Portland, Maine

June 2004

Emma tilted her chin back and stared up at the tree above her, or more specifically, the small pigeon pecking at the wood of the branch it was perched on. Puckering her lips and letting out a purring hoot, the bird stopped pecking and cocked its head at her. Emma repeated the noise, and it glided down and landed on the back of her bench. The tiny bird purred at her, and Emma sighed in disappointment. She shouldn't have been surprised for not understanding the creature. Since she returned to the real world from Neverland, she hadn't been able to communicate with birds. They seemed to understand her which was all right, but she wanted to know what they saw and what they were thinking.

Especially since someone was watching her.

She couldn't see the person, and the park wasn't necessarily vacant, but the hairs on the back of her neck kept her on high alert.

Neal finally came out of the convenient store across the street with that look on his face. When he sat down beside her, she cocked a brow and sighed. "What'd you take?" she asked.

He lifted up the plastic grocery bag and pulled out the receipt. "Nothing."

She rolled her eyes, snapped her fingers, and opened her palm. She cleared her throat and gave him a pointed look. He grumbled something about 'how do you do that?' and pulled something cheap and metallic out of his pocket and slapped it on her hand. Using her thumb, she spread out the chain and smiled, something girly and in the shade of fuchsia blossoming inside of her.

A swan keychain.

"You don't look mad anymore," he said.

"I wasn't mad," she said. "It's just…I don't know. I don't want you to steal anymore when we get to London."

"We'll have money from the watches. I won't need to."

"Even after the new IDs, passports, a place to live when we get there? Plus, getting married and being a family. Neal, we're going to have to be smart…smarter if we do this. Actually do this."

"We'll be fine and if you're not sure, we can back out. You can go back to Virginia."

Emma shook her head. "No. We're not separating again. Whatever comes next, we're not going at it alone. You want to dump the watches and go to Canada, I'll be there with you."

Neal exhaled and put an arm around her. "I love you, Emma."

She kissed him on the cheek and hopped off the park bench. "You're such a sap. Come on."

They walked to a crappy motel, and Emma was about to get out her wallet when Neal elbowed her and pointed to a family leaving a room. Following his train of thought, Emma scoffed. "It's, like, twenty bucks a room."

"Why do it when you don't have to?" He laughed and hightailed it to the recently vacated room, and she begrudgingly followed.

"You know, your pirate shows at the most absurd times."

Sometimes Neal's inner pirate was endearing, but other times it was stressful and unnecessary. She could hardly fault him, though. He spent many, many years with morally ambiguous men in Neverland, and he wasn't from this world. It was expected he didn't feel its laws applied to him. Hell, she was from this world, and there had been a time she felt that way, too.

Emma closed and locked the door behind her and began stripping off her clothes. "We should hurry before maid service comes. If you'd let me pay, we wouldn't have to rush."

"You can have the first shower."

She almost smiled but was too annoyed. "Such a gentleman," she said and noticed something on the dresser and went over to pick it up. "A Native American dream catcher. You must've saw a ton of these in Arizona."

Neal frowned and shook his head. "Didn't really take the time to smell the roses."

"It's supposed to keep all the nightmares out, and only let the good dreams in to protect your home."

"It's a flypaper for nightmares?"

Their eyes met, and Emma wanted to tell him that she still dreamed of Neverland. Often, the nightmares were so vivid, she could feel the sharp earthy bits beneath her bare feet while running through a jungle-like abyss, running towards something...or someone. She'd wake up, sweating and heart pounding like she had been running for hours. Her feet even ached sometimes.

Even more so, she'd dream of him...of Hook. The dreams would start off different and not always in Neverland, but would end the same. Each one ended with him handing her over to Pan, betraying her.

She wondered what Neal dreamed.

Diamond-encrusted unicorns and crunchy muffin tops, no doubt.

Emma swallowed and let out a harsh chuckle. "Yeah, I guess."

"I'm guessing it doesn't work."

Emma shook her head. "Doesn't mean we can't keep it for ourselves. We can put in our flat in London."

He chuckled softly and took the dream catcher from her. "All right. Go on and shower. You smell like bus again."

"You think it's hot."


When Emma got out of the shower and while Neal took his, she checked her phone and knew she was probably going to have to trash it. Several voicemails from her roommates back in Virginia filled up the small screen. They weren't her friends, but they did worry which was kind of nice of them, and she had literally pulled the whole 'drop everything and run' act two days ago. Emma had left most of her possession, not that she had many, at the apartment. She had only taken a few changes of clothes, underwear, and toiletries, and gave her employer some lame excuse for quitting on such short notice.

Ten minutes later, they left the room and strolled over to the train station. Neal gave Emma the key, and she went inside. She had opted to fetching the watches just in case someone knew something about all this and told the police. They wouldn't be expecting a blonde girl from Virginia. Her heart did leap into her throat when she saw a few police officers in the building, but none of them appeared to be on the lookout for anyone. Without trouble, she was able to find the locker and pull out the duffle bag and leave the station. She jogged back to the alleyway she left him, and they huddled together while he unzipped the bag.

She made a face and said, "That's not as many as I thought."

"Yeah, but they're super pricey. This is over twenty thousand dollars, easy."

"Twenty thousand?! Okay." She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. She never had that kind of money before or even lived with people with that kind of money. It was so surreal, Emma knew she should be freaking out more but staying calm and level-headed was key if she didn't want this operation to go south. "Okay, okay, okay. That's good. That's good. London."

The hairs on the back of her neck sprang to life again, and Emma whipped her head around.

"Something wrong?" Neal asked.

Biting her lip, Emma said, "No. I, um…It's nothing. Just be careful with the fence."

"You don't have anything to worry about." As if to assure her, he fished out one of the watches and buckled it around her wrist.

"I guess we're keeping this one," she said, half-amused, but a part of her was worried. Someone was watching them. It wasn't the cops, she was sure. They would've busted them already.

"How can we not? Look how good it looks on you." He leaned over kissed her. "Remember. Nine o' clock sharp."

"Yes, because I naturally forgot," Emma sassed and then fished out the swan keychain from her pocket. "Before you go, take this for good luck. When we get the money and go to London, we can put a key to our home on it."

Neal took the keychain and kissed her again before taking off in a jog. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she called after him and waved.


Emma looked at her watch and pulled out her cellphone, dialing Neal's number and began to pace the parking lot.

"The number you are trying to reach is out of service. If you think that this message is an error-"

She cut the connection and glared at the device. "Damn right, it's an error."

"Unless he set you up," a man said from behind her, and she heard the distinct clicking sound of a gun. She whirled around and saw a police officer approaching her. "Hands above your head, please, miss."

She complied but didn't understand what was going on? Why was the police here? Had something gone wrong with the fencing? Even then, the cops wouldn't have gone after her. "Wait. Why?"

"Possession of stolen goods. Left you holding."

"I have nothing," she stated.

"Sorry to tell you, but your boy took off. Probably in Canada by now. He called in a tip. Told us to take a look at the surveillance footage at the train station. Give me the watch. Now!"

Dumbfounded, Emma jerked at the order and slipped off the watch. The policeman holstered his weapon and went towards her, taking the watch and asking, "Do you know your rights?"

"Yeah," she managed quietly.

"Good girl. Turn around."

She did and when feeling the cold metal of the cuffs encase around her wrists, she replayed the cop's words inside her head and made an attempt to shake herself out the trance she was in.

"…your boy took off…called in a tip…in Canada by now…"

"Where's the rest of the watches?"

"I…" She didn't know. With Neal. Where was he? What had he done? Why had he…?

"Your pirate shows at the most absurd times."

"Where are the watches?" the cop asked, this time more forcefully.

"They're gone," she whispered. "They're not coming back."


Two months later

Vancouver, Canada

August had no room to judge Neal, but the yellow VW Beetle was probably stolen. When Neal got out of the car and he got a better look at him, August got the feeling this was the last thing the young man would ever steal. August tilted his chin at the car and said, "One last hurrah, I'm guessing."

"It's for Emma. You gotta make sure she gets it." He looked down and kicked the pavement. "So she won't have to take the bus anymore."

Nodding, August asked, "Where'd you go?"

Neal shrugged. "I tried to lose myself. Didn't work." He sniffed and stared off into the harbor. "You sure she's going to be okay?"

"I'm surprised you're asking. From what you've said about her, you should already to know the answer to that." August sighed and said, "She got eleven months. In a minimum security place in Phoenix. I'm not going to tell you which one."

"That should be me! I should be doing that time!" Neal gestured to his surroundings. "And this? This is different. Neverland was different. We survived because we had each other. Emma and I, we had a deal. A plan. She loved me, and she's never going to forgive me. She shouldn't."

"The irony, huh?"

Neal blanched and then cleared his throat, holding up the envelope in his hand. "Look, I don't even really know who you are, but if you care about Emma like you say you do, give her this. I fenced the watches. She's going to need money when she gets out."

August stared at the thick stack of bills, longer than intended. "Money is not what she needs. Not for what's ahead."

"Can you just see she gets it? And one more thing. If anything changes, and she does her job, this insanity ends, and she's free…"

"I'll send you a postcard," August promised.


Minimum Security Corrections Facility

Phoenix, Arizona

The door to Emma's cell opened, and she looked up to see Loretta walking in with a small package. "Swan, you got mail. Know anyone named Phuket?" The security guard started tugging at the corner of the envelope. "I've got to open this in front of you. Those are the rules."

A swan keychain slid into Loretta's hand and attached that was a car key.

"Okay, look. Car keys. Hope you got the car it goes with."

Emma said nothing. No, she didn't and refused to think about why Neal sent her a key. From Phuket. Is that where he went? The bastard decided to skip Vancouver and London all together and go to goddamn Thailand?

It was hard to breathe, but she managed to fill her lungs to keep from breaking down again. She'd gone two days without crying and desperately didn't want to shed another tear over Neal again. She didn't know why he did what he did and probably never would if he was in freakin' Asia, but if he hadn't wanted her along or just her, then why didn't he just leave her in Virginia in peace.

In the depths of her brain, her old roommate's voice, Elena, piped up and crudely informed, "He creamed your cherry pie, and he's done with you. It's a guy thing. Get over it."

Yeah, okay, Emma mused. I'll get right on that.

I hate you.

I hate you.

I hate you, Neal Cassidy.

I hate you, Baelfire.

I wish I never met you.

This wasn't worth Neverland, and neither were you.

It wasn't working, and Emma remembered what she had told herself in Neverland when she realized she loved Hook. She had told herself she was young and had plenty of time to fall in love again. She had promised herself it would be more appropriate and less dramatic and not unrealistic.

One out of three, and she was paying for it like she had the first time.

Emma made no such promise to herself that the third time would the charm. On the contrary, she made a vow to never be fooled again. There would be no third time. If there was one thing the foster system taught her, it was that being alone was lonely but having someone and then losing them was agonizing. She would gladly pick the first than continuously feel the latter.

"Nothing else. No letter. Sorry. But good news. You get a car when you get out," said Loretta.

Emma leaned her head against the cement wall behind her and refused to let a single tear fall. More would come if she allowed it, so she sucked it up and told herself she would be okay. One day she would be fine, and the tumor of betrayal and hurt inside her chest wouldn't feel so heavy.

Staring down at her the positive pregnancy test in her hand, Emma heard the guard add, "And a baby. Congratulations."

Until that day, what the hell was she going to do?