A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews! Here's the next chapter and I hope you enjoy!


It felt like the slowest few seconds of Emma's life as she walked toward that table. Never in her life did she ever expect to run into Neal Cassidy again. In fact, she planned to avoid him if possible. She had lied to Henry because she didn't want the boy searching out his father as he had searched out her, as selfish as that may be. She figured Henry thinking his father was some saint was better than the truth. Henry had enough problems in his life, he didn't need his deadbeat father around just to get hurt like she had.

Neal Cassidy was not good news and as far as she was concerned she was only here to do what Gold had asked.

Her heart was pounding in her chest as she neared the table and she could feel the ball in her bag vibrating against her side. She paused near the edge of the table and stared down at him.

Standing this close to him, a swarm of all different feelings hit her like a truck. She hadn't seen him in ten years but he was just as handsome as she remembered. Even though his lips were set in a frown as he stared distantly down at his cup of coffee she could picture his winning smile and how it caused her heart to flutter. Then she remembered the feeling of utter betrayal when she got caught and Neal was nowhere to be found. She remembered the anger and hate she had toward him as she sat for eleven months in prison for a crime she did not commit. She remembered the complete terror that overtook her as she stared down at the positive pregnancy test. She remembered the wall that built up around her heart because of him and how after him, she never fell in love again, resulting in only one night stands or short flings.

The man sitting before her had changed her life forever, had shaped her to become the cold, untrusting woman she was today. It was only their son who had put a crack in the wall but even now she felt that wall building up again, with Henry safe inside it, to protect both her and him from Neal.

With a stony expression firmly on her face she finally willed the courage to get his attention and she cleared her throat loudly.

Neal's shoulder visibly deflated and his palm flattened against the table as he rolled his eyes. "Look, I already told you, I'm not-" His eyes turned upward and he froze, his eyes widening at seeing who was standing there. His mouth fell open in a gape as he blinked, his eyes scanning her face as if he was making sure she was really there.

Emma lightly curled her fists, her fingernails digging into her palms as she bit back some nasty comment. Neal's stare on her made more than uncomfortable and she wanted nothing more than to just turn around and leave.

"Emma?" He breathed in a shocked whisper.

She pressed her lips together. "Hello Neal." She greeted coldly.

He let out a breath of surprise and his lips twitched into an almost smile and she felt her stomach tie into knots. How could he possibly be happy to see her? What right did he have abandoning her and leaving without a trace for ten years and then be happy to see her?

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

Emma sighed heavily and crossed her arms. "I came here looking for someone."

Neal lifted his brow in surprise and Emma rolled her eyes. "Don't get excited, Neal. It's not you. Or at least, I didn't know it was you."

Neal frowned and shook his head. "I don't understand."

Emma groaned and slid into the seat across from him staring at him icily. "I don't know if this is some weird coincidence or if you really are the man I'm looking for."

Neal sat back in his seat and eyed her carefully. "Look, Emma, I don't know what you've been told but I've straightened out my life. I have a job, my own apartment-"

She cut him off with a quick shake of her head. "I don't care what you've done with your life, Neal. I really don't."

Neal pursed his lips and crossed his arms lightly over the table. "Then why are you here, Emma? I mean, not that it isn't good to see you-"

"Please stop." She glared at him in exasperation.

Neal frowned and let out a soft sigh. "Emma, I know what you think I did..."

"What I think you did?" She hissed, narrowing her eyes as she leaned across the table. "What I know you did is abandon me and let me take the jail time for a crime you committed."

Neal winced and nodded slightly before sighing. "It's more complicated than that."

She huffed and shook her head. "No, it's really not Neal. And I get it, okay? You're a thief, that's what thieves do. I just thought I meant more to you than that."

"You did." Neal insisted and Emma held up her hand.

"I didn't come here to discuss what happened in our past and nor do I have any interest in discussing it further."

Emma kept her steady, cold gaze on him making sure he knew she meant business. A few long seconds of silence fell over them as they stared at each other. Emma wasn't sure how much longer she could take Neal's chocolate brown eyes staring back at her, they were identical to Henry's and she knew now why she could never say no to her son when he looked at her like that. But she refused to give into Neal that easily. She was here for one reason and one reason alone.

Emma broke the silence with a loud sigh and rested her arms on the table. "Look, I know your name isn't really Neal Cassidy."

Neal furrowed his brow and cocked his head, confusion and surprise written in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Emma rolled her eyes and shot him a look of exasperation. "I'm not going to play games with you Neal."

"I'm not playing games, Emma. I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. My name has always been Neal."

For a moment she almost believed that she had the wrong person that Gold's son was actually somewhere else in this cafe or somehow the magical ball had led her to the wrong place. But she had to know for sure.

Never breaking eye contact with him she said. "Your name is Baelfire."

In just a matter of a second, Neal's body visibly tensed, his face dropped and his eyes clouded over with a darkness she'd never seen before, at least not in him. His fingers gripped the table and he swallowed thickly, his face growing pale. "Where did you hear that name?" He whispered, his voice full of fear and anger.

She lifted her brow, finding his reaction curious. "Am I wrong?"

Neal clenched his jaw and stared at her silently, not trusting his voice.

Emma pressed her lips together and repressed a sigh. She turned to the bag still around her shoulders and flipped it open, removing the ball and placing it on the table. The ball shook violently and then rolled across the table to Neal, stopping once it was right in front of him.

Neal felt the breath leave his lungs as he watched the ball roll across the table towards him. It was something, though try as he may, he'd never forget. It was something his papa had made him from his own bare hands, something he had hours and hours of fun playing with. His hands shook as he reached out for it and it glowed just for a second as his hands touched it.

"You really are Gold's son." Emma's voice was filled with wonder and shock and he lifted his eyes to her and blinked.

He bit down softly on his lip and pushed the ball back across the table toward her. "I don't know who this 'Gold' is but I doubt I'm his son. My father is dead."

Emma raised her brow, eyeing him skeptically. "Your name is not Baelfire?"

Neal shifted his jaw and cleared his throat. "No."

Emma pressed her lips together and narrowed her eyes. She didn't quite believe him, his reaction to the name and to the ball was too suspicious and something she had learned over the last few weeks was that magic didn't lie. Still, she wouldn't push him and the less time she had to spend with him the better.

"Alright." She took the ball and placed it back into her bag and slid out of the booth. "Then I think we're done here. Goodbye Neal." She turned and took a few steps when she heard a loud sigh and then he called out to her.

"Wait!" His voice sounded pained and as she turned around she could see the look of hesitance in his eyes and with that look she knew the truth. Gold hadn't told her the whole story but judging by the look on Neal's face she knew it couldn't be a happy one.

"My name is not Baelfire," He sighed, "But it used to be."

Emma nodded to herself and walked back over to the table, slipping off the bag and pushing it into the corner of the booth before sliding in beside it and resting her arms over the table waiting for him to talk.

Neal sighed heavily and ran his fingers through his hair. "I have pretty much repressed any memories of being him. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not him. But you're looking for him, for whatever reason so," He shrugged, a frown still plastered on his lips, "Here I am."

"I was sent here to find you." She admitted. "To find Baelfire."

"Sent by who?" He wondered, though already fearing the answer.

"Mr. Gold, ah..." She paused, realizing that no one outside of Storybrooke would know him by that name, "Rumplestiltskin."

The name sent a darkness over Neal's face and his eyes narrowed as he sat back in his seat.

"He's your father." Emma said, neither asking nor telling him and Neal rolled his eyes.

"What does he want?" Neal muttered, clearly avoiding acknowledging the statement.

"He wants you." Emma answered.

"Oh does he?" Neal remarked sarcastically and there was no denying the anger, the hatred and the bitterness in his voice. "Well there's a change."

Emma wasn't about to judge Neal based on his reaction. She knew the type of man that Gold was and how sad and guilty he looked at mentioning his son. He practically begged her to go out and find him since he could not leave Storybrooke in fear of losing his memories. She also knew what it felt like to feel betrayed by her parents, of course she had learned that her parents had not abandoned her and loved her and she currently lived with both of them. She knew from the beginning that Neal was alone in the world just like her, they bonded over being abandoned by their parents, only Emma had no idea what had really happened and who Neal had been abandoned by.

"If he wanted to find me so bad, he should have come himself." Neal bit out.

"Unfortunately that's not possible or he would have." Emma explained and Neal narrowed his eyes inquisitively. "The town he's in, its cursed."

Neal shook his head slowly, confused. "I thought you broke that."

Emma frowned and turned her head curiously. "You know about the curse?"

Neal nodded and reached into his pocket, pulling out a postcard and sliding it across the table toward her.

Emma's brow furrowed as she took the postcard in her hands, her eyes widening as she eyed the familiar clock tower and the name Storybrooke on the front. She flipped it over and on the back was one single word: Broken.

"That's what I meant when I said its more complicated." Neal said quietly. "I've known about it for ten years."

Ignoring that statement for now, Emma looked back up at him, holding the postcard in her hand. "Who sent this to you?"

"It was delivered by a pigeon but I suppose it was sent by a man named August."

Emma's brow shot up to her hairline. "August?" She exclaimed. "You know August?"

Neal nodded. "He told me about the curse, he told me that you had to be one to break it and he was there to make sure you did."

"And you believed him?" Emma scoffed.

"Not at first, I didn't know who he was, trying to convince me to leave you but then he brought up magic and asked me if I believed in it. At that point, I had been in this world for almost ten years and my memories of my old life were dimming quickly but then he showed me something that brought it all back. Something only I would know and of course, it caught my attention so he told me about the curse."

"What did he show you?" Emma asked tensely.

Neal clenched his jaw and pressed his lips together. "A memory."

Emma narrowed her eyes slightly, knowing she wouldn't be getting anything else out of him on that.

And then Neal's words finally registered in her head. "Wait...August asked you to leave me?"

Neal nodded quietly. "Yeah." He murmured. "He said that I wasn't any good for you which to me was a lot of crap and I told him I'd never leave you but after he explained about the curse..."

Emma's eyes narrowed further. "You listened to him."

"Emma, I'm sorry."

Emma shook her head, swallowing over the lump in her throat, her mind spinning in circles. "Forget about it, Neal. We're not talking about us."

Neal sighed and nodded reluctantly. "Alright, fine."

Emma ground her teeth together and let out a sigh. "Yes...I broke the curse but somehow there is something that is preventing the residents from leaving the town or else they lose their memory. If he left to find you, he'd forget why he did. He'd forget everything."

"So he sent you." The bitterness was back in Neal's voice and he scoffed. "Why would you do that for him?"

Emma pursed her lips, her face twitching in annoyance. "I sort of owe him."

Neal's eyes narrowed slightly, a sliver of fear entering his eyes. "You made a deal with him?"

"In my defense, I was new to the town and didn't know what he was capable of. I did it for a good reason and I don't regret that." Emma explained.

Neal sighed heavily and buried his hands in his hair. "It could have been so much worse, Emma."

"I am aware of that." She nodded. "But bringing you back seemed to be the most important thing to him."

Neal's hands slid through his hair and landed back on the table and he shot her a look of disbelief. "He wants me to come back."

Emma gave him a look. "No he sent me on a wild goose chase just to confirm you were alive. Yes, Neal, he wants to see you!"

Neal scoffed. "Forget it."

"Neal..."

"No!" He snapped and Emma flinched back. She didn't think she ever saw Neal angry, he was always so gentle, even when he was frustrated, he never got angry.

"I'm sorry you are another victim of my father's insanity and need for control but I refuse to be!" Neal's eyes flashed with pure anger and hatred.

"I'm sure you understand, Emma. I can see by the look on your face that you don't want to be here, that you don't want to see me and I get that. I hurt you, I broke your heart and you hate me for it. Well I don't want to see him, I made a point to forget him, to forget my life as Baelfire and that is not going to change now. So I'm going to do us both a favor and leave." He slid out of the booth and met Emma's hard gaze. "Give my father my regards." He bowed mockingly and turned to leave.

Emma wasn't sure what possessed her to call out to him, he was walking out of her life forever and surely she could explain to Gold that his son was as pigheaded and stubborn as he was. But somehow, watching his tensed retreating back, she couldn't let him walk away again.

"You have a son!" The words slipped out of her mouth before she could control them and she immediately regretted it, slapping herself internally.

Neal froze in the middle of the cafe and slowly turned around to face her, his eyes wide.

Emma bit down on her lip softly and then smiled sheepishly.

Neal immediately walked back to the booth, standing beside the table and staring down at her. "What?"

Emma sighed, closing her eyes for a long moment. "His name is Henry." Her eyes opened and she met his shocked gaze. "I found out I was pregnant while in prison. You were the only man I had been with at the time."

Neal let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding as he collapsed back into the booth. "I have a son." He whispered.

Emma swallowed and reached for her bag, pulling out her wallet and grabbing a recent photo of her and Henry.

Neal took the photo from her and stared down at it in awe. Emma and Henry were seated next to each other, both holding coffee mugs and smiling brightly at the camera. Neal felt his heart constricting painfully in his chest as he stared down at the little boy who wore his identical smile and had his eyes.

"Emma..." He whispered, looking up to her, his eyes full of utter sorrow and regret. "I had no idea..."

Her lips twitched slightly. "I know."

Neal focused his attention back on the picture, taking in the sight of his son. "You raised him all by yourself?"

Emma cleared her throat and looked down. "No, I ah, I put him up for adoption. I wasn't ready to be a mother and I actually had no plans of ever seeing him again but he found me. About a year ago he tracked me down and dragged me back to Storybrooke to break the curse. And now," She let a small smile cross her lips at the thought of Henry, "I couldn't imagine my life without him."

"He's beautiful." Neal murmured, feeling tears prick the back of his eyes and he looked back up at Emma. "I'm so sorry, Em. If I had known..."

She sighed and shrugged. "Would it have changed anything, Neal?"

"Yes! Emma, I loved you. It was the hardest decision of my life to leave you like that and it killed me every day to know I had. And if I had known you were pregnant there's no way I would have left you. I would have said to hell with the curse, to hell with August, I would not abandon my family."

Emma swallowed. "But you would abandon just me."

"No! Emma-" He groaned and he reached over the table to grab her hand but she recoiled, narrowing her eyes at him and he sighed. "It was stupid of me, I realize that. But August convinced me you had a destiny to fulfill and lives to save and that I stood in the way of that."

Emma kept a focused glare on him. "And a baby would have changed that?"

"Our baby would have, yes. Emma, it wasn't easy for me to leave you. I wanted to tell August to screw himself and that nothing could ever get me to leave you and in fact I did tell him that but he was persistent. Even after you were arrested I was tempted to turn myself in and let you go because I couldn't bare the thought of you taking the heat for me and suffering because of me."

"Then why didn't you?" Emma demanded. "Because of my 'destiny'?"

"You were the savior, Emma." He sighed. "With all I remember from that world, they needed one."

Emma scoffed and shook her head. "You destroyed my life, Neal and for what? For the sake of people you didn't even know."

Neal bowed his head. "I'm not proud of it, Emma. I regret it and I wish I could take it back but I can't. All I can do is apologize and try to make it up to you."

Emma barked a laugh. "Like that'll happen."

Neal pressed his lips together and sent her a knowing look. "For whatever reason you called me back here. I was about to leave Emma and you never had to see me again. You told me I had a son, you showed me his picture, you told me his name." He held the picture of Henry in his hands. "I won't be able to let this go and I'm sure you know that. You wanted me to stay and whether that is because you need me to come back with you to Storybrooke so my father won't kill you or some other deeper reason, I don't know but you win, Emma." He slid the picture back across the table and their fingers brushed and Emma's wide eyes locked onto his as she swallowed.

"I'm going to Storybrooke."