I HOPE WE'RE ALL ENJOYING RED HOOK AND SWANFIRE, BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT GOING AWAY.

It was an uncomfortable ride to the church.

David had offered to drive so that Neal could keep everyone updated on everyone else's status via text, making sure everything was keeping close enough to schedule that Belle didn't freak out. The entire car ride was full of pings! and buzzing as Neal sent and received texts to Regina, Hook, and Ruby, double-checking that everyone was where they were supposed to be.

Since David was driving, Snow was sitting up front with him—which left Emma crammed in the back with Neal. She looked out the window, trying to keep her mind off him because they were bros, and that was it; that was what she asked for, that was what he agreed to do—for her.

Which was really sweet.

Because he cared about her.

And he was just a thoughtful guy.

A nice guy.

A great guy, really. And damn, he looked fine in that suit—

Emma, she scolded herself. Bros didn't think about other bros like that. And that was all they were: bros.

The more she thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed that she would think of Neal as anything other than a bro. Of course, when she told him he looked hot, she was telling him he looked hot as a bro. And when her stomach flipped when he reached across her to seal the window shut, her stomach flipped as a bro.

And then stupid David had to make a sharp turn, and she collided with Neal, and realized that she definitely wasn't thinking about him as just a bro.

Emma tried to quell the queasy feeling in her stomach by focusing at the blurred trees they passed on the road. It wasn't like those stupid high school movies, where the girl realized she was in love with her best friend the whole time. It was like those pain-in-the-ass adult relationships, where the girl and the guy had a weird relationship for two years that hovered between friendship and romance, and the girl said she just wanted to be friends, but as soon as the guy agreed to just stick with the friendship aspect, the girl started wanting the romance aspect back, and everything was falling to shit, plus her shoes hurt.

"Emma," Neal said in a low voice, elbowing her to show her something on his phone. "Look what Hook sent me."

Emma took the phone from his hand, peering at the screen: Belle took up the whole backseat in a ridiculously puffy gown, giving the camera a very disgruntled look. The text accompanying it read: Tink decided to ride with Ruby, so Belle would have room for her dress in the back… Your dad and I just laughed ourselves to death. This is Hook from beyond the grave texting you right now.

"And look—" Emma was suddenly very aware of how close they were sitting when his hand brushed against her hair to slide to another photo—"he took a picture of her on the sidewalk."

Emma forced a laugh, trying to sound casual as she leaned back in her seat. "That's some dress," she agreed.

"Can I see?" Snow asked. Emma watched Neal leaned across the small space to show Snow the picture, unable to keep herself from reliving the memory from earlier that morning:

"You clean up pretty good."

"Thanks, bro."

Bro. Ugh.

Where did he get off calling her "bro", anyway? There she was, an absolute vision in green (she thought, anyway), telling him he how handsome he looked on his way to a romantic event, and his biggest reaction was a "Thanks, bro"? He was supposed to be struck dumb as she was coming down the stairs, gaping at her goddamn beauty! He was supposed to be all nervous and shy and smiley as he realized how he still had feelings for her, and she was ready to reciprocate those feelings! He was supposed to stutter and tell her she looked beautiful, and ask her to dance at the reception, and when exactly did she start daydreaming about her life as a romantic comedy?

I've got to stop watching those goddamn Jennifer Anniston movies, she told herself, shaking her head. It was really starting to become a problem.

But she couldn't stop thinking about it. She went from the car to the parking lot to the front hall of the church in a daze, hardly seeing where she was going. She had a vague idea that she shouldn't be thinking these things, but why? What was so terrible? It wasn't like he was dating anyone, or he was her cousin or anything; he was the father of her child, it was natural for her to think about him like that!

Where did he get off, calling her "bro"? Emma scoffed. Please. Who did he think he was kidding? He had to think of her as more than a bro, they'd only been doing the strictly-friendship thing for a little less than a month. That was up against two years of the undetermined/possibly-romantic thing. And he had the audacity to call her "bro"! Huh! She'd show him. She'd show him, good.

Her opportunity came when Rumple's car finally pulled into the parking lot, and Hook stepped out. Emma smirked to herself: she had played this game many times, but now she had a specific goal in mind: Neal. She just needed to borrow Hook for a minute, just to demonstrate that Emma Swan was capable of being more than a bro.

"Oh, look at you!" she beamed at Hook as he entered the front hall. Hook raised an eyebrow as she came running toward him, oohing and ahhing. "Wow, you look great."

"Thanks," he said, giving her a puzzled smile. Emma smiled back at him, "absently" twirling a lock of hair around her finger. Hook seemed to realize that she was waiting for him to say something, because he added after a minute,"You look beautiful."

"Do I?" she said, giving an airy little laugh as her hand found its way to his shoulder.

"Quite…" Hook eyed her hand quizzically, and dragged his eyes back to hers. "You all right, love?"

"Mmm-hmm," she said, still smiling as her hand traveled slowly down his arm.

"You sure?"

"I'm sure." Her fingers danced around his hook. He stared down at them for a minute, then slowly raised his eyes.

"Emma?"

"Mmm?"

"You're scaring me."

"Scaring you? What do you mean?" she asked soothingly, trailing her fingers back up to his shoulder.

"Have you been drinking?" he asked, looking at her concernedly. Emma dropped her hand, the smile sliding right off her face.

"No, I haven't been drinking," she said irritably. "I'm flirting with you, you moron."

"Oh! Carry on, then."

Emma refrained from rolling her eyes, plastering a brilliant smile on her face as she continued in a carrying voice. "You look so sexy. Neal—"she turned around, slipping her arm around Hook's neck—"doesn't he look sexy?"

"You look sexy, dude."

"Oh, did you get the pictures?" Hook said, instantly forgetting Emma; he let her arm slide right off as he walked toward Neal, grinning. "Did you see the sidewalk one?"

"Yeah, yeah,"Neal nodded, laughing. "Where is she? I got to see this thing up close."

"Still trying to get out of the car," Hook snorted, and they both collapsed in laughter.

Emma drew out a long, tense breath. Really? If Hook didn't sit still and just let her finish flirting with him, how in the hell was she supposed to make Neal jealous enough to realize that they belonged together, goddamn it?!

Okay, relax, Emma. You got this, she told herself, taking a determined breath before sauntering over to them.

"What are we talking about, boys?" she asked, curling her arm around Hook again.

"Belle's dress," Neal said, apparently not noticing as she leaned into Hook, smiling up at him. "It's ridiculously huge. You remember, you saw the pic—"

"Your eyes are so blue," Emma said in awe, gazing up at Hook as though Neal were little more than a fly on the wall. "I mean, wow."

Hook smiled down at her uncertainly. "Just…regular old blue, love."

"No, they're like blue blue," she insisted. "Absolutely beautiful. Blue-tiful."

"That's… clever. Are you sure you're not drunk?" he asked in a low voice.

Emma gasped, and playfully smacked him on the shoulder. "Are you trying to get me drunk?" she asked, laughing breathily.

"No, I'm asking if you're already drunk." Hook gave her a strange look. "You don't seem well, Emma. Maybe you should sit down."

"Maybe you should sit down," she said huskily, arching a provocative eyebrow.

Hook's brow twitched. "I don't know what that means."

"Yeah, me, neither," she sighed.

Ruby's teeth chattered as she waited outside Aurora's house.

"Turn up the heat, would you?" Tink grumbled, rubbing her arms. "I'm freezing."

"The heat's been on the fritz lately," Ruby said, her voice shaky from her trembling. "Billy still hasn't got around to fixing it."

"I'm sure Aurora won't be too long," Ariel said, shivering violently. "Just give her another minute."

"We'll probably be dead in another minute," Ruby pointed out.

"Okay, well, I'm not sitting here and letting myself freeze to death," Tink said irritably, pushing the door open. Ruby cringed at the gust of icy air, shivering against her steering wheel.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm telling the pregnant idiot to hurry up and get in the car!" Tink called back, striding toward the house. Ariel made a miserable moaning sound while Ruby huddled against the seat, futilely trying to glean some warmth from the cloth.

Stupid Billy, she thought bitterly, trying to warm her numb fingers by exhaling on them. It was amazing, how back when she was single, Billy had more than enough time to check out her car: whether it was a weird rattling noise she noticed, or simply helping her set the radio stations, Billy always had a clear enough schedule to take a look at the issue. But strangely enough, once she and Hook had established themselves as Storybrooke's hottest new couple (for however many hours it lasted at a time), Billy suddenly had a billion zillion customers he needed to take care of. There was no more dropping by the garage so he could just take a glance at something; now, she actually needed to make appointments! And wait!

Ruby had tried to flirt her way to the front of the line, but that had failed miserably, as most of the other customers either had their wives or girlfriends close by: she earned quite a few dark—and admittedly, well-deserved— looks that day. So now she was stuck with a shitty car, with no heating, all because she simply had to have a boyfriend. Her opinion would probably be different as soon as she was able to raise her core temperature again, but at the moment, it was so not worth it.

Tink came striding out of the house, dragging a protesting Aurora by the arm behind her. She only had one arm in her coat-sleeves, and she was carrying her shoes in her free hand, hurriedly tip-toeing after Tink on the icy ground.

"Sorry," she breathed when she got in the car. "I wasn't feeling so great earlier. You know I've been having—"

"Morning sickness, we know," Ruby said, rolling her eyes. Aurora told anyone who would stand still long enough to listen about her morning sickness and her weird cravings and her aches and how it was such an honor to know that she was carrying a life.

"We've decided we don't want to know the sex of the baby," Aurora said, as they drove down the main road. "We want to name our child the moment we hold him or her in our arms."

"Awesome," Ruby said, wondering if Aurora actually thought people wanted to hear about her boring baby. "So, who's going to get trashed at the reception?"

"Me!" Tink said instantly, raising her hand. Ariel smiled from the back, and hesitantly put up hers. Ruby nodded in approval, flashing them a smile.

"I can't," Aurora said, sighing slightly. "It's bad for the baby. I'm two months along, it's a very critical developmental period—"

"Awesome," Ruby repeated. "Oh, my God, you guys, I'm so excited for this party. I hope she got those guys who played at the Halloween party, they were really good."

"What, the Lost Boys?" Tink scoffed. "Gross."

"It's kind of a cool band name," Ruby shrugged. "And they were good. I loved their cover of 'Hot and Cold', like all techno and shit."

"You were drunk off your ass," Tink argued. "Anything would have sounded good."

"That's true," Ruby mused, turning into the parking lot.

"Why do they call themselves 'The Lost Boys', anyway?" Ariel asked, frowning. "Most of them looked a little old to be called boys."

"Well, 'The Lost Men' just sounds stupid, doesn't it?" Tink snorted.

"Still, I wouldn't mind if she did get them for the party," Ruby said as she pulled into a parking space. "The lead singer was hot."

"Don't you have a boyfriend?" Aurora asked, looking at her scandalously.

Ruby turned around slowly, raising her eyebrows. "So…?"

Aurora's eyebrows shot up, and she pursed her lips disapprovingly, but she didn't say anything; just continued rubbing circles around her stomach.

Everyone scrambled out of the car, eager to get inside the heated building. Ruby clattered toward the church as fast as her heels would allow, swearing violently as the harsh wind cut through her flimsy dress. "Oh, shit, it's cold out there," she shivered as she stamped her way inside. Immediately, she cast her eyes around the room, looking for Hook.

She found him in the corner, laughing with his usual crowd over some pictures on his phone. Ruby smiled to herself as she walked over: before her, Hook hadn't been able to operate a flip-phone.

"Hey…guys." Her smile faltered as she noticed Emma's arm snaking around Hook's neck, her fingers combing through his hair. Hook looked up, beaming at her.

"Did you see Belle's dress?" he asked eagerly, walking right out of Emma's hold. "Here, let me show you."

Ruby leaned in to see the screen, laughing as he let her scroll through the pictures of Belle in a ridiculously puffy dress. "Oh, my God!"

"I know!" he said delightedly.

Ruby glanced at Emma, who was watching them curiously. Immediately, Ruby wrapped a protective arm around Hook, mimicking Emma's earlier stance as she brushed her fingers through his hair. Hook looked down at her in surprise, smiling faintly.

"Bit early for that, isn't it?" he muttered.

Ruby smiled, her eyes darting to Emma's frowning face, and back. "We'll see."

Hook raised his eyebrows at that, opening his mouth to say something, but Ruby silenced him with a quick kiss.

"Belle's probably waiting for you to join her and all her other bridesmaids," she said, loosening her arm. "In the back room," she added, seeing the question form in his eyes. She pointed him in the right direction. "Just through that door."

Hook let out a small sigh, and nodded a farewell to them, before going off to start fulfilling his role as the world's first mister-of-honor. Ruby's smile slowly slid off her face, disappearing as he did; once he was gone, she whirled around, glaring at Emma.

"So," she said, walking toward her. "I hate to reprise my role as the jealous girlfriend, but you keep calling for an encore. So here you go: Act 2, Scene 1: Enter Ruby."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "I don't understand this metaphor."

"Let me put it into simpler terms, then," Ruby said, leaning in threateningly. "Keep your hands off my boyfriend."

Emma opened her mouth in dawning comprehension. "Oh…"

"Yes, oh…." Ruby snapped back.

Emma made a frustrated noise."Okay, I think we need to talk."

"No, I think we—oh, okay, just ignore me, then," she said as Emma took her arm, leading her to a more deserted corner of the room. Emma glanced around, as if checking to make sure no one was listening, before leaning in conspiratorially.

"Look, I get that you're upset, but you seriously don't have to be," she said in a low voice, talking very fast. "I'm not trying to get between you and Hook here, I'm just borrowing him."

"Borrowing him." Ruby arched an eyebrow. "That… kind of makes it sound like I randomly pimp him out for ladies to borrow."

Her eyebrows jumped. "Wow, Ruby," she said, standing back. "Wow."

"You brought it up."

"I didn't know you were going to take it like that!" Emma said exasperatedly. "You know what? Never mind. Point is, it didn't mean anything, you don't have anything to worry about. That's all."

"Is that so? Because it looked like you were planning to drag him off into a corner and—"

"Because I was trying to make Neal jealous!" Emma hissed, covering Ruby's mouth with her hand. Ruby looked at her with wide eyes, blinking rapidly at this curious new development. Emma slowly removed her hand, warning Ruby to stay quiet with her eyes. "I was trying to make Neal jealous," she repeated. "I swear. That's it. I'm not interested in Hook."

Ruby raised her eyebrows. "No?"

"No."

"You're sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Not even a little?"

"Not even a little."

She scoffed at that, tossing her head derisively. "How could you not be? I mean, have you seen him?" Ruby shook her head, laughing, as she strode past Emma. "Not interested…please."