Aleera and Jefferson lay on the floor after they finished, trying to catch their breath and holding hands. They lay under a spare quilt that Aleera had summoned when their clothes were off. They moved into each other's arms and shared the pillow she had also summoned.

"That was amazing," Aleera said.

"Would you believe I haven't done it in 30 years?" Jefferson said.

"Oh I could tell you were making up for lost time," she said. And they began to kiss again. They were so distracted with each other that they did not hear people coming up the spiral steps to the library.

"Aleera!" a man exclaimed. The couple sprang apart but both tried to stay hidden under the blanket. They looked up to see Rumple and Belle standing by the stairs.

"Crap," Aleera whispered. "Dad, I…"

"You son of a bitch!" Rumple snarled at Jefferson. He started at them and must have had some plan of attack without his powers. But Aleera dematerialized Jefferson and sent him to his room.

"Rumple, please," Belle said.

"Dad don't be upset," Aleera said, getting up with the quilt wrapped around her. "I'm a grown woman who has been married before. This isn't wrong of me to do."

"In my library though?" he asked upset. "I don't want to have to remember this every time I come in here."

"Dad I'm sorry!" Aleera tried to assure him. "What were you two coming up here to do?" Her father and stepmother were silent, and slightly guilty looking. "Oh gods, you were coming up here to do it weren't you! Belle wanted her books to watch?"

"Aleera!" Belle blushed bright red.

"It's okay guys, I get it," Aleera said. "If you went up to your room it would arouse suspicion and teasing from the guests. You know you could end the party if you wanted to be alone." The three of them were silent after that. But finally after what looked like some deep thought, Rumple spoke up.

"Go get dressed," he said. "And then meet me back here. We have a lot to talk about."

"Now?" Aleera asked.

"If he doesn't do it now he never will," Belle said. "I'll go back to the party, I'll tell them Aleera is helping you with something."

"I'll send Jefferson down too," Aleera said. And then she dematerialized to her room. Jefferson had already dressed and gone there.

"I thought he was going to kill me," Jefferson said.

"I would not have let him," Aleera said.

"He swore to me when you came to live with him as a teenager that if I ever made a move on you he'd kill me," Jefferson said.

"I think the fact that you could break my curse made him ease up on that promise," Aleera said.

"Maybe," Jefferson said.

"Please go back to the party," she said. "Dad wants to talk to me."

"Okay, will you come back before it ends?" he asked.

"I'll try," she said. They kissed and he left. She walked back to the library.

"You changed out of your gown, Aleera?" Neal asked as he saw her walk past him and Emma in the foyer.

"I wanted to be more comfortable," she said. Then she saw Neal was smirking. "Wait, you know what just happened don't you!"

"First you tell us you and Jefferson are going to the library to 'talk.' Then we see dad with Belle, talking about taking her in the library," Neal chuckled. "Now both you and Jefferson are wearing something else, with messy hair, and looking really guilty, so it can only be one thing." Now he was laughing really hard. "You are so grounded!" Aleera scrunched her face at him and left to go back to the library.

Aleera came back to the library and saw her father looking out the window at the party happening outside. Aleera came up to him, rubbed his arm and looked out the window with him. She waited for him to start whatever conversation he wanted to have with her so badly. But he was awkward.

"There were things you wanted to talk about?" Aleera asked him. He turned to her and leaned on the sill, she did the same.

"Did Markham tell you I wanted you sent to the ghost plane?" Rumple asked her.

"…Yeah, actually," she said. "I totally forgot though. Why did you do that?"

"I wanted to give you a chance to see them again after they were so wrongly taken from you," he said. "Also I hoped they would tell you I didn't mean for their deaths to happen. Being in the afterworld, they see all and know everything."

"We didn't talk about you," Aleera said. "We didn't have much time."

"I guess I should have expected that," he said.

"So you wanted me to know that you are blameless?" Aleera asked, she worried he was trying to excuse his actions like he had for years.

"No not blameless," he groaned. "Just, I am not remorseless. When I acted unaffected by their deaths due to the protection spell being taken off of them, it was an act. I was afraid to show my regret. I wasn't comfortable enough with you. If I were I would have been on my knees begging your forgiveness. But my experience with your brother was that there was never anything I could say to make who I hurt feel better. So I was terrible to you. I'm so sorry."

"I can tell you are," Aleera said. "I actually had a feeling. But since I never wanted to talk about it, I never asked you to confirm."

"That is one of many things I need to confirm with you," he said. "I'm sorry I ever put your soul at risk. For making you create the curse and do my dirty work. Also I apologize for my ever raising a hand to you. You really do mean more to me than that."

"You've said this before," Aleera told him, remembering their short talk when Cora and Regina were fighting Neal, Emma, and Charming out in the shop.

"I need to say it again," he said. "I do love you."

"I know." she said.

"I've always shown it the wrong way, and sometimes I've forgotten it when you did something against my plans." Rumple said. "I regretted freezing you in stone the moment I did it. I regretted stalling to put the protection spell back on your parents. But in my anger I did nothing, because I didn't want to admit to myself how much I messed up."

"As much as I hate what happened in our past," Aleera said. "It got us Bae back."

"Yes, but at a terrible price," Rumple said. "Of course I'm happy Bae is back. But I hate that your happiness was sacrificed. You spent 40 years thinking you loved one man. You let him treat you terribly because you thought it was just the curse making everything bleak and you went as far as marrying him. If I hadn't imprisoned you, you might have realized the fault in your relationship sooner. Maybe you could have spent the curse time happy with Jefferson."

"You've apologized for everything except for the curse happening," Aleera pointed out.

"That was part of the terrible price," Rumple said. "I've spent so long justifying the curse because it got me my son back, and when it came to blame I put it all on Regina because she had a different reason entirely for casting it. I told myself I would not have made the townspeople's lives as bad as she made them."

"But you realize now that is crap, right?" Aleera asked. "It was wrong no matter how you spin it, you hurt people." Rumple gave her a desperate look. He was starting to turn into the sniveling coward he had tried since Neverland not to be. But he took some deep breaths and tried to calm himself and stay rational.

"Do you want to talk about Pan?" Rumple asked, trying to switch topics. Aleera stiffened at that.

"Do you have a grievance?" Aleera asked. "I had a feeling this wouldn't be a one sided forgiveness conversation."

"You did what needed to be done," he said. "What I wanted done. But it should have been me."

"You would have died too," Aleera said. "You are the reason I risked my life to go to Neverland."

"I know, you said you did it so no one had to lose me," he said. "I could muse about how my life wasn't worth it and people were better off without me, but I know that is 'crap' as you would say."

"It's a big, stinking pile of it," Aleera agreed.

"I still can't get what I saw earlier out of my head," he told her, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking his head.

"It wasn't planned or we would have gone to my room," Aleera said.

"That doesn't make me feel better surprisingly," he said.

"You never said a word about my love nest with Alastair during the curse," Aleera pointed out.

"I didn't think I had a right to back then," he said. "I wasn't your father in that world. I still tried to keep my distance from you like I had your whole life prior. Also when I found out about it, it was 28 years too late."

"But now that we are back in this world, with our alternate identities from Storybrooke nonexistent, you freaked out at my having sex like any father would have."

"I don't exactly make sense," Rumple said with a bit of a flourish, which hadn't been a mannerism of his in a long time. They both laughed. "I realize you are an adult and are entitled to a relationship like you have. You and Jefferson can share a room if you'd like."

"Jefferson and I want to move out to live together," Aleera said.

"That's fine," Rumple told her. "Do you have a place to go?"

"His old hovel I guess," Aleera replied.

"That place is one room," Rumple said. "You will have no privacy from Grace."

"Well my old house with more than one room is spoken for," Aleera said. Blue had restored the house while they had been following the pixie trail and Liza had moved back in that night.

"I have some money hidden away," her father told her. "Let me pay to have bedrooms built onto it."

"That would be fine," Aleera said. "Now, are we going to head back to the party before people start thinking you and Belle already had a marital fight? Or that Jefferson and I fought? Or Neal tells enough people the story of what happened? He already took the mickey out of me."

"Absolutely," he said.

They went back to the party and Rumple took Belle back onto the dance floor to dance slowly alone. The merry men were all slumped against the fountain knocking it back. Regina and Robin were with the rest of the guests chatting at the tables. Jefferson lit up when he saw Aleera come back all in one piece. She sat down and leaned over and he pressed her back into his front and he wrapped his arms around her.

"Regina," Aleera said turning to her sister. "I'm so glad you c…"

"In the library!" Regina burst out, the people around them laughed like they knew the significance of what she said. Aleera turned bright red and turned to her brother who was fighting a laugh, trying to look innocent.

"How many people have you told?" she asked him. Everyone put hands up, chuckling awkwardly.

Aleera, Jefferson, and Grace moved into the hovel the next day so Rumple and Belle could have some privacy for their honeymoon time. No work could be started on the cottage because carpenters and architects were busy rebuilding their cities to focus work on a home outside any town. So they made do in the one room hovel until someone could be sent to help.

Six months went by and their relationship developed, as did the relationship with Aleera and Grace. Alastair had pressured Aleera into taking a motherly role to Miranda, but Jefferson didn't force anything. Now that Aleera was 10 years older and getting used to being an adult, she could be a mother to Grace if needed. But for now, Aleera and Grace were buddies. They even played tricks on Jefferson.

Liza and Alastair bloomed into the people they wanted to be with having each other to learn from and motivate. Emma took reasonable time mourning Hook and Neal didn't press her to start a relationship with him even though she told him early on that she loved him too and wanted a chance with him later. Snow and Charming wanted to start having children, but waited until the castle was renovated so they would actually have space to do so.

Regina and Robin were inseparable. Regina wasn't sure if or when she should tell him that she knew they were soul mates already. But Robin actually went to Tink for advice one day and she told him. So things progressed quickly after that. Roland bonded with Regina too, and Henry got used to the idea of his adopted mother being in a relationship because all he'd ever known were her unhealthy ones.

Regina was growing as a good person and doing what she could to redeem herself. She slowly lost her hostility to Emma and Neal and they found a way to coexist as equal parents to Henry. One of the things Regina worked hard on was figuring out how to free Sidney. It turned out all that it took to free him, was to break whatever mirror he appeared to her in. When she did, he appeared beside her.

"You freed me!" he exclaimed. He went to hug her, but remembered all that she had done to him and that she didn't love him.

"I'm sorry I used you," she said. "I shouldn't have taken your love for granted."

"It never would have worked between us, darling," he said confidently like a man who could reject anyone. He hadn't said it to be mean to her. He could never do that to her no matter how much she hurt him.

"You should go back to searching for your true love now that you have your freedom for real," she said.

"I know who she is," he said.

"You do? Who is she?" Regina asked.

"Nurse Severe," he said. "She isn't a big fan of you."

"I know," Regina replied.

"We bonded in the psych ward. I found out she was my true love through the power the mirror gave me. She has been waiting for me since we found out." he said.

"Well, go!" Regina told him excitedly. They had an awkward hug. And then he left.

"How did it go?" Robin asked coming into her room. Regina magically disposed of the glass shards and then answered him.

"It was weird," she replied.

"But it was the right thing to do," he said. "How well do you think you are progressing?"

"I don't know if I should judge," Regina said. "I could rip out my heart and look at it."

"No, no, none of that," he said. "You don't do that to anyone anymore, not even to yourself, understand?"

"I do," she said. And then Roland wandered in.

"Are you gonna marry her, papa?" he asked. Regina and Robin laughed and turned red.

"If she asks me," Robin replied, which startled Regina. And then he scooped Roland up and left Regina to think about what he just said. Robin wanted her to ask, after she had been forced into marriage before, he wanted her not to feel pressured, and to be in charge. He got to propose to Maid Marian, he didn't mind it being the other way around this time. She ended up doing just that a few days later.

They had a private ceremony on Firefly Hill with just the merry men, Aleera, Roland, and Henry to witness. Aleera was maid of honor and Little John was the best man. Roland was the ring bearer and Henry gave Regina away. As a joke one of the merry men pretended to be the flower girl and skipped down the aisle flinging flowers at the other men.

"Congrats guys," Aleera said afterward. Regina and Robin hadn't left each other's arms since the friar pronounced them husband and wife.

"Thank you, sister," Robin said, Regina beamed at him for being welcoming of her family. "When are we going to see you do this?"

"Oh…I don't know, there aren't any plans in the works," Aleera blushed.

"Do I need to question the man's intentions….with an arrow?" Robin asked. "We'll go to war with him if he hurts you."

"Maybe Jefferson isn't the problem," Regina teased. Aleera stuck her tongue out at her

"I don't want to upstage your wedding." Aleera teased back.

"Oh you would upstage us?" Regina said. "I challenge that."

"Oh yeah?" Aleera joked.

"Yeah!" Regina played along.

"Well then, challenge accepted," Aleera said.

"I'm just kidding you can upstage us," Regina said.

"I think your small wedding is actually quite desirable," Aleera said. "But I missed out on a big wedding my first time, I think I want to do it this time."

"I wouldn't have minded that," Robin said. "But this is what my woman wanted."

Regina stood on tiptoe speaking in his ear, "Just wait for tonight…"

"Oh, ew, guys!" Aleera teased. And then she bid them goodbye and went back to Jefferson.

"How was it?" Jefferson asked as she came home.

"It was great, I'm so happy for Regina," Aleera replied. "I'm glad she finally has someone who she really loves."

"She certainly has been in a better, healthier mood these past 6 months," Jefferson said. "Speaking of which, happy 6 month anniversary." And he kissed her.

"Remember, we aren't telling Regina her wedding fell on our anniversary," Aleera said. "If we get married one day then that will be our public anniversary to people."

"Speaking of marriage," Jefferson said. "Shall we have our progress meeting?" That was a little joke of theirs.

"Yes I got nagged about that today," Aleera said. "But I've been wanting to talk about it for a while, just these past 3 months or so."

"3 months, huh?" he said. "What happened to waiting a while before getting hitched?"

"I was doing what any good psychologist would tell me to do," she said. "And by psychologist I mean Jiminy Cricket who I had a secret session with before dad's wedding that I'm just now telling you about."

"I had a session with him too!" Jefferson laughed.

"Nice!" Aleera laughed. "Anyway, I knew that I should be divorced a little while before jumping into another marriage even though I knew who my true love was. Now I think it is all right. Shall we discuss it?"

"Aren't we?" he asked.

"Do you want to marry me?" she asked.

"Do you want to marry me?" he asked her back.

"Yes," they both answered.

"Then it's settled," he said. He held out his hand for her to shake like this was a business deal because that was pretty much how they had conducted this. She took his hand, but then pulled him into an embrace.

The ceremony was 3 months later after serious planning and preparation. Everyone Aleera knew got involved. Of all the weddings that had happened the past six months even including Ariel and Eric's, this was the biggest. Snow and David allowed Aleera's wedding to be at their castle as the event that would christen its renovation. It was also a good middle place between all the places her guests lived.

A big part of all the preparation was that no magic was used unless you counted Aleera wearing the leftover dress from what she conjured for Belle's wedding. Rumple paid for a lot of it, but many guests donated too. Despite the grandness of it, it wasn't very expensive. But Aleera and Jefferson were not expecting the amount of gifts, they were glad they had expanded their house.

Aleera prepared in the hall outside the ballroom. Belle and Regina were both her matrons of honor. Grace was her father's best girl as he called her instead of best man. He also asked Neal to stand up with him but just as a groomsmen. The friar who had married Robin and Regina was officiating. The Blue Fairy had been doing most of the wedding officiating in other weddings that happened these 6 months, but she and Aleera weren't close.

"Are you ready, dear?" Rumple said coming down the hallway. He was giving her away, under the stipulation that she was not property like women were once treated but that she just wanted her father beside her. She was really giving herself away.

"Just about," Aleera said. She was fidgeting with her skirt.

"Just relax," he said, taking her hands in his. "You will do great. You are making the right decision."

"You approve?" she asked, not that it would change anything if he didn't.

"I've always been a fan of true love," he said.

"But more importantly, what it creates?" she asked, quoting what she'd read in the storybook.

"No, just what it is" he said. He kissed her forehead and held out his arm.

"Get moving ladies," Aleera said to her matrons in her informal way of speaking.

"Do you want us to walk arm in arm?" Regina asked. She and Belle were still awkward. How could they not be being what Regina did to her?

"No you can walk separately," Aleera said. "Want to start us off, sis?"

"Sure," Regina said. When the music started she magically threw open the doors a little over zealously, which made the guests startle. When Regina started walking she realized she was creating a bit of déjà vu for the guests considering her similar entrance at Snow and David's wedding. She smiled warmly at everyone to calm the guests and tried to walk with a non-threatening gait, whatever that could be. Belle came after her. And then Aleera and her father walked in.

Rumple steadied his daughter as they walked. She looked around at her guests nervously, afraid to look at the altar. She had not seen Jefferson in 2 days. She was nervous. But her father turned her chin with his other hand and she saw her man. He was handsome as ever, wearing no cravat today, for she had magically healed his scar when she last saw him. He had been against that for a while because it made him who he was, but he wasn't that troubled man anymore.

"We are gathered here today," said the friar, "to wed this man to this woman. Jefferson and Aleera have proven that true love should always be sought for and that no one should give up on finding happiness. For 28 years they stood by each other's sides and helped each other survive. Now they are giving their hearts to each other for the rest of their lives. Now Aleera and Jefferson have written their own vows, they shall recite them now. Jefferson you shall go first as your fiancée requested."

"Whatever she wants," Jefferson said. "Aleera, our first meeting was the craziest way to be introduced."

"You chloroformed me and took me to your house to make a portal hat," Aleera said. The guests murmured and cleared their throats awkwardly.

"Yes, and that was not the last time I did that to someone," he said. "I was deranged. I wanted my daughter back and I was going to do whatever I had to. But, when we became friends, I realized there was someone else I wanted. You. You made the curse time more than tolerable. You made it worth living. I may have given up if I'd been alone all that time. I thank you for keeping me alive."

"Thank you for doing the same to me," she said.

"I vow to you, Aleera, that I will always be your shoulder to cry on, your pillar to support you, your sounding board, your best friend, and your lover. I can't even fathom straying and I will never give up on you. I promise."

"Your turn, Aleera," the friar said.

"Jefferson," she said. "While you were troubled those 28 years, you were still the most stable person in my life. You were always honest with me, you tried to save me on several occasions, even from myself. But you always respected that only I could make my decisions. You also made the curse time worth living. I hated that we were ever apart during that time we didn't see each other. But I plan to make up for it throughout the rest of our lives. I love you and I love Grace. I will be there for both of you. Nothing can stop me. I love you."

"Jefferson, do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?" asked the friar

"I do," he said.

"Aleera, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?" the friar asked her.

"I do," she said.

"Then with the power vested me as the friar of Sherwood Forest and a marriage officiate of the Enchanted Forest, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride," the friar announced.

Jefferson swept her up and Aleera held nothing back. The crowd cheered and flower petals fell from the ceiling. Bells rang, birds sang, and Aleera realized she had found the happiness she so desired. She found her true love, she had her brother back, and not only had her sister given up her evil, but so had her father. Nothing could ever ruin this.

The reception was exciting and well celebrated. Everyone ate, laughed, and danced. Aleera got to dance many times with Jefferson and with Neal, Rumple, Robin, and many other guests. She and her matrons did a special dance and she jumped around with the merry men and got to dance with Kings. After people did their speeches, two women at the party announced that they were expecting babies and more proposals happened. Aleera and Jefferson found the day to be absolutely perfect.

Pretty sweet huh? The next chapter is the last, the epilogue. Please Review!