A/N: Apologies for the long wait. I had some issues with this chapter. From here on out things are going to start falling into place.

A week passed by almost uneventful. Since Nikolai had scared Graham when he hadn't shown up at the hospital with Emma, he had been very careful to be on time to visit his brother. Sometimes he came alone, other times Ruby joined him. After nearly five days in the hospital, Dr. Whale deemed it safe enough for Graham to be released. In those days, Emma had split her time between the hospital, sometimes with her family, and looking for a place for Graham to stay. It was until the day before Graham was released that Emma found out that there was an apartment in her family's building that was open and available to be rented.

Emma had hated having to speak to Mr. Gold about renting out the apartment to Graham and his brother, but it had ended up being far less horrible than she had expected. Even though she had vehemently denied that she needed back up, James had stood by her side while she spoke to Gold.

That had been three days ago, and it had been two days since she had seen Graham. It was killing her knowing that he was so close, and yet seemed so far away. Even if she knew that Graham and Nikolai needed the time to adjust to their new living situation. Two day though, Emma decided, was long enough, mainly because she couldn't take another minute of not seeing him.

She knocked softly on the door, and heard laughing on the other side. A smile erupted on her lips, but suddenly faded when Nikolai answered the door.

"Emma!" Nikolai grinned, like it had been an eternity since he had last seen her.

"Hey, Nikolai." Emma greeted, as Nikolai pulled her into a hug.

"I was wondering when you'd come for a visit." Nikolai pointed out.

"I wanted to give you and Graham some adjusting time." Emma answered softly, her eyes grazing the open space before her. "Speaking of, where is Graham?"

Nikolai sighed, "Sleeping. Those pain medicines that the doctor gave him knock him out cold."

Emma nodded, "How is his shoulder?"

Nikolai shrugged, "He claims that he's fine. I basically have to force him to take the pain medicine."

Emma's eyebrows pinched up, "Are you sure he's in pain?"

Nikolai stared at Emma for a minute before nodding, "Of course I am. He tries to hide it. He's really good at hiding it, but I'll catch him grimacing though. I don't like seeing him hurt."

Emma nodded, "Alright. Can I go see him?"

Nikolai chuckled, "Of course you can." Nikolai moved out of the way to allow Emma to enter the apartment. Once inside she saw Ruby standing in the kitchen area. "I have a lot to learn about cooking in this realm. Ruby is trying to teach me. It's not going well."

Ruby smiled at Emma, "He's kind of pathetic, Emma."

Emma couldn't help the chuckle that erupted from her mouth. "That's funny, if it hadn't been for Nikolai or Graham, I probably would have starved to death in the forest."

Ruby shrugged, "You aren't used to having to hunt your own food. It's understandable. Here, the food is already hunted, skinned, and ready to be cooked. I don't understand what's so hard for him to get about that."

Emma looked between them and shrugged, "He's a man. Graham wasn't exactly a culinary chef before either."

"I should go sit with Graham, nice to see you again, Ruby. We should get together soon."

"Absolutely!" Ruby chirped, before turning back to the stove.

Emma sat beside Graham on his bed. He was still sound asleep, and she didn't have the heart to wake him up. Not when he looked so peaceful. Slowly, as the minutes ticked by, her eyes started to droop close. Sleep was one thing she had been lacking, with Henry's reoccurring nightmares along with her own. It was always a toss up which one of them would wake up breathing hard and sweating profusely. Emma though had gotten fairly good at hiding the fact that she was having nightmares. She had to, she didn't want anyone to know that what had happened in the Enchanted Forest had effected her so badly.

"Hey, beautiful." Came a thick accented voice.

Emma didn't even attempt to fight the smile on her lips. "Hey." She craned her head in his direction. "How're you feeling?"

Graham awkwardly shrugged one shoulder, "Not too bad. A little bit of pain. Nikolai keeps making me take the pain pills though. I hate taking them. I don't like sleeping so much."

Emma turned onto her side, facing Graham. "Maybe you need that sleep, Graham. We didn't exactly get great sleep over there, and you are recovering from a pretty serious infection."

Graham ran his fingertips over Emma's cheek before speaking, "That doesn't change the fact that I don't like to sleep so much. I like to do stuff. Do you happen to need a deputy? I obviously can't do much, but I am willing to do anything that gets me out of this apartment."

Emma chuckled. "Oh, I most definitely need a deputy – or two, and you can have the job. You just need to rest for a little while. Dr. Whale would never clear you for deputy work. Hell, Graham, you can't even do paperwork. Your dominate hand is connected to your bad shoulder. So, rest and relax. I promise to visit you every single day."

Graham smiled, "Yeah, alright. Fine."

"Giving in so quickly, Mr. Humbert?" Emma asked, her eyebrow raised suspiciously.

"Would I ever win the argument?" When Emma merely shook her head, Graham chuckled. "So, I gave in. No use fighting the inevitable."

"Good point." Emma whispered. The real reason for her visit coming front and center.

Graham didn't miss the change in Emma's demeanor. His fingers ran through her hair before grazing her cheek. "Hey, what's on your mind?"

Emma sighed, "Graham, we can't keep you hidden forever. She will eventually find out that you're alive and... I mean, will she try to finish the job?"

Graham sat up straighter, "You mean, kill me?" Emma nodded, as she turned weary eyes onto Graham. "I'm sure she will try something. Regina doesn't concede easy and she definitely doesn't admit defeat – ever."

"What are we going to do? Especially if she finds out what happened to Cora." Emma pointed out.

"Well, from what I gathered from my time as her – pet. She didn't get along with her mother. In fact, I think I remember hearing that she had ordered Cora to be killed. Obviously something went wrong with that, but I don't see that she'd get that angry about what we did if she had planned on killing her own mother?"

Emma shook her head. "How can someone be so – heartless."

Graham sighed, "You met her mother. I think you have the answer to that question."

"That doesn't change the fact that Regina is dangerous. She's already tried and practically succeeded in killing you once. Not to mention all the other horrible things that she has done. The fact that she nearly killed my son. We have to do something, Graham, before she makes a move. If we just take the chance that she won't do anything, she'll get us by surprise and she'll win."

Graham nodded, "I agree, but we have to be careful. She's very powerful, and we don't know what exactly you're capable of."

Emma raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

Graham smiled, "You're the one that pulled Cora's heart from her chest. I don't know how, but you're magical, Emma. That could be good, but it could also be bad. We won't know for sure until we know what you're capable of doing."

Emma just stared at Graham, her mouth hanging open. "And how do we find that out?"

"Only three people would know, and one of them is dead. The other one you are trying to declare war on, so as far as I can tell, we only have one choice."

Emma's eyes narrowed, "Gold."

Snow stared at James, her hand clasped tightly around her coffee mug. The steam rising for her hot cocoa caused her eyes to water slightly. Her mouth bobbed open before closing for the fifth time since they had both sat down at the kitchen table.

"Snow, what's bothering you?" James asked, as he reached across the table and brushed his fingers across her knuckles.

Sighing softly, Snow's eyes wondered from James' intense stare, to her mug of cocoa. "I'm worried, James."

He nodded, "This is about Emma."

Her eyes flicked up to watch James' face. A mask of no emotion was put into place, as he clasped both of his hands together. "She hasn't been the same since she's returned."

James shook his head, but didn't speak. He wouldn't know if she had been the same, since he hadn't had the ability to be around Emma much before the curse broke. Though, James would never say the words out-loud, knowing that they would only stem to cause his wife pain, but it didn't mean that it hurt James any less. "That may be, Snow, but you have to think about what she's been through the past few weeks."

Snow nodded, and James knew that she understood what he was saying. Anyone would change under the amount of stress that Emma had to be under. It's not every day that you find out that your parents are essentially fairytale characters straight out of a book. Then to find yourself stuck in an unknown realm full of magic, and to see that your dead friend is actually still alive. James knew that all of the information piling up in Emma's mind was far more stress than she could probably take.

"I understand all of that, James, I do. I just – she won't talk about it. Nikolai won't answer any of my questions because he said that it's not his place, and I haven't been able to talk to Graham alone to get answers from him. None of this is healthy for her. Plus, at night I hear her whimpering."

James sighed, as his head hung. He hated himself for being such a heavy sleeper, because he should have known that his little girl was suffering from nightmares. "Have you tried to talk to her about it."

Snow nodded, "Yeah, she usually just changes the subject before fixing me with a look that says please, just drop it."

"Yeah, you're right. That's not healthy, but maybe she's talking it out with Nikolai and Graham. Maybe she doesn't think we'll understand any of it, or maybe she doesn't want to worry us."

Snow peered up at James, a defeated and exhausted look on her face. In that moment, James saw his wife age right before his eyes. Not only was it not healthy for Emma to keep everything bottled up, but it appeared to be unhealthy for his wife as well.

"It's having the opposite effect, James. I can barely sleep and eat. It's killing me to know that she doesn't think that we will understand what happened. We're from that realm, James. If anyone will understand, it'll be us."

James eyed Snow for a moment before speaking, "This is about Cora, isn't it?"

Snow stared, her mouth hanging open. The name hadn't been uttered in the apartment, not since Emma's first night home. The name always sent chills up and down Snow's spine. No matter how much Snow might dislike Regina for all the horrible things that she had done, Snow couldn't help but think that who Regina was, is completely Cora's fault.

"I don't know, James. Maybe. I mean, they mentioned her by name and talked about battling her, and yet they're alive. That can only mean one thing, right? If that's true, Regina will eventually find out and..." Snow couldn't finish her sentence. The thought of it alone made her stomach churn.

"If Regina finds out, she'll kill them all." James mumbled out the rest of Snow's sentence. His voice was monotonic, almost robotic.

"James, we can't let our baby girl die."

James shook his head stiffly, "I don't like that Regina has disappeared after she released the force field that they had placed over the portal. We need to find Regina, before Regina finds us."

Neither James or Snow noticed Henry's head peeking around the corner of the bathroom door. Tears in his eyes as he realized that his biological family and his adoptive mother would never get along. He would never be able to be in both of their lives, and it broke his heart to realize that he would have to choose.