Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 14)

Ch.65 Find their way

As she strolled down the sidewalk to get away from the scene, Brooke could hear Aaron calling for her as she tried to ignore him. But he had caught up with her as he ran in front of her to block her path.

"Brooke, wait" he stopped her "I can explain. I know what it looked like but, I don't have feelings for Nora."

"You keep saying that" Brooke sighed, "But come on, why else would you be trying to impress her?"

She tried to walk away when he once again blocked her path.

"Look," he began in a sigh "There's something no one knows about how I lost Shannon in the first place. Not Nora, not Gabi and Jim, and definitely not Shannon."

He tried to remain calm as he let out a deep sigh before continuing.

"I didn't lose custody of Shannon, the case never made it to court because... I gave her up voluntarily."

"What?" Brooke gasped.

"Paula convinced me that I would lose Shannon completely if I tried to fight her. I should have risked it. But I was scared."

"We all make mistakes, Aaron. It doesn't mean you can't fight back now."

"I just-" he breathed sadly "I don't know what to do. I can't bear Shannon finding out the truth."

"You have to trust that she'll understand. She loves you."

"But I signed away my parental rights" he mumbled, "It's bad, Brooke. Maybe I'm not even cut out to be a parent."

"Don't say that. You're a great father. I've seen how you are with Shannon, I know how much you love her. But that's why you have to tell Nora the truth. She's the lawyer, she'll know what to do next."

"Really?" he murmured, "You're telling me to trust the- the other woman?"

"She seems like a good girl," she assured, "I actually really liked her before I knew who she was. And right now, she's the real mom that Shannon needs."

Hearing that made Aaron's heartbreak, knowing that he desperately wanted to tell her about the curse, but he knew he couldn't, he knew he had to play along.

"Brooke," he breathed, "I know that things are weird between us. But-"

"Aaron, it's all right. Maybe right now is not the right time for us."

Now his heart was breaking even more as she walked past him. And as he watched her leave, he never took his eyes off of her as she disappeared into the night.

(Flashback) Being unable to move from Shawn's magic, Brooke watched as Shawn bent down to pick up a bright red mushroom with little white dots as he held it up to his face.

"Isn't it pretty?" he commented with a smile as he walked up to her "It's so soft... so innocent. Who could guess it could cause so much pain?"

"Why do you want to poison my heart?" Brooke demanded.

"So you and my ex-friend can never share True Love's Kiss."

He then pulled out a small pocket knife as he made a slice into the mushroom.

"I hate to ruin your fungus," Brooke scowled, "But it doesn't look like it's going that way, so you can put the knife down."

"I'm not taking any chances. I'm working on a Dark Curse. I learned a bit from the Evil Queen's mistake. Those pesky little kisses can break curses."

He then squeezed the mushroom as a clear fluid oozed out from the slice as he let it fall onto his knife's blade.

"Makes you wonder," he said while pressing the tip of the knife against Brooke's beating chest "What could happen once my former friend is out of the picture."

"How about we never find out?" Danny suddenly appeared as he used his magic to blast Shawn away from Brooke as he slammed into a giant mushroom.

"Kitty, now!" Danny ordered as Shawn looked up to see that Kitty was standing on top of the giant mushroom with a full-size mirror in front of her.

"Have a nice trip home," she grinned before dropping the mirror down as it fell on top of Shawn.

But instead of crashing onto him, the mirror sucked him in as he disappeared on the spot, leaving on the mirror there. As soon as he was gone, Brooke felt the magic from her fade away as she felt herself being able to move again.

"Brooke," Danny panted in relief as he pulled her into a hug.

Even more relieved that he was okay along with Delilah, Brooke hugged back as she felt a satisfying sensation over her body as she held onto him tightly.

"I didn't think you'd make it back" she breathed when they pulled away while holding onto each other's arm "How were you able to find me?"

"After I found Delilah in the maze-" he began to explain "This started to glow."

He pulled out his key necklace which was, in fact, glowing a bright light. Brooke gave a small gasp which made her realize something as she pulled out her locket necklace and saw that it was glowing as well. Both of them couldn't believe their eyes as they stared down at their necklaces.

"What does this mean?" Brooke gasped.

"Our pendants' must be enchanted like the ones Delilah's parents had. They glow so we can always find each other."

Brooke once again gave another small gasp when she looked back down at the glowing pendants.

"You know what else it means?" she added as she looked up into his eyes "It must have brought us together in the woods, it helped us find each other."

She began to feel her eyes watering with joy as she continued- "It led me back to you. Because it knew I never stopped loving you."

"As did I" he breathed out a smile.

And just like that, they leaned in and felt themselves go into a gentle kiss, a kiss they've been desiring for years. When they pulled away, they couldn't take their eyes off each other as they went into another kiss, this time Danny pulled her in with his arms around her waist as she wrapped hers around his neck.

After years of being broken up without seeing each other, Brooke and Danny were finally reunited in their relationship, neither of them wanted to pull away from their passionate kiss they had missed for all those years. It was truly a beautiful scene to witness for everyone, especially Delilah who couldn't stop smiling at her two friends who were finally back together.