A/N: It's shorter than I wanted it to be... but I really didn't quite foresee what would happen...

Regina picked up a piece of chocolate and looked at it.

"If we don't find what we're looking for soon, I'm gonna get fat," she told Emma who looked over at her from where she sat among more of Gold's assorted treasures. She smiled.

"I don't think that's anything to smile about, savior."

"Why not? More to love," Emma answered and stood. She brushed dirt from her jeans and then came over to where Regina stood in front of the book shelf.

It was Saturday and they were once again sifting through Rumple's shop. Emma had the indistinct feeling that things appeared out of thin air. Just when she thought she had looked at every piece about three times there was something she'd never seen before. It was just a little disconcerting and a lot annoying.

Emma picked up a piece of chocolate for herself and put it in her mouth.

"Mhhhhm," she made and grinned at Regina.

"Easy for you to say with your metabolism. But wait till I get you pregnant. We'll see how much you're gonna like that," Regina told her with an easy smile.

"I'd love that," Emma answered at her lover's raised eyebrow. "You getting me pregnant, I would love that," she clarefied and stepped closer to Regina.

"It's not impossible, you know," Regina said but was interrupted by Neal who had taken to clearing his throat before enterig a room where Emma and Regina were searching. Not that anything had happened to warrant it, he hadn't walked in on them making out or anything like it. He just did it and it was grating on Regina's nerves.

Emma merely smiled at her lover whenever Neal did it, like it was a private joke between them, like Neal's behavior really didn't matter.

"If he could get the job done, I'm sure everybody can," Regina murmured, still on the subject of impregnating Emma.

The blonde looked at her with some confusion, not sure whether she was joking or not.

"We're gonna talk about that," she told Regina as Neal entered and then added: "Later."

"Look what I found," Rumple's son said as he put a small box on the glass counter. "It was at the house, hidden," he added with a significant look.

Emma and Regina stepped closer but when Emma reached out her hand to touch the box, Regina said:

"Don't touch that."

"Why not?"

"Don't you feel it? Bad mojo," Regina said and held her hand just over the box. "It's... did you open it?" she asked Neal.

"I couldn't. I thought you might be able to," he told her.

"Not a good idea. Whatever or whoever is in there... you don't want to meet," she told them both and stepped back from the box.

"So, is this another Pandora's Box?" Emma asked.

"I suspect it's something similar, yes."

"It's a little like Ghostbusters," Neal said and smiled at Emma. This was another thing he did, reminding Emma of thngs they had shared, movies they had watched, places they'd been together.

Regina rolled her eyes as she turned away.

"Yeah, a little," Emma said awkwardly. "Where did you find it?"

"Under a floorboard in dad's kitchen. I spilled some milk yesterday and it dribbled between two board. I looked and discovered a hiding place," he related proudly.

"What do you think is in it?" Emma asked turning to her girlfriend.

Regina looked around from where she was looking through another book for any kind of clue or secret hiding place. She shook her head.

"Impossible to know. Could be a curse, a creature... a very, very evil person. The vibe I get is just dark and disturbing," the dark-haired woman said.

Emma held her own hand over the box and concentrated on it. There was certainly something... negative about this but Emma didn't even get the clear distinctions that Regina did, her magic was still very unevolved.

"Can we just let it sit here?"

"Whatever is in can't come out or it would have already," Regina said. "Just let it sit. I'll see if I can get a clearer reading on it later. I just want to get through these books first."

Emma turned toward Regina. There was a strain to the other woman's voice she hadn't noticed before.

"What if this is what we're looking for?" Neal asked.

"We'll deal with it. Thank you, Neal," Emma said and he looked at her intently. She gave him one of her stares and he sighed. Then he turned on his heel and left the women to keep looking at things in the back.

"Regina?" Emma asked but then she were interrupted by the box on the counter moving. "What the...?" Emma started and Regina turned to see the box fall from the counter.

Emma crouched to pick it up again but Regina called out:

"Don't touch it!"

They looked at each other. The box was simply lying there, not moving. Regina went over and kneeled beside Emma.

"What we're gonna do?" Emma asked quietly.

"Hold my hand," Regina said and held out her left hand for Emma to take. She did it and they entwined their fingers. Then Regina did what she had done earlier, putting her hand just over the box. She closed her eyes and Emma saw the frown form between her lover's eyes.

"Regina?"

Her answer was Regina's thumb who rubbed over the back of her hand reassuringly.

"What is it?" Emma asked because she really had no patience when her lover dabbled in dark magic when she really shouldn't.

"It's not... it wasn't coming from inside, the movement," Regina mused and opened her eyes again. "There's something in the room with us," she said and looked around. And like if on cue the unicorn mobile tinkled.

"It got out?" Emma asked and her eyes whipped around the room.

"No. Whatever is here with us didn't come from inside the box," Regina answered and the unicorns tinkled again.

"What is it then? A ghost?" Emma asked. The box on the floor jumped up and then whizzed through the air. It hit the door and fell to the floor again.

"I don't think so," Regina said and rose. Emma followed and they stood looking at the box. Then Regina asked:

"Rumple?" and Emma looked at her surprised. The tinkle from the unicorns was her answer.

"So we're going to assume that means yes?" Emma asked and as if in answer the unicorns tinkled again. "That is so creepy," she said to her lover.

"It is and..."

"What?"

"We probably shouldn't trust it," Regina said.

At this the box rose from the floor again and then flew across the room, this time it crashed into the bookshelf.

"Whoever you are, take it easy with that box, okay?" Emma said aloud to something she couldn't see and wasn't sure she believed in. "Does this mean Rumple's dead?" she asked turning to Regina.

"No, I don't..." but the mayor was interrupted by something else flying; it was a book this time and it just barely missed Emma.

"Whoa, I said take it easy with those flying things," she called out angrily.

"You said to take it easy with the box, honey," Regina gave back and Emma looked at her in outrage.

The mayor smiled. She put a hand on Emma's arm and squeezed it.

"It seems our friend is not quite dead," she said.

"How do we know it's really him?" Emma asked.

"We don't."

That was the cue for whatever spirit had come into the shop that day to produce evidence and it came in the shape of pages of a book turning rapidly until it stopped. The two women stepped up to the book which had been lying on the counter from Regina's earlier inspection. Emma looked at the page without comprehension but Regina read the title and closed her eyes for a moment.

"It is Rumple," she said.

"How do you know?"

"The story... it's a fable. He... told it to me once. I remember because... it was when he began teaching me and I had doubted him, his powers."

The unicorns tinkled. But this time they didn't stop, the whole mobile seemed to have been set in motion, the unicorns started flying, strainging agains the strings that held them in place. And then - with one violent burst - the whole structure ruptured as if from an explosion and pieces of the mobile shattered across the whole room.

"Watch out!" Emma called out and threw herself over Regina as they both ducked under the flying unicorn missiles.

They shattered against walls, windows, floors and then everything was eerily quiet except for footsteps that came from the backroom.

"What the hell?" Neal said as he entered the room. "Emma, are you alright?" He called out as he came over to where Emma and Regina slowly got up from the floor.

"Regina, are you okay?" Emma asked and looked her lover over.

"Yes, I'm..." Regina started but then noticed something on Emma's neck. "You're bleeding," she said and reached for the wound. Emma's hand was faster as she felt at her neck. She winced when she touched the cut. Then she felt for something in her hair. It was the head of one of the unicorns which had entangled in her hair after it had cut her.

"What happened?" Neal asked and took another step toward Emma, seemingly wanting to look at the wound more closely, look at Emma more closely, but there stood Regina - in his place.

"Do you have a first aid kit? Some adhesive tape?" She asked him and he took a step back.

"Yeah, sure, be right back."

"That's not necessary," Emma protested but Neal was still leaving and Regina led her over to a stool.

"Here, sit. Let me take a look at it."

"It's nothing, Regina, really," Emma told her and tried to ward off her hands.

"Let me," Regina told her in a commanding voice and Emma stopped fighting. "Now, that's a good savior. Let me have a look." Regina pushed Emma's locks from her neck and looked closely at the wound.

"It's not deep but... it's a long cut," Regina told her but Emma wasn't really listening. She was just putting her hands on Regina's hips, interpreting the present closeness as an invitation to get cozy. "Emma," Regina warned but only half-serious. She smiled.

Emma put her arms around Regina's waist and pulled her closer.

"You could have just said that you wanted to get into my personal space, you know?"

"I only wanted to see if you needed stitches, actually. The personal space was an added bonus," Regina answered matching Emma's flirtatious tone.

"I'd say," Emma gave back and kissed Regina.

And that's how Neal found them minutes later, holding each other, kissing, and completely oblivious to his presence. He cleared his throat and they parted, but only just.

"First aid kit," he said in an uncomfortably raspy voice and held the small box up.

"Thank you, Neal," Regina said and took it from him.

She didn't pay any more attention to him as she rummaged through the contents of the box but Emma saw him looking at her with deeply hurt eyes. The look she gave him back was pitying but stern. It said that she didn't love him anymore and maybe for the first time since they met again he actually believed it. Neal turned and left the room.

"Is he alright?" Regina asked when she finally attended to Emma's wound.

"He will be," she said with a pained smile.

"I hope so," Regina gave back. "And so will you."

"Thank you, nurse Mills," Emma said with a slight grin.

"You just had naughty thoughts, didn't you?"

Emma's grin grew wider in answer and then she laughed. So did Regina for a moment before they looked around themselves and remembered what had just happened.

"Is he still here?" Emma asked.

"Rumple?"

But there was no answer, nothing moved, nothing tinkled or exploded or otherwise.

"He seems to be gone?"

"Do you think he'll be back?" Emma asked.

"I hope so," Regina answered and at the questioning glance of her lover. "Then he can help us find what we're looking for."

Emma entered The Rabbit Hole. She was still thinking about everything that had happened in Gold's shop that afternoon and she felt shaken by the whole thing. Rumple in his shop as some sort of... what? An apparition, a ghost? But if the tinkling and flying box were any indications, he wasn't dead. So where was he? What was he?

Those were the questions Emma and Regina had asked themselves when they'd come home from the shop but they hadn't found an answer yet. And Emma was sure, she wasn't going to find an answer in the bar. Who she did find was her father who was sitting at the bar... next to Neal, of all people.

"Great," Emma sighed under her breath but walked over. She took the seat next to David and when he looked up at his new neighbor his eyes widened in surprise.

"Emma," he exclaimed and now Neal looked up, too.

"Hello, dad. Hey, Neal." Her ex merely nodded at her in acknowledgement. His brows were furrowed in a hurt frown but his eyes seemed glazed; he was drunk. "Neal, do you think you could excuse me and David for a while? I need to talk to him," she told him.

"About what happened at the shop today that neither you or Regina took the time... to explain to me?" He got the question out and it seemed to surprise him that it actually made sense. He smiled slightly but then remembered to look slighted and resumed his earlier facial expression.

"No, about something personal? Please," she added but it sounded impatient.

Neal took his beer and slipped from his stool. He wavered slightly but then walked off in the direction of the dart boards.

David looked after him.

"He said your unicorn mobile exploded in the shop?" he then said looking questioningly at her.

"Yeah, it did. We're not sure what it was about, to be honest, but we're working on it," Emma told him.

"We? You and Regina?"

"No, me and Toby the Troll. What do you think?" Emma gave back and then let out a frustrated groan. "Damn," she cursed under her breath.

This wasn't working well. She had promised her mother to talk to David again, she had wanted to herself but now she was so worked up over what had happened earlier that she felt... out of control and not really able to deal with David's... bullshit. And after all that was said and done, it was nothing but bullshit. How did he think he could tell her who to love, who not to love? And where did he get the audacity to team up with her ex - the man who'd put her in jail and was responsible for her giving up her son - to make her feel bad about her decisions, her choices in life?

"Emma?" David's voice broke through her thoughts and she looked up at him. "You don't look so good? You alright?"

"No, I'm not, dad. I'm frustrated! I'm angry! And I really... you have no right to make me feel bad about who I love. I'm happy, dad! And that's more than I could have said in a good long while. I fucking love Regina! And you're not gonna make me change my mind... damn, I don't feel..." Emma looked around herself as if disoriented. She felt dizzy and wavered slightly in her chair.

David took one of her arms.

"It's okay," he said but as he slipped from his stool, she practically fell against him. David flailed a little as he steadied himself, pushing his almost empty glass from the bar. It crashed to the floor and burst. Emma crouched and gave a small scream as if the glass was exploding like her mobile had exploded. The world still hadn't steadied itself and as she ducked, she lost her footing. David was still holding her but he saw that she was losing consciousness. He lifted her up in his arms.

"I got you," he whispered as he was hurrying toward the door with his precious cargo in his arms.