#so really crocodile can only wrangle both of them to take a picture

[doffies]

i imagine family photos are a nightmare for them

[jarienn972]

Curse of Undoings - Part 7

I got through writing this next chapter a little sooner than originally planned but ended up making a bit of a change. I decided to save a portion that was originally supposed to go here for the next installment because I felt it took away from Emma's last line of this chapter. So, here’s a quick recap - we last left off with Killian unconscious in a dark tunnel and Henry nearly being caught stealing the snow globe. How long do you think both will go unnoticed? (if you said not long, you might be right...)  

No major trigger warnings apply to this chapter although there are a few mentions of Killian’s lingering injuries.  Fear not, my whump loving friends, there’s plenty more pain to come...  @killian-whump , @hookaroo and @castielamigos - you will all enjoy the next few chapters!

Catch up on AO3 or FF,net or here: Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6

Anxiety was beginning to work it's way into Henry's psyche as he made his way to the mine entrance. From here, the tunnel's opening was only about another fifty yards to the left. From this side, it didn't look like much, merely a dark recess in a wall of slate and sandstone where the trickle of an underground stream broke the surface before continuing on its meandering path to empty into the lake. Henry had often wondered if any of the dwarfs who'd spent so much time down in these damp, shadowy mines had ever been curious enough to follow that little stream to its origin, but maybe they'd lacked his drive to explore. Right now, it was probably for the best that the tunnel remained his secret space.

Just beyond the point where that trickle of water vanished into the rock lay a crevice that was so obscured, a person could easily walk right past it if they weren't sure where to look. It was a bit of a tight squeeze to get inside, but once through to the other side, it widened into a tunnel that, by all appearances, looked chiseled out by an unknown hand. Henry obviously knew that wasn't the case as the passageway must have been created along with the rest of the town through Regina's dark curse. But whatever the history, it was irrelevant today as all Henry cared about was getting back to Killian.

Using the flashlight setting on his phone to guide his way through the pitch black, he hurried through the tunnel as quickly as he could manage safely. He'd been gone less than twenty minutes, but if Killian's bleeding hadn't slowed, he feared he might be returning to find a corpse.

No. No, he scolded himself for even harboring such thoughts. Killian had to be alive or the Black Fairy would have succeeded in wiping out their stories by now. Captain Hook was a survivor and now more than ever, Henry needed that statement to be true. As he came around the last bend, he could see the faint glow of the flashlight he'd left for Killian, thankful that the batteries hadn't given out. Getting closer, it didn't appear that Killian had moved at all, which likely meant that he hadn't regained consciousness. Ultimately though, both of them ended up being startled as Killian stirred at the crunch of gravel beneath Henry's feet.

"It's just me, Killian," Henry assured the wary pirate as he moved closer, shining the light onto his face so Killian could recognize him. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get back here, but I needed to go pick up a few things."

"What things...? Why did you leave?" Killian demanded. "I was worried you'd been captured."

"You were unconscious when I left and really, I didn't mean to be gone so long but I was forced to take a detour." He shrugged the backpack off of his shoulders as he switched off the cell phone light, needing to conserve battery power. "I went to get my backpack so we'd have some water and some snacks too. I know you were really thirsty earlier, especially after having that gag in your mouth. Are you hungry at all?"

Henry unzipped his pack and shoved his free hand inside, digging around until he located the still sealed bottle of spring water which he yanked out along with a fistful of snacks, offering all of his treasures to his stepfather. Killian grimaced while struggling to push himself back into a more upright position, the flayed skin and muscle of his back threatening to tear open anew with even the slightest movement. A trembling arm nearly gave out as he shifted his weight to his right side, finally wrangling his unwilling limbs enough to sit before reaching for the bottle. Henry twisted off the cap and then passed it to Killian who gulped down nearly a third of the precious liquid before pausing for a breath.

"Thank you, lad. That was much needed, but no, I'm not really hungry. Not entirely certain I could keep anything down at this moment either." Killian handed the bottle back to Henry who replaced the cap, saving the rest for later. "You took a huge risk by going after all of this."

"It's fine. I knew what I was doing and I was careful. We're safe here, for now at least but we really need to get you some help and we need to figure out how to free my family from this thing…" Henry withdrew another object from his backpack and held it up proudly – the snow globe that he'd procured from Fiona's bookshelf, garnering both pride and a glint of horror from Killian as he recognized the prize Henry was clutching.

"Henry – where do you get that?"

"From Fiona's office. When you said Fiona showed you a snow globe and said she'd trapped our family inside, I remembered that she'd been grinning at something on her bookshelf. I found this snow globe on that shelf so this has to be the one. Is this the one she showed you?"

Weakened by constant pain and the lingering effects of too much blood lost, Killian's senses weren't acute enough to be entirely certain, but even in the minimal light provided by the flashlight, it looked like the same object that Fiona had flaunted before him earlier. "I believe it is the same one, but I'm afraid I'm not fully certain." Killian exhaled a deep sigh, knowing that Fiona would absolutely have all of her henchmen mobilized the moment she discovered the globe was missing.

Henry could see the flicker of trepidation in Killian's eyes which had him immediately second-guessing his hasty actions. "What's wrong? Was I wrong to take the snow globe?"

"No, Henry, you weren't wrong to take it. We do need to have that trinket in our possession if we're to devise a way to free Regina, your grandparents and all of the others trapped in limbo inside that thing, but it also puts us in greater danger."

"I guess it's a risk worth taking. We have to save them. Look…" Henry reached inside his backpack one more time to retrieve the storybook, flipping it open to one of the pages detailing a scene from his grandparents' story – the image of their famously interrupted wedding. He picked up the flashlight and directed the beam onto the page so Killian could see for himself the deterioration that Henry had been witnessing all day. Portions of the intricate text were missing and nearly half of the accompanying image had faded away from the yellowing paper. "Nearly all of the pictures are like this – half of it already vanished since this morning. We're running out of time!"

"I know…" Killian replied, hoping that Henry hadn't noticed his face contorting with yet another wave of agonizing pain shook him. "But who can we trust to help us break the curse?"

"I have an idea of one person who could help us, but you're not gonna like it…"

The crocodile.

Henry wanted to trust the bloody crocodile?

Had the lad gone daft or had he simply lost so much blood that now he was now hallucinating this whole conversation?

"Perhaps we should rethink this, lad…" Killian suggested as he grasped the teen's extended hand and accepted Henry's assistance with getting back on his feet. Every inch of his back seared with the exertion but he was moderately thankful that at least his punctured left shoulder wasn't throbbing as much as before and it seemed that the bleeding had subsided – at least the external bleeding. He wasn't foolish enough to believe a wound that deep had ceased entirely.

"I don't know of anyone else we can turn to," Henry reminded him as he let go of Killian's hand once the pirate was standing on his own accord. He gathered his backpack and slung it onto his shoulders, getting it up and out of the way so he could aid Killian. "I overheard Fiona mention his name while I was spying on her office earlier. I'm pretty sure that it was actually him that she was talking to even though I could only hear her side of the conversation. It definitely sounded like the person she was talking to wasn't affected by the curse either and as far as I had known, only Fiona, Gideon and myself had been spared the memory-altering curse. Since we know that Rumplestiltskin was able to retain his memories under Regina's dark curse by using Mom's name as a trigger, it seems pretty likely that he'd come through his mother's curse unscathed as well. There have to be some perks for being the Dark One after all…"

"You forget that your mother managed to alter my memories with the dark curse that brought us back from Camelot so your theory isn't without flaw. What makes you think that he'd even raise a finger to help us? I'm not particularly one of his favorite persons…"

"Because this is his story too," Henry stated confidently. "If Fiona intends to rewrite everything, Rumplestiltskin's story disappears as well. You've known him for centuries so you definitely know that self-preservation is a huge motivator."

"You do have a point there," Killian agreed as he fought to control his quivering legs, striving to maintain his tenuous balance. It was still a long walk into town and they would have to take great care not to be seen. They'd be safe until they departed the tunnel and ventured into the mine. It wasn't highly likely that they'd encounter someone in the mine, but they had to be cautious. From then on, they'd be exposed so Henry would need to scout ahead at each turn to ensure safe passage to the pawn shop. By now, Emma had undoubtedly discovered that Killian was missing and it wouldn't take long for her to reach the conclusion that Henry had been the one who helped her prisoner escape. She'd have the entire town hunting them both so there would be few havens in which to take refuge. Of course, who would ever suspect that they'd have the audacity to turn to Captain Hook's oldest nemesis for assistance?

They'd find out soon enough.

"How the hell does a prisoner chained to a metal table in a locked cell manage to escape?!" Emma demanded, glaring fervently at her now wide awake prison guard who cowered before her, head hung low as he shivered in the cold basement.

He had no answer for the Sheriff. He only remembered getting sleepy, then waking to find himself wearing only his leopard print boxer shorts and seeing two of the prison cell doors standing wide open. He'd called the Sheriff immediately, reluctantly confessing his transgression that had apparently given a dangerous prisoner a window to escape and he fully expected to have her wrath rained down upon him.

"And how the hell did you manage to sleep through it all?" Emma continued to berate the hapless guard.

"I'm sorry, Sheriff," the guard replied, unable to make eye contact with her as he fully expected to be fired here on the spot. "I really don't know what happened…"

Gideon poked his head into the corridor at that moment, interrupting his colleague's apology as the deputy exited the cell that had previously held a wounded, shackled Killian Jones - who had somehow managed to escape without being seen or heard. "Sorry to interrupt, Sheriff, but I've gone through everything in the cell and I'm afraid that there's nothing here to indicate how the prisoner escaped."

"Damn, he must have had help then. Who here in town might still be loyal to him?" Emma inquired as she momentarily redirected her ire away from the half-naked guard.

"As far as I'm aware, none of his known accomplices have been seen in the area," Gideon responded. "I thoroughly searched his ship after he was captured, but found no indication anyone but Hook had been onboard."

"Well then, get a search party together and start searching! Round up everyone who might have ever been a member of his crew and find that son of a bitch!"

"Yes, Sheriff. I'll call in as many of the reserves as I can locate. What about him?" Gideon gestured towards the unclothed guard.

Emma spun around to unleash her fury upon the guard once again. "Go home. Get dressed and get out there with the search party!" she ordered. "We'll discuss your punishment as soon as Hook is found and dragged back here. Anyone caught helping the prisoner is to be arrested immediately!"

The guard took a fleeting glance down at his bare legs and torso, wanting to ask if he could have something to cover himself with, but he didn't dare ask. Still avoiding eye contact with her, he squeaked out a weak "Yes, Sheriff," as she dismissed him and sent him scurrying up the stairs in his flashy boxers. Public humiliation would be but the first part of his penalty for sleeping on the job.

"We'll find him," Gideon stated with an almost overconfident assurance. "There's no way he could have gotten too far in his condition."

"I suppose that depends on how much assistance he had," Emma countered, letting out a frustrated sigh. "It's bad enough that my kid disobeyed me and didn't go home like he was supposed to and now, on top of that, I have to contend with an escaped murderer because the guard I trusted couldn't keep himself awake!"

"How do you know that Henry didn't go home?" Gideon wondered.

"Your grandmother, Her Honor, the Mayor, ran into him over by the church a little while ago. He told her that he was going to the library…" Emma froze mid-sentence as a horrifying thought popped into her already stressed brain, causing her jaw to go slack. "You don't think…?"

Gideon picked up on what she was thinking and completed her sentence: "That Henry might have been involved somehow?"

"He's been acting weird all day," Emma explained as she massaged her temple absentmindedly, thinking about their disagreement earlier that morning. "In his damaged mind, he doesn't believe that his grandparents are really dead and even tried to convince me that Hook wasn't a killer. How would he have gotten in here though? He's just a kid…"

"So, should we be looking for Henry too?" Gideon asked, already planning to hunt down the boy, but waiting for Emma to give the word.

"Yes," Emma relented. "I've got a bad feeling that wherever we find Henry, we'll find that scoundrel too. No harm is to come to my son though. If you locate him, bring him in, but I will deal with him myself. I am his mother after all."

"What about Hook?"

"Whatever it takes," Emma told him, setting her jaw firmly while her eyes grew darker with building rage as she stared at the open door to her torture chamber. "But the final blow is going to be mine."