"How did it go?" asked Emma as Neal joined her at the park. Henry was playing on the wooden castle play building.

Neal gave a long breath. He was still upset from his encounter with his father, and he was worried if he opened his mouth all his anger would come out at once.

"Not good?" asked Emma in response to his sigh.

"No," he said shaking his head.

"I'm sorry," she said when he didn't elaborate.

Neal shook his head and sighed again. His father's arrogance shouldn't upset him so much, but it did. "You know," he said at last. "It wouldn't be so bad if he was just a jerk and nothing else. He cried when he saw me - said he wanted to be a family again."

Emma looked at him with a half pitying, half hopeful look on her face, like she knew the meeting hadn't gone well but some part of her still wished it had.

"He hasn't changed one bit," Neal told her. "Not one bit. He's still the man I remember ... I remember ..." Neal couldn't finished the sentence. There was so much about his father's life as Rumpelstiltskin that he couldn't reveal to her. Abandoning him was one thing, all the people he hurt and manipulated was another.

Emma took a step toward him, and Neal wrapped an arm around her. He turned to watch Henry as he slid down the slide of the castle and headed toward his parents.

"This is my family," said Neal, giving a Emma kiss on the forehead. "I don't need anything else."


Henry had not given up on breaking the curse, and Neal was surprised he seemed to have thought along the same lines as his grandfather.

"I think we've gone about this all wrong," Henry told him the next morning. "If mom is the savior, then she's the one who has to break the curse. Maybe getting Snow White and Prince Charming together wasn't the answer. Maybe mom just has to meet her parents. Maybe something will connect."

It wasn't a terrible idea. Neal felt certain breaking the curse would take more than that, but if getting Emma alone with Snow and Charming produced some kind of spark ... with any luck, something would come out of it.

Thankfully, they didn't have to come up with any convoluted plan to get Emma and her parents together. Snow met the family for lunch the next day. Charming - or David - would be returning home from the hospital, and his "wife" was throwing a party for him. All of them - Emma, Henry, Neal, and Snow - had been invited.

"I don't think I'm going," Snow told them. She had barely touched her salad.

"Why not?" Emma asked her. "I'm sure David would love to see you. I mean, you did save his life."

"That's what I'm worried about," Snow admitted. "He told me," she continued when they waited for an explanation. "That nothing seems real ... except for me." She shoved a large forkful of lettuce into her mouth out of nervousness. "I resigned from the hospital," she added, her mouth half full.

"Mary Margaret," said Emma out of concern.

Snow put her fork down. "I just don't know what to do," she said, putting her face in her hands.

Emma gave the boys a pointed look, and Neal took Henry across the street to get some ice cream.

"He's confused, right?" Emma said once the boys had left. "Pretty soon he'll start to remember things, and everything will go back to normal."

"It's just..." Mary Margaret started but couldn't finish.

"You feel for him too," Emma concluded.

Mary Margaret nodded and folded her hands. "I know it doesn't make any sense."

"No, it makes perfect sense," Emma told her. "You're the one who saved his life. Of course he's going to form an attachment to you. And in a highly charged moment like that, there's no reason why you couldn't form an attachment to him." Emma reached across the table and put a hand on Mary Margaret's arm. "But he's married. He has another life. And you don't want to get mixed up in that."

Mary Margaret nodded. "I know," she said. "I know." She picked up her fork again. "I'll be fine," she said, stirring the lettuce in her bowl but not eating anything. "I'm fine."

"I'm going to stay with her," Emma told Neal later when she joined them at the ice cream shop.

"Are you sure?" Neal asked, surprised at how easy it had been to get the two of them together.

Emma nodded. "You and Henry enjoy the party. I'm sure David will want to see some familiar faces."

Neal didn't argue.


Emma wasn't quite sure why she felt the need to keep Mary Margaret company during the party. They had worked to find David together, so maybe she felt some comradery from that experience. She'd also had her share of bad relationships, so maybe she just wanted to help Mary Margaret avoid this one. She wasn't entirely sure what the reasons were. She hardly knew Mary Margaret, after all. But whatever the case might be, Emma couldn't help that she felt some kind of connection with the woman. At the end of the day, she just wanted to help her out.

They sat and talked a while in Mary Margaret's apartment before the party started. Mary Margaret paced the apparent, unable to stand still. She asked Emma about her family, where they lived, where she worked, and how they were enjoying their vacation. Emma asked Mary Margaret about Storybrooke, her own family, and her choice of occupation. Emma thought it was strange when sometimes it seemed difficult for Mary Margaret to find an answer, like she had never considered such simple questions about her life before.

"You don't remember when you started teaching?" Emma asked.

"No," said Mary Margaret with a laugh. "Isn't that strange? I guess I've just being doing it for so long..."

As the night wore on, Mary Margaret could no longer stand her restlessness. She decided she wanted to visit the school yard and put up the bird houses her students had made. Emma went with her. Neither of them were prepared for when David showed up.

"Didn't you get the invite?" he asked as he approached.

"David," said Mary Margaret, stepping down from the ladder she was on. She'd been caught off guard and didn't know what to say.

Emma had a few things in mind she would have liked to have said. But she knew this was something Mary Margaret needed to take control of. David wouldn't stop coming around if Mary Margaret didn't tell him off herself.

"I heard you resigned from the hospital," David told her. "Was it because of me? Because of what I told you about I felt?"

Mary Margaret struggled to find words.

"Come on," he said. "Tell me it's not one sided."

"You're married," Mary Margaret told him. "It shouldn't be any sided."

"What it should be doesn't matter," he told her. "Whoever married Kathrine wasn't me. I didn't choose her. I know you feel it," he added when she didn't speak. "I can tell."

Mary Margaret winced. "I know you think we have this connection," she said. "But maybe it's because I'm the person who saved your life. So," she added, taking a deep breath. "Why don't we leave it at that?"

She walked away before David could say anything else, and Emma couldn't have been more proud of her. David remained standing by the tree, uncertain of what to do now.

"You did choose Kathrine," Emma told him as she walked toward him. David jumped, like he just noticed she was there. "Just because you don't remember doesn't mean it never happened. You have the ring on your finger." She gestured at his hand. "You married her. And with her is exactly where you should be right now, not contemplating infidelity."

David twisted the ring on his finger. "I just..."

"You're confused." Emma told him. "And that's understandable. But do you really think that because you can't remember, it absolves you from all responsibility?"

David let out a long sigh.

"You're a grown man." Emma said when he didn't speak. "You need to be the responsible one here." She felt like she was talking to every failed relationship she'd ever had. "Regardless of how you feel right now, that doesn't change the fact that you married Kathrine. You must have loved her at some point. Don't you think you owe it her and yourself to figure out what happened? What right do you have to chase after another woman and put her in the position of contemplating an affair?"

David looked ashamed. He stared at the ground, his lips pursed, unable to speak.

"You owe it to her," Emma continued, pointing toward the school in the direction Mary Margaret went. "To figure out your life, to figure out you and Kathrine. If you really care for her, you'll realize the best thing you can do is stay away."

David hesitated and then nodded. "You're right," he said, his voice sounded hoarse. "You're right."

Emma had nothing further to say. David continued to nod, like he was thinking things through and agreeing with them. At last he said, "I'll just go," and then turned and walked away.

Emma went back into the school to find Mary Margaret in a little better mood. "Do you think he'll come back?" she asked as she gathered more bird houses.

Emma shook her head. "I don't think so. Not after getting a talking from both of us."

Mary Margaret let out a laugh. "Thanks, Emma."

"It was nothing," she said.

"No, I mean it," said Mary Margaret, turning to her. "I don't have any family, so ... it's nice ... to have someone look out for you, for a change."

Emma smiled back at her. The thought that she and her family would be leaving Storybrooke soon almost made her feel sad. She liked Mary Margaret, and she thought she might have made a friend, even though they'd only know each other a short while. "Any time," she said.