When Emma Enters Fairytale Land

Chapter 2: But It Goes To Waste

The Carpenters

There was dust everywhere in the old man's woodshop. It wasn't the normal amount one would expect for any woodshop, no matter how old it was. The dust he saw when he first opened his eyes to his true woodshop rested in layers. It reminded him of the huge waves he sailed when he was last in the ocean.

The old man felt the cushion beneath him and realized he was sitting on a chair he had made a long time ago, almost in a past life. The memory jolted Geppetto from his seat as he realized exactly where he was.

He turned around in a circle in his old hop. He was alone.

Realizing this, but still grasping onto hope, Geppetto ran upstairs to where home part of his house presided.

"Pinocchio! Jiminy!" He opened another door. "Where are you?" Hope was still in his voice as he continued to look for them and memories flowed through him by the second.

The curse was broken. He was here, back in his woodshop, so they must be also.

"Pinocchio! Jiminy!" Fear finally came through Geppetto's voice. He had opened all of his doors upstairs, and had even checked the little hiding places the cricket knew and he Geppetto was sure he shared with his son. They were nowhere.

Geppetto ran downstairs and yelled out again. "Pinocchio! Jiminy!" He looked in a corner behind a separating wall. "Where are you?"

"Geppetto!" A small voice came out from the opposite end of his woodshop. Geppetto could feel stress leaving his body when he heard the cricket.

"Jiminy!" Geppetto yelled in happiness when he saw his friend from the center of the room. The friends went towards each other until they were a cricket's length away from each other, Jiminy flying back and forth between Geppetto's two eyes. "Where is Pinocchio?" Gepetto asked in desperation.

"I was looking for him," Jiminy told Gepetto quietly. "I wanted to find him before I saw you."

"Did you?" Gepetto asked, already knowing the answer.

"He's not anywhere, Gepetto." Sadness was clear in Jiminy's voice. He debated whether or not to say his next words. "I wonder now if he came back home after the curse broke." Jiminy held on tighter to his small umbrella, worried how his friend would take the news.

"No, no," Gepetto argued. "He has to be here. He promised me he would help break the curse. If the curse is now broken, he should be here somewhere." Gepetto stopped making a further mess of his woodshop by searching for his son and looked back at his friend. "Remember, he would be 28 years older than he was." Then he added with pride, "He would be a man."

Jiminy quickly flew outside the room to search the hall and the playroom adjoining it.

"Gepetto. There's no one here. Pinocchio didn't come back with the curse." Jiminy averred.

One more look at Gepetto was all it took for Jiminy to turn away. This was his fault. He didn't care if he had lost his memories; it was his job to look after Gepetto and his son. The blue fairy had given him one job to do and he had failed.

After one more flit of his wings to brace himself, Jiminy turned back to Gepetto. "I'm sorry," he whispered softly.

The old man looked at the cricket and couldn't do anything but accept his apology. Jiminy warned him not to put his son in the wardrobe and he had. Suddenly, he felt like no time had past since he put his son in the wardrobe. Just like 28 years before, tears were running down his face he couldn't control. He searched his home again. This time realizing that the magic dust from the curse covering some of his most prize possessions looked like it had just settled.

And then he wondered if it actually had.

-The Charmings-

"Can we take a break please?" Emma begged her father.

She was about to sit on a rock when the expression on her father's face told her stopping was not an option.

Her head was killing her.

"Let's go, Emma."

She debated weather she should tell him. A good daughter would tell a father something like this right? Or would that just be complaining?

"How much longer?" She asked instead.

James turned around so his daughter could see his smile. "Wow, now you really sound like a daughter."

He wondered if something was really wrong when she didn't return his smile.

"Why can't we just wait here until nightfall to wish on the star? We can do that, right?"

"Yeah," James said slowly, examining her. He had hoped to reach the castle by nightfall. He didn't want to be apart from his Snow for too long. "Are you really that tired?" He asked her softly.

"Yes." Emma looked straight at him, wondering if he forgot what she had been through in the last 24 hours, or in the last 28 years. "A lot has happened in the last two days."

James starred at her blankly for a few moments, trying to understand what she was talking about. He was watching her when her body fell to the ground. "Emma!" James yelled, running to her and kneeling beside her.

Her eyes were open. She was conscious. She was even looking at him.

"Are you okay?" He asked, panicked. "What happened?"

"I'm sorry," she whispered to him. Emma turned her head away before consciously deciding to close her eyes. "I'm just so tired," she lied.

The Beauty and the Beast

He had a new person to blame.

This wasn't his fault. He would do anything for her and nothing to hurt her.

Emma had promised him she was here.

She was nowhere.

This was Emma's fault.

Sure, the Queen had taken her from him and locked her up and torturing both of them in the process.

But what was the point now in blaming the Queen? The Queen had no power now.

This was Emma's fault.

Emma had promised him she was here.

And she wasn't

So, now she would pay.

The Charmings

"Are you sure you know where we're going?" Henry asked for the third time as he lagged behind his grandmother.

Snow turned to him; only now realizing Henry was getting tired. She walked back to him, knelling down so they were at eye level. Her instinct told her to put her palm on his chest, so she did.

"Henry," she took a deep breath. "I know you're scared-"

"I am not scared," he stated strongly. "I just don't understand why we are not going back to the castle."

Snow smiled when she heard the teenager already coming out of him. Then, she rolled her eyes, realizing her grandson, who had been in this land all of eight hours, thought he was knew all about her home.

She picked up his hand and started to walk back in the direction they were going.

"The Queen isn't there anymore!" Henry kept up his argument throughout their walk. "The castle is where we should be going! For all we know Emma and Charming could have come through the passage there."

"Henry," Snow begged, wishing he would drop it.

Henry stopped in his tracks and let go of her hand. He was sick of people not listening to him, not believing him, always treating him like a little kid.

"I know why you won't go back to the castle," he announced. "I figured it out."

"Henry-"

"You're the one who's scared. You don't want to go back to the place where you lost your husband and your daughter!" He pointed at her and then off in direction he knew their castle was. "You think that palace is full of danger!"

"It is full of danger!" She conceded to his need to argue and understand. "Remember when we ran Hansel and Gretel?" She paused for meaning. "They are in the exact same place they remember being in when the curse hit. If that's true, and I'm sure that it is, the palace is full of angry guards right now."

"Cool." Henry replied. To which Snow had to roll her eyes again. "I don't still understand how an empty dwarf house is better."

"It's safe." She defended her decision instinctually.

"It's empty." Henry firmly argued back.

"Henry." Snow turned to him, her anger and annoyance finally starting to show. "We are going to the dwarfs' house because it is the only place I trust right now. I know Charming can find me there, he is one of the few people who knows where it is. It might be empty and cold without food or company, but it is safe."

"But-"

"Henry!" Sadness overwhelmed her. She had been pushed to her breaking point. "I don't know where Charming or Emma are!" Speaking of them made tears form behind her eyes. "All I know is that we have to believe they will find us."

"Or," Snow and Henry turned at the cold, trickster voice behind them. "Maybe they won't, dearies."

Author's Note: I'm so glad people are enjoying my story. If my story puts a grin on my face, your review definitely puts a smile on mine ( ;) OncerSwarekJateBazeGirlscout). Every review is helpful and makes me happy, so thanks to red lighting, Nephite, anitarose, Aod4L, Normal-is-Overratedx, and Lola for helping me write and improve my story!