Emma hated staying still and doing nothing when there was a battle to be fought. So her remedy for the situation when she and Killian returned to the apartment was to continue with her packing. He'd gone to take a shower, trimmed his facial hair, and read a few of the instruction manuals on the new boat all the tune of the ripping tape and growing list of four letter words as she tried to build boxes and package their belongings. She'd finished the shelves, managed to go through all of the bedroom drawers, half the closets, and started on the kitchen when he finally got her to stop for more than 30 seconds.

"Love, we'll find them," he said. "I promise."

"I feel like I'm just waiting for them to attack. You've practically got a target on your back."

He lifted his head a fraction and looked at her quizzically. "I feel your pain," he said. "Yet I'm not sure we have much choice. We don't know where they are so staging a surprise attack is not an option. Do you have any ideas?"

"Not really," she said, pulling her head and upper body out of the lower cabinet next to the stove. "I'm trying, but my techniques work better on deadbeats and bail jumpers than magical forces." She contemplated the three frying pans in the cupboard, attempting to figure out if all three would fit in the half full box and if she should hold one out until the actual moving day. "I'm just…"

"It's perfectly acceptable to admit that you're afraid," he told her. "Fear is something that comes quite naturally." It was not a tease or a challenge, but instead a request. That's what had made her stop short without a biting response back to him. He rarely asked much of her, instead taking on most of the emotional lifting himself.

She placed one of the pans on the stove and packed the other two. "I'm not afraid for myself," she said. "I'm afraid for you. If he does something to hurt you, I don't know if I can handle that." Glancing at him, she saw that he was wanting something more from her, a deeper understanding.

"I appreciate that you can concede that," he said thoughtfully. His hand dropped the manual and scratched at the skin on the back of his neck. "You have been known to run in the opposite direction rather than admit such distress."

"And you won't let me apologize for that," she said flatly. "So I'm not sure what you want me to say."

The hair on the back of his head stood on end as he raked his hand forward. "Perhaps we should have a real conversation about it," he said. "We are both bad at admitting our fears about anything, but most especially each other."

"And you think now is a good time," she said, waving her hands about to indicate their location. "I'm on the floor of our kitchen. We're waiting on four magical beings to attack us. And if they don't attack, we've got four dwarfs, my father, and my son coming to help us move our stuff into our cottage. Yet you want to have a heart to heart." She sealed the lid on the box and labeled it with a black marker. "I think you just don't want to help pack."

"Are you accusing me of delaying?" he asked.

She stood up as gracefully as she could and jutted a hip out with her fists digging in solidly. "No," she admitted. "Maybe it's just me. You know I'd rather do anything else."

"Would it help if I went first?" His eyes scanned her, resting briefly at her eyes before he walked the few steps toward the kitchen table. "Though, I'm more acquainted with instilling fear than removing it."

"You're not afraid," she said, gripping the back of the chair across from him. "I know you. You're not really afraid, not like me. You're just saying it to…"

"I'm afraid of losing you too," he said quietly. "Not to the Dark One or one of his sycophants, love, because you can take on any one of them. No, I'm scared that you'll finally find that this," he motioned to himself and then to her, "is too much for you. You scare me when you shut me out or run away. Just threatening to do so makes me lose sleep. And with our child on the way, I feel that much more like there is so much to lose."

"Killian," she said, "I…"

"Perhaps it is because I loved you for so long without your reciprocation. Perhaps I have put too much stock in what I always knew we could be together." He shook his head sadly. "I don't fear the loss of you from death. I fear you separating us because you leave. Your happiness is a priority to me, but I'll be damned if I could easily accept that you'd be happier away from me. If you choose someday that you wish to move from here, I'd go with you. If your family and the others here want to return the Enchanted Forest, I'd not follow without you. I cannot imagine a fate for me worse than knowing you are out there in any realm without me by your side."

She looked down at her hands, her knuckles whitening. "You are better at this," she said, shaking off the dread. "You fight for me every time you've had to do it. You do so willingly and without complaining. I don't have that same track record." She frowned, pulling her hands away as he reached out. "No, I need to say this before you try to comfort me because I know that you will." Her right hand reached up and pulled the low ponytail over her shoulder, stretching out the strands of hair absentmindedly. "I'm not used to someone looking at me the way you do. I thought I would be by now, but it still feels odd to me. Don't get me wrong. It's incredible. You could probably convince me to rob a bank by looking at me that way. You look at me like I'm something precious and something…perfect…like I can do no wrong. But Killian, I do the wrong thing sometimes. Hell, there are days when everything I do is wrong. And you still look at me like that."

Dropping the hand from her hair, she wrapped her arms around her middle. It was not so much of a defensive move but one of comfort. "It is a lot to live up to," she said. "It's a lot to face. I don't want to disappoint you, but sometimes I know that I do that. At first it was because I wasn't ready to let you know that I felt something for you. Then it was because I thought you might stop caring about me if I wasn't everything you thought. And then each time I let myself love you and feel comfortable with you, I scare myself because I realize that I don't feel complete anymore without you. With every other relationship I've ever had I knew that it would hurt if I lost them or if I left them. But with you it is so much more than that. It isn't just the pain of losing you that scares me. It's knowing that I'd never get over it. I'd never get past it."

He remained quiet, waiting for her to look back up at him. He waited for their eyes to connect. "We have some of those fears in common," he said with a sad tilt of his head. "When I first came to realize my feelings for you, I was ashamed and humiliated. It wasn't that I had those feelings for you. You deserve to be loved and worshipped, not because of your status or because you are the savior. You deserve that because you are incredible. And I couldn't help but see myself as lacking." His right hand ran along the tip of his brace covered left arm. "It wasn't just the hand. It was everything about myself. For I couldn't see how someone like you could ever come to care for someone like me."

"You are not lacking," she said vehemently as though someone else had suggested the idea to her.

"Darling," he said. "I certainly felt that way with you and your family for quite a while. And each time you pull away or threaten to run from me, I feel that perhaps I was right." Closing his eyes, he swallowed hard, only reopening his eyes when he felt her hands grip his. "My greatest fear is failing you so that you leave me. I am terrified someday you'll see me as others do."

She reluctantly let him pull his hand back, a look of embarrassment crossing his face after stating his fear. "Killian, I thought we moved past that," she said. "I love you. You know that. It isn't about titles like pirate or princess. It's about two people loving each other."

"Aye," he said, attempting a wavering smile at her. "On my good days I know that."

"And then come the days when your wife is an idiot?"

"Those days are more difficult," he admitted, chuckling lowly.

"Those days suck," she conceded.

The rattle of the radiator and the hum of the overhead light was the only sound in the apartment. "Promise me that you're going to be careful," she said, finally breaking the silence. "I'm not expecting you to stay home while I run off with Regina and my father straight into danger. I'm not stupid."

"I promise," he said. "Would it be too much to ask for you to make that same vow?"

She smiled at the earnestness his voice. Raising her right hand as if in court, she gave him her most serious stare. "I, Emma Swan Jones, promise to be careful and I swear to be at your side for the rest of our lives."

His next words were drowned out by the sound of a loud knock at the door. She shrugged at his curious glance and walked past him to the foyer. A quick look through the peep hole revealed that it was a warmly dressed Regina on the other side.

"Regina," Emma said as she opened the door against a cold gust of air. "I don't think you've ever…"

"It's not a social call," Regina said, practically marching into the room. If anyone should have an assembled posse following her, it was the former mayor. She looked ready to dictate orders at any moment. "I came to see you and the pirate about our problem."

Not in the mood to play coy with the other woman, Emma pointed to the kitchen table and considered opening a bottle of wine, but decided against it. "I can hardly wait," she muttered, taking her own seat at the table.

Regina was not a woman to mince words. She pulled her chair up and stretched her hands out on the glass table top. "We aren't going to find them," she said as though delivering the weather on television. "Not if they don't want to be found."

"So what do you suggest, your highness?" Killian asked, a bit annoyed that the woman had not only barged in but seemed to be in a negative frame of mind. "Should we pretend they aren't out there?"

"No," she said just as stoically. "I think we need to do something." She looked at them as though she were expecting applause.

"Like what?" Emma asked incredulously. "Offer them candy and pony rides? This is Rumpelstiltskin. They aren't children who can be bribed."

"I'm aware of who we are dealing with," Regina warmed. "You forget that I know the most about Maleficent than anyone in Storybrooke." She bit out the words as though they were sour on her tongue. "I'm the one who has the most background with this crew."

"I don't think anyone has forgotten your knowledge of Maleficent," Emma bit out, folding her arms across her chest. "I'm having a hard time understanding why you are so eager to fight her. Weren't you friends?"

"At one point," Regina conceded. "You have to admit that gives me a bit of an advantage here."

"We can all agree that any knowledge in this situation is advantageous," Killian said. "Your highness, you offered some sort of suggestion as to a solution. What would that be?"

"Ahhhh, yes," Regina said. "I suppose that you could say our hands are a bit tied so long as they are hiding. They are experts at it and no amount of magic on any of our parts is going to reveal their locations."

"De ja vu," Emma muttered. "I think we have clearly established the fact that they are hiding and that we can't find them until they want to be found. Quit being a drama queen and tell us your idea."

"We offer a little bait to see if we can draw them out," Regina said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Precisely what bait?" Killian asked, rubbing his hand on the edge of the table. "What could the four of them all want?"

Emma's eyes narrowed suspiciously as the woman waited to answer. She knew the answer. "No, Regina, no," she said. "It's too much to ask of her. She's struggling as it is. You can't expect her to put her life on the line for all of us."

"We'd be there with her," Regina challenged. "I'm not sending her to her death. I just think that seeing her would be appealing for Rumpelstiltskin that he might drop his guard momentarily."

"And how would that help us with the other three?" Emma challenged. "They aren't going to care about Belle."

"I can guarantee that where he goes, so do they," Regina said somewhat mysteriously. "Package deal and all that."

"I think it's a bad idea," Emma said, shaking her head. "Belle's been near tears ever since she forced him over the town line. She can barely function some days. I don't think it's a good idea to put her anywhere near him. Why don't we try the dagger? One of us could use it to summon him."

"He would expect that," Regina said. "We need the element of surprise."