Chapter 4: Magic Always Comes with a Price

The lights at the sheriff station were all off but that didn't bother Emma. The light from the outside made it more than bright enough so there was no need.

Emma held all three files open. The one to the left was her old case file from when she was in the system, the one to the right was her juvy record, and the one in the middle was the criminal record that belonged to Neal Cassidy.

That was an upside to being a bail bond person. It was easy to detain records when on the search for a perp that you needed to find. Emma held had had her system record for a while but she hadn't come to the criminal files until just shortly after Henry had come to find her.

Thinking that part of her life was over, she had nearly just about flipped out when her past came back to her present, even more so when she had talked to Henry's adoptive mother and she had asked about Henry's father.

Upon arrival of the files, Emma had refused to look at them until now. She had been thinking about Neal a lot lately. And after the incident with the dream catcher as a way to find out the truth about Archie even more so. It wasn't like it was that big of a deal. She had kept the car they shared and kept the keychain but then there were certain moments, certain situations that brought her past up all over again.

Just a few days ago she had confided in her parents, with however little detail as possible, that they didn't know what she had been before Storybrooke. Now considering how much her life had changed the thought of regressing rested heavily on her. She knew what she was, what she had been and with some of those memories came the thought of Neal.

She sighed as she looked at the file. There was nothing there which showed that he had never gotten arrested, never did any time since before they had met.

The nightmare didn't take too long to resurface in Emma's mind. She wasn't surprised really given that she was staring right at a picture of Neal that was in the file.

Thinking about it, maybe it hadn't been all that wise to give Henry the dream catcher. It was probably filled with so many of her nightmares that maybe it was no longer capable of holding anymore. It had certainly backfired on her last night given that she hadn't had that particular nightmare in years. There was no way it could have been a coincidence. That word no longer seemed to apply much anymore.

Thoughts of coincidence began to lead Emma's mind a path she wasn't sure she wanted to take. Regina had warned her that magic came with a price but Emma knew she had to make her next move, she had to know.

Later in the afternoon Emma opened the door to Gold's shop.

Mr. Gold smiled, "Ah Miss Swan, twice in less than a week, did you find what you needed to help your boy?"

"That all depends."

"On what?"

"On this," said Emma, placing the dream catcher on the counter.

She had gone home shortly after the office to retrieve it, promising Henry that she would bring it back to him. She just needed to check something first. Henry was curious as to what Emma could need to check with a dream catcher but she had reassured him that she wanted to make sure it worked given that it did contain powers of its own even when not activated properly by magic. Henry bought that reason and left it at that.

"What can you tell me about dream catchers," Emma asked him. "You said it was capable of more than just catching dreams."

"Ah that I did. Well, they do catch dreams but they can also be a way of sending messages."

"Can it be…reprogrammed? If it captures nightmares then can those be removed so that those nightmares are no longer in the dream catcher?"

"I'm curious, why all the sudden interest in dream catchers Miss Swan?"

"I'm just trying to help my kid."

"Yes but this time it isn't about your boy now is it? And it certainly wasn't about him the first time when I pulled out a dream catcher was it?"

Emma looked at Gold.

"Like I said, you're not the only one who is good at reading people. I saw the way you looked at the dream catcher Miss Swan, heard the way your voice softened as you mentioned the word. What could ever elicit such a response?"

"That's my business," Emma said to him. "The dream catcher worked for Henry but it's having the opposite effect on me. I'm having dreams I don't want, dreams I haven't had in years."

"Maybe those dreams are coming to you because they're trying to give you a message."

"I don't care, whatever message it has, I don't want. Can it be reprogrammed or not?"

"I'm afraid not. And what you're describing isn't a dream, it's a nightmare."

"Whatever, I still don't want this nightmare in my head."

"Let me show you something. You see this hole in the center, this is the place where the good dreams enter. The web around it is what captures the nightmares and they disappear as the sun rises at dawn."

"Then why is mine still trapped in it?"

"That's a question I can't answer. Only you can do that and in order to do so you'll have to use the dream catcher as both a way of extracting your memories and extracting the dream it harbors. The first which you all ready know you can do and the second well, I'm sure you'll figure it out."

"You're asking me to use magic."

"Not really, no. I'm leaving that decision up to you but if I had to bet I'd say that your boy will continue to need you and you'll want to be there for him and the only way you can is if you and the dream catcher can…get along for lack of a better phrase."

Emma picked up the dream catcher.

"Then I'll do what I have to," she said not indicating her plan as she walked to the door.

"Need I remind you Miss Swan, if you decide to use magic then magic-," said Gold.

"Always comes with a price," Emma said as she stood near the exit on her way out, "I know."