Enchanted Adventure

XXXVI. Manhattan

"Alas, the circumstances surrounding our separation weren't quite so noble."

"But... you're here now," Aubree told him. "And, you want him back, right?"

"More than anything."

The twins exchanged a look before Henry said, "Then, that's all that matters."

---

Neal and Emma were talking in the bar Neal had suggested.

"Well, what do you want to know, Emma?" Neal asked. "You want the truth? Ask away."

"Did you know who I was when we met?" Emma questioned.

"If I had, I wouldn't have gone near you."

"Come on."

"Come on? Come on, what? I was in hiding. I came here to get... A-away from... All that crap."

"So, if you didn't know, then you were just using me. You just needed someone to take the fall for the watches that you stole."

"I wasn't using you. When we met, I didn't know. I found out."

"How?"

"When I went to sell the watches... I ran into a friend of yours. August.

"When you see what I have in here, you're going to listen," August said. "You're going to believe every word I say."

"Yeah, right," Neal retorted.

August opened the lid of the box on the back of his motorcycle. Inside, there was a typewriter loaded with a piece of paper that read 'I know you're Baelfire'.

"You left me... And let me go to prison, because Pinocchio told you two?" Emma asked.

"Emma..." Neal began.

"I loved you."

"I... I was, um... I was... I was trying to help you."

"By letting me go to jail?"

"By getting you home."

"Are you telling me, that us meeting was a coincidence? Because how the hell did that happen? If it wasn't your plan, or your father's?"

"Think about it. He wants you to break the curse. Us meeting - that could have stopped it. Maybe it was fate."

"You believe in that?"

"You know, there's not a ton bout my father that I remember that doesn't suck. But he used to tell me that there are no coincidences. Everything that happens, happens by design, and there's nothing we can do about it. Forces greater than us conspire to make it happen. Fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it. The point it... Maybe we met for a reason. Maybe something good came from us being together."

"No. Not that I can think of. I just went to jail. That's it. Doesn't matter now. I'm over it. And you."

"Why do you wear the, uh, keychain I got you?"

Emma took off the necklace and placed it on the counter in front of Neal. "To remind myself never to trust someone again. Come on. I made a deal with your father I'd bring you to him."

"You made a deal with him?"

"Yea. And I'm upholding my end."

"No, Emma, you don't have to. You know that."

"I know."

"Okay, so this should be really easy for you. Tell him that you lost me. Tell him you can't find me. You do that, you'll never have to see me again."