Author's note: Hello everyone, I'm terrible sorry it has taken me such a long time to update this story. I haven't forgotten it, I simply did not have the time at all to write. July was the month work demanded a lot of attention (end of school year stuff - every teacher knows how that goes) and when I did finally have summer break, I had my vacation trip. But I'm back, and here's a new chapter for you all to enjoy. I simply hope people haven't given up on my story yet.
Chapter 8
And then they were back all of a sudden. Back in Fairytale Land, their homeland, the land Snow and Emma had visited while they hadn't meant to at all, the land that they all thought had been destroyed. It had looked destroyed when Snow and Emma had been here months ago, but they had seen that the people who apparently had been left behind had tried to rebuild their homes.
Snow White looked around frantically, noticing David was with her. Which made sense, they had been together when the dark cloud had hit them. Emma and Henry, however, were nowhere to be seen. As well as Regina and the rest of their friends, or the rest of the citizens of Storybrooke. Frantically the fair Queen stood up and looked around, but how good she looked, there was no sign of her daughter and grandson.
David had also stood up and made his way over to his wife. Catching her elbow, he noticed her anxiousness. "I'm sure they are fine, Snow," he soothed. "Come on, let's find how to get to everyone else."
"But what if..."
"They'll find us, Snow. Family always finds each other, remember?"
"What about Regina?"
"For her it's the same, as I'm pretty sure you never stopped thinking of her as anything other than your new mother."
Snow nodded, knowing that David was speaking the truth. She did consider Regina still her mother, part of her family and family always finds each other. So, together Snow White and her Prince Charming, started walking. Not knowing where their journey would end, neither knowing what had happened to everyone else.
When Regina regained consciousness, she noticed several things at once. Firstly she was lying on the forest ground, indicating she was no longer in Storybrooke searching for Wendy. The second thing was that she could neither move her hands nor her feet and the ropes holding her were cutting of her blood circulation. The last thing she noticed was someone prodding her with something that felt like a branch.
"Go get King George! I think she's waking up!" The person who was prodding her said to someone else. The voice definitely belonged to a man. 'Probably one of George's guards.' And with that thought came a startling realisation and Regina felt as if her breath was knocked out of her lungs. 'We're back! He referred to Albert Spencer as King George! How? Henry? Where's Henry? And Snow? And Wendy? We were looking for Wendy.'
Time to let the new information really sink in, wasn't there. King George had come over and roughly pulled Regina to her feet. Dizziness claimed her and she had to do more than best not to fall down on her knees.
"Well, well, well, your majesty," King George sneered. "What an awful predicament you find yourself in, it seems."
Regina pushed herself to her limit to try and stand as regal as she could with her hands and feet bound. Never speaking a word, a look of indifference and haughtiness claimed her face.
"So, tell me, your majesty, who's going to save you now?" King George jabbed.
"I..." Henry tried to yell but Emma had clamped her hand over the boy's mouth. The moment they regained consciousness, they'd started their search for the others and they'd stumbled upon Albert Spencer and, apparently, his guards. It was then Henry had noticed his other mother lying on the ground and they hid behind the bushes and the trees.
"Shhh," she said. "Be quiet, they don't know we are here. Let's keep that element of surprise."
"But he's going to hurt my mom!" Henry almost yelled, but just in time he remembered to keep quiet and it came out an angry whisper.
"I won't let them hurt Regina, Henry." Emma stroked his hair. "But we need a plan to save her. We can't just barge in and wing it. There's like fifty of them and only two of us." No sooner had she said this or she heard the voice of Mary Margaret -Emma still had a hard time to call her Snow White- called out to her and Henry. Both of them turned around and shushed her, earning them a confused look from both Mary Margaret and David.
Henry had turned his attention back to his other mother and he gasped when he saw she had been taken away from the place she had stood just a moment ago. "She's gone, they've taken her!" He cried and buried his face against Emma. The blonde looked at the spot she'd last seen Regina to find her son was right. Regina was no longer standing where she had been standing a mere moment ago. There was no telling where she'd been brought to.
"We saw Regina," Emma explained to her parents. "Albert Spencer had her bound, it ..." she trailed of, not wanting to say what she thought in front of Henry, but both Snow and David got the message clearly.
"King George has been trying to get to this point for years." David says.
"We need to save her." Henry exclaimed.
"We certainly are going to, sweetheart." Snow said. "But we need a plan. We can't just barge in and wing it."
"That's what ma said as well." Henry looked thoughtful for a moment. Then his eyes started shining. "What if..." and quickly he told his mother and grandparents about the plan he thought of to save his other mother.
Cora noticed the ship's movements finally had calmed down. She stood up and walked out onto deck. A quick look around and she saw Hook standing at the helm, looking straight ahead. She had a pretty good idea, he knew she was up on deck. She smiled wickedly.
Hook felt Cora come up, but he refused to look her way. After fifteen minutes of being watched by Cora, his anxiousness was top notch. He left the helm and he went below deck. As soon as the ship had hit the calm water, he'd wanted to check on Wendy, but Cora coming up instantly as well, sort of prevented that. When he got down, he turned right and entered a small room.
On the ground sat Wendy, hands and feet bound and gagged. Hook moved closer and removed the gag. "Are you alright?"
Wendy nodded, "yes." Her voice was raspy. Hook quickly got a mug and filled it with water. Wendy drank eagerly from it. "Thank you, Killian."
Hook nodded in acknowledgement. "How is it possible that you still remember me? The last time we saw each other you were twelve."
"Because you haven't changed one bit, Killian. How's that even possible? Surely you've not stayed in Neverland all this time?"
"No I haven't, I've simply been out and about." He put the mug away, and it was when he turned around he saw it. A small red stripe on the left side of her face. Instantly he was at her side. "You're hurt."
Wendy shook her head, "it's nothing."
But Hook would have none of it and quickly cleaned out the wound on her head and bandaged it. Then he cleaned her face.
"Awww, this is cute."
Both Wendy and Hook looked up and saw Cora standing in the door opening. Hook unconsciously moved in front of Wendy. Cora noticed this and stored this information away for later use.
"What is it that you want?!"
"There's no need to be so hostile, Hook. I'm merely stating a fact."
"You're never merely stating a fact, Cora. That is a fact."
"Touché," Cora agreed. "We're going on a little walk, Hook, and she is coming along."
While Hook's eyes narrowed, Wendy's eyes widened. Both knew there was not much they could do about it, other than comply. Hook silently unbound Wendy's feet, so she was able to stand and walk. He helped her up, and steadied her. Their eyes were holding a conversation Cora couldn't understand and she didn't like that.
"Well, ladies first." And she yanked Wendy in front of her. The young woman had to do her best not to fall down again, after being pushed so roughly by Cora. Slowly they made their way to their destination; unknown to two, very well known to one.
"Is he dead?" One of the boys asked.
"I don't think so. I see his chest rising and must mean he's breathing." Another replied, clearly the leader.
"Are you sure it's really him?"
"Yes, I am."
"It doesn't look like him." A third one said. "He's all grown up."
"Well, that's what happens when you leave Neverland. You know what happened to Killian when he left all those years ago. He was all grown up when he came back."
The boys nodded, clearly remembering their old friend who had gone and left Neverland all those years ago when he'd been still a teenager and when they saw him again, he'd been an adult.
"Do you think he will remember us?" The youngest boy asked.
"I don't know," the older one said. "I do know that we can't leave him here. Either the mermaids or the indians will get to him and I don't think they're memories of him are alike ours."
Quickly and quietly, as they've always had, they made a stretcher out of branches and leaves. Once they'd finished, they carefully put the man they'd been speaking of on the stretcher. They took turns carrying the stretcher and when they got back to their camp, the other boys had gathered around the gate.
"Is it him? Is it really him? Has he returned?" The whispers carried through the camp.
The man was brought to one of the sleeping tents and carefully laid down. In the half hour it had taken the boys to go from the beach to their camp, the man hadn't shown any sign of regaining consciousness anytime soon. The youngest boy that had been among them got the task of keeping an eye on their patient and notify his leader of any changes.
