Never in a million years could he have imagined that in deciding to spare Snow's life would lead him down the path he had taken in life. One piece of mercy for a young woman who had not deserved and he had been dragged into a cage of the Queen's making not once, but twice. Neither had he ever anticipated that the only successful attempt to escape her clutches had brought him immediately to the woman he had fallen hopelessly in love with. Or that the love he found in mere days would be one he would have had to sacrifice almost immediately and lose even the memory of having known her.

What he might tell Emma when he next saw her, in regard to the kiss they had shared at the potential of something that he had felt whenever around her, he did not know. The irony was not lost on him that the very kiss that had given him back everything was the one that set them apart forever. He owed her for that. Likely for more than she would ever know.

He could not think of Emma when he looked at Ruby. Whether or not she remembered him, he could not help but want to be near her, to see her smile, hear her laugh. When he had offered to make his invitation one purely out of friendship, it had been with the understanding that if all she wanted of him was a friend, then he would be satisfied with that much of her. No matter how much it might hurt him to set his feelings aside, his respect was surely no less than she deserved.

Still, relief crashed through him as she agreed, and he smiled widely at her for it. "Good," he said. "Good."