In this AU, Regina's spell to counteract Pan's curse works a little differently, and Emma is not exempt. Also, there's no Zelena. And I play fast and loose with canon, obviously.

Regina was dry- eyed as she explained it, but Emma could hear the tremor in her voice. Yes, she could stop Pan's curse...in a way. But it was all tied up with her curse and hers had created Storybrooke. She could save them from becoming trapped like rats under glass, but everything the curse had done in its long, twisted history— everything— would be undone.

"Regina," Mary Margaret said, "are you saying..."

"Storybrooke will cease to exist."

"What happens to us?" David asked.

"We go back where we came from. All of us."

That pronouncement hung in the air for a moment as the assembled glanced at each other, making note of who'd come from where.

Emma spoke first, when the realization hit her like a wall. "That means..."

"Welcome home, Princess," Regina said, but without malice. She wasn't enjoying this resolution of her own twisted magic any more than the rest of them. She sounded tired. A little sad.

"What about Henry?"

"He was born here," Regina said softly, her voice almost breaking.

"But I don't want to stay here alone!" Henry cried. "If you're all going back, then I'm going, too."

Emma looked at Regina and understanding passed between them. Together they'd figure out how to bring their son with them.

"Can you do it?" Emma murmured.

"Possibly. You and his father both came from that realm. It's in his blood."

A few feet away, Neal huffed and ran his hands through his hair. "Are you serious with this, Regina? I haven't lived in that realm since I was thirteen and now I have to go back?"

"How do you think I feel?" Emma snapped.

"It's not so bad there," Mary Margaret interjected.

"But what about Henry?" Emma said, turning back to Regina. "How do we do this?"

"I'll enchant him. And you'll bind him to you with your light magic. He'll stand between you and Neal and you'll both hang onto him. It's like blood magic, but stronger. It will be as if he's part of you."

"He is part of me."

Regina ignored her. "And he's crossed realms before so the magic is already harboring in him. It should work."

"How long do we have?" David asked.

Just then, acid green smoke began roiling over the tree tops at the edge of town.

"No time," Regina said. "I have to do it now. We can't let that curse catch us."

Emma didn't have to ask Neal, he just appeared at her side, his hand resting on Henry's shoulder.

"Let's do it, Regina."

Regina stepped forward and said a few words over Henry.

"Emma, use your magic," Regina commanded. "Reach out for him and wrap him in it."

Emma had always had trouble performing magic on command, but this time it was easy. The stakes couldn't be higher. She focused on Henry, imagining him bound to her side as he always should have been. White light poured from her palms, wrapping around them both. Emma could feel the magic tugging inside her, as if she'd already been tethered to Henry and Neal loosely and someone reached in and tightened the cords. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders, crossing over Neal's arm, and gripped his jacket in front.

"It'll be fine, kid," she told him.

"We've got you, Henry," Neal said.

Emma glanced up at him and Neal met her eyes over Henry's head. For the first time in over a dozen years, she felt tied to Neal, united in a common goal. But unlike Tallahassee, this one was real. This one was Henry.

The wall of bubbling green smoke advanced on them, now appearing at the foot of Main Street. Regina raised her hands and her palms began to glow purple.

"Hang on, everyone," she muttered.

Emma's eyes flitted over downtown Storybrooke. Such a funny little place, but the only real home she'd ever known. She'd barely had time to settle into it, to enjoy it, and it was about to be wiped off the map. It was the people who mattered, though, she reminded herself. The people made it home, not the place. They'd still be together, and that would have to be enough.

Just before Regina's magic met the curse, arcing in the air over their heads, Emma glanced across the crowd of apprehensive faces. Everyone was watching the curse descend on them. Everyone but Hook. He was watching her. When their eyes met, he smiled, lopsided and far too flippant for the situation.

"See you on the other side, Your Highness," he drawled.

Then the air around them sparked with transforming magic. The ground, the very fabric of existence, seemed to fall out from underneath her feet. She concentrated solely on hanging onto Henry. There was a brief sensation of falling through space and time. Then, just when panic was about to take over, she felt the ground slam up under her feet.

The asphalt of Main Street was gone. She stood in a field, half-shrouded in mist. They stood in a field. Because Henry still stood between her and Neal.

"Henry! It worked!"

Neal smiled and ruffled Henry's hair. "You made it, kid."

"What are you wearing, Dad?"

Neal looked down at himself. "Oh, right... This was what I was wearing the last time I was here. When I was..."

"Baelfire," Emma finished for him.

Pain flickered across his face for a second and just as quickly disappeared. Because he was Neal and dwelling on something unpleasant just wasn't in his nature. They never might have talked specifically about The Enchanted Forest, but they'd talked in general terms about his childhood and she knew he was miserable being back here. He'd never show it, though. Because that was Neal, making the best of what he'd been dealt, always. She only hoped she could handle her own situation with half as much grace, because her reality had just been flipped on its head.

"Snow? Emma?"

Emma spun around at the familiar voice.

"Aurora!" Snow cried, and ran forward to embrace her.

"What are you doing here?" Aurora asked, pulling back and examining the small crowd gathered around Snow. "What are all of you doing here?"

Snow sighed, a sound of sadness and nostalgia combined. "It's a long story. We're back. For good."

"Oh..." Aurora glanced at Regina.

Snow hurried to reassure her. "She's not... It's not like that. Regina saved us all. But it required coming back here."

Philip stepped forward. "Our kingdom extends its hospitality to your party, for as long as you need it."

Something flickered across Snow's face. "That won't be necessary. We have our own kingdom and we need to get back there and rule it." Then she glanced at Regina. "I do still have a castle, don't I?"

Regina rolled her eyes. "I didn't destroy it, if that's what you're asking. It's been redecorated, but it's been preserved."

"Then that's where we're going. Supplies for the journey would be appreciated, though."

"Whatever we have is at your command," Philip said with a small bow.
Snow looked around at her family. It was the happiest Emma had seen her in ages.

"Then we're going home. All of us."

Regina shifted uneasily. "I'm not sure if—"

"You too," Snow said in a tone that brooked no disagreement. "Everyone from our kingdom has just been thrown back to The Enchanted Forest after twenty-eight years. They're going to be confused and scared. What they need is reassurance. The way we give them that is by showing we're united. No revenge plots or personal vendettas. We're a family. It's time to act like one."

Regina still didn't look convinced. Then Henry turned to her and took her hand.

"Come on, Mom. Come home with us."

She gave one last irritated eye-roll, mostly for show, before she gave in.

They stayed in Philip and Aurora's kingdom for another day while horses and provisions were procured. Emma tried to stay busy, to avoid thinking about what had just happened. She was back in The Enchanted Forest. To stay. The lunacy of it was apparent the next morning as they mustered in the field to begin the journey to Snow's castle.

There they were, the citizens of Storybrooke, transformed back to who'd they'd been here. Snow's hair was long. Charming was wearing a fur-lined cape with a broadsword strapped to his side. Regina... God only knew where she came up with those outfits, but this one was a keeper. Even Neal looked like he belonged here, even though she knew he didn't feel that way. And then there was Emma, in jeans and a leather jacket, looking as out of place as she felt. And everyone kept calling her "Princess", even people who'd known her as he sheriff back in Storybrooke. It was like this place made them crazy.

She was watching the members of her parents' entourage fix packs to horses and sort out the order of the procession when Hook sauntered up to stand next to her.

She'd barely spoken to him since they'd gotten here, and not even much in the small window of time in Storybrooke after they'd come back from Neverland. In fact, she hadn't spent any significant time alone with him since they'd traipsed through the jungle of Neverland... since she'd kissed him, that one scorching, incendiary kiss. Since he'd declared himself to her. It felt like a thousand years ago now.

At the time, she'd had Henry to find, so she'd filed away that moment, the one that made the ground under her feet feel unsteady, and told herself she'd think about it later, after they rescued Henry and got home. She'd think about his declaration then, too, and see how she felt about it. But it had been one crisis after another and there'd still been fucking Pan to defeat, and no sooner had Gold done that than Pan's curse had descended on them and now...

Looking back on it, everything that happened in Neverland seemed like some sort of fever dream. The dark, humid forest, the Lost Boys, poisoned arrows and magic water. The thing with Hook had taken on the same fog of unreality, like she'd only dreamed about kissing him, dreamed that he wanted her. It was like having a sex dream about a co-worker, and then waking up in the morning and feeling awkward around them for no good reason. Maybe it had all evaporated into the mist when they'd sailed away from that infernal island.

"Hey," she said to him, as casually as if she'd just run into him at Granny's.

"How are you holding up, Princess?"

"Don't call me that."

His eyebrows shot up. Every twitch of Hook's eyebrows was equal to a thousand words from anyone else.

"As you wish, but you'd better get used to it, because you are, and it matters here."

"Not to me. I'm still just me."

Hook smiled at her, that soft, intimate smile that made her feel as if she'd just seen some secret part of him. Not Captain Hook, the pirate— Killian, the man. That's when she knew it hadn't been a dream. The kiss was real. Everything that came after it was real. And she still didn't know what to do with that information. More now than ever.

"Very well," he said gently. "You're still just Emma. So, Just Emma, what now?"

"I have no idea," she sighed. "I just want to make sure Henry is okay." It turned out, her goal at the moment was no different than it had been in Neverland.

Hook looked across the field at Henry. David... Charming... was showing him around the horse he'd been brought. Somehow overnight Henry had transformed. Someone had given him new clothes, a brocade doublet, a short cape, and boots. He looked like a young prince of The Enchanted Forest. His face was glowing with excitement.

"Looks like the boy will do just fine here," Hook observed. "And what about you?"

"I guess I'll find out." Emma still watched Henry, although there wasn't much to see except her son enjoying the hell out of himself. It was easier than looking at Hook. "What about you? What are you going to do now?"

Hook shrugged. "Regina said everything from this realm was returned. People and objects."

Now Emma looked at him, her eyes wide as the implications of that sunk in.

"You mean the Jolly Roger..."

"Aye, she's here...somewhere."

Emma schooled her features back into a mask of polite interest, looking back at her son, now up in the saddle as if he'd been born to it. She supposed he had been, in a way. "So you're going to go get it?"

"I'm not sure where she is at present, or in whose hands. I'm a bit at loose ends at the moment. The king has invited me to the castle, so I'll set up camp there until I sort out what's next."

She should not have felt nearly faint with relief at his words. Hook was a pirate. He'd spent all his life on that boat. No doubt as soon as he found it again, he'd be gone, back to marauding on the high seas, just like before. But not yet. He wasn't leaving yet. She was almost light-headed at the revelation. She'd have to examine that later, too, when she got around to figuring out that kiss.

"Fall in, people! We're heading out to the castle!" Leroy shouted across the clearing.

There was a general hubbub as everyone moved to find their place in the procession.

Hook took a step back and, with a small bow and a flourish of his hand, indicated that she should go first. "The royal family leads," he said quietly.

"Where will you be?"

He gave her a self-deprecating smile. "Bringing up the rear with the rest of the rabble."

"Hook…"

"Emma?" Neal called out. "Snow wants you to ride next to her."

"You'd better go," Hook said. "Your family is waiting."

Hook watched Emma walk away to join her parents at the front of the procession. It seemed all he did these days was watch this woman walk away from him. And he was powerless to do anything but follow her.

Neal met her half way across the field, turning to walk the rest of the way with her. Killian watched him duck his head to whisper something to her. Jealousy, a foul, unfamiliar emotion, twisted through his gut. Still, he'd told Neal back in Storybrooke that he was backing off and letting Henry's father have a shot at reuniting his family. He supposed that promise still held. Of all the people thrown back into The Enchanted Forest, Baelfire, Emma and Henry had the most in common, the least to do with this world. They'd need each other in the coming days.

He'd also told Baelfire that he was all right with backing off because he was in it for the long haul. He supposed that was still true as well. At present, he had two women he could pursue—The Jolly Roger or Emma. He didn't even hesitate before following Emma.