"You okay?"
Emma Swan snapped out of her reverie. Neal was looking at her cautiously, his eyes flicking between her and her new baby brother. She cleared her throat.
"Yup," She said firmly, pushing aside the painful memories of her foster home.
"You sure?" Neal repeated, crossing his arms. "Because…you know." He nodded towards the baby. Emma sighed. There had been so much guilt from her parents—guilt that they were having a new baby, guilt for feeling joy and excitement, so much guilt they treated Emma delicately, as if afraid she would explode. And honestly, the whole experience made Emma the slightest bit grateful that she had missed the majority of the pregnancy. Seeing David and Mary Margaret holding their tiny little newborn brought up painful memories, memories of her finally finding an adoptive family—until her adopted parents got pregnant and sent her back to foster care again.
Of course, she couldn't tell her parents that—why ruin such a happy occasion? But Neal knew, which was probably why he was eyeing her so carefully during the proceedings and kept asking if she was okay every five minutes.
She glanced down at her son, who was currently reading from the storybook to his uncle. "This story again?"
"My son should know where he comes from," David defended as Henry shrugged in response.
"And you want the first thing he knows is that his parents fell in love during an armed robbery?" Emma asked ironically.
"I wasn't armed!" Mary Margaret protested.
"Except with a rock," Ruby snorted.
"I still have the scar," David remarked.
"Which healed," Mary Margaret retorted. "That's just how we met. That's not how we fell in love."
"Besides, didn't you meet Dad while you were stealing a car that he stole first?" Henry cocked his head towards Emma.
Emma rounded on Neal. "You told him that?" She said in outrage.
"Uh…my son should know where he comes from?" Neal asked feebly and Emma resisted the urge to throttle him.
"What, should I have said I was a fireman and that we met over pie?" Neal ruffled Henry's hair affectionately.
"Well, you do have a weird obsession with pumpkin pie," Emma grumbled turning back to her parents, who were currently reminiscing about the Troll Bridge to the ears of the very attentive Storybrooke.
"You were previously betrothed, mate?" Hook asked David interestedly.
"To Kathryn," Ruby answered, gesturing towards the former princess, who was chatting animatedly with Granny. "Though, she was Princess Abigail back then."
"King Midas' daughter? The man who can turn anything to gold?" Hook raised an eyebrow. "Why would you leave that opportunity?"
Emma rolled her eyes and Mary Margaret voiced her offense.
"What can I say?" David smiled at his wife. "My heart was destined for another."
"You just had to find her first," Ruby snickered. "She ran away and was living on a farm."
Mary Margaret sighed with longing. "Oh, that sounded like such a peaceful life back then. Leave everyone and everything behind…"
"Like mother, like daughter," Hook said snidely.
Both Neal and Emma shot him an angry look. Henry caught it immediately.
"What's he talking about?" He wanted to know. Neal and Emma exchanged glances and David attempted to change the subject.
"Uh…should we read more stories?" He rifled the pages of the book, landing on an illustration of Baelfire.
"Actually, I'd like to know what the pirate is talking about," Regina announced, pushing her way through. Emma cleared her throat awkwardly.
"It's nothing," She looked at Neal for help.
"We can talk about it later," Neal intervened. "Let's just enjoy the party, okay?"
"No," Regina said icily. "We'll talk about it now. Are you planning on taking Henry back to New York?"
Henry's eyes widened. "Why would we leave?! This is our home!"
"Henry, Neal's right," Emma said firmly. "This isn't the time or place."
"I think it is," Regina said loudly and Emma stood abruptly.
"No," She said in a low voice. "It's not." She strode out of the diner, refusing to look at Henry's alarmed expression.
"I'll talk to her," Hook volunteered, making to go after her. Neal stepped in front of him.
"No, you won't," He said coldly. "This is between Emma and me." He noticed Regina out of the corner of his eye, step forward threateningly, about to interject until Robin placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. She fell back, looking suddenly vulnerable and Robin gave her a comforting hug.
"Look, mate," Hook crossed his arms. "I know you have a grand fantasy of running off to New York with her, so you can play house, but you know the truth, Baelfire. You know she shouldn't leave. This is her home. Storybrooke needs her, the people need her. She belongs here."
Neal exhaled sharply. "This isn't about what I want," He told Hook firmly. "This isn't even about what Emma wants. This is about what's best for Henry. If you—if any of you can honestly tell me that Henry's safer here, that nothing else bad is going to happen to us…" He looked at all of them challengingly. Regina took a deep breath that sounded a little shuddery, but she did not argue.
"I'll be right back," Neal ruffled Henry's hair.
"Dad," Henry said quietly, pushing the storybook into his father's hands. "Take this. It might help her remember where she belongs."
Emma stared off into space, idly watching the ripples on the pond. Try as she could, she couldn't seem to escape that expression of betrayal on Regina's face, the look of hurt on Henry's. After Zelena's defeat, everyone had assumed she'd stay—after all, with their returned memories and the witch safely locked away, what was to stop them?
We had a good life, Emma thought to herself, kicking a rock. A good life in New York. No running from ogres, no horrible curses, no magic…and Henry was happy. I was happy. …wasn't I?
"Hey."
She glanced up to find Neal taking a seat next to her, calmly handing her a cup of hot chocolate. She sighed impatiently.
"You here to tell me off?" She said challengingly. "Tell me I'm making a big mistake?"
"Not my call to make," Neal took a sip of his own drink, presumably coffee. Emma noticed the storybook on his lap and her eyes narrowed.
"We talked about this, Neal," She ignored the smell of hot chocolate, however tempting it was. "We agreed Henry was safer in New York."
Neal sighed. "Look, you're preaching to the choir, Emma," He rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I've spent most of my life running from—well, this." He gestured to the town, adding in a sardonic flourish ala Rumplestiltskin.
"Thing is, no matter where I ran…this stuff follows. No matter how much we want to hide from our past, stay where it's safe…it'll follow you. I learned that the moment a crazy lady tackled me in New York and I looked up and saw you again, after all those years. I learned that the moment I found out you were the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White, that I'd fallen in love with the product of True Love, the savior—and the moment I found out I had a kid." He took a musing sip of his drink and Emma glared at him.
"Henry's not safe here," She said firmly.
"I know that," Neal sighed.
"Do you know how it felt telling the kid his dad died?" She wanted to know and Neal winced. "I never, ever want him to have to go through that again. He was…he was so lost without you. He'd just gotten you in his life again, and…maybe he thought…we could have a second chance." She stared down at her lap, perfectly aware that her words were infuriatingly vague.
"Emma…" Neal lifted his arm awkwardly, perhaps intending on wrapping it around her shoulders, before thinking better of it. "Emma, I'd want nothing more in the world to go with you two to New York. To start over. But maybe it's time we face up to who we are. Maybe we should just—stop running, already. Our family…our family's here."
"Neal, do you know what I see when I look at this?" She picked up the storybook. "I see fairy tales. Stories, stories that I have no connection to. I was never a part of any of this."
Neal cracked a smile. "A lifetime ago, I was just a simple spinner's son," He flipped the book open to the illustration of Baelfire, looking forlorn. "When my father became the Dark One, I thought, why us? Why me? We were nothing special, just ordinary peasants—what did we do to deserve that curse? And you know, after all, when I finally got here—it was real nice, pretending to be a normal guy, living in New York, being engaged to a normal woman…you see how well that worked out."
Emma was quiet for a moment. "Do you remember what you once told me?" She asked softly. "About home? On the carousel?"
Neal broke into a smile. "I can't believe you remember that."
"Of course I do," Emma scoffed. "You told me that home is the place that when you leave, you just miss it. And honestly—I don't know if I've ever felt that. Except when—" She looked away from him.
The words were unspoken—Tallahassee. They'd never quite made it, but during their time together…hadn't that been home?
He took her hand, squeezing it gently. She swallowed, avoiding his gaze until something in the distance caught her eye.
"What the hell is that?!"
A swirling vortex of green rose above the town and Neal stared dumbfounded. "What the—"
"I'm going to check that out!" Emma shouted. Neal scrambled to pick up the storybook and went chasing after her.
The barn looked fair ready to collapse as green light shot into the sky. Neal stared at it grimly as Emma shut her phone.
"It's Zelena's time portal," She reported. "David left a message. Somehow, she died and triggered it."
"Fantastic," Neal muttered. "Another damn portal. C'mon—let's get out of here and find my old man. He ought to be able to shut it down."
"There's no time for that!" Emma argued. "We need to figure out a way to close it now! Before the whole town's sucked in!"
"We need magic for this," Neal looked as though he swallowed a lemon as he uttered the words. "You don't have your magic back!"
"We have to try! It'll destroy the whole town if we just stand here!" Emma broke away from him, pulling down the barn doors. There in the middle of stables, was a swirling green portal, sucking in everything in its past. Emma had a brief moment of discomfort, remembering her last experience with Neal and a portal—before she was yanked forward.
"Emma!" Neal shouted grabbing her hand. He tried to pull her upright the portal pulled him off-balance as well. With nothing gripping the ground, they both slid towards the center.
"Let me go!" Emma cried. "Let me go, get Gold! Get him to stop this, before—"
"No!" Neal yelled. "Not again!" He used all of his strength to try and heave her out of the portal, to no avail. They both slid headfirst into Zelena's portal.
"Oh, no."
Emma awoke to a headache and Neal's pained exclamation. They were surrounded by trees, birds making a cacophony of sounds, and Neal looked both thunderstruck and irritated.
"The Enchanted Forest?" She asked grimly and Neal nodded in response.
"Yeah, but when?" Neal wondered, taking a few steps forward. He stopped short, pulling something off a tree. Emma sucked in her breath.
Neal was holding a wanted sign—a wanted sign for 'the bandit Snow White'.
"Really?" Emma groaned towards the fates and Neal shrugged.
"Could be worse, all things considering. Trust me, the Ogre Wars were not a fun era," Neal picked up the storybook and flipped through it idly. "Henry was reading the story of how your parents met—think that directed the portal?"
"Is that how time portals work?" Emma wrinkled in confusion. "You're the son of Rumplestiltskin, you tell me."
Neal snorted. "You're the one with magic, you tell me."
"You fell through one!" Emma said triumphantly.
"So did you!" Neal returned and Emma threw up her hands in frustration.
"All right, all right!" She took the storybook form his hands. "Maybe the portal goes to wherever you were thinking—the bandit story about Snow was on both of our minds, right? Because Henry had been reading that story to the baby. So maybe we have to think of home to get home."
"Reasonable," Neal said cautiously. "Only thing is, we need a portal to get back and we've no idea where or when one will show up."
Emma groaned. "I should have left Storybrooke the instant we defeated Zelena. This is exactly the kind of thing that does not happen in New York!"
"Emma, relax," Neal examined the wanted poster with a scientific bit of interest. "We'll figure out a way to get back. Both you and me have gotten out of this land before—we just gotta stay positive."
"What do I look like, Marty McFly?" Emma demanded. "How the heck are we supposed to travel through time? I'm sorry, but I left the DeLorean in Storybrooke."
Neal coughed, covering up his snicker. A shadow fell across his face and he suddenly looked very grim. Emma caught the look and immediately realized why his mood had darkened.
"We're going to have to find Rumplestiltskin, aren't we," She said deadpan. Neal turned away from her, staring pointedly into the forest. For all of the issues Mr. Gold and Neal had worked through, there was still a great deal unsaid. Somehow, forcing Neal to confront the Dark One, the version of his father that had abandoned him, the sorcerer he'd been running from his entire life—didn't seem to be the best of ideas.
"Maybe we should find someone else," Emma suggested weakly. "What about the Blue Fairy? She was the one who sent you to our world originally."
Neal twisted his mouth. "No…I think you're right. I think we have to see my old man, right in his prime. Zelena was trained by Rumplestiltskin, he'd be the best person to figure out this time travel nightmare. We just—have to be careful."
Emma blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Think about it," He said anxiously. "The entire reason the curse was created was to find me. What do you think Rumplestiltskin would do if he knew that I was his son? We can't mess with the timeline. You've seen the movie—you mess with one thing, the entire future's changed."
"To be fair," Emma pointed out. "At the end of the movie, that stuff was changed for the better."
"Nevertheless," Neal's expression was grave. "We can't risk it. We can't risk anything that might stop you from being born, or us meeting, or Henry—we just have to find Rumplestiltskin and get the hell out of here."
They were interrupted by the sound of horses approaching. Neal grabbed Emma and pulled her into the bushes, hiding her from view. Black knights paused and Emma inhaled sharply, seeing a woman emerge from the carriage.
Regina.
