Chapter 16 - Friday & Saturday

It was evening when Emma woke up. Usually a nap for just a couple hours would do the trick. Now that it was over, it seemed that all of this magic was catching up to her. She wondered when she would get back to a normal sleep routine. Or maybe she'd still be able to go to bed later and get a full night of sleep instead of being wide awake.

She had crashed once again at Henry's since she only intended it to be a short nap. She made her way downstairs and heard talking in the kitchen and music too.

"Hey, Mom, perfect timing. We're making waffle ice cream sandwiches." Henry informed her, and Emma observed all three of them at their stations like an assembly line. Ella manned the waffle iron, Henry portioned the ice cream, and Lucy was in charge of the toppings.

"Maybe just a waffle for now thanks." She replied and took a seat next to Hope's chair. "Hey, baby, I missed you. Has she been good?"

"Oh yeah, she's nice to her big brother. No sibling arguments here." Henry replied.

"She's an easy, pleasant baby." Ella added, having come over to the table with more waffles and turning the music down for their conversation. "She gets plenty of attention, but she doesn't demand it, unlike her niece when she was a baby. And even though Hope can crawl pretty fast, it helps that she's not walking yet."

"Lucy wandered a lot. And living in a castle, well, we might have lost her once for an hour or so." Henry admitted and rubbed that spot behind his ear, just like Killian.

"Can you guys stop talking about embarrassing baby stuff? I'm right here." Lucy spoke up and shook her head in exasperation.

Behind her, Ella made a face as if to say, "see what I mean".

"Nana, can Hope have ice cream?" Lucy changed the subject.

"Maybe a small taste, she might find it too cold. But she'll definitely eat some waffle pieces if you want to try feeding her those." She suggested. "So, whose idea was the waffles and ice cream anyway?"

"Well, Henry came into the kitchen to take a break from his research and get a snack. I decided everyone would get involved with making something, so Henry wouldn't be lost inside books all night."

"A much appreciated intervention." Henry responded and gave his wife a kiss.

"And this particular dessert was my idea. There was a food truck in Hyperion Heights that had the best ice cream." Lucy proudly took credit.

"A much appreciated choice." Emma echoed Henry. "Everyone gets to enjoy it in their own way. Not to defeat the purpose of this family snack time intervention, but any leads in your research, Henry?"

"Actually yeah, I think so. It's not from a fairytale, in fact, it was Whale's story, since he's also Dr. Frankenstein. That actually got me thinking on the track of fiction over fairytales and about science rather than magic."

"What do you mean by science over magic?"

"Well, obviously magic is being used. But why? This doesn't seem like any other villain's motive that we've faced before. So maybe there is no motive of jealousy, hate, revenge, or bitterness. Maybe it's an experiment to see what will happen, to see what they're capable of doing. So I was thinking of someone with a science, or generally studious, background. Someone who is new to magic and only came into contact with it recently, with the uniting of the realms. That led me to Jack Stapleton, aka Rodger Baskerville."

"Baskerville? Like the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles? I've heard of it, but I'm not familiar with the plot or the culprit."

"Me neither, but from the title it does sound relevant." Ella chimed in.

"Okay, here's the quick version, sort of." Henry explained for them. Emma could see the excitement and passion he had for all of this. "There's a myth or legend about the Baskervilles, and it has to do with the hound. A distant Baskerville relative wants the hall, comes to town, and calls himself Stapleton instead. Stapleton has a dog that he keeps hidden in the Grimpen Mire. Everyone in the village is afraid because strange noises come from there, and people and animals have sunk and died. He trains the dog to be this fierce beast and makes it to look like the creature that's described in the legend. Knowing the legend, when Charles Baskerville sees the hound, he has a heart attack from fear. Stapleton also attempts to kill Henry Baskerville, the one next in line to inherit the hall. But Holmes solves the case, and Stapleton disappears while they chase after him. It's assumed that he fell into the mire and died."

"So, this man has a history of hurting people and treating dogs badly." Lucy pointed out. "I know saving people is important, but is there anything that can be done to save the dogs to help them be normal again?"

"That's a good point, Luce, but we don't know yet. We're solving this one piece at a time. Maybe when we catch this guy, we can find a way to undo what he did to the dogs." Henry did his best to assure Lucy, while also not amking any promises that he couldn't keep.

"I think Lucy's right too. I mean not that movies are accurate, but animals get their happy endings too in the Aristocats, Lady and the Tramp, and a whole bunch of others." Ella pointed out.

"Don't forget Zootopia." Emma added. She saw it with her brother while babysitting once, and she amy or may not watch it even when someone under the age of twelve wasn't present.

"Oh, that movie is a gold mine." Henry agreed. "Actually, I did forget about Zootopia. I never even thought about movie villains. But there's that sheep and the whole drugging the predator animals plot. You don't think..."

"Only one way to find out." Emma shrugged. Somehow she wasn't shocked by this possibility liek she had been in the past and decided to embrace it and roll with it.

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CS

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Emma ended up spending the night at Henry's. After their ice cream waffles they set up camp in the living room and did indeed watch Zootopia. It didn't spark any further brainstorming ideas, but Henry still wasn't ruling it out as a possibility. In the morning, Emma woke up a little earlier than usual, but she felt rested enough. She left Hope with Henry for an hour while she went to see Killian. Here was no magic intent; it was just to see how he was doing, and to be close to him for a little while. As she was leaving the hospital, she ran into some familiar faces.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Emma asked, seeing her parents and her brother exiting the emergency room area.

"Why don't you ask you brother?" Dad suggested with a stern look at the boy in question.

"I was jumping off the swings at the park with some other kids." Neal said quietly, looking at the floor. Then he moved his jacket, and she could see his left arm was in a cast.

"And?" Mom prompted.

"Alexandra's dad warned everybody not to do it because it was dangerous. I didn't listen." He admitted. "He was right, and I learned my lesson."

"I know that's a painful way to learn a lesson, Squirt." Emma replied, squatting down to his level. "But the important thing is that you do learn from it, and you don't end up in the hospital like the people with the dog bites did."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what happened to those that were bitten right? What happened to their hearts?" She asked and waited for him to not. "Well, some of those people ended up the way they did because they didn't have anyone that cared enough to warn them, or they didn't listen to those warnings. Today it was a swing set, and as you get bigger the risks get bigger too. Nobody wants to see you get hurt, Neal, now or as a grown up."

"Like you, with the stealing and stuff, because you didn't know Mom and Dad yet?" He asked innocently without any judgement, It was an example that he could understand He didn't know all the details, but he knew the gift of why she didn't for up with their parents, and how she did grow up instead. Ad he was right, sharp little guy.

"Right, but now I have them, and you and Henry, and Killian. That helps a lot. You know, Killian is going to be fine because I went to Henry instead of doing things alone and ignoring other people with good advice."

"Hey, Killian's hook is on his left arm. And I broke my left arm. When he wakes up, can he draw a hook on my cast?" Neal changed the subject, easily distracted and on to a more exciting topic, in his mind at least. But Emma felt her message was received, and she was happy to see him bounce back. Besides, she was his sister not his mom. Their parents could address this again at a later time.

"My son the pirate wannabe." Dad sighed and mumbled under his breath.

"Oh, David, he just has something in common with someone he looks up to. It's no different than when he was so excited he insisted on leading the tour of the farm when Anna an Kristoff arrived." Mom pointed out to him.

"You're right." He nodded. Emma had to hold back a grin, still thinking of the time when Neal declared that Mom was always right.

"Of course I am. Speaking of them, we should get home, so i can prepare dinner. They're still coming over this evening." She reminded him, and then she turned to her. "And you can come too, Emma. I would have invited you earlier, but I wasn't sure if you were up for company after yesterday."

Anticipating what she would see on her last trip to Killian's past, Emma had asked for some space and time to think. She assumed that after revisiting their time as Dark Ones that she'd feel dark and gloomy and a little down. She thought that she would need some time to get back into a better mindset. Thankfully, as it turned out, that wasn't the case. She had been spending a lot of time with Henry, and her dad too, but it had been a while since she'd spent time with her mom. And she had only seen Kristoff and Anna in passing during their time in Storybrooke. She was looking forward to dinner tonight.

"It's fine, but yes, I would like to. Is there anything I can bring?"

"Just my granddaughter." She answered and gave her a hug and kiss on the cheek. "See you later then!"

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CS

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"So we were halfway to Arendelle, and we made camp for the night." Kristoff set the scene of his story during dinner that evening. "Killian and I volunteered to go fishing, and we went down to the river. Both of us had fishing poles, but I made a joke that he didn't need a pole, he should just use his hook. He said he'd done it before, and I told him to prove it. Well, the first two tries he missed. The third time, oh he got a fish alright,but he put so much fore into his effort, he landed flat on his a...uh flat on his backside in the water."

Kristoff had them all laughing with his story. Emma could totally see something like that happening. She could also imagine there was some colorful language to follow, but Kristoff was being mindful of Neal sitting at the table.

"He probably enjoyed watching that fish fry, didn't he?" Emma commented, knowing her husband well. Maybe she'd make a Captain Ahab joke once he was recovered.

"Oh, he did." Kristoff confirmed with another laugh.

"Reminds me of the time I was at the Rabbit Hole with Killian and Robin. Each of us had had a few drinks and somehow a bet was made. We wanted to see how well Robin could shoot while drunk, and if we could do any better. Killian had to get creative, but he managed even with the hook, and he didn't do half bad honestly." David shared his story.

"Maybe his fishing skills were transferred to his archery skills." Snow shrugged. It was a reasonable conclusion. There wasn't much that Killian couldn't figure out with his hook, and having some drinks probably helped him out.

"Hey, Dad, do you know how to fish?" Neal asked.

"It's been a long time, but yeah, I learned from my father when I was a little younger than you."

"Will you teach me when my cast comes off?"

"I don't think I've fished since well before the first curse. But sure, we can have a father-son day and give it a go."

Emma could see the proud and happy smile on her dad's face at Neal's request. Even though it probably wasn't the reason behind her brother's request, it certainly seemed to make up for earlier when David felt a little slighted over Neal's enthusiasm at being pirate-like. At the end of that day Dad was still Dad though, no matter how cool pirate were.

"And when you do, make sure you dad sends us a picture, okay, Neal?" Kristoff suggested, encouraging her brother.

"Why? Won't you be here?"

"Sorry, buddy, we've got to get back home. Our part is done here, but that's a good thing." Kristoff replied.

"You'll visit again though right?"

With the age difference between them, Neal was like an only child in some ways. It was exciting for him to have guests and company around and extra people to talk to. Anna and Kristoff were staying at Granny's, but they had spent most of their visit with her parents. So, David, Snow, and Neal got to see a lot more of them than Emma had. He would probably find things dull and boring once they left. Maybe a brother and sister day was in store too.

"Of course we will. And who knows, next time maybe you'll visit us!" Anna jumped in.

"Yeah, maybe this summer we can make the trip." Snow suggested. "When are you planning to leave?"

"This time next week. Unless Regina calls for another council meeting. But we've done what we can. We've just been sticking around to spend more time with you guys and other friends here." Kristoff answered.

"And to see what Storybrooke is like when there isn't a curse literally raining down on everyone." Anna added, and she had a point there.

"No kidding, that was some introduction." Emma shook her head. "You know, no one would have blamed you if you had decided to run for the hills and never step foot in Storybrooke again."

"Well, speaking as one of those under the curse, I'm glad she didn't run from me afterwards." Kristoff declared and put his arm around his wife.

"Well, speaking as one of those under the curse previously, I knew how quickly and easily things could become twisted. Besides, even though people want to make good first impressions, how often does that actually happen? I mean, I met Kristoff while engaged to a man I had only known for a couple hours, and while searching for my sister who had frozen the kingdom. Meeting each other was chaotic, but things eventually worked out for us. We couldn't be happier."

"That's a good point. Snow and I certainly had a rough start. She hit me with a rock in one version of events and with a music box in another." David pointed out.

"We also met while under the first curse, and you were married to another woman." Snow reminded him that he wasn't "Charming" all the time.

"Yes, but neither of us knew that at first when we met here in Storybrooke. We were cursed."

"But, just like Anna pointed out, everything worked out." Emma intervened.

Not that she really feared her parents would get into a real argument or anything, but they did get stuck discussing certain topics now and then. This being one of them. Plus, she figured they probably wouldn't want to open this can of worms in front of Neal. He knew the basics of the first curse, but some of the details such as David being "married" to Kathyrn, the affair, and the murder charge were probably best saved for when he was older.

"What about you and Killian, Emma? Does this theory line up with the way you guys met?" Kristoff asked.

"Yeah, I'd say so." She couldn't help but grin. "He was working for Cora, Regina's mother, and pretending to be a blacksmith. I caught on to his lie and held a knife to his throat. Then I tied him to a tree until he told the truth, and later I left him behind inside the giant's castle at the top of the beanstalk. And that was all a couple years before we met you guys, and things were just starting for us."

"Wow, I bet that's one heck of a bedtime story to tell Hope!" Anna laughed. "But there's nothing wrong with slow. The tortoise wins and not the hare, right? Things that move more quickly aren't guaranteed to last. I sure learned that."

"We all have at some point or another. But going along with the tortoise and the hare race, the ups and downs of finding love, they make up the qualifier race. Then living out life with the one you love, that's the main event."

"Well said, Dad." Emma sent him a smile.

What he said was very nicely put indeed. Each couple in the room certainly had a qualifier filled with all sorts of tests. But thanks to it, they had ended up with true partners and not half-hearted quitters. It was a reminder that everything in the past was worth it, and all the recent events would be too. Already it had given her the experience of being able to lean on her family more, she was definitely grateful for that, and she hoped to look back and learn more someday too.

This chapter is mostly filler, I admit it. But family fluff is good to mix in. It's been a while since we've seen Henry's family, and I wanted things to progress a tiny bit with our villain. What do you guys think it will be based on? Sherlock Holmes or Zootopia? I've also been wanting to work in Anna and Kristoff since the beginning and this is where it finally worked in. Plus, I wanted a short break before jumping right into Killian waking up and recovering. Hope you enjoyed this one and see you next week. Also, below is a short sneak-peek.

Phone call:

"Good afternoon, Sheriff. Your presence is being requested at the hospital. It seems there's a patient threatening escape if he doesn't see his wife."

"I don't know if I'll be much help. I might end up helping him stage his mutiny. Although, he didn't need any help last time with his short-lived escape."

"Pirate."