Once Upon a Dream:

Page 63: The Map that Leads to Henry, or So They Thought...

*Present day.

Neverland.

"Ready to thank me?" Emma asked, turning to look at Regina, while the group followed the map.

"Actually, yeah..." Regina said when she was just ready to find Henry and have her children together. 

"If you'd listened to me sooner, maybe we'd have found him by now," Emma said, making Regina scoff a bit. 

"I was the first one to suggest using magic, Ms. Swan." Regina corrected her, while they continued to go through the Dark Jungle. The map stopped, when Regina stepped in front, stopping the others. "Wait. He's there. Pan..." Regina said when she looked around them. "I can feel his smugness." She added, when David moved in between Regina and Emma, pulling out his sword.

"Shall we? While we still have the element of surprise on our side?" David asked, walking forward. 

Regina looked back, motioning for Dream to follow her, when Regina went to follow David. Hook followed, closely to Dream, while Emma and Mary Margaret stayed still. 

"Careful. He may look like a boy, but he's a bloody demon." Hook said, making Dream look at him, when he moved to walk next to her. 

"That's comforting..." Dream said, sarcastically, when she turned to look ahead.

"Hey... We can do this, love. You can do this." Hook said to her, making Dream look back at him.

"Never thought you'd be so optimistic, Hook." Dream said, letting out a chuckle, despite not feeling very amused at the moment. 

"I've just learned with this group that they always succeed." Hook said, looking at David and Regina, then back to Mary Margaret and Emma who tried to catch up with them. 

"Yeah, I just hope that we find him. Pan said something that I can't seem to get out of my mind." Dream sighed when she moved to look ahead.

"Aye... What is it?" Hook asked when Dream just let out a worried breath.

"He said that he didn't worry about us finding Henry, but how we find him is his game. Which I don't understand..." Dream confessed, still looking ahead. 

"Well, I can tell you that he likes his games. Don't think too much about his taunts." Hook said, looking at her, when she looked back at him, nodding. 

Meanwhile, Regina looked back at Dream, sighing to herself. She sees the way Hook looks at Dream, and now she is aware of how Dream looks at Hook. Her daughter was not a little girl anymore. Regina sighed to herself, before remembering the day that she met her baby girl.

Twenty years ago.

Storybrooke, Maine.

Regina used some of the last magic that she brought with her from the Enchanted Forest. She used the magic to enchant a red rose that was in her bedroom in a vase from the first day in Storybrooke. But Regina also used some of the magic to make it look like she was pregnant for nine months so that no holes were poked into the town she cursed. Regina was in her kitchen, while the rose was on the kitchen counter. Graham was getting them dinner from Granny's, while Regina was getting her apple turnovers out of the oven. As soon as Regina placed the tray on the stovetop and turned off the oven, she gasped as she saw that the rose was blooming. 

This was her sign that her daughter was coming.

Regina watched as she took off the glass dome. The rose grew larger than any rose in her garden when it finally got to the size that a newborn baby girl could be revealed. The red petals opened up, when Regina smiled, tears welling up in her eyes, seeing her daughter. She was tiny, but Regina picked her up, rushing to grab one of the dish towels to clean her off. 

The red rose caused the little girl to be covered in red liquid, which resembled blood. And there was water on the floor from the glass dome coming off. When the little baby started to cry, the rose went back to a normal size for a fully bloomed flower. Just as Regina started to wipe off her daughter's face, Graham walked in to see what looked like Regina giving birth on her own in the middle of her kitchen. 

"Madam Mayor? I'll call the hospital." Graham said in a panic, sitting the brown bag of food on the kitchen island. Graham immediately rushed outside to his car to his radio, calling Mr. Gold and an ambulance.

But Regina just kept smiling at her baby girl, who was crying. "It's okay, baby... Mommy's here." Regina smiled when she rubbed her thumb over her little baby's cheek. "Dream... Dream, that's a perfect name for you." Regina smiled when she named her daughter, who was her dream come true. 

She felt that the small hole in her heart would be filled now. But nine years later, she would fill her heart again by adopting Henry, after Dream kept wanting a brother. Not a sister. But a baby brother.

After getting cleared from the hospital, Regina had stayed in the little nursery that she made for her daughter. Dream was an easy baby. Regina smiled, looking down as she bottle-fed her daughter, who was wearing a soft blue onesie, which was Regina's favorite color. Dream had a little headband that had a matching bow since the tiny baby had dark brown hair like Regina had. 

"Do you need anything, Madam Mayor, before I leave?" Graham asked, standing at the door to the nursery.

"No... I have everything I need, Graham." Regina smiled, only looking at her daughter, who she thought she would never have.

*Present day.

Neverland.

In a line, David led the way, when they were still following a map to a clearing by a hillside. Emma, Hook, Dream, Regina, and Mary Margaret followed after. 

"No one's here. Maybe your spell was wrong, Regina." Mary Margaret spoke up, while the group walked down a small incline. 

"Yes. Blame me... Again." Regina scoffed, rolling her eyes. "This was your daughter's idea." She continued to say to Mary Margaret.

"Guys, hold on." Dream said, when she stopped, seeing a boy with Henry's jacket on the top of the hilltop. "Is that..." Dream went to ask when the others followed her gaze.

"Henry!" Emma yelled, running towards him, but stopped.

The others stopped with her when it turned out to be Pan in Henry's jacket and scarf. 

"Hello. You must be Emma, the Savior. Gotta admit... Not that impressed." Pan said when the group looked ready to attack the boy. 

"Where is Henry?" Emma asked him in an angry tone. Her "mama-bear" energy was coming out now.

"Dream..." Pan sighed, clicking his tongue in disappointment. "You broke the rules. That's not fair. Bad form..." He continued, while pacing around the hill as the others followed him with their eyes. "I expect more from you, Captain." Pan said, smirking at Hook, who stood close to Dream, who was standing behind her mother.

"Aye. And you'll get it." Hook threatened the boy.

"Give Henry to me." Emma demanded, when Dream worried what Pan had planned for them since they did not follow his game. It had to be bad considering Gold was afraid of him. 

"Sorry. Can't. Don't you know? Cheaters never win." Pan smirked, when Dream sighed, when she saw what she assumed to be the Lost Boys come out of hiding with arrows, spears, and torches. 

The group was surrounded.

~season 3, episode 2: "Lost Girl"~

~1230 words~