"Mmmmmm," Emma groaned into the couch pillow, trying to block out the sounds around her. Neal was crying and her mom was trying get him to swallow some medicine on a spoon. It was early afternoon, and she felt much better after eating a full bowl of soup for lunch. "Mom, I'm going to take another shower."

"Are you feeling okay, sweetie?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling better. I want to take a shower and get dressed."

Snow got up to feel Emma's head immediately at this declaration, and Emma sighed, waiting for the prognosis.

"You feel okay," Snow said hesitantly, looking her daughter up and down. "Are you sure?"

"Mom! Why do you always have to be so overprotective? I'm fine!"

"Emma," Snow said, slightly shocked. "I just want to make sure you aren't rushing things."

"It's not just that," Emma sighed. "You still make me have a babysitter, and you don't trust me with Neal. I'm growing up, but you aren't acting like it."

Snow put her hand on her daughter's cheek and smiled a little sadly at her statement. "I know you're growing up," she promised. "It's just hard for Dad and I to feel comfortable... there's... there's a lot of things you don't know yet, Em."

"Then tell me! Why won't you tell me?"

"It's complicated."

"I can understand complicated!" Emma spoke with such conviction her voice broke as she insisted. "What I can't understand is why my parents are keeping things from me. Why did we move to this weird town as soon as Dad came to live with us? And why was Dad in jail for the first six years of my life?!"

"He wasn't in jail for six years, Emma. It was a minor offense... he wasn't-"

"Well, wherever he was, he wasn't with us! So where was he? Did he leave us and then change his mind and come back cause he got bored?"

"NO! Emma, please listen to me-" Snow began, but was interrupted by Neal's crying. "Can we talk after your shower? I promise, I'll answer your questions. Neal is going to need a nap after this medicine, and your dad is setting up fresh sheets on his bed right now. Just try to relax, okay? We have a lot of things to talk about, and I promise, we will."

Emma nodded before she let the emotions get the best of her. A hot shower sounded like exactly what she needed right now. She was groggy from laying on the couch for hours. She desperately wanted to get out of the house, to get a break from her family, and she wondered what Daniel was doing. But no, her mom had agreed to talk to her, and she was going to demand answers.

After her shower, Emma sat in her room towel drying her hair. She could hear her parents telling a story to Neal about Snow White and Prince Charming, and Emma froze as she started listening in. She knew it seemed familiar, she knew she there was a reason she was so enthralled in reading it. They hadn't told it to her in years, but she knew it so well, it was like riding a bike. Her parents were telling her brother the same exact story she had read in the book from Daniel; the story that was nothing like the fairy tale version of the cartoon. Had her parents read the book? Had the mayor stolen it from her parents? No, that was impossible. Emma could remember her mom telling her the story before they moved here, before they even knew who Regina was. So how did they know the stories? There was no logical explanation; there was no way Emma could spin it to make sense in her mind.

"Knock knock," her dad said standing her doorway with her mom closely behind. "Can we talk?"

Emma threw her towel in the hamper by her dresser before nodding and sitting on the bed. She sat by the headboard, curling her knees up to her nose and holding them. Her jeans were not soft like her pajama pants, and she suddenly wished she hadn't had the urge to get up and get ready.

"We know there's a lot to talk about..." Snow started, sitting on the bed by her.

"How do you know the stories? Of Snow White and Prince Charming?"

"What?"

"The story you were just telling Neal. About how Snow White and Prince Charming met. How. Do. You. Know. It."

"Emma," David started, looking at Snow, who seemed to be at a loss for words, "Where did you get the book?"

"What book?"

"The one I found hidden in your dresser," Snow explained.

"You were snooping through my things?!" Emma cried.

"I was getting fresh clothes for your shower this morning, and either way, I'm your mother, and I used to know every single thing about you. Our privacy limits are still a bit blurry."

"The limit is that you can't snoop through my things! I'm not just your child, I'm an actual person and I deserve some privacy!"

"Okay Emma," David said, trying to diffuse the situation. "We can give you a little more privacy, but we need to know where you got the book, still."

"A little more? Why do you even get a say?! You were missing for the first six years of my life! I met you when I was kidnapped and brought to the jail you were in!"

"Emma!" Snow said sternly, causing Emma to look towards her mother.

"Why are you defending him?! He left us! He left you with a newborn baby to go do whatever landed him in jail and you still bailed him out so he could come live with us like we were a big happy family."

"It wasn't like that at all, Emma," David tried to explain. "You have to understand I would have never left you by choice."

"I know, I know. I've heard it a million times," Emma said, suddenly feeling a slight pang of guilt at her accusations, but she was too angry still to dwell on it.

"David," her mom said, looking at her dad. "I don't think we have a choice."

"So we'll tell her," David said, agreeing, sitting on the other side of the bed. Emma was still holding her knees, not able to make eye contact after what she had said to her father. She knew she didn't mean it. She loved her Dad, sometimes she felt like he understood her better than her mom even. She honestly had no idea where her outbursts had come from.

"Tell me what?" Emma mumbled into her knees.

"This is going to be a lot to take in," Snow started. "And we weren't going to tell you until you were older..."

"Tell me what?" Emma repeated.

Snow let out a sigh and reached out her hand to David. "We should tell you the story of how we met first," Snow decided, and Emma nodded, realizing she had never heard it before.

"I was to be married to someone else..." David started, before being interrupted by Emma.

"You were engaged?"

"Yes," David clarified. "Are you going to let us finish the story before you ask questions?"

"Okay, fine," Emma nodded.

"Well," Snow continued. "I was living as a bandit on the run. I had to steal to survive, and one day I saw a carriage going by and I-"

"Hold up," Emma interrupted again. "This is Snow White's story. I know it by heart. The carriage she stole from was Prince Charming's who was going to marry someone... else..." Emma trailed off, then shook her head as if it could get rid of her questions. "Why are you telling me this story when you know I know it?"

"It's how we met, Emma."

"No, it's how Snow White and Prince Charming met. In a fictional world. In a book. I can show you," Emma said, getting up and pulling open her top drawer and lifting the brown book out of it. She flipped to the page with the picture of Snow stealing from Charming's carriage. As she opened it, she paused, staring at the picture. It looked almost exactly like... her parents.

"I don't understand."

"Have you read the ending yet, Emma?"

"No... it was... it was ripped out." Emma's voice answered, but her mind was a million miles away, spinning like the force of a thousand gears.

"It's at the end," Snow explained, putting her hand over the pages to stop her from flipping to it. "But we want to tell you it first."

"No," Emma said, looking at her parents. "Have you guys taken something? Some overdose of cough syrup?"

"Emma, listen. This is really important. This is your life we're talking about. Do you understand?" Emma nodded, obedient to her mother's tone. "You were conceived in another world. A world where I went by Snow White and Dad went by, well, Prince Charming. The Evil Queen hated... hates," Snow corrected, "me. She blames me for taking away her happy ending and has been seeking revenge since. She crashed our wedding, promising to take away ours. There was talk of a curse, and it came shortly before you were born. We had to get you to safety, so I went through an enchanted wardrobe to this world to raise you here. Dad somehow found a way to get through after I already made it here, and spent the first six years of your life trying to find us. He went to jail because he knocked on every door in our neighborhood and someone who was, reasonably, creeped out called the police to report him."

"A curse...?" Emma started. Her expression was blank, but Emma was pondering the idea. "Is it this town?" Both of her parents nodded in response to this, as Emma expected. "That's why nobody is aging?"

"Yes. Regina stopped time. Because we escaped, we're unaffected by it."

"This makes no sense," Emma said, realizing how much of a lie that was. It made perfect sense to her. It somehow explained everything. But it couldn't be true. She watched Snow White on tv, it couldn't be her mother. How could it be possible? Emma studied her mom; the dark hair, pale skin, red lips. Oh god, Emma thought, is Snow White sitting in front of me? Emma suddenly felt her bug from earlier return, because she thought she was going to throw up. As she entertained the thought, Emma suddenly felt unreasonably nervous. It was her mom, for godsakes. It was the same person Emma just yelled at for snooping through her things, who embarrassingly told her she loved her in front of other people, the person she could wake up before sunrise because she had a scratchy throat. It was still her mom, but it was also Snow White. The little princess-obsessed girl inside of her got butterflies at the thought.

"I know it's a lot to take in," Snow said, reaching her hand out to Emma's, and all Emma could think was: Snow White is reaching out to touch my hand. No, Emma thought, it's impossible. Her parents were crazy. Oh god, oh god, oh god. Who will Neal and I live with if they go to the looney bin? Belle? She didn't know if Belle would take them, and she didn't want to move. Why were her parents talking like this? Oh god, her parents are crazy.

"The... um... curse? Is it going to be like this forever?"

"No," Snow said vehemently. "It will be broken."

"How?"

"That's another discussion, Em," David offered. Emma, feeling like she didn't want to know, agreed to let that one go.

"Belle?" Emma said suddenly. "She's cursed?"

"She's cursed, yes, but she knows who she is. She has her memories and her life... thanks to you."

"And Lily," Emma said sadly, looking down. "Lily... she died months after we moved here. Regina killed her like a freakin' evil queen! She killed her for no reason!" Were her parents crazy? Did that make her crazy? If all this made complete sense to her, did that mean she belonged in the looney bin as well?

"Emma, Regina WILL pay for what she's done to everyone," David looked at her daughter when he made the promise. "Especially Lily."

Emma nodded, feeling overwhelmed with the idea of processing all this information. "We live in a town... with the evil queen?"

"Yes, but she's not going to hurt you, or anyone else."

"How do you know that? She crashed YOUR wedding! Wouldn't she be after me if I'm your..." Emma trailed off, too embarrassed to finish her train of thought. She didn't need to though, because her mother read her mind.

"Yes," Snow smiled. "You are our happy ending. Along with Neal. That's why it's been... difficult for us to leave you alone. I know you want your independence though, and you deserve it. Your father and I have talked about it, and we thought, if you wanted to, you could get Neal after school Monday and watch him for a few hours by yourself."

"Really?!"

"We'd have to go over a lot of things, Emma," David added. "Like no leaving the house unless it's an emergency. The doors need to be locked at all times, and don't open it for anyone but us."

"Yes!" Emma agreed. "Yes!"

"Okay," both of her parents laughed. "We still need to talk about it more later, but I think we could all use a break right now from thinking."

"Yes," Emma breathed. "Please."

Emma left her room behind her parents still feeling a little light-headed from her sickness, or maybe from the news that she was a child born from Snow White and Prince Charming. Either way, she closed the big brown book clumsily as she jumped up, the swift motion knocking it off the edge between her bed and the wall.

I'll forget about that, Emma thought as it disappeared in the crack, but she was already by the doorframe that led out of her room. Mental note to remember to get it later and see how the story ends.

"What are you doing after school today?" Daniel walked using both hands to hold onto his backpack straps.

"I have to get Neal from kindergarten," Emma explained. "I'm going to watch him all by myself."

"Seriously? My mom would never let me be by myself! She still makes the Sheriff stay with me when she leaves." Emma thought about his mom, the mayor, and what she had learned over the weekend. She winced, thinking of Daniel going home to her. Daniel noticed. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Emma said, almost too-quickly. "I was sick over the weekend. I'm out of it."

"Oh. So what time does the kindergarten get out?"

"Like three, I think."

Daniel looked at his red and blue watch. 2:37. "I can walk with you if you want."

"Okay," Emma smiled and took Daniel's hand to lead him to Neal's school, a 10 minute walk, but a 5 minute one with the right shortcut behind the back of their school.

"Where are we going?" Daniel said hesitantly, but allowing Emma to pull him.

"A shortcut. Don't worry, I know where to go."

"Are you sure?" Daniel pulled back a little, causing Emma to slow down.

"Why? Are you afraid?"

"No!"

"Okay. It's just a back parking lot and cutting through a few trees."

Still as they walked, Emma had to slightly pull on Daniel's arm to keep him going. She noticed lately every time they touched at all, Daniel tensed up. She figured Daniel was going through some type of awkward not-a-boy-but-not-yet-a-man stage, so she let him be and pretended not to notice. She figured he would go back to normal eventually.

"Who's there?!"

The unknown voice caused Emma and Daniel to widen their eyes at each other, both in surprise.

"We should go!"

"We're almost there," Emma insisted.

"Who's there?!" This time the voice was louder, closer.

"Okay," Emma agreed. "Let's just go." As they stumbled towards where they came from, practically falling over each other, the voice was on top of them. This time it was not booming though, but quiet and scared.

"Who are you?" The voice was not demanding, but questioning. Emma felt bad, and couldn't help but turn around. She held on to Daniel's arm, so he didn't run and leave her alone.

"Who are you?" Emma asked, staring at the stranger.

"Neal, um.. my name is Neal."