Chapter Sixty-Two: The Promise

Storybrooke – 1983

It had taken the TARDIS a dozen tries to rematerialize on the side of the road that led into Storybrooke. It was the closest the Doctor could manage to get him and Rose to the town after multiple attempts at landing within its boundaries. Once the TARDIS finally came together, its two passengers rushed out of the blue box as pillars of smoke had risen out of it. The Doctor and Rose coughed out the bits that were in their lungs and breathed in the outdoor fresh air to cleanse their bodies.

"DOCTOR!"

The voice of a child – one familiar to Rose and the Doctor – cried out to them. They looked to their left to see Owen Flynn, the boy they believed to have lost on their first attempt at returning into Storybrooke, running straight to them. They noticed that he was in tears and looked to be terrified.

"Owen," said the concerned Doctor. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"She took him! She took him!" Owen could only manage to say in his panic.

"She took who, sweetheart?" Rose inquired.

"My dad!" Owen shouted through his tears. "Regina took my dad!"

Owen led Rose and the Doctor back to the town line where he had witnessed his father being falsely arrested by Sherriff Graham while Regina Mills tried to coax the boy into staying with her. On their way there, the Doctor tried to figure out how Owen was transported from the TARDIS to Storybrooke. It certainly was not his doing but that of some other force at work. The mystery grew even more when they arrived at the town line and saw a road that led into nowhere. Owen was shocked to see the "Leaving Storybrooke" sign, as well as his father's car, no longer standing where he left it.

"This is where they took my dad!" Owen exclaimed. "It was right here!"

The Doctor immediately went to work on scanning the area with his sonic screwdriver – its blue tilt pointed at every inch of it – but he found no readings that confirmed it was the spot that Owen said it was.

"This is where Storybrooke was!" Owen yelled – his anxiety evident in his tone.

"Calm down, Owen." Rose urged. "We believe you."

Tears poured from Owen's eyes as he looked down the empty road. He lifted his right hand up high, holding a lanyard keychain made by his father and passed down to him. "I'll find you, Dad! I promise! I'll never stop looking!"

Little did Owen or even Rose and the Doctor realize that staring directly at them through an invisible barrier that cloaked the entrance to Storybrooke was Regina. She was close enough to Owen to touch him, which she had almost done, with her fingers rippling against the invisible wall that separated them. It was only the intervention of Rose that made her hand recoil as she watched the young blonde kneel down next to Owen and comfort him with a hug. The sight devastated Regina as she realized that she could never hold Owen the way Rose did – like a mother to a son.

The sight of Rose and Owen was quickly obscured by the Doctor as he stood in Regina's view. He was staring directly at her, scanning the particular spot she was standing in. Regina reacted in heavy suspicion, wondering if the Doctor was onto her. She stared directly into his intense, focused brown eyes, feeling an overwhelming sense of hatred towards him. It was then that a shooting pain from her right temple came over her, and she was forced to look away from the man. It was not just a headache or a migraine that she experienced; it felt like something completely different…something the Doctor possibly had a hand in. Does he know, she wondered.

She looked back in his direction and saw him turn away, facing Owen. He knelt down beside the boy and Rose, placing a comforting had on Owen's shoulder. "Owen?" The boy let go of Rose and turned to him. "You have my word and honor as a Time Lord that I will find your father. We will get to the bottom of this…even if we have to tear apart Storybrooke to do it."

That last part of the Doctor's promise to Owen alarmed Regina. She knew the man could be capable of such a feat, because – at that moment – she realized that he was in fact the same Doctor she had sworn to be rid of, only carrying a different face. She watched him leave with his female companion and Owen, thinking of the possible chance that he would return to Storybrooke one day and make good on his promise. She would not let that happen.

"You have no control of your own fate, Regina."

There came an elderly voice just behind her, and she promptly spun around to find an old, bearded man that had the look of a battle-hardened warrior standing there on the road with her. Surprised from his sudden appearance, Regina questioned to him, "Who the hell are you?"

"A suppressed memory of the man whose essence you've taken," the old man calmly stated. "You should know me, but you don't, because the Doctor chooses not to know."

As Regina looked upon the old man, she felt a sense of melancholy; she was not certain as to why, but there was something about him that made her feel angry, sad, disappointed, and betrayed over herself. "Why are you here? Why are you tormenting me like this?" She found herself crying for no reason whatsoever. She was sad about losing Owen, but the sudden sadness she felt was over something else completely.

"You feel what he feels. You see what he sees. You remember what he remembers. It isn't torment, Regina. It's a consequence of your actions against him."

"Well, make it stop!"

"I cannot. Only you have that power to do it. But you must be willing to give it back to the very same man who has promised to destroy what you hold dear."

Regina knew what that meant and shook her head in refusal. "I won't," she insolently told the old man.

"Then you will continue to suffer."

"I have suffered many pains in my life. This is no different."

"Not this pain. Not his pain."

Regina grinned. "Well, that's the difference between him and I – I'm stronger than him!"

"We shall see."

The old man's form faded away before Regina's eyes. The overload of emotions she felt had vanished with him. She was not entirely certain as to what she just experienced, but it scared her more than anything she ever feared – including her own mother.