"Where is she?"
"We all came back on the Roger..." Hook started but his voice died off. He could not bring himself to explain the magnitude of his failure.
"She got stuck ... We left her on the edge of the forest." Henry told them and Mary Margaret held him tightly as the tears started again.
Charming advanced on Hook, "You left her? In the forest? What the hell happened to the man that would do anything to get her back? I trusted you to-"
"The infinite forest, mate."
Charming quieted immediately.
The next hour passed in a blur of commotion. Regina was speechless with joy when she finally took Henry in her arms once more, but even she allowed a hint of worry to cross her face when she realized Emma was nowhere to be found.
He must have looked a wreck, because no one even bother to yell at him since he had told Charming where Emma was. He expected an outburst from Neal, but he just hugged his son tightly.
Hook tried to disappear but Neal caught sight of him out of the corner of his eye and followed him from the room, catching him just outside the door.
Here goes, Hook thought as the man ran to catch up with him. Time for Neal to remind me that I destroy everything I touch.
"Thank you, Hook."
Hook stared at the man dumbfounded. "Bloody hell." Now Neal looked confused too. "Thank you? What in the bloody hell is wrong with you? I lost her. Lost her- A fate worse than death to her, I left her all alone in an endless forest..." Tears threatened to come and Hook wasn't certain why he fought them any longer. Henry was safe, he could break now. No one needed him now.
"You brought my son back to me Hook. There was nothing you could have done for Emma, no one could have known where you would land. I'm..." he touched the other man's shoulder hesitatingly... "I'm sorry Hook."
"I have to go back, Neal."
"Do you have a way to find her?" Neal asked, eyes brightening.
"No, but I have to go back."
"We'll find a way."
"Find a way? There's no way out of there, no one has ever gotten out of there."
"That's not, strictly speaking, true." Charming's voice interrupted from behind him.
Hook turned slowly. "How?"
"I did it once, but not under my own power. The Dark One -"
Both Neal and Hook looked up in surprise.
"Then he can do it again," Hook cried.
"The dark one does not exist anymore." The crocodile himself joined their impromptu hallway meeting. "I haven't the power I had then, it was destroyed by the dagger."
"Regina then," Hook suggested.
"She may not have been able to do it even if she wasn't spent protecting this castle," the crocodile gloated.
"So what, we just leave her there?" Neal asked in indignation.
"We will find a way," Charming sighs, "we just don't know what it is yet."
"I'm going back."
"Hook you won't find her in there," Charming challenged, "That's why they call it infinite."
"It's better than sitting around here doing nothing, I can't leave her alone in there."
"Don't be so hasty, dearie, the only way our dear Prince Charming escaped was the call of his true love... And an impressive display of magic if I do say so myself. You broke the curse... So little good it would do her if you were inside too."
Neal tensed but remained silent.
"I'll stay outside ... live in my cabin." Hook resolved.
"Me too!" Henry cried running to Hook's side from behind the door where he had concealed himself.
"Hell no," Neal started-
"Can you give us a minute," Hook asked pulling Henry aside. Neal's jaw tightened but he nodded as Hook led Henry a few feet away and knelt in front of him.
"You can't come with me, mate, you're needed here."
"You're lying, Hook, you're trying to keep me safe. Maybe I don't want to be safe, I want to help-"
"You're an observant lad, Henry, you get that from Emma. So tell me, have you noticed Regina? She needs you Henry, to help her stay strong and protect the castle. And look at your dad...your grandparents... they just got you back...you wouldn't leave them again so soon?"
Henry got that look in his eyes, Emma's look. Determination and fire and frustration but finally he sighed and nodded.
"Good." They walked back to the group and Henry walked up to Neal.
"If I stay here, can we go visit sometimes? He shouldn't have to wait alone."
" 'Course Henry," Neal said, "when Regina says the monkeys are distracted, we can go."
Emma didn't move for hours, what purpose would that serve? She had tried several more times in several different directions, But no matter which way she turned she always ended up back at that stone; the dried blood mocking her attempts to escape. She hadn't come across any predators, but she hadn't come across any food either. Oddly enough, that didn't seem to matter. It must've been days, at least, and she felt no hunger. Whatever the reason she was grateful for it. It didn't seem like she would starve, there didn't seem to be any ogres around, or any other living thing for that matter. Just her and an endless expanse of nothing. And she had thought foster care was bad...
She convinced herrself that Henry was safe, that Hook would take care of him. There was no point in thinking otherwise, it would only drive her crazy. There wasn't much else to do in this empty expanse, besides go crazy. She clung to the compass constantly, as it spun without ceasing. He had told her they would find each other, but the broken compass was not exactly helping. Hours passed. Days, maybe weeks there was no way to know. The sun never set, the moon never rose, the dull grey sky held no stars. Her mind was beginning to fracture, reliving both her most precious and most painful memories relentlessly. Sometimes she saw him, smirk fully in place striding across the landscape and she ran to him, but she could make no progress. He stayed ever distant as she tried to reach him. She hadn't slept, so she began to suppose that these were dreams of some sort. Waking dreams since apparently she had no more need for sleep than she did for food.
Eventually she realized that she had no need to fear external enemies of any kind. She was truly alone here. She bathed in the river and kept watch from the tree and tried to give some order to her days... but there was too much time to think...
He lied to her, she realized. He would never find her. She was abandoned again, alone forever, the perfect orphan.
And then she had bursts of mad hope. She would see him in the distance and she would cry out to him. Beg him to find her. The smirk faded. Sometimes he almost looked concerned, but he moved no closer.
She tried to follow him, but he was beyond her range, beyond the endless loop that led her perpetually back to that bloody rock. To the endless stream.
Then one day, she saw him closer. She stopped trying to approach, and eventually he moved towards her again.
"Killian," she screamed. He was closer than he had ever been before.
Tears slipped down her cheeks, "Killian, please don't leave me alone."
"We will always find each other," he told her, speaking for the first time.
It wasn't real, he wasn't real. Even if it was a figment of her imagination, who else was she supposed to talk to in here?
"How, Killian, please..."
But he was gone.
But he always came back. Just like the real Killian he always came back. He hovered, just on the corner of her vision. The figment crept closer. Hovering, just on the edge of her vision vanishing if she looked too close.
"Come back to me," he said.
She had stopped asking him to find her days ago. He wasn't real, he couldn't find her. She was going crazy. What other excuse was there to talk to a man that you know is not real.
"I hope you have Henry," she told him instead, he was so close somehow it didn't seem strange to talk to him anymore.
"I hope you went back to my family...I wish I could tell you that I don't blame you. I thought I did at first, for stealing my memories of Henry. I thought I should be angry, but I wasn't."
"We will always find each other," he told her again.
"Yeah, you mentioned that. Lovely sentiment, if you'd only bother to follow up on it."
"Come back to me."
"Don't you think I would if I knew how!" she screamed. He disappeared.
Great, now she was arguing with a figment, and he was what… giving her the cold shoulder. Still, if this was going crazy, it wasn't so bad. It was better than being alone in here forever.
Killian made the return journey without incident. Regina, knowing he was traveling, probably had something to do with the lack of aerial attackers. The fog hadn't moved like he thought it would. It claimed the same portion of his ship that it had a days earlier when he had left it behind.
He spent the first few days cleaning and organizing the wreck of the ship. There was no point, really. The Roger was no longer seaworthy even if it wasn't grounded in the middle of a forest. What difference did it make if his navigation desk was in order.
It was something to do.
It was so close. His cabin. Just on the edge of the fog. He slept with the door open, told himself that it was to watch in case the fog shifted. If he was being honest, he wasn't sure what he would do if it did.
It was so close... Taunting him, tempting him. Just come in, it told him, just a few steps.
Sometimes he pretended she could hear him.
He told her that he loved her, begged her to come back. Screamed into the fog as if it would help her find her way out. When his voice was sore and hoarse he would retreat back into the cabin and drink himself into a stupor.
Repeat until insane.
"Please come back, Emma" he asked, for the thousandth time.
He had given up screaming a few days ago, knew it wouldn't help. Now he just whispered ceaselessly; "We will always find each other. Please come back."
Sometimes Charming rode out to see him, he would have a few drinks and talk about Emma. Cry the tears that he refused to let show at home. Then he would retreat. Back into the castle...Back into the Prince. Neal even visited him sometimes. He was calm but red rimmed eyes told Killian he was hurting too. There was no more venom between them. Neither had the energy for it.
Neal brought Henry too, as promised. Henry told him that he knew he would get his mother back. His confidence was just one more barb, because he wasn't doing anything to get her back. Just waiting and begging and getting drunk enough to pretend that she could hear him whispering 'I love you.'
AN: A little too angsty to be a Valentines day present... You know when I started this story I mentioned that it was angstier than my usual style. In retrospect I suspect I did not know my usual style yet :P
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