Chapter Thirty-Five: A Matter of Life and Death

Had David and the paramedics not have arrived in time, Jack would've been left to deal with the most chaotic scene at the town exit by himself. With Belle suffering a gunshot wound, Hook severely injured from the car that ran him down, Gold attempting to finish the job for what the pirate did to Belle, and – above everything else – the unconscious stranger behind the wheel of the car that entered Storybrooke, it was more than Harkness could handle alone. That last bit of news unnerved David and even Ruby and Leroy, who arrived at the hospital just as they heard the sirens.

At the moment they popped in through the doors, Jack gave a direct order to a nearby nurse to hide Hook in one of the hospital rooms; even though it sounded strange, she carried it out without question. Of course, Jack hid Hook more for the pirate's safety than anyone else's. Not long after he was wheeled away, Gold showed up and demanded to know where Belle was.

"She's being taken care of, Gold." Harkness assured. "Just…"

"I want to see her." Gold commanded while trying to push his way through the human barricade that was David and Leroy. "I want to know what's happened to her!"

"I'd like to know that myself." Leroy judgmentally remarked.

Gold repeatedly screamed Belle's name from the top of his lungs, prompting Doctor Whale to make himself known to the frantic group. "Everybody, calm down. Mr. Gold, everything will be fine. She's in good hands here. I promise."

The doctor's reassurance did not seem to put Gold much at ease from the unsettlingly quiet way in which he walked away to another section of the hospital. Relieved that some order had been brought over the atmosphere, Harkness nodded to Whale and said, "Thanks. I owe you one."

However, Whale did not appear to accept the offer humbly. "That's more than enough you owe me, Harkness." With that said, Whale walked away in a huff.

Witnessing the flare of anger Whale expressed towards Jack, Leroy stepped in and asked, "What was that all about?"

"You don't want to know." Jack coldly answered.

"Well, I'll tell ya what I do want to know – who the hell just came into our 'happy' little town?" Leroy said.

Jack pulled a cell phone out of his coat pocket, showing it to Leroy, David, and Ruby. "I got his phone before they pulled him out of the car. I've tried getting into it, but there are a million possible combinations to try. It'll take days, maybe months."

"Actually, there are only ten thousand possible combinations." Ruby indicated.

"Leroy, can you get it open or something? Hack it?" David questioned.

"You do understand that computer-hacking and pickax-hacking are different?" Leroy said.

As the group disputed ways of approaching the task, Harkness was suddenly reminded of the vortex manipulator on his wrist and an idea struck his mind. "Let me try something." He brought the device close to the phone in David's hands and pressed a few buttons. Within seconds, David saw an array of information pop up on the phone's display.

"Jack, you did it!" He exclaimed. "It's giving us everything, including his name."

Harkness took the phone from David and looked at the readout. "Greg Mendell. Well, Mr. Mendell…let's see where you've been lately, shall we?" Jack pressed his right thumb against the display, bringing up Mendell's recent contacts and images of the man by himself at eastern seaboard tourist locations, as well as tweeted images of his food. "Alright…this guy really needs to find a girlfriend. But, from what I'm seeing here, this guy appears to be nobody important. Doesn't mean I'll stop checking up on him though."

David sighed. "Looks like that trip to New York is put on hold, eh?"

Ruby frowned in suspicion. "New York? What's in New York?"

"More like who." Harkness enunciated. "A friend of mine is there because the Doctor sent her a message."

"The Doc's back?" Leroy excitedly said.

"Where is he?" Ruby asked, sounding just as thrilled. "When is he coming to Storybrooke?"

Jack raised his hands to calm the two. "We still don't know where he is exactly. Gwen told me…"

"Who's Gwen?" Leroy curiously queried.

"She's the friend he messaged." Jack clarified. "Anyway, she told me that he sent a postcard with Storybrooke on it."

Ruby became more confused with this news. "That's not possible – unless he got a hold of one before he vanished."

Jack shrugged. "I don't know. I'm the only one who can go there and find out, which I can't do now with the mess that's going on here."

"You go, Jack." David said. "I'll take care of things here."

Harkness shook his head. "No. I need to figure out how Hook got here. If he's here, then that means his partner in crime Cora is here also. And with random strangers now coming into this town, not only could more innocent lives be at stake, but…"

"All of our secrets could be, too." Ruby concluded his statement.

"Anyone could drive in." David said. "Why are my instincts telling me that's a bad thing?"

"'Cause you've seen E.T. or Splash or any other movie where they find something magical and study it to death." Leroy stated.

Harkness nodded in agreement with Leroy's sentiment. "He's right. I can tell you all the horror stories about Torchwood and its dealings with the extraterrestrial before I changed all of that. Why else do you think I took the news about the magic behind this place so easily? It looked normal on the outside but was something totally alien on the inside."

"Well, in all fairness, Jack, we thought the same about you when we first knew about your secret." Leroy indicated.

"We don't need outsiders here." David said.

"With other people coming here, that's not going to be good with Hook and Cora in town." Jack stated. "We need to find Regina. She's Cora's daughter. She'll know how to deal with her."

"I've been tracking her. No luck." Ruby said. "She's gone underground."

Jack moaned. "And if Cora finds her first, then we're in even bigger trouble. I just hope to God that Whale and his team can get Mr. Mendell patched up sooner than possible."

"It's not going to be as soon as you hope, Captain." All heads turned to see Whale enter the room once again. "He's bleeding into his chest cavity. It's not a full flood, you know, but pretty soon he'll be drowning in his own blood."

"So make it stop." Jack said. "You are a doctor, aren't you?"

Whale appeared disgruntled by Jack's question; he was barely able to utter a word, which surprised Harkness and the others. Rather than answer Jack, Whale moved past the group and focused on someone else that had entered the scene. "Gold." He saw him come down a flight of stairs and approached him. "You fixed me. Now fix him. It will take you seconds and cost you nothing."

Listening to Whale's request, Jack grew suspicious of the two men.

"No." Gold wasted no time in his answer. "I owe you nothing, Whale." He looked past the doctor and towards the others. "I owe none of you anything, and some of you owe me – the biggest one of all being Miss Swan, who happens to be missing from our little party and therefore cannot fulfill the favor she owes me. So, yeah, just…no. Oh, and point of interest – the driver? He saw me throwing some magic. So instead of trying to get him out of here, you better be hoping he dies. Because if he doesn't, he's gonna be driving tour buses up and down main street. So glad I don't give a damn."

Immediately after his rant, Gold made his departure from the hospital, leaving Jack with a more despondent group of people. "Screw Gold," he said. "We save this man's life."

"Are you crazy?" Leroy grumbled. "If we save him and kill the whole town, is that really better?"

"So we have to choose between our lives and his." Ruby said.

"Well, I choose his." Harkness declared.

"You don't get a say in this, Captain! This ain't your town!" Leroy retorted. "And, frankly, it ain't your business either!"

"Leroy! Enough!" David yelled, noticing the attention the former dwarf's bellowing had gotten them. "We'll worry about Storybrooke after we save this man's life. Dr. Whale, prep for surgery."

Whale merely acknowledged David's order with a nod and walked away. Watching the doctor leave, Harkness took notice in his behavior, only sharing it with the group once he was away. "I'm sure that I'm not the only one who's noticed how drunk that man was, am I?" The suspecting glances of David, Ruby, and Leroy were enough to show that they agreed. But their focus was redirected to the phone of Greg Mendell, still in the hands of Jack, as its Star Wars ringtone blared from its speakers. They looked to the phone suspiciously, realizing that someone had called for the phone's owner, who was incapacitated at the moment.