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It was a weird day from the moment Emma woke up that morning. It was quiet … like something big was going to happen. Quiet and sad. Mommy was sniffling like Emma did when she needed to cry and Daddy hadn't said a single word, not even, "Good morning, little munchkin" when Emma climbed up on his and Mommy's big giant bed.

He always said good morning to his little munchkin.

But he didn't this morning. He simply picked Emma up and brought her down to the kitchen for breakfast. Even breakfast was weird, though. Daddy usually made Emma fluffy eggs and a couple pieces of bacon but this morning he simply poured some Cheerios in a bowl, poured some milk in the cereal, and set the bowl in front of her while handing her a little spoon.

Mommy didn't come downstairs.

Emma didn't know what was wrong. She wanted to ask why she didn't get a fluffy egg for breakfast – she really liked fluffy eggs – and how come everyone seemed so sad but the look on Daddy's face kept her quiet.

She nibbled on her Cheerios while she watched Daddy sip a cup of coffee and stare out the window. Daddy only looked out the window like that when something was wrong. He looked out the window like that when he found out that his daddy had gone to heaven. When Emma finished all the cereal, she climbed out of the chair and stepped up to Daddy. After a moment, she tugged on his pant leg. "Are you sad today, Daddy?" she asked when he looked down at her.

He tried to give his little munchkin a smile but it was a sad kind of smile. He set his coffee cup down on the window sill and scooped Emma up instead, settling her on his hip. "Yes, Emma, I'm sad today."

"You should go on the swings," Emma told him sagely. "The swings always help me not be sad anymore."

She'd meant to help him feel better but her words only seemed to make him sadder. He closed his eyes and swallowed – Emma liked the way the bump in his throat moved up and down when he swallowed – and then set her back down on the ground. "I don't know if the swings are going to be enough today, Emma."

Then he stared out the window again.

Emma frowned. Why was everyone acting so weird today?

Mommy came downstairs then, Emma's little suitcase in one hand and Feddy, Emma's squishy gray teddy bear, in the other. His name was supposed to be Freddy but when Emma first got him, she couldn't make the R sound so it came out as Feddy instead.

Why was Mommy bringing down a suitcase? Were they going on a trip? Oh, maybe they were going to Castine again! Grammy and Grampy lived in Castine. Emma loved it there; she liked going to see the lighthouse.

"She'll be here any minute," Mommy murmured to Daddy. Emma could tell that Mommy had been crying.

Daddy nodded but didn't look away from the window.

Who was going to be here? Was Grammy coming to take Emma to Castine all by herself? Maybe that was why Mommy and Daddy were so sad, because Emma was going with Grammy for a few days and they weren't.

Emma watched out the window with Daddy but it wasn't Grammy's car that pulled into the driveway behind Mommy's. It was Jenna's. Emma frowned. Jenna was just here yesterday! Jenna didn't normally come over two days in a row.

Emma liked Jenna. She would bring her little toys and she always asked all kinds of nice questions, like how Emma was doing and if she was happy living with Mommy and Daddy. She always wanted to know if Mommy and Daddy were nice to her and if they ever hurt her.

Mommy and Daddy were always nice to her and they never hurt her. Emma always made sure to tell Jenna that.

Jenna hadn't asked Emma those questions yesterday, though. She'd just talked to Mommy and Daddy. Maybe that was why she was back today! Maybe she realized she'd forgotten to talk to Emma and ask her those questions.

Daddy went to go talk with Mommy and Jenna, telling Emma to stay put. A confused Emma stayed put until Jenna crouched down in front of her. She stepped forward, expecting Jenna to ask her questions, but Jenna didn't ask her questions. Instead she handed her Feddy and said, "Come on, pumpkin, we have to go."

Go? Go where? Was Jenna bringing her all the way to Castine to see Grammy?

When Emma asked that very question, Mommy started crying and Daddy turned to look out the window again. Jenna swallowed hard and blinked a few times. "No, Emma," she said gently. "We have to bring you to a different home."

A different home? "Are we moving?" But they'd only packed Emma's suitcase. What about Mommy and Daddy? Why weren't they moving, too?

And Jenna and Mommy and Daddy all tried to explain. There was a baby in Mommy's tummy and Mommy and Daddy didn't have the room or the money for both Emma and the baby but Emma still didn't understand. Crying, she dropped Feddy and ran to Mommy and clung to her leg. She said that she was sorry for all the times she spilled her milk and juice and she would be really, really good.

But it didn't matter.

Jenna pried Emma from Mommy's leg and scooped her up into her arms. Mommy was crying, too. So was Daddy. Emma squirmed, trying to get down, but Jenna held her tight and carried her out to her car. Daddy followed them to the car with Feddy and Emma's suitcase but Mommy stopped walking just outside the front door. While Jenna buckled a squirming, crying Emma into the car seat, Daddy put Emma's little suitcase in the trunk.

He leaned into the car to give her Feddy. "I'm so sorry, Emma," he said, tears in his eyes. Then he stood up straight and Jenna closed the door and got into the car herself.

Emma cried as Jenna started the car. Emma cried as they pulled away from the house. She cried when she saw Mommy crying by the door. She cried when she saw Daddy crying as he stood on the sidewalk. She cried as she watched Daddy and Mommy and the house grow smaller and smaller until they turned onto another street and she couldn't see them anymore.

Jenna was crying, too. Emma could hear her.

Emma cried and cried, hugging Feddy, until she couldn't cry anymore. And when she stopped crying, she looked at Feddy. Then she got really, really mad and threw him down on the car floor. Mommy and Daddy have given her Feddy. If they didn't want her anymore, she didn't want him anymore, either.

Snow White was exceedingly surprised when a cloud of purple smoke suddenly appeared in her living room. That surprise quickly gave way to concern and panic when the smoke cleared to reveal both Regina and Hook, who was carrying her unconscious baby girl in his arms. "What happened?!" she cried, settling baby Neal in his bassinet before dashing over to her apartment's sudden new occupants.

"Maleficent cast a spell," Regina said quickly. "Hook can fill you in. I have to get back – now – before they discover I'm gone."

And with that, she disappeared in another cloud of purple smoke, just as quickly as she had come.

Snow was left staring at the empty space, her head spinning. What on earth was going on?

Though Charming was clearly just as confused as she was, he'd managed to take the reins. He gestured for Hook to lie Emma down in his and Snow's bedroom. When Hook nodded an agreement, he and Snow followed.

Though they were both bursting with questions, they managed to wait until Hook had gently set Emma down on the mattress and draped a quilt over her. Once satisfied that Emma was all right – or as all right as she could be at the moment, Snow supposed – their need for questions finally won out. "What the hell is going on?" Charming asked, his concern making his voice tight.

And so Hook recounted his and Emma's evening, starting with Emma's need to clear her head with a walk along the docks. He explained how they'd run into Cruella and Maleficent and how the two women had knocked him out with a sleeping spell. And he explained about the second sleeping spell, the one that had trapped Emma in a nightmare world from which she couldn't awake.

The one that could very well be the first step to turning Emma towards the darkness.

Snow's heart clenched in her chest and tears welled in her eyes. Her poor baby girl.

"Regina says that the antidote will take effect as soon as she allows it to do so," Hook finally finished, nodding his head in Emma's direction. "But until then ..."

"We wait," Charming finished for him.

Hook nodded solemnly. "Aye."

Snow felt sick to her stomach. Her poor baby girl was trapped in this nightmare world, trapped in her worst memories come to life. And there was nothing they could do about it.

No, not nothing. If the antidote would work when Emma let her subconscious defenses down …

Hook eased down on the foot of the bed by Emma's feet while Charming pulled the chair closer to his daughter's bedside, both of them needing to be near her. Snow crawled onto the empty side of the bed and lay down next to Emma, propping herself up on one elbow so she could see her daughter's face. Emma's brow was pinched, telling Snow that her dreams – memories – had already started. There was no telling how many of them she'd relived by now.

Snow took her baby's limp hand, her thumb automatically running over the back of it as if by muscle memory. "Emma, sweetheart, you're safe now. No one's going to hurt you, not while I'm here."

Nothing.

However, before Snow had the chance to become discouraged, Charming said, "That's a wonderful idea. Gentle touches and words of comfort in familiar voices may help her to subconsciously realize that she's home."

"Regina mentioned something about familiar smells as well," Hook added.

Snow exchanged a glance with her wonderful husband and knew in an instant that they were both on the same page. "I'll get the cocoa started," he said with a nod. Snow smiled at him, equal parts adoration and gratitude.

Henry, who'd come down from the loft when he heard the commotion, was standing at the doorway as if afraid to enter any further. He was anxiously switching his weight from one foot to the other and the expression on his face was one of pure panic.

It struck Snow then that the poor boy had never seen his mother like this. He wasn't there when she leaped off the rail of the Jolly Roger in Neverland and he'd thankfully only been present for the aftermath of the ice cave.

Considering the amount of danger in Storybrooke, they'd done well to keep Henry from seeing the effects of it for so long.

Hook must have recognized Henry's inner turmoil as well because he tore himself from Emma's side, slung a comforting arm around the boy's shoulders, and ushered him from the room.

For the moment, Snow was left alone with her unconscious daughter. She could see tears forming between her baby's eyelashes and the sight sent tears to Snow's own eyes. Her poor sweet baby girl had a lifetime of worst memories; any one of them could have been playing in her mind's eye at that very moment. Whatever she was seeing had clearly been enough to bring tears to her eyes.

Her poor daughter had grown up so alone and unloved, so neglected, so hurt. And this spell, this awful spell was going to force her to relive all of them, over and over again.

Snow tightened her hand around Emma's, hoping against hope that the physical touch would ground her. Any words she had kept getting lost in a sob so she began to hum the lilting melody of a lullaby her own mother used to sing to her. Snow had long ago forgotten the words but the tune remained etched her memory, a song her mother used to sing to help her fall asleep again after being awakened by a nightmare.

"You're safe now, Emma," she murmured when the song was done. "You're home."

No spell, no matter how potent, was going to keep Emma in its clutches for very long. Snow was going to see to that.