"Do you actually have a plan, or are we going to keep walking aimlessly through the forest until it gets dark?" Henry asked after they had been making their way through the thicket for at least two hours.

"Calm down. We're almost there," Hook reassured him, knocking aside another clump of ferns with his hooked hand.

"What are you looking for here anyway? We talked about needing mounts at the beginning. I doubt we'll find any here, unless you weren't talking about horses, but wild boars."

"If we find what I'm looking for," Hook replied, "then we won't need mounts at all. Trust me."

Henry looked at his stepfather and finally nodded. "All right. Lead the way, then."

Hook grinned wryly and unsheathed his sword, making a path for himself and Henry through the increasingly dense forest.

"Do you think they're all right? My moms?" Henry asked after a while, after they had both remained silent.

Hook maintained his silence and hit a particularly stubborn branch that was blocking their path until Henry grabbed his arm from behind to stop him. The pirate took a deep breath without turning around and looked to the ground. "Aye. They must be fine, I don't want to think about anything else."

"So, what are we looking for? You said it wasn't far away. Time to fill me in," Henry quickly changed the subject.

"I bet you remember the message in a bottle I gave you?" Hook asked him as they reached a slightly clearer path where they could walk side by side. "I have something similar, a pair of crystals that belong together and you can speak into them. One of them is in our garden shed, the other... Here."

"Some kind of walkie-talkie, then?" Henry said enthusiastically, causing Hook to raise an eyebrow.

"Aye, whatever that is exactly. It's buried around here somewhere." At his words, they entered a clearing, the first one they'd encountered since setting out.


Just a small spell. The curse had been broken and even if Regina didn't know if that had brought her magic back in this land, she at least wanted to see if she could use a little magic to ease her pain to get out of this bed.

xxx

"Roni! Do you hear me?" Her eyelids fluttered and it took her a moment before she managed to focus her gaze and recognize the doctor standing bent over her.

"Yes," she said quickly as she found her speech again to stop him shouting so loudly that she thought her head would burst.

"You had another seizure. How are you feeling?"

"Okay... I guess." Her answer was slightly delayed, she felt that impenetrable fog in her head again, making it difficult for her to think. "And that means what?"

"It means we have to keep monitoring you and you have to avoid any effort or excitement. At least until we know what's triggering the seizures, because bleeding isn't to blame, we've already checked that... We'll check on you again later."

Regina nodded slowly and closed her eyes. She wondered if the curse had really been broken, or if she was now in a much worse version of it. She obviously couldn't work magic and no one seemed to miss her when she had been here for several days and no one had at least inquired about her. And she couldn't believe that Henry had just left her in the park, not after it was love for her that had broken the curse.

She opened her eyes again and stared up at the ceiling, startled. Hopefully that didn't mean something had happened to him! Had Gothel turned on him after her plan had failed due to his intervention? Tears came to her eyes, tears of fear and anger, anger at herself for lying here and not being able to do anything.

If something had happened to Henry, then she would never get out of here. Even if there was someone else who cared about her, how would they find her? Henry was the only person besides Gothel who knew that she had been hurt. But the more pressing question for her at the moment was whether Henry was all right. And to find out, she had to leave the hospital.

But right now, she was too exhausted to think of an escape plan. And no matter how nervous and worried she was about her son, she couldn't do anything about the sleep that, as so often recently, simply overtook her and carried her away.


Emma went back into the house and, after having something to drink, slipped into her red leather jacket. She hadn't been able to close it for a while, but without it she felt insecure and vulnerable and that was the last thing she needed right now.

Her bag slung diagonally over her shoulder and her cell phone close at hand in her pocket, she then made her way to the Jolly Roger on foot. If Killian really was there, he could get a good earful.

But she doubted it more and more as she walked through the empty streets of Storybrooke. There were no children playing outside despite the good weather, no one was sitting in the garden reading a book; not even at Granny's were people sitting at the small outdoor tables. Despite the warmth, Emma shivered; the town felt as empty as a ghost town.

When she reached the harbor and her husband's ship loomed ahead of her, she looked around again for someone and finally stepped onto the deck of the ship.

"Killian?!" she called out and then listened intently. At that moment, she would have given anything to hear the words that had upset her several times in the last few weeks from any angle: 'Swan, what brings you here? I told you to get some rest.'

Emma lowered her eyes to her belly and stroked it gently before making her way below deck, calling Hook's name a few more times and finally realizing that he wasn't on board of his ship.

By now she had the feeling that something had happened and that didn't bode well. Where otherwise this would have only made her worry and move on to a plan, now she was doubly nervous. Her child could be born at any moment and the way the situation was now shaping up, she was not only alone here, without the father of her child, but truly alone, without anyone to help her.

This thought, coupled with the fact that she hadn't exactly got off to a great start as a mother last time, made her sweat and hurry straight back to her house. Whatever was going on, she had to get out of here and at least surround herself with some civilization.


"Here we are," Hook announced proudly after they had circled the clearing so many times that Henry wanted to ask if it was all a joke and he was just stalling.

He looked doubtfully at the patch of earth at his feet, which looked just like the rest of the ground. "I'd better not ask how you know that and start digging?" he asked vaguely, reaching for the small shovel they had found in an abandoned hut on the way.

"Wise words, young man," Hook nodded and leaned against a nearby tree stump while Henry dug into the ground.

It wasn't long before he came across the wooden lid of a small casket that looked an awful lot like the ones his mother had used to store hearts. Surprise actually flitted across his face for a moment.

"You can say you're thrilled with my talent for finding things," Hook grinned smugly and pushed himself away from the tree to reach for the box.

It wasn't locked, so just a moment later he was holding a small, golden crystal in the palm of his hand that was barely bigger than a walnut. "VoilĂ . And now we'll use it to contact Emma."

"What if she's not at home?"

Hook shook his head. "She's not here, so where else would she be?" he asked in a tone that made it clear how foolish he thought the question was.

"I actually meant: what if she's not at the house? You speak into the crystal, all well and good. But I doubt that your call will be particularly loud! How is she supposed to hear you if she's not at home?" he explained his concerns in more detail.

"I told her to stay at home," he replied, which made Henry laugh.

"This is Emma we're talking about!"

Hook scowled at him and twirled the crystal in his hand before lifting it to his lips and whispering into it.


"I really have to go now." Regina gathered her strength and sat up fully in her bed, despite the pain, to show that she was well enough to do so.

"That won't be possible. So far, we still don't know where the recurring seizures are coming from and you haven't been able to contact any of your relatives. I'm sorry, but you can't walk in this condition and you certainly can't stay alone." The doctor looked at her apologetically and then left her alone again.

Frustrated, Regina slumped back again and stared out of the window. Perhaps everyone else was safe and had left her here. It didn't have to be out of malice. Perhaps they had had to flee and leave her here. Maybe they had also been under the impression that she was dead, which, according to the doctors here, as little as they had to do with her world, would almost have been the case.

Sighing, she reached for her cell phone after a few minutes of replaying everything over and over in her head. She hadn't tried everyone yet and had no intention of changing that. But the way things were at the moment, she had no other way out if she wanted to get out of here and find out what had happened. Her finger slid across the display and finally stopped hovering over Emma's name. They hadn't spoken since she'd left the Enchanted Forest with Hook to set up her life with her baby and him in Storybrooke. Regina had vowed not to get in touch until Emma did, otherwise she would have felt like she was disrupting their family life. And she didn't want it to seem like she couldn't cope without her, which probably outweighed the first reason.

However, the situation was different now and after Regina had taken another deep breath, as deep as she could with her broken ribs, she pressed the little green receiver next to Emma's name.