Reawakened: A Once Upon a Time Tale (37 page)
Read Reawakened: A Once Upon a Time Tale Online
Authors: Odette Beane
Tags: #Fiction / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
“Gold?” she said. “Gold?”
Nothing.
He was gone.
• • •
It took her ten minutes to get up out of the elevator, and another five to get to the hospital. She didn’t even consider going after Gold. She went to Henry. What August had said—
you don’t need magic
—had circled through her mind the entire
time she climbed, like a dragon in her head. Yes, maybe all of it was real, and yes, maybe there was some crazy logic to the curse, but she knew one thing: She loved that kid. She loved him more than she loved herself. She’d never cared about herself enough to know that she was capable of giving love to someone else, but she knew now. And so she went to him. To Henry. To family.
The mood was grim when Emma entered the ER, and her heart shuddered when she saw Mary Margaret’s face. To her right, Regina. (Now she knew why she’d left the library and left her at the bottom of the shaft. She’d come to watch over her son.) Behind them, Dr. Whale and the nurses. All of them looked somber, broken. Mary Margaret was crying. When Emma realized Regina had a tear in her eye, she knew the worst was true.
“What is it?” Emma managed. She and Regina kept staring into one another’s eyes. Emma knew that right now, it was like looking into a mirror. They’d fought for so long, but now… they were two mothers.
“We did everything we could,” say Dr. Whale.
“I’m sorry,” said Mother Superior, who was flanking him. “You’re too late.”
Shock. Pure, unadulterated shock. Emma’s eyes glazed over as she walked past them and into Henry’s room. She barely heard Regina saying, “No, no, no,” over and over again. She heard a faint ringing in the back of her head. All she saw was him. His beautiful face. His eyes closed.
“Henry,” she muttered, dropping to her knees at his bedside. She put a hand on his chest. “Henry,” she whispered. She didn’t care if he was alive or dead. “I love you.”
She leaned forward, closed her eyes, and kissed him on the forehead.
She felt it right away: A shock of energy pulsed out of her
and into him, building itself up from a core of energy deep within her chest. The force of it made her eyes come open—it was pain, but it was the pain of love, of all the longing she’d felt for the last decades, all of it focused here, on him. Another wave rolled over her then, and this one knocked her backward, to the floor. People—everyone—were thrown back. It was like a hurricane had entered the room.
It took a moment for the winds to die down, and for Emma to get to her feet. When she did, she stared at Henry in disbelief.
His eyes were open.
He was looking at her.
“I love you, too,” he said. And smiled.
• • •
Mary Margaret wandered away from the hospital and toward downtown Storybrooke, thinking, of all things, about her name.
Mary.
Mary Margaret.
The words sounded so strange on their own; together, even stranger. She stopped on the sidewalk in front of the diner, squinting in great concentration as a series of very old, very hidden feelings paraded through her heart.
She had used that name before; it did come from somewhere. She remembered a snowy landscape, and then saw the snow red with blood. Bodies. A wolf. And—and her friend. Her friend Red.
Her head snapped up. She looked down the street and saw him coming toward her, a smile on his face. His arms out.
“My prince,” she whispered, seeing David—no,
Charming
—coming toward her. “My prince!”
He started to run, and she ran to him. They met in the middle of the street and Snow felt it all come back, then, held securely in his arms. All of it. The bridge. Her father. Regina. Red. Storming the castle. The fairies. The dwarfs.
The curse.
“I knew I would find you,” said Charming, lifting her from the ground.
“And I knew I would find you,” she responded. He laughed, and they kissed. Everything, finally, was as it was supposed to be.
• • •
The nurses and doctors had all scattered. Some did stick around to gape at Emma and wonder how she’d managed to perform the miracle, but soon, after their memories began to come back to them, and they realized that they’d been living within the mental fog of a curse for twenty-eight years, people scattered, frantically searching the town for loved ones and friends. Emma was right where she was supposed to be.
Regina, surprisingly, had disappeared as well.
Henry seemed to be okay, although he was a little weak. Emma told him about the dragon, and what she’d had to do to get the love potion, and she also told him that Gold had run off with what she’d recovered. “August told me that I didn’t need it,” she said. “So I knew. I knew it was right to come to you. But what is Gold up to, do you think?”
Henry shrugged, sucking on the straw attached to his little cup of orange juice.
“Whatever it is,” Emma said, “it’s probably bad for the rest of this town.”
Short-term retribution. But then what?
“What is that?” Henry said, pointing out the window.
Emma saw it, too: a purple smoke flowing down the street as though it were water. She stood up and went to the window.
“I have no idea,” Emma said. “But I don’t like it.”
She looked at Henry, whose eyes had gone wide. This time there was no smile, but the amazement in her son’s eyes reminded her of the first moment they’d arrived in Storybrooke together, all those months ago. They were eyes of fascination.
“Magic,” Henry said. “Magic is here.”
She turned and watched the smoke creeping over the town, sensing that her son was right. She knew what it meant. This wasn’t over.
In fact, it was just beginning.
With her eyes still on the smoke, Emma stepped back to Henry’s bed and let her hand rest on his shoulder. Together, they watched in silence. Was it safe? No. Could she ever get back the life she could have had, or create the life she should have created for Henry? No. She couldn’t take any of it back and she couldn’t change the past. That was not how life worked. Not in this world, and not in any other world. The best she could do was make the right choices in the present. Here and now.
She would not leave her son again. She would always be there to protect him. Always. She squeezed his shoulder.
Henry, as though he’d heard the vow echoing in her heart, reached up and took his mother’s hand.
“Thanks,” he said.
“For what?” Emma asked, smiling down at him.
He looked up.
“For coming back.”
is based on the following:
WELCOME TO STORYBROOKE (PILOT)
Written by
Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Written by
Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Written by
Liz Tigelaar
Written by
David H. Goodman
THAT STILL SMALL VOICE
Written by
Jane Espenson
Written by
Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg
Written by
Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Written by
Jane Espenson
TRUE NORTH
Written by
David H. Goodman & Liz Tigelaar
Teleplay by
Daniel T. Thomsen
Story by
Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
FRUIT OF THE POISONOUS TREE
Written by
Ian Goldberg & Andrew Chambliss
Written by
Jane Espenson
Written by
David H. Goodman
DREAMY
Written by
Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Written by
Jane Espenson
Written by
Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg
Written by
Vladimir Cvetko & David H. Goodman
Written by
Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
THE RETURN
Written by
Jane Espenson
Written by
Ian Goldberg & Andrew Chambliss
Written by
Jane Espenson & David H. Goodman
Written by
Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Copyright © 2013 ABC Studios. All Rights Reserved.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information address Hyperion, 1500 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data for the original print edition of this book has been applied for.
Print Book ISBN 978-1-4013-1272-5
eBook Edition ISBN 978-1-4013-0549-9
All photography © American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.
Cover artwork by Anton Markous
First eBook Edition
Original hardcover edition printed in the United States of America.