{ enchanted forest }

6. { tallahassee }

Winter remains laying on her bed. Tucked underneath her blankets she truly looked to be sleeping. She may not be aware of it, but there was almost always someone by her side to watch over her.

Doctor Hopper was sitting by the wall on a chair while his dog Pongo has made himself comfortable at the footend of the bed. Henry was also with them, sitting on a chair that he had pulled right against her bed.

He holds his storybook on his lap, his eyes focused on the words on the paper. Archie looks up from his own book, glancing over curiously. "What is it you're reading, Henry?"

"Uh-nothing."

But Archie knows Henry. He also knows when the boy is hiding something. So, the therapist leans over the girl's body to see what he was up to. He arches an eyebrow at seeing the familiar illustrations.

"Why are you reading Winter's story," he asks, sounding kind as always yet also a little confused. The boy starts to blush. He lowers his eyes and huddles the book close to himself. "I-it's nothing."

Archie didn't believe him. "Henry, you can be honest with me." A pregnant pause ensues in which the boy was thinking about how to answer. "I-I thought.. maybe if I go through her story again, I might get a clue as to who might be her True Love.."

And how to wake her, Archie finishes in his head. 

"Could you find anything?"

Henry shakes his head in disappointment. "No. Her story seems to end after she was taken by Rumplestiltskin. The last that is written about her is how she found a new home with him and Belle."

Archie is a little surprised. "But that can not be the true end, can it? How else could she be under a Sleeping Curse?"

"Unless he put her in one," the boy mutters silently. Archie was taken aback by the bitter tone of the boy's voice. He did not sound like himself when he did. "Henry, the Dark One is capable of many evil things, but I don't think he would do this. He looks as distraught about this as we all do."

That was all that Henry needed to explode. "Then why don't Belle and him wake her up? If they are her new home, why can they not break the curse?"

Archie pauses to overthink the question. "I'm.. not sure."

He didn't want to, but Henry's words have sprouted a seed of doubt within him. Could it possibly be true that Rumplestiltskin would not wake her when he had the power to do so. But if that was true, what was his reason?

And if it is not true, then who can wake her?

●

In the Enchanted Forest Aurora approaches the bean stalk, following after Mulan, Emma, Snow White and Captain Hook. He tells them the compass is up the bean stalk. Emma asks why they would not just take a bean to get home, since the giants grew them and they could make portals between realms.

Hook explains that there are no beans left, since they were destroyed in a war against the giants. Emma then asks why no one went up there to continue growing them. The pirate replies that one giant remained, the most evil and the strongest of them all.

The captain elaborates their plan. Once they get the magic compass from the giant, Cora has no way of directing the portal, made from the wardrobe's ashes, to her desired destination. All they were left to do is steal the ashes from Cora and be on their way.

Mulan glares at Hook. "How do we know you're not just using us to get the compass for Cora," she questions. It was evident she did not trust him at all. "Because you four are far safer company. All I need is a ride back, I'll swear allegiance to whomever gets me there first."