United In a Second Chance

Chapter Four

Upon arriving in Storybrooke, Rogers had begun living in a room at Granny's Bed and Breakfast despite having been offered a room within both the Royal Castle, as well as in Queen Regina's castle. However, he declined both their offers, preferring to live in a smaller, more private place on account of him never having many possessions. Not when he still lived as a pirate aboard the Jolly Roger, in the tower with his daughter the first twelve or so years of her life, within his grotto, or even while living in his apartment in Hyperion Heights.

However, when he began to go through his things he brought over in the curse with him from his apartment in Hyperion Heights nights later, as well as from his grotto, the former detective now sheriff was shocked when he found a copy of the deed to Gold's home he shared here in Storybrooke with his wife lying within the bottom of the box containing Ariel's shell now signed over to him.

Rogers thought back to when he and Weaver had gone to his grotto to seek out Ariel for help against Rumplestiltskin, and yet he couldn't recall having seen his friend leave something behind for him. But then, he hadn't been keeping his eyes on him either, so his partner could have done so at any time. And the younger man didn't know so at the time, but now he understood that no matter what might have happened that night, Gold was never planning on surviving their fight against the true Dark One.

Rogers knew that he and Gold had become good friends before Gothel's curse and then after they came to trust one another as partners. Yet he expected that if his friend were to leave something as valuable such as his home to anyone, he would have left it to either Gideon, or to Henry and Ella since Henry was his grandson. However, both of his surviving family members had their own places and were happy in their own lives. Therefore, neither of them protested that Rogers accept the house as his own like Gold wanted for him.

So, two nights after Regina's coronation, Rogers spent the remainder of the evening packing away what remained behind of his friend's and his wife's things, as well as moving his few things in. Alice came by with Robin to help him, and so did Henry for which he was grateful. Then, once they finished, they went out for dinner along with Regina and Zelena at Tony's.

It was late when everyone finally said goodnight to return home. Rogers was the last to leave as he paid the owner of the restaurant for their meal, then finally left as well to begin his walk back to his new home. While he walked, he passed a number of people on the streets and nothing seemed out of place as he did so.

However, when he walked around the corner next to Gold's Pawnshop, something suddenly felt off to him, when a mysterious woman bumped into him as she passed by him. He paused a moment to watch after her while she just kept walking on without turning back to look at him, or even to apologize for striking him, as she kept her head and face covered by the hood of her cloak she wore. Finally, he shrugged off his sense of uneasiness and continued walking on himself until he reached his house, locked the door, and at last fell into bed.

Rogers hadn't slept well most nights for a very long time since he had first met Gothel so long ago. He never told Alice he slept less than even she did because of his own nightmares, and because he kept his guard up for any signs of trouble. And after Gothel poisoned his heart, his guilt also kept him awake most nights.

It wasn't until after he became cured of the poison over his heart through Gold's sacrifice that he was finally able to have his first full night of sleep without awakening despite feeling guilt over his partner's death, because he was finally free to hold his daughter, Alice was able to comfort him without her hurting him, and Gothel was gone.

However, it wasn't long after he had fallen asleep, that a new nightmare arose within his mind, as Rogers strangely found himself back in an interrogation room within Hyperion Heights' police station while he stood against a wall across from Eloise Gardener back when he had interrogated her about Victoria Belfrey's death and their neighborhood's serial killer after the frightening killings of two women not known to him at the time to have been witches.

An old painting of his that had come over to the city within the curse sat on the table between him and Gothel, known only to him then as Eloise Gardener, then he finally heard himself speak while he uneasily stated, "My first painting. Happy now?"

Eloise studied his painting closely as she sincerely answered him, "It's beautiful. The calm before the storm."

"Tell me about the killer," the younger detective had crossly requested from her when she turned her head to look over at him.

"You don't get answers until you give some," she calmly responded within a demanding tone. "Now, come here. Look at the painting, and tell me what it really means to you."

Rogers remembered turning his head to look up at the security camera within the room knowing Weaver had been outside in their office watching over his interrogation of the coven leader, then he finally took a seat in the chair across from her as he sighed, and looked down at his painting of a ship at sea, before he answered her despondently, "Fine. As a child, I loved the ocean. I always wanted to visit. Then I grew up, forgot about it, and it's a distant memory. That's all."

The villainess looked at him coolly as she continued to goad him, "It must have been quite a day when you finally got out there. You must have felt like a real sea captain."

"Actually, I've still never been," he sternly replied.

"But the ocean's so close," she responded to him, knowing exactly what she needed to say in order to get him to admit what she wanted to hear from him. "I mean, why… why not grab your special someone and go touch the sea?"

Upon touching a nerve, Rogers suddenly lost his temper as he shouted, "Because I don't have anyone! Is that what you want to hear?!"

Eloise smiled at him smugly as he turned his head away in disappointment with himself and then she cruelly answered again, "Yes. They say all great art starts with pain. And now I know yours. The killer is also grappling with pain… an unfillable void, if you will. And just like you, they're looking for a way to express that pain. To externalize it in a way that only makes sense to them. Both the doctor and the baker were given a gift before they were attacked… a heart shaped candy box filled with chocolate marzipan truffles."

"That's quite specific," Rogers then replied to her again, seeking more information from her that might help to explain why.

"Everyone has their obsessions," the witch continued. "So… if you want to find the killer, all you have to do is follow your heart."

And then all of a sudden his nightmare changed, when his fearbrought the Captain back to many years earlier on the most painful night of his life to the one moment which haunted him far more than any other, as he was once again reminded of his deepest regret while he saw himself return to the tower where his daughter remained a prisoner because of both of her parents, then he climbed up it to enter the window into the room in which he and Alice once lived together.

Inside, Alice sat in front of her easel while she painted on the canvas before her until Hook knocked his hook up against the wood of the wall beside him as he entered with his bag over his back and smiled when she saw him while she happily exclaimed, "Papa! I was starting to worry."

When he stepped down from the window and walked around the painting his daughter was working on, he looked over at her lovingly and gently responded her, "There's no need to worry, Starfish. I'm here now."

"I have something in here that can smash this tower to pieces," he continued once he pulled his bag in front of him, then pulled out the magical weapon the Captain had left to seek out… Maui's fishhook made of what appeared to be ivory, or even bone, and held it up for Alice to see.

Alice smiled and stood from her stool as she set her paints and paintbrush down, before she turned back to her father and walked over to embrace him. However, in the moment they both touched, Hook gasped in pain as he was suddenly flung back heavily against the wall behind him by some magical force not yet known to them, then he collapsed against the floor in a heap.

"Papa?" she questioned fearfully upon him being hurt and hearing him exhale sharply before crying out in agony.

As he raised his hand over his heart in his chest, Hook painfully screamed, "Aah!"

She started to run towards her father, until another dark force then overwhelmed her as well, as Alice swiftly took several steps back and grabbed hold of her wrist in pain when a brand suddenly became burned into her skin while she whimpered, "Ohh! What's happening?"

"I… I don't know," Hook answered with heavy strain in his voice while he continued to writhe against the anguish over his heart.

"But I do," another voice replied from behind Alice, as she immediately spun around to see the witch she didn't yet know then to be her mother standing before them.

Hook glared up at the villainess from the floor as he asked weakly, "What did you do to me?"

Gothel cruelly responded, "No less than you deserve. You're poisoned now, and it will corrupt your heart every time Alice draws near. You've both been marked."

"Please don't do this," Alice then pleaded with the witch, as Gothel turned her head to finally look at her daughter. "He's my father. He's a good man."

"Not good enough," the nymph retorted darkly when she turned her eyes back on the man who shunned her years ago. "Your father went on a little detour because there's more important things to him than his daughter. He fought a duel for his precious honor."

While Hook continued to breathe shakily as the pain burned within his chest, Alice turned around again to look down at him with disappointment in her eyes and then sadly she said, "You didn't come right back. You promised me."

He struggled to keep his eyes on his daughter while he regretfully answered, "I only stopped for a moment. I swear."

"How did you do this to me?" the Captain then asked the witch as he continued to breathe heavily.

"I simply made sure the bullet was poisoned," Gothel replied darkly, while Alice turned back to her as she spoke. "Your pride did the rest."

Gothel then raised her hands and used her power to poof Hook away from the tower within a thick cloud of smoke, as the young girl watched him vanish from before her despite her effort to run to him and she fearfully cried out, "Papa!"

She sighed in worry, then uttered again, "Papa."

When the dark cloud of magic surrounding him cleared once more, Hook struggled to move and rise to his feet. He discovered what had happened upon finding himself upon the ground outside just below the tower which now loomed over him, then turned his head weakly as Gothel appeared before him again.

"You can't keep me from her," he shouted out at her angrily, while he continued to try to rise despite feeling so weak and in such pain. "I will get her out."

"No," the witch responded plainly, yet cruelly once more as she bent down to pick up the fishhook he had collected in hope of freeing his daughter from the tower so she could take it away from him. "You will fail her again and again. You might as well go back to the tavern and have another drink."

All of a sudden, from the room high above them, Alice cried out to him, "Papa, where are you?! Save me!"

Hook made another effort to hurtle himself towards Gothel to try to fight her for the magical weapon only to fail, while she looked down on the pirate captain at her feet and articulated coldly, "Such a heartbreaking cry for help."

"Papa… please help!" his daughter pleaded from above them.

"I couldn't let you free her," the witch continued cruelly. "And now you never will."

Rogers struggled desperately to wake from the terrors of his nightmares suddenly plaguing him, like they were being forced into his mind as if by dark magic. Unfortunately, they only continued when another arose and this time, he watched as he and Tilly entered the old theater within Hyperion Heights on the night in which they had both been taken captive by Gothel and her witch coven.

The moment he and Tilly walked inside, the detective saw Desk Sergeant Ryce standing inside the lobby in front of them with a strange smile on his face, and Rogers asked him concerningly, "What are you doing here, mate? Is something wrong?"

Ryce just shrugged and continued smiling as he answered, "Nothing's wrong. In fact, it's all going as planned."

"Hey!" Rogers then immediately cried out angrily, as well as with fear upon hearing Tilly scream once a number of women in dark cloaks with their hoods pulled up over their heads suddenly appeared when they swiftly grabbed hold of the young woman in his charge and him to keep him from helping her, although he lashed out against them the best he could while he struck Ryce across the face, only to become apprehended himself at last despite his efforts. "Where are you taking her?"

"To a place where the truth will finally be revealed," Eloise callously replied to him as she appeared before him, while her sisters dragged Tilly away.

He glared at the villainess darkly and struggled against those holding him back while he angrily responded, "I swear, Eloise… I won't let my badge stop me from killing you if you hurt that girl!"

She stopped as she looked back at him and stated coldly, "Calling me Eloise? My name is Mother Gothel. And don't worry, Detective. Tilly's not the one I'm going to hurt."

Then, with a nod of her head, her sisters within her coven dragged him through the same door where they led Tilly through, then down the stairs while he glared up at the witch as Gothel followed behind him. He continued to fight against them, but to no avail. Their hold on him was too strong.

And then, his nightmare changed once more, and it wasn't long before the former detective found himself again within the dark cave beneath the city above them, sitting upon a large stone beneath him as ropes bound his ankles together and his arms were tied behind his back.

"You've been onto things for a long time, Detective," Gothel at last spoke up to him again, as she began to explain her reasons for kidnapping him and the young woman he was about to learn was really his daughter. "Questioning, investigating, pondering the persistent parade of the impossible. You can rest easy because you're right… we are witches."

"At least you don't have to worry about a cult," Ryce smugly said to him as well while still under Gothel's trance, which Rogers was unaware of.

The younger detective glared at him as he retorted, "You disgrace your badge."

At last, Tilly pleaded with the woman who claimed to be her mother as she demanded strictly, "Let us go."

"Oh… no, my child," Gothel coolly answered her, while she began to walk around her in a circle. "You're not going anywhere. Not until after you help us cast our spell."

"Hey," Rogers then whispered to pull the girl's attention onto him in order to try to reassure her she was going to be all right. "It'll be all right, Tilly."

The young woman looked down at him with fear in her eyes as she softly replied, "I really don't like it here."

She then turned back to the leader of the witch coven when Gothel responded, "That's because you haven't accepted who you are yet. I am truly sorry I never saw it sooner. How special you are. Had I known you were like us, things would've been very different for you."

"Your mother has a gift for finding special people…" another of the witches who called herself Seraphina then added when she walked up from behind Tilly. "Outcasts, exiles… I was the first she recruited to her coven."

"A coven that'll soon be behind bars!" the detective immediately threatened as he looked between the misguided woman and Mother Gothel again.

However, the coven leader grew impatient by Rogers' constant defiance and she kept her eyes on Tilly as she retorted firmly, "Don't listen to him. We're your family. And family help each other."

Tilly glared back at her mother again while she answered darkly, "Like you helped my father? You killed him!"

"Your father's right in front of you," Gothel then cruelly replied to her, and turned her head to look coldly upon the coven's prisoner there to be used against Tilly to convince the young woman to help them, as Tilly also looked down at him in shock of the revelation. "That's right. The love you feel is real, you just don't remember it."

"You were born from both sides of the looking glass as both his and mine, and you know it's true," she continued on as she walked over to stand in front of her daughter so she could block Tilly's sight to her father, then the witch reached down to gently take her hands into her own. "I only want to help you figure out which side you belong on. Leave humanity behind. Join your sisters and I'll be the mother you always wanted."

At first, the girl held Gothel's hands and smiled at her like she was falling for the witch's lies much to her mother's delight, until Tilly swiftly yanked her hands free and glared back at her again as she responded venomously, "Whatever you might be, you're no mother to me."

Unfortunately, the moment Tilly defied her as well, the two witches standing behind Rogers swiftly yanked his head back by grabbing a tight hold of his hair, as one of them suddenly thrust a long curved scythe blade against his throat to threaten him in order to prove how far they were willing to go to get Tilly on their side, then Mother Gothel spoke again to her darkly saying, "If you won't help cast the spell for me, perhaps you'll do it to save your father."

Rogers looked into Tilly's eyes while he shook his head pleadingly so that she wouldn't do like the witches wanted of her, even to save him. However, the young woman who cared deeply about him could only look down on him sadly as well, afraid for her father's life. Gothel then stepped away from them, as she walked over to one of the rock walls of the cavern upon seeking something concealed within it. At last, she finally found what she needed.

"I remember this," she stated with a loud gasp in awe, then yanked the small object free from within the stone, before she finally returned to rejoin her sisters and prisoners again. "This is it! Another scrap of magic left behind. How little mankind left… Just tatters and rags. It's time to change that."

"Humans… even when they're beautiful, they're poison," Gothel cruelly sneered, as she knelt down beside the detective she had deceived and seduced long ago to create their child now grown, while Tilly watched on in repulsion when her mother reached up with her hand to her father's head, then sickly began to run her fingers through his hair and to caress the left side of his face, until Rogers struggled to pull away from her.

And then, when the coven leader reached down to lift his hand enough so that she could stab him with one of her tacks in order to steal some of his blood, causing Rogers to groan out of pain, Tilly fearfully asked, "What are you doing?"

The witch smiled up at her prey she continued to kneel beside, then she stood again and carefully placed the tack within a small vile to keep it protected as she answered coldly, "Taking another tatter of magic. And amusingly, I'm also making a point. I can either take a little bit of blood, or these witches here can take the whole lot."

"So I ask you again," Gothel then began as she turned to face her daughter again. "Do you want to help me, or do you want to watch him die?"

"Don't do it, Tilly," Rogers at last pleaded with her again while he looked into his daughter's eyes the best he could despite the witches' hold on him.

Unfortunately, the young woman knew what would happen if she refused and so she reluctantly grabbed the extra cloak Seraphina held out for her to take to protect him, as tears slowly began to trickle out from the corners of her eyes, then once Tilly obeyed her, her mother said again smugly, "There you go. And when you see the beauty of what we're going to bring back, you won't mind the cost at all. We have everything we need. Let's begin."

Minutes later, once Tilly was holding Mother Gothel's hands so the witches could begin their ritual, and dark magic suddenly burst out all around them within the engravings of the circle that the witches all stood around, Rogers looked up into her eyes again while he spoke pleadingly saying, "Please don't do this, Tilly. I'm just one life. If I truly am your father, then I'm asking you as a father… don't do this."

"I feel that it's true," she sadly replied as she looked down on him through her tears, yet smiled upon finally understanding why she's felt so close to him ever since they met, until the tone in her voice grew cold when she thought of him dying if she listened to his pleas. "You are my father. That's why I have to do this. I can't be responsible for killing you."

"Nature's witches, words unheard, our wishes worthless, worse than dirt," Gothel began to chant darkly once Tilly at last took her rightful place around the circle next to her mother, as Rogers shook his head ashamedly while he watched his daughter give up her life just to protect him. "Until we learned what we were worth to turn our hurts into your burns. Our purest urges now emerge. Old for nursery, dark for church. Close the circle. Purge the earth."

Tilly fearfully took the witch's hand on her right when she held it out to her, then turned her head to look down on her father one last time, as he made one final effort to plead with her not to do this when he shook his head once more, until the leader of the coven looked over at her and stated sternly, "Hold on to your mother's hand, dear. I'm your family."

Beyond his nightmares, within the safety of his new home, Rogers suddenly began to writhe wildly within the blankets on his bed as he fought to break free of the darkness consuming his mind. However, whatever hold had taken over him, its grip remained strong as one final terrifying memory played out.

While Rogers fearfully looked up into his daughter's eyes once she fell into a dark trance upon being pulled under Gothel's spell, he pleaded with her to hear his voice as he whispered sadly, "Tilly… Tilly!"

"It's too late, Detective," Sergeant Ryce then said to him coldly, as he stood guard behind the coven once Gothel left the cave to finish the ritual she had begun elsewhere.

"What's too late?" the good man immediately curtly retorted, then looked up at one of the witches in fear upon seeing her begin to shake uncontrollably, until she suddenly vanished while her cloak fell heavily to the ground. "What's happening?"

Her sisters' chanting continued around him, as the detective stared down at the cloak while Ryce walked over to pick it up, only to reveal that the witch had become nothing more than a small tree at his feet, and Rogers questioned him angrily, "What the bloody hell was that?"

The Desk Sergeant smiled down on her as he responded, "She's been gifted. When a member has completed her task… given all that she has, she is rewarded with a place in the Eternal Grove.

"What about you?" the younger detective coldly asked him as he looked up at his daughter once more, then turned away to keep his eyes on Ryce while he cautiously began to loosen his bonds to finally break himself free at last so that he could get Tilly out of there. "Will you be rewarded as handsomely?"

"They are the chosen ones," the other man answered him while he devotedly folded her cloak and laid it down upon one of the larger boulders around them. "I will be spared… but not rewarded."

Ryce sighed and then turned back towards the prisoner again while he started to add cruelly, "But you will find the worst…"

However, the desk Sergeant was shocked to discover that Rogers had managed to break free and seemed to disappear. He swiftly ran around the circle of witches as he looked around for the detective. But before he got far, Rogers suddenly stepped out in front of him again from behind the wall where he hid momentarily and swung his fist with as much strength as he had in order to render the traitor unconscious so that he could help Tilly.

The man groaned as he fell, while Detective Rogers swiftly bent down to pick up his prosthetic hand he had unlatched from his brace in order to get out of the ropes, clicked it back into place, then he ran over to the girl he too felt was his daughter like she felt him to be her father, and urged sternly, "Tilly… we have to get out of here now before that witch comes back."

"No," the young woman darkly replied while still under Gothel's influence, as he looked on her in fear. "I can't do that. I'm to be with Mother."

However, he reached out to grab hold of her so he would be able to pull her out of there while Rogers adamantly responded to her in objection, "The hell you are."

Unfortunately, in the moment that he touch his daughter, dark magic emanated from Tilly into him, and Rogers suddenly cried out in anguish as he collapsed to his knees on the ground beside her upon feeling such intense pain that felt like thousands of knives shooting through his heart, then he weakly cried out, "What the hell?"

"Tilly, what are you doing?" he asked her with a heavy strain in his voice while he struggled to stand again. "I don't know what's happening, but… I will come back for you."

"I will save you," Rogers steadfastly promised her while he breathed heavily through his pain, and then finally ran away from her as fast as he could despite his agony, so that he could find his partner in order to bring back help to save her.

At last, when the final nightmare plaguing him ended, Rogers suddenly awoke with a frightful gasp as he immediately shot up from his bed beneath him and fought desperately to get his breathing back under control. He was drenched in cold sweat and upon looking around him in fear, he found that his blankets and sheets were thrashed, and that the lamp from his nightstand was smashed upon the floor from when he must have struck it in his fight to wake up from his terror. A fear he couldn't understand, except that these nightmares were no ordinary nightmares.

He weakly stood from his bed, quickly pulled on his boots, then walked to his closet to grab his jacket, and finally ran as fast as he could into town despite still feeling weak, making his way to the area of Storybrooke now expanded to include the parts of Hyperion Heights which also came over in the curse, including the Community Gardens that was still home of the blackened tree his daughter had turned Mother Gothel into upon her defeat.

At last, Rogers stood in front of the tree surrounded by purple hyacinth flowers and released a heavy sigh of relief upon seeing nothing's appeared to have changed, as the witch still remained trapped. Unfortunately, he was unaware that the woman who had bumped into him earlier that evening, still wearing her cloak and its hood over her head, was crouched down within the gardens nearby behind him while she remained hidden. And when the pirate Captain of the Wish Realm arrived to make sure that Gothel remained imprisoned, she smiled cruelly upon seeing that the beginnings of her plans had been successful.