Enchanted Forest
Years Ago
The clank of stone hitting the lock of his cell echoed the bowels of the Evil Queen's dungeon as he tried and tried again to break himself free, as his bloodied knuckles stung and his chest heaved from the effort he put in to get to his true love Snow White.
He'd felt it in his heart. It had felt like the Queen had his heart in her own hand in a vice grip that took everything he had to bare, until it suddenly stopped.
Something had happened to her and he needed to get to her. Hitting the padlock with a rock he had found in his cell seemed the only viable way as brute strength only got him so far. But it was no use. The lock was too strong as his final hit made the rock fall from hand outside his cell leaving him to collapse against the bars in exhaustion .
"I will find you, Snow. I will always find you" he promised his true love outload as two faceless Dark Knights approaching his cell behind his back having heard his promise.
"It'll be hard to do that without your head" one of his guards reply unlocking the padlock letting his colleague enter first before following behind to retrieve the Prince for his execution.
"Get up" his guard order's him as they took a shoulder each to pull their prisoner onto his feet "The Queen is looking forward to your execution" he informs the Prince as they shackled hands together.
Hauling him out of his cell and into a long hallway of the Dark Palace, the Prince slumps onto the floor, onto his knees as the guards.
"Get up! On your feet" a guard order's him pulling him up by his shoulder "Be thankful the Queen is allowing you a merciful death instead of handing you over to the Ripper!" he yells at the Prince trying to encourage him up onto to have a closed fist hit his stomach making him grunt out in pain.
Behind him the other guard warps his arms around him, locking his arms to his side as he is pulled backward, the first guard quickly recovering from his weak punch comes for him again only for his chest to meet the bottom of the Prince's boot pushing him away as pushed the guard holding him into the wall, loosening his hold him in enough for the Prince to send his elbow into his helmet, sending him to the ground as the first guard takes out his sword.
Grabbing his armed hand the Prince send the pommel of the sword onto his face, making him drop his sword to the ground before wrapping the chain of his shackles around his neck from behind to drag him over to the wall to send the guard, helmet first into the stone wall, knocking him out and laying him down alongside his colleague.
Sprinting down the hall from the unconscious guards, rounding the corner the Prince continued his daring escape only to to find another guard blocking his way to freedom and to Snow with an armed bow in his hands, aimed straight at him. Turning to run another guard armed with a sword blocks his way, trapping him.
"Shoot him" the guard with the sword orders' the other prompting the other to let his arrow go and fly past him, towards the other guard only for the arrow to be caught by a pale hand inches away from the tip piercing his chest.
Looking up, Charming see's the owner of the hand to be that of the man that 'saved' him from King George's execution.
"Hello again" Elijah greets the Prince with a hint of a smirk on his lips as the guard lets out an audible exhale of relief that the Queen's brother was there to stop his imminent death.
"Thank you milor-" the guards words were cut short as the arrow was plunged into his neck and yanked out again making the guard choke and gargle as he fell to his knees as blood sprouted out of the open wound, droplets splashing onto Elijah's face as the man stood unfazed by the blood and gore he had created.
"You're most welcome" Elijah replies reaching for white handkerchief poking out the top of the front pocket of his suit to wipe away from blood from is face.
"Who the hell are you?" the Prince asks him.
"Her step-uncle and soon to be ex-fiancé if we're being technical " Elijah answers him as the sweet metallic smell of the blood reaches his nose making his stomach burn in hunger knowing he would have to satisfy it soon "And he a friend" he adds gesturing to the man behind he Prince making him turn to see the guard lift up his helmet to reveal the face of the Huntsman.
"I don't know you. But I know Snow White" the Huntsman tell him as he steps forward with a key to unlock the shackles on his wrists.
"Is she okay?" he asks the man as he is freed from the shackles.
"The Queen is on her way back from meeting Snow White. Her fate is in a precarious place. You must hurry. Follow the Huntsman. He will get you out" Elijah instructs him before he walks over to the dead guard behind them as the Huntsman pull him to start walking in the opposite direction away from the
"I'll try and stall the Queen. The rest is up to you" the Huntsman adds handing the Prince a bag and sword "Your weapon and some provisions. Good luck" he wishes the man.
"You're not coming with me?" the Prince asks him in confusion.
"I cannot. I gave up my heart so that the Queen would spare Snow's. Don't let my sacrifice be in vain. Find her".
Hearing a squelching behind him, the Prince whips around to see Elijah head and mouth in the crook of the dead man's neck before coming up for air. Rearing his head back with his mouth wide open, the guards blood coating his lips and mouth, Charming froze seeing the two long sharp incisors on the top row of his teeth that were covered in the guard blood savouring in the taste of the blood that eased the deep burn in his stomach.
Feeling eye's on him, the Queen's brother saw the Prince looking straight at him, unfazed by the blood that dripped down his chin onto the front his suit the vampire sped at in humane speed to stand in front of the staring Prince, meeting his blue eye's trapping them with his own as he sought out to seek out the truth on the man's true intentions
"Tell me the truth" Elijah starts as the Princes watches how his eye's dilated "Do you love Snow White?".
"With all my heart" the Prince monotony replies stuck in his trance "I'd die for her" he adds.
"Good" he comments breaking eye contact with the Prince, his compulsion breaking as the latter let out the breath he didn't know he was holding, his brow's furrowing in confusion why he answered the man, wondering at what had just happened to him.
"I assume you understand that if you lay a finger upon Snow White or hurt her in any other way. It will be the last thing you do" nodding in understanding at the mans threat, he didn't want to be on the receiving end of whatever he was "Now I can only delay my sister for so long Charming. Now go".
At that the Prince turned around letting himself through the wooden doors that would lead him out of the Palace to find his true love.
"Retrieve the other guards would you Huntsman. I'm still famished".
His efforts of quelling the rumours of the Prince's escape came to no avail as word had already seemed to have reached his sister as she paced her room with her hands on her hips waiting to find out what had happened to her prisoner.
"Where is he?" The Queen demands to know out of the Huntsman as he enters the room "The prisoner!" she clarifies.
"Escaped" he quickly answers her question. In her anger the Queen uses her magic to throw the Huntsman into the wall, pinning him up against it as she advances towards him.
"A palace full of guards, and you let him escape?" she barks at him
"I did my best".
"You failed. And do you know what happens to people who fail me, Huntsman?" she asks the man, hearing footsteps behind her. Whirling her head around she finds her brother entering the room with blood covering his mouth chin and hands as he tried his best to wipe off the wet substance off his suit with already bloodied handkerchief, hoping it could be saved from straining. A number of his suits fell victim to a feed or two and had to be burned as a result.
"And where the hell have you been!" she barked at her younger brother. He had run off after seeing Snow eat the poisoned apple.
"Punishing the guards that allowed the Prince escape, sister" he tells his sister continuing to wipe the blood from his mouth and chin, seeing the blood that covered the front of his suit and his hands. He was always a messy eater.
Her angry scowl quirked up into a smirk for a second knowing what he had done "Their heads are being used as an example of to the others. They won't make the same mistake again, Your Majesty" he informs her.
She loved this version of him. I was creative.
"I'll find him. You needn't worry" the Huntsman pleaded with the Queen re-gaining the her attention "Leave him to me" he assured as the Evil Queen and her brother see the man through her mirror on the wall
"That won't be necessary. He's mine" Waving her hand Prince Charming is warped through a portal to fall into the Infinite Forest trapped to in a prison of her making.
Storybrooke
Present
He didn't how he manged to get to the front of the hospital without causing an accident himself. All that mattered was getting there to meet Emma with his nephew who had called him from the back of the ambulance to tell him her son had suddenly collapsed.
Stumbling into the hospital he got there in time to see the tail end of his nephew being wheeled on a hospital bed with Dr. Whale and his mother either side of the bed as he was taken further into the hospital.
"HENRY!" he yelled down the hallway, cursing his mortality at this moment in time as he felt his heart clench in his chest as felt like it was burst out of his chest at any second.
Hearing his voice Emma looked behinds as she followed beside her son on the gurney "Elijah!" she called out to the man making him run down the hallway toward them, pushing himself to join his mother at the gurney to see his nephew lying motionless with his eye's closed.
The principle unkept appearance told the blonde that the man had come here straight school from the way his jacket was slung over his shoulder with his suit jacket underneath, with this tie pulled down from his neck as the two top buttons of his dark purple shirt hung open.
"What happened?" he hastily asked the blonde next to him as his feet kept the same pace the speed of the gurney was being pushed at.
"I don't know! He just fell" she replied as they went through a set of glass doors opened up to them, allowing them to the room as Emma continued to shake her son awake.
He didn't understand what had happened. He was fine the last time he had seen and heard him, speaking to August in the man's Inn room.
"Henry, can you hear me?" she pleads to the ten-year old shaking his chest and arm as they were pulled into a room Come on, Henry. Wake up, please. Come on, Henry. Come on. You can do it. Elijah's here now kid, okay" she continues as a nurse approaches Emma and Elijah trying to coax them to leave his side to give them room to work.
"Ma'am, Sir let me take you to-".
"No, we're not going anywhere!" Emma snaps at the nurse shrugging her off as Dr. Whale examines the unconscious boy, shining a pen light into his unresponsive eye's.
"Henry" Whale called out to the unconscious boy before turning to his mother to find out what had happened "There's no pupil response. What happened? Did he fall? Hit his head?".
"He ate this. I think it's poisoned" the blonde informs him holding out a baggie over to him as Elijah saw what was inside. A turnover. How could a turnover do this to his nephew?
With the information Whale opens the boy's mouth to look down his throat "His airway's clear. Did he vomit? Any convulsion or disorientation?".
"He took a bite of this, and then he just collapsed" Emma tell him again "So, run the test for arsenic, or bleach, or Drano, or whatever could've done this to him!" she demands in desperation as Elijah continued to stare at the bag in her hand trying to figure out as he saw a mask being placed over his nephew's face as the Doctor and Emma continued to argue.
"The boy is showing no symptoms that would suggest neurotoxins. So, whatever's going on, this is not the culprit".
"Well, what else could it be?" Elijah spoke up this time growing tired of the man's incompetence, his hands gripping the railing of the bed as he fought the monumental urge to lash out at the man.
"I don't know" he honestly tells the pair trying to calm them down "That's what I'm trying to find out" he promises the pair.
"He's going to be okay, though, right?" the blonde gulps out in worry.
"Right now, we just need to stabilize him, cause he's slipping away. Is there anything else that you can remember? Any little detail?" he urged her to remember.
"I already told you everything. Do something!" she yells before walking around Elijah with Henry's backpack in her hand, shoving the bagged turnover into his chest in frustration making the man catch it before she goes to an unoccupied bed to dump out and find anything else that would answer for the boys condition.
Furrowing his eye's the Principle was taken aback as he recognised the pastry that supposed to have harmed his nephew. He had eaten it possibly a thousand times or more during the last thirty years. One of is favourites. Even made it himself a few times but always seemed to fall short of his sister's hidden talent.
"Look, I understand you're both frustrated, Miss Swan, I do. But I need something to treat. And, right now, there is no explanation. It's like…" he stammered not sure what else to say.
Opening the bag the Principle slowly brought it to his face to be hit with the scent of cinnamon and apples straight away, only to smell something else that didn't sit right. Something extra had been added to the pastry. And he and an idea just what.
"Like magic" he hears Emma say making him look around to see her holding the book in her hands as she became stuck in a trance for a second or two before jolting out of it as she stood breathing deeply.
She believed.
His sister made her presence known to them when she entered the room demanding to know where her son was
"Where's my son?".
"You did this" was all he heard the saviour say before whirling around to take a hold of his sister's arm to drag her away from Henry's bedside into the a nearby supply closet, the door to the small room closes as crashing resounds from it as he dumps the poisoned turnover onto the bed ready to confront his sister.
"Excuse us would you Dr. Whale" he tells the man, he didn't wait for a reply as he followed the crashing sounds to find his sister pinned up against a set of metal lockers by the blonde saviour herself, struggling to fight Henry's birth mother off.
"Stop this! My son-".
"Is sick because of you! That apple turnover you gave me? He ate it!".
"What?" she gasped out "It was meant for you!".
"It's true, isn't it?" Emma asks wanting everything she had 'seen' to be confirmed by the one person that would know.
"What are you talking about?" she feigned ignorance still.
"It's true, isn't it?" she pressed the woman "All of it".
"Yes!" Elijah jumped in making the blonde look to the left to see he had unknowingly joined them "Yes. It's all true" he tells to the saviour as the Regina let he head fall back against the lockers in defeat. The saviour believed. It was too late.
"You know" the saviour muttered out to him.
"Of course I know" he retorts "The curse. Your parents. Everything. But harming my sister further is not going to aid us".
Ignoring Elijah's words the saviour continues to hold the Queen against the lockers "I was leaving town. Why couldn't you just leave things alone?".
"Because as long as you're alive, Henry will never be mine!" his sister screamed in the saviours face.
"He'll never be anyone's unless you fix this. You wake him up!" she demands from the Queen.
"I can't!".
"Don't you guys have magic?" she asks looking between the pair. She didn't know who he was yet.
"That was the last of it" she tells the blonde shaking her head at her ripped the saviours hold off her "It was supposed to put you to sleep!".
"What's it going to do to him?".
"I don't know. Magic here is unpredictable" she tells the saviour.
"So… So he could…".
"Yes" Regina tells them. He could die.
"So, what do we do?" Emma asks looking between the pair of siblings to what they do next to save Henry.
"We need help" Regina tells the blonde stepping away from the lockers with her hands on her hips, thinking over what they needed to do next "There's one other person in this town who knows about this, knows about magic".
"Mr. Gold" Emma easily figures out.
"Actually" Elijah's hoarse voice reached the blonde's ears making the saviour look at him as he looked at his sister "He goes by Rumpelstiltskin".
Entering the Pawn Shop behind the saviour with his older sister, Elijah made sure to close the door behind them turning the 'OPEN' sign to 'CLOSED' so that they wouldn't be disturbed while they spoke to the Dark One to find a way to save Henry from the sleeping curse in a land in which no magic existed, before joining his sister a foot away from the saviour as she stepped up to the counter where a long case was sat upon the glass cabinet.
"Do my eyes deceive me, or is that the look of a believer?" Gold greeted the blonde
"We need your help" states to the older man.
"Indeed, you do. It seems quite the tragic ailment has befallen our young friend" he replies in sympathy to the boy's birth mother before looking "I told you, magic comes with a price.
"Henry shouldn't have to pay it" Elijah quickly interjects.
"No, your sister should" he corrects the man looking at his old student "but alas, we are where we are. You would know something about that wouldn't you Master Mill's. Did you really think your little plan would work?".
"What are you two talking about?" Emma interrupts the conversation looking between the two men.
"I'm talking about his attempt to make you believe himself" he tells the saviour before turning his head towards the Principle "Do you have it with you?" the Dark One ask's him holding his hand out to the younger man knowing it would be far from his reach knowing how close the saviour was to finally believing.
He'd keep the one thing that could possibly kill him as close as possible.
With no choice in the matter, the Principle reluctantly reaches into the inside of his coat pocket to take out the rolled up portrait stepping forward far enough to place it in the sorcerer's hand to have it snatched out of his hand as his sister could do nothing as the older man untied the leather cord keeping it rolled up as he spoke to the saviour.
"Miss Swan. When Mr. Mills showed you a painting earlier this afternoon. What did he tell you about the man in it?".
"Uh.." she started in confusion as the older "He said he was a Duke".
"And uh how old did he look? Young? Old?" he listed to the woman.
"Young" she gulped not sure where he was going with this.
The Dark One could only chuckle at the woman's answer "And he was indeed. And still is thanks to myself. How about you take another look for yourself, now that you believe in the Dark Curse. This curse should be easy enough to see".
Turning the portrait around and holding it up for the saviour to see, Emma meets the gaze of an old man looking back in her, in a cream suit, stood in the same pose with his elbow comfortably placed on a mantelpiece above a cold fireplace and the other on his hip. His youthful complexion had turned winkled and sagged as the skin on his face drooped, his long dark hair had turned a tired grey as clumps were missing from his shoulder length hair.
The word 'ugly' came to mind as the man in the portrait look back at her with a a hard scowl on his face like he hated everyone and everything in the world around him instead of the young guy that had the world to discover around him.
"This...this can't be the same one" she breath out looking at Gold for the answer "You switched them somehow" she accused him.
"And why would I do that Miss Swan?" the older man blinked at her before Elijah spoke up.
"It is" Elijah slowly tells the blonde saviour making her turn to him "It's that same portrait".
"That's you" she easily deduced. The resemblance between the Elijah she knew and the one on the canvas was unnerving. Looking between the pair of siblings, Regina looked anywhere but the picture of her little brother.
"Yes" was all he could say in that moment.
"How the hell does his portrait can this help us exactly?" Regina interjected growing tired of the man attempts to humiliate her brother further.
"Oh it can't" Gold tells them rolling the portrait back up "I needed to give Miss Swan the bigger picture, so to speak".
"Can you help us?" Emma asked the man refocusing on the task at hand.
"Of course" he readily agrees handing the picture back to its owner "True love, Miss Swan… The only magic powerful enough to transcend realms and break any curse. Luckily for you, I happen to have bottled some".
"You did?" Regina asked in intrigue.
"Oh, yes. From strands of your parents' hair, I made the most powerful potion in all the realm. So powerful, that when I created the dark curse, I placed a single drop on the parchment. Just a little safety valve" he silently boasts to the Queen as he smirked to himself at his sly ploy to undermine his students work.
"That's why I'm the saviour" Emma speaks up "That's why I can break the curse".
"Now you're getting it".
"I don't care about breaking the curse. All I care about is saving Henry" she tells the man.
"Which is why it's your lucky day. I didn't use all the potion. I saved some… For a rainy day".
"Well, it's storming like a bitch. Where is it?".
"Where it is isn't the problem" he corrects her "Getting it is what should worry you" he cryptically tells her.
"Enough riddles" the Queen once again spoke up "What do we do?".
"You two, do nothing" he tells the pair of siblings "It has to be Miss Swan".
"He's my son. It should be me" his sister continued to argue.
"All due respect, but it's her son" he correct his former student pointing at the saviour "And it has to be her. She's the product of the magic. She must be the one to find it".
"I can do it" Emma states outload.
"Don't trust him" Elijah warns her. He knew best after all.
"What choice do we have?" she quickly rebuts. None. They had no other choice.
"That's right, dearie" Gold speaks up "What choice do you have?" he echo's their thoughts to the siblings.
"Where is this magic?" Emma interjects with the question as the older man.
"Tell me, Your Majesty, is our friend still in the basement?".
"Oh for heavens sake" Elijah couldn't help but to say to find out what his sister had done with Maleficent.
"Oh, you twisted little imp" she calls the man narrowing her gaze at him "You hid it with her?".
"Oh, no, no. Not with her. In her" he corrects the Queen "I knew you couldn't resist bringing her over. She always held a soft spot for your little brother. Didn't want her getting her claws into him in this realm did you dearie?" he continued to bate the Queen further as her brother could only stand and wait for the ground to swallow him up.
She always liked a man in a suit, but she liked him even more. It went against his sister's wishes. of course he indulged in the older sorceresses flirtations.
"Who is 'her'?" Emma asks the other's around her looking for the pair to explain.
"Someone you should be prepared for" Gold informs her wiping the thin layer of dust that had gathered on the long case in front of the saviour with a rag before throwing it to the side "Where you're going, you're going to need this".
Opening the long box on the counter the three recognised the weapon. There had many a times said weapons had been held up against the base of his throat in an attempt to keep him at arms length. But any harm that came from Prince Charming's sword never left a mark.
The last time he had seen it was twenty-eight years ago when he fought the Prince in his daughter's nursery before nearly killing him with his own sword.
"What is that?".
"Your father's sword".
Returning to the hospital, it went undisputed the Elijah would remain with Henry while Emma and Regina left to retrieve the bottled True Love from Maleficent underneath the library.
Waiting in the corridor outside his nephew's room to allow Emma to speak to her son, the Principle sat in a chair pulling the tie from his neck before rolling it up as his portrait sat heavy in his coat pocket as his mind. He knew Emma had questions, he just wasn't' sure how to answer them. He wasn't sure of the answer himself.
"Elijah-" his sister tried to speak to him. His silence always frightened her.
"No" he quickly put down any attempt his older sister had of worming herself out of his bad books. Like she always did.
She was never going to change. No matter how much he tried to stand by her side, she would always allow the Evil Queen to win, no matter who got in the way. Not even Henry was safe from her.
And worse of all he had broken his word. He had broken his word not only to Emma but to his won father. She had simply gone too far this time.
"No?" she echoed him her brows furrowing in confusion "What do you mean no?" she questioned him "What we need to do is focus-"
"My only focus right now is that child and his safety, do you understand?" he added rising from his seat to tower over his sister making her take a step away from him "This, all of this, this is the world you created Regina".
"Elijah-".
"All of your scheming, the enemies you have made every single day of your miserable life. What result did you expect! That we could we could live and thrive as some sort of family-".
"That your fantasy, not mine" she retorted.
"She was leaving!" he suddenly yelled at her "She was leaving this place for good, to end this fight. Put an end to the possibility of Henry getting hurt in the middle of this petty vindictiveness of yours. She made me give me her my word that I would protect Henry from you. To make sure you kept to your end of your deal. And now look at what's happened" he exasperated at her.
"As long as she was alive I wouldn't have you or Henry" she argues "Don't you see what she was doing, what she's already done. She's turned you against me, against your own family. Family Above All. That's what you've been going on about".
"Do you even have the faintest of idea what that means?" he said narrowing his eye at her.
"No, because no one's ever told me!" she exclaimed in frustration.
"My promise to our father was to stay by your side in this new world. To protect you until you changed. Our father, believed in you right up to the point you ripped his heart out of his chest. That you could change, you could be better than the Evil Queen. But no matter what I do or say seems to be enough to steer you in the right direction it was never enough".
"Henry was that chance. To find your redemption. He is our hope. He is this family's hope. Meanwhile I've denied every single impulse the I have ever had. Out of some misbegotten respect for intentions that you don't even have-".
"I'm warning y-" she tried to intimidate him that same way se did as the Queen back home.
"I'm warning you!" he angrily rebuts to his older sister pushing her against the wall behind her, her scowl replaced by fear "I've forgiven you. I've stood by you. I've forsaken every singe one of my desires in the name of your ridiculous redemption. No more".
"What ever the outcome tonight, you will no longer see me by your side. You want to be alone? Well congratulations. You have your wish" he spats out the last word taking a step back to retake his seat as Regina saw Emma turn away from Henry through the glass. Pushing herself off the wall the Queen lets herself into the ward.
On her way out the saviour saw the back of Elijah's head and shoulders, ready to take over and watch over her son while she and Regina what they needed to save him.
"Say what you got to say. You got ten minutes" Emma tells the woman stood holding the door open to look back to address the woman that had accidently cursed her own son.
"You know where to meet?" the brunette asked slowly approaching her son's bed, shaken from her brother's words.
"Yeah. Don't be late" turning to leave she didn't get far until she stopped to see Elijah back on his feet to speak to her, slipping his hands into the pockets of his coat. In all the drama she hadn't had a chance to think about their near kiss they had in his office. In truth, she had no idea why she was letting him touch her like that. But she couldn't think of that right now, she needed to ask him something else.
"Elijah" she started "That picture..".
"Portrait" he corrects her.
"Right. Portrait. Why did it look like that? Why did you look so...".
"Old?" he finished for her "I told you I haven't always been a good man. The portrait is evidence of the things I've done to myself and to other people back home. It's a tangible representation of my sin of my youth" .
"And here?".
"It remained the same when we all came here. I stored it away for twenty-eight years until-".
"I came here" she easily guessed.
"Until you ignored my threats and decided to stay" he corrects her making the corner of his lips twitch up at the memory "I kept it near me ever since, in case someone like Rumplestiltskin decided to take it for themselves".
"Then why show it to me?".
"Because I trust you" he says without missing a beat "And there's someone else that needs you to break the curse".
"Who?".
"August" he sadly informs her "You should go see him before you meet my sister. He'd want to see you".
"I will" she tells him "What about you? What will happen to you?". She seemed genuinely concerned for what would happen to him, but her concern was misplaced at the moment, he didn't need anyone to worry about him. He accepted his fate a long time ago.
"I don't know" he shrugs "So far the Dark Curse simply froze my curse. Over the years, my sister has tried every, potion, incantation and spell she has gotten her hands on to reverse the curse within the portrait. It's one of the reasons she cast the Dark Curse in the first place. To save me from the monster that you now see in it. It drove me to madness before and I don't doubt it will do it again, once the curse breaks, it will simply unfreeze everything, including my own".
"There must be a way to break it" she insisted. It was like he didn't care what would happen to him. He should he's just as important to Henry as she or Regina were. He was family.
"Well, if you ever find out. Let me know".
"You're not a monster Elijah".
"You don't know me Miss Swan" he blankly retorts "At least not well enough to know that for sure. You should go" nodding in understanding the saviour turned and left the man to wait for his sister to leave so he could start his watch over his ailing nephew.
Waiting the extra few minutes in the hallway he saw his sister out of the ward before letting himself in, seeing none other than the World Jumper that had aided his sister and himself a few times in the past. One of them being saving their father from their mother's clutches in Wonderland, only to be left behind by the siblings by playing the hats rules against it's owner.
"Jefferson" he addressed the man stood over his sleeping nephew as he approached the bed himself as the man turned his head to see the Queen's little brother himself "Now how am I not surprised to see you involved in this whole mess. Let me guess my sister used your hat to retrieve Snow White's poisoned apple from our land" he finished as he stood opposite the man as the heart monitor tracking his nephew's heart beeped methodically around them.
"She promised me, my Grace" the man tells him.
"Oh yes...Paige. Bright girl, certainly didn't her intelligence from you, must come from her mother side. You've done enough damage already today. Why don't you run along like a good little boy and leave the adults to fix this mess" the threat only made the world jumper scoff a laugh "Something funny Jefferson?".
"Perhaps I'm not making myself clear here. This is a threat. Now leave. I won't ask again" he blankly tell the man taking off his coat to lay it across the foot of the bed, leaving the man in his dark dress shirt.
Doing as he was told the world jumper rounded the bed without a second glance from the Principle found the brown leather bound book from under his nephews pillow knowing Emma wouldn't had left it far from him to read out the stories that the boy had lived and breathed for the last few months.
He needed to do something until his mother's returned from their quest. Reading to him seemed to be the only sensible thing to do. He'd been doing it since he was weeks old, up until a few months ago.
Making himself comfortable as he could on the edge of his bed weary of medical equipment that had been placed on and around him, turning his body to face the boy that was the closest thing he had to a son himself. Ready to wile away the time it took for his mother's to come back to save him.
"Now, let start from the beginning shall we?" he says opening the brown leather hardcover of his storybook to find the first page of the first story, taking a deep breath and clearing his throat, the boy's uncle looked up to his nephews sleeping form once more "Once upon a time..-".
He didn't recall at what point of the story he fell asleep in a chair that a nurse had taken over to the bed for the man to be more comfortable, he only came to realise he had fallen asleep hallway through the storybook when he felt a hand on his shoulder making him jolt out of the dreamless sleep as his eye's few open to see Mary-Margaret Blanchard stood over him with a sweet apologetic smile on her lips looking down at him with a cup of coffee in one hand and a bag in the other.
"Hey" she whispered down to him as he scrambled to sit himself back up in the chair he had slumped in his slumber ""Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you up. You look like you needed to sleep".
"It's fine Miss Blanchard" he says looking down to his watch on his wrist to see it had been a couple of hours since Emma and Regina had left. Looking down at his lap the image of the woman with his looked back at him as she rounded the bed to stand on the other side to look over her student.
Closing the book shut, the Principle left it on the seat behind him as he stood at his nephew's bed once again. Nothing had changed since that last time he had seen his nephew, he hadn't moved nor anything had happened to the equipment around him that monitored him.
"I heard what had happened. I'm sorry this has happened Elijah. I know how much Henry means to you".
"Thank you Mary Margaret" he tried to be as polite as he could at this current moment in time, but he was glad to have the company if he wasn't lying.
"Has there been any change?".
"None" he reports to her rubbing the sleep from his eye's as his hand continued it journey on his face as he felt the first sign of stubble on his cheeks and jaw on his rough skin "Every nurse or doctor that comes don't say a thing".
"Henry's a strong boy Elijah. Whatever this is, he'll beat it".
"I know" he simply states to the woman. He was stubborn like both his mothers.
"I went by your office to get a fresh shirt for you" the teacher change the subject away from his sick nephew for a few minutes "I thought you might want to change since you came straight from school. I got your jacket too. Miss Honey insisted I brought it".
"I don't deserve her doting" he comments taking the bag from her to fish out the fresh white shirt that he was desperate to put on to replace the one that had been winkled and started to stink like the hospital around him.
"She's just looking out for you. This isn't easy".
"Did you mind if I-" gesturing to the bag. He wanted to change, but he didn't want to leave Henry, not even for second if he could help it.
"Oh, sure go ahead" she nervously answered wanting to be polite, before he turned his back on her to start unbuttoning his shirt.
She shouldn't be nervous, she'd seen him without a shirt before and more, but this was different. She knew he didn't want to go beyond the friendship they had after that night.
But the clear definition of their relationship didn't stop her from looking out from the corner of her eye to see the white tank top that encompassed the man's lean figure and defined muscles on his shoulders and neck that were kept hidden underneath his suits and dress shirts.
Looking away just in time for the man to turn around with the fresh white shirt over his shoulders, seeing blush that crept on her cheeks the man couldn't help but to mile to himself as he buttoned his shirt up to his neck, loosely tucking the end into the waist of his pants.
"I'm done Miss Blanchard" he tells her making her smile at him, turning his attention back to his nephew as the monitor continued to beep to itself. As long as his heart continued to beat he could fight the sleeping curse.
Watching the man, it was easy to see how tired he was by simply being by his nephews side. He looked exhausted. Not being able to anything for Henry was killing him.
"Has anyone asked you if you're okay Elijah?" Mary Margaret found herself asking the man.
"Why would they need to?" he replies to her question as he gently took Henry's hand into his larger one remembering a time when his hand barely filled the palm of his hand.
"Because you love him too. You're as much as a parent to Henry as Emma and Regina are. You've been there since the beginning".
"I wasn't" he corrects her.
"What do you mean?" she asks in confusion. Of course he was. He was there the day Regina brought him home.
"When Regina told me her wish to adopt a child, I didn't support her. I thought it was another one of her whims she would grow tired of over time, but she never did. I didn't want anything to do with him until I saw the way she was with him. After a few months I found myself caring for him and what little time I did have. I wanted to spend with him. I finally understood what my father saw in Regina and I".
"Was was he like? Your Father?".
"He was never a strong man when it came to our ambitious mother, but he made us his mission. He comforted us when we were upset, celebrated us when we achieved, only to lose his life for the love of his children and their happiness. If I can be half the man he was for Henry, then it would've been worth something".
"He sounded like a great man" Mary Margaret tells him making the Principle
"He was" he trails off caught up in his thoughts. He couldn't help but think he had failed keep his word to the man who only wanted to see his children happy.
Henry was supposed to be their hope. Perhaps he had put too much hope himself into his sister's redemption as that hope now lay in limbo between life and death, from not being able to protect him from his own mother.
"How about I read to him for while" she suggests to the man taking him out of his thoughts "Let you get some rest".
"Sure" he agreed with her picking up the book from his chair to hand over to his friend before retaking his seat as she took a seat on the edge of Henry's bed, like he had done earlier, watching her open up the book that told of her love story with her true love and the many other's that had been trapped for nearly thirty years with no memories of their lives before.
He could only hope she, Snow White, would forgive him for his part in it all if nothing else.
As Mary Margaret read the brown leather book in her hands, the pixie haired teacher would glance over to the man slumped in the chair next to the bed fast asleep once again as she red through the pages of fairy tales to her studen:
"And, yes, she was beyond hope. Beyond saving. This was her end. When Prince Charming saw his beloved Snow White in her glass coffin, he knew all that was left was to say goodbye. He had to give her one last kiss. And when he did, true love proved more powerful than any curse. A pulse of pure love shuddered out and engulfed the land, waking up Snow White and bringing light to the darkness".
Pausing her reading the teacher closed her book thinking over her resent hope of her happy ending coming to an end with David Nolan deciding to leave Storybrooke to go to Boston. She couldn't give him a reason to stay now. There was just too much hurt now. Life wasn't a fairy tale as much as the young boy in the hospital bed wanted it to be. But it gave him something he needed at a time he didn't understand his place in the world. Hope.
"Henry… When I gave you this book, it was because I knew… I know life doesn't always have a happy end. But I thought…" the teacher was cut off as the machine monitoring the young boy went off making the man in the chair sleeping abruptly awaken to the noise to see his friend on her feet looking at the monitor as he looked for the threat that had come to harm his nephew only to hear the machines alarm.
"What is it? Dr. Whale!" she called for the Doctor as he and a team of nurses stormed into the room heading straight to the bed as the Principle jumped to his feet to no longer hear the methodical beeping that registered his nephew's heart beat.
It wasn't beating anymore.
"Dr. Whale, what is that? What… What… what's wrong?" the teacher stammered out only for the doctor to ignore her question as he attended the young boy
"No, no, no" the Principle quietly mumble to himself as he felt his heart clench in his chest as his eye's stung from the tears that threatened to fall.
"Nurse, get them out of here now!" Dr. Whale ordered one of his nurses as one encouraged Mary Margaret away from the bed.
"What is it? What is it?" the pixie haired teacher continued to question the man as a nurse took hold of Elijah's arm to entice him away from their work.
"Mr Mill's, please" the nurse's voice reached his ears as he saw them snatch the pillow from under his head to start chest compressions against his small chest.
"His heart rate's falling" Whale reports to his team as he joins the efforts to save the young boy's life "Come on, Henry".
Not able to watch anymore, the Principle's long strides took him over to Mary Margaret who was sobbing to herself to what was happening, taking hold of her and brining her into his chest as she continued to sob into his chest as he held onto her as tight as he could to drown out the chaos's behind him as she clutched to the back of his dress shirt. Silent tears ran down his face as his last promise to his father and Emma was quickly being snatched away from him.
With the egg that held the cure for Henry's curse firmly in her arms and hands, the saviour rode the elevator from the caves underneath Storybrooke that held Maleficent in the dragon form for the last twenty-eight years up to the surface to find Regina to take to Henry's bedside where Elijah would be, waiting for them to return.
Defeating the dragon with her father's sword was no easy task, but it would be worth it when she got to the hospital. Only her ride up came to an abrupt end when the elevator jolted to complete stop mere feet from the surface.
"Regina! What the hell was that?"" she called up to the Queen knowing she was the only one that controlled the elevator from the top, only to see Mr. Gold head pop up from the door's looking down at her instead of the dark haired brunette.
"Miss Swan? You got it?" he asked the blonde.
"Mr. Gold. What are you doing here?" she asked the man in confusion
"I've come to check on you" he answered her "I'm glad I did. Regina abandoned you and sabotaged the elevator".
"What? I'm coming up" she decided already starting to climb out of elevator with the egg in her hand.
"Now, there's… There's no time for this" he tells her as the blonde balances the golden egg on the frame of the elevator, freeing her hands to climb "You can't possibly scale the wall and carry that" he points out to her.
"Yeah? Well, I can try" she stubbornly tells him easily climbing onto the roof onto the top of the elevator, balancing herself in the corner of the shaft to pick the egg back up.
"No, you can't" he insists "Just toss it up. Your boy's going to be fine. I promise. We're running out of time. Toss it up" he instructs her. She had no other choice, she really couldn't get out with the egg. She had to trust him.
"Okay" she relents "You hold on to it. I'll be right up" she tells him, tossing the egg up to the sorcerer. With the egg now in his possession the older man turns and leaves the saviour in the shaft with the Queen tied and gagged to a chair in the middle of the room, leaving the saviour to call after him.
"Mr. Gold? Gold!".
Elijah did tell her not to trust him. It wasn't his fault she didn't heed his warning.
Scaling the rest of the shaft with ease the saviour pulled herself up and over the edge to hear muffled yells coming from the gadded Evil Queen tied to a chair in the middle of the room
"Regina!" she called out to the woman rushing towards her, ripping the tape off her mouth before kneeling down to untie her from the chair.
"He tricked you! How could you give him that?" the Queen snaps at the saviour on the ground.
"Where is he?"
"Gone" she tells her as her brows furrowed in anger "Gold! He manipulated all of this" she fumed to the saviour as the blonde untied her feel from the legs of the chair.
"Come on. He can't be that far" the blonde tells her as they both ran for the door, hoping to reach the man only for both their cell phones to ring out at the same time.
"It's the hospital" she states to the Queen as she answers the call "You?".
"Elijah" she tells the blonde answering hers.
He was gone.
He had failed.
That's all he thought as he stared blankly at his nephew's body from the foot of the bed as Mother Superior tried to comfort the man in his silent grief. He didn't know what to do but to wait for his sister to come and tell him what to do next as the tears that he had shed dried on his cheeks. That's what she told him on the phone not too long ago.
He needed her. He needed someone to come and tell him what to do next. He hadn't felt this pain in his heart since the night his father died.
Henry was his hope. He'd let this person in, and now he was gone. He never let people in, because he knew how fleeting a life could be. He taken enough to know that. He needed him, without him he was broken.
Leaving the man to his grief, the nun left with Dr. Whale to give the man the space he needed as they were met by the return of Emma and Regina.
"We did everything we could" Dr. Whale tells them, the sentence speaking volumes to what had happened while they were being tricked by Gold.
"I'm sorry. You're too late" the nun tells them.
The world slowed down for the saviour as she walked between the Nun and Doctor to let herself into the room to see the still figure of Elijah Mill's stood at the end of her son's hospital bed as she saw what the man was staring at. The still, unmoving, pale skinned, son with his hospital gown ripped down from his chest as a nurse turned off his heart monitor from the attempts to restart his heart.
"No. No…" he heard his sister sob out beside him, before he felt her fall into his arms as he instinctively wrapped around her, burying his face and nose into the crown of her head as fresh tears fell from his own eyes to join her in the grief of losing Henry.
Emma approached his bed reaching out to stroke his hair back into place as her own sobs left her lips, before leaning down to his forehead as tears leaked from her eye's whispering "I love you, Henry"
Placing her lips on his head a pulse of light magic erupted from the kiss of true love spreading throughout the room and further afield as his nephew gasped awake in his bed as his sister moved out of his arms to watch her son alive again.
"I love you, too" Henry tells his mother "You saved me".
"You did it" Regina gasped out to the saviour as her brother stood frozen at the foot of the bed a
As the pulse wave hit the Principle jolted out of the comforting embrace with his sister as he felt the cloud that had felt since coming to Storybrooke lifted from his mind making him blink to himself as the memories he thought long forgotten came to his mind.
Henry Wotton. Sybil Vane. Basil Hallward. He remembered everything about them, not what he thought he knew as the realisation dawned upon him at what his dear older sister had done despite having her word that she wouldn't do to him in this new world.
As the memories of his past flashed in his mind, others effected by the curse filtered into the room as they tried to make sense at what was going on as Emma and Henry looked to the end of the bed to see that the man hadn't said a word as he look just as bewildered as those around them.
"Henry… What's going on?" Emma asks her son making the Queen look over to her little brother to see the secret she had been keeping from him come to the surface after twenty-eight years. He knew what she had done.
"No…" the Queen trailed off as her eye's glanced over to him.
"The curse" Henry tells his birth mother "I think you broke it".
"That was true love's kiss" The Blue Fairy informs them.
"No, no! "the Queen continued to voice her grievance at the turn of events as she turned to the one person in the room who would help her, instinctively reaching out to him only for her little brother to quickly move out of her reach, slapping her hand away as he turned on her with a look that she had only seen once before in her life.
"Don't!" he snaps at her "Touch me" he growled out in warning making her flinch back in fear.
"If I were you, Your Majesty, I'd find a place to hide" Blue advises the woman seeing the hostility of her younger brother was to go by.
Knowing her fate now that everyone had their memories back the Queen rushed to her son's bedside to speak to him for possibly the last time before he was lost to her once again and taken by his birth family.
"Henry… No matter what you think, no matter what anyone tells you, I do love you" at that the woman turned and left the room fleeing from the room to seek shelter from those who would want her head for cursing them.
Looking towards the Principle the saviour saw a single tear roll down his cheek at the
"Elijah.." Henry trailed off in concern for his Uncle.
"She cursed me" he said the words outload "She-" he couldn't believe it. She gave him her word, give their father her word that he wouldn't be effected by it, that they would be together as themselves in this new world. But it seems she couldn't be happy without her baby brother being completely compliant with her.
He'd been made to agree with everything she wanted to do, without him even realising. She simply have to state what she wanted from him and he'd do it and think it was him making the decision. That's why she needed Emma to leave, because her appearance and mere presence had made him defiant.
"I need to speak to her" he announces to the room brushing the tear from his face as he headed for the chair to grab his jackets with his portrait safely tucked into its pocket.
"Do you think that's a good idea?" Emma voiced to the man as the man pulled on his suit jacket and coat.
"It's not, but she's had twenty-eight years to tell me. I think this conversation is long overdue don't you think Miss Swan?".
Stepping towards the bed his mind finally registers his nephew alive and well sat up in the bed "Henry, whatever happens, just know you can come to me for anything. Anything at all".
"I know" he tells his Uncle as a gentle smile graces the man's lips. Leaning down the man placed an affectionate kiss on the crown of his head, lingering for a second or two before whirling around to walk out of the room to find his sister again and get the answers he needed from her at that moment.
Stepping out of the hospital front entrance, the Principle kept his head down on the way down from Henry's room as they awakened from their twenty-eight year old cursed daze, reaching the ground floor in time for the man to see a large cloud of thick purple smoke looming in the distance, quickly making it's way towards him, similar to the one that he chased him and his sister on their final assault of their enemies castle.
Coming to a stop in the middle of the street in front of the hospital, the Principle felt his heart thud against his chest as the cloud continued its rampage towards him as he simply closed his eyes and allowed the smoke to roll over him, knowing there was no way to stop it, whatever it was.
Opening his eye's again swirls of purple disappeared in the air around him before he felt a painful stabbing pain in his stomach making him yell out in pain
Looking down at his side, where the pain had come from, a patch of fresh wet blood had quickly soaked through the cotton material, in the same place he had once tried to mortally hurt himself before in the portrait.
"No" he shuddered in realisation to what was happening to him again "No, please no!" he begged outload as he tried to stem the blood that leaked out of the open wound with his hand only to go unheard as his neck involuntary whipped to the side hard enough for an audible snap to echo in the silent street as his lifeless body fell to the ground, to restart his transition into the demon he once was in the Enchanted Forest.
AN: WE MADE IT! Season 2 here we come!
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