I wrote the last chapter yesterday and brought tears to my own eyes it's so sickeningly fluffy and sweet. Part of me wants to post like every day so you get to read the end, but I dunno. Comment if that's what'd you prefer.

chapter 21: new york

She scrawls her signature at the bottom of the page, agreeing to be a tenant for one year. She hands over a check, wincing at the amount, as she initials a page agreeing that she will not damage the property, she will not change the paint colors, and she understands that it will cost her an additional three hundred dollars a month to have a registered parking spot for her car.

Thank god for those last couple of perps she thinks. Bail bonds, while not a common profession for a woman, brought in more money than anything else she could do without a college degree. It also provided irregular hours, typically allowing for her to see Henry off to school in the morning and be there to ensure he started his homework at the end of the day. By some stroke of luck, the last three men she had caught earned her nearly fifteen thousand dollars.

Moving to New York had been a random thought swirling through her mind as she stood on the deserted sidewalk, gripping Henry's hand and watching the flames pour out of what was once his bedroom window. The fire was deemed an accident, something to do with faulty wiring she was told by the fire chief. The fire department hadn't arrived in time to save her place. They told her she was lucky they weren't home and that they had so many belongings with them. They had just returned from a weeks vacation at the cape with Henry. They had clothing, shoes, toiletries and even a handful of Henry's video games. Her renter's insurance provided her with a sizable check, as did the insurance company of the property.

They stayed in a hotel for a few days before she suggested the idea to Henry. "I got the checks from the insurance company. It's more than I imagined. We could move to New York." She says between bites of pizza.

"Yeah? Cool. Let's do that." He didn't even need to think about it.

-\- nine months later -\-

It's not even nine in the morning and someone is knocking at her door. Her building is locked, requiring the residents to buzz anyone in after confirming their identities on a video screen so she has no idea how this is possible.

It's probably her elderly neighbor coming to see if Henry wanted to take her dog for a walk this morning before school. She throws open the door and nearly stumbles back.

In front of her stands a man in a pirate costume. A very attractive man with brilliantly blue eyes, which widen in shock as a smile creeps onto his face, but a strange man in a pirate costume all the same. "Swan." He says breathlessly.

She should slam the door in his face, but her hand won't react. There is something about the way he is looking at her, full of wonder and affection that keeps her rooted in the foyer.

"At last." He says, taking a step forward as though he's going to enter the apartment.

Her instincts finally kick in, her hand going up to block him. "Whoa, do I know you?" She asks.

He frowns. "Look, I need your help. Something's happened. Something terrible. Your family is in trouble."

"My family is right here. Who are you?" She asks.

"An old friend. Look, I know you can't remember me, but...I can make you." He says and by the time the words register in her brain, he's closed the distance between them and is kissing her.

Something incredibly familiar and comforting washes over her and her eyes flutter closed for a second before she realizes that a strange man, one she has never seen, before is kissing her. Her knee comes up, knocking him backward with a groan. "The hell are you doing?" She hisses.

The leather-clad man stumbles back against the wall. "A long shot. I had to try. I was hoping you felt as I did."

Her eyebrows shoot up. Who is this guy? And who in the world does he think she is that he thinks kissing her is an okay reaction? "What you'll feel is handcuffs when I call the police." She retorts.

Panic crosses over his face quickly followed by desperation. "Look, I know this seems crazy, but you have to listen to me. You have to remem-" He pleads.

This is too weird. She finally regains control of her hand, slamming the door closed in his face mid-sentence.

"Who was that?" Henry asks from the kitchen.

"No idea. Someone must have buzzed him in accidentally." She replies, taking a seat at the breakfast table.

She wakes up the next morning shaking her head. The night before she had a dream she was climbing a beanstalk to steal a compass from a giant. Her climbing partner? The pirate costume-wearing man who knocked on her door the previous day.

-\-

Ever since the strange man knocked on her door, Emma has been off her game. She burnt a Poptart, nearly tripped down a flight of stairs, allowed the perp she was trying to catch to walk right past her without a second glance and Henry had to ask her four times if she was going to dinner with Walsh that night before the question finally registered in her brain.

"Mom, are you okay?" Henry asks, looking at her curiously.

"Yeah, kid. Why?" She replies distracted.

"Because I've asked you the same question four times and you still haven't responded to me. You're distracted. Something's wrong. Has been ever since that guy knocked on the door. Do you know him?" Henry questions.

Her hand comes up to pinch the skin between her brows. "Dinner tonight with Walsh. Yes, I'm meeting up with him after a meeting at work. Are you okay to stay here? I'll order pizza before I go." She replies.

"But are you okay?" Henry presses.

"I just-I just feel like I'm missing something. Or forgetting something but the more I try to figure out what it is, it feels like my brain gets fuzzier." She confesses to her son.

"Maybe you need a break. You are working a lot. We could get out of the city. Maybe visit one of those small towns you like?" Henry suggests.

He's practically a teenager now and she knows her days of showering him with affection are limited which is why she's crossing the room and squishing him into a bear hug before he can react. He struggles for a second and she hears him groan in protest before he gives in and hugs her back.

"Some warning next time would nice." He mumbles into her shoulder.

"Never! I need to keep up the element of surprise!" She teases him.

-\-

She slides into the chair and offers Walsh a smile. She would have never expected to date him, but things just kind of happened. She and Henry were wandering around one day, looking in random shops when she spotted a table she just needed to have. It turned out to be Walsh's store. He personally delivered the table and asked for her number. Usually Emma hesitated on that kind of thing, not really interested in anything other than making sure Henry was happy, but she found herself rattling off her number to him.

He called a few days later and asked her to dinner at this same restaurant. That had been nearly a year ago. Time was passing by too quickly.

"I'll be right back." Walsh says.

Her phone beeps and she finds a text from her boss. She has a new perp to find, this one worth another five grand. Movement in front of her catches her eye and she looks up, not expecting Walsh to have returned so quickly.

But it's not Walsh, it's the man in the pirate costume again. "You!" She exclaims.

He holds up a hand. "I can explain."

He tells her that he's there to apologize and kissing her was simply him trying to jog her memory. He tells her again that her parents are in danger and she needs to be the one to help them. Emma feels the breath catch in her throat when he calls her out on being an orphan. There were only two people in her life who were aware of that, Henry and Walsh. He hands her a piece of paper with an address, telling her to go there and find out who she really is.

"You're a crazy person. Or a liar. Or both." She tells him.

He smirks at her. "I prefer dashing rapscallion." She knows she must be looking at him as though he sprouted another head but he pays it no mind, quirking his eyebrow. "Scoundrel?"

He looks genuinely upset that she doesn't believe him. She's starting to think this is some type of prank Walsh is pulling on her although she has no idea why he would do it nor what the purpose might be. She's racking her brain trying to figure out how this man knows so much about her when he brings her back to the present again, telling her to use her superpower on him to see if he's lying.

"Just because you believe something is true, doesn't make it real." She says and watches as he physically deflates.

He points at the scrap of paper he handed her with the address. "You sense something is off. I know you, Swan. Don't do it for me. Or you. Do it for your family. They need your help." He gets up and walks away from her.

Seconds later Walsh returns and is asking her something about just looking at the dessert. She's too full for dessert but he insists and she spins the plate around to find a diamond ring staring back at her. He's talking but she can't make out the words only catching the last two. "...Marry me?"

She doesn't realize she's grabbed her jacket and run from the table until Walsh catches up to her on the sidewalk. "Can I have some time to think?" She asks. He tells her to take all the time she needs.

-\-

The address hastily scrawled on the scrap of paper is burning a hole in her pocket. She pulls it out multiple times to look at it, wondering what she might find there. She places it on the counter and walks away, trying to focus on what she needs to get done for the day but finds herself wandering back over to it, fingers tracing over the print. The strange man is right about one thing, she knows something is off but she can't place what it is.

She's full of rage when she finds the man in the park. The address was for Neal's apartment. The man who let her go to jail for his crime, leaving her alone and pregnant. He was the last person she ever wanted to see, much less know that he was in the same city as her. The last time they had been in the same city was Portland, over a decade ago. She has no idea how he managed to end up across the country but only 12 blocks from her apartment. It makes her skin crawl to see his belongings in the apartment. "What does Neal have you up to? How does he even know about Henry?"

He tells her that it has nothing to do with Neal, it was just the only thing in this town he could use to get her to believe. He's not working for Neal. Not now, not ever. He's there because of her parents, their kingdom is in trouble.

"Their kingdom?" She asks incredulously. "Do you know what you sound like?"

His face softens. "A mad man, I'm sure. But its true."

"I want real answers." She counters.

"There's only one way you'll get those. Drink this." He holds up a small bottle full of liquid.

"Drink the thing the crazy man just offered me? No thank you." She wants to know what Neal is up to but there must be some other way to find out.

She cuffs him to the bench and whistles for her police friends to come over to her. The hurt look on his face nearly makes her wish that she didn't do it, but she needed to be careful. He had too much information about her life and possibly about Henry's as well.

-\-

Emma can no longer ignore the nagging voice in her head telling her to find the strange man and speak to him again. She flips through the pictures she took from the apartment again feeling more and more confused. She doesn't remember the town at all, but she's standing in front of a sign proudly stating it's name. The picture looks too realistic to be photoshopped. I'm just going to get answers she tells herself as she throws on her coat and heads to be police station.

The look of relief on his face when he sees her makes her breath catch. "I've been in my fair share of brigs, but nothing as barbaric as that. They force-fed me something call bologna!" He is so indignant it takes everything in her not to laugh.

She holds up the photos. "How do these exist? I never lived in this town."

He holds up the vial of liquid again. "This will explain everything."

She hesitates again not sure why her gut is telling her to trust him and drink the mystery liquid. "If this is all a lie, I'd have to give up my life here. It's pretty good. I have Henry. A job. A guy I love."

He swallows hard. "Perhaps there's a man that you love in the life you've lost. Trust your gut, Swan. It will tell you what to do."

"Henry always says that." She muses.

"Then if you won't listen to me, listen to your boy." He says, holding the vial out to her again.

She grabs it from his hand and downs it before she can talk herself out of it. Memories flash before her eyes. In these memories she gave up Henry for adoption but stayed with Neal until the day he just dropped from her life. She started a relationship with her friend Killian but that was taken away from her too when Henry found her in Boston. She took him home, to Storybrooke where Henry spent weeks and weeks trying to convince her that she was the savior and all of the town's inhabitants were cursed storybook characters. She broke the curse, but then fell through a portal where she met Captain Hook who was identical to the man she started a relationship with in Boston but he had no memory of it. He was hell-bent on revenge but never passed up a moment to flirt with her. He returned to a town on the brink of destruction because she challenged him to. He set aside his quest for revenge and allowed his lifelong enemy on his ship all for the sake of rescuing her son. He helped in the rescue, providing her with support when she didn't even know she needed it. They succeeded and she figured once they returned to town and everything settled down again she'd work on this friendship they'd formed, but there was no time for anything to settle down. There was another curse and she had to leave with Henry. Everyone else was being taken back to the Enchanted Forest and she couldn't even be with the family she had finally found.

Not a day will go by that I won't think of you the words echo in her mind until her eyes focus on the man patiently standing in front of her. "Hook." She says.

The smile that erupts on his face is infectious. "Did you miss me?" He asks.

-\-

He strolls into her apartment, full of pirate swagger, like he owns the place. She catches him looking intently at the model ship sitting on her mantle. She has no idea why she picked that up in the store, but it just spoke to her. She hands him a glass of rum. With the events of today, she's tempted to skip the glass and just drink right from the bottle.

"So tell me about this curse." She says.

"I don't have much knowledge on it. We returned to the Enchanted Forest just like Regina said we would. Regina had told me my ship would have come back over as well so I immediately set out to find her. A few weeks later, a bird landed on my ship with a message tied to its leg. It told me a curse was coming and I needed to find you. I assume it came from your parents. And here I am." He informs her.

"You came all the way back here to save my family?" She asks incredulously. Sure, they had kissed in Neverland but that was it, it wasn't as though he was indebted to her.

"I came back to save you. There wasn't anything for me in the Enchanted Forest. Why would I stay?" He says, keeping his tone light but she knows there is more to his words.

There's a knock at the door. "That's Walsh." She says. "Stay here. I did spend eight months with the guy, I owe him an explanation for why I'm about to disappear."

She leads Walsh out onto the roof of the building and tells him she can't marry him, that she needs to go home and take care of some things. He argues that she's an orphan and there is no home for her to go to.

"Someone from my past showed up." She confesses.

He tries to persuade her some more than she should just stay there, but then something he says makes her blood run cold. "I wish you hadn't drank that potion." Before she can fully react, he's continuing "You just couldn't leave well enough alone, could you?" He snarls at her, knocking a chair to the side.

"Who are you?" She asks, bewildered only to find him transform in front of her eyes to a flying money with beady red eyes. He lunges for her and she manages to duck, causing him to fall over the side of the building, but he's twisting in the air and coming back up toward her. Her arm reaches out and grabs the first thing it makes contact with (luckily an iron bar, who just keeps these on the roof anyway?) and swings it at him. He falls over the side again.

She's gasping for air as Hook pushes his way onto the roof asking her what in the world that was.

"A reminder that I was never safe." She says dejectedly. Wasn't it enough that she had her memories re-written for her and was sent away from her parents so soon after finding them? Instead of ending up in a nice, normal relationship she ended up dating a flying monkey who tried to kill her.

The next morning she tells Henry he's not going to school and they need to make a trip up to Maine for a case and introduces him to Hook...who she now has to call Killian. Henry is suspicious enough that she knows she must be incredibly careful not to utter Killian's moniker in the presence of her son.