Chapter 3

Where oh where has my little swan gone?

Idiot.

That was the first thought that came to Regina when she saw that Emma had disappeared. But that thought was quickly crowded out of her head by absolute panic. She was gone. Emma had just vanished, most likely through that door. The door which was now gone as well. It was just like Swan to go charging in headfirst through that door, not even thinking of the consequences. Idiot.

Regina sat at the counter of Granny's diner staring into her coffee cup. The steam was rising from the black liquid. She hadn't ordered it, but now it was going to get cold. Granny had made the coffee for everyone but Regina just sat and gazed at it blankly after she had told the story about how Emma had vanished for what felt like the twentieth time.

Snow and David had arrived quickly speeding up to the mine entrance in David's rusty old pickup truck. Snow was getting out of the truck before David came to a complete stop. Her eyes were wide with fear for her daughter.

"Regina! What happened?" Snow grabbed Regina's arms. Ordinarily Regina would have bristled and pulled away from the contact but she knew that Snow was worried about her daughter. She moved Snow's hands from her arms and held them in her's. David ran over to Snow's side and put his arm around his wife's shoulder. God they were going to make her sick.

"We were searching together and we came to a small opening off the main corridor." Regina began to explain letting Snow's hands go. But now Regina was rubbing her own gloved hands together nervously. "I told Emma I was going to check it out and she kept going down the corridor."

Snow and David were stone still as they hung on Regina's every word, worry etched on their faces. "I didn't find anything and was on my way to rejoin her when I heard her say something."

"What did she say?" David asked. Did that really matter? Regina thought. He could be so trying. But she let it go because she understood his concern.

"I couldn't make it out. By the time I got there she was gone and there was a door at the end of the mine."

"A door? What kind of door?" It was Snow's turn to be dense now. Regina struggled to not roll her eyes.

"I can only assume it was a magical door left by the Black Fairy before I could open it the door disappeared."

"Where could she have gone?" David now. Regina was glad that Emma had not inherited the Charming's dull wit.

"I don't know. But we need to talk to Gold about this right away. He might have the answer as to what happened." Regina then took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She fought to keep her voice from cracking. "Then we need to tell Henry that Emma is missing."

Now she sat waiting at the counter for Captain Guyliner to bring Henry to her. She hadn't wanted to tell him over the phone, she would have prefered to do it face to face. Henry was so insistent that he forced her to tell him what had happened. He was silent for so long that Regina had initially thought the call had dropped. When he finally did speak his voice was shakier.

"What if we can't find her?" His whisper broke her heart. She wished he was in front of her then so she could wrap her no longer small son.

"We will. I promise you Henry. We will." She tried to put as much confidence in her voice that she could. She would not disappoint her son. She would find his mother. She would bring Emma back.

The Charmings were holding court near the jukebox in the back of the diner with the dwarves. Leroy and his brothers had combed through the mine inch by inch trying to find any sign of Emma. Their search had turned up nothing. David had put the word out for everyone in town to keep their eye open for Emma or anything suspicious. All they were getting was dead ends. Regina had even found herself wishing that the wolf wasn't running around in Oz with her wife Dorothy. They could really use Ruby's sense of smell to see if they could find a scent trail. Although deep down Regina knew that wouldn't work. Emma hadn't been dragged off somewhere, she had disappeared. Disappeared behind that damn door.

The bell on the door rung and Regina looked up to see Gold and Belle enter. Belle was pushing little Gideon in a carriage while Gold seemed to be carrying a book under his arm.

"It's about time." Regina growled at Gold as she got up from her stool to walk toward the trio. "I called you over an hour ago."

Gold gave Regina a small smirk though the humor didn't reach his eyes. "Good to see you too Madam Mayor."

Belle hastily inserted herself into the conversation hoping to defuse the situation from escalating. She knew that Regina was on edge about Emma missing. The two shared a special bond that Belle appreciated and was astute enough to recognize that Regina was masking her fear with irritation.

"Sorry Regina, we stopped at the library on the way here to see if there was something referencing this door you saw."

"Well, what have you found out?" That was David now. Charming, Snow and the others had come over to join the conversation when Gold and Belle came into the diner.

"Not much I'm afraid." Gold took the book over to the counter and placed it down near where Regina had been sitting. "Obviously we know the door is some kind of portal. However what type of portal it is becomes the question. Most portals are used to travel between worlds, a few allow travel through time. Now in some rare cases there are portals that can be used for different purposes."

"Different purposes like what?" Snow was asking now. Regina refrained from rolling her eyes at Snow's question. As a former pupil of the Dark One, Regina knew that Gold would have revealed those purposes without a prompt. Rumplestiltskin loved to create drama when he was giving a lecture.

"These rare portals could take a person into the afterlife for example. Or the portal could transform the person into an inanimate object."

"Or shrink someone down to the size of an insect." Belle interjected.

Regina's breath hitched. What if that happened to Emma? Oh my God! What if she had stepped on Emma in the cave and killed her? Regina felt her stomach drop to the floor. She closed her eyes. No. Emma was not dead. She would know if she was. She would feel it. Emma was alive.

Rumple continued "Or the person stepping through the portal could be simply disintegrated."

Snow gasped and her hand flew to her mouth.

"Ma could be dead?"

All eyes turned to the door to see Henry with a heartbreaking look on his face. Regina ran to him and wrapped her arms around him. "No Henry." Regina calmly told him. "Emma is not dead. She's just missing. And we will find her. I will find her and bring her back to us."

Henry looked into his adopted mother's eyes and could see the certainty in them. He exhaled the breath he didn't realize he was holding and nodded solemnly. Regina turned to Gold with renewed focus in her eyes.

"So how do we know what type of portal she went through?" She questioned.

"Well dearie," Gold showed his teeth in what was not quite a smile. "That's where you come in."

"What do you mean?" Hook spoke up for the first time as he had been standing behind Henry in the doorway since they came in. A look of concern on his face for his missing bride.

Subconsciously Regina tightened her jaw at him.

"We need to make a dream catcher." Gold leveled his eyes to Regina.