I don't own Once Upon A Time and never will. No copyright infringement intended.
When Emma regained her memories, the first thing she did was punch Hook. Then she told him to get in the car so they could go back to Storybrooke. "How did the town come back? I thought it was gone forever?"
He sighed. "It's a long story. You don't want to hear about it."
"I do," piped up Henry. Off Emma's glare, he shrugged. He couldn't wait to see his grandparents and mother again. Now that his memories had returned, he missed all of them.
"Of course you do. Well, we have a long car ride ahead of us. Explain away," she urged. He launched into the story as they made their way towards Maine. It was definitely a long one, but also pretty interesting. And the fact that the Wicked Witch kept attacking them made the story even more fascinating than it already was.
"How are Grandma and Grandpa and my mom?" Henry questioned.
Hook smiled at the teenager. "They're all fine. Very excited to see you since they miss you both." He was going to wait until Henry was out of earshot to inform Emma about how bad the crisis was. He didn't want to worry the young boy.
Emma bit her lip a few times because she was so worried about what was happening in Storybrooke. What if they got there too late? What if she couldn't defeat the Wicked Witch after being out of the game so long? But she was the Savior so she could handle this. Hopefully, at least. Going after the Wicked Witch (and the fact that Oz is real shouldn't surprise her, but it does) probably isn't going to be easy, especially if her reign of terror is horrific (she knows Hook is hiding things from her and she intends to find out what that is when Henry's not near them). "I can't wait to see them either." Now that she remembered, she desperately wanted to see her parents again. Leaving them and taking Henry away from Storybrooke had been one of the hardest things she ever had to do. Losing her memories right after had helped a lot (and now there were two sets of memories in her mind, which was really weird) in that department, but something had been missing the past year. Emma and Henry hadn't been able to figure out what was missing, but they had discussed it a few times.
The three of them stopped to eat at one point since they were starving and then immediately got back on the road. Both Emma and Henry were a little terrified of what Storybrooke was going to look like now – what would the differences be? Or would it be the same? They got their answer when they got to the town line. The two of them visibly flinched when they saw the sign welcoming them to Storybrooke. "Are you going to drive this machine across the line?" Hook asked.
Emma looked at her son. "You ready for this, kid?"
Henry nodded. "Let's do this, Mom."
She smiled at them both and then crossed the town line. Emma shuddered as her magic flooded back, but managed to recover (which was good because neither Henry nor Hook knew how to drive) herself. After listening to Hook's directions, she turned onto a street she really hadn't been down before. "Why aren't we going to the apartment?"
"Your parents moved into a house. Not everyone returned to Storybrooke and so there were a lot of empty buildings to live. They wanted somewhere where all of you could live. They never gave up hope you two would come back," Hook explained.
"So why were you the one that was sent to find us?" Henry was pretty curious about that.
Hook shrugged. "I volunteered. There's no curse anymore so anyone can cross the town line and they all figured I was the best man for the job since I've been outside of Storybrooke before. Oh, and Rumplestiltskin's back. It has something to do with Belle. I don't know because I wasn't paying attention."
Emma laughed. "Well, that's somewhat good news." She pulled into the driveway of the house Hook pointed to and shut off the car. She took a deep breath before getting out of it. Henry followed behind his mother. Snow was right there to greet them when she rang the doorbell and pulled the two of them in for a hug. "Mom, calm down! It's fine. You don't have to squeeze me that hard." Emma didn't mind all that much since she had missed her so much.
A crying Snow couldn't stop the tears. "I just missed you so much. My little girl and my grandson are finally back with us, where they belong. It's so good to see you."
David slid into the room (going barefoot on floors that weren't carpeted was a bad idea) and joined in on the hug. "I love the three of you so much."
"I love both of you. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before." Emma was crying now and sniffled as she tried to figure out a way to stop.
"I'm going to go so you can have your little family reunion in peace." Hook backed away slowly, but Snow stopped him.
"Thank you for bringing them back, Killian."
He shrugged. "No problem. I'll be by later." He left the four of them alone so they could talk and do whatever else they needed to do.
"So what have you two been up to?" Snow ushered Emma and Henry inside, and the four of them went into the kitchen.
"Just living in New York. I've been working and Henry's been going to school. That's about it."
"New York is pretty awesome. It was fun living there." Henry wasn't going to miss it all that much, however. Storybrooke was his home and he wasn't planning on leaving again. Hopefully there wouldn't be another curse to screw it up.
"Well, I'm glad you had fun." Snow smiled at them.
"What have you two been up to while we were gone?" Emma was definitely curious about their year apart.
David answered that question. "We lived in the Enchanted Forest for a while and tried to rebuild, but it wasn't the same. Most of us missed Storybrooke and actively tried to find a way back. Um, your mother meddled and got Regina and Robin Hood together."
"They're very happy," Snow chimed in. She didn't regret playing matchmaker at all since it had worked out in the end.
"And then the Wicked Witch gained power and invaded our realm, and somehow undid Pan's curse. Storybrooke was returned in the process. A lot of us returned, but many stayed. There's a portal open between the two worlds now so we can go back and forth, but it's carefully monitored so no one abuses it. But the Wicked Witch did find her way through and she's terrorizing us. We missed you so much, and we love you, Em."
"But you also needed the Savior," Emma concluded. She didn't mention anything about the new nickname. She was a Daddy's Girl. Sue her for it.
"We're so sorry, Emma. We would have kept you out of it if we could, but we're losing. We do need your help." David and Snow both felt guilty for needing the Savior and dragging them both back into their world. But they didn't feel too bad since they had been reunited with the family they had missed with everything they had this past year.
"Anything else?" Emma had a feeling there was something else they weren't telling her. Snow and David exchanged a knowing look.
Snow spoke up first. She stood up. "Emma, your father and I have some very important news. I'm pregnant – you're going to be a big sister!"
Henry's face lit up and he hugged his grandmother. He definitely felt the round swell of her stomach and grinned. Emma did a double take before recovering. "You two are having another baby?"
"We're sorry. We were talking about it, but we certainly didn't plan this after Pan's curse. We're not replacing you – we want you to live here with us. We have enough room. That's why we picked it." Snow didn't want Emma to feel left out about her sibling.
Emma was a little jealous, but she was also thrilled for her parents. She hugged the two of them again. "I'm going to spoil this kid rotten, just so you know." She actually couldn't wait to meet her younger sibling. "When are you due?"
"The baby's expected to arrive in four months." David hoped that Henry would help him with the nursery – it could be a bonding experience.
Hook came over the next day, and they all went over the atrocities that the Wicked Witch had committed. Emma came up with a plan, but she'd need Regina's help with it. She wanted to make sure that this wouldn't blow up in their face like the Peter Pan situation had. She didn't want another curse enacted that took her away from her family.
The Wicked Witch wasn't going to get away with this – Emma would make sure of it. And she had her family by her side so she could do anything. And they had all the utmost faith in her – Emma's family and friends believed in her. And she seized upon their faith and was confident she could take down the witch. She still couldn't believe this was her life sometimes, though. But this wasn't going to be easy. It was going to take a lot of power to fix the havoc that had been wreaked upon Storybrooke. As long as the Charmings were together, they would get through this latest crisis and try to prepare for the next, inevitable one.