Chapter Fifty-Five: Into the Unknown

Storybrooke – Present Day

Clara started to wish she had stayed back at Granny's as she wandered through the woods for what felt like hours. She had no idea where she was going and figured taking a shortcut through the forest was a bright idea. Unfortunately, she found out the hard way that it wasn't. Now she was lost in a seemingly endless forest, hoping to find a town or some form of civilization on her way to finding the Doctor. She even settled on finding that blue box of his – the one she recalled seeing before blacking out and finding herself there in Maine.

"Are you lost?"

Clara nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the sudden voice speak out from behind her. She turned immediately to see a thirty-something man with short-cropped hair and a receding hairline.

"I…I didn't mean to scare you. I was just on a hike, and I saw you out here all alone. Are you okay?"

"Not really, actually." Clara answered.

His ears perked from her accent. "You're English?" He chuckled amusingly. "Y-You're not from around here, are you?"

Clara shook her head. "No. I was sort of brought here against my will. Do you live here, Mister…?"

"Mendell. Greg Mendell. And, uh, no, not from here myself. I was in an accident on my way through and spent some time recuperating in the local hospital."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. But, uh, I figured that I would spend a while longer here in this little town. It…intrigues me."

Clara nodded understandingly. "Well, I'm hoping that I can leave here as soon as I find the man who brought me here. Weird bloke. Goes by the name of 'Doctor.'"

Greg looked surprised upon hearing the name. "You…You know…the Doctor?"

Noting his surprise, Clara looked at him awkwardly and said, "Yeah. Showed up at my home dressed like a monk. I pass out for reasons unknown, and I find myself across the pond here in America. Why? Do you know him?"

Before Greg could have answered, the two of them heard movement near them. Turning in the direction of the noises, they saw a young boy appear from out of the trees and accidentally bump into Greg, knocking himself to the ground. "Whoa! Hey, kid, you alright?" The boy, out of breath from running and his hair drenched with sweat, nodded as he was helped back up. "What're you doing out here all by yourself?"

"You're not lost, too, are you?" Clara questioned to him.

The boy glanced back and forth between the two of them as he explained himself: "Boy scouts. Trying to get a merit badge." Greg and Clara swapped suspecting glimpses on his answer, which was obviously a fib. "W-What're you two doing here?"

"We're hiking." Greg fibbed back, which seemed like a fair thing for him to do in Clara's eyes. He then indicated his phone and added, "And taking pictures of Maine's scene of beauty."

The boy must have suspected Greg's fib just like they did with his, because he pointed to a faraway direction and said, "Hiking trail's that way."

Greg nodded. "O.K. Thanks." He walked over to where the boy dropped his backpack and picked it up. As he had done so, Clara noticed that Greg had taken a photo of the tag on the boy's pack before returning it to him. "'Henry,' is it? Well, good luck with your merit badge." Greg then walked away, nodding for Clara to follow him as he moved away from Henry.

While their backs were facing Henry, Clara whispered to Greg, "You got his home phone number from his pack, right?"

"Oh, yeah." Greg confirmed.

"Good." After a few more steps, Clara finally turned around to see Henry running madly in the opposite direction. "You call his mother. I'm gonna see what he's really up to."

"Good idea." Greg acknowledged and watched her leave while dialing in the phone number that he had gotten off Henry's backpack.

It was certainly a much easier task pursuing a young boy through the forest than wandering endlessly looking for a man who might as well not have existed to Clara. Keeping a distance from the boy known as Henry, Clara carefully followed him all the way to an ancient-looking well in the midst of a clearing. She hid behind a tree and watched him as he took off his backpack and reached inside. When his hands came back out, Clara was shocked to discover that Henry had pulled dynamite out from his pack. Oh, God! What the hell is this boy thinking of doing? She dreaded what would come next as Henry began lighting a match to ignite the fuse on the dynamite with.

Clara instinctively stepped out from behind the tree to put a stop to whatever intentions Henry had. But she retreated back to her hiding spot just as she heard a woman's voice call out to the boy…

"Henry!" Clara saw a dark-haired woman step into the clearing with her hands up. The woman appeared terrified and concerned; for that reason, Clara had to believe she was Henry's mother. "Henry, what are you doing?"

Henry picked up the dynamite, showing it to her. "I'm getting rid of magic! It's ruining everything! And you can't stop me!" He placed the dynamite back down to the edge of the well and started lighting matches again.

"All that's going to do is get you killed," his mother warned.

Listen to her, kid. The woman's speaking sense, Clara thought, even though she had no idea what was happening with this boy or what kind of "magic" he was referring to.

"You only say that because you need magic, so you can cast that curse on me."

At that point, Clara wanted to step out from behind the tree again and interfere – talk to Henry herself and ask him what this "curse" was all about. She knew a troubled child when she saw one, and she figured this talk of magic and curses was a cry for help. She especially wanted to interfere when she saw Henry finally manage to get a match lit and prepare to ignite the fuse with it. However, both the fuse and the dynamite suddenly vanished in a puff of purple smoke, leaving Henry with nothing to ignite.

"Whoa." Clara whispered over the sudden supernatural display. It turned out that all this talk of magic was real, and it was Henry's mother that had performed the feat she had just witnessed. She thanked her stars for keeping herself behind the tree, because there was certainly some unearthly force at work.

With the dynamite gone, Henry's mother moved in much closer to him. "I can't lose you, Henry. You mean too much to me."

"Then don't cast the curse. Don't kill Mary Margaret."

"Henry, she has to pay."

"The curse…it won't make me love you for real. It'll be fake."

"It'll be something. I know it's hard for you to understand right now, but you'll see. We can be happy. We can have everything."

"Not like this." Henry backed away from her, seeming to be terrified of her.

Is this woman really his mother? Why would he be so terrified of her?

"Hey, Regina! Get away from my son!"

New players entered the act in the form of a young blonde who looked to be close to Clara's age and two men. It was the blonde who made the demand and hearing how she was Henry's mother made this situation even more complicated for Clara to figure out. It was all happening like a soap opera to her.

"He's not yours! He's mine!" Regina exclaimed while reaching into her pocket and retrieving a small, rolled-up paper. "And after I cast this, you're never going to see him again!"

"That's not gonna happen!" One of the two men accompanying the blonde boldly declared.

"If you're gonna kill Mary Margaret, you'll have to go through us." The blonde cautioned Regina, who did not seem all too fazed by the threat.

"O.K." She then – to Clara's immediate shock – conjured a fireball right from her hand, ready to hurl it at the blonde and her companions, one of whom stepped in with a handgun aimed directly at Regina's head.

Had it not been for Henry stepping in between the adults, the scene would have certainly turned very ugly. "Stop this!"

"Henry, get out of the way!"

"Not until someone helps me destroy magic!"

"I'm afraid that's impossible, Henry."

Clara jumped. The speaker was not any of the people she had been watching from behind the tree; it was someone who had been watching them from behind her. Their attention went to Clara's direction, and she suddenly found herself to be discovered, all because of the person who spoke out behind her. Turning around, she saw that it was him – the man who went only by "Doctor." He smiled at Clara, who wanted to punch him in the face – not for revealing her to the violent group of people near them, but for bringing her there in the first place.

"Doc!" Emma cried with happiness. "Thank God you're here!"

The Doctor stepped past Clara and addressed the group calmly. "Henry's right. Magic is the problem. It's turned a good woman into something none of us could imagine she would ever become. And it's made another woman desperate to regain her son's love by foolishly settling for a poor substitute." He eyed Regina in particular on that last statement. "Regina, I understand what you've lost. I've lost, too. But you cannot force Henry to love you and kill Mary Margaret all at once. If you truly love Henry, then show him the person he wants to love."

Regina listened closely to the Doctor's words. She knew exactly what needed to be done to do what he suggested. Retrieving the small, rolled-up paper from her pocket, she held it over the fireball that continued to spark from her other hand. After much hesitation, she dropped the paper – the spell that she intended to use on Henry – into the fireball, letting it become nothing but ash. She extinguished the fireball from her hand by closing her palm, bringing a sigh of relief over everyone, Henry included.

"Thank you," he gratefully told her before returning to Emma and leaving with her, Neal, and David.

Regina, alone again, tearfully watched Henry leave with his family and then began to depart herself. With Regina gone, the Doctor was left only with Clara, whose mystified face showed how overwhelmed she was from all that had transpired there. Smiling at her, the Doctor could only (timidly) say, "Welcome to Storybrooke."