Emma lies awake, staring at the ceiling. It was a long and exhausting day, but she is too restless for sleep. It's not only that the woman is still at large, plotting God knows what. It's also her simmering anger at what she did to them. During the day, she could focus on her goal. She put her energy into the search, avoiding any distraction. Now, all the thoughts and feelings she kept well under control so far come crashing down on her.

She closes her eyes and is assaulted by a memory from the previous week, Killian drawing his hand in slow, lazy circles over her stomach in this very bed. The memory is so vivid that she has to open her eyes again to make sure she's alone. Hook, she reminds herself. Captain Hook. That's who he is. The memory brings a whole turmoil of feelings with it that she's not ready to address. It's all fake, anyway. The feelings she has towards him are nothing but a product of the spell. She kissed him in Neverland, but that was just a spur of the moment thing. What she feels now is nothing but a lie, somebody else's idea of the perfect life.

She thinks of him, alone in the other bedroom, and realizes that she misses him. Clearly, she will need some time to get the fake memories and feelings out of her system. She sighs. New York may have been a lie, but at least is was a quiet life there. Not this confusing mess of a situation. Once they catch the woman responsible, she should just take Henry and move back there. Get away from all of this. Give Henry a chance at a normal life.

The following day brings more of the same. Search parties, unhappy townsfolk, no actual results. It's getting more and more likely that the mysterious woman has either left town or is hiding somewhere in the woods. They are too vast to search completely, and the search of the forest area closest to town has yielded no results so far.

Emma comes home late in the evening, exhausted and frustrated. She stops short, about to put her key in the door. Home. That's still how she thinks of this place. She shakes her head. That's just another leftover from her fake life, nothing more.

She opens the door and is surprised to hear laughter greeting her. She comes upon Hook and Henry, sitting at the kitchen table, having dinner, joking around. Hook is not wearing the prosthetic hand any longer. Henry is holding his hook, a piece of carrot pierced on the tip. Hook turns to her and his mood sobers instantly, the merriment leaving his eyes.

"Hey, mom. Killian was just showing me how to use this thing. It's not as easy as it looks." He carefully removes the carrot, and tries to pierce a pea instead, without success.

"Don't play with your food", Emma admonishes, taking the hook from Henry and handing it back to Hook, without meeting his eyes. He reattaches it to the brace without a word.

Hook clears his throat. "Would you like some diner, lo- Emma?"

She very much would like to avoid the awkwardness of a shared dinner, but on the other hand, she's starving. Her stomach wins out over her anxiety and she nods. Hook goes to the stove and fills her a plate. It's astonishing, how he works around his handicap, barely slowed down by it. She'd never really given it much thought. What it means to loose a hand.

Hook puts the plate down in front of her and gives her a half-hearted smile. Emma starts wolfing it down, distracted from the uncomfortable situation by her hunger. Maybe she shouldn't have skipped lunch.

Henry looks back and forth between the two of them. "So, no luck yet, huh?"

Emma looks at him questioningly in between bites. "I mean you haven't found the spellcaster yet", Henry clarifies. Emma nods gloomily. Indeed, they haven't. She thought it would be an easy task. Clearly, she was mistaken.

Henry looks thoughtful. "You know, since the spell created an illusion, do you think she could have changed her appearance?"

"Huh?"

"Well, maybe she made herself look different during the spell. Shouldn't that be possible with an illusion spell? She could be anybody."

Emma's brow furrows while she considers the possibility. "Now that's a scary thought."

"We should watch out for anybody behaving suspiciously. Even if they don't fit the description", Hook says thoughtfully. "You might be on to something there, lad", he adds, smiling at Henry. Henry smiles back at him, looking very pleased with the praise and Emma has a sudden epiphany.

They were happy during the curse. Well, spell, she corrects herself. They didn't have more money or a better life. They were happy because they had each other. That's the simple truth of it. And looking at Henry and Killian now, she realizes that it's within her grasp to have that again. It's a terrifying thought.

She shakes her head and it's like coming out of a trance, back to reality. What is she thinking? It must be her fake memories taking over. Is she being drawn under the spell again? Hook is a pirate. A fairytale character. He has a hook for a hand, for God's sake. He and Henry are just confused by the effects of the spell. He'll soon enough come out of it and realize that this is not the real him. He'll go back to his ship and continue with his life. Which is what she should do as well. They'll go back to New York and start over, far away from all of this madness.

The next morning, Emma stumbles into the kitchen, still half asleep. Hook raises an eyebrow at her and she realizes that she's still in her pyjamas. Due to force of habit, she didn't dress before walking down to get coffee. Damn this damnable spell. She thinks about turning around but then decides to just make the damn coffee.

Hook turns around in his seat, facing her while she's busy at the counter.

"Listen, Emma, we need to talk. I know you wanted to wait until we've found the woman, but we have no idea how long that might take."

Emma turns around and crosses her arms. "Fine. Go ahead. Talk." The words sound very harsh to her own ears, making her cringe a little but she doesn't change her demeanour.

Hook sighs and stands up, then starts to pace from side to side, clearly agitated. "Things- happened while we were under the spell. Things that wouldn't have happened if we had been in full possession of our memories and I-" He scratches nervously behind his ear and Emma wonders how different this man is from the flirtatious pirate she knows all too well. "I just wanted to- I don't know- apologize. I don't want you to feel that I was taking advantage of you, Emma. It was never my intent for things to happen like this."

Emma is surprised by his apology, to say the least. She hadn't even considered blaming Hook for what happened. After all, both of them were under the spell. He hadn't acted of his own volition, just like her. Did he really think that she would suspect him of getting spell-bound intentionally? The thought hadn't crossed her mind at all, but now that it was there- would he?

Hook stops pacing and looks her in the eyes, reading her thoughts like an open book. "I wish things had gone differently. I wish I had made a better plan, I don't know, brought you to the town line instead of David in the first place. I wish I hadn't made such a mess of things. But you have to believe me that it was never my intention for things to happen like this. I wanted you to-" He starts stumbling over his words, clearly agitated in his attempt to maker her understand. "-I wanted you to want to be with me, to- choose me- not to be forced to be with me because of some bloody spell." He says the last word with a surprising amount of venom.

Emma holds his gaze. She can't detect even the slightest hint of a lie in his words. After a moment, she looks away. She can feel him staring at her, frozen on the spot, waiting for her to say something.

She takes a deep breath and nods. Then she looks back up and meets his eyes. "I believe you."

A small, surprised smile appears on his face. He steps closer, reaching for her arm, then aborts the gesture as he realizes what he's doing. She's noticed that happening to her as well. She will instinctively reach for him or make a move towards him until her consciousness takes over and reminds her that the last few months were a lie. She suspects it's one of the reasons she's been trying to avoid him so badly. Because it takes a conscious effort to keep her distance. It's like her brain got the memo, but her body hasn't caught up to the new reality quite yet. Bringing some distance between them will be for the best. She debates with herself whether or not to tell him about it. She could just let him know right before they leave, avoiding having to see him sad and pouting until then, or trying to argue her out of it. But that would be a cowardly choice. No, she owes him that much, after everything they've been through.

"After we catch the woman- the, ah, spellcaster-" , she takes a deep breath, "I will take Henry back to New York." She sees his face fall, but continues nonetheless, "You know, away from all this madness. I think he deserves a chance at a quiet, normal life, without something or someone threatening it every other week."

Hook opens his mouth and by the set of his jaw, she can tell he's going to argue with her. Then he abruptly closes it again and breaks eye contact, looking to the floor.

"Have you told the lad yet?"

That's definitely not the response she expected. "No, I've just made the decision myself."

Hook nods and looks back at her. "Can you promise me one thing, love?", there's a quiver in his voice, like he's struggling to control it, "Don't just vanish after it's done. Give me a chance to say goodbye. To both of you."

Again, this is far from what she expected to hear. She nods her assent. She looks at him, really looks at him, and the memories from the last seven months come flooding back into her mind. She takes a deep breath and tries to focus. She needs to get out of there. Needs some distance from him, from all of this, to figure things out on her own. Going to New York is for the best. Henry will understand.