Meetings part Two

Morraine nearly slammed into Bae when he stopped suddenly in the middle of the woods, and then she recognized the place. "What're we doing back here?" she asked.

"He's unconscious," Bae replied. "We can end this. He's weak."

"Bae."

"So you want him to track us down and kill us all, break the Merry Men forever so he can go back to his place in a position of power. Oh, alright. I see."

Morraine slapped him. "I followed you into the forest because I care about you. I'm not going to let you become the man that you hate. I understand that Gisborne has to die, believe me, I do, but I also don't want you to become a monster. Don't let your rage do this to you. Please." Bae stared at her, fighting tears, but behind those she saw something dark, bordering on evil. "Please," she said, laying her hands on his shoulders.

"What am I supposed to do?" he finally asked. "He did this. He's the reason I'm in this mess. If not for him, I would never have gone to Neverland, I would still have a mother, I would've had a shot at surviving the Ogre Wars, at the very least I would've been there with you and we could've died together. Now my life is a mess and I went through six rounds of hell and travel just to get here because he had to curse the entire Enchanted Forest and there's no telling wherever else to get to a land without magic." He stopped to breathe and figure out if there was anything he needed to say before settling on, "I just want everything to be like it was before he became the Dark One. Why does the universe think that's wrong?"

"It's not," Morraine said. She pulled Bae into a tight embrace, and he gave himself over to his tears.

OUAT

Red loaned Gerhardt a pair of sunglasses and a jacket that covered most of his scars and stitches, and he walked between her and his brother to Storybrooke General Hospital. He hung close to his brother, and Red tended to stray a bit to avoid the stink of decomposition, light as it was.

But despite the fears of both of them, Gerhardt went mostly unnoticed as they slipped through the halls of the hospital and into Greg Mendell's room. "Uh, the plan does call for Mendell to actually be here," Red said.

"That means we need to know where he is," Victor said, but Gerhardt was already out the door and on his way out to the street.

He scanned the sidewalk and then spotted the one in the hospital-issue robe, and he sprinted toward him. The man took off in the other direction. Several people yelled at Gerhardt as he passed, but he paid them no heed. Greg Mendell was on the run, and he had to be caught. To him, it was that simple. So he ran, and he tried to catch Mendell before he got too far.

Mendell ducked behind a Dumpster and kept running. Gerhardt cleared the Dumpster and bounced off the wall before landing in the alley and tackling Mendell to the ground. He pressed Mendell close so the man could be exactly sure what he was dealing with, and he snarled, "You are going to go back to your bed in the hospital, and you are going to call your wife and tell her that this town is perfectly normal and she shouldn't come here. You're going to tell her to put that story out to the rest of the world if she ever needs to. Tell her you hallucinated if you must. Once you're cleared by the doctor, you're going to go back home, and you're going to forget this place even existed."

"Shouldn't you be trying to eat my brains or something?" Mendell asked.

"Good idea."

"Great. Why does the one zombie I meet have to be intelligent?"

Gerhardt shot to his feet and shoved Mendell into the wall. "I worked very hard to get where I am," he yelled in his face. "How dare you mock my efforts." Mendell blanched and peed himself. Gerhardt crinkled his nose against the smell, but he held Mendell fast. "Now," Gerhardt said coldly, "you're going to do what I say, or I will tear all of your limbs off and twist your neck in a complete circle. Do you understand?" Mendell nodded, and Gerhardt set him down and led him by the upper arm back to the hospital. Red and Victor were staring at him in awe. "I made my point expressly clear, but I don't think he'll keep an oath made under duress," he said in German.

Victor nodded. "I'll watch him." Gerhardt handed Mendell off to his brother and their acquaintance, and they led him back to his room. He bit his lip and wondered why Mendell would run in the first place.

OUAT

D crutched into the pawn shop, and Rumpelstiltskin turned to face her. "What can I do for you?" he asked.

"I don't know if you realize this, magic man," D said, "but you've created a fundamental problem with that curse of yours."

"Always count on the sensitive to know everything."

"I told you there's a problem. You should be a bit more fazed."

"It's a curse, dearie. Of course there's a problem."

"I heard your kid ran out on you. I won't ask why, but do you want to push him even further away by not fixing your mistakes?" He paused, and she knew she hit something.

"There's a way," he said at last, "but I don't want to die."

"There's a doctor here who can fix that."

"I think that's worse."

D nodded. "Do me a favor and think about it, okay?"

He nodded to answer her gesture. "I can do that," he whispered.

"Okay." She made her way out the door, and her attention was arrested by the risen dead man watching her from across the street. He walked over to her, and she turned to face him. "I never caught your name."

"Gerhardt Frankenstein," he said.

"D."

"That's a letter."

"Because Dorothy is a stupid name and I hate it."

"Fair enough. Are you a sensitive, too?"

"Yeah."

"I told Mendell to call off whoever he called here."

"His wife Alice."

"Oh."

"How persuasive were you?"

"I made him piss himself."

In spite of herself and the situation, D burst into laughter. "Right on," she said.

"I don't think he'll do it, though. He agreed to my terms under duress." His perfect seriousness silenced her giggles. "I told my brother and his friend to watch him."

"What kind of friend are we talking about? Can he be trusted?"

"She."

"Oh."

"Yes. I'm almost sure of it."

"Okay."

He glanced down and asked, "What happened to your leg?"

"I got hit by a car." He gave her a strange look. "It's a funny looking carriage that you operate with a wheel."

"Oh."

"So, where you headed?"

"Back to my brother's place."

"Oh, I'm headed the opposite way, then, I think. It was nice talking to you."

"Very much agreed." They both went their separate ways.