The watery depths

Christine asked for a oneshot of …read and see.

JRocks: Sorry, but it's your responsibility to find the chapter number, I'm afraid.

It was supposed to be an unguarded route. Neither Regina nor George's men travelled this section of the forest, for fear of the werewolf that roamed around it at night during the full moon. Of course, Charming now knew that werewolf was called Red and, even if she was in wolf form, wasn't going to hurt him. So he used this path through the forest whenever he went to visit his mother. This time, however, things were different. It seemed Regina's men no longer had fears of the big bad wolf. As such, Charming quickly found himself outnumbered and overpowered before he could do anything about it.

"So we've finally got you." One growled, grinning lazily at him. Charming would have responded with all manner of obscenities, but he had been gagged. "Snow White's little Prince Charming. Not so tough are you now, huh buddy?" He taunted him. He then reached into Charming's scabbard and took out his sword. "I guess you won't be needing this anymore." He said, chuckling. Charming of course couldn't respond. He was at the mercy of Regina's men now.

The guard quickly became bored when he realised Charming wasn't going to respond to his torments.

"Alright, you heard Her Majesty." The guard grunted. "She wants rid of him. The ocean's just to the east. Dump him in there. We have a boat." The guard instructed. So, despite his struggles, Charming was dragged to the beach and onto a rickety little boat out to the ocean. He was placed on the edge, his heart hammering in his chest, as a weight was attached to his legs. The guard that had tormented him placed his boot on Charming's shoulder.

"So long, Charming." He moved his boot from Charming's shoulder to his head, kicking him back. And with that, Charming was kicked back into a watery grave.

He quickly sunk to the ocean floor. He tried to fight, to swim back to the surface to fill his lungs with air, but it was hopeless. This was it, he was going to die.

As Charming's world grew dark, he was aware of something grabbing at his shoulders. He made a vague effort to fight this new threat off, but he was too weak. His world grew dim, and then, nothing.

The next thing Charming was aware of, he was spluttering up water. His whole body ached. Somebody helped him sit up so he could cough up all the water. He whipped his head around, his vision still blurry.

"It's ok, it's me." A familiar voice said soothingly. Charming relaxed. He was back with Snow. "Ariel found you, she had a feeling something was up when she heard rowdy voices from the surface." Snow explained his unspoken question. "I'm so glad she did." Snow said, kissing Charming gently. "She got word to me, and I promised to take it from there." She sighed. "Never do that to me again." She said, voice filled with pain. Charming smiled lovingly, it being the best response he could give at the time. He was just grateful to be alive.