Title: love, loss and betrayal

AUTHOR: obisgirl
Rating: pg-13
Characters: Emma, Gold, hinted Captain Swan, mentions of Neal

Summary: It's a long flight to New York and Emma knows Gold is anxious about seeing so his son, she she talks to Gold about Baelfire, Hook, revenge and other things to help get his mind off his anxiety.

Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time characters are property of Disney and Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis. This fanfic is for pure entertainment.

He's out of his element.

Emma sees that right away as Gold tries to get comfortable, fluffing a pillow. The blanket keeps on falling down his lap and he's still antsy and Emma knows why. She didn't recognize the bandage on his hand right away but that's nothing compared to what the man must be feeling right now.

He's hours away from seeing his son again, a stranger in a strange land and on top of that, he's powerless. Emma glances back at Henry, who's fast asleep which is quite shocking considering he consumed all the cinnamon mini buns.

Emma sighs and looks back at Gold who is seconds away from wanting to murder his pillow.

"Counting sheep usually helps if you want to get some sleep," she offers and he looks at her, "I know trying to sleep on planes can be a bitch sometimes,"

"How can he sleep but I can't get even get comfortable?" he wonders, looking over at Henry.

Emma smiles at him. "Sugar meltdown. It happens to a lot of kids; eat a lot of sugar and crash later when the sugar runs out," she explains, "but I think in your case, we can avoid the sugar. You really need to relax,"

"I've been trying for the past five minutes to relax but it's damn near impossible in such close quarters and inadequate necessities," he retorts and Emma starts laughing, eliciting an angry glare from her traveling companion. "You think that my situation is funny Ms. Swan?"

"I don't," she assures him, shrugging. "I get it; you're out of your element. This is your first time outside of Storybrooke and you're anxious about finding your son," she says.

Gold stills his hands and studies her. He hates the lack of control, lack of power; he hasn't felt this way since before he became the Dark One. "I made big a mistake centuries ago and I've spent everyday since then, trying to fix it," he manages, "I'm not naïve Miss Swan, I don't expect a tear some reunion but..."

"Whatever happened, I'm sure he's learned to let go of the past and is ready to forgive you," she soothes, smiling partly. "Everybody makes mistakes,"

"I made the worst mistake," he cries, vividly remembering the incident that caused him to loose his Baelfire. "I let him go, I broke my promise and he slipped through my fingers,"

Emma knows about broken promises. Eleven years ago, she was in love and was going to start a new life with the man she loved until he decided to skip out on her and let her take the fall for his crime. He was Henry's

father; it took her a long time to come to terms with what happened and accept that their love wasn't meant to be.

"How old was he?" Emma found herself wondering, "Your son,"

"Fourteen," he says, "He wanted me to give up my magic but I couldn't because I was a coward,"

Emma sighs. "What brought him here?" she wonders, "I mean, it had to have been magic but how?"

"A magic bean," he muses. "You came through an enchanted wardrobe, Hook got here with the aid of Cora's magic and my son came here with the help of something smaller than a button. I created the curse for him, "

"The magic from the bean brought him to a land without magic, " Emma reasons, "but how do you know the time is even accurate? It may not be him, it could be his grandson or something?"

"Faith, I guess," he chuckles. "You could be right. It may not be him but I hope it is so at least I can tell him how sorry I am for breaking my promise,"

Emma sighs. Gold turns and regards her. It never occurred to him that considering Miss Swan's background that she would know exactly what he means by broken promises but judging from the pained expression on her face, she knows about it all too well.

"You know that your parents didn't want to abandon you, Emma," he adds, "but it was the only way to break the curse,"

"I'm passed my abandonment issues where my parents are concerned," she says, "But I know how it hurts when you're abandoned by someone you love because it happened to me,"

Gold looks over at Henry and then back to Emma. "You don't talk very much about him – Henry's father," he notes.

Emma shrugs. "I didn't become pregnant with Henry after he left, so he never knew," she says, "Hook said something to me when we were in fairytale land that he knows how to recognize an orphan; he said that I didn't want to abandon Henry the same way I was abandoned,"

Gold rolls his eyes and his guard comes up again. "Hook is not a man to be trusted, Emma. Take it from me; he is nothing but trouble. He stole Bae's mother; he deserves all the pain coming to him," he seethes.

"I used to think that way about him too until I realized he isn't worth my time," she reasons, "Hundreds of years and you can't even drop a grudge,"

"Have you met Regina?" he counters.

Emma smiles. "Touche," she agrees, "You mentioned that you have a long history with him. What exactly happened between you two?"

"He stole from me, so I took his hand,"

"Milah," she breathes and he looks at her surprisingly and Emma smirks. "I saw the tattoo back in fairytale land when he helped me get up the beanstalk to steal the compass,"

"She was my wife," he adds, "There are two sides to every story, Emma. I thought that Hook had kidnapped Milah, turns out she ran off with him. When he returned, I challenged him to a duel. Milah showed up and she offered me a different deal, the magic bean for his life. But I couldn't leave with the bean until I knew why she left. She claimed that she never loved me and I overreacted..."

"I'm sorry. That was a really crappy thing they did to you but you know what? Sometimes, you just have to get over it. You want to redeem yourself, the first thing you should do once you get back to Storybrooke is drop this vendetta,"

Gold sighs, smiling at her. "You make it sound so easy, Emma. I let go of my anger and move on with my life. If it weren't for Hook, Belle would still have her memories. So no, I can't drop my vendetta and I doubt that he would give me the same courtesy,"

Emma rolls her eyes. "The way I see it, you have two choices: you can keep fighting each other and there will be countless fatalities along the way, or you can let it go and move on. If I were you, I would choose the latter since I would hate to clean up another one of your messes,"

"I'm more than willing to drop this if he is, but I doubt he will," he reasons, looking over at her. "Why are you so keen on me dropping this?" he wonders, studying her curiously. Emma looks away from him and a small smile curls about Gold's lips. "You care for him,"

"I don't want to see anyone hurt," she retorts, avoiding his question. Once Emma starts thinking about Hook as a possible love interest, she's going to lose focus and that's not what she needs right now.

Gold's smile however doesn't disappear. "I'm sure that your father will love that; his daughter fancying the town pirate," he laughs, "I can see Charming now running after him with his sword and Snow chasing after him to stop,"

Emma rolls her eyes. "I do not have feelings for Hook," she denies flatly, although she knows that's a lie.

There are times when he is bearable, other times she wonders why he is so broken and wants to help him heal. Then she reminds herself, someone who's been broken for 200 or so years probably doesn't want to be fixed now. "It's my job to protect the people of Storybrooke; all of its current residents, villains included. You all may be fairytale characters but you live in this world now and you have to abide by our laws. Hook will learn that too in time,"

"And you think he wants to change? The man spent centuries plotting his revenge because of the loss of his beloved Milah, who by the way, wasn't so great. If he knew the real her, he would realize she isn't worth vengeance," he retorts.

Emma shrugs. "Maybe but you're still the reason why he's here," she muses, "If you won't try for Belle, would you try for your son? Be the better man he always knew you were?"

Gold sighs, leaning back in his chair. He would do anything for Bae; he was willing to go to another land to

make him happy until his cowardice took over. That had been the biggest mistake of his life but Rumpelstiltskin knew with certainty if Bae asked him to let go of his vengeance, he would because there is no way that he would make the same mistake twice.

Emma's still waiting for an answer and he looks at her, smiling thoughtfully and she smiles back at him, knowing his answer. "We still have a few hours before landing at JFK. Better get some sleep," she advises.

Gold's body sinks back into the chair, feeling a little more at ease than a few minutes ago when he was about to murder his pillow. He looks over at Henry, still out cold and then to Emma. "Thank you Emma for doing this, agreeing to help me find Bae. I made the biggest mistake when I let him go and I hope he doesn't hate me for what I've done,"

She smiles at him thoughtfully. "Good thing humans have the capacity to forgive and I think he will, especially after you tell him everything you've gone through to get back to him," she reasons, looking at Henry. "You're making amends now, taking a leap of faith; that should show him that you've changed,"

He smiles at her again before letting out a quick breath and finally drifting off.

The End