A/N: OK, so here it is! This picks up pretty much where Operation Angelfish left off... like a week or so later.

A couple of people asked about the whole Liv having to go to the Netherworld thing, so I wanted to make sure everyone understood :)

Basically, everyone knows magic comes at a price and the price for creating life is death. With THIS magic, the death has to be connected to the magic that created the life; so Emma and Regina (who made the magic) or Liv (who was created by the magic). Rumpelstiltskin, as always, has his own reasons for doing anything (which will become clear) so he nudged Liv in the direction he wanted her to take.

Anyway, as much as I love dear old Rumpel, he's just too good a villain to not make the most of!

But that's enough rambling, here's the first part!

B x

To say Rumpelstiltskin had been surprised when Liv walked into his shop a week after her return to Storybrooke, flanked by her mothers, would have been an understatement. Regina smirked internally as she realised that she'd never seen him so flustered and, apparently, unable to hide his discomfort. He leant heavily on the counter and stared at them for a moment, before raising an eyebrow and motioning between them.

"So it's true?" He smiled. "You did manage to find a way to bring your daughter back?"

Regina shook her head. "No… she got herself back."

"But… how, Miss Reilly? How did you manage to do that?"

Liv shrugged, narrowing her eyes. "I don't know. I just did."

"What I want to know, Rumpel, is why you lied." The brunette ground out, her eyes flashing dangerously. "You knew Liv wouldn't survive that encounter and yet–?"

"I want to know how you took baby me back in time." The teenager told him curiously. "Regina doesn't know how you did it and I can't find anything about it in her books."

He smirked and wafted a hand in her direction. "There was a potion and a portal involved. Do you really think I'd tell you exactly how to do it, dearie?"

Liv rolled her eyes, but Emma glared at him. "So? Why did you lie about Liv being able to defeat the… thingy?"

"As Miss Reilly and I discussed when she came to speak to me after the conversation the three of us had, you would never have allowed her to go if you had known the truth. It was imperative that someone was sacrificed to Erebus and I believed that Miss Reilly should be the one to make the choice."

"She's just a child!" Regina shouted. "You shouldn't have–"

"I'm not a kid. I made the choice." Liv told her firmly. "I just want to know how I got back here. Clearly you're not as clever as you think you are if you don't know the answer."

"Miss Reilly… this situation is not playing out the way I expected at all." He admitted, causing all three women to frown suspiciously. "I have never known anyone to return from The Netherworld before. At least not in the same condition as they arrived there."

"What d'you mean it's not playing out the way you expected?" Emma demanded, leaning against the counter and staring at him. "Did you fucking plan this?"

He smiled and tilted his head slightly. "And why would I do that?"

"That prophecy in the story pages… it wasn't talking about Erebus at all, was it?" Regina muttered, thinking hard. "There's something else, isn't there? You wanted Liv out of the way for some reason."

The teenager turned to look at her mother, eyes widening in surprise and horror at her words. "What?"

"Why?" Emma demanded, her eyes flashing furiously. She was itching to reach over the counter and squeeze the man's neck until it snapped, but she restrained herself, knowing it wouldn't end well. "What has she ever done to you?"

"It's not what she's done, Miss Swan, it's what she will do."

Realising he wasn't going to give them any more than that, Regina grabbed Liv by the hand and pulled her out of the shop. The teenager was too stunned by Rumpelstiltskin's words to even think about protesting about being dragged out. She couldn't imagine what she could possibly do to cause the man to want her dead. If it came down to her versus Rumpelstiltskin there was no way she would bet on herself.

Emma watched them leave and hesitated for a moment, before turning and jabbing a finger threateningly at the man behind the counter. "If you lay so much as one finger on her I will fucking end you. That is a promise. The same goes for the rest of my family."

He smiled again. "Your promises are noted, Miss Swan. But don't forget, your daughter still owes me a favour and I will be requesting that she fulfils her side of our bargain at some point."

"So, we were thinking, maybe you should learn to ride?" Mary Margaret told her granddaughter as they sat around the dining table at the Mayor's house later that evening. It sounded more like a question than a statement because the woman didn't think that Liv would respond positively to the suggestion.

What Rumpelstiltskin had told them had remained between the three women and they'd decided not to mention anything until they'd started working on a plan. They knew that Mary Margaret and David would panic at the thought of a threat to their family and jump in feet first before considering the consequences. The only problem was, they didn't know what they were up against. They had absolutely no idea what Rumpelstiltskin was planning or what his motivations might be. Now that Neal was back in Storybrooke and his relationship with Belle seemed to be back on track, they weren't sure what else the man could be after.

"Uhh… what?" Liv asked, pulling a face. "Why?"

"Well… if we manage to get home, back to our land, then you'll need to know how."

The teenager snorted. "No way. If we ever go there, I can just beam myself around in a puff of smoke." She reminded them. "By the way, Regina, why is my magic smoke pink? Is that some kind of joke? Can I change it?"

"Sorry, sweetheart," Regina shook her head and chuckled, moving to collect desert from the kitchen, "it's just the way it happens."

"But pink? Seriously?"

"I think it's cute!" Emma teased her, reaching across and squeezing her cheek. "Pink is so your colour."

Liv growled and made a flicking motion in her direction. Emma gasped and then screamed as her chair tipped sideways, dumping her unceremoniously onto the floor. Henry burst out laughing and both Mary Margaret and Regina raised a hand to cover their smiles as David helped his disgruntled daughter back onto her feet. Liv merely stabbed her fork into her slice of pie and shoved it into her mouth.

"Gina!" Emma complained, shoving the teenager in the shoulder. "Would you quit teaching her these things already? Eurgh… she's so your daughter."

Regina raised an eyebrow, watching Liv shovel pie into her mouth at an alarming speed. "No, dear, she's definitely yours."

"So? D'you want to learn to ride?" David pressed once they'd all returned to their desert once more.

"I said no, didn't I?"

"Maybe you should think about it, dear." Regina suggested, shooting her a warning look. "If we ever go back you may be glad you learnt. I used to love riding…"

"Well why don't you go to the stables with Mary Margaret and David, then?" Liv shot back. "Or even better, why don't the three of you teach Emma?"

"No way!" The blonde told them firmly.

Chewing the inside of her cheek to prevent herself saying anything else, the teenager shrugged and stood to collect up the dirty bowls. Footsteps behind her alerted her to someone's presence and she tensed. Continuing to load the dishwasher wordlessly, Liv sighed as a hand on her shoulder made her look up.

Emma smiled weakly down at her. "I know you're freaking out, kid, but you can't act like that; especially if you don't want them to start fussing over you."

"I know… but I don't give a shit about learning to ride a horse. There's probably no point anyway… what chance do I stand against Rumpelstiltskin?"

"Hey!" The older woman cupped her face gently, but stared at her with a hard expression. "Don't you dare give up. Your Mom and I aren't and we won't. You managed to get back here from The Netherworld and you saw his face; he was shocked."

"I'm… I'm scared, Emma." Liv admitted with a sigh. She looked away, not wanting to see the disappointment she was sure would be in the blonde's eyes.

Emma forced the teenager to look at her. "You know what, kid? So am I." When Liv clearly didn't believe her, she chuckled. "It took me so long to believe that Henry was right about the curse and everything else because I didn't want to believe that I was the Saviour. I didn't want the responsibility that went with it. I didn't even want to be Henry's Mom at first. I just wanted to get him back here and get on with my life. But then I realised that things weren't right and I stuck around. Everything just kinda went from there. Now I can't imagine going back to how it was before, but it still scares me because now I have so much more to lose."

"But what if… what if I really shouldn't have come back?" Her daughter asked softly, her eyes stinging with tears she refused to let fall. "What if I'm just putting everyone in danger by being here?"

"If Gold doesn't want you here then that means it's bad for him. That probably means it's good for us. Not that you being here could possibly be bad for us anyway, I just meant in terms of the prophecy or whatever." Emma said quickly. "We'll work it out, OK?"

"How? We have no idea what he's planning!"

Smiling a crooked smile, Emma gave her a quick hug. "We'll figure it out, kid. Now, get back in there and tell my parents that you'll let them teach you how to ride a horse."

"Not gonna happen." The teenager replied with a smirk. "Never in a million years."

"Really?" She sighed and pouted. "'Cos they're gonna be on my case until you say yes."

"Good luck with that."

Before Emma could respond, the swinging door between the kitchen and the dining room opened and Regina poked her head through. "Everything OK?"

"Fine, babe." The blonde assured her, sending Liv a reassuring smile. "She is refusing to even think about learning how to ride."

"Why?" The brunette asked, walking further into the room and leaning against the counter beside Emma. Apparently the way the blonde's arm was immediately slung around her shoulders was instinctive because neither seemed to register the action. "Is it because Henry said you'd probably be rubbish at it?"

At once Liv's head shot up and she frowned. "He said what?"

"You know what Henry's like, dear." Regina continued causally. "I doubt he meant it."

Not answering, the teenager pushed through the doors into the dining room, muttering about Henry under her breath. Emma raised an eyebrow at her girlfriend when they were alone, turning to look at her.

"Madam Mayor, what has got into you?" She chuckled, pressing herself firmly against Regina and bowing her head to kiss the brunette's neck. "Did you just reignite the war between our kids?"

"Not a war… a competition, maybe."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "It'll be a war, trust me."

"I'm surprised you didn't think of it yourself, Sheriff."

"We're not all as devious as you, babe."

Wrapping her arms around Emma's neck, Regina captured her lips in a soft kiss, smiling when the blonde let out an appreciative moan. Pulling away, she rested her forehead against the younger woman's and sighed. Immediately concerned, Emma removed one of her hands from Regina's waist and used it to tilt her chin so that she could look into her eyes questioningly.

"What's wrong?" She asked. Then she shook her head. "Stupid question."

"We'll work it out." Regina replied firmly. "We have to."

Nodding, Emma linked their hands and pulled her back through to the dining room, just in time to hear her mother scolding Liv. Arching an eyebrow, the blonde sank into her seat, looking between the two females and leaving Mary Margaret to deal with the situation. Regina shot her a confused look across the table, but Emma just shrugged and continued to listen.

"You cannot smack your brother round the head just because he–"

"I didn't smack him round the head!" The teenager defended herself. "I didn't even touch him!"

"Using magic isn't a defence, Liv." David agreed with his wife.

"But I didn't!"

"She did!" Henry chipped in, pouting at his grandparents.

"I did not!"

Regina raised a hand before her son could reply. "Could someone tell us what's going on here?" When everyone started talking at once, she sighed and shook her head. "That's really not helping."

"Liv decided that she'd like horse riding lessons after all–"

"And she said that she'd be way better at it than me!" Henry cut across his grandmother, blinking innocently at his mothers as though expecting them to back him up.

"It just kinda escalated from there." Mary Margaret finished with a small shrug.

"I didn't do anything to him, though." Liv muttered darkly. "Although I will if he doesn't quit lying."

Regina sighed and looked at her son. "Henry… did Liv really do something to you?"

"Yes!"

"I didn't, you little sh–"

"Liv!"

"He's lying!"

"Henry, are you completely sure that–"

He glared between his mothers angrily before standing up and knocking his chair over. "You always take her side!" He shouted, storming out of the room and upstairs to his bedroom.

Emma turned her gaze on the teenager. "He seemed pretty upset, kid."

"I don't give a shit if he's upset! He's lying! Use your sensor thing and see whether I'm right. I did not do anything to the little rat."

"Stop swearing!" Regina ordered. "And stop calling him names. Emma?"

"I… I don't know. Everyone's too emotional for me to be able to tell."

"Eurgh! It's like being part of the fucking Addams Family!" The girl shouted, rolling her eyes.

Pushing her chair back so violently that it tipped over as well, she left the room, slamming the door and stamping up the stairs. The light bulb above them shattered at exactly the same moment as the door slammed and Regina sighed not entirely whether it was Liv or Emma who had caused it to happen, as both had a habit of unintentionally performing that little trick, before waving her hand and repairing the damage. A couple of moments later there was another slam, presumably from the teenager's bedroom door.

There was a long silence where the four adults stared at the two upturned chairs and replayed the argument in their heads. Emma groaned loudly and flopped her head onto her arms on the table.

"Are they like that a lot?" Mary Margaret asked tentatively, surprised by the defeated expressions on Emma and Regina's faces.

"Only pretty much all the time since Liv got back." Her daughter agreed. "We figured that Henry's got only-child syndrome. It's like when you get put with a foster family and they already have a kid and that kid automatically hates you because they're not getting all the attention anymore. He got used to the idea that, even though Gina was pregnant, the baby wasn't going to be around. But Liv came back and everything changed. And then Liv's just… Liv. She can't help herself retaliating when he says or does something."

"Have you tried talking to Henry? Explaining that just because she's here it doesn't mean he's any less important."

"Of course we have." Regina snapped. She ran a hand over her face tiredly. It was far too easy to forget that she'd given birth just a week before. "We've spoken to Liv as well to try and get her to stop reacting. Nothing seems to work. And now…"

"Now?" Mary Margaret looked between the two women quickly, quirking an eyebrow in question.

"Now things are even more complicated than before."

"Why?" David asked, leaning forward eagerly and looking between the two women. "What's going on? We need to know."

Emma shook her head. "No, you don't. Besides, we're not even sure what's going on ourselves, yet. We just need to keep an eye on Gold."