Hands of Time
Snow, David, Regina, Henry, Hook, and Gold took in the scene around them as they saw Emma is waiting over by a tree, "This doesn't look like an area even remotely close to a beach," Hook observed as he looked around.
"That's because it isn't." David said looking at a license plate on a car, "We are still in Oregon."
"Ah." Hook said slowly. Then after a moment he asked, "Where the bloody hell is this Oregon?"
Snow smiled a bit as she was busy admiring her daughter, "It is a state out west." She responded sounding like a teacher, "They must not have decided on when to leave yet."
Hook nodded again. He did not know what to think of this experience. He then looked at the boy that was literally bouncing, "When do you think we will be able to see Tallahassee?" He asked.
"Perhaps soon, look." Regina said trying to placate the young boy as she pointed Neal out for him.
Gold watches as Henry's eyes shine brightly and he even smiles as he walks over to where Emma was standing. She holds up the paper bag she was holding as a way of greeting, "I got doughnuts. I got jelly." The group couldn't help but smile, until they notice Neal's expression which is solemn, "What's wrong?" Emma asks as her smile falls.
"Nothing," Neal lied and tried to lean into kiss her.
Henry frowned deeply. While he did not have his mother's superpower, his father's face was like an open book to him. His mother must have known that Neal was lying because she placed a hand on his chest to stop him and said, "No, no," Neal sighed and started to turn away from her, but she stopped him, "Hey. What's wrong?" She asked softly.
Neal ran a hand through his hair and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to her, "This was on the wall at the post office."
The onlookers looked at each other and got behind Emma to get a look at the paper's contents…it was a 'wanted' poster searching for Neal Cassidy, "Oh my…" Snow says placing a hand to her mouth.
Regina eyed the poster closely and was in disbelief…the son of the Dark One on a wanted poster? It was just unreal to her. She looked at Gold seeing how he was taking this and she could see that he was hiding his emotions. Internally though Gold was in chaos. He never wanted this to happen to his son. It was just too much for him. He backed away from the group to try and keep his cool, but was close enough that he could still here the conversation.
"I didn't even know they did that still." Neal said trying to keep cool.
"When did this happen?" Emma asked wanting to understand what was happening.
Neal sighed deeply, "I was a janitor in Phoenix – this high-end jewelry place. The manager was a drunk. He would forget to lock the case to the expensive watches."
Hook saw the slight guilt in the man's eyes and immediately knew where this was going for him. He then looked at Emma and saw she knew as well, "Neal…" Emma groaned out as she shook her head.
"I resisted – twice! The third time, this guy's just asking to get took. So I… I grabbed a couple cases of watches, and I hopped on a train to Portland. The store's got insurance. Anyway, I stashed 'em in a locker at the train station. They're still there. It's not… It's hardly stealing." Neal explained while he shrugged as if it was no big deal.
Henry was in rapt attention at his father's story. He was literally sitting on the ground, leaning forward, and soaking all the information in…that is until a sense of forbidding overcame him…it was ominous and all at once, he did not like where this was headed.
Snow and David was watching Emma as she took in the information and suddenly her face went from comprehension to slightly hopeful, "So, you got away clean."
Neal shook his head and motioned to the poster in her hands, "I didn't get away clean. The manager may have been a drunk, but the security cameras are stone sober. I thought this heat had died down, but it hasn't," then his face and eyes were filled with regret, "I'm sorry. Tallahassee's out. I got to go to Canada."
"No!" Henry yelled startling the adults in the group, "No! You cannot go to Canada!"
Emma shrugged and handed the poster back to Neal, not catching his tone of voice, "That's fine. I like maple syrup."
"No mom that is not what he is saying!" Henry yelled forgetting that she couldn't hear him. Snow placed a hand on Henry's shoulder and he looked at her, "He can't leave her…not like this."
"I got to go to Canada alone." Neal clarified as he looked at her.
Emma backed away from him, "Why?"
"If I get caught and you're with me, you're in trouble-" He tried to explain.
Emma crossed her arms and smiled, "You're not going to get caught."
The group looked at her confused, "Where are you going with this?" David asked out loud and recognizing just how much Emma looked like Snow when she got a crazy idea.
Neal looked at her in confusion and disbelief, "How can you say that? You think crossing the border's easy?"
"We get fake IDs and passports." Emma stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I do not understand." Hook said looking at them, "Why would you need these IDs and passports just to cross kingdoms? What they bloody hell are they anyway?"
"For protection." Regina said answering his question.
"But how-?" Hook was about to ask when he was cut off, "Because the people here need them…and they just do. Now shut up." Regina barked despite herself.
Everyone stared at her as Neal said, "Those cost money. We have a stolen car."
"We make it legit. We take a VIN number off of another car." Emma argued back.
Snow could see her daughter becoming desperate and it broke her heart to see Emma trying so hard. David could also feel his heart breaking just watching Emma try really hard to change Neal's mind on the matter, when he clearly already made it up, "Emma, I'm not going to have you in the seat next to me with twenty thousand-"
Emma was suddenly shocked and waved her hands to shut Neal up, "Wait, wait! Seriously. Wait, wait, wait." Pausing she started to pace quickly. Henry was now watching her closely and he could see where he got his operation planning method from. Slowly Emma stopped and said, "What if I go and get the watches out of the locker? No one's looking for me. We can…We can fence them, and then we have the money. We can do whatever we want. We can go wherever we want, right? We could change our identities and go to Tallahassee."
Gold spun from his spot and looked at Emma like he has never seen her before, "She would do that for him? For my son?" he asked slowly coming back to the group.
"Well she is our daughter clearly," David answered in awe looking at her.
"And she does love him dearly." Snow put in as she placed both hands over her heart.
Hook nodded as he could see the look in her bright hazel eyes. Regina did not say anything, but somehow she knew that: A) this idea would not fly well or B) something was bound to go wrong. She looked at Snow and David and somehow she was leaning toward option B, because this was their daughter and it of course had everything to do with love.
"So you…" Neal paused still trying to wrap his head around Emma's plan, "You want to steal the watches, to help me with get away with stealing the watches?"
"Yes. That is exactly what I want to do." Emma said firmly.
"I can't let you risk everything-" Neal started to say as he placed his hands on her shoulders.
"I love you." Emma interrupted him while looking at him dead in the eyes.
"I love you, too." He responded just as seriously as she did. He sighed seeing that he was not going to win, "You think you can do it?"
Emma smirked, "I know I can."
"And there is the cocky attitude that get's her in trouble." Regina stated. Everyone looked at her and she asks, "What? You know it is true."
No one said anything, because the Queen was right. The scene changes and the atmosphere is instantly tense. Everyone holds their breath as they see Emma nervously standing in front of the lockers at the train station. They watch Emma closely looking fixated on something and immediately they see what she sees…two cops talking.
They follow her as she carefully takes out a key and she starts to scan the lockers for the correct one. Reaching the right one she hesitantly unlocks the locker and pulls out a bag. They release their breaths at the same time Emma does realizing that she is successful. The scene quickly starts to change as they watch her exit the station.
They immediately recognize the yellow bug that is sitting in the street as Emma rushes into the car, where Neal is waiting for her, "Oh, thank God." Neal says as they watch Emma hand over the bag and they kiss, in which case both Gold and David shudder.
"Let's see 'em." Emma demands eagerly.
With shaking hands Neal takes out the case of watches and opens the lid and everyone watches as Emma's face falls from excitement to slight disappointment, "That's not as many as I thought."
"Me neither." Henry also comments, "You would think that there would be more of them for that manager to want my dad…"
"I am sure they are real expensive though." Snow states, not quite sure if she should be approving or disapproving this conversation with her grandson. Although she felt proud of her daughter, in fact she was quite sure they would have made one hell of a team in the Enchanted Forest while on the run from Regina's guards. Snow smiled at the thought as David looked at her questioningly. Snow shrugged and mouthed later to him as they continued watching the scene.
"Yeah, but they're super pricey." Neal explained to her. Snow gave Henry a look that said 'I told you so' as Neal continued, "This is twenty thousand dollars, easy."
Emma's eyes relit up with excitement, "Twenty thousand?! Tallahassee…"
Gold watched his son closely as his eyes were filled with love and longing. It did not take a genius to know what he was thinking about. It became clear to Gold that his son really loved Emma and would do anything for her. He bit his lip as he continued to watch, "Listen, I'm going to go meet the fence. I'll meet you with the money. Remember where? The parking structure by the tracks."
"Yes." Emma responded.
"Nine o'clock, sharp." Neal says and then he got an idea and says slowly, "This is so there's no mix-ups…" He takes out one of the watches and fastens it around Emma's wrist.
Emma smiles as she looks at it, "So, I guess we're keeping this one?"
Neal smiles brightly, "How can we not? Look how good it looks on you." She smiles at him again and they kiss, again, "Tallahassee, baby. We're almost home." He states.
Emma smiles as Neal exits the car with the bag. Before the scene fades out once more they hear Emma mutter with a content sigh, "Home…"
At the parking structure, they see that Emma is waiting for Neal. Hook watches as she paces while holding…a cell phone? Cell phone to her ear; while also muttering a string of curse words.
"I do not understand…it looks like she has been waiting awhile for dad," Henry observed recognizing his mother's agitated state of being. He tried to push away the ominous feeling that returned as he watched, but looking at the adults he could tell that they knew something was wrong.
Snow and David were on the alert now. Snow remembered the article in the Daily Mirror about Emma being eighteen and having Henry in jail. She did the quick math in her head and realized that if Emma ran away at sixteen from the system, she knew that must have meant that she met Neal around seventeen, which would now make her…eighteen. Snow's stomach sank as she realized what possibly happened…
Suddenly Emma dialed the number again and placed the phone on speaker. They heard the error message and Emma slammed the phone shut, "Damn right it's an error." She says out lud.
Just then everyone went white in the face as a cop appears, armed with a gun out of the shadows of the structure, "Unless he set you up." Emma jumps and turns and suddenly her face is white, "Hands above your head please, miss."
"No," Henry muttered, "He wouldn't do that. This has to be a mistake." Turning to the adults they were giving him a look of pity. Looking at Regina now he asks, "This is mistake right?"
Regina was just as shocked as Henry was. Based on what she observed, she would have never thought that Neal would have done this to the blonde, "Wait. Why?" Emma asked doing as instructed trying to play cool.
"Possession of stolen goods." The cop stated with a smirk, "Left you holding."
"I have nothing." Emma stated once again as the cop searched her.
Henry, seeing that Regina nor anyone, was going to answer him he continued to watch as the cop continued his search, "Sorry to tell you, but your boy took off. Probably in Canada by now," he was pretty sure that his face was mirroring Emma's who wore a look of devastation.
Seeing that neither Snow, David, Regina, or Gold was paying attention to the boy, Hook placed a hand on his shoulder. Henry looked at the pirate and hugged him as the cop continued to talk, "He called in a tip – told us to take a look at the surveillance footage at the train station. Give me the watch. Now!"
Emma begins to unfasten the watch and hands it to the cop who asks, "You know your rights?"
"Yeah." Emma responds as now everyone winces at the cold, dead, unfeeling tone that she took on.
He goes to handcuff her and says, "Good girl. Turn around," as she turns he asks, "Where's the rest of the watches?"
"They're gone," Emma says, "they're not coming back."
"Let's go." The cop orders and drags her away from the parking structure.
No one says a word as the scene rapidly changes. They look around and they Emma is sitting in a jail cell staring at something in her hand. Before they could see what it was, a guard enters with a brown envelope in her hand, "Swan, you got mail. Know anyone in Phuket? I've got to open this in front of you. Those are the rules. Okay."
Emma turns her dead, cold stare off the object in her hand and looks at the guard who already opened the envelope and holds up a set of car keys attached to swan keychain which everyone recognized as the pendent that Emma use to wear around her neck, "Look – car keys. Hope you got the car it goes with. Nothing else. No letter. Sorry. But, good news – you get a car when you get out." Emma drops her gaze and the guard sees what she is staring at and suddenly her voice turns to cynical excitement, "And a baby. Congratulations."
Henry's heart stops and everyone's head snaps to the object that Emma is holding. Slowly they make their way over to the blonde and sure enough Emma was holding a positive pregnancy test in her hands. Before anyone could say anything the scene went dark.