CHAPTER 21 – A NOTION

Robin Hood opened his eyes as he breathed in the cold, unfamiliar air around him. Something was different about the world he saw. Whilst he would usually wake up, remember his previous life like a dream, and then carry on with the infuriating reality he'd known – this time that dream didn't fade. He was in the real world again, and everything he'd once lost was no longer missing. But little did he know that there was a chance of losing some of those things again.

"Dad?". He heard a voice say from the left side of him. "Are you awake?". He blinked a few times before slowly sitting up.

"Come on, we need to get to Roni's.", Robin said to him.

"Who's?", he said back in confusion. Robin sighed, quickly realising that there was a part of this ongoing story that he didn't seem to know.

"Another curse?"

The three of them were walking down the pavements of the busy streets of Seattle. The air around them was foggy and unclear, but Lucy could still direct the rest of them to where they needed to go.

"Yes, there was another curse and it's going to take a long time to explain everything but you need to break that curse and I need to see my parents.", Lucy said whilst turning towards them.

"Okay, so all I need to do is kiss Regina and then the curse is broken?", he asked back.

"Well, yes theoretically. But then again it also has to be a 'true love's kiss' and technically I have no idea whether you have to take some sort of special precautions for that type of thing.", Robin stated whilst hastening her steps to catch up with Lucy, who obviously wasn't happy with her negativity.

"Robin, this is going to work!", Lucy shouted impatiently before finding herself next to the front door of a familiar bar on the side of the street.

"Okay, I'm just saying that if Regina doesn't have her memories then how is this supposed to pan out?", Robin questioned. Her father then stopped walking behind her.

"She's cursed too?", he asked disappointedly before Robin gave him a reassuring look.

"Don't worry about it. If this doesn't work, we at least have time to figure it out."

Lucy opened the surprisingly heavy door in front of her, before, to her surprise, seeing both of her

parents inside.

"Lucy!? Where the hell have you been?", Jacinda shouted as she ran up to her daughter and held her

in her arms. Henry also found his mouth gaping as he saw her.

"I'm sorry mom. I missed you.", she said whilst smiling in relief, "It's going to take a while to explain,

I'm really sorry."

"A while to explain? You've been gone for weeks!", Henry said.

"Weeks?"

They looked towards Robin who had just spoken up. Jacinda walked towards her in anger.

"It's you! Can you please explain to me where on earth my daughter has been?", she shouted. Robin walked backward and raised her hands as if surrendering.

"Okay, I know what this looks like but I swear this isn't what you think it is."

Lucy walked towards her mother. "Mom, it's okay, she didn't kidnap me.. she helped us get out.". Her mother proceeded to look at Robin in suspicion. Nothing had been the same ever since she'd come here. Even if she couldn't quite put her finger on the exact reason, everything seemed a little bit off. But at this point, she was just happy that Lucy was back home.

"I'll make it up to you at some point, I promise.", Lucy said. Jacinda smiled despite being confused.

"Make it up to me? I'm sure none of this is your fault.", she said back.

"It doesn't matter. I'll still make it up to you." she smiled back.

Robin Hood stepped forward from silently watching. "I'm sorry, nobody happens to know where Roni is do they?". The four of them turned their heads to them, and both Jacinda and Henry looked pitifully.

"I'm sorry, do you not know? Roni's been in the hospital for a while now.", Henry said back.

Robin Hood looked in concern. Neither Robin nor Lucy had told him about this, so they must've not known. So what happened?

"In hospital? Why?", Robin questioned.

Henry was about to speak until he was interrupted by someone behind him.

"She's in a coma unfortunately. I'm surprised you didn't know.", it was Ivy who seemed to be working at the bar for that moment. They looked towards her.

"Did you want to go and see her?"

[small Important Author's Note – FYI in this fanfic, if the curse breaks Henry doesn't die. I started writing this before we found out why the curse was hero-proof. It's also why the role of Ivy and Belfrey is slightly different and why some things may not make much sense when referring to what's canon. Sorry about this!]

Robin, her dad and Lucy begun following both Ivy and Henry down the streets. The air was still cold and misty but they were somehow able to trace their way forwards.

"So, you're Lucy's father?", Robin asked Henry suddenly out of context. Lucy looked towards the ground in embarrassment but Henry just laughed. "No, I'm not."

"Oh, so you're just a friend of Jacinda's then?", he asked. Lucy smiled.

"You don't recognise him?", she said back.

He tried to think about it for a second but he couldn't remember seeing him before. "No, not really."

"Henry Mills.", Robin stated. Her father glared at her, back at Henry at then back at her again.

"You're not being serious are you?"

"We're here.", Ivy said before pausing in front of the tall hospital building. Robin Hood felt a spike of nervousness when looking up at it. "Henry should be able to take you to her."

Henry turned towards Robin Hood in confusion. "Where do you know her from anyway?"

Robin Hood paused before coming up with a reasonable response for the situation. "Let's just say I'm an old friend."

Henry shrugged and soon let them follow him through the building. Most of the floors seemed to be filled with people, waiting with frustration and obvious boredom for visits. But it was when they got to the third floor, the floor that Regina was supposed to be on, that they noticed how quiet it was. It was as if nobody even knew the place existed.

"Does anyone else notice that it's weirdly quiet up here?", Robin asked. She luckily hadn't been inside of a hospital building more than once or twice but she still felt as if something wasn't correct. In fact, all of them did.

"Let's just keep walking," her dad responded becoming impatient. The four of them continued to hastily make their way down the ailes.

But that was when someone walked in front of them, someone obviously trying to stop them from proceeding. And that someone was Victoria Belfrey.

"You're not going anywhere.", she said harshly. Lucy sighed in frustration before Henry spoke up.

"Why? What's going on here?"

"I'll tell you what's going on," Belfrey said back once again speaking as loudly as humanely possible without shouting, "I'm not letting you break this curse."

Robin walked forward, glaring at the woman in front of her. "Why? Why won't you let us through?"

Belfrey became obviously more frustrated. "Because I simply cannot allow it."

"Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?", Henry responded.

Belfrey rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Go downstairs, Henry. This isn't your problem."

Henry took a suspicious look at both Robin Hood and Lucy before slowly turning around and making his way towards the elevator.

"You know the reason why I'm not going to let you do this, and there shouldn't be a reason to discuss it!", Belfrey shouted.

"Look, I think she's made it pretty obvious that we don't so you may as well explain what's going on here.", Robin Hood said back in frustration before everyone fell silent for a moment.

It was at that point where Lady Tremaine gave up on her fighting and decided to briefly cover the situation. After all, it wouldn't take a few sentences.

"If you break this curse, there's going to be no chance of saving Anastasia."

Robin suddenly dropped the threatening look on her face as she became legitimately confused.

"Anna- what?"

"Anastasia.. isn't that one of Cinderella's ugly sisters?", Lucy asked as a rhetorical question despite knowing the answer.

"Ugly sisters? She's my daughter and this curse is the only way I can bring her back to life!"

"I'm sorry, but how could a curse possibly save someone's life? I'm pretty certain it would do the opposite than saving..", Robin Hood replied.

"Because it will, alright? And I cannot have people like Regina trying to stop me."

"Okay, I know I've technically been dead for a few years now, but I'm quite certain that Regina would not try and stop you from saving somebody's life. Cursed or not, she's not that type of person." he said back

"Yes, and even though you did try to kill Lucy and I, you may as well at least tell us why she'd want to in the first place.", Robin followed before the three of them waited for an answer.

But it didn't seem to come. The old, unknown woman in front of them suddenly looked lost.

"Well?", Lucy said.

"That's the point."

The three of them turned around to hear Ivy's voice echo from a few metres away.

"She doesn't know why."

[a/n: So sorry this chapter took so long! I got very stuck with where the story was going (bad planning before writing this) and it took me a while to come up with a reasonable explanation. Anyway, nearing the last chapter I'd like to say thank you for all of the support that this fic has gotten! I never expected this many people to actually read it lol.

Next chapter should hopefully come much sooner than this one did.]