A/N: I am aware that these stories may be out of date with the times of Once, but that's because of my laziness and the constant changes made in the show. I've accepted this story as it is, and I hope you guys will too! Enjoy.

This is Family

There was something in the air sometimes, something Emma could never explain about Mr. Gold, her almost (practically) in-law. Rumpelstiltskin had changed...for the better or worse, Emma wasn't exactly sure. But, she could say that he and she became much closer to one another.

It was supposed to be a normal day, but when is it ever around Storybrooke? Emma walked into Gold's shop for a reason she could not recall, but she'd been walking all day, thinking about Henry, Neal, just everyone in her life. Through the shop, his little bell sounded pleasantly to his ear.

"Gold?" Emma called out. Rumpelstiltskin was too long of a name, and she discovered she could never find herself grow accustomed to the name just yet.

"In the back," he replied, tying the loose ends, literally, on his new project. It was a surprise for Henry, a small model ship in a bottle. Making one was nothing above him, and he thought a peace offering would help bring the boy's mind off of death and guilt for a while.

Rumpel did not want to make the mistake of letting Henry go like he did his own son, and he saw grand-parenting as a second chance. This is what he thought he'd have surely done if Bae had been 14.

Emma's boots heavily came closer, and Gold had just pulled the ship up within the bottle as she drew back the curtain. Now, onto his next matter, after this one. His head turned up, his eyes focused directly on her, and what he saw took him by some shock. Emma seemed emotionally train wrecked. His hands spread to his shoulder width as he rose from his dark chair.

"Emma," he said, coming closer. "you don't look quite yourself."

She stared up at him with the meek unsureness reflecting through her eyes, finding it rather forced to be even breathing. Her head bowed down again, and Rumpel could not help but notice the droplet that now stained his wooden floor. His eyes narrowed at her, for he wasn't sure whether this was a dream or if she was tricking him into giving her something out of guilt. So much like him to read too deep into the situation, to think he would know exactly what was on her mind.

"I'm not here to fix your troubles for free Miss Swan," he said.

"Oh just stop!" she sounded frustrated. "Just..." She couldn't finish her sentence before two more drops hit the floor. Well, she wasn't looking for a deal, that's for sure. Gold stood, now uncertain himself of what he should do in this situation. Why had Emma come crying to him...literally?

"What is this about?" he asked, leaning on his cane from standing so long in one place. "Is this about Tamara? My son? Henry?"

Emma was not much for words today, but rather actions. She crashed herself against him, nearly throwing him backwards, though he held his ground decently as usual. Did this mean he'd nailed the situation right on the head? Or had Emma just become so riled up she couldn't take it anymore?

"I don't know what to do," she cried through her sobbing and the sniffle she gave. "I don't know anything. I can't do any of this! I cannot surround Henry with death and disaster all the time, but I can't protect him from it either and your son drinks like hell does he get that from you or his mother or something? ...and that girl, there is something up with her but I don't know what and I can't tell him anything because I have no proof and I don't want to sound like an idiot. I don't know why I came...I don't know why I came here, but my mother's heart is blackening and my father can't even comprehend that Henry has two grandfathers, and I guess...I guess you would know more about that boy than I would..."

Her breathing was so very raspy and forced that Gold made her stop talking by gripping her tight with his free arm.

"Breathe Emma," he said, releasing her slowly to hear the drawn out breath inhaled and exhaled. Already he could feel the temperature of his face rising from how upset she was. He knew that right now was not the time for words, and so, he led her over to the couch set up from his little poison monstrosity, thanks to Hook. As they sat there, he could finally visually see her face transform into a fine shade of pink and her eyes welled up with tears too many to count.

His arm was still around her when she partially sat herself up to brush her hair out of her face, as it was beginning to clutch around her face. Her breaths became short and raspy again, but Gold wouldn't stand (or sit) for it.

"Emma..." he said. "Just breathe for a few moments, just focus on your breath coming in and out. There's no need to rush." Setting his cane aside, Gold allowed Emma to rest upon his shoulder whilst he lay back himself against the wall of the shop. With a flick of his wrist, Rumpel locked the doors to his shop and flipped the sign, visual aid never required, as always.

When her breathings became far more steady, Gold propped her up to find his suit covered in her tears, but that would easily be washed. What got to him was how much emotion she had in her to keep going without the sobbing as much. She gave another sniffle before a sigh came through, just the break Rumpel needed to hear as a sign she was permanently settling.

"Now, can you tell me what this is about, this time a little more slowly," he said calmly.

"I-I was just walking...an-and thinking about th-things," Emma staggered.

"Don't force it," he interrupted. "let it come on its own."

Emma paused for a moment, waiting until she felt speech was easier.

"I was walking, and I kept thinking. I kept thinking about all this, this death and bloodshed and revenge. I'm tired of it all. I'm tired of fighting my parent's battles. That's not what, what I want to show Henry. And your son, Baelfire, he drinks...a LOT. And I would like to know why. He was never like that around me, and this Tamara, there's something wrong about her. I just need her out of the way..."

Rumpel's eyebrows came up, but Emma shook her head.

"Not dead, I mean. Just, gone, from my life," she corrected herself. "I want her to leave Storybrooke, and I don't know if I should let Henry be around her. Baelfire is fair, he's his father, but I don't like how she's been acting."

"Well, I've yet to meet her in person, but when I do, you'll be the first to know," he told her. "But, whatever she's after, she'll never beat me."

Emma sniffled again. "If I needed something from you, why would you demand price?"

Gold faltered for a moment.

"I-I thought you had done something you regretted and you wanted me to clean up your mess. Emma, dealing is what I do-"

"I'm practically family!" she exclaimed, another tear falling from the river carved out in her face. "What could I possibly pay you?"

"Emma, you've done many things for me you don't even know already. You've paid your only debt to me before you knew, well...accepted, who your family was. I knew, but I could never tell you. Now that you believe, I can tell you that if the interest is only between you and me..." Rumpelstiltskin sighed before admitting this to her.

"...I will never demand you owe me anythin'." Emma looked into his eyes again after he said that. She embraced him into a tight hug.

"Thank you," she whispered, letting more tears fall freely. Rumpelstiltskin wrapped his other arm around her delicate form collapsed into his chest.

"But I must ask just this one thing: why did you come to me for this?" he inquired. Emma shrugged.

"I don't think you're as bad as people make you out to be," she confessed. At that, he smirked aloud.

"If you can keep a secret-"

"I can," she voiced quickly.

"All right then. If you can keep it, I will say that I would not be unhappy if you did in fact end up in a marriage with my son," Rumpel said.

"Really?" she glanced up at him for as long as her eyes would permit her before they began to hurt.

"Really, but don't tell him I said that, don't tell anyone I said that, else I'll never hear the end of it," Rumpel told her. She laughed for a moment as Rumpel saw she was no longer tearing up.

"Secret's safe with me," she said. Moments of silence issued themselves after she said that, but Rumpelstiltskin wasn't one for silent unless he was brooding his own thoughts.

"Well, what do you say to you getting off my chest so we can go for a little walk in the woods if you like?" he offered.

"Noo," she rebelled confidently, nearly whining. "Later...you're warm." That made him chuckle and prop himself up onto a pillow so he could be more comfortable. He felt her sniffle again, but she was much more calm than before.

"I don't want to face anyone..." this was the truth, and Rumpel easily saw that from her.

For the time being, they would remain in his shop, in his office, on that small enough couch. Gold didn't find this as bad as he thought it previously to become. He did not feel anything for Emma from a physical standpoint, but this was different somehow. She'd come to him in his shop as a sanctuary, somewhere to run and hide from the world for a while. A place where most came angry or confused and either left angrier or more confused. But, the world was definitely not in here, at least not Storybrooke. That's all that mattered to Emma.

"You know, I can see that future," Gold said. "but I did not see you coming today." Emma released her own smirk.

"Gold, you can't see everything," she warned him, tinting her tone with sarcasm.

"Oh ho, let me try, dearie. Let. me. try."