A.N.: Thank you to all who followed and reviewed. I hope you all enjoy this next chapter.

Choices

By: Jecir

Chapter Two: Dream Again

"Where are we?" Henry asked. The sudden shift from dark to light left him disoriented. He blinked rapidly to adjust his vision as he hurried to catch up with Evangeline.

"We are outside of time," Evangeline said.

Outside of time was a realm of white mist. Evangeline moved through the mist with an ease Henry failed to imitate. He stumbled a bit as he looked around. There were vague grey shapes hidden in the fog. The longer they walked, the sharper the shapes became.

"I had to get you away from the wild magic," Evangeline explained. "It was unravelling the timeline."

"You said that," Henry said. "You said my life was unraveling."

"Yes," Evangeline hummed. "But it's easily fixed." She stopped and turned on her heel. Henry almost bumped into her. "Once I grant your true wish, we can fix the damage."

Henry frowned. "But it won't be the same."

Evangeline nodded and then leaned down and whispered, "But it might be a lot better."

"My life was fine," Henry said a bit defensively.

"If that were the truth, Henry, you wouldn't have wished."

"I didn't mean to," Henry challenged.

Evangeline stood straight and shook her head. "You knew what you were doing. You of all people do not make a wish lightly. You know what magic does."

"Exactly," he said. "That is why I wouldn't do this."

Evangeline made to reply but stopped. A thoughtful expression crossed her face then faded into worry. Cocking her head, she said, "Henry, what were you thinking about before this started?"

"I don't know," Henry said with a shrug.

"Where were you when you made the wish?"

"I—" Henry started with his usual gusto, but his words dropped off as the truth sank in. "I don't know."

"Do you remember why you were where you were?"

Henry swallowed; he was suddenly very nervous. "I don't."

"Hm..." Evangeline turned and waved her hand. The mist swirled before them and then formed into a web of glowing white lines. Some lines glowed brighter than others; some were little more than a dull pulse. There were star-like dots at the junctions where the lines intersected. As the mist settled, Henry noticed that a dark cloud was moving very slowly over the very bottom of the web where the lines ended.

Evangeline hummed with a furrowed brow as she watched the cloud. "Well," she concluded, "That's not good. It seems the wild magic has already eaten the last few minutes."

"Meaning?" Henry asked as he, too, watched the slow-moving darkness. It was hard for him to believe that that cloud was magic trying to help him.

Evangeline crossed her arms. "Meaning you may have forgotten your true wish." Henry gaped at her. "Oh don't fret," she continued, "It's just a minor setback. All we need to do is help you remember."

"How can I forget my true wish?" Henry finally got out.

Evangeline smiled; it was a strained sort of thoughtful smile much like one he had seen on Emma's face when she did not know how to tell him something. "A true wish is less about words and more about heart," she said. "The ways of the heart are very difficult to articulate until they come into complete focus. Follow?"

"Sort of," Henry admitted.

"Look at the mist," she said. "This mist is kind of like the human heart—constantly shifting and churning, moving from one desire to the next and flowing in the winds of emotion. Humans never truly know what they want or need because, most of the time, their hearts are like this; however, there are moments when the mists part and the picture beyond becomes clear. In those rare moments, you understand yourself and know exactly what it is you want. You never forget, not truly, but you may not always know.

"Something happened that made the mists clear for you and drove you to make the wish you made," Evangeline concluded. "We just need to recreate that moment, so to speak."

"And how do we do that?" Henry asked.

"I don't know," Evangeline admitted. She glanced at the web. "I suppose I could take you back to the more recent moments before the clarity event occurred."

Henry frowned and looked away from the web.

Evangeline noticed his shift in behavior and raised her eyebrow in thought. "Not too keen to see that, I assume."

Henry shook his head. "They were fighting," he muttered in feigned nonchalance, but, inside, he felt everything but. Shame, frustration, and guilt churned in his stomach. Though he could not remember where he had been, he could remember why he had been there. He had wanted to escape.

Evangeline knelt down in front of him and squeezed his shoulder. "What were they fighting about?"

"What weren't they fighting about?" Henry said bitterly.

"It might help if you talk about it."

"You sound like Archie," Henry said as he shrugged off her hand and turned away. He walked a few steps from the web. He could almost see it—the scene in Mary Margaret's kitchen. No one had known that he had been sitting on the top of the stairs listening to his mother and Emma arguing back and forth about just about anything they could. They had started with how best to defeat Elsa the Ice Queen before she froze every heart in town. That topic swiftly turned when Regina pointed out their need to temper Emma's "fool-hardy need to save everyone" which inevitably had led to Emma once again apologizing in vain for saving Marion. Henry closed his eyes as the scene continued to unfold before his mind's eye.

Regina had scoffed at the apology. She was reverting to her old self. All the good she had cultivated in her heart was withering away now that she had lost Robin. Regina mocked Emma for being "so much like" Snow—never truly thinking about other people; always doing what she wanted even if she hid it under a veil of nobility.

"You're being unreasonable," Killian had tried to interject.

Regina had turned her ire onto the pirate and in moments tore him down; reminding him that he was part of the problem—encouraging Emma's selfishness with his "oh so debonair charm", she had hissed, and helping Emma conveniently forget the wellbeing of their son.

"Do not drag Henry into this," Emma had warned.

"Why not?" Regina challenged. "Did I not tell you that I did not approve of Henry spending time with this...pirate? But what do my wants compare with yours, Savior?"

"Regina!" Snow had tried interjecting, but his mother had silenced her with a raised hand.

"You can't be trusted to think of Henry; not while you're too busy with your newest "True Love"." She folded her arms and raised her eyebrow; her entire countenance radiated haughty superiority. "Henry never should have brought you here."

Henry remembered running from the stairs then. He had felt suffocated and needed to escape. Their voices had echoed in his mind and sank deep into his soul. He could not escape them in the tiny loft. He ran for his window; he would use the fire escape; but he was not fast enough to miss Emma saying, "He wouldn't have had to if you had loved him as he deserved!"

Nor did he miss Regina's reply. "Oh really? Like the woman who forgets those she supposedly loved after only five days?"

Henry clamped his hands over his ears in an attempt to drown out the memory. He fought against the suffocating pain and anger those words had stirred up in him. He remembered running out into the New England cold; the wind chilling the hot tears on his cheeks; the air burning in his lungs; and the nonstop pounding of his heart telling him to run, run, run...

"Hey." Evangeline's face filled his vision. She was kneeling in front of him again. "Hey, Henry, It's alright. You don't have to keep it inside. That's not very safe."

"Safe?" Henry scoffed. He did not want to talk about this; he did not want to face the truth of his pain, thus, he grabbed onto anything he could use to divert Evangeline and her piercing eyes. "Funny. That's what my mom said my dad did when he died. He was keeping me safe. It's what everyone thinks they need to do for me, but guess what? I can keep myself safe!"

Something rumbled in the distance.

Evangeline looked over her shoulder. "Henry," she began.

"I didn't ask to be kept safe," he snapped. What he was saying and what he was feeling were not in alignment; he knew this but he did not care. He was angry and hurt and frustrated—with his family, with his life, with all of it—and he just wanted it to stop. "I didn't ask to have two moms or no dad! I didn't ask to be in the middle! I didn't ask for any of this!"

He did not notice the sudden darkening of the mist around him.

The rumbling grew louder.

"Henry, please," Evangeline tried again.

She reached out to him, but he pulled back. Hot tears of frustration began to roll down his face. Embarrassment at being caught crying joined the cacophony of emotions inside his heart.

"I know you're frustrated, Henry," Evangeline soothed. "But you need to calm down."

"Why?" Henry challenged. The anger was making him feel powerful and, for a moment, in control of his life. He had never felt in control of anything. He felt he could do anything. "So I can make my wish? Well how about this? I wish my dad hadn't died!"

Something crashed violently in the mists.

"Henry," Evangeline cautioned.

"I wish my parents hadn't abandoned me!"

A rush of wind preceded a roar and a sudden surge of darkness.

Evangeline was watching the mist. It was being swallowed up by "The Wild Magic," she said in disbelief.

"I wish the curse had never been cast!"

The Wild Magic surged up all around them like a wave waiting to break.

Henry closed his eyes and yelled as loud as he could, "I wish none of this had ever happened!"

The Wild Magic crashed over them, and the last thing Henry heard before he was swept away was Evangeline calling out his name.