Crashing into Gold's Pawn Shop Emma wasn't wasting time beating around the curse, "Rumplestiltskin! We need your help."
"Ah. I was wondering if your comment the other day was a matter of mere coincidence. I take it that we do have a believer. But never mind that dearie, Indeed you do need my help. I heard about Henry's unfortunate illness. I told Regina that magic comes with a price." If it weren't for the fact that they needed his help, Emma could imagine reaching across the counter and bashing his head against his own counter.
She used her words instead, "Henry shouldn't be the one paying it."
"No, he shouldn't, but alas, we are where we are."
Again, the imagine of smacking his head into something crossed Emma's mind. "Can you help us?"
"Of course. True love, Miss Swan… Is the only magic powerful enough to transcend realms and break any curse. Luck enough for you, I've bottled some. From strands of your parents' hair in fact." Gesturing at Mary Margaret, "Miss Blanchard here and David Nolan." He paused then to stare at her, looking for a reaction to reveal that Mary Margaret Blanchard, her roommate and friend, was her mother. He was disappointed by her unfazed expression, "Ah. I see you are aware of the relation then. Very well, with their hair I made the most powerful potion in all the realms. So powerful that when I created the dark curse I placed a single drop on the parchment. Just a little safety valve."
It clicked then for Emma, why she was the chosen one. "That's why I'm the savior. That's why I can break the curse. So breaking the curse will save Henry?"
"Now you're getting it. The first step is to get the rest of the potion, which I've entrusted to an old friend."
Emma glared, "Where are they?"
"Where they are shouldn't worry you, but what they are should."
"Enough of this." Mary Margaret demanded, "What do we have to do?"
Gold gave her a malicious sneer, "You do nothing, dearie. Miss Swan here has to do it alone. She's the product of the magic. She is the one who must do it."
Emma cut off Mary Margaret before she could make any protestation. She braced herself against the counter, taking up Gold's view. Adrenaline was coursing through her veins still, muting the pain her body was in. "What do I have to do?"
"You, Miss Swan, are going to fight a dragon and the first thing you will need," he said turning to the wall behind him he grabbed a sheathed sword from the wall, delicately placing it on the counter between them. "Is this. Your father's sword."
Mary Margaret tried to say, "You can't be serious" but she never got to finish her sentence before Emma steadfastly said,
"Take me to the dragon," gripping her father's sword tightly in her hand.
Of all the battles Emma had fought in her life, from the Hell of her childhood to the the Hell of active duty, She never had a family memento to remind her of home or of happier days.
It was the will of Fate for one to come to her now, for the most important battle of her life.
Gold led them to the library. Emma had only been in it once in the dead of night, to see it in the daylight was an entirely new experience. For example, she hadn't noticed the elevator last time.
It was the elevator that Gold led them to right now. "The elevator is hand operated. One of you, Miss Blanchard, will stay up here to operate it. The other, Miss Swan, will go down to retrieve the potion."
"Why can't you stay here to operate it, and I go down with Emma?" Mary Margaret asked?
Gold smiled, "Because I have to get back to the shop."
Emma narrowed her eyes, she smelled bullshit but didn't have time to fight with him about it. "Let's just get on with it." She demanded, turning the lever to open and walking through the open doors. "Pull the lever Kronk." Emma muttered. In the back of her mind old ghosts laughed at her joke. She thought of her unit and her best friends who never got to go home. She'll carry them with her for the rest of her life, maybe in the afterlife they can sense the home she's carving for herself here.
At the bottom of the shaft Emma found herself in a softly illuminated cavern. Slowly she walked through it. She happened upon the glass coffin that her mother had been placed in under her own sleeping curse. Would they make one similar for Henry? Would she be in one similar if she failed down here? Would they even be able to recover the body?
Emma shook herself out of her thoughts and into the side of the very beast she had been looking for.
"Oh fuck." In all of her adventures in the Pride Lands, a dragon had not made the list. A wraith? Check. Chimeras? Check. Dragons? Check now, god damnit.
Emma ran through the cavern, looking for some kind of advantage she could use. It was too dark, she saw the pit too late. Tumbling down into further darkness the only thing she could see now was the dragon's illuminated eyes and the fire that lit its nostrils as the monster's head peered down at her.
Her breathing was ragged, her ribs killing her and her leg screaming. She looked around frantically, there was enough room in the pit for her to roll. An idea formed in her mind.
The dragon was bearing down on her now, neck outstretched, its mouth wide open. She unsheathed her sword, "Don't fail me now, dad" was the only thing Emma said as the dragon came ever closer. Emma stood her ground, staring into the maw of death until the last moment when she rolled to the side and in one swift movement her father's sword sliced through the exposed throat of the dragon. Slowly, it disintegrated into ash, leaving a softly glowing egg-shaped container behind.
Grabbing it, she looked around her. Emma could climb the walls, but she'd need two hands and to get rid of her boots, which would certainly not help her up the cavern wall. After discarding her footwear she opened the egg, relieved to find a smaller vial inside. Stuffing it into her pocket, Emma stared at the walls around and sighed. It was going to be a painful time.
She made it almost to the top of the elevator shaft and it came to a jerking stop, "Mary Margaret! What the Hell? Mary Margaret!" Emma yelled for her mother, but when she looked up she only saw Rumplestiltskin peering over the edge at her. "Gold? The fuck?" She really was going to bash his head against something.
"I'm afraid your mother was needed back at the hospital- something about Henry- and called me to come take over for her. This old elevator broke down again. You'll need to climb."
Panic crawled through her bones, "Is Henry alright?" Oh god, please be alive. Please don't let her be too late.
"There's no time for that!" Gold called down. "Toss me the egg so you can climb up and get to your boy!"
She took out the vial, staring at the glowing pink liquid inside. "No egg, only the vial. I couldn't carry the container!" He made the motion for her to toss it up anyway, but she hesitated. Can she trust him? Does she have time to not? Emma breathed deeply, Henry doesn't have the time for her to fight herself over Gold. She threw him the vial only for him to disappear a moment later. "Gold? Gold!" She yelled as the old shaft slowly began to climb again. Muttering curses under her breath at both Gold and herself, Emma impatiently jumped out of the elevator as soon as she was close enough to the top, only to find a tied and gagged Mary Margaret. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. I'm fine. We have to find him. He can't be far, Emma." Mary Margaret tried to reassure her, but any comfort she offered was destroyed in the next instance.
Emma's phone rang, it was David.
"Emma, you need to come back. Now."
Tick tock. Time's up.
She was too late. Emma had failed her son.
Numbly she heard David tell her that James was on his way, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered but her dying son.
Her little boy, her entire world. He had left her life ten years ago in a whirlwind of pain and misery, handcuffed to a hospital bed. He came back into it as a tornado ten years later that brought past heartache and hope, so much hope for a bright future. Hope that faded with his life.
Her biggest motivation ever since she had him and lost him ten years ago.
Mary Margaret was softly crying behind her, tucked underneath David's arm.
She stood next to him, stroking his hair as his heart rate slowed down to a stop.
He had told her once that he liked it when she did that when they hugged. That it made him feel safe and happy.
All she wanted was for him to be happy and safe.
Tears flooded her vision, "I'm sorry, Henry. I'm so sorry. I love you." She whispered as she bent down to place a kiss on his forehead. A wonderful sensation spread throughout her body, and blinding light expanded out from that kiss, spreading across the entire town.
Slowly, opened his eyes. "I love you, too. You saved me." His beautiful, sweet voice answered her declaration.
"Henry." Emma cried, embracing him.
He was safe. He was alive. Her son.
"Emma?" And she was finally someone's daughter. It was the voice of Mary Margaret- Snow White- crying softly for her daughter. "Emma…"
Over Henry's head Emma saw her parents' eyes swell with tears and emotion. Their face was a mixture of heartbreak and happiness.
Emma Swan, the lost girl, was about to meet her parents.
And she was terrified.
It's been twenty-eight years. What if they don't want me?
In silent disbelief Snow White and David approached their daughter. Emma stood motionless, holding Henry to her as a shield that could deflect the rejection she was so afraid of receiving. Emma flinched back and away when her mother stretched out her hands to touch her. It was Snow's quivering whisper calling Emma, "Baby…" that made Emma relax into her mother and allow her to tearfully cup her face.
Snow proudly gazed at her daughter before pulling her into hug, where Emma melted into her embrace. Her mother's voice was thick, but incredibly proud when she spoke into Emma's shoulder, "You found us."
Emma felt another warm body join the hug, and heard her father softly whisper her name as his hand cradled the back of her head. The feeling of comfort that gesture brought her, the security that came with it, made a choking sob escape her lips.
He answered her sob with his own.
It was Henry who pulled them out of their emotional downturn with an enthusiastic, "Grandpa?"
David's chest rumbled as he let out a laugh choked by tears, "Yeah kid, I suppose so."
"She did it. She saved you."
Mary Margaret pulled back, along with David, to observe their daughter at arm's length. Her father's hand was now on her face, moving hair out of the way as her mother answered, "She saved all of us."
Emma was saved making a response by the sound of a metal pan hitting the tile floor. Her attention snapped to where the clanging noise came from to find a nurse on the other side of the glass, her hands frozen where the tray used to rest. She was staring in horror out of the window.
"Are you okay?" Emma called, but all the nurse did in response was point outside.
They all turned to see a large cloud of thick, purple smoke overtaking the town.
"Everyone down! Now! Move away from the windows! Get to the floor! Find a doorway if you can! Whale get over here and help remove these wires from Henry!" David called over the franticness that started to spread over the hospital.
With Henry's wires removed, Emma didn't give him a chance to move on his own. Without thought nor hesitation her instincts and training kicked in and Emma lifted her son from his bed. She carried him to the doorway and shielded his body with hers.
Of all the unexpected events that had occurred that day, the most surprising to Emma was Snow and David covering her and Henry with their own bodies.
Parents protect their children.
Just… Emma never had one to protect her.
When the cloud hit the ground shook, lights flickered, and glass shattered, but it passed quickly.
They stood to survey the room, but with the passing of the adrenaline came the pain from Emma's injuries.
She really wanted to sit the fuck down.
But what she wanted most was to finally see Killian Jones again after all this time.
Her parents were discussing the fog with Whale with Henry standing by– the king and queen needing to attend to their people after all this time– the hospital staff were seeing to their patients, but somehow Emma felt as though all eyes were still on her.
The savior. The princess.
The pirate.
Emma left the room, shoving herself off of the doorway she had been leaning on, praying that the force gives her enough momentum to make it to her destination.
Her family's cries from behind her only fed her determination.
The bows and mumbled signs of respect from the civilians she passed were like the doorway she had pushed herself off of– it was the wind at her back.
The brilliant sunlight made her stumble, but not fault in her purpose. Her family was behind her, her father's hands stabilizing her, her mother's presence calming her, and her son's voice encouraging her.
"Mom, he'll be so excited to see you! We have to find him!"
"I don't think she has to go to him, Henry." Snow said, staring down the street. "Do you hear that?."
"Sirens?"
A cry of joy erupted from Emma's lips as she kept moving into the street– where crowds of people were reuniting, forcefully and joyously embracing.
Emma could see that when the patrol car turned the corner it would be the end of the road for it. The people's happiness was more important.
Too bad it was getting in the way of Emma's. She started to force her way through the crowd, her mother got pulled aside by dwarves, but David and Henry were calling over the crowd, trying to make them move out of the way.
The sirens were cut off, a car door slammed, and then Emma heard it over the bustling of the street.
She heard him.
"Emma!" His voice called over the crowd, frantically yelling her name again and again, "Emma! Emma!"
She answered every cry with her own, "Killian!"
Emma was pushing and shoving, the throng of people not giving way. She had lost David and Henry in the confusion. A person stumbled into her, causing Emma to gasp in pain.
Her ribs were screaming. Her breath was coming out in pants.
But she had to find him.
Emma kept forcing her way through the mass of people until finally, finally, she stood face to face with the man she said goodbye to so long ago.
"Emma…" He was crying and from the blurriness of her vision Emma realized that she was too.
"Killian," was the sob that came from her lips.
They crashed into each other's arms, Emma's knees hit the pavement as Killian's legs bent up around her. Her arms wrapped around his neck, his around her shoulders. Their faces pressed into the other's neck.
Mangled words and sentences came out, but not the ones they needed to say most.
"I never thought–"
"Oh my god–"
"But you were–"
"I've missed–"
In her uncontainable joy, Emma shut them both up by excitedly planting several kisses onto Killian's cheek. His response was to hold her tighter and to giddily giggle out, "I've been blessed by the gods."
Tears still streamed down their cheeks, but Killian was looking at her as though he had been a prisoner and she was his freedom, shining brightly in the sun.
The words Emma refused to say ten years ago flooded her mind, and this time she didn't close the dam gates.
"I love you." Those words had haunted her for a decade, and now that they're free, even if they crash and burn, Emma would bask in the freedom of their fire.
Killian didn't have a chance to respond.
"Mom!" Henry's voice came crashing between them just as his body did. "You found him!" Emma had never seen her son so happy, he looked as though the world he had been carrying on his shoulders was finally removed. Like he could now be the ten year old he really was. "I told you, you're Captain Hook! And mom's lieutenant!" Henry grinned at him, "It's nice to finally meet you Killian! I'm Henry."
At some point during their reunion it seemed that Emma's family had surrounded them, curiously watching the exchange unfold. Killian's left arm remained on Emma's waist, but he held up his right hand to shake Henry's. He had a grin that matched her son's. "Hello lad, I don't believe the breaking of the curse has taken any memories. I do remember you, Henry."
"Yeah, but I haven't gotten to really meet you."
"Fairpoint, my boy. I look forward to changing that."
Henry grinned at him, but rather than take Killian's hand he threw himself into their hug, overjoyed by the breaking of the curse and his mother and Killian finding each other.
They stayed like that for a long moment, just holding each other. Each reveling in their shared joy. In a much too familiar picture, Killian rested his forehead against Emma's. Their noses lightly grazing, but this time he whispered in reverence, "I love you, too."
A tap on Emma's shoulder revealed that her parents had moved to join in on the reunion, but when Emma twisted her torse to wrap her arms around her mother she couldn't stop the cry of pain. "Ahh! Fuck. Right." She grunted, holding a hand to her side. "My ribs are still broken."
"Enough sitting on the pavement, we have to get you inside. You did it Emma, you saved everyone, but now it's time for you to take a break." Snow told, more like ordered, her daughter.
Emma could only agree, "Alright. Help me up. I can walk back to the hospital."
"Don't be ridiculous, love. We'll get a wheelchair. There's no need to exert yourself more than you have." Killian insisted, his eyes betraying his anxiety. In that moment she could see all the fear and anxiety that the last few days have put him through.
He almost lost her.
Again.
David kneeled next to his daughter, "Emma, just because you can doesn't mean you should. You have spent that last four months trying to take care of all us, let us take care of you." Emma stared at her father, at his pleading eyes, at her mother's concerned face, at the grin that had disappeared from Henry's face. When she looked at Killian he cupped her face, "Emma…"
Was that plea? Was it prayer? Or was it everything? Emma didn't know, but she wanted to stay with him to find out.
She let her father get her a wheelchair.
Emma had barely settled back into her hospital room when Mother Superior broke the news.
"Magic? In Storybrooke? How?"
The Blue Fairy couldn't answer Snow's question, so Emma did it for her.
"Gold did it. He bottled true love to bring back magic once the curse was broken."
"That's impossible, even the Dark One couldn't do that." The fairy insisted.
Emma winked and gave the fairy finger guns, "Could and did. Can we move on to more pressing matters? Like the fact that this means Regina has magic and has poofed herself out of her cell?" She really wasn't concerned about Rumplestiltskin, he didn't endanger an entire town.
"You're right. We can't have her teaming up with the Dark One. We have to get to her first." Emma narrowed her eyes at the Blue Fairy, clearly she wasn't a great source on character analysis.
"I don't care about the imp." Regina's voice cut in. She was standing in the doorway, confident that nothing could touch her. She was probably right. David, stupidly, drew his gun, which only resulted in Regina pinning it and the hand it was attached to to the wall. "Henry, it is time to go home now." Holding out her hand to him she said, "Come along now."
Henry pulled his hand out of Emma's and stepped around Killian who stood between them and Regina, "Only if you promise not to hurt them."
Regina leaned over and in a loud, conspiratorial whisper said, "Only if you promise to come with me."
Emma snapped, "Seriously, Regina? This is how you want to do this? You want to abuse Henry into going with you?"
"He's my son. I can do what I–"
"Really Regina?" Snow interrupted. "How much more like your mother are you willing to become?"
Violently the Evil Queen thrust her hand forward, and Emma couldn't help but picture her in a Sith robe from Star Wars as she began to magically choke Snow White. "I should have killed you years ago."
"Stop it!" Henry cried, "I'm going with you! I'm going with you! You promised!"
With her hand still suffocating Snow White, the Evil Queen looked into the terrified eyes of her ten year old son and began to see the monster she had become.
Emma was right, they couldn't physically touch her, but emotionally she was wide open.
A child should never have to fear their mother.
Something broke then in the Evil Queen. She had won her vengeance, but at the highest cost, and now she realized that to keep it she'd have to been paying the price.
Finally however there was something she wasn't willing to pay for. Regina dropped her hand, and stepped away. "You're right, I did. But now I have to break it." She crouched to meet Henry's eyes, "I am not the mother you deserve, but I'd like to be someday. Until then Henry, know that I do love you." Regina lifted the hand she was just using to kill Snow White to run it through his hair, but midair it stopped when she saw him flinch away from her touch. She knew she deserved that. "You're going to stay with Emma," was her only goodbye.
While David and Snow checked on the other, Henry tucked himself into Emma's good side.
It had been a long day for both of them, and a nap with their families watching over them would serve them well.