Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any of the characters or any rights, all I have done is create a different story with already developed characters.

This story begins right as Regina is about to stop Pan's version of the curse.

Emma's face rested in Hook's palm, "Not a day will go by that I won't think of you." He said as she closed her eyes and a small tear squeezed out.

"Good." She replied, her voice breaking slightly as his hand fell and he stepped away from her, he shed a tear and turned his back so she wouldn't see.

Emma turned around heading toward her bug, she inhaled a deep shaky breath.

"Emma," she turned, "there's something I haven't told you." It was Regina.

"What now?"

Regina looked down at her feet, was she really going to say this in this very moment, could she bring herself to?

"When the curse washes over us, it will send us all back. Nothing will be left behind, including your memories."

"But-" Emma began, but Regina interjected.

"It's just what a curse does. Storybrooke will never have existed. So these last three years will be gone from the both of your memories. We'll just go back to being fairytales." Tears started to form in Regina's eyes as she spoke, she looked between Henry and Emma. This was much harder than she ever thought would be possible.

"What will happen to us?" Emma asked as she pulled Henry into her side.

"I don't know." Regina looked at her feet once again.

"That doesn't sound much like a happy ending."

Regina shook her head, "It's not," she looked up at Emma as a tear slid from her eye leaving a sparkling trail down her cheek, "but I can give you one."

"You can preserve our memories?"

"No but I can do what I did to everyone else in this town. I can give you new ones." Regina took Emma's hand in her own and placed her other over top. "My gift to you, is good memories. A good life for you, and Henry. You will never have given him up, you'll have always been together."

"You would do that?"

Regina nodded once, she would do anything for her but she couldn't very well just say that, "Of course."

Emma took a step closer to Regina and wrapped her arms around the older woman, she was trying so hard to not cry right now. Her eyes scanned the crowd though and it was impossible. Her mother, her father, she had just gotten them back and now she had to say goodbye to them forever. Killian, a pirate whom had started to find a place in her heart and would now never get the chance to actually take up rent there. Then there was Regina, the one she was hugging, they had started as enemies in this town but over the past three years they had become close and Emma didn't know exactly what these feelings were but they weren't hatred and that had been a start.

"Thank you Regina." She whispered before taking a step back.

"Mom," Henry wrapped his arms around Regina, "I love you."

"I love you too Henry...That's why I have to do this."

Henry nodded as he stepped back, "All this time I thought you hated me, but I was wrong. I know that now, and I'm so sorry."

Regina shook her head, "It's okay Henry, all that matters is you know now."

With that Emma and Henry turned around, walked to the yellow bug and got inside. Emma started the engine and began to drive as tears fell from her face and she drove over the town line.

~1 YEAR LATER~

Emma sighed as she buttered her toast. The giant glop wasn't spreading as well as she'd have liked.

"So what do you think of a vacation Henry?"

Henry looked up from his bowl of cereal and smiled, "I'd say how soon can we leave?"

Emma set her plate on the table and pulled her chair out, she shrugged and then sat down, "How about we leave today?"

Henry laughed as he shook his head, "Nice one mom, you really had me thinking we were going on a vacation."

"Well for you it would be, I mean you wouldn't have to go to school in Maine..."

"Maine? You've got to be kidding me that's not a vacation. A vacation is somewhere like Hawaii, or Florida, or Rome."

This time it was Emma's turn to laugh, "Sorry kid, but this job's in Maine."

"Of course it is." Henry sighed as he plopped is his spoon into the bowl, "You can never get a case somewhere warm. Why are you taking a case out of town anyway?"

"Because it sounds interesting."

"So does Rome..."

"Well no one from Rome has mailed me any cases. Someone from Storybrooke Maine has."

"Storybrooke? What kinda lame name is that for a town."

"Look, I didn't name the place, I didn't choose to live there. I'm just taking a case, and when it's done we'll be back here."

"What a stupid vacation." Henry huffed as he got up from his chair and went to his room slamming the door.

"Gotta love teenagers." Emma exhaled a large breath, "We leave in twenty!" She called to Henry.

"You expect me to pack in twenty minutes?!"

"Yes!"

~ 5 Hours 20 Minutes later~

"Welcome to Storybrooke." Henry rolled his eyes as he put his head against the window, "Where no one interesting would ever come because it's the middle of nowhere."

"Would you at least give this place a shot kid, you might like the small town thing."

"Doubt it."

Emma pulled her car into a parking spot in front of Granny's and turned to look at Henry, "Look, I know this situation is crappy and you just wanna go home. But I promise, I'm going to try to get this thing done as quick as I can and we can go home."

"Granny's, you've got to be kidding me. Who would name a place Granny's? Does everything taste like mothballs or something?"

"I doubt it." Emma said as they both climbed out of the car, "Anyway, the place I gotta check is out back." She handed Henry a twenty dollar bill, "Get yourself something to eat and I'll be right back."

Henry grabbed the bill and slowly walked inside the front door of Granny's restaurant. Emma watched making sure he went inside. It wasn't that she didn't trust him, but Henry was thirteen and was sporadically having the attitude of a teenage boy. She knew he wasn't happy about being here and to be completely honest this place looked like it had been ripped off the page of a storybook so she didn't blame him. Reaching the top of the stairs Emma turned and knocked on the door. A few moment's later it was opened and a medium height, dark haired women was standing there. She had fair skin, and beautiful green eyes.

"Emma," her mouth was open a bit, and a look of shock dawned the woman's face.

Emma looked down at the letter in her hand, "Mary...Margaret Blanchard?"

Mary Margaret blinked a few times in confusion, she closed her mouth and nodded, "Emma? Um, come in, where's Henry?"

Emma cocked her head slightly confused by how this woman knew her son's name. "Excuse me?"

"Henry, oh, um, I'm sorry," Mary Margaret wrapped her arms around Emma whom went stiff, "I wasn't sure if you..." She released the blonde and stepped back, "what do you know Emma? How did you know?"

Emma held up the letter that was in her hand, "Your daughter skipped out on bail, you wrote this didn't you?"

Mary Margaret scanned the note shaking her head slightly as her eyes passed over the words. If she said no her daughter was sure to walk out of her life for good once again, but she couldn't lie to her could she? Who had written that note?

"Emma, you should come in...it's a long story."