Arriving in their backyard courtesy of her ability to transport herself and others magically, Robin and Regina find themselves soaked to the skin by the now driving rain in a matter of mere seconds.
Robin's gaze turns, as it often does, to the trees. As his wife's ears immediately register the nearly frantic tone of her father's voice in the distance, Robin's eyes widen noticeably.
"Fire." He declares with alarm, instantly stepping toward the house, and finds himself more than a little confused when Regina pulls in the opposite direction.
"Where do you think you're going, mi'lady? We need to protect the house."
Regina grimaces. "Let the house burn. Don't you hear Daddy calling the girls."
Belatedly, Robin does hear the voice of his father-in-law calling out, demanding to be heard above the noise of the thundering storm. "Norah! Eliana!"
There is a momentary pause and then the old man shouts, "Norah Beatrice Locksley, if you can hear me, answer me at once!"
"Something's wrong, Robin."
With his hand still tucked into hers, Robin has to run to keep up with his wife. "He sounds scared, Regina. I don't think I've ever heard your dad sound scared… At least not since Norah was born."
Regina moves forward at an absolutely alarming pace; paying no more mind to the smoke in the air then she does to the uneven ground underfoot or the elegant footwear she currently sports that is entirely inappropriate for an early evening hike. "There isn't much that does scare Daddy, Robin. After raising me, he's nearly shockproof… Something's wrong!"
Robin instantly forgets the fact that there's a raging forest fire headed straight for their house. "If he's out here calling for Norah, that means she's not in the house."
Regina nods dourly. "Now you're catching on, thief." Without waiting for a response, Regina shouts, "Daddy!"
It takes a moment before the unseen king shouts back, "Regina!"
"We're coming! Stay where you are!"
They leave the clearing their house is situated in at a breakneck pace, and as the trees become thicker with each step, so does the smoke."
"Daddy!" Regina calls out several times more at 20 second intervals.
Each time Henry answers, Robin knows they're closer to finding the man, and Regina plows on, oblivious to tripping hazards and low hanging tree branches. When she calls out again, and it's obvious by his latest reply, that they've passed Henry by, his daughter stops, turns this way and that, and calls out, "Where are you?"
"To your left, I think."
A few moments more, and despite his passion for tromping through the woods on any given day, Robin finds himself struggling to breathe and staring at his flat-soled boots as he marvels at his wife's ability to remain upright on stiletto heels while moving at the speed of a gazelle over uneven terrain in a forest that is rapidly filling with a thick smoke that severely restricts proper lung function.
Ten steps to her left and Regina stumbles over the gnarled roots of a mammoth old cedar tree and still doesn't go down. She rounds the massive tree trunk and literally barrels into her father, who throws his arms around her in a protective gesture as he takes several steps backward on impact.
Holding her close, he bellows once again, "Norah! Eliana!" and then strains, listening hard for even the softest of replies.
When no response comes their way, Regina asks, "Eliana is here too?"
Henry nods gravely. "Your sister called. She needed to take the little one to see the doctor. She asked if Eliana could visit with Norah instead of going along."
"How long have they been missing?"
"Not more than 15 minutes ago I checked on them before going into the house to start dinner. They were in the carriage house, sitting on top of the freezer eating popsicles. They were laughing and being silly. They were happy."
Regina coughs. "How long have you been out here calling for them?"
"Maybe four or five minutes. They aren't in the apple barn or the garden. They aren't in the carriage house. Every window in the house exploded, Regina. A moment ago, I thought to call John Little and ask for help with the search, but Roland is with him and I didn't want to scare the boy. There is glass all over the grounds, and I don't know for the life of me where all this rain and wind suddenly came from, or where the fire came from, for that matter."
"We can sort all that out later; if there's time. For now, let's just find the girls."
Henry nods. "If there's time?"
Robin nods. "The bloody town is disappearing as we speak."
Henry raises an eyebrow. "Please tell me you're joking." His gaze swivels like a tennis spectator's as he eyes Norah's parents. When neither of them offers the confirmation he hopes for, Henry sighs heavily. "Then I suppose we'd better get on with it."
Regina conjures three bandannas out of thin air and offers one to each man before tying the third over her mouth and nose in the hopes of lessening the life-threatening dangers that come along with smoke inhalation. "It's going to be dark soon. And the girls wouldn't move toward the fire. They have to be somewhere between it and the house… Unless they're trapped on the other side of it. I'm just not sure they could get that far away from the house in ten minutes time… unless they were playing around with magic. If that's the case, they could be anywhere in Storybrooke."
Robin shakes his head. "Norah's not going to get that far away from the house this close to dinner time." He thinks about it briefly and adds, "At least, not without Eliana's influence. Let's look for another ten minutes. If we don't find them, we'll get help."
The three of them fan out. Calling out in earnest for the girls, and they keep the barn at their backs as they move in three separate directions, each one sending up a silent prayer that the girls will turn up, frightened but unharmed. The deeper they move into the forest, the thicker the smoke gets.
Regina shouts until her throat is raw, and when she's near enough to the well to see actual flames and burning trees, she realizes that if it weren't for the rain, the wind would have whipped the fire into an inferno that would likely consume the entire forest.
She's just about to turn and go back to the place where she left Robin and her father when she catches sight of something in her peripheral vision that stops her dead in her tracks.
"Robin! Daddy!" She shouts her daughter's name and breaks into a dead run that is fueled by adrenaline born of terror.
With her hands out in front of her face doing what little they can to shield her from low hanging tree branches, she plunges onward not caring about the intensifying heat or the sharp stinging sensations she feels every time any part of her body comes into contact with dense forest foliage. Just as the destroyed well come's into her field of vision, Robin's arms are around her, nearly toppling her.
He spins her around to face him as she struggles wildly trying to free herself. He shakes her gently. "Love, where the bloody hell are you going?"
"Robin, let go. Norah!" Regina points frantically at the crumbled well which is visible dead center between two flaming trees.
"And, you're just going to walk into that clearing? Without any proof she's there? The last time I checked your body wasn't flame retardant."
"I don't care!" Regina shouts belligerently. She's there. I know it. I saw smoke."
"Regina! We all see smoke! The damn trees are on fire!"
Regina slaps him. "Not that smoke! When was the last time you saw a forest fire that gave off pink smoke? Let me go!" She shoves him so hard that Robin falls on his ass and before he has time to recover, much less get to his feet, his wife is moving again.
Coughing badly, Robin struggles to stand and, although he knows it's pointless to do so, he shouts, "Regina stop!" as he starts after her again. He's still a dozen steps behind her, when he finally sees what has her so determined.
In the distance, in the open air above the collapsed well, a mauve-colored spark suddenly illuminates the air briefly before it fizzles into a soft puff of smoke that is almost instantly extinguished by the rain. His daughter is sending up a tiny little emergency flare and If his attention had been turned elsewhere for a single second, he would have missed it entirely.
"Norah!" Robin bellows and charges after his wife, no longer concerned about the fire or the damage it might do to him. He only covers half the distance between himself and the well before he feels a startling pressure against his chest. Puzzled, and frustrated by the impediment, he looks down to find his wife's left hand splayed firmly in the center of his chest.
She leans into him, using all her body weight to hinder his progress.
Robin shakes his head. He knows better, and still he argues, "Move Regina."
Still blocking his path, physically holding him back, Regina shakes her head and extends her right arm. Palm open to the air, fingers splayed, she releases a blast of pure white magic that drives back the flames twenty feet in front of them.
Robin blinks twice, still awed by his wife's capabilities.
Regina calls out, "Hang on, Norah. We're coming baby." And then, "Daddy, stay where you are. Don't come any closer. It's not safe!" Only once she's sure that Robin won't dart around her does she dare to remove her left hand from his chest and use it to create an impenetrable magic shield around their bodies.
Once again, Regina breaks into a run, this time with Robin hard on her heels. He manages to gain a small lead over her, but before he's an arm's length away, he feels her arms encircling his waist tightly in the same instant that his feet leave the ground. It isn't until he feels himself making the long descent into the well that he realizes that she has taken a running leap and transported mid-air taking him along with her.
Just when he worries that they will hit bottom with a painful self-injuring thud, or land on top of Norah, he feels Regina slow their descent and veer sharply to one side causing them to collide roughly against what's left of the deteriorating walls of the well the moment before they're up to their chests in water.
When Regina re-materializes, she is already over half submerged and reaching out to support Norah's head. Pressing an ear to her daughter's chest, she listens briefly before commanding "Norah, can you hear me? Open your eyes, baby. Look at me."
Norah neither moves nor responds.
Her parents share one fleeting look of agony and then shove it down deep inside.
Norah's nose is, rather thankfully, barely above the water's surface because most of the well's contents seem to be flowing into a large secondary channel perpendicular to the well that looks as if it were recently created by some sort of explosion and, for some unknown reason, the water appears to glow faintly.
Regina tries to lift Norah's head higher and realizes it's not possible. "Robin, she's stuck. Something is holding her down."
Robin tries to look around, and Regina offers him a bit more light by cradling an orb of white magic in the palm of her free hand. With more light comes awareness of an injury to Norah's right temple."
Regina touches the seeping wound with tentative fingers and swallows, refusing to allow herself to panic.
Willing himself to do likewise, Robin shakes his head. "I don't think I can go under with her in this position. There's not enough room down here for the three of us. We're packed in like sardines. You're smaller through the shoulders. See if you can manage it."
Regina goes under and it takes a few seconds of maneuvering before Robin is aware of her moving heavy things around below the surface.
Frantically, she begins digging their little girl out from under fallen chunks of brick and mortar with as much speed as possible.
Twenty seconds after he begins to worry about her suffering oxygen deprivation, Regina surfaces and breathes deeply for several more seconds before she can say, "Her foot is caught under a big piece of the wall. It's too big for me to move on my own, and I don't dare use that much magic that close to her foot, but I think I can untie her shoe and pull her free. I just need…" She inhales deeply twice more and goes under again.
She's down for only another 15 seconds before Robin feels her hands at his waist. This confuses him until she releases the snap on the scabbard that holds his knife, and then he wonders if Norah's shoelaces are knotted. Norah has only recently learned to tie her shoes without adult help, and Robin must still frequently work knots out of her laces in the evenings.
"Hang on, Norah." He tells her. "Mama will have you free soon."
Norah makes a small, nearly inaudible, noise in the back of her throat and another small pink flare erupts high over their heads.
"Hang on, Firefly." He says, his voice thick with emotion. "We're here with you. We'll get you out."
The weight holding Norah down dissipates and as Robin pulls her into his arms, cradling her against his chest, Regina re-emerges with her bandana down around her neck and his knife clenched between her teeth.
"I think she's still trying to signal for help." Robin points to the sky as the last stream of pink vapor disappears.
Regina returns his knife to its proper place as she glances upward just for an instant and quickly re-evaluates what they had seen when they were still above ground. "That's not a signal. She's trying to transport, Robin. She's trying to get herself out, but she's barely conscious. I'm not sure she even knows we're here."
Accepting this new bit of information, Robin nods doggedly and places his mouth against his daughter's right ear. Kissing her, he says, "It's okay, Norah. Don't try. Mama is here. She will get us out."
Regina touches the girl's forehead. She pushes Norah's curly hair away from the wound and, when her hands begin to glow softly, Robin interrupts.
"Normally, I'd say go for it. Heal her before we move her around too much, but the walls are still crumbling. I think we had better get out of here now, before we're all buried alive."
Glancing around, Regina nods and presses her body tightly against Robin's, deliberately sandwiching Norah between them.
Even though he knows she won't respond, Robin whispers in his daughter's ear. "Time to fly."
Once above ground, Regina does not stop until she spots her father. She touches down only long enough to take him firmly by the hand and then they are off again and when they appear next, Robin finds himself standing on their back porch.
Not a fan of the magical transport method of traveling, Henry swallows deeply against the rising lump of bile in his throat and asks, "Eliana?"
Regina coughs harshly as she shakes her head. "Not with Norah." Not addressing either of the men, she adds, "Zelena, Hades, if either one of you can hear me… We need some help. Now! Eliana is in trouble!"
Robin lowers Norah to the porch floor and Regina kneels quickly.
Most concerned about the wound at her temple, Regina focuses on that first, and then applies her touch to Norah's chest, just in case the girl swallowed too much water.
It takes so long for the healing process to show any sign that it might be working that both Robin and Henry have to make supreme efforts to hold their tongues and not distract Regina by asking, "What's taking so long?"
Norah finally whimpers.
Robin smiles and squeezes her small hand gently. "You're okay, Firefly. We're here. We've got you."
Norah moans and struggles to sit up.
"Lay back down. Be still, Norah and tell me where it hurts. I'll fix it."
Norah holds up her badly blistered left hand, offering it to her mother.
"You got burned." Regina tenderly clasps the little girl's hand in both of hers.
Norah tries to speak and has to clear her throat first. She winces and touches her throat as tears spring to her eyes.
Regina moves one of her own hands and places it gently against her daughter's neck.
After another full minute of healing, Norah tries again. Sounding more than a little raspy, she says "I didn't think it would still be so hot."
Regina squints. "What? The fire?"
Norah shakes her head and gingerly pulls the bib pocket of her overalls open wide, stretching the fabric. "It fell into the water before I did. I picked it up after I fell in. I didn't think it would still be hot, but it burnt me before it vibrated quite hard and the walls fell in on me."
Robin squints. "What the hell?" He reaches into Norah's pocket intent on extracting the barely glowing patched-up crystal if for no other reason than to get it away from his daughter's chest.
Too late, Regina shouts, "No don't touch…"
Norah shrieks in horror as her father is magically absorbed and pulled into the crystal, disappearing from sight.