To readers of my other fanfictions: I know I really should be writing and finishing my other stories but I seemed to have a mental block with all of them and have no idea where to go next.

But to everyone, I hope you like this story and please review. It takes some parts from the episode Manhattan but is a AU mainly because it's what I think should happen

'Ready, Princess Emma?' were the first words Emma heard as she answered the door half an hour after Snow and Henry had left for school, leaving herself and David, with whom she was actually getting a good father-daughter relationship with, alone in the apartment.

Ever since Emma and Snow's return to Storybrooke, the residents had started to call her "Princess Emma," a few had begun to before but now practically everyone except her family was calling her it and it annoyed her no end. She had only just got though her head that her parents were Snow White and Prince Charming and she was not ready to step up into the role she was born into, she had no idea how.

'Yeah, just let me grab my stuff,' Emma replied to Rumplestiltskin, gesturing him into the apartment.

Emma looked back over at her father to see him frowning at her with a questioning look in his eyes. She had yet to tell him that she was leaving to find Rumplestiltskin's son but, every time she had tried, she either got distracted by Henry or her mother would ask her to do something or she just wouldn't be able to find the words and now, now she was out of time.

'Actually Gold, make yourself comfortable and help yourself to coffee, the kettle's just boiled,' Emma sighed as she gestured to her father to follow her into the other room. While the residents of Storybrooke may feel comfortable to call her "Princess" she still struggled to call them by their fairy-tale names.

'Where are you going?' David said as soon as he had shut the door behind them so to give them some privacy, although the walls in the apartment where paper thin so it wouldn't make a large amount of difference. 'With Rumplestiltskin of all people. He's dangerous, Emma.'

'I know,' Emma replied defensively and tiredly: her mother had said the exact same thing. 'But I made a deal –'

'Emma!' her father snapped. 'What on earth where you thinking? You don't make deals with that … man.'

He obviously felt man was a rather lose term to describe Rumplestiltskin.

'That's rather hypocritical, haven't you made a deal with him more than once,' Emma frowned over at him and David looked away from her gaze, knowing that she was indeed right. 'Anyway, it was before I knew who he was; I was trying to make sure As- Aunt Ella could keep her child,' (David sighed heavily: he couldn't fault her for that) 'and now he's decided to cash it in … it-it could be a lot worse.'

'What exactly does he want from you, Emma?'

'He wants me to help him find his son.' David frowned, questions running though his head, why would Rumplestiltskin ask Emma of all people to go with him? And since when did he have a son? 'I guess that not common knowledge.'

'No, it's definitely not,' he replied and then deciding there would be no changing the mind of his headstrong daughter he began again. 'Emma-'

'I'll be fine,' his daughter smiled lightly knowing what he was going to say. 'I really need to get going.'

'When will you be back?' he questioned.

'When we find Baelfire,' Emma shrugged, beginning to walk past him towards the door.

David, however, had other ideas in mind.

As his daughter walked past him, he reached out and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly, hating the idea that he had no idea when he would see her again once she left with Rumplestiltskin.

'Dad,' Emma groaned, not realizing the word had slipped out her lips but her voice - luckily, in her opinion - was muffled due to the fact that she was pressed so hard against him in a way that suggested if he had his way she would never leave: his view, this apartment, the safety of his arms, she would stay here in Storybrooke where he could make sure she couldn't be harmed.

However, the tightening of her father's arms around her told her that he had understood her word all the same and she could almost sense his check-hurting grin.

She hadn't really been calling him anything recently. She knew she could have called him "James" or "David" for the past few weeks and he wouldn't have minded because he knew this was hard for her but she just felt so bad for not being able to call him "dad" and not feeling right calling him by his first name that she had resulted in just saying "hey" and looking him in the eye before saying what she wanted to. Yeah, she deserved daughter-of-the-year.

'I love you, sweetheart, be careful,' David said softly waiting for her to inevitable tense, which she did but surprising she relaxed again.

'I love you, too.'

He had known it before, what father didn't, but this was the first time she had said it aloud and he knew in that moment that Snow was right about Emma's walls: there wasn't a trick to getting though them or breaking them down, you just had to prove to her you cared enough, and sure it took time but she was slowly letting them inside. Snow may have been further inside her castle-like walls but now he was entering further too.

'I really do have to go,' Emma muttered a few seconds later. 'Gol- Rumplestiltskin's waiting.'

David made a face at the reminder of the man with whom she was leaving with but he, reluctantly, let her go, taking a risk and pressing a kiss to her forehead as he did so.

'Be careful,' he said again and smiled slightly as she rolled her eyes.

'I will,' she spoke with the air of someone who was distinctly amused at how many times she had been told that. She then pressed a kiss to his cheek before spinning around and heading back into the kitchen, where he could hear her speak to Rumplestiltskin. 'Okay, let's go.'

David nearly groaned as he began walking towards the door, yep, there was no chance Rumplestiltskin hadn't heard every word of his conversation with his daughter.

'Excellent,' Rumplestiltskin was saying as he walked into the room. 'The plane leaves at 12.'

'Then we need to be there by 10,' his daughter sighed, reaching for her bag but David beat her to it and picked it up while gesturing her out the door.

She rolled her eyes but smiled at him before the three of them left the apartment.

Emma walked faster than the two men down the stairs so David took the opportunity to speak to Rumplestiltskin.

'Listen, Imp,' he said harshly, causing the imp in question to look toward him with raised eyebrows wondering where the hostility came from, 'if you bring my daughter home in less than the perfect condition she's in now, you will pay and dearly.'

'I'd expect nothing less, your majesty,' Rumplestiltskin replied understandingly, 'and I have no intention of harming your daughter.'

'Good,' David said, still giving the "man" a hard look, 'because if you do, I will be the least of your worries.'

'Will you two hurry up,' Emma called from the ground floor. 'We have to get going.'

With one final glare, both men began to walk a little faster to catch up to the impatient princess.

'So when did Emma tell you she was leaving?' David asked his wife as soon as she walked through the door with Henry after work later that day, although a smile was still fixed on his face from his daughter words that morning.

'She's left?' Snow questioned herself, blatantly ignoring his questions as her eyes searched the apartment for their daughter, her face falling slightly when she couldn't find her.

'Yeah, this morning not long after you and Henry went to school,' David replied, noticing how Henry's face dropped at the information.

'Oh, I thought she was leaving tonight,' Snow said heavily as she took her coat off and hung it on the coat rack by the door. 'She told me last night, to answer your question.'

'She told me last week,' Henry said frowning, no doubt wondering, like David and Snow now were, why Emma had withheld this information from her parents so long. 'But not exactly when.'

'Why do you ask, Charming?' his wife concerned voice broke though.

'Oh, it just she told me as she was leaving,' David replied, 'so I was wondering how long she'd known.'

Snow gave him a sympathetic look but it was curious, as well, as though she knew something else had happened with Emma that morning before she left.

'What else happened today, Charming?' she raised her eyebrows curiously as she finally got around to shutting the door and making Henry move further into their small home.

His smile widened to a grin as he thought of what had him smiling anyway while Snow pressed a kiss to his check and moved toward to kettle, no doubt to make her and Henry hot chocolate.

'She called me "Dad",' David grinned as he turned around from leaning on the counter to face her, chuckling slightly as all his wife movements stopped in shock at his sudden words. 'And said she loved me.'

Snow turned around slowly, a beaming smile already on her lips.

'Oh, Charming,' she breathed before she threw her arms around him, knowing without words how much Emma's words would mean to him even if they both already knew it, there was something special, heart-warming and reassuring about hearing it.

Of course, Emma hadn't actually got around to calling Snow "Mum" yet but in the Enchanted Forest, she had heard Emma's words to Aurora, although Emma didn't know that, and those had warmed her heart and made her confident that her daughter would come around eventually.

"' … But I tried to kill your friend.'

'Mother, actually.'"

David gave her a large smile as she pulled back, placing a loving kiss on her lips before going over to Henry as Snow got back to making Hot Chocolate.

'So tell me what the plan is,' Emma said to Rumplestiltskin as the unbuckled their seatbelts when the seatbelt lights on the plane went off.

'I've got a potion that if we pour on an object that belonged Bae, it will glow when we're near him,' Rumplestiltskin explained in extremely simple terms. 'Like when you're looking for something someone's hidden and they say whether your hot or cold, only this is far more accurate.'

'So you want to walk around New York City, waiting for this object to glow,' Emma asked incredulously.

'Yes,' he replied as though this wouldn't be a problem.

'Do you realize how big New York is?' Emma nearly yelled in frustration. 'We could be here for weeks.'

'Then I hope you brought enough clothes, Miss Swan, but I know he lives in Manhattan so we aren't searching all of New York City,' Rumplestiltskin said as his face twisted into something like a smile while Emma was just glad that they wouldn't be searching New York completely and that he called her "Miss Swan" instead of "Princess Emma" which would have drawn a bit of attention to them.

They had already caused a bit of commotion at the airport and Emma had had to maneuverer their way out of it with a few lies but a few people had gotten rather annoyed and they couldn't have anybody becoming suspicious of them or it would be an extremely long drive to New York from Maine and Emma would not be happy about sitting in a car with Rumplestiltskin for around 7 hours. Luckily the flight was only around an hour long, hence the reason they were taking it rather than driving.

'So, what do you think Baelfire will look like?' Emma questioned when the silence became uncomfortable.

'No idea,' Rumplestiltskin replied heavily. 'He'll have dark brown hair and brown eyes, that's all I know.'

'Any idea of his age?' Emma sighed, hoping for something that would help, if the object just started glowing in the middle of say Times Square when it was packed with people.

'I believe he will be around your age, actually,' he said. 'Maybe a few years older.'

Emma nodded, not having much else to say since small talk didn't really work with Rumplestiltskin, and was suddenly really glad that she had thought to bring a book for such a short flight.

Emma almost sighed with relief as she felt the plane hit the run way at LaGuardia Airport, which was the closer airport to Manhattan that Rumplestiltskin could find, but he actually did sigh: he hadn't liked flying one bit.

Once they got out of the airport, Emma got them a taxi and gave the directions to Manhattan, wondering where on earth they should start.