Emma sped down the road in her bug, taking out her frustration on the gas pedal. She'd just left Regina's house, and it hadn't gone well. Emma had just gone over to visit Henry, to check in on him—her gut had already been telling her that something was up, and little Emma's account of what happened at school had only convinced her of what she already felt. Henry seemed alright when Emma saw him, but something still felt off. Regina had brushed her concerns aside and accused Emma of being jealous.
"You can't face the fact that I'm his mother too," she'd said, angrily. "And maybe, just maybe, he wants me when he's frightened."
Emma replayed the conversation in her head as she drove. The light up ahead turned to red, and she screeched to a stop, then punched her steering wheel. This wasn't about her versus Regina; this wasn't a parenting dispute. This was about Henry, and Emma was certain that something was wrong.
Snow and David were sitting on the couch when she returned to the loft. Her parents read her mood instantly, and she told them about her visit, her account punctuated with angry stomping and broad hand gestures.
"Ssshhh," Snow said, pointing upstairs. "Emma's going to bed. Are you sure about this?"
"Yes!" Emma said emphatically. She realized she was speaking too loudly and lowered her voice before continuing. "Yes," she repeated. "I feel it. I can't explain it but I know something is wrong. And, by the way," she said, gesturing to the top of the stairs, "she knows it too. Henry was really awful to her at school today, and he was ditching class, and he was having this conversation with another kid, it was… it was all really strange. She was sure something was wrong."
Snow frowned, and looked sideways at David. Charming spoke. "She, uh, she mentioned some of that," he said, treading carefully. "And…"
Emma studied her parents' faces. "...and you don't believe her either," she said, resignedly.
"Emma, it's not that," Snow said quickly. "It's just—we don't want you—either of you—to get too worked up over something that might be nothing."
"It's not nothing!" Emma retorted. "Come on, ditching school? Kicking little me? That's not like Henry."
"You're right," David said. "That doesn't sound like Henry. We just think we need to get the… whole story." Emma looked confused, and David continued, lowering his voice. "Emma's been through a lot, and it can't be easy to suddenly have this… complicated family situation to navigate. It can't be easy to see you with Henry, or Henry with us, or…" he trailed off.
Emma blinked. "You don't believe her."
"We will talk to Henry—all of us— and get to the bottom of this," Snow said.
"But yes," David said, tiptoeing with his words. "I think it's possible that Emma is confused or jealous or dealing with a lot of big feelings right now, and—"
"I'm not making it up." The adults were startled by a voice coming from the top of the stairs. They all looked up to see little Emma standing in her pajamas with one crutch, her eyes aflame with anger and hurt. There was a beat of silence, then little Emma turned and walked into her room.
"Emma," Snow said, rising to her feet. "We didn't—"
The door slammed. David reached for Snow's hand, silently signaling that he'd deal with this. He climbed the stairs two at a time and knocked on the door. When little Emma didn't answer, he pushed the door open a few inches and peered inside. She was sitting on her bed.
"Can I come in?" David asked.
Emma shrugged, and he opened the door enough to step inside.
"I'm sorry about what you heard," he said, sighing.
"You're sorry I heard it," she snapped back.
David took a breath. "Yeah. And I'm sorry I said it."
"It's… whatever," Emma said, shrugging again and looking at the floor. "You don't believe me."
"No, honey, I—" David knelt down in front of the girl, putting himself at eye level with her. "I don't know what's going on with Henry," he said plainly. "And you're right, when you told us about what happened at school, yeah—I… I did think about how this must be hard for you and I wondered if that… had something to do with it."
Emma glared at him, but David continued. "I'm sorry. I didn't completely trust you. Just like you don't completely trust your mother and me yet, right?" Emma bit her lip and looked at the ground, almost like she'd been caught. David took both her hands in his. "We're a family, we need to trust each other," he pled. "So your mother and I? We're going to keep working on earning your trust. We hope you'll come to trust us. And we'll work on trusting you too, alright?"
He ducked his head down slightly, trying to pull Emma's eyes up to meet his own. She wriggled a little bit on the bed, then gave a small nod.
David smiled. "Good. Thank you, sweetheart," he said. He let go of her hands and rolled back on his heels, standing up, then sitting next to her on the bed. "But there's something else."
Emma looked up at him, the worry apparent in her expression.
"Henry's my family too, and I love him," David said.
Emma jumped in. "I know, I'm sorry, I—"
David shook his head. "No, sweetheart, I need you to know something." He looked at her seriously. "I don't love Henry more than you. I'm not taking his side over yours. I'm your dad, okay? That means I'm always on your team."
Half a smile crept across Emma's face, and she nodded again.
"Good," David said, standing up and mussing Emma's hair. "Don't stay up too late, okay?"
The next morning was tense in the loft. Henry skipped breakfast again, this time texting adult Emma an excuse about waking up late. She read the message aloud and put her phone down on the table. The Emmas looked at each other, the mutual understanding and doubt clear in their eyes. Snow and David registered their reaction and shared their own look of concern.
"Girls, let's not fight about this…" Snow began.
"Not fighting," adult Emma said. "But something's up."
Little Emma looked silently from adult Emma to Snow and back again. They ate, mostly without speaking so as to avoid the topic of Henry and Emma, but their breakfast was interrupted when adult Emma's phone rang. It was Neal, and it was bad news—Mother Superior had been killed by Pan's shadow.
"I have to go," adult Emma said, standing up quickly and moving toward the door.
"We're coming too," Snow responded immediately. Charming was already halfway to the door. Snow turned to look at little Emma. "And I'll—" she began.
Little Emma cut her off. "I know, I'll stay with Ruby," she groaned.
Snow patted her shoulder. "Be careful, okay?" she said. "Don't go outside, don't answer the door unless it's us. We'll be back soon." She pressed a kiss into the girl's hair.
Emma, Snow, and Charming rushed to the convent, where Hook, Neal, and Tinkerbell were waiting for them; it wasn't long before Regina and Henry joined them. On top of being emotional, everyone had the same questions on their minds: Why had Pan's shadow attacked the Blue Fairy? And, perhaps more importantly, how? The shadow took its orders only from Pan, and could not act independently. If Pan was inside Pandora's box, how was he controlling the shadow?
"So, Pan can still hurt me?" Henry asked, frightened. Regina assured him that she'd keep him safe, and left to take him to her vault, quite possibly the most secure place in Storybrooke.
As soon as Regina and Henry were gone, Emma was insistent about their next step: "We need to open Pandora's box," she said resolutely. "We need to find out how Pan is doing this, and why I can't shake the feeling that something is off about Henry."
Back at the loft, little Emma was quiet. Ruby tried to joke with her and draw her out of her shell, but the girl proved hard to distract.
"What are you thinking about, cute girl?" Ruby asked, sitting beside Emma on the couch.
The girl shrugged. "All this… stuff. Whatever's happening," she said.
"Hey," Ruby said, putting an arm around Emma, "they're going to be okay. Your mom and dad, and Emma—they always save the day."
Little Emma nodded. "It seems like it," she said slowly. She paused, then continued: "And it seems like I always stay home with you while they do."
Ruby pretended to look offended. "What? Are you saying that hanging out with me is not as exciting as catching bad guys and saving the whole town?"
Emma laughed, and Ruby smiled. "I don't know why," Ruby said, "but I just have this feeling that you'rer going to have a big adventure of your own before you know it."
Suddenly, they heard a crash—the sound of glass coming from the top floor. The apartment grew darker, and everything began to shake.
Emma breathed a sigh of relief. She put her gun away and wrapped the boy in a tight embrace. It really was Henry—it was Pan's body, but she was absolutely certain that her son was inside. Her anxieties of the last few days were validated, and she was relieved to know that Henry was no longer trapped in a box under Mr. Gold's floorboards, but new, pressing anxieties were rapidly coming into focus. Pan was in Henry's body, and he was with Regina in her vault.
The heroes rushed to the cemetery, and Mr. Gold managed to open the sealed door to Regina's vault. They ran inside and down the stairs of the musty crypt, only to find Regina inside, unconscious, with no sign of Pan. It was Gold who first realized what was missing: a curse. The curse.
They exited the vault and began to make a plan. Gold needed the Black Fairy's wand to switch Henry and Pan's bodies back, and once switched, Henry could bring Regina the scroll from the original curse. The heroes were about to disperse when David's phone rang.
He looked at his phone, and concern filled his eyes. "Ruby?" he said, answering it quickly. "Wait, slow down. What's going on?"
Snow could hear the panic in her husband's voice. "What is it?" she asked, desperate to know that Emma was okay. All eyes were on Charming as he listened to Red on the other end of the phone.
"I'm on my way," he said, hanging up. He looked to back to Snow, adult Emma, and the others.
"David, what happened? Is Emma okay?" Snow asked, her voice fast and high.
Charming swallowed. "The shadow. It took her."
