Most of this chapter wrote itself. It probably should have been tacked onto the last chapter, but I wanted to end the last chapter on a cliffhanger. This chapter is really just making a bridge to next important plot point. Happy Reading!

Oh and a big shout out to all of you who read and reviewed the last chapter. The response was overwhelming. It almost make me feel like I'm not living up to expectations on this chapter. Anyway...you are all AWESOME! Thank you so much. As always, please review, let me know what you think.

Chapter 16

At that moment, I was in a full panic mode. I had assumed that Zeke, Mr. Cooper, whatever the hell his name was, had left the party. He had exited out of the double doors. I fumbled for my phone. I had to talk to someone about this and, as I saw it, JC was my only option. David had worked too hard to make this the perfect evening for Mary Margaret, I wasn't going to ruin it. I realized that I had left my phone in Neal's diaper bag. I frantically looked around trying to find where Killian had put it.

"Ha…there it is." I spotted the diaper bag under the head table that was next to the dance floor. I hurried to the front of the room and crouched down to search the pockets. I quickly glanced over to my parents to see if they had noticed me. They hadn't. They were still dancing and were crowded by other couples that were blocking their view of me.

"Mom?" I heard the voice behind me. Shit. Henry. I looked up to him, "Is everything ok?" he asked.

"Uh…Yeah kid." I searched for an explanation of my sudden behavior while I jetted my hands in and out of the various pockets on the bag. My hand finally found what I was looking for; I pulled out my phone showing it to my son. "I just need to make a quick phone call. Is…ah…everything ok with you? Where's Neal" I panicked again when I realized that Henry was playing with him a minute ago while my parents were still dancing but now Henry was not with him.

"He's with my Mom…" I followed his finger with my eyes to see that he had pointed in the direction of Regina. "She wanted to hold him for a little bit. Are you sure that you're ok?" He asked again, skepticism plagued his voice. Clearly I was not doing a good job of hiding my anxiety.

"Yeah, yeah…I'm fine. I just forgot about something and I need to take care of it. You know me; I'll worry about something until I know that it is handled." I smiled at him before I turned to leave the room to call JC.

"Ok…" I heard him say behind me. I turned back to him to make sure that he was not following me. He wasn't. He went back to Regina and Neal.

Once I was in the hallway, I tried to quickly pull up JC's number. My hands were shaking so bad that I could barely work my phone. I was finally able to bring up the contact and hit the send button to make the call. I heard the ring on the other end. "Come on, JC…pick up…damn it." The call went to voice mail. I hung up and tried again. Again, the call went to voice mail, this time I left a message for him to call me immediately.

I paced in the hallway for a couple minutes hoping that I had just caught him in a moment where he couldn't answer and that he would listen to message and call me right back. After five minutes of waiting with no return call, I thought about Lily. I quickly brought up her number and hit send.

"Lily," I shouted when I heard her answer. "It's Emma. Is JC with you, I really need to talk to him now."

"Sorry, Emma…" I heard her say, "I've been on a stakeout for the past 24. I haven't seen or talked to him."

"Shit," that was my only reply.

"Do you want me to try to call him?" she asked.

"No, no…don't worry about it. I'll try him again. Thanks." I hung up on her before she had a chance to reply or even say goodbye. I went to call JC again, but my attention was diverted when I heard the doors to meeting hall open. I let go of breath when I saw that it was just some guests leaving for the evening. I looked at the clock on my phone. It was almost 10:00 pm. Great. I dialed JC one more time and again it went to voicemail.

I decided that I just couldn't stay at the party any longer. I had the feeling of being too exposed. I needed to be somewhere private. I couldn't talk to my parents, I needed to get out. They would notice my change in behavior and that would lead to questions. Questions that I did not want to answer, not tonight. It would ruin what my Dad worked so hard to make perfect. No, leaving was my best bet. I opened the doors to enter the room. I scanned it quickly to see that David and Mary Margaret were engaged in conversation with Regina. I closed my eyes and held my breath as I approached them.

"Hey," I said to gain their attention. My mother smiled at me. In an effort to hide my uneasiness, I cut to the chase. "I'm not feeling too well; I think that I am going to head home." I looked to Regina, "will you take Henry?" Regina nodded but my mother's smile turned to concern.

"Is everything ok, honey?" she asked. I looked down at my hands. I started to pick at my fingers, but forced myself to stop because I knew that was one of my giveaways at being nervous about something. Hopefully they didn't notice.

"Yeah, I think that I just ate a little too much, my stomach is hurting." It wasn't a complete lie. My stomach was hurting, but it had nothing to do with the amount of food that I ate.

"Just give us a minute, we'll leave with you." My father offered. "I don't want you driving if you're not feeling well."

"No," My response was too quick, so I paused before I continued. "No, that's ok. It's only a couple of blocks, I'll be fine. I just want to go home and lie down for a bit."

"Are you sure? You're not looking too good." David questioned. The concern was building in both of their eyes. I had to do something to throw them off. I looked over to Neal who was still in Regina's arms.

"Yeah, I'm sure, why don't I take Neal home and put him to bed. I'll lie down on your bed so that I'm right there if he needs me. It's really just an upset stomach, I'm ok to drive and I didn't have anything to drink except for a sip of champagne during your toast."

My mother raised her hand to feel my forehead. I was tempted to push it away, but I didn't. She looked to my father to have one of their silent conversations before nodding to me. "Ok, honey. Be careful, though. Text me when you get home, ok?"

"I will," I assured her. I reached for Neal from Regina. Henry handed me his coat and diaper bag then gave me a side hug. "I'll see you tomorrow, kid." Henry pulled away.

My dad stepped forward giving Neal a gentle kiss on his head, then looked to me. "Be careful," he said as he leaned in to give me a kiss as well. I nodded. He backed away and I reached my free arm around my mother for a hug. "Happy Birthday, Mom." I whispered to her. I felt her tense up, but then relax.

"Thank you, sweetheart," was all that she said. I wasn't sure if her response was good or bad. But at this time, it didn't really matter. I just needed to get home, where I knew that I was safe, and I could think about what my next move would be.

Living only blocks away from the town meeting hall made the drive home very quick. I rushed to get upstairs and lock the door. Once I was in the confines of the loft, I was finally able to relax a bit. Although, Mr. Cooper had me pretty worked up. I set Neal into his walker for a minute so that I could pull out my phone to check for a call or a text from JC, but there was nothing. I did, however, shoot a small text to my mother to let her know that Neal and I were home, just as I had promised.

I sat on the floor next to Neal for just a minute, to take a breather. I engaged in a small game of 'pick up my toys' with him, just as a way to take my mind off of what had happened at the party and Mr. Cooper. I kept asking myself the same questions, why was he here? What did he want from me? He had said nothing, but followed that up with an obtuse 'yet.' Why wasn't JC calling me back? Did JC know that he was here in Storybrooke?

When I noticed that Neal's little eyes were getting heavy, I moved to my parent's bedroom to change him and put him to bed. At first I laid him in his crib. It was close to my parent's bed, but it just wasn't close enough to suit me. As I watched him lay there and fall asleep, my mind kept drifting to Mr. Cooper and all of the 'what if's' that came along with worry. At that point, I gave up. I couldn't shake the need to have him close to me. I felt like I had to protect him at all cost. The fear was causing me to think irrationally. Or was it rational, did I really have a reason to be afraid for myself and my brother? I didn't know anymore.

I lined my mother's side of the bed with pillows so that Neal wouldn't roll off. I laid him next to the pillows and blocked my father's side of the bed with my own body. I wrapped my arms around him in a way that I wasn't hurting him or making him uncomfortable but also in a way that if he was moved, I would feel it. It wasn't long before we were both asleep. I can't say that I was in a deep sleep, but the emotional exhaustion was forcing my eyes closed. I kept trying to keep them open because every time they closed them I saw Mr. Cooper coming after me. It was hard for me to differentiate between it being a dream or being real.

I heard voices that sounded like they were in the distance. I couldn't make out what they were saying. However, I thought that I heard my name. I couldn't see anyone, I only heard the voices. Suddenly there was movement. Something was being pulled from my arms. The voices were closer, but still muffled. Suddenly, I sprung to life screaming, "GET AWAY FROM HIM." I started swinging my arms. "DON'T HURT HIM!"

I felt someone grab my shoulders and say my name, "GET OFF ME!" I screamed and forcefully brought my fists down on the forearms of whoever was holding me.

"Owe!" I heard the voice complain. "Emma, wake up!" I heard as the arms were now wrapped around my body. "Emma, wake up!"

I felt something cold and wet hit my face. Shaking it off forced me to open my eyes. I couldn't move, I found that my father was holding me so tight and my mother was standing next to him with a wet washcloth in her hand. They had placed Neal in his crib, he was still sound asleep. When I finally realized that everything was ok, I latched onto my father for a couple of minutes and just let him hold me until I calmed down.

Once my breathing evened out I heard him ask, "Do you want to tell me what that was all about?"

I shook my head, but didn't lift it, "just a dream." I mumble into his shoulder. "I'm sorry," I finally pulled back. "I felt Neal being taken from my arms, and with my dream, I guess my mind just kicked into overdrive."

My mother sat down on the bed next to me and took my hand into hers, "are you ok now?"

"Yeah…" I gave a little smile. "I'm ok." For a minute, I thought about telling them about Mr. Cooper, but I decided that in that moment I should leave it alone. Instead, I switched to a happier topic. Or at least, I hoped it would be a happier topic. "So, how did you like your party?" I asked my mother. I did my best to hide my face so that they didn't pick up on my demeanor that had been caused by my Mr. Cooper encounter.

"Oh, the party…" She raised an eyebrow at my father, "you mean the not a birthday, birthday party?" I smiled at her and nodded.

"It was all him," I pointed to my Dad. "I told him that you didn't want to celebrate your birthday…"

"And you were right…" she cut me off. "I will be honest. When I first realized what was going on, I was livid. My mind was reeling. How could he plan something for my birthday when I had expressed so vividly that I did not want to celebrate my birthday, I was fuming!"

"But?" I was confused.

"But what?" Oh, she was going to make me say it.

"Well…you didn't look like you were fuming when you arrived." It was true; I certainly didn't take her reaction for being upset.

"Well, there's a good reason for that." She pointed to Neal and then to me. "When I saw the two of you and Henry at the end of that carpet; in that moment I realized that my life was in front of me, not behind me. That every day that I have you three and your father in my life is a day to celebrate."

"That's good to hear," I said as I jumped up to retrieve the package that I had for her. It didn't take me long to return with it. "Henry wrapped it, but it is from me." I handed her the gift. She took off the paper ever so gingerly. She pulled the crystal swan from the box. I saw the tears begin to well up in her eyes, "oh what a beautiful swan." She looked over to me, "but not as beautiful as my other swan."

She pulled me into a warm hug, "Happy Birthday, Mom."

"Thank you, baby, I love it. Who's idea was the waterfall, around the walls?" she asked as she pulled back. "Zeke did a beautiful job at creating it. It was perfect."

I tensed up and pushed myself away from them at the sound of his name. They both looked at me with confusion at my movements. But they didn't say anything. Instead, David began to tell her the story of how the waterfall project came to be. Each time he said the name it was felt like knife being plunged into my chest.

"I'm going to bed, good night guys." I had to interrupt him; I didn't want to hear anymore of it. I tried to make my voice sound like I was just tired and hide the worry and trepidation. I had wanted to tell them about Zeke being Mr. Cooper, but my father had turned her birthday into a day that was happy, I wasn't about to taint it now. No, we were safe at home and I hadn't talked to JC yet. It could wait until tomorrow.