Safe as anyone can be on the Tranquility. [ right. introductions, information dissemination, she'll get all over that. emma tugs her distracted gaze away from the pods and looks back at belle.

her heart twists in her chest to see that swelling hope there, not because she doesn't think gold deserves it (anybody who can manage to have love damn well ought to do what they can to hold onto it), but because it only stands in starker contrast with her reaction to the potential of neal even being alive, not even on the tranquility, just out there somewhere.

she may love him, the way that anyone never really stops loving their first love, but it's nothing like what belle has for gold. it's a heavy fog of misery and distrust, eleven years of pain. emma is allowing herself to be ripped apart by her past, while all belle sees is a future. ]

At least, he was before the jump. Give me a second. [ she moves to pull open her own locker. ] I'll get decent, and we can take a look. [ because it occurs to her only now that she's in her underwear and a towel, because she'd waylaid herself to belle's locker upon approaching them. ]