A/N: I think I have a problem. I think I'm slowly being possessed by Captain Swan. And the plot bunnies aren't helping. I can't stop writing about them.

Anyway, this is what happens when I listen to Alex Clare and Marie Digby all day. Actually Marie Digby's unfold inspired this chapter. This particular story starts after Queen of Hearts, going AU from there.

Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time or any of its amazing characters. They belong to Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, and the ABC network. All I own is my demented dog, and my demented imagination.

Unfold

She looked up at the sky, trying to remember if the stars in the enchanted forest were the same ones she saw above her. She sighed, feeling the weight of regret close in around her as she pulled her cardigan closed with one hand, the other clutching the neck of the bottle of rum she took out to the backyard with her. The vastness of the heavens seemed to reflect how lost she felt in that moment. She couldn't help but think that she was definitely the punch line to some cosmic joke. How else do you explain how she-of all people-turned out to be the prophesied child of the progenitors of "Happily Ever After"? The girl who stole to get by somehow became the Sheriff. The girl who barely trusted anyone, who survived on her own became the one who was supposed to protect a town full of people that should have only existed in bedtime stories.

And yet, despite finally finding a family and having friends-real friends who cared about her and whom she cared about, and living in a place that was finally starting to feel like home, she still felt alone. She would probably always feel alone. The walls that once protected her were now imprisoning her. She knew that she loved her parents and Henry, and that they loved her, but she also knew that they still hadn't come close to touching the deepest, darkest parts of her. The parts that only a certain blue eyed pirate could see into.

"You're an open book lass..."

She'd worked so hard to construct impenetrable walls that it nearly shook her to her very foundations when Hook said it. She knew that he was trying to work her, but she wanted to believe it, and that was dangerous.

"Try something new lass, it's called trust..."

She was so used to keeping people out, to never letting her guard down that she didn't think she was capable of complete trust anymore. She knew that as Sheriff, the townspeople trusted her to keep them safe and uphold the law, and she did trust Henry to keep her honest and give her faith, and her parents with her life...but that fragile, broken, screwed up, torn up, raggedy thing that was her heart? That remained untouched somewhere behind all of Emma's defenses, buried so deep that even she didn't know how to get to it anymore. She had resigned herself to believing that no one could get to it, that maybe it wasn't worth the effort. Neal had it, tossed it over his shoulder and trampled it under his boot as he left town. There wasn't anyone until Graham who even tried. She was haunted by the feeling that he could've been the one, but at the time it was all too sudden and new, and over before they could even figure out what it was. Even worse was how she was now haunted by a nagging feeling that the kisses they shared weren't so much about any chemistry between them as it was about her being the product of true love. She didn't make him able to start feeling something again, her latent magic did.

"Not to offend you Emma, but we make quite the team..."

She was part of a team once before, and had Hook not reminded her of that of how bad her taste in men had been, how her heart had been so badly mistaken before, would she have felt the need to leave him behind? Emma knew that there was no point in pondering the what ifs because the fact of the matter was-he did say it, and she did leave him behind. She wasn't some stupid kid with nothing to lose but her inhibitions and her heart. She was older now, smarter now, and tougher now-thanks to Neal in a very twisted way. For the first time in her life, she had something to fight for, people she couldn't bare to lose because something else became glaringly apparent to her; for all of the bragging she does concerning her "superpower", she does have a kryptonite.

When strong feelings are involved, her superpower becomes useless. She was so in love that she couldn't see that Neal was lying to her and about to betray her. When Graham needed her to take the night shift because he was supposedly volunteering at an animal shelter, she was too blinded by her admiration for him and a growing attraction, she couldn't tell that he was lying to her. When Sydney Glass offered to help her take down Regina as revenge for firing him from The Mirror, she wanted to believe that she finally had an ally that she didn't realize he was playing double agent until she found a bug in the vase of flowers he gave her. With Killian, she couldn't risk him being a double agent for Cora. He was too good looking, too charming, the attraction between them too strong, and he was already poking holes in defenses that she worked so hard to construct. If she gave him her trust as her heart was telling her to do, and she was wrong, she'd not only be devastated, but she would be risking the lives of everyone she knew and loved. It wasn't just that he would leave her, sadly enough she got used to the idea that she isn't the kind of woman that a guy would stick around for. No, it was that he would leave, and betray her to Cora, and in the aftermath take everyone she loves from her. So she left him, and her heart hated her for it.

A cold breeze blew over her face as hot tears fell down her cheeks. She took a swig from the bottle, and felt the rum burn her throat, trickling heat on its way down. She wished that she didn't leave him up in that castle, or at least that she didn't regret it, that she didn't believe him when he told her that he wouldn't have done the same to her, and most of all she wished that it didn't still hurt when he told her he was done with her. That damn book of regrets that she hauled around with her was getting thicker by the moment and she was tired of it weighing her down.

Suddenly, she felt a prickling at the back of her neck, a strange tingling sensation running up and down her spine. She knew then that she wasn't alone, and spun around to see who was with her, almost expecting to find a vengeful pirate. But that was impossible, right?

"Sorry," her mother apologized, a chagrinned look on her face. "I didn't mean to startle you. You'd been out here so long I was starting to get worried."

She tamped down that small flicker of disappointment at not finding the one person who shouldn't have been there anyway, gave Mary Margaret a small smile, and saw the concern in her eyes. Emma felt a warmth bubbling up within her, trying to get used to having that in her life-people who worried about her. She was beginning to accept that her parents would do anything for her, and maybe...just maybe in a way Killian-Hook was right. It was time to try this thing called trust. Who better to trust than your own mother?

"Honey, what's going on? You haven't quite been yourself since you left Hook at the giant's castle. I know that while we were back at the Enchanted Forest you didn't want to talk about it, and I didn't want to push you. Besides, we were trying so hard to evade Cora and get home. But we're back now, and we're safe. Are you ready to tell me what happened?"

Emma took a deep breath, and closed her eyes, bracing herself for a leap of faith. When she opened them again, she saw the ache and resignation in Mary Margaret's eyes. Mary Margaret gave her a sad smile and nodded as she turned to go back into the apartment, but Emma stopped her by grabbing onto her hand and giving it a squeeze.

"I have...no...I want to tell you what happened back there, but first I have to tell you another story so that you can understand why I did what I did. I'm also going to have to ask you not to interrupt because I haven't said anything about this to anyone before, and it's going to be hard as it is...so...please just listen."

Her mother took a breath, and gave an understanding nod. And just this, just knowing that she had someone who cared enough to listen almost had her bawling. Part of her wanted to revert to being a little girl, curl up in her mommy's arms safe and sound, and pretend that nothing could ever hurt her. But she wasn't a kid anymore, and she had managed to survive plenty in her lifetime. She could do this. She could trust her mother with her secrets.

"Henry's father is a man named Neal Cassidy," she began, feeling like she had to shove the words out of her mouth. "He wasn't a firefighter, he didn't die saving a family from a fire. As a matter of fact I have no reason to believe that the bastard is dead."

She was surprised to hear the tremble in her voice. She thought that she was over it, that the feelings of hurt and betrayal she felt every time she thought of him had faded in time, but now she felt as though those old wounds were being torn open. Part of her wanted to stop, wanted to say that it was enough and slam the door shut on those memories. But it wasn't fair to her or her mother. She needed to let go of it, to not let him win by never trusting anyone again.

"I was seventeen when I met him," she continued. "I aged out of foster care, but I was practically living out on the streets on and off since I was fourteen. I learned how to fend for myself, sometimes that meant taking things that weren't mine so I could get by. Didn't have any friends to speak of, I was on my own until one day I saw a yellow Beetle in an alley. I thought it was cute, and if you're leaving it in an alley you're just asking for someone to steal it. So I did. The thing is, I didn't realize until I was already on the road that someone was in the back seat. I was stealing his car and he was flirting with me."

She remembered with a start how, despite her initial reaction to Neal, she felt an immediate attraction to him. Just like with a certain pirate.

"I found out later that he had stolen the car before I did," she said, her voice softened by the memory. "And that was the auspicious start to our romance. We became a team-the dynamic duo, Bonnie-and-Clyde, only our crime spree didn't involve guns. We were just petty thieves, using distraction and slight of hand to steal things to survive, and occasionally for fun. And then one day, he told me he wanted to settle down, to stop the Bonnie and Clyde act and have a home. A home...yeah, that's another thing I never had before."

She gave her mother a side glance and couldn't help but feel guilty at the anguish she saw there. She was trying to be honest, not hurtful. Not knowing what else to say or do, she gave her mother's hand a reassuring squeeze and soldiered on.

"We were going to go to Tallahassee. No particular reason, just a place I pointed to on a map. I started dreaming about a place on the beach overlooking the ocean. Didn't have to be a palace, just something that I could call my own and share with the man I loved. The thing is, he supposedly found out that he was still catching heat for stealing some watches from a jewelry store he worked in months before we even met. He saw his wanted poster in a post office and started freaking out. He said that our plans to go to Tallahassee were out, and that he'd have to go to Canada by himself because I'd have to go to jail if I got caught with him."

She chuckled darkly at those words.

"I loved Neal. I loved him so much that I was willing to go to the bus station where he stashed the watches, get them for him so that he could fence them, and we'd have enough to get new identities and start over in Tallahassee. Only it didn't work out that way. I got him the watches, and he told me that they were pricey-worth about 20 grand easy. Then he put one on my wrist, and said we had to keep it because it looked so good on me. He took the rest with him and I was so stupid, and in love, and I trusted him so much that I didn't even question it when he said he had to go to the meet by himself. Next day, I go to our meeting place, but instead of Neal being there, it was a cop. Apparently, someone made an anonymous call reporting that there would be a girl at the parking lot with one of the stolen watches. Three guesses as to who the helpful citizen was calling about?"

"Oh Emma..." Her mother sighed, on the verge of tears as she began to understand the cost of sending her daughter through to this world by herself.

"Hey, you got it in one guess!" Emma couldn't help herself from saying. "Anyway, since they only found the one watch on me, the judge gave me 11 months. I gave birth to Henry in jail. And I gave him up for adoption. Managed to find an agency willing to place him instead of him having to go through foster care. It was the best I could do for him. I didn't have anyone, had no idea where his father was, but since Neal turned me in, I doubt that he would have suddenly wanted to become a daddy. I was so damned screwed up! I couldn't take care of myself, how was I going to take care of a baby? It felt like it was the only unselfish choice I had.

"When I got out, I pulled myself together, became a bounty hunter, and I swore to myself that I'd never be that stupid again."

Emma took a deep shuddering breath, and though all she had been doing was talking, she felt exhausted, but she knew that she had to continue, to get it all out.

"Eleven years later, I ended up in Boston," she went on. "I was offered a job by this guy after I had beaten one of his best guys to a perp. On my birthday, I brought in a deadbeat whose wife put up everything she had as collateral and was on the verge of losing everything, while this jackass went online dating when he was supposed to be on the run. After I brought him in, I went to my apartment, had myself a birthday cupcake and wished I didn't have to be alone anymore. And then Henry showed up at my door. You know the rest."

"And Hook?" Asked her mother gently.

"Hook is a bad guy, one of the villains, right?" She asked rhetorically. "It would have been stupid to trust him."

"But you didn't, right?" Snow tried to reassure her. "That's why you left him up at the giant's castle, because he did something that reminded you that you couldn't trust him?"

"Nope," replied Emma, her voice cracking slightly. She had to clear her throat before continuing. "He put his life on the line to distract the giant while I threw the poppy powder in the giant's face. When the giant went down, I thought he landed on Hook and I..."

"You what?" Snow gently prodded when Emma had trouble continuing.

"I thought he was hurt...or worse," she practically whispered. "And then when we were in the treasure room looking for the compass, I grabbed him to stop him from activating a trip wire. Of course, he thought I was grabbing at him."

"He probably thought you were making up excuses to touch him." She snorted at the thought, wondering at her daughter's sad smile.

"He did," Emma admitted, remembering the look on his face, and how she struggled against him, and herself to get out of his embrace. "And then, when the giant woke up, started knocking things around and part of the roof caved in, Hook was buried beneath the rubble. I almost..."

"Almost what sweetheart?"

"For a moment there, I almost went back in after him," she sighed. "Even with the giant after me, even with the knowledge that if I died, I'd never be able to see Henry again and he'd never know how hard I fought to get back to him, even knowing that your chances of getting back to him and to David without the compass or the ashes would be next to nothing. I almost risked everything for Hook in that second. As stupid as it sounds, I wanted to trust him, I wanted to believe him and trust him so badly. The last time I wanted to trust someone that badly, I ended up in jail for 11 months and I gave up my son."

"Emma..." Snow sighed, able to read between the lines of what her daughter was saying, and wishing that she could find a way to reassure her, but words would not come.

"I'm not that girl anymore," Emma finally said, resolve glimmering in the tone of her voice. "I'm not some stupid seventeen year old kid with nothing to lose but some time and her heart. I finally, finally have a family, and a place I belong, and people I love and would die to protect. I knew that the chances of me being wrong about him, about trusting him, that he wouldn't screw us over for Cora were far too great for me to take lightly. I just couldn't take that chance..."

She wiped away an errant tear as she heard his voice echo in her mind. The anger she expected. The hurt had her nearly undone. Only the thought of Henry kept her from turning back.

"But when we were in Rumplestiltskin's cell, and he told me that he wouldn't have left me behind in the giant's castle, I knew that he was telling the truth. I was so scared that he would betray me-us, that I betrayed him. I stabbed him in the back and he didn't deserve it."

"What does it matter anyway, he's done with me," Emma muttered before catching herself. "I mean, he's stuck in fairytale land."

"Then why does it matter to you?" Asked her mother, gently taking her by the shoulders and turning her so that she could look her in the eyes.

"Because..." Emma sputtered, not entirely sure why it did matter. "Because I'm supposed to be one of the good guys, and good guys don't stab people in the back."

"Sweetheart, I think it's because you're scared," smiled Snow reassuringly. "And with all you've been through, it's understandable. You're scared because you're afraid that you don't know how to let someone in, to trust someone. But you're starting to. You let Henry in, and you've confided in me, and I'm so thankful for that. And someday, you'll find someone who will prove himself worthy of your trust, and your heart."

"Thanks mom," she paused, catching herself and looking over at Snow, who had a look of pure and unadulterated joy on her face, and Emma decided not to correct herself. "But I think happily ever after skips a generation in our family."

"I don't believe that," her mother said confidently. "Not for a second. One day, there will be someone, someone who will prove that he is worthy of you, someone who refuses to give up on you no matter what, someone who is willing to put in the work to knock down those walls you put up to keep people out. Someone who is willing to fight for you no matter what. You'll find him, or better yet, he'll find you."

Emma melted into the hug for a moment before noticing that Snow was shivering. She pulled back, advising her mother to go back inside their apartment building.

"I'll just be a moment," she reassured her. "Promise."

She watched Snow turn and go through the main lobby doors before turning back around. She raised the bottle of rum to the sky and said in a quiet voice,

"Here's to Captain Killian Jones, may he some day find the peace he deserves."

She then tilted the bottle, watching the amber stream cascade down to the ground when she heard something that startled her and caused her to drop the rum and spin around.

"I really hope that isn't rum Love," tutted a voice that seemed to emerge from the shadows. "Bloody waste of it if you ask me."