Chapter 4: Dealing with the 'Now'

"Shouldn't we go somewhere, I don't know, kid friendly," Emma asked as they stood in front of the bar Neal had taken her to a few days ago.

"It's not just a bar Emma," said Neal, "it's a restaurant too. Best pizza in the area. Come on."

"Fine but I'm paying for half. Spoiling him won't win you any points."

"Deal," Neal said smiling.

Before they could go inside Emma's phone rang. She looked down at the caller ID and then looked at Henry and Neal.

"You two go inside I'll just be a minute."

Henry nodded and he and Neal made their way in.

Emma answered her phone.

"Hey," said Mary Margaret, "We haven't heard from you in a couple days. Did you tell Henry?"

"Yeah I told him. Neal, Baelfire," she said using his real name for the first time. It felt strange, "Knows too."

"He never knew he had a son?"

"I found out I was pregnant after he left me."

"And you didn't think to track him down? You've spent your whole life finding people."

"I never wanted to find him. I never wanted to see him again."

"Have you at least talked?"

"We've tried."

"Then that's a start right?"

"I guess. It's just a lot harder than I thought it would be."

"I know. We know you Emma, you'll make it work. You did with Henry, you did with us. You can make it work with Gold's son."

Emma brought her fingers to her eyes as if in pain. "Can we please not call him that right now? It's hard enough dealing with him back in my life. Knowing he's from there just makes my head spin. Uh, why couldn't I have just fallen for a regular guy from this world?"

Emma looked up to see some people stare at her as they walked by.

"Because you're not from this world Emma," said Mary Margaret. "Who knows maybe you two met for a reason."

Emma rolled her head back. "You sound like Neal and Henry."

Mary Margaret smiled, "Guess more than optimism runs in the family. If you two hadn't been together Henry wouldn't be here."

Emma conceded. "I know." She took a moment before shaking her head. "How are things in Storybrooke?"

Mary Margaret looked at David. She wanted to share some of the adventures they were getting into but there would be time to catch up later.

"We're managing," she said. "Don't worry about things here. Just worry about yourself and Henry."

"Emma," came a female voice.

Emma looked up to see a fair skinned black woman standing in front of her.

"I'm Tamara."

"I'll have to talk to you later," Emma said into the phone.

"Okay," Mary Margaret replied. "Tell Henry we say hi and that we miss him. We miss both of you."

"I will. Miss you too," she said hanging up and placing the phone in her pocket.

"Neal's fiancé," Emma said to her.

For a moment neither woman said anything. They just looked at each other.

"Wow, this is awkward," said Emma.

Tamara nodded. She then smiled at Emma. "I met your son, Henry. He seems like a nice boy."

"He is," said Emma. Tamara nodded again. "So Neal says you're an artist," Emma said trying badly at small talk.

"Yeah," Tamara replied. "The gallery I work at is only several blocks over stopped by on my lunch break."

"Nice."

The two of them diverted their eyes from one another unsure as to what to do next.

"I know this is weird," said Tamara. "I'm actually headed back to the gallery but maybe later we could go out for drinks," she suggested.

"Oh," said Emma, "I'm not sure. I have to watch Henry, mom thing and all."

"Neal could look after him for a couple hours. He's really a good guy and from what I just saw they seem to be hitting it off."

Emma knew she couldn't get out of this. The entire situation was a mess. Neal was back in her life and she in his. It wasn't easy and it had been far from anything Emma ever planned or dreamed. She had come to New York with one purpose: find Gold's son. When that son turned out to be her ex-boyfriend and the man who fathered her child it only seemed to make matters worse. It became a situation she wasn't ready to handle but was forced to. It wasn't simple the way it had been eleven years ago when it was the two of them against the world. Now instead their two worlds had collided and they were forced to deal with it and the people in their separate worlds.

Emma let out a small smile to Tamara. "I'll talk to Neal. If I know my son he'll be more than happy to have some alone time with him."

"Great," Tamara said starting to sound chipper now that some of the tension was gone. "I'll meet you here at eight?"

"Sounds perfect," Emma replied.

As Tamara began walking away Emma was unsure whether to like her or hate her. It's not that she had any romantic feelings toward Neal she just didn't know how much more extended family her son needed in his life. Fiancé. Soon to be Neal's wife; this would essentially make her Henry's step-mother. How much mother's did the kid need?

Emma shook her head. That would be a whole other set of problems to deal with some other time.

Once inside Emma found Neal and Henry occupying a table. There was all ready a large pizza and some cokes.

"Did you meet Tamara," Henry asked.

Emma took a seat next to Henry. "I did, she seems nice."

"Are you just saying that," Neal asked.

"It's been eleven years Neal it's not like you need my permission." Emma looked at Henry. "Mary Margaret and David say hi by the way and they miss you."

"I miss them too but I-," Henry said looking down.

"You like being here with your dad," Emma said answering for him.

"Is that a bad thing," Henry asked.

Emma looked at Henry and then at Neal and back again. "No but we are going to have to go back to Storybrooke. That's home for us kid."

Henry continued to look down. "But it's safer here," he said. "We don't have to worry about Cora or Regina."

Emma looked at Neal who had a look of sadness in his eyes. Emma wasn't sure how much Henry had told him but by the look he had clearly told his father about his adoptive mother.

Emma looked at Henry and placed a hand on his arm.

"You're still worried about that hu?"

"Aren't you?"

"Of course I am Henry but you don't have to be. I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe."

"What if you can't?"

Emma's heart broke. Losing Henry's trust was bad enough but now it seemed like he was losing faith in her ability as the savior as well.

Emma tried to force a genuine smile, "Listen to me kid, if it's one of the many things I've learned from you it's that our family can do anything. You found me remember? You helped me to believe in the curse, got me to break it and you helped me and Mary Margaret get home. I can protect you. I just need you to trust me as hard as that probably is right now," she said side glancing at Neal.

Henry took a deep breath. "Okay."

Emma smiled, "Good now how about we stop wallowing," Emma said as she went for a slice of pizza and put it on Henry's plate, "And start having fun."

Henry raised his brow as did Neal. "You're gonna try to have fun," said Henry, "With Neal right here? You hate him."

"Thanks kid," Emma and Neal both said at the same time.

Emma smiled at Neal and then looked at Henry, "For you Henry, I'm willing to try if it will make you feel better."

Henry smiled at his mom.

The trio got back to the apartment around five in the afternoon. It had been a long day, Neal having taken them to some of the main tourist attractions.

Henry now stood on the terrace with his mom's cell phone. Emma had talked to her parents earlier and a few hours later Henry had asked if at the end of the day he could call them too. Emma knew her parents would like that.

Neal stood and watched his boy. The past two and a half days had been amazing. Though being a father was still new to him and would be for a long time, he could not imagine anything greater.

"You sure you didn't raise him yourself," Neal asked as he saw Emma take a seat on the couch.

"It's sometimes easy to forget I didn't," she replied.

"You wouldn't be able to tell," Neal said turning to smile at her. "That talk you had with him at lunch; you were amazing."

"It's harder than it looks. I can't just be his friend like I was last year. My mom and I kind of have that in common."

"How much do your parents know?"

Emma looked at Neal, "You mean about us?" Neal nodded. "Not much. I've only told them that you're Gold's son, and they know that you left and I found out I was pregnant while I was in jail but they don't know the details."

"Are you going to tell them?"

"Eventually," she replied. "Now that you're partially in the picture it's not like I can keep that part of my life hidden any longer."

Neal nodded. "I know what you mean. I told Tamara everything this morning."

"You mean she didn't know?"

"It's not something I talk about either Emma. What we had was great but it's also-,"

"Painful to talk about," Emma said finishing for him.

"Yeah," said Neal.

"Well that explains part of the awkwardness when we talked. Speaking of which I was wondering if you could do me a favor?"

"Name it."

"Tamara wants to meet up in a few hours, just the two of us."

"Uh-oh my fiancé and my-," Neal wasn't sure he wanted to use the word ex-girlfriend. For some reason applying that term to Emma felt off so he phrased it a different way, "the mother of my son meeting alone."

Emma laughed. "I know it sounds bad and I really don't want to but she seems so nice and I figure whatever we're doing we might as well get to know each other again and that also means getting to know the people in our lives."

"No I completely agree. And maybe you two talking will break the ice. She's not exactly on the best terms with me right now."

"Right the lying thing, seems like we're both in the dog house with that one." Emma took a deep breath. "I know I'm asking a lot but do you think you can watch Henry for a while? If not that's okay, I don't have to go."

"No you're going. It's just for a few hours, he'll be fine."

"But will you, you haven't exactly been around him without me since we've been here."

"Emma it'll be okay. When are you meeting her?"

"At eight back at the bar."

"Okay, so you can spend some time with Henry until then and then you girls can talk. Henry and I will be fine."

"I'm going on a lot of blind faith trusting you with him."

"I know. I also know the importance of having some conversations alone. I'll look after him I promise. I'll get him to bed on time, make sure he brushes his teeth, all of that."

Emma nodded. It was a big leap of faith she was taking but sometimes the only way jump into a pool was to do it and not hesitate.

"Okay," she said to him.