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#eloise gardner (episode)
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Hello, this is your Santa here :) Hope your week is going well and that you are staying safe :))
In terms of my progress, I've drafted up some ideas and a general plan of how to go about doing justice to your likes :))
I do happen to have some questions for you and I hope you can answer them :))
1. Do you have any OUAT characters that you dislike? If so why?
2. What is your favorite OUAT season?
3. Do you have any favorite artists? Both in music and art?
I do happen to wanna ask a couple more questions but in a more relaxed form :)
Did you have any favorite Christmas growing up? Like any one experience that just stood out to you....cause if you did I would love to hear off it. Alsooo, have you ever build a ginger bread house? I rewarched shrek and ginger bread man reminded me of ginger bread houses and cookies.....why does shrek remind me of Christmas?
All rambles aside, I do have quite some questions but I shall reign them in until next time. Looking forward to your response.. have a great rest of the week and stay safe :))
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My week's off to a great start; I hope yours is too!
I'm so excited to see what you've got cooking up :D
1.. Tbh I'm not a huge fan of Mr. Gold. He's just a lil toxic towards Belle- outside of the context of their relationship he isn't bad though.
However, I also hate Gothel/Eloise Gardner- not in a "I hate seeing her onscreen" way, but in a "I love seeing her onscreen because that way I can actively continue to hate her this is fun" like I utterly despise her but she's so interesting I wanna examine her under a microscope and also watch her die but I'll look away when she does, ya know?
My reasons for dislike of her are her abuse and manipulation of Wish!Killian and Alice. Like. We've got a technical count of assault, and then she holds that over his head every time she sees him after that just to get inside his head and then she basically casts this big dark curse (like it was Drizella's curse, sure, but Gothel was pulling the strings too) and she could've been anyone she wanted in this new curse world- and she created the persona of Eloise Gardner- a runaway nobody- specifically so she could play the role of the damsel in distress in Wish!Killian's life, specifically so she could continue to use and manipulate him- I want to commit acts of violence anytime Eloise is within three feet of Rogers- but at the same time, I love watching and anaylsing her.
Sorry that was long winded 😅
2. This is a hard choice, because I love them all (except maybe season 1, but that's just for lack of a certain pirate) but I'm gonna go with Season 4. A lot of media tends to focus on watching the characters fall in love like falling in love is the climax, but they neglect to show all the work and time put into the relationship after it's started- so I love how season 4 shows you the little glimpses into Killian and Emma not just falling in love with each other, but living in love with each other- we get to see their first date and watch Killian step up as a father figure for Henry and see how they handle conflict together and just those quiet moments where they're there for each other.
Season 4 has a lot of other good stuff too- development of Killian and Belle's friendship, the return of August, Belle's mom (however briefly we had her!,) Emma's outfit in the alternate universe, ext. I also really liked the emotion in the Belle leaving Rumple at the town line scene.
3. Obscurely enough, I love listening to Ben Fankhauser and also Ephie Aardema, despite the fact that they aren't actually all that popular (especially outside of Broadway circles.) I also like Ben Platt and Jonas Brothers and (more recently) Taylor Swift. And Jeremy Jordan! (I also listen to the musical episode of ouat a lot.) Annapantsu is really good too!
As far as art artists, I can't think of any off the top of my head ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I definitely remember a lot of magical Christmas moments. One time my sister and I really wanted snow on Christmas and it hadn't snowed much at all- until it started snowing on Christmas Eve as my dad read our traditional Christmas storybook to us. I remember getting a unicorn pillow pet which I had really wanted one year, and another year when I got my first ukulele (I straight up cried.)
I've done a few gingerbread houses over the years, yes! I love artsy stuff as well as baking and using the resources I have on hand in the kitchen to make masterpieces!
Here's a pic of one of my favorites that I did (with help from my little brother!)
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So long, friend! Remember to stay hydrated!
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ljones41 · 6 months
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Favorite "ONCE UPON A TIME" (2011-2018) Episodes
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Below are my favorite episodes from the ABC fantasy series, "ONCE UPON A TIME". Created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, the series starred Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas and Robert Carlyle:
FAVORITE "ONCE UPON A TIME" (2011-2018) EPISODES
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1. (4.12) "Darkness on the Edge of Town" - Rumpelstiltskin aka Mr. Gold returns to Storybrooke with Ursula and Cruella De Vil in tow. Meanwhile, the Nolans (aka the "Charmings"), Regina Mills aka the Evil Queen and Killian Jones aka Captain Hook set about freeing the fairies from the Sorcerer's hat and deal with a threatening Chernabog demon, which had also freed.
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2. (1.18) "The Stable Boy" – This very interesting episode revealed the origins of the Evil Queen’s antipathy toward Snow White. In the present, Mary Margaret Blanchard (aka Snow White) faces prosecution for Kathryn Nolan’s alleged murder.
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3. (3.13) "Witch Hunt" - Following the return of Enchanted Forest characters to Storybrooke, Maine; Emma Swan works with Regina to find out who took everyone's memories from the past year. Flashbacks in the Enchanted Forest show the Evil Queen and Robin Hood attempt's to break into her castle, which had been overtaken by the Wicked Witch of the West.
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4. (4.16) "Best Laid Plans" - While Rumpelstiltskin and the Queens of Darkness continue their search for the "Author" of the town's Fairy Tale Book, Mary Margaret and David Nolan (aka Prince "Charming") try to stop them in order to keep their daughter Emma from discovering their past misdeed, which is finally revealed in flashbacks.
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5. (3.11) "Going Home" - In order to prevent Peter Pan aka Malcolm's plans to cast a new curse upon Storybrooke and create a new Neverland. Both Mr. Gold and Regina are forced to make big sacrifices.
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6. (7.20) "Is This Henry Mills?" - Regina aka Roni enlists the help of her adopted granddaughter Lucy Mills to wake her son Henry Mills from the recent Dark Curse created by Eloise Gardner aka Mother Gothel. Rumpelstilskin aka Detective Weaver and Wishverse Killian Jones aka Captain Hook aka Detective Rogers go to Margot West aka Robin Hood in hopes of getting through to his daughter and the latter's girlfriend, Alice aka Tilly.
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7. (3.09) "Saving Henry" - Emma, Mary Margaret and Regina struggle to prevent Peter Pan from absorbing a dying Henry Mills' heart into his body. Flashbacks reveal how Regina had ended up adopting Henry.
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8. (2.16) "The Miller's Daughter" - While Regina and her mother Cora Mills aka the Queen of Hearts hunt for Rumpelstiltskin's dagger in Storybrooke in this spine-tingling episode, Cora's back story as a poor miller's daughter, who becomes the wife of a prince, is revealed in flashbacks.
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9. (1.11) "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree" – This episode reveals the back story of newspaper editor Sidney Glass’ life as a Genie in the Enchanted Forest, and how his relationship with the Evil Queen led him to become the Magic Mirror.
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10. (2.10) "The Cricket Game" - Following Cora and Captain Hook's arrival in Storybrooke, the former set about framing Regina for Archie Hooper's "murder" in an effort to emotionally break the former mayor. Snow White and Charming disagree over how to handle the captured Evil Queen in the Enchanted Forest flashbacks.
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Honorable Mention: (5.08) "Birth" - Hook risks everything to uncover the truth about what his lady love Emma, the new Dark One, did while they were all in Camelot.
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Glass Believer in 7x07 "Eloise Gardner"
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peacehopeandrats · 3 years
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Forgery - Chapter 11
Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alice | Tilly & Robin | Margot, Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold
Characters: Dr. Facilier | Baron Samdi, Hansel | Jack | Nick Branson, Original Characters, Rumplestiltskin | Weaver, Wishverse Captain Hook | Detective Rogers, Alice | Tilly, Regina Mills | Roni, Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time), Robin | Margot, Drizella Tremaine | Ivy Belfrey, Cinderella | Jacinda Vidrio, Belle (Once Upon a Time), Rapunzel Tremaine | Victoria Belfrey, Gothel | Eloise Gardener, Lucy (Once Upon a Time), Gideon (Once Upon a Time), Mad Hatter | Jefferson, Victor Frankenstein | Dr. Whale, Tiana | Sabine
Additional Tags: Angst, Crime, season 7, New Enchanted Forest, Hyperion Heights (Once Upon a Time), Wishverse (Once Upon a Time)
Series: Part 3 of Once Upon a Crime
Quick Summary: This series is going to cover Season 7 as various characters wake up. Since it focuses on the crimes rather than the episodes, you won't get an entire episode's telling in one work.
Timing: We are starting out in the past, but will end up with everything from where we stopped in the Eloise Gardner episode up to Belfry's arrest.
Mature content is Rumbelle-centric comes along in chapter 8 and is skipable, if that's not your thing.
Read previous chapters on AO3
Chapter 11
The world spun as Rumple woke up, shifting on the bed to figure out what happened to his arms and legs. His entire body had a feeling of separation, like it was divided and cast into distant corners of the apartment. The pull of gravity quickly made him realize the truth of his precarious position. Blood was throbbing in his left arm and leg, drawn down to pool in the limbs that dangled from the mattress, while the others were utterly numb from where they were twisted beneath him and bent at odd angles. He lifted a hand to try and press it to his head, but the numbness only served to make him slap himself and made rolling over even more awkward.
Beyond the brief smack of contact a giggle rose up in the air, making him lift his head and blink into the darkness. “Belle?”
“No, but that isn’t the first time you’ve called out for her tonight,” Tilly’s familiar voice teased. While Rumple tried to right himself, her silhouette moved in front of the window and into the corner of the room. He heard the rustle of fabric, then something soft suddenly flung itself from nowhere to attack his face. “Seems like it was as good a dream as promised. You’ll probably want those.”
Read more on AO3
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jarienn972 · 4 years
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Bloodline
From the OUAT Winter Whump 2018 event
After being inspired by @wyntereyez​ live-blogging her rewatch of OUAT S7 last night and her post reblogs today, I was originally going to just reblog this story which was my re-imagining of Season 7 episode 19, Flower Child, but I decided to create a new post so that I could attach the art work that today’s birthday girl @cocohook38​ graciously surprised me with! 
This story does feature violent situations as it was created to fix the wasted potential of the episode for those of us who enjoy seeing a little bit of whump. Please Note: Gothel is the featured villain here so fair warning as there are some vague mentions of her history with Rogers.
Also on FF.net and AO3
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So little had made sense for weeks now in the Heights and Detective Rogers’ inquisitive mind was in overdrive.  Every time he thought he’d guessed the next move correctly, he’d found himself face to face with his often condescending partner who was all-too-happy to remind him of his failures.  It wasn’t as though Weaver was giving him any answers either, just more cryptic questions and general annoyance. Granted, a fair portion of his frustration was his own damned fault.  Weaver had warned him not to pursue his search for Eloise Gardner, but obsession had gripped him, forcing him to investigate every clue to hunt her down - although they’d likely never know exactly how or why Victoria Belfrey had imprisoned her in the tower.  He’d managed to uncover bits and pieces of a story about how Eloise was evil and needed to be kept locked away from humanity, but he hadn’t really believed any of it.  Not until bodies started turning up all over the Heights - Belfrey’s included.
Maybe he should have listened to Weaver’s advice, but he just couldn’t help himself. He’d been so driven to find the girl who had haunted his memory for years, only to discover that maybe she wasn’t really the person he’d imagined her to be.  Maybe if he’d heeded his partner’s warning, he wouldn’t be in his current predicament, not that it would matter for much longer. He’d be able to hang on a little while…
Maybe, just maybe, someone would come searching for him or maybe Tilly would spring back to her senses?
But the reality was - who would be looking for him?
One hour earlier
She was mad.  Had to be.  How else could he explain it?
Maybe he was mad.  How had he allowed this woman to gain so much power over him?
He felt manipulated. Used.  Hell, part of him felt downright violated, but yet he was still inexplicably drawn to her.
Weaver had warned him that she was a powerful witch, but he honestly hadn’t believed in witchcraft - at least until now as the realization struck that she had pulled him right into her coven’s waiting trap.  He’d been so gullible, but it also struck him as odd that he had no idea why she’d sought to ensnare him.  All he had wanted to do was help Tilly, and then - there she was - Eloise Gardner and her coven of witches hidden behind dark, heavy, hooded cloaks.  He and Tilly had wandered straight into the witch’s wicked web and despite knowing that they were both in grave danger, a voice in the back of his head kept telling him to protect Tilly.
“Please, don’t hurt her,” he’d pleaded with the witches as one of them grabbed Tilly from behind, clamping a hand over her mouth as they led her away from him, disappeared down what must have been a staircase.  He was at the wrong angle to be certain, even as he strained against his captor, struggling to get a better view.  “Tilly’s an innocent here…please, don’t harm her…”
Eloise approached him, drawing close as her minions restrained him.  He continued to struggle, trying to free himself from their grasp but despite their diminutive appearance, the hooded figures were far stronger than he expected. The witch pressed her body uncomfortably close to him, an air of triumph in her icy gaze.  His own eyes clung to defiance, even as her hand raised up to meet his face, fingertips lightly tracing the shape of his jaw while she stared at him with a sickeningly sweet smile plastered on her lips - the way he would imagine a predator admiring its prey.
“You’ve got this all wrong, Captain,” she insisted, never breaking her evil grin as she spoke. “Tilly isn’t the one I intend to hurt.  I need her.  You, on the other hand, are far more expendable.”
He had no idea what she was plotting or why she’d called him Captain - and she wasn’t the first to do that either.  All of his senses were screaming at him.  There was no doubt he was in way over his head, but no matter how much he struggled, there was no breaking free.
“What do you want from us?” Rogers demanded.  Hell, if he was going to die here, he at least wanted to know why.
“Oh, you’ll prove useful to me yet again.  You’re going to help bring my creation to life,” Eloise purred cryptically as she pulled her hand away from his face. “But first, I need you to stop being so uncooperative…”  Her right hand unfurled once again before his eyes, this time, revealing a clump of what appeared to be sparkling pink dust resting in the curve of her palm.  With one quick puff of her breath, the colorful particles were swirling around him and somewhere within that cloud, Rogers lost his will to resist, his body dropping limp into the arms of his captors.
**********
As his senses gradually returned, Rogers immediately knew something wasn’t right, but he didn’t know yet just how precarious the situation actually was.  His head throbbed and his recollection of the events that got him here was a tad cloudy - a sensation he’d experienced far too many times when he’d lost control of his indulgences. Only this was no mere hangover.
His eyelids parted slowly, adjusting to the dim light of the surroundings, seemingly illuminated solely by flickering flames.  Ruddy hued rocks comprised both the floor and the walls of what must have been some sort of a cave but as his sight became clearer, he discovered that this cavern held far more sinister secrets than he could have imagined.  He’d also come to the realization that he was suspended in the center of said cavern, his upper body bound tightly with vines.  Vines? It certainly wasn’t rope that secured him and as he tried to wiggle himself out of his bindings, he learned - rather painfully - that the vines were covered in thorns. Dozens of thorns, sharp as needles, jabbed into his bare skin with even the slightest movement on his part. He’d clearly been impaled a few times already as he could feel the tickle from the little rivulets of blood making a path down his leg to drip off of his big toe.
What he couldn’t tell from his vantage point was that his nearly nude body hung directly above an intricate design carved into the stone below - one the same shape as the coven’s symbol he’d been seeing all over Hyperion Heights.  Surrounding him were the dark, caped figures, each standing at one of the eight points of the symbol softly chanting some unknown incantation.  One of those hooded beings broke from the circle to canter towards him, apparently having realized he’d regained consciousness. The figure raised her head as she neared, enough for him to recognize her face as his gaze locked with that of Eloise Gardner once again.
The expression on her face confused him falling somewhere between satisfaction and sublimation. If this was indeed the same girl he’d tasked himself to locate so many years ago, what had happened to her that led her down this path? To have become involved with such a devilishly evil cult that had obviously stripped her of the innocence he’d remembered?  Well, at least the innocence he thought he’d remembered… Had she been so offended by his failure to protect her as a child that she’d spent all of these years planning ways to make him pay for that failure?  Even after he’d rescued her from Belfrey’s prison?  Hadn’t getting shot and spending the better part of a decade searching in vain been penance enough?
“Captain…” Eloise purred into his ear, her lips so close to his skin that he could feel the warmth of her breath, sending his body into an involuntary, repulsed shudder. “Just what is going on inside that pretty head of yours?”
“Why are you doing this?” was the question that crossed his lips, although there were so many others demanding to be asked as well. “I tried… I tried to help you… I freed you…” he stammered, his mind conflicted by both a desire to fight his thorny restraints and a total lack of willpower to do so.
“Oh, Captain,” she said through that same salacious grin, “we’ve such a torrid history… Where would I even begin?”
“History?” He didn’t understand how their few interactions could be construed as history.  “Eloise, we barely know anything about each other aside from the fact that I spent years searching for you…and I did find you.  Why this?”
“It’s almost a pity that your memory didn’t return like some of the others, but maybe it’s for the better…” She stepped around to his back, her right hand trailing along the skin just above the waistband of his boxer briefs as she leaned in to address his left ear.  “How about I start by re-introducing myself?  My name is Mother Gothel, not Eloise, and we do indeed have some very interesting history.  It might even have been so much more… I could have helped you seal your revenge against Rumplestiltskin while we pillaged and plundered the realms, but no.  You surprised me.  You chose the brat over me…”
“Brat? What - Tilly?” His stuttered words barely made sense in his own head, but they seemed to increase her ire.
“If that’s what you want to call her,” she scoffed. “You gave her a different name back then, but nonetheless, it won’t matter for much longer.”
“You haven’t harmed her, have you?” he asked meekly, his voice cracking audibly at the thought as his eyes grew wide with fearful anticipation.
“No, I haven’t harmed Tilly.  As I said before, she isn’t the one I plan to harm.  I need her magic to help initiate my spell…”  She paused her statement as she ambled around to face him once again, the iciness of her stare prickling every hair on the back of his neck. “But I need something else from you first…” Her fingertips made contact with his thigh, the skin searing beneath her touch as he fought back a swell of nausea. If this was what she wanted, he wasn’t interested, but as her right hand slithered up toward his hip, she raised her left hand in front of her chest, making certain that he would witness her next move.  Out of thin air, what might only have been described as a giant thorn materialized from her palm.  It was at least the length of her forearm and his terrified eyes instantly focused on its razor sharp point - even more so as she ghosted that needle-like point across his chest, drawing tiny droplets of blood as she passed it through the course, dark hair almost indecently.
“Eloise…” His voice came out as a whimper as he tried his best to shrink away from her, but the brambles encircling him only seemed to squeeze tighter. “I can still help you…” The cop in him was still trying to reason with her, even if his efforts might be deemed futile.
“Yes, my dear Captain, you most certainly can help me,” she assured him as that devilish grin crossed her features yet again.  “I absolutely require your assistance to activate a portion of my spell. More specifically, I need your blood.” She refused to give him even a moment to process her statement before thrusting the pointed end of her oversized thorn into his abdomen, angling it upward, beneath his rib cage and into his vital organs, yet stopping short of his heart.  She drew her arm backward, retracing the blood stained thorn so that she could admire her handiwork for a split-second before repeating the stabbing motion twice more.
The coppery scent of his own blood filled his nostrils as his mind and body were both overwhelmed by the shock of the assault.  Blood mixed with his saliva as he coughed up a bubble that he couldn’t swallow back down.  Sanguine trails flowed from his torso to form a small puddle on the carved rocky ground below as his instinct to fight for his life finally kicked in and he gathered his remaining strength to try to free his arms so he could put pressure on the seeping wounds.
“Struggle all you want,” she taunted him as she dropped the bloody thorn to the ground as she cupped his jaw with both of her hands.  “My vines will only grow tighter, driving those thorns deeper into your flesh.  Since we’re going to be here for a while as your body is slowly drained of its blood, you may wish to spare yourself further anguish.  I need your heart to keep pumping as long as possible to keep that blood fresh and potent until the entire medallion beneath you is filled.  Then, I won’t need you anymore…”
His body shook from a combination of fear and pain-driven convulsions as his blood flowed from the trio of punctures in his gut, but even with the agony she’d already inflicted upon him, the witch wasn’t done with him quite yet.  New vines began to sprout from those encasing his upper body, spiraling lower to wrap the rest of his torso and both of his legs with the constricting brambles.  Every nerve ending in his body felt assaulted as dozens of newly formed thorns tore into his skin, drawing more blood.  Rogers couldn’t even remember if he’d screamed but a silent prayer kept reciting within his head that maybe someone would find him.  And that blissful unconsciousness would befall him soon…
**********
Rogers didn’t know what stirred him back to consciousness but the immediate wash of pain over his entire being reminded him that he was still alive.  The dead didn’t experience pain, did they?  He assumed he’d learn that answer soon  enough - as soon as his lifeblood drained from him, his heart would inevitably cease and his lungs would no longer need to draw breath.  He didn’t have the energy within him to fight against the tightening vines, still feeling their intrusions across his arms, chest and back, but scarcely able to feel his legs anymore.  He wanted to just go numb, to return to the peaceful, pain-free oblivion, but his mind apparently wanted him to be awake to bear witness to his own torture.
“I’m surprised to see you awake,” a voice rang out from his right. Or was it from the left? Clearly his head wasn’t thinking straight, the blood loss leaving him disoriented. “Perhaps you’re a tad more resilient than I’d thought…” The voice continued in a sickeningly sweet cadence that made him want to retch even before he sensed the warmth of fingers brushing against his blood-soaked thigh. “You still have so much more to give…” He wished he could pull his leg away as the sensation of fingernails drawing lazy circles through the dampness only increased his nausea.
“What do you want?” He knew he’d asked the question before, but in his weakened state, he didn’t remember the answer - certainly not the answer she was about to give.
“Oh, Captain, this goes back so far…,” she mused.  “Years ago, we met in a far away land, high in a tower where I needed you to provide the one thing that would allow me freedom from that prison - a new bloodline.  You were so, how should I say this? Eager? So willing to provide me what I needed, but then, you betrayed me…”
Tower? Betrayal? Her words were conjuring images that bombarded his psyche, but were they memories or hallucinations?  He didn’t know if he could trust his own brain right now.
“Eloise…”
“Not Eloise - Gothel,” she reminded him, her tone more annoyed than playful this time. “You really should try to remember me.” Her hand instantly snapped from caressing his thigh to clutching his throat, her thumb and forefinger pushing his head upward to meet her gaze.  “I want you to look at me while you hang there dying.  I want you to regret ever choosing that brat instead of me!”  She stabbed a manicured index finger towards one of the cloaked figures as he recognized Tilly’s profile beneath the hood.
“Tilly…” he whispered, not even certain if his voice was loud enough for her to hear.  
“She can’t hear you.  She’s caught in a trance that I placed upon her.  She’ll keep mindlessly repeating that incantation over and over until your blood fills the rest of the medallion here.  Then, as soon as she steps into the center, the mix of bloodlines will enact my spell and bring about the return of this land to its rightful ruler - Nature.”
“Why Tilly? If we have history, that’s between us,” he argued weakly, energy waning quickly, but still possessing a flicker of determination to protect his young friend from this madwoman. “She has nothing to do with this…”
“Oh, but you’re wrong there, Captain,” she laughed. “Tilly - or Alice, as you used to call her - has everything to do with this.  She’s our daughter - the blend of our bloodlines - possessing some of your spunk and some of my magic.  I need to draw that magic from her and it just so happens that her father’s blood is the perfect conduit to do so.”
“Wait - daughter?  Tilly… Alice… she’s my daughter?” he stammered, trembling as his already pain-wracked brain overloaded. “How can she be my daughter?  I’m not old enough…”
That statement brought an amused cackle from his captor. “Looks can be so deceiving, Captain, but then curses can certainly play such tricks with your mind… You really don’t look a day over two hundred.”
Images came to him once again in vivid flashes as his barely lucid mind struggled to make sense of them without any context.  A pirate ship.  A tall, isolated tower.  A small, blonde haired child.  Eloise, yet not Eloise…
A hook.
His sullen eyes drew downward, seeking out the prosthetic hand attached to the wrist of his stumped arm which suddenly didn’t feel right to him.  The weight, the fit - all wrong.
He’d lost that hand in a bad car accident, hadn’t he? He questioned his own recollection, no longer sure if anything he knew about himself was real. He was hanging here, slowly bleeding to death at the hand of a woman he’d thought he’d rescued and yet he felt as though he was right on the cusp of an epiphany.
His eyes squeezed shut as his body convulsed involuntarily.  Why hadn’t he told Weaver what he was doing? The only other person who knew he was here was Tilly and she was lost to some hypnotic trance. He didn’t dare think what this witch would do to her once she’d served her purpose.  He fought through the impending darkness to take in Tilly’s features for what he feared would be the last time.  Could she really be his daughter? He’d likely never know now as a single tear rolled across his cheekbone, its saline trail finding its way to the corner of his mouth just as his lips parted.
One single word rolled off his tongue as his body fell limp against the imposing vines.
Starfish.
His voice was scarcely a whisper yet that single utterance reverberated throughout the cavern, reaching the single pair of ears it was intended for.  It echoed into Tilly’s ear as a plea and her eyelids flew open, the chanting instantly ceased.  Her hands raised to her head, tossing the hood off of her blonde locks as she lifted her chin.
She’d only been vaguely aware of her surroundings, but now, her senses were overwhelmed.  The voices of the other hooded figures were all she could hear and she just wanted to drown them out.  She tried to focus on something else - the crackle of the flames from the candles and torches positioned around the circle.  Focus, Tilly, focus, she told herself.  She concentrated on those flames, inhaling the scent of the burning wood, but she could smell something else too.  Something faintly metallic…bloody…
Only then did she realize that there was another person in the center of the ring of caped figures - a person whose body was nearly obscured amongst a tangle of thorny vines.  There was a pale, dark-haired man bound by those vines and while she couldn’t make out the majority of his form, she could see that his legs were riddled with crimson trails and there was a pool of dark red liquid beneath his feet.  And she could see just enough of his face to recognize that man suspended lifeless before her: the man she’d known as Detective Rogers. But she also felt an awakening within her muddled mind which reminded her that she’d known him far longer - and by a different name.
“Papa?”
The moment she uttered that single word, the rock walls of the cavern began to shake as if from the rumbling of an earthquake, showering her with pebbles and dust that rained from above.  A newly defiant Tilly shrugged off the heavy dark robe, eyes wide as she frantically searched for the monster.
“Show yourself, Witch!” Tilly hollered, bolstered with newfound bravado.  If he was still among the living, she had to save him.  Had to save her Papa from this monster witch.  It was all up to her and this time, she was determined to listen to the little voices within her head that assured her that she possessed the power to defeat this witch.
“I’m right here, Tilly,” the witch replied as she took a step from behind her nearly lifeless prisoner.
“Let him go, you monster! You’re hurting him and I can’t allow that!” Tilly shouted. “You said that if I helped you, no one would get hurt but you lied!  You always lie!” Both of Tilly’s hands clenched into fists as Gothel continued to stare blankly back at her, entirely devoid of any human emotion.
“It’s entirely too late for that, little girl,” Gothel snapped back confidently. “As soon as his blood fills that medallion on the floor right there, my spell will begin and there’s no one powerful enough to stop it.  Not the Evil Queen nor the Wicked Witch.  Not even the Dark One himself.”
“Then I’ll stop you,” Tilly responded as she stood her ground with equal confidence. “You took my Papa away from me once.  You aren’t going to do it again.”  Her blue eyes reflected a fierce determination as Tilly set her jaw and racked her brain to recall how to harness her magic.
“Please…,” Gothel dismissed her with a haughty wave of her hand. “You aren’t any match for me.  Just get out of my way and do as you’re told…” With a faint flick of her wrist, another new growth of vines sprouted from the cluster binding Rogers and jettisoned toward Tilly.  With only a fraction of a second to react, Tilly threw up her hands defensively in front of her face and instantly, the brambles froze mere inches from her, the thorns separating from the vines and falling harmlessly to the floor while tiny, white four-petal blossoms took their place.  Tilly blinked a few times until the realization sunk in that she’d used magic to defend herself.  She wasn’t mad - well, at least not when it came to the existence of magic.
“Impressive, but you’ve still so much to learn,” the witch continued to taunt her as Tilly attempted to move from the carved coven symbol beneath her feet.  Gothel smirked as she watched the rock beneath Tilly’s feet dissolve into mud that the younger woman sank into it, only to have it harden back into stone around her shoes, entrapping her in her position on the outer ring. “It would be rather rude of you to leave before my big performance - and I’m not done with you yet…”
Unable to step away, Tilly’s eyes flittered wildly between the nearly inundated medallion on the ground before her and the pallid, expressionless face of her dying father whose head was drooped against his chest, body clearly only held upright by the witch’s enchanted vines.  She watched in seemingly slow-motion as a drop of blood fell from his toe and splashed into the sticky, crimson puddle.
“It’s nearly time,” Gothel announced with a giddy chuckle as a tiny evergreen tree pushed its way through the solid rock to emerge in front of one of the remaining cloaked figures.  As the tree grew in stature, the cape worn by the nearest coven member slumped to the floor and the person who’d been beneath it seconds earlier vanished in the blink of an eye. “Six more to go… Then you.”
“No,” Tilly sobbed, cursing herself for ever agreeing to help this monster in the first place, but now, the witch had to be stopped. “No - I won’t allow you to do this!”
“You won’t allow me?” Gothel laughed off Tilly’s cockiness.  Apparently the girl had more of her father’s personality than she’d believed. “Then stop me.”  
The challenge was issued as an insult, but Tilly didn’t take it as such. She was going to prove that she had the strength to defeat this horrid person.
“Stay with me, Papa,” she called out to him, still uncertain if he was alive or dead. “No matter what happens, I love you, Papa…”  Silent promises now made, Tilly squeezed her eyes closed as her outstretched hands began to tremble.  Another low rumble echoed throughout the cavern as flames flickered, billowed by some unseen wind that swirled dust and rubble around the young woman.
“What are you doing?” There was a faint hint of alarm in Gothel’s voice this time as she feared she may have underestimated her daughter.  She’d long known that her child possessed powers, but with no one to cultivate them, she’d doubted Tilly’s ability to harness magic.  But it was Gothel’s discounting of that untamed nature to Tilly’s magic which might prove far more dangerous.
“Love is always stronger than hate,” Tilly stated as she clasped her hands together sending out a blast of powerful energy towards the blood-drenched medallion.  The ground began to shake, mildly at first then growing in intensity as the rock began to crack, fissures zigzagging across the entire coven symbol until they reached the stone that encased Tilly’s feet.  The rock holding her crumbled away, allowing her to hop out of the circle and sever the connection necessary for Gothel’s spell to proceed.  The evergreen tree that had sprouted within the cavern withered away to ashes as the magic sustaining it evaporated.
“You insolent little brat!” the witch shouted, seething with anger. “How dare you?! Now you’ve ruined it!  I should have killed you years ago - both of you!” She took a step forward, hands extended and prepared to unleash some new horror against her beleaguered daughter.  But so blinded by her hatred of her own offspring, she failed to notice that the cracks beneath her feet were widening from the tremors, opening into a chasm that swallowed the witch, plunging her screaming into the void.  Tilly didn’t know what she should feel as the monster disappeared into the earth.  She just stood there frozen until another voice roused her attention.
“Tilly?” she heard the voice call out to her, but was it merely inside her head?  “Tilly?!” came the voice yet again as she blinked her eyes trying to figure out where the familiar voice originated. She recognized it now - Weaver - but she couldn’t reply yet.  Her fragile mind was still processing all that had just transpired.  Everything she’d just made happen… And oh, no - Papa!  She saw the familiar face of Detective Weaver - Rumplestiltskin - emerge from the entry passage, weapon and flashlight extended before him. “Tilly, are you alright?” he asked as he ventured deeper into the subterranean cavern.
Alright? Was she alright? She didn’t even know but there were more important things to attend to… “Yes, I am,” she responded frantically as she hurried toward the center of the room. “But he’s not…” Weaver stopped short of entering the circle as he spied the huge, gaping cracks that transected it.  His focus was drawn to the cluster of vines at the center of the ring where he now spotted his partner hanging motionless and entirely encircled by those same bloody vines which seemed to be withering away as Gothel’s magic faded. Despite the fissures crisscrossing the ground beneath him which had drained away most of the blood, there was still enough visible on the rock for Weaver to know his partner wouldn’t survive long with this amount of blood loss.
“We need to get him down from there somehow,” Weaver stated. “The vines are dying and won’t hold him for long…”
“I know,” she insisted, trying to locate that magical trigger within her one more time.  “I’m trying…”  She’d never been particularly good at concentrating - at least not lately.  She had to try and push all of her jumbled thoughts away to focus on her most important task - rescuing Papa.  As the brambles crumbled, an invisible force caught Rogers, his limp form suspended in mid-air but seemingly with nothing holding him aloft. The unseen hand carried him safely across the fractured floor placing him gently atop a boulder beside Weaver just before the vines completely disintegrated to a pile of dust.
Without the bindings in the way, Weaver could see that his partner’s body was riddled with puncture wounds, some of which were still oozing blood - a positive sign that his heart was still beating.  Satisfied that immediate danger was over, Weaver tucked away his weapon, shining the flashlight’s beam onto his partner’s unconscious form as he felt for a pulse.  “He’s alive. He still has a heartbeat.  I’ll get the paramedics down here…”
A small smile crept across Tilly’s face as her resolve finally broke, but that smile rapidly faded, her eyes welling with tears as yet another realization struck.  His heart. Without another word, she bolted past Weaver and darted out of the cave.
She couldn’t be here. She couldn’t cause him more suffering…
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The next few hours were tense ones.  While her father was barely clinging to life, Tilly had vanished, leaving Weaver to be the one holding vigil in the hospital waiting room.  Thankfully, the trip from Gothel’s hideout beneath the old theater to the hospital was a short ride. Weaver had followed the ambulance in his own vehicle with lights and siren blaring to keep up with the paramedics. By the time he reached the Emergency room, Rogers’ blood pressure had dropped to dangerously low levels and his breathing was erratic, but his most life threatening battle was against the uncontrollable bleeding.  Something in his system was preventing his blood from clotting properly - likely Gothel’s work as well.
But as far as the Emergency room personnel were concerned, Detective Rogers had been a victim of the Candy Killer, attacked while investigating the cave beneath the theater. He answered the barrage of questions as best he could, not even attempting to create a plausible explanation for the multitude of puncture wounds from the thorns.  He just told them his partner had multiple stab wounds and didn’t elaborate. There would be no mention of Eloise Gardner in Weaver’s report, even though he had actually found his way to the cavern just as the witch plunged into the chasm, presumably falling to her death although one could never be entirely certain when there was no body left behind as evidence.
After the first hour of waiting, he’d called Roni and Henry to see if either had seen Tilly and filled them in on his partner’s condition.  Neither knew where Tilly might be but both offered to help locate her.  Roni left the bar in Remy’s capable hands as she left a message for her niece, hoping Tilly would seek out Margot’s company and Henry set out to search some of Tilly’s usual haunts.  Only Roni, Kelly and Weaver knew the truth of Tilly and Rogers’ relationship and while they understood her reasons for running, she needed to be aware of what was happening with her father, lest her fragile hold on her sanity be lost.
He wasn’t overly surprised when he heard Roni’s voice in the corridor, asking a nurse where she’d find the Emergency waiting area.  He lifted his chin and nodded a greeting to her as she passed through the doorway, walking quickly across the crowded room to join him on a bench positioned against the far wall, away from prying ears.
“Have you heard anything yet?” Roni asked in a hushed whisper.
Weaver shook his head. “Not yet.”
“Gothel?”
“Hopefully gone, like most of the objects she conjured. She fell into a giant crack that opened up beneath her.”
“Did Tilly do that?” Roni wondered if battling her mother had contributed to the younger woman’s unease.
“Yes,” was Weaver’s unpretentious reply as he slumped back against the wall.  Roni mouthed a wow as she copied his posture, crossing her legs at the ankle.
“Margot thinks she knows where to find her,” she told him. “Henry’s taking a loop around the neighborhood too.  She’ll turn up.”
“She knows she’s Alice,” Weaver stated without preface.  “As soon as I said that his heart was still beating, I saw it in her eyes.  She panicked.”
“She remembered his poisoned heart…” Roni sighed. “That poor girl… She didn’t want to cause him more pain.  She must be devastated…”  Weaver didn’t answer; he already knew she was right.  Getting her memory back, watching her father suffering and then having to destroy her mother just might have short-circuited Tilly’s complicated mind.
But it was Roni who suddenly sat up straight, a quizzical arch to her eyebrow as she contemplated a thought that had leapt into the forefront of her mind.
“Did his heart stop?” she asked, almost a bit too loudly as it drew some unwanted attention from other people in the waiting room.
“What?” He’d heard the question, but wanted her to repeat it.
“Do you know if Rogers’ heart stopped beating at any time?” she inquired once again, this time keeping her voice low since their conversation was about to head in a direction that wouldn’t be easily explained to eavesdroppers.
“I couldn’t hear everything that was said when the paramedics brought him in, but I thought I overheard something about him coding in the ambulance.  Pretty sure that means his heart stopped, but he had a pulse when the ER took over.  What are you getting at?”
“Have you been out of the magic business too long, Rumple?” she asked, using his real name in public for the first time since they’d awakened from Gothel’s curse.  This was definitely Regina talking now, not her barmaid alter ego, Roni. “Gothel placed that poisoned heart curse on him a long time ago and we were never able to find a cure.  The only way to end the curse was death - his heart no longer beating.  Do you think there was a time limit as to how long his heart needed to be stopped before they brought him back?”
Weaver’s lips pursed in thought as he rubbed the hint of stubble sprouting on his chin.  He definitely needed a shave, but whiskers were merely a distraction as he tossed ideas around in his head.  “CPR isn’t exactly commonplace in the Enchanted Forest, nor are machines to shock a heart back into rhythm.  A curse such as that one should die along with its victim…”
“Then it’s possible that the poison died when his heart stopped beating the first time.  There’s no way a curse from our land would have a caveat built in for someone being brought back from essentially being dead.”
“There’s only one way to test that theory though…and Tilly is nowhere to be found,” Weaver reminded her.
“We’ll find Tilly and explain.  If your partner pulls through this, I’m pretty sure he won’t be going anywhere for a few days.  We’ve got some time.”
“There is still the matter of breaking the other curse,” he added.
“One curse at a time, please…”
Two days later
There was that pain again.  Maybe not as intense as before, but definitely still there.  Little pinpricks he could feel everywhere - annoying and even a little bit itchy but they were only the prelude to the dull, somewhat burning ache that radiated through his chest and abdomen. His head was still on the fuzzy side but he remembered someone stabbing him - Eloise.  No, not Eloise - Gothel.  The witch that Tilly had been correct to call a monster.
He struggled to force his eyelids open, his vision assaulted by the bright lights above him.  He remembered being in a dark cavern, completely bound by thorn-covered vines that were constricting him tighter and tighter until he’d blacked out.  Or maybe he’d blacked out from the blood loss…? Maybe both? But it was apparent that he wasn’t in that dank cave any longer.  He blinked a few times to allow his sight to adjust, turning his head slightly to get a look at a stark white wall that contained only a clock and a dry-erase whiteboard that was filled with incomprehensible scribbles.  
He started to become aware of additional sensations as he started putting the pieces together.  He wasn’t hanging from those vines anymore; he was laying down, presumably in a bed.  He could feel the softness of fabric beneath his fingers and thought he sensed something encircling his wrist, although not as painful as the witch’s brambles.  He raised his hand to a height he could see it without moving around too much and learned he’d been correct - some sort of rubber or plastic band was fastened around his wrist and there was some plastic tubing affixed to the back of his hand with tape that was irritating his skin.  An incessant beeping resounded in his ear, mixed in with other faint sounds he’d yet to make sense of, but it was enough for him to figure out his location.  
He was in a hospital - which meant he’d survived the witch’s attack.
And surprisingly, he discovered he wasn’t alone.
“It’s about damn time you woke up.”  He knew the voice instantly, recognition sending an involuntary shudder down his spine.  The demon masquerading as his partner.
“Crocodile?  Come to execute me while I’m vulnerable?” he asked his visitor.
“If I’d wanted to do that, I wouldn’t have waited until you awakened, Captain,” Weaver replied.  “I’m just Detective Weaver now.  I put the rest behind me to honor Belle’s wishes, although being caught up in Gothel’s curse hadn’t really been a part of my plan.  I’m just trying to do my best to help people so that someday, I’ll be able to join her - and that includes trying to help you and your wayward daughter…”
“Tilly - does she know?”
“She does.  It was her magic that defeated Gothel and her coven.  The witch was swallowed up by the earth she revered.  Alice is down the hall in the waiting room with Regina.”
“She’s here?  Alice is here?” Rogers asked, his voice growing agitated.  “But the curse…”
“Relax… She’s not close enough right now to disturb your poisoned heart, but Regina has a plausible theory that might mean you’re cured.”
“There’s no known cure for a poisoned heart,” Rogers scoffed, his eyes dropping with disappointment.
“That’s not necessarily true,” Weaver began. “Facilier was able to cure Henry’s heart with a bit of magic born from Lucy’s true belief and the remnants of Ella’s glass slipper.  While that same magic isn’t available for you, you may still have been cured in a much simpler manner - your death.”
“My death?  My head is muddled enough right now but clearly, I’m still alive - despite many valiant efforts…”
“Technically, you died twice,” Weaver stated. “Your heart stopped beating twice - once in the ambulance on the way here and once on the OR table while they were trying to stitch your insides back together.  From what we were told, you were technically dead for over a minute before they were able to resuscitate you.  Curses aren’t designed to survive death - even mine.  Generally, where we come from, if your heart stops beating, you’re dead.  They don’t try to bring you back.  The curse should have ended the moment your heartbeat ceased.”
“Should have?  That’s an awful stretch… What if you’re wrong?  It’ll only cause both of us more pain…”
“Then it’s a good thing to do it here in the hospital where they can treat you should we be wrong, but what if we’re right?  You can be with your daughter again.”
Rogers had to contemplate the possibility for a moment.  As much as he loathed trusting his long-time enemy, he also had the memories of being Detective Rogers and in this world, he actually trusted Weaver’s word.  He’d also become close with Regina, the reformed Evil Queen, whom he’d now entrust with his life.  What strange company he was keeping…
“What does Alice think?” This was going to affect his daughter as much as it would him so he wanted her to be involved in the decision.
“She’s frightened, naturally, but she’s also very curious.  She believes that Regina might be correct, but there’s only one way to find out…”  Weaver motioned toward the hallway beyond the room’s doorway as he stood up. “Should I go get her?”  Rogers swallowed back the lump in his throat, but nodded an affirmative.  Whatever would happen, he was prepared to face the consequences.
Seconds later, he smiled at the sight of his daughter’s unruly golden locks flashing past his window into the corridor before she bounded through the open door, although she stopped short of approaching her father’s bedside.  He suddenly felt horribly exposed, clad only in the thin gown the hospital had dressed him in, his truncated left arm bare, no hook or prosthetic to hide his deformity.
“Starfish,” he greeted her with her childhood nickname.
“Haven’t heard anyone call me that for a long time, Papa…,” she replied, her cheeks flushing with a mix of anxiety and embarrassment. This wasn’t how he would have wanted her to turn out, but she didn’t care anymore.  She wanted her Papa back more than anything.  “I’ve missed you so much.”
“And I’ve missed you, too, Love,” he insisted as he shifted nervously on the bed.  “There’s only one way for us to know if this curse is really gone…”
“You think…?” she asked timidly, taking one tentative step closer to the bed.  
“Come closer,” he instructed, bracing himself for the onslaught of pain as she made her way across the room at an almost agonizingly slow pace.  He felt a few twinges, but nothing was any worse than the discomfort from the stabbing.  “It’s okay, I’m fine.”  He offered his reassurance with a weak, timid smile.  He extended his hand to her, eyes begging her to grasp it, eager for even that tiny bit of contact.  
Alice squeezed her eyes closed as she reached for his hand, awaiting the burning sensation from the mark emblazoned into her wrist as their fingertips touched for the first time in many years.  Neither knew what would happen, but there was nothing.  No burning.  No aching.  No magic driving them apart - and there was absolutely nothing containing Alice’s ecstatic joy as she nearly threw herself into her papa’s arms to hug him as tightly as she could.
“It worked! Papa, it worked!” she exclaimed gleefully, excited that she could finally embrace him after such a long time - almost so excited that she missed his pained grunt beneath her, turning her head expecting to see his smiling face but instead seeing an uncomfortable grimace and the dampness of tears around his eyes.  “Oh, no…” her mood turned somber in a split-second. “ I spoke too soon…?” She backed away, ready to run, but he held tight to her wrist.
“It’s alright, Starfish.  My heart is fine.  It’s just my other injuries…”
“Oh, Papa, I’m so sorry!  I was so excited, I forgot what that monster did to you!  I hope I didn’t hurt you too much…”
“Nothing that won’t heal,” he chuckled as he gritted through the ache in his chest, drawing his arms in tighter as if trying to hold his guts in.  “I promise, it will all be fine…”  There were more tears flowing now but all were tears of joy.  
“I love you so much, Papa.”
“And I - you, my Starfish.”
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killianmesmalls · 5 years
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I’m rewatching 7x04 and got feelings about a line that I never really paid all that much attention to before. Admittedly, when the episode aired, I wasn’t particularly excited about it for various reasons, but I’ve been giving it a closer look since the show ended. 
Early in the episode, Weaver is discussing his young informant and what she could mean for gaining leverage against Belfrey, who is also attempting to use Tilly as leverage against him. Without even knowing Tilly, without having set eyes on her (as far as he knows) before now, and without perhaps knowing her name before this conversation, Rogers’s demeanor changes. He becomes irritated and protective on behalf of this young woman who has been working for Weaver. 
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"Is that all this girl is to you and Belfrey? A pawn? Then why don’t we split up, since one of us actually wants to help her?”
As far as he knows, he has very few reasons to have concerns for her. No reason why she should be so important compared to every other person on the street, every other “disturbed” (in Belfrey’s words) runaway, especially compared to his current priority of finding Eloise Gardner. 
Still, without more than her first name and the fact that she’s being treated like a bargaining chip, Rogers’s latent parental feelings emerge. What he means by “split up” is a bit vague, but it’s clear he intends to find Tilly and at the very least find out what information she may have on Belfrey that has her so concerned. While getting this information does also help his current goal of getting as much dirt on Victoria as possible in his combined deal with Roni and Henry, it does seem like he genuinely wants to be sure she’s well and taken care of. 
So, while the chess game is the first time they really see each other and is arguably the start of the Hyperion Heights KnightRook relationship, I just wanted to remind everyone of this moment.
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hptrek314 · 6 years
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My OUAT Season 7B Theories
1) Drizella/Ivy is Regina’s daughter
For one, the girl looks JUST LIKE HER. Like dang, right down to the side braid in flashbacks/short dark hair and fire red lipstick with that devilish smirk. She literally parallels Regina in every way. She despises her “mother” Rapunzel/Victoria enough to seek out magic to get away from her just like how Regina was with Cora. Rapunzel/Victoria resents her and prefers Anastasia for some unknown reason the writers haven’t explained yet. Victoria has yet to show any sign of magical abilities, whereas Drizella is just as powerful as Regina despite having hardly any training, so she ought to come from a powerful magical family. Also the show keeps dropping hints, like Rumple referring to Drizella as “Princess” and Rapunzel not embracing Drizella when she returned home in 7x09. 7x10 was the biggest indicator for me when Victoria used “blood magic” to turn Drizella to stone. Eight years later when Gothel turned her back human Regina was shocked beyond belief and even said “That’s impossible! Blood magic can’t be reversed”, thus proving Bictoria likely didn’t use blood magic! Also later in the episode during the battle Regina asked Drizella if she was still having “mommy issues”. I’m not sure why nobody’s talking about this but the odds are stacking up in favor of this mother/daughter connection. My questions are: How is she hers? Did Victoria kidnap her? Victoria must know, that’s why she hates her, so why did she raise her? Does Drizella know? Does Rumple know? Is she possibly Wish!Regina/Robin’s child? If she’s Robin’s daughter, does that make her and Robin Jr sisters AND 1st cousins? How is this going to play into this already extremely complex season? I NEEED to know!
2) The White Elephant Sent Hook on a Wild Goose Chase
So, at the last minute, Hook gave Cinderella the elephant that would ensure Hook had his daughter Alice as his daughter under the new curse. In HH, Hook believes his daughter to be Eloise Gardner, and has a journal of hers with the symbol of the Coven of Eight in it. WHAT IF in the Land Without Magic, Eloise Gardner is Robyn’s alias. That would explain why she knew the Coven of Eight symbol, because she heard her mom and aunt talking about it in 7x10. This would mean he thinks Kelly/Zelena is his ex, which would be completely hilarious. Hook can’t find her yet because something happened when Robyn worked for Regina that made her decide to leave, which caused Zelena and Hook to split, Zelena moving to San Francisco and Hook becoming a cop to try and find Robin/Eloise. He remembers playing chess with her because Robyn and Alice likely played together, and under the curse he’s befriended Alice because she reminds him of his daughter *wink wink*.
3) My Coven of Eight Theory
Here’s who I think will be in the Coven of Eight:
1) Gothel (confirmed, also I’m 80% sure she’s Mother Willow in Pocahontas because she’s referred to as mother AND the witch in Brave)
2) Anastasia OR Drizella (If Drizella takes back her powers, and she’s a badass from a line of powerful witches (see Theory 1), so I expect nothing less)
3) Regina
4) Zelena
5) Robyn (daughter of Zelena AND a hella good archer, definitely)
6) Alice (daughter of Gothel, again from a powerful line of witches)
7) Tiana OR Cinderella (I’m hoping for Tiana because of all the magic in Princess and the Frog, maybe we’d see more Louisiana bayou culture and some of the cool magical medicinal practices, also Tiana’s a badass whereas Cinderella’s a whiny pansyass that annoys me to no end)
8) Tiger Lily/Pocahontas (Slightly OOC, but after that brief cameo in 7x10 I could easily see Native American magic being brought in to the story, that’d be really cool!)
Here’s who I think WAS in the Coven of Eight:
1) Cora
2) Ursula
3) Maleficent
4) Snow Queen
5) Gothel
6) Cruella DeVil
7) Lady Tremaine?
8) Evil Queen? (Could he Wish!Timeline, or honestly it wouldn’t be a stretch to say Regina was in it but isn’t telling, it’d finally explain why Ursula, Maleficent and Cruella all equally hated her, she may have been the reason the Coven was destroyed in the beginning, especially if it’s when she was creating the Dark Curse and was looking for help)
I will say I feel like it’s passing on the baton from the old, classic female villains to the newer ones, which I’m pretty hype about.
4) Robyn and Alice
This isn’t a theory, just a short note to say I personally love this pairing for all of the two scenes we’ve seen of Robyn. I appreciated the genuineness of how Robyn felt uncomfortable and awkward when her mom was gossiping with her aunt Regina in front of her about how she was experiencing “young love”, and really felt Robyn’s awkwardness accurately portrayed the love Robyn has for Alice. Robyn’s the character that would do anything for Alice, and the love and happiness they had for one another in that one scene they had together had me gushing so hard my fairytale/history obsessed gay heart could hardly take it, and I’m looking forward to seeing where this couple ends up!
Overall though, I really like this season and wish people would give it a chance. Yes, it’s EXTREMELY confusing, the time jumps and lack of ageing is driving me insane, and I think Cinderella’s the most whiny/stereotypical damsel in distress/non-badass woman in the entire 7 seasons of the series and makes me cringe because she doesn’t fit the epic feminist themes of the show. That being said, the rest of this season has been phenomenal. Regina and Rumple are fire, I’ve never been so excited for two characters. I was never really a Hook fan until now, and I really think they’ve made his character more likable. I like how with the new realm, ANY character can be brought back and able to cross any racial/cultural/gender/age lines. Suddenly daring thieves like Robin Hood can be a badass girl who happens to like other badass girls, or POC are able to be represented through stereotypical white fairy tale figures. This show likely won’t last till season 8, and it’s really a shame, because I think it’s really doing a great job of bringing in social commentary, and I look forward to seeing where the writers decide to go next!
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efnewsservice · 6 years
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7.07 Eloise Gardener Press Release
ROGERS MAKES A SHOCKING DISCOVERY IN THE CASE OF ELOISE GARDENER, AND HOOK IS FACED WITH A LIFE ALTERING DECISION FOLLOWING AN ENCOUNTER WITH RAPUNZEL, ON ABC’S ‘ONCE UPON A TIME’
“Eloise Gardener” – In pursuit of revenge, Hook seeks a dark and powerful magic, but an encounter with Rapunzel could alter his fate forever. Meanwhile, in Hyperion Heights, Ivy’s plot to take down Victoria intensifies and has unexpected consequences for Jacinda and Lucy. Rogers enlists Henry and Tilly’s help in his ongoing quest to find the missing Eloise Gardner, but what he discovers isn’t what meets the eye, on “Once Upon a Time,” FRIDAY, NOV. 17 (8:00–9:00 p.m. EST), on The ABC Television Network.
“Once Upon a Time” stars Lana Parrilla as Regina/Roni, Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiltskin/Weaver, Colin O’Donoghue as Hook/Rogers, Andrew J. West as Henry Mills, Gabrielle Anwar as Lady Tremaine/Victoria Belfrey, Dania Ramirez as Cinderella/Jacinda and Alison Fernandez as Lucy.
Guest starring in this episode are Christopher Gauthier as Smee, Adelaide Kane as Drizelle/Ivy, Rose Reynolds as Alice/Tilly, Emma booth as The Witch and Meegan Warner as Rapunzel.
“Eloise Gardener” was written by David H. Goodman & Brigitte Hales and directed by Alex Kalymnios.
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killian-whump · 6 years
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Promo Stills from episode 7x07 “Eloise Gardner”
It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten any promo stills that merited a post on this blog, but finally we have something! It seems our peanut’s going to be taking a perilous climb up Rapunzel’s tower... and finding himself in need of drawing his sword once he reaches the top! We also have some BTS shots of him looking cute-as-could-be through the tower window and standing with his hands behind his back. Could they be tied there?? Okay, probably not, but we can hope.
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Here are my likes and dislikes about 7x05:
Likes
Tiana/Sabine is such a fun and warm character. Mekia brings an infectious enthusiasm to the role, and I just love her. I’m really excited to see more of her, and am glad they made her a regular. 
I’m kind of amused at how both Rogers and Roni are both overstepping their kids’ boundaries. Also, Roni’s line about Rogers needing hobbies was great, as was his reaction. I really enjoy this dynamic. 
That final bit of the episode was so much fun. Roni found a picture of her and smol Henry! Ivy is awake! Twist upon twist!
Facilier was interesting and charismatic. He felt delightfully evil. Also the frog twist was neat and cute. 
Dislikes
I honestly think Lucy is terribly written. She endless optimism and hopefulness is annoying. She doesn’t feel as well rounded as young Henry. Her lines also don’t feel like they were written for a ten-year-old. She comes across as unnaturally mature and wise, and that’s offputting.
I want them to do more with Jacinda outside of being cynical and stressed. Which, admittedly, makes sense based on her financial standing and custody issues, but doesn’t make for the most compelling television. I kind of want to see her have some fun and some not job-related adventures with Sabine. Can they have a girls’ night where they crack open a cheap bottle of wine and watch movies and just allow her to relax for five minutes? Or can we find out more about her interests outside of Lucy and her job?
Victoria Belfrey is still very flat to me. She’s being overshadowed as a character by Ivy. 
Questions
So did Rogers just randomly help Jacinda find the food truck? Is he a partial investor now? How did this even come about? Did Jacinda find him on the street? I get that he’s pals with Henry, but did he and Jacinda have any real interaction outside of the first episode? Does he just really like food trucks?
Part of me wonders if Rogers is cursed to find Eloise Gardner because she’s the witch, and his quest might help free her in some way, allowing her to do whatever evil things she wants. Sort of like a failsafe?
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penguin-in-a-box · 6 years
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Thoughts on OUAT 7x05
UMMM, WOW.
-This episode was really something. It’s not my favorite, but it answered and raised sooo many questions. I feel like a bit of my minor disappointment stems from the promo/lack of sneak peaks. I was expecting more of the Regina/Henry stuff but it turns out they just showed us the last scene of the episode. Well, not quite last.
-IDK How to talk about this one honestly last time I did chronologically but I am in so much shock.
-Okay so development from last time, I’m team Alice is Hook’s daughter’s girlfriend. Especially since, based on Hook’s description of their chess pieces, we know that Alice is playing with the color Hook would normally use and Hook is playing the role of his daughter. So I’m theorizing that Alice and Hook will have a sort of father-daughter relationship but she is not his daughter.
-One thing that sorta has been bothering me about this season is that we’re abandoning characters for whole episodes. Which sorta makes it choppy and a little more frustrating to watch. Season one had this sort of linear structure and everything built on each other. There were character-centric episodes but it still all meshed together to create one story. Here we have the “Hook and Emma Episode,” the “Bell and Rumple Episode.” the “Tiana Episode,” and they all weave together a bit but not enough to be completely satisfying. One and three are currently the only episodes that are really successful at this. I’m thinking the next episode should be more back to that so I’m excited.
-Oddly enough the thing that got me about the Henry/Ivy thing is that it was just talked about and not shown. Roni shuts it down before it really amounts to much. They tell us to be worried about Ivy and Henry but they didn’t show us why. Also the scene at the end, while awesome and possibly meaning Drizella could have cast the curse (!!!!!), sorta tarnished the scenes in the previous episode. Did Henry really touch her or is this just all part of the act?
- I WAS QUEERBATED BY FROGS Y’ALL. There were several times when Marius (and I’m cosssseettttT) was talking about the frog that I didn’t think it was a girl. And then he was all like “so about my lady friend” and I hit my pillow like “IT’S GAY OH MY GOD ITS GAY” and then he turned into a frog and I feel cheated lol.
-There wasn’t enough Henry in this episode. I really expected him to show up at any point freaking out about JACINDA BEING INVOLVED IN A FIRE. Like Don’t you think that would make him nervous/go to check and make sure she’s okay/FINALLY ASK HER OUT BECAUSE YOU COULD HAVE LOST HER THE SAME WAY?? But no. Did they even interact in this episode?
-I want to eat Sabine’s pastries. 
-I have no idea what’s going on with the whole Eloise Gardner thing and the chick in the tower but I do think since her last name is Gardner she is Rapunzel. I mean she’s named after cabbage. 
-How can the king raise taxes on Tiana’s kingdom. I just didn’t understand that.
-I think that’s all I have to say? There are just too many plot threads and whoever wrote today’s episode just couldn’t handle it. I’m excited for next week tho.
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queensknight87 · 6 years
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Once Upon A Time ‘Eloise Gardner’ Episode Stills [x]
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I've been following the Hyperion Heights timeline and there are surprisingly a lot of clues to help with that. I know that the curse breaks when young Henry graduates high school. And I'm telling you the only way it works is if young Henry graduated early in January. Which is possible. I have details and notes on the timeline, and if you want to see them I'll add them in, but for now I'll keep this explanation as short and simple as possible.
The typical school year last from August to June. Adam Horowitz confirmed in an interview that the present day Hyperion Heights events take place in 2017. Young Henry's senior year would've been the 2017-18 school year. "Beauty", the Halloween episode takes place on Oct. 31, 2017. The first three episodes take place a week before Halloween. By "Eloise Gardner" it's mid November. Skip ahead to "Breadcrumbs." Jacinda has a gingerbread house kit from Nick. Gingerbread kits are usually sold around the holidays. Were in December. Possibly around Christmas. Everything that happens after that happens pretty close together. Henry showing Jacinda the blood test results. Zelena leaving with Chad for San Francisco. Drew being arrested for breaking into Nick's loft. Gothel entering her endgame. By the time Henry wakes up, the citizens of Hyperion Heights have most likely rung in the new year.
Young Henry had to have had an early graduation. Which, again, is possible. His senior year only lasting from August to January. The events of present day Hyperion Heights take place from October to January.
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peacehopeandrats · 4 years
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Forgery - Chapter 9
Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alice | Tilly & Robin | Margot, Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold<br />Characters: Dr. Facilier | Baron Samdi, Hansel | Jack | Nick Branson, Original Characters, Rumplestiltskin | Weaver, Wishverse Captain Hook | Detective Rogers, Alice | Tilly, Regina Mills | Roni, Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time), Robin | Margot, Drizella Tremaine | Ivy Belfrey, Cinderella | Jacinda Vidrio
Additional Tags: Angst, Crime, season 7, New Enchanted Forest, Hyperion Heights (Once Upon a Time), Wishverse (Once Upon a Time)
Series: Part 2 of Once Upon a Crime
Summary: This series is going to cover Season 7 as various characters wake up. Since it focuses on the crimes rather than the episodes, you won't get an entire episode's telling in one work.
Timing:We are starting out in the past, but will end up with everything from where we stopped in the Eloise Gardner episode up to Belfry's arrest.
Mature content is Rumbelle-centric comes along in chapter 8 and is skipable, if that's not your thing.
Chapter 9
Seattle was an endless pit, Gothel thought as it flashed by outside of her window. Tall, dark buildings covered the land no matter where they went, creating a chill of death in her spine that refused to go away. The humans’ massive constructions were everywhere, pressing nature, tramping it down, forcing it to do their will. Once she had believed they were different, but she understood them now. They feared whatever they couldn’t understand and these fools couldn’t even understand the magic in the conversion of seeds to plants, or the magic in the relationship between those plants and the air they breathed.
Block after block of concrete, brick, and glass pressed at her, one thing stacked on top of another. It blocked the sky and covered the ground, some form of human creation set in place beside another until even the heartiest of plants was fighting to find a way to be released. Some were lucky enough to press at the hard, gray surfaces until they broke through, stretching eagerly up to the sky in the hope of finding something clean in this miserable place. The plants remembered how it used to be, it was in their very being to fight against the humans, just as it was in hers.
Harsh lights flashed overhead, drawing attention to the emptiness of the void the humans had created. They claimed to live here, but there was no real life here, only the repetition of habits and patterns produced ages before by ancestors who had done just what this generation was doing now. The difference was that the first time magic was destroyed in one night, now the battle was raging to keep it from returning and the humans living here had no idea of what they were facing.
Read more on AO3
[Chapter 1]  [Chapter 2]  [Chapter 3]  [Chapter 4]  [Chapter 5]  [Chapter 6]  [Chapter 7]  [Chapter 8]
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jarienn972 · 5 years
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Bloodline
It’s finally time to share the first of my two stories for @ouatwinterwhump! I’m getting this posted a bit later than I’d planned today, but due to a lot of real world angst that my family and I suffered through over the past few weeks. I got way behind on everything.  This came together over the past week and a half and I have to give huge thanks to @the-whumpy-fangirl for being a huge help as my beta reader on such short notice!
For this story, I did a bit of a re-write of portions of episode 7-19, Flower Child as there was so much wasted opportunity for good whump there!  Anyone not interested in the S7 characters will probably want to wait for my second story later this month, but for everyone else, get ready for a little bit of Detective Rogers in peril. Note: Gothel is the featured villain here so fair warning as there are some vague mentions of her history with Rogers.  Rated T and up for violent situations.
Also on FF.net and AO3
So little had made sense for weeks now in the Heights and Detective Rogers’ inquisitive mind was in overdrive.  Every time he thought he’d guessed the next move correctly, he’d found himself face to face with his often condescending partner who was all-too-happy to remind him of his failures.  It wasn’t as though Weaver was giving him any answers either, just more cryptic questions and general annoyance. Granted, a fair portion of his frustration was his own damned fault.  Weaver had warned him not to pursue his search for Eloise Gardner, but obsession had gripped him, forcing him to investigate every clue to hunt her down - although they’d likely never know exactly how or why Victoria Belfrey had imprisoned her in the tower.  He’d managed to uncover bits and pieces of a story about how Eloise was evil and needed to be kept locked away from humanity, but he hadn’t really believed any of it.  Not until bodies started turning up all over the Heights - Belfrey’s included.
Maybe he should have listened to Weaver’s advice, but he just couldn’t help himself. He’d been so driven to find the girl who had haunted his memory for years, only to discover that maybe she wasn’t really the person he’d imagined her to be.  Maybe if he’d heeded his partner’s warning, he wouldn’t be in his current predicament, not that it would matter for much longer. He’d be able to hang on a little while…
Maybe, just maybe, someone would come searching for him or maybe Tilly would spring back to her senses?
But the reality was - who would be looking for him?
One hour earlier
She was mad.  Had to be.  How else could he explain it?
Maybe he was mad.  How had he allowed this woman to gain so much power over him?
He felt manipulated. Used.  Hell, part of him felt downright violated, but yet he was still inexplicably drawn to her.
Weaver had warned him that she was a powerful witch, but he honestly hadn’t believed in witchcraft - at least until now as the realization struck that she had pulled him right into her coven’s waiting trap.  He’d been so gullible, but it also struck him as odd that he had no idea why she’d sought to ensnare him.  All he had wanted to do was help Tilly, and then - there she was - Eloise Gardner and her coven of witches hidden behind dark, heavy, hooded cloaks.  He and Tilly had wandered straight into the witch’s wicked web and despite knowing that they were both in grave danger, a voice in the back of his head kept telling him to protect Tilly.
“Please, don’t hurt her,” he’d pleaded with the witches as one of them grabbed Tilly from behind, clamping a hand over her mouth as they led her away from him, disappeared down what must have been a staircase.  He was at the wrong angle to be certain, even as he strained against his captor, struggling to get a better view.  “Tilly’s an innocent here...please, don’t harm her…”
Eloise approached him, drawing close as her minions restrained him.  He continued to struggle, trying to free himself from their grasp but despite their diminutive appearance, the hooded figures were far stronger than he expected. The witch pressed her body uncomfortably close to him, an air of triumph in her icy gaze.  His own eyes clung to defiance, even as her hand raised up to meet his face, fingertips lightly tracing the shape of his jaw while she stared at him with a sickeningly sweet smile plastered on her lips - the way he would imagine a predator admiring its prey.
“You’ve got this all wrong, Captain,” she insisted, never breaking her evil grin as she spoke. “Tilly isn’t the one I intend to hurt.  I need her.  You, on the other hand, are far more expendable.”
He had no idea what she was plotting or why she’d called him Captain - and she wasn’t the first to do that either.  All of his senses were screaming at him.  There was no doubt he was in way over his head, but no matter how much he struggled, there was no breaking free.
“What do you want from us?” Rogers demanded.  Hell, if he was going to die here, he at least wanted to know why.
“Oh, you’ll prove useful to me yet again.  You’re going to help bring my creation to life,” Eloise purred cryptically as she pulled her hand away from his face. “But first, I need you to stop being so uncooperative…”  Her right hand unfurled once again before his eyes, this time, revealing a clump of what appeared to be sparkling pink dust resting in the curve of her palm.  With one quick puff of her breath, the colorful particles were swirling around him and somewhere within that cloud, Rogers lost his will to resist, his body dropping limp into the arms of his captors.
**********
As his senses gradually returned, Rogers immediately knew something wasn’t right, but he didn’t know yet just how precarious the situation actually was.  His head throbbed and his recollection of the events that got him here was a tad cloudy - a sensation he’d experienced far too many times when he’d lost control of his indulgences. Only this was no mere hangover.
His eyelids parted slowly, adjusting to the dim light of the surroundings, seemingly illuminated solely by flickering flames.  Ruddy hued rocks comprised both the floor and the walls of what must have been some sort of a cave but as his sight became clearer, he discovered that this cavern held far more sinister secrets than he could have imagined.  He’d also come to the realization that he was suspended in the center of said cavern, his upper body bound tightly with vines.  Vines? It certainly wasn’t rope that secured him and as he tried to wiggle himself out of his bindings, he learned - rather painfully - that the vines were covered in thorns. Dozens of thorns, sharp as needles, jabbed into his bare skin with even the slightest movement on his part. He’d clearly been impaled a few times already as he could feel the tickle from the little rivulets of blood making a path down his leg to drip off of his big toe.
What he couldn’t tell from his vantage point was that his nearly nude body hung directly above an intricate design carved into the stone below - one the same shape as the coven’s symbol he’d been seeing all over Hyperion Heights.  Surrounding him were the dark, caped figures, each standing at one of the eight points of the symbol softly chanting some unknown incantation.  One of those hooded beings broke from the circle to canter towards him, apparently having realized he’d regained consciousness. The figure raised her head as she neared, enough for him to recognize her face as his gaze locked with that of Eloise Gardner once again.
The expression on her face confused him falling somewhere between satisfaction and sublimation. If this was indeed the same girl he’d tasked himself to locate so many years ago, what had happened to her that led her down this path? To have become involved with such a devilishly evil cult that had obviously stripped her of the innocence he’d remembered?  Well, at least the innocence he thought he’d remembered… Had she been so offended by his failure to protect her as a child that she’d spent all of these years planning ways to make him pay for that failure?  Even after he’d rescued her from Belfrey’s prison?  Hadn’t getting shot and spending the better part of a decade searching in vain been penance enough?
“Captain…” Eloise purred into his ear, her lips so close to his skin that he could feel the warmth of her breath, sending his body into an involuntary, repulsed shudder. “Just what is going on inside that pretty head of yours?”
“Why are you doing this?” was the question that crossed his lips, although there were so many others demanding to be asked as well. “I tried… I tried to help you… I freed you…” he stammered, his mind conflicted by both a desire to fight his thorny restraints and a total lack of willpower to do so.
“Oh, Captain,” she said through that same salacious grin, “we’ve such a torrid history… Where would I even begin?”
“History?” He didn’t understand how their few interactions could be construed as history.  “Eloise, we barely know anything about each other aside from the fact that I spent years searching for you…and I did find you.  Why this?”
“It’s almost a pity that your memory didn’t return like some of the others, but maybe it’s for the better…” She stepped around to his back, her right hand trailing along the skin just above the waistband of his boxer briefs as she leaned in to address his left ear.  “How about I start by re-introducing myself?  My name is Mother Gothel, not Eloise, and we do indeed have some very interesting history.  It might even have been so much more… I could have helped you seal your revenge against Rumplestiltskin while we pillaged and plundered the realms, but no.  You surprised me.  You chose the brat over me…”
“Brat? What - Tilly?” His stuttered words barely made sense in his own head, but they seemed to increase her ire.
“If that’s what you want to call her,” she scoffed. “You gave her a different name back then, but nonetheless, it won’t matter for much longer.”
“You haven’t harmed her, have you?” he asked meekly, his voice cracking audibly at the thought as his eyes grew wide with fearful anticipation.
“No, I haven’t harmed Tilly.  As I said before, she isn’t the one I plan to harm.  I need her magic to help initiate my spell…”  She paused her statement as she ambled around to face him once again, the iciness of her stare prickling every hair on the back of his neck. “But I need something else from you first…” Her fingertips made contact with his thigh, the skin searing beneath her touch as he fought back a swell of nausea. If this was what she wanted, he wasn’t interested, but as her right hand slithered up toward his hip, she raised her left hand in front of her chest, making certain that he would witness her next move.  Out of thin air, what might only have been described as a giant thorn materialized from her palm.  It was at least the length of her forearm and his terrified eyes instantly focused on its razor sharp point - even more so as she ghosted that needle-like point across his chest, drawing tiny droplets of blood as she passed it through the course, dark hair almost indecently.
“Eloise…” His voice came out as a whimper as he tried his best to shrink away from her, but the brambles encircling him only seemed to squeeze tighter. “I can still help you…” The cop in him was still trying to reason with her, even if his efforts might be deemed futile.
“Yes, my dear Captain, you most certainly can help me,” she assured him as that devilish grin crossed her features yet again.  “I absolutely require your assistance to activate a portion of my spell. More specifically, I need your blood.” She refused to give him even a moment to process her statement before thrusting the pointed end of her oversized thorn into his abdomen, angling it upward, beneath his rib cage and into his vital organs, yet stopping short of his heart.  She drew her arm backward, retracing the blood stained thorn so that she could admire her handiwork for a split-second before repeating the stabbing motion twice more.
The coppery scent of his own blood filled his nostrils as his mind and body were both overwhelmed by the shock of the assault.  Blood mixed with his saliva as he coughed up a bubble that he couldn’t swallow back down.  Sanguine trails flowed from his torso to form a small puddle on the carved rocky ground below as his instinct to fight for his life finally kicked in and he gathered his remaining strength to try to free his arms so he could put pressure on the seeping wounds.
“Struggle all you want,” she taunted him as she dropped the bloody thorn to the ground as she cupped his jaw with both of her hands.  “My vines will only grow tighter, driving those thorns deeper into your flesh.  Since we’re going to be here for a while as your body is slowly drained of its blood, you may wish to spare yourself further anguish.  I need your heart to keep pumping as long as possible to keep that blood fresh and potent until the entire medallion beneath you is filled.  Then, I won’t need you anymore…”
His body shook from a combination of fear and pain-driven convulsions as his blood flowed from the trio of punctures in his gut, but even with the agony she’d already inflicted upon him, the witch wasn’t done with him quite yet.  New vines began to sprout from those encasing his upper body, spiraling lower to wrap the rest of his torso and both of his legs with the constricting brambles.  Every nerve ending in his body felt assaulted as dozens of newly formed thorns tore into his skin, drawing more blood.  Rogers couldn’t even remember if he’d screamed but a silent prayer kept reciting within his head that maybe someone would find him.  And that blissful unconsciousness would befall him soon…
**********
Rogers didn’t know what stirred him back to consciousness but the immediate wash of pain over his entire being reminded him that he was still alive.  The dead didn’t experience pain, did they?  He assumed he’d learn that answer soon  enough - as soon as his lifeblood drained from him, his heart would inevitably cease and his lungs would no longer need to draw breath.  He didn’t have the energy within him to fight against the tightening vines, still feeling their intrusions across his arms, chest and back, but scarcely able to feel his legs anymore.  He wanted to just go numb, to return to the peaceful, pain-free oblivion, but his mind apparently wanted him to be awake to bear witness to his own torture.
“I’m surprised to see you awake,” a voice rang out from his right. Or was it from the left? Clearly his head wasn’t thinking straight, the blood loss leaving him disoriented. “Perhaps you’re a tad more resilient than I’d thought…” The voice continued in a sickeningly sweet cadence that made him want to retch even before he sensed the warmth of fingers brushing against his blood-soaked thigh. “You still have so much more to give…” He wished he could pull his leg away as the sensation of fingernails drawing lazy circles through the dampness only increased his nausea.
“What do you want?” He knew he’d asked the question before, but in his weakened state, he didn’t remember the answer - certainly not the answer she was about to give.
“Oh, Captain, this goes back so far…,” she mused.  “Years ago, we met in a far away land, high in a tower where I needed you to provide the one thing that would allow me freedom from that prison - a new bloodline.  You were so, how should I say this? Eager? So willing to provide me what I needed, but then, you betrayed me…”
Tower? Betrayal? Her words were conjuring images that bombarded his psyche, but were they memories or hallucinations?  He didn’t know if he could trust his own brain right now.
“Eloise…”
“Not Eloise - Gothel,” she reminded him, her tone more annoyed than playful this time. “You really should try to remember me.” Her hand instantly snapped from caressing his thigh to clutching his throat, her thumb and forefinger pushing his head upward to meet her gaze.  “I want you to look at me while you hang there dying.  I want you to regret ever choosing that brat instead of me!”  She stabbed a manicured index finger towards one of the cloaked figures as he recognized Tilly’s profile beneath the hood.
“Tilly…” he whispered, not even certain if his voice was loud enough for her to hear.  
“She can’t hear you.  She’s caught in a trance that I placed upon her.  She’ll keep mindlessly repeating that incantation over and over until your blood fills the rest of the medallion here.  Then, as soon as she steps into the center, the mix of bloodlines will enact my spell and bring about the return of this land to its rightful ruler - Nature.”
“Why Tilly? If we have history, that’s between us,” he argued weakly, energy waning quickly, but still possessing a flicker of determination to protect his young friend from this madwoman. “She has nothing to do with this…”
“Oh, but you’re wrong there, Captain,” she laughed. “Tilly - or Alice, as you used to call her - has everything to do with this.  She’s our daughter - the blend of our bloodlines - possessing some of your spunk and some of my magic.  I need to draw that magic from her and it just so happens that her father’s blood is the perfect conduit to do so.”
“Wait - daughter?  Tilly… Alice… she’s my daughter?” he stammered, trembling as his already pain-wracked brain overloaded. “How can she be my daughter?  I’m not old enough…”
That statement brought an amused cackle from his captor. “Looks can be so deceiving, Captain, but then curses can certainly play such tricks with your mind… You really don’t look a day over two hundred.”
Images came to him once again in vivid flashes as his barely lucid mind struggled to make sense of them without any context.  A pirate ship.  A tall, isolated tower.  A small, blonde haired child.  Eloise, yet not Eloise…
A hook.
His sullen eyes drew downward, seeking out the prosthetic hand attached to the wrist of his stumped arm which suddenly didn’t feel right to him.  The weight, the fit - all wrong.
He’d lost that hand in a bad car accident, hadn’t he? He questioned his own recollection, no longer sure if anything he knew about himself was real. He was hanging here, slowly bleeding to death at the hand of a woman he’d thought he’d rescued and yet he felt as though he was right on the cusp of an epiphany.
His eyes squeezed shut as his body convulsed involuntarily.  Why hadn’t he told Weaver what he was doing? The only other person who knew he was here was Tilly and she was lost to some hypnotic trance. He didn’t dare think what this witch would do to her once she’d served her purpose.  He fought through the impending darkness to take in Tilly’s features for what he feared would be the last time.  Could she really be his daughter? He’d likely never know now as a single tear rolled across his cheekbone, its saline trail finding its way to the corner of his mouth just as his lips parted.
One single word rolled off his tongue as his body fell limp against the imposing vines.
Starfish.
His voice was scarcely a whisper yet that single utterance reverberated throughout the cavern, reaching the single pair of ears it was intended for.  It echoed into Tilly’s ear as a plea and her eyelids flew open, the chanting instantly ceased.  Her hands raised to her head, tossing the hood off of her blonde locks as she lifted her chin.
She’d only been vaguely aware of her surroundings, but now, her senses were overwhelmed.  The voices of the other hooded figures were all she could hear and she just wanted to drown them out.  She tried to focus on something else - the crackle of the flames from the candles and torches positioned around the circle.  Focus, Tilly, focus, she told herself.  She concentrated on those flames, inhaling the scent of the burning wood, but she could smell something else too.  Something faintly metallic...bloody…
Only then did she realize that there was another person in the center of the ring of caped figures - a person whose body was nearly obscured amongst a tangle of thorny vines.  There was a pale, dark-haired man bound by those vines and while she couldn’t make out the majority of his form, she could see that his legs were riddled with crimson trails and there was a pool of dark red liquid beneath his feet.  And she could see just enough of his face to recognize that man suspended lifeless before her: the man she’d known as Detective Rogers. But she also felt an awakening within her muddled mind which reminded her that she’d known him far longer - and by a different name.
“Papa?”
The moment she uttered that single word, the rock walls of the cavern began to shake as if from the rumbling of an earthquake, showering her with pebbles and dust that rained from above.  A newly defiant Tilly shrugged off the heavy dark robe, eyes wide as she frantically searched for the monster.
“Show yourself, Witch!” Tilly hollered, bolstered with newfound bravado.  If he was still among the living, she had to save him.  Had to save her Papa from this monster witch.  It was all up to her and this time, she was determined to listen to the little voices within her head that assured her that she possessed the power to defeat this witch.
“I’m right here, Tilly,” the witch replied as she took a step from behind her nearly lifeless prisoner.
“Let him go, you monster! You’re hurting him and I can’t allow that!” Tilly shouted. “You said that if I helped you, no one would get hurt but you lied!  You always lie!” Both of Tilly’s hands clenched into fists as Gothel continued to stare blankly back at her, entirely devoid of any human emotion.
“It’s entirely too late for that, little girl,” Gothel snapped back confidently. “As soon as his blood fills that medallion on the floor right there, my spell will begin and there’s no one powerful enough to stop it.  Not the Evil Queen nor the Wicked Witch.  Not even the Dark One himself.”
“Then I’ll stop you,” Tilly responded as she stood her ground with equal confidence. “You took my Papa away from me once.  You aren’t going to do it again.”  Her blue eyes reflected a fierce determination as Tilly set her jaw and racked her brain to recall how to harness her magic.
“Please…,” Gothel dismissed her with a haughty wave of her hand. “You aren’t any match for me.  Just get out of my way and do as you’re told…” With a faint flick of her wrist, another new growth of vines sprouted from the cluster binding Rogers and jettisoned toward Tilly.  With only a fraction of a second to react, Tilly threw up her hands defensively in front of her face and instantly, the brambles froze mere inches from her, the thorns separating from the vines and falling harmlessly to the floor while tiny, white four-petal blossoms took their place.  Tilly blinked a few times until the realization sunk in that she’d used magic to defend herself.  She wasn’t mad - well, at least not when it came to the existence of magic.
“Impressive, but you’ve still so much to learn,” the witch continued to taunt her as Tilly attempted to move from the carved coven symbol beneath her feet.  Gothel smirked as she watched the rock beneath Tilly’s feet dissolve into mud that the younger woman sank into it, only to have it harden back into stone around her shoes, entrapping her in her position on the outer ring. “It would be rather rude of you to leave before my big performance - and I’m not done with you yet…”
Unable to step away, Tilly’s eyes flittered wildly between the nearly inundated medallion on the ground before her and the pallid, expressionless face of her dying father whose head was drooped against his chest, body clearly only held upright by the witch’s enchanted vines.  She watched in seemingly slow-motion as a drop of blood fell from his toe and splashed into the sticky, crimson puddle.
“It’s nearly time,” Gothel announced with a giddy chuckle as a tiny evergreen tree pushed its way through the solid rock to emerge in front of one of the remaining cloaked figures.  As the tree grew in stature, the cape worn by the nearest coven member slumped to the floor and the person who’d been beneath it seconds earlier vanished in the blink of an eye. “Six more to go… Then you.”
“No,” Tilly sobbed, cursing herself for ever agreeing to help this monster in the first place, but now, the witch had to be stopped. “No - I won’t allow you to do this!”
“You won’t allow me?” Gothel laughed off Tilly’s cockiness.  Apparently the girl had more of her father’s personality than she’d believed. “Then stop me.”  
The challenge was issued as an insult, but Tilly didn’t take it as such. She was going to prove that she had the strength to defeat this horrid person.
“Stay with me, Papa,” she called out to him, still uncertain if he was alive or dead. “No matter what happens, I love you, Papa…”  Silent promises now made, Tilly squeezed her eyes closed as her outstretched hands began to tremble.  Another low rumble echoed throughout the cavern as flames flickered, billowed by some unseen wind that swirled dust and rubble around the young woman.
“What are you doing?” There was a faint hint of alarm in Gothel’s voice this time as she feared she may have underestimated her daughter.  She’d long known that her child possessed powers, but with no one to cultivate them, she’d doubted Tilly’s ability to harness magic.  But it was Gothel’s discounting of that untamed nature to Tilly’s magic which might prove far more dangerous.
“Love is always stronger than hate,” Tilly stated as she clasped her hands together sending out a blast of powerful energy towards the blood-drenched medallion.  The ground began to shake, mildly at first then growing in intensity as the rock began to crack, fissures zigzagging across the entire coven symbol until they reached the stone that encased Tilly’s feet.  The rock holding her crumbled away, allowing her to hop out of the circle and sever the connection necessary for Gothel’s spell to proceed.  The evergreen tree that had sprouted within the cavern withered away to ashes as the magic sustaining it evaporated.
“You insolent little brat!” the witch shouted, seething with anger. “How dare you?! Now you’ve ruined it!  I should have killed you years ago - both of you!” She took a step forward, hands extended and prepared to unleash some new horror against her beleaguered daughter.  But so blinded by her hatred of her own offspring, she failed to notice that the cracks beneath her feet were widening from the tremors, opening into a chasm that swallowed the witch, plunging her screaming into the void.  Tilly didn’t know what she should feel as the monster disappeared into the earth.  She just stood there frozen until another voice roused her attention.
“Tilly?” she heard the voice call out to her, but was it merely inside her head?  “Tilly?!” came the voice yet again as she blinked her eyes trying to figure out where the familiar voice originated. She recognized it now - Weaver - but she couldn’t reply yet.  Her fragile mind was still processing all that had just transpired.  Everything she’d just made happen… And oh, no - Papa!  She saw the familiar face of Detective Weaver - Rumplestiltskin - emerge from the entry passage, weapon and flashlight extended before him. “Tilly, are you alright?” he asked as he ventured deeper into the subterranean cavern.
Alright? Was she alright? She didn’t even know but there were more important things to attend to… “Yes, I am,” she responded frantically as she hurried toward the center of the room. “But he’s not…” Weaver stopped short of entering the circle as he spied the huge, gaping cracks that transected it.  His focus was drawn to the cluster of vines at the center of the ring where he now spotted his partner hanging motionless and entirely encircled by those same bloody vines which seemed to be withering away as Gothel’s magic faded. Despite the fissures crisscrossing the ground beneath him which had drained away most of the blood, there was still enough visible on the rock for Weaver to know his partner wouldn’t survive long with this amount of blood loss.
“We need to get him down from there somehow,” Weaver stated. “The vines are dying and won’t hold him for long…”
“I know,” she insisted, trying to locate that magical trigger within her one more time.  “I’m trying…”  She’d never been particularly good at concentrating - at least not lately.  She had to try and push all of her jumbled thoughts away to focus on her most important task - rescuing Papa.  As the brambles crumbled, an invisible force caught Rogers, his limp form suspended in mid-air but seemingly with nothing holding him aloft. The unseen hand carried him safely across the fractured floor placing him gently atop a boulder beside Weaver just before the vines completely disintegrated to a pile of dust.
Without the bindings in the way, Weaver could see that his partner’s body was riddled with puncture wounds, some of which were still oozing blood - a positive sign that his heart was still beating.  Satisfied that immediate danger was over, Weaver tucked away his weapon, shining the flashlight’s beam onto his partner’s unconscious form as he felt for a pulse.  “He’s alive. He still has a heartbeat.  I’ll get the paramedics down here...”
A small smile crept across Tilly’s face as her resolve finally broke, but that smile rapidly faded, her eyes welling with tears as yet another realization struck.  His heart. Without another word, she bolted past Weaver and darted out of the cave.
She couldn’t be here. She couldn’t cause him more suffering…
**********
The next few hours were tense ones.  While her father was barely clinging to life, Tilly had vanished, leaving Weaver to be the one holding vigil in the hospital waiting room.  Thankfully, the trip from Gothel’s hideout beneath the old theater to the hospital was a short ride. Weaver had followed the ambulance in his own vehicle with lights and siren blaring to keep up with the paramedics. By the time he reached the Emergency room, Rogers’ blood pressure had dropped to dangerously low levels and his breathing was erratic, but his most life threatening battle was against the uncontrollable bleeding.  Something in his system was preventing his blood from clotting properly - likely Gothel’s work as well.
But as far as the Emergency room personnel were concerned, Detective Rogers had been a victim of the Candy Killer, attacked while investigating the cave beneath the theater. He answered the barrage of questions as best he could, not even attempting to create a plausible explanation for the multitude of puncture wounds from the thorns.  He just told them his partner had multiple stab wounds and didn’t elaborate. There would be no mention of Eloise Gardner in Weaver’s report, even though he had actually found his way to the cavern just as the witch plunged into the chasm, presumably falling to her death although one could never be entirely certain when there was no body left behind as evidence.
After the first hour of waiting, he’d called Roni and Henry to see if either had seen Tilly and filled them in on his partner’s condition.  Neither knew where Tilly might be but both offered to help locate her.  Roni left the bar in Remy’s capable hands as she left a message for her niece, hoping Tilly would seek out Margot’s company and Henry set out to search some of Tilly’s usual haunts.  Only Roni, Kelly and Weaver knew the truth of Tilly and Rogers’ relationship and while they understood her reasons for running, she needed to be aware of what was happening with her father, lest her fragile hold on her sanity be lost.
He wasn’t overly surprised when he heard Roni’s voice in the corridor, asking a nurse where she’d find the Emergency waiting area.  He lifted his chin and nodded a greeting to her as she passed through the doorway, walking quickly across the crowded room to join him on a bench positioned against the far wall, away from prying ears.
“Have you heard anything yet?” Roni asked in a hushed whisper.
Weaver shook his head. “Not yet.”
“Gothel?”
“Hopefully gone, like most of the objects she conjured. She fell into a giant crack that opened up beneath her.”
“Did Tilly do that?” Roni wondered if battling her mother had contributed to the younger woman’s unease.
“Yes,” was Weaver’s unpretentious reply as he slumped back against the wall.  Roni mouthed a wow as she copied his posture, crossing her legs at the ankle.
“Margot thinks she knows where to find her,” she told him. “Henry’s taking a loop around the neighborhood too.  She’ll turn up.”
“She knows she’s Alice,” Weaver stated without preface.  “As soon as I said that his heart was still beating, I saw it in her eyes.  She panicked.”
“She remembered his poisoned heart…” Roni sighed. “That poor girl... She didn’t want to cause him more pain.  She must be devastated…”  Weaver didn’t answer; he already knew she was right.  Getting her memory back, watching her father suffering and then having to destroy her mother just might have short-circuited Tilly’s complicated mind.
But it was Roni who suddenly sat up straight, a quizzical arch to her eyebrow as she contemplated a thought that had leapt into the forefront of her mind.
“Did his heart stop?” she asked, almost a bit too loudly as it drew some unwanted attention from other people in the waiting room.
“What?” He’d heard the question, but wanted her to repeat it.
“Do you know if Rogers’ heart stopped beating at any time?” she inquired once again, this time keeping her voice low since their conversation was about to head in a direction that wouldn’t be easily explained to eavesdroppers.
“I couldn’t hear everything that was said when the paramedics brought him in, but I thought I overheard something about him coding in the ambulance.  Pretty sure that means his heart stopped, but he had a pulse when the ER took over.  What are you getting at?”
“Have you been out of the magic business too long, Rumple?” she asked, using his real name in public for the first time since they’d awakened from Gothel’s curse.  This was definitely Regina talking now, not her barmaid alter ego, Roni. “Gothel placed that poisoned heart curse on him a long time ago and we were never able to find a cure.  The only way to end the curse was death - his heart no longer beating.  Do you think there was a time limit as to how long his heart needed to be stopped before they brought him back?”
Weaver’s lips pursed in thought as he rubbed the hint of stubble sprouting on his chin.  He definitely needed a shave, but whiskers were merely a distraction as he tossed ideas around in his head.  “CPR isn’t exactly commonplace in the Enchanted Forest, nor are machines to shock a heart back into rhythm.  A curse such as that one should die along with its victim…”
“Then it’s possible that the poison died when his heart stopped beating the first time.  There’s no way a curse from our land would have a caveat built in for someone being brought back from essentially being dead.”
“There’s only one way to test that theory though...and Tilly is nowhere to be found,” Weaver reminded her.
“We’ll find Tilly and explain.  If your partner pulls through this, I’m pretty sure he won’t be going anywhere for a few days.  We’ve got some time.”
“There is still the matter of breaking the other curse,” he added.
“One curse at a time, please…”
Two days later
There was that pain again.  Maybe not as intense as before, but definitely still there.  Little pinpricks he could feel everywhere - annoying and even a little bit itchy but they were only the prelude to the dull, somewhat burning ache that radiated through his chest and abdomen. His head was still on the fuzzy side but he remembered someone stabbing him - Eloise.  No, not Eloise - Gothel.  The witch that Tilly had been correct to call a monster.
He struggled to force his eyelids open, his vision assaulted by the bright lights above him.  He remembered being in a dark cavern, completely bound by thorn-covered vines that were constricting him tighter and tighter until he’d blacked out.  Or maybe he’d blacked out from the blood loss…? Maybe both? But it was apparent that he wasn’t in that dank cave any longer.  He blinked a few times to allow his sight to adjust, turning his head slightly to get a look at a stark white wall that contained only a clock and a dry-erase whiteboard that was filled with incomprehensible scribbles.  
He started to become aware of additional sensations as he started putting the pieces together.  He wasn’t hanging from those vines anymore; he was laying down, presumably in a bed.  He could feel the softness of fabric beneath his fingers and thought he sensed something encircling his wrist, although not as painful as the witch’s brambles.  He raised his hand to a height he could see it without moving around too much and learned he’d been correct - some sort of rubber or plastic band was fastened around his wrist and there was some plastic tubing affixed to the back of his hand with tape that was irritating his skin.  An incessant beeping resounded in his ear, mixed in with other faint sounds he’d yet to make sense of, but it was enough for him to figure out his location.  
He was in a hospital - which meant he’d survived the witch’s attack.
And surprisingly, he discovered he wasn’t alone.
“It’s about damn time you woke up.”  He knew the voice instantly, recognition sending an involuntary shudder down his spine.  The demon masquerading as his partner.
“Crocodile?  Come to execute me while I’m vulnerable?” he asked his visitor.
“If I’d wanted to do that, I wouldn’t have waited until you awakened, Captain,” Weaver replied.  “I’m just Detective Weaver now.  I put the rest behind me to honor Belle’s wishes, although being caught up in Gothel’s curse hadn’t really been a part of my plan.  I’m just trying to do my best to help people so that someday, I’ll be able to join her - and that includes trying to help you and your wayward daughter…”
“Tilly - does she know?”
“She does.  It was her magic that defeated Gothel and her coven.  The witch was swallowed up by the earth she revered.  Alice is down the hall in the waiting room with Regina.”
“She’s here?  Alice is here?” Rogers asked, his voice growing agitated.  “But the curse…”
“Relax… She’s not close enough right now to disturb your poisoned heart, but Regina has a plausible theory that might mean you’re cured.”
“There’s no known cure for a poisoned heart,” Rogers scoffed, his eyes dropping with disappointment.
“That’s not necessarily true,” Weaver began. “Facilier was able to cure Henry’s heart with a bit of magic born from Lucy’s true belief and the remnants of Ella’s glass slipper.  While that same magic isn’t available for you, you may still have been cured in a much simpler manner - your death.”
“My death?  My head is muddled enough right now but clearly, I’m still alive - despite many valiant efforts…”
“Technically, you died twice,” Weaver stated. “Your heart stopped beating twice - once in the ambulance on the way here and once on the OR table while they were trying to stitch your insides back together.  From what we were told, you were technically dead for over a minute before they were able to resuscitate you.  Curses aren’t designed to survive death - even mine.  Generally, where we come from, if your heart stops beating, you’re dead.  They don’t try to bring you back.  The curse should have ended the moment your heartbeat ceased.”
“Should have?  That’s an awful stretch… What if you’re wrong?  It’ll only cause both of us more pain…”
“Then it’s a good thing to do it here in the hospital where they can treat you should we be wrong, but what if we’re right?  You can be with your daughter again.”
Rogers had to contemplate the possibility for a moment.  As much as he loathed trusting his long-time enemy, he also had the memories of being Detective Rogers and in this world, he actually trusted Weaver’s word.  He’d also become close with Regina, the reformed Evil Queen, whom he’d now entrust with his life.  What strange company he was keeping…
“What does Alice think?” This was going to affect his daughter as much as it would him so he wanted her to be involved in the decision.
“She’s frightened, naturally, but she’s also very curious.  She believes that Regina might be correct, but there’s only one way to find out…”  Weaver motioned toward the hallway beyond the room’s doorway as he stood up. “Should I go get her?”  Rogers swallowed back the lump in his throat, but nodded an affirmative.  Whatever would happen, he was prepared to face the consequences.
Seconds later, he smiled at the sight of his daughter’s unruly golden locks flashing past his window into the corridor before she bounded through the open door, although she stopped short of approaching her father’s bedside.  He suddenly felt horribly exposed, clad only in the thin gown the hospital had dressed him in, his truncated left arm bare, no hook or prosthetic to hide his deformity.
“Starfish,” he greeted her with her childhood nickname.
“Haven’t heard anyone call me that for a long time, Papa…,” she replied, her cheeks flushing with a mix of anxiety and embarrassment. This wasn’t how he would have wanted her to turn out, but she didn’t care anymore.  She wanted her Papa back more than anything.  “I’ve missed you so much.”
“And I’ve missed you, too, Love,” he insisted as he shifted nervously on the bed.  “There’s only one way for us to know if this curse is really gone…”
“You think…?” she asked timidly, taking one tentative step closer to the bed.  
“Come closer,” he instructed, bracing himself for the onslaught of pain as she made her way across the room at an almost agonizingly slow pace.  He felt a few twinges, but nothing was any worse than the discomfort from the stabbing.  “It’s okay, I’m fine.”  He offered his reassurance with a weak, timid smile.  He extended his hand to her, eyes begging her to grasp it, eager for even that tiny bit of contact.  
Alice squeezed her eyes closed as she reached for his hand, awaiting the burning sensation from the mark emblazoned into her wrist as their fingertips touched for the first time in many years.  Neither knew what would happen, but there was nothing.  No burning.  No aching.  No magic driving them apart - and there was absolutely nothing containing Alice’s ecstatic joy as she nearly threw herself into her papa’s arms to hug him as tightly as she could.
“It worked! Papa, it worked!” she exclaimed gleefully, excited that she could finally embrace him after such a long time - almost so excited that she missed his pained grunt beneath her, turning her head expecting to see his smiling face but instead seeing an uncomfortable grimace and the dampness of tears around his eyes.  “Oh, no…” her mood turned somber in a split-second. “ I spoke too soon…?” She backed away, ready to run, but he held tight to her wrist.
“It’s alright, Starfish.  My heart is fine.  It’s just my other injuries…”
“Oh, Papa, I’m so sorry!  I was so excited, I forgot what that monster did to you!  I hope I didn’t hurt you too much…”
“Nothing that won’t heal,” he chuckled as he gritted through the ache in his chest, drawing his arms in tighter as if trying to hold his guts in.  “I promise, it will all be fine…”  There were more tears flowing now but all were tears of joy.  
“I love you so much, Papa.”
“And I - you, my Starfish.”
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ouatcountdown · 6 years
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Episodes 7 “Eloise Gardener” and 8 “Pretty in Blue” air TONIGHT!
The day has finally arrived! Episodes 7 AND 8 of season 7 air tonight on ABC at 8pm EST.  
Episode descriptions:  In pursuit of revenge, Hook seeks a dark and powerful magic, but an encounter with Rapunzel could alter his fate forever. Meanwhile, in Hyperion Heights, Ivy's plot to take down Victoria intensifies and has unexpected consequences for Jacinda and Lucy. Rogers enlists Henry and Tilly's help in his ongoing quest to find the missing Eloise Gardner, but what he discovers isn't what meets the eye. // In an attempt to prevent a distressed Alice from running away, Henry and Ella follow her into Wonderland. Once there, Henry realizes that Ella has a surprising connection to this strange world. In Hyperion Heights, Jacinda reconnects with an old friend in a last ditch effort to regain custody of Lucy, but her decision to enlist outside help could put a strain on her burgeoning relationship with Henry.
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Happy OUAT Friday!
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