Episode 3x21

"Portal"

Once Zelena was defeated, Emma was not sure how long she and Henry would remain in Storybrooke. She kept putting off their departure another day or two at a time. It only felt right to make sure Mary Margaret and the baby had settled into the apartment after leaving the hospital. Then, her parents expected her to be at baby's "coronation" party. Emma figured they ought to stay for that: she wanted to learn her brother's name, and the potluck would be one final, happy gathering before she and Henry headed back to New York.

Before her brother was born, Emma might not have been able to bring herself to leave. But now her parents had a chance to actually be parents, to raise their child together. Heck, they could even raise him as royalty, with everything that went along with that. They could be a happy, wholesome nuclear family, without the wayward daughter who was physically the same age as them.

Of course Hook would be the one to bring up her intention to leave. Mary Margaret and David were already aware, and a few friends—including Archie and Granny—suspected as much. But hinting at it in front of Regina and Henry created a public confrontation that Emma was not ready to deal with, especially in the middle of the celebration.

So she did what she did best, and ran away, out of the diner and all the way to the pond. She sat down on the bench where she had told Henry about Neal's death. She ignored David's phone calls. But she could not ignore Hook when he walked up to her.

He got right to the point, without preamble: "You're making a mistake." If Emma had a doubloon for every time he had said that, or something to the same effect, she could probably put Henry through college.

"I don't want to talk to you about this," she said flatly. Hook was too entangled with this whole situation. He was the one who had brought her back into this town, into this life, into this world that was so weird and dangerous and overwhelming. And he was not an unbiased source of advice, since he wanted to be with her. He claimed to know her, and on some level they understood each other, but he was not the judge of what was best for her. His insistence to the contrary might have been part of his arrogance, or his own selfish agenda.

"Don't listen to me; listen to your son." That was the same thing Hook had said when persuading her to drink the memory potion. Now, though, he pulled something else out of his satchel: Henry's storybook. Henry must really trust Hook if he left it in his keeping. "He thought this might remind you of what you're leaving behind: your family."

Hook held the book out to her, but Emma did not take it. She spoke firmly, calmly, with no interest in arguing. "Henry is my family, and I am taking him where he is safe."

Hook did not buy that for a second. "The safety-first nonsense is just that. You defeated the bloody Wicked Witch. You defeated Pan. You broke the curse."

But that was not quite true. Regina was the one who defeated Zelena, and the one who retrieved Henry's heart from Pan. Gold was the one who ultimately destroyed Pan. And Neal had sacrificed his life so they could find the Witch.

All the remarkable things Emma had done had either been accidental or led to some unintended consequence. She had slayed a dragon, but that ended up giving magic to Gold, and then to the whole town. She had broken the first Dark Curse, but that had been an accident, and getting to that point had nearly cost Henry his life. She had defeated Cora at Lake Nostos, but that had also been an accident, a desperate, instinctive act to protect someone she loved.

And despite all her victories, she had lost people along the way. First Graham, and most recently, Neal.

Emma had not spoken much of Neal since his death, but she was still grieving him. He was the first person she had ever wanted to make a home with. He was the one who made her believe it was even possible to find a place that felt like home.

And he had given her Henry, the one part of her life she felt certain about. Henry gave her a sense of purpose and made her a better person. Wherever her home turned out to be, Henry was the single most indispensable part of it.

When she had her cursed memories, and thought that she had raised Henry from birth, Emma had been driven by the desire to give him all the normal experiences she missed out on growing up: staying in the same school, having friends, going on vacations. Although she had regained her real memories, that desire had not gone away. In fact, remembering and reencountering all the dangers of life in Storybrooke had made her even more determined to give Henry a safe, normal life.

She only reached out and took the book in an attempt to explain to Hook how alien she felt among the fairy-tale characters. She believed in the truth of the stories, because she had been faced with proof of them; but she was never part of that legendary history.

"Besides being with Henry, I don't think I've ever been a part of anything." She had tried putting down roots in Storybrooke after Henry brought her there, but even then, she had been an outsider struggling to understand their community. That was one thing that had not changed after breaking the curse: she was still different from the rest of them. She may have been born in their world, but she had grown up in this world. She could not relate to their history because she had not been a part of it.

She doubted that she could get Hook to understand. He had spent his life as a pirate, without any permanent home.

But Neal had understood. Even though he had deceived and betrayed her, she never forgot his definition of "home." And if he was right, then the only way to see if Storybrooke was truly her home was to leave and see if she missed it.

Hook's tone became incredulous and unmistakably reproachful. "So you're just going to leave your parents, then? Don't you even care about them?" He paused, and there was a slight catch in his voice as he added, "Or anyone in this town?"

Those words, and the plaintive, searching look in his eyes, pulled at Emma's heart. She understood the subtext: he wanted to know if she cared about him. Which was a fair question, since she had not given much indication either way.

She had been faced with just how much she cared about him when Zelena nearly drowned him. She had realized, then, just how terrifying the prospect of losing Killian Jones was.

She had saved him from Zelena, but it had been her fault that he was in danger in the first place. She did not want anyone else she cared about to be used as leverage against her again.

"Of course I care," she said, more tender now. She turned her head back to avoid looking at him as she went on, "I just need to do what's right for me and Henry and—" She broke off when something caught her eye, and Hook followed her gaze.

In the distance, beyond the trees, a column of orange light was shooting up to the gray sky.

What was happening now?

Emma got to her feet and raced in that direction, barely listening to Hook as he protested and followed her. She pulled out her cell phone and realized that David's attempts to call her over the last half-hour might have had to do with something other than her departure.

Thankfully, he had left a voicemail. But the news he conveyed was bewildering: Zelena was dead—not just imprisoned, but dead and vanished—and her time portal was open.

Hook held Emma back when she tried to approach the barn; but as they argued, the barn doors burst open, and they both fell flat on their backs before being dragged toward the portal.

Somehow, Hook managed to grab Emma's hand and plant his hook in the dirt like an anchor. She clutched his hand with both of hers, but the portal was pulling at her, and her gloves made her grip slippery.

It was just like when a portal opened beneath Emma and Neal, a year earlier. Only this time, she was the one holding on to someone else who clung to this world.

"I'm not letting go of you!"

"You have to."

"Hold on!" Hook yelled.

"I can't!" Emma cried.

Her hands slipped, and then she was falling.

No no no no no! This could not be happening again. The last time Emma had unintentionally gone through a portal, she ended up spending weeks on the run in the Enchanted Forest.

Where—or when—would she end up now? She first thought of the story they had been reading at Granny's, from the time her parents met. But Henry's book covered centuries of stories. She might end up anywhere, anytime, in any realm.

Unlike on her first portal journey, Emma managed to stay awake after crash-landing on the ground—and Hook landed right beside her.

She immediately recognized where they were, from her own experience as well as the storybook's illustrations. It was not just seeing the trees and greenery that gave it away: she could practically feel the magic in the air.

They were back in the Enchanted Forest.

Emma barely held back a scream of frustration. She really could not catch a break. This was just how life went when living in Storybrooke.

Of course a new crisis would arise as soon as another one ended.

Of course things would go wrong just when she had the chance to make them right.

Of course Hook would be there. Ever since Neverland, he had followed her and stood with her, whether she wanted him around or not.

Emma did not know for sure if he had been dragged into the portal like her, or if he had deliberately followed her through it. She did not ask. She did not want to know.

The two of them seemed to alternate between whose worlds they spent time in: first the Enchanted Forest, where Hook was most at ease; then the Land Without Magic, where Emma was most comfortable; then Neverland, where Hook had lived for many years; then the Land Without Magic again; and now the Enchanted Forest again.

Maybe some of her family's determination had rubbed off on Emma, because there was no question in her mind as to whether she would get back to her own time and her own realm. The only question was how.

She did not even have any uncertainty about her ability to work alongside Hook, as she had on the beanstalk and in Neverland. When it came down to it, she trusted him, and they made a decent team.

Though she would not have admitted it, part of Emma was glad to have a friend with her, especially one familiar with this world. She did not like being in magical places, where everything was unpredictable and her usual skill set did not seem to apply. Being the only one from her time would have been even more maddening.

It might not have been right for her to be glad that someone else was in the same predicament as her. Nevertheless, it was some comfort to know that she was not alone in this time and place.

Now they just needed to find a way back to their own.

Author's Note: So much happens in the Season 3 finale, I'm devoting two chapters to each of the two episodes!