Hey there everyone! I recently changed my pen name from swon023633s to onceuponacriminalmind so it is now the same as my tumblr url :) Please feel free to follow me there! I love hearing from you all.
Anyway, here is a little story I have done in about 3-4 hours so it is hot off the press, but I wanted to post it before tomorrow's big episode! WHO ELSE IS SUPER STOKED?! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! It's based off of 2x14 "Manhattan" promo and goes on the assumption that Neal is Baelfire. It starts just as Emma is ringing the buzzer to the apartment in the sneak peek extended scene. I hope you all enjoy!
"UPS package for 407."
It may have been 10 years, but he could recognize that voice anywhere. She was here. She was downstairs, and as much as he wanted to buzz her up and let her in, he knew he had to run from her once go of the intercom, he looked around the apartment for some sort of escape.
"The window it is then," he thought throwing on his jacket. He had been quite the escape artist back in the day, but it had been years since he had had to climb out a window. Pushing all of his weight onto the rusty ladder, Neal winced as it made a loud grating noise; there was no way she hadn't hear that. Quickly climbing down, he heard the sound of the building door slam open and saw a flash of blonde hair. Jumping the few feet left to the ground, he landed and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction without looking back.
HONNNNNNNNK! He was dodging people and cars, keeping up his speed. New York was not a city that was made for an easy getaway. If the swarms of people didn't block him, there was always the threat of a rogue taxi mowing him down. Chancing a glance behind him, Neal saw Emma jump swiftly over the chain link and dodge the cars almost expertly, keeping her speed as well. Spying a corridor up ahead, he decided he would weave through there and try to lose her; he had lived in the area for almost a decade, there was no way she would keep up.
"OOF!" A man grunted as Neal smacked into him, but he didn't have the time to apologize if he wanted to avoid being caught. Turning left and then right, and then left again, he no longer heard the rapid sound of feet hitting pavement behind him but he kept going none the less. He figured he would run for a while longer, and then find somewhere to stay for a few days, just in case she decided to stake out his place.
Suddenly, he felt something smash into his side and he was flying face first to the pavement in front of him. Flipping in the air and landing on the cool wet surface with an appropriate groan, he kept his gaze to the ground and pushed himself up on his knees, giving one last effort to hide himself from her. As he heard her pants however, he suddenly worried that she may be hurt, and that worry for her was always going to be stronger than any fears he may have.
Slowly raising his gaze, Neal saw her lying on her side, her gaze toward the pavement and her body rising up and down as she took in laboured breaths. He knew he should run; leave before she looked up and saw his face, the face of the man who had abandoned and betrayed her all those years ago, just like her deadbeat parents. No! He had done her wrong once, he wouldn't do that again. All this running and hiding that he had done for years, she was the only person who had ever made him feel whole. She had travelled all the way to find him, chased him down through the streets, and blindsided him, and now here they were with no more than a few feet between them. He was done hiding; he would not be a coward. Holding his breath, he waited as Emma's gaze caught his, her panting stopped abruptly, and her eyes grew wide in shock.
"No..." she said in utter disbelief as she started to shake her head as she stared at the man before her.
"I'm not having drinks with you. You might be a pervert!" she exclaimed. Out of all the cars she could have picked, this one happened to have the owner in it.
"I might be a pervert, but you're definitely a car thief," the man smiled smugly from the back seat.
Throwing the map onto the bed, her turned to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, bringing her closer to him.
"Whatever spot you pick...is our home." he stated matter of factly. He wanted to start anew. Wanted to begin his life and settle down.
Closing her eyes with a smile, she hesitated before confidently placed her finger on the page and decided on their future.
"Tallahassee."
"Is this what you really want?" She asked, worried that perhaps this time, their crazy plan may be pushing things too far. It was one thing to go to another state, it was a whole other ball game to move to another country and change identities.
Moving their foreheads to rest on each others, he brushed his nose against hers and whispered,
"What I really want is you."
Walking back out towards the gate of the cell, she turned around to see the young girl still staring at her hands.
"Well, when you get out, you'll have a car," the Warden stated as she calmly placed the keys back into the yellow envelope, "...and a baby. Congratulations."
Hook turned to her with stare of puzzlement.
"For someone who's never been in love, you're quite perceptive aren't you?" he asked with a slight nod.
Taking a deep breath, she thought of him. The plans that they had made that day in the motel, the promises in the park, and everything she had wanted with him for their future together.
"Maybe I was...once."
"Wh-wha..NO!" she shouted as she rose, still not taking her eyes off of him (somewhat out of shock, and somewhat because she found that she couldn't look away).
"How the hell? Wh-I don't. You-. N-Neal?!"
Tilting his head in an apologetic way, Neal extended his hand in her direction before clenching it so that his knuckles almost turned pure white.
"Emma, I know this is-" he started as he took a step towards the women. Bundled up in her jacket and red scarf, she looked so small and afraid until she too took a step back, keeping the distance between them.
"DON'T," she deadpanned as her eyes broke out of their reverie. She straightened her stance as she rose to point a finger right back at him.
"I don't know what the hell is going on here, Neal, or whatever the bloody hell your name is, but I can tell you one thing: I am not talking to you." Shock started to dissipate and was now being replaced by hot seething anger that was causing her blood to boil over. Staring the man down for a moment longer, Emma turned from him and began to briskly walk in the other direction. There was a lot of shit Emma Swan had dealt with in her life, but this was not something she was prepared to do, nor did she ever want to have to.
"Emma, please listen to me!" Neal begged as he grabbed her arm and stopped her from going any further. The next thing he knew, Neal felt the sharp sting of a hand hit his cheek, whipping his head to the side.
"Get you're hands off of me! Don't you dare touch me you son of a bitch!" Emma shouted in fury as she ripped her arm out of his grasp as he covered his cheek that she had struck. She hadn't hit anybody in quite a while, so the blow she had delivered was making up for lost time.
Smirking as she began to see the faint red marking of a fist start to form on the man's face, she continued, "You even think about grabbing me again and I will give you another punch to match that one!"
"Just let me explain, Emma! I can explain everything," he pleaded, placing his hands in front of himself in an attempt to shield himself in case she decided to punch him anyways. Neal knew Emma could pack a punch, but he had never actually been on the receiving end of one before. He suddenly felt a bit of sympathy for all those men he had seen Emma beat up those times a theft had gone awry.
"Let you explain?!" she exclaimed. "What's there to explain, Neal? How you set me up for the watches? How you let them lock me up in jail? How you left me all alone while you were God knows where with just a fucking car waiting for me when I got out? No, there's nothing to explain. I went over every possible explanation in my mind while I looked in Tallahassee just hoping that maybe you were there, and you know what? After 2 years, the explanation that I came to was that you are an asshole; simple as that."
"I know you think I set you up Emma, but I had no choice! I never wanted to leave you! When he told me that you were thrown in jail, I wanted to turn myself in and get you out. It should have been me in jail, not you and I'm so unbelievably sorry that I wasn't there for you when you needed me."
"You're damn right it should have been you. For the record, I never needed you. I was completely fine on my own before I made the stupid ass mistake of picking the wrong car to steal."
Neal's eyes flashed with hurt at her words. He knew she was lying, they had both needed each other, they had loved each other, but it didn't mean hearing those words didn't feel like a knife in his gut.
"And he who? Who told you I was in jail huh?" she questioned, sincerely interested in how he had found out about her time in lockup.
Taking a deep breath, Neal answered, "August. He followed me that night after I left you in the car and gave you the watch. He told me if I really loved you, that I had to do right by you and let destiny take it's course." Shoving his hands into his pockets, he shuffled back and forth on his feet realizing just how stupid that sounded.
"August? As in August W. Booth?!" Things were getting more and more complicated by the second for Emma. "How the hell does August have anything to do with you and I? How do you ever know him? And why would you believe anything he said that night?!"
"I didn't know him. I mean, we kind of, well we kind of grew up in the same...area so to speak." Neal was stumbling over his words, but he didn't want to give too much away about himself in the process of explaining things to Emma just yet. "He told me how you were the "saviour". He showed me something, something from my past that I thought I had long gotten rid of, but the past has a way of, well creeping on us I guess."
"Damn straight it does." Emma emphasized, as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Wait, the "saviour?" You know about the...and you and August grew up in the same...but he's from..." Realization suddenly dawned on her, and it was then she remembered who she had been sent to chase down and who had asked her to chase him down.
"You're..You're Gold's son." she barely whispered as once again the tide of her emotions turned from anger, back to disbelief and shock. "Oh my god...Oh my god" she repeated as she began to shake. He was from the Enchanted Forest. He had somehow gone through a portal to the real world. He knew about the curse. Neal is Henry's father. Neal is Gold's son. Neal is Baelfire. Baelfire is Henry's father.
"Who's Gold? Whoa, Emma! Easy, easy!" Neal stretched out his arms to hover around her just in case her knees gave way. He didn't want to preemptively grab her and risk being punched again, but if she was going to collapse, he would catch her in time.
"I'm fine. Just give me a sec," she reassured as she bent over with her hands on her knees and sucked in breathfulls of air. Once she got her hands to stop shaking, she collected herself and stood fully.
"Rumplestiltskin."
Neal's face drained instantly.
"Ex-Excuse me?" he stuttered, hoping that he had heard her wrong.
"Mr. Gold is Rumplestiltskin. Rumplestiltskin is Mr. Gold. And you are his son, aren't you?" Emma asked, although it was really more of a statement than a question.
Now it was Neal's turn to be in shock and disbelief. How did Emma know about his father? He had never mentioned his past to anyone, and now in the span of a few minutes, he was experiencing flashbacks to the most painful moments of his past he had ever endured. All he could do was stare at Emma with his mouth agape and slowly give a simple nod.
"You know I'm the saviour Neal. You know about the curse, so you know that I broke it. Regina, well the Evil Queen, she made it that everyone's memories were forgotten and was brought here to a land without magic. When I broke the curse, everyone got their memories back, and one of those people was Rumplestiltskin. I owed him a favour, so he asked me to help him find his son, but never in a million years did I ever think that would turn out to be you."
"So, you came to New York to find Baelfire...not me." he uttered with resignation and a hint of disappointment. He had briefly thought she had come to find him: Neal Cassidy. Perhaps wanted to talk things out after all this time? No, that was naive and crazy to think. She hated him, and rightfully so.
"Well, I did find you. You're Baelfire; and you're Neal. And I'm Emma Swan, just a girl who got thrown into the role of a lifetime with parents who are heroes who fight dragons and ogres. I didn't ask for any other this. We just got on a plane, and wound up at your apartment."
"We?" Neal asked, looking around him, "You mean, he's with you?"
"Well, yeah. He told me to chase after you so I did, but he really wants to talk to you," she responded. Honestly, at this point, she could care less if he came back to talk with her to talk to Gold, but she also knew that crossing Gold would fair badly. Very badly.
"Not a chance in hell! There is no bloody way that I am talking to him!" he shouted forcefully.
Emma figured getting Gold's son to talk to him would be difficult, and the fact that she personally knew how stubborn Neal could be was not adding to her optimism.
"What happened between the two of you?"
Neal sighed, "He left-"
" ?" Gold's voice suddenly echoed between the corridor walls.
"EMMA? Where are you?" Henry's call followed after. She had lost track of time and they must have started to search for her when she hadn't returned.
"That's Gold." Emma stated as she turned back towards Neal. She purposely left out an explanation of the other voice, not ready to open up that can of worms.
"Ms. Swan? Are you here?" Again, Gold's voice sounded, only this time closer to the pair.
Looking at the woman he had loved so much, Neal shut his eyes and tried to decide. He wanted to stay to talk to Emma and find out everything, but he just couldn't face his father. He opened his eyes and noticed a necklace that Emma was wearing.
"Go Neal. Get out of here." Emma commanded sternly. She would tell Gold that she had lost track of his son, after all, he had magic so perhaps they could try again another day. She couldn't risk Henry meeting Neal.
"Emma," Neal started, walking towards her, fear of being punched be damned. "Emma, I can't face my father right now, but I do want to talk to you. Meet me tomorrow at the Four Seasons at 9am, please. Please Emma."
It was all too much. She could hear their footsteps now. One more turn and Gold and Henry would see him.
"Neal, I don't-"
"I'm glad you kept the keychain, although I really think it's much prettier as a necklace." Before Emma could register what he was talking about, Neal smiled (that reminded Emma of the first time she had met him) and turned quickly ducking into another alley and out of sight.
Grasping her necklace, she had about 3 seconds to catch her breath as she turned to see Henry bound up to her with Mr. Gold hobbling behind.
"There you are! We've been looking everywhere for you! Did you find him?" Henry asked, looking behind his mom.
"No, uh...I lost him. He ducked into this area and I've been searching the stores but couldn't find him. Sorry Mr. Gold., I guess your son is harder to track than I thought."
"Well Ms. Swan, it seems that you need to brush up on your skills then, doesn't it?" he snarked. "I have the globe back at the hotel. We'll try again tomorrow, it's getting too late now. This area seems fairly uncivilized after hours so I suggest we head back."
Nodding in agreement, the three began to walk back. They were all tired and hungry from the long day and it was rather dangerous to be on the streets this late. As they strolled the street, Emma couldn't help but glance back into the corridor, pondering everything that had happened, and what she had learned.
"Mom? You okay?" Henry asked with a look of concern.
She was starting to get used to being called "Mom", and even though it was still a big adjustment, it warmed Emma's heart to hear him say it every time he did. Looking down at her son, Emma couldn't help but smile.
"Ya kid, I'm good. How about when we get back to the room, we order some burgers and fries? Sound good?"
The look of concern was completely replaced with the widest grin she had ever seen on her son's face as he exclaimed, "That sounds great! I'm starving! Maybe we could order some pumpkin pie for desert?"
Emma grasped her son's small hand and squeezed it gently while she touched her necklace before readjusting her scarf to recover it.
"Sure Henry. Pumpkin pie for dessert."
There it is folks! I hope you enjoyed reading it and I apologize if Emma seemed OOC. I just had a wild idea from the promo so I thought I'd give this a shot since I have a week off of school. If anyone is interested, I do have a little epilogue in mind so I will probably be posting it later in the week, but I would love to hear if you are interested in reading that. PLEASE leave a review/comment because I love reading them and getting feedback from you all! Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and let's hope that OUAT doesn't kill us ONCERS with feels with this episode! :P