The response was so awesome that I thought I'd do another chapter! Thank you so much! Hope you like what you read :)

Alas, I do not own OUAT.

Through some divine intervention – or maybe just some amazing luck – Emma was able to catch a few hours' sleep after her little rendezvous with her mother on the deck. Still drowning in anxiety about her son, she was content with having dreams that didn't consist of anything relating to that particular event; they were mostly just a weird jumble of images from the past few days – and a scene that involved a test in school…and a dog. Whoever said that dreams were like projections of the subconscious clearly had never had one of Emma's dreams before.

She stretched her arms above her head, unable to deny the urge. Today they were one step closer to finding Henry. She had to believe that. Thoughts like that were the only things keeping her going.

"How'd you sleep?"

Emma turned her head to the side to see David tying his shoelaces. A tentative smile danced on his lips. "Better than I thought I would," she responded tiredly. "You?"

"Like a baby. Who knew ships could be so soothing?"

"Speak for yourself; my stomach felt every slight movement." She groaned as she propped herself up on her elbows. "Where's everyone else?"

Her father lifted a finger to indicate above deck. "We didn't want to wake you," he said. "You looked so…peaceful. Adorable, even."

Usually a comment like that would make her automatically recoil but she was too tired to even think about the implications of such a statement. Once she opened the floodgates by saying those two words – Mom and Dad – she really wasn't allowed to feel uncomfortable with their fawning and passing sentiments, no matter how weird they made her feel. And if she was really being honest with herself, perhaps there was a part of her, maybe a teeny tiny bit deep, deep down, that liked that they said things like that to her. Just maybe.

"How far away are we from Neverland?" she asked him.

David leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. "Hook said we still have about a day's travel ahead of us. Could be more."

Emma grunted. "I thought once you went through a portal you instantly ended up in another land? I mean, that's what happened to us."

"I guess some lands are different."

"Of course the one time I actually need to use a portal it ends up screwing us over. Just perfect." With a huff, she threw the blankets off her and sat upright, arching her neck from side to side to get the blood flowing.

"We'll be there sooner than you think," he reached over to gently place his hand on top of hers, "and once we are, we're going to find Henry and bring him home. There's nothing that will stop us. We've overcome some tremendous obstacles in the past and it's no different now."

Emma gazed at the man she now saw as her father. Soon after she and Mary Margaret returned home from the Enchanted Forest, David had been slowly but surely assuming his role as a parent. Much to Emma's gratitude, he didn't force their relationship; he spent time figuring out who she was as a person and kept his distance, but as time wore on and everything began to spiral into an unending vortex of crazy, he stepped up to the plate and let her know that he was her father and that he'd always be there for her. With David, actions spoke louder than words and nothing spoke louder to her than when he put his arm around her and kissed the side of her head after she had lost Neal. It was such a brief, fleeting moment but it showed Emma that her parents were there, and that they loved her.

She'd never felt so special in her entire life.

"You really believe that, don't you?"

Her father beamed. "I truly do."

Tucking a blonde lock behind her ear, Emma ducked her head. "You know, at the time I wasn't sure why you didn't let me jump into the portal after Henry, but I think I do now. I'm so used to having to do things on my own that sometimes I forget that I don't have to any more. That I'm not alone." Why was she admitting this out loud?

"We're stronger together," he continued for her, his eyes liquid blue. "I couldn't let you go by yourself; we couldn't be separated from you again. We needed to be with you, we needed to help you. I just…I just reacted. All of us, as a family – albeit a really messed-up family – are going to get him back. Who knows, having Regina and Gold may just give us the upper hand; I certainly wouldn't want to face us," he said wryly, releasing the little bit of tension that had settled in the room.

Emma chuckled lightly. "This isn't exactly what you had in mind when you said you wanted adventures, is it?"

"No, not exactly. I expected I'd be wearing my cape and carrying my sword if I'm being honest," he winked as he stood. "Anyway, I'll let you get ready. See you up there."

As he closed the door behind him, Emma thought about Neverland and finding Henry and facing all different kinds of adversity but for the first time since her son vanished into a spinning portal, Emma felt the tug of real reassurance. Her parents were in the business of finding people, and so was she.

No, it was time to stop the fear, stop the worrying. There was no alternative – there was only truth: Henry would be with them again.

Wow. Now she sounded like her parents.

But she had begun to think that that wasn't such a bad thing.

When she was finally looking decent enough, Emma climbed the stairs and was greeted by the fierce, forceful wind that cut through her like a blade. She really should have anticipated that.

"Glad you could join us," Regina sneered from the bow, looking as though someone had locked her in a room with her greatest fears and threw away the key.

Emma sauntered up to her, hands firmly in the pockets of her jacket. "Are we really going to do this?"

"Do what?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "This. Us facing off. There are bigger things going on here than me and you and I think we should put our differences aside. At least for now."

Instead of answering, Regina took the three steps between them and looked her directly in the eye before walking past toward Gold.

"Well it's a start," Emma mumbled to herself as she stared out at the open sea. The wind had picked up and with it, the sea had become rough and its waves licked the side of the vessel as if trying to sate its hunger.

She wasn't sure how long she stood there lost in her own thoughts but when someone placed a hand on her shoulder, she almost jumped off the boat with the shock. It's funny how the simplest of gestures could spook someone so much. She spun around to see her visitor and sighed with relief when it was Mary Margaret and not Hook. Or Gold. Or Regina for that matter. She was quite content with only conversing with her parents on the trip. It wasn't like she was on some vacation with her dysfunctional family where she actually had to strike up conversation in order to please her relations. And thank God for that.

"You okay? You've been staring at the sea for a while now," her mother remarked; she, too, was gazing out at the sea's ferocious battle.

"I didn't even realize," she answered honestly. "I was lost in my own little world."

"Thinking about Henry," the woman surmised sadly.

"Yeah. And I was thinking about Neal, too," she admitted, taking in the brisk air and letting it fill her lungs. She was sure they were shaking inside of her. Suddenly, Storybrooke's chilly air didn't seem so bad.

Quickly and probably subconsciously, Mary Margaret wrapped an arm around Emma's waist and pulled her into her, resting her head against the blonde locks. "We never had the chance to…to talk about that," she murmured quietly.

"What's there to talk about? He got shot, and he saved me from falling through the portal. But I couldn't save him." She rotated her head to lock eyes with her mother. She needed to see the calm assurance that defined her eyes every time she looked at her. Sometimes the way her mother's eyes appraised her made Emma feel capable of doing almost anything, of expressing whatever was bothering her, of giving her the choice to be honest. "If I'm the saviour, how come I can't keep the people that I care about most safe? What good am I if I try my best but there's always still something off-balance, something wrong? I'm supposed to do great things and have this incredible, unprecedented power and yet, when I need that the most, I fail. How is that fair?"

Why was it that whenever she was always around her mother – especially lately – that she felt this undeniable need to completely open up?

Because she wanted to. It was as simple as that.

There were no mathematical equations to work out or long-winded passages to decipher – there was just a want to be a daughter and a best friend all at once. Emma had spent enough of her life hiding her feelings and pushing away people who got even remotely close to her. Mary Margaret was the first person she felt – no, she knew – she could just be Emma with. With her, there were no agendas. There was no manipulation. There was just friendship. There was just love. And now with Mary Margaret as her mother, there was only a wish to be as honest and as close as a mother and daughter should be. That didn't mean that there wouldn't be times where she'd revert and mask her pain and bottle her emotions, but it meant that for now, she didn't want anything to separate her from her parents.

She'd already endured twenty-eight years of that.

"It's not fair," the brunette replied, her voice coloured with emotion. "But honey you are not a failure. Just look at the things you've done, the people you've saved, the lives you've changed. Hardships exist to test our character and our faith. Don't let them control you. Don't let them diminish how special you truly are."

Emma broke away from her clutch to stand directly in front of her, her eyes aglow with unshed tears. "But what if that's my ultimate price?" Mary Margaret scrunched her forehead. "All magic comes with a price, right? I'm the product of true love; I am…magic. In the most confusing and strange way, sure, but it means that I have to pay the price for that. What if, because of who I am, I can't have my happy ending?"

"Emma, that's not-"

"But what if it is?" she interrupted, needing to get this off her chest. "What if, like the curse, I always seem to close to a happy ending but I never get there? That I'm fated to live my life constantly on the cusp of something I've always wanted but I never get to experience?"

Mary Margaret gazed deep into her eyes as if trying to read them. "I don't understand, Emma. What makes you think any of this?"

"All magic comes with a price. I have to pay one."

"But if what you're saying is true Emma, then how do you explain this?" she gestured between the two of them and then turned around to point at her father, "You're with your family now. You have your son."

"Yeah but for how long? We've lost twenty-eight years and who's to say that something won't happen that keeps us apart again. I had to give Henry up and now he's been kidnapped by some psychos. Too many things have already happened for me to just think that everything will be okay from here on out."

Closing her eyes, Emma walked away from her mother, feeling the beginning of a headache coming on. She shouldn't have said anything. She should have just left it all alone. Thoughts like that only made her feel worse about everything.

She just wanted to scream, to let everything go. But she was pretty sure that screeching on a boat that contained her recently discovered relations was probably not the best idea.

Maybe she just needed to punch someone in the face.

Her mother approached timidly, her tone so gentle and considerate. "Is this about Neal?"

Was it?

"Is it because he fell through the portal and you didn't? You couldn't save him." Though soft, her voice was laced with curiosity.

"Yes. No. Maybe. Ugh, I don't know!" she conveyed angrily. "I told him I loved him," she blurted, thumping the side of the ship with her clenched fist.

"Wait, you what?!" The brunette rushed over and forced the blonde to face her. Her eyes scanned Emma's face frantically, searching for…something. "I thought you didn't care for him anymore. In fact, you were quite adamant about your feelings toward him. What changed? What happened?"

Now she no longer sounded like her mother; now she sounded like her best friend. The Mary Margaret she had known for so long had resurfaced, her green eyes electrified with the surge of gossip. If Emma wasn't so frustrated and worried about everything, she would have laughed and took pleasure in the woman's interest.

Emma shrugged, kicking the floor with her boot. "I don't know; I'm not sure if they ever went away. Yeah he was a jerk who still sent me to jail but there was always a part of me that wondered if he he'd ever come back for me, if he still loved me." She sighed. "Over time I guess I grew bitter and resentful and I tried to forget everything about us, but seeing him again, knowing that he was the same guy that I knew all those years ago…I don't know, it made an impact." Mary Margaret waited, attentive. "I was squeezing his hand, trying to pull him up but we both knew I wouldn't have the strength to do it. And I then I said it."

"You said that you-"

"Ladies, how are we doing on this fine day?" Hook sauntered toward them, his arms wide and his smile wry.

Emma gritted her teeth.

"Go away!" Emma and Mary Margaret exclaimed at the same time, glancing at him for only a few seconds before turning their attention back to one another.

"Well aren't you both a ray of sunshine today? Some other time perhaps," he said aloud, spinning on his heel and heading back towards Regina. Their expressions must have been serious if they were strong enough to deter Hook.

"So," her mother started again, "you told him that you loved him? Like, you used the words 'I love you'?"

"Yeah."

"And he said…?"

The blonde gulped. "He told me he loved me too."

Her mother's face contorted in pain, her lips downturned. "Oh, sweetheart, I'm so so sorry," she breathed, placing a hand at the base of her neck. "I didn't think…I didn't realize…I'm just so sorry, Emma."

"Me, too."

Before she could say anything else, Mary Margaret was holding her tight and running her fingers through her hair.

"I just wish he was here to help us," she sniffed into her mother's coat.

"He is. Once he's in your heart, he's always with you."

Emma allowed herself a small laugh. "Really? That's what you're going with?"

"What?"

"I just thought you'd have something a little more original, that's all."

She smiled. "I'm sorry but that'll just have to do."

"Thank you."

As if remembering there were other people on the boat besides them, Emma quickly surveyed the around them and spotted her father standing alone at the far end. "We better rescue David before Hook tries to make conversation with him. I'd hate to see how that ends."

"This is Hook and David we're talking about; whatever happens, Hook will end up on the floor," her mother smirked.

"No truer words spoken."

She started toward him but a tug on her wrist stopped her in her tracks. "You will have your happy ending Emma. Don't ever doubt that."

The blonde nodded, the sincerity and passion too great not to believe, and she held out her hand for Mary Margaret to take and they walked, hand in hand, over to her father.

Okay so this was way more all over the place than I thought it would be! Ha sorry for that! So many things were going through my mind and I just kept writing to see what would happen so if it's a mess, I apologise. I may do another chapter if people want it - I'm not too sure yet. If people have any suggestions or ideas they want to put forward, please don't hesitate to let me know. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it! :)