I Do Not own OUAT!

Intro

"What do you want, Gold?" I demand once I open the door to the apartment that I now share with Snow White and Prince Charming, my parents. Yeah, not getting any less weird.

"Don't fret Miss Swan, I've come in peace. " He offers me a grin and I roll my eyes. "And to make you a deal."

"We don't make deals with imps like you." I hear David say from behind me as a places a protective hand on my shoulder. That's not getting any less weird either.

"Good thing the deal isn't for you." Mr. Gold narrows his eyes at David. I can feel David tensing up behind me.

"What could you possibly have that would make me even consider cutting a deal with you?" I ask, trying to diffuse the tension building up in the room.

"Funny you should ask, I just so happen to have some information on your sister." He grins maliciously, clearly thinking he has the upper hand.

"Everleigh is dead." I state bluntly and try to ignore the way Mary Margaret and David flinch. "Her foster dad confessed to killing her himself."

"But her body was never found, was it?" He asks with one eyebrow arched. I cross my arms over my chest stiffly and refuse to answer because he's right. The police dredged the bay my sister's foster dad confessed to dumping her in for three days but came up empty handed. Mr. Gold holds up a newspaper clipping and hands it over to me. "Three years ago fishermen pulled a 14 year old girl from the icy waters of the same bay your sister was dumped in. The girl could only remember her name, Everleigh."

"Three years ago my sister would have been 25." I shove the newspaper clipping into David's hands without glancing at it. "The name is just a coincidence."

"And is this a coincidence, Miss Swan?" Gold questions as he hands me a photograph. My face feels flushed and I become lightheaded the longer I stare at it. As a foster kid, I'm familiar with these types of pictures, the ones doctors take at hospitals to document injuries. What I didn't expect to see is the face of my dead sister staring up at me looking no more than 15 years old in a picture dated from three years ago. Her face is thinner and her eyes a bit duller but there is no mistake that it is indeed Everleigh.

"What's the deal?" I demand, cutting into what ever argument David and Mr. Gold were having.

"There is someone in New York that I need to see. You help me find him and get him to talk to me and I'll work it out so that mommy and daddy dearest can adopt your sister and you all can live happily ever after." Mr. Gold explains with a mocking flourish of his hands.

"Emma, you can't trust him." David says but I ignore him.

"All I have to do is find him and get him to talk to you?" I ask and Gold nods. "Deal."

Gold and I quickly shake hands and he informs me we'll be leaving for New York tomorrow morning, much to my parents' dismay.

"Emma, you can't be serious?" Mary Margaret gasps as soon as the door closes behind Gold. "Ever- " She chokes up trying to say my sister's name. "Everleigh is dead. You told me so when you first moved in with me."

"She is- or was. I don't know. I do know that this," I hand the photo over to her. "is Everleigh."

Both Mary Margaret and David take a moment to examine the picture and I know they're both mentally comparing it to the only photo I had to show them of Everleigh; a rather grainy portrait from our 12th birthday.

"How?" David asks as he clearly tries to hold back the tears building up in his eyes.

"I don't know." I admit, not bothering to stop the lone tear escaping down my cheek.