Chapter 4: Something Unexpected

"What's New York?" Henry asked.

Lost in her thoughts, Emma was gazing at the map. There was no doubt about it; the Starbucks she was looking at was the one the mirror had showed. She had been wrong when thinking it was in Boston: Killian was in New York.

"Mum? What's New York?" Henry repeated, this time catching her attention.

"Another town. I've been there because of my job, that's how I know this Starbucks."

"That means we're not in the right place? Is New York far from here?"

"We can go by car." Thoughts rushing through her mind as she considered this solution, Emma stood up, ready to leave, but then paused, looking at her son. "Maybe waiting for tomorrow is the reasonable thing to do."

"Why? I'm not that tired, you know? We can go now if you want to!"

His excitement for the next part of the adventure made her smile but wasn't enough to convince her. "You need to sleep. And I need to take care of a few details before we can go. We're leaving tomorrow morning."

It was late at night and Emma was still on her laptop. Henry was sleeping in her bedroom; something he had accepted only after making sure she would get some sleep as well. And she had tried to but, lying back on the couch, she had kept her eyes open. At last, she had decided not to wait for the next day to take care of the last preparations. Switching her laptop on again, she had proceeded to look for an accommodation on a website where people were renting their apartments; she didn't know how long they would be in this realm, but she thought they might need a place to stay for a few nights. Quickly, she started chatting with a woman leaving on a vacation on the next day and therefore urgently looking for a tenant. The woman was living in a neighborhood not too far from the Starbucks, in a two-rooms apartment, which was perfect for her and Henry. The only inconvenient was that the woman was leaving for two months and renting her apartment for the whole period but, unwilling to explain why she had no idea about how many nights she would need to stay, Emma accepted. It would be expensive, but she didn't care: she didn't intend to ever come back to this realm; once they would be back in the Enchanted Forest, the money on her bank account would be of no use. After agreeing on a place where the woman would hide the key, Emma gathered her few belongings that might be useful in New York. Finding her cellphone, she hesitated before finally putting it in the bag along with a few clothes, her laptop, her wallet and all the cash. She wandered around the apartment, but nothing else seemed to be of any use. Lying back on the couch, it took her almost one hour before falling asleep out of exhaustion.

"And this? What's it for?"

Emma glanced sideways to see what Henry was indicating. "Don't touch this! It would open the door."

"Oh, okay."

Emma and Henry were on the road and the boy, who was in a car for the first time, was displaying his natural curiosity. They had both awakened at dawn, which had allowed them to leave for New York rather early.

"What about this button?" Henry asked after taking another bite of his bagel.

"Go ahead, press it," Emma said with a smile, curious to see his reaction.

Henry gladly did as he was told, and his look of surprise made his mother laugh as music filled the car.

"Music of this realm! I like this song." In a good mood because she knew she was getting closer to Killian, Emma turned up the radio and started to sing along. "Don't stop me now, cause I'm having a good time, don't stop me now, yes I'm having a good time."

Henry burst out of laughter. "I didn't know you could sing."

"I wouldn't say I can. I prefer to say I'm destroying the songs. But no one needs to know; not a word to anyone!"

Henry chuckled. "It can be our secret. That's a weird music, though."

After the song ended, changing the frequencies and listening to different types of music kept Henry busy for a while. One of the songs caught Emma's full attention, and she got lost in her thoughts as she listened to the lyrics.

"Mum? Are you alright?"

"Hmm?" Pulled out of her thoughts, she glanced at her son.

"You seemed thoughtful."

"I'm fine. It's just… this song. These lyrics…" Emma recited, "And there's no mountain too high, no river too wide, sing out this song and I'll be there by your side, storm clouds may gather and stars may collide, but I love you until the end of time, come what may, I will love you until my dying day… They just made me think of Killian."

"I'm sure he's fine," Henry reassured. "Maybe we won't even need this apartment because tonight we'll go back to the Enchanted Forest with him."

This was enough to get Emma lost in her thoughts again. She wished her son was right because it'd mean she'd reunite with Killian within a few hours, but her tendency to expect the worst was letting her think it wouldn't be so easy. They didn't even know what Regina had done to him. The possibility he might not even remember her came back to her mind.

"Do you think a true love's kiss would work in a world without magic?" The question escaped her as she thought of how even her nightmares due to the sleeping curse had stopped.

Henry seriously considered the question before answering. "Yes. You and Killian say love is the most powerful magic in the world. It probably doesn't care whether there's magic or not in this realm."

"Love only obeys its own rules," Emma tried to convince herself.

The conversation made Henry thoughtful. "If he doesn't remember you, I think you should just go for it, because that means you'll be a stranger to him, and that's surely weird to be kissed by a stranger, right?"

His question made her smile. "You're right. I wouldn't like it."

"Though he probably wouldn't mind, if that stranger is you. I mean, you're everything he loves; even if he doesn't remember you, he'll fall in love with you at first sight, just like he did when you two met." Her look of surprise amused him. "I've written your story, remember?"

"Right. So that's the plan: we find him. If he doesn't remember me, I kiss him. And we go back home."

"Yes!"

After a four-hour drive, they arrived in Manhattan. Having carefully studied the map during the night, Emma didn't even need her notes to know where she had to go.

"Starbucks is on this street," warned Emma. "It will be on the left."

Paying attention to the line of cars along the side of the road, she was looking for a parking spot but she could see none.

"There's the Starbucks!" Henry pointed a building ahead of them.

Emma's attention was then drawn to a woman opening her car door.

"She's surely leaving!"

Slowing down, Emma then stopped in the middle of the street and waited while the woman entered her car. Impatiently, those behind her started to honk, but Emma ignored them and waited until the woman left.

"We're lucky!" Emma said while parking her car. "I was really doubting we'd find a place, and this one is perfect."

The Starbucks being at their level on the other side of the road, they could even watch the coffee shop from the car, like she had done so many times during the previous years as a part of her job. The building was indeed the one the mirror had showed, and its sight suddenly made Emma feel nervous.

"Let's go!"

Deciding it was useless to wait any longer, she got out of the car and Henry followed. Standing on the side of the road, she anxiously waited for the lights for pedestrians to turn green, but the cars kept passing by.

"What are we going to do?" asked Henry. "Do you think he's still in there?"

The thought of Killian being inside the coffee shop tied her stomach into a knot, but seemed unlikely. "Surely not. But I'm going to ask the staff. Maybe they'll know something which could help us find him. At last!"

Traffic lights went red and they could finally cross the street.

"You're ready?" Henry asked, noticing her nervousness.

"Yes. Let's go."

They entered the coffee shop and Emma couldn't stop herself from scanning the room, but the one she loved wasn't there. Joining the queue, she and Henry needed to wait for a couple minutes before it was their turn.

"Hi, we're not here to order," announced Emma. "We're looking for someone; have you seen a tall black-haired and blue-eyed man, with a hook instead of a hand?"

"A hook instead of a hand?" the man around forty repeated, looking at them as if they were crazy. "What, are you looking for Captain Hook?"

"Yes, Captain Hook, that's him!" Henry said enthusiastically. "But without the perms and…"

Emma nudged her son to silence him, as he obviously hadn't noticed the sarcasm. She tried again. "Are you sure you haven't seen a man dressed with unusual clothes and a hook?"

"Madam, there's no Captain Hook here, we're not in Neverland. Now, get out of my shop, customers are waiting."

"You write names on these coffee cups you sell. His name is Killian. Don't you remember…"

"Get out!" The man interrupted Emma, dismissing her and Henry.

"That was not a nice man," the boy commented once they were outside.

"That's fine, we can just go and wait in the car, see if Killian comes back."

"Do you have some paper and a pen?" asked Henry after finishing his onion rings.

"Check the glove box. That thing in front of you." Emma leant towards him to open it and brought out a notebook and a pen. "Always keeping those here. Why do you need that?"

"To help the Starbucks man remember Killian."

Sitting in the car and keeping an eye on the surroundings, Emma kept glancing at her son. Quickly, she guessed what he meant to do as the sketch appeared on the blank page.

"Where did you learn how to draw like this?"

"I don't know," Henry shrugged, looking up at her with a smile. "Killian says I'm a natural."

"He must be right," said Emma, contemplating the sketch of the man she loved.

"But I always struggle with getting the nose right," commented the boy while trying to fix the sketch.

"I think it looks great."

"You think so? We can recognize that's Killian?"

"Yes!"

Henry smiled brightly. "We need to go back to Starbucks! Maybe seeing the drawing will make him remember."

Emma approved and both of them left the car.

"You again? Still looking for Captain Hook?"

"Yes," Emma answered defiantly, disliking his mocking tone.

"And that's what he looks like," added Henry, placing the notebook on the counter.

But the man barely glanced at it, preferring to stare at Emma instead. "Do you know how many customers I have every day? Do you think I remember every one of them?"

"At least try!" Emma grabbed the notebook and brought it closer to the man. "Don't you remember having seen this man?"

With a sigh, the man reluctantly looked at the drawing. "Actually, yes, I think I've seen him this morning. But I might be mistaken. I've seen no man with a hook."

Her eyes lit up with hope. "Have you seen him yesterday morning? And on the days before?"

"Madam, I don't keep a calendar to keep track of every customer. I possibly saw him yesterday."

"Do you remember what time it was when you saw him?" she insisted, trying to get as much information as she could.

"Of course not! Now, please let me do my job." Losing the little patience he had, he dismissed them again.

"He's really rude," Henry commented.

"But he still gave us some useful information: Killian surely came here this morning, and yesterday morning. All we need to do is to come back tomorrow and wait for him."

"How do you know he'll come back?"

"I've tracked enough people to know that they often have their routines: if someone goes to a same place two days in a row, they're likely to come back on the next day. Now, we just need a place for the night."

Deciding to leave the car where it was parked because finding a spot close to the Starbucks seemed so uncertain, Emma and Henry went on foot to the apartment she had rented. It was only a few blocks away from the coffee shop and, as planned, Emma found the key the woman had left in the flowerbed at the entrance of the apartment block. Located on the ninth floor, the fully-furnished apartment was larger than the one Emma had in Boston, with two bedrooms instead of only one.

After taking possession of the place, they quickly decided to go back outside, in case Killian was wandering around. But they spent a couple hours visiting the surroundings and found no sign of him. Since they had nothing to eat at the apartment, Emma took Henry to a place he had never been to.

"There's one over here," said Emma.

"Is this the thing you talked about?" asked Henry. "A pizzeria?"

"Yes!"

His excitement to discover something new was palpable. "Can we eat here?"

"That's the plan!"

Flashing him a smile, she opened the door and let him enter before her. A waiter welcomed them and led them to a table by the window.

Henry thoughtfully frowned when he looked at the menu. "What's this?"

"Italian. That's another language. But you have the description in English next to the Italian name."

"And I have to choose one out of all of them?" The boy frowned again when he noticed one of the names. "There's a pizza called Regina."

Emma didn't have time to answer as the waiter came back.

"Would you like anything to drink?"

Considering the question, she cast an amused look at her son before answering, "A coca. For both of us."

"What's a coca?" He asked when the waiter left.

"A drink. I'm making you try a few things from this world before we go back home. Did you choose your pizza?"

"Not yet."

Henry carefully studied the menu until the waiter came with the drinks a couple minutes later.

"Are you ready to order?"

"Henry?"

"Yes." He pointed a name on the menu. "I'll have this pizza, please, the Bolognese pizza."

"It'll be the Caesar salad for me."

"You're not having a pizza?" asked Henry.

"No, I'm not very hungry. Here, try this."

Emma pushed one of the drinks toward him and the boy examined the content of the glass before taking a sip. His mother giggled when she saw his face.

"That's weird," he commented. "It fizzes on the tongue."

"Don't you like it?"

"I don't know. I just didn't expect that." He seemed thoughtful as he took another sip. "I like it."

At last, the waiter came back with the salad and the pizza, which Henry happened to love.

"You never mentioned how good these were!"

"I probably had more interesting things to think of," Emma said distractedly while looking through the window.

"Mum. We will find him."

"I know." She kept looking at the people walking on the sidewalk. "I'm just wondering where he is."

"Perhaps he's looking for us."

"Maybe." Suddenly, a thought crossed Emma's mind. "The docks! Why am I thinking of it only now?"

"What?"

"The docks. We need to go there. If I knew Killian was looking for me, I'd go to a place where he could easily find me. That'd be by the waterside. On the docks."

"Awesome! Are there docks in New York?"

Emma made a face as she realized it wouldn't be so easy. "Plenty. There's water everywhere."

"Not that awesome," commented Henry before flashing Emma a hopeful smile. "But we'll find him."

"Maybe on the docks the closest to the coffee shop, because he must stay somewhere close by if he goes to Starbucks every morning. How about we go on a night walk by the river after you finish your pizza?"

Henry nodded and that was what they did: Emma led him to the East River and they followed the bikeway northward. It was night-time and most of the New Yorkers seemed to be avoiding the chill of the November evening by staying inside. Emma silently stared at every single man on their way, each time hoping it would be Killian. She was starting to lose hope when she saw a man whose outline looked familiar, and her heart beat harder as her hopes suddenly went up. The man was keeping his hands in his pockets, making Emma unable to know whether one of them was missing and replaced by a hook. He was walking toward them and she kept gazing at him, not daring to say a word. He seemed to be staring at her as well. Perhaps was he waiting to be sure it was her before saying anything, just like she was. His dark hair and the way the wind was playing with it made her heart beat even faster. She was sticking to Henry's pace, trying not to rush toward the man. She still couldn't see his face. But at last, he came into light and his face was revealed, and she felt the disappointment of her hope being crushed.

"I've noticed the way you were looking at me," the man accosted her, stopping at her level.

"Sorry, I've been mistaken," Emma apologized. The more she was looking at the man, the more she was wondering how she could have mistaken him for Killian. "I thought you were someone else."

"But I can be anyone you want me to be, baby." He came closer; too close to Emma's liking. "We could spend the night together."

Emma was unable to hide the disgust the man's words inspired her. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, not anymore because of the hope of finding Killian, but because of the adrenaline rushing through her veins as she felt like she was facing danger. Many possible answers crossed her mind, but she chose to remain calm and polite.

"No thanks, not interested. Good night." Softly, she reached for her son's hand. "Henry, come."

"My night would be better if you were with me," the man insisted.

"Not interested," Emma repeated, already walking away. "Let's go, Henry, before we run into some other weirdos."

"Why did he want to spend the night with you?" Henry asked innocently.

"Uh… Let's not talk about this now. We need to go back to the apartment."

Henry complied and didn't ask any more questions. Giving up on the idea to find Killian on the docks at that time, she decided to leave the riverside and take the shortest path to their place. The streets were more crowded and, though she knew it was unlikely to just bump into Killian, she couldn't stop herself from glancing around. But once again, her hopes seemed to be vain, and they arrived at the apartment without having found him.

Their plan for the next day being to go to Starbucks as early as possible, they didn't wait long before going to bed. Staring at the ceiling of this unfamiliar bedroom, Emma once again struggled to fall asleep as too many thoughts were crossing her mind. Would Killian go back to Starbucks? How would she find him if he didn't? Where would she go? Was there a chance they'd be back in the Enchanted Forest on the next evening? She got up to check the magic bean was still in its place before going back to bed.

Emma woke up and checked the time on her phone: she had only a few minutes left before her alarm would go off. She turned it off, got up and went to see her son.

"Henry," she whispered after softly sitting on his bed and kissing his cheek.

The boy opened his eyes and looked up at her. "Is it time to go?"

"Yes."

"Let's go!"

Henry was the kind of child who could be wide awake and full of energy very quickly: instantly sitting up, he kissed his mother's cheek and Emma barely had time to get up before he got out of bed.

Half an hour later, they were in the car, watching the Starbucks. They had been there to order a hot chocolate and a bagel for Henry, and just a coffee for Emma. Once again the man had been rather unpleasant, recognizing them at once as the ones looking for Captain Hook, and threatening to call the security if they didn't leave his shop.

"Is that what you were doing as a job? Waiting in the car like this?" Henry asked, looking around when he was not focusing on his bagel.

"Yes." Holding her coffee cup with both hands to keep them warm, Emma was not taking her eyes off the Starbucks.

"Have you found many people?"

"I'd say about fifty," she said, glancing at him with a smile before focusing again on the coffee shop.

"That's a lot!" Unwilling to disturb his mother, Henry then stayed quiet and patiently waited.

They had been waiting in the car for more than one hour when, at a quarter past eight, Emma suddenly broke the silence.

"That's him!"

Henry started with surprise and quickly looked at the coffee shop but it was obviously too late as the door was already closing. "Are you sure that was Killian?"

"Yes, I…" But she doubted again. Several times, her hope to find him had misled her, and she had mistaken other men for him before realizing they were not Killian. "Maybe we should wait until he comes out."

Staring at the coffee shop, her breathing shallow and her heart racing, seconds felt like minutes. But at last, the man she had noticed came out and her heart skipped a beat.

"Killian!"

She rushed out of the car and Henry hurried to follow her. Killian was on the other side of the street; they just had to cross it, but the traffic lights were green for the cars. Emma would have weaved in and out if she had been on her own, but with Henry, she couldn't take the risk; it was too dangerous, she had to wait.

"Killian!" Emma tried to call him, but over the noise created by the traffic, he didn't hear them.

"Killian!" Henry tried as well, in vain.

"Come on…"

Impatiently waiting, Emma kept glancing at the lights and watching Killian, who had turned around the corner, carrying a Starbucks bag. He was wearing leather, but had traded his coat for a jacket. He was also wearing gloves, hiding the fact that he was single-handed. Not taking her eyes off him, she saw him turn left and enter a building.

"He's living just there…"

When the cars stopped, Emma grabbed Henry's hand and they ran across the street.

"Sorry," she apologized as she jostled a man on the sidewalk.

They found themselves in front of a closed door, at the foot of the building Killian had entered.

"How do we get in?" Henry asked when trying to open the door and realizing it was locked.

"This." Emma was studying the intercom. His name wasn't on the list. "His apartment must be the one without a name."

She called and waited, her heart pounding.

"What's that supposed to do?" Henry asked.

"To call him, so he can unlock the door."

"What if he doesn't answer?"

"Then, we call someone else and hope they'll unlock the door."

Losing patience, Emma called the man living on the floor below. Quickly, an unfamiliar male's voice answered.

"Who's there?"

"Hi, I'm… Mrs. Jones. I'm coming to see your neighbor up above, but the intercom seems broken. Could you…"

Emma didn't need to finish her sentence as the man unlocked the door and hung up.

"Mrs. Jones?" Henry raised, amused.

"I…" She felt her cheeks warm up. "I needed to give a name, that's the first that came to my mind. Anyway, let's go. Fifth floor."

Henry called the elevator but, unwilling to wait any longer, Emma chose to use the stairs.

"Mum, are you sure…"

"Come! We don't have time to wait."

Running up the stairs, they were panting when they reached the fifth floor.

"This one," Emma said, pointing the door with the right number.

Catching her breath, her stomach suddenly felt knotted as she imagined Killian standing on the other side of the door. She held up her fist but hesitated.

"Go on," encouraged Henry. "Do it."

Emma glanced at her son, checked the number of the apartment, and took a deep breath before knocking on the door. Wondering whether she had knocked hard enough, she hesitated to knock again. But she didn't need to: the door was unlocked and, a second later, there he was, standing right in front of her.

"Killian!"

She had spent hours elaborating a plan, thinking of what she needed to do or say when she would find him. But now that he was there, now that she had found him after twenty-two days spent looking for him, she forgot everything about her plan and threw herself into his arms. Hugging him tightly, one of her hands wandered around his back, his arm, his shoulder, and ended in the back of his head with her fingers closing on his hair. She kept her face in his neck and took deep breaths, her eyes closing as his scent filled the air she was inhaling. Feeling him against her and breathing his scent were enough to overwhelm her; to overwhelm her and make some other details go momentarily unnoticed. But after a moment, she realized; she realized that he was holding her hips but wasn't hugging her like she was, that he had not said a word, and that he had not done anything indicating he remembered her.

"Excuse-me but… do I know you?"

Emma pulled away to look him in the eye. She recognized this look: it was the exact same look as the one he had given her on the first time she had bumped into him; on the first time they had met.

"You don't remember me." The plan she had elaborated came back to her mind and she knew what she had to do. "You will remember me. There's just something I need to do, and you will. I just need to…" It wasn't as easy as she had imagined, and his look of confusion and the intensity of his gaze were making it even more difficult. At last, she managed to tear her gaze away and lock her eyes on his lips instead. "Trust me."

Placing her hands on his neck, she tiptoed and pressed her lips against his own. His lips parted and she kissed them. The taste of his lips she had missed so much made a soft moan escape her and one of her hands slipped to the nape of his neck while she kept kissing him. She didn't know how long she needed to kiss him for the magic of the true love's kiss to work. All she knew was that she was not getting any response from him and, no matter how hard she tried, nothing changed; he was not kissing her back. Once again, she pulled away to look him in the eye while he took his fingers to his lips. The way he was touching his lips while intensely gazing at her made her wonder for a moment whether the kiss had triggered any memories, but it quickly became obvious that he didn't remember anything.

Emma's breath became shallow. Each of her heartbeats seemed to resound in her head. She didn't know what to do. The possibility the true love's kiss wouldn't work had never been part of her plan. It should have worked. She was tempted to try again, but she didn't dare.

"Why didn't it work?" She whispered, glancing back at her son who was still on the doorstep.

Henry entered the apartment. "Killian? You still don't remember?"

Noticing the boy, Killian took his fingers away from his lips and his hand went to rest on Emma's hip, while she was still clutching the collar of his jacket. "Remember what? Who are you?"

Killian was addressing both of them, but Emma was too much in shock to think of anything to say. Henry was the one to answer.

"I'm her son… and kind of yours. You're everything I've ever wanted as a father, and you consider me like your son." The boy noticed how confused and worried Killian seemed to be, and he quickly tried to reassure him. "Don't worry, that's alright if you don't remember yet. Do you remember your brother, Liam?"

His reaction was unexpected: frowning and stepping back, putting some distance between him and Emma, he suddenly looked upset. "Is Liam the one sending you here?"

"Killian…" Emma didn't understand his reaction, and the distance he had put between them was hurtful. "Liam didn't send us. We came for you. I love you. And you love me. We need to go home, together."

"I don't understand. This place is my home."

The words were painful to hear, and the fact the true love's kiss had not been enough for him to recover his memories was leaving her helpless. But she didn't have time to give any more explanation as a female voice interrupted them.

"Killian, who's there?"

A woman appeared, her damp hair indicating she was coming from the bathroom. Emma had not expected to find any woman in this apartment, and even less this woman.

"Milah?" She asked, bewildered.

"You two know each other?" Killian asked, still not understanding what was happening.

"No." Milah was staring at Emma and Henry, looking as startled as anyone else in the room. "How do you even know my name?"

Emma was unable to stop staring at her, not understanding how she could be there as well; she didn't even know she was still alive. But the Dark One's wife definitely seemed to be alive. Emma watched her go to stand by Killian's side and lace her fingers with his own. That was when she noticed it and suddenly felt sick: Milah was wearing an engagement ring.

"Are you alright?" Killian asked Emma.

"No. I…" Her eyes traveling from the ring to Killian and Milah, she was trying to find a plausible explanation and could find none. She was feeling dizzy and feared her legs would give way any second; she had to leave. "I need to go. Sorry."

Looking down and catching a last glimpse of the engagement ring, Emma turned around and walked away. It was too much for her. Nothing had gone like she had expected. She had suspected Regina to play with Killian's memories, but she had trusted the true love's kiss to work. She had expected Killian to remember her, and them to go back to the Enchanted Forest together. But his loss of memories wasn't even the worst. The worst part was Milah. Her presence was still making no sense to Emma; months earlier, when Rumplestiltskin had betrayed her and tried to steal her magic to free himself from the power of the dagger, he had appeared in possession of another ingredient his spell required: Killian had seen him holding Milah's heart in his hands, ready to sacrifice her. They had not heard of her or Rumplestiltskin since then, but they had assumed Milah was dead. Discovering they had been wrong had come as a shock to Emma, but it was the engagement ring which had broken the little resistance she had left. Emma kept reliving the scene in her mind, and kept hearing Killian's words over and over again; these words which showed he believed in the lie he was living. Her Killian did not remember her and was considering himself as a New Yorker engaged to a woman he didn't love. Or did he? What had happened between the two of them during these three weeks when she had been looking for him? What would happen next? Too many thoughts were jostling inside her mind.

Because of the shock of finding Killian in such a situation, Emma was in a daze. She realized they were back at their apartment but she barely remembered walking back there. She was lying on the couch, and had obviously been lying there for a while as it was already the start of the afternoon.

"Henry?" She sat up. Sitting at the table, the boy looked up from his book. "What are you reading?"

"A book about magic. I brought it with us because that's my favorite one. I'm trying to find something about true love's kisses. Maybe it'll help to know why it didn't work."

Emma made a face as his words confirmed it hadn't all been just a nightmare. "What happened? After we left, what happened?"

"We came back here, and you told me you needed some rest. You've been on that couch since then."

"Did you find anything in your book?" inquired Emma.

"Not yet. But I keep looking."

Emma went to sit at the table, opposite Henry, and lost track of time while browsing the internet for information about amnesia. Skimming medical webpages, she was trying to find anything which might help Killian recover his memories. But she didn't find any hint about what to do to make him remember her. She actually wasn't sure she understood what she was reading; the words sometimes appeared as nothing more but insignificant symbols that she was absent-mindedly staring at. Sentences made no sense and she had to focus and reread them again. There were also times when, without even realizing, she just stopped reading and got lost in her thoughts. She was not talking and Henry, who knew it was better to give her the time she needed, kept silently reading his book.

After about two hours, Emma was the one breaking the silence by thinking out loud. "How can she be here? I thought she was dead. Rumplestiltskin had her heart in his hand, he was ready to sacrifice her."

"Maybe he didn't, maybe she's cursed too. I've been thinking about it," said Henry. "Regina and Rumplestiltskin don't get on well. Maybe she saved her and took her away from him."

"As if he would care. He was ready to sacrifice her."

"Maybe she didn't do it to hurt him."

Until then blankly staring at the screen, Emma looked up; her son was right. "She sent her to be with Killian and hurt me even more, erasing their memories to make them believe this place was their home, and that they were engaged."

Henry seemed surprised. "Engaged?"

"Didn't you see it? Milah was wearing an engagement ring."

"How do you know it's not just a ring?"

"Because on this finger… It was an engagement ring. They're together. Engaged."

Emma looked down, pretending to focus on her screen again, and bit her lip, fighting back against the tears; this was the worst scenario she could have ever imagined. Henry noticed and stood up. He skirted the table and, going to stand by her side, hugged her.

"He will come back to us and we'll go back home together."

Wrapping an arm around him, she kept staring at the screen. "He didn't seem willing to follow us."

"But he will. We'll find a way, we always do. I'm sure he's already in love with you. He must be thinking of you right now."

"Probably; how could he not be thinking of that stranger who came to his place and kissed him?"

"Mum…"

Henry wished he could help more, but he couldn't find anything else to say so he simply hugged her. Emma managed to repress her tears and, while keeping her son in her arms, thought of what they could do next. At last, she closed her laptop.

"Since we obviously need to stay here a bit longer than expected, we should go to the supermarket."

She wasn't hungry at all but gathered her son would soon be. Thankfully, there was a supermarket right across the street. The place looked like nothing Henry had ever seen, but he stopped himself from commenting and questioning everything that was around. Emma didn't say anything and did the shopping rather absent-mindedly.

The rest of the day went by the same way: she kept losing track of time by getting lost in her thoughts, but even her thoughts seemed not to make any sense as they were only confused fragments. At last, it was a reasonable time to sleep and, more exhausted than she had realized, she quickly fell asleep.

Emma tossed and turned all night, troubled by nightmares reflecting the events of the past day. They caused her to confuse dream and reality, and she woke up at first thinking that it had all been a bad dream. But then she recognized the bedroom, and it all came back to her: Killian looking at her like on the first time they met, Killian not remembering her, Killian thinking New York was his home, Killian holding Milah's hand; a hand ornamented with an engagement ring. Thinking of all of this suddenly made her feel nauseous and she had to get up in a hurry to run to the bathroom. Unable to hold herself back, she vomited. She then sat on the floor next to the toilet and, wrapping her arms around her legs, pressed her forehead against her knees.

"Mum?"

Emma looked up. "Don't come in!"

Henry did as he was asked and stayed behind the closed door. "I've heard you. Are you okay? Why are you sick?"

Despite the situation, his innocent kindness made her smile. "Don't worry, I'm fine. It's just that when someone is too stressed or worried, it can make them sick."

"You're worried about Killian?" Henry asked from behind the door. "That's why you're sick? Because of everything that happened yesterday?"

"Yes, that's why. You don't have to worry."

But suddenly, another reason to be sick came to her mind and her heart started to race at the idea. She thought of the past month, trying to remember, and a lump formed in her throat as she realized.

"No…" Her voice was just a whisper. Looking down, she slipped her hands under her top and covered her lower abdomen.