All three were momentarily blinded by the sudden amount of light that hit their eyes. They blinked violently until they could see the sight before them. Gold first caught sight of Rose and he felt sudden relief. She was being held by Garrett Stone, who's entire face showed fear. Rumpelstiltskin nearly keeled over laughing when he saw that the only thing standing between him and his daughter was none other than Sydney Glass, the bumbling reporter. He thought he had disappeared for good. Apparently not. Rumpelstiltskin took a step forward, but suddenly, Sydney ripped out a gun from his side and pointed it at them.

"Stay there. Or I'll shoot!"

Rumpelstiltskin smirked. "Come now, Mr. Glass. We both know you don't have the stomach to shoot anyone of us." He then chose to ignore Sydney and turned his attention to Emma. "I guess this confirms my suspicions, Sheriff. Glass is obviously working for Regina." He tilted his head in mock sympathy towards Sydney. "Just like a loyal dog."

The man's face went red, from anger or embarrassment, or both, no one knew. He clutched the gun tighter. His finger found the trigger. He shot it at the wall behind Gold's head. Rose started screaming. The gun shook in Sydney's hand. "I will still shoot you."

Against all warning, Rumpelstiltskin limped a couple of steps forward. Sydney pointed the gun straight at him, but Rumpelstiltskin ignored him. He turned his attention to Garrett. "Mr. Stone, if you wouldn't mind. I would like my daughter back."

Garrett only held the child closer, his eyes darting to Sydney's trembling form. "Not while he's still got a gun."

Mr. Gold was about to say something else when Emma spoke up. "Sydney, drop the gun," she said in a calming voice. As a sign of good will they all watched as she lowered her own firearm to the ground. She kept her hands in the air the entire time.

"I can't. Don't you see? She needs me to do this, and I will obey her."

"Are you under some sort of spell or something?"

"Spell?" He scoffed at her. "Come on, Miss Swan. Are you serious?"

She shrugged. "You'd be surprised. Now drop the gun and we can all work this out together. There's no need for us to be pointing weapons at each other."

"NO!" He shouted so loud that everyone, even Mr. Gold, couldn't resist flinching.

"Sydney, look at you," Emma tried to reason with him. "You're not a killer. Regina is asking you to be a killer. Why would you want to follow someone like that?"

His lips turned into the smallest of smiles. "I doubt you would understand why I do anything, Miss Swan."

"Can't you see, Emma?" Jefferson whispered from behind her. "He's in love with her."

"In love with Regina? Who the hell would..." she whispered back as if he was insane, but Jefferson's theory did make sense, no matter how twisted it all was. She turned her attention back to Sydney. "You love her, don't you?"

His eyes told her everything she needed to know. "More than my own life."

"That's why you're willing to do all of this, isn't it? That's why you're willing to kidnap a grown man and an innocent baby, drag them down here, and threaten to kill all of us if we try to do anything to help them?"

Sydney nodded. "Love makes you do insane things, Sheriff. Will you shut that baby up?" He snapped at Garrett. "She won't stop screaming."

"Maybe you shouldn't have taken her away from her mother," Gold replied snidely, before he turned back to Garrett who was trying to shush the baby to no avail. "Give her to me. I can calm her."

"You'd better not try anything, Gold," Sydney warned as he turned his body partially and flicked the weapon in the man's direction. He watched as Mr. Gold limped over to Garrett and gently lifted the wailing child up into his arms. He watched as the man rocked her back and forth until the crying began to die down. "Who knew you had a special touch with children," Sydney remarked. Mr. Gold gave a curt nod of his head and focused on his daughter, relieved beyond words that she was back in his arms.

"If you ever touch her again..." he growled.

Sydney sighed. "I'm very sorry, but in case you didn't hear me before, she can't leave. Regina's orders."

"Regina can go to hell," Emma said as she took advantage of Sydney's distraction and lunged for her gun. Sydney recognized the danger though, and whirled back around, his gun pointed at her, and before anything else could be said or done, he had pressed the trigger and fired his gun.

The bullet sped forward, but Jefferson acted fast. He shouted Emma's name, grabbed her by the waist, and twirled her around so that his body shielded her's. He cried out as he felt the bullet tear past his clothes and through his skin and embed itself deep into his back. He fell to the ground in a heap and Emma stared down at him in shock. She couldn't think, she couldn't speak, she couldn't move, she couldn't breathe. Had he really just done that?

When the blood stopped pounding in her ears, she looked and saw that Sydney was on the ground, unconscious. Mr. Gold was brandishing his cane menacingly over his body before he kicked the gun out of his hand and far out of reach. He looked down at Rose and then at Emma. "Is Jefferson alright, Miss Swan?" He limped over towards her. Emma looked down at Jefferson's body. She saw the blood pooling around, and she saw him grimacing in pain. She still couldn't move. She was in shock. "Miss Swan," Gold barked at her. He did so once more and then she finally looked at him. "I'm holding a baby. I need your help."
Emma gulped, put her firearm back in her holster, and then knelt down next to Jefferson.

He was smirking at her through his pain. "Now are you impressed?"

"Not at all," she replied in a hard tone.

He frowned. "God, woman, what's it going to take to get your bloody attention?!"

"Not a bullet in the back, that's for sure!" She shouted back.

"Miss Swan," Rumpelstiltskin chastised, "I don't believe shouting at him is going to help save his life."

Emma nodded her head and looked at his chest. She felt around, but there was nothing. "The bullet went in through your back, but there's no exit wound. It's still in there. We need help. I've got to call someone." She took out her phone, but there was no signal. She made to stand up. "I'll get a signal outside!"

Rumpelstiltskin stopped her with a hand on her arm. He looked solemn and shook his head. She gave him a confused stare, but he refused to say anything.

"I believe what the Dark One is trying to say is that by the time help gets here it'll be too late." Jefferson wheezed, and Emma noticed that he was beginning to struggle for breath.

"You don't get to die because you decided to play hero. I'm not impressed, Jefferson."

The man chuckled and clutched at his chest. "You are, just a little bit. Admit it." She shook her head and he just smiled all the more. "By the way, you can keep my coat. Looks better on you, anyway."

"To hell I..." Emma stopped when she saw him close his eyes and heard him let out a deep breath. When she placed a hand at the pulse point on his neck, she felt nothing. No heartbeat. "No," she choked out and looked up at Gold. "He doesn't get to die. Not for me."

"I don't think there's anything we can do about it, Emma."

"You're the freaking Dark One! Use your magic and bring him back!"
Rumpelstiltskin sighed. "I wish I could. But magic doesn't work here, remember?"

She scoffed. "Then what's the point?"
"What?"

"I'm supposed to be the Savior, right? That's my 'destiny'. But how can I save everyone in this town, if I can't even save him?"

Mr. Gold frowned. "A fair question indeed, dearie. But there is one thing you could still try."

"What's that?"

"It probably won't work." She gave him a look that demanded he tell her and so he sighed. "Kiss him."

Emma's eyes widened. "What the hell, Rumpelstiltskin?!"

"I'm serious."

"So, what? True Love's kiss? Like Snow White and Prince Charming? That's what you're hoping is going to happen? There is no freaking way that the Mad Hatter is my true love."
Mr. Gold shrugged. "There's only one way to find out." He looked pointedly down at Jefferson's still body. He was already beginning to grow pale, and Emma looked from Rumpelstiltskin to Jefferson. She sighed.

"Fine," she grumbled and moved closer. "But...turn your back or something. Unless you want me to think you're some kind of pervert."

To her relief, Rumpelstiltskin did as she asked and wandered over to where Garrett was still sitting quietly, his hands shaking from everything that had just happened.

Emma looked behind her shoulder to make sure that no one was looking before she scooted even closer to Jefferson and awkwardly grabbed his hand with one of hers. She leaned down so that no one else could hear what she was saying. "Alright, look. Gold's crazy. You knew it and I know it, but that doesn't change the fact that you jumped in front of a bullet to save me, and I lied. Truth is, I was impressed. Just a little bit, but still impressed. And if you come back to life or something, I would like to be able to tell you that in person, when you're not dead. So..."

She could still barely believe that she was doing this. But as her mouth descended lower and lower, she allowed her eyes to close, and then Emma's lips touched Jefferson's. They were still warm and soft, and she wished that he was alive so that he could respond.

Emma thought she felt movement, but she knew she must just be imagining it. After all, he was dead. Then, suddenly, she felt a hand caressing her neck, and the contact was enough to make her jump away, her lips suddenly feeling cold from the lack of contact. When she looked down, she saw that Jefferson's eyes were opened and he was giving her a tired smirk.

"I thought I died," he remarked.

"You did," she admitted in a squeaky voice.

Jefferson looked at her strangely. "Ah, and you..."

"Gold thought a kiss might wake you up," she replied in embarrassment. Her cheeks were flushing. She quickly removed her hand from his, but he reached out and grabbed it, entwining her fingers with his.

"There's only one time a kiss is powerful enough to bring someone back from the dead, Emma."

"I know."

"But you don't want to talk about that right now, do you?"

Emma shook her head, and then she realized that she missed his touch, and the feeling was so intense, that she couldn't resist leaning back down and kissing him again. This time, he responded. Emma felt an immense and inexplicable power surround them. The energy crackled like electricity across their skin. It felt like magic. His fingers tangled into her hair and her other hand caressed his neck. He smiled against her lips, and when they both pulled away, they were breathless. Emma stared at him in shock, still unable to take it all in.

From behind them, Rumpelstiltskin cleared his throat. "I believe you did it, Miss Swan."

"Did what?" She asked, refusing to look away from Jefferson.

"I think you just broke the curse."

0o0o0o0o0o

Yay! The curse is finally broken!

You know what this means, kiddies? Only one more chapter left, and I may decide to do an epilogue.

But, yes, I know, take it all in. Emma and Jefferson. I ship those two so hard, so it only made logical sense for me to make their kiss be the kiss that breaks the curse. Don't get me wrong, I love how Emma breaks the curse by kissing Henry in season 1, but I decided to take some liberties, and make it a little more fluffy. Cause I love fluff!

Review, and I hope to have the FINAL chapter up within the week!