A/N: Oh, Once Upon a Time. What happened to you? You were the best show, you were my most intense fandom for so long, but really, what happened after Season 3? You had good moments in Season 5, and Season 6 ended well, but I couldn't even make it through five episode of Season 7.

I really should go back and finish it. I've always wondered if the finale was good.

Ch. 25—Growing Pains

"Emma," Mary Margaret said, one the edge of tears, not that her daughter cared. "Emma…I promise, I'm just trying to get to know you. I missed everything about your life, and now you're a complete stranger to me. Please, please just let me in."

"Let both of us in," David pleaded, wrapping his arm around Mary Margaret's shoulders. "Emma, do you know how long we've waited for this?"

"How long?" Emma asked, whipping around. "Because the way I've heard it, you sent me away moments after being born, and then forgot I even existed immediately after that!"

"That wasn't our fault!" Mary Margaret cried. "Emma, you know everything now, you must know by now how much it killed us to do, and how much we wished there was another way, any other way!"

Emma shook her head and turned away. "That still doesn't change the fact that you missed me for, what, five minutes, in this entire 28 years? Meanwhile I felt every moment. And even if now I know you did love me, and you gave me up knowing you'd see me again, and to save an entire kingdom of innocent people…"

They nodded at her eagerly, waiting for her to finish.

"I still have 28 years worth of thinking you abandoned me because you didn't care," she huffed, standing up abruptly.

"Emma, where are you going?" Mary Margaret cried hysterically.

"Oh, stop freaking out, I'm not leaving town, I can't, anymore, as it seems," Emma shot back, violently pushing the door of Granny's as she walked out into the cool air.

Henry was waiting for her, sitting at one of the outside tables, swinging his legs. He jumped up and began following her. "What was all that about?" he asked.

"Are you skipping school right now?" she asked.

He shrugged. "The school hasn't really figured out what to do with itself since the curse got broken."

"Okay, well just because they were all peasants in that world doesn't mean they should shut down the school now," Emma said.

"Aw," Henry said. "I was kinda hoping that's exactly what would happen. Or maybe there'd be a school where we could all train to be knights or something."

"Keep dreaming, kid, but being a knight has no practical use in this world," Emma said.

"You know your parents feel super guilty for what they did, right?" Henry asked.

Emma sighed. "I know, and I feel super guilty for being mad at them," she said. "And I get it, it's not that I don't believe them or don't understand. But no amount of that can take away the pain, you know?"

Henry thought about that for a minute, and then said, "But you don't have to think about the pain. You have them back now, and they do love you and have missed you. Isn't that what you always wanted? Something you thought you could never have, because you couldn't imagine a scenario where they could possibly explain what they did?"

Emma stared at him. "You're a pretty wise kid, you know that?" she asked.

He grinned. "I know."

"I'll get over it," Emma said. "And they should know that. But all have you have just got to give me a chance to do that, all right?"

"All right," Henry agreed.

"Now get out of here," she said, affectionately grabbing his head and shoving him in the other direction.

"Where are you going?" he asked as he started to comply.

"Mr. Gold's, unfortunately, I borrowed a letter opener from him, and he'll have my head if I don't give it back."

"Good luck," Henry said, and ran off in the other direction.

Emma watched him go with a smile that instantly fell as she turned back around. She hoped talking to Henry would cheer her up, as it usually did, but it hadn't. She was still incredibly upset with her parents, and having Henry around just made her feel guilty that she'd done exactly the same thing with him. And he'd forgiven her unconditionally.

She pushed open the door to Mr. Gold's shop, intending to just drop the letter opener on his counter and leave. She barely remembered why she'd even needed that letter opener. It was for some police investigation, and she'd only wheedled it out of him by telling him it was for legal purposes, but he'd made sure that it would be returned to him or he'd sue her for abusing her power. Even though he'd been the one to get her there in the first place.

And suddenly, when she saw him, a lot of thoughts began flowing through her head that she really hadn't meant to start thinking about.

He looked up at her as she strode forward, angrily slamming the opener down.

"Good afternoon, Miss Swan," he said.

"You," she said. "You could have been looking out for me this entire time."

He gave a small laugh. "I beg your pardon?"

"You knew," she said. "I know you knew. You were awake the entire time I was here. You knew who I was from the moment you stepped foot in this world, so why couldn't you have done something, anything, just to let me know things were okay and would work out for me? In fact, why didn't you just bring me here in the first place? I landed right outside Storybrooke."

"Well it's not really like I would have been able to step outside the border and grab you."

"You have your methods of doing things," Emma said with gritted teeth. "You brought Henry here, didn't you? How'd you manage that, when he was born in Arizona?"

"Miss Swan," he said. "I can assure you that I was just as clueless with your existence as everyone else was. Until you finally came, that is."

Emma tried to wrap her head around that, but found she couldn't. "What?"

"Regina's curse was very powerful," he told her. "I couldn't just have my memories the entire time. Well, maybe I could have, but I really didn't want to suffer through 28 years of repetitiveness, knowing I could do nothing but wait."

"What do you mean until I finally came?"

"Well," he said. "That was the only part I could control. Hearing your name, saying your name, seeing you in person, I arranged it so that would trigger it."

Emma hesitated. "Meeting me that first day at the inn? That was the moment you remembered?"

"That was the moment I remembered," he said. She looked down, considering this, and he said, "And I might add, Emma, that you really can't blame your parents for what they did."

Emma looked up sharply. "And you'd be the expert on that, would you?"

"When are you going to learn that I'm the expert on everything?" he asked. "But there is a difference between abandoning someone and never giving them another thought, and abandoning them but then spending every waking second trying to get them back."

Emma paused. "And my parents fall into that second category, do they?"

"Absolutely they do," he said.

Emma squinted. "Why do you care about my relationship with my parents?"

"I don't," he said, stroking the globe on his counter. He looked up at her. "But that doesn't mean I don't care about you, dearie. I've known you since you were a tiny fetus inside Mary Margaret. I've been waiting for you and counting on you for longer than anyone else. Your savior duties aren't done, Miss Swan, and I'm very keen on seeing what your future holds."

Emma wasn't quite sure how to take that. "Thanks?" she said.

"And for what it's worth," Mr. Gold added. "I did look out for you once I knew who you were. It would have been a shame to let Regina win, wouldn't it?"

"Definitely," Emma said cautiously, and then added awkwardly, "Well, see you around I guess." She left as quickly as she could, feeling his stare boring into her back. She hated never knowing if she could trust him or not.

But once she'd made it back outside, she realized he was right. And that was a weird feeling, but one that she was kind of grateful to him for, and she suddenly began aching for her parents, and so took off back to Granny's to see them.