Once Was Lost Now Is Found

Once Upon A Time

Couple: Emma and Graham

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Mary-Margaret/Snow and Emma find out someone very familiar to them is also in that pit.

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Author's Note: Spoilers for the most recent episode. And also, in the start of this story I refer to Ginnifer Goodwin's character as Mary-Margaret and then as Emma gets more used to it I start referring to her as Snow.


The woman emerged from the darkness and smiled at her.

"I'm Cora."

"Fantastic, you wouldn't happen to be a doctor?" Emma asked almost sarcastically because it was highly doubtful that this woman was a doctor based on her clothing but there was still the tiniest hope in her heart.

She needed something that would help Mary-Margaret.

The woman laughed. "Good heavens, no."

"That's what I thought," Emma sighed and began shaking Mary Margaret again.

Emma was frantic in her ministrations. She was in a strange land, held prisoner by strangers, and her… mother was knocked out cold.

She was scared.

"Mary Margaret? Can you hear me?" Emma asked, she was not able to call her 'Snow' yet let alone 'Mom.'

The woman named Cora came and knelt down beside her and leaned over Mary Margaret.

"What happened to her?"

Emma looked up at her, she was not sure what to think of anything and she had no idea who this woman was and whether or not she should trust her.

"She was hit in the back and then knocked out when she hit the ground."

The woman got a quizzical look on her face as she pursed her lip. Emma continued to shake her friend, her mother. Suddenly, the woman stood up and disappeared behind a corner of the 'pit.'

Emma watched her but never stopped trying to wake Mary-Margaret. Only a few moments later the woman reappeared with a bucket.

"Stand back!" She said but Emma did not budge.

She furrowed her eyebrows. "What's that?"

Cora shrugged, "It's only water but it's really cold. The only thing I can think to do is to shock her into waking up."

Emma stood so that she was eye level with Cora. Then she moved her hands and took control of the bucket.

She stared down at Mary-Margaret. "Fine but I will do it."

Emma took a breath and then doused Mary-Margaret with the water. Almost immediately Mary-Margaret sat up, her head and torso now soaking wet. Emma relaxed instantly and sat down on the floor in a heap.

She was wide eyed and breathing heavily. Mary-Margaret looked at Emma with curiosity.

"What happened?" She asked while pushing her hair over her forehead.

Emma smirked but felt no amusement, "You hit your head really hard."

Mary-Margaret, suddenly very nurturing looked over at Emma with concern in her eyes and put her hands on her shoulders. "Did they hurt you, too?"

Emma shrugged her off, uncomfortable with their new relationship but answered, "No, they just stuck us down here with this woman. Her name's Cora. She got the water to wake you up."

Mary-Margaret turned toward Cora who was still standing watching the two women.

"Hello," Cora said kneeling down next to them.

"Hey," Mary-Margaret replied. "I remember you, aren't you Regina's mother?"

Cora smiled cunningly and nodded.

Emma felt a shudder run down her spine as she faced the woman responsible for Regina.

Mary-Margaret looked around at where they were and turned toward Cora.

"What's this place?"

"It's where they keep their prisoners. It's carved underneath the village above hence the name 'the pit.'"

Emma furrowed her eyes at the woman. "How'd you get here?"

Cora crinkled her nose and looked annoyed at the question but answered vaguely, "Oh, you know I can't really remember."

Emma felt something rise in her mind that this woman might be trust worthy but could not hold too much against her seeing how she had help her wake up Mary-Margaret even if she was Regina's mother. It did not necessarily mean she was just as bad as her daughter.

She also had no idea how they were going to get out of this place or what they would do once they did, if they did.

Mary-Margaret and the woman exchanged remarks about how long it had been since they had seen each other last and what had been going on in Storybrooke and Emma paid them little attention trying to figure out a solution to their current predicament.

Cora pulled Emma back into the conversation only a moment later.

"You two are dressed strangely… a lot like him." Cora said cryptically.

Mary-Margaret furrowed her eyebrows, "Him who?"

Cora stood up and they both followed. She led the two of them around the corner of the pit from where Cora first came and when she rounded it, Emma stopped dead in her tracks not believing her eyes.

"Graham!"

There lying on the dirt floor was Graham. Mary-Margaret rushed immediately to his side as Cora stepped closer questioning her.

"You know him?" Cora asked.

Mary-Margaret began the same frantic ministrations Emma had performed on her only a moment before, "Yeah. He's our friend. He's from our home… he saved my life once, oh my god, Graham can you hear me? It's me, Snow!"

Emma stood rooted to her spot, she could not make her feet move but her body overcome with emotion fell back on the nearest wall. She had no idea what was going on, her heart was pounding in her ears and tears were spilling down her cheeks.

Even with all of that there was a serene smile gracing her face.

Cora knelt down next to Mary-Margaret or rather, Snow as she continued her ministrations.

"He won't wake up. I have tried everything. He's in some sort of coma. Lancelot brought him in months ago. They found him like this on one of their perimeter checks. He has not moved or even blinked once in all of that time."

Emma stood watching all of this and it all hit her like a ton of bricks. Graham, the only man to ever see into her soul and really understand her was like everyone else in Storybrooke, he was a fairy tale character. If she remembered correctly, he was the Huntsman that saved her mother from Regina, who then took his heart.

The tears ran fresh down her face as she remembered his last day running around the town trying to get someone in addition to Henry to believe him. He knew that Henry had been speaking the truth; he had remembered who he really was.

Then they had kissed. He had thanked her, for what she did not know at the time but it was beginning to make sense.

Emma felt the resolve strengthen within her. Also, she was starting to figure out all of this stuff about magic and curses. She knew what she had to do.

Emma took her first step toward them and within seconds she was kneeling over Graham's motionless body. It was bittersweet seeing him again because she was haunted by those last gut wrenching moments when he fell to the ground and left her.

"Emma?" Snow asked softly.

She did not look at her mother but she answered the unspoken question. "I know how to wake him up. Stand back."

Cora and Snow stood back silently.

Emma leaned over Graham and then without another word placed her lips on his.

For only a second Emma's fear was in her mind freaking her out that it might not work but then she felt a rush of air, like she had when she kissed Henry in the hospital, and knew that it had worked.

She leaned back and instantly realized she was looking into Graham's, very confused, gaze.

"Emma," Graham asked his voice thick with his accent.

"Hey," She replied as he slowly sat up but she made sure that they was not very much space between them as she sat beside him.

"Well, who would have thought," Snow whispered while Cora stood back with a weird look of knowing on her face that went unseen by the other three.

"I don't understand," Graham said but he put his arm around Emma's waist to pull her closer, it gave Emma the best feeling in the world. It was one that she had not known very much in her life.

It was the feeling of someone hanging on to her and resolving to never let go again.

Snow broke the moment only a little by laughing whimsically, Emma assumed the only way that her mother, Snow White, could laugh and answered, "Oh, we've got a lot to tell you, Huntsman."


The End