II
Chapter Thirty-Seven
II
Present day
II
For a moment, everyone is absolutely still and the room suddenly seems deadly silent. Regina can only stare, trying to process what has happened. David. Snow. Emma. All of them gone the same way as the wraith. Very, very slowly Graham pulls himself up and looks at the hat. It is singed by fire from the broom David dropped, crushed by Graham's fall and the bottom has come loose as well.
Not much of a portal anymore, Regina thinks dimly. She isn't even sure if it can be fixed.
"No," Belle murmurs. She takes a step forward. "Where did they go?"
"Our land," Regina says, pushing herself up from the floor. "If it still exists."
"How do we get there?" Graham asks. He holds out the hat like a sword pointing at her. "You have magic. Fix it!"
"Not that kind of magic!" she replies sharply. "I was never a portal jumper. Jefferson might be able to help. It is his hat."
"Jefferson," Graham mumbles. He stares at the hat in his hands, digging his fingers a little into the cloth of it.
"Is there no other way?" Belle asks, almost pleading. She probably didn't envision her little rescue operation turning out like this, Regina figures.
"I used the last bean to come to this land," Hook says and for once, Regina believes him. He sounds sincerely sorry. "Regrettably, I do not have another, or, upon my honor, I would help retrieve them."
"You have honor?" Graham says, looking at Hook with dark eyes.
"Just because my honor differs from yours doesn't mean I have none," Hook shoots back. The two eye each other like stags wanting to butt horns or a huntsman and a pirate wanting to duel.
"This can wait," Regina cuts in. "The wraith is gone. Hook, you are safe for now. I suggest you take yourself somewhere where Gold won't get the urge to murder you for a few days. Graham, track down Jefferson and see what he knows about the hat's magic. Belle, see if you can get Gold to be of any assistance to us. He may listen to you."
"And what are you going to do?" Graham asks pointedly.
She sighs, closing her eyes for a moment. "I have to tell Henry about this."
II
Gold is waiting up for her, Belle finds. He stands by the door to her room at Granny's, the shadows clinging to him as if they don't want to let go. He looks up as she walks closer, but he waits for her to approach him.
"They fell through the hat," she says tonelessly. "The Nolans, Emma and the wraith."
His jaw sets and she can see he thinks it would have been better to simply let Killian die. That's what Gold intended to happen, after all. He let her attempt to stop it not because he was rethinking his choice, but because he was respecting her choice.
She knows this; she can feel it in the heart that beats for her but isn't hers. She's started to feel it more and more since the curse broke, or perhaps it is magic being here that did it. Either way, she feels his heart. She remembers hers. Between the two, she doesn't feel quite heartless anymore.
(Maybe the curse being broken made him feel less heartless, and thus her too.)
"Our land, does it still exist?" she asks him. If he says no, she will have to face that she caused the death of three people.
"Yes," he says and she exhales. "The curse ravaged the land, but it is still there."
She nods. It exists. They're still alive.
"We have to find a way to get them back," she says.
"We?" he asks, looking at her. She meets his gaze evenly, holding it. Holding him.
"We. You owe them that."
'You owe them much more, more than can ever be repaid,' she doesn't say, but he knows. She can feel him know it.
"We," he agrees, holding out his hand as if they've struck a deal. She takes it and he turns her hand over, pressing a kiss against it. "You and me, Belle."
II
Killian stands outside the town hall for a while after the others have hurried off on their various tasks. Stars gaze down at him and he feels as if their light simply passes through him as if he's hollow.
He didn't want this. He wanted revenge, has wanted it for 300 years. He's lived for it for 300 years. True, he may not have cared much about anything apart from his revenge, but he didn't want this.
What is he beyond his search for revenge?
Maybe it's time to find out.
II
Storybrooke, the past
II
"Tell me a story," Henry whispers. It is morning and he has crawled in with mom and dad again, as he sometimes does. Dad has pulled up the blankets to cocoon them or maybe make a wall around them. Even the sunlight is kept out, heating the blankets instead.
Henry feels safe in here. He lies on his side watching mom watch him. Dad is snuggled into her back, his face by her shoulder and looking at Henry with sleepy but smiling eyes. Their hands are linked in front of mom and Henry has put his hand on top of theirs.
"Another one?" mom asks. Her eyes close for a moment as if she's almost falling asleep again. Sleeping beauty, perhaps. He remembers that story. Mom must surely be just as beautiful, as he told her and dad disagreed. He thought mom was prettier.
"Another one," he says.
"Do you think you'll ever tell us a story?" dad asks. "I think a Henry story would be a great story, better than any stories we know."
Henry thinks about that as dad kisses mom's shoulder, murmuring something into her ear Henry can't hear but that makes mom smile.
"I don't know a Henry story yet," Henry finally says. Maybe tomorrow he can ask Regina if she has any stories he hasn't read yet. She has so many books.
"That's okay," mom says, opening her eyes and looking at him. "You've got a long time to find the right stories for you, honey."
II
Henry is sitting on the bed with his legs crossed as Regina walks in. She pauses for a moment to regard him. Henry Nolan. They named him after her father. They didn't remember who she truly was back then, of course, but still.
"Hey Henry," she says. She sits down on the bed next to him as he looks up at her.
"What's wrong?" he asks. He's a smart kid, she remembers. He picked up on something being wrong with this town, he realized the truth about the curse from her book and now he knows something is wrong from how everyone is acting around him.
"It's about your parents and Emma," she says softly.
"Are they okay?" he asks, biting his lip.
"They fell into a portal that leads to our land," Regina says. Henry looks ready to cry and she puts a hand on his shoulder to steady him. "We'll find a way to bring them back, Henry."
"How do you know that?"
"I don't know," she admits and his face falls a little. "But do you remember in the book, what Snow and Charming always told each other?"
"That they would find each other," he says. "Emma too, she found them."
"Yes," she agrees. "In your family, you find each other, Henry. So if you help me, we'll find them."
He nods eagerly. "Like in a fairytale."
She smiles faintly, looking at the absolute faith in his eyes. He's only ever read one side of them, doesn't know what it's like to be on the other side. She does but maybe, just maybe, she can come back from it.
Her story. She's still writing it.
"Yeah, Henry," she says. "Like in a fairytale."
II
FTL, the present
II
This isn't a fairytale, Emma thinks. This is some sort of nightmare.
Her body hurts, her mouth tastes like ash and she's still clutching onto David's leg. He's not moving from what she can see, his face against the ground. They're in a forest, she can tell. As she lifts her head she can see Mary Margaret also lying across the forest floor. She too, is holding onto David.
This definitely isn't Maine. The falling-into-a-magical-hat told Emma that much to begin with, but so does the unfamiliar foliage.
The wraith is nowhere in sight. There's that, at least.
"David," Emma says, pulling herself over. She touches his face gently and he groans, telling her he is alive at least. "David?"
"Emma," Mary Margaret says, lifting her head. She looks dazed, and has a bruise on her cheek and a tear in her sweater.
"I'm here," Emma replies. "I don't know if David is hurt."
Mary Margaret scoots over hurriedly, putting a hand on David's cheek. "David? Charming?"
He groans again, then finally opens his eyes. It takes him a moment to focus. "Snow. Emma."
She's still touching him, Emma realizes. She pulls her hands away, slightly abashed, while Mary Margaret lowers her hand to his shoulder as he pulls himself up. Emma stands up too, and Mary Margaret, all three of them looking around.
"Any idea where we are?" Emma asks, taking in the surroundings. Heavy forest, clear night sky and no signs of life.
"Yeah," David says. He sounds a little choked up, taking Mary Margaret's hand and squeezing it. "I think this is the Enchanted Forest. Welcome home, Emma."
Not quite the homecoming she had in mind, Emma thinks.