After an afternoon of practicing sword fight, which they hoped would take their minds off things, Henry and Hook sat down together at the small table in Henry's bedchamber and placed the crystal between them. Neither of them, however, made any effort to turn it in their hands and activate it.
"What's going on? Weren't you just dying to tell Emma your idea yesterday?" Hook asked, pretending to give his stepson the benefit of the doubt but actually dreading any attempt at contact because of the thought that something might have happened to Emma or her baby.
Henry bit his lip and looked at the gemstone. "Sure. But I'm afraid she didn't find Mom. Or that she found her and that she's..." He didn't have to finish the sentence to express what he meant.
"We'll both pull ourselves together now. Our hesitation won't change the situation and then we'll be done with it," Hook finally said firmly, taking the crystal in his hand, activating it and saying Emma's name.
Nothing happened for a while and Henry was already beginning to shift uneasily in his chair when Emma's voice finally rang out in the room.
"Killian, hi."
The pirate's heart sank at her simple 'hi'. "Honey, are you okay?"
"Yes, the baby and I are doing great. Even better since yesterday. Is Henry with you?" she wanted to know.
Hook and Henry exchanged a fleeting glance.
"Yes, he's sitting here opposite me."
"Thank goodness! I was so worried about you!" Regina's warm voice rang out and you could clearly hear that a huge weight had fallen from her heart and she was struggling to keep her composure.
"Mom!" Henry literally snatched the stone from Hook's hand and held it close to his face so as not to miss a word his mother said. "You're alive! I thought you'd died!" Tears of relief welled up in Henry's eyes, which he tried to stifle with a fist pressed to his mouth.
After a short pause, Regina replied: "No, everything's fine. I'm fine." She paused again. "Emma has already told me everything you told her. Have you found another way to create a passage in the meantime?"
"Not exactly. I just had an idea... Aunt Zelena says it's theoretically possible, but she's not sure."
"Is Zelena all right?" Regina only wanted to know at first.
"She's worried sick about you, which is reflected in her mood most of the time, but apart from that she's alive and well. Mom, you're being honest, aren't you? You're really okay?"
"I'm not dead, am I? Don't worry so much, Henry. I'm glad I can talk to you. Now, what kind of idea is that?"
Henry then began to speak almost as enthusiastically as he had the day before when the idea had come to him. "You could combine your magic. It wouldn't be the first time. And both of your magic combined would produce a very powerful result. And if you were in a magical place or possessed a magical item, couldn't you create a portal?"
"Wow, kid. You're expecting quite a lot from us," Emma said incredulously.
"I'm afraid I don't think that's possible, Henry," Regina then calmly interrupted her. "A portal is something very, very powerful. And then there's a portal through which you don't want to travel within a world, but also between worlds. Even if we both had our magic, I don't think we could do it."
"You have no magic?" Henry said in shock, looking at Hook.
The latter furrowed his eyebrows.
"No, not at the moment and we don't know if that's going to change."
Henry had the impression that she was hiding something from him, but he couldn't tell what it was. But there was something in his mother's tone that made him wonder. "You'd tell us if there was more to it, wouldn't you?" he guessed off the top of his head.
"Of course we would. Don't worry about it, kid. Everything will be fine. So, you haven't made any progress with the original plan?" Emma asked.
"No, unfortunately not." Henry lowered his eyes. Even though it wasn't his fault, he wished he could have given his moms better news. Instead, he sat here day in and day out with his stepfather while others worked to find a solution and they could do nothing but worry and occasionally contact Emma to update her.
"Hey, cheer up. Until we know what's going to happen, we'll stay here for now. I'd suggest that you check in every evening at sunset from now on, whether there's news or not. Since we can't contact you, you'll find out whether we've found a solution. And if not... Well, at least we'll have heard from each other."
"That sounds good." A small smile returned to Henry's lips. "But if there's anything else we can do, let us know too."
"I firmly promise."
"We love you, Henry," Regina said.
"I love you too!"
"Hang in there, Swan," Hook said lovingly before the connection could break.
"You too. I love you both. See you tomorrow!"
The crystal's glow faded and the two men exchanged a quick glance before exhaling in relief.
"They're all fine. You should tell your aunt, then the Blue Fairy might even survive another night," Hook grinned at Henry.
He nodded, still a little thoughtful. "I have a funny feeling. As if they wouldn't tell us everything. Mom was very monosyllabic too, especially towards the end."
"Well, and even if you're right: They're both alive and for now, that's all that matters."
"Why the hell didn't you let me have the crystal?" Emma screamed, grabbing Regina under the armpits to heave her into bed before she could slide to the floor.
The brunette held her head and couldn't really help in this endeavor. "You're pregnant! And please don't scream so loud!"
"Yeah, so? Regina, you almost killed yourself channeling the crystal's magic! Don't you dare think I'm going to let you do that again!" She finally had her friend lying in the bed and took a seat next to her.
Regina had curled up tightly, unable to remove her hand from her head, while the color of her face had turned an unhealthy mixture of white and green. "At least no seizure, that's something," she said grimly, before squeezing her eyes tightly shut and taking a deep breath.
When she saw this, Emma stood up immediately, closed the curtains to block out the bright light from outside and then sat back down on the edge of the bed, where she began to massage Regina's neck lightly.
"Emma..."
"Just don't say anything now," Emma asked resignedly, looking at the heap of misery next to her, who had once been a woman that everyone had feared and who was now proving that she too was only human.
Regina looked at Emma reproachfully for a while before closing her eyes and trying to relax, which was anything but easy with the pain and Emma's almost tender touch.
"We should tell them soon that they can bury their plan," Emma said thoughtfully after a while. "Kind of ironic, isn't it? They're pinning their hopes on our powers and we're almost dying trying to use this crystal that even Killian can activate. I think we're a long way from opening a portal." She laughed mirthlessly for a moment and stroked Regina's hair, whose head was now resting in Emma's lap. She gently ran her fingers along the contours of the plaster.
Regina flinched, causing Emma to slide her fingers back to her neck.
"Does it still hurt? The wound, I mean?" she then wanted to know quietly. At first, she thought Regina wouldn't answer her, but then she did.
"Not that one." Her voice was barely a breath and so Emma preferred to remain silent again.
"It was good to hear Henry's voice," Regina said after what seemed like an eternity, staring ahead of her and forcing herself to smile briefly. "Even though you had already told me he was fine. It was my greatest fear that Gothel might have gotten to him somehow."
"Understandable. I can't even imagine what it must have been like for you, trapped in that curse."
"Well, I suppose not unlike how everyone felt about my original curse. Drizella woke me up very early to give me a direct reminder of the consequences my actions could have. At least now I know what happened to Henry when everyone thought he was crazy as a child with his fairytale fantasies. Sometimes I was on the verge of telling him that he was right. But that would have ruined everything and I couldn't let that happen. And I didn't even notice how he was withdrawing and alienating himself from me more and more. I condemned him to be lonely because no one believed him." She shook Emma's hand off of her and pulled herself up into a sitting position. "Thanks for the massage, it's better already."
Emma nodded and watched Regina stand up and move with unsteady steps along the wall to her crutches, which were leaning against the wall next to the door.
The hotel room was very small, but at least it had two single beds instead of the usual double bed, for which Emma was very grateful. It also had a small bathroom and a table with room for two chairs. The closet was relatively tiny, but as Regina still had nothing of her own and Emma had only ever carried the bare essentials with her, it was perfectly adequate. Although hotel rooms generally seemed very impersonal and cold, this one was downright cosy with its wood-panelled walls and warm earth-colored carpets. And what was even better: the price was absolutely affordable.
"Where are you heading?" Emma asked, who hadn't moved so far and had just been watching Regina.
"Out into the fresh air. Maybe the headache will go away then."
"Shouldn't you take the wheelchair outside?"
Regina gave her an unreadable look. "I have to walk a bit, I'm going crazy in here."
"Can I at least accompany you then?"
Regina paused with her hand on the door handle. By lifting her shoulders slightly, Emma could see that she was taking a deep breath.
"I know you can do it on your own. But I'd still feel better if you didn't go alone. Henry was so relieved that you're okay. You shouldn't jeopardize that."
"Then put a jacket on, but stop blackmailing me with Henry," Regina said sharply, prompting Emma to silently comply with her request.
It was a surprise and very unusual for Henry when he suddenly found himself in his aunt's vice-like embrace.
"I don't know what I would have done if that bitch had killed my sister!" she hissed, and she was back to her old self.
"Fortunately, we won't find out now," Henry grinned as she released him again and he smoothed his shirt. "But we can forget the idea of the portal opened by the two of them. They don't have any magic powers."
"So, it's up to me and... her after all." She nodded disapprovingly over her shoulder to the other corner of the room, where the Blue Fairy was sitting and reading a thick book that was already stained from age.
"Do you think it could work the other way around? That you could combine your powers here and open the portal from the Enchanted Forest?"
"Emma and Regina's magic seems to be something special. Bonded magic is always powerful, but with these two... I've never experienced anything like it before. Their spells seem to form a kind of symbiotic bond, which makes them all the more powerful. So, I don't think we could do the same here. Especially not with that flapper woman over there. The fairies among themselves are welcome to try, but I'll stay out of it," she replied piqued.
Henry raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "Even if it's about Mom?"
"Even then. We can't. That's it, the end. We need another plan."
Henry looked at her and knew she had to be right. She would go through fire for his mom, so he could be sure she was telling the truth. "Hook and I were wondering if we should go in search of another magic bean... Just in case you can't find another option in your books."
"You'd be looking for a needle in a haystack. It's better if you stay in the castle for now, especially if they suddenly appear."
Henry placed a hand on Zelena's forearm, causing her to lower her gaze. "Zelena... They won't just turn up here. They're in a world without magic, which makes it impossible for them to come here. I know you miss them. I do too, I miss them terribly. But maybe we should stop looking for a way to bring them to us. Maybe we should focus more on getting to them."
"But the problem is the same. We can't get a portal to work," she pointed out.
"Not yet. But there are many possibilities. They're all difficult, but they exist. We'll work it out. Don't worry about it."
Zelena raised her eyes again and gave him one of her extremely rare smiles.