Chapter Forty-Five: Reaching Out

Riiiiiing! Riiiiiing! Riiiiiing!

Emma awakened from the ringing of what sounded like a telephone as it echoed throughout the TARDIS. She and Mary Margaret had been sleeping in the Victorian guest bedroom that had been offered to them by the Doctor. Drowsily slipping on her jeans and going out of the room barefoot, Emma wandered the halls to find the source of the ringing. With as many rooms as there were halls in the TARDIS, Emma might as well have dedicated herself to an endless search for something that was not all that important to get her out of bed. But the ringing was torture to her, and she needed to find out where it was coming from for her own sake.

Finally, after journeying through the TARDIS for minutes, the ringing had stopped. Somebody finally picked up the damn phone, Emma thought in relief. She did not question who exactly answered it; all that mattered to her was going back to the bedroom and returning to her slumber. Ever since the Doctor brought them to Cumbria in 1207, Emma and Mary Margaret had not found much reason to step outside, so they both decided to spend their time in the TARDIS, which became just as boring to them. To Emma, the Doctor had reached a point in his madness over finding Clara to where there was just no convincing him to abandon the search. Making matters worse, he continued to refuse to tell her of the man who would help them return to Storybrooke. It might as well have been for the best staying inside the TARDIS, while the Doctor spent most of his time outside, living as a monk.

Trouble struck again for Emma as she now faced the challenge of backtracking her way to the bedroom. She knew better than to wander around the TARDIS alone – the last time she had, it took days (if time still existed within the TARDIS) for the Doctor and Mary Margaret just to find her. As long as she had been spending her time in the Gallifreyan time machine, there were still many places in the vast alien spaceship she had never been, and she came across them for the first time in her search for the bedroom.

A whole hour walking barefoot across the cold metal floor, Emma grew irritated. She imagined Mary Margaret waking out of bed, finding out she had gotten up earlier than her, going to the Doctor, asking if he had seen her, and both of them realizing that she was lost again. It embarrassed Emma to know that her mother could find her way to and from the main control room a lot easier than she ever could. The TARDIS must really hate me, she deduced on her way down another corridor that looked somewhat familiar.

Emma was surprised to see that she made it to the control room by accident. The Doctor was there, still in his monk garb, feverishly operating the controls. As soon as he noticed Emma there with him, he looked to her and smiled. "I found her! I found Clara!"

"Congrats." Emma satirically remarked.

The Doctor stopped his operation of the controls as soon as the TARDIS reached its new destination. "Come with me and meet her."

"Meet Clara…in 1207 Cumbria…with no shoes?"

"Well, she's not in 1207 Cumbria. She's in 2013 London. We're in 2013 London."

Emma snapped out of her depression on this and grew very pleased. "R-Really? We're back to the future?" The Doctor confirmed with a nod. "That's great! There's finally Wi-Fi again! We can call Henry or David!"

The Doctor saw her heading out of the control room and quickly spoke up. "But what about Clara?"

"You worry about your undead friend. I'm going to call my son."

The Doctor was downhearted by Emma's refusal to join him in meeting the "new" Clara; but the feeling did not last long once he realized that he had found Clara from the conversation he had with her over the police box telephone. Just as he was about to head outside, he was stopped by Emma, who had returned to the control room and shamefacedly made a request.

"Uh…anyway you could help me get back to the bedroom?"

Manhattan

Jack reawakened with a loud gasp; the hole in his neck had closed up, completely regenerated. The upper half of his clothes was drenched in his own blood as he lied in a pool of it for over a few minutes. Looking around to remind himself of his surroundings, he saw that he was still in the lobby of Neal's apartment. Lying unconscious near him was Hook, the one responsible for his recent death. Harkness was surprised and confused to see him there in New York, far from where he left him in Storybrooke. There was no doubt in Jack's mind that Cora was the one responsible for freeing Hook from the hospital bed that he was handcuffed to; either that, or the pirate somehow escaped through his own methods.

Not bothering to question Hook's presence there any further, Jack placed the unconscious pirate into a nearby storage room. Before locking him inside, he checked his body for any possible weapons that he had carried on him – other than his hook – and discovered a folded piece of paper. Unfolding the paper, Jack saw that it was some type of map, presumably the one that Hook used to find where he was located. Rushing upstairs to Neal's apartment room, he found Neal tending to his gravely injured father with help from Gwen.

"Jack!" Gwen exclaimed, delighted to see him alive again. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, no thanks to our stab-happy friend downstairs. I locked his ass away in a storage room. Also found a map on him. Apparently, he sailed his ship here."

"How'd he get a pirate ship into New York?" Neal asked.

"No clue." Jack answered before bringing his focus on Gold. "What happened here?"

"It was Hook." Gwen informed him. "He punctured Gold's chest."

Neal opened Gold's shirt to expose the wound and revealed some odd discoloration over it. "What the hell is that?"

"It's poison." Gold said, looking upon his wound in shock. "It's one of Hook's own making. There's no antidote in the world. It's…it's not from here."

"There's gotta be some way we can save you." Neal told his father, who appeared to be fading fast.

"There is." Gold weakly said. "There is."

Jack sighed, trying not to laugh over the irony of the situation. "Storybrooke. It's the only place where we can save him with the magic there now."

"We have to get him back then." Neal declared. "I'll get a car."

"No, no, no. We don't have time." Gold groaned. "We need something faster."

"JACK!"

The thrilled voice of Henry sounded from the next room. The rushing sounds of footsteps upon the creaky hardwood floor were heard before he appeared and approached Jack, holding up his cellphone with the biggest smile he ever had on his face. "Jack! It's Emma! She's calling me from the TARDIS! She and Mary Margaret are ready to come home!"