Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time or the characters or settings therein. This is a work of fanfiction created for entertainment purposes only with all due respect and honor for the writing of the o riginal show and love of the characters therein. No profit is being made from this story.

Author's Note: So yep, that happened. I was going to post something at the end of the last chapter, but I felt like it took away from what I hope was the emotional impact of first Robin Hood's then Regina's deaths. If you go back and look closely, I kind of foreshadowed Roland's skills with a bow and his intervention in the plot back in chapter 11 or 12. I hope it was a plot twist that made sense to people and that it felt like closure.

And before anyone asks, yes, Robin, Regina, Snow, and Jamie are still really dead. Like, dead-dead. No coming back, dead. One of the things that started to bug me about OUaT was that death stopped meaning anything. It was gut-wrenching back in Season 1 when Graham died, and we only ever saw him again in that one flash-back. But Rumple dies, and then he's back. Zelena dies, but oh no she somehow managed to discorporate and then re-corporate after she went through a magic wormhole. Robin dies, and then Alt-Robin is back. I'm not complaining that Killian came back — but he at least died, went to the underworld, crossed over into "heaven" and then an actual god had to send him back to the land of the living. That was a journey and a culmination of a lot of character growth, not just because apparently they couldn't come up with any better villains. I believe that there should be stakes, and that consequences of actions are sometimes permanent and unfair. I'm not saying to go all Season 8 of Game of Thrones, but if someone dies for plot-relevant reasons, unless there's a really good reason that pertains to their character development (not someone else's) to magic them alive again, then leave them dead. So yes, Snow White and young Prince James are both dead for the purposes of this story, and Robin and Regina won't be getting back up.

I know this took me way, WAY more time than you, dear reader, or I would have liked to finish. Believe it or not, I've had bits and pieces of this chapter written out for years. But I was really struggling to get them all strung together. There are a lot of beats I wanted to hit and lots of plot points to resolve here. I wanted to make sure I was wrapping the plot up neatly, unlike the actual show did. I think I rewrote this 5 or 6 times, and ended up changing the POV after the 4th go. So — at long last — the epilogue.


Emma strolled the corridors of Castle Sainte-George taking in all of the changes made during her decade of absence. Thankfully, most of those — the dust and cobwebs, the scars in the flagstone floors caused by the iron hobnails in the Black Knight's boots, and the bare, uninviting walls — were quickly being undone by the veritable army of maids and footmen armed with wash rags, feather dusters, buckets, mops, and brooms Emma passed. The palace servants who had escaped the castle before the Queen's onslaught had been the first to return once word of the Evil Queen's defeat had spread.

She nodded to a red-faced, harried matron carrying an armload of clean linen who sidestepped, curtsying, to let Emma pass before the woman hurried up the winding staircases to the warren of guest rooms above. Emma sighed when she thought about the number of those rooms that had already been filled. It had only been ten days since the Queen's death, and already the citizens of the realm had begun to stream back into the abandoned halls and rooms of the enormous castle. After the cooks, maids, and hostlers who returned within the first week came the palace clerks, footmen, former and prospective employees of the kingdom, nearby nobles coming to pledge their loyalty or petition the Crown for restitution, as well as a hoard of ambassadors from kingdoms throughout the Enchanted Forest and beyond along with their entourages, now inhabited nearly every room. And if inside the castle was crowded, outside positively teemed with renewed life. The courtyard bustled with tradesmen and soldiers, farriers and blacksmiths, carpenters and masons, farmers and knights, ladies and goose girls, not to mention a menagerie of attendant animals. It was a riot of sounds and smells and the feeling bodies bumping into and brushing against one another.

Ten days. Emma shook her head, dodging a footman absorbed in his mission to polish every mote of dirt from a wall sconce. It didn't seem possible it had been so short a time.

Everything about the castle was different now, remade fresh and new. The very air felt changed, lighter, now that the Evil Queen no longer stalked Castle Sainte-George. The odor of dead flowers and blood had been blown away by the storm winds and replaced with the scent of lily-of-the-valley, honeysuckle, and lye soap. The sense of incarceration was dispelled now that the doors stood open and the drapery pulled back to allow in all the light that Regina had blocked out. The merry song of a fiddle, drum, and pipe drifted up from the courtyard along with the sounds of merchants hawking their wares, builders hammering and sawing, soldiers calling orders, and horses stomping and snorting added to the ruckus. A lark sang from one of the battlements, fighting to be heard over chickens and geese squawking and honking below.

After years living alone in the forest, the hubbub of castle life was deafening at times, pressing in on her from all sides, a constant distraction to her senses. At least the coronation was being pushed out for several weeks, or Emma didn't know how she would be able to cope. Even so, this was one of the frequent moments when her chest and throat tightened with the desire for a moment of peace, away from the crowds. Ten days had done wonders for the castle, but Emma longed the quiet solitude of her little hut by the mountain lake — and yes, even the ability to fly away — now more than she would have imagined. The choices that she had made this morning weighed on her, exacerbated by the constant presence and noise of other people. It had been her first test as a ruler, and she still was not sure she made the right choice.

With a sigh of relief, Emma slipped into a quiet passage away from the bustle of the main corridors. It was darker and cooler in this passage, away from the bright sun shining in the windows. Here the only light was filtered in from what turned out to be a series of arches leading back to this more sequestered passage. Emma took a deep breath and let the relative quiet of the passage sooth her frayed nerves. She pressed her hand to the cool stone wall and closed her eyes, using the wall to guide her toward a set of stairs at the end of the corridor she knew led up to the royal apartments.

Emma barely made it ten steps before she collided with someone. Her hands instinctively clutched the person to keep from falling. When her eyes snapped open, it was the chain around his neck and the dark scruff that registered before his face came into focus.

Hook staggered, gripping Emma's elbow as a counterbalance and braced them both as they swayed, trying to regain their balance. His brows shot up, and he looked as surprised to have run into her as she was to have collided with him. His lips parted first in surprise, then spread into a smile when he recognized her, and she felt his heart surge in his chest beneath her hand, and her own heart thudded in response, her own mouth pulling up at the corners for a moment.

Yesterday, she might have let this moment drag on. If she had run into him like this last night, she would have been tempted to let him keep his arms around her. But after what had happened when the Dark One had arrived this morning…her skin went cold and her throat tightened again. He was never going to forgive her.

Emma shook her head, stepping back, forcing him to release her, and forced a smile. "Sorry about that."

"Not to worry, lass," he demurred, grinning at her and offering a wink. "I enjoy having beautiful women throwing themselves at me."

"I'm almost surprised to see you out of your room," she teased, tilting her head to the side. She'd had to ask the servants who cleaned the guest apartment he had been given if he ever left. Apparently, Hook had spent most of his time either with Henry or holed up in his room to avoid the chaos. "I thought you might hide in there until someone came to get you."

She looked him over, and realized that the rest and relative seclusion had done him good. His hair and clothing had been cleaned, his beard was trimmed, and the tears in his leather coat had been mended. He looked rested, and his eyes held a glint of the mischief that Emma found herself smiling at.

Worse, she almost preened when he looked her over, too. Emma was aware that she must look different now, too. Gone were her secondhand trousers, cotton blouse, and quilted vest, now replaced with a long, dark blue brocade jacket with gold buttons over well-tailored linen trousers and new boots. And— thank heaven — she'd had a chance to wash her hair, which was currently pulled back away from her face with some of her old hair pins she found stashed away. Her stupid heart fluttered at the appreciation in his eyes.

"Aye, well…" he cleared his throat. "I wanted to stay out of the way. I know how chaotic things have been since the Queen's fall."

Emma groaned, closing her eyes as her headache threatened to return. "You have no idea. After a decade of Regina's tyranny, the kingdom's coffers are full, but the roads are in complete disrepair. The army was more than adequate, but within the first few days of her death, desertion has been a real problem - although I'm not sure I would have trusted most of Regina's army selection anyway, so maybe that's not such a bad thing. Regina had closed all of the schools for peasant children that my parents opened during their reign, and apprenticeships were seen as highly suspicious, so that leaves us with almost no skilled tradesmen left. Any citizens that had the means and opportunity to leave the kingdom did so years ago. Frankly, it's a mess," she admitted, shaking her head. "And this is just one of the three kingdoms that were in Regina's control. I haven't even started looking at the situation in Terrapomuria or the Northern Kingdom."

"Which explains why you were escaping to quieter locals," he observed, indicating the secluded hallway.

"'Escaping' might be a little strong," Emma objected. "I just needed to get out of the throne room before I started throwing things."

"I would have liked to see that, actually," he said, chuckling.

"I kind of wished you were there a few times, if only to stand in the corner and glare menacingly at people until they did what I told them."

"Should I be flattered or insulted by that?" he asked, quirking a brow at her.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "Frankly, if I'd had a tame ogre to threaten them with, I'd have used that."

"I take it the ones that were left in the kingdom were being bribed or got special privileges from Regina in return for their cooperation," he conjectured.

Emma opened her eyes and nodded, her mouth tightening in irritation.

"And I bet they want those privileges to continue," he finished.

"Right in one guess," she said. "You can see why I'd have liked to have a pirate ally in the room when I explained to them that I would not be permitting the use of slave labor in the mines on Lord Grigoro's land, or allowing kickbacks to Countess Steitcolm for her witch hunters to clear her territory of any magic users."

"Then I apologize for not being around to terrorize your populace for you."

Emma snorted, winced, and thanked him.

Hook reached out and cupped her elbow. His brows drew together, and he shook his head in sympathy. "I'm sorry, lass. I wish I could help, but running a kingdom is a bit outside my range of experience."

She sighed. "It's outside mine, too. My father's been doing a lot of the organizing and explaining what I need to know as we go. He already sent the soldiers that Alexandra lent us north to Terrapomuria and the Northern Kingdom to help quell any violence from the remaining Black Knights."

"Aye, I heard the clank of armor as they left a week ago," Hook said.

"Roland Loxley and the Huntsman went with them on a special mission. The Huntsman said he wants a chance to help right some of the wrongs that the Evil Queen made him commit. And he wanted to get his heart back and find the owners of any of the other hearts the Queen had taken."

He winced and shifted uneasily in what may have been a suppressed shudder.

"I don't blame him. If the Queen's had his heart for, what? Decades now? He must be eager to get it back."

Emma nodded. She couldn't imagine. The Huntsman seemed to be a kind man, despite his actions while he was under Regina's control.

But there was another reason that Roland and the Huntsman had gone to the Northern Palace. And it was for that reason Emma had pulled away from him. She dropped her gaze to the ground, gritting her teeth. She was certain that when Hook heard the other reason, and what had happened this morning, he was never going to forgive her. Emma would lose…a friend. An ally, certainly. This was going to hurt. She took a big breath.

"They didn't just go to the Northern Palace to retrieve the Huntsman's heart," Emma admitted.

"Oh?"

"No." She looked around, and spied a staircase at the end of the hall that led up to the royal wing of the keep. "Follow me. This isn't a conversation we should be having in the hallway."

Hook frowned at her but nodded, stepping aside and gesturing for her to lead the way. "After you."

Already, the acid in her stomach was churning as she led him up the winding stair. Three floors up, Emma turned into a wide corridor and then all the way to the end where she opened the door. Emma took a moment to look around; she hadn't been in this room herself since long before Regina's siege. The large bay window let in the afternoon sun and made the gilded suns, moons, and stars on the vaulted ceiling gleam. Not much had changed since she was a girl, although the rug on the floor had been replaced with one of dark burgundy, and instead of the menagerie of stuffed animals, there were dozens of bookcases along the walls filled with books and a child-sized desk in the corner.

Emma glanced behind her and watched Hook take in the room. When he raised his brow at her in question, she shrugged, smiling.

"This was my nursery when I was a child," she explained. "And, I suppose, Henry's nursery when he and Regina lived here." She looked around the room, letting the memories of playing here as a child, safe and happy with her parents beside her, ease some of the tension in her chest. "I know I'm a little old for it now, but it's still the place I come to when…" She waved her hand back at the door, trying to indicate everything she had been dealing with for the last week.

"When you need a quiet place to think," Hook finished for her, nodding his understanding.

"Exactly," she said.

Now for the hard part. Emma cleared her throat. If what she had learned was true, Hook was going to be — disappointed wouldn't even cover it. He would be furious. His one constant throughout their journey together was his vengeance, and now… she glanced down at his hook. She didn't really think he would try to kill her, but his temper had prompted him to lash out more than once in the few weeks she'd known him.

"I have something to tell you. And you aren't going to like it. But I'm asking you to hear me out and try to understand why I did what I did."

She watched first surprise and then wariness flicker across his face before settling into guarded caution.

"What did you do?" he asked.

"Henry told me about your past with Rumpelstiltskin," she said. "And Father gave me the details that Henry is too young to figure out. I know about Milah and how she died. And…" She hesitated, wincing, and then rubbed her fingers across her forehead. "You might want to sit down for this."

"I'll stand, I think," he gritted out, arms crossed, face closed off, bracing.

"Alright." Emma licks her lips. "The Huntsman and Roland returned late last night. And they didn't return alone. They'd gone to the Northern Palace to rescue the woman Regina had locked in the tower."

Hook's brow quirked up, and he leaned his head to the side. Then he nodded, "Henry mentioned her — the one who used to tell him stories. He told the Cr—"

Hook's expression froze. Emma squared her shoulders and clenched her jaw as he followed his train of thought and supposed her strategy. His hand clenched at his side, and for the first time, Emma saw the pirate she had heard tales about.

"Emma...tell me you didn't. Tell me he wasn't here."

"Earlier today, yes. He's gone now."

"Gone?"

"Yes."

"Gone dead? Or gone - no longer in the castle?"

"Just…gone. Gone from the Realm," she explained. "And he doesn't exactly have a way back, so hopefully he's gone for good. Or at least gone for our lifetimes, if we're lucky."

She watched him seethe, his teeth bared at her.

"You gave the Crocodile his happily ever after?"

"Well," Emma grasped for a way to explain it. "I gave him a way to find it, anyway."

"How?"

She told him.

Earlier that morning...

Emma looked around the Great Audience Chamber from her seat just below the dias where her parents' gilded, velvet-covered thrones sat. Until her official coronation in six weeks, she had chosen to remain in a plain chair, showing her mother the respect she deserved, even in death. She felt a little bad since it meant that almost everyone else in the room had to stand. The only exceptions were the delegation from the Eastern Kingdom — Princess Alexandra, her mother, and even King Thomas, who had made the journey from the Eastern Kingdom especially for today.

Emma had reached out to her dearest friend after days spent discussing all the ways that Emma could fulfill her duties as Savior. First and foremost had to be putting her own kingdoms back to rights; but after that, Emma had one particular interest close to her heart — finding a way to get Lexa's father back and mend the breach between Princess Ella and King Thomas. It was Lexa who realized Rumpelstiltskin never wanted to collect any child — he wanted his own. Apparently, Henry had told Lexa and Ella all about his quest and the bargain he had made with the Dark One. Alexandra figured out that Rumpelstiltskin had been manipulating Ella as well as Snow White and her prince to try and arrange it, probably unsure which baby would be the Chosen One and hedging his bets. But all with the goal of getting to the World Without Magic to reunite with his son.

With a plan in place, Alexandra contacted her grandfather, and King Thomas arrived within a day. This morning they were ready to make a new bargain. Emma took a deep breath, her hands clutching the armrests of her chair, and nodded to her son.

Henry, serious for once, nodded back, and called out, "Rumpelstiltskin, I'm ready to hold up my end of our deal."

A great purple swirl of smoke billowed and faded in the middle of the room, and when it had dissipated, the Dark One sat across from Emma in a spikey, horned throne covered with oily black leather.

"About time, dearie," he crooned. With a marionette leap, he was out of his seat and bowed deeply to Emma, his arms outstretched in a wide, obsequious flourish of servility. "Your new majesty, so nice to see you restored to your throne."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Save the theatrics. I haven't been officially crowned yet, which I'm sure you already knew. Now, let's talk about fulfilling this bargain you made with my son."

"Oooh, confidence!" he trilled, smirking. "I like it."

She wanted to roll her eyes, but restrained herself. One of the guards at the far end of the room signaled to her, catching her eye, and Emma nodded. The guards clicked their heels and both turned simultaneously to pull the tall double doors open wide. Slowly, as if she were not used to being around so many people at once, a petite woman dressed in a simple blue dress, her hair woven into a long braid sparkling with strands of silver, stepped cautiously into the room. Even from fifty feet away, Emma saw the moment the woman's gaze landed on Rumpelstiltskin. Her hand flew to her mouth to stifle her gasp.

Emma flicked her gaze over to the Dark One and found him struck frozen as ice.

"Belle."

It was barely a whisper, but the woman heard it in the nearly silent room. Her face crumpled, and she choked out a sob. Belle took two wobbly steps before running down the length of the throne room. Not bothering with magic, Rumpelstiltskin strode forward to meet her, wrapping Belle in his arms when they met.

Emma looked away to allow them some privacy, and met Alexandra's eyes. They knew their plan hinged on whether the Dark One would want his family more than he wanted to continue making Alexandra's family suffer—not to mention Rumpelstiltskin's animosity toward Hook. Still, it was funny when Lexa scrunched her nose a bit and mouthed, "Ew." Emma rolled her lips tight and sucked in a deep breath through her nose to keep from laughing.

As usual, it was Henry that broke the awkward moment. He walked forward and waited patiently for Belle to notice him. When she did, she laughed and released Rumplestiltskin so she could lean down to hug the boy. Belle whispered something in Henry's ear that made them both laugh. Rumpelstiltskin ruined the moment, of course, by clearing his throat.

"Freeing Belle was the first part of the deal," he reminded Henry. "There's still the matter of my son."

"And that's where I come in," Emma said. When Rumpelstiltskin and Belle turned to look at her in surprise, Emma motioned to a group of footmen to wheel out the intricately carved wardrobe that Gepetto had made before Emma's birth. One of the footmen came around front and leaned down to open the small, low doors, revealing a space just big enough for a seated adult, while the other footmen added blocks behind the wheels of the dolly to keep it from rolling.

"This wardrobe was supposed to transport me to safety when the Dark Curse struck," Emma explained. "Obviously, that never happened, so the wardrobe remains unused and able to transport both you and Belle to the World Without Magic to find your son."

He wrinkled his nose. "Bit small for two of us, innit?" he observed in a childish whinge.

"I'm sure you can shrink you both to fit," she fired back. "Or you can go one at a time." She wanted to add that if she were Belle, Emma would make sure the slippery little eel went first.

The Dark One sneered. "Alas, the pirate mentioned seeing my son in Neverland, and if that's the case, the wardrobe taking me to a different Realm would—be—pointless," he said, spitting the last three words as his reptilian eyes narrowed in irritation.

"Surely someone as powerful as you can direct the magic in the wardrobe to take you to whichever realm your son is in?" David said, and Emma glanced at her father to see his most provoking grin on his face. It was the grin that mother said always made her want to smack him, and it looked like Rumpelstiltskin was giving that action some consideration now.

"You think it's that easy, do you?"

Her father shrugged. "Portals between Realms take you where you want to go. I don't see why it can't transport you to who you want to find, instead."

"Mmmm," Rumpelstiltskin mused, eyeing the wardrobe. "You have a point."

Belle touched his shoulder and leaned into him. "I think it's a good plan. We can go together to find your son, and even if it takes years, we'll keep looking. Together."

The Dark One smiled at her, before his eyes darted back to Emma. He rippled the fingers on his right hand as he mused, a faint, reptilian smile spreading across his face. "There is the slight matter of Peter Pan to consider, if Baelfire is in Neverland…but I suppose that's not an insur-mount-able issue," he said, hissing the last word.

He brightened, and Emma suppressed a shiver.

"Very well, we'll be off then," he announced, grinning. "As soon as I settle my score with the pirate."

Rumpelstiltskin raised his hand, and Emma felt something in the air shift. Magic? He was going to call Hook into the room, and probably kill him. Emma's heart slammed hard, jolting her to her feet.

"No!"

She held up her own hand, palm out, and a flash of white light rippled through the room. It crashed into the invisible ripples of the Dark One's spell and disrupted it. Emma couldn't say how she knew, but she could feel the two forces interact and dispel one another, like two waves in a pool of water, canceling each other out.

The others in the throne room may not have been able to see anything other than her Light, but they certainly knew something had happened. A buzz of conversation rose, undercut with the susurrations of fabric rustling as people shifted, preparing to flee. Even Belle and Henry looked shaken, and Emma could see her father grip the hilt of his sword out of the corner of her eye.

Emma lowered her hand and forced her heart to stop racing. "No," she repeated, "whatever feud you have with Hook is over."

The Dark One glared at her. "I see you've found some magic in you after all. But not enough, deary. It won't save him."

"Rumple," Belle cautioned, her voice quavering. "Please? It isn't worth it."

He shrugged her off. "I made him a promise that I'd kill him. Can't go back on my word, now, can I?"

"How about you consider it a favor?" Emma proposed. "You leave Killian alone, and I owe you one."

"Emma," her father cautioned.

"I know," she murmured back. It was a risk, she knew that. Rumplestiltskin may leave the Enchanted Forest, but everyone knew not to underestimate the Dark One's power. He'd be back, and he'd come to collect.

"A favor?" he mused. "Hmmm. A life for a life."

"A sparing of a life for the sparing of a life," Emma countered.

"Not how it works, Princess," he sneered. "You don't get to dictate the terms of the favor."

"And I'm not promising to kill anyone for you," she returned. "So we're going to have to come up with an alternative."

"The only life I'd be particularly willing to spare is my own."

"What about my life?" Belle interrupted.

Rumplestilskin glanced at her. "She didn't precisely save you."

"We kind of did," Henry pointed out. "I mean, with Regina gone, her servants might have stopped feeding Belle, and she would have starved to death."

"An excellent point, Henry," her father smirked, finally relaxing his shoulders, although his hand didn't leave the hilt of his sword.

"And I know it's not really the same thing," Henry continued, "but you have a chance to start a whole new life, which is almost like saving it. You get to go to a new Realm where anything you did here is in your past. You get to start over without anyone knowing any of the horrible things you've done. It's like a complete undoing of being the Dark One."

Rumplestilskin cocked his head at Henry, unnerving Emma with his scrutiny of her son. She tensed, ready to issue another blast of magic if he so much as twitched in Henry's direction. Instead, his gold eyes seemed to soften as he murmured, "He will lead you to what you seek. The boy will be your undoing — he is not what he seems." Rumple snorted. "That manipulative bitch."

Emma shifted in her seat. "And with that cryptic statement, do we have a deal? Belle's life and your ability to restart fresh in a new Realm in exchange for Hook's life?"

The Dark One hummed a bit, then shook himself. With a jaunty wave of his hand, he was back to being the impish showman. "Very well, very well. I'll allow it, extenuating circumstances being what they are."

Emma's heart thudded in relief and she took a deep breath, hoping her face remained impassive. "Good. Great. With that settled, then —"

"Then we'll just be going, shall we?" Rumplestiltskin cut her off, taking Belle's hand and tugging her toward the wardrobe.

"Wait!" Ella exclaimed, rushing forward. "Please…"

"Ah, the little cinder girl," Rumpelstiltskin mused, ending in a sharp-toothed grin. "To what do I owe the pleasure — no wait! Let me guess. Mmmmmm...you want your prince back?"

Emma leaned forward in her chair, ready to jump in. She'd prepared a speech — well, Henry had given her some talking points — but Lexa stepped up beside her mother, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Sir," Lexa started before Rumpelstiltskin cut her off with a giggle.

"'Sir!' Oh, I like that."

Emma narrowed her eyes at him, hating him a little for toying with her friend. But Lexa took a breath and continued. "Sir, a child should not be forced to grow up without his or her father. Your son's fate and mine have not been so different. You clearly love your son enough to travel across Realms to find him. I am asking you to extend the same favor that you have sought from Prince Henry to me."

The Dark One looked her over with his gimlet eyes. "What's in it for me?"

Emma gritted her teeth. "How about, if you don't, I'll set fire to the wardrobe?"

Her father kicked the back leg of her chair in warning as Rumpelstiltskin tilted his head to look at her. She'd seen raptors with that expression. She swallowed as she tried to bluff through the sudden lump of fear in her throat.

"You've gotten everything you asked for," Emma pointed out. "Belle has been released, and you have a way to reach your son."

"Ah, but my original deal with Cinderella has not been fulfilled."

"Hasn't it?" Ella challenged him.

"The terms of our arrangement were that until the debt you owe me is paid — namely, your wee baby girl — you'd never see your prince again; not in this world nor the next."

"I may not have given you my first-born child, but she certainly grew up without me or her father. We've endured decades of separation and strained relations with the King all because of the choices I made." Ella sobbed. "What could you have possibly done with Alexandra that would equal the pain and suffering we've both endured?"

"Rumple?" Belle added her voice to the plea.

"Oh, alright, alright," the Dark One whined. "Enough with the tears and the wheedling." He sighed. "I suppose, as I'm about to traverse the Realms and start afresh, I should properly clear my ledger here. Here's your Prince."

He waved his hand. A swirl of deep purple magic bloomed beside Princess Ella, rising upward before coalescing into a young man before dropping to the floor with a hard thump. Ella rushed forward to help him stand.

"Now are we done?" Rumplestiltskin asked. "Yes? Good."

He towed Belle to the wardrobe and hesitated. "Uhhh, ladies first?" He bowed to her and smiled.

"Not a chance, Rumple," Belle countered. "I've waited for you for decades, but I've never been so foolish I didn't know what kind of man you are. You first. I'll follow."

Emma held back a snort with every ounce of self restraint she had.

He scowled at Belle, but reached out, flung the doors of the wardrobe wide, and contorted himself inside. Belle crouched down, kissed the Dark One on his nose, and shut the doors. Emma couldn't hear anything, but her ears popped. When Belle opened the wardrobe again, it was empty. She smiled at Henry and waved her last farewell. Then she crawled into the wardrobe and one of the guards shut the doors behind her. Another pop, and it was done. They were gone.

Emma sagged in her chair, closing her eyes. Distantly, she heard Ella crying in the arms of her husband – her very young-seeming husband. She heard Roland Loxley and Lexa speaking to one another. Henry and her father were saying something that was probably important. But at that moment, Emma just let herself savor her first real victory. The Dark One was gone. Her friends were happy. Her kingdom was safe. And so was Hook.

Killian was breathing hard, his eyes closed, as he listened to what happened. He swallowed hard, and raised a finger to mark his place in the conversation. "Are you telling me you pardoned the Dark One and sent him on his merry way with his beloved to be reunited with his son?"

"Yes."

"A happy ending for the Crocodile, indeed.

He stands up and starts pacing. "What about me? What about my revenge?"

She sighed. "In my defense, you never said anything about revenge. You said you wanted your happy ending."

"My revenge for the death of my love was my happy ending," he snarled. "And you stole it from me."

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry!?"

"Yes! I'm sorry!" she insisted. "I know it's not fair! It's not justice for any of the lives he ruined or ended. It's not right. It's not what you wanted. But think of this – Rumplestiltskin is in a world without magic. He is powerless and knows no one except Belle. He will have to search for his son for who knows how long, and if he finds him, he'll have to humble himself to beg for forgiveness. And if I were the Dark One's son, I'm not sure that's something I could give."

Hook stalked to the window of the nursery, his hand clenching and unclenching like he was thinking about strangling her.

Emma sighed and realized her own hands were clenching and forced them to open and smoothed them down her thighs. "I know it's not fair to you. But my family is safe. My friends are safe. My kingdom is safe…or at least they're safer than they were yesterday. That's something I'm not going to apologize for, although I am sorry that I disappointed you."

He stared out the window, his shoulders slumping. Emma looked around the room at all of the toys – some of which had been hers as a child. "Do you want to murder a giraffe?"

He looked back at her, brows furrowed. "What?"

Emma went to the nearly five-foot-tall stuffed giraffe in the corner. " I never really liked this one. If you need to let off some steam…" She crooked her finger into a hook and mimicked slashing its throat.

His face contorted into something that looked to Emma like he was debating telling her off or laughing. He settled on shaking his head. "No. Thank you."

Hook sighed as he turned to sit in the window seat. He closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Emma took a breath. "You know what I think?"

"What's that?"

"I think you're feeling a little lost right now," she observed, stepping closer. "I mean, you've been trying to kill Rumplestiltskin for, what, a couple centuries?"

"Oh, at least three now, I think," he confirmed, a trace of a smile starting to push through.

Emma blinked, taking that in. Three centuries. Had he told her that before? She didn't think he had. Surely she would have remembered, but it had been a busy few weeks.

"Wow. Huh…. You look good for three hundred years old." She ignored his raised eyebrow. "Anyway, you've made killing him your whole life, your whole personality. Now that's gone, you don't know what to do with yourself."

Hook leaned back and rested his head against the glass. "I suppose you could have a point." He winched.

"In that case, I have a proposition, if you're willing to hear me out."

"Really?" he smirked, regaining some of his irritating charm.

Emma rolled her eyes. "Get your mind out of the gutter. It's kind of a job offer."

"Not what I was hoping for, but go on."

She walked the final few steps and sat beside him in the window seat. "You made some good points back in the village before the battle. There are still those in this kingdom and others who were Regina's allies. We've already got some reports of troops from Sherwood Forest massing on the western border, and more to the point with you, some rumors that one of our former trading partners to the south thinks now is a good time to try and conquer some of our ports, where we're incredibly vulnerable."

"Are you asking me to lead your navy?" Hook asked, incredulous.

"I'm asking if you can help me build a navy," she clarified. "Regina didn't have anything like a navy because who would be stupid enough to attack the territory of the Evil Queen?"

He squinted at her. "You realize that if I say no, you've just revealed to a pirate that you are completely vulnerable along your coast?"

Emma shrugged. "I'll take that chance."

"Why?"

She thought about how to explain. Looking at him now that the initial rush of anger and thwarted revenge had faded, he was quiet. Calm. Almost at peace, which – if he had stopped a moment to think about it – he would realize was strange if revenge was really the only thing he had been living for. But it wasn't. Not since at least their fight against Regina in that little town in the forest. He'd changed. As much, if not more, than she had.

Emma licked her lips. "Because I don't think killing Rumplestiltskin really is your happy ending. Maybe it was before you found Henry. Maybe it even still was back in the mountains when you found me, but it's not anymore. Because if it was, you wouldn't still be here. You wouldn't have stayed after the Queen was defeated. I think if revenge was really all you wanted, you would have left the very next morning. But you stayed."

"So I did," he said, his eyes softening. "So what do you think my new happy ending is?"

She hesitated. She wanted to say…a lot of things. But the last time she jumped in whole-heartedly she'd gotten burned and she didn't want to live through that again. "I'm not entirely sure," she said instead. "But now you have a chance to find out. I mean, you might have to work for it a little, and I'm not saying it's going to be easy. But you have a good chance. There's hope now. I don't think you had any of that before you started out."

He looked at her for a long minute, and Emma – even though she was scared – let him see how much she wanted him to stay. There were so many problems still to face, so many secret enemies hiding amongst the nobility and military that had to be dealt with, and that was only the start of her reign as Queen. She needed him with her to talk to, to lean on when she panicked, to tell her when she was being stubborn, to argue with her well-meaning father, to be a friend and mentor to Henry who already looked up to Killian with a sense of hero-worship that made Emma slightly jealous. She needed him.

Hook took a deep breath, and released it on a quiet laugh, shaking his head. "Alright, Swan. As you wish. I'll stay."


Author's Note: Holy cow! I really did not anticipate how long it was going to take me to finish this. And seriously, it was 2+ years just fighting with this epilogue. It didn't help that I lost interest in the show after Killian was resurrected. I didn't even watch all of the last season.

Some of you may remember that I'd hinted at a sequel to this story, but I just don't have the drive or interest in the fandom I once had. That being said, I want to reward anyone who made it this far with me to a short storytime of what the sequel was going to be. It would have taken place a little over a year after the events of this story. Emma is now a Queen and doing her best, but she's having to field a lot of potential suitors who want to increase the size of their own kingdom and also kind of fear her because it's become widely known that she has magic. Henry is growing up fast and learning a lot from his grandfather and occasional visits from Hook as he reports in on how the new navy is doing. And as a side note, Princess Alexandra is now married to Roland Loxley and they are expecting their first child. Emma and Hook are still dancing around one another at that point, doing a long-distance flirtation. Then comes Zelena. She knows Regina had cursed Emma and given how competitive Zelena is, she decides that – even though Roland was the one who actually fired the shot that killed Regina – Emma is the one that is responsible for Regina's death and therefore is her nemesis. Zelena is working on getting all of the time-travel spell ingredients together, and Emma and Hook are trying to stop her, with the help of David, Henry, Red and her pack, and the dwarves, of course. Sadly, they are unsuccessful, Zelena kidnaps Roland and Lexa's baby and starts the time-travel spell. Ironically, Emma is the first person who gets sucked into the travel spell, so it's her intentions that set the destination for the spell, and they end up going back to the day before Regina is about to cast the curse – because Emma had been thinking about what could have happened if Regina had been successful. Would she have been more free to be with the man she loves? Would she have the weight of being Queen on her shoulders, which is harder for her to bear than she lets on and frankly her mental health has been taking a dive with all of the responsibility and feeling like she has to choose a "suitable" match to help protect her kingdom. Anyway, off they go to the day before the curse is cast. Zelena decides that if she cast the time travel spell once she can do it again, and what a coup it would be to use the savior baby that Regina was trying to get rid of in her spell. I'm not sure how exactly, but Zelena is the one in this timeline to prompt Regina into actually going through with killing her father to cast the Dark Curse (I know I had this plotted out at some point, but I lost my notes). Then Zelena gets killed rather abruptly by none other than Graham, the Huntsman, who at this point is still under Regina's thrall by having his heart removed, and is sworn to protect the Queen. Bye Zelena. But in the meantime, Regina – all unknowing of the drama going on – kills her father and enacts the Dark Curse. Emma and Killian don't have a way back, and after checking in with The Sorceror's Apprentice, they realize that if the curse is cast, they will basically re-set and live the lives they would have if that is what had always happened. Emma and Killian finally confess their feelings to one another and he promises that he'll find her in the next life, and she says, "Not if I find you first." And then the cloud of the Dark Curse rolls in and the timeline of the show starts. The end.