Emma woke up to the sound of Neal groaning.

"What?" she asked, grabbing her glasses from the dashboard.

"We've got a ticket."

Emma fought the urge to groan as well, pulling her hair into a ponytail before she stopped short. "Wait. Shouldn't the license plate have come up as stolen?"

Neal froze, eyes wide, before the two of them dashed to the doors, scrambling over the seats and slamming the door open.

Emma reached the paper first, quickly unfolding it and scanning over the contents.

…What?

"What is it?" Neal asked, concern written all across his face.

Gobsmacked, she turned the letter towards him, reading over it again and wondering if she was still dreaming.

Dear Emma and Neal,

This is Emma from the future. Yes, time travel is real. Yes, it is weird. Don't worry about it.

I know you won't understand this yet, but I need you to remember this Neal: do NOT open the Vault. Please.

Sincerely,

Future-Emma

"What the hell?" Neal replied.

"Uh huh," she said vaguely.

"This is your handwriting."

"Yeah."

"And this isn't a- a joke or something?"

"I don't think so."

Neal continued to look over the letter.

"What's the Vault?"

Emma shrugged. "I guess we'll find out?"

Neal ran a hand through his hair, shooting her a look that told her he was freaking out.

"Time travel's real. It's real."

"Or it will be real," she said.

They were silent for a moment, before Emma pulled back the letter, folded it up and headed back to the car's doors.

"What are you doing?"

She shrugged. "Well, we can't do anything about this now, so I guess we just ignore it."

Neal let out a breath. "I… I guess you're right. I just…"

Emma nodded. "Yeah. I get it."

Emma watched from the end of a nearby alley as the younger versions of herself and Neal made their way back into the Bug.

"That looked right," Neal remarked from his spot next to her.

Emma nodded. "It was the right message."

He chuckled. "It's so weird to be on this side of it."

"I know."

They were silent for a moment.

"You know, I used to hate that letter," Emma said. "I hated what it meant. That one day I'd see you again, and I'd still care about you enough to time travel and warn you about whatever the Vault is."

"I'm sorry," Neal said.

She shook her head. "I'm not. Even if we haven't seen this Vault yet."

Silence.

"...Neal?"

"I found it back in the Enchanted Forest," Neal admitted quietly. "The Vault of the Dark One. It was how Zelena brought my dad back."

"What happened?" she asked quietly.

"I think I would have opened it," he said. "I was so desperate to bring him back, to get back to you and Henry. If I hadn't remembered the letter…" He took a shuddering breath. "Zelena tricked some guy into opening it. And then he died. A life for a life."

Emma's eyes widened. "Oh."

Neither of them said anything for a moment.

"I have an idea on how to get home," Emma finally said.

Neal nodded. "I think I have the same one. Assuming Papa's got his memories."

"I think he has my name as a failsafe," she said, remembering the squid ink in his cell and his comment when they first met. "There's a good chance yours is too, on the off chance you showed up."

Neal nodded.

"I'm glad you don't hate me anymore," he said. "Because we've got a long trip ahead of us."

Emma resisted the urge to sigh as she realized how long it would take to get from Portland to Maine.

At least she was with Neal.

Besides being for Swanfire week, this fic is also the first entry for the series "around the circle (of time)".