Charming had ducked, had covered the back of his neck with his hands like a tornado drill when debris...sparkling debris...had dropped out of nowhere, a true blitzkrieg of...what the hell? Waving his fingertips over the dust on the floor next to him, his eyebrows narrowed. Fairy dust. Scrambling to his feet, he scanned the entire room. Snow. Emma. Henry. Snow. Emma. Henry. Snow?

"Snow!"

She sidestepped out between two wardrobes, shaking the dust out of her hair. Dead fairies lay in a heap adjacent to her. They ran to each other, a kiss out of relief cut short. Holding hands, they sifted through the enormous room.

"Snow, I, Regina saved my life," he said, stooping to pick up the knife Greg had thrown at him.

"What?"

"If she hadn't yelled to me when she did, this would have hit me." She picked up the hand that held the knife and kissed it, bringing it up to her cheek. Snow just smiled.

"It's a little different when she's saved your life, isn't it? Then is she..."

"I don't know. I couldn't see what happened." He led her back to where he had been fighting, too drained to be angry. Blue had been their friend, one of their most trusted friends and yet he was too tired, too grateful to be alive to build up his anger. He concentrated on his search, stopping once he saw legs, the rest obscured by treasure.

"There."

"Oh no. Regina," Snow gasped, sprinting for her.

Charming squatted and went to her head, lifting it up to find a lump that belonged in a cartoon it was so big; it had taken over almost the entire side of her head.

"Regina?" Snow asked the cuff of the woman's sleeve, her pale fingers tentatively brushing Regina's olive ones. A small groan answered them. Breathing a sigh, he looked over a few feet. Greg laid dead, his throat slashed.

"Was that you?" he asked Regina.

"He thought he'd killed me," she whispered, a faint smile forming. "Magic works even when you're seeing double." Her eyes started rolling back.

"Sit up. Dr. Whale's with all the others. He'll help you. I think she has a concussion," he said to Snow in spite of knowing that was pretty obvious. They hoisted her to her feet and resumed looking, looking for anyone not a dead fairy. If Emma...no, he told himself. She can take care of herself. The rest of him didn't believe it, however, his feet moving faster, his eyes scanning to and fro with more intensity, his heartbeat escalating. Finally, the back of her head, pale blonde strands, came into view.

"Emma!"

"Dad," she said, and his heart soared. It didn't matter Hook had her in some life-or-death hold or that at least a dozen corpses demanded he weave in and out to reach her. He knelt and wrapped his arms around her, Snow quickly catching up to them and doing the same.

"She was amazing. You should have seen her," Henry said, his gaze taking on some concern when he spotted Regina. He pulled Henry to him too, feeling guilty the boy's words were starting to run together in his mind, a quiet thanking of the gods drowning out all else. Here they were, together, and home. "...that's when the Blue Fairy exploded! I am not making this up, and then all she had to do was kiss Hook and he's not burned anymore."

Charming's eyes flew open, his grip on Emma loosening. His eyes tugged at hers until she offered up a smile, not sheepish in any way either. Well, that was a sign that, great, he thought. Hook's not spouting off some smart-ass remark and Henry doesn't exactly exaggerate, even when people assume at first that he is. True Love's Kiss had done its work. Throttle him, the most fundamental edge of his brain ordered, but he quelled it. Instead, he extended his hand out to him.

"Curses, huh?" was all he could think of to say. With a laugh that sounded downright jolly, Hook took it and completed the handshake.

"No, not a fan," he answered.

He'd hated asking Emma to bring all of them down from the beanstalk, but with Regina and Rumpelstiltskin both...incapacitated...in different ways...that only left her. At the base of the beanstalk—people as far as the eye could see, hugging each other, hands over mouth in awe at their surroundings. Whale rushed to them, taking Regina's arm and pulling her off of him. Charming let out a moan at what a burden she'd been on his neck and back. He was positive everyone ached everywhere...

"Snow, you okay?" he asked, cocking his head in Whale's direction.

"I'm fine. Nothing a little bit of ice and then a hot bath can't fix anyway." Her eyes didn't leave Regina. Tapping her, he took hold of her hand and led her through the throng of people, their people. She seemed to snap back into herself, checking over everyone she passed, offering supportive words. Unfortunately, he knew, the leaders took ice and baths last. He spotted Rumpelstiltskin and Belle with the Lost Boys, the former gripping his arm with whitened knuckles. He rushed back to where Whale was looking over Regina.

"Whale, how's she doing?"

"She'll mend fine. Got a scratch or two yourself?" he asked with some reluctance...probably remembering a pretty ill-tempered punch.

"No, can you, can you look at Gold over here? He looks pretty beat up over there." Heaving a sigh, Charming slumped to the ground and brought his knees up, his arm bridging the distance between them and his head. Of all of it, returning home, his daughter in love...with a pirate, of all the choices, his worst enemies he hadn't even been aware were his worst enemies defeated—it was the stunning revelation that after all that had happened, in several worlds, he and Rumpelstiltskin were actually, he gulped, friends. Someone else who could go for a good stiff drink here soon, he thought.

"Well, well, well, broken arm?" Whale asked, arms folded, his head back in satisfaction.

"Yes, and if you wouldn't mind..."

"Oh, you want me to fix your arm?" He sauntered over to him, stroking his own left arm in an elaborate way. "First tell me why."

"Come now, Victor, you're that petty? A broken arm is one thing. I reattached yours for you."

"Say it. You made me say it."

Huffing, Rumpelstiltskin rolled his eyes. "I need science." In an instant, Whale's spirits lightened. His arms loosened, his face much more congenial. Had to be some inside joke, Charming decided, watching Whale bend down and take a look, Ruby and Belle looking on, both rolling their eyes. Where, now where did Emma get off to? He scanned around, finding Hook, but with Henry, off to the side by themselves, turned towards each other but not speaking, and, damn it, he trusted the pirate with his grandson. So...there she was. Over by a row of trees, she stood with Neal across from her, also turned towards each other but not speaking, not yet anyway, or loud enough for him to overhear. So, in spite of his legs throbbing, begging him to stay seated, he stood back up.

"Don't you take another step." He turned to find Snow glaring at him. "This is for Emma to work out. She's an adult."

"I know."

"We need to treat her as one."

"Snow, every mother is allowed one peek at her daughter's diary, just like every father is allowed one eavesdropping session with his daughter and a guy she was involved with." Her face softened as her eyes drifted over to where they were. She gave him a resigned nod and headed back to the others, to express gratitude and tend to injury and encourage. Rebuilding the kingdom would be next, and who could rebuild a kingdom with all this drama unfinished?

"Emma, hey, I...I know what I said at the portal, and I don't want to lead you on," Neal said, holding her hand, exposing a thick cut on his forearm from the fight. "I do love you, but it's, it's not the True Love you deserve, and, from what I was able to see...you, you feel the same way?"

"Yeah," she sighed, a crooked smile at their hands. "I mean, I can't help but think if things had been the other way around if I'd have done the same. I was so ready to hate you if I ever saw you again." Her voice sounded drained, hoarse, even. Thousands of images flooded Charming's mind, mostly involving a little blonde girl with unruly blonde hair running around a castle, sitting on her parents' bed with her feet dangling watching him put on his riding gloves, insisting she was old enough to try sparring with a real sword instead of a wooden one.

"I just couldn't," she whispered.

"It's okay, Emma," he heard Neal say. "We'd both made the choice to move on way before any of this happened."

"I'm just glad you're okay." There was a pause and a drawn-out nod from her head, like she was desperate to lighten up the conversation. "I mean, traveling around here with Aurora and Mulan can get kind of tedious. I don't even think Mulan smiled one time."

"Really? She smiles all the time now, laughs at me here and there, too." Neal laughed to himself and shrugged. "Thank you. Thank you for saving Henry."

It pained him to admit that he hadn't really known Emma long, but he did know her well enough to know what that scrunched-up mouth and coy eyes meant—that desperation to control her tears and her voice while trying to make light of the situation. She'd throw in a "whatever" in there somewhere.

"Whatever," she murmured, giving him a kiss on the cheek. Charming sighed. Finally ready to see to the people, he turned away from the private moment, only to hear a shy, hesitant voice.

"Bae? We haven't officially met. I'm Belle."

Charming turned back around to catch a crooked grin and approving, moved eyes on Neal's face.

"Hi, Belle. I've heard a lot of wonderful things about you."

It was a bit like the survivors' hold, Killian thought, taking in the first finished street of the village. He'd posed as a blacksmith there, knew enough to be passable, just not the one people preferred to commission, one-handed and all. Next to him, Emma sported tightened lips and a furrowed brow, nothing new there, he thought, struggling to imagine what it all had to feel like for her.

"You don't want me to go in with you?" he asked after they'd crossed a small bridge over a creek to a secluded cottage. Not a straight line in the whole place. To the domestic, the crimson and gold foliage everywhere might have cushioned its rustic look into something more cozy.

"Like you want to," she scoffed.

"Like you're beyond protection now?" he scoffed back, realizing they were already right at the front door.

"He's got zero magic and I'm a member of the family," she said, her eyes widening at just how casually that fact came out of her mouth now. The next few seconds spanned eons, Killian wondering if her business here could wait and they should talk...not that anything really needed clarification as True Love's Kiss tends to wipe away any and all doubts, but it felt as though something was badly in need of being sorted out. It would have to wait, he decided, noticing her knuckles about to knock. Leaning forward, he took a handful of her hair and sifted it between his fingers.

"I'll be right out here." She said nothing, but had bent her head down so that her cheek had touched his hand.

Emma couldn't bring herself to barge into the little cottage Rumpelstiltskin and Belle had chosen for their own, improvements and expansions scheduled after the reconstruction of the infrastructure...all of which made her head spin. She'd done a little bit of Habitat for Humanity, both voluntary and as a sentence passed by juvenile court judges, but that was child's play compared to what lay ahead. She pushed the door soundlessly, taken aback at the simple, rustic, even, rugs and shelves. A pile of straw rested in a corner next to the spinning wheel.

"Anybody home?" she called in.

"Ah, Emma. To what do I owe the intrusion?" Well, someone wasn't all that much different after having all his power taken from him, she was tempted to comment. He'd been working, the knees of his pants and parts of his cane lined with dirt. "You'll have to excuse the mess. We're finishing up this cottage, helping Bae with his..."

"What's the price?"

"Price? Oh, about a hundred and fifty," he said, picking up his cane and twirling it a little for her benefit. "It's an antique."

"The price of magic," she snapped. "All magic comes with a price. You've said it enough times. I've used magic. I've used magic a lot. When's everything I have going to start falling apart?" Was, was he scoffing at her? He was actually amused. Okay, she thought, got to drop the anvil. "I've worked for all this, Gold, and I've got to get my bearings in a whole new world and, and I don't want to turn out like you." He should strike her down with that cane after that, she thought, closing her eyes. No magic required for an ass beating.

"Do you know why you won't?"

"What?"

"The first time I used magic, it was the most addictive thing I'd ever experienced. When Regina first used it, it was the same for her. We couldn't stop, the power, after being so powerless all our lives. How do you feel after you use magic?"

"Warm," she said, hoping he wouldn't infer something weird like "tingly" or "fuzzy" in there. "Uh, content."

"No more intense than maybe taking a bite of ice cream? Surely not on the levels of something more, not like fantastic sex or, probably more appropriate for you, arresting someone?" he snickered a little at his own jab. Ignoring that, she shook her head. "You see, your resistance to it is something in your favor. That, and you've already started to see the price you're paying."

"Is that the beginning of some insult?"

"Think about it—you'd been alone almost your whole life. You had no one and no one had you. And then, one at a time, you began collecting loved ones. Henry, your mother, your father, him..." He shook his head, giving her a disapproving look. "Not to mention friends. Your price is the price anyone with a responsibility has, what anyone in a position to change what the stars laid out for them has—dependence. You aren't a free woman anymore, Emma. At least not in the sense you were before. You have obligations, and even I know how you've handled people depending on you in the past."

We're leaving Storybrooke. Yeah, forsaking an entire population because she didn't want to believe and kidnapping...sounded about right.

"But I'm different now. I've changed," she said.

"It's still your cross to bear," Rumpelstiltskin said. "Just as I learn to live without magic, even though I know it's better for me and the people around me. But I wouldn't worry, Miss Swan. This land doesn't stay quiet for long. I'm sure somehow the responsibilities you didn't initially want will just become adventures for you."

They'd had their differences, and since the beginning, Emma thought. And yet...they had worked together so many times. She'd gone to him when no one else even knew what was going on. He'd become a member of her family overnight. Quitting magic cold turkey, forced on by someone else—she didn't envy him. Stop just standing there nodding, she told herself, realizing she'd taken on a deer in the headlights expression. Approaching him, she inhaled, sucking it up, and hugged him.

"Thank you for everything," she whispered, feeling his hand shaking, not yet touching her back. At last it made contact and he returned the embrace.

A/N: Last chapter is on its way, guys! The rather snarky exchange between Rumple and Whale in this chapter is a reversal of some of their banter in "The Doctor" where Whale had to all but beg Gold to reattach his arm. Karma... Anyway, I kind of missed a lot of the pseudo-mentoring scenes Rumple and Emma had this season and so felt it necessary to put one in.