Chapter 6

After leaving the diner, Emma decided that it would be a good idea to head back to the loft. Her parents were most likely up by now, and they would be wondering what she had been up to. She didn't want them to think she was avoiding them. Even if a part of her wanted to, she knew that she felt most like herself while talking to those she loved.

Experience taught her that isolation was a bad idea. While she was gone, it was fine. But being back here, she remembered every reason that she left. Every once in a while, during those three years, she would sit and wonder if it was even worth it.

It definitely was worth it. Although leaving everyone behind… maybe not.

Emma reached the loft, and unlocked the door. She knocked as she opened the door, feeling slightly uncomfortable with just walking in. Her parents were in the kitchen eating breakfast. Neal was sitting at the bar, giggling while he ate.

When she walked in Snow immediately called her over. "Emma! We were wondering where you got to. Did you get some breakfast?"

Emma walked over to them, and sat at the bar beside her brother. "Yeah I ate at Granny's."

"Oh so you went and got a room then?" David asked. Emma nodded.

"You got up pretty early." Snow observed.

"Yeah well. Eva wakes up early, so I guess I'm used to it." Emma replied. She looked over at Neal, who was looking at her curiously. "Hey Neal. How are doing today?"

"Fine." He said, "Do you like pancakes?"

"Yes I love pancakes. I just ate some at Granny's?" Emma answered.

"I like them too. Are you my big sister?" Neal said bluntly.

"Yes. I sure am." Emma said, smiling at him widely. She gave a side glance at her parents, who were smiling too.

"Oh. Then you have magic." Neal stated.

Emma looked at him, startled at his answer. Snow and David just laughed. "Yep I do."

"Maybe you could teach me some, since I'm your brother. Regina says I'm too little." Neal was smiling really wide, his face so hopeful.

"I don't know. I guess I could try. It would be really hard." Emma said, trying not to laugh.

"Right now?" He asked hopefully.

"Neal, go play for a little while." Snow cut in. Neal looked at her like he was about to argue, but then climbed down his stool, and went upstairs.

"He's really talkative." Emma laughed.

"Sometimes I can't believe the things that come out of his mouth." David said, shaking his head. "He must've been thinking about asking you that since we told him you were in town to stay yesterday."

"They sure grow up fast." Snow sighed. Emma nodded in agreement without saying anything.

"So, what do we have planned today? Are we going to try to find some act of true love or something?" Emma asked, changing the subject.

"We have all of our research at the library. We can go through it there, come up with something." David replied.

"Well the sooner we get started the better. We can come up with some sort of plan, and then I can call my kids."

Emma walked down the sidewalk on her way to the library. There were more people walking out now that it was later in the morning. Some of them looked at her and waved excitedly, but others seemed to be avoiding eye contact. Emma was grateful to have her parents with her to keep her mind off of everyone else.

Neal was chattering excitedly by Snow's side. Listening to him put a smile on Emma's face. His presence really helped her keep the light part of herself at the forefront. He reminded her of Henry, the way he was so positive about everything. He also looked like Eva a little, as David had said before.

There was a side of her that felt sad, looking at him. He made her miss her own kids so much. It was also hard to see the way he was with their parents, as Emma wished so much that she could've had that. But those thoughts were mostly pushed aside for the good ones, the happy ones.

When they entered the library, Belle was sitting behind the desk on the computer. When Neal saw her, he giggled in delight and ran over to her. Belle picked him up happily, and hugged him.

"How's my favorite little man?" Belle asked him.

"Good. Did you know I have a big sister?"

"Yes I did." Belle answered, looking at Emma briefly. "Why don't you go read some books?"

"Okay." Neal happily climbed out of her arms, and ran over to a corner, that Emma observed had been turned into a kid's area. Neal chose some books off of the shelf, and settled himself into one of the beanbags, and started looking through the pictures.

"Hi, Belle." Emma greeted.

Belle walked up to her, giving her a brief hug before saying, "It's good to see you Emma."

Emma, along with Belle and her parents started going through all the research that they could find. They exchanged a few remarks as they read through the information, but nothing new. Emma looked through the information, reading up on the history of the Dark One. That was information that her and Henry couldn't find outside Storybrooke. She also realized that David must've added the information she emailed him, because that was all here too.

After about a half hour of catching herself up on the history, Regina came in. Emma looked up at her, making eye contact, and then looked away. She didn't want to start back up the argument they had the night before.

"So you've already started. Wonderful. Have we come up with something yet?" Regina asked, coming over to join them.

"We're just catching Emma up with the information we have." David explained.

"I see. Of course that wouldn't be necessary if you hadn't left in the first place, Miss Swan."

Emma glared at her, but stopped herself from saying anything. There was truth to what Regina was saying, but Emma wasn't about to give her the satisfaction of knowing that Emma sort of agreed with her.

Killian walked in only minutes after Regina. Emma stared at him for a while, but he was avoiding her stare. Emma started focusing on the notes before her again, and willed herself to concentrate on them instead of Killian.

Emma got caught up on the notes after about an hour of reading through them. Most of it was what she herself had found with Henry about Merlin and what sort of power he might've had. The rest of it was the history of the Dark One. All in all, it gave Emma even more of feeling that there was no hope in finding anything to get rid of it.

The door to the library opened again, this time it was Mr. Gold. He strolled in, and walked over to Belle, giving her a brief kiss. Emma just stared at him, until he caught her eye. Emma didn't like the fact that he was here. But she tore her eyes away from his, and kept her mouth shut.

"So have the Charming's come up with a plan yet?" He asked.

"Not quite." Snow replied. "We were just catching Emma up with the information."

"I'm caught up. It says that the only magic that was more powerful than Merlin is true love. Yet, I don't see how that can help, seeing as it hasn't made the slightest difference yet." Emma remarked, slightly annoyed and throwing the book she was reading back on the table.

"Yes, well that is the conundrum isn't it?" Rumple sneered.

Emma looked at him in the eyes, Even though she was now the Dark One, Rumple still had that mischievous glint in his eye. Probably from knowing so much more than her about what it was like to deal with it. He was the Dark One for three hundred years after all.

"Well we have all assumed in the past that true love's kiss could break any curse, but seeing how that hasn't worked, we need to brainstorm about more powerful act of true love." Snow interjected.

Emma glanced at Killian automatically, finding him staring at her back. They both looked away from each other. Emma found instead David's eye, who held her gaze and tried giving her a reassuring look.

"And what would you suggest, seeing how you are the expert on true love?" Regina asked Snow, almost sarcastically.

"I don't know. Emma what do you think?" Snow asked.

Emma shook her head slowly, "I have no clue."

"Well, have you ever felt so much love, that it was all consuming?" Snow asked.

"What?" Emma asked, trying to laugh it off.

"I mean, can you think of a moment when you were overcome with love? Maybe we need a moment like that."

Everyone was staring at her. Emma just kept staring right back, not knowing exactly what they wanted from her. She was almost trying not to laugh, but all of their faces were serious. It made her uncomfortable.

Averting her gaze and looking onto the floor instead, she answered their question. "Yes. I have."

"Well, when was it?" David asked.

Emma looked at Killian, who was boring his gaze into her soul. "When I first held Eva. But that's not really a scenario I want to try and recreate."

She saw Regina roll her eyes, and wander away a few feet. "Great."

"Well, obviously that didn't work. I'm still the Dark One." Emma said, defensively.

"Yes. Probably because you were out of town while it happened." Regina snapped.

"Perhaps." Rumple interjected. "But it probably should've worked anyway. There's no way to know."

Emma's fury reached its peak, and she snapped. "Who asked you?"

Rumple gave a small laugh. "Believe it or not Miss Swan, I'm trying to help."

"Well, I don't need your help."

"Oh well I think you do. Like it or not, I'm the only one here that has any real knowledge of what you are experiencing. So my knowledge and experience are probably going to be very crucial if you really want to get rid of the darkness for good."

Rumple sat staring at Emma for a few minutes. Everyone was quiet, looking between the both of them. Emma finally stood up and walked past Rumple to the exit. Without looking at anyone, she walked out and started walking towards Granny's.

Instead of walking the whole way, she just materialized into her room at Granny's. She didn't want anyone to follow her and stop her. Now in her room, she started pacing back and forth, trying with all her might to not start tearing the place apart in her rage.

Her head was hurting her once again, so she reached into her jacket and pulled the dagger out. Absent mindedly tracing her name, she kept pacing. Her head started to clear somewhat, but she was still furious.

She didn't want Gold's help. Even though she knew rationally that this wasn't his fault, she couldn't help feeling resentful towards him. She couldn't help feeling like this was his entire fault. His and Regina's.

She felt like screaming. Why did she have to save Regina in the first place? It wasn't like Regina didn't deserve it after everything she did, right? Sitting down on the bed, she closed her eyes and forced herself to look at the whole situation rationally.

No, it wasn't Regina's fault. She had wanted to take the darkness so Regina didn't have to die. She had been fighting for Regina to have her happy ending, and Regina had earned it. Besides, if she hadn't tethered it to herself, it would have just finished Regina off and went on to the next person until it had been contained. I wanted to do this, so no one else had to. Sighing to herself, she felt herself calm down. But I just wish that I could have a chance at a happy ending too.

There was a knock at door. Getting up, she put the dagger back into her inside pocket, and answered the door. Snow walked in as soon as the door was opened, and made her way past Emma. Emma closed the door.

"Emma, I know it is weird to have Gold helping, but he does have a lot of knowledge about all this." Snow started as soon as Emma turned to face her.

"I know that he does, but so do we. I just spent an hour reading the entire history." Emma folded her arms in front of her.

"He was right Emma. He is the only one alive who understands what you are going through."

"I don't need anyone to understand, Mom. I just need a way to get rid of it, and as far as Rumple's concerned, we know just as much about getting rid of it as he does." Emma argued.

Snow sighed, "You're right. But that doesn't mean his knowledge won't come in handy."

"If it was going to, you don't think it would have by now?" Emma snapped.

Snow looked taken back for a second. "Okay I get it. You don't have any hope of finding anything. But we will Emma. Have a little faith."

Emma didn't answer. She just stared at her mom for a few moments, and then walked over and sat on the bed. Snow watched her sadly, but Emma still had nothing else to say. Snow smiled sadly, and then mentioned she needed to get back to David and Neal. Emma nodded, and Snow left.

Grabbing her phone from her pocket she decided to facetime Henry. Maybe talk to Eva too. She dialed his number and waited for him to answer. Henry answered really quickly. He smiled at her, but she could tell he was a little stressed.

"Hey, Mom. What's up?" He asked.

"Nothing new. How are you doing?" Right as the words left her mouth, she heard some crying.

"It's just Eva." Henry sighed. "I can't get her to take a nap. She's been asking about you all day."

"Where is she? Can I talk to her?"

"Yeah. Hang on." Henry set his phone down, and disappeared from the screen. Emma heard him say, "Eva come here. You want to talk to Mom?"

She heard Eva gibbering while crying, and then Henry was back. He sat down with Eva on his lap, and was holding the phone back up.

"Hey, Eva! Are you okay, lovey?" Emma asked.

Eva grabbed the phone from Henry and held it close to her face, "Mamma?"

"Hey baby!"

Eva was crying again, talking really fast. Emma caught the words, "Mamma" and "home." Henry took the phone away from her, which just made her cry harder. She slid off Henry's lap, and ran away from him. Eva always liked to be alone while she cried. Emma's heart hurt for her.

"She really hasn't been this bad all day. She's just tired and won't take a nap." Henry sighed.

"Do you want me to come home?" Emma asked.

"No. She'll be okay once she sleeps. I'm sure we'll be okay for a couple more days. Anyway, I should go try and put her in her bed again. Bye."

"Bye." Henry hung up, and Emma was left staring at her phone screen.