Chapter Fifty-Three: Goodbye and Hello

Storybrooke – Present Day

Mary Margaret lied still in her bed, staring at a single spot for the past hours. She was wracked with immense guilt over what she had done to Cora…what she had done to Regina as a result. Cora was dead because of her; and while many were overjoyed and hailed Mary Margaret as a hero, she could not see it for herself. The only one who was not praising her on doing the deed was the Doctor, who had spent many hours in solitude within the TARDIS. Of course, the others justified his distance from Mary Margaret as his mourning over the death of Jack Harkness, but she knew the truth as she saw it.

David attempted to get Mary Margaret to eat something, seeing that she had not eaten for the hours that had passed since Cora's demise. Meanwhile, Emma kept watch from the kitchen window to see if the Doctor would step out of the TARDIS at any time from the street corner below. Neither Mary Margaret nor the Doctor did what David and Emma hoped for them to do. They returned to Henry, who had been sitting in the kitchen, having his breakfast.

"Anything from the Doctor?" David asked.

Emma shook her head. "Anything from Mary Margaret?"

David sighed. "She won't even eat."

Seeing how the two reacted to the behaviors of Mary Margaret and the Doctor, Henry seemed confused and a bit curious. "What's wrong with them? I mean, I get that the Doctor's sad about Jack – I am, too; but, ever since Cora died, they've both been acting weird towards each other."

Emma wanted to lie to Henry and tell him that nothing was wrong – that Mary Margaret was just sick and the Doctor needed some time alone. But she could not bring herself to lie to him again, especially not after he knew she lied about Neal. Looking to David, she admitted, "He deserves to know the truth."

"Emma…" David said with caution.

"Know the truth about what?" Henry asked, even more curious.

"Here's the thing, Henry." Emma began. "Cora's death…Mary Margaret was partially responsible for it, and that's why she's so upset…why the Doctor's so upset with her."

Henry shook his head. "No. No, no, she couldn't."

"She was trying to protect us." Emma justified.

"But she's Snow White." Henry contradicted. "She wouldn't hurt anybody."

There was a knock at the door and David went to answer it. Opening it, he was surprised to have seen River standing there with an urn in hand. "River. You showed up at just the right time. We were just talking about…"

"What happened with Cora…I know." River said. "It's impacted us all greatly – the Doctor more than the rest of us."

"Have you heard anything from him?" Emma inquired, approaching her with Henry at her side.

River sadly nodded. "I have…and I'm sorry to say that the two of us have reached an agreement on me being here in Storybrooke. I'm leaving today…here and now."

This news shocked and baffled David, Emma, and Henry. "What? Why? How come you're leaving? Why are you leaving?" They all asked their questions in such disarray that River could barely keep up with what they were all saying.

"It's for the best." River managed to say over them.

"It's his idea for you to leave, isn't it?" Emma said in anger, clearly referring to the Doctor. "He's shutting you out, just like he's shutting the rest of us out."

"He's not shutting anyone out, Emma." River defended. "He's lost a friend – someone he had known longer than any of us…nearly as long as he had known Amy and Rory." She looked down at the urn in her hands, sighing. "That type of loss…well…you all have seen what it does to him. He needs time to find himself again…find his purpose in being who he is and doing what he does. He won't abandon any of you; he knows what that will do now. Just…give him some time to grieve."

Mary Margaret heard every word that River had said from her bed, and tears streamed from her eyes as her guilt deepened, believing that she was responsible for putting the Doctor back into his depression.

David sighed; he was not happy over the thought of River leaving Storybrooke, but he understood nonetheless. "Where will you go?"

"Well, first I have to leave Jack's remains with his friend in New York. She won't be very pleased to know of what happened, but the Doctor assures me that she'll know what to do with them. And then I go back to being a professor in my own timeline. I'll one day travel with the Doctor again, don't worry. There's plenty more journeys for us to come. That's why I must leave now – to ensure those times will happen."

Emma nodded and smirked. "Time travel. I get it. He's your past…"

"…and I'm his future." River finished with a smile.

"Will we ever see you again, River?" Henry asked with a hopeful look.

"Of course you will, sweetie. And you'll always have something to remember me by until then."

Henry immediately knew the item that she spoke of and was surprised from a new memory that had come to him. "My book! I-It was you! You were the one who gave it to me!"

"Time travel really is a funny thing, isn't it? You catch on quick, just like your mother." In referencing Emma, River looked to her. "Promise me that you'll always stay with the Doctor, darling. Never let him be alone."

Emma acknowledged with a nod while her thoughts rested on one particular visitor that the Doctor brought back to Storybrooke along with her and Mary Margaret. "I don't think that will be much of a problem."

Feeling assured, River fiddled with her vortex manipulator, dialing in some coordinates. She took one last look at David, Emma, and Henry. A tear fell from her left eye as she smiled and pressed one last button to teleport her away in a brief flash of light. With River's departure from Storybrooke, David began to close the door. However, before it was completely shut, something – or someone – suddenly held it back, prompting David to open it again.

It was Gold.

"A minute of your time, if it's not too much trouble. I believe you're gonna want to hear what I have to say for the sake of Mary Margaret."

Clara awakened to the smell of fresh roses and Jammie Dodgers by her bed. Of course, what had wakened her in full was the sudden discovery that she was in bed. Another unsettling discovery was that she was in the bed of a totally different house – if it even was a house. It certainly was not the Maitland residence from how old fashioned it looked to her. Jumping out of bed, she went to the nearest window and looked out of it. She could see nothing but trees – not enough to tell her where she was. Had she been kidnapped? She thought back on all that happened before she blacked out…

There was a girl. Yeah. A little girl in the house on the stairs. Was she a friend of Angie's? She didn't look like she was. Oh, my stars! What happened after that? What happened before that? That's right! Odd fellow in the monk suit – what was his name? The Doctor? That's not a name. Unless it's a cover-up. Some kind of codename for some type of human trafficking. That's it! That's why he kidnapped me and brought me here – wherever "here" is!

The door to her bedroom suddenly creaked open and Clara's body grew tense. Her suspicions over her current surroundings had gotten the best of her, believing she had been held captive in a workhouse and the person in charge – possibly a big, hairy bald man in a sweatshirt – had come to collect her. Fortunately, it wasn't who Clara expected; in fact, it was the total opposite. An elderly woman walked in and smiled upon seeing Clara out of bed.

"Oh! You're awake." The woman said, and Clara quickly discovered her to be American by her accent. "The Doctor figured you'd be up and around by now. That's why he left all this out for you." She gestured to the Jammie Dodgers and the roses, which were also accompanied by a glass of water.

Clara eyed the old woman suspiciously. "The Doctor? You mean the funny man in the monk costume?"

The old woman was baffled from Clara's description. "Well, I don't know about any 'monk costume,' but he'd always been known from his weird choice of clothes from the years I've known him."

Clara nodded. That much made sense to her. "So…he's the one who brought me here?" She saw the old woman nod. "And where is here?"

"Storybrooke, Maine."

Clara stood flabbergasted from the woman's clarifying response. "I'm in America! How…How did I end up in America?"

"The Doctor brought you here. Saved your life from the story I heard from Emma."

"Who's Emma?"

The old woman saw how increasingly confused Clara had become. "Maybe it'd be best for you to lie back down, just until…"

"Actually, I think I'd like to step out for a while."

Clara then bolted for the door, which the old woman had left open upon entering. She rushed down a hallway and came across a staircase, which she promptly went down. She found herself in what appeared to a lobby that reminded her very much of one out of an old-fashioned hotel. She saw the exit in front of her and went out the door. Once outside, she saw from the sign hanging above the entrance that the place she escaped from was called "Granny's Bed and Breakfast." From reasonable deduction, she figured the old woman was "Granny" and the small, cottage-like dwelling was her "bed and breakfast" hotel.

She felt somewhat ashamed of herself for leaving such a humble place in a thoughtless way. It was nothing like she imagined it to be when she awakened in one of the rooms, and Granny was a very courteous woman to her. But she could not get past the fact of being brought there – brought to America – without her consent. For that purpose, she needed to find this "Doctor" character and get to the bottom of things. She continued on her path away from Granny's and searched for a large blue box, which was her only clue to finding the man.