"She pushed you in front of a what?" Neal asked, staring at Emma as if she'd grown another head.

"She pushed me in front of a car because she thought I was going to do magic. It was an old machine, one of those claw grabber things, you know? Of course it's going to spark sometimes," Emma replied, sighing in frustration as they sat in an Ohio diner a few days later.

Neal frowned a little, and Ali stared at her.

"I really shouldn't have given her a copy of Harry Potter for her birthday," Emma said as she sipped at her lemonade.

"That's insane. Although how cool would it be if we could do magic like Harry Potter?" Ali said, and while Emma did think it would be cool to do magic, since Ingrid had shoved her into traffic, she hadn't touched the book since.

"Yeah, pretty insane," she replied with a weak smile.

They had been on the run for two weeks. Her birthday had come and gone, and Thanksgiving was coming up soon. All she needed to do was evade Ingrid for another year, until she was eighteen, and the woman would never be able to legally drag her back to Minnesota.

Just another year.

Emma swallowed the last bite of her food before sighing again. "So where are we going to go now?" she asked quietly, glad the diner wasn't packed with people.

"Where do you want to go?" Neal asked.

Emma paused. "I don't know. Just not west."

Neal looked down at the table and grinned as he noticed the kid's table cloth was a map of the country. "Close your eyes and pick," he said.

"Neal –"

"Come on."

Emma rolled her eyes slightly before smiling and closing her eyes, pointing to a random spot on the map in front of her.

"Open," he said.

She did, and smiled as she noticed her finger was pressed against Florida. "Tallahassee?"

"Tallahassee it is," Neal said.

Emma smiled a little. "Is it near a beach?"

"Well sure, it's Florida. Everything's near a beach," Neal replied with a laugh. "But listen, if we go, I… I kinda want to stop this whole… Bonnie and Clydes act. We need to start over. Be normal. Especially if your wicked foster mother is looking for us."

She nodded grimly. "Ingrid never did like summer," she said with a shrug.

No more Bonnie and Clydes act. The three of them would be starting a new life, together, somewhere safe and away from Ingrid.

Although, Emma couldn't help but feel butterflies in her stomach when she looked at Neal. She felt like her heart was going to explode whenever he smiled at her.

He had the nicest smile she'd ever seen.

And it was with horror and a bit of fear, that Emma realized she actually had a crush on him.

She quickly reached for her lemonade again, taking a long drink of it as Ali told some joke that she only just managed to chuckle softly at. If she didn't let anything slip, Neal would never know she had a crush, and everything would be safe, right?

Right.

"Emma, are you alright over there?" Ali asked, waving a hand in front of her face, and she jumped back, the ice rattling in her cup.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking… how are we going to survive in Tallahassee? I mean, none of us have jobs and if we give up our little act – "

Neal and Ali exchanged impish glances, and she raised an eyebrow at them. That was never good.

"Well you see Emma… we have an account," Neal started, his voice low, "from one of our earlier heists. Twenty thousand dollars."

She stared at them. "You guys have twenty grand and you… were living on the Chicago streets? Why?" she asked.

"We only recently got the money," he said. "Remember when I was gone for a couple of weeks?"

She nodded.

"I was up in Canada, getting the cash and getting the bug legalized," Neal explained. "I was waiting to see what happened with the others before I told anyone but Ali. You know, who I could trust and all."

She nodded again slowly. "That was smart. Really, really smart… and yet you're willing to share some of it with me?" she asked, genuinely touched.

"Yeah, of course."

"But why?"

Neal exchanged a glance with Ali, though Emma could tell they were trying to hide it.

"Neal."

He sighed. "Have you ever felt drawn to someone? Not necessarily in the romantic sense but… in the sense that… you're supposed to be with that person for whatever reason?" he asked.

She frowned, trying to think, before she nodded slowly. "I… feel that way about you both," she said softly.

Although it might be in the more romantic sense with you, Neal, she thought to herself.

"It's weird though. I never thought I believed in fate… or destiny, whatever you want to all it," she said, tilting her head. "Not until I met you guys in Chicago."

Neal chuckled. "I can't say you're alone in that… feeling like you should be drawn to people is a weird thing."

Ali leaned against the bug and looked up at the Ohio sky as got some fresh air, away from the room at the motel the three of them had crashed at for the night. It was a cheap place, because they didn't want to spend much of the twenty grand on five start hotels before they even got to Tallahassee, but it was a nice place nonetheless. Although they were eating better, they still were still trying to be careful with the money. They all planned on getting jobs when they were in Tallahassee, but they still had a ways to go.

Neal and Emma had decided to share a room, and it didn't take a genius to realize they were more than just friends, despite Emma's protests against it whenever he tried to point it out.

He chuckled a little and looked at the twinkling sky, looking over at Neal as the man came out of the room.

"Emma's in the shower. Thought I'd give her some space."

"Good call."

They went silent for a moment, just leaning against the Bug, before Ali finally spoke.

"You like her, don't you?"

Neal went red in embarrassment. "What? No – and even if I did I shouldn't – "

Ali looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Liar. You look at her like I look at – "

"Ali Ababwa? Really? I'd hope you'd have been more inconspicuous," a voice suddenly said, and Ali tensed, spinning toward the voice, a hand on the knife he carried with him at all times.

"Who's there? How did you know who I am?"

A dark haired man stepped out of the shadows, and Ali felt himself visibly relax.

"August, you son of a bitch, what are you doing here?"

August grinned and stepped off his motorcycle. "So you found her?"

They nodded slowly. "No thanks to you. You're lucky her psycho foster mother didn't find her while she was still in Chicago," Neal said.

The other man rolled his eyes in annoyance. "That's not my fault."

"You're lucky your nose can't grow in this world, Pinno," Ali replied. "Because we all know you weren't the best guardian angel for Emma."

August rolled his eyes. "That was out of my control."

"When you were younger, sure," Neal replied. "What did you want, August?"

"You need to leave. You both need to leave and let Emma continue this on her own."

Ali burst out laughing. That was probably the dumbest thing he had heard in days. Leave? They couldn't just abandon Emma like that. What sort of friends would they be if they left Emma like that?

And then he noticed August looked completely serious.

"Oh my God. You're serious. But you're insane. We can't leave Emma."

"You got her on the path to belief – "

"Yeah, and if we leave who knows what will happen! You're insane August. Absolutely insane. Why don't you just tell us what's going on and why Emma's so important?" Neal asked.

August always gave Ali a headache, and today wasn't an exception. He really shouldn't have ever started talking to the man. But they were both fairytale characters. He'd been separated from the Sultan, from Genie… from Jasmine.

"Where's Jasmine?" he asked. "You told me you'd find out where Jasmine was."

"She's in Maine. Like everyone else."

Ali frowned. "Who… is everyone else?"

"Everyone in the Enchanted Forest was cursed to this world. Why it picked Maine I don't know, but everyone that got swept up in it is here. My father. Emma's family – "

Neal's face suddenly blanched. "My father."

August nodded slowly. "Your father."

Neal exhaled slowly. "So… which one of us is going to be telling Emma we're not going to Tallahassee?"

"Wait – no. You can't go to Storybrooke now," August said, frowning deeply. "The curse isn't supposed to break until Emma's twenty-eighth birthday."

"What's wrong with breaking it early?" Ali asked. "If it means getting back to our loved ones and saving them from a curse, even if we're ten years early, I'm failing to see the issue."

"I – you just can't, alright?" August muttered, shuffling uncomfortably in his place. "Just don't." He looked at his watch. "I need to leave. You'll do what's right, I know it."

Ali snorted a little. "You told us to find Emma and make sure she was safe because she was important to something. Now you're telling us that our family is cursed in this world, and we can't go save them for ten years? You are out of your mind!"

But August had already gone, and he felt Neal's hand on his shoulder.

"No, Ali. I mean, yes he's out of his mind but – did you ever see the Pinocchio movie?"

Ali frowned and shook his head. "After I watched the bastardization of my story I did not want to see any others."

Neal sighed. "Pinocchio is a selfish person. It's in his nature when he's away from Gepetto and the Blue Fairy. I guess August isn't any different. But that doesn't mean we have to listen to him."

He nodded. "So what are we going to tell Emma?"

Neal grinned. "Just leave that to me."