Dreams Come True:

Page 76: Incurable Poison?

"Found a storage room and locked our stab-happy pirate in there..." Emma said, walking into the room after Neal, who helped his dad on the couch. "He shouldn't be causing anyone else any problems," Emma said, closing the door behind her. "And get this. He had a map on him. It looks like he sailed his ship here." Emma scoffed, throwing the map onto the table while Neal tried to make Gold comfortable.

"How did he get a pirate ship into New York?" Neal asked when Emma walked over to Henry, who held her phone. 

"It's cloaked," Emma said to Neal before kneeling down to Henry. "Don't worry; he's not gonna hurt any of us." She tried to reassure her son, who looked scared.

"But is Mr. Gold going to be okay?" Henry asked, looking between his birth parents. "Henry, he's going to be fine," Neal said, standing up, while Gold tried to loosen his shirt since he was struggling to breathe. 

Emma took her phone when she looked up at Neal. "She tried to warn us." Emma sighed, seeing that there was a missed call and a text from Dream less than a minute ago. "Who?" Neal asked, looking worried, mainly about his father. "Dream..." Emma sighed when she started to grab her things.

"Mr. Gold, are you all right?" Henry asked, walking over to Gold.

Gold grabbed his collar since Neal and Emma were not around, and everything was hectic at the moment. "You stay away from me. You caused this. You brought us back here. You did this." Gold said quietly when he pushed Henry back. 

"Hey, kid..." Emma said, looking concerned by the look on Henry's face. "The battery's dead... Go in the other room and see if you can find a charger, okay?" Emma said, handing Henry her phone back. 

Henry headed into the other room while Neal rushed over with cloths trying to stop the bleeding. "Oh, man... we gotta get him to an ER fast." Neal tried to say when Gold touched the wound. "No, that's pointless." Gold sighed when Emma looked at it, disgusted. "What is that?" Emma asked Gold.

"It's poison. This is one of Hook's own making. There's no antidote in this world. It's not from here." Gold sighed, leaning back on the couch. "Hey, hey, hey. There's gotta be some way we can save you." Neal persisted when Gold tried to think. 

"There is, there is..."

"Storybrooke. There's magic there now. We need to get him back." Emma said when Neal went to stand up.

"I'll get a car to take us--" Neal said, but Gold stopped him. "No, no, no. There's not enough time. We need something faster. The Captain's ship." Gold said, making both Neal and Emma furrow their brows, unsure.

"The Jolly Roger instead of a car?" Emma asked, raising her brow.

"It's the fastest vessel in all the realms." Gold sighed, looking at his injury. "Well, that's great. But who's going to captain it? Since the only guy qualified wants you dead." Emma sighed, with her arms crossed over her chest.

"I can do it," Neal said quietly, looking at his dad.

"Bae..." Gold said, softly and weakly, when he looked at Neal with Emma.

"Yeah, I can do it." Neal nodded, looking at his dad. "You know how to sail a pirate ship?" Emma asked him, causing Neal to look at her. "Yeah. I do." He nodded.

Emma sat on the table while Gold weakly tried to adjust himself. "What are you doing?" Emma asked, turning to Neal, who was texting on his phone. "Getting us a car," Neal said, not looking up from his phone. "I thought you were suddenly a pirate, and we're gonna take a ship." Emma sighed, leaning his arms on her knees.

"Yeah, well... we still gotta get him to the ship." Neal sighed, looking up to glance at his dad, while Emma turned to look at him.

"So, you know Hook?"

"It's a long story... Short version is this world wasn't my first stop when I left home." Neal sighed, putting his phone back in his pocket. "No?" Emma asked, raising her brow, when Neal sighed, looking around the room. "If it was, I'd be a couple of hundred years old by now." Neal sighed when his phone went off again. "That should be our ride. Hang tight." Neal told Gold when he moved to the other room to answer his phone.

"Emma, you need to see this," Henry said, walking back into the room.

"What is it, kid?" Emma asked when she saw the worried look on Henry's face. "It's a text from David and Mary Margaret. You need to read it. Now." Henry said, handing Emma her phone again.

Emma looked up after a minute when she sighed to Gold. "Bad news, Gold." Emma sighed, looking at the man who was in a lot of pain. "What, worse than incurable poison?" Gold asked, weakly but sarcastically, while holding the cloth to his chest. "I don't know. You tell me. You got a dagger hidden somewhere in Storybrooke that's the source of all your power?" Emma asked when Gold sighed at her vagueness.

"Get to your point."

"Cora's after it. The only way to stop her is if David and Mary Margaret get to it first." Emma explained when Gold tried to relax back on the couch. "Let Cora try." Gold scoffed, weakly moving to lean his head back. "You can't seriously be willing to risk this. Not with your son coming back with you to Storybrooke." Emma sighed at him.

"Miss Swan, that dagger has not left my possession for centuries. it's not about to now." Gold said when Emma looked at Henry before moving to sit next to Gold.

"Here's the thing, you're dying. And right now, we are your best hope. Time's come for you to start trusting someone. And if I were you, I'd start with family." Emma said as Gold scoffed, knowing that she was right.

~season 2, episode 15: "The Queen is Dead"~

~989 words~