A couple of hours later, Emma was having difficulty sticking to the trail and the Queen on her back was starting to shiver once again.
Emma grunted, "Okay. Break time!" Regina set her less damaged foot down, and the Sheriff guided her to a seated position. She could hear Regina's teeth chattering, and she knew much more of this the woman would get sick for sure. "Alright look. I'm having problems seeing where we are going. I'm going to build a fire, and we are going to wait until morning to continue."
Regina uncharacteristically did not snap at the blonde and Emma knew then the Queen was worse off than she was letting on. She quickly gathered up some wood and started another fire. She knelt and picked up the small brunette and cradled her in her arms next to the fire.
"Other than the scratches and your feet, are you feeling pain anywhere Regina?" Emma felt the woman's head which felt a little warm. Regina nodded her head silently against the blonde's chest. "Where?" Emma prodded.
"I just feel achy, everywhere."
Oh god, that could be fever...
"Take some more water." Emma held the water skin up to the brunette's uncharacteristically pale lips and coaxed her to drink.
Please don't get sick…
"Try and get some rest. I've got you," Emma whispered into the Queen's crown.
Ruby Lucas had practically moved into the Charming's loft, and while David had his hands full running both the mayor's office and the sheriff's station, Ruby tended to Henry, filled in at the station and cared for Snow. She had given her leave at Granny's for an indefinite amount of time a couple of weeks back and took to filling in at the station by answering phones when David had the town to run.
The random portal catastrophe made major news within the first week since Emma's bug took the big plunge to who knows where and almost all the calls to the station were portal related. David had a council meeting that afternoon and needed Ruby to cover the phones down at the station while he attended. They made an announcement to the general public of their limited knowledge about the portals and gave out practical advice when townsfolk encountered them. For the most part, any seen were out around the mine area and presumably the forest beyond. However, they lost seven townsfolk due to curiosity or sheer accident, and the council wanted answers. Answers David didn't have.
"I can't take the phones tonight, Granny needs me," Ruby said standing with her hands on her hips waiting for the argument that would inevitably follow.
"Waitressing is more important than public safety Red? Really?" David scowled and folded his arms over his chest.
"The last resident to go missing was one of Granny's girls! She is an old lady and can't waitress herself!"
"Have her close up! I need you," the blond said flippantly.
"And have the town panic because Granny's is closed? David, Granny's doesn't even close on holidays!" Red countered.
"We don't celebrate this realm's holidays anyway, what does it matter?" David reminded her haughtily.
"It matters because it is public perception. If things they rely on start changing, people will start to panic! Just reroute the phones to your cell. Henry can show you how. The council knows you are doing both Regina and Emma's jobs, they'll understand!"
"They want solutions Red! Solutions that I don't have! I am not the savior! I was never a king I was a shepherd! I have no idea how or why these portals are opening up or how the heck we are going to stop them!" He leaned his open palms against the counter and hung his head.
"Heck? Really, Charming?" Ruby smiled wide trying to add levity to calm the clearly agitated blond.
"Stow it Red," David grumbled knowing she was trying to defuse him.
"Well it's been a bit, and the Blue Fairy has come up with zilch. I think it is time to talk to the Dark One."
"Absolutely not," David folded his arms across his broad chest, he was putting his foot down about this, and she wasn't changing his mind.
"David-"
He shook his head and interrupted her, "No Ruby! He uses dark magic and any time we ask him for help we get burned!"
"If memory serves you and Snow sought out his help on more than one occasion back home! Your child is missing! Your wife is a wreck! Your town is getting sucked away one resident at a time! It is time to do something!"
"We paid the ultimate price for his help need I remind you? He masterminded the curse which ripped my child away from me hours after she was born!" he exclaimed a bit louder than he intended.
Ruby stood firm and said in a low tone, "I'm not arguing who's fault it was that my best friend didn't get to raise her kid because you really aren't going to like what I have to say about it. We need him, David."
"We don't. The fairies-"
"The fairies have no answers to even where the portals are coming from or why they are opening, let alone how to find Emma and bring her home!"
A confident knock on the door brought them both out of their increasingly heated debate. Red answered the door and smirked when she saw none other than Mr. Gold himself standing in the hall. "Mr. Gold! How lovely it is for you to stop by! Were your ears burning?" With a broad smile and a wave of her hand, she ushered the older man into the apartment, much to David's displeasure.
"What do you want Gold?" David spat, still angry from the debate.
"Well dearie, since no one is at the station to answer portal tips I decided this piece of information was important enough to make a house call."
"Thank you for coming by Mr. Gold, David and I were going to come by and see you, but it seems fate has saved us a trip," she said smugly.
"What is so important you came all the way downtown?" David grumbled.
"It seems as though King George has purposefully jumped into a portal," the man said with the hint of glee.
"What?!" David exclaimed loudly.
"David!" Ruby scolded flicking her eyes in sleeping Snow's direction and then upstairs where Henry was supposed to be doing his homework.
"Yes, I thought you would be interested in that."
"I bet he went back home to rule over his kingdom," Ruby said aloud, mostly to herself.
"Rule over what? Everyone is here!" David exclaimed.
"If my memory serves, your wife and daughter said there were people left in the Enchanted Forest after the curse took us away." Gold reminded gently. "There are bound to be stragglers."
"Pretty soon the rest of us will be joining them if we can't figure out how to stop the portals from happening," Ruby added ruefully.
"If Emma is there, she'll put a stop to anything dangerous he wants to do," David said to himself, worry over his daughter's safety paramount, but he knew she was perfectly capable of handling the likes of his would-be father.
"I do have an idea as to why they are manifesting," the imp allured.
Ruby shot a look at David and then turned her attention back to Rumple, "That's what we were coming to see you about. How do we stop them from happening?" She jumped right to the point.
"We can do nothing. The Savior needs to break the curse."
"Emma broke your damn curse!" David barked.
"Obviously not. We are still trapped here," the older man theatrically looked around the room. "The curse was only partially broken. The true love's kiss written into the curse was of a romantic," he punctuated the word with the jab of his hand, "variety. This is not what occurred."
"So her and Henry's kiss didn't break the curse?" Ruby asked incredulously.
"I'm afraid not dearie."
"So Emma needs to find her true love and break the curse and the portals will stop sucking people home?"
"You assume much Miss Lucas."
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked worrying her brow and shot a look at David who was all too quiet..
The Dark One took a deep breath, explaining anything to the likes of these heroes was taxing on his patience reserves. "All portals work the same. The portal latches onto a 'captain' if you will, the person who steers the portal. It may be the person who opens the portal or the closest person to the portal when it gets opened by other means. The portal that took the Savior and the Queen may not have gone to the Enchanted Forest at all!"
"How do we help them get back here if we don't even know where they went to!" David whisper-shouted, his face turning a shade of red and his eyes were frantic with concern.
"I have an idea about that as well, you are in luck!" the imp said with a flourish of his wrist.
"Oh, I'm sure we'll pay for it," David said under his breath, but loud enough both brunette's heard him loud and clear.
"David!" Ruby scolded once more.
Rumplestiltskin continued, ignoring the man's disdain, "There is a spell I can use to find someone in another realm, but I will need the boy's blood to track his parents."
"What do you need his blood for?!" David exclaimed horrified.
"His parent/child connection is strong-"
"I'm her father! Use my blood!" David cut him off mid-sentence.
"I sincerely doubt it will work with you, Mr. Nolan."
"Why the hell not?" David was letting his anger grow, and Ruby put her hand on the man's forearm to calm him.
"Well if you must know, I sincerely doubt our dear Savior considers your relationship that of a parent/child at all. Oh, she cares for you, that is for certain, but not like a child does for their parent," the older man exclaimed almost amused at the limited brain capacity of the would-be prince.
"And WHO'S fault is that?"
"I do believe it was you," he pointed his finger at the Prince and said with malice, "who put your infant daughter in a tree to another realm in the care of a six-year-old wooden puppet, not I."
"Get out!" David demanded.
"David!" Ruby exclaimed.
"NO! I will NOT stand here and listen to this Ruby!" David pointed towards the door and looked the imp right in the eye, "Get out of my house!"
Rumple sneered a partial grin of satisfaction and turned to the wolf. "Bring the boy by my shop in two days time. I will make preparations for the spell." he turned to face the blonde man brooding before him, "As always Charming, it was a pleasure." Then he disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.
"Absolutely not! He is not getting his hands on my grandson's blood! No!"
"David! It is our only chance of finding Emma and helping the town!"
He folded his arms over his chest and gritted his teeth. Ruby put her hand on the blond's shoulder and said gently, "I know how much you love it when I'm right so I'm gonna do you the favor of not rubbing this one in, okay? I'm gonna go check on the kid and then go down to the diner for the dinner shift." David grumbled something she couldn't hear under his breath.
She called as she bounded up the stairs, "Hey at least you have something to tell the council!"
In the room she shared with Henry, she found the boy on the bed face down, buried in a pillow. "Hey kid, I'm taking a shift down at the diner-" She heard a muffled sniffle and froze. "Are you alright?"
The boy sobbed, "She didn't love me enough to break the curse!"
Ruby dropped her shoulders and slumped down next to the brunette boy on the bed. "Henry, what have your moms said about eavesdropping?" She put her hand on his back and rubbed circles like she's seen Regina do to him on more than one occasion.
"They say not to do it," the boy mumbled into his pillow.
"That's right. Why?" she coaxed gently.
"Because I don't get the whole story."
"Right. You broke the curse, Henry. We all have our memories now. You brought back everyone's happy endings."
He sat up and spat the words as if they were filled with the hurt he felt by them, "She doesn't love me enough to break it all the way!"
Ruby defended her friend fiercely, "Emma loves you! Don't be ridiculous! The curse just needed a certain type of true love's kiss, Hen," she explained, "The kind when two people are soul mates or something. A romantical love, understand?"
"But how is she going to do that? Hook is dead! My dad is dead! Who else is there?"
Ruby smiled at the boy, "First things first. Let's find them and get them home, then we'll worry about breaking curses."
He considered it then agreed with a deep sniffle of his nose and a wipe of his cheeks with his sleeve, "Alright."
Ruby wrinkled her nose in disgust but didn't comment on the kid's manners, "Is your homework done?"
"No," he pouted.
"Okay finish it up. I'm taking a shift down at the diner tonight, and David has a council meeting, who knows how long that'll take. There's leftover chicken in the fridge, don't make that frozen pizza that's for Saturday okay?" She looked at him, and he smirked. She pointed a finger at him and warned, "Eat the chicken!"
"Okaaaaay!" he held up his hands in surrender, "What about Grandma?"
"I'll bring her something home from the diner. Granny made soup," the wolf shrugged her shoulders aloof.
He crashed into her and hugged her tight. "Thanks for taking such good care of us, Ruby."
"No sweat kid," she held his head to her and patted his back.