Once Upon a Time 1. Chapter 1

_**At the end of the day**__**  
**__**Remember the way**__**  
**__**We stayed so close till the end**__**  
**__**We'll remember it was me and you**_

_**'Cause we are gonna be forever you and me**__**  
**__**You will always keep me flying high in the sky of love…**_

_**[High – Lighthouse family]**_

* * *

_**REMEMBER IT WAS ME AND YOU**_

_**1.**_

_**New York. Present.**_

Hook took a deep breath and rang the bell. Those few moments waiting for the door to be opened, seemed like for ever and he couldn't help but recall all the memories he had with the woman who was on the other side of the door. Terror, despair, hope: that was exactly what he was contradictorily feeling. That wasn't the time though, to let his fear fill him: that was the last chance, the last chance to save everyone, the last chance to save himself.

The door suddenly opened and a confused and yet pretty face appeared in front of him. A smile crossed immediately his lips, Emma was even more beautiful than he remembered.

"Swan" he whispered.

And he kept on smiling, trying to ignore the fact that for a moment, staring into her green eyes, he thought about some brown ones.

* * *

_**Enchanted Forest. A year before.**_

"Gina! Gina!"

That concerned yell seemed almost unreal, as she was getting further from him at every second; the lady couldn't understand why her horse, Apple, had become so indomitable, but what she was sure about was that gallop could have led her to certain death. In fact, suddenly she lost her grip and almost instinctively closed her eyes, already expecting the terrifying impact to the ground, when instead she ended up wrapped in something more comfortable.

"Hey, my lady, are you alright?"

Gina opened looked up to her savior and remained some moments to stare into his stunning blue eyes he slowly set her on foot.

"It is everything fine… Thank you" she said, hinting a smile.

"It was my duty to save a lady in danger" he joked, smiling back.

They continued to look at each other for a while. The fact that they found a instant connection was just a part of the reason though, it seemed to both that there was something more than that. He must have know her in another life, he decided in his head nodding slowly at the thought. Looking at the refined cloth of her dress, her precious jewels, it wasn't hard to guess that she was a real lady, a typical noblewoman of the countryside and that means that it was impossible for him to have know her in this life.

"Let me introduce myself, I am Killian Jones" he finally said, making a slight bow.

"And who are you, Killian Jones?" she asked looking a bit amused by that encounter.

"Whomever you want me to be" he answered, taking her hand in his only one "I can be a prince, a stableman, a thief…" he continued, placing a kiss on the back of it.

Gina couldn't help but shook her head, even if the smile was still on her lips. He was clearly trying to flirt with her, and she wasn't that much immune to his charm after all.

"I am a sailor" he admitted then, releasing her hand and starting to walk beside her.

She nodded silently and then focused her attention on the particular she had noticed just a moment before.

"What happened to your hand?"

Killian just laughed and crossed his arm, hiding his physical defect.

"You want to know too much now, don't you?" he asked back, avoiding the question "And yet I don't even know your name yet" added then, turning his face to her, waiting for an answer.

She was about to answer when a man broke the moment, almost running towards them.

"Gina!" he exclaimed stopping right in front of her "Have you got hurt?"

The woman quickly shook her head and let herself be hugged by him, ensuring him that she was indeed fine.

"I was lucky to have met this _gentleman_, anyway" she stated, coloring with slight irony the word she had chosen to describe the sailor.

Killian laughed again noting that tone and then moved his eyes on the other man. Who was him? He didn't know why but he felt a wave of jealousy rush through him. Luckily for him, what happened next proved him wrong about his suspects. In fact, the still unknown man, approached him and offered him his hand with a grateful smile.

"Thank you for saving my sister, Gina. I am the Duke Baelfire Gold" he introduced himself "Come to our Palace, so we may thank you properly"

The sailor thought about the proposal for a moment, but quickly agreed meeting the woman's eyes.

_Maybe that was his lucky day._

* * *

_**New York. Present.**_

"It's really absurd! You can't really expect me to believe that!"

Emma was somehow getting angry. It was not just the kiss that strange person had tried to give her, it was not just the way he was stealing her time, what was really annoying her was the fact that he was telling nothing but fables. Fairytales, it could be nothing but that: Snow White, Prince Charming, Rumpelstiltskin, Captain Hook, The Evil Queen… Fairytales, fairytales, fairytales.

"But you have to, love!" he exclaimed, trying to convince her again "Look, you really are Prince Charming and Snow White's daughter and you have to save us all from the curse that Peter Pan casted… You have been the savior once and now you have to be the savior again"

"I don't believe you, I'm sorry" she said again with a sigh.

A lamp of doubt seemed to cross her eyes and but it was just a moment and the moment after she was already closing the door right to his face, when suddenly a voice came from behind them.

"I do"

There it was a boy with a serious expression on his face and a big book with a red cover in his hands. Hope immediately raised in Hook as he recognized him. Henry. Once a believer, always a believer, it seemed.

"I do" the boy repeated approaching the captain "I believe you"

* * *

**Hi everyone! In the reviews for my last Hooked Queen one-shot "Evil love", I received two prompts and I'm going to write both of them The first one, which inspired this long-fiction, is from **_**The Dark Queen Always:**_

_**Can you write something about Regina and Hook reuniting in New York, let's say that the curse brought Regina to Enchanted Forest but Hook managed to escape it and Regina finds a way to get back to him and Henry, or if this is not good, or whatever, you make something up...**_

**I decided that the curse makes forget everyone about everything and they are all stuck into fake identities in the Enchanted Forest as it happened with Regina's curse… At least until Hook remembers and finds his way back to Emma.**

**Even if there are hints to Captain Swan, this fic is absolutely HOOKED QUEEN and SWANFIRE… They are my two OTPs and I wanted to write a fic about the both of them together!**

**Hope you liked it, let me know what you think about it!**

**See you soon and merry Christmas:)**


	2. Chapter 2

_**2.**_

_**New York. Present.**_

"I guess I have to thank you, lad" Hook said smiling at the boy, after he opened the door of his room and led the man in.

Henry just shrugged and returned the smile. Actually, he had been waiting for that moment. He had found one day, not so long ago, a book full of different fairytales and it was as he felt a connection to these characters, he felt them real. Maybe it had been all a product of his imagination, but when a person that claimed to be the Captain Hook himself showed up in his house, talking about the same stories he had been reading about… Well, Henry had no more doubts.

"So, when are we starting with this mission?" he asked then smiling back confidently.

Hook, now seated on one of the two beds in the room, looked up to the boy and stared at him for a while, thoughtfully.

"Why have you believed me so easily?" he finally asked, looking very curios about the answer.

"Because I know the people you are talking about" Henry simply explained "Look, they are all in there" added then, handing him his book.

Killian took it with a bit of hesitation and then started to flip through the pages. He could see his eternal enemy Rumpelstilstskin, he could see the wolf-woman Red Riding Hood, he could see Pinocchio, The Mad Hatter, Jiminy Cricket, Cora… And then he suddenly stopped. His fingers almost unwarily lingered on the picture of a woman and it was not just a woman: there was the Evil Queen.

"I… I can often see her in my dreams" Henry suddenly confessed, looking at the picture too "I can see moments spent with her… It seems another life"

Hook nodded and smiled sadly. It was all real of course, but it was still to prove it. Maybe he could start with the boy, maybe he could start with Regina.

"She is your mother – I mean she adopted you" he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

In front of his confused face, he began to tell him the most important things he knew about their relationship – the ones he knew, to say better. He told her for example how he was abandoned and she took care of him, how she tried to become good for him, how she was ready to sacrifice her life to save him and the all Storybrooke, how she gave an important contribute in rescuing him from Neverland and how finally she gave him up to allow him to be happy even after the curse.

Episode after episode, there in the dark, Hook started to consider Regina as a hero and portraying her like that, made him feel like a hero as well.

"Now we should sleep, goodnight lad"

"Goodnight, Captain"

That night Killian didn't sleep. If he would, the queen of the book would have appeared in his dreams too.

* * *

_**Enchanted Forest. A month before.**_

The proper thanks that the Duke had offered him, turned out to be more than Killian had expected. He had been living at the Palace for almost a year now; of course he often left for his travels by sea, at the service of King Friedrich and Queen Abigail, but he always came back and he didn't know why, but he was starting to think of the Palace as home.

He had saved the Duchess after all, but it had been actually nothing but a matter of chance. Was it also by chance that he was day after day feeling a stronger connection with her? Was it also by chance that he was getting more and more captured by her? He was scared to find that maybe there was behind something of more powerful, maybe that thing was _fate_.

"Killian" she said, greeting him as she saw him approaching her in the garden.

"Your Grace" he greeted her back with a grin "What are you doing here all alone?"

Gina moved her eyes to the sky and stared at it in silence, as if she was counting all the stars. And they were many that night.

"I like watching the stars… It sounds romantic" she explained taking a breath and closing her eyes for a moment.

"I didn't imagine you were a romantic woman" he said half joking, a bit surprised by that sweet side of her that she didn't show so often.

"I am not"

Jones laughed at that curt answer and then silently pull out of his coat a flask and handed it to her.

"Really?" she asked incredulous staring at the bottle, without of course accepting it.

"What is it?"

"You are always flirtatious, you drink rum and have a hook in place of a hand… It sounds more like a _pirate _than a sailor" she explained with a hint of contempt in her voice.

That hint anyway had the only effect to make him smile.

"It is not my fault for this" Killian said raising his handless arm.

"Then, what happened?" she asked immediately and it wasn't the first time she was making such a question.

"I…" he started appearing suddenly slightly thoughtful "I don't remember, actually"

Gina raised a eyebrow and was about to make a curt remark about how was it even possible to forget something like that, when she found him to be closer to her.

"Rum?" he offered again, looking into her brown eyes.

"I don't do rum" she replied, even if she couldn't help but move her eyes for a moment to his lips.

"You don't?" he asked, sounding amused.

She just nodded and then slowly approached him more, until their noses touched. When he made a move to kiss her though, she quickly distanced herself and glared at him.

"And I don't like your smell"

* * *

Gina had spent most of the night awake, her mind was always coming back to what happened with Killian, even if actually nothing had happened at all and maybe for him it really was like that. The next morning she was enthusiastic about a breakfast outdoor: a good riding and the fresh atmosphere of the lake were always perfect to clear her thoughts. Of course she wasn't alone, actually it was her brother the one who had the idea, thought it quickly became clear to her that he had another purpose in mind for their time together other than enjoying nature.

"Bae, is something wrong?" she finally asked with slight annoyance in her voice.

The Duke looked up to her and faked a smile.

"I have to talk to you" he admitted after some moments with a sigh, while the smile as quick as it appeared, vanished from his face.

Gina raised a eyebrow and stared at his brother, in a mixture of curiosity and concern about what he was going to say. And he didn't make her wait for too long.

"You should stop talking with the sailor"

The woman widened her eyes and her expression showed only confusion now.

"Do you mean Jones?"

"How many other sailors do you know, sister?"

Baelfire wasn't very good at irony and the attempt failed miserably. She just looked up at the sky and quickly stood up, taking a step to her horse.

"Look" he said, understanding her intentions and making her stop "I've been watching you two last night"

"What?" she asked, turning to him with a angry look "Now you are spying on me?"

"Gina… I just want to protect you" he replied, trying to make her come to her senses "He is no good for you, he is not your knight in shining armor… Besides he is flirting with other girls"

Gina's face remained impassive at that information, but that fact revealed on the contrary how much it have affected her.

"Which girls?"

"I saw him flirting with Tawnie, for example" he answered, referring to her favorite lady in waiting.

"Tawnie?" she repeated with an amused smile "Sometimes I like flirting with doctor Whale just to have some fun… Do you think I like him?"

Baelfire shook his head at that example. He knew how much her sister liked to feel desired by men, but all had always been an innocent play, while now he could see that it was different.

"You can't fall in love with him"

"Love… Who talked about love?" she replied, denying even to herself what had become lately her biggest fear "Then, what do you know about love, dear brother?"

As soon as the words escaped her lips, she looked away from him and silently reached for her horse, ready to return to the Palace, more tensed than before.

But Baelfire was surely the most dismayed, since the last words Gina had said seemed to have had a particular effect on him.

"What do you know about love?"

He didn't know why but suddenly the face of a woman with green eyes and blonde hair flashed in front of his eyes. And it wasn't the first time.

The truth was that he knew a lot about love… But he just couldn't remember it.

* * *

**Here it is finally the update:) So, Henry remembers Regina, while Bealfire remembers Emma despite the curse, while Gina and Killian started to like each other when they were without memories... What do you think about all of this? Let me know^^**

**See you when I'll come back from France:)**


	3. Chapter 3

_**3.**_

_**New York. Present.**_

When Emma woke up that morning, she really believed, if just for a moment, that it had all been nothing more than a silly dream, but as soon as she entered the kitchen, pretending quickly turned to be impossible. Her son and the unknown man were happily making breakfast together, while the words "magic", "operation something" and "chocolate" caught disconnected her attention.

"Good morning, love"

"Hey, mom"

The woman nodded absent-mindedly at the two different greetings, still absorbed in her own thoughts. The most unbelievable one wasn't the curios scene she was seeing thought, but the fact that she was actually pandering to her son's instinct about a man just came out of a fantasy movie.

"You've slept a lot, you know? If I hadn't already known a Sleeping Beauty, I would say you are the one" Hook joked, sipping the coffee from the cup he had chosen as his.

"Did you know her? What is her name?" Henry immediately asked, even more curious about the fairytale land.

"Aurora"

Emma shook her head at that answer and hinted an amused smile.

"At least that is the same" she commented ironically, thinking again about the strange stories she had heard confusedly about from the presumed pirate.

"Not very much, if you consider that just before I came here, I discovered that she left her husband Philip and started a relationship with a woman warrior, Mulan or something like that…"

Emma and Henry both widened their eyes hearing that part of the story and remained silent for a while, until the silence was broken by Hook's laugh.

"Maybe it was too soon to say that it was the same" Emma said still a bit astonished.

"Okay, now where are we going to start?" Henry asked after some moments, recovering better than her mother from Aurora's retold story.

"Start what?"

"With _Operation Memory_ of course" the boy answered obviously, standing up from the chair and moving his fairytale book to the table.

"Operation memory?"

Henry nodded to her mother, who seemed to do nothing but repeat his words.

"You are the savior and you have to remember again so the curse will be broken and everyone will remember again… But we have to find another way since the captain's kiss didn't work" he explained seriously, casting a glare to the other man.

"Obviously it didn't" Emma confirmed, glaring at the pirate too.

The man just shook his head and smiled nervously. He still felt defeated about the proof that he wasn't her true love, but after what had happened in the Enchanted Forest, thought it still sounded completely senseless, he should have imagined that.

"True love kiss is the only way though" he simply pointed out, shaking his head.

Henry nodded thoughtfully, while Emma suddenly came to a realization.

"But…" she started looking dubious "If true love kiss is the only way to remember, then, how did you get back your memories back?"

The pirate didn't expect that question, since in his mind he was avoiding that one too, so he just looked down, sighing heavily.

"It doesn't matter"

_**Enchanted Forest. Three weeks before.**_

It had been two weeks since her conversation with her brother, and though their relationship came back to the usual as if nothing ever happened, she couldn't stop thinking about what they talked. What was almost making go crazy was the fact that, thanks to Balefire's words, she had discovered that she cared about the sailor, she cared about it very much, and maybe that was too much. She loved once and she had been destroyed when she lost him and she knew that she lost an important loved one as well. All those parallels, all those similarities between them were filling all her thoughts: could it be love? Was it possible to love again?

She had dismissed her lady, Tawnie, and spent the all afternoon alone, trying to read a book, but as she was staring at the same page for at least ten minutes, she felt suddenly an arm wrapping around her waist.

"What…?" she asked immediately turning her head, but when she realized who it was, she relaxed a bit and simply glared at the new arrived.

"Shh, love" Killian said, smiling and placing a kiss on her neck.

"What are you doing?" she asked now a bit surprised, but not displeased at all, by that sudden move from him.

He didn't answer and kissed her neck again, inhaling her scent, while the fingers of his good hand started to slightly touch her body from above the corset.

"Killian" she whispered, closing her eyes for a moment.

Then somehow, she found the strength to stop him and turned completely to him, taking his hand in hers.

"Listen, Gina" he started suddenly in a serious and unusually sad tone "I'm leaving…"

"What? … Why?" she said confused, immediately feeling breathless.

"I know your brother doesn't think good of me and you deserve better than what I can offer…"

"But what if I want this? What if I want… you?"

The composed desperation perceivable through her words, made his heart almost break, but he still shook his head, trying to not change his mind.

"I have to go…" he repeated "But I want to keep with me most memories of you that I can" he added then, caressing now her cheek and plunging then his hand in her soft hair.

"You are a Duchess, I am a sailor… This can never work" he said in a murmur close to her lips, leaning his forehead on hers, in a last attempt of convincing himself.

"Well, I could have been a _Queen_ and you could have been a _pirate_… That would have been worse" she tried to joke, even if tears were forming in her eyes.

The joke made him chuckle bitterly, he would have missed her, he was missing her already. Slowly he approached his lips to hers more and couldn't resist the urge to gave her a passionate kiss. It should have been the last goodbye for a couple of almost lovers, it should have been a promise of eternal love for two people meant not to be together, and yet as soon as they lips touched, an unnatural wind emanated in the room and when they parted it all assumed another meaning.

It wasn't just a kiss, it was true love kiss.

But they weren't just two normal lovers.

"Hook?"

"Regina?"

_They were actually the pirate and the Queen._

* * *

_**Tada! First of all, Happy New Year to all of you:) Hope you liked this twist (I think it was quite expected though LoL) The next chapters will be focused more on the present and we will see more of Swanfire too;)**_

_**Let me know what you think, see you soon!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**4.**_

_**Enchanted Forest. Two weeks and a half before.**_

It took about three days of searching and wandering, before he eventually found what he was looking for, but now he had done it: he finally reached King Philip and Queen Aurora's castle. He needed to come back to Emma, he needed to be the hero this time; and yet he didn't even succeeded in keeping the promise he had made to the Swan when they said goodbye: he had promised that he would have always thought about her, but he didn't respect that early intention, not only while he was without memory, but also in those three days.

He had just thought _often_ about her, but the rest of the time, it was Regina, or at least _Gina_, on his mind.

The castle could be a good way to start, since he considered that who was already in the Enchanted Forest hadn't been affected by Peter Pan's curse and so that Aurora girl he had known and her husband could have been the ones to help him in his mission. The idea turned out to be right, but not in the way expected. In fact, as soon as he entered the garden from a secondary gate, a scene made him stop at first with widened eyes and then with an amused smile on his lips.

"Well, well, I didn't know about this… Can I join you?"

The two women he had already had the pleasure to meet, Aurora and Mulan, broke their passionate kiss and almost jumped hearing his voice. The queen instinctively took a step back, while the warrior put her hand on the sword, ready to use it.

"Do you know who you are?" she asked with a suspicious look.

Hook just nodded and tried his best to make an assuring smile, raising his hand up in the air.

"I mean no harm… I perfectly remember who I am, Killian Jones… Better known as Captain Hook" he started keeping on smiling "And I need your help"

"How?" it was Aurora now the one to ask the question in just a whisper.

The pirate looked at them thoughtfully and then sighed heavily.

"Do you know where my ship is?"

* * *

_**Enchanted Forest. Two weeks before.**_

Regina smiled for the first time since she had had her memory, or better she almost hysterically laughed. Gina had disappeared in a moment and Regina had totally come back ready to fight for what she wanted and what she wanted was her son back. And after just a week, not only she had found a way to regain her powers, but she also managed to use them for the most important purpose: leave the Enchanted Forest and look for Henry. She was still holding the bean and the compass, imagining already what to do once she would have arrived in the other world, when the door suddenly opened, revealing the figure of her presumed brother.

"Gina, what happened?" he asked concerned, taking a step into the room.

The woman not even turned to him and started instead to create magic in her hands.

"How many times I told you to not use magic? It's dangerous, Gin…"

"It's _Regina_ actually!" she exclaimed sounding exasperated, casting him a quick glance "And guess what? I sincerely do not care about what you think"

Baelfire looked confused and also a bit hurt for that sharp interruption, but hesitantly approached her even more.

"What are you doing?" he simply asked, trying to understand what had lately came into his sister's mind.

"I'm creating a portal… What does it look like?"

He nodded and then half smiled at his own thoughts.

"Are you trying to reach Jones?"

A joyless laugh escaped Regina's lips as she felt at the pronounce of that name a sudden unexpected increase of magic.

"I'm not going for Hook" she stated shaking her head.

But Baelfire didn't stop, actually he just looked even more confused by her answer.

"Who's _Hook_?"

It was in front of that naïve question, that she finally stopped her movement and focused completely the attention on him. She sighed and instinctively took his arm: they had been brother and sister for a whole year and saying that she didn't care for him would have been a lie.

"Look, I have to go… I found out that the most of the others are at the Sleeping Beauty castle… Pick Tinker- _Tawnie_ and go!" she said trying to convince him and offering him a way to stick with the others.

He shook his head and took one of her hands in his.

"You are my sister and I'm going with you"

"Don't you remember what I explained yesterday? We have been cursed, we are living a lie! We are not sibling and we are no family!" she stopped him, getting a bit annoyed.

"You are the only family I know now…"

Regina stared at him for a while and couldn't help but feel tears forming in her eyes. She could actually say that he had been the only good family she had known too, even if it was fake. And she owed him a sort of happy ending, she could take him to his _real_ family: Emma and Henry. So, she finally nodded and held more his hand while with the other one she gripped the compass.

They just looked silently at each other for a moment and then jumped together into the green whirlwind.

* * *

_**New York. Present.**_

Emma looked up to the clock on the wall and sighed. That game had lasted long enough.

"I have to go to work" she announced, grabbing her red jacket.

Hook and Henry, sitting on the sofa, reading again _Once upon a time,_ looked at her for a moment and then just nodded as if nothing ever happened.

"No, you haven't understood" she clarified with an annoyed tone, taking a step towards them "You have to go…" she said to Hook "And Henry, Vivien is coming…" added then, referring to the baby-sitter.

"Why should I go?" the pirate asked her a little confused "Are you jealous of this girl who is coming?"

The Swan looked up to the sky and shook her head.

"I only let you stay here because Henry believed you… But now it's enough"

"But Mom-"

"No, Henry" she interrupted him unmoving, reaching the door and grabbing the handle.

But when she opened the door an apparition in front of her made her stop breathlessly. A woman and a man with very old-style dresses were staring at her with a flash of hope in their eyes. It wasn't hard to remember a similar encounter just the day before, and yet she realized almost immediately that that one was very different.

"Who is it?" Hook asked reaching the door too, along with Henry.

That was it. They all were staring at each other now: Hook was staring at Regina with a sense of guilt written all over her face, Baelfire was looking, or better glaring, at Killian, while Henry and Regina had eyes only for each other even if for different reasons, to her it was the first time she was meting her son after a year, to him she was just the woman he had often seen in his dreams.

And yet the first to speak was Emma.

"I can't believe it… _Neal_…"

* * *

**Chapter 4 is up! So, Regina and Neal finally meet Emma, Hook and Henry... I tried to explain a bit how the travel between the two worlds has been possibile... Hope you liked it, and hope you liked the little hint to Sleeping Warrior too:)**

**Let me know what you think! Though I'm very busy lately, I'll try to update soon;)**


End file.

Once Upon a Time, Family, Romance