Post-Season 3. A witch unmakes the curse that created Storybrooke, and removes all memories of everything that has happened since Regina cast the curse. Snow and Charming believe Neal is their only child, Hook doesn't remember becoming more than just a one handed pirate with a drinking problem, and Regina only wants revenge on Snow. Emma and Henry remember the truth but they are trapped in New York. Primarily CaptainSwan & Charming Family with a little RumBelle and other canon ships.

Rated T because that is what I think the show would be.

Sadly the show isn't mine. (However, even if it were, I don't think I would have changed anything about the amazing Season 3 finale.)

Chapter 1: Nothing Good About Goodbyes

"Look," Henry says. "We both know Mom won't say it because she'll be afraid of jinxing it, or of becoming one of the people who made promises to her that they didn't keep. So I'll say it for her. We will find you. You've always found us and brought us home, and we will do the same for you."

"How can you be so sure?" Killian asks. His eyes drift for a second past the lad, to the beautiful blond saying her goodbyes to her parents, but then he turns back, giving Henry his full attention.

"Are you kidding? My family always finds each other. You were even back there when it got started. Its half way between a promise and habit we can't shake. It's in my blood from both sides. Of course we'll find you."

"Aye, but isn't that just for family?"

"And you are," Henry says, without any hesitation. "Family is the ones that stick around and the ones that come back. You've done both quite a bit. Besides, you and Mom have been together for a while now, you're even in my book together and… well… you're kinda the closest thing I've got to a dad," Henry admits quietly.

Killian smiles, but it's tinged with sadness. "I'd like that. I just wish I could be there for you like you deserve. You know I wouldn't leave your mom or you if I had any choice, right?"

"Yeah," Henry says. "You came for me in Neverland, came for us in New York, have stuck around ever since. This is just our turn to do the finding." He smiles, only the briefest hint of sadness in it. "I know that if you had your way you would stick around. And I appreciate that."

"Aye, Lad, that I would." He pulls a sextant out of the pocket of his coat. "My brother gave this to me, shortly before we set sail for Neverland. He meant for it to be carried by an honorable man. When I get back to the Enchanted Forrest, I won't be." He turns it over in his hand, preferring to regard the Pegasus marking and the strange stars on the sextant than meeting Henry's earnest gaze. "Because I will have forgotten everything good about myself when I forget you and Emma. So I want you to have it." He presses it into Henry's hand.

The lad stares down at it for a long moment before looking up to meet Killian's eyes. "You've had this for three hundred years," he says in amazement.

"Aye. And now it's yours."

"Thank you," Henry says, pulling Killian into a hug which he returns gratefully.

"You're welcome. I figured it should stay in the family," Killian says with a smile.

Emma walks over to join them, trying very hard to not look back at her parents.

"They'll be alright Emma," he assures her softly. "They'll miss you, even if they only know you from when you were first born, but they'll be okay. They're lucky they get that much."

"I'll give you two a minute," Henry says, flashing a bizarrely confident smile at Killian, and, still holding the sextant, heads over to say goodbye to Regina.

"And you?" Emma asks.

"I'm always fine," he says with a smirk.

"Killian…"

"No," he admits. "I won't remember you. That would be a cruel enough fate even if it didn't mean I go back to the man I was." He gives her a weak attempt at a smile. "I don't want to go back to that. When I forget you, I'll also forget me."

"But I'll remember, for both of us," Emma promises. He can see she is trying so hard not to cry; they both are.

"I could change some of your memories," she offers, "so some things make more sense."

"Like the Jolly Roger? I don't want them to make sense," he admits softly. "I want to know that something has changed, because everything has."

"The curse will edit any memories that don't make sense, but this way I can make them… I can't make you remember me but maybe…"

"Go ahead then," he tells her, sensing as always the things she can't quite put into words. She lays a hand on the side of his face, white light shining from between her fingers.

"These will kick in when the curse sets in," she tells him. "You found someone who had the location for the Crocodile," Emma says, telling him the memories as she places them in his head. "You traded your ship for a location. He told you… he told you that you would find what you seek in a realm without magic. And he gave you the name of someone who might be able to help you when you get here."

"Emma Swan," he whispers.

"Of course." The light fades from her hand but she doesn't move it from the side of his face. "I know you won't be able to remember me, but I need to know that you will still be out there looking for me. I've gotten sort of used to it." She gives him a tearful smile. "And I may or may not have sharpened a few rum soaked memories of that damn bar wench you kissed."

He smiles back at her. "I look forward to remembering," he says.

"Hook," she says softly. "You should know, what you said in Neverland, you were right."

"Which thing, Love?" he asks, reaching out and wiping away the tears running down her cheeks.

"When you said you would win my heart. You did."

"I'm sorry then. I never meant to be one of the ones who take it and leave," he says softly.

"You aren't. And I'm not sorry. You want to stay and that makes all the difference. Besides, I've been on that side of memory loss and I know it sucks too." She looks at him in silence for a long moment. "Not a day will go by I won't think of you," she says with a half-smile. He can hear in those echoes words all the things she doesn't dare say, the promise that she will do what he did during the lost year, that thinking won't be enough and that she will find him but doesn't dare promise it for fear she won't be able to keep her promise.

"Good," he echoes, responding in part to what she says and even more to all the things she doesn't say.

"Ready?" Henry asks, stepping up beside his mother.

"Not even close," Emma replies. She looks past Killian and the others at the approaching purple cloud. She sighs.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this, Love," he says quietly.

"I know. But here we are."

They both reach out to kiss the other at the same time, holding on for dear life, like they can forestall the curse simply by holding on to each other. The kiss has all the desperate passion of their kiss in Neverland and all the sweetness of their kiss after they returned from the past, a kiss to contain all the kisses they won't be able to share. His hand twines in her hair, his hook on the small of her back pulling her closer, never mind the fact that her parents and son are standing by. None of them voice any objections.

"The curse is almost here," Snow says finally. They part reluctantly, not ready to give up yet.

"You have to go," David says sadly. "You're the only one who can remember any of this and someone should."

Henry claps Killian on the shoulder as he walks past. "I meant what I said," he promises.

"Aye," Killian says. "Look after each other. Now your father is right. You have to get going Swan. I wouldn't want you forgetting me like last time we were all whisked back to the Enchanted Forest."

"Not gonna happen," she promises.

"Glad to hear it, Love."

With that, she and Henry grudgingly get in her yellow bug and drive away. The last thing she sees out of the rear-view mirror is her family, Regina standing off to one side, Snow's arm linked with David's, his other hand clasped on Killian's shoulder.

When they have safely crossed the town line and all of the others are gone, Emma pulls over to the side of the road. She had meant to stay strong for Henry's sake, not to show how hopeless she feels about all of this but she can't help it. Everything had been going so well and she is suddenly thrown back to being a lost girl and an orphan all over again.

Henry places a hand gently on her shoulder. "It'll be alright Mom," he says gently.

"Will it?" she asks. Then she gives a tearful laugh. "You're just like my parents, with that ridiculous optimism."

"Don't knock it," Henry says with a half-smile. "This ridiculous optimism brought you back into my life, made you break the curse the first time, and helped turn my other mom into one of the good guys, not to mention all the times I've been sure people will come rescue me and they have. So far, it's worked out pretty well for me so I'm gonna keep it up."

"Things like today are why I don't do optimism," Emma says, taking a deep breath.

"You should. This is a temporary setback," Henry assures her. "Last time it took only a year."

"And a curse in which my mother had to literally crush my father's heart."

"So, we'll find an alternative."

"The only people who know we need an alternative are the two of us Henry, and we are stuck in a world without magic."

"People always call it that but have you actually looked around at some of the stuff that has happened in this realm, even before Granddad brought magic? There is some, not much, but it might just be enough. It is supposed to be easier to travel to a realm with magic than a realm without magic."

She nods, wipes her eyes, puts the car back in gear, and heads down the road.

"So where are we headed?" Henry asks.

"New York."

For an instant Henry looks crestfallen, like all his optimism has finally failed him.

"Give me some credit, Kid," she says, noticing the look. "I edited Killian's memories. He doesn't remember us, because we don't fit in before the curse. What he does remember is his quest for revenge on Rumplestiltskin, and selling his ship to get a location."

"And that location is in New York?" Henry asks, his smile returning broader than before.

"That's right Kid. I gave him the address of our apartment, which is still technically under the lease. We can use that as our home base while we look for another solution, and we will leave a message for him whenever we leave to follow up a lead so he'll know how to contact us."

"So you believe we are going to find him?"

"I don't know," she admits. "But I believe we are going to try."

"Well then, sounds like Operation Cobra is a back."

"Cobra?" Emma asks. It seams so much more doable now, sitting in the car with Henry, discussing it like it has all happened before. "I think this deserves a new code name for a drastically different mission."

"It isn't that different," Henry points out. "A bunch of fairy tale characters were caught up in a curse and now they don't remember who they are and you and I are their only chance. Sounds like the same mission to me."

"Fair enough."

"But if you really want a different name for it, how does Operation Sea Serpent sound?"

"Operation Sea Serpent it is," she confirms, settling back for the long drive to New York.