Time Will Tell
The Forgetting Potion washes through Emma, taking with it the memories of the night spent in the Evil Queen's arms.
Though, not the entirety of the trip to the past.
Emma brings the flask from her lips and hands it to Killian.
"Whoa!" she says after a cough, "What the hell happened?"
He looks at her curiously, "Well, what do you remember?"
"I remember... We arrived in the past from Zelena's spell, and then- Nothing. Absolutely nothing."
Hook breathes a sigh of relief and says, "Well, you'll be happy to learn that nothing went awry while we were there. You hit your head as we landed, I brought us to Rumplestilskin's and managed to convince him to send us home!"
With a puzzled expression, Emma studies Hook.
"Yeah?" she asks as memories begin to multiply in her mind.
The Dragon Maleficent in which she had defeated in order to steal the True Love potion is now conflicted by memories of breaking the first curse without killing her.
"Something must have happened, Hook, because this is not right," she says, looking at him. "Some of my memories have changed, unnaturally."
"Well," Hook begins, searching for an excuse, "It must have been Rumple. He wasn't able to forget our arrival, so perhaps a few things played out differently than they had the first time 'round," he says, not caring if Mr. Gold could disprove his statement.
"Hm," Emma mumbles skeptically. "Well, I suppose I'm just glad we're home. I need to see my family."
~
Emma and Hook enter the party being held at Granny's.
Immediately she sees her parents with Henry and approaches them, leaving Killian behind.
"Emma!" both her parents say and smile brightly at her.
"There you are, we were starting to worry," David says and grabs her arm as Henry hugs her.
She takes in the relief of their presence and returns their warm smiles.
"Mom," she says lovingly, "Dad. I missed you."
Mary Margaret and David can't help but look surprised as their daughter embraces them tightly, but they quickly hug tightly back.
It's at that moment Regina sees her. A blast of horrible bitterness soaks through Regina's heart. Her throat closes up and memories of decades of missing Leia flood her entire being. She had still gone through with the Dark Curse in revenge against Snow White for being the cause of Daniel's death, but she never forgot the disappearance of her lover, Leia. Though, something else had changed. She has no memory of being led to the man with the lion tattoo by Tinker Bell. Regina doesn't know how she does, but she can feel it in her blood that the dirty pirate Emma just arrived with has everything to do with it. She catches Hook's eye and glares at him evilly. His shifty eyes and rigid body language gives him away. Leaving the side of a confused and baffled Robin, she waltzes up to him.
"Wonderful to see you well, Killian," she says sarcastically. "Where were the two of you that delayed you so?"
"We went to check out the Wicked Witch's Spell," he explains nonchalantly, "We were sucked through her portal only to be returned unharmed shortly after."
"Is that so?" Regina asks him lowly.
She then turns around to gaze at Emma, who is casually chatting and laughing with her parents.
Emma appears radiantly beautiful amongst the love and openness of their family. A desperate aching claws at Regina's soul, and she resists the temptation to steal Hook's heart to forcefully retrieve the truth from him with all of her strength.
She turns back to Hook and gives him a cold smile, "I suppose we'll see about that, won't we?"
Regina watches Killian hatefully as he dismisses himself to join Emma at her side, sliding his arm around her. She takes a deep breath and decides to seek advice from a confidante who had been there for her since before she became the Evil Queen.