Chapter 4

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"Are you sure, this is where we're supposed to be?" Emma asked as she followed the road that Killian put them on.

She had been driving for the last thirteen hours with only a pit stop in Boston for a food run and a stop at an old friend's gun shop. Emma had left Killian in the car and taken Henry in with her. She picked up the emergency box that she'd left with him a few months ago, shortly after Regina left them. Inside there was a passport for her and one for Henry where their names were different, two guns, and money in an assortment of different currencies.

They ate dinner in Boston before they were back on the road. That was almost six hours ago.

Henry had been a good navigator and helped her avoid some of the traffic congestion. At one of the rest stops Emma had directed them away from Killian and chatted with Henry about Hook and how they weren't sure they could trust him, but if he had answers about Regina they were going to use him until he got in the way.

Now it was the dead of night and Henry was fast asleep in the back seat. Killian was telling her to follow this road as if a town was going to magically appear in front of them. There was nothing on the GPS. All that the GPS said was that she was about to drive further into the middle of nowhere for another fifty miles. At least the ocean was on one side of them so she could find her way back if she needed to.

"Yes, I'm sure. Trust me, Swan."

"Yeah, see, you keep telling me to trust you. But I don't know you." Emma stressed that fact.

"You would if you listened to me and took this…" He lifted up the vial he still held close to him. The last thing he needed was for Emma or Henry to take it from him and break it, thus him losing all hope of giving Emma back her real memories. Not these fake ones that had her playing house with Regina.

"All I know is that you appeared around the same time my life literally turned upside down on itself and that you keep trying to feed me that strange blue liquid." Emma stared at the vial and watched as its contents swirled around like some neon liquor shot that'd knock her on her ass if she wasn't careful.

"I keep trying to make you take it because it will help you remember everything that you've forgotten." Killian stressed, careful to keep his voice down so he didn't wake Henry in the back seat. He didn't need the boy second guessing him as well. It had been the two of them against him for most of the ride. He knew that he would be able to convince Emma to take the vial if Henry's opinion wasn't constantly being whispered into his mother's ear.

"And yet you've yet to convince me that it will magically do everything you say it will." Emma kept her eyes on the road, her high beams jetting out into the pitch blackness around them. "If you've just led me and my son into some kind of trap I swear to god I will shoot you point blank between the eyes without a second thought not waiting to see what kind of monster you turn into. Do you hear me?" Her voice was grave because the further they got from society the more suspicious she became of the man sitting next to her.

She was well aware of the way he was looking at her. It was as if he expected her to immediately recognize him. To trust him as if they had some kind of relationship or bond where she should. It unnerved her how well he seemed to think he knew her.

"Magic is exactly how it will help you." Killian looked out the window of the car and wondered how much farther before they finally reached the town border. It couldn't be long now. "It will help you understand everything that is happening to you. You think that you've just been introduced to a world where children's worst nightmares are real. But you've known of their existence for almost three years."

Emma laughed at the implausibility of his statement. Three years ago she was happy with her wife and son living relatively normal lives. She just…couldn't remember where they were living or what her wife did. She had a feeling it was something important. Like a lawyer or something. All she could really remember in fine detail was that Regina made far money than Emma did with the three jobs she sometimes ended up keeping.

Damn it! Why couldn't she remember?!

Emma hit the steering wheel in frustration. Her head was killing her again. It had begun to ache as soon as they crossed the border into Maine. What she didn't expect was for it to progressively get worse the farther they traveled. She'd taken Excedrin two hours ago and was considering taking more.

"I'm not taking that shit. So stop trying to peddle it off on me." She squeezed her eyes closed for a moment and when she opened them she saw a large grey wolf in the middle of the road with two different color eyes staring right at her. "SHIT!" Emma yelled as she swerved the car to avoid the animal, causing the bug to turn and screech to a halt on its side, diagonal across the road.

Killian's head flew into the window next to him at the sudden stop. "What in the bloody hell, Swan!" He touched his head to make sure there was no blood. "Now we've both got splitting heads."

Emma turned around, ignoring Killian's complaints to check on Henry. He was still out like a light. With a heavy sigh Emma looked out at the road and around the wooden area for the wolf that she'd just seen.

"Shall I drive or have you planned this stop for a reason?" Killian kept his palm pressed up against his temple.

"What are you talking about? There was a wolf!" Emma pointed out towards the road where the wolf had been.

Killian raised an eyebrow at the woman, "No, darling, there wasn't."

Emma opened her mouth to say something more to Killian, turning towards him more fully when she saw something past him. Outside the window on Killian's side of the road just passed the end of the passenger's door, was a large green and white picket sign. It read: Welcome to Storybrooke.

The front of the car was over the town line.

Emma stared at the sign and felt her body start to tremble, shaking uncontrollably. She groaned at the sudden pain coursing through her.

Storybrooke…

Storybrooke.

Storybrooke!

She and Henry and Regina lived in Storybrooke, Maine. They lived at 108 Mifflin Street.

Killian watched as what looked like waves started converging on the blonde, traveling up from the ground to the air above her head before disappearing out of visual sight. The waves were swaying towards Emma before withdrawing, doing so over and over again as the blonde shook with the otherwise invisible force.

They'd moved here from Tallahassee when Henry was three. Their neighbors were the Joyces'. Henry's babysitters were Ruby Lucas and Ashley Boyd. Regina was a lawyer but she was also voted Mayor, beating out Mr. Gold. She worked as a private investigator out of Storybrooke and in Boston. For the last two years she was also working part time as the deputy at the Sheriff's department after working for years as a waitress at Granny's Diner and a self-defense teacher and physical trainer at the gym.

Killian watched the pulses suddenly stop as Emma fell slouched over the steering wheel, breathing heavily.

"Well…that was interesting." Hook whispered to himself as Emma tried to catch her breath. "Swan?"

It was hard for Emma to even turn her head to look at the man sitting across from her. "I still don't know who you are." Even with the memories that had flooded her she had no idea who the man next to her was. All she knew was that he had saved her ass back in New York and was leading her closer and closer to finding all the answers she was seeking. So maybe, just maybe a part of her was starting to trust him.

Putting the car back into gear she straightened out the car and drove down the road that she remembered well.

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Driving up main street Emma was surprised to see that it was empty. The town was dead. It was like there was no one there at all. Emma pulled her car over across the street from the library. She got out of the car and leaned on her door as she looked around the ghost town. Hook opened his door and looked around as well. He was careful to keep his eyes peeled for more enemies though.

"What exactly did you remember at the town line?" Hook couldn't resist asking. He needed to know what the magic in the town had done. Had it helped Emma break through the spell that Regina cast on her and Henry or had it merely reinforced it now that they were in a place where magic existed and the spell she was under was strongest?

"Most of the memories that I was missing." Emma admitted, sighing as she looked into the back seat to see Henry still snuggled up to one of the duffle bags.

"But you don't know who I am?" Hook's brow furrowed.

"Not a clue, Killian."

He sighed heavily. "The spell must have just gotten stronger now that you're back here."

Emma didn't want to believe him. She didn't want to admit that she had seen how there was some kind of astrophysical force pulsating around her back at the town line. But she had seen it. She had seen how it had formed around her body and how it helped restore the memories that she had been missing. Except they still felt wrong.

There was something about all of the memories that she was recalling that was just wrong. Although she could remember everything she'd thought she had been missing the last twelve months, her head still felt like it was split in two. As if there were just too many memories in her head trying to occupy the same space.

She could still look at Killian's face and feel like she knew him. That as she thought on the memories of her and Regina…there was still something missing. She remembered running after Regina after they'd had a few words at Granny's, but even as she thought about the memories and what they'd said to each other and how Regina kissed her and came back into the diner, there was more. She also remembered Regina walking away, leaving her to go back into the diner by herself.

Or how she'd needed to fix her car when it had broken down and Regina had brought her hot chocolate to make sure she wasn't cold. There was also the memory of Regina demanding to know what she was doing as if they hated each other.

Or how when she thought about the library she kept imagining a secret tunnel under it where something large would try and eat her, like the dragon in her nightmares. And when she thought about the Sherriff's office she kept having flashes of that demantor attacking her. Then there was the Storybrooke sign. She remembered seeing it the first time with Henry fast asleep in the front seat clutching something to his chest at the age of ten; not three years old and in the back of the car in a toddler seat.

The wolf. She'd seen that wolf before too. On her way out of Storybrooke she'd seen it and crashed her car into the sign. She remembered that. But…it didn't make sense. None of this made any sense.

"That wolf really wasn't there was it?" Emma's voice was soft and her expression open as she looked over the top of her car at Hook.

"No. It wasn't."

Emma nodded slowly, "When…well just before Dr. Diggs attacked me. I started seeing things. Memories. Except they weren't mine. At least not memories that should be mine. They were just flashing in front of my eyes. But so were memories that I recognized. Memories that made sense to me. But…since he attacked me, nothing that used to make sense makes sense anymore." Emma confessed, swallowing as she stared up at the sky and the clock tower. It was moving. The two hands were moving and telling the right time. Somehow that felt wrong too. Wasn't it supposed to be broken?

Killian frowned, not understanding what it was that Emma was going through. She was trying to work something out of that he was sure. But she wasn't moving. She was just staring up at the clock tower like if she stared at it long enough it would start talking to her and give her the answers she was looking for.

"Everything that used to make sense doesn't. And now things that didn't make sense do." Emma sighed heavily as she looked through the window again and stared at Henry. Everything was about to change. For the both of them.

She knew, deep down, that she never should have come back here. It was time for her to choose. She could get back in her car and leave never to come back. She could take Henry and disappear, just like Regina had. Or she could stay, give in to the mysteriousness of all this and find the answers she'd been seeking for twelve months. She had to choose.

"Give me the potion." Emma reached out over the top of the car and held her hand out expectantly.

Hook began to offer it to Emma before pulling back at the last second, "You're not going to throw it are you?"

Emma rolled her eyes, "No. I'm going to be stupid enough to take it."

Hook stared at her disbelievingly, but offered her the potion anyway.

Emma popped the cork and tried to ignore how rotten it smelled as she brought it up to her lips. She looked down at it as it rested inches away from her lips. She took a deep breath, looked at Henry one last time, tilted her head back and took the potion like a shot.

She coughed as soon as it finished sliding down her throat. "God that tasted…"

Emma stopped talking. Hook realized in moments that she wasn't blinking.

"Emma?" He got no response. "Emma…" Nothing. He made his way around the car and stood in front of Emma as she stared ahead, seeing nothing. "Emma!" He grabbed a hold of her shoulders and was about to shake her when she snapped out of it and took a large gasp of breath and fell into his arms.

He caught her and began to lower the both of them down to the ground slowly. She was awake, that he knew. He could feel her trembling. It wasn't until he felt wet tears touch the skin of his neck that he realized she was silently crying.

Her grip on his arms tightened as she tugged him closer and buried her face against his neck. He didn't need to know what she was crying for. He could only imagine the pain it was causing her to realize the life—relatively happy life—she thought she'd lived with Henry (and Regina) wasn't real. That she had actually been alone for ten years. That all the things she'd had nightmares about weren't just nightmares but factual memories she'd lived through.

"Oh god…" Emma whispered as she pressed her forehead against Hook's shoulder, her fingers fisted in the sleeves of his shirt. "Oh god…" She felt sick. Her head was throbbing as she remained upon the cold sidewalk, clutching desperately at Hook as if he could make the mess of her life better.

Everything…everything she'd known was a lie.

The last thirteen years…no, no, the last year was real, it was the twelve before this one that wasn't. The twelve years she had been happy and satisfied with her life was all a lie. It was all a lie. She hadn't kept Henry. She'd given him up so he'd have his best chance because she wasn't it. Not in reality, the real reality that she and Henry had both lived before they were put under a spell by Regina.

"Why…" Emma whispered the question into Hook's chest. "Oh god why would she do this to us?" Emma was desperate for that one answer.

All of her other questions had been answered. She knew everything she needed to know except why. Why would Regina give her and Henry memories of them being a happy family? Why would Regina give her memories where they were together, romantically….sexually?

God…Emma shivered at some of the memories she had of being intimate with Regina. She could remember how the older woman's lips tasted and what it felt like to have Regina's mouth slowly descend down her body bringing her pleasures she hadn't known she'd been missing out on.

"She made me love her…" Emma admitted aloud. It was the spell. It had to have been the spell. But the devotion and love she felt for Regina, not two minutes ago was still settled about her heart. She feared now that it was there it wouldn't leave.

Regina had ruined her. How could she ever hope to find the happiness that Regina had given her in their fake life together? Fake feelings or not she still felt them. The emotions were still there. How could she ever hope to love anyone as much as she had loved Regina—fake Regina or not?

To us…How could she do this to them? Them…

Them.

Regina hadn't just done this to her. She had done it to Henry as well. Henry would now have two sets of memories. One where he was raised by a single mother who he came to despise. And another where he had two loving mothers up until twelve months ago where he still came to despise Regina and Emma alike. He would know what it was like to have holidays with just Regina. And now know what it was like to have holidays with them both. He'd know what it was like to see his mother kissing someone—that someone being her. He would know what it felt like when the three of them were a family and how happy he—and they were.

Emma squeezed her eyes closed and felt her grip tighten on Hook's shirt. Gods help her, but she wanted the person holding her to be Regina. She wanted to smell Regina's rose and lilies scent. She wanted to feel the brush of Regina's hair on her cheek and the slender feel of her arms around her.

"I don't know. I'm so sorry, Emma. We'll find out why she did this. We will. We'll find out how this all happened. But first we have to get you and Henry to safety. We don't know how safe it is here out in the open."

Emma nodded her head slowly, letting Hook help her up from the floor and back to the car. He sat her down in the passenger side and drove them to Granny's.

Once there he left Emma in the car with Henry to see about getting them a room.

Emma watched him carefully make his way to the door, his eyes on the sky. She kept her eyes as peeled on the sky as she could muster. She felt…numb.

She thought she had been lost and clueless before. Now she knew what it was like to feel like she didn't know anything.

She had trusted Regina to cast that spell on her and Henry. She had put her faith in Regina, believed in her, and she had been stabbed in the back. Emma thought she could trust Regina implicitly. That if there was anyone she could trust to want the best for Henry like her it was Regina.

She was wrong.

Regina was just as she always had been. Evil.

And yet she felt an unexplainable ache in her chest as she thought of the woman. She felt a need to find her, just like she'd had for the last twelve months. It was like a part of her was incomplete without Regina. And now that she was this close to finally seeing her, finding her, that drive to get to her only intensified. It was as if they were connected on a magical level that Emma couldn't fathom at the moment.

There had to be an explanation. Didn't there? Nothing was ever black and white when it came to Regina. Ever. Everyone wanted it to be that simple, but it wasn't. Regina was just as complicated and flawed as any normal person—except not many normal people were powerful witches that cursed thousands of people for shits and giggles.

"Ma…" Henry's voice was heavy with sleep as he started to wake up. "Are we there yet?"

Emma drew her gaze away from the window and looked into the back of the car. Looking at her son with new eyes, knowing eyes.

"Yes, Henry." She breathed out softly, "We're home."

End Chapter Four