***

 Emma and I sat with Henry at his castle. He had told us that he had some important information for us. So here we were in the middle of the cold afternoon. I still couldn't stop thinking about the time I spent in the space hotel. It was all that was on my mind since I came back. Was it actually a dream? Or was it real like the people there kept telling me it was? I just had no clue what to do or think. I didn't dare bring it up to Emma because I knew that she would just think that I had gone crazy.

Henry opened his storybook to a page with a man, "I found your father—Prince Charming." That was certainly an interesting way to start a conversation. Definitely an unexpected way, but an interesting way all the same.

"Henry..." Emma trailed off. This would be hard for me to believe if I wasn't just in a hotel full of your worst nightmares a day ago. This almost seems normal to me now. Wow... What had my life come to?

"He's in the hospital, in a coma," Henry pointed something out to us in the book, "See the scar? He has one, too."

This part just sounded like a coincidence to me, "Henry, a lot of people have scars. It's not that big of a thing." I had about two scars. One from when I hit my head on the edge of a table and the other from when I accidentally cut myself with a pair of scissors. As you can tell, I'm very clumsy.

"In the same place," Henry stated. "Don't you see what this means? The curse is keeping them apart with the coma. Now they're stuck without each other," That sounds lonely. "We have to tell Miss Blanchard we found her Prince Charming."

Emma was unconvinced as per usual, "Okay, kid. Telling someone their... Soul mate is in a coma is probably not helpful. Not having a happy ending is painful enough, but giving someone unrealistic hope is far worse."

"It cuts deeper than most things would," I said as I thought back to those times in my life when I was given unrealistic hope. Emma and I knew better than anyone how that felt. We had been told multiple times by foster families we had that they wouldn't send us away. They had given us false hope. They always sent us away.

"But what if I'm right?" Henry asked. "We know who they are. Now they have to know."

"And how do you intend to make that happen?" Emma inquired.

"By reminding him. We have to get her to read their story to John Doe. Then, maybe, he'll remember who he is." Henry suggested. Well, it doesn't sound like the worst idea. I saw Emma looking over at me and I nodded.

Emma took a deep breath, "...Okay."

Henry was surprised, "Okay?"

"Yeah, we'll do it. But we'll do it my way. Let me ask her." Emma told him.

***

I honestly couldn't believe that we were actually doing this right now. I never thought I would have this conversation with someone, but here I am... Having this conversation with someone. Mary-Margaret turned around with our hot chocolates in hand. Emma and I were sitting in her loft and we had just explained to her what Henry was wanting her to do. She was obviously confused, "You want me to read to a coma patient?"

"Henry thinks it will help him remember who he was," Emma said as the woman handed us our hot chocolates. I took a sip of my hot chocolate as soon as it was handed to me. I hadn't drunk anything today so I was pretty thirsty.

"And who does he think he was?" Mary-Margaret inquired.

Emma and I shared a look and I hesitantly said, "He thinks that he is Prince Charming."

"And if I'm Snow White, he thinks... Me... And him..." Mary-Margaret trailed off. She looked away from us and seemed to be thinking about it.

Emma tried to explain to her, "He has a very active imagination, which is the point. We can't talk him out of his beliefs, so we need to show him. Play along, do what he says and then maybe, just maybe-"

Mary-Margaret finished for her, "He'll see that fairy tales are just that—That there's no such thing as love at first sight or first kiss. He'll see reality." She was catching up a lot faster than I thought she would. It was kind of surprising.

"Well, when you put it that way it sounds depressing." I took a drink of my hot chocolate.

Mary-Margaret drank some of her hot chocolate and placed the mug back down, "Well... Sadly, this plan is rather genius. We get him to the truth without hurting him."

Emma grabbed the book and held it out to her, "I told him that we will all meet tomorrow for breakfast at Granny's. And you will give a full report."

Emma set the book down and Mary-Margaret had a thoughtful expression on her face, "Well, I suppose I'll get ready for my date. I guess I'll have to do all the talking."

***

Emma and I walked out of the bathroom in Granny's Diner with new clothes on. Henry had gotten us shirts that we could wear. We walked towards the boy who was sitting in one of the booths. "Thanks for the shirt." Emma thanked him. Kind of wondering how he got the shirts... But now that I think about it, I think I know where he got them.

I did too and then said, "I have a sneaking suspicion that these are your mother's shirts."

Henry smirked a little, "She'll never notice."

"Where does she think you are, anyway?" Emma questioned as the two of us sat across from him. Knowing Henry, he could have given her any number of excuses. Let's just hope that this excuse was a lot better than the one he gave Archie about why he missed his session.

"Playing Whac-A-Mole," Henry replied.

I smiled at him, "She actually believes that?"

"She wants to believe it, so she does," Henry responded. Smart kid. I got to respect that.

"Oh, imagine that," Emma stated with a smile. Just then, Mary-Margaret walked into the diner.

Henry smiled, "She's here." Henry was practically bursting with excitement. This was the moment when we had to crush his hopes and expectations. As expected, I felt really bad about it. He had been so hopeful that this was all going to work. I really didn't want to hurt him like this, but we had to.

"Hey, don't get your hopes up. We're just getting started, okay?" Emma told him.

Mary-Margaret rushed over and sat down beside Henry, "He woke up."

I about choked on my drink, "Wait. What?" Was she kidding? She has to be joking, right? Something about the look on her face said otherwise, though. This week keeps getting crazier and crazier. There was no way he actually woke up, right? Maybe she just imagined it?

Henry looked at the two of us with a smile, "I knew it."

Mary-Margaret seemed a little panicked, "I mean, he didn't 'wake up' wake up, but he grabbed my hand." Oh... Not as crazy as I was thinking then. It was still kind of crazy. I wasn't sure what to think at the moment.

"He's remembering!" Henry exclaimed.

"What did the doctor say?" Emma asked the black-haired woman.

"That I imagined it," That's what I was thinking, "But I'm not crazy. I know it happened." Mary-Margaret responded. Well, he never said that you were crazy. He just said that you might've imagined it. That can happen sometimes. You expect something to happen and it ends up happening because you wanted it too so your mind tricked you into seeing what you wanted to see.

"We have to go back. You have to read to him again." Henry demanded.

Mary-Margaret thought for a moment before nodding, "Let's go." The three of us started to leave. I wanted to see if Mary-Margaret was actually right so I wanted to come along. I needed to know if he actually woke up. That would give me some kind of insight on if this curse stuff is actually real.

Emma stopped us, "Wait, wait, what?"

"If I got through to him, if we made a connection-" Mary-Margaret was cut off.

"You don't believe-" Emma started.

"That he's Prince Charming? Of course not," I don't know, man. My experience that I had recently really says otherwise. "Somehow, someway, I touched him." Mary-Margaret told her.

"I mean, it doesn't sound totally insane," I stated. I probably just needed to be a bit more open-minded about this. Maybe he actually did wake up. Maybe Mary-Margaret didn't imagine it like I thought she did. I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt. The four of us were off to the hospital, I guess. Hopefully, this trip would clear up a few things for all of us.

***

We walked towards John Doe's room as soon as we got to the hospital. I noticed something was off when Graham was there. There were also nurses and a doctor in the room where John Doe was supposed to be in. Did something happen? Maybe John Doe did wake up. But that didn't explain why the Sheriff was here. Henry turned back to look at us, "You're right—He's waking up."

Graham stopped him from getting any closer, "Henry, you should stay back."

Mary-Margaret walked towards Graham, "What's going on? Is it John Doe? Is he okay?"

"He's missing," Graham replied. He turned for us to see and sure enough, he wasn't there. I now noticed that Regina was standing in the room with the doctor and nurses.

She walked over to us with a glare, "What the hell are you doing here?" She looked down at Henry and grabbed his arm, "And you – I thought you were at the arcade. Now you're lying to me?" The sudden urge to just punch her in the face hit me. Sadly, there was a cop. I just had to wait until another time.

Mary-Margaret kept looking at Graham, "What happened to John Doe? Did someone take him?"

Graham sighed and put his hands on his hips, "We don't know yet. His IVs were ripped out but there's no sign for sure there's a struggle." That's good. He wasn't kidnapped, at least. But that means that he actually did wake up. Mary-Margaret was telling the truth. It wasn't just something that she had been imagining.

Henry immediately turned to Regina, "What did you do?"

Regina seemed surprised, "You think I had something to do with this?"

"It is curious that the mayor is here," Emma said. Emma is right. The mayor wouldn't have to come unless it was something really important. I don't think that she would do something like this though. Would she really go to all this trouble?

Regina looked up at the sound of her voice, "I'm here because I'm his emergency contact."

"You know him?" Mary-Margaret inquired.

"I found him," Regina replied. "On the side of the road years ago with no ID. I brought him here."

The doctor walked out from behind Regina, "Mayor Mills saved his life." That's kind of hard to believe. She always acted like such a bitch. People can be surprising, I guess. I've had people surprise me multiple times. I worked in a diner. Strange people were always coming in there.

"Will he be okay?" Mary-Margaret questioned, worriedly.

"Okay? The man's been on feeding tubes for years on constant supervision. He needs to get back here right away or, quite honestly, 'okay' might be a pipe dream." He informed us.

"Why don't we start looking then," I stated.

"That's what we're doing," Regina said stopping Emma and me in our tracks. We turned to face her. She had her arms crossed over her chest, "Just stay out of this, dears. And since I clearly can't keep you two away from my son, I guess I'm just going to have to keep my son away from you. Enjoy my shirts, because that's all you're getting. Sheriff, find John Doe. You heard Dr. Whale. Time is precious." Regina and Henry then make their exit.

"I've said it once and I'll say it again, she really is a bitch." I stared after her as she left.

Graham turned to Dr. Whale, "Doctor, how long between your rounds since you last saw him?"

"Twelve hours or so." Dr. Whale replied.

"Then that's what we need to account for," We all head to the security room. We see Leroy and another janitor there. Graham spoke, "You two were the only employees on the floor last night. And you saw nothing." That's weird. They would have to have seen something, right? Unless they weren't paying any attention to what was going on around them.

The unnamed security guard yawned, "Not a thing."

"Did anyone walk by?" Emma questioned.

Leroy shrugged, "I didn't see nothin'."

Graham looked over to Mary-Margaret, "Miss Blanchard, was there anything unusual you saw during your trip with your class?"

She shook her head, "I don't think so."

Emma must've noticed something because she walked forwards and stared at the screen, "We're looking at the wrong tape. This is the ward where Henry's class put up decorations. If this was really the tape from last night, we'd see the banners the kids hung."

Leroy scoffed and pointed at the security guard, "You fell asleep again."

"You selling me out?" He inquired.

"I ain't getting fired for this," Leroy said.

"At least I don't drink on the job." The security guard snapped. I wanted to let out a sigh but didn't because I didn't want the situation to escalate. They would probably get upset at me because of my reaction. It's best if I just kept what I thought to myself.

Graham broke them up, "Gentlemen, enough. Where's the real tape?" We look at the real tape and it shows John Doe get up from the bed and just walk out. Who knew escaping from a hospital could be that easy?

Mary-Margaret sighed, "He walked out alone. He's okay."

I looked closely at the screen, "This was four hours ago. Um, where does this door lead?" I asked pointing at the door.

"The woods," Leroy answered. Everyone turned and looked at him, alarmed. Why do they have a door that leads to the woods? Like seriously! Stuff like this can happen! You'd think they would be a little more cautious since this is a hospital, but I guess not.