Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time. Never have, never will. Just Ally.


02- We Are Both

The next day starts up with raring intensity. Quite honestly Ally is shocked at the change in her mother. First would be that she woke up in her mom's bed, second that Ruby was walking on the phone with someone obviously strategizing. This was a side of her mother that Ally has never seen before. She's in control, and obviously fairly good at marshaling forces together.

After being roused out of bed quickly and changed into warm clothes, Ally is then shuffled into the diner for breakfast, where she watches with wide eyes as her mom and Gigi start taking over battle plans. It's clear to her now that her mother and Gigi were not women to be trifled with back in the Enchanted Forest.

As soon as the last bit of her pancake was finished Ally was rushed outside to meet up with Mother Superior or the Blue Fairy. The way the two adults talked fascinated Ally, she didn't even know that her mom knew the Blue Fairy all that well before. Quickly her attention had to be snapped back though, since she was given the instruction to point directions of emergency services to people when they came for help.

At first Ally wondered what they were going to need help with, but it soon became obvious by the sudden flood of frantic people who had two lives living in they're heads.

The Crisis Center was set up out front of Town Hall. Ally made a face when Marco (Gepetto) walked by her mumbling sadly, while putting up missing person flyers of Pinocchio.

"My boy… my poor boy." He moans, before walking away. Ally shifts uncomfortably for she is still not sure what happened to August. She was going to have to go and check on him, but she was definitely not doing that alone, so she was going to have to rope some free alone time with Henry.

"If you are looking for a family member, come to the front table. If you need counseling, Dr. Hopper has a signup sheet. If the wraith damaged your house, there are cots at the school." Ruby calls out directing a distraught woman in the direction of Dr. Hopper's booth. Ally couldn't help but smile proudly at her mom. She truly was something to behold. She was looking much more confident than she ever did before.

"This is getting out of hand. People are starting to panic. They don't know what to do." Mother Superior says to Ruby with a frazzled look on her face.

"It's okay. It'll be fine. We just need everyone to remain calm. I have a feeling our Prince is working on something right now." Ruby says with a reassuring look on her face. She glances down at Ally for a moment and gives her a reassuring smile. I give her a weak smile back before turning back and helping a man coming up to us with a lost look on his face.

Ally believed that they could get through this. They just had to. Everything was supposed to get better after the curse broke, not turning back to chaos.


After about another hour of nonstop work at the Crisis Center Henry and Rose Mills appeared without David Nolan. That caused some people a great deal of stress. They needed guidance, and that was going to come from the only leader they remembered back in the Enchanted Forest Prince Charming.

"So how was it last night?" Ally asks Henry as the pair of them finish distracting a distressed baby for a mother as she deals with the paperwork that's needed to get lodging in the school.

"Surprisingly not that awkward— Gramps even played a board game with us. I swear even Rose managed to crack a smile." Henry says with a big grin on his face. Ally smiles happily at Henry. It looks like he's getting his happy ending in the end as well.

"How is Rose doing?" Ally asks glancing curiously at the exhausted looking teen over at Dr. Hopper's booth helping jot down information about each person coming to seek help, and get appointments. Henry glances over at his sister as well.

"I think this is all still a big shock to her. She seems to be getting along with Gramps pretty well. He is her dad after all. Boy, that's weird to say." Henry says with a shiver going down his back.

"It is rather weird. I couldn't imagine being her. She suddenly has an entirely new set of parents, and a sister who is the mother of her little brother, and said sister is supposed to be her twin. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it." Ally says rubbing her temples.

"Yeah… well if there is anyone who can handle this it would be Rosie, she can handle anything." Henry says seriously, and its obvious to see the admiration he has for his older sister. Not for the first time Ally thinks that it would be great to have a sibling.

"What about you? Life with Ruby better now? She's awesome." Henry says grinning openly at Ally's mother as she handles an enraged man two times her size easily.

"Yeah she really is." Ally says softly. Then again, she kind of does have family in Henry and Rose.

A few minutes later David finally arrives at the Crisis Center. "Henry! Have you seen Blue? Ah— Mother Superior?" David cries coming up to the two kids and stopping in front of them. At the arrival of her father Rose starts floating closer to the small group.

"No. But everyone is looking for you." Henry says. Ally nods along.

"She's around here somewhere." Ally says remembering seeing the woman around the Center at some point recently.

Suddenly several people are surrounding David at once. Ruby comes over as soon as she sees the growing crowd start to form.

"Do we know where Rump- Mr. Gold is?" Ruby asks quickly trying to assess the threat that everyone (namely her kid) is in.

"Wait! Does the Queen still have power?" Archie asks sounding extremely anxious as he asks this question.

"I thought I would find my boy." Marco says sadly.

"Please! We've got to be planning something!" Henry cries breaking though the adults.

"Henry's right." Rose says coming to stand behind the ten-year-olds. She's learned her lesson, and she's never going to doubt the pair of them again, no matter how foolish it may seem to do so. They opened up a whole new world to her.

"Hey, let me ask you something? Are the nuns still nuns? Or can they, you know, date?" Dr. Whale asks breaking through before anyone can answer the kids.

"Uh, I don't know." David says surprised at the question from the creepy doctor.

"Don't say it's me asking…" Dr. Whale trails off.

"You're gross." Ally says bluntly.

"Ally." Ruby says sharply, causing the girl to blush. Ruby can't keep a smile off her face for long though. She did manage to do some good things with her kid.

"Blue!" David cries extremely relieved when he spots the Mother Superior.

"Could there be a tree on this side? The way we sent Emma through as a baby. Maybe I could go after them that way." David asks beginning to sound somewhat desperately.

"It's possible… but without fairy dust to guide us here… no, its hopeless." Mother Superior says with a dejected look on her face.

Ally grabs Henry's hand when she sees the beginning of a sad look on his face. Rose grips the shoulders of both Henry and Ally trying to center herself after hearing yet another chance at saving her—mother and sister go down the drain.

"You'll find another way. In the book, things always look worse right before there's good news." Henry says defiantly. That seems to perk people up a little bit before Leroy (better known as Grumpy) comes barreling into the Crisis Center group along with the rest of the seven dwarves.

"Terrible news! Terrible news! We were out at the town limits. Tell them who you think you are, Sneezy." Leroy says nudging Tom Clark on the ribs.

"Oh, will you stop calling me that. You know who I am. I'm Tom Clark. I own the Dark Star Pharmacy. What's going on here?" Tom demands looking around at everyone who is staring at him like he has two heads.

"That can't be good." Ally mutters under her breath.

"I don't think it is." Rose says softly.

"If you cross the border, you lose your memory all over again." Leroy says angrily and somewhat dramatically.

"A-and coming back doesn't fix it?" Archie asks, stuttering a little.

"If it did, would I have come running in yelling 'terrible news'?! If we leave, our curse selves become our only selves." Leroy yells, causing some to flinch, and a general sense of hysteria to descend on the group.

"I wonder if my mom knows?" Henry says almost to himself.

"It wouldn't shock me if she did." Rose grumbles darkly. Henry glances back up at his older sister.

"She's still our mother Rose." Henry says quietly.

"Is she?" Rose challenges before stalking back to the group of people, which she can actually help. It eases some of the incredible guilt inside of her for being partly the daughter of the woman who helped cause all this mess in the first place.

David breaks away from the group, and Henry breaks away from Ally to follow him. The rest of the group does the same as well, minus Rose of course.

"I can help!" Henry cries.

"People! Everybody! Everybody meet back here in two hours. I'll tell you my plan to fix everything." David says before breaking away from them again, this time only with Ruby following him. Henry and Ally stand at the edge of the Crisis Center staring at their family members talking in lowered voices.

"He ignored me." Henry says softly.

"He didn't mean it Henry. He's just worried and upset. He wants Snow and Emma back. We all do. Besides, we're just kids. Adults never listen to us, remember how long it took us to get Emma to believe in us?" Ally says knocking her shoulder against Henry's.

It takes a moment, but he grins back at her. "Yeah, it would all go a lot better if they just listened to us, wouldn't it?" Henry says, and Ally can't help but smile in agreement.


Two hours later finds everyone gathered at Town Hall for the meeting. Henry and Rose are taking turns calling David on their cell phones, but so far they haven't been able to get through. The prince is the only one not there at the moment.

"Come on, Gramps. Pick up. Come on…" Henry mutters pacing back and forth while the phone rings yet again for what must be the millionth time.

"Please, everyone. Just be patient. I'm sure he's going to be here any minute." Ruby says trying to placate the crow that's growing more agitated by the second.

Ally keeps her eye nervously on her Gigi who is walking around the room with her crossbow. She has never seen her Gigi armed before, and now that she has, she never wants to see her like that again.

"Granny, do you really need that?" Ruby asks noticing her nervous pup.

"We've got a lawless town, Ruby. Damn right I need it. I have great-grandbaby to protect." Granny growls. Ruby sighs and shakes her head.

"Try calling him again." Ruby says to Henry and Rose.

"He's not picking up." Rose snaps getting close to her breaking point with nerves enough to last for a lifetime.

"Just keep trying." Ruby says, giving the older girl a pleading look. Rose sighs and dials the phone again before putting it to her ear.

Before the device even has a chance to get a ring out, Regina makes an appearance by opening the doors to the town hall with magic. Ruby quickly grabs Henry and Ally pulling them behind her, not willing to let the kids be seen by the Evil Queen.

"My, what a nice turnout. No need for a fuss. It's just little old me." Regina says stalking into the room, the frightened townspeople parting before her like the Red Sea.

"Regina. Think about what you're doing." Archie says desperately as Regina makes her way to the front of the room.

"Bug." Regina sneers, sending Archie flying across the room with a simple wave of her hand. Henry and Rose are shocked at the display in front of them. They had always known on some level that they're mother wasn't a good person, but this was taking things to a whole new level with the magic.

Ally couldn't help the shaking of her body, as she let herself be tucked closer to her mother, who had sensed her shaking. Magic suddenly didn't look fun anymore.

"Hey!" Leroy shouts, charging at Regina, but with another wave he's sent flying back as well, with people scrambling to help him back to his feet.

Suddenly Granny steps out into the aisle and fires an arrow at Regina which she catches in her hand, shocking people. Regina merely turns to look at it with a smile on her face.

"How sweet." She says with a sickly sweet smile on her face. She set the arrow on fire, turning it into a fireball, which she fires at the crowd. Ruby tries to cover the kids as the flaming ball passes overhead. Part of the wall is on fire from her actions in the end.

Furious at the notion that her kid could have hurt Ruby steps into the aisle herself facing off against Regina, "What do you want?"

"Me. Well me and Rose. I don't know about her, but its okay I'll come with you. Just leave them." Henry says pushing away from the crowd and up front near his mother. Rose straightens from where she was kneeling with a death grip on her phone.

"That's my boy. Rose?" Regina asks, caressing Henry's face. The boy looks uncomfortable though, and Ally struggles against her Gigi's grip on her arm so that she can get to her friend and protect him.

Rose steps forward with a cold look on her face. "You're not my mother anymore, and you never will be again, but these people don't deserve to get hurt because of me." Rose says with a dirty glare directed solely at her mother.

Ally can tell by the stiffening of Regina's jaw that she does not like that answer, but she takes it anyway, and leads the two kids off with her. Ally finally manages to break free from her Gigi's hold and rush for the door alongside her mother as soon as the doors close magically behind the trio.

"We have to do something." Ally says desperately looking up at her mom. Ruby bites her lip and looks down at her daughter sadly.

"She has magic pup. Really dangerous magic Ally, I'm not sure what I can do against that in this world." Ruby says reluctantly, her heart hurting at the devastated look on her daughter's face.


So the town hall meeting had turned into utter chaos. Everyone had started panicking all at once after Regina left, and the sentiment seemed to be clear and shared by almost all there. It was time to get the hell out of town, consequences be damned.

Seeing where the situation was going, Ruby grabbed Ally's hand and dragged the two of them out of the room and out of Town Hall back onto the streets. "Mom, what's going on?" Ally asks nervously. Everything has been spiraling out of control ever since the curse was broken and it's only been two days. Now Henry and Rose were gone, back with their evil mother, and Ally was worried.

"We need to find David, pup before something bad happens." Ruby says squeezing her daughter's hand as she kicks the pair of them into a jog. Luckily they don't have to go far before they see a man running past them, with David chasing after him.

"David, stop!" Ruby yells trying to get the man's attention. She jumps in front of him stopping his mad chase in its tracks.

"Get out of my way!" David cries, trying to start back up after the man.

"Regina has Rose and Henry." Ruby says, and that's enough to stop David in his tracks.

"But he has the way!" David cries still focused on his goal.

"She has Henry and Rose! She's threatening everyone!" Ally cries, being no longer able to stand by and have the adults bickering until everything is too late.

"She has Rose and Henry?" David says, suddenly snapping out of his weird trance like state.

"She showed up at your town meeting – the one you missed. Her magic's back. Everyone's panicking. They want to leave town – they're going to lose everything." Ruby says, giving the man an unimpressed look.

"Okay. Okay, but I have to go after him first. He's my only hope of finding a way to get Emma and Snow back." David says, still not seeming to grasp the seriousness of the situation. Ruby growls, and Ally takes a step back, slightly startled by the more animalistic side of her mother.

"Back to what? This town is about to come apart. You've got to do something." Ruby says seriously, staring David in the eye, before he nods his head in acquisition.

"So what do we do?" Ally asks breaking the silence of the adults.

"Well first pup, we go for a ride, and stop all the panicking people from becoming cursed people." Ruby says dangling her car keys in her hand.

A few minutes later, and the head of a long convoy of cars. Ruby angles her car so that it blocks the lanes by the border of the town, so that no one can leave, at least no by car they can't. Ruby, David, and Ally all quickly climb out of their car to face the now very irate and angry townspeople.

"Get out of the way! We have a right to go!" Archie yells from beside his car. Ally can see the fear radiating in the therapist's eyes. She doesn't need to be a shrink to tell her that that's what she's seeing.

"Listen to me! Listen!" David yells, finally getting the mob to quiet down. After a moment of silence he begins a speech that makes Ally truly believe that he could definitely be a real life prince.

"If you cross that line, you're going to be lost. Everyone who loves you will lose you. But there's something worse – you'll lose yourself. Look, I get wanting to leave here, I do. And I get that it's easier to let go of bad memories, but… Even bad memories are part of us. David, Storybrooke David, was – is – weak, confused. And he hurt the woman I love. I wouldn't give up being Charming just to be him, but, you know what? I wouldn't make the other trade, either. Because that David reminds me, not only of who I lost, but of who I want to be. My weaknesses, and my strengths. David, and the Prince. I am both – just like you. You are both. The town is both. We are both. Stay here, and every choice is open to you. Live in the woods if you want. Hell, live in a shoe if you want. Or eat frozen burritos and write software. Let's open Granny's and the school. And get back to work. I will protect you. She won't be able to hurt any of us. Not as long as I'm alive. Not as long as we all come together. As we did before. As we shall do again." David says.

Slowly after a long moment, people start back to their cars, and one by one, turn back and head to town.

"Now that was cool." Ally says with a big smile on her face.


Its later on that night in a reopened Granny's that Ally finally gets the relief that she was hoping for all day. In walk David, Rose, and Henry, all looking a little tired, but nonetheless happy to be together.

Henry and Ally connect eyes, and Henry gives a slight nod before stopping by Marco at his booth and whispering something in his ears. Even after everything that's happened the two of them have still managed to keep up their secret method of communication.

Rose can't help but shake her head fondly at the sight, happy to see that the two of them aren't too scared from everything that's happened recently. When the three Charmings finally take their place at the counter beside Ally and ordered their food, David decides to break his silence.

"Hey. It exists guys. The Enchanted Forest is still out there." David says. That statement gets bright, happy, relieved looks from both the teen, and the kid seated on either side of David. Ally smiles in happiness for the family.

"And… so are they." Henry says with a small grin.

"They better be." Rose says with a shake of her head, and David wraps his arm around his daughter, pleased when she doesn't fight him, and instead leans her head against his shoulder.

"But, how do we know they survived the trip there?" Henry asks, suddenly worried again. Ally takes his hand and gives it a reassuring squeeze.

"Because I can feel it." David says simply, and all three of the kids seated there, are suddenly filled with the same assurance as the man. David just sits there at the counter in Granny's Diner, beyond thrilled that the day ended well, and that Regina gave up the kids without a fight— no sword needed. Things had certainly changed in Storybrooke, and he wasn't going to stop until they had been changed again, and Snow and Emma were sitting here with their family at Granny's Diner where they belonged.