Dark One's Daughter *Book Two*

The Miller's Daughter

We were now on Jones' ship on our way back to Storybrooke. While Bae and Henry were steering the ship, Emma and I sat below deck with Papa. He was clearly uncomfortable as he kept on squirming around.

"Try and sit up," I asked him.

He tried to lean forward so with one hand I held his back up and with the other, I repositioned the cushion that I had found in one of Jones' cupboard.

"You don't look comfortable," Emma said, as she looked over at Papa.

"The poison racing towards my heart will have that effect," Papa replied sarcastically.

"Tell me about this, uh... knife of yours. Cora and Regina, if they do have it, they can make you do anything?" Emma asked.

"Indeed," Papa said.

"Like, kill us all?" Emma asked.

"Yeah. You're hoping that I bleed to death now, aren't you?" Papa countered.

"You're Henry's grandfather and Tasha's father. We're family now. We're gonna save you," Emma assured him.

"Oh, I feel so reassured," Papa muttered sarcastically.

"You gotta have faith, Papa. Emma's right, we will save you," I said, placing a blanket over him to try and keep him warm.

The journey back to Storybrooke wasn't exactly a long one. Within an hour, we had started to slow down and pull into the docks.

Bae and I were helping Papa off the ship with one of his arms over each of our shoulders.

"Are you okay?" Mary Margaret asked, as we climbed off the ship.

"Yeah. Yeah. We're alright," Emma replied.

"Uh, I drove a ship," Henry announced.

"Did you, now?" David chuckled, coming over to help us.

"Yeah, my dad showed me how," Henry smiled.

David looked over at us in confusion so I gave him a small smile.

"That's me," Bae confirmed.

"Thank you. Thank you," Papa muttered, as we helped him sit in David's truck.

"Is Cora trying to control you with the dagger?" David asked Papa.

"Well, you'd know if she was, because most of you would be dead by now," Papa remarked, causing me to roll my eyes at his bluntness.

"Well, then, we'll just have to take the fight to her before that can happen," Mary Margaret decided.

"We will," David assured her.

"And this time, we finish it," Mary Margaret added, making me look over at her in shock.

"Mary Margaret..." David warned her.

"Does she mean to kill her?" I muttered to Papa, who shrugged in confusion.

"David. She needs to be stopped. She needs to be killed. This is our family. We are going to protect it," Mary Margaret told him determined.

"Of course we will. But what you're talking about goes beyond that," David fought back.

"Does it? Because she is the reason you've never met my mother," Mary Margaret reminded him.

"I know. I know what happened to Queen Eva, and I have zero problem with Cora dying for it. But not by your hand. And not out of vengeance," David told her.

"I'll do it," I offered.

"Tasha, no," David said.

"Why?" Mary Margaret asked.