A/N: Hi.
I'll try to make the a brief as possible. First apologies...I had already published the first part of this, but I knew I needed more. So for better or worse, here it is.
This is the second (and last) volume. Since I started Everafter, I have learned a lot about how to do these things. I've written shorter stories and received good reviews and follows. So I decided to start all over at the point where Everafter Vol. 1 stopped.
There will be enough to get the three people who have followed this story caught up, but the other thing I did not have starting was my incredible beta and co-author, Holly M., who has encouraged me and keep me from going off Stupid Cliff more often than not.
If you are new to this, or have followed from the start, let us know how we're doing what we're doing right and not. And hopefully your patience will be rewarded with one hell of a story!
Spoilers: We're not following canon specifically, but as elements of the show come in, if we feel they belong, we'll place them in. ("Lacey" already has me interested).
This is fan fiction. OUAT is owned by Disney/ABC. I'm just having fun with the characters, who...if the voices in my head are any indication...like what I'm doing. At least someone does.
Curtain going up...
Volume 2, Chapter One: "Dream a Little Dream"
Six months before...
"You would have been enough..."
The last words that Cora Mills said to her daughter before everything went black.
No one ever timed the period between sleep and awake. Cora would not know. Death, of course, was eternal.
Unless, of course, what the Gods said about hell were correct. If so the time between death and hell was instantaneous...
Suddenly she felt a hand on her forehead. She woke with a start. She coughed as oxygen coursed through her as if it had not entered her body for years. That would be close to the truth.
There were five men surrounding her as she laid on the bed. This was not a crypt,...but a bedroom.
She recognized four of the figures: Her husband. A king named Leopold. The pirate Killian.
The bearded stranger was not recognizable. But the fifth she knew well. This man smiled like a viper as looked down on the woman trying to get her bearings.
"Welcome back, my dear," said the husky, reptilian man.
"Your highness," replied the former Queen of Hearts to the man she knew as King George.
And Cora wondered if she had descended from Storybrooke into hell. Actually, she didn't go anywhere...
Present..
Cora Mills lay on the gurney. She was wearing a white gown. She was not used to the dress. Just a pure white smock. The otherwise empty room was pure white. The light from the ceiling was brighter than any sun.
She wanted to move but she couldn't. Her body could not respond to her mind's orders. And the orders were weak.
A door opened, and she could see that the outer room was also very white. The woman in dark pinned up hair strode into the room alone. She wore a white suit that Cora recognized as one a nurse would wear, from watching the moving pictures on the wall of her daughter's home.
The younger woman walked to the prone older one. The "nurse" smiled at Cora.
"There is a phrase they use in this world, Cora. It seems to fit. Payback is a bitch."
Then Eva brought two fingers to her own lips, kissed them, then place those fingers on the lips on Cora.
And for the first time in her life, Cora Mills was frightened to her core.
The morning after. Around 4am.
Holly Morris felt strange. It was the strangest she'd felt in a long time.
The first time in a long time that she went for days without her heart doing its version of Phil Collins from his Genesis days.
She sat naked at the window of the guest room that Regina and Emma set up for her and Maleficent. She turned to her right and saw her blonde lover peacefully sleeping.
Her lover.
Even that was something she had to get used to. After a forever of one-two-and-three night stands, punctuated by the occasional fling, only to see the other run screaming in the night if she got to close, this seemed different.
But she was getting used to different. In one week, she had seen dragons, monsters, witches, werewolves, genies, books that write themselves. She saw a woman pull her heart out of body, repair it, and put it back in her body. This was either the acid trip to end all acid trips...or her life had become, in essence, the SyFy channel.
And the new list of friends she had: Snow White and Prince Charming...there was THE Evil Queen...not to mention that the witch who sent Sleeping Beauty to bed had just engaged in three hours of the most exquisite sex a woman can undertake. It was enough to see a shrink.
Oh, and the shrink in town is Jiminy Cricket.
Yeah, that makes sense...
It's the kind of stuff that would drive a sane person mad. But it was real. The Evil Queen was real. She was in her house, along with her lover Emma. Her niece was sleeping in her own guest room. And Maleficent...Mal...was real too. Very much real.
The arms that suddenly surrounded Holly were definitely real. So were the full soft breasts touching her back. And the full lips that touched Holly's neck. And cheek. And lips.
Those lips. Yes, God, this was real.
Holly turned fully around, her arms embracing Mal's neck, and her lips consuming Mal's fuller ones. As the kiss got deeper and deeper, Holly Morris thought, this is heaven.
But then from the corner of Holly Morris' eye, she saw hell.
Hell approaching at almost light speed. What could only be describe as a cloud of fire roared through the town of Storybrooke. Holly and Mal could see the entire town consume by massive flames. They were frozen by terror.
And the flames rushed right to the Mills Mansion. Right to their window. And Holly let a desperate scream...
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Immediately Holly sat up screaming. It was a nightmare. The most horrifying nightmare she could ever imagine. And she was not alone.
Mal sat up screaming too, as if they were dreaming the same horrible dream.
Then a cacophony of screams almost instantaneously coming from every room on the second floor. One scream got her attention more than others.
"MADDIE!"
Holly, on instinct, threw a robe on and ran out her guest room to the door next to that one where Maddie was sleeping. The young dark-haired girl was in total panic. She had a dream too. When Holly burst into the bedroom she made a beeline for her niece, who the hugger aunt and cried uncontrollably. Mallie was right behind her and tried to comfort the two.
"It was just a dream chicken...just a dream..."
It was a frantic trio the ran in the room next: Regina, Emma, and Henry. Tears streaking their faces, bodies trembling.
Emma was first to speak: "Did you guys have a bad dream?" Holly, Mal, and Maddie nodded.
Henry was next: "Lots of fire and stuff..? Holly, Mal, and Maddie nodded.
All Regina muttered was "Not again..." The last time this happened they were fighting dragons in Massachusetts.
It was at this point that cell phones were ringing. Emma had to go downstairs and get hers, then go back up and grab Regina's that was ringing madly. When they got back in Maddie's room, both Emma and Regina answered their respective phones.
Emma had Snow/Mary Margaret on the line: "yes...we had the same one...dad too? Yeah, you can come over..."
Regina had a frantic Kathryn: "Uh-huh...you and Fred had the same dream...so did everyone here...we'll call you in the morning..."
Texts were loading both phones...
From Lacey (Belle more "outgoing" persona when Belle can't take the pressure): I HAD A READ BAD NIGHTMARE...FIRE AND SH*T...
From Red: ANOTHER NIGHTMARE...THIS TIME REX HAD THE SAME ONE...HE'S IN COLD SWEATS.
From Leroy: BAD DREAM BOSS. NOVA HAD THE SAME ONE, SO DID BLUE. WORSE THAN THE LAST ONE. BTW, THANKS FOR LAST NIGHT.
Holly and Maddie were new to all this. And now at about 4 in the morning they were getting a crash course in Storybrooke 101: Shared Nightmares.
"What the hell is happening?" Holly was asking in a small quivering voice, holding the head of a scared 12 year-old girl, both frightened out of their wits.
Mallie reached around to hug them both, while the Mayor of Storybrooke, knelt close to the two and said, "We'll find out. Together." Regina looked up to her lover, who reached out and held the mayor's hand. Regina Mills was trying to comfort a roomful of women...and trying to convince herself she can find an answer. The mayor, if you asked her, was not having much luck.
Storybrooke General Hospital, Ginger's Room
The blind could not see. But the blind can feel. The witch known as Ginger knew what she put out. She did not know where the images of fire came from, but she knew there was an unseen order from someone to send the images of fire out. She knew who would receive. She just didn't want to be the sender anymore. Maybe this was her punishment for the unspeakable things that she did.
Ginger was crying when Dr. Whale came in making late night rounds. There was something about Ginger that drew him to her. Maybe the fact that she, herself, could be known as a monster, like Whale was as Victor Frankenstein. But for a monster, the blonde woman was mentally fragile. She was at the verge of breaking and he didn't know why.
He walked to the bed, and sat next to her, charts in hand. She was ready for release in the morning anyway, wounds from the attack on her at Gold's shop all but healed. As he touched her hand, her other hand moved up Whale's upper body until she hung tight.
"Don't let me go, please...don't let me go." She cried uncontrollably into Whale's chest. He returned that hold. And though he wanted to do more, all he could do was hold her. For a long time.
The Convent, Sister Astrid's Room
Astrid.
It means "beautiful princess."
Blue thought about it. The curse was kind to Nova, giving her that name as her Storybrooke persona.
Reul Ghorm stood in the doorway, back in her Mother Superior garb. Nova had just gone to sleep when she stepped in the room. Leroy was sitting at her bedside. He never left her side when they came back from the nights adventure.
Sleepily, the dwarf ironically named Dreamy looked up to Blue and said, quietly, she just fell asleep. She had been awake since they returned just before midnight. It was now past 4. The fairy and the dwarf had many differences, and they would have to be sorted out soon. But they had one thing in common. One the fact that both, in their own way, loved the frail dwarf now sleeping soundly on the bed.
And there was something else. The Blue Fairy had the dream of fire. She doubted that either Nova nor Leroy had the dream, she the Blue Fairy did. And she knew they all were in danger.
And as she turned to fix another cup of black coffee, she silently cursed herself for not being there when Nova was kidnapped...to use whatever she could to prevent it.
Now she had another chance. A fighting chance. And as she stopped and turned to look in the crack in the door to seek the grumpy elf look down on Nova with love, the Blue Fairy knew she would not be alone.
Storybrooke General, Mr. Gold's Room
The imp had the dream.
It was not the worse dream he had ever had, but it was one that seemed to involve his death. And the death of everyone he cared for.
Of course, he was Mr. Gold. Rumplestiltskin. All he cared about was himself. It was why he went in with them in the first place. Went in specifically with him.
All that consumed him was revenge. Now, through the dream, he saw the fruit of his actions. The death of the town he created. The death of the woman he loved. They daughter only he knew of.
And as he lay alone, in the darkened hospital room, with only the accompaniment of the beeps of the monitors, and with all bravodo gone and tears streaming his face, he quietly said to himself, over and over, "What have I done? Dear Gods...what have I done...?"
TBC
Well, here we go. I hope the final battle will go much better than the lead-up. More connections between Volumes 1 & 2 in the next chapter.
I REALLY would love reviews on this. Thanks.