The Queen Is Dead

The five of them walked down the street, Orabella up front with Neal and Henry, Emma and Gold trailing after them. "So, uh, you like pizza?" Neal was still adjusting to all of the shocks he had received.

"Oh, no," Orabella said as she shook her head. "He hates pizza, don't you kid?"

Henry laughed. "No, I like pizza. Let me guess, you're gonna tell me the best pizza's in New York and I gotta try it, right?"

"Actually, it's in the Kingdom of Damarian on the North Shore of the Dragon Fields of Zorn," Neal corrected as they stood in front of the pizzeria."

"Oh, yeah! I forgot about that place," Orabella agreed. "We've gotta go back there."

Henry looked at them as though he didn't believe them. "Nah, it's in New York," Neal said as he opened the door to the pizza place. "Here, let's get you a slice." He looked around the restaurant. "I don't see Celia," he said as he pulled out his phone. "Because she missed her bus and has to walk. I'll tell her we'll wait."

"No," Orabella said quickly. "We can go meet her in the street or back at the apartment. This place seems like it's gain to fill up soon."

"Okay, we'll grab some slices to go," Neal said as he texted his sister. The three of them got their food and exited the parlor, interrupting the conversation between Emma and Gold. "What are we talking about?"

Neither of them answered. Henry broke the silence. "Cecilia missed her bus. We're gonna go meet her back at the apartment."

"Cool," Emma said nodding. "You like the New York pizza?"

Henry nodded. "Yeah. It's delicious, cheesy, and doesn't lie," he said before pulling his grandmother by the arm down the street.


Henry walked between his grandparents. "So should I call you 'grandpa' now," he asked Gold as they led the way back to the apartment.

"Call me what ever you like," he said as he shot a look to Orabella, pleading for a private audience.

Henry looked to her as she nodded subtly. "Can I call you 'Grams'? Or do I have to keep calling you 'Auntie Ora'?"

"You can call me 'Nana' if you like," she said looking down to him. "It's what I used to call my grandmother."

He thought about it for a second. "I like 'Nana'," he agreed. "Hey, what's some other stuff we should see while we're in the City?"

"Well, there's Grand Central Station. We could take the subway there."

"Oh, yeah. I'll go ask." He went back to his parents as his grandparents waited at the building door.

The group entered and the sons went upstairs to get the camera as the rest of them stayed down there. Gold turned to Emma. "So did you talk to him?"

"Quick thing before this conversation happens," Orabella interrupted.

"What?" Emma looked confused.

"I remembered on the way back that Hook is here," the older woman said as the door opened behind the younger one.

The man himself shoved Emma to the side. It was long enough for Orabella to grab him by the hook and make him stab her, as opposed to Gold, his target. "Lookie-lookie. I've got Hookie," she groaned as she unhooked the object from it's owner. She crashed against the wall in pain just before Emma regained her bearings and knocked the pirate out with an umbrella stand.

Gold kneeled down over Orabella. "Lovely?"

Emma joined them. "Are you okay?"

Orabella breathed deeply as Neal ran back down the stairs. "What the hell is going on?" He opened the security door and crouched beside his mother.

"One of their enemies found us," Emma said as she stood back and looked to the unconscious man.

"Hook," Neal muttered as Orabella pulled the object from her breast.

"You know him?"

Emma was ignored by the building door opening again. "Neal?" He turned and faced the blond haired brown eyed incomer, revealing Orabella as he did so. "Mama?"

Neal watched as his sister began to see the blood. "Surprise, sis."


Neal helped Orabella up the stairs as Emma and Cecilia dragged the unconscious pirate to the storage room.

Orabella couldn't concentrate on what was going on around her. She heard something about a pirate ship as she was stripped of her coat and scarf by her daughter. She heard her step away and her lover hissing at Henry, saying it was all the child's fault.

"Stiltskin," she hissed as he opened her shirt to get to the wound.

Neal came back to her side with a wet rag. "We've gotta get her to the E.R. fast," he said as his sister brought him a bowl of water.

"It's pointless," Gold told him as he examined the puss excreting from the wound.

"What is that," Cecilia asked the man who was a little too close to her mother.

"It's poison," Orabella strained as Gold lent her against him. "Hook's own design. I go to a hospital, I wont last very long."

"There's gotta be some way we can save you," Neal said as he continued to clean the wound.

"There is," mother and father said together.

"Storybrooke," Emma said. "There's magic there now."

"Then we need to get her there," Cecilia said as she took over for her brother.

"I'll get a car," Neal said as he took out his phone.

"We don't have time," said Gold, stopping his son. "We need something faster."

"The ship," Orabella said before she was shushed by her daughter.

"The 'Jolly Roger' instead of a car," Emma asked.

"It's the fastest vessel in all the realms," Gold said to her, wishing someone would hurry up and get them moving.

"Well, that's great, but who's gonna captain it since the only guy qualified wants you both dead?"

"Neal."

"I can do it."

Mother and son spoke simultaneously.

"You know how to sail a pirate ship?"

"Yeah, I do," he said looking to his former lover.

Orabella was pulled back into her pain, only able to half listen as her children set out to find a car and Emma tell Gold of Cora's plan's to find his dagger. "That's something I should tell you," she said weakly to Gold. "I read it before we left and figured it was a good idea, but now..."

"What is it, Lovely?" He pulled her closer so she wouldn't have to speak so loud.

"I took the dagger with me before we left so Cora wouldn't be able to get it. It's too dangerous. I put a fake in it's place."

Gold said nothing, but leaned down and kissed her forehead. She was always protecting him. Soon, he had no doubt, he would loose her because of it.

Emma called her father and told him of the knife's true location. Neal and Cecilia came back, having found a car. Not long after, they and Emma left to retrieve it.