Lost and Found

Once Upon a Time / Twilight

Neal / Emma

Bella / August (past); Bella / Hook

Set soon after Season 2 episode 18. A few facts change about August but it's explained.

For someone who had never stepped foot in Storybrook, Bella knew her way around pretty well. She parked her car close to the sheriff's station, where she was told she'd be able to find Emma Swan and started to look around. Not many people were in the streets but since it was the middle of the afternoon, she guessed that they were probably at work. She knew who she was looking for, there was no need for her to waste any time, especially since the man she loved could be in danger or worst... She shook her head, refusing to even allow the thought that he might already be dead to settle in her mind.

The front doors were opened so she entered.

"Hello? I'm looking for Emma Swan." Bella called out.

Suddenly, a blond woman fitting August's description of the Savior and who seemed her age appeared with Prince Charming by her side. Emma and her father, Bella guessed. As she looked at the Prince by the Savior's side, Bella tried to remember that he was David, not James. The evil Prince who had killed her father's giant friends got the death he deserved. This twin was the good one, the one with a pure heart who married Snow White.

"Can we help you? I'm Emma Swan. This is David." Emma asked, clearly suspicious to see a new face here.

"I know who you are Emma... I... I'm looking for August... When he came here to try to right his wrongs and help you break the curse, he asked me to stay away from Storybrook because he was worried for my safety, he didn't want me to risk my life... he knew that if the Evil Queen found out who I was, she'd kill me like she did my parents. But... He hasn't given me any news since before the curse was broken and magic was brought back... I'm worried..." Bella tried to explain the best way possible.

"You know then..." David noticed.

"I do... I... My story is a strange one, I'll explain later... I... I'm sorry, I'm being rude... I totally forgot to introduce myself. My name is Bella Swan. Well, Isabella really but I like Bella better. My parents were from the Enchanted Forest and escaped in this land shortly after the Evil Queen cast her curse, right before it went in action and started taking people away. I will tell you everything later if you want to know my story but I need to know what's happened to August... He... We... I love him and I'm worried... He called me every day until a couple of days before the curse was broken. I knew it was broken because I felt it. I have magic too. Anyway, I waited a couple of weeks, thinking that maybe he was busy reuniting with his father and his friends but I got too worried to wait and decided to come and look into it myself." Bella explained.

"I knew you looked familiar... You're that Bella... I saw... He had a picture of you in his wallet and another one with his typewriter... He told me that you were his girlfriend, that you were very serious... True Love..." Emma remembered.

"Yes... Please... Tell me that he's okay..." Bella pleaded as David and Emma looked down for a minute.

"Well... sort of..." David replied.

"What do you mean, sort of? Was he hurt?" Bella asked, worried and tears already appearing in his eyes.

"I... It actually just happened... Apparently, breaking the curse didn't change his state, he stayed wooden and went to hide in the forest, ashamed... I'm guessing that's why he didn't call you either. He was afraid that you and his father would be disappointed in him. he didn't tell anyone where he was or what had happened. Today, we learned that he was there and so we went to look for him but he was at the station, trying to reach us... I don't know why or who but he was trying to warn us about something, someone... By the time we arrived, it was too late, he was mortally wounded... he managed to warn us that there was a danger but he didn't have the time to say from whom..." Emma explained.

"He's dead?" Bella asked, crying with both hands over her mouth.

"Well... The Blue fairy arrived..." David intervened.

"She can't bring people back from the dead, it's one of the laws of magic. Even the Dark One is not that powerful..." Bella shook her head.

"I know... But... I don't know how, maybe he wasn't totally dead yet... He had risked his life to warn us, he had been truthful, brave and unselfish." Emma started to say but Bella cut her with a hopeful smile on her face.

"She managed to bring him back!"

"There was a catch though..." David frowned.

"What do you mean?" Bella asked them both, not understanding their embarrassed faces.

"Well... he's back to being alive and a real boy but... He's a boy." Emma said, hoping to make her point clear.

"A boy? What do you mean exactly?" Bella asked, afraid of the answer she would get.

"August was turned back into Pinocchio, the 8 years old little boy who escaped the curse 28 years ago." David finished.

"He... He's a boy? Does he... Oh God..." Bella didn't know what to do or what to say, she felt lost.

Somehow, knowing that he was alive and a young boy was worst that if he had died. She was happy that he was still alive and she was happy for Gepetto who had his son back but she was devastated for loosing her love. They were planning a future together already and now it was all gone. She felt her knees starting to go weak as she cried but she didn't fall down. David and Emma grabbed her under the shoulders and helped her sit down.

"I'm sorry... I know it can't be easy... I wish there was something I could do to help you..." Emma told her.

"I have nothing now... I've lost the man I loved, with whom I was planning a future... The Evil Queen killed my mother when she snicked in her castle to try and free her brother, the Huntsman. Then when I was 10, my father came in town to try and get his heart back and free him from Regina but she murdered him as well... I'm all alone..." Bella cried.

"Graham was your uncle?" Emma asked her.

"Yes, he was... But I doubt he even knew about me. He was under the Queen's control for too long..." Bella shook her head.

"He's... I don't know if you know but... " Emma started to say but Bella cut her off:

"He's dead, I know. I used my magic to receive the Mirror in my house after my father died. Regina crushed his heart and murdered him like she murdered everyone in my life..." Bella whispered, still crying.

"We don't think she has anything to do with what happened to Pinocchio today..." David informed her.

"It doesn't make it any less painful." Bella shook her head.

"Come on, you can't stay here. Come with us to our loft, we'll figure things out there." David offered and Bella agreed, feeling like she had nothing left to fight for, nothing she could do to make her life any better.

"You're not alone Bella. August was my friend and I know how much he loved you. I'm here for you." Emma told the young woman as she guided her to her parent's home.

.

When they arrived in the loft, Emma quickly introduced Bella and told them what little they knew about her.

"I'm so sorry Bella... I can't even begin to imagine the kind of pain you must be in right now..." Snow said while Emma went to prepare some hot chocolate, hoping it would help Bella mourn.

"I've lost everything now... I fought so hard not to give up after Regina murdered my father, to keep hope that happy endings did exist... When I met August, I thought it was it, my happy ending... My future... And now... Now I have nothing, not even a house to live in because it was repossessed... Apparently I forgot to pay some taxes after my father died 18 years ago and it was too late to pay anything... I don't know what to do or where to go... All I own is in my car..." Bella cried.

"Well, you can always stay in Storybrook. You're from the Enchanted Forest, you'll fit in perfectly." David offered.

"And you can get a room at Granny's until you find a place of your own." Henry added with an encouraging smile.

"Do you think he still has memories of me?" Bella asked them, here eyes on Emma.

"I don't think so... We can always ask him but he didn't seem to remember much..." Emma shook her head.

"I... I think I need to see him... I want to meet his father too." Bella asked.

"I'll call Marco, I mean Gepetto and try to explain things to him, ask him if we can meet up somewhere." David nodded before he stood up and went in the other room with his phone.

He came back about 15 minutes later.

"I tried to explain everything as well as possible. He can join us at Granny's in a couple of hours." He informed them.

"Thanks." Bella nodded while Henry flipped through the pages of his storybook.

"Here Bella, I think it's about your father. It's not much though, only a small paragraph." Henry said as he pointed to the book.

"What does it say?" Bella asked.

"As the queen cast her curse, overwhelmed by the feeling of dark satisfaction that her future success brought her, she didn't notice the recently widowed Charlie Swan, who had been burying his wife Renee. It didn't take him long to recognize the Evil Queen and to understand what she was doing. He wanted to put his sweet and beloved baby girl down and rush to kill the evil woman who had caused his wife's death and was mind controlling his brother in law, the Huntsman, but he knew that he didn't have time for that now. He had to think about his daughter and her future. He didn't want her to grow up under the curse so he rushed home and packed their possessions as quickly as he could. When he put the jar full of magic beans his old friends the Giants had given him in his bag, he took one out, closed the bag and opened a portal. As he jumped, he couldn't stop thinking about the Evil Queen, what she had done and the fact that she needed to be stopped." Henry read.

"That's must explain why you arrived here, you simply followed the queen." Snow nodded.

"That's how my father told me it happened. Is there anything about my mother? It would have been a few months earlier, shortly after Snow and Charming's wedding." Bella asked, trying to change her mind from her recent loss.

Henry turned a few pages more, concentrating and he suddenly nodded and started reading again.

"Renee Swan knew that she risked not only her life but also her unborn daughter's life. Charlie didn't want her to risk it but she couldn't help it. She had learned from one of the dwarfs, Sneezy, that her brother was the Evil Queen's prisoner. For years Renee had feared he had gotten killed in one of his hunts but learning that the Evil Queen held his heart and controlled his every move, forcing him to be her lover was even worst and she had to do something about it. She had to try and save him. If she had magic, Renee wasn't as powerful as the Queen and she knew that she wouldn't be able to survive a fight so she tried to be as discrete as possible as she walked in the dark corridors of the castle that should have belonged to Snow White. She arrived in the Queen's chamber in the middle of the night, thinking the evilest woman would be asleep and that she'd be free to search the room. She didn't count on her reaction upon seeing her brother in the queen's bed. He was awake, looking miserable, like he hated what he had done and wasn't capable of doing anything against it. When he spotted his sister, the noble Huntsman who had saved Snow White's life shook his head frenetically, telling silently his sister to leave but it was too late, Regina was awake and didn't waste anytime before she a ball of dark magic at Renee. Smirking triumphantly upon seeing the pale body on the floor, Regina reminded her slave that he would never escape her and ordered him to get rid of his sister's body. Reluctantly, he did what was asked of him. As he carried his sister to the woods, he noticed that she was alive and starting to regain some colors and understood that she wouldn't make it past childbirth.

'My daughter is keeping me alive.' Renee whispered to her brother once he put her down to explain why she was still breathing.

'I'm sorry... How will you name her?' He asked her.

'Like our mother.' Renee replied. She wanted to say more, anything really but the Huntsman looked behind him, being called back by the Evil Queen, his master, his torturer." Henry was pale, like he finally realized that the mother he tried to keep believing in was really an evil person.

"She was 5 months pregnant when it happened... That's how she understood that I would have great magic and would be powerful." Bella explained.

"Are you the product of True Love, like Emma?" Snow asked her.

"Yes, but both of my parents had pure hearts and magic as well and I inherited that from them as well. It makes me a little bit more powerful than Emma." Bella replied.

"A lot more if we consider that I don't have much experience with mine." Emma smiled.

"I can teach you how to control it and how to use it if you want." Bella offered and Emma nodded, already trusting the young woman.

They all wanted to know more about the newcomer but they knew that it wasn't the right time since she would probably have to talk about her life later when she met Marco. They decided to give her some time before they started asking questions.

This is it for the first part. I don't know how long it will be... It will go all the way to Neverland though, at least.

I'm publishing this chapter now to know what you think of it. The length of the rest of the story and its content will depend on your reviews and reactions. I'm already working on chapter 2 right now.

Review please?

Lorelei Candice Black