A/N: Thanks first of all to my beta, textbookone, who routinely saves you all from poor grammar, abrupt endings, and contortionism! (She doesn't beta my notes, so if that's not a real word, blame me not her.)

Thanks secondly to the guests (and named reviewers, of course!) who reviewed the last chapter. I have no way to thank you guys individually but I so appreciate your feedback! I'd gotten so little response to the prior couple of chapters that I was beginning to question if it was worth my time to write since no one seemed to be reading so it's great to know people still care. :)

Sorry this one's a bit of a shortie. I've been trying to do shorter & more frequent but you can see how well *that* is working out... :/

Regardless, enjoy!

As the days wore on, Bae worked to convince Emma that they couldn't just hole up in the cave and starve. The gnawing feeling in her stomach had taken his side in the debate, and together they had overcome her better judgement. Most mornings, as soon as the sun came up Bae would go out in search of food - in hopes that he'd be back before any search parties might be mobilized for the day. On this particular morning, Bae's nightmare had woken them before the sun, and he'd been intent on setting out for a berry bush he'd noticed on the way back from the stream.

"I'm sick of greens and fish," he'd said. "If you come with me, we can leave before sunup and bring back twice as much."

She'd concurred, giving into his argument once he pressed that he'd seen nary a soul since their arrival. The walk to the bush hadn't been far, and the pouches they'd formed with the fronts of their tunics were half full before they'd even glimpsed sunlight. The walk had been filled with idle chatter and talk about their plight - their normal topics of conversation - but as they stood in front of the bushes Bae turned the topic to something a bit more colorful.

"We've been out here a week already," he said, kicking at the bramble as he reached for another handful of berries. "You think they've caught this Cora yet?"

Emma shrugged. "Your guess is good as mine."

"After they do... once it's time to go back..." Bae spoke slowly, pensively, letting out a lingering sigh as he thought aloud. "Perhaps the time may have come to attempt reason with my father. He might be convinced that if time spent living in a cave hasn't drawn us together, nothing ever will."

Emma stopped in her picking, squinting at Bae as she digested this idea. "And what then?"

It was Bae's turn to shrug. "You'll be able to go back to how things were before my father swooped in and disrupted everything. Return to your home, to your parents - to your life. Be free to resume your studies, embark on your travels, to marry a prince of your choosing - or none at all."

Emma found herself taken aback by how her heart fell as she considered the notion of returning to her life 'before.' It seemed so... mundane. Stifling, even, when considered through the lens of the past six weeks. "And what of you?" she asked.

Bae gave another shrug, less enthusiastic this time. "Doesn't really matter, does it? I'll return to my father's, I suppose, having done my duty to my kingdom. I'll have kept our rulers alive, their princess safe, and satisfied my father's wishes in the process. At the end of the day, so long as I'm able to right the wrongs bestowed by my father, it doesn't seem to me that my fate's terribly important."

Emma gaped at him, astonished at his attitude. How did he not care that he'd be returning to a life that made him miserable? How could he feel that her happiness trumped his - as if he wasn't worthy of happiness at all? Hearing him speak that way struck her to the core, leaving her to wonder why it affected her so. She stood rooted to her spot, heart in her throat.

Oblivious to her plight, Bae resumed plucking the berries from the vine and she stood watching him, trying to reason out why her insides felt twisted into knots, why she felt absolutely gutted to know that he felt unworthy of happiness of his own. No question that she felt for him out of basic human decency - she'd been raised to want all of her subjects to be happy and prosperous - but this went deeper than that. No, somehow it felt vitally important to her that Bae realize his own worth... and when did his happiness take on such a paramount importance to her, anyways?

It was there, standing in a thicket of brambleberry bushes, that she realized it: she'd begun falling for her own husband.

The realization caused her to stumble back, leaving her thankful that Bae's back was turned. That darling, charming boy with his too-wise eyes would have known immediately that something was amiss, and she couldn't answer to his questions right now. Not when her head was swimming with so many of her own. When had this happened? How was she to deal with it? Acting on any notion was out of the question, of course. But oh, at the very least she could let him know he was important, that he mattered. She could do at least that much without letting on to her secret.

"It's not true, Bae," she finally choked out. So long had passed since his last comment that he must have forgotten what had been said, and so he glanced over his shoulder, squinting at her in the low morning sunlight.

"What isn't?"

"You - that you're not important. That's not the way this story ends, me back to my palace and you fading into the ether. We both end up okay at the end of it, you hear me?"

He turned to look at her, surprised at her words. Seeing the determination etched upon her face, he merely let out a noncommittal noise and nodded in reply.

"I mean it, Bae. You've made it your mission to take care of me, but I'm changing the rules. From here on out, we take care of each other."

His brow furrowed. "Emma, you don't have to-"

"I do," she said firmly. A beat passed before she continued. "Why don't you see your happiness as important, Bae?"

He shrugged, ducking his head and turning back to his picking. She made no such move, staring at him as she waited for him to open up. He must have felt her eyes boring into him, as finally he mumbled, "Why should I? No one else does. Not my mother, not my father, my stepfather..."

"I do." She hadn't meant to say it - it had just slipped out - but Bae didn't seem to take notice. Nor did he respond, not really anyways, though she noticed some of the slump went out of his shoulders as he resumed his picking in earnest. After a long moment, he turned to her and spoke, gesturing to the berries in his tunic - "I think that's about all I can carry."

She nodded, wordless, taking that as her cue that the conversation was over. As they trudged back to the cave, she realized that though the the conversation had ended, her troubles had really just begun.

Threats from Cora or no, Snow and Charming were still responsible for conducting their weekly council meeting. And so they sat around the council's large table with a dozen of their most trusted advisors, discussing varying matters of state - the unsolved problem of Cora included.

The meeting was interrupted as a whirl of smoke appeared in the room, dispersing to reveal Rumplestiltskin. "Where are they?" he cried, his tone accusatory, brown eyes wild with alarm.

"Excuse us," Prince Charming addressed the room at large. "Where are who?" he continued, turning to face the room's newest occupant.

"Baelfire and your daughter, of course," the imp replied, not bothering to hide his annoyance. "You must have them tucked away somewhere!"

The prince exchanged a look of concern with his wife. "We haven't seen Emma in a week... Bae even longer. I thought you had this well in hand?!" Glancing at the occupants of the table, he recalled that they had an audience. "Perhaps we should take this discussion elsewhere? Red," he nodded towards her, "I assume you can conclude without us?"

She confirmed his assumption with a curt nod, and Emma's parents escorted her unlikely father-in-law into the hall. "What is the meaning of this?" Snow exclaimed, pushing open the door to a nearby chamber and ushering the group inside.

"They're missing," Rumplestiltskin replied. "I assumed she'd coerced him to come stay here despite my warnings to the contrary, but if you speak the truth, I don't know where they are."

"You have my word," replied Charming, "and I would hope after all of these years you can trust that our word is good."

"Unfortunately so," he said, narrowing his eyes. "But then where are they."

Charming blew out a frustrated breath. "Calm down. Let's back up... I thought you had them under your protection. Why do you believe them to be missing?"

"I hadn't seen them in almost a week, for starters," Rumplestiltskin began.

"This is unusual?"

"Yes, yes. Rarely a day went by that one or the other wasn't up asking for help. 'I tore my shawl' or 'I found this wild turkey in the kitchen but I don't know how to cook it.' When I didn't see them for a few days -"

"Wait, wait," Snow interrupted. "They brought this pettiness to you? What did you do when they approached you with these problems?"

Rumplestiltskin wrinkled his nose, unamused at her inane question. "Fixed it for them, of course."

Snow raised an eyebrow. "You just... magically fixed their issues?"

He shot her a dirty look. "Yes of course! What did you expect I would do?"

The royals exchanged a glance. "Allowed them to figure it out for themselves?"

"They would fail!"

"They would learn," Snow admonished him. "Rumplestiltskin, you forced these two children into a marriage. How do expect them to be successful if you do everything for them?"

"Well I suspect they're working it out now, wherever your precious princess has spirited Bae off to..."

"Why is it that they go missing and you assume Emma is at fault?" Charming asked, offended at the assumption.

"Bae is far too prudent to come up with a plan as foolhardy as running off with her."

"And Emma is not?"

"Well, she is rather spirited, dear." Snow interjected, only to be leveled by her husband's gaze. He turned his attention back to the sorcerer in front of them.

"Why would they run? They were protected on your grounds! And even if Emma found running to be the more attractive choice, what makes you think she would go with your son? Last I saw, they were none too fond of each other. Barely tolerated each other, at best."

"Things can change..." Rumplestiltskin replied.

"Had they?" Charming replied, surprise evident in his voice.

"Barely beyond civility, I'm afraid."

"Then I'll ask again. Why do you think they ran away?"

"Three days in a row I've gone to the cottage to check on them, and they are nowhere in sight. I'd assumed they were avoiding me, but the notes I've sent sit undisturbed on the kitchen table. Nothing's been moved or touched between visits. I set a barrier spell to keep them in, so I hadn't worried, but at this point I'm beginning to fear they escaped before it was in place."

"But why together? I still don't understand why Emma would have weighed herself down by taking your son?"

Rumplestiltskin sighed. "Based on the parameters of their reign, they could not have gone separately."

"Parameters?" the prince asked, confusion evident in his voice. "Whatever are you talking about?"

Rumplestiltskin clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Keep up. Under the agreement we forged upon Emma's arrival, Bae cannot leave the grounds without myself or Emma. She had more reign, but still, she must return to her husband by nightfall."

Snow glanced at her own husband, who shook his head. "Emma never mentioned any of this to us," she stated suspiciously.

"And on any of her visits, has she stayed past nightfall?"

Her mother pursed her lips. "No."

"Your daughter is a cunning girl. She understood these parameters and would have easily figured out that they could leave so long as they were together."

"What was the price if they violated these parameters?"

Rumplestiltskin chuckled. "I hadn't one, but the young ones never asked. Their assumptions worked to my benefit."

Charming sighed, shaking his head as he processed the situation and worry began to creep in. "We'll send out a search party at once," he said, nodding towards Snow. She exited in haste, moving back towards the council chamber. Charming went to follow her but stopped short, turning back to Rumplestiltskin with a quizzitive look on his face. "One last thing. Why did you feel the need to put these parameters in place?"

Rumplestiltskin looked at him, incredulous. "Are you daft? Without them, they would have avoided each other completely. How do you expect the two of them to develop feelings for one another if they aren't forced to spend time together?"

This caused Charming to dissolve into uproarious laughter. "You think my daughter is going to develop feelings for your son? Clearly you don't know Emma well... at all."

Emma stood at the back of the cave, rinsing the berries they'd picked as Bae pulled together the rest of the ingredients for their meal - some sort of stew by the looks of it. She stole a glance at him out of the corner of her eye and tried to will away the flip-flops her heart was doing in her chest. How could she have been so foolish as to allow herself to have feelings for him? Not that she'd given herself permission, of course, but somehow his endearing smile had found its way through a gap in her guard and now here she was. Harboring affections for someone who did not return them was an awful feeling. She could perhaps think of only one thing worse: to be caught in that situation with the person you were married to - married to and stuck in isolation with for weeks on end. Stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid Emma, she chastised herself, silently vowing to keep her newfound feelings hidden. After all, the only thing that had made their early days even remotely tolerable was the knowledge that they were both equally displeased with the situation. Somehow going back on that felt like a betrayal.

She'd already pressed too close to the line as it was. She'd have to be careful - very careful - not to let on that she had any attachment to him. She couldn't quite decide why - whether it was because it would be uncomfortable for them both, or maybe that it was unfair to him to have her acting as a lovesick puppy. Or perhaps because she couldn't bear to see the compassion in his eyes as he rejected her, pitying her as she pined for someone who saw her only as a friend. Nevertheless, the fact remained that she'd have to take every precaution to interact with him as she always had. She could do that, hold up that front, act as if nothing had changed - just until she figured out how to get over this silly romantic notion that had somehow crept into her conscience.

"Em?"

"Hmm?"

"You're awfully quiet over there. Thoughts to share?"

"No," she replied quickly, shaking her head. "Nothing to share." A pause as she took a breath, steadying herself before turning. "How's the stew coming?"

Once they'd finished eating, Emma thanked him for preparing the meal. It was barely edible, of course, leaving a complement as a dead giveaway that something was amiss - but she wasn't about to let his kindness go unnoticed. She couldn't allow herself to be added to the list of people who'd stolen his self-worth. Beyond that discussion she retreated into her thoughts, puzzling over how to work herself back into the tenets of friendship they'd established weeks prior. If Bae noticed that her lack of conversation persisted throughout the afternoon, he didn't mention it. For that, Emma was glad - at least it was one fewer lie she had to tell. She was certainly spinning plenty as she worked to convince herself that time and willpower could banish the affections she'd unwillingly acquired.