Chapter 7- The Morning After

The sun had just come over the horizon on a warm summer's day, as Zelena walked out of her and Donald's house; she had decided to let him sleep in, and she would make breakfast.

Walking to the garden she looked at the tomatoes, and pulled off the biggest and reddest one that she could find, she then looked at the lettuce, and took a few leaves of it off. After that she walked inside Zelena put the tomato and lettuce into the sink, and then put a frying pan onto the stove to heat up. While she was waiting there was a knock at the door.

"That's strange…" Zelena said to herself, "who could that be at this hour?"

Walking to the door, and opening it Zelena gasped in surprise when she came face to face with her Mother.

"Mother!" Zelena said surprised.

"Hello darling." Cora said walking past Zelena inside the house.

"What are you doing here?" Zelena asked confused.

Cora sat down in one of the kitchen table chairs, "I heard a horrible rumour that you were in love with someone who isn't a prince."

Zelena's heart sank, she had been hoping to keep that a secret from Cora, now that Regina was nice and friends with the Charming's, Cora had put all her time and effort into Zelena, to make sure that she married a prince.

"So please tell me it isn't true." Cora said after a few moments of silence.

Zelena laughed, and walked over to the frying pan breaking the egg in it, "don't be silly, Mother."

Cora sighed in relief and put a hand on her heart, "oh thank God."

Zelena broke the egg yolk and stared at it, as she hoped beyond hope that Donald would stay in bed until Cora left, she couldn't risk using magic to keep him asleep, Cora would notice and Zelena was a terrible liar, even now she wasn't sure how she was fooling Cora.

"So I think I might have found you a nice prince." Cora said.

"Oh really?" Zelena asked trying to sound interested, "Who?"

"His name is Prince Alexander."

Zelena turned down the heat and then turned to face Cora, "I've never heard of him, where does he rule?"

"One of the realms." Cora said simply.

"You don't know which one?" Zelena asked skeptically.

"No."

Zelena walked over to the breadbox taking out a piece of bread, before walking back over to the stove and putting the egg on it, followed by the bacon, and then she cut up a piece of tomato, the whole time Zelena could feel Cora staring at her. Zelena began trying to think of a way to make her leave before Donald woke up, however before she could think of a convincing lie she heard the sound of Donald's footsteps walking towards the kitchen.

"Crap!" Zelena thought to herself just as Donald walked into the kitchen.

"What smells so good?" Donald asked as he walked over to Zelena and kissed her.

"Donald…" Zelena said pushing him away gently, "we have a guest."

"Huh?" Donald asked turning to the table, where Cora was sitting, she was glaring at Donald, "oh hi," He said as cordially as he could.

"Donald, this is my Mother, Cora."

"Hi." Donald said offering Cora his hand, she just looked at it and then looked at Zelena, who didn't meet her gaze, Donald put his hand back at his side and looked at Zelena awkwardly.

"You and I need to talk!" Cora said glaring at Zelena.

"OK I'll leave you alone." Donald said about to walk out of the kitchen.

"No need." Cora said as she waved her hands freezing Donald in place.

"Mother, please don't do anything crazy." Zelena begged.

Cora stood up and walked over to Zelena, "when were you going to tell me about him?"

"I was afraid to tell you." Zelena admitted.

Cora took Zelena's hand, "Regina turned her back on finding a prince, I will not let you make the same mistake."

"No please I love him!" Zelena cried, "I don't care about marrying a prince."

"You love him?" Cora asked shocked.

Zelena nodded her head, "please just let Donald and I be happy, leave us alone." She begged.

Cora looked away from Zelena and at Donald, for a few long moments neither of them spoke. Finally Cora turned her attention back to Zelena.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but I'm your Mother and I know what's best for you."

Before Zelena could say anything Cora waved her hands which unfroze Donald, Cora then ripped Donald's heart out, he fell to the ground gasping for air.

"No!" Zelena screamed, reaching for Donald's heart but Zelena quickly squeezed his heart, he cried out in pain, and then his heart turned to dust, which resulted in Donald falling backwards.

"Donald!" Zelena cried kneeling down beside him taking his hand, "Donald, please come back to me!" She cried before falling on his chest balling.

"I'm sorry, Zelena," Cora said kneeling down beside her, "but you and I are villains, and people like us don't get happy endings."

Zelena gasped sitting up in her bed, looking around disoriented for a moment, she was in her bed where she and Cora were hiding out.

"Bad dream?" A male's voice asked.

Zelena gasped quickly wiping away the tears that were falling from her eyes, "who's there?" She asked.

"Just me." The Boogeyman said floating over to her bed.

"Did you just give me that nightmare?" Zelena asked.

"No I just got back, but as I was floating by your room I noticed that you were having a nightmare, and I was curious what it was."

"Man you're nosy." Zelena said annoyed.

"Yep." The Boogeyman said smirking.

Zelena was about to scold him for being nosy when her bedroom door opened and Cora walked in.

"What's going on in here?"

"The Boogeyman is back." Zelena said.

Cora squinted into the darkness, and the Boogeyman floated over to her.

"Hi."

"Welcome back." Cora said happily.

"Thank you." The Boogeyman said.

"Are you ready to put our plan into action?"

"Yep, I gave Killian, Emma, Regina, and Henry nightmares…"

"What about Mary Margaret?!" Cora demanded.

"Well no…" The Boogeyman admitted.

Cora rolled her eyes, "She was one of the main people that I wanted you to give a nightmare to!"

"Well I'm strong enough to send Mary Margaret, Emma, and Regina into the book."

"You're sure that you'll be able to?" Zelena asked getting out of bed and standing beside Cora.

The Boogeyman nodded his head, "causing Emma, Killian, Regina and Henry to have nightmares made me much stronger."

"Do you know who to send into the book this time?" Cora asked sarcastically, "don't forget our magic can only transport three more people and they had better be the right three!"

"I know who they are and what they look like now." The Boogeyman said assuredly.

"Good then go and put our plan into action." Cora said.

"Gladly." The Boogeyman said as he floated up to the ceiling and disappeared.

"Isn't it exciting, dear?" Cora asked taking Zelena's hand, "Soon you will be royalty!"

Zelena forced a smile, "yeah I can't wait." She said trying to sound as excited as she could manage.

Cora smiled and touched Zelena's face "everything will be perfect!"

The sun shone through the window making Emma groan and pull the blanket over her face, she had been in Henry's room for quite a while, after his nightmare, but finally he had fallen asleep, and then when she had come back into her room Killian was still up, so she stayed up with him until he had finally dozed off a half hour or so before the sun rose. But Emma had stayed up to watch over him for a bit longer; she had never seen Killian that scared before so she was concerned. But eventually she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore and had laid down and tried to sleep herself, unfortunately though it was closer to sunrise then she had thought it was and pretty much as soon as she had closed her eyes the sun had come up. Emma sighed and touched her stomach as the twins kicked, they had been pretty still all night, but now that Emma was laying down they decided that now was the perfect time to start kicking, luckily they still felt like butterflies in her stomach, since Emma wasn't sure if she'd be able to handle large punches and kicks right now with how tired she was.

"Are you alright, love?" Killian asked concerned.

Emma took the blanket off of her head and turned to face Killian, "just tired." She admitted.

"I'm so sorry." Killian said feeling guilty.

Emma touched Killian's face, "I wish you would have told me what your nightmare was," Emma said, "I was so worried about you that I actually didn't sleep at all."

Killian sighed and kissed Emma's cheek, "I don't want to freak you out." Killian admitted.

"So the dream was about me?" Emma asked, she had had a feeling that it was.

Killian nodded his head tears falling from his eyes.

"Tell me." Emma encouraged.

Killian took a deep breath, "I dreamed…."

But a knock on the door cut Killian off before he could continue.

"Emma, Killian!" Regina called through the door.

"Come in." Emma called.

Regina cracked the door open peeking in, before opening the door all the way.

"Are you guys not ready?" Regina asked surprised, "Gold's here, it's almost time for the search party."

Emma and Killian looked at each other confused before the two of them remembered that they were supposed to have a search party to look for Belle this morning.

"Oh my God I forgot!" Emma said.

"Me too."

"So are you guys coming?" Regina asked after a few moments, "Gold is getting impatient and everyone else is already down there."

"Alright, we're coming, Regina." Emma said standing up, but as soon as her feet touched the ground the world started spinning and she fell right back onto the bed.

"Emma!" Killian and Regina said at the same time.

"Are you alright?" Killian asked putting his hand on her back in case she fell backwards."

Emma rested her head on Killian's shoulder; Regina kneeled down in front of her.

"Emma, you look exhausted." She said worried.

"She didn't get much sleep last night." Killian said rubbing Emma's back.

Regina looked at Killian, "you look exhausted as well, you and Emma have a little too much fun last night?" Regina asked jokingly.

"No we both had nightmares," Killian said.

"You two had a nightmare as well?" Regina asked surprised.

Emma raised her head off of Killian's shoulder, the world had stopped spinning, "Henry did too, so I was up pretty much all night trying to calm Killian and Henry down."

"Henry had a nightmare too?" Regina asked surprised, "I had no idea."

"It's alright," Emma said giving her a small smile, "I'm sure you had your fair share of helping Henry through his nightmares, over the years, it was my turn."

"Yeah he did have quite a few nightmares when he was younger," Regina admitted, "but I was never pregnant, and so my body didn't hate me for staying up all night."

"My body doesn't hate me." Emma said attempting to stand, but once again the world started to spin, "whoa," She said sitting back on the bed.

"You should probably sit this one out," Killian said.

"No I'll be fine." Emma said.

"Emma, we don't need you to hurt yourself, or the babies trying to find Belle," Regina said putting a hand on her shoulder, "stay here and relax, get some sleep, and we'll go and find Belle."

Emma wanted to fight Regina, but she felt so exhausted, she had once gotten this tired when she was pregnant with Henry, pregnancy didn't agree with her at all, and if she didn't get at least six hours of sleep then she was pretty much useless.

Sighing Emma looked at Killian, "be careful."

Killian leaned in and kissed Emma's lips, "I will," he said before standing up, allowing Emma to lie down, "I love you." Killian whispered as he pulled the blanket over Emma.

"I love you too," Emma mumbled, and when Killian looked at her he smiled when he saw that her eyes were already closed.

"Come on," Regina said walking to the door, "let's let her sleep."

Killian followed Regina, and the two of them walked down the hallway towards the grand ballroom.

"So how bad was your nightmare?" Regina asked curiously.

Killian shuddered, "it was worse than you could ever imagine." He whispered.

Regina waited for Killian to continue but the look on his face told her that he wasn't going to continue, "You know that talking to someone might make you feel better."

Killian sighed, he would love to talk to someone about his nightmare, but he just wanted to forget about it so instead he said, "I know," and then he and Regina walked the rest of the way in silence.

"There you guys are!" Gold said slightly annoyed, "What took you so long?"

"Where's Emma?" Mary Margaret asked confused.

"She was up all night and wasn't feeling well." Regina said.

"Why was she up all night?" David asked.

"I had a nightmare, and she stayed up with me to make sure I was OK." Killian said.

"I had a nightmare as well," Henry said, "and she stayed with me until I fell asleep."

"Both of you had nightmares?" Mary Margaret asked.

Killian and Henry nodded their heads.

"So did Emma." Killian said.

"So did I," Regina said, walking over to Henry and hugging him.

"How strange that you all had a nightmare." David said.

"What's so strange about that?!" Gold demanded, "What's strange is that my wife is still missing and we're standing around discussing nightmares while Belle is who knows where!"

"Gold's right." David said.

"Regina, you know where these tunnels are," Mary Margaret said, "Can you take us to them?"

"No need," Regina said walking to a candlestick in the wall, she pulled it and a wall opened up, "we're right above them."

Regina led Mary Margaret, David, Killian, Henry, Gold, and Saunders down the stairs, and when they reached the bottom they were greeted by five tunnels.

"Where do these tunnels lead to?" David asked looking around.

"Some lead to other parts of the castle, some lead outside." Regina said.

"Well we'd better split up," Gold said, "if Belle's down here I want to find her as quickly as possible."

"Alright David and I will go down the farthest left one." Mary Margaret said.

"I'll go down the one right next to that one." Saunders said.

"Henry and I will go down the next one." Regina said.

Gold and Killian looked at each other and scowled as they realized that it was only the two of them left.
"So we go alone?" Gold asked.

"Definitely." Killian said, he and Gold were a lot closer than they used to be but Killian didn't really want to walk down a tunnel with him alone.

"Let's get going," Regina said, "everyone try not to get lost."

"Let's meet up in the library in an hour." Mary Margaret suggested.

Everyone agreed and began walking down the tunnels that they had chosen.

The Boogeyman watched as they all separated, and then laughed, Emma was all by herself at that very moment, he decided that she would be his next victim. Laughing quietly to himself as he floated out of the secret passage way, and closing the wall, he then floated towards Emma's room.

End Chapter 7, the next chapter will be a lot more exciting I promise!

Please review!

I don't own OUAT.