"Hi buddy," Neal says.
Henry is completely stunned as is the rest of the group. Killian is equally shocked, finally meeting the man who walked out on his beloved Emma. Everyone else is stunned into silence, unable to move. However, Ruby is the first to react, she goes up and slaps Neal across the face. He keels over slightly from the sudden
"RUBY!" Mary Margret shrieks, pulling her away. They may all hate Neal, but not enough to physically hurt him. "Why'd you do that?"
"I'm doing what Emma would've done," Ruby hisses. "If she were here, but if it was me, I'd given you much worse."
Henry rushes forward and wraps his dad in a hug. He smells like something very spicy and of a pine forest, a smell that Henry missed a lot. Neal rubs Henry's back and squeezes him tightly. Henry feels himself tear up a bit, but he fights the tears, especially in front of Violet.
"You've gotten so big," Neal says quietly.
"What are you doing here Neal?" David asks slowly. He and Mary Margret only got to know Emma's ex a little bit as he was hardly around when they met Emma. They did like him at first, but after he walked out on Emma and Henry, they couldn't forgive him for the hurt he put them through. Ruby was equally hateful towards Emma's ex-fiance, the bastard basically destroyed Emma emotionally and left her in pieces. Regina was mad too, but not enough to slap him. She'd hated what his disappearance had done to Henry, making him a lot worse than before and breaking Emma's heart. Regina had to be the shoulder for both of them to cry on and she thought he was like all the other man in her life, unfaithful and heartless.
Neal leans back from his hug with his son to look at David. Henry slowly steps back. It feels weird to be hugging his dad again, after almost three years. He was thinner than before and much stronger. He was aging a little bit too, his hair graying even more with matching stubble on his face.
"David, Mary Margret, nice to see you again."
"Cut the crap, Cassidy?!" Ruby barks. "Answer the man."
"I came to help look for Emma," he answers.
"Or are you just trying to collect on her life insurance policy?" Ruby snarls.
"RUBY!" Mary Margret says, trying to calm her friend down. "Zelena, will you please take Ruby away from here?"
The lawyer comes up and takes Ruby's arm and tries to guide her away from the scene.
"When did you get here?" Henry asks.
"Last night, I'm staying at a motel. I would've called you, but I figured you were too busy to answer the phone and I think Emma changed the numbers after I left."
"She did that for a reason!" Ruby hollers.
"Calm down Ruby," Lacey says. "Give the man a chance to explain."
"He had his chance and he left!"
"Did you seriously come to help find Mom?" Henry asks. He looks at his dad.
"Yes I did, I saw the news story on TV and I knew that Emma would never leave Henry unless she was taken by force. I decided to come and help."
"To make yourself look like a hero?" Killian mutters skeptically.
"No," is the answer.
"To take custody of Henry?" Mary Margret asks.
"No…" Neal sighs.
"To ruin your son's life?!" Ruby says.
"No! I came to help and I had to see Henry at least once."
"I wish he didn't want to see you," Killian mutters. The others were thinking the same thing.
Henry's head was a mess of emotions. Anger, happiness, betrayal, nervousness, worry and guilt all whirled around in his head making him dizzy and his knees weak. He was so overwhelmed that his dad had decided to come back and with his Mom missing, he just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry. He needed to sort out all his feelings and he simply stood there, dumbfounded.
Violet comes up behind Henry and puts her hand on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" she whispers.
"I wish I was better," Henry admits. "I'm so confused."
Violet puts her arm around Henry and gives him a side hug. This gives the fifteen-year-old some comfort, but it still didn't change his feelings about his dad being here.
"Hey David, are you still there?" an angry voice calls over the walkie talkie.
"Y-Yes, Leroy. Have the detectives bag the evidence and we'll see if we can pull any fingerprints off it and maybe get a location."
The party stands in front of the tent in silence, as the leaves rustle in the autumn air. It's so incredibly awkward and very emotional.
…
Emma tries to move into another comfortable position. The chains limit this quite a lot, but she does her best. The tape over her mouth is equally awkward and very irritating. She hates having to hear her breath go over the tape every time she exhales. At least some of her tears has loosened the tape.
Emma doesn't know how long it's been; time had no meaning. She could guess what time of day it was based on the sounds coming from above. She'd memorized the same sounds made by the family as they most likely got up, got ready for work and school, come home, eat meals and overall, be a normal family. It made her sick to her stomach that she was being kept as a prisoner by this psychotic man, while his family had a normal life. Every time she thinks she heard a child's voice, she thinks of Henry. This sends her into introspection and often more tears. She prays that Regina is looking after him and that Killian was there too. She hoped David was looking for her and she even wondered if Mary Margret had had her baby yet. She thought if the baby would be a boy or a girl and whether, if it was a girl, they'd name it after her…
The only contact Emma had with humans or had a full sense of time is when the man comes down to the basement to give her food. He does it twice a day in what she can assume is in the morning and at night. She feels like some kind of pet, having to be brought food on a tray. The man doesn't speak to her very much except when to ask her how's she's feeling. She knows he's just trying to find out if she's pregnant or not. Emma refuses to respond and the man eventually gets up to leave, telling her it was only a matter of time. It wasn't like pregnancy was instantaneous anyways, it usually took weeks to tell if one was pregnant and Emma was in such a distraught state that she couldn't tell anything anymore. Her body was numb, all feeling completely lost. The man had taken all her dignity and she knew that if she didn't escape, soon it would be her sanity. She knew that if she stayed with the man too long, she might develop Stockholm Syndrome and never want to leave.
Emma was trying to escape in any way possible. She knew she could try to make noise, but anytime she did, the man would taser her into submission or threaten to drug her.
"You're doing so well at staying quiet," the man had said. "I know too many doses of the juice is not good for you, so keep it up."
She couldn't try to attack the man again because he was just as strong as she was and with the lack of food, she felt her strength going every day. She thought about locking herself in the bathroom and try to rust the chains off or would tell the man that she'd only come out when he let her go, but both were quite risky and kind of stupid. Emma had so much time on her hands that she thought of any possible way to escape. She had no bobby pins to pick the locks and there's no way she could tip the bed over, creating some kind of noise or get the chains off the bed post. Picking the lock seemed like the best options, but she couldn't go to the man's tool bench to get something. She was basically a piece of meat chained to a platter.
Emma lays back as best she can and the bed squeaks slightly. She does her best not to cry until she moves again and the bed creaks.
Wait a minute, she thought. A bed spring might be perfect!
Her heart pounded in excitement at the thought of getting out of these cuffs. She uses what leeway she has with the chains and starts to reach under the mattress. She goes under the mattress cover and sure enough, holding up the bed are dark tiny poles of metal. Her stomach drops from the eagerness. The only problem is, they are firmly embedded in the metal bed.
Emma begins to feel around, finding the closest piece of metal, not trying to strain herself too much with the cuffs and chains. She picks one and begins to twist and press it. She applies pressure from all angles in an attempt to loosen it.
Just one piece of metal, Emma begs. Please God let me have this.
She continues to twist until she hears the jingling of keys, immediately she stops what she's doing and tries to act natural, at least as natural as a kidnap victim can be.
The man comes thundering down the stairs with his usual tray of food. He turns on the light, illuminating both of them. Emma does her best to stay brave, glaring at the man as he sets the tray down. He unlocks her chains enough to allow her to eat and she removes the tape.
The man watches her as she eats, a bowl of dry cereal, water, and some raspberries, which were something new. He looks at her with cold, almost dead eyes. Emma doesn't look up at him, trying to hide the growing smile on her face and the growing impatience to get back to the bed spring.
"How are you feeling?" he asks.
Emma doesn't answer.
"You can't ignore the possibility forever," he growls. "I need a new child and you will give it to me."
Emma grinds her teeth between the food she has in her mouth. It takes everything she has not to say something ignorant and rebellious at him. Her throat only just stopped hurting after the attempted strangling.
Once Emma is done, the man relocks her chains, puts more tape on her mouth, turns off the light and takes everything back upstairs, locking the basement door behind him.
Emma sighs in great relief and finds the spot she was working at.
You'll only get a baby over my dead body!
Like one of the reviewers asked, some hope for Emma and what does Neal have to say. Will there be any evidence pulled from the phone? Please review and follow.