Hey, Estelpax here. I decided to sail into the world of Once Upon A Time, with help from one of my best friends who cherishes Once Upon A Time. Enjoy!

Chapter one

Nightmares Part One: The impact of Emma as the Dark One

Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon A Time or the characters. Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis own the show. If I owned the show, then there would be more Captain Cobra scenes in the show!

Henry didn't always have nightmares except for the occasional one with his adopted mom, Regina, as the Evil Queen terrorizing the town of Storybrooke. Henry usually dreamed of all the fairy tales in his story book like the story of Prince Charming and Snow White and their daughter Emma, his birth mother.

However, after Emma woke him from the sleeping curse with True Love's Kiss, Henry soon began to dream of a burning red room. This room was where all the victims of the sleeping curse went when they were asleep. This fiery, scorching hot room was full of blazing red flames everywhere he looked. The only way he could leave the room was by waking up. As time passed on, Henry was able to control how often he went to the burning red room.

But lately his dreams have been filled with different kinds of darkness and other past events in his life. After losing his mom, Emma, to the Dark One's Curse, Henry has been keeping himself from sleeping for weeks. He would more often find himself in the library with Belle and Killian looking for a way to bring Emma back. Belle and Killian soon began to notice the heavy, dark circles beneath Henry's eyes as they worked together. Belle and Killian knew that Henry couldn't go on much longer like this, but one look into his hopeless, desperate, brown eyes made them forget about even telling Henry to stop and go get some rest. Between the two of them, they both knew what it was like to lose a loved one to the Dark One's Curse. Killian loves Emma more than his own life, but he knew that Emma would not want her son to drive himself into his own grave just to bring her back.

Killian's POV

As Belle and I were tirelessly working on how to save Emma from the Dark One's Curse, I heard the door ring. I looked up from the many pile of books and saw that it was Henry. But I had to stop and look because this wasn't the Henry I knew and love just as much as his mother. He looked like his whole world had just fallen apart and I too felt the same. His tear-stained face and dark circles underneath his eyes told me everything. He didn't know this, but I knew and heard from Regina that he hasn't slept ever since Emma took on the Dark One's Curse to save Regina. At first, I wanted to put an end to this nonsense immediately. But I knew that if it were me instead of Emma, then both she and Henry would look for a way to find me.

I was sipping some rum from my flask wallowing in despair over what to do for Emma while she was stuck as the Dark One. I heard the door to Granny's Diner open up and I saw Regina with a relieved expression on her face. She raced her way over to me with a desperate look on her face.

"Hook! Please tell me you have seen Henry! I have been looking all over Storybrooke for him!

"Fear not Your Majesty. Henry is safe and sound at the library with Belle. I just left him there with her to get a drink."

"Oh thank God!" cried Regina. Regina still had a grim look on her face after hearing that Henry was fine. She looked as though she had something else to say but wasn't sure whether she should share it with me.

"I can tell you have more to say there, lass, so you might as well share what is you want to say to me," I said with a knowing, yet understanding look in my eyes. I knew there was more to the story than what Regina was telling me.

"Henry hasn't slept very well for two months and every time I manage to convince him to sleep, he ends up screaming from nightmares. He keeps screaming for Emma and begging her to not get consumed by the darkness. When he wakes up, he says he's fine but he doesn't tell me what happened. Perhaps you'll have better luck than I did. Please talk to him because I know that he will end up crashing sooner or later," Regina begged me with a desperate look in her eyes. I knew then I couldn't let this problem with Henry go on anymore.

However this craziness from Henry has been going on for months and the boy looks ready to fall asleep on his feet right now. His grandparents see him in school and they too are worried about Henry's well-being. Robin is just as worried as Regina, even though he doesn't know my Swan very well. So, I planned on speaking to Henry the next time I saw him in the library.

Next morning, I woke up and got dressed for the day. I walked the whole way to the library with the sky overcast and the weather chilly; a perfect day for Henry's favorite hot chocolate with Cinnamon. As I walked into the library, I saw Henry already there and hard at work. I almost lost my resolve, but I remembered that this is what my Swan would want and I walked over to Henry determined to make things right.

"Morning Lad. I see you have already started without me. Is Belle around?" I knew that this wasn't the best place to have the conversation so I made a quick note to get the boy to Granny's place where we could finally have the talk.

"She was here when I got here, but she went to Granny's to get some breakfast. I wasn't hungry so I stayed here to keep working." Henry kept looking at the books without even glancing up at me. He thought I couldn't see, but I could definitely see him nodding on and off while he was trying to stay awake.

"I can see that my boy," I replied back. Suddenly, I put on an expression of surprise to try and steer him away from the mountain pile of books in the library. "I've just had a thought on my way here. It's bloody freezing outside and I thought you might desire some hot chocolate with cinnamon and we could have a talk just you and me."

"Sure sounds good! I have been craving some hot chocolate with cinnamon. It reminds of my mom," Henry answered with a fond, but sad look on his face as he remembered memories of Emma while she was still her old self.

So the two of us left the library and walked the short path to Granny's in this small town of Storybrooke. We walked in amiable silence saving the concerning talk I was about to share with Henry. I was thinking about how to approach this topic with him. Henry is the most perceptive, sly, and curious boy I have ever met, next to his late father, Baelfire. My relationship with his father was not the best but I knew that Baelfire would want Henry to have a father figure in his life. I care about Henry and it kills me that there is nothing I can do to help him and his mother. But this is the only thing that I know I can help Henry with his problems. We finally arrived at Granny's and sat in a booth. We ordered our hot chocolate and as I added some rum to my mug, I noticed something odd. Henry just stared at his cup and didn't even lift the mug to his mouth. Henry has always devoured his hot chocolate any chance he has it. Then I remembered the talk I wanted to discuss with him.

"So what are we going to talk about?" questioned Henry. He didn't know what we were going to talk about. I knew that this was going to be hard for Henry to accept, but better he hear it from me than anyone else. He's stubborn like his mother and it's bloody annoying but I know he can be convinced to listen to reason.

I looked at him and casually mentioned, "Well we could discuss school, any lasses you have met, sailing, and oh I almost forgot your mother Regina mentioned something interesting to me in passing yesterday at the diner." The lad had a look of shock on his face as I mentioned the name of his mother. Henry quickly changed his shocked look and attempted to play dumb with me. I chuckled to myself. He's just like his mother while trying to change the subject away from the conversation that I am trying to have with him.

"Oh?" Henry questioned with a fake, confused look on his face. "What about? Was it about her and Robin?" Henry thought he was so clever in switching the topic to Regina and Robin. Normally I would have some clever retort to that kind of topic, but this wasn't the right time.

"No but remind me to bring that up again because that is something I cannot let the both of them forget. No, Regina has told me about how you have not slept since Emma took on the Dark One's Curse. Now while I applaud your desire to help your mother, this needs to stop Henry. I love your mother very much, but you know that she would not allow you make yourself sick over her. Henry you need to rest and recuperate so you can help find your mother." Henry was looking down at his mug of hot chocolate with an embarrassed look on his face. The embarrassment quickly turned to anger when he looked up at me with a furious look on his face.

"You're one to talk! Don't think I'm not blind! I saw you add some rum to your hot chocolate! I bet you haven't even slept at all either" Henry retorted back at me with frustration in his eyes.

"Pirate, lad. I add rum to everything," I teased back with my eyebrow raised up in a joking manner. I continued, "You're probably right that I haven't slept much either. But lad, how much longer can you keep up this façade?" I asked him with a confused look on my face. Why does he continue to deny how tired he really is? I swear I don't know who's more stubborn: him or his mother! The both of them are truly mother and son. Bloody stubborn as hell! "You are obviously tired and even Belle can see it Henry. I was going to let you continue on this crusade to find a way to save your mother. However, after hearing from both your grandparents and other mother, Regina, I decided that this has gone on long enough. Henry, you need to get some sleep and recuperate in order to help your mother." Henry's temper began to rise even further after hearing the lecture from me.

"So you think you know what's best for me now? You're not my father! My father is dead and just because he's gone doesn't mean you can take his place. Since when have you cared about my well-being?" Henry yelled back at me in anger over how I was scolding him on his sleeping habits. Didn't the boy understand that I truly did care about him by now? How much I thought of him like my own son? I would never take his father's place but I know Baelfire would want me to look after Henry.

"Lad, I have always cared about you! I love your mother very much and I know that if she were here right now, she would be telling you the same thing that I am telling you right now," Henry bit back any further retort he was going to say. He knew right there that I was not going to let this go. Excellent! I thought to myself. I calmed down and lowered my tone to a more calmer tone so I wouldn't scare Henry any further. "Now I am going to tell you what's going to happen right now. First, you and I are going to finish our hot chocolate. Then, we are going to go back to your grandparents' loft and you are going to get some sleep." I made this as simple as I could for Henry. Henry looked at me as I explained to him what the plan was for the rest of the day. He seemed to agree with what I was saying but Henry was just much as an open book as his mother is to me. "Henry, my boy, is there something else you would like to tell me? You are going to get some rest whether you like it or not but I get the feeling something else is troubling you" I answered with an understanding but firm look on my face. Henry nodded and opened up to me about what he was holding back.

Henry slowly began to speak but he spoke in a more fearful tone to me. It was like he thought I would judge him for feeling this way. "The reason I haven't been sleeping so well lately is because I have been having nightmares about my mom being consumed by the darkness. I see her standing there but she looks different. She doesn't look like my mother. I'm standing there begging her to come back and hold on so we can find a way to save her. She just laughs at me and says to me:

"Oh Henry! I don't need saving! Can't you see that I am much better this way? I am more powerful than ever before and I'm more confident in my powers and myself. Don't you love me this way? I can be a much better mother this way," Emma said to Henry in a gloating tone as if she knew all. Emma was completely consumed by the darkness and Henry didn't know his mom at all this way.

"Mom, please I want to save you and Killian and I are so close to finding a way to find Merlin so he can help us save you" said Henry as he begged his mother to listen to his words.

But Emma refused to listen to reason."Don't you get it, Henry? I don't need to be saved. The only one who saves me is me and I love who I am right now." She walks away and I scream for her to come back but she just keeps walking away until I am alone.

I stare at Henry with a pained look on my face. I had no idea that his nightmares were causing him this much pain. Regina had told me that Henry had been having nightmares but never what happened in the nightmares. So I had to set him straight on his fears and reassure him that he was going to be okay. I answered back:

"Henry I had no idea that this was causing you so much pain. I already knew that you haven't been sleeping, but never to this extent. I'm grateful that you told me the reason, but you're still going to get some rest. Come lad, let's go back to your grandparents' loft," I ordered him.

Henry groaned at the thought of sleeping but he quickly agreed with me. We walked back to the Charming's loft with my arm around his shoulder showing Henry a sign of reassurance. Finally, we reached his grandparents' home and entered into the loft. I looked at Henry and told him to go upstairs and get ready for bed and told him that I would be up shortly to make sure that he was actually in bed. After I grabbed a book for me to read while Henry slept because I wasn't going to leave him alone to his nightmares. I walked upstairs and saw that Henry was actually just getting under the covers. The boy was even more exhausted than he realized because I saw him lying haphazardly on his bed. Chuckling to myself at the way he looked, I quickly righted Henry and tucked the covers around him. Then I looked up and saw how young and innocent he looked while asleep. He was such a brave lad to carry the burden of finding his mother. I picked up the book and sat down on the other bed in the room and began to read while I watched over Henry as he slept.

I must have drifted off when I woke to Henry screaming in his sleep. I ran over to him and he began muttering in his sleep about his mother.

"Mom, don't leave me please! I need you! Killian needs you, please!" Henry yelled.

"Henry, wake up lad!"

I tried to get him to wake up but he began to thrash his arms around and I had to hold his arms down in case he hurt himself. Soon he began to wake up and he looked at me with his eyes wide from terror. He then put his arms around me in a crushing hug. I then put my arms around him and held him trying to calm him down. "It's all right my boy. I'm here lad. Sh, sh, sh, it's all right. You're okay," I said with a calming tone to try and settle him down.

Soon, Henry had calmed down, but he still had the look of terror on his face. I laid him back down on his bed and covered him back up. I told him he was all right and then told him to go back to sleep. He refused still scared of the nightmares coming back to haunt him. So I came up with a compromise. "Henry, I promise I will stay right here with you and I will never leave your side. There will be no nightmares to haunt you as long as I'm by your side." I gently spoke to him with a calming tone in my voice. I continued to brush his bangs away from his eyes as a way to help him go to sleep easily. His hand was clutching my right hand in a death grip with the fear of being left alone. He looked exhausted and I don't know why he continues to fight me on this ridiculous debate.

Henry nodded and closed his eyes and there were no more screams coming from him. Satisfied, I closed my eyes and leaned back in the chair while still holding his hand.