A/N alright, chapter 4 as promised. Have fun, review lots. Favorite and follow. Tell your friends. :)

Killian needed to speak with someone. Luckily for him Killian had a plan. It was a bad plan, and an unfinished plan, and also an illegal plan.. not to mention a plan that made him very uneasy but, non the less he had a plan. And fortunately for him he knew who his friends were, and despite the fact that he was technically an outlaw in the entire gold kingdom, he had many friends, or at least acquaintances, who were high up in the kingdom's government... very high up. The only problem was, how to reach them when they are all surrounded by people that hated him. Which is where the plan came in.

...

Emma's eyes nearly bulged out of her head when she felt the man grab her. He started marching her deeper into the forest, all the while whispering, well more like begging her to keep quiet and assuring her that he had no plans to harm her. Of course she struggled to get away but the man was much stronger than her, although he seemed to be rather careful to make sure he didn't hurt her.

"Who are you?!" Emma demanded once his hand was off her mouth, turning her head a bit so that she could see the man behind her. He her had taken her deeper into the forest and finally decided it was alright to let her speak. He took his hand off her arm and pushed her head so that she was looking ahead again, then proceeded to march her through the forest.

"I said who are you." Emma tried again, a little more whine in her voice.

"That's not important..." the man said, he sounded nervous and Emma could feel him breathing heavily down her neck. "Now keep moving!"

"Can't you at least tell me your name?" Emma asked, a little nicer.

"Absolutely not, that's the worst thing I could do."

"Why? Are you some sort of bandit or something like that?" Emma asked, trying to sound dumb so he wouldn't realize that she was getting information from him.

"Yeah, something like that." The man said then stopped walking.

Emma could tell he was looking around, they were in a small clearing now with one tree and a tree stump in the middle. He pushed Emma over to the tree stump and turned her around so that she was facing him.

"Sit down." He ordered, Emma obeyed, she wasn't completely sure why either. Normally she would just screamed and expected her guards to come save her, which she had no doubt that they would. But for some reason she found the slim, tall and rather handsome man before her very interesting. And for that reason she went along with it. That and the fact that she didn't much care for the idea of returning to her parents.

"Good, now scoot back a little." He said, Emma moved about an inch, trying to see what he would do. He glared at her then grabbed her shoulders and pushed her so that her back was against the other tree.

"Ow!" Emma exclaimed.

"What?"

"My leg got scratched!" Emma said as if it was the worst thing in the world.

"Pity." The man said with no sympathy. "Now lift your arms." Emma sighed and raised her arms up.

The man pulled a rope out of his satchel and began wrapping it around Emma's right wrist. He tied a knot the wrapped the rope around a tree branch. Next he grabbed Emma's left arm and wrapped the rope around that wrist before finally tying it to her right wrist.

During the whole thing Emma stared at the man intensely. Studying him, trying to read him. He was very handsome now that she could see him clearly. He had shoulder length black hair that was let down from the ponytail that it was clearly put in often, slight scruff around his face and beautiful ocean blue eyes. The more she looked at him though, the more she could see that he seemed extremely uneasy about the whole thing and strangely careful. Like he didn't want to be there, almost like he was being forced to do it, but that couldn't have been it. Emma was just about to come to a conclusion when he finished tying her wrists. He turned his head and caught her staring at him.

"What?" He asked, trying way to hard to sound mean.

"Don't I have a right to look at my kidnapper?!" Emma challenged.

"I'm not kidnapping you." The man said before turning his attention to her ankles.

"No?" Emma asked sarcastically as he pulled another rope out of his bag.

"No. I'm leaving you here," the man pulled the hem of Emma's dress up to her knees, causing Emma to shift uncomfortably. He put his hand on her leg to stop her from moving then began to wrap her ankles with the rope.

"You're just going to leave me here? To die?" Emma asked a little bit of sincere worry in her voice.

"No, someone will come find you. And they'll untie you and then take you to that nice little town a quarter of a mile from here." He said pointing to his right.

Emma didn't know what to say to that so she resorted to staring again, at least until he finished binding her ankles. Once he was done he walked over and sat on the edge of the stump, positioning himself so that he could face her.

"You don't look like a bandit." Emma said, quickly looking him over again.

"I don't?" He asked eyebrows raised.

"No, your clothes are too nice, even for a peasant. And your hair, it's been very well taken care of, pulled back regularly. And your beard isn't very long so you've shaved at least in the past few days... in fact if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were pretty important once." Emma was right, she could tell by the cold expression that over came his face and the way he turned away.

"Well..." Emma said gaining his attention. "Notice anything about me?" The man scoffed for a second before deciding to humor her, giving her a once over.

"I'd say you seem rather important if it weren't for your lack of shoes, the mud on your dress and your rather messy hair. Now if you're done trying to distract me I'll just get back to this."

"Oh, yes, please continue kidnapping me!" Emma said sarcastically.

"I've told you before I'm not kidnapping you, but if that's the term you wish to use then fine... You know for someone who's being kidnapped you don't seem very scared."

"And you don't seem very scary." To this he has no response.

He was quiet for a while then rechecked the bindings on her wrists and ankles. When he finished with that he stood in front of Emma and grabbed something else out of his satchel. It was a letter in a white envelope with a red wax seal and some writing on it. He looked at it for a while and then carefully pushed it underneath Emma's leg.

"What's that?"

"A letter." He answered blankly.

"Clearly. What's it about? Who's it for? What am I supposed to do with it? How do you know I won't open it? Or am I supposed to open it?" Emma asked.

"No. And you won't open it, because if you do you'll be in more trouble than I am. And all you need to know is this. Once you get taken to that town an officer will hear about you and come to see if you're alright and if you need anything. You tell him that you were attacked in the forest and that the attacker dropped that letter as he left. Say that you weren't sure if you should open it so you decided to wait for an officer. When you show him the letter he will take it from you and then leave. Then your work is done and the letter is delivered."

"Wait that's it? You just need someone to send your letter? You could've just asked." Emma said a little frustrated.

"I'm afraid It's not that simple." He said with a sigh and a pat on her shoulder. Then he sat down and reached into his bag, taking out a large handkerchief.

"Open your mouth." He ordered.

Emma opened her mouth slightly. The man folded the handkerchief into a triangle and then held it up. Next he put the middle of it in her mouth and tied the ends together behind her head.

"There you go. It shouldn't be long till someone finds you. Do as I said about the letter." He said as he stood up and began walking away. Just before leaving into the forest he turned around and gave a small bow. "May our paths never cross again."

With that he was gone. And Emma was left tied to a tree with a letter under her thigh and a handkerchief in her mouth... not what she had hoped for, but this would certainly get her some pity points from her parents. Maybe even enough to forget about the engagement.

...

"I'm back, it was really nothing, we should be ready to leave now." King David announced as he reached the carriage. He looked inside and no one was there. David walked around to the other side and found his wife standing beside the carriage, nervously tapping her foot as she started into the forest.

"Snow?" He asked.

"Emma ran off," she said, not taking her eyes of the trees, "I didn't think anything of it. We got into a fight, I assumed this was just one of her temper tantrums, but I waited for fifteen minutes and she still wasn't back. I sent the guards to look for her. It's been an hour, David! I'm worried."

"I'm sure she's fine. The guards will find her and well be back on the road." David said, giving his wife a much needed hug.

"I feel horrible about this. She's so upset, she thinks that we're just selling her off to pay the kingdom's debts. I wish we could at least tell her why this has to happen." Snow said.

"Me too, but it's what's best for the kingdom." David said sadly. Snow was about to respond when a guard came to them from the carriage ahead.

"Your majesty, if we don't get moving we'll get caught in a storm. That road will flood, which means we'll get set back for days." The guard informed them, just as two guards appeared from the forest.

"We couldn't find her." One of the guards said.

Snow looked at her husband, eyes filled with worry. He took a moment to contemplate things before making a decision. David looked down at the ground and saw Emma's gold slippers lying in the dirt and picked them up.

"She can't have gone far without her shoes. We'll go on, and I'm sure by the time we get to the palace, Emma will be going by someone and be on her way to meet us there. If not we can send the guards of Delorick to help search for her." King David said, he was reluctant about it, but they simply couldn't risk staying any longer and getting stuck.