When we had gotten to the hospital, Mary Margaret had filled us in on what had happened and told my friends where the crash was. "Someone should go check it out." David said, "Make sure no-one else was hurt."
"We can go." Mal stated.
"Are you sure?" Mary Margaret asked worriedly.
"We'll be fine." Jay insisted, crossing his arms. My friends then turned to me.
"What?" I asked, "Why are you all looking at me like that?"
"Well, this is technically your kingdom." Mal stated, "You're giving the orders now."
"That, that is a bad idea."
"Hads, come on." Carlos pleaded, "Y-you're a Princess now, you gotta learn to lead." I took a deep breath,
"Ok, fine. Mal, take Evie, Jay and Carlos and scout around the area of the crash, you guys are the best at tracking. Ben and I will stay here and look after the situation here. If anything happens, we'll call you." Mal and the others nodded before leaving. An arm found it's way around my shoulders and I leant into the familiar warmth that was Ben.
"You're becoming a true leader." Ben complimented, pressing a kiss to my temple. I smiled at the small sign of affection. As Emma interrogated Hook, Mary Margaret, David, Ruby and Leroy were standing in a circle, trying to figure out how to unlock the John Doe's phone. At the same time, the Doctor that we were told was Dr Whale was checking out our mystery man.
"Let me guess another passcode." David said, taking the phone from Mary Margaret.
"You can't guess." Mary Margaret insisted, "There are a million possible combinations."
"Ten-thousand." Ben corrected,
"Leroy, can you get it open or something, hack it?" David asked, holding the phone out.
"Well, you do understand that computer hacking and pickaxe hacking are different." Leroy stated.
"We should have said for Carlos to say here." I muttered, "He's amazing at all this techy stuff."
"Let me try." Emma said as she approached. David handed the phone to her, "I have a thing."
"Hey." Mal called, her and my other friends walking up to the now large group. Mal had a stack of papers in her hand, giving them to Ruby.
"Rental agreement, a couple of maps, a few receipts." Ruby listed, flicking through the papers as Emma stuck something into the phone.
"There was one name on all those papers." Evie started, "Greg Mendell."
"The thing's not working." Emma muttered.
"Let me." Carlos said. Emma reluctantly handed the phone over to the salt and peppered haired boy. Carlos' fingers typed a few things into the phone and it unlocked.
"What've we got?" Jay asked, leaning over Carlos' shoulder.
"Well, he shares a whole bunch of photos of his food, all these pictures are of him alone, he has something called a LinkedIn Account?"
"Keep digging." Emma told him, "See what else you can find. But, I think this is a well-documented real-life ordinary Joe."
"Well, Greg." I added with a small smile.
"So, whatever's kept random people from stumbling into Storybrooke for the last twenty-eight years-" Ruby started.
"It's gone." Mary Margaret said.
"Does that mean anyone can come in?" I asked worriedly.
"Why do I feel like that's a bad thing?" Ben asked.
"Have you seen E.T? Splash?" Leroy questioned, "Or any other movie where they find something Magical and study it to death. Think what'd they do to a Werewolf."
"What about his friends and family?" Evie asked, "They'd be looking for him, right?"
"Let's not overreact." Mal said, crossing her arms.
"Leroy's right, we don't need outsiders here." David said.
"Hook says he doesn't know where Cora is." Emma revealed. I caught my lip in between my teeth. "And God knows what she's gonna do."
"Gods." Jay corrected, "It's plural."
"With outsiders coming here, it's bad for everyone." Carlos added.
"We gotta tell Regina that we know she was framed." I said.
"I've been tracking her." Ruby told us, "No luck, she's gone underground."
"But what if Cora finds her first?" Mary Margaret questioned, "I don't want to think about the damage those two would do together. This could not have come at a worse time."
"It's ok, the guys being patched up right now." Emma said, "He'll be on his way home by morning."
"Not quite." Another voice argued. I scrunched my nose when the scent of alcohol stung my nose. I looked over and saw Mal with the same expression. We turned to Dr Whale as he approached. "He's bleeding into his chest cavity. It's not a full flood, you know, but pretty soon he'll be drowning in his own blood."
"Aren't you a doctor?" Evie asked, "Make it stop! Save him!" The Doctor spotted someone behind us. Whale walked over to them and we followed him with our eyes. He met up with Mr Gold who was just descending the stairs.
"Gold. You fixed me, now fix him. It will take you seconds and cost you nothing."
"No." Mr Gold replied, causing my eyes to widen.
"No? Just...no?"
"I owe you nothing, Whale." We approached the talking men, "I owe none of you anything, and some of you owe me. So yeah, just...no. Oh and point of interest, the driver? He saw me throwing some Magic." I sucked a breath in through my teeth. "So instead of trying to get him out of here, you better be hoping he dies because if he doesn't, he's gonna be riving Tour Busses up and down Main Street. So glad I don't give a damn." Mr Gold then limped off.
"Look…" Dr Whale sighed, turning to us, "Letting him die is easy. I can do that if that's what you decide."
"Let's take this somewhere private." Emma muttered. Dr Whale lead us to a separate room to discuss the morality of letting this man die.
"It's not really murder if we let him succumb to his injuries." He told us.
"Pretty sure it is."
"We can't let him die!" I protested, stalking into the room with Ben on my heels.
"We need to save him, obviously." Evie added.
"Well…" Mal trailed off.
"Mal!" Mary Margaret gasped.
"We gotta think it through." Leroy stated.
"Not you too…"
"Hadley, we barely have a grasp on our Magic." Mal said, turning to me. "If we save him, it's like Gold said, we're killing the town. Are the lives of the entire town worth one person?"
"So we have to choose between our lives and his?" Ruby clarified.
"We can worry about the town later." David stated.
"Which doesn't mean we should abandon him." Mary Margaret added.
"I know, but let's worry about Storybrooke after we save a life. Doctor Whale, prep for surgery." Dr Whale walked out of the room.
"No one's gonna comment that he reeks of alcohol?" Carlos asked.
"If Carlos can smell it then so can all of you." I added. I then frowned, "It burnt my nose…" I rubbed the space between my lip and nose. Suddenly, the sound of trumpets and horns echoed through the room. Emma pulled out Greg's phone from her back pocket.
"Someone's looking for Greg." She announced. "How long before they come here?"
TIMESKIP
Everyone had all exited the small room and gathered in the lobby, watching the phone as it rang. "Same person again…" Leroy muttered.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"Her." Emma replied, "Cute."
"Who's her?" Evie asked.
"Girlfriend?" Mal suggested.
"Mother?" Carlos questioned.
"Sister?" Jay added,
"Mortal Enemy." I spoke up.
"We could answer it, just let her know he's ok." Mary Margaret suggested.
"He's not ok." Emma reminded her.
"We could at least let her know that he's alive." I reasoned.
"Nah, the Police could trace it here instantly." David argued, causing my face to fall slightly. Ben wrapped his arm around me.
"She can activate the 'find your phone' thing without us picking it up at all." Emma reminded us.
"That's a thing?" Evie asked softly, turning to me.
"How should I know?" I hissed back.
"My nerves can't take this!" Mary Margaret groaned, "Is the surgery almost over?" I watched as a male nurse appeared. He looked around for a second before turning.
"Wait!" David called, causing the nurse to pause. "Any news?"
"No, I was just looking for the doctor." The nurse said,
"He's not in the O.R.?" Ruby asked.
"Never came in."
"Then Page him." Emma ordered.
"He was not looking so good earlier." David commented.
"Didn't smell good either." I added. The nurse picked up a phone from the wall and dialled a number. There was a beeping close to us. Evie walked up to a pile of clothes and picked up a white coat. She searched the pockets and pulled out a small device that was causing the beeping.
"His pager's here." Emma said. "He's gone."
"Hand it here." Ruby said, holding her hand out. Evie handed it over and Ruby put it to her nose, taking a deep breath. Mal snatched the coat out of Ruby's hands and took a whiff of it before handing it to me. I pressed the white fabric to my nose and frowned.
"This thing reeks." I muttered.
"Got the scent?" David asked.
"Boozy." Ruby commented.
"Boozy is an understatement." Mal retorted.
"Just find him and bring him back." Emma ordered. "We'll watch hook and figure out options if Whale doesn't come back."
"Ben, Carlos, Evie, Jay, you stay here with Emma." I said as Mal, Ruby and I exited the hospital, "If Dr Whale shows up, call us, ok?"
"No problem." Ben said. I smiled, pausing to press a kiss to his cheek.
"I'll be back soon." Mal, Ruby and I exited the hospital and tried to track down the missing Doctor. With the combined strength of two dragons and a wolf, we managed to track Wale to the pier. He was standing on the edge, looking into the water.
"Doctor Whale?" Ruby called.
"Don't come near me!" Whale called. He turned back to the water. He took a step forward, but Ruby ran forward and grabbed him before he fell into the water. I pulled out my phone and dialled Emma. She picked up after the first ring.
"What is it?" Emma asked after she picked up.
"We found him." I told her, "Ruby's talking to him. We'll bring him back as quick as we can." I hung the phone up. Just as I did, it rang again. I frowned, looking at the caller ID. Regina. "Mal, I'm gonna take this, don't tell my family." I walked away from Mal who was watching me. I answered the phone and put it to my ear, "Regina, we've been looking for you-"
"I need you to come to the Mayors Office." Regina cut me off. "There's something you need to see."
"Gina, I've only been in Storybrooke for like...a week. I have no idea where anything is."
"Well, where are you then?" I looked around at my surroundings.
"I'm near the docks." A plume of purple smoke formed in front of me and Regina appeared. I hung my phone up, "Regina, what's going on."
"You'll need to see this for yourself." Regina waved her hand and we disappeared. We appeared in an office that was too much Cruella De Vil for my taste. The only interesting thing in the entire room was Mother. She was standing in the centre of the room wearing a three-piece suit.
"Hello, Princess." She greeted.
"Mother." I replied bitterly.
