Disclaimer: I own nothing. No profit is made by this, the only thing it does is make me smile because this is a story I would like to see told. OUaT and all its characters are merely borrowed. I promise to put them back in their boxes when I'm done with them.

A/N: : This snowball of an idea came from a lovely nonnie who dropped by my ask on tumblr. It was going to be a short one shot, but then, it became so much more and I realized I had my own version of Season 4 (based entirely on speculation from spoilers) that I wanted to tell. Sometimes my own headcanons about things run amok and frankly this is one of those times! This is going to be numerous parts, the action really starts in the next one, but this is the very beginning and that's always a very good place to start. ;)

Home - noun:

1. the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household.

2. a place where something flourishes, is most typically found, or from which it originates.

3. where the heart is...

There was a storm brewing. Frigid temperatures, icy patches, frost on the windows… It was only a matter of time before it started snowing. Snowing! On the first day of spring!

Emma leaned her forehead against the window, the view from her parents loft to the street below providing a scene of wintry confusion as the first flakes started to fall. She let the frosty window cool the raging headache that clouded her mind. Ever since their sojourn to the past, things had not been rosy or comfortable for the Saviour. Marian, they had brought back MAID-FREAKING-MARIAN – and now, she was beginning to wonder what else could have followed them through that portal back to Storybrooke.

This winter was not natural – and Regina, though angry and bitter at the return of her lover's long dead wife, was known for fire, not ice. Regina wasn't to blame, and she was fairly certain it wasn't Elsa's work either. She might be known for her more wintry magic, but it was tied to her emotions and those seemed to be mostly in check nowadays.

This wasn't a natural winter at all, not at the beginning of springtime! Heaving a sigh, she closed her eyes and felt what she was thinking. This is magic, plain and simple.

"Mom! Mom, c'mere! I think I found it!"

She hadn't heard happiness like that in his voice since the moment she's returned from the Enchanted Forest of the past and declared that Storybrooke was their home and that they wouldn't be leaving. The sound of a marker circling on newsprint and the excited tapping of feet filled the kitchen.

Henry's enthusiasm at finding them a new home was to be commended. If she were honest with herself, he'd been trying to find them a place to live the second his memories had been restored. She wasn't running, this was home because her parents were here, Henry's family – HER family – that and Storybrooke was finally that place. The one that, if she left, she would just miss it.

She pushed away from the window and headed to where he sat in the kitchen with a smile.

"Whatcha got, kid?"

This magical winter could wait just a few more minutes…

"I swear, it will be the one! I know it, Mom!" Henry bubbled with enthusiasm as she pulled her trusty bug up to the curb in front of Granny's. It was contagious, and who knows, maybe he was right. Maybe this place would be the one that they'd been searching for. She reached over and ruffled his hair before he could get out.

"Kid, we're gonna find it eventually, don't worry."

She should take her own advice. The loft was getting too small to hold them all. Baby Neal, her parents, and now that she and Henry had decided to stay, they had camped out in the apartment too. What had originally been a couple of days had quickly turned into a couple of weeks. While she knew that Mary Margaret and David would never turn her out - she was their daughter for heaven's sake – she felt the urge to give them the space that she was sure they were craving with Neal. Besides, she wasn't exactly comfortable being there with the baby and all that he represented for her.

She'd been beginning to think that she would never find a place to live in this town. Every rental that they had looked at so far hadn't fit the bill. All of them lacking the right feeling for numerous reasons.

The first place was too small, only a single bedroom and a galley style kitchen that you couldn't turn around in without your hips grazing both counters. It just wouldn't do at all. The second had a, well for lack of a better word, a smell to it. It's not that it wasn't the right price, the right size or the right location; it just didn't smell quite right. Even Henry had noticed something was just a little off with it. The next two had been out of their price range, considering Emma still wasn't really back in the employ of the Sherriff's department she couldn't really bank on the needs of a bail bonds person in Storybrooke. Robin and his "Merry Men" were the closest things to criminals that this town had to offer and she didn't really see them being able to skip bail.

Then there was the one that Henry had found the classified ad for. A charming little place by the water, with a view and Jacuzzi tub, and one that was snapped up before they'd even had a chance to see it. It might have been the one, the one lost because at the time she hadn't been sure of her need to stay. No, she'd been sure; she just hadn't wanted to admit it.

Damn walls! Once they had started coming down, there was no way to truly stop them – but she wasn't entirely sad about it. She'd found something good from it, a family, a home, and maybe something more, although that was something she truly wasn't ready to admit.

Scrambling up the steps to the dinner, Henry paused before pushing in to flash her a smile a mile wide. He was so sure that this would be the place. This would finally be the one that they could call home in Storybrooke. His enthusiasm was contagious, because she was anxious to have her own space again too. She knew that Henry loved his grandparents, but shuttling between the loft and Regina's must have been wearing on him as much as the lost feeling was weighing on her. It would be nice to have some roots again. New York may not have been real, but at least it was stable with a roof over their heads.

Emma followed him into the diner, laughter dancing on her lips. She'd never imagined the joy that having Henry could bring her. Two sets of memories colliding within her, one of raising her son and the other of giving him up for adoption. Some memories weren't real, but their time in Storybrooke… That had been real and it had been wonderful, in a terrifying life-altering sort of way. There were still moments when she wondered if she really could be a good mother to him. Pulling hear beanie off, she pushed the door closed with her hip as she watched Henry slide in to his choice of booth.

How had she known he would choose the one with the pirate?

And she was smiling again. Stupid, arrogant, smug pirate who was responsible for the collapse of her very protective walls… When he glanced up at her and their eyes met, she froze in her steps. He took her breath away, but she would never tell him. Smile faltering a little before it grew to light up her face. She still didn't know what this was. Emma willed herself forwards to the table, nodding and smiling at some of the locals who caught her eye on the way by.

"Mom, I was just telling Killian about our plans this afternoon, and I kept thinking that he should come along with us…"

"Oh really?" she shot back, a little more sarcastically than she had planned, her eyes narrowing in mock suspicion. Because why shouldn't they go apartment hunting with her new, sort-of-boyfriend? It was way too soon in their relationship to even be thinking about real estate, although she wasn't exactly sure what kind of relationship this was. It was certainly the kind where he was taking up residence in her heart and threatening her emotional sanity on a daily basis… Because if he left, just like all the rest…

"Yes, really!" Henry chuckled as he slid from the booth and motioned towards the door. "I'm just going to go, uhhh, say hi to Elsa… I'll be right back."

Emma rolled her eyes and slid into the seat across from Killian. Her son had developed a crush on the newest magical resident of Storybrooke, and, well, she couldn't really blame him. Elsa was beautiful and not terribly unlike her movie counterpart. Why do they all have to be real?

He was doing it again… Looking at her like she hung the moon. Regina was right. There were definitely yearning looks that passed between them. Yearning, hopeful… Hungry.

"The lad seems quite taken with the idea that I should accompany you on this adventure as well, Swan," the teasing, confident lilt betrayed by the nervous scratching behind his ear. Emma had come to learn his tells, when that bravado was nothing more than for show and when it was honest confidence. It hurt a little to know that he was still unsure of his place in her world. Even if she wasn't always so sure of what that place was herself!

"Killian," she rolled her eyes and plucked a fry from his plate, "You are more than welcome to join us. I think Henry hopes that you can convince me to finally settle on a place." She frowned a little at the thought.

Why should I settle for anything?

"I'm sure Henry wants nothing more than to see you happy, love."

"Yeah, well, I haven't been easily impressed during this search so –"

The door to the diner pushed open with a clatter, cutting her off mid-sentence, the bell's rattling in its wake.

"EMMA!"

Leroy's shouted her name as he clambered through the door, followed swiftly by the other dwarves. Emma turned in the booth to face the entryway, the smile that had been on her face falling as she locked eyes with the ever dramatic Grumpy. Anxiety rising in her chest as he and the rest of the dwarves rushed to their table.

"Emma! There's something in the forest! We thought maybe it was her –" he motioned towards Elsa, as the blonde rose from her stool defensively. "But it seeing as she's in here this icy creation can't be one of her abominable beasts!"

"Elsa's been here for hours, Grumpy, there's no way the lass is responsible for whatever-"

"The thing is destroying the forest! It's made of ICE Hook, who else could've made it?" Leroy spat his disapproval at the pirate, eyebrows knitted with irritation.

"Honestly, if you'd just –"

"ENOUGH! Stop it, both of you!" Emma pushed herself up and out of the booth angrily.

There was no love lost between the dwarf and the pirate. Grumpy seemed to think that Killian would never be good enough for Emma, while Killian resented the dwarf's flair for the dramatic and his knack for interrupting every intimate moment that he and Emma had attempted to share. It wasn't as if he was planning it, he just happened to be the first on scene whenever there was trouble and being the good family friend that he was, he sought out the Saviour immediately. Except that trouble always seemed to occur when Killian had his arms about her waist, or his lips inches from her own...

"Now, can you please start from the beginning Grumpy, and Hook –" Emma turned her eyes towards Killian, taking in his pained expression, "Try not to interrupt this time."