I stared at the food on my tray. There were mashed potatoes, what I hoped was meat, and a pile of peas. It was lunch time and I didn't want to be losing my lunch later on. I pushed the tray away.
"No thank you," I stopped and looked at the nurses name tag. "Charlotte." Charlotte had short, red hair that curled up under her chin. She had a sprinkle of freckles across her nose and was wearing your typical nurse uniform.
"Hannah, I'm sorry but you need to eat something." She replied pushing the tray back to me. I stared at the food longer.
"Nah." I decided. "Can I go home now?" I hated the idea of being in the hospital twenty four hours a day.
"No, Hannah. You need to eat something though." She crossed her arms, but not out of anger. "Do you like… grilled cheese?"
"No!" I say in disgust. "It's melted cheese on two pieces of bread. Nothing else. Just, cheese, melted cheese might I add, and bread."
"Nachos have melted cheese." She argued.
"And Chips!"
"Hannah, I'll get you something else if you're not going to eat this-"
"Nope."
"But it has to be simple." I stared at her.
"Chocolate cake." I told Charlotte.
"Hannah, that is nowhere near simple."
"Yeah it is! All you need is flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, eggs, vegetable oil-"
"Hannah."
"Fine, but something other than: broccoli, celery, peas, carrots, corn, zucchini-"
"You know what, how about macaroni and cheese?"
"Melted cheese?"
"Hannah." She glared at me.
"Macaroni it is!" I declared. The last person you want to upset is the person that's going to have sharp tools near your body. She heaved a sigh of relief and went to get the newly requested meal.
I sat in the hospital bed trying to do origami and eat my lunch at the same time. Charlotte came over to take my bowl away.
"That's a great giraffe, Hannah." She complimented. I squinted at my work.
"It's a dolphin." I said. Charlotte's face turned bright red.
"That's what I meant." She said picking up the bowl.
"That's okay. I probably would've done better if I hadn't been trying to eat my macaroni and fold a dolphin at the same time."
"Yeah, probably." She agreed. She started to walk off but turned around and said, "By the way Hannah, did you know that your class is coming here today?" Why would my class be coming here? Then it hit me.
"Oh yeah! I completely forgot about that!" The school was helping with a volunteer outreach program the hospital set up. I silently scolded myself for forgetting I had a chance to interact with kids my age. "Am I allowed to help?" I asked. She smiled.
"That's up to Doctor Whale." She replied honestly.
"Can I go ask him?" I pleaded. She looked at my injured side.
"Alright, I'll come with you." She said. She grabbed my hand and led me to Doctor Whale. "Doctor Whale, Hannah would like to know if she could help her class with the outreach program." Charlotte told him. He nodded thoughtfully.
"I don't see why not." He said at last. "Just be careful. You don't want to reopen your wound."
"Thank you!" I gave him a hug. It kind of hurt but I wasn't going to tell him anything that would change his mind. He stretched out his arms awkwardly and stepped back.
"Your welcome." He replied. He nodded to Charlotte and turned back to the nurse he was talking to. I turned back to Charlotte.
"So when are they coming?" I asked impatiently.
"Just wait, they should be here soon. In the meantime, what do you want to do?"
"Nothing, I guess." I replied.
"Oh, come on!" She said. "We have checkers." I stared at her.
"That's all?"
"No, we have other games."
"Like?"
"Well, we have chess."
"No, how about-"
"Hannah!" Henry ran up to me. "Are you okay?" He asked.
"Um, yeah I'm fine now." I moved aside as Charlotte went to talk to Mary Margaret. "What about you?"
"What happened to you?" he asked ignoring my question. I stared at the ground.
"I don't actually know. After we talked I went to the toll bridge. Everything went dark and I woke up here." I left out the thought that someone else was there too.
"Wow. All I had heard was that you went to the hospital with a gash in your side."
"Well, that too." Just then Mary Margaret walked up to me and Henry.
"Do you guys want to help with the banners?" She asked. Henry and I looked at each other then back at Mary Margaret. I shrugged.
"Why not?"
After the banners and other decorations were done, Charlotte walked up to me.
"Hannah, Emma asked if you could go on a walk with her. I said it was alright if you wanted to."
"Sure!" I was willing to walk with anyone to get out of that hospital. She gestured to Emma standing by the door. I walked up to her. "Ready to go?" I asked impatiently.
"Yeah." She said and led the way out the door. We walked down the street for a while in silence. I cleared my throat.
"Thanks for helping find me." I said. I figured it was sort of lame, but I wanted to break the silence.
"Uh, yeah." She responded. "How's your side?" She asked distantly.
"It's much better now that I'm out of the hospital." She laughed and stopped.
"Hannah, wait here. I'm just going to talk to Mr. Gold for a second." She walked into Mr. Gold's Pawn Shop. I stood there for a second then decided to follow her.
"Emma?" She jumped and turned around.
"Hannah, I thought I told you to stay outside." I looked around the shop. I had never really been in here before. There were lots of really old looking items hanging from the ceiling, stashed on counters and behind glass cases. A man with a suit a cane and gray hair that reached his shoulders walked out from behind one of the counters. Mr. Gold. A wave of nausea hit me like a punch in the gut. I would have fallen on the floor if Emma hadn't caught me.
"Hannah!" She yelled. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I stared at Mr. Gold. He was standing there as if nothing had happened.
"You…." I gasped.
"Hannah?" Emma asked.
"You were the at the toll bridge." I rasped. He moved up to Emma and put his hand on her head. Emma's eyes rolled to the top of her head and she lay down at least I hoped she was sleeping.
"Perhaps I was, dearie." He leaned in close to my face. "But I'm afraid you won't remember that for much longer." He blew something like dust in my face and backed away. My eyelids got heavy and I started to drift into sleep. I looked up at him. His form shifted from the old man at the counter to the man with reptilian skin I had seen in my dreams. The high pitched laugh that filled my dream was endless and told nothing but one thing. Storybrooke was in trouble.