Part 2

~88888~

The tiles were dirty. The grouting needed to be scrubbed. The taps were beginning to rust. The shelf had soap scum compacted into the corner. The only reason Emma saw any of this was because she was staring blankly ahead as the warm water of the shower cascaded over her body. And the only reason she was thinking about the uncleanliness of the wall before her was to keep herself from thinking about the man she had left behind.

Normally, a shower after a good lay rinsed all traces of the encounter away. This time, the warm water did nothing. The warm turrets became his hands, caressing every inch of her skin; the steam mimicked his breath as he whispered sweet nothings as his lips explored her body. At one point she had contemplated using the loofah to scrub herself clean. But that would mean scrubbing him away, and the thought of that was incomprehensible. No, for the first time in a long, long time, she wanted that feeling of intimacy to remain locked into her skin.

She wanted to go back, wanted desperately to return to that cabin, to that bed, to those sheets. She wanted to spend a day just with him, enjoying everything that he had to offer. Her hands slipped between her thighs at the thought, but it appeared that only his hands were going to flick her switch now.

Damn him.

She eventually managed to finish cleaning herself up, turning off the tap and stepping out of the small box. The mirror had fogged up which Emma was thankful for. For some reason she didn't want to look at her reflection. Her bedroom mirror on the other hand wasn't so forgiving. The moment she shut her door she caught her reflection. It wasn't so much her face that she was keen to avoid, it was the marks, his marks. The bites and bruises that only symbolized one thing littered her neck and chest. Her towel slipped and she caught sight of a handful more on her breasts. But there was one bite in particular that caught her attention. It wasn't the biggest, or the smallest, nor was it the darkest. It was just perfectly placed on her chest, right on top of her heart. Her fingers traced its outline softly, all the while knowing what muscle was beneath.

"You're not in love with him, Emma." She said to her reflection. "You can't be."

She was defiant. Under no circumstance would she let her heart have its way. Under no circumstance would she allow her heart to break again; once was enough. But then she imagined his eyes, those perfect cerulean orbs peeking out from beneath his eyelashes.

Men should not be able to look like that.

She remembered what he looked like, his chin resting on the lowest abdominal muscles, looking up at her as she came down from a high. She remembered his fingers, the way they seemed to spark at the contact with her skin as they traced lazy circles on her sides. She remembered his hook, the cold metal burning trails all over her skin. And then she felt her heart, deep inside her chest, fluttering against her ribcage.

She could only imagine the smirk on his face if he knew how her body was reacting to the mere memory of his touch. She turned away from the mirror. She needed to get dressed before Mary Margaret or David barged in to see if she was alright. She could hear banging as David tried to fix the thermostat. But it was what she saw that knocked her out of her reverie.

It was the best photo she had of Henry. It was a picture he had attempted to take with her phone, failing miserably so all it caught was him laughing. Every time she had seen it on her phone during her first year in Storybrooke she had heard his laughter. When she and Mary Margaret had returned from their adventure in the Enchanted Forrest her first stop had been to get the photo enlarged so she could see it every day easily. But seeing it now, it reminded her of what she had to do today; she had to tell him, and Neal about Killian – whoa, she did it again.

Unfortunately, as she was in the process of leaving the apartment, carefully avoiding David, her phone rang. Neal was going to have to wait as her job intruded. The worst part of the phone call was that she very quickly recognized it as being a prank call. Even though it was a prank, she still had to head into the station to report it – goddamn the bureaucracy. Whilst there she checked the messages, finished some outstanding paperwork and made a mental note that David, for all his skill at keeping the peace, really was a dreadful office-man.

She had been at the station for barely an hour when she strode out the doors. It was almost eleven, she noted. Plenty of time to find Neal, talk to him about Hook, then pick Henry up from school and tell him. She hoped to find Neal out and about, so she chose not to call him as she pounded the pavement of the town. However, Neal proved to be elusive. She tried his room at Granny's, but it was empty; she then moved on to see if he was at Gold's. He wasn't at the shop, nor was he at his father's home.

"If you see him, can you get him to call me?" She had told Belle as she left the shop.

Belle had told her she would and then Emma was back on the street, looking around helplessly. Where the hell could he be? She moved on to Granny's Diner, hoping, as it was almost lunchtime, that she would see him there. But alas, as she opened the doors, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Ah, Emma, you're alive I see." Granny's voice sounded from behind the counter.

"Ah, yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Emma responded, double checking every crevice of the diner for him.

"David was in this morning. Seemed pretty worried that you'd gone missing." She shrugged.

Emma looked to the older woman, taking a seat at the counter. "Yeah, that'll teach me to leave the house early without leaving a note." This conversation was heading for dangerous territory.

"I suppose." Granny nodded, although she didn't look convinced. "Now what can I get you?" She asked pulling out a pad and pen.

Fortune seemed to be favoring Emma in this moment.

When she had set foot inside the diner, and the aromas from the kitchen had found her nose, her stomach had given an almighty roar. She hadn't planned on staying long at Granny's, preferring to be out looking for Neal – even trying him on his cell was proving impossible – but her stomach had changed her plans.

"Just a pastrami sandwich." Emma responded, looking over her shoulder as the door jingled behind her. She had hoped it would be Neal, instead she saw a couple of the dwarves leaving.

"One pastrami sandwich coming right up." Granny nodded moving back into the kitchen.

"May I join you?" Emma turned to see Regina standing before her.

She hadn't seen the woman in her initial sweep of the place, which told Emma she had been in the bathroom. But seeing Henry's other mother reminded her of one other important conversation she needed to have that day. The decision had been made, Mary Margaret and David were going to have the apartment, Emma was going to spend a couple of nights at Granny's – although she doubted that that would actually eventuate – and Henry was going to spend that time with Regina. She just needed to let Regina and Henry know. It was a conversation that she had been pretty sure she could have over the phone, but having it done in person now would be far more convenient.

"I won't bother you too much; I have to get back to the office." She explained.

"Go right ahead." Emma smiled. "I actually wanted to check something with you."

"That sounds ominous, because I wanted to ask a favor but I'll let you go first." She responded.

"Actually I wanted a quick word about Henry." Emma smiled twisting slightly.

"What about Henry?" Regina asked, a frown immediately gracing her brow.

"Nothing's wrong, I just thought it would be good if he could spend the weekend with you." Emma said, surprisingly lamely.

Regina paused for a moment. "Strangely enough that was what I was going to ask you." She said with a weak laugh. "It's not a problem. Is the thermostat really that bad?" Regina questioned.

Emma was relieved, the last thing she wanted to have to do was explain to Regina the real reason she wanted their son to stay with her.

"Yeah, it really is. But David's working on it now, so it should be better soon." She answered as Granny placed her lunch down before her.

Regina nodded. "Right, well the only problem with this plan is getting Henry to my place." She said standing. "Would you or Neal be able to drop him off?" She apologized.

"Won't be a problem." Emma nodded, giving the other woman a thumbs up.

"Good. Thank you Emma." She said as she left the diner.

Emma was thrilled that that part of the plan was sorted. She imagined that Henry, also, would be thrilled that he wasn't going to be expected to come home to an apartment that rivaled the room his nightmares had occupied right after he woke up from his sleeping curse. It would be good for him, get a couple of quiet days in, get his homework done, get lots of sleep, good food; he would be happy and healthy. Her to do list featured one less thing to worry about.

She finished her sandwich, reveling in the glory of Granny's pastrami, before she acknowledged that she had to find Neal and fast. She wanted to have spoken to him before she spoke to Henry, and she had to pick Henry up Henry in just over an hour. As she turned to leave, she caught Ruby giving her a knowing look. Her insides tightened into knots under her knowing gaze.

"I take it you had a good night?" She teased.

Emma stammered.

"You just gobbled that sandwich down quite rapidly." She said with a smirk.

Emma practically ran out of the store as Ruby laughed at her discomfort.

Shaking away the knowledge that Ruby's nose told her far too much about the residents of the town, Emma began her search for Neal. She hadn't gone very far when her phone rang – it was the Sheriff's line. The second time in one day, evidently the apocalypse is here Emma thought to herself angrily. Answering the call told her that Hook had found himself in a bar fight at the Rabbit Hole. Emma grumbled as she hung up the phone. He had consistently managed to be the perfect distraction in Neverland, forcing her attention to stay on rescuing Henry rather than dwelling on what Pan must have wanted him for. Now, he was being a needless distraction. Still, it would be unseemly for her to ignore her new boyfriend for her old.

Whoa, things were clearly getting bad in her head if she was thinking of Hook as her boyfriend!

As she made her way towards the town's infamous bar she wondered who Hook was crossing this time. It seemed that everywhere he went troubled followed. He was a nightmare.

But as she closed in on the bar, she could only watch in horror as her question was answered. The door to the bar flew open and a group of men, some tiny and some built, quite literally threw a man onto the street before pulling the door shut behind them. As she closed in on the scene, pushing her way through the small crowd that had formed around the dejected figure still lying in a heap, she realized she knew exactly who it was. As she reached the front of the throng, the man looked up and around at his audience and the moment his eyes found hers, she saw anger, fire and burning malice inside them. And as soon as she recognized the way his gaze burnt her (and not in the good way) she saw it all evaporate, replaced with despondency.

In that moment only one thing struck Emma's mind: he knew.

~88888~

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