Test of Time

Chapter One: Love Renewed

Summary: The ones we love have a way of coming back to us in the end, if not always in the way we expect. – Luna Lovegood

Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time, or the quote used in the summary, or Luna for that matter.

Emma couldn't bring herself to love Killian. She had desparately wanted to, but no matter how hard she had tried to let go of the past, she couldn't. Her heart belonged to Neal, and it would always belong to Neal. And the irony had not been lost on Emma. Both Killian and August had known Neal, and while Killian had known him longer and better than almost anyone, Emma knew Neal… Killian knew Baelfire. In Emma's mind's eye, Neal was not Baelfire, so the man that Emma knew and loved was not the same boy that Killian had taught how to sail a pirate ship. So when she had woken up one morning and found herself lying on the ground in front of a dug up grave that had Neal's tombstone at the head, and found an open- and empty- casket in the ground, Emma could only think of one thing: that the man she loves was not dead and that it was only the boy that Killian knew that had died.

"Emma."

It was spoken as a whisper, and if it had been any other voice, it might have startled Emma, but that voice could never startle her. It's the voice that belonged to Neal, and they were, after all, in Storybrooke, where magic was possible, so hearing Neal speak her name was a welcomed sound.

"Neal…" Emma breathed out with a sigh and a smile.

"It's been a long time since we last saw each other." Neal commented.

"Not really. You died in my arms a couple months ago. But it has felt like an eternity since then. But the sacrifice you made in an attempt to bring your father back was heroic." Emma replied as she turned to look at the man she loved.

"Are you sure it's only been a couple months?" Neal asked.

"I'm positive Neal… your date of supposed death is engraved on the headstone…" Emma said.

"There's no date of death written there Emma." Neal pointed out nodding toward the headstone in question.

"Yes there…" Emma said as she turned to look, "well damn it." She finished when she saw that he was right.

"Where's Henry?" Neal asked as Emma continued to stare at the now incomplete headstone.

"With Regina and Robin." Emma replied.

"Why is our son not with your parents?" Neal asked.

"He has his memories back Neal. He knows that Regina was the one who raised him and that she is as much his mother as I am. So he splits his time between me and her. Besides, he likes playing with Robin's son Roland. He's almost 13 years old Neal, I can't tell him that he can't spend time with Regina. If I tried to do that, I would be acting just like she did when he first brought me here." Emma explained.

"Please don't do that." Neal said.

"Don't do what Neal?" Emma asked glancing at him.

"Don't bring up how old our son is. It only reminds me that I didn't know he existed until a year ago." Neal replied.

"You only have yourself to blame Neal. If you hadn't double crossed me, I would have tried to find you when I got out to tell you about him and then we might have been able to raise him ourselves." Emma snapped.

"So you're saying that it's my fault you gave him up for adoption?" Neal questioned.

"That's exactly what I'm saying. You were the one that turned me into the cops. And because I was in love you, I allowed myself to take the fall for your crime." Emma said.

"If you really want someone to blame, blame August for that, not me. He intersected me on my way to meet you. And he was the one who called the cops on you, not me. He knew who I was… who I am. I didn't think you would believe me if I told you the truth. But I asked him to give you money and the bug so that you would be able to start a good life." Neal argued.

"What money? I only got the bug when I got out." Emma asked as she glared at him.

"That damn puppet… I swear to you Emma, I didn't want you to have to go back to stealing in order to survive. I gave August a lot of money to send to you." Neal said with a pleading look for her to believe him.

Emma let out a sigh. She had clearly dug up the casket, if the amount of dirt on her clothes was any indication. So she clearly wanted another chance at making everything right between them. Finally moving towards him, Emma slowly reached out her hand to touch him. She needed to assure herself that she wasn't have some twisted dream. As her hand came to rest lightly on his cheek, Neal leaned his head into her hand.

"I've really missed you Neal. So much time has past, but I never stopped loving you. Graham, August, Killian… none of them could ever replace you in my heart. I had no real room for anyone else in my heart. There are only a select number of people who are allowed to hold a part of my heart in their hands, and those people are my family. You, Henry, my mom, my dad, my baby brother… to an extent, Regina, Robin, Roland, your father and Belle, but that's it. No one else. And I don't want anyone else to have a place in my heart." Emma said as a couple tears escaped from her eyes to run down her dirt covered cheeks.

"What did they name him?" Neal asked as he wiped the tears away.

"He's named after his nephew's father." Emma said in a small voice.

"Your parents named him after me? They named your brother Neal?" Neal asked.

"Yeah, they did. I told them that you would be honored to be the namesake… was I wrong?" Emma asked.

"Of course you weren't. I am honored to be the namesake for a prince." Neal said with a smile before lightly kissing the top of Emma's head. "Now, what do you say about getting you home and cleaned up and then going to get our son so we can go out for a family day?" Neal suggested.

"I like the sound of that." Emma said with a nod.

"Emma, does anyone know that you came out here to dig up my grave?" Neal asked as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and they turned to walk away.

"I don't think so… but then again, I don't even remember coming out here myself." Emma admitted.

"Then should we do something about the giant hole and the empty casket that was my grave?" Neal asked.

"Probably." Emma said with a shrug as she turned back and used her magic to make everything look the way it had been.

"You learned how to control your magic." Neal said as a statement, but Emma still answered.

"There was a lot that happened after you… sacrificed yourself… and it did require me to learn how to control my powers, yes." Emma replied.

"You'll have to fill me in on everything that happened after I died." Neal said.

"In time Neal. I will do my best to explain everything in time." Emma commented as she returned to Neal's side.

"I can deal with that." Neal said with a small nod. He knew better than to try and force Emma into telling him something that she wasn't ready to talk about.

As the couple walked away from the cemetary, Emma's phone started ringing in her pocket. Pulling it out, Emma saw her father's picture on the screen and answered the phone after giving Neal an apologetic look.

"Hello." Emma said simply.

"Where are you? You never came home last night after dropping Henry off at Regina's and your mother is worried sick, and that's causing your brother to fuss." David said from the other end of the line.

"Im walking out of the cemetary." Emma said.

"Why are you at the cemetary?" David asked.

"I, for some reason, came out here and dug up Neal's grave. And I must have passed out when I saw the casket empty." Emma replied.

"Sweetheart, that's not possible. We watched them put Neal's body into the casket and then lower it. He's dead." David said sadly. Out of all the guys he had seen his daughter be romantically involved with, he liked Neal the most, despite having gotten Emma pregnant with Henry when she was only 18.

"Dad, I'm telling you, Neal is alive. He's standing right next to me. If you give us 10 minutes, I can prove it to you." Emma said.

"Put me on speaker. There's someone here that has a question that can only be answered by Neal." David said after a moment of silence.

"If it's August, tell him that he's getting slapped or punched when I get there." Emma said.

"What am I getting slapped for? I haven't done anything wrong!" August commented.

"Did Neal give you money to send to me when he asked you to send me the bug once I was out of jail?" Emma countered.

"How do you know that Neal gave me money?" August asked.

"Because he just told me that he did, and mind you, that was money that I never got, you greedy son of a bitch." Emma spat.

"Watch your tone young lady." David said.

"Dad, I'm 29 years old, the same age that you and mom both look, so you can't really reprimand me for my tone." Emma said. "And August, what question were you wanting to ask Neal?" She asked.

"If he told you about the money… which is something that only he and I knew about, since I never told anyone… then it's proof that you are with Neal. I was going to ask him what the piece of paper in my typewriter said when I stopped him from meeting with you, but now I don't have to." August replied.

"It said 'I know you're Baelfire'." Neal replied.

"I said that I no longer needed to ask." August pointed out.

"I know, I was just further proving that I am who I say I am." Neal replied.

"We'll be back to the loft shortly so that I can shower. But then we are going to pick up Henry and then we are going to be spending the day as a family. Any other questions that you might have for Neal will have to wait until tonight." Emma said before hanging up the phone before her dad or August could say anything.

"This is going to be a long day." Neal commented.

"Yes it is. Now let's go get our son." Emma replied.

End Chapter One