Hey there lovely readers! Sorry it took me so long to update. BUT I made this chapter extra good (at least the last part) and extra long to make up for it.

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 31: Daddy Issues

Willa got up and started walking back to the plane, where they were still keeping what little food they had. She grabbed two pieces of fruit and started cutting them with the knife.

"Whoa babe. You look hot today."

Willa turned around and saw Finn stumbling into what was left of the plane. He had the bottle in his hand and was heavily leaning on the door.

"Uh…Finn?"

"Wow Amanda, I've missed you sweetheart."

"Finn…" Willa set down the knife and pushed it as close to the wall as possible. "I'm not Amanda."

Finn let out a weird laugh, one that was uncharacteristic of him. He took a step forward putting a hand on her arm to steady himself.

"I come in here to put up the bottle of wine and I find my girl in here, instead? Talk about a great surprise. I know you've missed me. Give me a kiss."

Willa's eyes went wide.

Willa took a few steps back, hoping that Finn's grip would loosen. Unfortunately, it only got tighter.

"Finn…you've been drinking a lot tonight. I think you should go back to our shelter and get some sleep."

"Not before you give me a goodnight kiss, Amanda."

Willa kept backing up until she was all the way at the edge of the plane. Finn kept inching closer to her.

"Amanda, come on babe. You've never run away from me before."

"Finn, I'm not Amanda."

"Yeah and I'm not Finn Whitman." His drunk self mocked her.

"I'm Willa. Don't you recognize me?"

"Willa? Ha! That's a good one! You two look nothing alike." He took a few steps forward, stumbling to the point of almost falling down.

"Give me the bottle, Finn." Willa said in her best "Amanda" voice.

Finn didn't seem to acknowledge what she had just said. He kept walking forward and was currently standing right in front of her.

Willa could smell the alcohol on his breath and had to resist the urge to vomit. Finn leaned in, but stopped a few inches from her face.

"One kiss, Mandy? Just one, that's all I ask."

Willa's eyes went wide as Finn leaned in the rest of the day and kissed her on the lips.

For the first few seconds, Willa was too shocked to do anything. After composing herself, she pushed Finn off of her and grabbed the bottle out of his hand. He stumbled back a few steps, almost falling to the floor.

"Amanda, what's wrong?"

"I'M NOT AMANDA!" Willa yelled. He was starting to get on her last nerves.

Finn's expression turned to confusion. "I-I don't understand."

Willa froze, thinking of the best way to handle this situation. Willa glanced down at the bottle and a plan formed in her head.

"Amanda?" A confused and drunk Finn asked.

"Oh Finn, please forgive me." Willa stated before using the wine bottle to whack him over the head.

Finn was immediately knocked out and Willa hurried to catch him before he hit the ground.

After she had dragged him back to their shelter and laid him down, she was exhausted. Willa wanted to physically distance herself as far away from Finn as possible, so she walked over to the edge of the water and plopped herself down on the sand.

October 3, 2014
Whitman Residence
Living Room

4:30 P.M.

Amanda snapped out of her daydream, confused as ever. Finn and Willa had been in a wrecked plane on an island. When had they ever...

Their plane had crashed junior year of college... Finn had kissed Willa on that trip? He had never told her about that.

That was assuming this was a real memory and not some weird fantasy her mind was creating in his absence. Even Amanda didn't know anymore.

Wanda had insisted on making both girls tea. It had taken her about an hour to sort through the unused kitchen in Amanda's house, cleaning things as she went.

Now Amanda heard the water boiling on the stove. Wanda kept muttering things about the dust and how unclean it was, but Amanda ignored her. They had been gone for a year. Sue me.

Her sister had sat her down at one of the chairs in the living room. Amanda slumped back against the back of the chair in disbelief. She was actually pregnant. She had had pregnancy scares before. Were they even called scares if you were already married? She and Finn had talked about having kids long before they were even married. And now, the moment he had been looking forward to for so long had come and he wasn't there to celebrate with her.

The last thing Amanda felt like doing was celebrating.

Jess sat down on the couch and turned on the television, flipping through the channels until she found one of the dozen news channels. As she sat there, Wanda came in and brought each of them a cup of tea. Amanda took it and nodded thanks to Wanda.

Wanda retrieved her own cup and sat across the room in the recliner Finn had bought himself about a month before the whole curse started.

Amanda winced when she did so, but said nothing. She didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Finn would have…

The screen changed from two anchors behind a desk to a female newscaster standing in front of a brick building.

"Florida Hospital officials announced earlier today that two missing people showed up at the hospital around 1 o'clock today. One of the victims showed up with a serious gunshot wound, and the hospital could not say whether or not the man had survived surgery."

Jess turned up the volume just a little. On the left side of the screen, a recent photo of Willa and Philby showed up on the screen. It was the one they had taken in Rome on their honeymoon, right before Finn got in an accident leading to his coma. They looked so happy standing in front of the Roman Colosseum. Amanda's eyes went wide.

"As you all probably remember, Mr. and Mrs. Philby were two of the first five DHI's for Disney. A little bit over a year ago these two, among five others, disappeared in the middle of the night without a trace. Police and FBI have been searching for them with no such luck. We have no official word from either as to what happened over the past year."

Amanda and Jess exchanged a look before looking back at the screen.

"We're still waiting to hear if Mr. Philby made it through surgery successfully. One of the nurses told us that his condition was extremely critical upon arrival. Hopefully we'll have something for all of you soon. The hospital has declined all comments until later in the evening."

The screen switched back to the two anchors behind the desks and Jess hit the mute button.

"Willa and Philby are back," Jess muttered under her breath.

"Everyone except Finn should be," Wanda said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.

Jess turned to face Wanda and put down her cup of tea on the dining table. Amanda noticed that she wasn't using a coaster, but said nothing. She couldn't get herself to say anything. She felt that if she could get a word out, the floodgates would open and she would cry all over again. It was taking all of her willpower not to throw the cup of tea at the wall out of frustration.

"How come I was in your house when I woke up Wanda? I was at a hotel when we got cursed?"

"My father informed me about your location about two days after the curse. We both decided we needed to move you before you were taken to a hospital and the missing persons case went to the media. So I decided to take you in."

"What about Amanda? She was in her house the whole time."

"We did our best to keep the house payments up on everyone's apartments and such to keep the bank from taking your houses and trying to sell them. We had no clue how long you would be gone."

"What about our jobs?"

"Once the missing persons case got to the media, it was fairly obvious what your employers were going to do."

"That lady said the police and the FBI were looking for us. Wouldn't they have looked at our houses?"

"Wayne and I did our best to keep them from doing so. We kept them out of all of your homes…except one." Wanda looked down at her cup of tea, obviously ashamed that she couldn't protect everyone.

"Whose house got looted?"

"Charlene's. They found some of her blood outside of the gymnasium where she works. We couldn't stop them from looking at her house."

Amanda and Jess exchanged a look. Charlene had told them that the day the curse had been enacted she had been home all day. Why had police found her blood at her workplace if she had claimed she wasn't there?

Something didn't add up.

"So what do they think happened to us?" Jess asked Wanda.

Wanda took a sip of her tea. "They're not sure. We've been trying to feed the press random conspiracy theories to keep them from finding out the truth."

Jess raised an eyebrow. "You've been sending them on rabbit trails on purpose?"

Wanda nodded. "My personal favorite was that you were abducted by aliens." She smirked and Amanda could tell that she had had way too much fun making up crazy kidnapping conspiracies about them.

Jess laughed, something Amanda couldn't bring herself to do. "That's good, Wanda. But now what? We're all back. How are we going to handle this? We can't tell them the truth."

"No, you can't. We were hoping all of you could meet with us before the media caught a whiff of you getting back. We'll have to sneak Philby and Willa out of the hospital so that we can discuss how we want to proceed."

Amanda swallowed the lump in her throat and finally spoke. "Finn needs to be our first priority."

Wanda offered her a sad smile. "Of course, dear. I wouldn't suggest anything else."

"What about everybody else we left behind?" Jess asked. "Mattie…and Storey…and Marcus…and…and…oh no…"

This time it was Amanda who offered the sad smile. Wanda looked to Jess before fixating back on Amanda.

"Who is she referring to?"

"Patrick."

Jess looked her sister in the eye, giving her the same look Amanda had probably given her when Jess had shown up hours ago. "Do you think he's here? In this world?"

"You met him there and you didn't know him from here?" Wanda became suddenly interested in her cup of tea again. Something wasn't right about Patrick—that much Amanda already knew. But if Wanda knew something…

Amanda would have to figure that out later.

"Do you think he made it back?" Jess asked her sister.

"I don't know," Amanda managed to say.

Jess took a deep breath, trying hard not to cry. "Okay…we'll find him…after Finn, right?"

Amanda nodded, this time it was her who was interested in the cup of tea.

Wanda glanced over at the clock and perked up. "Oh look girls! It's time to start dinner. I'll go out and get some food and then come back. Is that okay with the two of you?"

Both sisters nodded, both too focused on their missing husband/boyfriend to care about what Wanda was cooking for dinner.

"Don't answer the phone or the door, alright?"

They both nodded again. Wanda gathered her things and left the house. Jess slowly picked up the remote and turned the news back on, listening to the recap of their missing persons case on loop. Amanda sipped her tea in silence.

There had to be a way to get Finn back. She just wasn't thinking hard enough. She was sure of it.

October 3, 2014
Philby Residence
Driveway

10:12 P.M.

Philby dared a glance out the car window. Willa had managed to get him out of the hospital without a single person noticing. How she had done that, he would never know, but he was grateful. Once word had spread that he was at the two of them had showed up at the hospital, news reporters from all over the country were trying to fly in and get footage of them or an interview or something…anything.

They were as desperate for answers as he was.

Now, despite the doctor's warnings, they were headed home. Philby's gunshot wound wasn't even close to being healed, but he had faith Willa would be able to nurse him back to health. She had been a nursing major the first year of college and had volunteered in the ER at the local hospital that summer. According to her, she had dealt with a lot of gunshot wound victims.

"It'll be easy to get you back to normal," she had said. He hoped she was right.

Willa turned the car wheel, parking the car into their driveway. She glanced out her window and cursed underneath her breath.

"What is it?" Philby asked while trying to sit up straighter in his seat. He winced at the pain, but made sure not to make a sound.

"Not again," Willa mumbled as she turned off the car and jumped out, slamming the car door shut.

Philby turned his head to see her hurrying up to the front porch, where Charlene and Maybeck were fighting. Willa exchanged some words with them, but none looked like "Hey!" or "Nice to see both of you" or "We all made it back alive!" She ended up unlocking the front door and shoving Charlene inside, pushing Maybeck down the steps toward the car. She pointed in the direction of the car as she hurried inside after Charlene.

Maybeck hurried around the car, let Lizzie out of her car-seat in the back and pointed to the front porch. He then hurried over to the passenger door and opened it.

"Come on Philbo. Let's get you inside before people start taking pictures and asking questions."

Philby nodded and let Maybeck help him out of the car. Philby draped an arm over Maybeck's shoulders, letting himself be guided into the front door. Maybeck opened it and the two of them—plus Lizzie—hurried in. Charlene shut the door as Maybeck led Philby into the living room and onto the couch.

Charlene locked the door and helped Willa in the shutting of all of the blinds.

Lizzie sat down on the couch next to Philby and cuddled up against him. She didn't seem to care that she was leaning against his wound.

"Hey sweetie," Philby mumbled as he kissed her on the top of her head, ignoring the pain. Willa came over and smiled at the two of them. She picked up her daughter and sat down next to Philby, with Lizzie in her lap. Philby wrapped his arm around his wife's waist.

Charlene sat down on the floor across from the couch, right next to the TV stand. Maybeck paced back and forth.

"Do you two want to elaborate on what you were fighting about? Something about one of your dads?" Willa asked the newly engaged couple, obviously furious at them showing up on their front porch at this hour.

Charlene shook her head, obviously not ready to talk about whatever it was that brought her here.

"It's a long story," Maybeck muttered under his breath.

"Ooookay…" Willa glanced back at her husband and shrugged. He could tell she wasn't satisfied with that answer, but it was the one that she was going to have to live with for now. "So what do we do about Finn?"

"We get him back, duh." Maybeck rolled his eyes.

"But how?" Philby asked.

Nobody said anything.

"What about Storey and Mattie?" Willa asked. "They went back and forth between this world and the cursed one. Why can't we do that?"

Charlene's eyes went wide. Maybeck stopped pacing and looked at her.

"Is that possible?"

Philby shook his head. "What if we go back under the curse when we go back? Do we really want to risk getting stuck there for another year?"

Willa's face scrunched up at his outright denial of her idea. "We can at least ask Wayne. See if it's worth a try."

She looked at Philby. Her eyes warning him not to outright deny her twice. If he did, in front of their friends, he would definitely get the Lily Aldrin "you're dead to me" look. Unfortunately, Lily wasn't the only one who had mastered that look. Philby had only seen it a few times and he wasn't planning on adding to this list...ever.

"Okay, so we find Wayne," Philby conceded. "We'll have to talk to Jess and Amanda too. I'm assuming nobody's heard from them today."

Everybody shook their heads.

"So we find Wayne and see if we can go back there to find Finn?" Charlene asked, confirming the plan.

"That's it." Willa replied. "What about going over there in the morning. I don't know about the two of you, but we—" she glanced back at Philby "—have had a long day and need some sleep."

"Sleep would be good for all of us," Maybeck said mysteriously, looking straight at Charlene. Whatever they had been fighting about was serious. Based off the body language and the cryptic words, he wanted her to wait to make a rash decision.

Philby had been so distracted with the pain and trying to figure out a way to get Finn back he had missed out on something huge. Willa had said they were fighting about one of their dads. Maybeck lived with his aunt as long as he had known them. Maybeck had never ever mentioned either of his biological parents, except to say that they had died when he was a baby. Charlene had grown up with her mother. He remembered her telling him that her parents had split when before she was even born.

Neither of them knew their fathers. So that could only mean…

"You met your father today Charlene, didn't you?" He asked the newly engaged couple.

Charlene and Maybeck exchanged a look. Charlene looked away and hung her head in shame. Maybeck sighed and looked back at Philby and Willa.

"Yeah. Turns out Charlene's mom got back together with her dad while we were gone."

Neither Willa or Philby knew what to say. Based off Charlene's body language and the fight on the porch earlier, she hadn't handled the news well.

Willa was about to start to say something, but Charlene cut her off.

"I don't want to talk about it Willa. Not today." Charlene stood up and brushed off imaginary stuff from her shirt and pants. "I'm going to go to a hotel and spend the night since apparently my apartment isn't available anymore." She let out a forced breath, almost like a bull before they charged the matador's red flag. "I will see both of you at Wayne's apartment tomorrow."

And with that, she walked out the door. Maybeck said goodnight and hurried after her.

Willa turned on the couch to face her husband. "Well that was something, wasn't it?"

Philby nodded. "You bet. How about we go to bed? I'm so tired."

Willa smiled. "Sure thing. Come on Lizzie. Time for bed." Willa stood up, Lizzie sitting on her hip. She had almost made it out of the room when Willa turned around and gave Philby a confused look.

"The last time we were in this house, Lizzie was eight months old."

"So?"

"She's not going to fit in her crib anymore."

"Oh." Philby stood up, almost sitting back down because of the pain. "Well I guess she'll have to sleep in our bed until we can get her own bed."

Lizzie leaned her head on Willa's shoulder, obviously tired. Willa shrugged at Philby. "I can deal with it."

Philby kissed her on the cheek as he walked—more like hobbled—out of the living room. "You didn't have a choice!" He called out behind him.

December 4, 2358
Magic Kingdom—Fantasyland
Cinderella Carousel

5:48 A.M.

Standing by the carousel was something Finn hadn't done in a long time. Even in the small amount of light the rising sun emitted, he noticed how the paint on the horses was starting to fade—three hundred years without a new coat can do that to paint.

Finn wished Amanda were here. He remembered how it was a tradition for them to ride the carousel. It was something that was special to them.

One time in senior year, they had both been assigned to cross over to scout the park for any signs of Overtakers. They scoured the park, but saw nothing—the good old days when the OT's were the last thing on their minds. Finn had jumped on one of the horses and beckoned Amanda to sit on the back as they rode off into the rising sun together. That's the moment that the carousel horse had come to life and started riding down the street toward the New Fantasyland construction sites just like in the movie Mary Poppins—which coincidentally was Amanda's favorite movie.

The warm memory almost melted the cold feeling that had been in his heart since Dillard's (second) death yesterday. Force those emotions down, Finn. You can't show them. Find Elsa. Get what you need from her. Go home.

He would see Amanda again. He just knew it.

This "Elsa" character would have to help him, though. That's the part that scared him—not being separated from his wife and friends, not being stuck in a world created by Maleficent, but this new Disney character that he had never heard of.

It would go one of two ways: really great or really bad. Finn couldn't figure out which yet.

He walked past the carousel as fast as he could. The last thing he needed was to get more memories crashing back to him. He walked through the gates toward the two smaller castles looming in the distance. He only got to go here once before the curse had started, but he knew for a fact they hadn't looked this rough and worn back in 2013.

He passed Beast's castle on the left. The stained glass windows from the Be Our Guest restaurant were broken, as if someone had shot a cannon straight through it. The stones looked weak. The castle was about to fall in on itself at any moment.

He continued down the path toward Eric's castle. He knew Ariel would be happy to help him out—assuming she was there. He had met Mulan, Rapunzel and Meg in this world—so hopefully Ariel was around here somewhere.

He walked straight up to the castle door and found it to be locked shut. He took a step back and searched for any sign of life.

Window shutters were locked shut. Some of the windows were broken, like the stained glass windows at the other castle. Water had obviously been lapping against the base of the castle furiously for a long time because the color had been stripped completely from the stone, giving it an eerie white color. The large, wooden door had started to rot along the edges. The hinges didn't look like they were working, making Finn question if anybody could open the door, if anybody was even inside.

Eventually he heard scuffling and muffled voices on the other side of the door.

After a few moments of agonizing silence, the door swung open—with a lot of difficulty from the opener—and Finn saw Ariel and Eric standing there.

"Finn!" Ariel pulled him into a hug before he could do anything. She let go of him and let him step inside. The inside of the castle looked as if someone had tried to destroy it with a sledgehammer but left before he (or she) could finish.

Eric looked both ways before closing the door after them, as if he was expecting someone to be watching them. There wasn't a lot of light on the inside of the castle, but through the broken windows, there was enough light for Finn to see Ariel and Eric well enough.

"Was anybody following you?" Eric asked him once the door was secured again.

Finn shook his head. "Not that I know of. I'm pretty sure the park is empty."

Ariel and Eric shared a look that Finn didn't like.

"There are others here, aren't there?" He asked the couple.

Ariel looked to Eric to answer. He didn't look like he wanted to answer, but he did anyway. "Most of us are, actually. We're just…in hiding."

"How come none of you came to help us when we were attacked by Maleficent's forces about a week ago? Amanda, Willa, Philby and I were captured! That's the reason I'm still here and not with them!"

Finn felt a spark of anger start in his core and spread like a wildfire inside of him. He couldn't stop it, but he could stop his urge to strangle them. They were Disney royalty, after all.

Ariel tried to calm him down first. "Finn, let us explain—"

"Explain what?" He interrupted. "That you basically left us for dead! We saved your sorry butts back in high school and that's how you thank us? Isn't that like against the Disney princess code or something?"

"Princesses don't have a code like you boys do," Ariel rolled her eyes. "I believe it's called the 'bro code.'" She glanced over at Eric. Based off her facial expression, Finn figured Eric had mentioned something like that fairly often.

"Finn, we can explain, but I believe you came to our castle looking for something, or someone, in particular. What would that be?"

Finn took a deep breath to calm himself down. And another. And one last one before speaking.

"I need to find Elsa…so that I can get home."

"Elsa?" Ariel asked, a little surprised. "I know where she is!"

"And that is…?"

"Norway of course!"

"You mean the pavilion in EPCOT?"

Ariel laughed. "Of course, silly."

Eric didn't look satisfied, but said nothing.

"Go along Finn. Your friends won't wait for you forever back home!"

Finn took a deep breath. "Alright…I'll uh…see you soon?"

Ariel pulled him into another hug and wished him luck. She pulled out a fork from her pocket and started combing her hair with it as she walked away from the two men. Eric walked him to the door, both of them straining to open the large, rotten wooden door.

Eric put his hand on Finn's shoulder as he was about to step outside.

"Be careful, Finn. I've heard…uh…things about Norway that don't settle well with me."

His tone of voice suggested that he hadn't told Ariel—or anybody else—about his suspicions.

"I'll watch out," Finn whispered back.

"Good luck," Eric said as he shut the door, leaving Finn out in the open in the cool, crisp morning.

He took a deep breath and started heading toward the entrance to the park. He had to get to Norway and fast. This "Elsa" character was going to be his way home and he was determined to find her. Now.

Oh goodness guys...you are going to LOVE what's coming up next! I can't wait! No guarantees on a fast update, but I will try my best! Have a wonderful weekend and please review! I love reading them!