Chapter 24: Tallahassee
They were at the beanstalk, looking up as it disappeared beyond the clouds. It seemed that everyone had a comment about it, when Hook told them that the compass was up there, and they had to get going.
"Wait. If these beans create portals, why not just pick one and go home? Why the compass?" Asked Emma, not understanding completely what was going on.
"Because there aren't any more beans. Whatever story you think you know, my dear, is most certainly wrong." Explained Hook.
"There was a guy named Jack, and a cow, and something about evil giant with a treasure and a golden goose. Or harp." Said Emma trying to remember the story.
"Both." Said Rose, grabbing everyone's attention. "Jack stole gold, a goose that laid golden eggs and a golden harp. Once he was caught, he cut the beanstalk killing the giant. I always thought he was a dick."
"Language!" Scolded Mary-Margaret.
Hook laughed, while Mulan and Aurora had a surprised look at hearing the woman say such words. Hook explained how it really happened and Emma asked why they couldn't just grow more beans. Rose snorted at Hook's explanation and the man looked at her with a raised eyebrow but kept going.
"Because one giant survived. The strongest and most terrible of them all. And we'll have to get past him to the magic compass." He said looking up.
Rose couldn't keep quiet and turned to Hook with a frown.
"You really believe that?" Hook looked at her confused. "History is written by the victors. You just assume that what they said is the truth. Has anyone gone up the beanstalk to confirm it?"
Hook shook his head. No, no one had thought of confirming the story. Mary-Margaret and Mulan had a frown on their faces.
"She has a point. He who wins the battle tells the story how he wants. We can't be sure of what's up there and what really happened." Said Mulan looking up with a frown.
"I admit that Spitfire may be correct. But the issue still remains." Said Hook.
He explained what had to be done. How after getting the compass, they had to steal the ashes from Cora and use both to get to Storybrooke. Mulan asked about his true allegiance and Hook just said that he found them safer and that he would be on the side that got him to Storybrooke faster.
Hook also told them that the giant enchanted the beanstalk so no one could go up. He said he had a means to climb, two cuffs that Cora had made to counter the spell. Hook had one, and they had to decide who took the other and went up with him.
The group started to argue about who was going to go up. It seemed like everyone had their reasons to go up. Rose sighed and approached the beanstalk. She put a hand on it and didn't feel anything weird, so she started to climb. She looked down, and saw Emma and Mulan talking. Mulan handed Emma something, and they talked for a little bit. Emma then approached Hook, and he put the other cuff on her wrist. Emma gave Hook his hook back. It seemed that they were finally going to join her.
"Come on! Climb up already. I want to see the giant." Shouted Rose from further up the beanstalk.
Everyone turned to look at her and gasped.
"Rose, what are you doing there?" Said Emma with wide eyes.
"I thought you said that the beanstalk was enchanted." Said Mulan drawing her sword on Hook.
"It is. I don't know how she got there." He said looking from Mulan's sword to Rose.
"I guess it's because of her powers." Said Mary-Margaret. "Magic had always acted different on her. Maybe, her powers are coming back, and they are helping her climb the beanstalk."
"Well, that's as good an explanation as any." Said Emma approaching the beanstalk. "Let's catch up."
They had been climbing the beanstalk for a while and Hook was trying to get Emma to talk with him. Rose rolled her eyes hearing the blatant flirting the pirate was trying to use. She knew Emma wasn't going to fall for that anytime soon.
"You ever even been in love?" He asked.
"Oh, give it up already. You are starting to get pathetic." Said Rose from above them.
Emma chuckled, and Hook frowned.
"No. I have never been in love." She answered him.
"How did you meet charming Spitfire over there?" He asked nodding to Rose.
Emma smiled and shook her head. As if she was going to tell him that story.
Emma had been offered a deal. After giving birth to a baby boy and giving him in adoption, she was given the opportunity to do some volunteer work to get early parole. She was given the option to help train police dogs, help in a retirement home, or do some volunteer work in a hospital. She wasn't too keen on what training police dogs entailed, and she didn't like old people, so she decided to volunteer at the hospital.
She just had to spend some time with a recovering patient. Take them from their room to rehab and back, talk with them, fetch them water, things like that. When Emma was informed about this, she thought that she was going to be stuck with an old person and groaned. She was brought to the door of a room, and the nurse stopped her.
"Before you go in, this patient arrived with severe injuries. The entire group died and only four people survived. The rest are in rooms on this floor. You will recognize them. They had undergone a very traumatic experience. Each of them has got a different coping mechanism. We decided to assign you to the one that's not speaking. Just take it one step at a time, and if anything happens, just call for one of us." She said with a smile.
The nurse opened the door and Emma took a peek inside. She saw an empty hospital room. No get well cards, no balloons, no teddy bears. Nothing. She found it strange that no one had sent this person anything. Didn't they have family or friends? She stepped inside and the nurse smiled at her. She signaled to come closer to the bed.
"As I told you yesterday, from today until you get discharged, you will have a volunteer to help you get to rehab and just spend some time with you." The nurse didn't receive a response. "Emma Swan meet Rosalind Kingsley."
Emma looked at the girl on the bed. She was younger than her, with long dark red hair and heterochromatic eyes. But what shocked Emma wasn't the unusual color of her eyes, it was the complete empty look on them. Whatever had happened, it had broken Rosalind.
They had finally reached the top of the beanstalk and found it full of skeletons, humans' and giants'. Hook said that the final battle was held there and Rose frowned looking around. Hook saw that Emma had scraped her hand and was bleeding. He said giants could smell blood. He poured some rum on it and wrapped it.
Hook said that the plan would be to wait for the giant to fall asleep, enter where the treasure was, take the compass and run like hell. Emma said that they didn't have time to wait for the giant to fall asleep and said they were going to use the sleeping powder from Mulan.
"Or we could just ask the giant for the compass." The other two looked at Rose with raised eyebrows, and she shrugged her shoulders. "What? You never know. He might be friendly."
They dismissed her and started to plan how to ambush the giant. Emma saw Hook's tattoo, and the two women learned the true reason for Hook wanting to kill Gold. He had taken more than his hand.
Emma climbed a statue. Hook and Emma thought that she was high enough but Rose frowned and shook her head. Looking around at the giants' skeletons, you could see that they were bigger than that statue. And if the one left was supposed to be bigger than the rest, then Emma needed to get higher up.
"I get it, but there are not many options to get higher." Said Emma with a sigh. "If I can't reach, then we'll have to improvise."
Rose frowned but nodded. She hid behind the other statue and Hook hit a shield with a bone. A groan was heard almost immediately and steps started to sound and shake everything. Once the giant had stepped out, they saw that Emma, indeed, wasn't high enough to reach the giant's face.
Hook stepped in front of the giant trying to distract him. The giant went to grab him and Hook made him turn to Emma, who threw the sleeping powder on his face. The giant fell to the ground and Rose grabbed Hook out of the way of the falling giant. Emma started to yell for them and they came out. Hook smirked and looked up at Emma.
"He's out cold. I don't mean to upset you." He put an arm around Rose's shoulder. "But I think we make quite the team."
"Lets steal a compass." Said Emma not amused by Hook.
It had been a week, and Emma hadn't heard a single word from Rosalind. She had tried talking to her that first day, but getting just a blank look, she decided not to say anything else. She knew that people sometimes needed their space, and if she had been through a traumatic experience, and for the injuries that the girl had she certainly did, she would want some peace and quiet to get over it.
Currently, Rosalind was sleeping and Emma had some cartoons on the TV. She heard Rosalind shift and saw her opening her eyes. She turned off the TV and almost dropped the remote, when she heard a soft voice.
"You don't have to." Said Rosalind.
Emma looked at her with wide eyes. It was the first time she heard the girl talk. Should she call for a nurse? Did she try to keep her talking? She didn't know what to do.
"Don't worry." Said Rosalind with a soft smile. "If you want to keep watching, I won't complain. I like that show."
Emma nodded silently and turned on the TV again. She gave the girl a side glance and decided to try to have a little conversation.
"So, you like Gravity Falls?" She asked tentatively.
"Cartoons with weird supernatural things?" She turned to Emma and grinned. "I love it."
Emma smiled and chuckled. That was the beginning of their friendship. It was after a couple of days, that Emma got the courage to ask.
"So Rosalind, why did you decide to talk to me?"
"You didn't try to force me to talk." Rosalind said with a shrug. "Everyone else just pushed me to talk and I didn't want to. And please call me Rose. Rosalind sounds a little too much."
"Ok, Rose. I get that you didn't want to talk with anyone. I assumed you would talk when you were ready. Sometimes, we just want people to leave us alone. I assume that's hard when you are in the hospital."
"You got that right." Said Rose with a small laugh.
"How did you end up in the hospital?" Said Emma suddenly, and she put a hand on her mouth in regret.
"How did you?" Said Rose with a soft smile. "I'll tell, if you tell."
Emma nodded and they exchanged stories. Rose was discharged in two months; around the same time that Emma was given early parole. She had to get back to England to take care of some business, but she promised Emma that they would keep in contact. And they did. They talked at least once a week.
Every time Rose was back from an expedition, Emma went to visit her. And Rose was there to help Emma every time she decided to move. Finally, Emma decided to sort of settle down in Boston and Rose decided to stay with her. She didn't want to stay in the manor back in England, and they thought it would be nice to try to be roommates.
They entered the giant's home and saw that it was full of gold and other treasures. Hook was looking around with a grin, but Emma was in a rush to find the compass. Hook asked her bout that, and Emma said that as she didn't know how long the sleeping powder would work on the giant, she didn't want to risk it. Rose knew that she was lying, but didn't say anything about it. Emma would tell her when it was safe.
Further up the room, they found a skeleton that had a sword beside it. Inscribed in the sword was the name Jack. Emma looked in disbelief at how could have Jack killed giants with such a small weapon. Hook was telling her something, when she grabbed him and brought him close to her. They were about to fall, but Rose grabbed Emma's jacket and pulled them upright.
Hook smirked and started to flirt with Emma. She explained that he was about to activate a trip wire, but he kept flirting. Rose hit him upside the head and glared at him.
"Not the time. Keep it in your pants."
"Let's find the compass and go home." Said Emma nodding.
They were looking for the compass, when they heard and felt a rumbling. The giant had woken up. As he was getting closer, the whole place started to shake. Some of the ceiling came down and trapped Hook. The giant grabbed Emma and sat on a chest. She was struggling and asking the giant to let her go. Rose knew that Emma would get out of it, and went to see if Hook was okay. She glimpsed Hook underneath the stones and saw that he was breathing, just unconscious.
Emma had gotten out of the giant's grip and got Jack's sword. Once the giant was underneath the trap, she cut the rope and trapped him. She pointed the sword at the giant's face, and he flinched saying no, over and over again. Rose approached and put a hand on Emma's, bringing the sword down.
"He's trapped. You don't need that."
Emma looked at Rose with a frown, but after a while nodded and put the sword down. They turned to look at the giant and Emma said that they needed the compass. The giant wasn't too cooperative, saying that she would kill him anyway. That humans had killed his family and destroyed the beans. Emma said that she had heard differently and Rose frowned.
"That's because the victors get to tell the story." Said the giant and Rose at the same time.
The giant turned to the redhead and gasped. He had tears in his eyes.
"Rosebud? Is it really you?" He said with a mix of disbelief and relief.
"I assume you know Rose Red?" Said Rose with a frown, and the giant nodded as best as he could. "I guess that's me, but I don't remember anything. I assume we knew each other?"
"Yes. You helped me after the humans destroyed everything. You were my friend. A real friend. Do you need the compass?"
"Yes. We have to go back." She said with a soft smile.
The giant nodded and threw them the compass. Emma grabbed it and saw a dried up bean. She asked the giant about it, and he said that it wouldn't work. Then he broke the trap. Emma freaked out and raised her sword again, but Rose told her to wait. The giant grabbed a rock beside the wall and threw it away. There was a hole that seemed to lead outside. The giant told them to go, and Emma asked why he was helping them.
"Any friend of Rosebud is my friend." He said smiling softly at Rose, who returned the smile,
Emma asked the giant for one more favor, and he agreed. Rose tried to tell Emma not to do it. After all, Hook had been truthful up to that point. Emma chained him anyway. After some words, she turned to leave and Rose looked at Hook with a frown.
"For the record, I don't agree with this." Hook scoffed. "Emma wasn't lying about the giant. He promised to let you go after some hours have passed. He won't hurt you."
With that, they made their exit, not before Rose stopped to say goodbye to the giant.
"I'm sorry I don't remember you." She said with a sheepish smile. "I'm sure we were great friends. If we ever meet again, you have to tell me everything about how we met and our friendship."
"Will do." He said with a grin. "Don't worry. I'm sure you will remember soon enough. Nothing has stopped you before. And by the way, my name is Anton, but you always called me Blitz."
"Well then Blitz. I hope that we see each other soon." Said Rose with a grin.
Emma and Rose started to make their way down the beanstalk, and when they were nearing the end, a tremor shook the stalk and made them fall the rest of the way. Emma showed the others the compass and told them that Hook wouldn't go anywhere in ten hours. Mulan and Aurora started to pack everything back when Mary-Margaret stopped Emma.
"We go back together. That is the only way. Do you understand?"
Emma nodded and they hugged. Rose awed and Mary-Margaret just pulled her into the hug. Now they just had to get the ashes from Cora.