Thanks for the Memories

Chapter 3

Thanks For The Memories

Chapter 3

Present Day

New York City

"Hey...why'd you want to meet here?" Walsh asked, as he closed the door that led to the roof of Emma's building.

"I needed to talk to you, but my place is kind of a mess right now," she deflected.

"Emma, it's okay to make a bold, romantic gesture without passing it off as a housekeeping malfunction," he joked.

"Walsh, I can't marry you," she blurted out.

"It's too soon," he said.

"No, it's not that. We need to go home...and take care of some things," Emma tried to explain.

"Home? But you said this was your home now? I thought you and your brother and sister-in-law moved to Portland when you were eighteen and then here after Henry was born?" he asked.

"That's not a lie. There's...just a part of our lives we've been sort of running from. It's hard to explain, but we have to go back and deal with this now," she said vaguely.

"Come on, what changed overnight?" he asked.

"Someone from our past showed up," she replied.

"Who? An Ex? Henry's father?" he asked.

"Nothing like that. He's more like a ghost," she responded.

"So that's how I'm supposed to sleep at night? You're trading me for a ghost?" he asked.

"It kills us to have to make this choice at all, to leave behind this life," Emma rambled.

"Then don't leave this life. Stay...just stay," he pleaded.

"I can't. I wish you could see this the way I see it," she lamented. He shook his head.

"And I wish you hadn't drank that potion," he hissed. Her eyes widened.

"What?" she asked in surprise, as he knocked a chair aside.

"You just couldn't leave well enough alone," he growled.

"What are you talking about?" she asked in confusion.

"It's too bad, I actually kind of liked you," he replied.

"Who are you?" Emma demanded to know, as his eyes glowed red. He growled, as he lunged at her. Emma ducked and he fell over the ledge. Emma glanced over the ledge and her eyes widened, as he transformed into a monkey with wings and flew back up at her. She grabbed a chair and whacked the creature with it, sending it sailing back over the edge. It hit the pavement below and crumbled to dust.

"Swan!" Hook called, as he burst onto the roof.

"Emma!" David called, following him, armed with his gun, having grabbed it from his and Snow's apartment.

"I'm fine..." she assured them.

"Where's Walsh?" David asked.

"Walsh...was a flying monkey," Emma replied.

"I knew there was something off about that guy!" her father declared and she rolled her eyes.

"Please don't gloat," she pleaded, before noticing how his shirt was torn and the wicked claw slashes on his neck.

"Dad...what the hell happened?" she exclaimed.

"Walsh's flying monkey friends literally scratched their way through the glass, into your apartment and attacked," he said.