Most of her stuff's already packed. She's written a nice—and if she does say so herself, eloquent—goodbye letter to Mary Margaret, promising to visit her when she next comes to town. Emma's not going to lie to herself—Storybrooke had been different than all the other places, and not just because Henry's here. This time, leaving hurts.

She's just about to double check she has everything when someone knocks on the door, and this time she knows it's Henry. She'd wanted to drive by the house to talk to him, but...well, plans change.

"Hey, Emma. Everything okay? You sounded strange over the walkie."

"Oh, um...No, I'm okay, just, um..." Tossing her jacket on top of her bag, she walks over to him and faces him. She owes him an apology along with an explanation for not putting him first. "Yesterday, when I tried to take you away, you were right. I can't take you out of Storybrooke."

He smiles. It won't last long and she's the reason why.

"But I can't stay, either."

"What?" Nothing could have prepped her for how crushed he looks. How devastating it must be, to be abandoned once, think it'll never happen again, and then have the same person leave you... No, no, this is different, she tells herself. This is for his own good.

"I have to go," is all she says.

"Go? You mean leave Storybrooke?" It's the unthinkable to him, like the thought never crossed his mind she would go.

"Yeah," she says, fighting the way her voice is starting to shake. "I spoke to Regina, and we made a deal. I'm still going to be able to see you, just not...every day."

"No! No, you can't trust her!"

"I have to! It's my only choice. It's what's best for you, Henry. Every time I fight her, someone else gets hurt." Next time it could be him. The next time she says something Regina doesn't like or encourages Mary Margaret to go do this or that, she could do something to Henry. There's a play like that, isn't there? When the mom kills the kids to spite the dad? It's not important. That can't happen now.

"No, no, no! You're just scared! This happens to all heroes!"

God damn it.

"It's just the low moment before you fight back," he continues.

"Henry!" she stops him, sinking to her knees, holding onto his arms and letting her hands fall until they find his. She's crying now, but damn it! If she could shake this Curse idea out of him, would she? "This isn't a story. This is reality. And things have to change. You can't skip school, you can't run away, and you can't believe in curses." All things she should have been saying from the very beginning, like a good mother would have.

"Y-you really don't believe?" he asks, looking at her a little differently. She's caught. She should shut it all down right now, but...she doesn't want to.

"I...this is how it has to be right now." Her face feels a thousand degrees, tears running down so hard she has a hard time seeing him. She read a poem once, about a mother who was saying being a mother was like having two hearts, just one outside your body, and she feels it now. She feels his breaking, so hers breaks right after it. "I made a deal, and I used my superpower. She's telling the truth. She's going to take really good care of you."

"Yes, but she wants you dead!" he hisses at her.

"Come on, Henry!"

"You're the only one that can stop her!"

Standing back up, she folds her arms.

"Stop her from what? All she's ever done is fight for you. It just got out of hand. I'm sorry."

Henry throws her arms around her, making her wonder how it would have been had she kept him, if it had been just the two of them this whole time, watching his steps grow steadier whenever he went to her, hearing him call out to her for the first time, feeling the strength of his arms when he hugs her...how could he possibly think not breaking some curse could be her biggest regret when she'd missed out on all that?

"Where did you get that?" he asks, suddenly alert, his focus somewhere else. She loosens her hold on him and follows his gaze to the turnover sitting on the plate on the counter. She'd meant to eat it before heading out, but had forgotten about it...which, come to think of it, wasn't like her. She never turned down food if offered to her, too many years of going to bed hungry. But she'd put it on the counter and forgotten about it.

"Regina gave it to me," she says, watching Henry tiptoe over to it like a detective, inspecting it and sniffing it.

"Apple!"

"So?"

"You can't eat that! It's poison!"

"What?"

"Don't you see? The deal! It was all a trick to get you to eat that, to get rid of the Savior," he explains, forcing her mind to backtrack to Regina calling her into her office under the guise of just wanting to talk only to set her up. She remembers the missing case file and scaring Archie into helping get her arrested. She remembers that punch in the cemetery, the nightmare that was the last few weeks of Mary Margaret being framed...poisoning food wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility...but...

"Henry, come on," she argues. "Why would she do that when I just told her I was going to go?" It only made sense if the Curse is real, which it isn't. It can't be.

"Because as long as you're alive, you're a threat to the Curse!" he says, and if she'd ever doubted he really believed his own words, this put an end to all that.

"Henry, you've got to stop thinking like this," she says as gently as she can.

"But it's the truth, and you leaving isn't going to change that."

She's had enough.

"I'll prove it to you," she says and reaches for the turnover. He's quicker, though, grabbing the majority of the turnover before she can pull it off the plate.

"Henry, what are you doing?"

"I'm sorry it had to come to this," he says, backing away from her and holding the turnover out like he's holding it hostage or something. He's deadly serious. He really thinks he's saving her.

"You may not believe in the Curse, or in me," he says, breaking her heart just a little more. "But I believe in you."

Taking a bite, he looks right at her as he chews it up and waits. And waits.

"See? You want to have some ice cream with that? And then we can go back to talking about-"

He collapses, thudding to the floor with his eyes shut tight.

"Henry? Henry? Henry!"

Two hearts, one outside your body...and she feels both stop.

A/N: Oh no! What's happened to Henry? Will he be okay? Is the show about to take a dark and twisted turn? Coming up? We wrap up Season 1 and move into Season 2.