Chapter 37: Emotional Ties
Mal, Evie, and Carlos go back to their significant others, who sit on some of the nearby picnic tables at the entrance to the docks. Jay and Crystal follow closely behind and so do Emma and Hook. Harry remains on the deck of his father's ship, not really sure what to do next. His mind wants to go with the group, but he can tell that they don't really want him around, especially the girl with the ponytail. He doesn't understand why, but he finds her enchanting and like a real challenge. He could tell that she feels something too, although she won't admit it. He is a little shocked to learn that she actually ended up killing her mother and her father seems to be some kind of all-powerful being, but Harry liked a woman with mystery and some darkness thrown in there too.
Little did he know, that his situation mirrored his father's first encounter with his true love, Emma Swan; although as they climbed the beanstalk to retrieve a golden compass, the smug pirate had told her that she was "something of an open book" to him, while Harry had yet to take this "book" off the shelf and read the title.
"Jane," Carlos says, going to sit next to her. The daughter of Fairy Godmother sits with her head in her hands, battling a nasty headache that causes the blood in her brain and body to pound. It feels like the red fluid is pressing against her skin, trying to find a way out.
She looks up at Carlos with confused and frightened blue eyes. She is close to breaking out into tears. "Oh Carlos!" she whimpers quietly.
The Son of Cruella De Vil holds his girlfriend very close, rubbing circles on the small of her back as a way of comforting her. He can feel her shaking against his body as they hug tightly. He feels as if he's become her anchor, her rock of strength. It appears that the tough and brave personae she had put on at the beach earlier had faded, and the sensitive and vulnerable Jane is back. Inside, he did feel as scared as she did, but he did his best to hide it. He knew the whole reason she was so afraid is that they were sucked through a portal and deposited in a bizarre land filled with strangers who were meant to resemble their parents. He knows that Jane likes to be control of her surroundings, it's one of the reasons he likes her so much, but when things are beyond her comprehension and power, she becomes scared and shy again.
"It's okay Jane," he murmurs quietly. He repeats this over and over to allow her to calm down.
Mal reluctantly approaches Ben, who is lying on one of the seats of a separate picnic table from Jane's. His cuts, while medically treated, are very clearly prominent on his face and body, his clothes are still torn up and worst of all, his neck is black and blue from Uma's tentacles. Ben has Emma's red leather coat tucked under his head and he struggles to remain conscious. His head is also pounding from coming through the portal and the wounds he'd received from Gil and Uma are not helping matters either.
The daughter of Maleficent bites her lip very hard. So far, she'd been distracted enough with Uma, and family drama that she has not been forced to confront her feelings for the King of Auradon. Her mind flashes back to the pain she felt in her chest when Ben was forced to suspend her and the anger that filled her entire body to the point that she felt like she might explode. Her heart still aches heavily over what transpired between them… the feelings of betrayal and misery, very prominent in her mind.
Yet, despite how hurt she had been when they'd broken up, she'd still rushed to his rescue when Harry had captured Ben. She let her anger get the best of her and she became a dragon once Uma had tried to strangle him and she'd stayed by his side until the ambulance took him to the hospital. She feels torn between what she thinks she is feeling right now and what she must be feeling deep down inside. She loved Ben, they were true love, but it doesn't mean that they had to stay together forever, did it? Why was it so hard for her to choose whether to care about Ben or not? She is always drawn to him like a moth to a flame and she cares about him too much… it all feels like the biggest mess that she just can't seem to clean up.
"Mal?" Ben croaks out, opening his eye as one of them is swollen shut from Gil's beating.
She swallows. "I'm here Ben," she says softly.
Despite how sore his body is, the son of Belle and Beast/Adam raises his hand, he is reaching towards his true love. With much reluctance, Mal takes his hand gently and impulsively kisses it, something he would usually do to her. She fights back tears in her eyes and the lump in her throat seems to be suffocating her. Why is it so hard to say mad at him?
Crystal comes up next to the young couple and she can immediately sense the awkward tension between them. She remembers asking the purple-haired teenager if Ben was her boyfriend and she didn't really answer the question and instead distracted herself with her best friend, Evie's well-being. The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin knows what this hesitation meant; she'd been using it herself lately, avoiding the question of Mason Phelps and whether she still cared about him enough to go in search of him. The British boy had broken her heart, leaving her in a state of utter despair and chaos and which turned her magic into a very dangerous weapon too. She'd nearly hurt a lot of people because of those seismic waves she makes when she can't control her abilities. He'd dumped her over a text message and seemed to vanish completely from the world… including her own. She'd forced all these feeling deep down inside of herself, locking them in a box in order to focus on mending her relationship with her dad and protecting the town she now called home. While her loving family and great friends helped fill the void in her life, she knew very deep down that she still missed him. It was just so complicated, and she had no idea about whether she wanted Mason back in her life or even have the guts to go out and search for him.
She can see the hesitation in Mal's face, knowing that the couple must have also gone through something very recently, just before they came through the portal. What that was, she did not want to pry, but she knows that the two do appear to care deeply for one another and be concerned about each other's well-being; which seems to trump whatever difficulties they might be having.
Ben looks up at Crystal.
"Mal…" he says, becoming worked up in confusion. "Who's this? Where are we? What happened?"
"Hey, save your strength there," Crystal says quietly. She cannot stand to see this poor teen in such a terrible state, the dark bruises on his neck make her skin crawl. "Do you mind if I heal you?"
"Heal me?" Ben asks. "How?"
"Magic, Ben," Mal says. "This place has magic."
"What…" the king grimaces in pain when he tries to move and cannot say what he wants. He clenches Mal's hand tightly in his own. The daughter of Maleficent cannot stand to see him like this, she begins fighting back tears. She looks up at Crystal, despite the things she's recently learned about this young adult; that she has dark magic and that she killed her mother; she seems to be in much more control and calmer than she'd mentioned before, plus she knew more about magic than any of them would. The two girls lock eyes and make a connection again. Mal's green eyes plead to Crystal's blue ones to heal him. The teenager gives the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin a slight nod to seal the deal.
Crystal's hands begin to glow a purple, that looked lilac in colour. She brings them both closer to Ben, and Mal can feel the fear in his body. He tenses, immediately fearing what the magic might do, and the purple-haired teen is hesitant too.
"This won't hurt I promise," Crystal says gently.
She then waves her hands over the king's body, allowing the magic to heal the ailments and wounds to his body in the faint purple glow. Mal watches in amazement as the purple colouring around Ben's eye vanishes and it opens, allowing her to see his beautiful hazel-green eyes again. The cuts on his body shrink and seal themselves up and the bruises on his neck go from black and blue to purple, to green to flesh again. Ben's breathing immediately evens out and his body relaxes as the light from his healer's hands vanishes.
He then begins to sit up, to which Mal helps him do so.
The king of Auradon is very shocked and slightly afraid of what has just happened. His body no longer aches painfully, and it feels as if it's as healthy as ever. He examines his hands and arms that once had bruises and cuts, some from the ropes that had been around his wrists; all now completely gone. His eyes go wide in amazement and he stares at Crystal, his mouth slightly agape. Mal is also a bit shocked, but not as much as her… boyfriend?
Crystal steps back from the couple and gives her patient a reassuring smile. "Sometimes magic can be a good thing," she says quietly.
"But, I thought you said that you had dark magic," Jay points out, having watched everything. The colour drains from Ben's face at this statement. Jane, Carlos, Evie, and Doug also have watched this display of magic and begin to look nervous. Emma and Hook stand nearby, holding one another quietly.
"I have both," Crystal explains. "Dark and light abilities. It's like two sides of a coin, the good and the bad… I guess it's a lot like you guys. My mother's love for me strikes a very rare balance and keeps my darker abilities in check."
"That was quite extraordinary," Doug speaks up. The entire time, the son of Dopey had been sitting across from Jane on the picnic table, still recovering from the effects of the portal, but was also looking around, examining his surroundings and trying to figure out where he was. He'd noticed the sign across from where they were sitting that read, Storybrooke Fish and Chips, a restaurant establishment. While this had never been a place that he'd heard of before, he kept looking around. He'd also noticed the fancy pirate ship moored nearby and he was happy to see that Evie was there after the sword fight on the ship ended.
Once the daughter of the Evil Queen had seen her dwarf, she'd wrapped her arms around him, Doug returning the hug just as tightly. He felt a great relief of having been reunited with her.
"Thank you."
"Uh, Doug, Jane, and Ben, this is Crystal, the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin. This is Emma and Killian Jones. Killian was once known as Captain Hook."
"What?" Jane gasps. She shifts uncomfortably in Carlos' arms.
"That can't be right he's locked up on the Isle," Ben adds.
"It's okay guys, he's not a villain anymore," Jay says calmly, leaning against the nearby metal rail that overlooked the fish and chips place and the nearby water.
"Mal, Jay, Carlos, Evie," Ben says. "Where are we?"
Having picked up on the before mentioned names, Crystal speaks for them. "Welcome, Ben, Doug, and Jane, to Storybrooke Maine. Population, all of your parents."
A/N: Please review and give me some suggestions of where you might want me to take the story. Also, thank you for all the follows and favourites for this story. I can't believe I'm almost at 100 follows!