Chapter 2: Life Altering

Seven weeks had passed since Neal had fenced the watches. He received $25,000 for the case and had joined Emma like said he would.

In that time August had kept in touch with Neal and asked how the plan was in getting Emma to break the curse and to tell Neal that his warrant was no longer an issue. Neal knew better than to ask how August had managed that one.

He and Emma now had a descent apartment in Manhattan, New York and Neal had managed to get a job with social services helping unwanted kids. He had to give credit to August for that at least. Without a warrant for his arrest he could apply for work.

"You're stalling," August said over the phone.

Neal stood out in the hall of his apartment, keys in hand but he couldn't bring himself to go in until the conversation was finished.

"I'm not stalling."

"I told you about Storybrooke weeks ago. You said you would get Emma on her path but all you're doing is playing house. It has to stop Neal."

"I need more time."

"How much more: ten years, eleven? We don't have that have that luxury so get off your ass and start doing something about it."

August hung up as did Neal. He wanted to fling his phone across the hall but instead all he did was look at it and say "Dick."

Neal took a deep breath and unlocked the door to the apartment. When he entered he saw Emma standing with her back towards him. Something about it felt off. He started to worry.

"Emma, what's wrong?"

Emma raised her right hand and fingered with the yellow dream catcher that hung on the window.

"Remember the day we found this," she asked.

"How could I forget, that was one of the most fun days I had in a long time," he said wrapping his arms around her.

Emma pulled away and walked over, taking a seat on the couch.

"Okay what's going on," he asked. "You've been acting weird for days."

Emma looked up at Neal for the first time since he got home. In her eyes he saw a sadness that he had never seen before from her even though it was a look he himself knew all too well. Emma had always been strong and been able to survive. She kept a hard front that she rarely let anyone see beneath the surface. Now as he looked at his girlfriend he could see the lost girl that was tucked away behind the armor.

"I'm pregnant," she whispered.

Neal froze. He could not move. Those two life altering words shook him to his very core. Emma couldn't be pregnant. She was only seventeen. And he couldn't be a father, there was no way. The thought of kids had never even occurred to him, not really and when he had thought about it he pushed it away for his own selfish reasons.

He could see the sadness in Emma's eyes. This was clearly something she hadn't considered either. Neal wanted to be there for her, to say something, tell her everything would be okay, anything but he couldn't. He couldn't move his own legs. All he could do was bring his hands to his face and try to prevent his own tears from being released.

Emma had been watching Neal the whole time and what she saw made her nervous. She had never seen Neal this way. There had been times when he had gotten frustrated but now he looked scared as if the words had caused some ghost to manifest between them. She wouldn't have doubted it, neither of them was parent material and neither of them had the best role models to rely on.

The nervous tension in the room was starting to make her uncomfortable.

"Neal, please say something."

"I uh… I need to think," Neal said taking his keys and leaving.

Emma noticed he left his cell behind. She jumped a little when Neal slammed the door behind him.

"Yeah," she said to herself.

At this very moment Emma hated herself. Things in her life were going too good so it made sense that it would eventually erupt and finally be destroyed. That was the way things worked in her life: one foot inside a safe zone where she could try to be happy and the other on the outside waiting for things to go bad and when they did she could be ready to bail. But where would she go? She was still working on her plan of becoming a bail bonds person and that could take up close to a year and during the time she was also working a waitressing job, something her bosses considered her overly skilled at since she was not good with people and she was always good at figuring out people and the ones who lied about their orders just to get a rattle out of the workers but she needed the money.

And now she wasn't sure what she was going to do regardless if she planned on keeping the baby or not. Right now she wasn't so sure: keep the baby and lose Neal or keep Neal and lose the baby. Those seemed to be her only options and either way she would lose.