To keep track of everything that had happened to her since she went to Storybrooke, Emma had taken to writing. She took to writing and reading a lot in order to pass the time in the castle when she and Belle weren't cleaning. Emma found it was easier now to fill the pages with as many details as possible and form a timeline of sorts.
"No matter what I try to trace back, no matter what options I take, it always leads back to the same thing. In order to save Baelfire, we have to keep my son from going to Neverland."
Rumpelstiltskin looked at the papers she'd drawn up; he did his best to just glance at them. Emma knew that he didn't want to know everything in fear that it'd influence natural decisions.
Belle on the other hand knew everything and looked over what Emma had written down as well in search of anything Emma might've forgotten to tell her.
"What happens if we don't go to Neverland?" Rumpelstiltskin asked. His voice quivered slightly. Emma heard it, and she knew why. Belle didn't know though, Emma felt that was something that he should be able to tell her.
"You don't kill Pan….and at the same time, yourself. Baelfire doesn't die in trying to resurrect you."
"But Pan?" Belle asked.
"If we can keep him from getting taken, then Pan will die in a matter of days."
"Then what?" Belle asked, "How do those boys get back home?"
"Leave that to me," Emma told her, "If I have to steal a bean when my family grows them, I'll do it."
"What of the shadow?" Rumpelstiltskin asked.
Emma paled, "What?"
""What of the shadow?" Rumpelstiltskin repeated, "What happens if Pan sends the shadow instead?"
Emma paled, "We'll stop it."
"How? Make Henry live in a room full of light for those days?"
"Then we'll cloak the town," Emma snapped, "We'll do it after we bring Bae in. Tamara won't be able to get in….Greg…."
"He'll be trapped with us too," Rumpelstiltskin told her.
Emma ran her hands through her hair, "He wants justice."
"Then give it to him," Rumpelstiltskin shrugged.
"Rumple!" Belle scolded.
"Belle, she shut you up in a room to be a chess piece for 30 years! You never did anything to her. I take responsibility for how she turned out in some things but not that. Not when she's slaughtering villages full of innocent children and holding you prisoner."
Emma couldn't deny that it was tempting. A lot could be avoided if Regina saw justice. She tried to ignore it, but the insults Regina hurled at her always replayed in her head at night. Her claim to Pan that she didn't regret a thing she did because it got her what she wanted, the way she treated Henry when he started catching on….it was all too reminiscent of the things she'd been through as a child and learned to tolerate because for her, that was normal.
And when Regina had continually tried to do the things she did after the curse broke, Emma never had time to collect her thoughts. Henry had been taken, Pan was tormenting them, another threat was coming, another curse, the wicked witch, Bae's death, her own fears about staying….it just all suffocated her.
And now she had time to rest…time to think about all the people Regina and Rumple tormented. Where was their justice?
"If I give Regina over to someone that tormented her, then I have to do the same thing to you for what you've done," Emma told him finally, "Are you ready to face the consequences of that?"
He stopped talking then.
Emma looked back down at the papers, "Before Neverland, it's got to be then."
"How do they even get ahold of Henry?" Rumpelstiltskin asked.
Emma pointed to a passage she'd written down, "When Regina activates the failsafe."
Nearly left them all to die, so she could have her happy ending when the first attempt at ruining everyone's life for her own happiness didn't take.
Emma was going to have the next 30 years to do a lot of soul searching in figuring out how much she really wanted Regina around Henry. Because the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she let Regina around Henry with no real supervision was because everything else was piled on top of her all at once.
How things might be different if different steps were taken. And Emma had that power right now to change things so that it was all better. But she couldn't. Messing with time was dangerous and she was already playing with it more than what she was comfortable with.
"Waiting is going to be the worst of it," Rumpelstiltskin muttered.
"It's alright, you've had centuries," Emma told her, "Three decades will seem like a few seconds, right?"
"No, I'm not sure that's how it works," he muttered and sat back, "Alright, clear off the table and I'll get us dinner."
"You're cooking, tonight?"
"No, I'm summoning it," he scowled.
"One of these days you'll have to cook."
"Where's the fun in that?"
"We have to cook!" Emma scowled.
"Which is why I'm trying to make more magic for our food, I've tasted most of your cooking," he stood up and went to go get dressed for dinner.
"You don't complain when it's taco night."
"Tacos are a sorcery all themselves, it's different," he protested. And stormed out of the room.