nines in a poofy princess gown.

"What the hell?" she said, but neither the man nor her doppelganger paid her any bit of attention.

"I don't even know how to dance. Teach me?"

This was wrong. It sounded just like her but it wasn't her. She wasn't a princess. This wasn't her father. This wasn't her bedroom.

But… Emma was enraptured by this. She knew it was ridiculous to think that this could have been her life. She'd stopped dreaming about things like this when she'd turned sixteen and she knew that no one was coming to whisk her away to a castle.

"Emma, this is all I ever wanted for you," the man said.

"I know. This is all I ever wanted too…"

Emma watched in delight as the man swung her doppelganger around the room, dancing in the fairytale-esque fashion she'd thought was ridiculous years ago. It might have been fake, but she loved it. It was like giving her a small bit of hope that her life would improve (not that she hated her life – she did have a son that she adored with all her heart). That there was something more out there for her to see.

"But I'm not really here. I was never here."

Emma's heart sank. Why did this dream have to become a nightmare? She wanted to stay in this nursery and watch this dream play out. This man, "daddy" her doppelganger had called him, was better than any dream she'd had of her father in years. She didn't want this to be a nightmare.

If she was being honest… she wanted it to be the truth.

The room turned dark, the other-Emma standing there with sadness on her face.

"NO!" Emma cried, watch as what she could only describe as a portal opened, nearly swallowing the other-Emma into it.

"Emma! I'll protect you! I'll save you!" the man cried, holding on tight to her.

Emma felt like he was speaking to her and not just to this dream-version of herself. Tears sprang to her eyes. She wanted to believe that someone other than Henry was fighting for her.

"It's too late! You failed me!"

The devastated look on the man's face had Emma's heart breaking. Something had happened – and Emma wanted to know what. Did she know this man? Was that… other Emma another version of herself that had somehow been lost?

Why did it feel so familiar if it was just a dream?

"Don't fail the next one…"

Next one?

"Goodbye daddy…" With another cry, her doppelganger was swallowed and Emma felt herself choking back sobs as "Charley's Girl" suddenly began to fill the room, the scene of a devastated father fading.

As she pulled herself from her bed, Emma knew that this was one dream she would not soon forget.