The door opened with the sound of the traditional bells atop the entrance. "Hello? Mr. Gold?"

Emma paced through the store, looking around at all the assortment of magical and non-magical gizmos and contraptions the Dark One had amassed during years of cheating people out of their happiness. She smiled as she fiddled with the unicorn and butterfly crib adornment that was meant to be hers and doddled with the idea of maybe getting it for when she and Killian decided to have a kid of their own.

"Emma?"

The blonde spun and smiled with a wince at Belle, still dressed in her bathrobe. "I know… a little too early, I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's fine, I just…" Belle put a strand of hair behind her ear. "I thought you'd be with the captain right now."

"He's not a captain anymore, it seems. Been demoted to Lieutenant once again." Emma smiled, her hands in her back pockets. "And I've never seen him happier."

Belle frowned. "I don't quite follow…"

"Well…" Emma leaned her hands on one of the display cases. "Seems his long dead brother Liam somehow didn't die. It's a bit of a crazy story."

"Wait." Belle squinted her eyes. "Didn't he supposedly pass away in Neverland from Dreamshade poisoning?"

"Yep."

"So how is it even possible…?"

"A soul-splitting spell." Came Gold's voice from the back, as he opened the curtain that led from the back of the shop."

Emma frowned. "Soul splitting?"

Gold turned in her direction. "You heard right, miss Swan… Mrs. Jones." Gold nodded. "There must be some device he and his brother signed on to allow them to come back together, should either one of them perish."

Belle shook her head. "How does that even work? I thought death was invincible."

"Aye, but fate… is not." He produced a black spell book from a cabinet. "There are some devices which, when asked, can ensure your loved ones never leave your side. The way this happens is, you ask the device to always help you find your loved one. And when the dreadful, fatal event is set to happen, souls are split into two different realities. Say your husband and his brother found such device, they'd unknowingly have ensured that, when they set off to the unavoidable fate of Liam Jones, a half of them was placed in an identical setting, a parallel reality. So my guess is, in this parallel world, it was the younger Jones that perished…"

"Exactly!" Emma nodded, wide-eyed.

"Word of warning, Emma…" Gold walked to her. "Splitting souls is a very dark kind of magic. It can bring great joy to those who are under its spell, yes, but the price can be very high."

Emma swallowed and licked her lower lip as she shook her head. "Splitting souls, Jesus… Who will show up in town next, Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort?" She ran a hand through her hair. "Ok, so what's the price for it?"

"It may vary. Only your pirate would know… But it is steep. I wager he had no idea what it would take to make such a deal."

Belle turned to Rumple. "Do you think you might have this item here?"

Gold sighed deep and nibbled on his lower lip. "I may have a few things pertaining to the Captain. If you'll just wait here, Miss Sw… Mrs. Jones."

"Emma… will be fine." She grinned uncomfortably.

Rumple had been dubious to open the book; it looked like the kind of mysterious item he wouldn't want to mess with and he wondered why the hell he hadn't left it behind in his vault, where it could do no harm. Nonetheless, perhaps the answer to the entire deal of Liam Jones's sudden presence in Storybrooke lay indeed in a soul splitting spell. That caliber of magic, however, was beyond even HIS scope of courage, together with time travel and freezing spells.

He hesitantly dusted it and took it back to the young newlywed.

"This… looks like a likely culprit." He let the book down with a thump on the counter. A sudden breeze whipped through almost on cue, and the three turned their heads in awe.

"What is it?" Belle sneered, reaching out to touch the book. Rumple held her hand and took it to his lips before she actually reached it.

"It's a Magical Log. There are few left. The very pages in them are made from enchanted trees and the spell they work under is powerful" He looked at Belle. "Your every desire can come true, should you ask the log for it. But these are whimsical artifacts; they obey a designated master… or masters, in this case. They are dangerous, if not properly handled." He sighed. "I have no clue how your Pirate got a hold of one of these or whether or not he and his brother knew of the implications, but they are treading on, dare I make a pun, restless waters here."

"Maybe inside we could find the answer…" Belle shrugged.

"I hate not knowing." Emma sighed and picked up the old, leather clad book to look at it. "It certainly looks… old."

"That it is." Gold nodded. "These things date back thousands of years."

Emma raised her brows and whistled in shock. How on earth did Killian come by such an odd contraption?

She tried to open it but as hard as she pulled, the book wouldn't budge. Gold chuckled. "These things work under a spell, dearie; nobody who doesn't know the words could open it."

Emma huffed and placed it back down. Suddenly, she grinned. "Wait…" She looked at Belle and Gold. "Just now, when Killian met Liam again, they spoke about some secret words! That's GOT to be it!" She winced. "Something about a firefly, erm… " She snapped her fingers repeatedly. "Bloody firefly, blood red firefly… God what was it?"

Gold took a step back and gently pulled his young wife back with him by her shoulders as the Savior explored her thoughts. He kept one hand raised in case he needed to resort to magic.

"Yes, I remember! Redblood firefly!" She cleared her throat and smiled, looking at the book.

"Redblood Firefly, reveal…"

Just then the door burst open. "EMMA, DON'T!" Killian burst in and pulled her away from the book, which had slowly begun to glow. Immediately behind him was Liam.

"Did you say the words?" Liam grabbed Emma by the shoulders. "Lass, did you?"

"Wha.. no" I didn't get to!" she freed himself from his grasp, before turning to Killian, who was touching the book and speaking softly. "What the hell is that thing?"

Once the book stopped glowing, Killian turned to look at her. "Wish we knew, love… But we believe that this is the whole reason we're in our current situation."

"My brother was still a very young boy." Liam nodded. "I was caring for him after our father left. He became terribly ill and just as I was about to leave him to the care of the good friars, I…"

"Wait, I don't recall any of this." Hook frowned. "Good friars?"

Liam sighed. "You had come down with a dreadful fever, brother. We were filthy, starving, living under a bridge. I didn't want you to perish." He turned back to Emma. "A gypsy woman found me and offered us shelter in exchange for my assistance in repairing her buggy. She nursed you back to your health and I took care of the cart and after a week, she gave us the book, as a token of gratitude."

"A Gypsy woman, you say?" Gold stepped in, studying the other Jones from head to toes.

"Aye…" Killian nodded. "I do recall her now. She warned us to be mindful of our requests… That we should not desire covetously, or it would be our downfall. "

Liam grinned. "And what did my little brother first think of? You wanted gold."

Rumple rolled his eyes. "Blue-blooded pirate from the cradle, it seems…."

Liam suddenly turned to Rumple with a frown. "Have care how you speak of my brother." He snarled. "He is a second degree naval lieutenant and a man of honor."

"And a first degree Pirate Captain who took that which most people hold most precious: My wife…" Rumple sneered back, oblivious to the fact that Liam Jones towered over all of them. "So… I took his hand."

"Oh dammit, here we go…" Emma rolled her eyes.

Liam took his hand to his sword his lips pressed hard, when Killian stopped him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, brother, it's water under the bridge, believe me."

"That was uncalled for, Rumple." Belle admonished Gold before turning to Liam. "It was a long, long time ago and she's gone now. I am Mrs. Gold. My name is Belle." She walked to Liam, her kindly smile the usual soothing balsam that seemed to oil the rusty Jones-Gold cogs.

Liam stood straight and drew a contained breath before turning to Belle with a slight bow. "Mrs. Gold, I'm honored. Captain Liam Jones." He took her hand and kissed her fingers courteously, addressed a venomous look at Gold and turned back to Emma. "Anyway, my dear, we made our first wish together, my brother and I. That should we ever be separated in an untimely fashion, we would be able to find each other sooner or later." He shook his head. "We were children. All we had, was each other. And as time went by, our requests increased. Till one day, this bugger bit the bullet and I lost the log to… whatever, I cannot remember."

Killian grinned. "In my recollection, the log was lost during one time when the Jolly Roger was plundered. When I recovered the vessel, the book was gone."

"Ah, my little brother…" Liam smiled and shook Killian, wrapping one arm around his shoulders.

"YOUNGER brother." Killian rolled his eyes. "Which brings me to another query. You've not aged a day, Liam. I've lived over three hundred years, by whichever timeline we follow, you or I have been long gone. How is it possible that it's been but a few weeks to you? I've aged a little…"

"Aye, but you have." Liam winked at him. Killian huffed, Emma and Belle suppressed a giggle and Gold nodded devilishly. "Nonetheless, you do pose an interesting question there, Killian. Why has the time f your passing been so recent to me, when to you, it's been so bloody long?"

Gold stepped in again. "All the answers are within the log itself. However…" He turned a warning eye to Killian and Emma. "Only you two must open it. Never should anyone else look inside the pages. There is always a price for breaking the covenant between these logs and their masters."

"Aye…" Killian nodded and Liam looked down. "We're well aware of it. That's why we came as fast as we could before Emma could get to it."

Liam swallowed hard and looked at his brother, before looking at all of them. "The price for our reunion is, should anyone open the book and look at its pages, there will be a life taken. I know not what life, whether my brother's or my own…"

"…or of the person who peers into it." Emma bit her lip and stepped back to where Belle and Gold stood. "Not a day's rest for the savior and her family, it seems…"

Liam and Killian exchanged stares and sighed, nodded, and placed their hands together on top of the book. "Redblood Firefly, reveal thy wording…"

The log opened… a light shone from it.

And when the book closed again, everyone who had been standing in Gold's pawnshop was no longer there.