Chapter 9: Truth Doesn't Change Things
Emma looked up at Neal and was now intrigued. Though she still had so much anger she was curious as to how Neal could know about the curse she didn't let it show on her face though. Instead she remained stern, arms still crossed.
"What do you know about it?" Emma asked.
"You remember that night I left the car?"
"How could I forget, it's when I got arrested."
Neal looked down for a moment. Emma wasn't going to make this easy. He knew she wouldn't.
Though back then she hadn't been nearly as stubborn, there was a part of him that still believed he knew who she was. It only made sense that after everything she believed had happened she would become a harder person. You rarely were the exact same person you were before going in and coming out.
Neal looked at Emma knowing she was waiting. "I thought the feds had caught up to me. I tried to run but I wasn't fast enough. Turns out it wasn't. The guy said he knew you when you were kids and that it was his job to protect you."
Emma looked at Neal skeptically but she let him continue. "He knew about you, about the curse, about your parents, about all of it."
"How," Emma asked him.
"You'd have to ask him."
"And who is 'him'?"
"Said his name was August," Neal answered.
Emma's heart sank lower. Her mouth dropped a little and Neal could see by the look in her eyes that she knew who it was he was talking about.
Mary Margaret looked over at Emma, the realization also sinking in for her. Long before her memories returned, Mary Margaret had met and talked with August on several occasions.
David watched his daughter. She really looked as if any moment she was going to fall apart. David had seen her devastated before, so had Mary Margaret, but neither of them had seen her as broken as this. They wished they could help but there was nothing they could do.
Emma walked over to the couch and sat on the arm rest.
"He found me back then," she whispered. "Why didn't he just come to me if it was so damn important," Emma asked her voice on the verge of breaking from anger or grief.
"I don't know," Neal answered. "Maybe he thought it was easier. Maybe he thought you wouldn't believe him, I don't know but he found me instead. He told me everything."
Mary Margaret looked at Neal and Emma. "But how did he know," she asked. "We didn't have our memories."
"Unless," said David, "he came before the curse."
"Is that even possible," Mary Margaret asked.
Emma looked at her parents, "You really don't know?" Emma's parents turned to look at their daughter. "August came through the same tree, the same wardrobe that sent me here."
David and Mary Margaret looked at each other. "That doesn't even make any sense," said Mary Margaret turning back to her daughter, "We were told that the wardrobe only had enough magic for one."
"Then someone lied," said Emma.
"Yeah but who," David asked as Neal watched the look of devastation that crossed the faces of him, Emma and Emma's mother. "The blue fairy…mother superior told us that the wardrobe could only send one and it was Gepetto who carved the wardrobe out of the tree."
Emma shook her head, "We'll deal with that later."
She turned to Neal. Now she was fully committed to hearing him out. She was angry to be sure but now she felt calm enough and had something to focus on and her anger felt like it could be put to the side for a while. "What more did he tell you?"
"He told me the story of your land. He told me that grandmother was behind the curse." Neal saw as Emma winced a little. "Did I get that part wrong?"
"Not exactly," said Mary Margaret.
"It's complicated," Emma said not wanting to get into the complex family tree she had given that her grandmother was also Henry's adoptive mother. None of it made sense.
Neal went on. "August told me about you, how important you were to breaking the curse so you could not only free everyone but so that you could be reunited with your parents. He wanted to be there for you, guide you but for some reason or another he wasn't around.
I hated the situation I was in Emma, believe me but I had to make a choice. A choice I didn't want to make."
"To leave," said Emma.
"I still could've decided to come back to you, I wanted to more than you could imagine but I couldn't do that, not really. I only would've gotten in the way of what you were meant to do."
Emma's face turned into a sad smile as she walked toward the cell. "We could've figured it out together, as a family, the…the three of us. Things could've been different. Henry wouldn't have had to grow up without us. We could have given him the life I never had."
Neal smiled. He wanted to believe that more than anything but instead he just looked at her and said, "You don't know that."
"And you don't know that we could have tried."
"It wouldn't have worked Emma," Neal said trying so hard to be realistic.
He could see Emma begin to ponder the possibilities. He had done that throughout the ten years since he left her, thinking about the possibilities had things turned out differently except that he had never factored in a kid, at least not that early on. As he got older he imagined having everything with Emma: a nice house in Florida, kids of their own, maybe a dog or two. But in the end the what-ifs and the possibilities seemed pointless.
"It might have."
Neal reached for Emma's hand that was placed on the bars. Emma wanted to pull away more than anything but she knew there was a part of her that had placed her hand there for a reason and so she left it where it was.
"I've been there Emma. I've gone through all the possibilities. I've thought about us, about getting a clean start, about us living together in Tallahassee like we planned but it doesn't change things."
Emma straightened herself up, backing away. She crossed her arms. "You're right, it doesn't. And as far as I'm concerned neither has what you told me. "
"Emma-," Neal pleaded.
"I believe you Neal, I do but for ten years I just knew that you betrayed me. I can't just get over that. And things are different now. It's not just about me anymore. I have a son, a son that you left me alone with."
"Emma I didn't know you were pregnant. August didn't even know and if he did he sure as hell didn't tell me. Had I then I know things would've been different."
"Well it's like you said, it doesn't change things," Emma said looking at Neal for a short while trying to calm herself.
"So what are you going to do?" Neal asked as Emma started to walk away.
She turned to him, "I just need twenty four hours."
"Twenty four hours?" Neal said not liking the situation.
"Trust me it's not that bad. You can handle it. I just need some time to think. I can't trust you walking around town. Not when they know who I am and not when my son doesn't even know you don't exist."
"How does he not know I exist?"
"That's my business."
"Can we at least talk about him?"
"We will just not now. I need some time to clear my head. This is all too much."
"Okay I can live with that. Can you at least tell me our son's name?"
Emma let out a sad smile, "It's Henry."
Emma walked toward the hallway, her parents following close behind leaving Neal alone with his own thoughts.
