"Just lie back, Regina, and try to clear your mind," Mr. Gold encouraged. "Then look carefully at the pendant as it swings."

Regina was lying on her back on the couch in her office, closing her eyes a moment and breathing slowly in and out.

"So...what? You're going to hypnotize her?" David asked.

"Not exactly," Gold said. "This is much more than hypnosis." He held up the pendant. "This is an enchanted pendant, made expressly for retrieving memories. With it, we may be able to learn a little more about Regina's unwelcome visitor."

"If I remember him at all," Regina pointed out. "I told you, I don't recall ever seeing this guy before."

Gold gave her a look. "Leave that up to me. If he's in there...we'll find him."

Regina closed her eyes obediently.

"Now..." said Gold. "Concentrate on his face..."

Regina's forehead creased, and then she opened her eyes, staring hard at the pendant. David turned his head slowly as the walls of the room began to fluctuate, yawing in and out until they finally dissolved.

"What the...?"

"Shhh." Gold said. "Just observe."

Suddenly, they were in a room, in a castle. A conversation was coming through one of the doorways, and Regina was there - younger, with longer hair, standing at the window, looking out

Present-day Regina sat up slowly, walking over to her younger self. She turned back to look at Gold.

"This is my parent's castle - before I married Leopold," she said. "My mother was talking to someone. I heard my name, and looked to see who was there, briefly, but I was busy watching Daniel - he was re-shoeing my horse."

"You may not actively remember the conversation behind you," Gold said quietly. "But you did hear it."

She turned back around, walking to the doorway, and David came over to join her. She met his eyes as he realized he was listening to Cora.

"I've told you...there's a plan in place. Regina will be a queen." Cora's voice was emphatic.

"I can give her that," said a man's voice in reply. "I have the power to make her anything she wants to be - you know that."

David leaned around the doorway, looking in. He stared at the man a moment, then looked at Regina, shrugging. "I don't know him."

"He's the one," Regina said. "From the dreams."

Cora let out a laugh. "Foolish man! Regina doesn't know what's best! If I gave her what she wanted, she'd be living in a stable with her beloved horse for the rest of her life."

"Do you know who he is?" David asked Regina.

Regina shook her head, then turned to look back at Gold. "You?"

Gold stood motionless, his eyes narrowed. "I know him."

Regina raised a brow. "And...?"

"Morpheus." Gold said the name like an epithet.

Regina's head swung back around as Cora continued.

"My daughter isn't for sale," Cora said. "At least, not to you."

"And if she doesn't do as she's bid?" he asked. "She tried to escape you before."

"Regina will do as she's told," Cora replied coldly.

He eyed her in a very calculating way. "And if she's training with Rumpelstiltskin, she could become a very powerful adversary. What then? You'll need a way to remove her, and I can see to it she's well cared for. Our interests can be aligned."

Cora laughed. "She's no threat to me."

Morpheus inclined his head. "You know where to find me when you change your mind." He shimmered and then vanished.

A moment later, Cora and Young Regina winked out of existence. David folded his arms, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"So this...Morpheus - he wanted to marry you?" he asked Regina.

Regina shook her head. "I don't know. I suppose so. I had a lot of suitors in those days - my mother refused them all. He was just another one of the pack to me."

"How long has he been appearing in your dreams?" Gold asked.

"Well," Regina touched the tip of her tongue to her lip, thinking. "Recently, it's been a lot more frequent, but now that I've seen him again in flesh...I've seen him off and on for a long time. Years, maybe."

"As you know, Morpheus spends most of his time in the dreamscape, ever since he trapped himself there." Gold said. "He can only take corporeal form and exist in the real world for short periods of time. He exists between worlds, never fully realized in either.

"But he's from our realm," David said. "Did he solidify just long enough to create a portal and get here?"

"The ship," Regina said.

Gold nodded. "The captain's ship is not only the fastest in all the realms, but it's made from enchanted wood. Within the ship, Morpheus would have been able to sustain himself in a solid state for a longer period of time."

"So he brought the sphere here to try and trap Regina himself," David said.

"No." Regina sat down on the couch, tucking her hair behind her ear. "The sphere was with my mother's things in a trunk on board." She looked up at Gold. "Obviously, at some point, she had decided he was right, and was planning on using it on me."

"Most likely when she returned to Storybrooke," Gold suggested. "But when she saw an opportunity to take me down, she delayed her plans to enlist your help."

"And when Morpheus realized she'd changed her mind, he took matters into his own hands, and came to find you." David finished. "So now what?"

"We have to figure out how to stop a man who's trapped between two worlds," Regina said. "And we have to do while he's lurking in both."

###

Henry's voice came from the other side of the partition. "Mom," he called out. "It's time."

Emma turned to Meriel. "Just one more thing," she said, reaching up to put the diamond studs through Meriel's earlobes.

"Something borrowed," she said. "You've got your blue garter, your wedding gown is new, and that pendant is very old. You're set." She stepped back, then took a deep breath, fanning at her eyes. "I promised I wouldn't cry all the way through this," she apologized.

"It's okay, Mom," Meriel said, clasping her hands.

"I'd better go sit down so you have some time to deal with your father," Emma said, looking over her shoulder. "He' looks like he needs a drink."

Meriel bit her lip to keep from laughing. "He does, doesn't he?"

"I love you," Emma said, kissing her cheek very carefully so as not to get lipstick on it. She walked over and looped her arm through Henry's. "Come on, Henry. The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can all drink."

"You look beautiful, Meriel," Henry said, peeking his head around before leading his mother around the privacy screen set up at the bow. Meriel looked across at her father, who was gripping the railing, looking out over the water.

"Papa," she said. "It's almost time."

"I know." His voice was soft. "I know it is, love."

She walked up behind him. "I'm all dressed. You can turn around now."

"Not without a hell of a lot of rum, I can't," he replied, but he turned anyway. He gave her a long perusal, then cleared his throat.

Then he cleared it again.

"Bloody hell, Meriel, are you sure about this?"

"Absolutely," she said, without the slightest hesitation. "I've grown up knowing what real love looks like my entire life," she kissed him on the cheek. "I don't have a doubt in my mind."

"There's no rush, you know," he reminded her. "You can be in love for as long as you like...and still live at home."

"Papa." She gave him a look he knew only too well.

"You look like your mother when you do that," he grumbled.

"Maybe," she agreed. "But I've got enough of my father in me to go after what I want with everything I've got."

Outside on the deck the music swelled, and Meriel took her father by the hand.

"It's time, Papa."

He nodded, pulling her in and holding her tight. "You'll always be my greatest treasure, little love."

"I know." She blinked hard. "Don't make me cry. I'll trip up the stairs and fall into the wheel."

"Well, we can't have that." He tucked her arm in his. "Your mother would have my head."

"Just a few more minutes," she reminded him with a smile, "And the reception will start and you can be drinking."

He led her from behind the screen, out to the aisle runner set up on the deck, and then he leaned in to whisper in her ear.

"Save me a dance, love."

"Always, Papa. Always."

###

Killian's hand came down to rest on Finn's shoulder. His other hand reached down, handing him a flask.

"Drink up, my lad. Do it now, because once they're home from the hospital, you're going to need all your wits about you."

"That was brutal," Finn said dazedly, leaning back in his chair.

Killian nodded. "And they call them the fairer sex. It's only to lure us into thinking we're stronger. If men had to give birth, the human race would've died out before it had even begun."

Finn looked across at his wife, now sleeping peacefully in her hospital bed. He still couldn't believe he was a father.

"Having a hard time wrapping your head around the enormity of it, are you?" Killian asked with a knowing grin. "Are you wondering whose idea it was that you in any way qualified to be responsible for another human life?"

"Killian..." Emma gave him a look.

Finn swallowed hard, then took another drink of rum. "Bloody hell," he whispered.

The nurse came in, pushing a bassinet. "He's not due for a feeding quite yet," she said, "But he's awake and since you have the rest of your family is here, I thought they might like to meet him." She gave them a smile, and stepped back out of the room.

"Oh my God..." Emma said, her face breaking into a huge grin. "Look at him!" She picked the baby up carefully, staring down at his face. "He looks like a little Finn all over again." She made cooing noises, rubbing her face against the baby's, and in reply, the baby reached out, gripping her hair in his fist.

Killian walked over, helping her disentangle. "Let's have a look at you, then," he said to his grandson. "There's that strong Jones jawline. Perfectly devastating blue eyes...his hair is lighter, though."

Emma smiled, looking down at the baby again. "He looks like a Jones, all right."

Killian took the baby from her, then leaned down, placing the baby in Finn's arms.

"Careful - " Emma warned. "Don't forget to support his head."

Finn gave her a shaky nod, then looked down at his son, breaking into a long, slow grin. Killian put his hand on his son's shoulder again.

"You'll get the hang of it, Finn," he said. "Welcome to the greatest adventure of your life."

###

"I don't even know where to begin," Killian remarked, looking around at the piles of ripped paper, open boxes and plastic packaging strewn wall-to-wall across the room. "Perhaps we should just torch the place and move away."

"You're the one who wanted to host Christmas here this year," Emma reminded him. "And with seven grandkids, that's a lot of Christmas."

"Well, at least if we have to demolish, no one will notice the noise - not over this din, anyway."

"Let's make a rule," Emma suggested. "No more toys with noise. Ever." She smirked, looking over at the older kids crowded around the gaming station, cheering each other on, while the younger ones were bowling with a light-up musical ball and plastic pins down the hallway.

"Or we stock up on wine for the adults," Killian suggested.

"I could use a shot of rum after being on my knees all morning," Emma said with a groan.

"You? I'm the one with the bad back, giving all the horsey rides," Killian said. "I can barely straighten up."

"We'll survive," Emma said, smiling. "They're only young once."

"It's chaos, pure and simple," Killian said. He reached out, pulling her in and kissing her head. "And I wouldn't have it any other way, love."

###

Killian reached for the car keys, then headed back up the stairs to check on his wife. If they didn't get out the door, they were going to be late.

"Emma," he called out as he stepped through the bedroom door. "Your granddaughter is graduating in precisely forty minutes and if we don't get out of here, we're - "

He stopped short in the doorway to the bathroom, at the sight of Emma, sprawled across the floor.

"Emma!" he dropped to his knees next to her, cradling her close to him, calling her name over and over, but Emma didn't respond.

###

"You understand, a stroke this catastrophic is very difficult to recover from, " the doctor said soberly. "Mr. Jones, it's really impossible to call at this point."

Killian nodded, not really able to speak. He felt Finn's hand on his shoulder and Meriel's hand at his back. Henry was holding his mother's hand as she lay still, so still in the bed.

"Even if she can recover," the doctor continued, "her life will be very different from now on. Since the stroke was centered in her left brain, she'll most likely have lost the power to speak. She'll need extensive therapy to recover that and any motor skills she's lost. There may also be memory loss, and other lingering effects." He put her clipboard back on the hook at the foot of her bed and then turned to go, pausing in the doorway.

"We'll do all we can, Mr. Jones."

Killian took in a breath, finding his voice. "Thank you."

Then he moved over to the other chair next to Emma's bed, took her hand, and waited.

###

It was close to four in the morning when something made him open his eyes. He'd been holding Emma's hand, his head on the bed next to her, dozing lightly. The children had all gone home a few hours before, but would be returning in the morning. He raised his head up, more than a little bleary-eyed, and tried to focus.

Then he felt it - the slightest twitch of her hand. His eyes flew to her face and locked with hers.

She was awake.

He reached out, stroking her face and hair. "Emma, love...you're at the hospital. You've had a stroke, but the doctors are taking care of everything."

She closed her eyes briefly, as if absorbing this. Then her eyes opened again, slowly. He could see her lips working, struggling to form words, but failing miserably.

"You can't speak just yet, love," he said. "It's all right, though. It'll be all right."

Emma's eyes closed again, and he thought for a moment she might have drifted off, but eventually, and with great effort, she opened them again. This time, she moved her hand, very slowly and deliberately up her body to her chest.

"Are you all right, love?" Killian asked. "Are you in pain?"

She gave the slightest, almost imperceptible shake of her head, and then she closed her eyes again for a moment. He felt her pull in a deep breath, then she opened her eyes again. She moved her hand, tapping her fingers just over her heart, and then she slid her hand back down, and across the bed, reaching up to touch his chest. Her eyes locked with his.

And he could see that the light was dying in them.

"No..." he begged, hoarsely. "No. No, love, not yet. Not yet. It isn't time yet. Please. A lifetime isn't enough. It isn't. Stay with me. Stay with me, love." He held her hand tightly, as if to infuse her with his own life-force. "Please, Emma, please. Not yet."

She gave him a small, half-smile - one side of her face not accommodating - and then she closed her eyes.

"Emma! Emma!" he leaned in, kissing her face, her forehead. "Please, love. Please." Her breathing grew slower, shallower, and he knew there was no running from this. He kissed her one last time, softly.

"I'll see you on the other side, love."

And then he put his head on her stomach, and he wept.

Half an hour later, she quietly slipped away, and when he opened his eyes, he was in a land of snow and ice.