Chapter 4

After a few weeks David and Snow decided to get legally married and shortly after that, they decided to adopt their kids. It's been a few months since then and things were finally starting to seem normal.

Emma was taking a shortcut home from school- through an alleyway, of course- when she was approached by Mr. Gold. "Miss Swan." He greeted.

"It's Nolan." She corrected. "What do you want from me? My parents don't want me talking to you."

He smirked. "You owe me a favor, Miss Nolan."

"Since when?!" She asked slowly backing away.

He scoffed. "Since I helped you succumb to the truth of the curse and your family." He told her. "Had I not helped you, you'd be dead and we'd all still be cursed." He said and grabbed her wrist to stop her from moving away.

"Let me go." She said trying to pull her arm back. "What do you want?"

He let her go. "I want you to convince my son to talk to me. I know where he's at, but I need your help."

"What makes you think he'll listen to me?" She asked the man.

"Because Miss Nolan. He knows you. You guys were friends."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Fine. Where is he? I'll go talk to him right now. Who is he?"

"You can't do that." He told her. "He's in New York. He goes by the name Neal Cassidy."

Emma's eyes widened. "Bae?!" She groaned. "No way. Not doing it. You're on your own. I'm going home."

He grabbed her by the arm. "I don't think so!" He yelled angrily. "You will help me. We have a deal. No one breaks my deals. Understood?"

"Let go of me!" She yelled. "Fine! Okay, fine! I'll help!" Gold let go of her. "My parents can't know. I'll have to..." She sighed. "I'll have to sneak out. At night. I'll leave a note or something." She said rubbing her arm, that was no doubt bruised. "When?" She asked.

"Tonight."

She nodded and went home.

New York (2 years ago)

Emma walked outside of her current foster home with her 7 year old brother holding her hand and she saw a car pull up next door. "Emmy! Emmy! Can we go say hi?! Please?" He begged using puppy dog eyes.

Emma groaned. "Fine." The two walked across the street and saw a boy that looked to be about 14 get out of the car. "Hi, I'm Emma, your neighbor. This is Henry."

"Hi! I'm Henry!"

The boy laughed. "Hi I'm Neal, but you can call me Bae."

"Bae?" Emma asked. "Why Bae?"

He sighed softly. "The name my papa gave me is Baelfire. But I guess it's a weird name, so they said I can change it if I want, so I did."

"Where's your dad? Did he leave you too? Our mom and dad left us, but Emmy says they protected us. She's remembers sometimes." Henry told Bae.

Bae nodded. "But it's okay. Do you like stories?" He asked and Henry nodded. "My social worker said that I'm a good storyteller, maybe I can tell you stories sometimes."

XXX

Bae and Emma were hanging out at the park watching Henry. "Do you wanna talk about your dad? I've told you about my dreams of my parents, but you've never told me about yours. If you don't wanna, it's okay."

"I do." He said. "My dad was a man of power. I gave him an option, I told him to choose between me and his power. He made his choice. He's a coward."

Present Time

Her parents had just went to bed, so did Henry. It was time, Mr. Gold was in his car down the road waiting. "Here goes nothing." She went over to her desk and turned her desk lamp on. She wrote;

Dear Mom and Dad,

Don't be mad, but I accidentally made a deal with Mr. Gold. I'll be gone for a few days, but then I'll be back. I promise. I have to help Gold get in touch with his son. I know him, his name's Bae, if you ask Henry, he'll tell you all about him. I love you guys and Henry. I'm really really really sorry for not telling you. I didn't even know that I made a deal with him until after school today. Don't worry, I'll be fine. I'll keep my phone on and charged at all times. I promise. Love you! See you when I come back.

Love Emma XOXO.

Emma climbed out of her window and jogged down the street with her overnight bag- packed with all her necessities- slung over her shoulder. She got in his car.

XXX

Emma was staying in her own hotel room when she was woken up suddenly by her phone ringing. She didn't even look at the caller ID when she answered.

"Hello?" She answered groggily.

"What the hell Emma?!" Her dad yelled on the other line.

Emma shot up in bed, all her memories from yesterday coming back. "Uh… Hi dad."

"That's all you have to say Emma?"

Emma sighed. "It's not like I had much of a choice!" She defended. "You guys would've had me on lock down! I didn't even mean to make the deal in the first place."

David calmed down a bit. "Tell me about when the deal was made Emma."

"It was when I had that asthma attack. He was like in my subconscious or my unconscious or whatever, he helped me to believe in the curse." She told him. "He approached me on my way home from school, told me I owed him, said that we had a deal." She said voice cracking. "I had to dad." She said quietly, on the verge of tears.

"Em." He sighed. "You should've come to us."

"I know." She sniffled. "I'm sorry. Don't be mad at me, please."

"I love you kiddo."

Emma smiled at her dad's reassuring voice. "I love you too dad."

"You're mother wants to talk to you. Alright?"

"Okay."

David handed the phone to MM. "Oh my God Emma! We were worried sick! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine mom."

MM let out a sigh of relief. "Okay. Do you have your inhaler? Your toothbrush and toothpaste? Your brush? Clothes? You brought clothes right? What about-"

"Mom." Emma cut her off. "I have everything I need. I'm going back to sleep." She said.

"Okay sweetie. I love you."

"I love you too." Emma ended the call.

Emma went back to sleep until three hours later, she got another phone call.

"Hello?"

"It's Red." Her godmother said. "Your mom wants me to call you every hour or so, while she's at work."

"Of course she did." Emma muttered. "I'm fine."

"The Dark One Em?"

Emma groaned. "I didn't know. Aunt Red, I really didn't mean to make the deal. I didn't even know he was the dark one."

"I know, your parents are out of their minds though. They're worried."

Emma sighed. "I know." She admitted. "Look aunt Red, I have to get ready for the day, talk to you later?"

"Okay, bye Emma." Red ended the call.

Emma sighed and got ready for the day, then went next door to knock on Mr. Gold's door. "Took you long enough." He said and they left.

He sighed and drove to to a location. "Man." She sighed knowing of the place that they were at.

"What is this place?"

She groaned. "It's a group home, I'm known by a few people here. Stay in the car. He won't want to see you right away. I'll need to talk him into it." She said and got out of the car.

XXX

"Emma!" Neal yelled and pulled her into a bone crushing hug.

She broke the hug. "I've missed you Bae." She told him. "But we need to talk. Privately."

He nodded and snuck her to a conference room. "What is it?" He asked.

"I'm sorry Bae. I really had no choice." He raised an eyebrow at him. "I didn't mean to make the deal. I didn't even know I was making a deal!"

He put his hands on her shoulders to calm her down, his eyes drifted to a bruise- handprint shaped, at that- but he ignored it, for now. "Em, breathe. What are you talking about?"

"Your father. He's outside in the car. I'm sorry Bae."

"Did he do that to your arm?" He asked angrily.

She sighed. "It wasn't intentional, but yes." She admitted. "Listen, I can tell him that you ran away like last night or something. I can tell him I never saw you here."

He shook his head. "No. It's too dangerous. How did he find you? How did even get here?"

"There was a curse. My parents- Snow White and Prince Charming- and your father were caught up in it."

He ran his hands through his hair. "Okay-" He was cut off by the sound of Emma's phone ringing.

Emma looked at her phone, it was her father. "For the love of God." She muttered, her aunt had already called twice, she didn't need anymore check ups. "Hold on, it's my dad."

"Dad, Aunt Red just called like less than an hour ago. I'm fine."

"I know. I was just calling to check in. We miss you Em. Where are you?" David asked.

"I'm at Bae's group home in Manhattan. Mr. Gold's outside waiting for us."

"Well, have you been there before?"

Emma groaned. "Yes. I have to go dad. Love you." She hung up before he could protest.

"Go back to what you were saying." She told Bae.

He nodded. "We can't sneak out of here until bed check. The janitor always-"

"Leaves the door open for air, I know."

Baelfire raised an eyebrow at her. "You've been here before?"

"Yeah, I need to text Gold, tell him we won't be out until after 9, then I'll put it on silent."

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