Author's Note: Y'all are the best. Thanks for the reviews and follows and favorites! Here's the next part. :)

"So what do we do now?"

Emma swallowed a whimper at her kid's question. For the time being, she supposed, there was nothing to do. All six of them were stuck in this tiny hunting shack for who knew how long.

The only separate room was the bathroom; the rest of the shack had what a realtor would dub "an open floor plan." A double bed sat along the far wall and a sofa and a chair ran along on the other. Sleeping arrangements, then, were going to be less than ideal. At this point, Emma was just hoping it wouldn't come down to that.

A little part of her, though, was already worried that it would totally come down to that. Even if the storm let up enough for them to trudge to Snow's station wagon, how the hell were they going to get the car out of the woods through a foot of snow?

That, however, was not a worry she wanted to put on her kid. She sighed, turning away from the window and facing Henry. "I think we're stuck here for a bit, kid. At least until the snow lets up a bit."

Henry frowned as he gazed around at their cramped surroundings. I feel you, kid, Emma thought. No hunting shack was made to comfortably house four adults, one twelve-year-old, and one newborn baby. After a moment, though, he seemed to swallow his concerns because he set his shoulders and smiled at Emma. "So like I said, what do we do now?"

"We do exactly what we were going to do outside," David insisted, giving his family a gentle smile. "The only difference is we'll be doing it inside. No snowstorm is going to ruin our day. We're going to be here for the next little while, at least. We might as well try to make the most of it."

A nervous glance was exchanged around the room, and despite David's suggestion to get on with the day as if nothing had happened, no one moved. "He's right," Snow said after a moment. "We just need to pass the time until the storm lets up enough for us to go home."

Still, no one moved. Then Snow gently passed Neal to her husband, leaving her free to dig the picnic blanket back out of the tote. She spread it out on the floor in front of the fireplace and sat down, holding her hands out in front of the grate to warm them. A smiling David joined her, bouncing a fussy Neal in his arms to calm him. After a moment, Killian arched a questioning eyebrow at Henry, silently asking if he wanted to continue their game of Pirate Hot and Cold. Henry smiled and nodded, crossing the room to join Killian.

Emma cast another concerned glance out the window before hesitantly stepping away and joining her parents on the blanket. She wasn't at all sure that simply carrying on as if they weren't trapped in a hunting shack by a foot of snow was the best course of action. Not that there was anything any of them could really do about it, but still, part of her felt like they should be doing something.

Her concern must have shown on her face because Snow rested a gentle hand on her knee and murmured, "You're worried, aren't you?"

She cast a glance over at her shoulder at her kid and her pirate. Henry was searching for the object – Killian's thumb ring, she realized; it wasn't on his thumb anymore – and his attention was focused solely on his task. As Killian gave the boy sailor's instructions to help him find the ring, he met Emma's eyes and gave her a little smile. It's all right, that smile told her. I'll keep him occupied so he doesn't worry, that smile told her.

She gave him a grateful smile in return. Then she turned to her mother, lowering her voice so Henry wouldn't be able to overhear her. "Yeah. We have no clue what this is. We don't know if it's going to last twenty minutes or if it's going to last twelve hours. Is this the end of it, or is this only the beginning? Not to mention, in case you haven't noticed, none of us are exactly dressed for the dead of winter. We have enough food on us for maybe one more meal, and how many diapers do you have in that diaper bag?"

"You're right, Emma," David said gently. "We don't know how long this is going to last. You're talking as if we're going to be our here for days, but what if it's only an hour or two? This could just be a delay–"

"–or it could be an attack," Emma interrupted. "I think we're all in agreement that this is not normal or natural. What if someone wants us all stuck in random places to make the pickings easier? What if someone wants to freeze us all out, cut our access to food and water? Because we can't be the only ones trapped in a place with little food or proper shelter. This thing came in too quickly. And what if we're stuck out here for days? We need to have some kind of plan."

Snow and David exchanged an inscrutable glance, and Emma found herself getting vaguely annoyed at their silent communication. Was this how teachers felt when they caught students passing notes? Because she kind of wanted to tell her parents to share with the rest of the class.

After a moment, Snow returned her attention to Emma. "If we ration the food we have on us, we could get a couple meals out of it. I saw a pile of firewood along the side of the shack as we were coming in, so there's plenty of wood to keep the fire fueled for a good long while. Push comes to shove, we'll bring buckets of snow in to melt for drinking water, and push comes to shove, we can find food in the woods. It won't be gourmet, but it'll be sustenance."

"As for everything else, Emma, this could very well be an attack," David said softly, "but we'll cross that bridge if we come to it. We'll be on alert, of course, but there's nothing to guard against until it happens. At this point, our attention should be on staying warm and fed and keeping ourselves occupied until we can get out of here."

Okay, so with five seconds of silent communication, her parents had indeed come up with a plan. She supposed she should take back the bit about being annoyed with them for it. Hunting for food in the woods didn't sound at all appetizing but she'd deal if it came down to that. Maybe she could try magicking food into existence; that would save them hunting in the woods for food at all.

That said, she still didn't think she liked David's wait-and-see approach to a potential attack. "I don't know," she said after a moment. "I still feel like we should be doing something."

"That's because you're worried," David replied, "and frankly, I am, too. The only thing is, we can't live our lives worrying about what's waiting around the corner. There's no life, in that case. There's just moving from crisis to crisis."

Emma swallowed hard, remembering a very similar conversation she'd had with him about finding the good moments between all the bad ones. Snow reached out and ran a gentle finger down her daughter's cheek. "This isn't exactly our first rodeo, Emma, ours or yours. We've survived the Enchanted Forest and Neverland and you and Hook survived a trip through time. If anyone can handle whatever's coming next, we can."

That finally made a smile tug at Emma's mouth. They were survivors, weren't they?

"You think you can relax a little now?" David gently asked her.

She nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

David smiled back. "That's my girl."

Heavy, blinding snow only fell for twenty more minutes. The storm was over completely ten minutes after that. As soon as Emma could see actual trees out the window and not just a curtain of white, she pushed herself to her feet to see what the damage was.

Damage was apparently the appropriate term. From what she could see through the window, Emma would wager there was a good foot and a half of fresh snow on the ground. And from the looks of it, it was the heavy stuff, the stuff that downed power lines and tree limbs. The branches of the trees across from the window were sagging under the weight of it and when clumps of snow did fall from them, they landed on the snow-covered ground with a thump.

David, who'd handed Neal back to Snow so he could bring in some of the firewood like Snow had suggested, had to shove the door against the snow a few times to open it enough to squeeze through. He gulped worriedly, then swallowed the emotion and gave his family a comforting smile. "I'll be right back."

Emma watched him go until the door closed behind him, her hope dwindling as he trudged through the heavy snow.

The heaviness of the snow was the one thing in this whole mess that made any kind of sense. Generally, the warmer the weather, the heavier and wetter the snow. Since this storm had rolled in out of nowhere, the temperature hadn't dropped down enough for the light, powdery stuff.

She kind of wished it had. Though the lighter, powdery snow piled up faster, it was also a lot easier to deal with, from a cleanup standpoint. If there was really a foot and a half of dense, wet, heavy snow out there, going home in a couple of hours was no longer on the table. The trudge back to the station wagon would be a nightmare, and even then, Snow's car was not going to be able to drive over a foot and a half of snow. A couple inches, maybe, but not eighteen. No way in hell.

"We're not going anywhere for a long time, are we?" a young voice asked from behind her.

"No, kid, I don't think we are," she answered, turning away from the window with a sigh. Their only hope was that, if this was indeed a magic thing, the spell – or attack or whatever – was over and had taken the cold weather with it. That way the melting could start as soon as possible. "I think we're stuck here for the night, at least. Maybe we'll be able to get out of here in the morning. Did you get a hold of Regina?"

"Yeah. She's at home so she's safe, and she's glad I'm okay and with you guys."

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Killian's raised eyebrows and her parents' smiles of understanding. It wasn't that Regina was glad Henry was with four adults she could barely tolerate. It was that he was safe with them, and she knew it. Considering the alternatives, she was glad that when the storm hit, he'd been with four capable adults who would guard his life with theirs.

When Emma nodded, Henry smiled at her and headed to the picnic blanket. He and Killian had apparently tired of Pirate Hot and Cold because the two of them sat down, Henry right next to Snow and a squirming Neal so he could have a little baby time.

Killian crossed the room and stood next to Emma, giving her a gentle smile. "You doing all right, love?"

She shrugged. "Yeah. I'd be doing better if we weren't stuck out in the middle of the woods."

"Aye," he acknowledged.

A kick of the door startled them both. Suddenly on alert, Emma rushed to the window to find her father standing off to the side, arms laden with miraculously dry logs. She rolled her eyes as she pushed the door open. "Next time you want to use your words? You scared the shit out of me!"

"Sorry," he said, cringing, "but I have two pieces of good news."

Shivering against the cold, he stepped into the shack and set the firewood down by the door. Emma pulled the door closed. "What's your good news?"

"The first is that the firewood was covered in a tarp so the top half of the pile is perfectly dry." Snow smiled when she heard that. "The second is that it seems like it's warming up out there. The deep chill isn't in the air anymore, at any rate. If it continues to warm up, this stuff can start melting."

"Yes!" Henry cried.

Emma allowed a cautiously optimistic smile. Maybe they wouldn't be stuck out here long enough to have to worry about food after all.

David joined Snow and Henry in front of the fire to warm up, and after a moment, Killian sat down at the far end of the blanket, apparently not wanting to impose. Emma joined her pirate on the blanket, bridging the physical distance between him and her parents.

Now all they had to do was bridge the emotional one.

She was sure they would come around. As a matter of fact, David had already shown signs of coming around; she'd caught his little smiles when Killian did something nice for her or complimented her. Earlier, when he'd given her his leather jacket to help warm her up, she'd definitely spied a tiny smile on her father's face. Snow wasn't quite there yet, but David was definitely on his way.

Emma was actually beginning to wonder just how many of the overprotective-dad side-eyes he'd given Killian were real and how many were just David trying to put the fear of God in him as any good dad would.

"So," Henry said, bringing Emma out of her thoughts, "Killian and I were talking, and we thought of something fun we could do if we got stuck here for a while."

Snow and David turned surprised eyes on Henry. When Emma's kid and her pirate exchanged a mischievous glance, she groaned inwardly. Why did she get the feeling that they were all about to have some other sort of ridiculous activity foisted on them? "Oh, really?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at Killian. "You came up with something fun?"

"Don't sound so surprised, love," he teased. Then he leaned over to murmur into her ear, "I know of numerous ways to have fun."

Her cheeks flushed as she hid a smile. "Well, I am surprised," she said, handily avoiding his other comment because her parents were right there, for crying out loud. "What exactly did you have in mind? I'll tell you if it's fun or not."

He winked at Henry before turning a smug smile on Emma. "A treasure hunt."

Emma's inward groan became an outward one. She so did not have the patience for more Hot and Cold. "Look, I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, but the game you guys were playing earlier wasn't a treasure hunt. It's called Hot and Cold, and it's pretty much a kids' game."

"No, Mom, we don't mean Hot and Cold," Henry said, interrupting her little rant. "We mean like a scavenger hunt. We could split into teams and one team hides a bunch of things and writes clues. The first clue will lead to a thing and another clue, which will then lead to another thing and another clue and at the end, we'll end up with a bunch of things: a treasure!"

Already, Emma could see that her parents were completely on board with this little timewaster. They were practically grinning at each other, which, great. She was totally going to be roped into a freakin' scavenger hunt with her family, wasn't she? "This place is kind of small, kid. Even if we do this, I don't think we're going to be able to do it more than once."

"That's okay," Henry insisted. "Stuff like this is only fun once in a while anyway."

Emma swallowed a sigh. Her parents were looking at her expectantly while Henry was well on his way to the second stage of Puppy Dog Eyes. She looked almost pleadingly at Killian, figuring he'd be the one to let her off the hook – er, so to speak – and change everyone's mind about the scavenger hunt.

He simply arched an eyebrow at her.

A challenge. The damn pirate had issued her a challenge.

Well, then. "All right, we can have a scavenger hunt, but only if I get to be on the team that's hiding the things and writing up the clues." Mostly because she didn't think she had the patience to try to figure out clues written by someone else.

"That would be my team, love," Killian said, grinning.

Of course it was. She should have known. Well, at least they made quite the team.

She caught her parents exchanging another one of those looks, those knowing but concerned looks that indicated they were trying to figure out how they felt about their daughter and a pirate being an actual thing.

Which, were she and Killian an actual thing? She wasn't quite sure yet herself. "So," she said, as much to distract her parents as herself, "I guess it's me and Killian and the squirt against you guys and Henry."

All right, so Neal wasn't going to be a huge help to either team, but Emma wanted some baby time herself. Plus, she imagined it would be difficult to go on a scavenger hunt holding a baby.

Her parents shared a smile as David handed a wriggling Neal over to his big sister. "I guess so."

Emma smiled as well then raised her eyebrows at Killian. It was time for them to make the best scavenger hunting shack scavenger hunt known to man. "Let's go, pirate. I want to see your buried treasure skills in action."