Author's Note: I apologize for the delay. After catching a really bad cold with a double ear infection I had to put a lot on the side and then catch up on it when I was better. One good thing is I thought of a better idea for the continuation of my story than I originally had. Thank you for your patience.

Disclaimer: I own none of these characters.

Chapter 7

"Apartment 311 is hers," Neal told Hook as he pointed him down the hall.

Hook glanced down the way. "You waiting here, mate?"

"I'll go grab a coffee. Get Emma to text me if she talks to you."

"Text," Hook asked confused, turning back to his only friend in this world.

"You don't have to understand. If she talks to you, just tell her to send me a text that she let you in. She'll understand." Neal began to turn away, when he froze. There was a man stepping from the elevator talking on a cell phone. "Damn. It's Walsh. I'll head him off."

"Walsh?" Hook looked the man over as Neal approached him.

"Walsh," Hook heard Neal call, "so glad to see you. Emma wasn't home. Just stopped by myself. Let's go grab a coffee. I'm late for work and you can tell me…" Hook never heard what Walsh was supposed to tell him as the elevator doors closed.

This was the man that Emma was courting with? Even Hook had to admit Baelfire had a certain charm, but this git? This was the man Emma chose in this new life?

Hook turned and proceeded to Emma's apartment. He would finally see his Swan. He felt as nervous as a new naval recruit. There was music coming from inside her door, so she must be home, unlike the story Neal had told Walsh. Leaning toward the wood, Hook could barely make out the voices of Emma and Henry over the din of music.

Hook straightened and rapped on the door. The music was turned off before she answered. He couldn't help the smile that came to his face as he stared down at her visage. "Swan… At last," he breathed.

He could breath. This was his first unlabored breath in a year.

Emma seemed confused, like she had never seen him before, which was confirmed by her words, "Do I know you?"

"I need your help," he pleaded. "Something happened. Something terrible. Your family is in trouble."

She glared back at him. "My family is right here. Who are you?'

"An old friend," was the best explanation he could come up with at that moment. "I know you can't remember me, but…" Hook stepped forward and grasped her head in his hand. "I can make you."

It had to work. She had to still have a small piece of her old self in there that still loved him as he loved her.

He felt the pain in his groin before it registered what she did. She was pushing him back and away from her. NO! Hook crashed into the hallway wall, cupping his manhood from further assault.

"What are you doing?" He heard over the rushing of blood.

"A long shot," he grumbled around the pain, "but I had to try. I was hoping you felt as I did."

"All you are going to feel is the handcuffs when I call the cops."

Hook stands up despite the pain. She isn't going to listen to him at all if he doesn't stand up to her. "I know this seems crazy, but you have to listen to me."

She begins to shut the door in his face. "You have to remember," Hook finishes.

It hadn't worked. True Love's kiss had failed him. He stared at the closed door before him and sighed. He lowered his head and turned away from his only salvation. His one true meaning to become the man he once had been. Stiffening his resolve, he headed for the elevator. He and Neal would have to devise another plan to get Emma to realize the truth and return to Storybrooke.

When Hook reached Neal's apartment, Neal was on his way out. He must have noticed the dour look on Hook's face, because the first thing he said was, "Guess Plan A didn't work, huh?"

"No, mate. I will have to try to use the memory potion," Hook say with a deep sigh. He makes his way over the Neal's kitchenette and grabs the large bottle of rum Neal procured earlier. He took a long drink directly from the bottle, then wiped his mouth the with his sleeve.

"I'm heading out. Have a business meeting with some higher ups for lunch. I'll grab another bottle on the way home." Neal waved at the bottle Hook still had in his hand. "Looks like you might need it."

Hook glares at his friend. He plops down on Neal's couch and toes off his boots, then swung his leg up onto the couch in a reclined position. "It helps me think," Hook replied as he toasted Neal before taking another swig from the bottle.

"And forget," Hook continued sadly as Neal closed the door behind him.

Emma's day started off with some creep trying to kiss her and it didn't seem like it was going to get any better. She should have just stayed in bed. Shortly after Henry left for school, she received a call from her boss telling her that after all the work she had done, lasting a good day and a half, the precinct that she had done all the paperwork for the last perp she caught lost every last page. This, of course, meant that she wouldn't be getting payment for that job anytime soon. Then her landlord stopped by. He was happy to inform her that her last rent check had bounced and that if she did not send payment in the next two days, he would have to file an eviction notice. She had called Neal, who was in the middle of a meeting, but he had assured her that he would cover the rent payment until she could pay it back. Which meant that she had to stop at the bank and find out what was going on with her account. Apparently, after the latest data breach, they changed a lot of account numbers and she was getting a new debit card in the mail.

She informed them that didn't help with the automatic payment that she had needed to pay her rent, to which they did not seem to care. And now, she found herself on a freaking foot chase with her current perp.

It figures he was a young guy, so he was leading her on a merry chase. Young guys always thought they were so much smarter and made her play their merry games. What the hell was up with that?

As she runs, she hears her phone ring, ignoring the persistent chime. Emma sees the guy sneak down the alley, so she ducks inside the boutique store closest to her. As she sprints through, she tries to explain that she is a bail bonds person. Emma crashes through their back door. Apparently, her luck is changing, because the door catches the bail jumper and knocks him down. She handcuffs him, as she tries to catch her breath. If her luck holds, she might even be able to still meet Walsh for dinner tonight.

Hook looks around as he hears ringing. It sounded like one of those phone contraptions he was introduced to in Storybrooke. Everyone in this world seemed very attached to the devices. The chiming phone was slightly different from the one Neal and Dave had. It stopped making noise as Hook grabbed it. He was about to set it down again, when it chirped again. After a slight trial and error of pressing buttons, Hood heard Neal's voice.

"Sorry, Hook. Should have showed you how it worked," he heard Neal laugh.

"Yeah, mate, that might have helped," Hook said loudly into the slim black phone.

"Just calling to check up on you. You empty the bottle, yet?" Hook heard Neal chuckle. Looked like someone beside him found his way into his cups today.

"No. Too depressed to drink much," Hook replied as he stared at the bottle that had been barely touched for the last hour few hours.

"I bet. Emma will have forgotten the whole thing by morning. She's out with Walsh. According to Henry, he plans to ask her to marry him tonight."

"What?" Hook leaps off the couch. "Where? When?"

"At a restaurant, called Ostaria. That was the first place he took her on a date. It's not far from her apartment." Hook hears Neal ask someone what time it was. "Yeah, she was to meet him as of a few minutes ago."

"I have to go." Hook grabbed his discarded coat and boots, shoving the latter onto his feet.

"Don't do anything rash, Hook," he heard as he slammed out of Neal's apartment.

Hook watched Emma eat as gracefully as her namesake from behind the curtains leading to the outside patio of the restaurant. The lecher, Walsh, couldn't take his eyes off her either. Hook hadn't noticed a ring on her finger so either Walsh hadn't proposed yet, or she said no. Based on their expressions, Hook sincerely doubted the latter but hoped all the same.

He almost stormed to their table when he saw Walsh take her hand in his. When Walsh walked away, Hook couldn't stay away any longer. He plopped down in the chair Walsh vacated, clenching Tamara's address that Neal had given him the night before. It was the only Plan B that he could come up with. The only one that might actually get her to agree to take the memory potion. Neal had told him that in his grief he had left everything the way Tamara had left it. Including the camera that Henry must have left in his apartment and Tamara must have picked up. But Neal remembered that he had looked at those pictures and he had wondered where this Storybrooke was that he had seen Emma and Henry sitting down at a café. The name of the town painted on the building behind them. Neal said he had figured at the time that it was just someplace they visited before he had come back into their lives. But after Hook told him his tale, Neal told him of the picture. It was the only thing that might convince Emma to talk to him. To be convinced enough to drink the memory potion and help all the cursed people of Storybrooke.

As he approached her, he noticed she was on her cell phone. Maybe it would keep her distracted enough for him to tell her about her family. "Hang on. I'm just going to finish one quick work thing," she told him, before she looked up.

Author's Note: Yes, the rest of the scene is missing. I figured you can go and watch it unfold instead of me trying to do justice to it. Just replace the address of Neal's apartment with Tamara's and there you have it. Enjoy. Chapter 8, which I think will be the last chapter to my tale, should be up sometime this weekend, so long as I have a spare minute to finish the last scene and type it up.