Chapter 1.
Emma looked at the floor and then at Neal, "What can I do?"
Neal looked up at Emma for the first time since she came into the room. She saw the look in his eyes. It was the same look that Neal had as a child in Neverland, the same look she had as child in the system, the despair and just a lost child that didn't matter.
But he did matter. To Henry. To her.
There was no hesitating, Emma opened her arms and let Neal cry. Tears flowed down and stained Emma's shirt but she didn't care. She caressed his hair and caressed his back, soothing him like she would sooth a child. Mary Margaret was right, Neal did need her and it was here in this moment that Emma realized just how much she needed Neal as well.
Neal pulled back and looked at Emma for the second time. Emma instantly knew that look. It was a look of longing where nothing mattered but this moment. She knew it was wrong, Neal was grieving over the loss of his father and to take advantage of that didn't sit right with her and yet Neal could plainly read the same expression on her eyes. It was a look he had seen on her face long ago. How he had missed that look.
In that moment they both knew, despite the grief, at this very moment the only thing more powerful than pain was the gravity that was beginning to pull them together. The pull could not be torn apart, it was too strong. The world could be destroying all around them for all they knew, which it often seemed to do, and nothing could break the weight that was bringing them closer.
Neal's lips met Emma's for the first time in over a decade. To both of them nothing had ever felt more right. Not the kisses Neal had shared with Tamara or the kisses Emma had shared with the various men in her life, Graham and Hook included in that list. From the moment Neal had walked back into Emma's life and she knew she never stopped loving him, she often wondered if she would ever get this chance again and now despite the circumstances, it had brought them to this moment.
Their eyes closed, their tongues caressed the inside of their cheeks. Emma's hands ran up and down Neal's back as did his with hers. After over a few minutes Emma pulled back and stood. Neal looked disappointed but Emma had the widest smile that she hadn't shared with him in a long time.
She made her way over to the door and locked it. When she had come in earlier Emma had only closed it. Now no one would barge in. She made her way over to Neal who stood up.
"Should we really be doing this," Emma asked him.
Neal smiled, "Don't you want to?"
Emma sighed. The last time she had heard those words from him were in a hotel room when they had contemplated finding a place together. No more needed to be said. Their decision was made.
Emma flew to Neal like a trumpeter swan taking off in flight to the burning fire of the setting sun.
Their clothes were taken off in a moment neither would remember, the only importance being was their skin finally finding each other after so long of being apart. They touched deeply and their kisses were deep and longing. Each both finding what they had spent years fearing they had lost.
Neal eased himself into Emma. She leaned back in a deep ecstasy of feeling, unbeknownst to the two of them that as Neal had made his entrance a wave of magic pulsed out of the room and over the entire town.
Across the town, for those who were still awake, David and Mary Margaret included, looked around and wondered what that new magic wave was all about. After Pan's curse had been diffused what could disturb Storybrooke now?
One thing was clear. Back in the hotel room Emma and Neal were home.