Red-rimmed eyes and dirt specks in her hair—fantastic way to wake up, Emma thought, memories of her last "camp-out" in the Enchanted Forest leaving her hungrier and thirstier than she already was. Of course she hadn't slept, although God knows she tried. She'd listened to Henry's breathing, just leaned in close to her child's chest and tried to let his heartbeat lull her to sleep. How could Killian—no, how could...Mild Acquaintance Guy...say those things, do those things...make her feel this way...and expect her to sleep? She had so much to come to terms with, more than she even wanted to mentally list right now, and caring for him, falling for him—no, she corrected herself. No, no, no, because that's totally not what's going on.

This was all her fault. You repress so much and sooner or later it all comes out with much more intensity than you'd ever want it to. That's what this was, right? She'd been so focused on Henry that she had just ignored whatever little attraction had wormed its way under her skin. Uh huh, her gut responded.

Tell me to go.

It had sent a tremor down her spine. Her mind had thought out the response right down to the tone of each syllable, a "yeah sure, if only you didn't need someone to keep you out of trouble." But she'd chickened out. Some savior, Emma thought. Since when are just a couple of meaningless kisses probably forged out of adrenaline suddenly one of the most incredible, addictive, stirring-and-yet-familiar...

Just shut up now because you are asking for trouble.

And now what were they supposed to do? Just sit here and wait until the rest of them came down from the beanstalk? With Neal? So she could break up with him in spite of the fact they'd never gotten back together in the first place? So she could dust herself off and go be an honest-to-God ballgown princess?

"Mom? You want to split some jerky?"

"Sure." She sat up and bit into it. Hard. Yeah, jerky. Taste my wrath. "Where's Kil—Hook?"

"He said he was going to do some tracking and see what was around here real quick. Isn't this great?"

"Yeah, Henry. I'm sure ticks and potential dehydration are great." Get a grip, Emma, she told herself. Henry's safe. You're safe. You're all together. You have everything you wanted, and, maybe, everything you needed. Maybe. "Sorry. Rough night."

"That's okay. It's uncomfortable now, but I've thought about how we'll rebuild everything and there's really nothing stopping us from bringing some of the technology from our world to this one. We could pick and choose, you know? Bring just what we wanted to bring. I think a dump truck's too much to ask for, but with some planning, we could have antibiotics here. Ooh! And comic books."

Aw, that's why I love you, kid, she thought, beaming at him. Giving him a hug, she stretched and stood up, shaking out what she could of the dirt in her hair.

"Add shower technology to that wish list. I think we should actually start moving away from the beanstalk, just a little," she said. "I have a bad feeling about being right at the base of it."

"Henry, be a good lad and hold this compass for me. I have a chart somewhere..." Killian emerged, looking every bit as haggard and sleep-deprived as she was sure she did.

"I was just saying we should move away from the base of the beanstalk," she said, heart pounding at having to talk to him again. Hey, sentiment, she imagined her survival instincts were scolding, prioritize.

"Fully agree, Swan. You have a spider creeping up your shoulder," he said without looking at her.

Just as she brushed it off, she heard a deafening whoosh. The air seemed to spin around her until something body-slammed her right to the ground. What the hell...she spat out some dirt. Rolling back onto her back, she realized a woman had actually landed on her. A woman she knew.

"Belle?"

"Emma? Oh, Emma!" In her Belle way, she threw her arms around her, all but straddling her, nice for the heartstrings, bad for the ribs. "I'm so sorry."

"How are you here?"

A green hazy portal spat out more and more familiar faces, from old friends to people she'd passed on the street every day to complete strangers.

"Belle, is the whole town...?"

"We had to. I have to tell you all. You're in-" she trailed off when the corner of her eye found Killian glancing around at everyone crashing through the portal and hitting the ground. "Everything's all right, isn't it?"

"You're fine. What were you going to say?"

"Where's Rumpelstiltskin?"

"Belle, come on. You've evacuated all of Storybrooke. What's going on?"

"It's Mother Superior," Belle finally managed after a few breaths. "She knew about Henry's kidnapping. She had Nova tied up..."

"Nova?"

"Sister Astrid, tied up because she wouldn't go along with their plans. Emma." She gripped Emma's shoulders. "The Blue Fairy wants Henry. She knew all about who took him and why and I think she wants him for the same reason the first people did. I don't know why, but she was becoming dangerous."

"Henry," Emma said. "Henry, open up your book."

"To what?" he asked, paling. I know, kid. Just when we thought we were out of the woods. Just figuratively.

"To Aurora's story. You have that in there, right?" Emma had not exactly been a connoisseur of fantasy growing up, but she had been far from illiterate in the matter and remembered a story of princesses and spinning wheels, dragons and True Love's Kiss, and three fairies bestowing gifts. Sitting next to him, she skimmed the story and read of Maleficent's spite towards Aurora's mother and then transferring that onto Aurora herself. Sure enough, three fairies had blessed Aurora with the gifts of beauty, of song, and a much more spontaneous gift of a loophole to get out of a curse. Turning the page, she scoured the illustration of Aurora's cradle, all arched and medieval, with the symbol of a five-pointed star and a crescent moon on it.

"There, the symbol of the fairies," she said. "They're in trouble." With her hand bone-straight above her eyes, she looked up at the beanstalk.

"Trouble?" Belle asked. The townspeople looked this way and that, holding each other.

"Leroy? Ruby?" Emma called into the crowd. They came into view, both of them pulling her to them in a bear hug...wolf hug...and she couldn't help but smile for a split second. Having friends was still something to get used to. "Guys, I don't know exactly what's up there, but we need help. Leroy, you and the dwarves have to get all these people to safety. Do you know a place they can go?"

"Take them to the Dark Castle," Belle said. "The grounds have enchantments on them. They'll be safe there."

Leroy nodded to both of them and disappeared back into the crowd, rounding everyone up.

"Ruby, we'll need you. I've never seen you change, but there's a first time for everything..."

"Emma, I'm not sure I can change at will." Ruby looked down at the ground. "I'll do whatever you need me to do, but I don't know if I can just wolf-out whenever."

"Okay, fine. We'll just do what we can. We need to get up there. Do you..." Oh jeez, she thought. Killian was right there, had not left her side, and while that didn't necessarily shock her, the steadfastness of him, the seriousness...oh crap. She did love him, trouble be damned. He'd chosen her. He'd chosen to go with her into whatever deathtrap she could be leading all of them into, and she loved him, unable to pinpoint when that might have happened, but she loved him and her eyes couldn't help but soften just a little at him. Well, gotta tell him later, if you both live, she decided, nodding to herself. "Do you know where Cora got the clasp things? To climb it? We need to know if there are more."

"No. Why didn't you just hang onto yours?"

"Seriously?" It wasn't like they were on vacation and she'd left her sunglasses at the gas station. All she got in response was an eyebrow raise and a frustrated sigh. "After I came down I took it off. I thought, what was the point of keeping it. And the magic probably only worked once anyway."

"What kind of magic only works once?" he blurted.

"Okay, lesson learned. I, I can try to magic us up there, I guess."

"Take me with you!" Henry begged. "Please! I want to rescue my dad. I want to help!"

"No. You stay here and help the dwarves get everyone to safety. That's heroic. And it's important. I just have to..." She made a face. "Think happy thoughts, I guess."

"There's no 'I guess' about it!" Henry stomped his foot. "Mom, you're magic! You don't just have it. You are magic! And you have more magic than anyone in this land has ever had! If you keep doubting yourself, it won't work! You have to believe!"

The last time she didn't believe, she thought she'd lost him forever.

"Okay, Henry," she said. "I believe."

She closed her eyes and recalled Gold's words from the shop when she cast the barrier spell. Protecting family, securing well-being, love. So determined, so deep in her concentration she didn't feel Henry latch onto her at the last second. She visualized Rumpelstiltskin's desperation when instructing her in the pawn shop, imagining his voice so well it was like a trip back through time. Conjuring magic is not an intellectual endeavor. It's emotion. You must ask yourself "why am I doing this?" "Who am I protecting?" Feel it.

Feel it she did, then and now, not an overwhelming sensation of power as she'd first feared magic would be like. It was like looking into the depths of the souls of each and every person she loved.

Opening one eye first, Emma exhaled upon seeing the stone exterior of the giants' lair atop the beanstalk. Killian, Ruby, Belle, Whale, and...

"Henry!"

"I'm coming! If you didn't want me to come along, you shouldn't have said what you were going to do!"

"Fine. Let's go!"

Regina looked back to find Ian and Jacob tossing a few gold coins at each other like Frisbees. A quick "cut it out, guys" ended that and they resumed their search. She'd wondered at first why Owen hadn't quipped his usual brand of bigoted remarks in their direction, but then there was no proof of what land any of them had come from. No, all his sneers and shakes of the head were for her, how flattering.

He hadn't changed, and, no, she didn't mean the nose or the chin. He still acted like a little boy, exaggerating his skills, showing off his little toys like an electrocution machine...like a schoolboy playing secret agent. Henry had gone through a phase like that, learned the bare basics of the internet from her and suddenly saw himself as a hacker. Only boys overestimated their prowess, not actual men. When she'd waited for him in his room at Granny's and approached him, his eyes had narrowed, fearing she was actually going to come onto him, him! The one who would always be the kid who had been unpredictable enough to criticize her lasagna.

"Come along, Owen. The sooner we find Baelfire, the sooner this will all be over for you."

"By 'over' you mean like how it was all over for my father?"

"And what was I supposed to do with him?" She regretted it the moment she asked it. Still? Even with all these children around you looking up to you? She'd always believed evil wasn't born but made. Life had made her mother hard and bitter. Her abuse...because from a distance she could always see it and identify it as abuse...Daniel, her marriage to Leopold, Rumpelstiltskin, her reign—life had made her the Evil Queen. At least, that's what she had always thought, along with some insane notion that life could also turn her back into a sweet girl content with loved ones and a horse. She had made herself the Evil Queen, again and again and again.

"I should have let both of you leave," she said. "I should have cast a barrier spell after you were gone. No one would have believed either of you but you would have been together." Inhaling, she stepped towards him, Miles and some of the older boys stopping to watch. "I'm sorry. I've made quite the life for myself separating people from the ones they love. I can't make it up to you in any way." That's what had gone wrong, she realized. It hadn't been enough to just not use magic and to just not demote Henry and others to pawns. She hadn't atoned for any of it. And here comes the self-loathing you'd always pushed away with excuses, she thought.

"No, you can't, can you?" was the cold answer. No, Regina thought, but she could find Baelfire. She could fight alongside all these people once again. She could give all these children a home, one free of the pointless restrictions she'd placed on Henry. Her step a bit lighter, warmth spread throughout her insides. Funny that all it took to truly get a second chance was coming back here, to the land you thought you could never be happy in.