Chapter Twenty: Uncovered Secrets
"Jeez, Jack!"
"Well, what else was I supposed to do? You had me in quite a bind back there. Had to convince you it was me somehow."
"Yeah, but…'I love you, Emma Swan'? Where did that come from?"
"Through the hundred years I've been here, all I could think about was how great it felt bring around somebody that reminded me of how things used to be in Torchwood. The people I knew…the family I had…the ones I loved."
Listening to Jack as they made their way to the TARDIS, Emma stopped for a moment to look back at him and shake her head. "Jack…I just…I just wanna get back home."
Harkness nodded. "I know. So do I."
She pointed a strict finger at him and added, "But we will be discussing more about this when we get back."
Jack grinned. "Yes, ma'am."
As Jack and Emma neared the TARDIS, the blue box made itself visible again, allowing the two to walk through its doors and into the console room. Stepping into the TARDIS for the first time in a long time, Jack was taken aback from the extensive changes that had been made to it. Gone was the organic "coral" design of the room, replaced by what Jack could only described as the "Pee-Wee's Playhouse Renovation," but he wouldn't dare tell the Doctor that when he saw him again.
"Jack!" He heard Snow shout his name and spotted her at the console platform just in time to see her run up to him and give a warm embrace. "You're back!"
"Was there any doubt I wouldn't return?" Harkness jested before looking back to the console platform to see River and Mulan. "Where's Aurora?"
"She's asleep in one of the bedrooms." River confirmed. "Where's Hook?"
"He's detained," answered Emma.
"What?" Snow remarked with confusion that echoed over to River and Mulan.
"It's a long story," said Jack, "but the important thing now is that we got the compass to get us back home."
Snow smiled in relief. "Great. All we need now is the dust from Cora."
"Yeah, Emma was telling me about that." Jack said. "I think there's another way we can get back to Storybrooke without that dust."
The eyes of every woman in the TARDIS console room grew big on this sudden revelation of Jack's. River was the only one who managed to ask, "How?"
Just as Harkness began to explain, there was screaming that came from outside the console room, calling out Snow's name repeatedly. Everyone immediately rushed out of the room and into another area of the TARDIS that was a comforting Victorian bedroom where Aurora had been sleeping. She sat up in the bed just as the others arrived. Snow sat beside her and softly said, "Hey. I'm here. It's okay. It's okay. It's just another nightmare."
"No…this time…it was different." Aurora said. "There was a little boy. He…He put out the fire. He talked to me."
"A little boy?" Snow questioningly uttered.
"What'd he say?" Emma asked.
"He said…He said his name was Henry."