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Alas, I do not own OUAT.

The last time Emma Swan saw Neal Cassidy she was a teenager. Broken from the hands she had been dealt in her hard life, he was the first person ever to give her hope. A hope for a future. She lived her life day by day, circumstance by circumstance, just trying to get by. Just trying to survive. In her mind, she dreamt that she would get to a place where she wouldn't struggle, where she wouldn't scrimp and save and duck and dive just to get to a comfortable place, but she didn't exactly know how she was going to get there.

Then Neal came along and whisked her away into a world where she wasn't alone and fending for herself. She had someone to share with. She had someone she cared about and, for the first time, someone who cared about her back. At the time it felt like fate had handed her the life she had always wanted on a silver platter. All she ever wanted was to have a home and a family.

Neal could have been that for her. Neal was supposed to be that for her.

Tallahassee, he promised. Home, he swore.

And she believed him; into the trap she fell, head first with her heart leading the way, letting her defences slip, crumbling her walls, giving him all of her.

He was going to be her someday, her chance to do something greater than stealing cars and robbing convenient stores.

Then the dream ended and the hope that burned inside of her extinguished in sensational fashion. The moment she was arrested, the moment she realized that the man she had loved with all of her heart had betrayed her was easily the worst moment of her life. But Emma never cried; not once. It was like her body couldn't respond to the utter heartbreak that consumed her like a fire.

It was amazing how rapidly her emotions changed from denial, to disbelief, to heartbreak, to anger, to hatred. Jail provided enough time for her to sort out her feelings.

Emma Swan hated Neal Cassidy.

He promised her so much and then squashed it in an instant and left her to rot in a jail cell for a crime he committed.

And it was in that jail cell where she found out she was pregnant with his child.

It was in that moment, when she looked at the positive result, she vowed to never see him again, to never let her mind even think of him. Neal Cassidy meant nothing to her.

And yet, in what she hoped was just a cruel twist of fate, here they were eleven years later staring at one another with wide eyes.

"Emma?" he breathed again, clambering out of the car to stand before her.

Emma instinctively took a step back, her hands raised. "What are you doing here?"

He gulped, his eyes glued to hers. "I, uh, I didn't see your car. You're bleeding; are you okay?"

Raising her hand in inspection, she winced at the sharp dart of pain she felt, withdrawing to see a layer of blood on her fingers. "You didn't answer my question."

David, who had stayed back to watch the initial exchange, was readily by the blonde's side when he saw how uncomfortable she was. "Everything okay here?" he asked, his hands making a home on his hips, looking between the two of them.

"Everything's fine," she insisted.

"Well she's bleeding," Neal pointed out. "She should probably get that checked out."

"God, it's just a scrape!"

Her father put himself between them, his back to Neal. "Emma," he said that in that parental warning tone, "you need to calm down, okay?"

"I am calm!" she snapped back.

"You're shaking."

So she was. Her fingers all the way down to her toes were quivering, her eyes glistening with tears that threatened to fall. Listening to him and taking his advice, Emma took three deep breaths, trying to push aside all the animosity she had churning inside of her. She couldn't afford to get emotional.

"Who is he?" he probed gently.

"Nobody."

"Well it doesn't look that way to me."

"Just leave it, okay?" She sighed and circled around the man to find Neal in his car checking the engine that seemed to have died in the crash. Every time the noise of the engine starting was replaced with a few clicks and a motor that sounded like a spluttering whale.

Just perfect.

"The damn car's busted," he complained, flinging the keys onto the passenger seat. "Is there a garage nearby?"

"Oh no, no way. You're not staying around here."

"Emma my car's not starting." She crossed her arms defiantly, making him smirk. "What do you want me to do, walk back the way I came?"

"If it's the quickest way to get you as far away as possible then yes."

"I'm sorry," David interjected, shooting the woman a pointed look, stretching out his hand, "I'm Deputy Sheriff David Nolan. You are?"

"Deputy, huh? Emma always did like being in charge. Neal Cassidy." He shook his hand. A good firm handshake: the kind of one he should have had with her father in an ideal world, in another life. No, she wouldn't allow herself to go there.

"There's a garage in town that will have that running in no time. I'll give them a call to collect the car and you can grab a lift with us."

"What? No!" Emma argued, slapping her father on the arm. He looked at the spot she hit but didn't say anything. Sometimes she forgot that he wasn't just a co-worker or a friend but her father, and so there were times when doing something like that would have been received with a sharp eye. He simply flipped open his phone and started punching in numbers.

"That'd be great, thanks," Neal warmly accepted, clapping his hands together and rubbing them the way he used to when he felt like he had won a mini-battle with her.

He was far too calm for a guy who just happened upon an old flame. Not to mention the fact that he had just been in a minor crash. Far. Too. Calm. Why was she the only one freaking out here?

It's like he - it was like he was almost…expecting to see her?

"Yeah the town line…that's great…thanks."

Emma grabbed David by the elbow as he was putting his phone back into his pocket and guided him away from the man. "What do you think you're doing? We cannot drive him into town. In case you hadn't noticed, Storybrooke isn't exactly tourist-friendly at the moment. Just yesterday Gold was brewing up potions in his store – in broad daylight!" she hissed in a hushed tone. "He can't come, it's too risky."

"And what's the alternative?" he challenged. "Emma, we can't just leave him here and you have to get that gash checked." He reached forward to have a closer look at it but something in her expression stopped him cold. "Look, we'll keep an eye on him and make sure he's in and out quickly and then he'll be on his way."

"There is no way I'm keeping an eye on him!" she jabbed the air.

The rain fell heavier, the wind picking up, spraying it like a hose. Emma couldn't help but feel like it was a sign.

And not a good one.

"Emma, who is this guy?" David was less curious as a town authority figure and more like a concerned parent which served to only irk her more. She didn't need this now. She needed to stay calm. But there were so many answers to that question: a man she once knew, the man she had loved, the man who had betrayed her and broken her heart beyond repair, Henry's father. She closed her eyes with that thought.

Feeling gentle yet calming hands on her shoulders she opened them to meet David's gaze. His eyes were ocean blue, shining at her. "Just someone from my past. And not someone I want hanging around."

The sandy-haired man continued to look at her, refusing to budge.

"Look, Dad," she whispered, "I'll explain later okay? I can't do this right now. Neal knows something and I need to find out what it is."

"What makes you say that?"

"Uh, the fact that he's standing over there as cool as a cucumber, not even asking a single question about how our car managed to appear out of thin air." It didn't sound so bad in her head, but saying it aloud caused her stomach to lurch.

There was definitely something going on here.

But before she could start her line of interrogation, David jumped in, twisting around to Neal. "Okay then, let's head into town." He gestured to the car. "Shall we?"

Emma clenched her jaw, her eyes narrowing at the two men in her eyeline. "Fine," she muttered reluctantly, "but I'm driving."

"No you're not, you're bleeding."

"I'm driving," she asserted more forcefully. She needed the distraction.

"Emma."

"David," she droned, widening her eyes. "If I start to feel dizzy or faint I'll pull over and you can take the wheel, okay?"

Though he looked thoroughly annoyed at the plan, he gave a curt nod of assent.

Neal grinned. "Some things never change huh, Em?"

She stomped over to the car, flinging the door open. "Just get in."

He raised his hands as if in surrender and followed her orders without another word. David, too, joined her in the passenger seat, still looking totally bemused.

They drove in silence through the town. Neal kept his gaze glued to the passing scenery, seemingly in search of something, and the curiosity was practically buzzing off David – but he didn't say a thing. Thankfully. What a weird scenario to be in: Emma, driving, whilst her ex-boyfriend sat in the backseat and her extremely young father sat beside her.

It wasn't until they passed by the hospital that her father spoke up. "We should go in," he said. "See if Whale's around. Get something for that." He pointed to the mark that looked to be still bleeding. Emma risked a glance at it in her mirror; blood was not a good look on her.

"We're going to the garage," Emma replied hastily, her hands tightening around the wheel.

"And we will later. They told me they'd call as soon as it was ready to be picked up, so pull in."

"It's fine-"

"Emma Swan pull in now!" he instructed vehemently.

Neal sucked in breath between his teeth, the noise almost shrieking in the silence that followed his outburst. Emma tensed at the wheel. David's face turned red.

She wondered how that would have sounded to someone like Neal. Probably crazy. Some guy just yelling at her the way a parent would.

Nonetheless, she obeyed her dad. She was not going to fight that - he had twenty-eight years' worth of discipline to dish out.

"It's purely superficial," Whale explained as he brushed over her cut with an antiseptic wipe that felt as though he was purposely trying to create as much pain for her as possible. "You won't even have a scar." Picking up a bandage from the table next to him, he ran a finger along the line before pressing it onto her forehead with enough force so that it would stick. "All better."

Emma dropped her shoulders and turned to face a relieved David. "Told you I was fine."

"Better safe than sorry."

Neal stood away from them, his hands shoved firmly in his pockets, his shoulders raised, his eyes frantically scanning all around him. Compared to the ease in which he held himself during their 'reunion' earlier, he was brimming with anxiety now.

But no, she wouldn't let herself care about him. The only thing she worried about was someone mentioning anything to do with a curse or magic or the Enchanted Forest – and that was enough for her.

"…Emma?"

"What?" She didn't realize Whale had been talking to her.

"I said," he hesitated, scratching the back of his neck, "do you know how long Mary Margaret and Ruby will be out for? 'Cause we had plans but I was hoping to surprise her…"

Emma exchanged a look with her father who crossed his arms and shook his head, a light laugh escaping his lips.

"I don't…I don't think they'll be long," she offered with a smile.

Ruby and Whale's attraction to one another had been no secret over the past few months, and though Emma would never see whatever it was that Ruby saw in the man, she was happy for them. Maybe she was getting soft because of all this talk about 'True Love' and whatnot but she didn't care. Ruby was her friend – and apparent godmother – so why couldn't she sample some of the stuff her parents embodied? Even if it was with Whale.

"Okay. Great. Thanks."

He dropped his eyes to the floor, and bowed quickly before scuffling away like an excited child. Emma allowed herself a smirk.

That was, until Neal shuffled over to stand in front of her, his head still ducked as if he didn't want to be seen. "I'm glad you're okay," he professed in his usual husky voice. "Not that I thought you wouldn't be," he added quickly, "I mean, you always did bounce back pretty easily from knockbacks. That scar right there is proof of that." He pointed to the small indentation she had just over her eye. She got that back when they were pulling the whole Bonnie and Clyde act. It wasn't that great of a story really: they had just pulled a few things from a supermarket and she tripped in the middle of their getaway – ungracefully, she might add - somehow managing to smack her face in on the cold, hard concrete outside in the process. She got four stitches.

But she didn't want to take a trip down memory lane with him. "What are you doing here, Neal?"

"What do you mean, we had to get your head check-"

"You know what I mean," she cut him off coldly.

"What, a guy can't take a drive now without being interrogated?" His voice was rising.

"Well since you caused an accident and I'm the Sheriff, yeah 'taking a drive' does warrant an interrogation so cut the crap, Neal!" She jumped off the examination table, her frame mere inches from his, her breath shaky. "I promised myself never to see you again so there better be an incredible explanation for you being here! What's going on?"

He winced at her words, as if they caused him actual physical pain. His brow creased, his eyes pleading, he kept his voice low, the way he used to when he was about to confess to something. "Can we go somewhere, you know, to talk?"

So there was a reason he was in Storybrooke. It wasn't just some sick, sadistic, cruel twist of fate. Emma's heart began to pound erratically again, a million thoughts flowing through her mind all at once.

"Alone?" he finished, flicking his gaze at a very protective-looking David who had his arms crossed like he was some kind of bouncer at a club.

A large part of her begged her to say no, to leave him and never look back. But a larger part craved the answers she had so desperately wanted for years: Why did you leave me? How could you leave me? I thought you loved me? You said you loved me? You promised you'd look out for me? Tallahassee?

Was it all just a big lie? A game? Did he care about her at all?

"Okay," she whispered. Turning to her father, she laid a tentative hand on his arm, hoping to ease the tension in his muscles. "You should go back to the station. I'll meet you there in a while."

"Emma, you don't have to go-"

"It's okay," she assured. "Really. Go ahead."

David looked none-too-happy to leave his daughter with a man – a stranger, an outsider, but something in her tone struck him and he sighed. "Alright. But call me if you need anything."

"I will," she said with an eager nod.

He smiled one of those smiles he only reserved for her, his daughter, and shot another threatening glance Neal's way before turning on his heel and leaving them. Alone.

Oh how she hated that.

"Let's go," she mumbled.

"Could we possibly go somewhere…" he squeezed his face, his hands balling the air "…not so public?"

"Are you serious? Why?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "Just 'cause."

She clucked her tongue. "Do you have any other requests princess?"

"Princess? That's cute."

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Stop acting as if everything is fine between us; everything is not fine!" Against her better judgement, she became more animated with every passing second. "It's not even in the same neighbourhood as fine! You can't just wander back into my life unexpectedly and just assume that I'd be happy to see you!"

Neal threw his hands in the air. "Whoa, okay, okay. I'm sorry," he conceded.

She started to walk and he followed her, always one step behind like he was afraid she'd pounce on him any chance she got.

"So where we going?"

Emma clenched her fists to suppress her anger.

"Wait so who's the guy Emma's with?"

As soon as David arrived back at the station, he called Snow to fill her in on the situation. He'd usually wait until he got home to relay any stories he had from the day but this one, this one couldn't wait. Besides there being an outsider among them, he was also someone with whom Emma was acquainted with. Someone from Emma's past.

He wished he knew more than that but his daughter was nothing but vague.

He settled onto the chair and pulled himself toward the desk. A pile of disorganized files sat in front of him, begging to be sorted but he ignored them, pushing them to the side.

"All I got was that his name is Neal Cassidy and that he and Emma know each other. And from the looks of it, she's not one bit happy to see him show up out of the blue."

Snow's breath was quick on the other end of the phone. "And he just drove through the barrier?"

"Right through." Though she couldn't see him, he motioned with his hand. "He caught sight of our car just as soon as he crossed it and barely managed to miss us. We're lucky; it could have been worse."

"Did he…did look dangerous; did you get that vibe off him?"

"No. No, I don't think so, why?"

His wife stalled. "It's just that we don't really know much about Emma's life growing up and the only thing we do really know is that it wasn't easy and that she had been through some really rough times. Who knows the kind of people she used to know?"

David picked up a pen and began twirling it between his fingers. "Nah, I don't think it's anything like that. I got the feeling he was more like a…like an ex-boyfriend." Even saying the word aloud pained him. It was hard at times to separate Emma, the woman, from the baby he had held in his arms but words like 'boyfriends' and 'relationships' were kind of hard to ignore.

"Ex-boyfriend," she breathed. "Charming, you don't think…I mean could he possibly be Henry's father?"

He dropped the pen. He hadn't thought of that. "Uh, maybe. Wow, that thought didn't even cross my mind."

"It would explain why she was so cagey."

"Yeah it would."

"Listen, I gotta go; Ruby's buying an outfit for her date later so I'll talk to you about this at home, okay?"

He smiled down the phone. "Okay. I'll talk to you soon. I love you, Snow."

"I love you, too."

He hung-up the phone and dragged his stare to the paperwork. With a hefty sigh he took the bundle in his hands and decided to make a start on it, praying that Emma would call so that he wouldn't have to do it all.

The only place Emma could think of that was 'not so public' was her house. To be honest that was the last place she wanted to take him but she went there anyway, avoiding any more unnecessary conversations with him. Actually, they only conversed once along the way.

"I gotta ask," he said, picking at his fingernails, "that Deputy, are you two, I mean, are you guys…?"

Emma almost choked on her own spit. "What?! Me and David?! No, no! God, no!"

"Oh, I just assumed-"

"Well your assumption is horribly wrong! On so many levels."

"Right, right."

They didn't talk after that little exchange.

It amazed her how angry she still was with him; how a single peek in his direction made her blood boil.

She guessed she never really got over him, or what he did to her. And the fact that the chance to raise Henry was taken away from her was something she couldn't let go of easily. She knew she couldn't raise him alone. Heck, she could hardly look after herself. She had to give him a life much better than the one she had but sometimes she did let herself think about what it would have been like to have been a family: her, Neal and Henry. It made her heart ache every time. They could have done it – the two of them. They could have been parents.

Wordlessly, she led him into her home, carefully eyeing the places that had pictures of her and her family. Mary Margaret had been insistent on having family portraits taken and Emma, being unable to move without the help of her parents, begrudgingly agreed. Fortunately, there weren't that many.

"This is your house?" Neal asked, stunned as he took in his surroundings.

"Yep." She continued on, entering the kitchen and gesturing to the table for him to take a seat.

His smile was lop-sided as he obliged. "I've gotta say, you're doing pretty well for yourself, Em."

"Yeah, well." She kept a keen distance from him, leaning against the counter. "Isn't this the part where you start explaining yourself?"

"Don't I get a snack or something?"

She rolled her eyes, waiting.

His face fell in an instant. He bit his cheek, scratching his head.

"Why are you here, Neal?"

"I had to see you. Had to make sure you were okay," he responded honestly without a beat.

She scoffed. "You're about eleven years too late. How did you know where I was?" she demanded. "Because you're entirely unfazed by this place – why is that?"

"Your buddy August told me about it – and about you, too."

Emma was getting more confused by the minute. "What's August got to do with all this?"

Neal inhaled deeply, looking up at her from under his eyelashes. "Emma, I…I know about the curse."

Her eyes widened, her arms falling to her side. "What curse?" she swallowed.

"The curse that trapped people here for twenty-eight years. The one you had to break."

She moved further away from him, her mind racing. "I don't know what you're talking about," she lied.

"Emma, I know curses are real. I know magic is real."

Her voice shook violently. "How?"

"Because," he started, "I'm from the Enchanted Forest."

Yes I am leaving it there! Haha in my mind I had Emma more angry at Neal than anything else and I wanted to show that throughout but I'm not entirely convinced with the way I handled this so any feedback would be greatly appreciated! The next chapter will pick-up immediately where this left off so fret not! I hope you all liked what you read :)