The Prompt: Snow suggests that Neal be the one to find Emma but Neal tells them why he shouldn't and then Charming suggests Hook.
"You must find Emma," pleaded Snow, her eyes giant orbs of fleeting hope. "We lost her once, I cannot lose her again."
Charming placed a gloved hand on his wife's growing stomach. She could go into labor at any time really. He couldn't just leave her, not with the threats that surrounded their unborn child. Out of the many things he loved about Snow was her ability to keep herself safe. But, she was far too pregnant to be launching arrows at an enemy invasion.
A small grin slipped onto his face as he felt a strong kick at the palm of his hand. It reminded him of his final moments with Emma before she was born. His fingers stretched to their full length along Snow's stomach. Charming was torn. He wanted to be there for Snow, he owed it to her as her husband and to their unborn child as a father. But, he owed it to Emma to be there for her as well.
The curse that Regina had cast twenty-nine years ago took away Emma from himself and Snow. The family they dreamed of was torn from them all. Emma had grown up as an orphan without her parents to love her and to teach her how to ride a horse or wield a sword. There were so many things he wanted to do with Emma and now she was an adult and it was far too late.
Returning to her world in Manhattan to help return her memories that Pan had taken of the last few months of their reunion as a family was the honorable thing to do. It was the right thing to do. It was the fatherly this to do. He owed it to Emma to be her father.
"No offense Mate," spoke Killian, the notorious Captain Hook and Captain of the Royal Guard, "but don't you think it would be a lot to take in if a man that was almost the same age as her appeared at her doorstep and claimed to be her father?"
Charming frowned realizing that Killian was right. It took months of Emma being in Storybrooke before she believed her son, Henry about the curse and the truth to the stories in his fairytale book. Logical Emma would call the cops the moment he told her anything about the Enchanted Forest and the truth of her heritage.
"True loves kiss!" Snow exclaimed darting her eager gaze to Neal. The son of the Dark One and father of Henry raised both of his thick eyebrows high. "It's the most powerful thing in the world. Maybe it will trigger Emma's memory."
Charming grimaced. He wasn't so sure about that. When Snow had lost her memory he had attempted a true love kiss and was knocked unconscious. If he knew anything about Emma it was how eerily alike she was when it came to Snow's steely resolve.
"You have to go, Neal," Snow told him. "She will remember you even without the curse of losing her memory. It'll be easier to explain."
Neal shifted where he stood. "I don't know about that," he replied, rubbing the back of his dark hair. "Emma still thinks I abandoned her in jail and never came looking for her. If anything she'll be angry the second she sees me."
"But if you kiss her—"
"It won't do anything," Neal nearly cried. The room went suddenly silently. Even the tiny kicks against Charming's hand had ceased. Neal cleared his throat, shifting his gaze between each person in the room before they landed back to Snow. "I'm not Emma's true love. Maybe I never was. I asked her for a second chance but I had plenty of second chances before I even asked."
He inhaled deeply, his chest shook as he exhaled through his mouth. "I could have told her everything from the beginning, and I didn't. I could have disregarded Pinocchio's warning and I didn't. Instead I sent her to jail because I thought it was the right thing to do. I could have gone to Storybrooke after the curse was broken and tried to redeem myself but I chose my normal life with Tamara."
Suddenly he laughed. Charming looked to Snow, then to Hook who both wore similar expressions of twisted brows and pursed lips. However, Neal continued to speak listing reasons as to why he was not Emma's true love.
"Snow, you and Charming always find each other," he solemnly told her, "and all I've ever done is run in the opposite direction of where Emma was."
Snow shook her head, desperate to hold on to her belief that Neal was Emma's true love. "But she found you. Isn't that enough?"
Charming wasn't convinced. He liked Neal, a lot. He made a lot of mistakes in the past, but who didn't? Charming would have very much liked to see Neal and Emma happily ever after together. Not only would Emma have the family she deserved but so would Henry.
But, happy endings weren't always standard. What worked for some didn't work for others. Neal was right. He loved Emma, that much was plain to see, but when you truly loved someone you did what you could do keep them safe. You found them at all costs when you were separated. And, your heart belonged only to them.
"Going to Manhattan would result in a lot of heartache that I don't think is fair to make Emma remember again while telling her that her entire life is nothing but a lie."
"I agree," muttered Charming, nodding to Neal in approval.
Snow frowned. "Then what do we do? Should we ask Ariel…"
"I'll go," volunteered Killian. All eyes fell to him. "I can use the Jolly Roger to fly there with some pixie dust from Tink."
"You only want to go because you think you love Emma," commented Neal. No one disagreed. Not even Killian.
He coolly let an easy smile sprawl across his face. "It is no secret that I care for Emma," he admitted, turning his smirk into a solid grin, "but I think out of everyone here I am the best candidate in returning her memory. She won't be angry at me for abandoning her for one." He then slyly added, "not that I have."
"You left us in a cell after Cora locked us up," sputtered Snow.
"And I deeply regret that but I think my actions since then have proven my sorrow," he told Snow.
She rolled her eyes but there was the smallest hint of a smile on her lips. Killian spotted the upturn in the corner of her mouth but looked away to lock eyes with Charming once again. "I will find your daughter and I will do everything I can to help her," he promised.
His blue eyes were darker than the sea at night as he stared hard at Charming, his smile vanished completely. "I may have just been a pirate, and I have done a lot of less than honorable things but you were once nothing more than a farmer's son." He then slowly turned his softened gaze to Snow, "and you nothing more than a bandit wanted by the Queen." Snow's face drained of any color as she diverted her gaze to Charming's hand. "I have found Emma before. I will do it again."
Snow blinked. She titled he chin toward her husband. "What do you think?"
Charming removed his hand from her stomach. He took several long strides to where the former pirate stood placing his hands on his broad shoulders. Killian held his chin high, his gaze hardened once again.
He steered Killian to the window where they overlooked the Jolly Roger sitting at the castle docks. He had faith in his new friend. Despite their rocky start there was a quality that Killain had that Charming saw in himself. One that Emma very much deserved in her life.
"Let me explain a tricky catch to the true love kiss," Charming warned with a hint of a smile, "sometimes, they hit back."
