OK, I'm back again :) Hope you all had an awesome Easter weekend and that you enjoyed the previous two chapters - and that you will enjoy the ones I'm posting now!
The next minute was filled with shouts of surprise, thudding steps and pushing bodies as people tried to understand what had happened. Because for some odd reason even people from the Enchanted Forest, used to sleeping out in the wild around a single campfire, seemed to go crazy when a blackout occurred.
"Everyone!" David bellowed. "Everyone, please, stay calm! Stay where you are!"
Slowly, agonizingly slowly things calmed and David drew a deep breath before he continued.
"It seems that we're experiencing a blackout", he said. "It's nothing dangerous, as you're all well aware."
He shot a pointed look through the dark room to where some of the dwarves had been standing, particularly since he knew Leroy to be one person that could suddenly cause chaos.
"Lumos", he then heard someone mutter, then another and another, until fifteen wands were illuminating the room with magic light.
"Thank you", he said, nodding at them while fighting to keep from looking in Rachel's direction. The look on her face when she had seen that man in the green vest was not one he had enjoyed seeing and he feared that if he looked specifically in that direction now he would be unable to stop himself from going over there and demanding an explanation as to who the man was. Damn, he thought, he was getting extremely overprotective with her.
"Now", he instead said, "I want everyone to make their way home in a calm manner. We will investigate things."
"Who's we, exactly?" Leroy asked.
"Me and Emma", David replied, then glanced at his sister, "and Rachel."
She raised her eyebrows at him in surprise, before her shoulders slumped slightly. She had understood that he wanted to talk to her.
"But", one of the other dwarves said, "what about the party?"
"And our TVs?" another one asked.
"And computers?" a third said.
"Look, we'll fix things as soon as we can", David promised. "You'll have all of those things up and running in no time."
Then he waved his hand at them in a slightly mimicking gesture of a royal dismissal. When he realized this he quickly lowered his hand and stalked towards the door. On the way he passed Rachel, who moved to fall into step beside him. The blond man in the green vest immediately reached out and grabbed her arm.
"Rachel, wait", he said.
"Let me go, Sam", she ordered.
"We need to talk", the man, Sam, replied. "I need answers, I need to..."
"I believe my sister told you to let her go", David replied and glared at Sam. He looked back, perhaps estimating if taking him on would be worth it, and then released Rachel's arm.
"Do I have time to change?" she asked him as they walked out through the door, clearly wishing for a change in subject.
"Yeah", he muttered.
"Good. I'd much rather not fight things in this."
She gestured towards her red dress. David, in turn, narrowed his eyes at and stopped her. They were half-way down the street to his and Mary Margaret's apartment and people from the party were all around them, but he did not care.
"Do you know something about this?" he demanded to know.
"No, David, I do not", Rachel replied, glaring at him. Then she shrugged off his hands and marched on.
"Well", Nathan said, pulling a sweater over his head, "that's one way to end a party."
"Shut up, Nathan", Jenna snapped at him. It was how she usually replied to his remarks and the familiarity of it did make some members of the group smile. They had taken to Granny's Diner after the party; it was empty of other people so they could talk undisturbed. The only sad thing was that since the power was gone none of the machines worked and thus no one could get anything warm to drink. And considering the chill that had suddenly become very noticeable in the night air, a warm drink would have been a very good thing.
"Why is Rachel the only one who gets to do something?" Jade muttered, glaring at the table in front of her. "It's not like the rest of us are incapable of anything."
"I'm sure David had his intentions with bringing her along", Indira said, then glanced in Sam's direction. He was sitting at the edge of the group, staring unseeingly in front of him.
"Well, it's probably like David said", Miranda said. "A minor fault, easy to fix. Rachel could even use magic to fix it. In less than an hour I'm sure we'll have the power back and everyone will be happy again."
There was the buzzing sound of someone's phone going off and after some searching Wolfgang pulled his out of his jacket pocket.
"Another surprise, Captain", he said with a grin as he answered. "I didn't know you knew how to use a phone."
"You learn something new every day in this world", Killian replied. Even though the comment was meant to be cheerful something in his voice made Wolfgang go on high alert and straighten up in his seat.
"What?" he asked. "What is it?"
"You should probably come see for yourself", Killian replied, the cheerful tone in his voice now gone, "because I don't even bloody know."
"Where are you?" Wolfgang asked while pushing his way through the group, then gesturing towards Brandon, his apprentice, to come along.
"Close to the Toll Bridge", Killian replied. "Went to see if this... blackout had something to do with the Wicked Witch."
He paused, then cursed at something under his breath.
"You might want to send some people out", he then added. "Check the town border, all around the town."
"The border?" Wolfgang repeated, looking back at the others. If they had not gone on high alert before they certainly were now.
"We'll get right to it", he then added, before hanging up.
"There's something at the border of the town?" Filipi asked, frowning.
"I don't know why we're even surprised at that anymore", Toby sighed and rose. "We need to split up, investigate the town border. If Hook's found something strange at it it'll probably not be too hard to find, even in places where it cuts through the forest."
The Sheriff's car passed by them outside the window, heading in the direction they had come from in the morning.
"They'll have the west road covered, most likely", Maryse said.
"Killian said he was at the Toll Bridge", Wolfgang said. "That's northwards."
"Alright, so we need people to scout the border mainly to the east and south", Toby said. "Apprentices?"
"Let them come along", Ella said. "It's better than leaving them behind."
"Two masters and two apprentices heading in each direction, perhaps?" Catriona suggested.
"Good idea", Wolfgang agreed. "Brandon, Nathan, you two are with me. We'll have Killian accompanying us as well."
"Me and Blaire can head south", Clarissa said. "Who's coming with us?"
"I am", Rowan replied, earning him a smile from the now red-headed Australian girl. His two apprentices, Serena and Laura, looked at one another briefly before Laura shrugged.
"I'll stay here", she said. "Serena can go with you guys."
"Me, Jade, June and Carmen can head east", Chris said.
"Good", Toby said with a nod. "The rest of us remain here, set up a command central. Keep in touch; that's an order."
"Yes, we know how much you disliked staying out of touch with people last time", Jade remarked, before hurrying out through the door with her group. As she did she almost ran into a gangly boy, who was walking with his shoulders slumped and head down, kicking loose pebbles across the path leading from the street to the diner.
"Henry", Jade quickly greeted. The boy looked up and blinked, then managed a small smile.
"Hi", he said, "I heard you were back."
"Yeah. Sorry, I've got to go, but the majority of the others are in there so..."
She smiled, then ran after Chris, June and Carmen. Henry looked after her for a few moments before he turned back towards the diner and, hesitating slightly, pushed the door open. The twenty people still present looked up at him and some waved and shouted greetings at him. He simply waved back, then walked in behind the counter and pulled a lukewarm apple donut from the previously heated rack. Turning towards the refrigerator he also pulled out a coke, then pulled out a five dollar bill and placed it in a half-open drawer by the cashier, along with a note alerting Granny that he was the one who had taken the two edible objects.
"Henry."
He looked up at the short-haired blonde in front of him. Arianne, his mother's connection and friend. Well, one of his mothers, that was.
"Are you alright?" she now asked, a small frown visible on her forehead.
"Yeah", Henry replied, though a small sigh did seep out from him as he spoke, "just... some trouble with my mum."
"Which one of them?" Arianne asked.
"Regina. She... doesn't want to see me."
Henry glanced behind her to make sure that none of the others was listening in.
"I know she's heartbroken about Robin Hood", he then said, "but I haven't seen her in a month now. And I'd just gotten back to her."
He stared down at the apple donut, which now did not look at all appetizing to him.
"Do you want me to talk to her?" Arianne asked.
"How do you plan on doing that?" he grumpily questioned. "I'm her son and she won't even talk to me, and don't tell me that it's because it's a grown-up thing."
"I wasn't going to", Arianne promised, "but I can try at least, see if... I don't know, maybe I can get her to see sense. It's not a guarantee. Like you said; if she won't talk to you, why would she talk to me?"
"You're welcome to try", Henry said, then grabbed his purchases and moved towards the door. He did not wave at the rest of the group as he left; he had initially planned to stay at Granny's for a while, since he did not want to go back to David and Mary Margaret's apartment and explain why he was out walking all alone during a blackout (really, his grandparents were extremely overprotective of him sometimes), but he could not stay there with that big group seated there as well. So where else could he go that offered him some calm, grandparent-free environment?
He stopped dead in his tracks. That was it, was it not? He needed to talk to his grandparents, but not the ones on Emma's side. He needed to seek out and ask his paternal grandfather for help with this situation.
He needed to speak with Gold.
"So", David said in the car, "when were you going to tell me about that guy?"
"Are we seriously doing this now?" Rachel asked back, shooting him a glare from the passenger seat.
"Yes", he replied. "I want to know who he is, why he's here and what happened between you two."
"David", Emma said from the backseat, "I'm pretty sure that's Rachel's business."
"Well, I want to know if he's someone I should worry about", David said. Rachel could feel her eyebrows shoot up in surprise.
"Someone you should worry about? David, for God's sake; you're my brother, not my jealous boyfriend."
"And as your older brother I should make sure that you're not hurt."
Rachel groaned and buried her face in her hands. Why was this happening? How could Sam even be here? He was supposed to be back in New York, safe and sound and as far away from her as possible. This was definitely not something she was enjoying.
"His name's Sam", she eventually relented. "We went out for a bit while we were in New York."
"And then your friends brought him here?" David asked.
"Well, I guess, but I don't know why", Rachel replied. "I don't know why he's here, alright? I wanted him to stay in New York so that he would not get involved in whatever might happen here, because let's face it; this place is a magnet for magical danger. Seeing him at that party shocked me."
"Alright, good", David said, facing the road again, "so did you like him?"
"Why am I being interrogated like this?" Rachel asked. Now the corners of her brother's lips curled upwards in a smile. Emma groaned in the backseat.
"He's only trying to get you to say that he's your True Love", she joked, causing Rachel to huff.
"I can imagine. Could we just focus on our job here? Or, rather, your job, seeing as you two are the town's Sheriffs."
"You could make a good Deputy, you know", David said with a grin.
"Don't make the Sheriff position into a family thing", Rachel replied.
"Well, that's easier said than done in this town", Emma pointed out, causing the two in front of her to chuckle. This sound, however, died out fairly quickly as they turned a corner on the road. David's stopped the car at once and for a few seconds the trio just sat there, staring.
"What the hell?" David eventually breathed. In front of them was the green sign with the words Leaving Storybrooke, marking the western border of the town. Some twenty yards further away from that sign was the magical town line, marked in orange paint on the road to make sure that no one walked across it without knowing it. Although, at the moment, they could not see this line. In fact they could not see anything of what lay beyond the green Leaving Storybrooke sign since there was a wall there. A wall stretching far beyond the tops of the tallest trees of the forest and made out of solid ice.
