Chapter 36: Old Friends Meet Again

"I'm just going to warn you now," Henry says as the two of them walk through the quieter streets on their way to the asylum. "My mom… she's completely different because of the curse."

"How different are we talking? Are we talking Dark Swan different? Or Wish Realm different?" Having read these in his book and heard from Regina what happened when the Evil Queen forced Aladdin to grant Emma's wish.

He pauses for a moment. "Combine them, add more hopelessness and despair, sprinkle in what she was like when she first came here, and you'll have the cursed Emma Swan."

"Yeesh, that bad huh?"

"She's depressed, angry, and distant like when she was the Dark One, she claims that she's delusional and still living in a fairytale world like Princess Emma was… And she doesn't see light at the end of the tunnel. She thinks she needs help and lets herself be manipulated and controlled by the Black Fairy. That's not the Mom I know. She doesn't trust me anymore, thinking that I'll undo her progress she thinks she's made… She pushes me away. Guess I had that coming after I pushed her away when she was the Dark One... It's like talking to a stranger, who hasn't gone to Neverland and sacrificed so much to save you…"

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin notices the pain in Henry's face and the tears welling up in his eyes. She pauses in the street, stopping and turning Henry to face her. She then wraps her arms around him very tightly.

"It will be okay," she says. "Once the curse is broken, the real Emma will come back."

"I-I know, it's just so hard."

"It's always hard to see your loved ones suffer, especially when they don't deserve it."

The two remain embraced for a long time, just reassuring one another that they will break this curse, no matter what.

When they start walking again, Henry brings up something else.

"Also, with the curse and everything, she probably won't know who you are, so be prepared for that too."

"Please, I'm used to it by now. After both Ashley and Aurora didn't recognize me… the woman who would babysit for them and help organize Baby Time, I knew that my entire existence had been wiped from this town. You have no idea how happy I was when you used my name and knew who I was."

"Do you think your dad will remember you?"

"With him, it's hard to tell; he can always find a loophole of some kind. But I really don't want to confront him right now because I will no doubt throw him through a wall for letting his mother do this to us."

"Get in line," the teenager agrees. He'd been so confused and overwhelmed by everything that he had forgotten that this was all technically his grandfather's fault for not facing his own destiny and doing what needed to be done. He could partially understand why anyone would be hesitant to kill their own mother, but the woman was called The Black Fairy; she'd abandoned Rumpel as a baby, she'd stolen his Uncle Gideon as a baby, forced him to do evil things including trying to kill Henry's birth mother, and she was the embodiment of all things evil and dark. Much like Cora or Cruella, there was very little chance for this entity to redeem themselves and needed to be eliminated. Now, they were all reaping the consequences of his grandfather's decision. Henry hopes that he remembers because he deserved to know about the suffering that he'd brought on everyone, including his wife, son, and daughter… if they can even find Belle.

The teenager then looks up and swallows a large lump in his throat.

"We're…here."

The two of them come to a great big, green building, that reached up into the gray Maine sky. The building had gardens surrounding it that looked like they were dying, there were fences on all sides of the place to keep people in. Crystal looks up at the big black letters of the sign of the asylum:

Stygian Mental Ward

The building may have been green, but to her, all Crystal can see is a gray- shaped prison to hold those people with genuine mental illnesses (or curse created) and prevent them from escaping. What reinforced her assumption that this place was undoubtedly a prison were the bars on all the windows and the front doors have security codes. Even when Henry presses a button to speak to the person at a front desk and then the loud buzzing, a heavy thunk signalling the door is open, and the security x-rays, it confirms her notion even further. She wouldn't be surprised if there were guards on the other end of the hallway ready to do baggage checks.

The teenage author leads his companion to the front desk, having become used to this, he knows to ignore everything happening around them. Crystal, however, looks around the area in utter horror, wrinkling her nose at the most awful smell, and becoming sicker at the poor condition of this so-called "mental hospital." The front desk area is piled high with papers with brown coffee rings staining them and dust covering the old and clunky looking computer. She can see the water cooler in the nearby corner filled with green, atrocious looking liquid and mousetraps in all the corners. An old fan tied with bits of paper blows just behind the desk, causing further throw first and dust into the heavy air. The place could hardly be described as clean, or even safe for that matter. There was filth on the walls, each door had security locks and bars on the tiny windows and there are splotches of what could very well be blood from patients harming themselves or fighting with one another. No one seemed to have thought to clean it up to avoid disease spreading into the ward!

I thought society had moved past this… she thinks to herself. She remembers reading all about asylums of the past and how patients were treated like sub-humans and the conditions of the hospital were absolutely appalling. It appears that the Stygian Mental Ward was going to join the ranks of the worst asylums in history.

When Henry clears his throat to get the clerk's attention, she turns back to focus on what was important. She recognizes the nurse behind the reception desk. Nurse Rachet, like from that book she was forced to read in high school. The sullen, strict, and angry healthcare professional looks up from her mountains of paperwork to stare at the two new visitors. Immediately, she recognized one of the faces, but her expression shifts into more annoyed than stern. She doesn't even try to hide her eyes rolling.

"Back, again are we?" she asks in a rather annoyed and impatient voice. "I'm actually under strict orders from your mother to only allow you in here every two weeks."

"She is not my mother!" the teenager growls. "My real mother is trapped here because of the Bl…" He catches himself realizing he's going to let fairy tale knowledge slip to an asylum nurse. "Because of the Blackwell family."

Crystal puts a tentative hand on her "brother's" shoulder, trying to calm him down. This is obviously a sensitive subject to bring up with him, but she cannot blame him for becoming so angry. She hated the fact that she was related to Rumpelstiltskin so much, that she would snap at anyone who would mistakenly call her Crystal Gold, instead of Miller. And now, Henry is being raised by her evil grandmother, instead of being raised by the Evil Queen. Man, adoption was not helpful to Henry on any level, no matter what curse had been cast.

"And who's this? Are you here to see a family member?"

"No, I'm a friend of Henry's," she answers.

"Strange, he's never mentioned you before, or that he has a friend."

Crystal glares at the cynical nurse when Henry winces in embarrassment and pain.

"Hey! Back off Lady!" she snaps. "And not that it's any of your business, but I've known Henry for a long time and I just got back into the city after my family moved away. We've lost touch since then, that is until we ran into each other yesterday. And I've decided to give my friend the support he deserves. So, don't ever assume that he doesn't have any friends!"

Nurse Ratchet is surprised by the girl's outburst, almost to the point of being impressed that she was willing to stand up to her. She frowns very deeply, her eyebrows knitting themselves together. The health practitioner decides not to get angry with the girl and instead let it go. It was partially her fault for assuming that Henry Blackwell didn't have any friends.

"You're right… I apologize for my assumptions, but can I ask you to please keep your voice down because we do have patients in this hospital who have very adverse reactions to screaming or loud noises, so I suggest you keep your voice down."

Almost immediately, Crystal's demeanour shifts to one that is more respectful for the people in this hospital who really do struggle with illness.

"I'm sorry for becoming so angry."

"It's fine, but if you are visiting Emma Swan with Henry, you just need to sign the registration book now and when you leave."

"Fine… fine," the young adult says quickly. She grabs a pen from a rusty coffee can and waits until Nurse Ratchet digs the registration books from underneath a pile of papers. She signs in as herself and not her alias, figuring the best way to approach Emma would be as herself.

"I'll send another nurse to bring her down to the Visitor's Room," the stern woman says. "Henry, I assume you know where to go?"

The teenager just nods and then Henry guides Crystal down the hallway towards the Visitors' Room. The place is barely lit, except with fluorescent lights, which flicker every so often. They can hear whispers in the place and even some crying as well. When they reach the designated room, it looks as though the patients in it have barely moved since Henry was here the day before, as if the doctors or nurses didn't care if the human beings sitting in the faded velvet chairs lived or died. By now, Henry had learned just to ignore the staring, sad eyes of the other patients, but Crystal cannot. She is just as horrified by the appalling conditions as he had been and is filled with anger that this place could even be considered a "home." The place stunk makes her feel sick, angry, and depressed; no one deserved to live here. The teenage author finds the same card table from before and sits down, the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin grabbing a folding stool and sits down next to him. He continues trying to avoid eye contact with the other patients, who were dressed in hospital robes, but Crystal can't help but give sympathetic looks to the frightened and sad people surrounding her. She gives a few of them comforting smiles, which seems almost foreign to them because it is likely that no one every smiles here. A few of those who are not trapped in their own illness manage to smile back as if giving the young woman reassurance that she made a difference in their lives.

"Thanks for standing up for me back there…" Henry whispers in the silence. "But you didn't really need to."

"I know, I'm sorry about that. I know you can fight your own battles easily, it's just all of this has put me on edge, and I guess I've become pretty defensive."

"It's cool, it shows that you care and…" he says.

Then a frail figure comes into the room, causing both of them to go silent and Crystal to gasp in horror.

Coming towards them is not her "surrogate sister," but a shell of something that has been beaten into submission. She's the not the Saviour that Crystal has said goodbye to more than a month ago, with her head leaning on her beloved pirate's shoulder as they waved their friend out of town. Her entire body shakes slightly as if nervous, her shoulders are slumped forward as if in defeat, which meant that she'd likely given into the curse. Her once lively blonde hair had lost its shine, her ringlets hanging limply around her face and her green eyes are surrounded by deep black circles. There also appeared to be shiny stains on her cheeks, probably from crying. Her face is as pale as the hospital garments she's wearing under a dull gray sweater. This was not the Emma that Crystal remembers, nor is it the happy bride who's image appeared in the storybook a few hours before. It takes all her strength not to burst out crying or run to Emma and give her a hug.

The former Saviour, herself, is also in shock at this strange face sitting next to her son's. She has absolutely no clue who this could be. She didn't look like an adoption agent or a lawyer if Henry had somehow become so desperate that he was trying to have Fiona's parental rights removed. She also did not look like a psychiatrist either, which gives the blonde some relief that her son also didn't go out and find another doctor to help her, she was fine with Dr. Hopper and since her progress was nearing a conclusion of leaving, she felt as though a new doctor would be completely pointless.

And yet, there was something familiar about this girl, but Emma couldn't quite put her finger on it. It's as though she'd seen this girl before, but where? Certainly not in Boston.

Her sad eyes shift to her son, who immediately stands up and engulfs her in a hug. She feels some comfort in the hug and being near her son again.

"Hi Mom," Henry says quietly, holding her tightly.

"Kid?" Emma says in confusion. She pushes back from their embrace. "What… what are you doing here? Madam Mayor says we're only supposed to meet once every two weeks and your visit yesterday still counts."

"I don't care!" he states firmly. "I don't care what she says. She's not my Mom, and I will come and visit my real mother whenever I feel like it."

"Henry, don't talk like that. You know I'm your birth mom, but Fiona raised you."

"She didn't raise me, Regina did!"

"Not this again Henry please," the Saviour says, her eyes filling with tears so much that she's forced to sit down. She puts her head in her hands; her entire body shakes uneasily causing her hair to sway back and forth. "Regina did not raise you. I did not raise you. Fiona did. She's your mother, not me! Not again! I deal with this right now. Not after this morning."

"This morning?" Henry says, he leans down next to his mother. "What about this morning?"

"No… I can't talk about it… it will ruin my progress."

"Mom, it's okay you can tell me. I won't tell it to anyone I swear."

"You expect me to believe that when there's a complete stranger sitting in front of us?" the blonde questions, looking up at her son and then at the girl in the chair.

"It's okay Mom, she's a friend. You can trust her."

"Can I?" she mutters sarcastically. "Did she tell you that herself?"

"Yes, she's a friend of mine. Her name is Crystal, Crystal Miller."

"Hi…" the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin says politely.

"A friend?" Emma says, eyeing the girl suspiciously. She has great hesitation in her voice. How could she know if this wasn't some prostitute that her son had grabbed off the street or some hitchhiker waiting for the perfect moment to rob her son? She couldn't let that happen, despite being in the mental ward, she could still protect her son… somehow. Yet, her lie detector wasn't going off, Henry seemed to be telling the truth. She decides to bite the bait and see where this will lead them. "Okay, then how come you never mentioned her before?"

"I…"

"I just recently came back into town," Crystal speaks up, knowing she's going to have to lie in order to get her sister to trust her. "You see, Henry and I met in school a couple years back. I was his reading partner at school and we hung out when we could. But eventually my parents got divorced and my mom got a transfer to Washington D.C. So, we kind of drifted apart. Right Henry?"

"R-Right

Emma eyes the two of them suspiciously. Despite being in the mental ward for the past few years, her lying detector still worked, even if it was a bit rusty at times. She could sense immediately that neither of them was being truthful, even though… Crystal seemed to know Henry in some way.

"I just came back into town because my family owns a scrap metal dealer and I travel around looking for some good metal. After I spent the day getting rejected from boaters down in the harbour, I went looking for some food and I ran into Henry at Granny's."

"Granny's?"

Emma's confused reaction stung both of them a little.

"It's that small diner outside of Stygian. Remember I had you take me there a few times?" Henry asks. He knows he's just guessing, and it could be a long shot, but he had to have some form of memories with his birth mother before she was incarcerated.

Emma bites her lip in hesitation. Her mind digs deeply through the hours and hours of therapy, the haze of medications before she was put in the mental ward. Sure enough, she can vaguely recall taking her son to a tiny diner for hot chocolate with cinnamon.

"Yes, it has been a long time, but you always loved Granny's hot chocolate with cinnamon the best." She manages to smile at the memory.

Henry can feel tears forming in his eyes in happiness. At least there are some positive curse memories deep inside his mother's troubled mind. He reaches over and grabs her hand tightly, clinging to the single moment of clarity and connection with his birth mother before the curse took a hold of her mind again.

"No one's hot chocolate was better. Especially the cinnamon on top of the whipped cream."

"I'm surprised that the place is still open," Emma says.

"It is… was the heart of Storybrooke, the town, and it's hard to stop a beating heart," her son says, almost poetically.

"I guess," the blonde shrugs. She then stares at the "friend" of Henry's for a long time before extending her hand. Secretly, she is glad that her son has at least one friend who can keep him connected to reality. She'd often heard from Fiona that the teenager struggled to make any friends, mostly keeping to himself. This broke his birth mother's heart because she wanted her son to be more open and loving, not end up like her, which mostly stemmed from her time in foster homes and Neal's betrayal.

"It's nice to meet you, Crystal, I'm Emma Swan."

Swan-Jones, both Crystal and Henry think together.

"Emma, that's a nice name," Crystal says, shaking the Saviour's hand. "Henry's told me a little bit about you."

"Really? Like what?"

"That you're his birth mother, that you are a survivor, that you're much stronger than you think you are, and that you would fight a dragon or go to the ends of the earth for him."

The dragon reference causes the blonde to twitch slightly and bite her lip. A flash of what happened this morning… that strange hallucination of her throwing a sword at a dragon comes back into her mind. She shakes the image from her mind and tries to refocus. She forces herself to smile slightly through clenched teeth.

"I guess all of those are true, although I won't be going very far to save him right now."

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin frowns in deep concern for her surrogate sister. Emma Swan truly is gone, buried underneath this cursed persona, helpless to believe in anything or have hope.

"But Henry tells me you might get out soon."

"That's the hope," the Saviour says weakly. "And then maybe I can try being your mother again Kid."

"Only if you stay here," he says quickly, wrapping his arm around her bicep and laying his head on her shoulder.

"Kid…" she sighs. "You know it's best for both of us if I leave, go back to Boston…"

"How can you be my mom if you're in another state?!" he protests.

"We can talk on the phone, or even Skype."

"I don't want to Skype with you. I need you here… we need you here."

"We?" Emma inquires.

Henry swallows nervously, knowing he's letting something slip that he's not supposed to. Fortunately, Crystal comes to his rescue.

"I think Henry is going for a more metaphorical sense, that the city needs you. Henry tells me that you were a bail bondswoman for a long time in Boston. He thinks you might be able to bring some law back to this city if you stayed."

"Thanks, guys, I appreciate the encouragement, but I need to leave this city behind… Dr. Hopper says it will aid in my recovery."

"But you're not sick!" the teenager insists.

"Henry, you know I've been struggling with this for two-and-a-half-years. I've had some good breakthroughs and I might have a few episodes like this morning in the future, but as long as I stay on the medication and continue therapy, I'll be fine."

"Episodes?" Henry says both of Emma's visitors' minds are perked up. "What episodes? What happened this morning?"

Emma shakes her head in determination. She will not let this happen, she will not destroy her progress. She doesn't want to reveal the struggles she has with a total stranger, despite this person being in a mental hospital with her son. Then again, Dr. Hopper would want her to share her episodes in order to work through them. Her discussing the moments could also help Henry for him to finally let go of the fairytale fantasies and know that she is living in the real world, and so should he.

"It's nothing. It's just… the earthquake this morning caused me to have some flashbacks."

"Flashbacks?!" Henry gasps. He immediately becomes completely engaged in his mother's situation. He knows what the earthquake was, maybe Crystal's shockwave had allowed his mother to remember! It's a hope that he needs to know more about.

"It… it was nothing and I don't exactly feel comfortable…" she looks up at Crystal.

Despite her desperation to know what Emma meant, the daughter of the Dark One understands that the poor patient would rather discuss this privately with her son. She nods sympathetically and gets up to the other side of the room. However, in secret, she uses the same spell to listen in on their conversation.

"What happened Mom?"

"Were you in school when the earthquake happened?"

"N-Yes."

"Were you okay?"

"I was fine Mom, please," he says impatiently. "Tell me what happened. I promise I won't undo your progress."

While Emma is surprised by her son's remark, considering what he'd said to her the day before, she trusts him and decides to be honest.

"I got this rush of… something… feelings and images. Really more of hallucinations, like the kind I had back two years ago…"

"Like what?" he pushes her.

Emma swallows very hard. Henry realizes he's going to have to play along with her recovery charade and say things that he truly doesn't believe.

"It's okay Mom… it's all fake, none of it is real…"

Again, the blonde looks surprised at her son. "Really? That's not what you were saying yesterday."

"I… changed my mind. After you telling me that you made so much progress and then seeing Crystal again… I realized that I've been living in the fantasy world. It's not healthy for you or me. I know that it's all fake and… I'm sorry I dragged you into it."

At that moment, Emma embraces her son tightly, tears running down her face. Her body begins to shake from her crying. She cannot believe that her son is apologizing for something that wasn't his fault… not entirely anyway. She loves him so much, and she cannot believe the breakthrough that he's made. This is exactly what she needed in order to aid in her full recovery. Her body fills with new hope and excitement for the future.

"Oh, Henry!" she says quietly. "It wasn't your fault. It was never your fault. It was my mind that seemed to latch onto this stuff. Maybe because I was overworked or overwhelmed by having you come and find me, but none of this is your fault. Don't ever think that you're the reason that I'm in here and don't bear that burden any longer. I love you Henry and I always will. I'm sorry if I ever made you think this was your fault."

Henry just holds his mother tightly, letting a few tears escape from his eyes and roll down his cheeks. He sniffles a bit thinking about how hard all this has been on her. Even though it wasn't technically real, their love is still there, different, but still there. That can never be changed.

"It's okay Mom… I'm still sorry anyways."

"Don't be, you just helped me a whole lot though. I feel like I can put this morning behind me and I shouldn't be afraid to talk about it."

"Only if you're okay," he says cautiously.

"It wasn't really a big deal, I just got these images and feelings of those stupid fantasies. The dragon, the beanstalk, the true love's kiss, a giant spider, singing and dancing… all the Disney crap."

Henry's heart leaps into his throat and his eyes go wide. He cannot believe what he just heard, and neither can Crystal, from across the room. The shockwave that she had created… could it have awakened everyone, even for a moment? The possibility that she'd broken through the curtain of the curse for a brief moment, allowing people to remember who they were. The author wants so desperately to try and convince his mother that these weren't hallucinations, but memories, real memories! However, Crystal comes back over to stop him.

"Hey Henry, my phone is dying and I need to call my dad. Do you mind if we cut the visit short and finish it tomorrow? It's really important so I have to go to my hotel room and grab my charger, but I don't want to walk into the city on my own."

His hazel eyes go wide and then he begins to glare at her. They were about to make a breakthrough with his mom and remembering her true self and she's suddenly going to spoil it.

"Good choice," Emma agrees. While this excuse is setting off her superpower again, she'd much rather her son go with a friend then walk home from the hospital on his own, not wanting to repeat what Fiona told her what happened yesterday. She stands up with her son and pulls him into another hug.

"But… but Mom."

"It's okay Kid, go with your friend, you know I'll be here and we can meet tomorrow if you want."

He looks at her in sadness and desperation. She tucks her hands under his chin so he's looking at her.

"It's okay buddy. We won't follow your Mom's rule. If she forbids you from seeing me, then she can go to hell. We're a team you and I, and I will get out of here."

The determined comment and desire to break the rules, this causes Henry's heart to skip a beat. He smiles, seeing more of his real mother shining through.

"We'll call it Operation Cuckoo's Nest," he says with an unwavering smile.

Emma smiles as well. She then turns to Henry's friend. Emma was merely going for a friendly handshake, but instead, Crystal pulls her into a long hug.

"Don't give up Emma," she whispers, holding her surrogate sister tightly. "You're stronger than you realize."

When they break apart, she continues. "I'm sorry I'm cutting your visit short, but family is important no matter what isn't it?"

"Yes…" Emma says. "It is."

"It was nice to meet you, Emma," Crystal says, turning to leave with Henry. Many thoughts swirling in her mind.

"You too," the blonde says skeptically.

As the two are leaving, Crystal notices that a nurse is bringing pills and water to Emma. Just as they walk out of the room, the daughter of the Dark One waves her hand, making the pills, if they truly had an impact on Emma's mental state, completely useless. A placebo that can further their Operation Cuckoo's Nest.

A/N: Sorry if it's been awhile. Hope you enjoy the chapter.