Emma

Storybrooke, Montana

"Is it everything you dreamed of?" Mary Margaret asked Emma as they stared together at the expanse of her new ranch. Or rather, their new ranch.

Mary Margaret, Emma, and their best friends Ruby and Belle had pooled together everything they had to transform this little corner of the world that they dearly loved, a home that had been passed to the four women from Ruby's grandmother just a few months earlier. At the far edges of the town of Storybrooke Montana, the ranch spanned nearly twenty acres and was the site where each woman felt she could find her refuge from the harsh realities of their earlier lives.

Mary Margaret would be opening her veterinary practice near their stables that would range from small pets to large ranch animals. Those stables would be run by Emma, whose love for horses sparked the fire in her heart almost as much as her eleven-year-old son, Henry. Ruby would be breeding Irish wolfhounds and created a facility that could house up to eight full-grown hounds and one litter of pups. And as for Belle - dear sweet Belle - well, she would still be working at the town library but had been granted the entirety of the basement to create the personal library of her dreams. Though it was being worked on, the space promised to be everything the bibliophile could ever dream of.

The four friends and Henry fit more than comfortably in the large farm house that sat at the center of the parcel of land and the simple easiness of it all calmed Emma, a woman who many had called 'on-edge' in her life.

Always determined to do right by herself and her son, Emma Swan knew the cruelties that this world had to offer and so actively avoided anything that threatened their small sort of happiness. A survivor of the foster system, Emma had been bounced around from home to home until at sixteen she ran away. It was only a few short years after that when she met Henry's father, who on top of being a thief, let Emma take the fall for a crime he'd committed.

Despite the dark stains on her past, Emma had also known great kindness, not the least of which came from a women named Lily Page. Like Emma, Ms. Page had been a child of the system and she worked hard all through her life to grant second chances to children from similarly broken lives. She pleaded with the judge on Emma's case for leniency, and in exchange for no jail time, Emma was brought to Storybrooke to work off her community service hours.

Pregnant and feeling entirely alone, Emma was surprisingly embraced by the tiny town of people and she made friends quickly. Mary Margaret was the first to offer friendship, opening her small loft to Emma and her unborn child when Emma needed the assistance the most. Across the hall from them, Belle and Ruby lived in a similarly small apartment and when Henry came and Emma's whole life turned on its axis, the three women had been there to help with anything and everything.

The friends bonded over their love of books and music, and chocolate and wine, and most basically over the goodness of their natures and the kindness each woman had inside. They were all different, but their differences never came between them. Emma knew because of her friends what it meant to have family even before she met Henry, and with the addition of her kid, Emma was certain the same feelings of loneliness were gone for good. Things might be hard, but they would be better for having people who loved her along for the ride.

While in Storybrooke Emma also learned that her childhood fondness for horses could mean more and could inform her path in life. So she worked hard as a ranch hand and stable assistant while taking correspondence classes to get her degree. It had taken her seven years but she had graduated from the University of Montana in Equestrian Studies and when her mentor (who most called Doc Hopper) retired, he left his business and clients to Emma. She'd taken over care of his horses and those of his clients still on his land for a small fee that had been more than fair. But this new home, aptly named Hope Springs Ranch, would now be the base for her entire operation.

"Emma?" Mary Margaret called her from the lengthy reminiscing and Emma blinked away the haziness of her wandering mind.

Emma pulled Mary Margaret into a side hug and the two women smiled as they watched the wind lick at the tall grass to the side of their farmhouse. On the path Henry led a troop of three of Ruby's young pups in a game of tag. The dogs barreled after him on slightly shaky legs and every once in a while Henry intentionally let himself fall to the ground to collect their cute puppy loving.

"Yeah, it's everything." But as Emma said the words, that small voice in the back of her mind whispered that it was almost everything.

For what Emma Swan wouldn't admit out loud was that sometimes, at the end of a long day or in times of awesome achievement, she felt something missing. She was missing someone to love her and put her first who could help her carry her burdens. Someone who the stars had determined would be hers and only hers. She wanted the fairy tale she read about in books, a great love, a man who would cross realms and time to find her and to love her. But that was sappy, and if there was one thing Emma was not, it was sappy. At least not openly.

"Ruby and Belle will be back in a few days. Two weeks is too long, and I want to hear more about that guy Belle mentioned that Ruby met! Of course the connection would cut off just as she was getting to the good part," Mary Margaret mused.

"Knowing Ruby it'll be quite the affair. Stolen kisses, tensions high, the stuff of movies. Then reality will set back in, she'll jump back on that plane and come home like she always does. I'm just shocked that Belle seemed so okay with spending so much of their trip with that man and his friend."

"Liam Jones. Doesn't get much more British than that does it?" Mary Margaret sighed, clearly losing herself in the magic of potential love, a favorite pastime of hers.

"Isn't Liam an Irish name?" Emma asked.

"You know, now that you mention it – I don't really know. But hey, a girl can work with both of those, can't she? Come on, let's get dinner started."

"Alright. Henry!" Emma called to her son and held up her two hands signaling that he was to come in the house in ten minutes. He nodded and waved.

Emma took one last look at the ranch and pushed away the thought that something was missing, because for now, things were next to perfect. And next to perfect was pretty damn good.

…

Killian

Dublin, Ireland

"Married?! Liam, tell me I did not just hear you say that you've run off and gotten yourself married!"

Killian Jones stared at his phone in shock and disbelief. Liam? His elder brother, Liam? The man was a walking poster boy for respectability and responsibility and he expected Killian to believe that he'd gone off and married some lass on a whim. No, not possible.

"Aye I said married and I meant it, Killian" Liam gruffly responded into the receiver. "So get your ass to London and come and meet her. Bring Dave and Robin too if you like. Will's here and we're gonna have me a little send off. I'd like to see you all before I go."

"What do you mean send off? Where the bloody hell are you going?" Hearing the commotion, David Nolan popped his head into the doorway to see what was going on.

"Everything all right?" he mouthed at Killian.

"Fuck no," Killian whispered back.

"She's American and her trip is over in a few days. I'm going back home with her."

"You married an American girl on holiday and you're going to follow her?" At this point the building tension in Killian's neck was sucking so much of his anxiety that his voice had returned to normal. He tried to ease the knot out as he closed his eyes and schooled his breathing. When he opened them again, Dave stood there with his mouth hanging open in shock.

"That's right," Liam responded and a feminine giggle could be heard in the background. This conversation wasn't private then.

"And where exactly in America are you to call home now, brother?"

"Little town called Storybrooke Montana."

"Montana? What the hell is in Montana?" This time both Killian and David spoke together out loud earning a chuckle from Liam.

"Ranching. My girl raises Wolfhounds, if you can believe it, Irish the lot of them. And she lives there with some girls she grew up with. One's a vet, the other trains horses, just like you used to want to little brother."

Liam was greeted by silence, completely stunned silence. Were there words for this – this, whatever the hell this was? David's phone rang and he answered it swiftly.

"Robin, hey now's not a great time." David had been just about to tell Robin he was on speaker when Robin replied.

"Don't care, put Killian on. His brother's gone and got himself married for Chrissake and the poor bastard ought to hear it from a live person instead of seeing it on facebook like I just have."

"I'll take that as my congratulations, Locksley. Saturday at seven at King's Grotto. And dress sharp would you, don't want my lovely wife thinking she's off and made a mistake once she sees the lot of you." With that the line went dead and Killian looked up at his best mate.

"She must be some girl," David noted out loud.

"Is there a girl in all the world worth moving to bloody Montana? What even is a Montana?" Killian huffed.

"Land of cowboys and oil barons. Oh and lots and lots of open space far as I can recall," Robin replied through the speaker. "Your brother's in for quite a wake up call if you ask me."

"Maybe it'll be good for him. None of us are getting any younger, and Liam's a good six years older than the rest of us. Time for him to settle down."

Here were David's homegrown, American family values that he usually did such a good job of tampering down. After nearly ten years in Ireland when he'd come here for Uni and decided not to go back, David had largely assimilated to the small green nation, but underneath it all he was still a good ole' southern gentleman Killian figured.

"Perhaps. But I'd like a good look at this woman before I say for sure," Killian said.

"So… I guess we're going to a party then." Robin's grin could be heard through the phone and Killian rolled his eyes. Lord help him. How the hell had his life gone asunder so bloody quickly?

As David finished the conversation with Robin, hashing out the details of their impending trip to London this weekend, Killian allowed himself to begin to sort it out. Of everything it had been David's comment about settling down that seemed to tug at him most. He'd long thought himself the happy, care-free bachelor. But if he was honest, there was that niggling sense that he was ready for something… better. Something a lot like love.

But that wasn't the issue. The issue was his blasted brother, and in forty-eight hours he'd give him a piece of his mind.