Chapter 34

"Do I need a warm coat or do you think we're going somewhere hot?"

Henry was more excited about their trip with Rumplestiltskin than Emma would have liked. He was rifling through the few clothes he had at the loft, a wide grin on his face. Emma was packing less enthusiastically, although she wasn't going to waste a second of her time, not when she was certain that Rumplestiltskin was more than willing to carry out his threats.

"I don't know, kid." She answered, busy searching through her wardrobe. "Pack an outfit for either one. We're not going to be out of Storybrooke for long, so you shouldn't need more than that."

"Really?" Henry sounded slightly crestfallen after her answer. "I've never been further than Boston. I was hoping we'd get to go somewhere cool like… I don't know, Disney World."

"I doubt that's where Rumplestiltskin is taking us." Emma pointed out, turning her head to share an amused glance with Lacey. The other woman was perched on the edge of Emma's bed, folding Emma's selected clothes up before placing them in the suitcase. Emma had told Lacey that she didn't need to help, but she'd insisted. "Besides, no matter where we go, we won't be staying. Not when Killian's in the hospital."

Henry nodded and then returned to shoving whatever clothing he could find into his backpack.

"You really couldn't convince Rumple to let you stay a few more days?" Lacey asked. "Until you've had some sleep and maybe visited Killian a few more times?"

Emma shook her head. "I don't think I could have said anything to that man without him deciding that I was going back on my word. And whatever he'd do then probably wouldn't be good for anyone. Especially Killian."

Lacey grimaced, glancing down to watch her hand toy with a loose thread from the duvet. "You're right." She murmured. "They've both been hurting each other for too long, and Rumple isn't ready to stop. Even if it means we can't be together."

"Yeah, well… that sucks." Emma muttered. Lacey sighed heavily, but Emma didn't look at her, focussing instead on the contents of her wardrobe. As much sympathy as she had for the situation Lacey was in, she had to admit that it was a struggle to understand what the other woman could possibly see in Rumplestiltskin. She hadn't known the man long, but she hadn't seen anything that might explain Lacey's love for him.

They were silent for a few minutes, Lacey returning to her careful folding of the few clothes Emma had decided to bring as Emma continued to examine her selection of jackets. She tried on the brown leather jacket she had worn in the Enchanted Forest, trying to determine if it would be warm enough to wear, but she was distracted when she put her hands in the pockets and felt the smooth, cold surface of a coin.

When she looked at it, the coin heavy in the palm of her hand, she almost couldn't breathe. Emma had forgotten the gold piece Killian had taken from the giant's castle and given to her, had held it tightly in her fist and kept it to remember him. Yet, after she'd pulled him close and kissed him until the compass was tucked in her jacket pocket, the coin had slipped her mind. She'd been too preoccupied with their goodbye and the thought that she was leaving him forever, as well as the lingering taste of him and the tender look on his face, to care about the gift.

But now it was in her hand, and she'd never felt more grateful. Even if Killian never remembered, something she didn't even want to consider, she'd have something he gave to her and she would make sure to never forget him.

It hurt too much to think about, so she forced the thoughts aside, shoved the jacket back into the wardrobe and turned back to Lacey. "Do you even think we'll manage to find his son? From what Killian's told me, it sounded like Baelfire was born centuries ago."

"He's somewhere in this world." Lacey promised. "Rumple told me at dinner yesterday. He's found a way to leave Storybrooke and go and find him. I didn't think he'd ask you to go with him though."

"Yeah, I think it would have been better for everyone if he'd asked you." Emma muttered. "At least you'd actually want to spend time with him. Right now, driving to God knows where with Rumplestiltskin is pretty much the last thing I want to do."

"I asked him." Lacey admitted, once again looking at the bedspread instead of at Emma. "I wanted to go with him. It means so much to him, and even if we aren't together, I still care. But there isn't enough of the potion for more than one and well…" She gestured down to the swell of her stomach. "This makes things even more complicated. I don't really want to risk crossing the line."

"I get that." Emma agreed. "Magic seems to just screw everything up. It makes sense to avoid it."

"Screw everything up?" Lacey repeated, one eyebrow raised. "But… Rumplestiltskin told me that you had magic."

Emma grimaced. She'd barely thought about that particular revelation since she'd had it, and she really didn't want to dwell on it at that particular moment. Sure, she'd dreamed about discovering she had magical powers when she was younger, of being like Harry Potter and going to somewhere like Hogwarts and leaving all the foster homes and orphanages far behind her, but that was a fantasy she had long grown out of.

Magic was real, but she had yet to see any that made her glad it was something she possessed. It was all just dark curses and ripping out hearts and stealing memories, and unless she could click her fingers and bring Killian's memories back, she didn't care.

"It's not much use when you don't know how to use it." Emma grumbled, sighing in relief when she heard the door to the loft open and the sounds of Mary-Margaret and David talking as they finally returned from the hospital.

"Emma?" Mary-Margaret's attempt at a whisper was loud enough to hear in Emma's room. "Are you awake?"

Emma selected a slightly heavier coat, tucked the gold coin into her pocket, zipped up her suitcase and then made her way downstairs to the main room. "I'm awake. Is there any news from the hospital or did you come back straight after you spoke to Greg?"

"No news." David answered, frowning at Emma as she walked past him to place her small bag by the door. "Not about Hook anyway. I checked on him before I left, but it looked like he'd gone to sleep. And Greg, well, he said he hadn't seen anything. He was texting when he drove into Hook, which isn't exactly legal, but I told him we'd waive the charges and make sure he was home as soon as possible."

"Texting?" After everything that had happened over the last couple of weeks, Emma had been prepared to hear a more unusual explanation for the car accident. "God, maybe I have should have let Whale-"

"Are you leaving?" Mary-Margaret interrupted, staring at the suitcase at the door. "Emma, no matter how bad things seem right now, you don't need to run away."

"What?"

"I understand that Hook meant a lot to you," she muttered. "I do. And I know things have changed very quickly, but please don't go. Things will get better, if you just believe that they can."

"I'm not running." Emma spat. "Do you think I want to go? With Killian in hospital? If I had a choice, I wouldn't be going anywhere."

"Okay," David stated quickly, his arm around Mary-Margaret's shoulder and squeezing her slightly to stop her from speaking. "That still leaves the suitcase as a bit of a mystery."

Emma explained exactly what had happened since her return to the loft, keeping her voice to a whisper as she told her parents about Rumplestiltskin's threat to Killian so Lacey wouldn't hear. David grimaced and Mary-Margaret looked horrified, but neither of them got a chance to say anything.

Someone cleared their throat, and Emma noticed David's expression grow angry as he peered at the source of the noise. She turned around, annoyed that Rumplestiltskin had entered the loft without knocking. He was standing in the doorway, leaning on his walking stick and tapping his fingers impatiently against it.

"Ready to go, Miss Swan?"

After taking a few minutes to persuade Rumplestiltskin to let Henry accompany them, the group had gotten into the Dark One's Cadillac and headed out of Storybrooke. Emma had left David with instructions to keep an eye on Killian, as well as making him promise to call if anything at the hospital changed.

The first fifteen minutes of the car ride were tense. Henry was excited, asking question after question, but Rumplestiltskin said he was reluctant to answer until they were successfully outside the borders of Storybrooke.

They'd crossed the painted red line and Rumplestiltskin had shuddered, stalled the car and then they continued on their way. Rumplestiltskin remembered everything, and from that point on, seemed surprisingly happy to converse with Henry. Emma had tried to remain civil, although she wasn't keen to be too polite to the man who had threatened her boyfriend less than hour earlier, and soon the soft rumble of the car had lured her into a deep sleep.

She only woke when the car drew to a stop, still half-asleep as she got out the car and began to wheel both her and Henry's suitcases into Logan International Airport. Rumplestiltskin's announcement that they would be flying to wherever his son was had come as a bit of a surprise, but it was definitely preferable to spending hours in the Dark One's car.

Rumplestiltskin looked terrified, so it didn't take long for Emma to persuade him to hand her the booking details. He was clearly eager to let Emma handle everything at the airport, from checking in to finding the departure gate. After a bit of a commotion at security, with Rumplestiltskin trying to threaten the guards instead of putting his shoes, cane and shawl into the basket, they managed to make it to the correct gate.

"Guys, there's a Cinnabons here!" Henry exclaimed, bouncing slightly as he glanced around the large area. "How cool is that?"

Emma had to laugh. The one good thing about the forced trip was Henry's excitement. He'd never been further than Boston before, and even that had been a very short trip. So she ruffled his hair, handed him twenty dollars and then told him to meet her and Rumplestiltskin next to Cinnabons in half an hour. Henry beamed at her, nodded and then ran off, only walking when Emma called after him to slow down.

"He's very enthusiastic, isn't he?" Rumplestiltskin asked, one eyebrow raised as he peered after Henry.

"Henry's allowed to have some fun." She snapped. "At least one of us should have a good time."

Rumplestiltskin sneered and strode away. Emma watched him limp towards the bathroom, and then she made her way to a quiet corner of the lounge, making sure to take the three carry-on bags with her. Once she was sat down, she dug her phone out of her pocket and called David.

"Emma?" There were a few rings before David answered and he sounded confused when he did. "It's only been a few hours. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I mean we're going to New York. Things could be worse." she muttered. "I just… you haven't heard anything?"

"Nothing." Emma heard David sigh and then what she thought was the rustle of sheets. She hadn't considered that he might have been sleeping, even though he had missed almost as much sleep as she had over the previous couple of days, and she grimaced at the thought that she had woken him. "I don't think there's much the hospital can do, Emma. They're still going to give him a CAT scan, but I think they're sure it's crossing the town line that's taken his memories, not any mental trauma."

"Okay, so just let me know once you know for sure." Emma instructed. There was a yawn on the other end of the line, and Emma didn't know why that made her suddenly feel at ease, but it did. "I suppose I should have expected that the one guy I was starting to think wouldn't leave would end up forgetting me."

There was silence for a few moments, and then another heavy sigh from David. "Look, Emma, although I don't know you as well as I'd like, I do know that…" He sounded cautious, but Emma was just curious to know what he was going to say - if there was anything he could say to make her feel better. "Don't think that what you had with Killian is over."

"You sound like Mary-Margaret." Emma grumbled. "I'm in Boston with Rumplestiltskin on a hunt for his son, Killian doesn't remember me and Cora's on the loose. Hope really isn't something I have right now."

"Then don't hope." That was why she liked David. He understood she didn't think the way they did, that she'd learnt long ago that no hope was better than falsely believing that things would get better. "Just listen. I know I can't promise anything, but try to remember that I forgot everything once. I still loved Mary-Margaret."

It was the last thing she had expected David to say, and it was hardly comforting. Mary-Margaret hadn't remembered David either, and she had hardly been the woman David had originally fallen in love with. Perhaps it seemed to David like he'd fallen in love with the same woman, but Emma struggled to see her friend in Snow White.

"I don't know if that's really the same thing." she mumbled. "You and Mary-Margaret, you're one of those fairytale couples. You woke her with true love's kiss. There are literally movies about it. Whoever you were and whoever Mary-Margaret was, you were going to fall in love. That's definitely not me and Killian."

"Maybe not." It took David a few seconds to reply, and he sounded dubious. Emma held her phone away from her ear and blinked down at it. Surely David didn't think that her and Killian were even close to sharing a relationship like Snow White and her Prince Charming? She didn't even know if she loved Killian, although she would readily admit that she cared for him more than she'd cared for anyone in a very long time. "But why leave it up to chance? If being with him is what you want, you have to fight for that. You have to try."

She hung up without a goodbye. Whatever she had thought about her relationship with Killian - and she hadn't really thought much further than the fact that he made her happy and she was starting to trust that he wouldn't walk away - she hadn't ever considered simply allowing it to be the end.

Not that she'd had much time to think about it, but now that she was, using his amnesia as a reason to walk away wasn't even in consideration.

She'd promised him once that she wouldn't say goodbye to him again. Maybe Killian didn't remember, but that wouldn't change. Not until Killian wanted it to.

And once she was back in Storybrooke, she'd go to with him and maybe, just maybe, she'd let herself trust that whatever he'd seen in her before still drew him to her.

The hotel Rumplestiltskin had organised for them wasn't the nicest place Emma had ever stayed in, but it also wasn't the worst. With her plans to only stay for one night, the state of the room hardly mattered so long as it was clean.

Henry picked the bed closest to the window and as Emma checked her phone for any new messages, he leant on the windowsill and watched the goings on in the street below. He wore a wide grin, clearly overjoyed at being outside of Storybrooke for the second time, and Emma allowed a fond smile to grace her face when she looked at him.

She only had one new voicemail, from Storybrooke General, and she called them back only to hear confirmation of David's theory. The CAT scan had shown nothing wrong, and all they could do was wait for the Blue Fairy to find a way to return Killian's memories to him.

Part of her had hoped they'd find something in the CAT scan, something that could be fixed easily and meant it would just be a few days and things would normal again. Or as normal as things could be.

"Mr Jones is okay, right?"

Emma glanced back up at Henry to see that he was facing her instead of out the window and she gave him a short nod. "The same as when we left."

Henry grimaced, leaving the window to sit beside Emma on the bed. "I think everything will work out. And you should listen to me, because I knew you would break the curse."

That was true, although Emma vividly remembered her son's insistence that she was in the book, dancing alongside Killian. He hadn't been right about everything, and even though Emma wished she could be optimistic and believe Henry's words, a louder part of her was certain that this would be something he was wrong about.

"I don't know if this is the same thing, kid."

He shook his head in exasperation and then fixed Emma with a determined glare. "I know I was wrong about him being your prince, but him being a pirate is much cooler anyway. Besides, things have to work out. You're bringing back all the happy endings, right? Well, if you're Mr Jones' happy ending, then he's bound to remember you."

"If I'm-?" She couldn't finish the sentence, so she shook her head and changed the subject. "So, when things work out, you're okay with Killian?"

Henry shrugged. "Yeah, I think so. I mean, I don't really know him. Mom never let me spend much time with him. I think she didn't want me to talk to him about the curse, in case he told me it was true."

She sighed, wrapped her arm around Henry and dropped a light kiss to the top of his head. "Well, that can change. Killian promised to teach you how to be a pirate, right? I remember, because he told me I couldn't be first mate."

"Yeah." The same excited glint that had appeared when Henry first saw New York had appeared again, and Emma smiled down at him. "When he remembers, we'll go on the Jolly Roger and we'll find some treasure or something!"

"We?"

"I suppose you can come too." He joked, rolling his eyes and nudging his shoulder against hers. "If you have to."

"Oh, thanks for the invite." Emma chuckled, moving her hand to ruffle her kid's hair. "Soon you'll be telling me that I'm in charge of scrubbing the deck."

Henry laughed, and then fell quiet. Emma watched as he rifled through his jacket pocket and drew out several crumpled brochures that he must have picked up at the airport. They were quiet for a moment as he straightened them out, and in that moment, Emma wished that she could have taken Henry on a actual holiday, instead of roping him into the search for Baelfire.

It would have been much more fun.

There was a knock on the door, and Emma slumped forward, wishing Rumplestiltskin could have taken longer to ready himself for a possible reunion with his son. Henry seemed equally disappointed, one leaflet clutched in his fist.

"I thought he'd be less excited to find Baelfire." Henry mumbled. "It took me more than a few minutes to find you. Even when I knew I could."

"I still don't think we'd have had time to see Newsies." Emma pointed out, plucking the leaflet out of his hand and shoving into her jacket pocket. "But I promise we'll get pizza later."

The last thing Emma wanted to do was leave Henry alone with Rumplestiltskin, but after her attempt to be buzzed into Baelfire's apartment building caused the man in question to run away, she had no choice but to take off after him and leave the two of them together.

If she could get Baelfire back to Rumplestiltskin quickly, then they could be flying back to Storybrooke by the end of the day.

That thought was more than enough motivation and she sped up, darting across the busy road without a thought to the cars trying to drive past. She leapt over a barrier, dodging past pedestrians as she followed the fleeing man.

It had been a while since she'd chased someone through a city, and it felt exhilarating to be doing something she was so used to. For a moment, only a moment, it felt like she'd never moved to Storybrooke. Like nothing had changed.

It was a lonely thought, and it made her ever more determined to catch the man and get back to her room in the loft, back to Mary-Margaret and David and Killian.

Baelfire turned a corner, out of Emma's sight, but instead of staying on his tail, Emma darted down a small alleyway between two buildings. She sprinted the last several metres, colliding with Baelfire when she burst back onto the sidewalk. The two of the tumbled to the ground, her knees smashing against the sidewalk.

And then Emma looked up.

For a second, she couldn't comprehend what she was seeing, who she was seeing. It couldn't be him, not like this. But she blinked and he didn't go away.

"Neal?" She could barely say his name, had only said it a few times since he'd left her. It had to be a coincidence, or a mistake, or anything else that would explain why Rumplestiltskin had led her to him. Anything other than Neal being another fairytale character. "Neal?"

"I don't understand." Neal muttered, his wide-eyed stare unblinking. "Emma? What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here?" She repeated, a mad laugh escaping her lips even as she stood up and stumbled, her knees aching. "Me? That is not a question you get to ask!"

"Oh, come on!" Neal scoffed. "You show up in New York and chase me down and you don't expect me to have questions?"

"I'm pretty sure you owe me more answers than I owe you." Emma spat. "And I'm not giving you any until you tell me truth. Are you Rumplestiltskin's son?"

She'd pictured finding Neal many times over the last decade, although most of those daydreams had been during her time in prison and the following two years in Tallahassee and had varied between tearful, apologetic reunions and furious arguments where she confronted him with what he'd done. They'd all had one thing in common, though, and that was that her first question to him had nothing to do with Rumplestiltskin.

She hadn't expected this. Hadn't expected to ever see him again. And after her two years in Tallahassee, waiting, she'd decided she didn't want to.

But he was there and gaping at her and she didn't know what to do.

"What?"

"Are you Rumplestiltskin's son?" He barked out a laugh, shaking his head at her as though she was crazy, and Emma knew him well enough to know that he didn't want to answer the question, that nothing had changed and he still tried to avoid giving her answers he knew she wouldn't like. It was the only reply she needed. "You played me. You're from there. You played me and he played me. You both played me!"

"Whoa, what are you talking about? Rumplestiltskin?" Emma just watched him, one eyebrow raised, and then she saw him realise he couldn't worm his way out of her questions. "Wait, is he here?"

"Yeah. He's waiting back at your apartment." Emma answered sharply. "I guess he wants to talk to you."

"You brought him to me?" Emma drew her head back in surprise, his sudden anger something she had never experienced before. But then she remembered things he'd said to her the first day they met, at the fairground, about how his father had been a bad guy. "Why would you do that?"

He made her so mad.

"Hey! I am the only one allowed to be angry here!" She snarled, crossing her arms across her chest and narrowing her eyes at him. "Did you know who I was, where I was from, the whole time? Was this just some sort of sick, twisted plan?"

"Emma, come on, I-"

"Did you…" She hated how small her voice sounded, but the question on her lips was one she'd carried with her for years and asking it seemed momentous. She'd spent years assuming the answer, and it felt so strange to know she might get the truth. "Did you even care about me at all?"

Neal seemed to deflate, running a hand through his hair and looking anywhere except at Emma. "Emma, don't-"

"I want to know!" She insisted. "I want the truth. All of it!"

"Fine." He said shortly, burying his hands in his jean pockets and looking quickly over his shoulder. "We… We've got to get off the street. We can't talk about it here. Not out in the open. I spent a lifetime running from that man. I'm not going to let him catch me. There's a bar down the street. We'll talk there."

The last thing Emma wanted to do was have a drink with him. "No. Whatever you're going to tell me, tell me now."

"No, bar's better. But don't worry. You can yell at me when we get there."

He started walking away before she could protest, but she didn't follow. Neal could be as difficult as he wanted, but dismissing her anger and telling her what to do really didn't make her want to go with him. He didn't seem to notice she wasn't following, and as she watched him get further away, she suddenly didn't need answers.

Sure, she'd like an explanation, but she wasn't going to jump through hoops to get one. And it was the first time she'd ever thought that. A part of her had always needed to understand why he'd left her, why he hadn't cared, but not anymore.

Maybe he hadn't cared, but it didn't mean that others didn't. Other who hadn't hurt her the way he had.

"Neal?" she called after him. He turned, a scowl on his face when he noticed she hadn't moved. "I'm not getting a drink with you. I'm not the girl in the bug willing to go and get a drink with a guy I just met. Not now. You can tell me here. Right here. It's not as though there are other people around. So tell me. What the hell is going on?"

He just blinked at her.

"Look, Neal, I'm not in the mood to wait around for answers." she stated. "Being here, in New York, was the last thing I wanted to do today and meeting you really hasn't made that better. Trust me, Neal, if you don't explain now, I am more than happy to drag you back to your father without getting any sort of explanation. I've lived long enough without one."

He gaped at her, too shocked to do anything when she stormed over to him, gripped his arm and started pulling him back towards his apartment. He stumbled after her, only pushing her away when they reached the corner of the street.

"Okay, okay." he grumbled. "You want the truth? Ask away."

"Did you know who I was when we met?"

Neal shook his head, a quick, disbelieving laugh falling from his lips. "If I had, I wouldn't have gone near you."

Emma drew her head back in surprise. He had to be lying. He had to have known. "Oh, come on. You expect to believe that?"

"Come on? Look, I was in hiding. I came here to get away from… all that crap." Neal told her. "If I knew who you were, then yeah, I'd have walked away the instant I met you."

"So what? You were just using me?" She snapped. "You just needed someone to take the fall for all the watches that you stole. And you figured that I'd do it because I was naive enough to love you?"

"I wasn't using you." Neal insisted. "When we met, I didn't know. I found out."

"How?"

"When I went to sell the watches, I ran into a friend of yours. August." he explained. Emma gaped at him. August? It had been August who told him the truth, who had driven him away? "He told me he knew who I was and what you had to do. You needed to fulfil your destiny and I… I just needed to get away."

"You left me.. and let me go to prison, because Pinocchio told you to?"

"Emma…"

"What?" She didn't want to hear an excuse, not after such a ridiculous story. "You figured you'd just leave me to it. Just let me go to a town filled with the craziness that you were running away from. You thought it would be better for you to just leave without a word and send me to jail? What? Was it too much trouble to make something up so that I wasn't left wondering what I'd done. Why you'd left me. I loved you."

"I… I was," Neal glanced around anxiously, as though he'd suddenly think up something that would calm Emma down. "I was trying to help you."

"Help me?" Emma repeated, a bitter laugh falling from her lips. "By sending me to prison?"

"By getting you home." She scoffed, and Neal's shoulders sagged forward, his hand running down his face. "If there had been another way… I didn't want you to follow me."

She gaped at him. It didn't make sense. If he'd just told her something, anything, she wouldn't have followed him. She'd been rejected enough times to know when to stay away. Without a reason, she'd just been unable to do anything but try to come up with a reason for his actions, and that had been the reason she'd spent so long looking for him once she was free.

But no matter what Neal was saying, the question Emma couldn't move past was how he'd met her, how another person from the Enchanted Forest had become one of the most important people in her past.

"So you're saying that us meeting was a coincidence?" she asked eventually. "Because how the hell did that happen? If it wasn't in your plan or your father's?"

"Think about it. He wanted you to break the curse. Us meeting, that could have stopped it. Maybe it was fate."

Fate? Emma couldn't accept that, didn't want to consider that something called fate had demanded her life play out the way it did. "Oh, come on. You believe in that?"

Neal shrugged. "You know, there's not a ton about my father that I remember that doesn't suck. But he used to tell me that there are no coincidences. Everything that happens, happens by design, and there's nothing we can do about it. Forces greater than us conspire to make it happen. Fate, destiny, whatever you call it. The point is… Maybe we met for a reason. Maybe something good came from us being together."

She took in a shaky breath. Emma hated the way his sudden fervour about them being fated struck something in her, a small remnant of the girl she'd been when she first met Neal, and she shrunk back, burying her hands in her coat pockets, her fingertips brushing the cold metal of Killian's coin.

Yes, something good had come from their time together. She could never think otherwise. Henry was wonderful, Henry was the person she loved more than anyone. But she couldn't tell Neal. She didn't want him to know about Henry, didn't want to give him a reason to find a way back into her life.

"No." she said firmly, meeting Neal's gaze. "Not that I can think of. I just went to jail. That's it. Doesn't matter now. I'm over it. And you. I am definitely over you."

She saw Neal's jaw tense, and then he glanced down, his gaze fixing on her neckline. He looked confused when he looked up again. "So why do you wear the, uh, key chain I got you?"

Emma glanced down quickly, swallowing nervously when she saw the metal swan visible at her collar. It was a good question he'd asked, and one that, at that time, she couldn't answer.

Why was she still wearing it?

She reached up and tugged the chain off, staring down at the keychain in her hand. She held it out towards Neal, waiting until he'd snatched it from her grip before speaking. "I wore it to remind myself never to trust someone again. But, you know, I should have taken it off weeks ago."

"What?"

"Months ago, even." She continued, suddenly feeling so much lighter without the keychain around her neck. "You know, I spent so long not trusting anyone because of that, because of you and you know what I've learnt? It sucks. It's lonely. And honestly, Neal, I don't want to wear something that reminds me of you. Not when there are other things I want to remember."

She took her hand out of her pocket then, the golden coin held in the palm of her hand. No matter what conversations she'd had with David and with Henry over the last day, she couldn't know what would happen with Killian. It was still uncertain and different, but she did know one thing.

No matter what happened with him, she wouldn't want to forget any moment he had spent with her.

"What's that?"

She looked up at Neal, curling her fingers around the coin. "A gift. One I never want to give back." She allowed a small smile to grace her lips as she watched the sun reflecting off the coin. "Now come on. I made a deal with your father that I'd bring you to him."

"You made a deal with him?"

"Yeah. And I'm upholding my end."

"No, Emma," Neal pleaded. "You don't have to. You know that."

"I know."

"Okay, so this should be really easy for you." Neal told her. "Tell him that you lost me. Tell him you can't find me. If you do that, you never have to see me again."

She peered at him, trying to decide whether or not to do what he'd suggested. Rumplestiltskin had threatened Killian in order to get her to help, and she wondered what he'd do if she came back with one of Neal's excuses.

Then again, Rumplestiltskin was powerless outside of Storybrooke. If he tried anything, she could stop him.

She clenched her fist around Killian's coin, turned on her heel and strode away.

After walking away, Emma hadn't made it particularly far. She'd sat on the steps of a building a couple of streets away, unable to keep going when everything that had just happened finally sunk in.

She's just been talking to Neal. Neal. He'd given her excuse after excuse, but he'd never said sorry. It wouldn't have been enough for her to forgive him, but it would have been something. But seeing him again was nothing compared to the fact that he was Rumplestiltskin's son.

That Rumplestiltskin was Henry's grandfather.

She didn't know what to do. She wasn't even sure if walking away was the right thing, but she'd just wanted to get away from Neal. From everything.

And she knew it was probably a stupid idea, but she really wanted to talk to Killian. If things were the way they should be, he'd have been the only one she could talk to. The only one in Storybrooke who knew what Neal had done to her before.

So she called him.

"Uh, hello?" Emma hadn't expected him to pick up his phone, hadn't expected to have his phone, and she probably wouldn't have called him if she had. Once he was talking though, no matter how confused he sounded, she couldn't have hung up. "Hello?"

"Hi. Killian, I… I didn't think you'd have your phone. How did you-?"

"The Sheriff gave me my personal effects." He answered carefully, and Emma guessed that by 'The Sheriff', he meant David.

"Oh, it's Emma, by the way."

"I read that on the screen." he told her, and she really hated the lack of familiarity in his voice. "Emma Swan."

"That's me. The person who came to see you when you woke up."

"Oh. I remember you." He said quietly, and that hurt because Emma knew he didn't mean it the way she wished he did. "Why did you call?"

Emma didn't know what to say. He wasn't the man who knew her anymore. He barely remembered her name, and although she didn't know for certain, she had a suspicion that magic and fairytale characters were other things he'd forgotten.

She couldn't tell him anything.

"I just.. wanted to say I'm sorry that I can't visit later today." She stammered, gripping the phone tightly and regretting ever calling him. "I had to leave town. It's all been a bit crazy and I…"

"What is it?"

Emma took a deep breath, and even though he wasn't talking as much as he used to, even though he didn't remember, just hearing his voice was comforting. "I just want to talk."

There was a long silence, too long, and she wondered if he was trying work out what they'd meant to one another, why she was calling him to talk about her day,

"Okay." He said suddenly, softly. "Then talk."

And here's the next chapter! I hope you all enjoy it - I'm not too sure how I feel about it. I never managed to write more than a few sentences in one sitting, so I hope it's not too choppy. Also, my beta is still on holiday, so any mistakes are because of me.

Anyway, thank you so much for the reviews/favourites/story alerts!