It had been a long journey.
Once Emma had managed to convince Killian to go through the scanners at check-in and then also board the plane, she had then had to contend with how panicked he'd got when the plane actually took off.
It was a good job he'd been forced to pack his hook in their hold luggage or he would have shredded the armrest of his seat in panic as he hung on for dear life.
Eventually they had landed in New York and from then it had simply been getting in a cab over to their hotel, which – despite how late notice it had been to book – was thankfully pleasant enough for them to at least get a good night's sleep before the task they had waiting for them in the morning.
Briefly Emma noted just how much had changed since the last time she and Killian checked into a hotel together, thinking back to that first night in Storybrooke when they had shared a room at Granny's. Even though it was barely a few months ago, her life had completely and utterly transformed since then and she was incredibly grateful of that fact every day.
Once her head had hit the pillow on the bed, she had been out like a light, exhausted and ready for the whole mess of the curse to just be over already. She couldn't wait to be back in Storybrooke with her parents, her son and her pirate and she was adamant that nothing would get between her returning to town with Baelfire in tow, even if she had to drag him back to his father kicking and screaming.
"What's wrong? This the right place?" Emma asked Killian, noticing his facial expression as they both climbed out of the cab outside the apartment block that they had tracked Baelfire to.
"Yes, it is," he replied with a sigh, scratching his ear. "It just feels odd knowing he's never going to be expecting this…well, expecting me. We did not say farewell on good terms."
Emma didn't really know what to say to make him feel any better, so instead she reached for his hand, giving it a squeeze. "Well, who doesn't love a surprise?" she said with an encouraging smile, dragging him up to the front door of the apartment block and inside.
They came to a stop in front of a closed gate with buzzers on it for each individual flat. Next to each buzzer was a name for the occupant living there.
"No 'Baelfire'…" Killian observed, leaning down so he could read the tags.
"Yeah, that probably wouldn't fly as an alias. It's a shame the magic globe didn't give us an apartment number," Emma replied, feeling suddenly cheated by the globe thingy—stumped at what felt like the last hurdle. It had told them which country, which state, which city, which street and even which building Baelfire lived in; yet it couldn't manage an apartment number.
"It doesn't work that way," Killian grumbled, still staring at the board as if it would suddenly give them an answer.
Emma leant down next to him to have a look for herself and immediately found what she had been hoping to find; the tag next to apartment 407's buzzer was void of any name or comment. "Here's our boy."
"Or it could just be vacant," Killian reasoned, not wanting to get his hopes up over an empty dwelling.
"Look, I kind of traffic in finding people that don't wanna be found, and those sort of folks don't like to advertise their whereabouts," Emma explained confidently, not wasting anymore time before leaning forwards and pressing the buzzer firmly. "U.P.S. package for 407."
They were both merely rewarded by the sound of someone rejecting the call.
"Maybe you should have said FedEx," came the immediate reply from the centuries old Pirate Captain next to her.
Emma was about to question how on earth he knew about this worlds postal delivery services, when the sound of a window being thrown open and metal stairs being jumped on came from above them outside.
"He's running," they both said in unison, looking at each other in surprise before they simultaneously bolted from the lobby back out onto the street just in time to see a hooded figure jump down the last few flights of the fire exit and hit the pavement.
Without a word, both of them sprinted after the man, running madly across the road down back alleyways. The man crashed into a pedestrian, sending him flying into Killian, tripping him up, causing them both to fall over an abandoned trashcan and end up on the ground.
Emma, didn't stop to see if he was alright, knowing he would have been furious if they lost him due to something as stupid as this. She saw her window of opportunity and ceased it with both hands. The man turned left, so Emma ran around the corner, hoping to block him off before he ran past, and it worked.
She managed to grab hold of his jacket and bring both of them to the pavement, hard and with an almighty crash. Emma was more than relieved that the man didn't immediately jump to his feet again and run off because she was fairly certain she wouldn't have been able to follow him with her new concrete burns up her legs and hip that she was fairly certain were already bleeding. Clearly, though, she wasn't the only one to have injured herself in the fall, as the hooded guy groaned and grabbed for his ankle after evidently landing on it funny.
"Swan?!"
It was only after hearing Killian's voice travel down the alley from where they'd just come that caused Emma and the stranger to look up and suddenly make direct eye contact, looking each other in the face for the first time.
What Emma saw made her stomach drop so fast she was surprised she didn't throw up, she barely managed a small "no…" before Killian appeared in her peripheral vision, half way to helping her up before hearing the name that left her lips, addressing the man she'd been counting on to help break the curse.
"Neal?"
"What?!" had been Killan's immediately response, quickly helping Emma to her feet and then turning to stare at the other man in complete shock.
"Emma?!" was the similarly intelligent reply from the man still on the floor as he looked up at the blonde woman in a sort of dazed awe, it was clear he hadn't even seen Hook yet, he'd been so thrown. "I don't understand, what are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" Emma spluttered, not even believing the gall of this man, watching as he clambered unsteadily to his feet. "I'm not answering anything until you tell me the truth," she demanded furiously, stepping towards him, leaving a still confused Killian a few steps behind her. "Are you Gold's son?"
"What are you talking about? Who's Gold?" Neal replied, his tone of voice raising in anger to almost try and match Emma's.
"You played me. You're from there. You played me. And he played me. You both played me. You and Gold!" she rambled almost hysterically, the reality of the situation only just starting to make sense in her head and if she wasn't careful she was on the verge of having a genuine panic attack in the middle of New York.
It was at this point that Killian seemed to recover from his own breakdown just so he could take a shaking Emma into his arms to try and calm her down.
"It's okay, love. You're fine. I'm here."
This was however around the time when Neal recognised the pirate from his childhood.
"Hook?! What the hell! Get the fuck off her!" he borderline roared, throwing his hood off his head and stepping closer in a threatening way as if his appearance alone would cause him to retreat.
"I'll do no such thing," Killian replied, clearly trying his very best to stay calm and not start yelling too.
"You have no right to dictate this situation!" Emma snapped furiously, getting a grip of herself, the shock starting to pass, removing herself from Killian's grip so she could punch Neal in the jaw if she needed to.
"Emma, do you even know who this guy is? What he's done?" he persisted, gesturing to Killian as if he was the most disgusting thing he had ever laid his eyes on.
"Lad, just calm—" Killian tried to diffuse the situation, but was immediately cut off.
"Don't speak to me like that you no good piece of shit! You're disgusting, you know that? Emma—" he began again, almost as if he was trying to talk to her as if she was a small child who did not understand anything, "—this guy is old enough to be your great, great grandfather—"
"That's so fucking hypocritical!" she retaliated, not actually sure why they were having this conversation. "If you're Gold's son from back when he was a normal man, that would make you almost as old as he is and that's—"
"Whoa, okay. Emma, slow down," Neal yelled over her, clearly not having put all the pieces together yet himself and then turned to ask: "What are you talking about? Who's Gold?"
"Your Father. Rumplestiltskin," she answered with a wince, somehow it still felt weird calling the members of Storybrooke by their real names, so she tried to avoid it when possible.
"He's here?" Neal asked suddenly, all the colour practically draining from his face in pure dread.
"No, but you are coming home with us to speak to him," Killian demanded, his face an impassive mask, gone was the man desperate to reconnect with the teenager he'd had on his ship that many century's ago.
Neal's eyes flickered between Emma and Hook in disbelief, getting more and more pained as he desperately searched their faces for an any sign that they were not telling the truth. "You came to fetch me for him?! Why would you do that?!" he bellowed, getting uncomfortably close to Emma again as he yelled in her face, causing her to instinctively step back so she almost stood on Killian's feet.
"Hey! I am the only one allowed to be angry here!" she screamed back, actually moving towards him to give him a shove backwards away from her, still desperate to get the answers she thoroughly deserved. "Did you know who I was, where I was from, the whole time? Was this just some sort of sick, twisted plan? Did—did you even care about me at all?"
It was almost as if Killian wasn't there at all, it was just Emma and Neal; the guy who had broken her heart, sent her to prison in his place, knocked her up and ran away before she even had change to tell him. She was shaking in anger, her hands balled into fists, having to try desperately hard not to punch the ever-living crap out of him.
"Emma, do not—" he started, but was immediately cut off as she continued to yell.
"I wanna know! I want the truth, all of it!"
"Fine!" he roared finally, throwing his arms up in defeat, anything to stop her yelling as it was drawing attention from people who were walking past. "We—we gotta get off the street. We can't do it here. We're out in the open. There's a bar down the street. We can talk there."
"I am not drinking with you! Whatever you're gonna tell me, tell me now."
"No, bar's better. Don't worry, you can…keep yelling at me when we get there."
"Now that you mention it, a drink does sound like a wonderful idea," Killian interjected, immediately pulling out his hip flask to take a generous swig and then following after Neal as he walked off, leaving Emma to tail after the pair of them completely and utterly frustrated.
One thing was for sure, it would be a fucking miracle if they didn't get thrown out of the bar.
Less than two minutes later, the three of them found themselves sat in the most awkward trio known to man, all with a pint of the cheapest beer the bar had on tap in their grasps. Killian had taken a hearty sip on receiving the glass, but had almost spat the whole thing back out again in outrage at the taste, immediately sliding it across the bar to his left where Emma was sat, already half way through her glass. Clearly, she did not mind the taste and was in more need for it than she initially let on.
They sat in a pained silence for several minutes, allowing Emma to finish her glass and move into Killian's rejected one—which she was sipping more slowly this time. Nobody knew what to say and the reality of the whole situation was beginning to truly settle in, and if she was honest, Emma was genuinely feeling rather nauseous at the whole logistic side of things.
She made a mental note to herself that when she was next alone with Killian that she desperately needed assurance that he'd never tied the knot with Milah. She didn't even know how she would approach Henry and tell him that the man he was now almost treating as his father was technically his step grand-father.
Emma also felt mildly disgusted with herself when the realisation hit that she had not only slept with Gold's Son, but also the man that his ex-wife had left him for… Jesus, the allegations would all be now that Gold would be next, and that was enough to make her viciously choke on her drink and for her eyes to start watering.
This pesky age thing that these people all had going on was beginning to cause her more trouble than it was worth. She was aware that she had always preferred an older man, but this was ridiculous.
Clearly the tension was all getting a bit much for Killian, who was somehow sat in-between Emma and Neal at the bar and he couldn't deal with all the uncomfortable pressure anymore.
"That man on the television, Jerry something-or-other, would have a field day if he got hold of our tale."
"Jerry Springer," Emma responded with a sigh, trying to keep her breathing under control. "I knew you'd been watching way too much daytime TV…"
"Normally I'm fairly appreciative of dramatics," he replied with a shrug, running his hand through his hair in frustration. "Not so much momentarily, though."
"Well, what do you want to know, Emma?" Neal asked determinedly all of a sudden, almost as if he was trying to ensure he had not been forgotten about. "You want the truth? Ask away."
Emma took a deep breath in and out again before turning to the other man and beginning her questioning. "Did you know who I was when we met?"
"If I had, I wouldn't have gone near you," Neal replied almost immediately without even needing to think about his response.
"Come on," she said almost disbelievingly, there was no way that that was going to be the answer that she took. She needed a heck of a lot more than that to make her understand everything.
"'Come on'? Come on, what? I was in hiding. I came here to get…away from all that crap," he insisted, remaining incredibly calm and collected, almost as if he had been preparing for this conversation ever since he had abandoned her nearly eleven years ago.
"So, if you didn't know, then you were just using me," Emma rationalised, starting to feel seventeen all over again. "You just needed someone to take the fall for all the watches that you stole."
"I wasn't using you," he replied and, despite her instincts telling her he was spouting bullshit, she somehow believed him, especially as he carried on speaking. "When we met, I didn't know. I found out."
Emma dared a glance at Killian, who was sat listening in on the conversation with extreme concentration. He looked back at her and even after that brief gaze, she felt calm enough to ask: "How?"
Neal barely paused between her reply and his explanation, clearly, he was as desperate to explain everything to her as she had been to receive her answers. "When I went to sell the watches, I ran into a friend of yours—August."
"Who?" she asked in confusion. There was no way she'd have forgotten someone with a name like that, but it didn't ring any bells for her.
"Pinocchio?" he tried, looking at her face in confusion as she clearly had no idea who he was talking about. "A leather-wearing guy with a motorbike?"
"That could be any one of many of the guys I have met in the past," she replied, rolling her eyes at his vague description.
"Have a thing for leather, do you, eh, Swan?" Killian suddenly teased, clearly not able to hold it in. He had already been silent for much longer than Emma anticipated him managing, so she wasn't even surprised by his outburst. Nevertheless, she shot him a look that clearly said, 'please don't do this now'.
"Well I don't know how many leather-wearing men you know that carry around an old-fashioned type writer with them in a big wooden box," Neal quickly interjected, not wanting to hear the pirate make flirtatious remarks with him sat next to him at the bar.
"Hang on…a typewriter?" Emma repeated, eyes widening in realisation. She'd still not managed to find out any more about the town's newest resident, but clearly he'd been poking around in her life way before she even knew about Storybrooke and the curse.
"Not that smug bastard who talks in riddles?" Killian groaned, also catching on to what Neal was suggesting. "What does he have to do with anything?"
"He told me I had to leave you so you could achieve your destiny, Emma, alright... He told me about the curse—"
"Hold up," she interrupted, feeling her patience and her cool staring to slip. "You left me…and let me go to prison because Pinocchio told you to?!"
"Emma—"
"I loved you," she growled at him furiously, knowing for sure that there was no way he understood the damage he had done. Maybe if things had been different she'd have cried and felt sorry for herself all over again. Grieve the life that he had promised her that they'd never had. But she had her family now and she had Killian…she didn't feel like she was particularly missing out not having him in her life anymore and instead of being upset, she was more fucked off than she could convey legally in a public place.
"I—I was, um, I was tr—I was trying to help you," Neal murmured quietly, clearly unsure of himself as he fell under pray of Emma's murderous glance.
"By letting me go to jail?" she spat back.
"By getting you home," he insisted, trying to lean around Hook to get a bit closer to her, almost as if he believed that would calm her down.
Emma took another deep breath, completely in disbelief at how much Neal seemed to believe his own bullshit. It was like telling himself this on a regular basis had been the way that he had been able to justify his decisions so he could get to sleep at night. "Are you telling me that us meeting was a coincidence? 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."
"Well, it still might," Killian growled, the reality of how serious this was in the long haul finally becoming apparent. "What if the curse is unable to be broken now all because of what's conspired between the two of you?"
"Wait, what? The curse still hasn't been broken?!" Neal gaped open mouthed at the pair of them. "But August left for Storybrooke months ago to help you break it!"
"Nice to hear that you two stayed in touch after playing god with my life," Emma said sarcastically, shooting him a really dirty look. "As for the curse… it's a work in progress."
"Emma, you should be back in Storybrooke, not here in New York…you need to break the curse!" Neal pressed worriedly.
"I don't need you telling me what to do, Neal," she replied, finishing off her beer.
"Look, I know you're pissed at me, Emma, but what choice did I have? Who am I to mess with fate?"
"Fate?" she scoffed, hating that work even more every time it was verbalised out loud or used as an explanation for something.
"You know, there's not a ton about my father that I remember that doesn't suck," he began explaining, nursing his drink like it was a lifeline, "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 wanna call it. The point is…maybe we met for a reason. Maybe something good came from us being together?"
It was as if her heart had stopped in her chest and she had to remind herself to breathe. It would be so easy just to say yes and tell him about the extraordinary kid their messed-up romance had somehow created. But she simply couldn't find it in her to tell him.
"No. Not that I can think of. I just went to jail. That's it," she found herself saying. Miraculously, Killian didn't respond in any way that would give Neal cause to not trust her. "Anyway, it doesn't matter now. I'm over it. And you."
Emma smoothly rose to her feet and started to get herself ready to go back outside into the cold, fully prepared for that to be the end of the conversation. She was just repositioning her scarf when Neal spoke again in an almost smug voice after seeing her swan charm dangling down around her neck on a chain, looking as new as it was the day he had stolen it for her in the convenience store they had robbed together.
"Why do you wear the, uh, key chain I got you?"
She looked directly at him, making proper eye contact for the first time since they'd crashed into each other on the street. As he watched her, she reached for the charm and snapped the chain, removing it from her neck before reaching around Killian and dropping it on the bar in front of Neal.
"I've worn it for the last eleven years to remind myself never to trust someone again. But I think it's time for it to come off," she replied, her eyes not leaving Killian's for a second as she straightened up, her heart warming at the smile he flashed back her way at her words.
"Well it's about bloody time, love," he grinned. "Now if only I could remove the one that prevents your father from trusting me too, that would be marvellous."
She simply rolled her eyes good-naturedly before turning back to Neal to find him watching their interaction with a weird expression on his face. "Come on. We made a deal with your father we'd bring you to him."
"You made a deal with him?" he asked disbelievingly after taking a second to process what she'd said, clearly not expecting the conversation to head in this direction so soon.
"I'm afraid so, Baelfire," Hook responded, also rising to his feet, fully prepared to drag him out of the bar kicking and screaming if needs must.
"And we will be upholding our end, whether you come willingly or not," Emma warned, shooting him a look that suggested that he really shouldn't put up a fight.
"No, Emma, you don't have to. You know that," he said, borderline panic-stricken at the thought of facing his father again after spending so long trying to hide from him.
"Actually, we do," she replied with a sigh. "You want me to break the curse and fulfil my destiny? Well right now, the best way to do that is by bringing you to your father so he will in turn, help us."
"What makes you think he'll help you? He's never been the most generous man ever since he became the Dark One," Neal pointed out quickly, hoping he could convince the pair of them to just drop it and go home empty handed, leaving him here where he was safe.
"Like I said; we made a deal. He's not known for breaking those, is he?" she shot back. "Look, he can't leave Storybrooke until after the curse is broken, so how about this…you come back with us, speak to your father, make sure he's shared any vital information with us that we need and then I'll give you enough time to make a clean get away before I break the curse. That should give you a good enough head start."
Neal seemed to think this over very thoroughly before downing the rest of his drink and standing up. "I'm going to regret this, but fine. Let's get this over and done with."
"Love, please can we talk about all that's happened today?"
Emma looked up at Killian with a tired sigh from her place on the bed, already wishing the day was over and she could just sleep away the rest of the daylight and try everything again tomorrow.
They had decided to waste no more time than was necessary, so had told Neal to pack a bag and meet them at JFK airport within two hours. This, however had left Emma and Killian alone to really stew over what had just transpired.
Emma had immediately launched herself on the bed with a grumble when they had arrived back at the hotel and Killian had then taken to packing up their belongings, momentarily leaving her to her thoughts. But eventually the silence had gotten the best of him and he'd not been able to hold his thoughts in any longer.
"I don't really want to talk about anything right now," Emma replied finally, not moving from her place on the bed.
Killian sighed and ran his hand through his hair like he always did when he was stressed before gently climbing down on the bed next to Emma and pulling her lifeless form against his chest.
Emma mumbled appreciatively at the touch and snuggled closer to him, burying her face in his shirt. "You smell good."
Killian laughed quietly, brushing her hair back out of her face and pressing a soothing kiss on her head. "You're rather delectable yourself, love."
A calming silence filled the room for all of a few minutes before Emma spoke again.
"I can't believe that this has happened…"
"I didn't think you wanted to discuss it?" Killian replied, sitting up a bit so that he could look at her face as she spoke.
"I don't, but I guess we should probably have this conversation whilst we're alone," she rationalised, sitting up and looking back at Killian to see what expression he was wearing.
"I agree, Swan. There are a few things to straighten out before returning to Storybrooke," he nodded, sitting up straight against the headboard, almost as if he was bearing himself for the world. "First of all, I just wanted to say, Emma, that I'm so terribly sorry for everything."
"What on earth are you talking about? What do you have to be sorry for?" she asked in confusion as to where this topic was going. Her heart rate picking up in concern at the broken look on her pirates' face.
"Emma, if it wasn't for my stealing away his mother, Baelfire never would have become the way he is…he would never have hurt you as Neal, he never—"
"Stop it," Emma interrupted quickly, not giving him the chance to wallow in guilt any longer than absolutely necessary. "There is no way to say that if you hadn't been the one to catch Milah's eye, she wouldn't have still left, right?" she asked, waiting for Killian's reluctant nod of agreement before carrying on. "She wanted out, wanted away from her life. It just so happens she met you and you gave her the final push she needed. You didn't force her to leave Baelfire, or Neal, or whatever…did you?"
"No, I suppose not," he admitted reluctantly. "Milah thirsted for adventure, she wanted to see the world. I loved her so much, Emma, but even I can admit she wasn't the best mother."
"Well, I don't think anyone could say I've done a great job at it either," she sighed. "I guess some people just aren't cut out to be parents."
"Don't you dare include yourself in that generalisation, love, you've been doing great with the boy. He thinks the world of you and has no ill feelings about your choice to put him up for adoption," Killian said in a tone that left no room for argument.
"I couldn't tell Neal about him…" she said suddenly, a heavy sigh leaving her lips and a fierce expression appearing on her face, clearly this had been eating away at her ever since the conversation in the bar. "I'll tell Henry everything when we get back to Storybrooke because I won't lie to my kid…but Neal…he has no right to know about Henry after the way he fucked me over. I can't risk that he'll hurt him like he hurt me."
"Don't you think he'll work it out though?" Killian asked gently. "It's not hard to put all the pieces of the puzzle together."
"With any luck, he'll be in and out of town so fast he won't have time to figure it out," she insisted, hoping that if she believed her own words enough they would be true.
"I'm not saying tell him now, Swan," Killian started cautiously, taking her hand, "but do you not think it's cruel to keep a man from his child? It's not like he knowingly abandoned Henry before. He had no idea he existed."
"What are you saying? That I should give him a chance?" she challenged, taking her hand out of his borderline aggressively and standing from the bed to gain herself some distance. "You're meant to be on my side."
"I am on your side, love," he assured her, following her to his feet so he could wrap his arms around her. "I just think Henry deserves to know his birth father. Let Henry make his own mind up on whether he wants the man in his life any more than that."
"I think he sees you as his cool step-dad, you know," Emma replied after a few moments silence, just allowing Killian to hold her in his arms. "But it's all gone a bit weird because you're that, but also kind of his step-grandad."
"Well, curses and Neverland may have given me experience, but as you can see, I've retained my youthful glow. I'm far too dashing to be a grandfather," he replied with a flirtatious smirk.
"Oh wow, I cannot wait to tell David you said that," she laughed, pulling back to look at him and then not able to control herself or stop at the quickly panicked look that stretched across his face. "My father isn't even a fraction of how old you are and he's happy enough being a grandpa!"
"I really don't wish to be put into the same category as your father though, love," he quickly responded, flinching at the implication.
"It's a damned relief that you never married Milah and I never married Neal, otherwise that would make you my step-father-in-law and no matter what true love has to say about it, I don't think I'd have been able to see past that," she cringed, mentally trying to put together her family tree in her head and immediately getting confused and lost.
"We'd have made it work," Killian replied with a shrug, clearly not doubting the power of true love. "Regardless to previous relationships and ties, we'd have still been perfect for each other. Obviously, there must have been a reason related to fate that has allowed me to stay alive this long so I can share my life with you."
"You know, a couple months ago, I was an orphan with no family…now I'm a goddamn Princess who is somehow related to most of the goddam Enchanted Forrest," Emma moaned, allowing her head to flop down onto Killian's shoulder where she could feel his laughter though his jacket.
"I think it's your boy we have to feel sorry for if anything," he chuckled, "the poor lad has got so many relations, I don't know how he'll keep track."
"Let's just hope we don't ever attempt having a whole family dinner, that's sure to be a fucking catastrophe."
"Thanks for coming to get us, Dad. I know it's late." Emma gave David a quick hug as he took her bag off her and threw it in the trunk.
"No problem, honey. I'm just amazed you managed to find him so fast with New York being such a big city," he replied, also helping Killian load the other cases in the car, sparing a quick glance at the other man hovering a few meters away.
"I used to only get paid on delivery when I worked in bail-bonds. It doesn't make any sense dragging things out; we need the curse breaking as soon as possible," she said with a yawn, closing the trunk and wrapping her coat around her more tightly to try and stay warm.
David nodded in understanding at his daughters' words before walking over in a princely fashion to properly address the silent man who was clearly trying to do everything in his power not to stare at Emma. "I'm David, Emma's father."
Neal visibly blanched a little before recovering and taking the prince's hand to shake. "Baelfire, but I go by Neal now."
"Nice to meet you, Neal," David replied with a smile, not quite sure what to make of this man and what about him was setting his nerves on edge.
"It won't be so 'nice' when the truth about what he's done to you is revealed," Killian whispered to Emma as she walked past him.
She looked at her pirate boyfriend and sighed, he was over his momentary self-hatred spell and was now focusing on being thoroughly pissed off with Neal for his past behaviour. "Nothing is being revealed until the morning, we discussed this already."
"I know, Swan," he yawned, propping himself up against the side of the car to stay upright he was so tired. "I just hate knowing that we are reliant on him after what he's done."
"We aren't reliant on him, we're reliant on Gold," she corrected, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek to try and calm him.
"To be honest with you, darling, I'm not quite sure which is worse."
"You guys all look shattered, let's get you home," David ordered suddenly, briskly walking away from Neal and pacing up to the car, practically shoving Killian into his seat in the back before he fell over in exhaustion.
"Aw Dave, I didn't know you cared so much…" Killian replied wearily, his usual teasing having a lot less of an impact when was already half asleep.
"Neal, get in the car," Emma ordered, only just faring better than Killian was. "You are currently separating me from my bed."
He sighed loudly before moving to get in the back of the car next to Hook who was already snoring loudly with his head thrown back against the headrest. He had barely spoken a word to either of them since meeting them where instructed at the airport and had only given short answers when he had no choice but to answer. If Emma had to hazard a guess, she would have said he was literally shitting his pants at the thought of seeing his father again.
Yes, they may have been successful in finding Gold's son, but it was literally the middle of the night, so it made no sense to rush over to his house now without having at least a few hours' sleep to prepare for it.
After making sure Neal was bolted in his seat, Emma climbed in the front next to David, who had turned the heater up to try and keep them warm.
"Did you drug Hook on your way back?" David teased quietly so as not to wake him as they pulled out onto the main road. "I appreciate the silence from the back of the car, but it is a bit unnerving when you're used to his constant chirping."
"I knew he would grow on you eventually," Emma laughed, trying very hard to pretend that Neal wasn't there with them watching her intently. "We're both just running on not an awful lot of sleep since we left Storybrooke."
"Emma, I don't need to be hearing about your mini-break exploits with Captain Hook," David groaned almost as if in pain causing Emma to roll her eyes.
"Head out of the gutter please. I just meant we've been very busy trying to collect him and get back home," she explained, gesturing to Neal with a tilt of her head so she didn't actually have to look at him. "I didn't want to leave He—um, him alone without me there to protect him from Regina." Emma cursed herself for her almost slip up, mentioning Henry directly would almost definitely give the game away, as it was, she had probably said too much.
"Who's 'him'?"
Shit.
"None of your business," she snapped at Neal, causing David to raise his eyebrows at her in confusion, but mercifully he didn't say anything.
Her father cleared his throat awkwardly, but after a few minutes quietly murmured almost inaudibly so only she could hear: "He's been fine. He spent most of the afternoon and evening with me and your mother. We made cupcakes."
She sighed in relief before sending a small smile his way, a non-verbal way of saying thank you without giving Neal any more information. After the assurance that Henry was okay, she had no issues closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep, only waking up to the feel of her father lifting her out of the car and carrying her up to bed.
She was absolutely dead on her feet and could barely stand upright, so David helped her out of her coat, scarf and boots, pressed a kiss on her forehead and tucked her in.
"Thanks Dad," she managed to murmur snuggling deeper into her duvet.
"No problem, sweetheart. Get some rest. We can talk about everything properly when you wake up," he smiled, brushing her hair out of her face tenderly.
"Mm'kay," she replied sleepily. "Love you."
"I love you too, Emma," he replied gruffly, not able to hide how emotional her saying those words for the first time had made him, and with one final kiss on the top of her head, he left the room quietly, leaving her to sleep.
Tomorrow was sure to be a big day and she'd need all the strength she could get.
It was midday by the time that everybody was awake and sat downstairs around the kitchen table. Emma had been the last one downstairs, by which point Killian had poured her a cup of coffee and David had whipped up a batch of his signature pancakes for everyone.
Emma found herself desperately wishing that Mary- Margaret didn't have to be at work, because the silence was almost unbearable and if anybody could fill an awkward silence with endless chatter, it was her mother.
Nobody really spoke until it was time for Neal to be reunited with Rumplestiltskin.
"Are you sure there isn't any other way you could get the information you need from my dad?" Neal asked, almost desperately, not making any move to climb out of the bug which was parked just outside Gold's pawnbrokers shop.
"Positive. Now let's go," Emma replied dryly, ready for him to be finished here and back in New York by the end of the day.
"Jeez, okay, fine," he complained, realising there was no way he was going to sway her, managing to climb out from the back of the small car, pausing to comment after he'd turned to shut the door behind him. "I can't believe you still have this thing."
"What do you mean?" David asked in confusion, looking between Emma, Hook and Neal trying to see who would give him an explanation.
"Can we not do this now," Emma snapped at Neal, before turning back to her Dad. "I'll tell you everything later, okay?"
David sighed, but didn't force it any farther, he knew Emma would only revert and shut herself down completely if pushed too hard.
"Come along then," Killian interrupted suddenly, making a few steps towards the shop door. "Let's get this over and done with, shall we? Ladies first…Dave?"
David glared at Hook as he held open the door for him and allowed him to walk into the pawnbrokers, followed by Emma, Neal and then Killian himself letting the door ding closed behind them all.
"Gold?" Emma called after glancing around the shop and being unable to see him out front.
"Back already, Miss Swan?" he replied, stepping out from the back room where his office was situated.
"You bet we're back," she replied with a blasé smile. "Consider our part of the deal fulfilled."
It was clear to almost everyone in the room that Neal did not want to be there and he was almost half way out the door when his father finally spotted him next to Killian.
"Bae? You came for me?" he almost whispered, overcome with emotion at finally being stood in the same room as his long-lost son who he'd been searching for for centuries.
"No. I came for her," he announced quickly, almost as if without any thought. "I've seen what you do to people who break deals."
David gave Neal another strange look, before he turned to Emma and saw the look on her face. That was all it took and he just knew that something was going on here that was massive that he hadn't yet figured out.
"Please, Bae, just let me talk," Gold almost pleaded, taking a few apprehensive steps towards his son in the hope that he wouldn't back away.
"I have no interest in talking to you," he said uncaringly. "I only came so that they had kept their end of their bargain and you'd help them."
"I'm not doing anything for them until you talk to me properly!" he insisted, his face turning dangerous for a moment. "Why do you care about their intentions?"
"You made them a deal, you are not backing out of it! You already did that once to me and it ruined my fucking life!" Neal yelled at his father, taking a step towards him in what was probably supposed to be a threatening way. There were centuries of unresolved issues within their relationship and it was clear that salvaging anything now would take a lot of effort.
"I made a mistake and I'm…I'm sorry, son," Gold replied, trying to bring the aggressive tone down, but clearly Neal wasn't having it.
"You're sorry? So that makes it okay, then does it?"
"Please Bae, there is no greater pain than regret—"
"Try abandonment. I had to grow up alone! And so did she because of all the shit you pulled to try and fix your mistakes!" he shouted, gesturing at Emma, so angry he didn't even process what he'd said.
"Neal—" Emma started, stepping towards him, trying to get him to calm down before he got Gold angry too. That was sure to be a messy fight.
"Emma, I got this," he replied instantly, not even looking at her, too busy glaring at his father.
The silence that overtook the room suddenly was enough to suggest that they had managed to keep everything on a low for all about a minute and Rumplestiltskin was not a stupid man. Their over-familiarisation with each other was enough to give the game away almost instantaneously.
"You two know each other…" Gold murmured after a moment, watching them calculatedly as they made eye contact, secretly sending each other pleads not to give them away. Nothing good could come from Rumplestiltskin finding out about their history. "You two know each other! How?!" he snapped in confusion, clearly it wasn't very often that people knew more than he did in a situation like this.
"You sent us to New York to find him!" Emma retorted suddenly, turning to face Gold head on, desperately trying to get them out of the mess they'd created.
"No, no, no, stop it! You're lying!" he growled, stepping closer to them both and causing Emma to almost stand on Neal's toes she was that close to him. "How do you two know each other?!"
"Mom!" shouted an excited voice from the front door, which was thrown open in excitement as Henry came running over to her and threw his arms around her in a tight hug. "You're back!"
Emma stilled in fear of what was almost definitely going to transpire if she didn't find a way to diffuse the situation and get Henry out of there. She shot Killian a quick look that screamed 'help' and found him looking equally as worried as she was.
"Yeah, kid. We're back," she replied unsteadily, returning the hug before quickly pulling back to look at him properly, resting both hands on his shoulders to stop them shaking by her sides.
"What's going on?" he asked, ever observant as usual, picking up on the tension in the room almost straight away.
"Who's this?" Neal asked from behind her, his voice quiet all of a sudden, as if things were beginning to take shape in his head.
"My son," Emma replied in the same voice, moving to kneel in front of Henry on the floor so she could make direct eye contact with him.
"What?" Neal replied in a voice that was almost half a gasp. One look at his father would have told him all he needed to know, as it was obvious that Gold had worked out the whole situation as soon as Henry entered the shop moments before.
"Is that Baelfire?" Henry asked Emma in his typical inquisitive way, but instead of directly answering him, she looked at him with big eyes, giving his shoulders an extra squeeze, desperately pleading him to do as she asked, hoping that he would go along with her plan without too many questions
"Henry, I need you to go to Granny's and wait for me there, okay? There's just some stuff that we need to get straightened up in here."
"I quite fancy a hot beverage myself, if you wouldn't mind me accompanying you, lad?" Killian interjected, much to Emma's relief and Henry smiled, bounding up to the pirate. Killian barely gave him a chance to say hello, before he was quickly scooped up into a fireman's life, causing the Henry to laugh.
"Can we get hot cocoa?"
"Whatever your heart's desire, my boy."
"Wait! How…how old are you, kid?" Neal called after them, realising that if they left they wouldn't be coming back anytime soon.
"I take it I'm not supposed to answer," Henry whispered in Killian's ear just so he could hear, after he stiffened up at Neal's question.
"How old are you kid?!"
"Stop yelling at my son!"
"What on earth is going on?"
"Baelfire, please…"
"Emma, how old is he?!"
"It's none of your damn business!"
"I'm ten!" Henry finally yelled back so loud it made Killian's ears ring, getting everybody to be quiet. "Now, why is everybody yelling?"
Killian lowered Henry to his feet again now that the game had been given away and sighed, running his hand through his hair in worry as he watched the boy walk over to stand by his mother again.
"He's ten?" Neal asked Emma, his face going sheet white, the room suddenly deadly silent other than the several clocks in the shop ticking.
Emma and Neal stared at each other in silent understanding and although she had come to terms with everything before, this made it all more real and she had to really fight to stop tears from falling. Neal, however, was not faring so great and she saw him blinking away a few tears that he couldn't seem to hold back.
"Mom?" Henry asked quietly, taking one of her shaking hands in his and squeezing, not yet understanding what was going on, but knowing that she needed comforting.
"Is this my son?"
Emma's control slipped and she felt a wetness on her cheeks and in half a second Killian was by her side, taking her free hand in his.
"Rumplestiltskin, what have you done?!" David demanded, feeling heartbroken at the sight of his family upset.
"I had nothing to do with this..." Gold replied quietly, clearly just as upset as everybody else in the room was at what was being revealed.
"Mom, do you want me to go to Granny's?" Henry asked, clearly trying to be strong for her and help the situation the best he could.
"Emma," Neal said brokenly, the tears falling freely now as he asked the question again that he already had the answer to: "Is this…my son?"
"Yes," she whispered, kneeling and cradling Henry's face with both of her hands, scared that he would pull away from her. Henry lunged forwards suddenly, catching Emma completely off guard, wrapping his arms tight around her neck in a hug so forceful it was almost strangling her, but she didn't care. Behind them, she could hear Neal openly sobbing and she felt Killian sit next to her and wrap both her and Henry in his embrace.
"Don't worry, Mom. I'm here," Henry said quietly, clinging onto her even tighter.
"You have a lot of explaining to do, pal!" David glared at the broken man who was pacing around his father's shop as if he was hoping that the floor would just swallow him whole.
"You weren't going to tell me about him!" Neal suddenly shouted at Emma as she slowly got to her feet and tried to stop her crying.
"No. I wasn't," she replied as calmly as she possibly could in the circumstances.
"Yeah, well he's my kid too, so you don't get to make that decision by yourself," he said angrily, trying to step closer to Henry, but he surprised all of them and grabbed Killian by the hook as if it were a normal hand and started leading him out the shop, completely ignoring the man who he knew to be his father. This was his way of saying he'd already made his choice as to who he was considering to be his family.
"I'll see you at home, Mom. Shall we get you some onion rings from Grannys?"
"That would be great, kid," she smiled, her heart aching at how proud she was of him for being so mature, considering he was still only ten.
"Please look after her," Killian muttered to David as he went past, only satisfied when the prince replied in the form of a quick nod, not wanting to take his eyes off the man who had hurt his little girl in some way. He didn't know the full story yet, and that was probably a good thing otherwise things would be a about to get a whole lot messier.
The bell dinged behind Henry and Killian as they left the shop, leaving Emma, David, Neal and Rumplestiltskin all stood in silence.
"Gold, we had a deal," Emma reminded him, getting a grip on her emotions and focusing back on the task at hand. "Tell me what you know on how to break the curse."
"That was not quite our deal though, was it, Miss Swan?" Gold replied in a harsh tone. "You find Baelfire, get him to talk to me and I'd help you."
"Yes. I have done what you asked for, now return the favour," she demanded, just wanting to get out of the shop and not look back.
"I said I'd help you. I didn't say when," he answered, moving to change the 'open' sign on the door to read 'closed'. "Now if you don't mind, as you can now see, I am shut for the day."
"No, you have to help us now, Gold!" David persisted passionately, refusing to back down. "You owe us, you owe Emma!"
"I know, dearie," he said calmly, "and I will keep my end of the bargain, when it's the right time."
"I knew you wouldn't have changed one bit!" Neal spat before turning and almost running from the store. "Don't come after me, I need time to think."
"Please Bae…" Gold called after him, but it was too late and he'd gone.
"I am not the sort of person you screw over," Emma warned the Dark One threateningly, a hard glint in her eyes.
"Alas, I would say the same," he retorted. "Have a little faith, Miss Swan. I know what is coming and I also know that when the time comes, you will be incredibly grateful that I withheld my help until then. So, now, please get out of my shop."
"If I so much as catch a glance at Regina again before I've calmed down, I may just cut out the middle man and shoot her in the face," Emma growled angrily, launching her car keys across the kitchen and knocking a bottle of wine off the counter as she stormed into the room, after just getting back from dropping Henry off at the mayor's house before she came looking for him.
"It's a good job that wasn't my rum, Swan. It's the only thing keeping me from hunting down your ex-beau and gutting him like a fish," Killian replied from his seat at the table, glass of his favourite beverage in his hand. "Your onion rings are in the oven keeping warm, love."
"Thanks," Emma replied harshly, retrieving them and shoving a few straight into her mouth. Not even onion rings could improve her disposition though.
"What's got both of you in such a bad mood?" came Mary-Margaret's voice from behind them, clearly just arriving back home from work.
"Honestly, Snow, I need a drink before I can begin explaining today's events," David groaned tiredly from next to Hook, his head in his hands.
Emma grabbed two more glasses and leaned against the table and slid them over to the pirate. "Care to share, handsome?"
"You know I could never say no to you, darling," he replied with a wink, filling each glass with a generous amount of rum and distributing them. "There you go Dave, that'll put some hairs on your chest."
"I guess that explains a lot…" the prince muttered under his breath, sneaking a quick look at all the thick, dark chest hair Hook had on display, as usual. He then took his first sip of rum and nearly choked on it. "God, that's strong!"
Simultaneously, Emma and Killian lifted their glasses and downed them in one without so much as wincing as the liquid slid down their throats.
Wordlessly, Mary-Margaret grabbed a glass of her own and gestured for Killian to fill it, also taking a seat. "Seeing as I won't be having any wine this evening, I may as well join all of you. I'm guessing I'll need alcohol to get through your tale."
"Right you are, milady," Killian smiled with a mock bow, doing as she asked. "I'm not entirely sure this is a story you're going to stomach though, with or without rum."
"Do you want the long version or the short version?" Emma asked with a straight face, clearly just wanting to get it out and the open and be done with it.
"Um…maybe for now, the short version?" her mother replied, taking a quick look at each of them and realising that a long-winded tale probably wouldn't lift their spirits in any way.
"Well, we found Baelfire, returned him to his dad, but Gold is now saying he won't help us until it's 'the right time'."
"He said what?!" Killian yelled suddenly, having not heard that part of the conversation beforehand.
"Yeah, some cock-and-bull story of how we'll be grateful when the time comes," David grumbled, taking an onion ring out of the brown bag and munching angrily.
"I somehow knew we couldn't trust that man…" Snow sighed sadly, her shoulders sagging. "And now we're no closer to figuring out how to break the curse."
"That's not all though, is it, Emma?" David pressed, noticing that she had conveniently left out a significant part of the story.
"What else could there be?" Snow asked worriedly, looking at Emma in concern.
"Baelfire – or Neal, as I knew him – is Henry's biological father," she replied with a small smile, clearly trying to come across as calm and in control.
"Wait…Gold's son is Henry's father?" she gasped, looking around hoping someone would start laughing and announce it was all part of some elaborate joke. But that didn't happen.
"Crazy small universe, isn't it?" Hook said darkly, picking up the whole bottle of rum and taking a swig straight from it.
"Hang on…So that means that Rumplestiltskin is Henry's grandfather?" David asked suddenly, as if the thought had only just occurred to him. "But I'm his grandfather!"
"You can have more than one," Snow replied meekly, patting her husband on the shoulder to comfort him.
"So, his step-grandmother, is Regina? The Evil Queen," he said slowly, scratching his head confusedly. Clearly the family tree situation was starting to hit home a little more than it had done previously.
"Actually, step-great-grandmother…and she's also his adoptive mother," Snow worked out, somehow seeming to remain calm, regardless of the huge bombshell they'd just had dropped on them.
"It's a good thing we don't have thanksgiving in our land, cause that dinner would suck," David pointed out with a groan, head in hands at the thought of the size of table required to seat everyone at and also the extra guards that would be needed around to stop a full-blown war starting over something as ridiculous as passing the salt.
"Or…maybe this will mellow everyone out?" Snow said with an optimistic smile.
"I highly doubt that," Emma replied with a fake laugh, "I'm not about to invite Neal around for dinner anytime soon."
"Why though?" Snow inquired, not noticing the warning signs that she was pushing her daughter too far. "He's Henry's father, Emma! Doesn't that mean something?"
"What do you want me to say, Mary-Margaret? That now I am reunited with him we're going to skip off into the sunset together with Henry?" Emma snapped, moving to stand behind Killian's chair, almost as if being near him would calm her.
"I just mean it'd be nice for Henry to have both of his birth parents around, that's all," the other woman sighed, clearly trying to ooze calm, but failing as Emma felt her blood boil.
"Not everybody ends up finding their true love first time round," she snapped, feeling Killian subtly lean back in his chair so she was touching him slightly. "My life was no fairy-tale."
"But this man is Henry's father, surely that counts for something?"
"Aye, lass, it would do, if the man hadn't been every part the coward his father is, and abandoned her in the brig to take fall for a crime he committed when she was with child," Killian finally interrupted, causing David and Snow to gape at both he and Emma in shock.
Emma awkwardly looked between her parents, very much aware that they didn't know very much about her past up until a second ago when they'd retrieved a sentence that practically revealed the darkest part of it. She expected shouting, targeted at her for being so stupid and reckless – that's what parents were for, right? – but much to her shock that was the furthest thing that happened.
There was complete silence in the room, only interrupted when Mary-Margaret moved to stand facing out the window and all anybody could hear were her quiet sobs.
Suddenly David rose to his feet and stormed into the living room, coming back a few seconds later with a fucking sword clasped in his hand, a steely look on his face. "I'll be back later."
"You're not going anywhere," Emma snapped, moving to snatch the sword from him. "Where the hell did you even get this from?!"
"Emma, I cannot let this stand!" David replied in a voice the closest thing she'd ever experienced to him shouting that had been directed at her. "I may not have been around to protect you then when you needed me before, but I sure as hell am now."
It was only the devastated look on his face that stopped her from yelling back at him, clearly the knowledge of the things that she had been going through alone whilst she was growing up causing him such pain that it made him look like he could break into tears any moment.
"Dad, I'm an adult now, I can fight my own battles," she said tiredly, placing the sword on the kitchen table and moving to hug him, feeling his hand cradle the back of her head to hold her closer.
"I know you can, but that doesn't mean you have to," he replied gruffly. "You're always going to be my little girl."
"I'm sure there's an explanation for his actions," Snow said quietly, clearly so desperate to believe the best in everybody.
"So he says, but frankly I don't give a damn," Emma shot back, moving to look at her mother. "I will not prevent Henry from knowing his father, but personally, I don't want anything to do with him."
"But—"
"Mary-Margaret, I already have my true love, okay? He is right there in front of you, so please stop pushing me to get back with my asshole ex who sent me to prison where I gave birth to my son with my ankle cuffed to the bed."
You could have cut the tension in the room with a knife.
"I'm going to go and get some air."
Emma took Killian's bottle of rum out of his hand and marched out of the house without looking back, the harsh sound of the front door slamming shut behind her making everybody flinch.