Hook's Daughter

Offense

Regina, Mary Margaret, David, Emma, Hook, and myself go to Mary Margaret and David's apartment.
"Zelena's planning on going back," Belle tells us. "Back in time."
"Are you certain?" Regina asks. "No one's ever been able to cast a spell to go back in time."
"Well, clearly, she thinks she can succeed," Belle says. "I mean, brains, courage, a-a resilient heart, those ingredients are in every time travel spell I've found."
"But why go back in time?" asks David. "I mean, we have no idea what she's trying to accomplish."
"I do," Mary Margaret says. "She, she didn't-she didn't want to give up Zelena. She was forced to, by my mother, Princess Eva. She told a secret...just like I did."
"I thought our family were the good guys," Emma says softly.
"Life is too messy for it to ever be that simple," Regina says.
"You're saying, if it hadn't been for Snow's mother, Cora would have kept Zelena?" I ask.
Belle nods, "She would have been tutored by Rumpelstiltskin."
"All if it weren't for this Princess Eva?" Hook asks.
"So that means..."
"Zelena's going back to kill my mother," Mary Margaret says.
"You'll have never been born," says Regina.
"I'm guessing this is where your help ends," Emma says to Regina.
"Now think it through, Ms. Swan," Regina says. "That means you'll have never been born, and neither will Henry."
"And on this different path, Regina," Mary Margaret says. "You may not be, either."
"It's a good thing no one has ever succeeded with this time-travel nonsense," Hook says.
"The baby," David stands up.
"What?" asks Hook.
"That's what's missing," explains David. "That's why none have succeeded. Somehow, some way, our baby is the key. Zelena went to a lot of effort to get close to our unborn child, that's what she's after."
"What is she going to do to..." Mary Margaret begins, David interrupting,
"It doesn't matter," he says. "She's not gonna get it. We're gonna stop her. Since our baby's not born, she's stuck, and we have what we need--time."
"Just not very much of it," Mary Margaret sighs.

Hours later, I got a call from Emma, and went across the hall to their apartment.
"What did you find out?" I ask when I walk in.
"The only way to find out how to stop Zelena is to get our memories back," Emma says. "And to do that we need to break this curse. I already believe this time, so we need Henry to believe. And we figured the storybook might help."
"Okay," I say. "So where is it?"
"We don't know," Regina says. "We asked Belle, but that was a dead end."
"Regina, you said that the last place you saw it was Henry's room," Mary Margaret says.
"Yes, but it's not there," replies Regina. "Swept away by the last curse."
"A book can't just disappear," I say.
"But it can just appear," Mary Margaret says excitedly. "The first curse. It just showed up in my closet when I needed it--or more accurately, when Henry needed it."
"What do you mean?" Emma asks.
"He was going through a rough time. He was realizing he had been given up," Mary Margaret explains. "He didn't feel like he had a real family."
Regina scoffs, "He did."
"That may be, Regina," Mary Margaret says. "but he wasn't feeling that way with you or with anyone. He needed to believe in happy endings again. That's what the book gave him."
"Well, he does need to believe again," Regina says. "In fact, I think we all do."
---
We were searching the apartment for the storybook.
David asks, "Why do women keep their shoeboxes?"
"Because after true love," Mary Margaret jokes, "there is no more powerful magic than footwear. It has to be protected."
"Any sign of the book?" Emma asks David.
"No, I don't think it's here," he replies.
"You don't know that!" Mary Margaret calls out from her closet.
"Maybe it's in this thing," I say, bringing out a large wooden box from the closet.
Emma opens the box and looks inside.
"Some winter coats, some scarves," she says. "The book is not in here."
"Hang on, let me check," Mary Margaret says and looks into the box. She looks inside for a moment, and pulls out the storybook.
"I...don't understand," Emma says.
"Can I see that?" Regina asks, holding out her hand to take the book. Mary Margaret hands it to her. Regina opens the book, "I know there are chapters on Oz in here. I want to know whose heart Zelena crushed to enact this curse. Because if there's something she loved, maybe that's her weakness."
"Did you really not see it in there?" Mary Margaret sits down next to Emma.
"Do you think I'm lying?" Emma stares at the ground.
"No, of course not," Mary Margaret looks at her. "It's just...Emma, what is going on? You have been anxious since we left Granny's."
"Nothing," replies Emma.
"No, it's not nothing," Mary Margaret states. "You yelled at Henry, that's not like you."
"None of this is like me," Emma says. "At least it never used to be."
"What are you talking about?" asks Mary Margaret.
"I am talking about wicked witches and time-traveling holy wars. I'd forgotten what it was like here. I don't want that for Henry."
"So you're taking him back to New York after this is all over, aren't you?" Mary Margaret sighs. "Your father said you're thinking about it."
"Yeah, I am," Emma says.
"And that is why you looked relieved when we couldn't find the book," says Mary Margaret, turning away. "You don't want his memories back."
"If getting his memories back is the only way to break the curse, then that's what we're gonna do. But I don't want it to be any harder on him than it has to be. Our life in New York was really good."
"I'm sure it was," Mary Margaret says. "But it wasn't home."
"It was for us," Emma says.
"Well, that's because you forgot about us," Mary Margaret says with a slightly heated tone. Emma sighs and looks down. "Let's go get Henry."

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